lovenovelstory Chapter 110 Li 2 is here too, a bet's a bet!
Chapter 110 Li 2 is here too, a bet's a bet!
Chapter 110 Li Er has also arrived; a bet is a bet!
"Hey bro! There are so many of these ducks that look the same!"
Little Sizi lay on the edge of the table, her two little hands unable to hold so many cards, so she could only spread them out on the table, revealing their bright, shiny surfaces.
Su Mu glanced at it, and his eyelids twitched suddenly.
Four twos, four aces, and two kings.
Even with a terrible hand, you can still win!
"Hide it well, hide it well, don't reveal your secrets."
Su Mu quickly covered the cards for the little girl, "This round, we'll have to see who takes the landlord role."
"I'll take it!"
Li Yuan slammed a three of hearts on the table with overwhelming force, declaring, "Since this landlord has so many resources, I—will take it without hesitation."
Su Mu revealed his hand.
One three, one four, one five.
This hand is so bad it's appalling.
Su Mu chuckled and rubbed his hands together: "Alright, then I'll accept without hesitation. Girl, we're all in this together, let's fight this old landlord."
The game begins.
Li Yuan clearly viewed this as a battle between two armies. He played his cards extremely slowly, scrutinizing each card for a long time while muttering a few words to himself.
"Pioneer scouts the way, one three."
Su Mu immediately played a two.
"On the pipe."
Li Yuan glared: "Promoting a great general right at the start? Are you out of your mind?"
"Speed is of the essence in war. I'll crush you first and then we'll talk." Su Mu raised an eyebrow.
Li Yuan snorted coldly, seemingly calculating his next move: "No."
With that, Su Mu started playing straights like crazy.
Although Li Yuan's hand was neat, it consisted entirely of small pairs, catching him off guard by Su Mu's blunder that seemed to defeat the master in a chaotic fashion.
Before he could even activate the hidden troops in his hand, Su Mu's hand was already empty.
"We won!"
Su Mu threw down his last card.
Li Yuan stared blankly at the pile of unplayed couplets in his hand, unable to come to his senses for a long time.
We've already lost?
Didn't they even have a chance to fight back?
"You have to accept the consequences of your bet."
Su Mu pulled out a stack of neatly cut strips of white paper from somewhere, licked them with the tip of his tongue until they were wet, and said, "Grandpa, these are the rules. The loser has to put up a slip of paper."
Li Yuan subconsciously leaned back.
He was the retired emperor and the founding monarch of the Tang Dynasty.
Sticking strips on your face? That's outrageous!
But looking at Su Mu's matter-of-fact expression, and then at Xiao Si next to him pressing a piece of paper to his forehead, he thought, "Sticky!"
Li Yuan hardened his face and said, "A loss is a loss. I, Li Yuan, have never renege on a debt in my life!"
Snapped!
The damp strip of paper stuck to my forehead, fluttering with each breath.
Li Yuan felt that the note was a little cool and a little itchy.
But suddenly, a feeling of exhilaration, which I had never experienced before, welled up inside me.
"Again!"
As Li Yuan shuffled the cards, he rolled up his sleeves. "I didn't quite grasp the strategy before, but this time I'll show you what true mastery of strategy looks like."
Half an hour later.
It was completely dark.
The door to the backyard of the imperial kitchen was pushed open a crack.
Wang Dequan stood at the doorway, carrying a lantern and shrinking his neck, not daring to go inside.
Behind him, Li Shimin stood with a stern face, exuding a chilling aura.
He waited for a long time at Da'an Palace but the Emperor Emeritus did not return. When he asked, he found out that the Emperor Emeritus was still in the Imperial Kitchen. It was freezing cold, and the old man's health was not good to begin with. If he were to catch a cold and fall ill, he could not bear the label of being unfilial.
"Is this what you mean by 'having a meal'?" Li Shimin asked Wang Dequan, suppressing his anger.
Wang Dequan shuddered: "Your Majesty—Your Majesty, this servant didn't know either, there was no food served—"
"Nonsense!"
Li Shimin kicked open the courtyard gate.
He had expected to see a bleak scene.
For example, the old father and the servant stood silently facing each other in the cold wind, or the little boy was crying loudly from the cold.
However, the scene before him left his foot, which had just stepped in, dangling in mid-air.
The fire crackled and popped in the stove.
The three people were sitting around the broken table, each with white paper strips stuck to their faces.
Especially the one directly opposite the door.
Seven or eight strips of paper hung from his full beard, and two particularly long ones were stuck to his forehead, trembling wildly in the wind like the feathers of a theatrical performer.
Who else could it be but his majestic and profound father?
"A royal flush!"
Li Yuan suddenly stood up, stepped onto a small stool, and slammed two cards onto the table.
Its momentum was even greater than that of the uprising in Jinyang back then.
"I'll even play four twos! You better shut up your straight!"
Li Yuan roared with great vigor, his face red and his neck thick, showing no trace of his usual lifeless appearance.
Li Shimin was completely dumbfounded.
A royal flush?
What exploded?
Su Mu calmly tossed aside the cards in his hand, then helplessly spread his hands: "Grandpa, that was a straight by your teammate. Why did you bomb me? You were sending me to my death."
"ah?
'
Li Yuan was taken aback and looked down at the little rhinoceros that only had one card left.
Just as Little Sizi was about to throw out her last card, this bomb caused her to pout and tears to well up in her eyes.
"Old man, you're bad! You've got a bomb!"
"Oops, mistake, mistake!"
Li Yuan quickly hugged his granddaughter and comforted her, saying, "Grandpa was blinded by rage and couldn't distinguish friend from foe."
Li Shimin stood at the courtyard gate, the wind whipping up withered leaves that slapped against his face.
He felt like an unwanted outsider.
The warmth of the courtyard and the unrestrained laughter and curses seemed to be separated from him by an invisible wall.
"Ahem!"
Li Shimin coughed heavily twice, trying to regain some of his imperial presence.
The laughter in the courtyard stopped abruptly.
Li Yuan turned around, flicking the note off his face. Through the gap in the note, he saw the figure in bright yellow standing at the door.
The initial enthusiasm visibly faded.
Li Yuan slowly pulled his feet off the small stool, sat up straight, and without saying a word, reached out to pull the note off his face.
That gesture conveyed a sense of disappointment and alienation.
Su Mu did not move.
He didn't get up to greet them, but remained sitting cross-legged, fiddling with the cards in his hands.
"You're here? Perfect timing, we're one short for the game."
Su Mu casually offered, "The little girl's sleepy, and I was just worried about who would take over. Want to play a couple of rounds?"
Li Shimin was taken aback.
Let him play this?
"Nonsense!"
Li Shimin walked into the courtyard with a stern face. "Father, it's late and the dew is heavy. You should go back to the palace to rest. What kind of behavior is it to be loitering around here with a servant like that?"
Li Yuan tore off the last piece of paper, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into the fire.
"Discretion?"
Li Yuan sneered, the gloom that had just vanished returning to him. "I'm having fun here, that's called decorum. Going back to that cold, impersonal Da'an Palace and talking to the wall, that's what's called decorum."
Li Shimin was speechless.
The little ox rubbed its eyes, crawled out of Li Yuan's arms, and wobbled to Li Shimin's side, where it hugged him.
"Dad—don't fight—"
The little girl nodded sleepily, "These cards are fun—Grandpa is so happy."
Li Shimin looked down at his daughter, then at his father, who had become indifferent again.
He suddenly remembered the scene when he entered the room.
The old man who stood on a stool shouting "Royal Flush!" and the father whose face was covered in slips of paper yet laughed heartily.
That was the freshness he hadn't seen in years.
"What do you want to play?"
Li Shimin asked a question as if by some strange twist of fate.
"Dou Dizhu" (a popular Chinese card game).
Su Mu pointed to the spot where Little Si had been sitting. "The rules are simple, you can learn them quickly. I just don't know if His Majesty's brain can keep up with them."
Li Shimin raised an eyebrow.
A provocation tactic?
As a dignified General of the Heavenly Strategy Army, what kind of battles haven't he seen? Why would he be afraid of these few pieces of paper?
"Wang Dequan, take the princess back to the Lizheng Palace to sleep."
Li Shimin strode to the table, lifted his robe, and sat directly on the still warm little stool.
"I want to see what this extraordinary thing is."