Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  The drawback of this, though, was that everyone knew that the landlord had a Joker in hand, so they would surely raise their guard against him and refrain from putting down single cards, lest they shoot themselves in the foot.

  The actor swept them a scrutinizing gaze in a bid to seek his partner; alas, he could not tell at all from their varying expressions.

  His colleague was obviously not the secret landlord, for she was constantly trying to read the others’ faces.

  Her son, meanwhile, appeared nonchalant and bored as he held the cards in one hand and propped his chin in the other. Apparently, the boy was not his ally as well.

  As for the two strongest players in this game, they were currently engaged in a hostile staredown of theirs with them seated across from each other. Sparks of animosity were practically shooting from the collision of their stares and strong opposing presences.

  It was necessary for them to observe their opponents and put up a front before the start of the game.

  Soon enough, the secret landlord was revealed when Gong Jie smugly played a red Joker, which was ranked higher than Youyou’s black Joker.

  Since he was willing to expose his identity, he must have had full confidence that he could win the game, just like how he seemed. Such was his nature; he would not do mindless struggle and would go all out to take the win for himself should there be a chance of success.

  He had a good hand of cards; thus, the actor acted in concert with him to wipe out their enemies.

  The man was down with only one card after tossing out three consecutive sets of a trio: 777, 888, and 999.

  The cards in the other camp, a.k.a. the farmers, were dwindling, too. By his estimation, no one could stop him from winning now.

  Unfortunately, right at this crucial juncture, his brother-in-law unexpectedly threw out a series of trio, JJJ, QQQ, and KKK, which outranked his.

  Seeing that their plan had been thwarted, Hua Jin unhesitatingly gave up the bomb cards of five sixes, which were considered an ultimate weapon in the game.

  Surely, no one could beat these cards now?

  Tragically enough, his partner was not the player after him, so the former could not play his card.

  Youyou, being the next player, tested throwing a single then.

  As all the Jokers had already been tossed, his single card of 2, which was the next highest-ranked individual card, made the actor despair.

  With his uncle only having one card left, no one could outrank him just as long he did not throw any individual card next.

  Thus, he went on playing a pair of four and placed those cards among his father’s.

  Hua Jin, being the player before the boy, could not play any cards at all, whereas Gong Jie, even more so, posed no threat to him with his remaining single card; Mu Yazhe, therefore, was able to play all the cards he had in hand.

  Just as the last card slowly floated down the table surface, the man crossed his arms in front of his chest and lifted his chin in an arrogant move. By the looks of the devilish yet creepy smirk on his face, he seemed to be plotting something sinister for a punishment to his nemesis.

  Gong Jie’s face had completely darkened by now, his tumultuous emotions apparent. Looking absolutely livid, he kept his eyes trained on his brother-in-law and studied his expression.

  Gritting his teeth in fury, he grumbled inwardly,

  Meanwhile, the idol’s eyes were bulging wide in disbelief, having never expected that this round would end with them as the losers. That was not the most problematic part, though; with Gong Jie being in the same camp as him, the punishment that would be doled out on them was doomed to be akin to carnage.

  He was considered lucky to have gotten away with just doing one set of push-ups earlier. This time, however, all thanks to Gong Jie, he might receive some sort of sick and twisted punishment.

  Of course, he was right in his prediction.

  With a warm and gentle smile, Mu Yazhe airily said, “Instead of doing something physically taxing, how about you two play a game?”