The 99th Divorce

“Huh?” Yu Lili was caught by surprise. She looked at Zhuang Yunhua and replied, “I…”

“You can take over. I don’t feel like playing anymore,” Jiao Ziqing said. “These women have such bad luck, but they keep insisting that I’m bullying them. Show them what it means to have good luck!”

She stood up, pulled Yu Lili over, and pushed her into the seat. She noticed Yu Lili’s stunned expression and asked, “What are you gaping at? Do you not know how to play mahjong?”

Yu Lili thought about it and replied, “I guess I do…”

“You either do, or you don’t. What does ‘I guess I do’ mean?” Jiao Ziqing asked.

Yu Lili thought about it again and asked, “Do I play to win or lose?”

Her voice was very soft. She turned to look at Jiao Ziqing.

Yu Lili’s eyes were a deep, dark brown. Jiao Ziqing looked at her and raised her beautiful brows as she declared loudly, “Decimate them completely!”

The other women were in an uproar when they heard Jiao Ziqing’s words. They all had a look of disdainful ridicule. One of them asked, “Are you sure that’s even possible? Stop talking big. Just because you were lucky doesn’t mean your daughter-in-law will be lucky, too. Your daughter-in-law is so young. I bet she doesn’t really know how to play it either. You’d better not accuse me of bullying her when I win all her money over later!”

Jiao Ziqing had been challenged, and her defenses were roused up. She nudged Yu Lili and instructed, “Did you hear that? Don’t embarrass me. You have to defeat them!”

“Alright.” The pressure was on. Yu Lili’s senses were up. She looked at her tiles and threw out a supposedly useless three-circle tile.

“Kong*!” someone called out.

With that word, it seemed that all of Yu Lili’s luck had run out. Every time she threw a tile out, it was invariably met with either a “pong” ** or “kong.” She lost that round so badly, the others couldn’t bear to watch.

“Do you want to let us win that badly? Hahaha! Ziqing, you overdid your trash-talking,” one of the friends said.

Jiao Ziqing rolled her eyes at them, completely unoffended. “The game has only just begun. Why are you in such a hurry?”

Yu Lili felt a little embarrassed and turned to Jiao Ziqing. “I think it’ll be better if you play.”

“Continue,” Jiao Ziqing sat in Yu Lili’s old seat, totally unperturbed.

Yu Lili had no choice but to thicken her skin and continue with the game. She lost dreadfully three games in a row. The worst loss was in the third round. All the other three players won at the same time because of a tile she threw out.

The three other players were playing to their hearts’ delight. They didn’t neglect to rib Jiao Ziqing.

“Weren’t you talking big just now?” a friend teased. “It seems to me that your daughter-in-law really can’t play at all. Why don’t you come back into the game? Don’t let her lose too much!”

Jiao Ziqing took a sip of her coffee and smirked. “It’s only because your luck is good.”

The three women burst out in laughter when they heard that.

“We’ll let you take the first pick this time, so that no one can accuse us elders of bullying a junior like you,” her friend said.

Yu Lili had lost so badly that she was feeling embarrassed. The loss of the money mattered a lot less than the loss of face.

She didn’t stand on ceremony and accepted the offer. With a nod of her head, she replied, “Thank you, Aunties.”

The three ladies laughed even harder. Soon enough, they couldn’t bring themselves to laugh any longer. In the fourth game, Yu Lili had a heavenly hand. Everyone’s jaw dropped.

In disbelief, they exclaimed, “That’s impossible! What kind of good luck is that?”

It was Yu Lili’s first time drawing such a hand. Happiness blossomed within her. She was about to say a few modest words when she heard Jiao Ziqing behind her say, “It’s all thanks to you for letting her go first. Look how the tide has turned!”

That statement incurred the ire of everyone. With annoyance, they declared, “Another round!”

–

Mahjong terms:

*Kong: Four identical tiles of the same suit

**Pong: Three identical tiles of the same suit