The Movie Queen And Her Rival Just Went Public! - Chapter 63

Chapter 63

“How many doubles fan is this?”

Su Cancan was still swept up in the joy of Shen Luoyan’s victory and hadn’t had time to react. She stared blankly at the tiles laid out on the green felt, using her currently not-so-bright brain to calculate bit by bit.

Shen Luoyan didn’t speak. Opposite them, Xia Yue propped up her head and looked down at the tiles.

“Little Shen’s hand has Dots and Characters, so it’s not a ‘Full Flush’ (Qing Yi Se). A base winning hand is one double; there are two ‘Kongs’ (Gang), so that’s four doubles… hmm.” Because she was sitting opposite Shen Luoyan, Xia Yue saw the tiles upside down and paused briefly. “It’s a ‘Triple-Triple’ (Peng Peng Hu) for three doubles, and a ‘Self-Draw’ (Zi Mo) doubles it again. In total, it’s…”

“Twenty-four doubles.”

“Twenty-four?”

Xia Yue’s tone was flat, while Su Cancan was purely shocked.

“That’s amazing.” She finally pulled her gaze from the table to Shen Luoyan’s face. But by now, Shen Luoyan had tucked away her pride, her expression calm and unruffled.

Having missed the earlier build-up and seeing only Shen Luoyan’s current stoicism, Su Cancan assumed this was a cold rebuttal to her earlier suggestion of switching players. She pursed her lips and chose to remain silent.

Shen Luoyan’s composure fit the public’s impression of her. No one noticed her hidden displeasure. After the other three handed over their chips, the four continued to draw, discard, and play.

In tile games, sometimes the gap isn’t obvious until a single hand decides life or death.

Time ticked away. The constant rhythm of drawing and discarding continued until it was Shen Luoyan’s fourth turn as the dealer.

The two dice rolled inside the plastic box, stopping after ten seconds. The left die showed a three, the right a two. Shen Luoyan quickly grabbed two stacks of tiles from her side. The four took turns drawing until the final “jump” tiles were taken. Shen Luoyan cleanly flipped her hand open in two motions.

Since she was on the same side as Shen Luoyan, Su Cancan was naturally paying close attention. When the first row of seven tiles was flipped, even a drama student trained in emotional control couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, her breathing slowing involuntarily.

Shen Luoyan’s expression remained unchanged. She adjusted the order according to rank and flipped the remaining seven.

Fourteen tiles. Eleven were Characters (Wan). The remaining three were of the same suit.

Su Cancan had never seen such a “Chosen One” hand. She let out a sharp hiss as she inhaled.

Youyou shifted her tiles. Her hand was split almost evenly between the three suits, causing her small brow to furrow instantly. Catching Su Cancan’s sharp intake of breath, she felt a surge of nerves. “What is it? Is Sister Luoyan’s hand that good?”

Shen Luoyan casually turned the three outliers face down and pushed them toward the center. Her fingertip tapped the table. “It’s okay.”

“I don’t believe it. It must be great, or Sister Cancan wouldn’t react like that.” Youyou pouted, finally deciding which tiles to discard for the “swap” phase, and looked at Su Cancan, who was wearing a mask of fake smiles.

“Haha, I don’t know anything. You guys play.”

What do they call “protesting too much”? This was it.

Shen Luoyan suppressed a smile. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Su Cancan’s hand under the table, rubbing her fingers together nervously. Shen Luoyan rubbed the bridge of her nose.

The exchange direction for this round was clockwise. The four received their swapped tiles and began “voiding” their suits.

Youyou let out a long sigh, followed by the clattering of plastic tiles. Zhouzhou remained calm, twirling a tile in her hand with a smiling gaze fixed on the person opposite her. Cheng Lewei and Xia Yue communicated silently through their discards.

Su Cancan watched the tiles in front of Shen Luoyan, her breathing essentially coming to a halt. Realizing she had shown a weakness earlier, she took two deep breaths and picked at the skin around her nails to control her emotions.

“Have some water.” Shen Luoyan placed a disposable cup by her hand. Her hand stiffened slightly when it touched the cup. “The water is a bit cold. Want me to add some hot water for you?”

Su Cancan let go of her suffering finger and covered the cup. “No need.”

Shen Luoyan nodded, her eyes flickering as she noticed the patch of skin was unusually red.

“I’m missing Dots.”

As Shen Luoyan spoke, the others stopped hesitating. After they reported their missing suits, she immediately discarded a 1-Wan.

“2-Wan.” Zhouzhou was missing Characters; she discarded it without hesitation the moment she drew it.

“I’ll ‘Pung’ (Peng) that 2-Wan. Discarding 9-Wan.”

Cheng Lewei’s hand had just reached out when Shen Luoyan interrupted her. Cheng Lewei nodded and withdrew her hand awkwardly.

Zhouzhou had average luck, drawing a 5-Dot and tucking it between a 3 and 7. “3-Wan.”

“Pung. Discarding 8-Wan.”

Less than a minute into the game, Shen Luoyan had “Punged” two tiles in a row, dealing a heavy blow to the table. Su Cancan desperately held her tongue.

“Zhou, what’s going on? Are you a little cannon-feeder? Why are you in such a rush to give Sister Luoyan winning tiles!” Youyou asked half-coquettishly, her hidden foot nudging Zhouzhou’s calf.

Zhouzhou, feeling the heat from the flirtation, cleared her throat. “I can’t help it. I draw the suits I’m missing and can’t keep them. The next one was already in my hand. Seems Teacher Shen has great luck.”

“It’s decent,” Cheng Lewei agreed rarely. She adjusted her hand, having a new plan. When it was her turn, she kept a lone Wan and broke up a sequence of Bamboos. “8-Bamboo.”

Three rounds passed peacefully. Shen Luoyan’s luck didn’t hold perfectly; she drew three Bamboos or Dots in a row. She discarded them without hesitation, remaining expressionless even as Cheng Lewei and Youyou took them.

“6… 6-Wan.” Youyou announced her discard, blinking timidly at Shen Luoyan. The 6-Wan landed in the center of the table. Seeing no reaction from Shen Luoyan, Youyou exhaled and sat up straight.

“Kong (Gang).”

The young girl’s back slumped instantly. Everyone could guess Shen Luoyan was building a major hand. She only had four tiles left now; every subsequent discard would be nerve-wracking.

“Cough, cough!” Su Cancan suddenly choked on her water just as the doorbell rang.

Facing everyone’s confusion, Su Cancan endured the discomfort. “Teacher Shen didn’t seem to have dinner, and it’s late now. I… cough… ordered some late-night snacks for everyone. Cough… It should be the hotel delivery. You guys continue, I’ll get it.” Because of the coughing, her whole body was trembling, and the sound continued even after she finished speaking.

Shen Luoyan’s heart felt like it was soaking in warm water—warmth enveloped her, swelling into happiness.

“I’ll get it.” Just as Su Cancan stood up, Shen Luoyan rose with her. She wordlessly gripped Su Cancan’s shoulder and pressed her back into her seat.

Su Cancan looked up in confusion. “My luck is bad, you should continue?”

“Draw one from the back and play it as you see fit.” Shen Luoyan didn’t linger on the softness under her palm. After encouraging her, she walked toward the door to get the delivery.

AI has replaced many roles; many hotel chains now use robots for room service. This hotel was no different.

Shen Luoyan checked the peephole to ensure no suspicious people were in sight, opened the door a crack for a second look, and only then opened the robot’s round belly to take out two large bags of food.

“Whoa!”

An exclamation erupted from inside the room. Shen Luoyan closed the front door.

The cheering grew louder as she pressed down on the handle to the mahjong room.

“Look! It’s a 7-Wan!” Hearing the door, Su Cancan immediately turned toward Shen Luoyan with the 7-Wan she had just drawn.

Shen Luoyan remembered that before she left, she had sets of 2-Wan and 3-Wan, and had “Konged” a 6-Wan from Youyou. Only a pair of 7-Wan and 8-Wan remained standing. Su Cancan drawing the 7-Wan meant she had at least completed a “Full Flush Pair-Pair” hand.

“Amazing!” Shen Luoyan shifted the bags to one hand and gave her a thumbs-up.

Su Cancan was so excited she abandoned her image. Her sparkling eyes were like crescent moons, and her cheeks were high and flushed pink. Her small white teeth were on full display. As she twisted around, her shirt rode up slightly, revealing a flash of her slender waist.

“You’ll never guess!” Su Cancan’s gaze chased Shen Luoyan’s. “After I did the Kong, I drew a 3-Wan! Did another Kong, and the next draw was this 7-Wan!”

Shen Luoyan truly hadn’t expected it. She didn’t even bother calculating how massive the hand was; she hurriedly sat in Su Cancan’s original spot, trying to catch her attention so she would sit up straight and hide her waist.

“Incredible!” Su Cancan pulled out her phone and snapped a quick photo. Even after the picture was taken, she couldn’t look away from the screen.

Youyou stared piteously at the tiles in front of Su Cancan and muttered, “My god… Full Flush, Pair-Pair, two Kongs…”

“And it was a ‘Win on a Kong’ (Gang Kai),” Xia Yue added.

Cheng Lewei followed: “A Full Flush for us is six doubles, so this is 144 doubles.”

“OMG!” Youyou buried her hands in her hair, looking down in disbelief at her nearly depleted chips.

“Teacher Shen!” Su Cancan seemed stuck, looking at Shen Luoyan without words.

“Don’t blame Cancan for being excited; she won all our chips,” Xia Yue said with a smile, not bothered by the loss. “Actually, we don’t even have enough to pay her.”

Realizing she was overexcited, Su Cancan pursed her lips. “I only drew two tiles. It’s because Teacher Shen is excellent.”

“You’re not bad either; this hand is hard to complete,” Cheng Lewei said, pushing her tiles over. She had a pair of 8-Wans and a 7-Wan. “You guys wanted Wans, and such big ones. Even if I couldn’t win, I wouldn’t have discarded these. So there was only that one left in the deck.”

Su Cancan stared at Cheng Lewei’s hand. As she said, it was pure luck.

“Lose and admit it.” Cheng Lewei handed all her chips to Su Cancan and reached for her phone to transfer money. Youyou and Zhouzhou followed suit.

Su Cancan and Shen Luoyan were the winners, and also the highest earners in the room. There was no way they would take their money, especially from the two younger girls.

“No need.” Su Cancan only took the chips. “I’ll just take a photo as a souvenir.” She then remembered she was just a “substitute” and didn’t have the right to decide for Shen Luoyan. She looked at her.

“Listen to Teacher Su.” Shen Luoyan was unpacking the bags. Once the room was quiet, she moved her attention to them.

“Let’s eat here. It’ll smell if we take it elsewhere.”

“Yay!” Youyou agreed with both hands. In her excitement, she helped clear a side table to share the food.

The two large bags contained sugar-free drinks, light salads, and skewers. The six of them washed their hands and sat together, chatting while they ate.

“I didn’t know what everyone likes, so I just ordered based on my preferences. Since we’re filming tomorrow, I tried to keep it low oil and low salt to prevent facial swelling,” Su Cancan said first, placing the only chicken breast salad by Shen Luoyan’s hand.

Shen Luoyan picked up a piece of the chicken. It was just ordinary chicken, no different from what she usually made or bought. But as she chewed, a sweet taste seemed to rise.

Su Cancan saw her eating like that and frowned. “Is it good?”

The answer was a series of nods.

Su Cancan didn’t understand. She held a sauce packet in her other hand, unsure whether to offer it.

It took a “true fan” to rescue her from the awkwardness. “Sister Cancan, Sister Cheng, Sister Xia, should we share the skill cards we drew for tomorrow?” Youyou poked a hole in her milk tea and took a huge gulp, the smooth liquid carrying the fragrance of tea down her throat.

Cheng Lewei and Xia Yue exchanged looks. After a few seconds, Xia Yue said, “I think we can share. But is it okay for us to team up like this?”

“A bit. But those two (Viky and Miky) are the ones who are truly not okay. I heard from netizens that they were parachuted in, taking the spot of another couple. They even fought before recording. I saw the argument; it didn’t trend, so it must have been suppressed…” Zhouzhou was young and active in fandom circles, so gossip came easily to her.

Hearing this, Su Cancan bit her straw thoughtfully. Rumors in the industry were countless; even the people involved could hardly tell truth from fiction. She had seen Viky’s chat interface and knew she had connections “above,” but she couldn’t define what those connections were.

This made her think of herself and Shen Luoyan.

Netizens said they were archenemies, and it was true. She truly believed that certain misfortunes over the years were caused by Shen Luoyan. Yet Shen Luoyan seemed completely unaware of her experiences and had no hostility toward her.

Did Shen Luoyan steal her roles? Shen Luoyan has been taking care of her.

Truth and lies were too hard to distinguish.

Su Cancan lost herself for a moment. Her head dropped, and the straw cut the inside of her mouth. She winced as the taste of blood hit her.

“What’s wrong?” Zhouzhou’s gossip was interrupted as she looked at Su Cancan with concern.

Su Cancan waved her hand. “Nothing, just a scratch in my mouth. Let’s not share the skill cards. We aren’t afraid of petty tricks and we don’t care to use them ourselves. We play to win, and we play for fun.”

“Got it!” With the idol’s word, Youyou followed blindly.

Zhouzhou pinched a bit of fluff off Youyou’s face with a doting expression. “Slow down, be careful.”

“I’m just happy~” Youyou buried her head in Zhouzhou’s neck. The young couple engaged in intimate interaction as if no one else was there.

Night had long since shrouded the world. The bright moon hung in the sky, dotted with a few shimmering stars.

After the snack, they cleared the “battlefield.” Cheng Lewei, Xia Yue, Su Cancan, and Shen Luoyan left Room 8818 together. The two pairs separated at different floors. When the elevator doors closed again, only Su Cancan and Shen Luoyan remained on their way to the top floor.

“Happy?” Shen Luoyan looked at Su Cancan’s reflection in the elevator glass.

Su Cancan nodded vigorously. “Happy! Playing with friends and mahjong—I’m very happy.” She met Shen Luoyan’s gaze. “I’m also happy to see you being so excellent in a different field.”