Chapter 4
After Shen Zhi left, Master Liang called her and Shen Yi upstairs. After giving them a thorough tongue-lashing, he dismissed Shen Yi first.
Whenever Xie Qianqian and Shen Yi sparre in the past, even though it was meant to be a match, every single one of Shen Yi's moves went straight for the kill—there was never the slightest hint of leniency.
Xie Qianqian’s strike against Shen Yi previously had naturally shown no mercy either, so the fact that Shen Yi’s fist had suddenly pulled back its force had indeed left her bewildered for a moment.
It was precisely because of this momentary lapse that Master Liang scolded Xie Qianqian for her lack of focus. Given her strength, she could have easily dodged that grapple, yet she had been a second too slow and ended up pinned down by Shen Yi.
To punish her recent performance, Master Liang assigned her an assignment, telling her to use the summer break to properly temper her patience.
Master Liang was not a greedy man, but maintaining the daily operating expenses of the martial arts hall required money, so he occasionally took on external security and bodyguard assignments. Over the years, the hall had largely relied on these jobs to keep its doors open.
Because of her demanding schoolwork, Xie Qianqian had never been sent on an assignment before. Every time she heard her senior brothers share the strange and interesting anecdotes from their jobs, she had felt eager to try. Before the holiday began, she had mentioned to her master that if any business came to the martial arts hall, she could work during the summer break.
When she left, Master Liang didn't tell her that he was sending her to Shen Zhi. He only said that the employer would reach out to her directly, and that the payout upon completing this assignment would allow the martial arts hall to relocate to much roomier premises.
Because of this, when her senior brothers saw Xie Qianqian off, their eyes were sparkling with anticipation—as if she were heading out to pull off a massive heist.
...
It wasn't until the evening of the following day that Xie Qianqian received a call from an unfamiliar man, instructing her to head to the Ju Ya Gallery on Yuchang Road. She changed into a lightweight black tracksuit, pulled on a baseball cap, and set off.
Upon arrival, she dialed the number back. Uncle Zheng walked out from inside to receive her. Following the middle-aged man inside, Xie Qianqian realized that this venue—which looked like a traditional-style private dining establishment from the outside—was actually an elegant, secluded private club.
Passing through a long, winding corridor, the space behind opened up into a surprisingly vast, hidden world. From the outside, one could never have guessed the interior layout was so grand.
Each private area featured its own secluded courtyard, accessible only by keycard. Built with great discretion, they offered an exceptional degree of privacy.
Uncle Zheng led Xie Qianqian into a spacious courtyard and said to her, "Just head in through that door. The Eldest Young Master is inside."
Xie Qianqian adjusted the brim of her cap and asked, "What does the Eldest Young Master look like?"
Uncle Zheng didn't say much, offering only: "You'll know once you go in."
Xie Qianqian's brows furrowed slightly, but without hesitation, she walked toward the carved wooden door.
Along the way, the entire club's decor had maintained a distinctly antique style, built with a rich classical artistic flair. Xie Qianqian had assumed that behind this door would also be an antique-style interior, but she had underestimated the lengths to which the wealthy went to pursue luxury.
Behind the door was indeed a massive, fan-shaped folding screen, but behind the screen lay a modern indoor setup.
What caught her eye was a semi-circular tea and cocktail bar. The music was nothing like the pounding beats at VIX, but rather smooth and melodious. A few people sat around the bar chatting and laughing, all impeccably dressed regardless of gender, a single glance confirmed their high status.
Walking further in, a private swimming pool came into view, with attractive hostesses everywhere. They were all women with standard model figures, wearing form-fitting qipao dresses that accentuated their curves.
After Xie Qianqian entered, a few people occasionally glanced at her unusual outfit, though most paid her little attention.
This was her first time in a place like this. She had heard her senior brothers talk about private clubs before, but this place lacked the filthy, debauched atmosphere she had heard about. Instead, every corner exuded an air of refined taste and elegance, like a private gathering venue for genuine high society.
It wasn't until a highly voluptuous woman in a qipao walked up to her and asked, "Miss Xie?"
Xie Qianqian raised her eyes and nodded. The woman offered a reserved, polite smile. "Right this way, please."
Crossing past the private pool, she was brought to a room on the other side. That room was even more secluded. Opening the door, the lovely woman smiled at her. "Please go on in."
Xie Qianqian stepped inside slowly. The interior featured a purely retro decor. About six or seven men sat on the sofas, leisurely sipping red wine. Two of the men had beautiful women sitting beside them. Although Xie Qianqian didn't pay attention to the entertainment industry, she was certain that the woman with the long tea-brown hair was a fairly popular star, because that very celebrity had once appeared on the packaging of the yogurt she drank.
Just as she was sizing up the beautiful star, the man sitting at the innermost seat raised his eyes slightly. Xie Qianqian instantly recognized this man with his striking, refined aura, he was the exact same person who had appeared at the martial arts hall yesterday. She realized at once who her employer was.
At the same time, Shen Zhi spoke to her: "Come here."
Xie Qianqian pressed down the brim of her cap and walked toward him. Beside him, Liu Yadong set down his wine glass and chuckled. "Well, look at that. And here I thought you were pulling our leg! Didn't you use to say you never let women near you?"
Shen Zhi leaned back into the leather sofa, the frog buttons of his white Mandarin-collar shirt unfastened at the top in a lazy, relaxed posture. "My intentions were pure, you're just overthinking things."
Saying that, his eyes swept over the beauty beside Liu Yadong. "Then again, outer appearances reflect the inner mind. Yadong, do take care of your health."
Liu Yadong immediately wrapped his arm around the beauty beside him and laughed. "No need to worry yourself, brother. My health is in tip-top shape."
Shen Zhi paid him no more attention. The tea-brown-haired celebrity was named Qi Chen, a second-tier starlet who frequently appeared in various films and TV dramas and held a fair bit of fame.
Ever since Xie Qianqian walked in, however, her expression had been rather sour.
Just as Xie Qianqian was walking over, Qi Chen seized the moment, picked up her glass of red wine, and headed toward Shen Zhi as well.
Shen Zhi didn't look at Qi Chen. Instead, his eyes were fixed on Xie Qianqian as she stepped up to him, and he asked out of the blue, "Do you know how to play mahjong?"
Xie Qianqian was slightly taken aback. "No."
Shen Zhi rubbed the Kinam agarwood beads in his hand and slowly stood up. "That's perfect then. Help me lose some money."
"???"
Without even sparing Qi Chen a glance from the corner of his eye, Shen Zhi turned and walked to the side, leaving Qi Chen with no choice but to halt her steps.
Huang Wei had said he would introduce her to the heir of the Shen family tonight, yet after spending the entire evening here, she hadn't even found a chance to say a single word to him. Just as several of the men were egging Shen Zhi on to give her a ride home tonight, a girl out of nowhere had suddenly popped up.
Uncertain of what was going on, Xie Qianqian followed Shen Zhi to the mahjong table nearby. Three men from the sofas came over one after another. Standing by the table, Xie Qianqian felt caught in a dilemma.
She genuinely had no idea how to play mahjong, and there was no way these people were playing for small stakes. Losing her employer's money right on her first day on the job, what kind of situation was this?
Shen Zhi, however, had already taken a seat in a single-person armchair behind Xie Qianqian, saying to her, "Sit."
Xie Qianqian turned her head awkwardly to look at him. He asked in a leisurely tone, "I heard you scored top marks as the top science student in the college entrance exams last year? Applying formulas shouldn't be a problem for you."
Xie Qianqian didn't quite understand what being a top science student had to do with playing mahjong.
The eyes behind Shen Zhi's glasses carried an elegant, gentle luster as he gestured for her to come closer. Xie Qianqian leaned down, and he spoke in a smooth, unhurried voice: "They're playing with floral tiles—144 tiles in total. Characters, Dots, and Bamboo run 1 to 9 with 4 tiles each. The 8 Flower tiles—Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Plum, Orchid, Bamboo, and Chrysanthemum—are drawn out, not held in hand. There are 7 Honor tiles with 4 each. The dealer starts with 14 tiles, the non-dealers with 13. The winning hand structure is $n\cdot\text{AAA} + m\cdot\text{ABC} + \text{DD}$, where $n$ and $m$ can be 0. Sequences of 1-4-7, 2-5-8, and 3-6-9 form standard lines. Calculate defensive reverse-deductions, and just follow them for the other rules. Did you get all that?"
Xie Qianqian ran through the information in her mind and nodded. "Got it."
Shen Zhi said in a mild tone, "Alright, go ahead and play."
And just like that, a profound national treasure of Chinese culture developed over three or four thousand years was summarized in a few brief sentences by Shen Zhi. The key was that one actually dared to teach like that, and the other actually dared to learn.
A hostess in a qipao brought over their chips. Xie Qianqian picked up the smallest green chip, which was labeled "1." She turned her head and asked Shen Zhi, "Is this '1'..." She wondered if a single green chip stood for a hundred yuan.
However, Shen Zhi leisurely spat out two words: "Ten thousand."
Xie Qianqian's hand trembled violently, nearly dropping the green chip. She didn't even dare imagine the face values represented by the larger chips. Either way, she was most likely going to be ruined here today. She had only failed to dodge one of Shen Yi's moves yesterday, was Master Liang really selling her off to an underground gambling den? Where was the master-disciple bond?
The moment Liu Yadong sat down, he laughed and said, "Little sister, play with confidence! You've got a goldmine sitting behind you, an endless supply of wealth. What is there to be afraid of?"
Xie Qianqian didn't dare glance back at that goldmine again; right now, she felt as if a thousand needles were pressing against her back.
The game began. In the first round, Xie Qianqian focused hard on memorizing all 144 tiles. Liu Yadong chatted with Huang Wei, who was seated across from Xie Qianqian. Huang Wei mentioned that his younger brother would be arriving soon, and that everyone could hang out together then, adding that his younger brother was a decent guy.
The men chatted a bit more about business matters. Xie Qianqian was in a state of intense concentration, feeling as though the 144 tiles in front of her were a dazzling blur. Just as she was sorting her tiles, Huang Wei across from her declared a self-drawn win. She didn't know how much money she handed over—there were a few blue chips in the mix—and her heart bled at the sight. She quietly shot a glance back at Shen Zhi, but he was looking down at his phone, his attention not on the table at all.
Xie Qianqian took a deep breath, knit her brows, and ran through the rules again. Unfortunately, the other three were seasoned mahjong sharks; sometimes before she even finished calculating her hand, someone beside her had already declared a win. After a few rounds, the chips in front of her dwindled.
At the end of every round, she would tilt her head and use her peripheral vision to check the goldmine's reaction, but the goldmine's attention remained entirely glued to his phone, not glancing at her once from start to finish.
Not long into the second loop, Xie Qianqian discarded a tile. Looking at the earnest expression on the half of Xie Qianqian's face visible under the brim of her cap, Liu Yadong smiled and said, "Sorry, little sister! Hand it all over—class is dismissed."
Looking at the completely empty tray of chips before her, Xie Qianqian instantly realized that they weren't playing with money, they were playing with her heart rate.
She turned her head to look at her employer once more, only to discover that the man had put away his phone at some point. She didn't know how much money she had lost for him in total, but she was certain it was enough to buy a house in a neighboring city.
The shadow of her cap brim obscured her eyes; Shen Zhi could only see her tightly pressed lips, looking somewhat full of self-reproach.
A rare trace of warmth surfaced on his usually indifferent face as he asked, "Have you gotten the hang of it?"
Xie Qianqian observed her employer's expression; she couldn't spot a single trace of displeasure. Instead, his entire person exuded an aura of calm and refined elegance.
She had actually mastered all the basic rules and winning patterns, but she couldn't bring herself to say she knew how to play—after all, she had just lost the equivalent of a house.
Looking at the tangled, conflicted expression on her face, a touch of warmth rose in the corners of Shen Zhi's eyes. He said softly, "It's fine. Continue."
His voice at this moment was like a magnetic resonance suspended in the air, carrying a deep, rich timbre that sent a subtle electrical current gliding across Xie Qianqian's skin, imperceptibly soothing her uneasy nerves. It was a rather strange sensation.
Shen Zhi raised his hand slightly toward the hostess in the qipao. "Add more chips."
The exact same amount of chips appeared before Xie Qianqian once again. This time, she carefully counted the chips before her, then turned back to the goldmine and asked, "What if... I lose it all again?"
Shen Zhi picked up the wine glass beside his hand, the red liquid inside swirling with an enchanting sheen. Beneath his glasses, his eyes shone with an unfathomable depth as he said in an utterly relaxed manner, "Oh, then that will just cover your salary."
Xie Qianqian instantly wiped every trace of expression from her face. "What if I win?"
Shen Zhi swirled his red wine and looked at her. "It's yours."
The corner of Xie Qianqian's mouth curled up. "Thank you, Boss."
The second round began. A full loop passed, and although Xie Qianqian hadn't declared a win yet, her chips hadn't moved an inch either. She played every single tile with extreme stability. The seasoned players immediately picked up on it, and Liu Yadong turned to Shen Zhi, saying, "Your little girl is pretty good! She's already learned how to count tiles."
Shen Zhi didn't respond, looking down at an ancient book resting on the stand beside him, a faint, almost imperceptible smile touching his lips.
Just then, there was a commotion outside. Huang Wei waved his hand, and a man walked inside. Xie Qianqian raised her head slightly, and when she clearly saw the man's face, she was secretly astonished.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTES
Glossary Additions:
老鄭 (Lǎo Zhèng): Uncle Zheng (Shen Zhi's personal driver/assistant).
聚雅廊 (Jù Yǎ Láng): Ju Ya Gallery (an exclusive private club/lounge on Yuchang Road).
劉亞東 (Liú Yàdōng): Liu Yadong (one of Shen Zhi's high-society acquaintances at the club).
祁塵 (Qí Chén): Qi Chen (a second-tier actress who attempts to curry favor with Shen Zhi).
黃瑋 (Huáng Wěi): Huang Wei (one of the club acquaintances; older brother of Huang Huihong).
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
0 Comments
What's on your mind...