Chapter 58 Dice

Seeing others gathered in groups to play mahjong, some of the older members of the Black Deer tribe felt that even the simplified version of mahjong was quite complicated. They jointly petitioned Xu Que to ask if there was a simpler form of entertainment than the mahjong currently played by the tribe members.

Xu Que thought for a moment and said to them, "This is already very simple. If there's an entertainment method simpler than the current version of mahjong, then it's probably only rock, paper, scissors!"

"Grandpa! Let me teach you!" Xu Que approached a group of elderly men who were complaining that mahjong was too difficult, and held out one hand: "Look, grandpa! What's this?"

"fist!"

"Hmm! This is called a stone!"

"And this?" Xu Que stretched out his index and middle fingers into a scissor shape and asked the old men around him.

"Two fingers!"

"wrong!"

"Two-finger Zen?" Hou interjected beside Xu Que.

"Look closely at what this is!" Xu Que glared and roared, pointing two fingers in the air like a tailor's scissors, as if to give a hint.

"What? It's still the two-finger technique! It's exactly the same as before!" Hou looked at Xu Que with a serious expression.

"I really want to strangle you! These are clearly scissors, but you call them two-finger scissors!" Xu Que stretched out his hands like demonic claws, ready to strangle him.

Hou forcefully pulled his neck back, took two steps back, and retorted sharply, "Scissors? What are scissors? What are scissors? This is the first time I've ever heard of them, brother!"

Xu Que, feeling guilty, stretched his hands back: "Then how do you know about the two-finger technique?"

"You mentioned 'two-finger Zen' last time! What are scissors? You never seem to have mentioned them before! Well then, let me tell you something from our original language: Liangzi, ailu!" He roared at Xu Que with a laugh.

"Liangzi? Wake the kids up at daybreak? Hey, the road? It's just the road, isn't it?"

Xu Que watched as Hou was laughing so hard she was practically falling over, and secretly thought to himself, "Judging from her lecherous eyes, could she be talking about private parts? Is it here?" Xu Que pointed to himself.

"It's here! What are you thinking about!" Hou moved Xu Que's hand from his groin to his forehead!

Xu Que looked speechless: "This thing is called Liangzi? What about Ailu? What's Ailu?"

"Both represent the forehead! The private part you're pointing to is what we call the handle! It's where you first pointed!" Hou continued, laughing as he spoke to Xu Que.

"Do you understand now? If I don't reveal the answer to you, can you guess it? I've never even seen scissors before, how would I know what they are by gesturing like that?"

“Yes! That’s right! But the word ‘ba’ in your tribal language means the same thing as ‘with a handle’ in Mandarin! I can guess that!” Xu Que said confidently and proudly.

He glared at him again: "You can! You're the best!"

"This represents rock! This represents scissors, any more?" Hou clenched his fist into a "rock" shape, then stretched out his hand into "scissors" and gestured in front of Xu Que.

"This is cloth! Extend your hand, with all your fingers spread out, that's what cloth is!"

"So how do you play this? How are wins and losses calculated?"

"Rock can dull the blade of scissors, scissors can cut cloth, and cloth can wrap around rock! They are mutually restraining, and neither is the strongest nor the weakest!"

"Oh! I get it! Come on! Let's play a round!"

I'll throw a rock at you!

"I'll wrap you in cloth!"

"I'll use scissors!"

"I'm a stone!"

...

"Wow! This is more suitable for us older people with neurasthenia!"

The elderly people of the Black Deer tribe who complained that mahjong was difficult were surprisingly adept at playing rock-paper-scissors, and soon they were playing in pairs with impressive skill.

Xu Que took out a logging saw from the system warehouse, found half a piece of useless wood, and sawed it into strips about three centimeters in length, width and height. Then he took out a multi-functional power drill, replaced it with a small drill bit that integrates cutting and carving, and carved one to five dots on the five sides of the wood strip. Then he cut it into a cube the size of a die and carved six dots on the sixth side.

Xu Que distributed the prepared dice to the elderly man who couldn't remember the rules of mahjong.

“You can use these to roll dice! Guess whether it’s odd or even, or compare sizes! Let me demonstrate for you with Hou first!” Xu Que said, handing one to Hou.

"I'll guess odd! What do you guess? Odd or even?"

"I guess even!" After shouting his guess, he randomly tossed the dice to see if it would land on a single or double.

"In this situation, whoever guesses correctly wins! Another way is to compare sizes. Each person takes one or more dice, and they roll the dice randomly. The person with the largest number facing up on each die, or the person with the largest sum of numbers facing up on multiple dice, wins!"

"Hou and I will demonstrate for everyone!" Xu Que handed Hou four or five dice: "First, take one die, compare the sizes, and demonstrate for them! Then take more dice and demonstrate comparing sizes for them again!"

Xu Que took out the dice and tossed them; six dots landed heads up.

He randomly tossed the toss, and the one that landed head up was a dot.

"I won this round! I have a higher score than the shouter!"

"The principle of comparing the size of multiple dice is the same as comparing the size of a single die! The only difference is that you add up all the numbers facing up and see who has the higher number. Let me demonstrate for you!"

Xu Que randomly tossed three dice, and Hou also tossed the same number of dice.

Xu Que's total score on all the dice is fourteen, while Hou's total score on all the dice facing up is eleven.

Xu Que's score was higher than Hou's, so Xu Que won.

"Another way to play is: each person has five dice, and you guess how many numbers both sides have. One can change to any number, and the number must be increased. For example, if you guess five 5s, the next person must guess five 6s or six n numbers. If you don't believe the number the other person says, you can look at their dice. If the other person is right, you lose; if they are wrong, you win. Roll 7s and 8s. Multiple people participate, with a total of two dice. If the sum is 7, drink half; if it's 8, drink the whole thing. A triple is returned to the player before you to roll. Each person has five dice. The 1 is taken away, and the 6 is given to the other person. Whoever has no dice first wins."

"Anyway, let's not play anything too complicated! Just have fun! Play however you want!" Xu Que said, then distributed the remaining dice to the onlookers.

Because Xu Que made a limited number of dice, a large portion of the Black Deer tribe members did not receive any dice.

"For those who didn't get any dice, I'll set aside time each day to make some! Eventually, everyone will get some! Our Black Deer tribe has over 26,000 people; if we had to make so many dice all at once, it would be exhausting!"