“Huanzi! Get to the Mahjong Club and save me! I’ve lost everything down to my underwear!”
Qin Huan held her phone, frozen in place.
What was Guchuan Xing up to now?
Starting off with such outrageous words?
A light laugh came through the phone.
“Xingzi, want to keep going? If you keep losing… you’ll have to change into a bunny girl outfit and become the Mahjong Club’s poster girl, you know~”
Guchuan Xing’s voice came again, this time with an urgent, give-up-all-hope tone.
“If you don’t come save me within half an hour, Huanzi, your drummer is going to be forced to sell herself on the street to pay off debts! Then no one will be playing drums for you, and the finale at the Cultural Festival will fall through! Can you bear that?”
Could Qin Huan bear it?
She only felt that this outcome was richly deserved.
“Senpai, how exactly did you get yourself into this mess…”
Just as Qin Huan finished asking, she heard the phone beep as the call was hung up.
Guchuan Xing seemed to have run into some urgent matter and ended the call abruptly.
Qin Huan looked awkwardly at Ju Zhenli.
“Um… Elder Sister Zhenli, do you want to come along?”
“Xiao Huan, go ahead first. The student council still has some things to handle.”
Ju Zhenli shook her head, her tone returning to the usual calm, but the subtle smile at the corner of her mouth couldn’t be hidden.
“Guchuan is still Starfall’s drummer after all. If something like this happens, it’ll have a negative effect on the band. Xiao Huan, go fish her out…”
Qin Huan felt there was a certain “let her suffer a bit more” meaning hidden in Ju Zhenli’s tone.
It was understandable—who could blame Guchuan Xing for coveting her body so much?
It would be strange if Ju Zhenli didn’t hold a grudge.
But Qin Huan didn’t say anything else.
She nodded and turned to run toward the Mahjong Club.
The Mahjong Club’s activity room was on the second floor of a remote little building behind the main teaching block.
Qin Huan searched for a while before finding it.
The moment she pushed the door open, an indescribably sharp aura hit her.
Inside the clubroom were three automatic mahjong tables.
Two were empty, and only the one farthest in had four people seated around it.
Guchuan Xing was facing the door, one hand propping up her chin and the other listlessly drawing a tile.
Her light red, wavy long hair was scattered messily, and her usually fierce face was filled with utter despair.
She really was only wearing a black tank top now.
Her jacket, blouse, belt, shoes, and even socks were piled on a chair beside her.
She wore only a thin black tank top and a pair of shorts, revealing large swaths of pale shoulders and arms and long, slender legs.
The neckline of the tank top wasn’t too low, but Guchuan Xing’s figure was undeniably generous, and her slightly forward-leaning posture outlined a tantalizing curve.
“Huanzi!”
Seeing Qin Huan, Guchuan Xing’s lifeless eyes instantly lit up, like a drowning person grasping at a last straw.
“You’re finally here! Quick, save your big sister!”
“Huanzi?”
A mature, drawn-out female voice came from the other side of the mahjong table.
Only then did Qin Huan turn her attention to the other three.
Directly across from Guchuan Xing sat a big sister with deep purple wavy hair, wearing a wine-red silk blouse with the top two buttons undone, revealing delicate collarbones and a thin gold necklace.
She exuded an effortless, lazy charm unique to mature women from the very core.
The purple-haired big sister tilted her head, her long fingers gently rubbing a mahjong tile.
Her wine-red fingernails made a faint rustling sound against the tile’s surface.
“Such a cute little kouhai~”
“Hey, hey, Suzuka, don’t scare the new girl.”
The big sister on the left spoke with a smile.
Her hair was light flaxen, cut into a neat shoulder-length bob, with a silver ear cuff on one ear.
She wore a white loose T-shirt under a dark gray vest.
Her features weren’t particularly delicate, but her clean, crisp aura more than made up for it.
Her eyes curved when she smiled, and she looked like the most normal of the three.
“Yuki is right. Don’t scare the kid.”
The big sister on the right pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses.
Her hair was jet-black, meticulously tied up in a bun and secured with a silver hairpin.
She wore a dark blue, stand-collar blouse buttoned all the way to the top.
She gave off a cold, iceberg beauty aura full of sexual restraint.
But it was precisely this meticulous outfit, combined with her gold-rimmed glasses and slightly uptilted phoenix eyes, that made her even more captivating than the purple-haired big sister.
“Wasa, you’re really such a hypocrite…”
Suzuka didn’t finish her sentence, but her tone made it clear it wasn’t a compliment.
Qin Huan mentally tagged the combination of these three big sisters: a heavenly game…
Playing mahjong with big sisters like this, no matter what, it would be fun, right?
“Huanzi…”
Guchuan Xing looked at Qin Huan pitifully, her usually teasing eyes now watery and pleading.
“Big sister is so miserable. The three of them teamed up to bully me…”
Qin Huan took a deep breath, slowly walked over to Guchuan Xing, and lowered her voice.
“Senpai, first tell me, what are the rules of this Mahjong Club?”
“Rules?”
Guchuan Xing blinked.
“It’s just regular riichi mahjong, except the loser has to take off one piece of clothing…”
“One piece of clothing?!”
“Yeah. Big sister has already lost her jacket, blouse, belt, shoes, and socks.”
Guchuan Xing counted on her fingers, a weird hint of pride in her voice.
“But I’m pretty impressive! I held out for a full hour and a half before losing this much! Ordinary people would be stripped naked in half an hour!”
“Senpai, you’re… quite optimistic!”
Qin Huan originally wanted to say “You’re pretty proud of yourself, huh?”
To tease Guchuan Xing, but she decided to comfort her instead.
After all, Guchuan Xing was already miserable enough.
Being toyed with by big sisters…
It was better if she handled it herself.
“Huanzi, keep your voice down. Big sister is already suffering…”
Guchuan Xing tugged at the corner of Qin Huan’s shirt, leaning in close.
The fabric of her black tank top rubbed against Qin Huan’s arm, carrying a faint body scent and warm breath.
“Can you get revenge for me?”
“Me? I don’t know how to play mahjong.”
Qin Huan wasn’t lying.
In her previous life, she had only been an ordinary Mahjong Soul player.
She had never played offline mahjong once.
Although she was an expert in the Jade Room on Mahjong Soul…
That was a game, completely different from real-life card play.
“That’s fine. Lose if you lose.”
Guchuan Xing brought her face close to Qin Huan’s ear, lowering her voice to a whisper.
“Big sister just wants to see you take off your clothes anyway.”
Qin Huan felt like a complete idiot for feeling soft earlier.
“Is the kouhai going to play?”
Suzuka rested her chin on her hand, her smile widening.
Her deep purple eyes looked Qin Huan up and down, as if examining a new toy.
“Xingzi has already lost enough. There’s no fun left. Switching to a new person is just right.”
“Don’t call me Xingzi.”
Guchuan Xing frowned, but her voice lacked any real threat.
“Okay, Xingzi.”
Suzuka smiled back, then looked at Qin Huan again.
“Well, little kouhai? Want to play a few rounds? The rules are simple. Four people play east-south-west-north four rounds. Each round has four hands. The loser settles with point sticks. For every ten thousand points lost, take off one piece of clothing.”
“What about a yakuman win?”
Qin Huan asked.
A wicked idea had suddenly popped into her head…
These three were clearly in cahoots.
How could she, a newbie who had never touched mahjong, possibly beat them…
Suzuka raised an eyebrow, apparently surprised that this soft-looking little kouhai could ask such a professional question.
“For a yakuman, the winner takes all. The other three each lose thirty-two thousand points. And…”
She raised a finger, her wine-red manicure glinting under the light.
“If someone loses to a yakuman, aside from taking off three items of clothing, they also have to fulfill one request from the winner.”
“Any request?”
“Any request at all~”
Suzuka’s smile became meaningful as her gaze slowly traced over Qin Huan.
“Even making your senpai strip completely naked is fine. Or saving your friend, too.”
“So if I win a yakuman, can I win back all of Guchuan Xing’s clothes?”
“Not just that.”
Suzuka shook her head, her long fingers drawing a circle in the air.
“If you win as the dealer, the other three each lose thirty-two thousand points, take off three items, and fulfill one condition each. That means…”
She pointed her finger at herself, then swept it over Yuki and Wasa.
“All three of us take off three items. And you can demand that we return all of Xingzi’s clothes to her.”
“But of course, if you lose to a yakuman… it’s the same,” Yuki interjected cheerfully, her flaxen short hair swaying by her ears.
“Three items, plus one request.”
“Naturally, you can choose not to play.”
Wasa pushed up her glasses, her phoenix eyes watching Qin Huan calmly from behind the lenses.
“No one is forcing you.”
“Play? Why wouldn’t I play?”
Qin Huan tilted her head, flashing a cute smile.
But the combination of that smile and her tone gave the impression that something bad was about to happen.
“Huanzi, maybe we should just go back…”
Guchuan Xing’s weak voice came from behind her.
“Big sister would rather go sell herself on the street than drag you into this…”
Qin Huan looked down and saw Guchuan Xing staring at her with a worried expression.
Qin Huan sighed.
“Senpai, after this round, I’ll settle accounts with you.”
She pulled out a chair and sat down in Guchuan Xing’s original seat.
“Huh?”
Guchuan Xing was stunned.
“Huanzi, you’re really going to play? Didn’t you say you didn’t know how…”
“I really don’t.”
Qin Huan looked up at Suzuka across the table, trying to keep her voice from sounding too nervous.
“But… I’ve always had good luck.”
Suzuka squinted, a playful glint flashing in her deep purple pupils.
“Then I declare—”
Qin Huan took a deep breath.
“I am—the prodigy mahjong girl!”