Peach Haven Village (5)

In the first round, the three aunties vied for glory. Ding Shi confirmed that they were seasoned mahjong players who could roughly remember the tiles already played, but they were not cheating.

In the second round, Ding Shi drew a tile without looking at it directly. He rubbed it with his thumb, then flipped it over. "Win! Riichi, All Simples, Self-Draw, one bonus tile, four han." On a self-draw, everyone had to pay. Each of them handed over chips worth forty cents.

After that, there were wins and losses, and everyone had a great time. The village chief's daughter-in-law brought over food, while Auntie Wang's husband brought lunch for the three aunties. They rested for half an hour before continuing the battle.

By the eighth round, Ding Shi had won half a dollar. He was getting bored, so he started paying attention to the shuffle. While arranging the tiles, he switched the positions of several tiles, then rolled the dice result he wanted.

Auntie Wang: "East Wind."

Ding Shi: "Pon."

Auntie Li: "West Wind."

Ding Shi: "Pon."

Auntie Zhang: "South Wind."

Ding Shi: "Pon."

Auntie Wang: "North Wind."

Ding Shi: "Pon."

The three aunties immediately broke out in cold sweat. Ding Shi had only one tile left in his hand. As long as he drew a matching tile, he could win. But winning this hand was not the important part. The important part was Ding Shi's hand—if he won, it would be either Big Four Winds or Big Four Winds plus All Honors, a top-tier Yakuman.

How could ordinary people possibly stand against a card sharp? To put it bluntly, their understanding of gambling was an entire dimension apart.

Ding Shi drew a tile and flipped it over. "Self-Draw, Big Four Winds." Yakuman, seventy-five times. Each person had to pay $7.50. The round was settled.

As Ding Shi collected the chips, he mocked himself. "Oh no, oh no. I've used up all my luck."

The three aunties gave casual smiles in response, but their expressions had turned ugly.

Ding Shi remained dealer.

In the fourth round, Ding Shi called a pon on Little Bird.

In the fifth round, Ding Shi self-drew.

After the tiles were laid down, the three aunties sighed. "Pure One Suit." Six times.

Ding Shi corrected them. "No, it's Nine Gates." On top of Pure One Suit, it also required a full straight. Yakuman, seventy-five times.

Four Concealed Triplets, Yakuman, seventy-five times.

Big Three Dragons, Yakuman, seventy-five times.

Just as the three aunties were about to grab their knives and kill Ding Shi, he played Thirteen Orphans again. Yakuman, seventy-five times.

"We're not playing anymore." They still wanted to keep playing despite losing, but they had lost too much. No matter how they played, there was no fun left.

Ding Shi cheerfully gathered the chips. "Thank you, Aunties." The next step was payment. Five Yakuman came to nearly $400—enough to buy four hundred bundles of toilet paper.

Auntie Wang looked at Auntie Zhang and Auntie Li. The three exchanged looks for a while before Auntie Wang spoke. "Little Ding."

"Yes, Auntie Wang." Ding Shi answered obediently.

Auntie Wang asked, "How are you so good at mahjong?"

Ding Shi replied, "Heaven gave me this talent." Muggles knew nothing of wizards.

Auntie Wang said, "Little Ding, to be honest, we aunties don't have that much money. We only have about ten dollars each."

Ding Shi said awkwardly, "Then what do you mean, Auntie Wang?" He had seen gamblers ask for discounts before. Usually, those gamblers got their bones discounted instead.

Auntie Wang said, "How about this? When the three of us were young, we were digging wild vegetables in the mountains and accidentally came across a place."

"A place?" Ding Shi asked.

Auntie Wang smiled. "There was quite a bit of gold and silver inside, but you know how it was back then. Anyone with gold and silver was considered a bad person, so we handed everything over right away."

Ding Shi understood. She was talking about tomb raiding. "So what do you mean, Auntie?"

Auntie Wang furtively glanced around, then lowered her voice. "But we secretly kept a jade plaque."

"A dead person's jade plaque?" Ding Shi looked disgusted.

"Take a look first." Auntie Wang signaled Auntie Li with her eyes. Auntie Li immediately went upstairs, rummaged around for a while, then came back down with a box.

The box was an ordinary metal vanity case. Inside was a plastic case, and within it lay something the size of a playing card. It had nothing to do with jade, but its material was definitely beyond the capabilities of modern craftsmanship.

Ding Shi picked up the thing that was supposedly jade. Auntie Wang said, "The front says 'May all go as wished,' and the back says 'Dragon and phoenix bring prosperity.' If you sell it outside, it should fetch at least a hundred dollars."

Ding Shi saw something different.

Special Skill Card: Three Missing One.

After using the skill, the three nearest intelligent creatures within ten meters would be forcibly dragged into a mahjong game. It could be used once every twenty-four hours.

The explanation was very detailed. Simply put, it was mahjong. During the game, the domain was invincible, the players were invincible, and mahjong was invincible. Each player had ten seconds to draw and play a tile. One point would be deducted for every second exceeded.

Mahjong was scored by rounds, following Japanese mahjong rules. Settlement would take place after a round ended. If Ding Shi had the highest score, the skill would have no side effects, but he would not gain any items. If Ding Shi had five points, A had seven, B had six, and C had three, then A could obtain something from Ding Shi based on the score difference and the gap in strength between A and Ding Shi.

If A was human, he could take a certain amount of Ding Shi's money or a card from his card slots. How much he could take depended entirely on the point difference. If A was a major boss, he might take one of Ding Shi's organs—or even Ding Shi's life.

After A finished taking, B would begin. C, who had the lowest score, would suffer no losses.

If there were fewer than three intelligent creatures within ten meters, the skill could not be activated.

The system explained the criteria for intelligent creatures: living beings capable of independent thought and possessing learning or imitation abilities.

Special note: Cheating by violating the rules was not allowed.

Ding Shi clicked for further explanation, and the system gave many examples. You were supposed to draw Tile A, but used sleight of hand to switch Tile A with Tile B—that counted as cheating. If you drew Tile A and possessed a tile-rubbing skill that rubbed Tile A into Tile B, that did not count as cheating. However, the altered tile had to make logical sense, or it would still be judged as cheating.

Example: If all four Two Bamboos were already in play, creating another Two Bamboo would be cheating.

Ding Shi thought, Wasn't this explanation a little too detailed? The more detailed it was, the fewer loopholes there were to exploit. As an openly criminal individual, he did not like rules that were too rigorous.

Holding the jade plaque, Ding Shi looked troubled. "Aunties, isn't this a little too little? How about each of you adds a bit more?"

Auntie Wang was decisive. She took out five dollars and placed it on the table. "That's all. Not a cent more."

After some negotiation, the three aunties each handed over a little money. Ding Shi obtained the Three Missing One skill card, and his bank balance became $17.90.

When Ding Shi placed Three Missing One into his skill card slot, the system prompted: Bind it? Once placed in a card slot, a special card would belong exclusively to its owner and could no longer be traded. Ding Shi bound it without hesitation. The system explained the activation requirement, commonly known as the windup. Since this was a special card, the skill would activate as long as Ding Shi shouted, "Three Missing One!"

"That's it, that's it." The three aunties ended the game.

Mission complete. Completion quality: excellent. Received $0.40.