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Ch15 - Xiao Ming’s Daily Life
Shen Jie was satisfied with this result. Cube Boat was a rookie team. Newcomers had weaknesses. They were likely to panic and have weak observation skills but there was no need to worry about them daring to hide information. No matter what they found, they were bound to say it. Moreover, sleeping was the task with the longest time span and it was troublesome to think about. Now someone had come out to take care of this trouble so it was certainly the best.
Jiang Fang collected the cards one by one. He watched everyone spreading out to search for clues and check the situation. Nan Zhou looked at his hand and asked, “How did you do that?”
Jiang Fang gave a low chuckle. “It is a secret.”
After the draw, there were only 30 minutes left until midnight. There wasn’t much time for them to explore. However, there wasn’t much room in this apartment to explore. There was a large pot of split-leaf philodendron on the balcony. The living room was connected to the dining room. There was a beautiful floral tablecloth on the table, and a vase with water and a handful of roses.
Nan Zhou held onto the edge of the window in the living room where the screen was half-opened and looked down. Nothing could be seen on the ground and only the moon could be seen when looking up.
Between the sky and the earth, only the moon and this apartment were shining with a bright light. There were no neighbors and no upstairs or downstairs. This apartment was like an isolated island of 100 square meters floating in the moonlight.
The decorations in the master bedroom were fairly warm. There was a big bed, bedside tables, a floor lamp, a wardrobe, a projector mounted at the head of the bed and a separate toilet.
The second bedroom had been converted into a study room and game room. There was a nicely configured all-in-one computer, a small sofa, a single person spring bed and a shelf full of books. It seemed easy to spend the whole day here. The second bedroom was for playing games. As for the children’s room, it was likely to be the main venue for this game.
The children’s room was more than 20 square meters and there was a single bed with a blue car as a base. The mattress was quite soft and comfortable. Once the lights in the children’s room were turned off, a starry night light would start to operate, casting a deep and shallow river of stars on the wall.
Xiao Ming’s schoolbag and a few books were placed on a small elevated desk for children. The task hadn’t started so Xiao Ming’s schoolbag couldn’t be opened. The homework piled up in a corner of the desk seemed to be glued together and it was inseparable from the desk.
After briefly checking the children’s room and another bathroom next to the children’s room, Jiang Fang went to the kitchen. The refrigerator could be opened. There was enough rice, noodles, grains and oils in the kitchen cabinets for seven days. He counted the knives and turned to find Nan Zhou standing at the kitchen door, staring at him with unblinking eyes.
Jiang Fang told him, “I’m looking at your task location.”
Nan Zhou still had a question in mind. “…How did you do it?”
Jiang Fang smiled calmly and passed by him with one word. “Guess.”
Everything at home was normal and clean. It was as if the family was just traveling. After a simple search, everyone met again in the living room. At this point, everyone had the same question. The game task mentioned Xiao Ming but where were Xiao Ming’s parents? However, the game was about to begin and there wasn’t much time for them to focus on it.
This evening, Jiang Fang had to follow the instructions and sleep in the children’s room. Nan Zhou and Li Yinhang chose the second bedroom while Shunfeng chose the living room.
“The master bedroom is the largest and Lawyer Yu can stay there.” The thin monkey deliberately looked at his legs and spoke in a strange manner. “It is respect for the disabled.”
Yu Tuisi wasn’t angry and bowed. “Then thank you.”
At this point, it was 15 minutes until midnight. Yu Tuisi was pushed into the master bedroom by Chen Sufeng. In the corner of the living room, the Shunfeng group muttered together as they started an external exchange of information.
Nan Zhou, Jiang Fang and Li Yinhang gathered in the children’s room. Li Yinhang anxiously handed her mobile phone to Jiang Fang. “Put this here. My mobile phone has a lock screen camera function. Maybe I can record something.”
Jiang Fang accepted it in a gentlemanly manner and placed it by his bedside. “Thank you.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
It was the first time they participated in the task and Li Yinhang couldn’t say anything. She wanted to remind Jiang Fang to pay attention to safety. Then she found that the words were quite useless and swallowed them down. She perceived Nan Zhou standing at the door and he seemed like he had something to say to Jiang Fang. She stood up very consciously. “I’ll look for some quilts to make the bed. You can talk.”
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Jiang Fang lowered his head and smiled half softly and half slyly.
…A curious cat was caught. He looked up again and his eyes were full of sincerity. He took a deck of cards out of his pocket and counted out the top eight. A of Hearts to 8 of Hearts. Jiang Fang brought the cards together with both hands, spread them out to show Nan Zhou and gathered them up again. He started to shuffle the cards like before.
It was just that this time, he shuffled it surprisingly fast. It was also with only one hand.
It took Nan Zhou some effort to see that Jiang Fang split the cards into two stacks with a single index finger. He staggered the lower stack with the upper stack and used skillful force to mix the two stacks together.
After shuffling at high speed for around 10 seconds, Jiang Fang suddenly stopped. A card flew out and accurately landed face up. 2 of Hearts. Jiang Fang looked directly at Nan Zhou. He bent over to pick up the card and in front of Nan Zhou, he drew a mark in the pattern on the back of the card with his fingernail. He returned the 2 of Hearts to the cards and continued to shuffle them quickly.
This time, he started to explain. Jiang Fang spoke in a low voice, his voice gentle and sweet like new wine. “8 of Hearts stands for sleeping late which is the last thing that most normal people want to get.”
“Napping is relatively better. Sleeping at night means you will be influenced by the biological clock and it is difficult to maintain a clear mind to defend reasonably in time. There will be various unimaginable threats such as dreams.”
“You should remember that the last time I shuffled, it was much slower than this time.”
“It might be hard to remember the position of all the cards but it isn’t very difficult to concentrate all your energy to remember the position of one card and not touch it.”
“So everyone just avoided the card I wanted.”
Jiang Fang stopped his hands. At the same time, he moved his gaze away from Nan Zhou’s face and pulled out a card. It happened to be the 8 of Hearts that stood for sleeping.
Nan Zhou wondered, “Why did you choose 8 of Hearts?”
Jiang Fang blinked and told the truth. “This task is too difficult so I’m not reassured about giving it to others.”
Nan Zhou made an ‘oh’ sound. He wasn’t too surprised. “Then why did you imply for me to draw the 2 of Hearts? Why did I get the Joker card?”
Jiang Fang’s answer was on his lips. It was because the cooking represented by 2 of Hearts was a task with variables easy to control. To put it more simply, he didn’t want Nan Zhou to take any risks. It was just that Jiang Fang wasn’t good at things like ‘confessing his sincerity.’ He changed the subject. “What card did you want to draw the least?”
Nan Zhou didn’t hesitate. “2 of hearts, cooking.”
Jiang Fang almost couldn’t hold the cards steady. “……”
He inquired, “…Why?”
“Because my cooking is unpalatable.”
Jiang Fang, “……”
He put his hands in his lap and laughed in a dumbfounded manner while wondering if he was laughing at others or himself. He did something self-righteous again.
Jiang Fang skipped the first question raised by Nan Zhou.
He held the fully shuffled cards in the palm of his right hand and used his thumb to push the first card with slight scratches on the back. Meanwhile, the tail finger pressed the corner of the second card and lightly flicked. The card flipped in place and jumped from the reverse side to the front side. It was the smiling red Joker, the king of the Joker cards.
Jiang Fang shook his hand quickly. The Joker card landed on the ground while he tilted the cuff of his snow-white sweater and slid out a 2 of Hearts with the same scratch on the back. The 2 of Hearts perfectly replaced the Joker’s position and fit perfectly.
Jiang Fang gave the answer to the second question. “I took out nine cards from the beginning.”
Nan Zhou let out a whisper. “Ah—”
Jiang Fang picked up the dropped card, gathered the entire deck of cards together and handed it to Nan Zhou. “I will give it to you to play. Study it well.”
Nan Zhou took the cards with a ‘yes’ and turned to leave. He took two steps before standing still again. Then he turned around and told Jiang Fang in a cold and straightforward manner, “Don’t be in a bad mood. I know you want to be nice to me.”
Jiang Fang curled his fingertips against the side of the bed. His heart felt like it had been lightly hit and it trembled. A small smile reappeared on his face. He placed his hands on his chest and bowed gently to Nan Zhou. “Thank you. I am comforted.”
Nan Zhou nodded. “You be careful. Don’t die.”
Jiang Fang smiled. “See you tomorrow at 8 o’clock.”
Nan Zhou closed the door of the children’s room while placing the cards in his pocket. His thumb unwittingly stroked the cards. The cards still contained the temperature of Jiang Fang’s hand.
***
In the master bedroom, Yu Tuisi took out gold glasses from his pocket and wiped them with a soft cloth. Chen Sufeng half-kneeled in front of him, pressing against his knees. Then he held Yu Tuisi’s palm in one hand, raised it in an arc and gently massaged.
“Miss Li, her eyes keep looking in Nan Zhou’s direction.” Yu Tuisi analyzed to himself. “She has the highest level in the team but she isn’t the backbone.”
“So if Mr Nan and Mr Jiang have any opinions, you can listen carefully. You don’t have to waste too much time on Miss Li.”
“Yes.”
“Shunfeng, they seem to want to command. Don’t argue with them or it will affect our task.” Yu Tuisi instructed. “Just do what you have to do and don’t worry about extra things.”
Chen Sufeng’s voice was stuffy. “I know.”
There was a moment of silence. Then he couldn’t help raising his head in a rather dissatisfied manner. “You… don’t always treat me as a child. I can still see many things.”
Yu Tuisi was slightly startled before immediately smiling. “Yes, I talk too much.”
He placed his hand on Chen Sufeng’s head. His fingers slid slightly and landed on Chen Sufeng’s ears that were similar to that person’s ears. His fingers circled the contours of Chen Sufeng’s ears. “…If the system allows your brother to come back then I can be relieved.”
Chen Sufeng’s ears were itchy due to this person. He just wanted to speak when there was a slight sound from the light above his head before it went out. The light of the living room leaking under the door also disappeared.
Chen Sufeng was holding Yu Tuisi’s calf and couldn’t react. “The electricity tripped?”
“It is the task time.”
Yu Tuisi let out a low ‘shush’ before skillfully putting his arm on Chen Sufeng’s shoulder. “Carry me to bed.”
It was midnight and the game officially began.
In the living room, the trio lay down but didn’t dare fall asleep. The split-leaf philodendron was like a person crouching in the darkness. Three or four drying racks with no clothes hang on the clothes poles. They were blown by the night wind outside the half-opened window screen, making the jingle of wind chimes. Any sound or movement at this time seemed terrible. They didn’t even dare turn over for fear that the sound of the spring in the sofa would attract someone peeping at them.
In the second bedroom, Li Yinhang’s spirit was also tense. She lay on the soft floor and thought about whether to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night or not. Should she solve it in place or risk her death.
Soon, her careful thinking was interrupted by a strange noise. On the bed, Nan Zhou couldn’t hold onto the cards he was playing with and they fell on his face.
***
Jiang Fang was alone in the bed the shape of a car. His hands were on his chest and his eyes were closed. He didn’t seem to care what type of environment he was in. He undid the scorpion braid and soon fell asleep. The small night light cast a river of stars on the wall. It moved and turned on the tip of Jiang Fang’s nose and lips, as if gently touching.
Da, da, da.
The little duck cartoon clock on the bedside table reached all the way to 2 o’clock. The moment the hour hand firmly pointed to ‘2’, the mobile phone lying on Jiang Fang’s pillow and recording audio and video suddenly lit up.
The standby screen was a photo of Li Yinhang and her roommate. On the top of the screen, notifications were constantly appearing.
“The face is being recognized.”
“Not recognized successfully. Double-tap the screen to try again.”
“The face is being recognized.”
“Not recognized successfully. Double-tap the screen to try again.”
The screen turned on and off, on and off again, reflecting half of Jiang Fang’s face as it switched between light and dark He lay in the darkness, sleeping soundly and oblivious.
The author has something to say:
Jiang Fang who was trying to tease his wife once again encountered Nan Zhou’s straight ball x1, the effect was outstanding.