Zhang Qi very much agreed with Xi Shaoyuan’s words. Bridge was originally a game of intelligence and strategy. How could it be satisfying if you didn’t put thought into it?
Bridge emphasised 2v2 cooperation. Whenever Qi Yaguang or Lu Lingshan was in the game, the brain cells of the teammate paired with them would basically die out.
In one round, Xie Cheng and Lu Lingshan became partners. Even his academic-god halo dimmed. By the end of the round, they failed to win the contracted number of tricks. No matter how well he played, it still ended in regret.
The sweater-counting punishment had started after two rounds. Zhang Qi and Lu Lingshan had lost one round, and Xie Cheng and Lu Lingshan had lost one round. After two rounds, Zhang Qi’s and Xie Cheng’s points cancelled out, so neither of them had to wear a sweater. After two rounds, Lu Lingshan had to wear two sweaters.
Previously, the game had been played quite casually. After Zhang Qi suffered alongside Lu Lingshan, even his card-playing became casual. He did not dare play too seriously, afraid that if he pushed too hard, fortune would turn, and next it would be his turn to partner with one of the girls. Xie Cheng and Xi Shaoyuan would not let him off.
With everyone going easy on each other, apart from making Lu Lingshan and Qi Yaguang look amusing in sweaters, the game had no other meaning.
Zhang Qi had practically developed a trauma toward playing intelligence games with girls.
This situation only improved a little after Xu Qing came on.
After the round began, Zhang Qi sat on Zhou Xiu’s right, becoming her opponent. His own teammate was Xie Cheng.
This line-up could not be more stable.
Zhang Qi was brimming with confidence and said with a grin, “Zhou Xiu, since you’re a girl, we’ll go easy on you.”
He looked at Xu Haobo standing nearby and pointed at him. “When Zhou Xiu leaves later, Haobo can come on.”
Xu Haobo’s maths grades had always been very good. Once Zhou Xiu left and Xu Haobo replaced her, the game would be more interesting.
Zhang Qi and Xu Haobo were both old hands at bridge.
The top students of Rocket Class had long gathered around to watch the cards, finding it very amusing to see the usually elegant and charming school beauty dressed up round and puffy in sweaters.
Now, when they saw Lu Lingshan being replaced by Zhou Xiu, they frowned.
When Hua Xu, Tan Ming, Du Feiyang, and the others saw that the big shots of the grade had all gathered into a card game, they finished a round of Fight the Landlord and also went over to Rocket Class’s base camp to watch the bridge game.
“Girls are still more suited to taking selfies and playing Fight the Landlord. Leave bridge to the boys,” Zhang Qi said.
With one sentence, Zhang Qi offended all the girls present.
Lu Lingshan and Qi Yaguang had lost miserably. At this moment, Qi Yaguang clenched her fists and said, “Just wait. I’ll play seriously later and make you wear sweaters until you die of heat.”
Zhang Qi smiled and said nothing.
Even when she was not playing seriously, Qi Yaguang could still be made to wear sweaters to the end. If she played seriously, wouldn’t that be even worse?
Seeing more and more people gathering to watch, Lu Lingshan gradually lost the desire to play.
Playing with Xi Shaoyuan was indeed nice, but embarrassing herself in front of everyone was not something Lu Lingshan wanted.
Once the round started, bidding ended and the play began. Qi Yaguang stood behind Zhou Xiu and saw that she opened with a fairly high spade — the ace.
Qi Yaguang immediately said, “Zhou Xiu, playing like that makes it very easy to die. Why don’t you—”
Zhou Xiu won the first trick.
Hua Xu pulled Qi Yaguang to the side.
“What are you blindly babbling about? Can’t you just watch quietly like a chicken?”
“What do you know?”
A true gentleman watched cards without speaking. If Qi Yaguang randomly blabbered and revealed the cards, what if Zhou Xiu got crushed? Hua Xu and Yu Qingyan both stood behind Zhou Xiu, blocking Qi Yaguang’s view.
Qi Yaguang could only go look at Xie Cheng’s cards.
In the first few rounds, the four of them played their cards especially quickly. As they entered the later stage, all four gradually fell silent. Zhang Qi took an average of twenty seconds to play one card.
After he played his card, Zhou Xiu quickly put down hers, and the round ended.
Xi Shaoyuan and Zhou Xiu won. They completed their game contract and scored a small slam, with their points directly exceeding a thousand.
Zhang Qi took out his phone to calculate the score, but Zhou Xiu reported the number.
“No need to calculate. Vulnerable small slam bonus, 750 plus 500, equals 1,250 points. Six tricks doubled add 760. Total: 2,010.”
They had underestimated the first round, and the damage to their score was enough to make them spit blood.
Zhang Qi and Xie Cheng were penalised with negative one thousand points. Zhang Qi suddenly sat up straight, his eyes widening as he barely dared to breathe.
It felt like the game had instantly switched from a baby round to a god-level round.
The second round began according to score order. This time, Xie Cheng and Zhou Xiu became partners, while Xi Shaoyuan and Zhang Qi became partners.
The four of them played slowly and unhurriedly. Gradually, sweat began to appear on Zhang Qi’s forehead. He wiped it away.
At the end of the second round, after the scores were settled, Zhang Qi had to put on two sweaters in one go.
Zhang Qi asked Du Feiyang to bring him a cup of ice water. After drinking it, the previously cheeky and playful Zhang Qi became completely serious.
In the third round, Zhou Xiu and Xi Shaoyuan once again played out a doubled game contract.
Xie Cheng’s score was relatively high, so he often ended up teamed with the low-scoring Zhang Qi. After unfortunately partnering with Zhang Qi several times, Xie Cheng was dragged down by him and, for the first time ever, had to put on a sweater.
The whole scene fell silent.
Qi Yaguang: “…”
Zhou Xiu was this good at cards?
The top students of Rocket Class looked at their Xie God in disbelief as he helplessly took off his coat and found a sweater to pull on.
After several rounds, only Zhou Xiu and Xi Shaoyuan had not touched a sweater.
One of the top students in Rocket Class suddenly said, “Zhou Xiu’s mental arithmetic ability is very strong.”
“She barely needs scrap paper during exams.”
Her card-playing speed and thinking speed were both especially fast. Could it be that she had calculated out everyone’s cards? How many cores would her brain’s processor need to have to calculate that quickly?
At this moment, the top students of Rocket Class sincerely admired Zhou Xiu. The girls faintly envied Zhou Xiu, who sat among the group of top experts, outstanding on her own. Looking at her straight back, it seemed as though she was glowing.
Lu Lingshan stood among the crowd, looking at Zhou Xiu, who had become the centre of attention. At this moment, the imbalance in her heart reached its peak.
She clenched her fingers hard.
Then she withdrew from the crowd.
Yu Qingyan saw this and softly said to Hua Xu, “Young Master Yuan is also very impressive. He hasn’t touched a sweater after all this time.”
Zhang Qi, who was gradually growing fat as a ball, spread out his cards and wailed, “Another small slam, another doubled contract. I can’t play anymore.”
Using his brain to play cards was seriously too damn tiring. Mentally tiring, and physically torturous too.
Previously, playing with Qi Yaguang and the others did not require him to bring his brain at all. It was like playing with little pushcarts in kindergarten. But once Zhou Xiu came on, it became a step-by-step thriller, with the thinking time stretching infinitely longer.
If he was even slightly careless, he would be thrown far behind by a huge number of points. It was simply insane.
Zhou Xiu calmly played her card.
“No. Sit down.”
“This is a boys’ game. Boys can’t admit defeat.”
When Xie Cheng heard this, the corners of his lips unconsciously curved upward.
“Sit down. Try to take off the sweaters on you.”
A boy who played bridge absolutely could not admit defeat. Zhang Qi sat back down, full of confidence again.
However, after a few more rounds, Zhang Qi finally experienced the tragedy of Qi Yaguang and Lu Lingshan constantly having to wear sweaters.
As long as he partnered with Zhang Qi, that round was mostly a loss. Only when Zhang Qi got lucky and teamed up with Zhou Xiu could he remove a sweater.
In other words, Zhou Xiu was always winning, while Zhang Qi was always losing.
After playing for an hour, Zhang Qi had already become a little fat dumpling. He kept asking Du Feiyang to give him ice water. Toward the end, he directly threw ice cubes down his collar. The interweaving of ice and fire was simply painfully refreshing.
The final sweater was a little small. Zhang Qi forced it on, and with a “kala,” the yarn split.
The girls from Class 24 and Winner Class burst into laughter, laughing loudly and saying, “So you have this day too!”
It was normally very difficult to see Zhang Qi being abused into a dog like this. Yu Qingyan even took out her phone and photographed his ugly state.
Although it was clearly the chilly season of early spring, Zhang Qi had somehow sweated out the feeling of summer.
Finally, Xu Haobo could not bear watching anymore and told Zhang Qi to give up his seat so he could play.
Zhou Xiu spread out her cards. “No need. I have something else to do. You can play.”
Zhou Xiu returned to their class’s base camp and picked up her schoolbag.
Xu Haobo sat down and teased, “Zhang Qi, I’ll give you a chance to take off all the sweaters.”
Seeing that Zhou Xiu had finally left, Zhang Qi breathed a sigh of relief and stubbornly said, “No need. I’m going to rely on my own ability to take them off.”
After Zhou Xiu left, the other four played several rounds before Zhang Qi finally took off all the sweaters. By then, his base shirt was already soaked through, and it was impossible to tell whether it was sweat or ice water.
Xi Shaoyuan put down his cards and stopped playing as well.
……
Zhou Xiu returned to her class’s base camp, preparing to roast a few sweet potatoes. As the sun climbed higher, she became so hot that she took off her coat and sweater, leaving only a shirt.
At some point, one of the girls said, “I saw Chinese quillwort over there.”
“It’s so green and really does look like chives. No wonder it’s called water chives.”
When Zhou Xiu heard this, she handed the task of tending the fire to Du Feiyang, then carried her schoolbag and went to look for Chinese quillwort.
It belonged to the Isoetaceae family and the Isoetes genus. It had appeared four hundred million years ago and was an extremely endangered plant. It could be called the giant panda of the plant world.
It liked mild and humid climates and often grew in muddy mountain ditches or beside shallow ponds. Zhou Xiu had originally listed it in her plan, but after playing for half a day, she had forgotten about it.
After walking for a while, Zhou Xiu saw it growing in the damp mud cracks of a mountain ditch. She squatted down and took close-up photos of it from every angle.
That morning, a light rain had fallen in the mountains. The wooden railing by the roadside was a little loose. Zhou Xiu took a few steps back to take a photo, but her foot slipped, and she accidentally slid down the small hillside.
Her phone fell to the ground, while she herself tumbled into the crack of the mountain ditch.
Just as Zhou Xiu slipped down, a shadow rushed over, hugged her waist, and timely stopped her fall.
The two of them fell down the little slope together. Zhou Xiu was bumped and jolted several times, and the colour gradually faded from her lips.
She opened her eyes and saw Xi Shaoyuan’s face close at hand.
A high, straight nose bridge, thin lips, and a tear mole decorating the corner of his peach-blossom eyes. Under the sunlight, he looked especially handsome.
At this moment, Zhou Xiu’s waist was tightly held by Xi Shaoyuan. Her entire body was half-supported in his arms like a little kitten, held so closely that there was not even the slightest gap between them. Her face touched the boy’s warm cheek.
Zhou Xiu let go, feeling as though she had survived a scare.
In her daze, she seemed to have heard the sound of Xi Shaoyuan’s back being struck.
Just as Zhou Xiu reached out, wanting to touch it, she was pushed away.
Xi Shaoyuan opened his eyes. In fact, the small slope was not high or steep; it could even be called gentle. It was just that if one fell in the wrong posture, it was easy to be seriously injured.
Xi Shaoyuan smelled the faint fragrance on Zhou Xiu’s body. It was light and warm. After struggling for a moment, he forcefully pushed her away.
Zhou Xiu had just wanted to say, “Thank—”
Xi Shaoyuan coldly stepped back several paces and said mockingly, “I just happened to pass by. Zhou Xiu, don’t think that I—”
Zhou Xiu climbed back up and picked up her phone. She wiped it with a napkin and said lightly, “Don’t think I’ll fall for you, right?”
“I know, I know.” She nodded.
Zhou Xiu carried her schoolbag and returned along the original path to her class’s base camp.
Xi Shaoyuan watched Zhou Xiu’s departing back and silently withdrew his gaze.
Both times had been like this. She could fall down even while photographing grass. Even playing bridge had not been able to stop it from happening.
Everything that was meant to be experienced was repeating itself. He should not have held on to any hope of getting lucky.
Only this time, at the bottom of the little hillside, there was no longer a long embrace.
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