Chapter 38 Harmonious Night Elementary School Version of Landlord
Xu Sirui's vision darkened, and he barely managed to steady himself by holding onto the doorframe. He realized Zhu Yingning had a knack for staying out of trouble, but when she did, she would make a splash. Others stole things, but she stole people. Others hid their mistresses in lavish houses, but she hid her classmates in a dilapidated house. What on earth was she trying to do by bringing a living person home?
"Do you think Zhou Li can go back to school like this? Are you going to hide her here for the rest of her life?" He was puzzled.
"Of course not." She seemed a little frustrated when she said this, and looked at the cowering Zhou Li behind her. "I plan to hide her until her cousin leaves. After her cousin leaves, there will be no one to take her to the city. Then I can go and persuade Zhou Li's father. Maybe there will be a change of heart. Otherwise, if Zhou Li goes home now, her parents will definitely beat her and drive her out of the mountains. Her cousin has a job in the city and can't stay in the mountains for too long. I estimate hiding her for three to five days will be enough." After saying this, she solemnly instructed him, "If anyone asks, especially Zhou Li's parents, just say you haven't seen Zhou Li and you know nothing. Okay?"
"..." Xu Sirui sighed, waved his hand, walked around Zhou Li and walked into the house, "I think you should persuade the staff and your mother instead of me."
"I've already told the crew that my mom is visiting someone else's house and hasn't come back yet. I'll tell her when she comes back."
"Okay, it's up to you. This is your home, not mine." He walked to the desk, picked up the water cup and took a sip.
The already small room seemed even more cramped with Zhou Li. Xu Sirui wasn't used to being with her, so to avoid being alone, he simply went outside to help Zhu Yingning wash, pick, and prepare the vegetables.
When dinner was ready, Liu Guifang arrived late. Seeing Zhou Li, she looked puzzled. "I just went to visit and heard that Zhou Li had left with her cousin. How come she's at our house?"
Zhu Yingning had no choice but to pull her aside and explain to her.
"Are you crazy, Ningning? What if Zhou Li's father comes to our house? Do you want our family to be visited by other people's families like what happened to Zhu Juan before?" Liu Guifang glanced at Zhou Li out of the corner of her eye, covered her lips with her hand, and complained in a low voice in Zhu Yingning's ear.
Her voice was not loud, but not soft either. Zhou Li sat on the mat with her knees bent. Her face turned red when she heard it, showing a sense of shame and embarrassment. She unconsciously scratched the bamboo mat under her with her nails.
Xu Sirui was surprised to find Zhu Yingning quite stubborn on this matter, or perhaps more accurately, obstinate. With a stern face, she rattled off a series of profound truths to Liu Guifang, such as "Don't commit any evil, no matter how small; don't refrain from any good, no matter how small," and "Giving a rose leaves a lingering fragrance on your hand." The sound of sweat dropping from Xu Sirui's forehead made him feel like Liu Guifang wasn't moved by her profound truths at all, but simply overwhelmed by her nagging. Combined with Zhu Yingning's inherent stubbornness, she hadn't nodded in agreement. Thinking back to the down jacket incident, how she might have persuaded Liu Guifang to apologize in the same way, Xu Sirui felt a mixture of laughter and tears. It seemed he wasn't the only one suffering from her Tang Monk-like chanting.
After dinner, Liu Guifang went to work. Zhu Yingning wanted to stay and accompany Zhou Li to avoid embarrassing her, so for the first time she did not do housework. Instead, she sat on the mat and looked at Zhou Li in silence.
After a long period of silence, Zhou Li couldn't stand it anymore and took the initiative to break the silence: "Let's play something."
"What to play?" she asked.
"Poker?"
"OK."
She pulled out a deck of cards from the corner and looked at Xu Sirui who was sitting at the desk. "Together?"
Xu Sirui had basically nothing to do at night, so he shrugged indifferently and sat down next to Zhu Yingning.
They were playing the basic game of Landlord. Xu Sirui had a stereotype: Zhu Yingning was a straight shooter, not particularly adept at playing cards. However, the reality was far from his expectations. In the first round, she played Landlord, while he and Zhou Li played Peasant. Before he could even sort out his cards, she threw a string of planes and a straight, inexplicably winning.
"...Wait, I haven't realized yet. You're just too lucky this round." He immediately snatched the cards away, "Let me shuffle them."
After shuffling and re-dealing the cards, she was called the landlord again, and he and Zhou Li were farmers again. After a few rounds, Xu Sirui was carefully considering which card to play to beat her, and she threw a bomb and won again magnificently.
"Fuck." Xu Sirui's competitive spirit came out and he threw the cards to Zhou Li, "You shuffle them." He didn't believe that his luck could get any worse tonight.
Zhou Li shuffled and re-dealt the cards. Xu Sirui picked them up, raised his eyebrows, and smiled smugly. He had a lucky hand this time, so he immediately called the landlord, leaving Zhu Yingning and Zhou Li as peasants. The game was quite close, and in the latter half, he held his chin, carefully recalling all the cards he had just dealt, and carefully threw a pair. However, Zhu Yingning played like a tiger, and before he could react, the game was over, and he lost again.
“…”
Xu Sirui has never experienced three consecutive losses in his life so far - although it was just three consecutive losses in poker, it was still difficult for him to accept it.
At the beginning of the fourth game, Zhu Yingning was called the landlord again. When Zhou Li lowered her head to sort out her cards, she looked up inadvertently and found that Xu Sirui on the opposite side was stretching. He leaned his body backwards calmly, supported his arms on the bamboo mat behind him, leaned his upper body back, and glanced at Zhu Yingning's cards beside him.
Zhou Li was completely stunned.
Who is this person? An elementary school student?
Her impression of Xu Sirui had always been that he was a cool, arrogant, and handsome guy, because he never spoke to anyone in class and always kept to himself during breaks. Before coming to Zhu Yingning's house, she had a vague, shy fondness for Xu Sirui, the kind that people often have for cool, handsome guys. When she heard that Zhu Yingning wanted to take her home, she was secretly excited, anticipating that living with him would be a romantic encounter.
Xu Sirui, unfazed by Zhou Li's observation, placed his index finger to his lips, squinting his eyes and silently signaling "hush." He had strikingly beautiful, peach-shaped eyes, their narrow slits narrowing when he squinted, like a lazy fox. Add to that his red lips and white teeth, and his cold white fingers pressing against his lips, slightly inward, creating a breathtaking beauty. Zhou Li felt a surge of excitement, her heart racing.
But she still wanted to say... Who is this person? An elementary school student?!
Zhu Yingning, who was being spied on, was unaware of it and only felt that this game was more difficult than ever before.
It wasn't until Xu Sirui got so bold as to get closer and closer, his breath spraying on her neck, that she suddenly turned around, her eyes widened, and shouted, "Xu Sirui, what are you doing?! Have you been peeking at my cards?"
"No." He tilted his head back, avoiding her eardrum-piercing scream, his expression calm. "You hold the cards open like this, isn't it just to entice people to look? I'm looking at it openly."
"You're a despicable villain!" She turned the cards toward herself, a look of wariness on her face. "You've seriously disrupted the fairness of the game. I despise you."
Xu Sirui nodded: "Yes, yes, I am a despicable villain." After that, he stretched out his slender fingers, took the cards in her hand, exerted force with his fingers, and smiled, "Take it."
"Xu Sirui——!" Zhu Yingning was so angry that she didn't expect him to be so shameless. She screamed and pounced on him.
Then Zhou Li held the cards, looking helpless as the two men started fighting in front of her...
It's not quite accurate to say they were fighting. It was Zhu Yingning who was holding Xu Sirui down and twisting his arm unilaterally. Her pinching technique was very vicious, deliberately grabbing only a little bit of flesh on the skin and then twisting it violently. Xu Sirui screamed in pain, but Zhou Li didn't know whether he was just a jerk by nature or what, but he just refused to hand over the cards that belonged to Zhu Yingning. They fought from the bamboo mat to the kang, and then from the kang to the bamboo mat. Zhou Li could only face the fight between the male lead and the second male lead like the heroine in the 8 o'clock soap opera, and weakly persuaded from the side: "Stop fighting, stop fighting."
Not only did Xu Sirui's childishness surprise her, it was also the first time she'd seen Zhu Yingning act so childish. In her mind, Zhu Yingning had always been a mature and steady figure. Zhou Li appreciated and admired her, but she also occasionally felt that the squad leader lacked a touch of life, more like a red sculpture than a person with emotions. But now, that touch of life was almost too much...
The two men only stopped their quarrel after Liu Guifang returned.
"Should we keep fighting? I mean, should we keep playing cards?" Zhou Li pointed at the crumpled playing cards and spoke cautiously. Seeing Xu Sirui's messy hair and Zhu Yingning staring in anger, she suggested, "How about we try something peaceful? Pulling a train?"
Pulling the train was indeed peaceful, but it was endless, like the snot you get when you have a cold. They pulled until all three of them had showered and were about to go to bed, but they still hadn't figured out what was going on.
There's nothing we can do but record it as a draw.
When they were about to get on the kang, they encountered another problem - the area of the kang was limited. It was originally designed to sleep five people, but the 38th parallel piled up by Xu Sirui took up one person's space, so Zhou Li had no place to sleep.
"I'll sleep on the floor." Zhu Yingning held her quilt and was about to lie down on the bamboo mat.
Zhou Li quickly pulled her back: "No, I'll sleep on the floor."
"No, I fight."
"I'm a guest, I'll fight."
"I am the master, I fight."
Xu Sirui couldn't help but snort when he saw them pushing and shoving each other like they were fighting for red envelopes.
This snort of laughter attracted Zhu Yingning's attention. She looked at him and said, "Then you come and fight."
"?"
He pointed to his mouth and asked, "I don't think I said anything?"
The photographer who had been recording silently nearby said in support: "Xu Sirui, I think you should be more manly, otherwise I will also despise you."
“…”
When he lay on the bamboo mat wrapped in a quilt, Xu Sirui felt very painful. This pain was not because he was sleeping on the yellow bamboo mat that he once sneered at, but because after sleeping on the yellow bamboo mat, he did not feel much resistance.
It seems that not only has his internet addiction been cured, but his mysophobia has also been almost cured.
The mountains are such a magical place.
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