Teasing

By four in the afternoon, the stream of new students arriving to register had gradually thinned, and the campus was slowly growing empty.

The early autumn sun glowed gold, slanting through the second-floor window on the west side of the cafeteria and leaving a dappled patch on the mottled marble floor.

There were two groups on the second floor at the moment. One appeared to be sophomores and juniors, casual in their manner, who had only come to order milk tea at the counter.

The other group was Zhou Yuwen and the others.

Zhou Yuwen had originally figured they would just play casually to pass the time. But as Tang Yi shuffled the cards, Xia Hui sat with her shapely legs crossed, her little feet in white socks swinging idly beneath the table. Seemingly offhand, she said to Tang Yi, "When I used to play cards with Xiaofei and the others, we always played for a little money. I wonder how Xiaofei and the others are doing now?"

Tang Yi smiled calmly. "She's sly as a fox. With her personality, and with her studying to be a flight attendant, who knows how many men she'll lead astray."

Tang Yi and Xia Hui belonged to the same little circle, so they had more to talk about. Gao Qiang seemed eager to join their circle, so he kept chiming in with a grin. "Hey, what stakes are you talking about?"

Xia Hui told Gao Qiang that back in high school, she and her friends had played cards for small stakes. For example, winning a round earned fifty cents, and each bomb doubled the stakes.

Gao Qiang's eyes lit up. He said that sounded fun, and they could win money too!

"My high school classmates played like that too!"

"Really? Was your base stake fifty cents too, with bombs doubling it?" Xia Hui sounded doubtful.

"What's fifty cents? We've even played for five yuan!" Gao Qiang said.

Xia Hui had originally been fairly serious when she spoke to Gao Qiang, but after hearing that, she didn't know how to respond. She simply said, "Then you must be pretty well-off!"

She glanced at Tang Yi beside her, and he gave a soft chuckle. "Brother Qiang's always been this free-spirited!"

Setting down the cards, Tang Yi continued, "Then how about we play for a little money this time too? Yuwen?"

"I don't mind. It's just that gambling on the first day we've met feels a little inappropriate, doesn't it?" Zhou Yuwen said.

"Thirty or fifty cents-how does that count as gambling?" Before Tang Yi or Xia Hui could speak, Gao Qiang eagerly chimed in, saying it was rare for Brother Yi and Sister Hui to be in the mood!

"We can't spoil their fun! Besides, Little Zhou, your fellow hometown girl is here too. Be a man, at least!" Gao Qiang said.

Zhou Yuwen said, "All right, then. I'm actually not very good at cards, so go easy on me."

"None of us are very good. We're just playing for fun." Xia Hui's voice was slightly gentler now.

And so the game of Fight the Landlord officially began. In the first round, Tang Yi drew the card that gave him the first chance to claim the landlord role. He chose not to call it, so the chance passed to Xia Hui. Without even looking at her cards, she picked up the three kitty cards.

"So confident?" Gao Qiang had been planning to call landlord himself, but seeing Xia Hui take the kitty cards, he muttered, "Looks like Sister Hui's an expert."

"No, I only started playing recently. You'll have to go easy on me," Xia Hui said.

"Hehe, since Sister Hui's put it that way..."

Gao Qiang agreed, and the players began trading plays. Xia Hui led with a single card, Tang Yi passed, and Gao Qiang played on it.

Ruan Yu sat quietly reading her book, but truth be told, how could she possibly concentrate in an environment like this? Seeing how much fun Xia Hui and the others were having, she leaned over to watch.

She sat beside Xia Hui and watched the cards, but she couldn't help paying extra attention to Zhou Yuwen. She kept thinking about his faint, almost imperceptible smile. It couldn't be helped; literary girls were mostly glass-hearted, and they cared too much about what others thought of them. In Ruan Yu's view, Zhou Yuwen's smile was a little rude.

Zhou Yuwen himself was also very rude.

In the first round, Gao Qiang really did have a good hand. Whenever he couldn't beat a card, he threw down a bomb. He played two bombs all by himself.

Then Tang Yi played one, and Xia Hui played another.

Seeing that Gao Qiang had only seven cards left, Xia Hui's expression changed slightly. She spoke up. "I didn't expect you to be so good at cards, Gao Qiang."

"Hehe, that's nothing. Back home, whenever I had nothing to do, I played cards with my friends every day!"

"Oh, couldn't you go easy on me?" Xia Hui sighed.

"Then how about I play a single card for you to get rid of one?"

"Mm-hmm!" Xia Hui nodded quickly.

At that moment, Zhou Yuwen spoke up. "What's this? Are you two coordinating your cards right in front of me?"

Everyone laughed. Gao Qiang grinned and said, "Come on, Old Zhou, we're grown men. What's wrong with going easy on a girl? It's not like we'll lose."

So Gao Qiang played a single ten.

"Great! Jack!" Xia Hui said happily.

"Hehe, bomb! I've only got three cards left!" Gao Qiang said smugly.

Xia Hui first put on a startled look, then said playfully, "Ah, I'm so sorry, but I have a bomb too-a five-card bomb."

"?" Gao Qiang, who had been all smiles just a moment ago, suddenly looked stricken.

"Can you beat it?" Xia Hui asked Gao Qiang triumphantly.

"No," Gao Qiang said, his expression sour.

"Then I'm going out! Straight! Yay!"

Xia Hui had only had one single card left. After Gao Qiang let her get rid of it, she had no loose cards left in her hand, and she went out without a hitch.

When the round ended, Tang Yi stamped his feet and beat his chest. "Ah, Qiang! I hate to say it, but how did you fall for a beauty trap?!"

"Look at you! We could've won!"

Gao Qiang was already upset. Hearing Tang Yi, he could only force a smile and laugh awkwardly. "It's fine. It was the first round, so I let her have it!"

"Then pay up~" Xia Hui triumphantly took out her payment QR code.

Tang Yi began counting the bombs in the round. There had been seven.

Gao Qiang took out his phone, ready to transfer three yuan and fifty cents to Xia Hui. As he did, he noticed that everyone else's phones seemed to be Apple phones, while his alone was a Coolpad. He instinctively covered his phone.

"Seven bombs, with a base of fifty cents, makes this round thirty-two yuan," Tang Yi murmured to himself before Gao Qiang had paid.

Gao Qiang's hand froze as he was about to pay. His face turned a little pale. "How much?"

"Thirty-two. Did I calculate it wrong?" Tang Yi asked curiously.

Sweat broke out on Gao Qiang's forehead. He found it hard to say, but faced with paying two days' meal money all at once, he could only bite the bullet and ask, "Shouldn't it be three yuan fifty?"

Tang Yi laughed. "Brother Qiang, that's not how you calculate it. Think about it: the base is fifty cents, so one bomb makes it one yuan. With two bombs, multiply by two again and it's two yuan. Seven times makes thirty-two. Haven't you played Fight the Landlord before?"

Seeing that Gao Qiang didn't understand, Xia Hui chuckled. "When you played with your classmates before, you just multiplied it by the number of bombs? No wonder you could play for five yuan!"

"That's what I was thinking. You used to play for five yuan? Wouldn't the multiplier make it way too much?" Tang Yi grinned too.

"No, I just haven't played in so long that I forgot the rules. It doesn't matter anyway. I only let you win this round. I can just win it back next round."

Gao Qiang still looked unwell. He steeled himself, deleted the three yuan fifty, and entered thirty-two yuan instead, then transferred it.