The afternoon sun was just right, and black and white chess pieces were laid out on the small table in the courtyard.
Shane Warner and the old man sat at the table playing chess. Audrey Sutton brought out so cut fruit, placed it by the table, and smiled at Shane Warner, asking, "Who’s winning?"
Grandpa gave a thumbs-up to Shane Warner, "You’re really sothing, kid. Us old folks can’t compete with you young people anymore."
Shane Warner smiled humbly, "Not at all! I barely scraped a win. Grandpa, you’re the real expert."
"You’re just trying to make this old man happy."
Audrey Sutton said, "Grandpa, I rember you were never one to admit defeat."
The old man sighed, "I’m getting old, the brain isn’t as sharp, can’t deny it anymore."
Audrey secretly gave Shane Warner a look, signaling him to go easy on Grandpa, then said, "I’ll go inside and play mahjong with Grandma."
"Go on, go on," the old man was focused on the chessboard in front of him, seeming to think Audrey was disrupting his thoughts, and waved her away.
Audrey Sutton initially had full confidence that she’d win so money off Norman Sutton, but today she wasn’t lucky. In the four-person mahjong ga, she was the only one who lost.
Around four o’clock, Shane Warner finished his chess ga and walked inside. Seeing Audrey Sutton’s dejected face, he knew she must have lost money.
Norman Sutton was grinning smugly at Audrey Sutton, watching her reluctantly hand over her money to him.
Feeling soone tap her on the shoulder, Audrey Sutton turned to see Shane Warner standing behind her, imdiately pulling a sad face as she complained, "I was the only one who lost!"
Around the mahjong table, besides Grandma and the siblings, was Shane Warner’s mother.
Shane Warner chuckled softly, ruffling Audrey Sutton’s hair, "You’re the only silly one. Who else would lose?"
Helen Holloway glared at Shane Warner, "How can you say that about Audrey?"
Norman Sutton, while stuffing the money Audrey gave him into his pocket, said, "She really is silly, hahaha, she misplayed a few tis, and even faked a win earlier, it cracked up!"
Grandma chuckled, "Audrey’s luck really wasn’t good today."
Audrey Sutton grabbed Shane Warner’s arm, stood up, and said to him, "Help play a few rounds, I’m going to the bathroom."
As Shane Warner sat down, he instructed Audrey, "Get a glass of water later."
"Got it." Audrey poured him a cup of tea first, then headed to the bathroom.
Coming out from the bathroom, Audrey stood behind Shane Warner, watching him play two rounds, winning both.
Audrey couldn’t tell if he was just lucky or if it really takes brains to play mahjong.
"You want to play?" Shane Warner glanced at Audrey, ready to give up his seat.
Audrey, having lost her touch with the losses, saw Shane Warner’s luck was good, and quickly pressed his shoulder, making him stay seated, "You play, I’ll go help my mom make dumplings."
As she walked away, Audrey pointed fiercely at Norman Sutton and told Shane Warner, "Make sure to beat him!"
Norman Sutton tutted twice, "Hey, I want to lose too, but my skills won’t let ."
Audrey was annoyed, knocked Norman on the head, and then quickly ran towards the kitchen.
Norman Sutton rolled his eyes and said to Shane Warner, who was sitting to his left, "Control your wife, she’s out of hand."
Shane Warner smiled faintly and said to Norman, "Your turn to draw a tile."
Norman snorted coldly, picked up a mahjong tile, glanced at it, and directly discarded it.
As soon as he put the tile down, Shane Warner smiled, reached over and picked it up, "Sorry, I win."
Norman frowned, "Grandma just discarded that tile, why didn’t you win then?"
Shane Warner replied, "I just got into position."
As Norman handed over the money, he disdainfully said, "Small win, small win, keep going."
Audrey ca out of the kitchen after helping her mom for a while and saw that Norman was not as cocky as before; at least his provoking voice, which made one want to beat him, was no longer heard.
Just as she approached, she saw Norman taking money out of his pocket to give to Shane Warner.
Grandma chuckled, "Shane’s luck is good, he’s been winning all rounds."
"Just beat that Six and let him be cocky."
Norman snorted, "I’m still winning."
Shane Warner turned and asked Audrey with a frown, "How much did you lose?"
Audrey pouted and put on a particularly aggrieved look, "Lost a lot, could do my hair several tis."
Shane Warner knew the family played cards just for fun and didn’t bet big, so losing a lot wasn’t possible. But he understood Audrey; not only did she love money, but losing constantly would make her feel down.
Especially since Norman kept saying smug and teasing things on the side, which was both infuriating and irritating.
If it wasn’t for the bullied Audrey Sutton, Shane Warner might have felt like giving Six a lesson himself.
On the coffee table in the living room, Mom cleaned up everything on it. Audrey and her oldest brother were tasked with rolling the dumpling dough, while her second and fourth brothers, along with Mom, did the wrapping.
Hazel Yates roughly counted the dumplings and felt it was enough, she turned to call out to Samuel Sutton, who was feeding fish by the aquarium, "Honey, call and ask when Franklin and Luna will be back."
"Okay." Samuel finished feeding the fish, wiped his hands, and went to make the call.
Hazel added, "Rember to ask Franklin to bring Laura Yates over as well. That child hasn’t gone ho for the holidays, let’s invite her over to liven things up."
Her two brothers, one being a police officer and the other a doctor, hadn’t taken their ti off yet due to work even though it was New Year’s Eve.
Audrey wasn’t too familiar with Laura Yates’ family, but she knew things weren’t great between her and her family. It seed like a stepfamily situation, sowhat similar to Flora’s, where the idea was to marry their daughter into the Warner family to catch a golden bachelor. Otherwise, the Yates Family wouldn’t have tried so hard to marry Laura to Shane Warner.
Compared to friends around her, Audrey felt grateful to be born into such a happy family.
She felt her family was perfect, and her career was rising fast. If she managed to sort out the marriage part, she would truly be a winner in life.
She turned to glance at Shane Warner, who was seated by the mahjong table. Even though he hadn’t agreed to her pursuit yet, she felt that if things continued at this rate, this cooked duck wouldn’t fly away.
Thinking of this, Audrey couldn’t help but smile. Just then, she heard a shocked scream from Norman Sutton, his voice stunned and incredulous resonating throughout the room, "Are you cheating?! How could you win with that hand?! Get down, let your wife play!"
Audrey, seeing this, laughed cheekily at Norman Sutton and said gleefully, "Oh, who said they wanted to lose earlier? Look how my husband is still nice to his brother-in-law, fulfilling all your wishes!"
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