"Will Tuanzi really come back?" Zhu Shuang asked as he dealt the cards, his eyes worriedly gazing into the depths of the peach grove.

"She will."

"I hope she doesn't get lost, though."

"Actually, she might get lost in the woods," Zhou Li said. "Her intelligence isn't very high."

"Ah? What do we do then?" Zhu Shuang's card-dealing slowed considerably. He was completely smitten with Tuanzi. Even when attending online classes at home, he would try to coax Tuanzi to stay with him, though he wasn't often successful.

"It's okay."

Zhou Li sat behind Huai Xu, watching her clumsily handle the cards. He grimaced slightly. "Are you sure you know how to play this game?"

"I do, I do!"

"You should organize your cards first. Ideally, sort them from highest to lowest," Zhou Li said, thinking about how others played.

"Oh."

WITH A SWISH.

Zhou Li only registered a blur before his eyes, and the cards were already neatly organized.

Huai Xu tilted her head slightly, leaning in to whisper, "This is correct, right? This Ace and the Two are higher than the others."

"Mhm."

"The person who runs out of cards first wins?"

"Yes."

"Haha, I told you I know how!" Huai Xu exclaimed. "I even watched you all play on the train!"

Zhou Li was speechless for a moment. He thought about it and pointed to some cards, whispering to Huai Xu, "Do you know how to read these?"

"I know, I know! I told you I know!"

"Just don't read out the Pinyin..."

"Oh, come on, I told you I know!" Huai Xu got a bit impatient. "Why do you talk so much? You're so talkative!"

Zhou Li fell silent. To think he was being scorned for being too talkative by this old monster! Zhou Li was a very patient person, but this insult was too great; he couldn't bear it. He decided to keep his mouth shut and simply watch her play.

Brother Nan became the Landlord.

Well, that settled it. No suspense there.

Brother Nan led with a pair of threes, then considerately turned to Huai Xu. "Hey, it's your turn."

Sister Wei hesitated. She examined her cards, then turned her head to Zhou Li and asked, "Strategist, do you have any good advice?"

"Speak up, Strategist!"

"Hey! Strategist!"

"Sorry, I shouldn't have said you talk too much."

"No advice," Zhou Li finally spoke, shaking his head. "I rarely play cards myself; I only know the basic rules. You should try to play as many of your own cards as possible and prevent your opponents from playing theirs."

"How is that any different from saying nothing?"

"Then I'll say nothing."

"You'll be punished if you lose! Take it seriously!"

Zhou Li was incredulous. She's still thinking about winning? he found it unbelievable.

Huai Xu had good comprehension. She played a pair of fours, then continued turning to Zhou Li, "Next, we'll play like this. Can we play this, then like this and this, and then like this? Does this mean we win?"

Zhou Li pursed his lips, noncommittal.

Unexpectedly, the game dragged on for several minutes before it ended. He had thought Brother Nan could take them all out in one go. But after carefully recalling the cards Brother Nan had played, he realized—Brother Nan had split some of her good cards.

Though she still won.

However, it gave Huai Xu the illusion that she had almost turned the tables.

While doing push-ups, she turned her head to Zhou Li. "For my first time, playing like this, don't I have talent? Do you think if I trained for just ten days or half a month, I could become the Gambling God?"

Zhou Li finished his own push-ups, stood up, and clapped his hands, not responding to her.

Huai Xu didn't mind.

「Two minutes later.」

She was holding a new hand of cards, turning her head to Zhou Li. "This hand is even better than the last one."

Zhou Li still remained silent.

This round, they were the Landlords.

The outcome was as expected.

Another thirty push-ups each.

Zhu Bing complimented softly, "Sister Wei, you make push-ups look so easy, not even red-faced or out of breath. You must work out often, right?"

"What's the big deal? Deal the cards, deal the cards."

Sister Wei just waved dismissively.

「Another two minutes later.」

It was Brother Nan's turn to be the Landlord again.

Zhou Li couldn't help but wonder: was it his own bad luck, or was Brother Nan deliberately setting him up?

Just then, he suddenly sensed a brief surge of Spiritual Power. It came and went in an instant; if it hadn't happened right beside him, he definitely wouldn't have felt it.

Huai Xu turned her head again, covering her mouth with her cards, and whispered to him, "I already know Brother Nan's cards. We'll definitely win."

Zhou Li thought for a moment and said, "Why do you talk so much?"

Huai Xu was stunned, her expression a mixture of shock and indignation.

Only then did Zhou Li ask, keeping his voice very low, "What cards does she have?"

Huai Xu said, "A pair of threes, a pair of fours, a pair of fives, a pair of sixes, a pair of sevens, a pair of eights, a pair of nines, four bombs, the Joker pair... We're doomed!"

Zhou Li retorted, "So talkative!"

The two people opposite looked at them and then at Brother Nan, clearly sensing that the relationship between Zhou Li and Huai Xu was unusually close. Some small actions projected a familiarity and intimacy that couldn't be concealed, even exceeding that between Zhou Li and Brother Nan. What was even stranger was that Brother Nan was sitting right beside them, yet she didn't seem to find it odd in the least. She didn't even glance over, just hummed a tune and focused intently on her cards.

The two exchanged a knowing glance.

Zhu Bing wasn't close with Zhou Li. They had rarely met before and likely wouldn't meet much in the future, so he quietly kept his suspicions to himself.

But it was different for Zhu Shuang. He was seriously pondering:

How exactly did his brother manage it? He himself was quite good-looking, but forget about a girlfriend, even his close female friends would get jealous of each other! And this was a girlfriend like Brother Nan. Zhu Shuang had no doubt that if Brother Nan got angry, she would genuinely break his brother's legs and throw him into a pond—the kind filled with silt and rubbish, where you'd get stuck and couldn't pull yourself out. The young man was utterly confused.

The third round, Brother Nan won again.

...

「The tenth round.」

Zhou Li sat behind Huai Xu, holding an ancient book and watching. He heard Huai Xu muttering to herself, "How come I've never seen any Jokers..."

PFFT...

He shook his head. To get the Jokers, you'd have to cheat and swap cards.

But then again, in just ten rounds, Huai Xu's card-playing skills had improved by leaps and bounds. Based on the skills she displayed now, she was even better than the opposing duo of Zhu Shuang and Zhu Bing. Although those two didn't play cards often, they were inherently smart. Their frequent perfect scores in math indicated strong logical thinking abilities. Dou Di Zhu itself is a logic game, so for her to perform better than them under these circumstances was quite incredible. If she really went to a casino, with her card-peeking and card-swapping speed—so fast that surveillance cameras couldn't capture it—and her ability to make cameras malfunction, she would undoubtedly be hailed as the Gambling God.

Unfortunately for her, she had encountered the Successor of Destiny.

Suddenly, a series of light footsteps approached rapidly, followed by a swift white figure darting straight into Zhou Li's arms.

Zhou Li looked down to see Tuanzi looking up at him, her head round and her eyes wide, yet with an urgent expression. "Some humans are chasing Lord Dumpling! Quick, protect your Lord!"

With that, she tucked her head in.

Zhou Li listened carefully. Indeed, voices were approaching from afar, mixed with the somewhat chaotic sound of footsteps on dry branches.

The voices seemed to belong to several young people.

They might have mistaken Tuanzi for a stray cat. But given Tuanzi's timid look, it was more likely that she had provoked them out of boredom and then didn't want to go with them when they tried to take her away.

Several figures gradually emerged from deep among the peach blossoms.

"There's someone here!"

"Let's ask them!"

"Hey, excuse me, have you seen... Hey, isn't that Brother Nan! Zhou Li is here too!" A tall young man walked over. He looked somewhat surprised to see them, then his face lit up with a smile.

"You guys are here playing too!" he said.

"Zhang Hao!"

Brother Nan laughed as well, then pointed at Zhang Hao's head. "Haha, where did you get that blond dye job? It's hideous!"

"Hi!" Zhou Li managed a brief greeting.

"How could I compare to you, Brother Nan? Still as charming as ever," Zhang Hao complimented her subconsciously, then included Zhou Li, "And Zhou Li has gotten even more handsome since starting college!"

"Such a smooth talker!" Brother Nan said.

"Hehe, I wanted to ask you out, but you only returned to Yan City right before the New Year, and then this pneumonia hit..." Zhang Hao scratched his head after speaking. "That's the truth."

"That's nothing. If the epidemic is over and school hasn't started yet, let's go out for a meal. My treat," Brother Nan said generously.

"Sure!"

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh, right, I almost forgot! We're looking for a cat, a white one, very pretty. Kang Xue'er wants to take it home and raise it," Zhang Hao said. "It came over while we were playing cards, rolling around and making a fuss. We couldn't shoo it away. Kang Xue'er said she felt a connection with it. Have you seen it?"

Hearing this, Zhou Li glanced down at Tuanzi.

Just then, Brother Nan bent down and took Tuanzi from his arms, ignoring her struggles. "Is it this one?"

"Yes!"

"Zhou Li's raising her. She just likes to run around and get into mischief," Brother Nan said, already familiar with Tuanzi's fickle cat nature. "By the way, it sounds like things are going well between you and Kang Xue'er?"

"Pretty well," Zhang Hao said bashfully, not wanting to elaborate. "What about you, Brother Nan? Found a boyfriend in college?"

Brother Nan grabbed Zhou Li's sleeve and tugged. "This one," she declared. "My boyfriend!"

"Holy heck!"

Zhang Hao's eyes widened.

Zhou Li felt a bit embarrassed. This was the first time Brother Nan had introduced him like this in front of people they both knew, and he couldn't help feeling a bit awkward.

"What?" Brother Nan asked, puzzled. "Do you have an issue with it? You look very surprised."

"No, no..."

Zhang Hao waved his hands repeatedly. He still remembered a certain evening after self-study last year when Brother Nan had told him she wasn't interested in Zhou Li.

Damn it... He suddenly wondered what Wu Yuanliang's reaction would be upon hearing this news. It would surely be interesting, right?

Then Brother Nan tilted her chin up again and asked him, "Playing cards? Join us!"

"No, no need."

"Looking down on me? We're just playing for one yuan."

"No, I quit... I quit..."

"Lying to me too? You just said you were playing cards!"

"Just quit, just now..."

"Alright then!" Brother Nan waved her hand. "Go call Kang Xue'er over. I want to hang out with her; I haven't seen her in a long time."

"You got it."

Zhang Hao turned and left.

His friends followed him.

Before long, Kang Xue'er came over. She, too, expressed surprise at Brother Nan and Zhou Li's relationship and curiously probed with various gossipy questions. Unfortunately for her, Brother Nan skillfully evaded every single question.

When Kang Xue'er realized her efforts were futile, she stopped asking and chatted comfortably with Brother Nan, mostly about relationships.

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