Ye Yaodong held a chicken in his hands, looking at his childhood friends who sat around the table, their faces filled with joy.
Whether rich or poor, happiness was the most important thing! Inside, he silently counted the heads—Xiaoxiao, Azheng, Pangzi, Haozi, Chen Wei, plus Aguang who had gone to the dock.
The seven of them were all there!
At this moment, Ye Yaodong was particularly close to Xiaoxiao, Azheng, and Aguang.
However, years would soon pass, and the three of them would part ways, leaving only the others in the village, who would occasionally return many years later.
He asked Aguang's younger sister to boil water while he took a bowl out to collect the chicken's blood.
After sharpening the kitchen knife a few more times, he swiftly grabbed the rooster's comb, plucking a small handful of feathers from its neck.
With the sharp knife in hand, he went straight for a decisive cut to seal its fate.
The rooster struggled desperately, blood splattering a few drops, but it all fell into the bowl.
After a while, he would add a spoonful of salty water and let it sit for 20 minutes to turn it into solidified chicken blood.
Later, he could stir-fry it with chicken innards, which would taste delicious.
While waiting for the water to boil, Ye Yaodong carelessly tossed the still-twitching rooster aside and leaned over to watch them play cards.
“Oh, not playing Fifty K anymore? Now it’s Pai Gow?”
“There are five of us, Fifty K won’t work; we can only play Pai Gow with poker. Do you want to bet? This hand is about to be revealed. If you want to bet, you'll have to wait for the next round.”
He shook his head, not planning to play.
This wasn’t just any game; it was better not to get involved, merely to watch.
Xiaoxiao held onto his two cards, casually remarking, then pressed his thumb on the top left corner of the cards and slowly began to slide it…
With an excited expression, he shouted, “Hearts… Hearts… I've got it! No edges… no edges… Here it comes…!”
Ye Yaodong stretched his neck, only to see that the first card was a wild card and the second card, with a bit of his thumb showing, was a heart.
Pulling it out a bit more revealed that there were indeed no edges!
“Holy smokes, no edges! It’s either a 2 or a 3, is a Supreme Treasure about to come out?”
They were using poker to replace Pai Gow, where the wild card stood for 6 and the heart 3 represented 3. This combination was called the Supreme Treasure, or Monkey King Hand!
Xiaoxiao was also extremely excited.
Not seeing any edges or numbers meant this card was either a 2 or a 3. He brought the slightly opened cards back together, yelling to the others, “Did you catch a 3?”
The others urged him, “Stop dawdling! We’ve watched our cards; we’re just waiting for you to reveal yours! Hurry, don’t delay!”
“Yeah, hurry up, is it the Supreme Treasure or not?”
“We’ll help you…”
“No, I’ll do it myself!” Xiaoxiao squirmed to avoid them.
“Then hurry up, you’ll ruin the cards!”
“Why are you rushing me?”
Xiaoxiao kept pressing down on the top left number, already knowing the cards below were either a 2 or a 3. He didn’t pull to the right but instead slowly lowered the first card.
As he revealed the first heart, he fervently exclaimed, “3! 3! 3! Hearts… Hearts… Holy smokes, Supreme Treasure…”
He excitedly tossed the two cards onto the table, “It’s really the Supreme Treasure, Monkey King Hand! Quick, bring the money! Bring the money!”
The two cards were already bent from his grip, and the others clearly saw a wild card and a heart 3. They all exclaimed, “What the heck, it really is the Supreme Treasure!”
Just then, Aguang returned, and from afar, he heard them shouting about the Supreme Treasure, making him rush over in surprise, “What Supreme Treasure? Who got the Supreme Treasure? So amazing?”
“It’s Xiaoxiao! Damn, his luck is incredible, he’s the dealer! He can win it all!”
“What luck is that? I had a wild card with a pair of miscellaneous cards!”
“What does that mean? I had a pair of red 8s, player cards! I thought I had a chance to win, but I didn’t expect to run into the Supreme Treasure! Damn, wasted such a good hand! Made me happy for nothing!”
“Ha, luckily I had a 4 and a 6; it’s all good!”
Azheng, grinning, added, “Same here, I had a 5 and a 6; no hope!”
Amid the playful swearing, Xiaoxiao joyfully collected the cash from in front of them, with a hint of regret saying, “The stakes are too small, just a few cents here and there, so disappointing—wasted my Supreme Treasure!”
“Be grateful! You swept everyone! We’ve been playing cards for so long and haven’t even caught a Supreme Treasure!”
Aguang was somewhat relieved he returned late; otherwise, he would definitely have bet as well.
He dodged a bullet with the Supreme Treasure, feeling like his luck was unusually good today!
“If only they’d made an exception and let Dongzi bet, then we could have had more heads!”
Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes, “Do you want me to bet two cents?”
“Of course! A mosquito leg is meat too!”
“Come on, seize the good luck and play a few more rounds!”
“Right, right, one more round!”
Xiaoxiao got the cards ready to shuffle and continue, but then Pangzi interrupted, “I’m not playing anymore! After finally getting a pair of red 8s, I bumped into the Supreme Treasure—how unlucky!”
“Oh come on, you’re not short on money anyway! We haven’t played for high stakes; a small wager is just for fun, let’s keep going!”
In this day and age, one could still grow fat from eating well, showing that Pangzi’s family was well-off, all of them had the same physique!
The reason was simple—his family were all cooks.
As they say, cooks don’t steal, grains don’t go unharvested.
Thus, they’ve always had the best food in the village.
Pangzi’s hefty figure showed he had eaten well!
“I’ll take the position of dealer; otherwise, I won’t play!”
“Fine, fine, fine!”
After all, they weren’t playing for too much; it was all in good fun among friends, the winnings mostly went to food, so nobody lost anything.
After Aguang returned, he casually handed the crabs and shrimps he bought to his sister and joined in!
These days, there were few entertainment options for adults in the countryside.
They weren’t children anymore; they had all experienced the joy of climbing hills and swimming in the sea during their childhood.
In the hot summer, they didn’t want to go out and bake under the sun, so they could only play cards at home.
Ye Yaodong watched with great interest.
In fact, he still had two yuan in his pocket, probably from winning cards yesterday.
He wasn’t sure, as he had no memory of it.
As he watched them play, he had touched his pant pocket several times, but he held himself back.
After all, that was all his wealth.
Pai Gow relied too much on luck.
When it came to playing cards, he could join in, as he had decent skills and rarely lost.
After watching for a while, Aguang’s sister told him the water was boiling, so he had no choice but to pull back his attention to work.
“Ouch—hot damn!”
Ye Yaodong shook his hand as he plucked the feathers from the rooster.
This chicken had to be scalded with boiling water before it was plucked, but it truly burned him.
Why had he taken on this chore before?
Weren’t the cards more enjoyable to look at?
Truly, upon seeing those young old friends, he was so happy that he forgot himself.
(The End of this Chapter)