YM778.TV Chapter 78 - 78: Topic
While Xiang Kun was attempting to find a way to suppress post-meal vomiting, Yang Zhen’er drove away from the neighbourhood parking lot with Tang Baona and Xia Libing on board.
“Don’t you think Xiang Kun’s personality is a bit too quirky? He’s clearly someone who cooks and gives food to neighbours, yet he previously refused to eat with us no matter what. If we hadn’t run into his neighbour this time, who knows how long we would have waited to have this meal,” complained Yang Zhen’er.
Previously, whether at school, in the company, or elsewhere, there was always a bunch of boys trying but failing to treat them to a meal. However, with Xiang Kun, both Tang Baona and she were rejected time and time again despite their continual invitations. It was as if eating with them was a hassle.
Not that they were particularly eager to eat with Xiang Kun. But the more he rejected them, the more curious they became, making them want to experience dining with him and understand why he had such a strong resistance.
In fact, they had agreed before coming over that whoever won against Xiang Kun in today’s card game would ask him to treat them to a meal.
However, to their surprise, not one of them could win against him throughout the entire afternoon.
“I guess he wasn’t very close to us before,” Tang Baona pondered, recalling the recent phone call with Xiang Kun.
Yang Zhen’er scoffed twice and said, “Nonsense! He hasn’t lived here for long, how close can he be with that neighbour? I just think he purposely gives us attitude! What a tsundere!”
Tang Baona couldn’t help but laugh, “Tsundere? That’s not the right way to describe him!”
Yang Zhen’er continued, “When I saw the several rabbits he was raising at home, I figured such a rugged bald man, surprisingly raising cute pets like rabbits, might have a gentle heart underneath his tough exterior…Who would have thought, he raises rabbits to eat!!”
Looking at her friend’s indignant expression, Tang Baona started laughing in the passenger seat until her stomach hurt.
From the back seat, Xia Libing interjected, “The ones he has are meat rabbits.”
“How about next time we ask Xiang Kun to cook some spicy rabbit meat?” Tang Baona suggested, “I heard his neighbour saying in the lift that it tastes really good. I don’t think he was just bragging on Xiang Kun’s behalf.”
“Abso! Lute! Ly! Not!” Yang Zhen’er gritted her teeth, “I’d rather die than eat that!”
“You see… maybe this is why Xiang Kun doesn’t want to eat with us.”
“So it’s my fault? Is his excuse not to join us for meals because he only likes to eat rabbit meat?”
Tang Baona laughed, “When we visited your Uncle Liu in the countryside last time, your aunt cooked a pearl chicken she raised herself for us and you seemed to enjoy it, didn’t you?”
“Well… that’s a chicken.”
Tang Baona laughed, “What’s the difference? Is it because rabbits are cuter than chickens? Are you discriminating against chickens or rabbit meat?”
“You win, anyway I’m not eating it!” said Yang Zhen’er. Then she asked Xia Libing in the back seat, “Old Xia, from your ‘psychologist’s’ perspective, why doesn’t Xiang Kun like to eat with us?”
“I’m not a psychologist.” Xia Libing replied, thought for a moment and then shook her head, “I can’t figure it out.”
“Old Xia, weren’t you outstanding at Texas hold ’em before? Why couldn’t you win a single game today?” asked Tang Baona curiously. They used to often play Texas hold ’em with many people and Xia Libing always came out on top, winning the most. That’s why they intentionally brought the Texas hold ’em set, rather than playing Dou Dizhu. Yet they couldn’t beat Xiang Kun at all today, which was quite strange to her.
Xia Libing was also puzzled: “I don’t know why, but he always seems to guess my strategy.” After saying this, she paused for a moment, then added: , “Next time, let me try to play one-on-one with him.”
Hearing this, both Yang Zhen’er and Tang Baona were speechless.
Wasn’t this just another way of saying they were holding her back?
It did seem that way, though. When the four of them played together, it was always both of them who lost their chips first, allowing Xiang Kun to win the most and keep the upper hand in one-on-one games against Xia Libing.
Yang Zhen’er muttered, “Playing cards with Xiang Kun is so frustrating, I always feel like he knows what cards I have!”
Tang Baona also nodded, “Yes, every time I try to bluff him, he sees through it. Whenever I get a good hand, he refuses to follow on bets. It’s so annoying, it’s almost as if he can see my cards…”
Yang Zhen’er couldn’t help guessing, “Could he have installed a hidden camera in his house to spy on our cards?” She had initially thought that he may have marked the cards, but then remembered that they had brought the cards with them.
“You’re overthinking it… where would he hide a camera in that empty living room? Even if there truly was surveillance, we always cover our cards with our hand when checking them. The only way he’d see is if the camera was on us…”
Isn’t it said that people who are good at maths are good at Texas hold ’em? Didn’t Xia mention that he has a great memory for cards?”
Yang Zhen’er excitedly asked, “You mean like in the movies, where he memorizes the order of the cards by just watching us shuffle?” Tang Baona was somewhat uncertain, “Well, maybe not that dramatic…” But Xia Libing shook her head, “It’s not just about memorizing cards.”
During dinner, the three women’s topic of discussion was still Xiang Kun. They speculated whether he had any special cheating methods, and researched what game they could play next to win, all while guessing if Xiang Kun’s cooking was actually good or not.
Yang Zhen’er even suggested playing Ludo with Xiang Kun next time…
After dinner, Xia Libing didn’t stay over at Tang Baona’s house but instead asked her cousin to drive her home.
Xia Libing was a local and lived in a duplex luxury house over four hundred square meters in size, with its interior flaunting a sense of extravagance.
Although she lived with her parents, they were each preoccupied with their careers since she was small, always flying all over the place, and spent very little time at home.
Some people were designated to take care of her during her childhood. However, from middle school onwards, she had pretty much been on her own, apart from occasionally being forcibly taken out by her cousin Yang Zhen’er.
She opened the fingerprint password lock, and the automatic lights turned on, illuminating the huge house which was devoid of people.
But for Xia Libing, being alone was actually more comfortable.
After closing the door and changing into slippers, she began to undress.
She removed her T-shirt, tracksuit, followed by her underwear and bra. Fully naked, she walked into her room, opened her wardrobe, randomly picked a pair of sports shorts and an oversized T-shirt to wear, and sat down on her computer chair.
After waking the computer and entering the password, she logged into the system.
She typed in the name of the folder and pressed enter, opening a hidden folder. She typed in the password to enter the folder.
There were hundreds of doc files in the folder, with each file’s name composed of a string of numbers and letters.
Xia Libing opened the first file, revealing a sort of personal profile page with a photo in the upper left corner. It was clear that the photo was cut out from another image.
It was a bald man with glasses..