232: Playing mahjong with my mother-in-law

Being isolated at home, with her parents both siding with Ye Su, the anger that Li Mengyao had managed to suppress began to burn fiercely once again.

Feeling Li Mengyao's gaze, which seemed like she wanted to eat him alive, Ye Su inwardly cried out that he was innocent, praying for Li Shanhai and his wife to stop speaking up for him.

"I'm really sorry, Auntie. Look at me, suddenly saying I'd come over for dinner and making you miss out on playing mahjong with your friends."

While changing the subject, Ye Su also took the opportunity to steer the conversation toward mahjong.

"Oh, what missing out? You can play mahjong anytime." Wang Lijuan clearly didn't intend to let Li Mengyao off the hook yet:

"Look at you, insisting on bringing this up. In a bit, Xiao Su will be so discouraged by what you're saying that he won't dare to come over for dinner next time."

"It's not that bad." Ye Su helped Li Mengyao out of the awkward spot: "I know she's just joking."

"You just keep spoiling her. If things go on like this, you'll have a hard time after you get married."

Although Wang Lijuan said this with her mouth, she was actually extremely happy inside.

After all, no matter how much she favored Ye Su on the surface, as a mother, her heart was definitely still on her daughter's side.

The better Ye Su treated Li Mengyao, the happier she naturally was.

"Haha."

Hearing Wang Lijuan bring up "marriage" every other sentence, Ye Su felt a headache coming on and hurriedly brought the topic back to mahjong:

"Since I came over so suddenly and caused you to miss your mahjong game, and since there are four of us now, why don't we set up a table and I'll play a couple of rounds with you?"

"That would be wonderful!"

Hearing that her son-in-law wanted to play mahjong with her, Wang Lijuan's eyes shone even brighter than the chandelier overhead:

"Are you two, father and daughter, going to play?"

"It's rare that there are enough people at home, so playing a bit is fine."

"Alright then."

Li Shanhai and his daughter thought that Ye Su had suddenly suggested playing mahjong to help Li Mengyao out of an awkward spot, so they agreed.

Li Mengyao, in particular, felt a bit happy, thinking that Ye Su still had some conscience and knew he needed to help her out.

Seeing that things were progressing much more smoothly than he had expected, Ye Su was overjoyed.

Led by Wang Lijuan, they entered the mahjong room. Seeing that the house didn't use an automatic mahjong table, Ye Su almost couldn't hide his smile.

If an automatic mahjong table were used, the dice would be hidden inside the automatic dice-rolling mechanism, and he wouldn't know how he could manage to take the dice.

However, when Wang Lijuan took out the mahjong box, the two distinct, calligraphic characters for "handmade" on it instantly gave Ye Su a foreboding feeling.

Sure enough, when Wang Lijuan opened the mahjong box, the exquisitely crafted tiles inside, different from the common red-backed, white-faced mahjong tiles on the market, confirmed that Ye Su's premonition was correct.

Why on earth did they have to have handmade custom mahjong tiles!

Looking at the six dice in a separate small compartment in the mahjong box—each the size of a thumb joint and made of the same red material as the mahjong tiles—Ye Su felt like crying but had no tears.

These six dice were likely also hand-carved, and they simply didn't match the ones he had scavenged from the sports store in his pocket!

He had originally intended to pull a switcheroo and use sleight of hand to swap the dice.

Now, seeing this set of mahjong tiles, Ye Su knew his plan had failed, and he would have to think of another way.

Clatter—dumping the mahjong tiles onto the table, Wang Lijuan said to Ye Su with a look of delight:

"It's a good thing you suggested playing mahjong, otherwise I wouldn't have dared to count on these two, father and daughter, to play with me for a while."

"It's not as exaggerated as you make it sound."

"Exactly." Li Shanhai chose to stand on his daughter's side this time: "You make it sound like the two of us are isolating you."

"Isn't that the case?" Wang Lijuan glanced at the father and daughter: "Then you two tell me, when was the last time you played mahjong with me?"

"Uh..."

That one sentence left the father and daughter speechless.

Seeing that the two couldn't refute her, Wang Lijuan looked at Ye Su with satisfaction and said with a smile:

"Xiao Su, you must come over often in the future. That's the only way to get these two to play mahjong with me."

"Sure."

Recovering from the surprise of the handmade mahjong set, Ye Su could only nod and respond with a smile, while casually taking the glowing die and another die out of the box.

Amidst the clattering sound of the tiles, the four of them began playing mahjong.

Wang Lijuan's mahjong skills went without saying; she was a seasoned veteran of several decades.

Although Ye Su didn't play mahjong often, back in his hometown, he would spend the Spring Festival playing mahjong with his childhood friends every year, so his skills were passable.

However, for the father and daughter who had never been interested in mahjong, not to mention their skills, even arranging the tiles was sluggish, requiring Wang Lijuan and Ye Su to finish arranging theirs and then wait for the two of them.

Since the two of them weren't very good at mahjong, Wang Lijuan didn't make it too complicated, only counting small and big wins.

A basic win counted as a small win, while triplets, full flush, and the like were all counted as big wins.

For every win, a small win was one hundred, a big win was two hundred, a win after a Kong doubled the score, and each Kong added another one hundred.

The rules were simple and clear, making it easier for Li Shanhai and his daughter to understand why they were losing.

After confirming the rules, the four of them officially began the battle.

To be precise, it was Wang Lijuan and Ye Su teaming up to set a trap for Li Shanhai and his daughter.

"Three of Characters."

"Pong."

"Five of Bamboo."

"I win!"

"..."

"Eight of Dots."

"Kong!"

"Win after a Kong!"

"..."

"Why are you two the only ones winning! Don't tell me you're cheating!"

Facing Li Mengyao's broken accusation, Wang Lijuan and Ye Su, who were dominating the table, just smiled without saying a word, continuing to shuffle and win.

The four of them played until the sky began to darken. With small wins at one hundred each, Wang Lijuan had won over 5,000 yuan, and Ye Su, with slightly less, also had over 3,000 in earnings.

In contrast, for the father and daughter, Li Shanhai at least knew to watch the discard pile and only lost about two thousand or so, while the rest was all lost by the big sucker, Li Mengyao.

This amount of money, not to mention for Li Shanhai and the others, was inconsequential even for Ye Su.

But regardless, having won money, both Wang Lijuan and Ye Su were visibly happy.

Li Shanhai didn't mind; he hadn't lost much anyway, so he just treated it as paying for a rare group activity for the family.

Only Li Mengyao, who had lost the most, after throwing the winning tile in the final round, pushed the mahjong tiles forward in exasperation:

"I'm not playing anymore, let's go eat!"

Seeing Li Mengyao's childish behavior of being a sore loser, Li Shanhai and his wife just looked at each other and smiled.

Since she started helping at the company, their daughter had become more and more mature, and she rarely acted like such a child anymore.

Her current pouty appearance after losing reminded the couple of when she was little—innocent and naive, getting so angry that she would stand with her hands on her hips and ignore them both just because a piece of candy was taken away.

Seeing that it was indeed getting dark, Wang Lijuan spoke up, still wanting to continue:

"Alright, let's eat. We'll play again next time."

"Okay."

Ye Su agreed, stood up voluntarily, and after picking up the mahjong box, prepared to tidy up the tiles.

The dice in his pocket were useless, and seeing no other way, Ye Su could only pretend to be casual and insist on asking Wang Lijuan for two of the dice:

"Auntie, these dice are quite pretty. Could you give me two of them?"