Ron's Wonderful Flower Shop

At dusk, three people with strikingly different appearances walked down Eckley Street.

"So why are we going out?" Harper the goblin asked, looking reluctant. "Just for this guy's supposedly super-duper delicious barbecue?"

"I question your use of 'we,'" Mason the dwarf said, glancing at Harper and rolling his eyes. "I only invited Edith. I didn't invite you. You're the one who came tagging along."

"Hmph! Who knows what you're plotting?" Harper snorted. "As Edith's guardian knight, how could I let her go out to eat alone with you?"

"A guardian knight who's not even four foot seven and can't climb onto a horse?" Edith the elf said, shooting Harper a sidelong look.

"Heh heh, Edith, you don't understand." Harper turned to look at her, but two towering peaks blocked his view, leaving him able to see only her smooth forehead. "I may not have a knight's steed, but I do have a knight's heart, ready to protect you!"

Mason heard this and immediately got goosebumps, feeling a wave of nausea. "You should say less. You've ruined my appetite."

Edith looked helpless, too. If Professor Hicks hadn't specifically assigned her to work as an assistant in Harper's lab, she would have stayed as far away from the guy as possible.

Today, Mason had brought five Nether Orchids to Harper's lab, where Harper and Edith had been tasked with studying them.

As evening approached, Mason remembered what he'd promised Lyle, the owner of the Barbecue Shop, the day before. So he went to Edith and invited her to have barbecue with him.

As for Harper, it wasn't that Mason didn't want to invite him.

But Harper was a notorious magic experiment fanatic. Unless something absolutely required him to leave, he took care of everything—even eating, drinking, and sleeping—in the lab.

So Mason hadn't considered inviting him.

Edith hadn't been particularly interested in barbecue, but Mason had told her that the Flower Shop selling Nether Orchids was right next to the Barbecue Shop. That was what convinced her to come along.

After all, while elves didn't shun meat, they rarely went out of their way to kill animals and try meat dishes. She wasn't interested in the barbecue so much as the Flower Shop.

But when Harper heard that Edith was going out alone with Mason, he immediately abandoned his experiment, turned into a lovesick puppy, and tagged along, keeping a close watch on Mason.

Soon, they arrived outside Ron's Wonderful Flower Shop.

"Mason, why is this shop closed?" Edith asked with a frown.

"This shop is open every day from one to five in the afternoon. It's closed the rest of the time," Mason explained helplessly. "Let's go to the Barbecue Shop next door. The shopkeeper should be over there."

At that moment, Ron and Lyle were sitting inside the shop, continuing their earlier battle with Elemental Cards.

Smack!

Lyle slapped down a "5" Earth card.

A long line of Elemental Cards, all with different numbers, already lay on the table.

Then Lyle played a "5."

"Haha!" Lyle saw that the first card in the line was a "5" and his eyes lit up. He leaned over the table, cupped both hands around the long line of cards, and swept them toward himself. "What do you call this? Fate! One card, and I'm back from the dead!"

Ron looked at Lyle's newly thickened hand and felt rather helpless.

They were playing Go Fish. The round had already gone back and forth for more than ten minutes. They'd both come back from the brink several times, but neither had managed to finish the other off.

Ron had thought he had things under control, but Lyle had just pulled off another big play.

Honestly, Ron was getting a little tired of it. He had plenty of gaming experience, and this kind of mindless game was fun for a couple of rounds as a change of pace. But playing it nonstop was making him feel sick.

Just then, Ron spotted Mason entering the Barbecue Shop with two others. His eyes lit up. He tossed his cards onto the table, stood, and waved toward the entrance. "Mason!"

Lyle turned to see the customers coming in and reluctantly put down his cards.

When Ron and Lyle got a good look at them, their gazes were immediately drawn to the tall figure among the newcomers.

She was slender, with delicate, beautiful features, a pair of pointed, rosy ears, long pale-green hair, and gorgeous emerald-green eyes.

The moment Edith stepped into the shop, she seemed to brighten the whole place.

Her ample charms, especially, made the two men inside unconsciously swallow.

Edith, too, felt her eyes brighten as she entered.

She ignored the middle-aged dwarf, seeing only the handsome, gentle-featured Ron.

"Ron, Lyle, I've brought my friends for barbecue," Mason greeted them as he came in, then made the introductions. "This is Edith of the Elf Race, and this is Harper of the Goblin Race."

"Edith, Harper, this is Lyle of the Dwarf Race, the owner of this shop. This is Ron, the shopkeeper of the Flower Shop next door."

Everyone exchanged greetings.

Edith and Harper were both a little surprised. They hadn't expected the guy selling Nether Orchids to be so young and handsome.

"What are these?" Harper the goblin asked, quick to notice the cards on the table.

"Hm?" Edith looked over curiously, picked up a card, and saw the letter J on it. "Is this the Tier Six Water Dragon Bullet spell?"

"Tier Five Flame Repulsion," Harper said, picking up a "10" Fire card.

"These are Elemental Cards I tinkered with in my spare time. You can use them to play some games," Ron explained with a smile. "You're here for barbecue, right? You can sit down and wait for a bit. Why not try playing in the meantime?"

"Sure." Edith liked Ron, so she immediately sat down.

Harper took the opportunity to sit beside Edith, claiming the advantageous position.

"Then you can play while I go help you order," Mason said, following Lyle into the kitchen.

Ron sat opposite Edith and briefly explained the rules of Dou Dizhu to them.

Ron had thought such a simple game would be easy to understand. But once they started playing, he realized it wasn't so simple.

"Pair of queens," Ron said, playing his cards.

Harper looked at Ron's two cards, then at his own hand. After a moment's thought, he carefully selected two cards and slapped them onto the table.

Ron took a closer look and was immediately surprised. "Those are two jacks. They're lower than my cards, so you can't beat them."

"Uh... I can't?" Harper asked, puzzled. Then he looked confused. "Your two cards are Meteor Fire, a Fire Magic spell, and Meteor Fall, an Earth Magic spell. The two spells can be combined into Fusion Magic's Meteor Shower. That's a powerful attack."

"But my two cards are Sky Waterfall, a Water Magic spell, and Piercing Gale, a Wind Magic spell. Together, they can be combined into the Ice Magic spell Ice Fortress, which is strong enough to withstand your Meteor Shower."

"..." Ron stared at Harper in speechless disbelief, then looked at Edith.

The elf nodded solemnly. "Mm, in theory, Ice Fortress should be able to withstand Meteor Shower."

What the heck, was he even playing Dou Dizhu? Ron suddenly felt a headache coming on.

If only he hadn't drawn all those spells on the cards...

Give me all your recommendation votes! Ruar! ╰(‵□′)╯