Chapter 25.2 If you will try to fold my wings, I will destroy your son’s paradise.

“Shí Sān yāo¹It is an extremely hard hand to get because you need to draw every single tile yourself. It consists of one of each wind and dragon tile plus the 1s and 9s of the balls, numbers, and sticks., and it’s done!”

“Xiao Sixi² this is also a winning hand with having the 4 directions; north, south, east, west., it’s a draw!”

“Xiao Sān yuan!”³ It’s winning with the dragon/word tiles except for 1 set. In the example, the player won with dragon and word tiles, but has 1 set of 1 ball.

“Hùn yāo jiû!”⁴ I think this is a hand where you win with mixed tiles. Usually in mahjong competitions, players tend to wait for better pieces for extra points if they win (like if they win with all stick cards, or all ball cards), so they get more points/money. This is the simplest hand one can win with.

“Qīng yī sè⁵I think this is winning with the same kinds of tiles. Like your whole hand only has sticks in them., Auntie Meng, it’s a draw again!”

…….

Bai Duanduan touched the mahjong tiles with her long white fingers, and she was not polite when she picked up and dropped them on the table. The mahjong chips on the corner of her table were already piled up like a small mountain. 

After finishing the hand, Bai Duanduan finally stopped and looked at Meng Xin “Aiya, Auntie Meng, why do you look so pale? Why is your face so white that it’s almost bloodless? Do you want me to pour you a cup of hot water?”

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Gp pssd yp pbl pvsrrle, vbl svbla sze ywdv yv vbl vyczl kxxlekyvlzu qswde yd lmnwpl yde pzkrrle yoyu.

“Yldt Dkd yb, xu psd ypjle xl vs rknj wr xu taydepsd. R osd’v rzyu yduxsal, R’zz zlyhl qkapv yb!”

“Nkvvzl Yldt, R pweeldzu alxlxclale vbyv vblal oyp xlyv pvlokdt yv bsxl obld R zlqv, yde R vbkdj R sdzu vwadle sd vbl zso blyv yde zlqv kv sd. R byhl vs bwaau cynj vs nblnj clqsal kv cwadp yde nywplp y qkal, zlv’p xyjl ydsvbla yrrskdvxldv dlmv vkxl!”

Yp Yldt Dkd’p qynl oyp czwl yp pbl oyvnble Jyk Pwydewyd qsanl yoyu vos sq bla sze xybfsdt cweeklp. Rv oyp fwpv y rkvu vbyv pbl eked’v clzklhl kd lhkz yde yzoyup qlzv vbyv kv oyp y xyvvla sq zwnj okvb hlau zkvvzl rascyckzkvu.

Fbl takvvle bla vllvb yde zssjle yv Jyk Pwydewyd, vaukdt vs piwllgl swv y pxkzl, “Dkys Jyk, usw byhl tsse zwnj yp y cltkddla, cwv, obld rzyukdt xybfsdt, vss xwnb zwnj yp y cltkddkdt okzz eaykd uswa zwnj yqvlaoyaep, ps usw pbswze cl nyalqwz sq zspkdt yqvlaoyaep.”

Yldt Dkd pyke obkzl tallvkdt bla svbla vos dlo vkzl rzyulap.

Rv oyp y rkvu…

“Xsrp, Gwdvkl Yldt, R eayo!”

“Draw!”

“Why did you draw again?!”⁶ Each player in turn, in counterclockwise direction, draws a tile from the wall; as long as the tile drawn is not one of the Bonus tiles, the player proceeds to discard a tile (either the tile just drawn, or a tile in the hand) to maintain a hand of 13.

……..

For a dozen consecutive games, Bai Duanduan once again squeezed out the other two tile players by an overwhelming margin.

The joy of playing mahjong was naturally not about always winning. Mahjong was just mahjong. It’s charm lies in the ever changing game of tiles. You can’t predict whether you’ll lose or win this game, but the premise is – there has to be a loss as well as a win. But because of the presence of Bai Duanduan, Meng Xin has not experienced the feeling of winning since the moment she sat down at her mahjong table ……

Bai Duanduan was just too evil. She becomes too invincible in the game of mahjong when it comes to killing gods and demons. Meng Xin felt that she couldn’t go on like this anymore. She stood up and decided not to have the same table with Bai Duanduan.……

It was a pity…

“Auntie Meng, where are you going?” Bai Duanduan raised her eyes and looked at Meng Xin who was getting up. 

Meng Xin pretended to smile calmly, “Xiao Bai, ah, this, I’ll go up to another table to play and meet other old friends as well while I am at it.”

“Good.” Bai Duanduan smiled and immediately stood up as well, “Auntie Meng doesn’t even need me to clean the house today. As a housekeeper I can’t get paid for nothing. Since Auntie Meng wants me to accompany her in playing mahjong, then of course I have to follow along all the way to the end.”

“……”

Meng Xin obviously wanted to get rid of herself, but Bai Duanduan wouldn’t let her do what she wanted. Whichever table she went to, Bai Duanduan would go behind her. In the long run, as long as Meng Xin was at the table, the other table mate would began to wail, because as long as Bai Duanduan went with her, the table would always be won by Bai Duanduan, and she was so strong that she could obviously sit at the banker’s table to the very end.

Soon…

“Meng Xin, I’m sorry… you’d better go to another table…”

“Xiao Meng, well, there is no shortage of people at our table. Why don’t you go to the other Lao Hu’s table to have a look?”

“No, no, Meng Xin, although we are short of people now, we have already made an appointment with someone else. You, go to another table!”

………

Meng Xin, who could liven up the atmosphere and make things happen, had always been popular among her player friends. But now she was reduced to the point where no one wanted to play with her, fearing that she would bring in the little girl behind her who was completely unwilling to let others win any game. 

“Bai Duanduan! What the hell are you up to again?!”

Bai Duanduan deliberately poked her, “Aiya, Auntie Meng, is it because I won too many games against you that you’re not happy? I didn’t think that Auntie Meng, who has been fighting at the mahjong table for so many years, would turn out to be such a sore loser ……”

Meng Xin’s face was not shining, so she could only say forcefully, “Who can’t afford to lose? I just want to play tiles! You’ve made it so bad that no one here wants to play with me now!” She said, “I don’t care if I win or lose, I just want someone to play with!”

Faced with Meng Xin’s growling, Bai Duanduan just laughed, then she took out her wallet and drew out six hundred yuan, “For one morning, I will pay three hundred yuan to whoever agrees to play with Auntie Meng and me. We are short of two people right now.”

“……”     

Under such heavy reward, there has to be a brave man only. Sure enough, it didn’t take long for the two tile partners to come together and join them.

Bai Duanduan sat down and looked at Meng Xin, “Auntie Meng, come on, don’t stand there, sit down and play together. In order for Auntie Meng to play cards, I have paid out of my own pocket. All right, let’s play.”

……     

As usual, Bai Duanduan again bloodbathed the other three people at the table. Meng Xin not only did not win, but also lost very ugly. This time she did not feel the joy of playing mahjong at all. But only felt endlessly humiliated and tortured. To say the least, it was like being rubbed on the ground by Bai Duanduan ……

This was the first time in Meng Xin’s life that she couldn’t fully appreciate the charm of mahjong at all. She only feels that every tile in front of her was an enemy against her…

After a dozen or so games of one-sided “beating” by Bai Duanduan, Meng Xin could no longer sit still and threw down her cards, “No more!”

Unfortunately, just as she was about to stand up, Bai Duanduan pulled her back with one hand, “Auntie Meng, you can’t leave, didn’t you say you don’t care about winning or losing as long as you can play cards? And now you are indeed playing cards.”

“I’m, I’m just a bit tired, I don’t want to play anymore. Let’s go home, didn’t my son ask you to come and tell me to go home? Let’s go, you can go back and turn in with him!”

Want to leave? You wish.

Bai Duanduan, however, pulled Meng Xin and wouldn’t let go. She stood up, walked behind Meng Xin and pressed her back into her seat without a word, “Auntie Meng, today you said it yourself that you wanted me to play mahjong with you for a day, then we can’t waste a single minute. A day is a day.” Bai Duanduan raised her hand and looked at her watch, “Not even morning hours are over yet, keep playing.”

……

Meng Xin had a hard time accepting that, one day, she not only wouldn’t desire to play mahjong in my heart, but also would be forced to play mahjong for a whole morning full of disgust and resentment…. She almost vomited when she lost… she just wanted to shed tears on the Huangpu River.

“Xiao Bai ah, let’s stop playing.”

“No, you said to play with you all day, continue.”

……

“Xiao Bai, really, please, don’t play, I…I’m a little uncomfortable.”

“Then, Auntie, take a rest first, and then continue to play when you feel comfortable.”

“……” 

In the end, Meng Xin’s final psychological defense completely collapsed, “Xiao Bai ah, I really do not want to play. I never want to play mahjong again, let’s go back okay? I have a psychological overshadow of loss when I see mahjong tiles now ……”

That was the moment she had been waiting for!

At the moment, Bai Duanduan was in full spring and when she saw that she had almost tossed Ms Meng Xin around, she decided it was the right time to call it quits.

“Okay, then Auntie Meng, let’s forget about it today. But look, there is still an hour left before the morning hour ends. I have given money to these two card players for one morning and they will definitely not refund me. It’s quite a pity to waste it, why don’t we finish playing until noon!”

Meng Xin had lost so much that she was beginning to doubt her life, and now she obviously didn’t want to stay another minute, “No, no, no! Forget this money! I’ll give it to you! I’ll give you an allowance! After all, you found this player mate with all your heart only for me!”

As she said that, she was afraid that Bai Duanduan would regret it, so she took out six hundred from her bag in three clicks, and hurriedly shoved it into Bai Duanduan’s hand with dead weight, “Let’s go, Xiao Bai, let’s go home! I only have one thing on my mind right now, and that is to go home!”

……

In the end, not only did Ms. Meng Xin did not have a full day at the mahjong table, but she didn’t even make it to half a day and she urged to go home in a hurry. 

_____________

Meng Xin followed Bai Duanduan back home reluctantly, feeling uncomfortable all over. As Bai Duanduan expected, it didn’t take long for her to start acting up again.

She first ate a large bunch of grapes ignoring Bai Duanduan’ plea not to and refused to take her insulin. Then, without the slightest intention of getting up and walking around to deplete her blood sugar, she sat down, turned on the TV and began to watch a TV series. While watching, she also continued to munch on a few bags of chips.

Bai Duanduan rubbed her brow, “Auntie Meng, you’ve eaten too many sweets, you must get up and move around.”

Meng Xin naturally ignored her and just bit into the chips with a click.

Although Meng Xin was so uncooperative and rolled her eyes to the ceiling, Bai Duanduan was very calm and relaxed. She smiled and gave an ultimatum, “Aunt Meng, you must take insulin, and then walk with me for half an hour. If you resist cooperation again, don’t blame me for being merciless.”

When Meng Xin returned home, she had nothing to fear. She refused to take insulin and refused to cooperate with the post meal walk. What else could Bai Duanduan do? Now that it was a society under the rule of law, can Bai Duanduan still press her head to force her to do things she doesn’t want to do? 

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Translator’s corner:

I am not super sure of the explanation given about the different mahjong tiles above, since these explanations are based on the tile examples we found on the internet 😅. A huge thanks and all credit goes to my fellow translator @bee as she helped me with all the explanations.