Father Chen's face even broke into a long-missed smile. Persuaded by Yu Kan, he picked up his cup and cautiously took a couple of sips of the fiery liquor. It made him cough repeatedly, but his smile only grew brighter as he kept saying, "Good! That's good liquor!"
Mother Chen also let go of all her reserve and kept piling food onto her son's plate, the fine lines at the corners of her eyes crinkling with amusement.
Yaya was even more delighted, as lively as a little bird. She circled the table, staring wide-eyed at the feast of delicacies she had never seen before.
At Yu Kan's urging, she timidly picked up a piece of glistening, crystal-sugar-braised pork hock skin and put it in her mouth. The sweet, tender morsel melted on her tongue, making her eyes squeeze shut with happiness. Her bell-like laughter rang out through the little courtyard.
For Yaya, this was probably the happiest day she could remember.
Just as everyone was raising their cups and the atmosphere grew more convivial, an unhurried knock sounded at the door.
Ma Jun rose to open it. Outside stood three members of the Sea Shark Gang. The man in front had a hard expression and held two square redwood boxes, each about a foot wide.
Seeing Zhou Jingfeng, the leading gang member said little. He stepped forward, cupped his hands slightly toward Zhou Jingfeng, and placed the wooden boxes in an empty spot on the stone table.
"Hall Master Zhou, on our gang leader's orders, we've brought the stakes for the Life-Death Arena. This box contains one thousand taels, the wager between our gang leader and Hall Master Zhou. This one contains three hundred taels, the wager between Xiong Wu and Chen Yue. Please inspect them."
With that, he reached