Chapter 96.1 - Thousand Asteraceae

In the Imperial Fu Palace there was a square table right in the middle.

The table was similar to the twenty-first century mahjong table. The only difference was that there was no layer of velvet mat on the table, so when the one hundred and thirty-six mahjong tiles were poured out, the sound was loud and many people could hear it.

There was one person sitting on each of the four sides of the table.

Ai Zi Ran sat opposite the

lao w.a.n.g ye

. To the left of the

lao w.a.n.g yei

was Fu Wu Tian, and to the right was Head Steward Fu. Qiu Lan held on to the spirited little bun and stood with Chun Lan to one side watching the proceedings.

This time, the bet was thirteen years.

Since the

lao w.a.n.g ye

moved on from playing Fight the Landlord and became addicted to playing mahjong, this was the first time he made such a huge bet.

All the servants of the palace thought that the

lao w.a.n.g ye

must have gone stupid from losing so much. If he lost again, then his grounding time would be doubled. However, in the eyes of An Zi Ran and the other two, the

lao w.a.n.g ye

was actually very smart.

The

lao w.a.n.g ye

was not young anymore. To him, there was no difference between thirteen and twenty-six years. Since it was like this, then why not just go big in this gamble. If he won, then he would no longer be grounded, and if he lost, it wouldn't make much difference.

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Lao w.a.n.g ye

too in a deep breath and his expression morphed into the serious look of one about to fight at close quarters on a battlefield. He scooped up the dice on the table and said to the other three, "Old rules. Whoever has the highest number is the banker*."

[*T/N:

zuo zhuang

: I think this means to be the banker (in a gambling game). I don't know all the rules of mahjong, so I don't even know if there's a banker or not. Alternatively, it could mean who goes first?]

The

lao w.a.n.g ye

was becoming more and more of a gambling addict. This sentence was no different from what a seasoned gambler would say.

An Zi Ran did not say a word. It made no difference to him who was the banker.

Head Steward Fu said, "It doesnt matter to me."

Fu Wu Tian looked at the deadly serious

lao w.a.n.g ye

and said, "If grandfather likes to be the banker, then let grandfather go first (and be the banker)."

The

lao w.a.n.g ye

accepted this without hesitation. He did indeed like being the banker.

In order to roll a higher number, he deliberately stayed in his room for a long time to practice, and the results were fruitless

The

lao w.a.n.g ye

rolled the two dices into the middle of the four stacks of mahjong tiles, and the numbers that came up were a six and a three.

Seeing these numbers, everyone's expressions suddenly became subtle*.

[*T/N: This is legit what the raws says. "" = "became subtle"]

An Zi Ran looked at the thirteen tiles he had and couldn't help but wrinkle his eyebrows. It was a pretty c.r.a.ppy hand. He glanced at Fu Wu Tian and Head Steward Fu. Their expressions were inscrutable. It was hard to detect their thoughts. But his intuition told him that their hand weren't that good either.

Was this a coincidence or was it deliberate?

An Zi Ran looked at the

lao w.a.n.g ye

out of his peripheral vision, and couldn't help staring blankly.

When the

lao w.a.n.g ye

pretended to be deep, he still gave others a feeling of ridiculousness. No matter how much he tried, everyone could still see his innate character. Simply put, he lacked an imposing grandeur.

Right now, his serious face was pulled taut like usual, but he didn't give off the same silly feeling as before. Instead, he seemed to exude a cold and harsh aura. He was like a sharpened knife hidden in the dark. He had a steady and imposing manner. Even without speaking, it was enough to deter other people.

This thought flashed through his mind in a quick nanosecond.

Translations by Vanilla Muse.

When An Zi Ran's eyes fell on the mahjong tiles in front of him, a strange feeling spread through his entire body. He felt that something was not right, but he couldn't tell what it was.

Compared with the

lao w.a.n.g ye

who was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with a battle aura, Fu Wu Tian and Head Steward Fu were very calm, a pair of indifferent parties, as if they had good tiles in their hands.

"

w.a.n.g fei

," Fu Wu Tian looked at him abruptly.

An Zi Ran returned to the present and found that he had accidentally mired too deeply in his thoughts. This was a taboo for gambling. He adjusted his mindset and touched upon his first mahjong tile.

After a few turns, the

lao w.a.n.g ye

did not touch a single tile.

He was playing his tiles so messily that one could not fathom what he was doing, but the

lao w.a.n.g ye

did not seem anxious at all.

An Zi Ran had three

yi wan

* tiles in his hand. The remaining

yi wan

tile was in the middle of the table. Furthermore, it was a tile that the

lao w.a.n.g ye

had slapped onto the table. If it weren't for that, he would've thought that the

lao w.a.n.g ye

was aiming for

s.h.i.+ san yao

**.

[*T/N: Name of one of the tiles in mahjong, kind of like a Jack or Queen.]

[** T/N: A type of hand in mahjong, kind of like Full House or Royal Flush.]

After thinking about it, he still decided to hold on to the

yi wan

tiles, and played a

liu wan

tile onto the table.

"

Peng*!

"

[*T/N:

peng

- kind of like shouting "uno" when you play the game Uno. You a.s.similate the mahjong tile that someone else just played into your own hand and you announce it, because you're one step closer to winning the game, or something like that.]

The

lao w.a.n.g ye

suddenly called out in a strong voice.

An Zi Ran found that Fu Wu Tian and Head Steward Fu's eyes were concentrated on him. His expression remained very calm. Just as humans make mistakes, so can a horse stumble*. What the heck are you looking at?!

[*T/N: Idiom for "everyone makes mistakes" or "even the best fall down sometimes."]

As for the matter of the

lao w.a.n.g ye's

confinement, An Zi Ran was the one that cared the least, because he felt that if the

lao w.a.n.g ye

really wanted to go out and play, then no matter what, they wouldn't be able to contain him. Most likely, the

lao w.a.n.g ye

was so persistent in these bets was because he found it fun.

Lao w.a.n.g ye

slapped out a tile and immediately squinted his eyes at his grandson, who had not made a move. Such a rare occurrence of being able to declare '

peng

,' but he did not show a look of joy. His expression was still very serious, and his eyes even revealed a hint of sorrow.

Fu Wu Tian ran a finger along his tiles. Without looking, he took a tile and flung it onto the middle of the table. He was even more practiced than a veteran gambler.

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