Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Supreme Treasure? Monkey King Pair?

Ye Yaodong held the chicken, looking at his childhood friends sitting around the table, his eyes full of joy. Money or no money, happiness was what mattered most!

He silently counted heads in his heart: Xiaoxiao, A-Zheng, Fatty, Haozi, Chen Wei, plus A-Guang who went to the dock – the Seven Rascals of Baisha were all here!

At this time, he was closest to Xiaoxiao, A-Zheng, and A-Guang, but in a few years, these three would leave, going their separate ways. Only the others remained in the village, occasionally returning years later.

He asked A-Guang’s sister to boil some water, and he took out a bowl, planning to collect the chicken’s blood later.

After sharpening the kitchen knife a few more times, he skillfully grabbed the chicken’s comb, plucked a small patch of feathers from its neck, and swiftly slit its throat with the sharp knife.

The rooster struggled desperately, a few drops of blood splattered, but most of it dripped into the bowl. Later, he’d add a small spoonful of salt water, let it sit for 20 minutes to form blood curd, which would be delicious when stir-fried with chicken offal.

While the water wasn’t yet boiling, Ye Yaodong casually tossed the still-twitching rooster aside and went over to watch them play cards.

“Oh? Not playing Fifty K, but Pai Gow now?”

“Five people can’t play Fifty K, so we’re using regular cards to play Pai Gow instead. Want to place a bet? This round is about to start, you’ll have to wait for the next one if you want in.”

He shook his head, not planning to play. This wasn’t like regular card games – better to avoid it if possible, just watching was fine.

Xiaoxiao held his two cards and casually spoke while pressing his thumb against the upper left corner of the cards, slowly moving his thumb…

He excitedly called out: “Hearts… hearts… got it, got it! No border… no border… here it comes…”

Ye Yaodong craned his neck and saw that the first card was a King, and the second card’s thumb-revealed portion showed hearts. As more was revealed, they could see it had no border!

“Holy shit, no border, it’s either 2 or 3, is it going to be Supreme Treasure?”

They were using regular cards instead of Pai Gow tiles – the King represented 6, and Hearts 3 represented 3. This combination would make the Supreme Treasure, the Monkey King pair!

Xiaoxiao was also extremely excited, seeing no flower border or number border meant this card had to be either 2 or 3.

He merged his slightly revealed cards back together and shouted to the others: “Did any of you get a 3?”

The others urged, “Stop dawdling, we’ve all seen our cards and are just waiting for you to show yours. Hurry up, don’t waste time.”

“Yeah, hurry up, is it Supreme Treasure or not?”

“Let us help you…”

“No, I’ll do it myself!” Xiaoxiao twisted his body to avoid them.

“Then hurry up, you’re going to ruin the cards!”

“A man shouldn’t rush!”

Xiaoxiao continued pressing his thumb on the top left number, already knowing the card below was either 2 or 3. He didn’t pull to the right but slowly pulled the first card down.

After revealing the first heart, he excitedly muttered: “3! 3! 3! Hearts… hearts… holy shit, Supreme Treasure…”

He excitedly threw both cards on the table, “It really is Supreme Treasure, Monkey King pair, come on, money! Money!”

The cards were already bent from his grip, and the others clearly saw a King and a Hearts 3, cursing: “Damn, it really is Supreme Treasure!”

At this time, A-Guang returned, hearing them shouting about Supreme Treasure from afar. Curiosity drove him to run over quickly, “What Supreme Treasure? Who got Supreme Treasure? That’s awesome!”

“Xiaoxiao! Damn, his luck is so good, and he’s the dealer! He takes all!”

“What kind of dog luck is this? I had Heaven King paired with a mixed nine!”

“That’s nothing! I had a pair of red 8s, a person card! Thought I’d won, didn’t expect to go up against Supreme Treasure. Damn, wasted such good cards! Got excited for nothing!”

“Hehe, good thing I just had a 4 and a 6, died appropriately!”

A-Zheng also smiled: “Same here, I had a 5 and a 6, no hope!”

Amidst everyone’s cursing, Xiaoxiao happily collected all their bills, though slightly regretfully saying: “The stakes were too small, just a few cents each, not worth it~ Wasted my Supreme Treasure~”

“Be content, you swept everything. We’ve played cards for so long and never drawn Supreme Treasure!”

A-Guang felt somewhat fortunate he came back late, otherwise he would’ve definitely bet too.

Supreme Treasure, dodged a bullet, seems like today’s luck was pretty good!

“It would’ve been good if we’d made an exception and let Dong-zi bet too, could’ve had one more person!”

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes, “Would you want me betting two cents?”

“Sure, even mosquito legs are meat!”

“Give it a rest, while your luck is hot, quickly play a few more rounds!”

“Right right right, let’s go again!”

Xiaoxiao was about to shuffle the cards to continue, but Fatty objected, “I’m done! Finally got a pair of red 8s, and ran into Supreme Treasure, such bad luck!”

“Come on, it’s not like you’re short on money, and we’re not playing for much. A little gambling for fun, let’s continue!”

In these times, being able to grow fat showed Fatty’s family wasn’t ordinary, and everyone in his family was fat!

The reason was that his family members were all cooks, and as the old saying goes, if cooks don’t steal, the five grains won’t harvest. So his family had always had the best food in the village.

Fatty’s bulk showed he clearly hadn’t gone hungry!

“I’ll be the dealer, otherwise I’m not playing!”

“Fine, fine~”

They weren’t playing for much anyway, the money just circulated among them, and winning money usually went toward food, no one lost out.

After returning, A-Guang handed the crabs and mantis shrimp he bought to his sister, and joined in!

In these rural areas, there weren’t many entertainment options for adults. They weren’t children anymore – they’d experienced all the joy of running up mountains and down to the sea in their childhood. On such a hot day, they didn’t want to go out in the sun, so they could only play cards at home.

Ye Yaodong watched with interest. Actually, he still had two yuan in his pocket, probably won from playing cards yesterday, though he wasn’t sure, couldn’t quite remember.

Watching them play, he touched his pocket several times but restrained himself. This was all he had. Pai Gow relied too much on luck, though he would join in regular card games – his skill was good, and he rarely lost money.

After watching for a while, A-Guang’s sister told him the water was boiling, so he had to turn away from the game to work.

“Ouch~ burning hot!”

Ye Yaodong shook his hands while plucking the chicken’s feathers.

The chicken needed to be scalded with boiling water to remove the feathers easily, but it was really burning him. Why did he volunteer for this job before?

Wasn’t watching cards more interesting?

Really, he got so excited seeing his young old friends that he forgot himself.