On the first hand, the three aunts vied to show off their skill, and Ding Shi confirmed that they were old hands at mahjong—they could roughly remember which tiles had already been discarded. But they weren't cheating.
On the second hand, Ding Shi drew a tile and didn't look at it directly. Instead he rubbed it once with his thumb and flipped it straight over. "Win! Riichi, all simples, self-draw, one dora—four han." On a self-draw, everyone has to pay, so each of them handed over a chip worth 4 mao.
After that, wins and losses went back and forth, and everyone had a fine time. The village chief's daughter-in-law brought food, and Aunt Wang's husband brought lunch for the three aunts as well. They rested for half an hour, then went back to battle.
By the eighth round, Ding Shi was ahead by half a dao, and he was getting a little bored of it. So he began paying attention to the shuffling, and under the pretext of squaring up the tiles he switched a few of them around, then rolled the dice total he wanted.
Aunt Wang: "East wind."
Ding Shi: "Pung."
Aunt Li: "West wind."
Ding Shi: "Pung."
Aunt Zhang: "South wind."
Ding Shi: "Pung."
Aunt Wang: "North wind."
Ding Shi: "Pung."
A cold sweat broke out on all three aunts at once. Ding Shi had only one tile left in his hand; all he needed was a matching one and he'd win. But winning this hand wasn't the point—the point was what Ding Shi was holding. If Ding Shi won, it would be Big Four Winds, or Big Four Winds plus All Honors: the highest-multiplier yakuman there was.
How could ordinary people ever beat a gambling cheat? Frankly, their understanding of gambling was a whole dimension apart.
Ding Shi drew and flipped his tile. "Self-draw, Big Four Winds." Yakuman, seventy-fivefold; each of them had to pay 7.5 dao. Settled at the end of every round.
As Ding Shi collected the chips, he mocked himself, "That's it, that's it. My luck's all used up."
The three aunts smiled and made perfunctory noises, but their faces had gone ugly.
Ding Shi kept the dealer seat. On the fourth hand, he punged the one-bamboo.
On the fifth hand, he self-drew. Once his tiles went down, the three aunts groaned. "Full Flush." Sixfold.
Ding Shi corrected them. "Not quite. It's Nine Gates." Nine Gates: on top of Full Flush, it also needed a Pure Straight. Yakuman, seventy-fivefold.
Four Concealed Triplets. Yakuman, seventy-fivefold.
Big Three Dragons. Yakuman, seventy-fivefold.
Just as the three aunts were about to fetch a knife and do away with Ding Shi, he played Thirteen Orphans again. Yakuman, seventy-fivefold.
"No more, no more." They still wanted to play, but they'd lost so much that there was no fun left in it.
Ding Shi gathered up the chips with a grin. "Thank you, Aunts." Next came collecting what they owed. Five yakuman, close to 400 dao—enough to buy four hundred bundles of toilet paper.
Aunt Wang looked at Aunt Zhang and Aunt Li. The three of them traded glances for a while, and then Aunt Wang spoke. "Little Ding."
"Yes, Aunt Wang?" Ding Shi answered obediently.
Aunt Wang: "How is it you play so well?"
Ding Shi: "Heaven gave me a living." Muggles don't know about wizards.
Aunt Wang said, "Little Ding, I won't hide it from you—we aunts don't have that kind of money. There's only about 10 dao in each of our pockets."
Ding Shi put on a troubled look. "So what are you suggesting, Aunt Wang?" He'd seen gamblers ask for a discount before. Usually those gamblers ended up with their bones broken.
Aunt Wang said, "How about this. When we three sisters were young, we were out on the mountain digging for wild vegetables, and we happened to come across a place."
"A place?" Ding Shi asked.
Aunt Wang smiled. "There was quite a bit of gold and silver in it. But you know how it was back then—anyone with gold and silver was a bad sort. So we handed the whole lot in right away."
Ding Shi understood: she meant robbing a tomb. "So what do you mean, Aunt Wang?"
Aunt Wang glanced furtively left and right, then lowered her voice. "But we secretly held back one jade tablet."
Ding Shi said, "A dead person's jade tablet?" Disdain.
"Take a look first." Aunt Wang shot Aunt Li a look, and Aunt Li immediately went upstairs. After a good deal of rummaging she came back down carrying a box.
It was an ordinary metal dressing case. Opened, it held a plastic box, and inside the plastic box lay something the size of a playing card. It had nothing to do with jade, but the material was certainly not something present-day techniques could produce.
Ding Shi picked up the thing that was supposedly jade. Aunt Wang said, "The front says 'May All Be as You Wish'; the back has dragons and phoenixes bringing prosperity. Take it out and sell it, and you'd get at least a hundred dao."
Ding Shi was seeing something else entirely. Special skill card: Three Short of One.
Once the skill is used, the three nearest intelligent beings within ten meters are forcibly dragged into a game of mahjong. Usable once every twenty-four hours.
The explanation was very detailed. Simply put, it was a game of mahjong: while it lasts, the domain is invincible, the fellow players are invincible, and the mahjong is invincible. Each fellow player has ten seconds to draw and discard a tile; every second over that deducts one point.
The game is counted in rounds, and scoring follows Japanese mahjong. Settlement happens at the end of each round. Suppose Ding Shi has the most points: then the skill has no side effects, but he gains no items. Suppose Ding Shi has 5 points, A has 7, B has 6, and C has 3. In that case A may, depending on the point difference plus the gap in strength between himself and Ding Shi, take something from Ding Shi's person.
If A is human, he can take a certain amount of Ding Shi's money or a card from his slot; how much he takes depends entirely on the point difference. If A is a big boss, he might take one of Ding Shi's organs, or even Ding Shi's life.
Once A has taken his, B starts taking. C, with the lowest points, loses nothing at all.
If there are fewer than three intelligent beings within ten meters, the skill cannot be activated.
The system explained the criteria for an intelligent being: a creature capable of independent thought, possessing the ability to learn or imitate.
Special note: it is impossible to break the rules to cheat.
Ding Shi tapped for more explanation, and the system gave a great many examples. You ought to draw tile A, but your hands are quick and you swap tile A for tile B—that counts as cheating. You draw tile A and you have a tile-rubbing skill; you rub tile A into tile B—that does not count as cheating. But the tile you transform must be logical, or it will be judged as cheating.
Example: if all four 2-bamboo tiles have already been played, then producing another 2-bamboo is cheating.
Ding Shi thought, isn't this explanation a bit too detailed? Too detailed means there's no gap to slip through. As a criminal who operated out in the open, he didn't care for overly strict rules.
Holding the jade tablet, Ding Shi looked deeply troubled. "Aunts, this is a bit too little, isn't it? How about each of you adds a little more?"
Aunt Wang was decisive. She put five dao on the table. "That's all. Not a cent left."
After some negotiation, each of the three aunts handed over a little money, and Ding Shi acquired the Three Short of One skill card. His bank card balance: 17.9 dao.
When Ding Shi put Three Short of One into his skill card slot, the system prompted: Bind? Once placed in the slot, a special card belongs to that individual alone and can no longer be traded. Ding Shi bound it without hesitation. The system explained what was needed to activate the card—commonly known as the wind-up. Since this was a special card, the skill would trigger the moment Ding Shi shouted "Three Short of One!"
"We're done, we're done." The three aunts ended the game.
Quest complete. Completion quality: excellent. Reward: 0.4 dao.
Chapter 7