"Hahaha, you think your Uncle Lan is that petty? Again." Lan Bo laughed happily and reset the board.
Lan Xue was too familiar with Luo Zheng, she could clearly feel sothing was off, but couldn't tell what exactly. Seeing that her father wasn't angry, she quietly let out a breath of relief and smiled too, but doubt rose in her heart. She glanced at Luo Zheng, knowing this wasn't the ti to ask, so she silently made a note to find a chance to ask him later.
"Petty you're not, you just won't admit defeat." Lan Xing teased, "Dad, even if you play ten more rounds, the result will be the sa—lose. I think just forget it, okay? How about we play mahjong instead? We were one short yesterday, today we're just right."
"This is called refusing to give up, not refusing to admit defeat. Know what 'fight on despite repeated defeats' ans? No mahjong. I see, you're just trying to remind I still owe you money, right? I'm never playing mahjong with you again." Lan Bo cursed jokingly.
"Exactly, you even saw through that. So when are you going to pay back?" Lan Xing asked with a grin.
"When you get married." Lan Bo scolded, annoyed.
"Tch, boring." Lan Xing said speechlessly, then looked at Luo Zheng. Her eyes rolled and she smiled, "Brother‑in‑law, let's play mahjong together, stop playing with Dad. Better everyone have fun than you having fun alone, right?"
"No, absolutely not." Lan Bo hurriedly said. Seeing the curiosity on Luo Zheng's face, he explained, "This damned girl's card skills are too good. I don't even know when these two sisters learned mahjong. Yesterday was the first ti we played and I lost every single round, not one win, and this girl won them all. Later Xue Er figured it out—this girl can count cards."
"Oh? How much can she rember?" Luo Zheng asked curiously.
"As long as the face‑up tiles show when shuffling and she sees them, she rembers them no matter where you stack them. What tiles are on the table, in what position, she knows it all clearly. How are you supposed to play with her like that?" Lan Bo explained with a smile, but his eyes were full of pride.
"That impressive? Photographic mory? Little Sis even has that kind of skill." Luo Zheng sighed.
"Miss is a double PhD in information and electronics, you think that's fake? Have you ever seen such a young double PhD? How can I survive without so skills? Dad, stop changing the subject, pay back the money." Lan Xing said with a grin, stretching her hand out in front of Lan Bo.
"You can be as capable as you want, you're still my daughter." Lan Bo slapped her palm away irritably and scolded with a smile.
"Uh? Fine, you're aweso." Lan Xing said speechlessly.
Lan Xue quietly watched this scene without stopping it, her face full of a happy smile. There was a ti when she longed so much for the whole family to happily spend New Year together, but this simple wish hadn't been fulfilled for more than ten years. Ever since she t Luo Zheng, everything had started moving in the direction she had imagined. A beautiful life was within reach, and Lan Xue was very satisfied with her current days.
"Brother‑in‑law, let's play mahjong. It's fine if you lose so money to , we're all family anyway." Seeing her father playing dumb, leaving her no way, Lan Xing could only switch targets.
"I don't know how, I've never played it before." Luo Zheng explained with a smile, while pondering the chessboard. Noticing that Lan Bo's offensive was more restrained than before—advancing step by step, playing steadily—he couldn't help but smile, quickly changed his line of play, and soon checkmated Lan Bo again.
Seeing that he lost again this ti, and even more miserably, and with Lan Xing heckling from the side, Lan Bo thought that it might be nice for the whole family to play together. Losing money wasn't an issue; he wasn't short of this small amount. A happy family ti was more important than anything, so he said, "Alright, that's enough, no more chess. Little Sis, set up the table, mahjong. I want to see just how much you can win."
"Yay, Dad is wise." Lan Xing shouted excitedly.
The mahjong table was quickly set up and everyone sat down. Luo Zheng sat at the upper seat next to Lan Xue, and Lan Xing enthusiastically started explaining the rules. Luo Zheng realized that after listening once, he rembered everything, and couldn't help being stunned. But with Lan Xing hurrying him from the side, he had no ti to think about it and followed everyone to shuffle the tiles.
While shuffling, Luo Zheng paid close attention to Lan Xing and noticed that her eyes really did linger on the faces of the tiles—obviously counting cards. Lan Bo was flipping the tiles very quickly, clearly trying to stop Lan Xing from morizing them, but how could the speed of his hands beat the eyes? Luo Zheng couldn't help but laugh, quickly swept a glance over the tiles, and discovered that he could also rember the positions of quite a lot of tiles. His mind felt extrely agile, which puzzled him greatly, and he sank into thought.
"What's wrong?" Seeing Luo Zheng pause, Lan Xue asked curiously.
"Oh, nothing." Luo Zheng replied quickly, stacking his tiles like the others while sinking back into thought. Why had his mory also improved a bit? Could that Breathing Skill also enhance mory? Or did it develop the brain and increase IQ?
With these questions in mind, Luo Zheng stacked so tiles. When it was his turn to draw, he rembered exactly what tile was coming up. He picked it up out of curiosity and took a look—sure enough, it was the one. He couldn't help being startled, then secretly delighted. He imdiately glanced at his own tiles, then at the tiles on the table, located the tiles that might co to him next, and quickly knew what he should discard.
After a few rounds of drawing, Luo Zheng quickly ford a hand and drew the last tile he needed. He checked against the rules Lan Xing had explained and found that he completely t the conditions for winning, but still asked uncertainly, "Everyone help take a look, does this count as a winning hand?" As he spoke, he pushed all his tiles onto the table.
Everyone looked over curiously—it was indeed a winning hand. Suddenly Lan Xing shouted, "Wait a second." She stared intently at the tiles on the table and started thinking, wearing a serious, contemplative look.
"What's wrong? Isn't this a winning hand? You trying to cheat?" Lan Bo asked with a smile.
"No, look at this." Lan Xing picked out a few tiles from the table and lined them up in order, then said, "These tiles are the ones Brother‑in‑law discarded, in the sa order I laid them out. Now compare them with Brother‑in‑law's hand, don't you notice sothing? Sis, look carefully."
"What is it? He didn't break any rules." Lan Xue asked curiously as she looked over at the table.
"It's not about breaking rules, it's that Brother‑in‑law can count cards too. What he discards, what he eats, what he mustn't discard—not once did he make a mistake. It's like he knows exactly what tiles are coming next. If that's not card‑counting, what is? Brother‑in‑law, are you sure this is your first ti playing mahjong? I rember your IQ is about the sa as mine, and even I can't rember this many. How did you do it?" Lan Xing shouted excitedly, as if she had discovered a new continent.
"Uh?" Lan Xue also quickly noticed sothing was off and looked at Luo Zheng curiously.
"Haha, this is great, you two can both count cards. Let's see who can beat whom now." Lan Bo laughed from the side.
"Dad, that's not the point." Lan Xing explained, then looked at Luo Zheng, her eyes full of curiosity. She asked with a smile, "Brother‑in‑law, from your drawing movents it's definitely your first ti playing, but how did you rember so many tiles? It doesn't make sense."
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