"The winner was an old man."
"Guess what he did after he won?"
"I think I've told you about this before, right?"
Zhang Bo looked at Xiao Xiao.
Xiao Xiao didn't disappoint him. "He married a woman more than thirty years younger than him."
"Right. The old man was already over sixty, and he married a woman in her early thirties."
Zhang Bo's voice dropped a little.
Most of the people had left the classroom by then. In the empty room, every sound seemed to echo, and the sudden change had startled Zhang Bo at first.
"The woman was a widow, and she had a five- or six-year-old child."
"My uncle and the others all said she was after the old man's money."
"They tried to talk him out of it, too."
"But the old man wouldn't listen. He insisted on marrying her."
"Didn't the old man already have a wife?"
Zhao Luzheng frowned.
"Was this going to be one of those stories about a man casting aside the wife who'd stood by him through hard times?"
Zhuge Yun pulled a face.
"No."
Zhang Bo shook his head. "The old man's wife had died a long time ago."
"What about his child?"
Zhao Luzheng looked puzzled. "I'd think the old man's child wouldn't agree to the marriage."
"The old man's child had died even earlier."
Zhang Bo shook his head. "According to my uncle, the old man and his wife had grown distant because of their child's death."
"Their child had died in a car accident."
"Back then, the child's mom had gone out to buy groceries, and the old man was watching the child."
"But the old man got so engrossed in watching people play cards by the roadside that he didn't notice the child wandering into the