Linbiangui Village-Infinite Streaming Chapter 19
byA Late-Night Card Game
“Are you still opening tonight?” a well-dressed middle-aged woman asked the young woman in front of her, her expression anxious and hurried.
“Why wouldn’t we?” The young woman was tall and curvaceous, with long hair draped over her shoulders. Every gesture she made was filled with elegance. “Mom, you wouldn’t want Brother Tao to have a miserable life for the rest of his days, would you?”
The middle-aged woman said nothing more. The young woman chuckled lightly, then turned and walked out of the room, her flowing hair leaving a trail of fragrance in the air.
Once the young woman was gone, the middle-aged woman looked somewhat wearily at the mirror on the door. The mirror reflected her face, which clearly bore the likeness of Aunt Jiu.
Night fell, and the clamor downstairs continued. Chen Jin stood by the bed, watching the constant flow of people at the shop below, lost in thought. He then pulled out his phone and tapped a few times.
Less than half a minute later, Wu Zeng appeared in Chen Jin’s room. “Shall we go now?”
“Yes.”
Uncle A Dong had mentioned that Mengle Village didn’t have much in the way of entertainment. After dark, most people returned home early, either drinking happily with relatives and friends or gathering in the living room to chat and watch movies. There was little other nightlife.
Although the current era was different from Uncle A Dong’s time, it was now late at night, and all the other shops had long since closed. Only this nameless little shop on the west side of the street remained bustling, making it hard not to attract attention.
The two left the Guesthouse and reached the shop within a few steps. The entrance was crowded with people, mostly middle-aged men still wearing the farming clothes they had on during the day, all desperately trying to peer inside.
The shop was built with red stone bricks and topped with tiles. There wasn’t even a sign above the door, yet despite its dilapidated state, it attracted a constant stream of people.
The crowd surrounded the storefront tightly, with only faint yellow light leaking out through the gaps.
Using his height advantage, Wu Zeng managed to look over the crowd and see the interior of the back room.
The room was not spacious, containing only three tables in total. The two tables on the sides each had four men playing cards. The central table was occupied by one woman and three men.
The woman had her back to the door, making her appearance unclear, but her hair was loose and her figure was attractive. The three men had varied expressions—one looked confident of victory, another seemed distracted, while the man directly facing the door had one foot propped on his stool, his expression tense, clutching his cards and muttering something incessantly.
“Bomb!” The man slammed a handful of cards down, a look of triumphant relief washing over his face.
Unexpectedly, the woman simply placed her own set of cards down gently. The man’s face instantly turned ashen; the outcome was decided.
“Thank you for the game,” the woman said. Her voice didn’t sound local, and her Mandarin was slightly awkward.
“Ooh~” Sounds of regret and disappointment echoed both inside and outside the room.
The defeated man rummaged through his pocket, pulled out a few crumpled hundred-yuan bills, and tossed them onto the table, but he seemed unwilling to leave the seat.
“My turn, my turn!” A man quickly squeezed through the doorway, pushing the distraught loser aside and plopping down onto the stool.
Wu Zeng leaned in close to Chen Jin’s ear and quietly provided a live commentary.
It seemed this was a beauty gambling den.
The scene inside repeated the previous drama.
“If you’re not playing, don’t block the way!” People arriving behind them, seeing the two of them looking distracted, started shouting for them to move.
Chen Jin met Wu Zeng’s gaze and silently tilted his chin toward the outside. Wu Zeng immediately turned and walked back with him.
The woman at the card table slowly turned her head, her gaze distant, lost in thought.
“A Dong is sometimes quite clever. He wouldn’t approach the most conspicuous place in the village, because it’s likely the key to breaking the situation,” Wu Zeng said casually, clasping his hands behind his head. Thinking back to Uncle A Dong’s goofy appearance was quite amusing.
“For now, the most unusual thing seems to be that woman.”
A woman playing cards against multiple men late at night, and consistently winning—that required considerable skill and methods to maintain stability.
“Wait, isn’t the most unusual thing you?” Wu Zeng gave him a look that suggested he was completely mistaken.
“What’s so unusual about me?”
“You’re unusually likable!”
Early the next morning, Wu Zeng and Chen Jin went out onto the street, planning to buy some fresh goods to take with them.
Today was the day of the pig-slaughter feast at Sister Chen’s house. After her son’s comments the day before, Chen Jin felt a bit awkward about going.
“If you don’t go, you’ll be slighting the old couple,” Wu Zeng said, waking him up to the reality of the situation.
The villagers woke up very early. The small stalls on the main road were already set up, displaying various freshly picked vegetables neatly arranged, glistening with morning dew, looking especially crisp.
Chen Jin was eating the steamed buns he had just bought, taking large bites. The calluses on his abdomen were itching fiercely. Chen Jin hadn’t slept well all night and now felt physically exhausted and depleted, urgently needing to replenish his energy.
“Yo, did you go out stealing in the middle of the night? That’s your fifth one.” Wu Zeng watched Chen Jin wolf down the food, then reached out to snatch a piece from his hand. “We’re past our youth, you know. We won’t grow any taller. Eating too much now is bad for your stomach.”
Chen Jin felt unsatisfied, and instinctively licked his lips, the pink tip of his tongue moistening his mouth.
Wu Zeng didn’t speak, just stared fixedly at Chen Jin, his eyes growing long and profound.
Chen Jin still felt a sense of emptiness, but to avoid losing his appetite before arriving at Sister Chen’s house, he restrained himself, rubbing his hands back and forth over his abdomen twice.
The moment Chen Jin turned his head, the desire in Wu Zeng’s eyes surged, looking as if he wanted to swallow the other man whole and hide him away.
Sister Chen’s house was bustling today, with almost every family from the You ethnic village attending. The pig-slaughtering activities were set up on the grassy field on the east side of the village. The entire process was similar to previous pig-slaughter feasts.
People gathered in small groups to chat, either holding cups of white liquor or carrying plates of roasted meat.
“When are you leaving?”
“The day after tomorrow.” The older man carrying the roasted meat swallowed a piece of charred pork, his mouth full of smoky flavor.
Xiao Gang was in a decent mood today, perhaps because he was playing cards with friends from the village. He and a few young men were squatting by the wall, holding two cards each, laughing and joking about something.
Sister Chen and Uncle Liao were busy with many guests and only had time to lead the two of them into the house before rushing off again.
“Chen Jin, Brother Wu Zeng!” Li Ming Ming was there, as expected, eating roasted meat with a greasy mouth.
Wu Zeng looked at his shiny lips and turned his head away in slight disgust.
Li Ming Ming, being oblivious, picked up a piece of meat with a toothpick and tried to offer it to the two of them.
“No thanks, we’re feeling overheated!” Wu Zeng immediately refused.
Li Ming Ming wasn’t embarrassed and turned to bring them a plate of fruit instead.
Chen Jin nudged Wu Zeng with his elbow. Wu Zeng pretended to wince in pain and started protesting quietly, but Chen Jin naturally ignored him.
“You cheated playing Lao Yancai, Luo Ming! Do you have a death wish or something!” Xiao Gang proved to have a fiery temper. After only five minutes, he got into a conflict with the brother he was playing cards with.
“You’re the one who’s pretending, Lao Ding!” The man named Luo Ming was no pushover either. He rushed forward, grabbed Xiao Gang’s collar, and started yelling at him. The young man next to them didn’t know who to pull away and could only stand there anxiously.
Xiao Gang had a big temper, but he was losing the physical fight.
Sister Chen saw the situation and quickly ran over to mediate. “Oh, you two kids, fighting over a card game.”
Unexpectedly, neither of them backed down. Instead, they pushed Sister Chen aside and continued their confrontation.
Sister Chen stumbled back several steps, nearly bumping into Chen Jin. Chen Jin reached out and steadied her, managing to keep her from falling.
Wu Zeng had moved over to Xiao Gang and Luo Ming at some point. He placed one hand on Luo Ming’s arm and smiled as he spoke to the two of them: “You’re grown men. Messing around like this isn’t right.”
Luo Ming felt his hand being slowly pried open as if by a vise grip. He hadn’t expected Wu Zeng, who looked slender, to have such great strength.
Xiao Gang was about to curse, but before the words left his mouth, Wu Zeng leaned in and whispered to him with a smile, “I gave you face, didn’t I?”
The insult suddenly got stuck in his throat.
The two men involuntarily swallowed, then obediently squatted back down in their original spots like caught convicts, not daring to breathe loudly.
Chen Jin comforted Sister Chen. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine. My son just has a strange temper, but he’s a good person!” Sister Chen awkwardly wiped her hands on her apron, not daring to look up as she spoke, unsure if she was lying to others or to herself.
Li Ming Ming quietly clapped his hands nearby, nodding vigorously at Chen Jin in awe, meaning: This guy is too fierce!
The commotion subsided, and finally, it was time for the meal. People from every household came to help. Rows of tables were filled with pig-slaughter dishes: raw pork, red raw pork, stir-fried meat, crispy fried meat, mixed vegetable soup, and countless other local specialties.
Chen Jin, Wu Zeng, and Li Ming Ming sat down at the same square table. One seat remained empty, and they wondered who would take it.
Seeing that the surrounding tables only started eating once all four seats were filled, the three of them held back. Even the usually oblivious Li Ming Ming was restrained now.
“Eat, eat!” Uncle Liao brought over a metal bucket filled with freshly fried crispy meat. He had intended to add more food for the three of them, but only realized upon arriving that these young people hadn’t started eating yet.
“It’s alright, Uncle Liao, we’re not hungry yet,” Wu Zeng said with a smile, waving his hand. “We’ll chat a bit more and then start eating. You go ahead and stay busy.”
Just as Uncle Liao was about to say something, an elderly woman walked slowly toward the table and then plopped down onto the empty seat.
Finally, they could eat. Li Ming Ming excitedly picked up his chopsticks, ready to feast, but he noticed the strange expressions on the faces of the two men across from him.
Wu Zeng and Chen Jin looked at the newcomer and felt their food lose all flavor. All the delicious dishes suddenly seemed hard to swallow, because this elderly woman was the same Granny Zhao Shu Mei from Changlin whom they had witnessed multiple times exploding and then regenerating.
The old woman looked straight ahead, showing no politeness. She picked up her chopsticks and began to eat. Since she had no teeth, she had to use her mouth cavity to mash the food, making her mouth look flat.