Chapter 4: The Underground Lord Turns Out to Be…

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At that moment, everyone tensed up—everyone except Bao Lei, who looked completely relaxed.

“I can’t beat that anyway. Qiao Xuewei, you play.”

“Wait, we haven’t said anything yet!” Zhang Hua called out.

Su Qianqian looked tense as well. Qiao Xuewei was simply acting too much like the hidden landlord. And since Bao Lei trusted her so completely, it was obvious that Bao Lei might already know Qiao Xuewei’s identity.

After all, Bao Lei was a ghost. Finding out who the hidden landlord was would have been effortless for her.

Lin Rou furrowed her brow slightly, resting her chin in her small hand as she thought. Every so often, she glanced at Qiao Xuewei. Although she had more or less guessed who the hidden landlord was, the cards had not yet been fully revealed, so she still lacked complete confidence.

At last, Zhang Hua gritted her teeth and threw down five threes.

“Bomb! Qiao Xuewei, I’m not letting you keep playing. You’re the hidden landlord!”

Qiao Xuewei’s expression changed.

Bao Lei chuckled. “So you had such a powerful bomb. Impressive. I can’t beat it.”

Zhang Hua took a deep breath. She did not have many cards left either, but since Bao Lei had already admitted she could not beat the play, Zhang Hua would have to continue.

She swept her gaze over Su Qianqian and Lin Rou. She trusted both of them. The scene from the previous chainsaw game was still vivid in her mind. Those two had been willing to die for each other last time, and there was no reason this time would be any different. As far as she could tell, neither of them could be the hidden landlord.

Qiao Xuewei now had only one card left. Zhang Hua looked at the cards in her hand—all of them low cards—then threw down a pair of fours.

“No single card can be played anymore.”

Su Qianqian nodded in agreement, though she remained somewhat wary of Zhang Hua.

“A pair of fives.”

The game had reached an impasse. It was obvious that the landlord would win as soon as she played one more hand. One thing was certain: she would not be able to beat a pair.

Zhang Xiaofan analyzed the cards remaining on the table. Qiao Xuewei had only one card left. Lin Rou had the most cards, followed by Su Qianqian.

Zhang Hua did not look like the hidden landlord. Every card she played seemed designed to oppose Bao Lei. Yet Qiao Xuewei was strange as well, because she was not playing according to the hidden landlord’s usual strategy either.

Could it be that Qiao Xuewei genuinely did not know how to play? Could the card in her hand really be the little ghost?

Recalling Bao Lei’s smug expression earlier, it seemed that she, too, already knew Qiao Xuewei was the hidden landlord.

As he stared at the single card in Qiao Xuewei’s hand, Zhang Xiaofan suddenly had a realization.

No—that can’t be right. How could I have forgotten something so important?

Zhang Xiaofan hurriedly said to Hu Xiaotian, “Xiaotian, didn’t I tell you? Whether it’s good or not is for me to decide. Everyone else has gone out to buy diet pills. Why haven’t you gone to buy some?”

Hu Xiaotian was bewildered. He widened his eyes and said, “Xiaofan, I may be fat, but didn’t you say last time that diet pills were bad for the body?”

“Heh. That was then, not now.”

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After saying that, Zhang Xiaofan looked ahead. Bao Lei had not paid attention to his words, but Lin Rou and Su Qianqian’s expressions changed.

Lin Rou especially felt that her earlier suspicion had been confirmed.

She decisively smiled and said, “I’ll play something higher. Pair of kings!”

She had deliberately played very few cards before, waiting for the hidden landlord to reveal herself. Now, with Zhang Xiaofan’s reminder and her own judgment, she had already determined who the hidden landlord was.

Qiao Xuewei pulled a long face. “Lin Rou, you don’t trust me either?”

Lin Rou snorted. “Why should I trust you?”

“Why? Why is everyone doing this to me?” Qiao Xuewei asked plaintively.

Su Qianqian said gravely, “Lin Rou, you…”

“It’s obvious,” Lin Rou said. “Qiao Xuewei is the hidden landlord, so I’m not going to let her finish her cards.”

Bao Lei smiled at Lin Rou as if she were considering something. In the end, she shook her head.

“Lin Rou, go ahead.”

Zhang Hua said smugly, “It’s good that you picked it up. I’ve got nothing but scraps in my hand. Lin Rou, as long as you keep playing pairs, we’re guaranteed to win!”

Lin Rou nodded.

At that moment, Su Qianqian said, “I can’t beat it.”

Lin Rou’s smile grew even brighter. She looked at Bao Lei and said, “Bao Lei, you’ve put on a good act, but you can’t fool us! We’re even better at pretending than you are!”

With that, Lin Rou threw down a single three.

“Qiao Xuewei, go.”

All the students were stunned. Lin Rou had actually let Qiao Xuewei play.

Qiao Xuewei was the person most likely to be the hidden landlord.

Everyone stared at the scene in disbelief, while Qiao Xuewei herself failed to react for a moment.

Zhang Hua’s expression changed dramatically.

“Lin Rou, you… have you gone crazy?”

Su Qianqian stood there with her mouth open, while Bao Lei’s body shuddered.

The next moment, Qiao Xuewei happily threw down her card.

It was the nine of spades.

“We won! We won! Ha-ha! Zhang Hua, the little ghost is with you, isn’t it?” Qiao Xuewei cried out joyfully.

Zhang Hua ignored her. She looked at Su Qianqian and Lin Rou.

“The little ghost is with one of you?”

As she spoke, she threw down her remaining cards, which were nothing but useless scraps.

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In her mind, since she did not have the little ghost card, it had to be with either Su Qianqian or Lin Rou.

Lin Rou stood up and said triumphantly, “We were all deceived. In this hidden-landlord game, we kept assuming from the beginning that once the landlord called out the hidden landlord, that person had to be one of the peasants. But in reality, Bao Lei deliberately misled us. The little ghost has been in Bao Lei’s own hand all along!”

All the students stared at Bao Lei in shock and disbelief. They could not understand why she had called herself the hidden landlord, since doing so had placed her at an absolute disadvantage.

Although it had allowed the peasant players to turn against one another for a while, she could never have concealed the truth until the final moment.

Bao Lei’s body began to shake violently.

“Hee-hee-hee… How fun. This really is fun. You actually figured it out.”

Bao Lei turned over her cards. Sure enough, all four ghost cards were in her hand. The other two cards were a two and a ten.

“What a pity. If you had played a single card, I would have won.” Bao Lei shook her head and sighed. “I had planned to kill every one of you. What a shame.”

No one had expected that Bao Lei had refused to name someone else as the hidden landlord because she had intended to kill them all.

Zhang Xiaofan stepped forward.

“The loser is supposed to receive a death penalty, right?”

Bao Lei smiled. “Of course. But… I’m already dead.”

“You bastard!”

Wang Hu charged forward and swung a fist at Bao Lei.

Zhang Xiaofan’s expression changed. He hurriedly blocked him and shouted, “Don’t be impulsive!”

“Let go of me! She’s alone. We can kill her!” Wang Hu shouted.

“Everyone, get over here and hold him back!” Zhang Xiaofan yelled.

Several of his men rushed over.

“Brother Tiger, don’t be impulsive.”

“Listen to Brother Xiaofan.”

Bao Lei sneered at Wang Hu.

“Very good. You’ve got courage. In that case, I’ll take special care of you in tomorrow’s game.”

With that, she swept her gaze over the entire class before finally looking at Zhang Xiaofan’s chest.

“I never expected her to become like this. How interesting. All right, carry on with your lesson. I’m leaving.”