What It’s Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 60: Fight the Landlord

When “lady 5” saw Xiang Kun walk in, she stood up with Tang Baona and her expression did not change.

However, from her gaze and her dilated irises, Xiang Kun could tell that she recognized him.

“This is my cousin, Xia Libing. She is a gifted student from the medical university. She has two master’s degrees! She is currently interning at The Affiliated Hospital of ** University.”

Yang Zhen Er introduced her cousin before telling her cousin, “This is Saitama-sensei, the one I was talking about! Although he is a programmer, he is very strong and has practiced kungfu before!”

“I told you I have never practiced kungfu before,” said Xiang Kun helplessly.

“Alright, you did not. Then, you were born with the talent!” Yang Zhen Er smiled and asked Xiang Kun to sit down before getting drinks from the fridge.

After Xiang Kun sat down, Tang Baona asked, “Are you feeling better?”

“Yes, I am all right now.” Xiang Kun nodded and looked at her ankle. “How about you? How’s your ankle?”

Tang Baona stretched out her injured foot and turned her ankle as she said, “I am alright. Oh, I haven’t thanked you properly for carrying me back.”

Xiang Kun smiled and said, “It’s alright. Even if I was not there, there were people there to carry you back. I can tell that they were looking at me enviously.”

Tang Baona rolled her eyes and changed the topic. “What have you been busy with recently? Are you looking for a new job now? You mentioned pharmacy and biology?”

“Oh no, I am not looking for a job. I was thinking of the possibility of starting a business. I have a rough idea,” Xiang Kun said casually.

As they were discussing, Yang Zhen Er brought a plate of watermelon and some drinks over.

Seeing how she had given him a bottle of mineral water, Xiang Kun thanked her and took the water.

“Why did you suddenly ask us over to play cards?” asked Xiang Kun after drinking a sip of water.

Tang Baona smiled. “We have been playing cards together for a while. However, recently, we have all been busy with our own commitments. Moreover, Xia always feels that we are too stupid and its not fun to play with us. I thought that you, as a programmer, should be good at mathematics and therefore good at card games…”

Yang Zhen Er said, “Although Xia is very young, she is a weirdo with an IQ of 140… Oh, I mean a genius… When she was 14 years old, many universities sent her offers. However, she refused to go and waited for the national examination. Using her results as the top three in the province, she went to a medical university that I had not known and studied until she got her master’s… Then she went on to get another bachelor’s degree followed by another master’s… Saitama-sensei, although you are good at martial arts, I don’t think you can beat her in card games!”

Xiang Kun realized that ever since he entered the house, Xia Libing had been looking at him.

Of course, he knew that it was not because he was too charismatic or attractive. Instead, Xia Libing was observing him and examining him.

“Two master’s… What a genius!” Xiang Kun exclaimed before asking Xia Libing, “Can I ask what you specialize in?”

Xia Libing answered, “Psychiatry and mental health, as well as applied psychology.”

Xiang Kun nodded.

Tang Baona took out two new decks of cards and asked Xia Libing to shuffle them. Then she asked Xiang Kun, “Fight the landlord[1]?”

“Anything.” Xiang Kun nodded.

Xia Libing’s shuffling method looked very professional, as though she was a card dealer in a casino. She looked good while shuffling the cards. Of course, it was because she was beautiful.

As Xiang Kun drew his cards, he asked, “Ms. Xia is Ms. Yang’s younger cousin, so she should be younger than both of you. Why do you call her ‘Xia'[2]?”

Tang Baona laughed, “That’s because she has acted like an adult from a young age. If she wasn’t reading a book, she would be listening to the gossip of our aunts. She was never disobedient, even as a teenger. All of us felt that she is very mature, so we started calling her that unknowingly.”

Yang Zhen Er added, “Stop calling us ‘Ms. Yang’ ,’Ms. Xia’, ‘Ms. Tang’. I am getting goosebumps from that. Look, all of us call you ‘Saitama-sensei.'”

Xiang Kun nodded and said, “Alright, I shall call you Zhen Er. Oh right, I heard from Nana that you work in a pharmaceutical company. Are you in charge of research?”

Yang Zhen Er moved the cards in her hands and said to Xiang Kun, “Let’s play first. If you win this round, you can ask one question to the loser.”

“Then what if I am your teammate?”

Yang Zhen Er said, “You can still ask the losers, both of them know about me! If you are the ‘landlord’, you can ask them a question! Oh, if you lose, we can ask you a question too!”

Xiang Kun nodded. “Alright.”

As a result, their Fight the Landlord game became a game of Truth or Dare. The loser would have to tell the truth or do something based on the winner’s request. Of course, the dare would not be too extreme. It would be something simple, like singing a song or telling a joke.

Xiang Kun had played Fight the Landlord in school and back in his hometown with his family.

To be honest, card games like this required luck and technique, but most importantly, memory skills.

Two decks of cards. 108 cards, the landlord had 33 cards and the farmer had 25 cards.

One could deduce one’s teammates’ and opponents’ cards from one’s own hand, the cards that had been dealt, and the playing method of others. From that, one would play in a way that benefitted oneself.

Xiang Kun’s memory was not bad. After the improvement in his memory after the transformations, memorizing the cards was a piece of cake.

Moreover, he could observe the changes in expressions of the other players while memorizing the cards.

With this distance, Xiang Kun could even hear the heartbeats of the three other ladies. He could feel the tempo of their breaths.

Tang Baona and Yang Zhen Er’s changes in emotions were very obvious. Not only was he able to deduce based on their expressions, heartbeats, and breathing, but he was also able to judge based on the slight changes in their bodily scents if they were excited or nervous.

Xiang Kun played after Yang Zhen Er. When Yang Zhen Er played her cards, he could deduce what cards Tang Baona, who was playing after him, had based on the changes in her emotions and from his memory of the cards.

The only person who Xiang Kun felt difficulty getting useful information from was Xia Libing, who was sitting opposite of him.

The genius with an IQ of 140 looked extremely calm. Even if she got a hand of very good cards, her heartbeat, scent, and changes in breath were very little.

However, based on the expansion and contraction of her irises, Xiang Kun could confirm that she still had some variations in emotions.

Xiang Kun, who was the landlord in the first round, won the game riskily. He did not have a good hand actually. If Yang Zhen Er did not play before him and made a few obvious mistakes that allowed him to deduce the cards that his opponents had, he would not have been able to win.

“Alright, Saitama-sensei, you’ve won. Ask any question you have! I will tell you everything I know!” Yang Zhen Er said as she sat upright.

“I wanted to ask what the name of your company is and what your job is. What is the main focus of the research in your company? How many labs are there and what equipment is there? Do you…” He asked a bunch of questions in one go.

Yang Zhen Er rolled her eyes. “How many questions are you asking? Forget it, since it’s related to my job, I shall answer. Hmm, my job is related to finance…”

[1] a card game

[2] In Mandarin, this way of addressing someone sounded as though the other party is older