Chapter 3: Who Exactly Is the Secret Landlord?

[Page 1 of 3]

“If even that can be beaten, then I’ll play.” Bao Lei smiled. “Eight, nine, ten, jack, queen, king, ace. That’s the highest I can go.”

Zhang Hua shifted through her cards, then finally shook her head.

Su Qianqian played four fours. “Bomb.”

Lin Rou and Qiao Xuewei both let out sighs of relief and shook their heads.

Zhang Xiaofan shook his head as well. This hidden landlord had concealed herself deeply. Even at this point, she was still keeping her identity hidden.

Bao Lei, however, immediately threw down a bomb of tens and said cheerfully, “Crushed!”

Zhang Hua shook her head again. So did Su Qianqian, Lin Rou, and Qiao Xuewei.

Seeing this, Zhang Xiaofan fixed his eyes on Zhang Hua and Qiao Xuewei. The two of them were truly strange. They refused to play anything.

“They can’t even beat that bomb? The cards outside must be terrible,” someone muttered.

“That’s only natural. There are five players, but only two decks of cards. There definitely won’t be many bombs.”

“Both jokers are with the open landlord and the hidden landlord. This hand will be difficult to play.”

“Now it all depends on who has more twos.”

Hearing the voices around her, Su Qianqian glanced at the cards in her hand and frowned. She did not have a single two.

Bao Lei had only eight cards left. Zhang Xiaofan was growing anxious. If she continued playing, she would win—and the hidden landlord still had not revealed herself.

Bao Lei continued. “A pair of jacks.”

“Looks like Bao Lei’s hand is full of high cards.”

“Exactly. She started with a pair of jacks. Maybe she has no low cards left.”

Zhang Hua threw down a pair of queens. Su Qianqian shook her head, and Lin Rou shook hers as well. Qiao Xuewei, however, smiled and said, “I can beat that. A pair of kings.”

Zhang Hua glared at her viciously. “So you really are the hidden landlord. You’re deliberately targeting me.”

There was no denying that Qiao Xuewei’s behavior truly made her look like the hidden landlord. This was not the first time she had done something like this.

The last time, she had failed to protect her cards and allowed the landlord to escape. This time, she was actually suppressing one of her own teammates.

Qiao Xuewei held her cards without saying anything, then said to Bao Lei, “Your turn.”

Bao Lei smiled. “I can’t beat that.”

[Page 2 of 3]

Zhang Hua snorted. “Bao Lei, you have six cards left now, don’t you? You probably don’t have any bombs left. I’ll play, then, so that person won’t let you win.”

With that, she played a pair of twos.

Zhang Xiaofan relaxed slightly. It seemed Bao Lei did not have a pair of the highest jokers, or she would have played them.

That meant Bao Lei had one big joker and one small joker, while the hidden landlord held the same cards.

But the problem was that Bao Lei had only six cards left. If two of them were the big and small jokers, could the remaining four be a bomb?

It seemed they could no longer play single cards. Otherwise, Bao Lei would win.

Yet at that moment, Zhang Hua casually threw down a queen and said smugly, “Your smallest card is probably a king now. You must be out of low cards, right?”

Zhang Xiaofan’s expression changed drastically. If Bao Lei played the big and small jokers—or even if she still had a two—she would win.

Su Qianqian said, “Ace.”

Ordinarily, an ace was high enough that players would leave the next move to the landlord. But Zhang Xiaofan knew that at a moment like this, they had to play the highest card they had. Otherwise, if the landlord played the highest card herself, she would seize the initiative.

Immediately, Zhang Xiaofan said to Hu Xiaotian, “Xiaotian, did you have fun when we went out in February?”

Hu Xiaotian looked at him in confusion. “Xiaofan, why are you bringing that up out of nowhere?”

“Have you gone crazy?” Shen Fengxing said coldly.

Many people looked at Zhang Xiaofan in bewilderment. Not far away, however, Lin Rou’s ears twitched. “Play a two.”

Qiao Xuewei studied her cards, then glanced at Bao Lei, looking as though she wanted to play something.

Zhang Hua said coldly, “Look at that. The hidden landlord is about to reveal herself.”

Qiao Xuewei shot her a glare. In the end, she shoved the card she had begun to draw back into her hand. “I pass.”

Bao Lei rubbed her cards between her fingers and said with a grin, “How clever. I’ll let you off this time. I pass too.”

“What’s going on? Is the big joker being kept hidden?”

“Exactly. They’re even hiding the small joker?”

“The hidden landlord and the landlord don’t know how to play at all.”

“Seems that way. After all, Bao Lei used to be a girl who barely spoke. How would she know how to play this game?”

Zhang Xiaofan carefully watched Bao Lei’s expression. Without eyeballs, and with a pen stuck into her neck, Bao Lei’s current appearance made her expression difficult to read. All he could see were her lips curving slightly upward, as if she were feeling rather pleased with herself.

[Page 3 of 3]

“Why? Why? Lin Rou played a two, yet not only did Bao Lei fail to counter it with a joker, even the hidden landlord didn’t play one. That’s incredibly strange.”

“Besides, earlier I suspected Qiao Xuewei, but she really didn’t play a card. Could she be trying to bide her time?”

At this thought, Zhang Xiaofan nodded inwardly. That was probably it. This hidden landlord was truly cunning. Earlier, Qiao Xuewei had clearly looked as though she wanted to play a card. Now it seemed highly likely that she was the hidden landlord.

Lin Rou let out a sigh of relief and smiled. “I know what’s going on now.”

Then she played a small straight.

Qiao Xuewei shifted through her cards and shook her head. Bao Lei, naturally, had no way to beat it with only six cards left.

At that moment, Bao Lei’s empty eye sockets also trembled up and down. She stared at Lin Rou with those hollow sockets and, after a long while, rasped, “Play.”

Zhang Hua and Su Qianqian both passed. Lin Rou shifted through her cards and said, “A pair of nines.”

Everyone grew tense again, while Lin Rou looked extremely pleased with herself. It seemed she had already figured something out.

Qiao Xuewei said, “A pair of aces!”

Zhang Hua’s expression changed. “I’m not going to let you play again.”

With that, she immediately threw down a pair of twos.

Qiao Xuewei gritted her teeth. “Zhang Hua, why do you keep targeting me? I think you’re the hidden landlord! Don’t think I don’t know. You’re deliberately saying things like that to draw everyone’s attention away, so they’ll target me instead.”

“Hmph. I don’t have a mind as calculating as yours,” Zhang Hua said coldly.

It was her turn to play. She laid down a small straight and said, “None of you can beat this, can you?”

Su Qianqian shook her head, and Lin Rou did the same. At this stage of the game, there truly were not many people who could beat a straight.

But who could have known that Qiao Xuewei would suddenly say coldly, “You’re the hidden landlord, aren’t you? Don’t think I don’t know. I’ll bomb you to death!”

As soon as she finished speaking, she threw down a bomb of eights.

Zhang Hua’s face changed at once. “Good, good. You’ve finally shown your true colors. Qianqian, Lin Rou, I know neither of you is the hidden landlord. Bomb her!”

Su Qianqian and Lin Rou both felt their hearts sink, but they could only shake their heads.

Qiao Xuewei now had fewer than ten cards left. She played two more hands in succession, until only three cards remained. At last, she threw down a pair of queens and said through clenched teeth, “I have only one card left after this. Bao Lei, can you beat it?”

Bao Lei smiled faintly. “I can’t.”

Zhang Hua roared, “So your last card is the small joker, isn’t it, Qiao Xuewei? You hid it well. You kept insisting you weren’t the hidden landlord, just to fool us!”