NPSS Live Stream Extras

Tiffany Note: The author wrote two DMBJ extras during one of his live streams about his other book “The World”. He saved them and posted the extras on his WeChat.

****

Mahjong

I found a set of mahjong tiles in the warehouse. It was probably from the 1930s, and the tiles were made from beef bones. The craftsmanship of the box was very elegant. It must have been carved by a famous Cantonese woodworker at that time. In contemporary terms, he would be considered a master of arts and crafts.

The mahjong tiles were also very finely carved, but they weren’t as exquisite compared to the box. At first, I thought someone had found the box elsewhere and decided to put these Mahjong tiles in it. However, the tiles fit perfectly inside the box, so it seemed like they were a complete set right from the start.

Fatty thought that there was definitely something more to this mahjong set because the tiles were made of two beef bones glued together instead of a whole bone that had been carved. Moreover, the color of the patina from the beef bones was reddish, which matched the color of the box very well. We could take one look and tell that it was intentionally designed this way.

We couldn’t reach any conclusions after studying it for a long time. As a result, Fatty proposed that we would certainly learn something after we played a few rounds of Mahjong.

We went on and took an old square cedar table from the warehouse. Fatty got the table when he was collecting the old goods. One of the table legs was broken, so Fatty took my rubbings, wanting to put them under the broken table leg.

I told him that he had no respect for our business, to which Fatty replied, “More than a decade has passed, and no one wants to buy these items. Do these items have any respect for themselves?” With that said, he put the rubbings under the table leg and lined up the mahjong tiles.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Little Brother knew how to play Mahjong. People from the Zhang family needed to disguise themselves after all. Playing Mahjong didn’t require complicated techniques, so even a five-year-old could sometimes play well. But Little Brother didn’t join us. Fatty and I still needed two players, so we called Uncle Two and his employee to come over and check the items out.

Uncle Two looked at the mahjong box and said, “This thing might be more valuable than your shop.”

Since we still owed Uncle Two operating expenses, Fatty was worried that he would directly take the items away to pay off the debt, so he immediately said, “What are you talking about, Uncle Two? Is our shop that cheap? You might as well say that this item is more valuable than our lives.”

“Your lives aren’t as valuable as the shop anyway,” Uncle Two said. He weighed the mahjong tiles in his hand before saying to his employee, “Let’s play. There must be something to these tiles because they’re hollow inside. Let’s play one round and see what happens.”

“Maybe people used them to cheat back in the day. There were probably iron beads inside them.”

“We’ll find out when we play.”

So, we started shuffling the tiles.

Once I looked at the tiles I received, it was apparent that I could achieve Seven Pairs if I managed to draw three other correct tiles. When it was my turn to draw a tile, I got one of the three tiles that I wanted, which meant that I would win the game as long as I got to match the other two tiles.⁽¹⁾ I was secretly happy about it, so I asked Uncle Two, “Hey, would you like to bet some money on our game?”

“I’ll be able to tell what tiles you’ve got after we take three turns drawing. With the way you arrange your tiles, you definitely want to do Seven Pairs. Based on the two tiles you just played, it’s very likely that you want to draw dots or bamboo. I suggest you stop whatever you’re about to do.”

I looked at Fatty and thought to myself, I forgot that this old guy is the god of gamblers. Although he doesn’t like to play Mahjong, ever since he was little, he has never lost when it comes to playing chess and board games.

Fatty gave me a wink, signaling that he would take Uncle Two down. Fatty then played a One Bam Bird tile⁽²⁾, but Uncle Two claimed it and declared he got a triplet. After that, Fatty discarded a tile, and Uncle Two claimed it and declared concealed kong.⁽³⁾ The tiles that Uncle Two now had looked quite good.

I looked at Fatty while thinking to myself, it’s like you’re working with Uncle Two and giving him tiles as gifts. 

**

Live Stream

Someone bought a unique box made of red sandalwood, which Fatty then bought from a flea market in Xining. We had no idea how it got there, but the item turned out to be genuine.

The only downside was that the materials used in the box were a little too thin. This was a problem because it could actually be regarded as something that would discourage potential buyers. Although its appearance looked really good, it was just difficult to get people to buy it.

Jin Wantang taught me, “You can hold a live stream. People buy things based on the way they look via live stream. Antiques are the kind of things that aren’t refundable once they’re sold. If you hold a live stream, I’ll bring a few customers into your chat room. You, Wu Xie, have quite the reputation. After you brag about the item, they’ll try to buy it just for the mere possibility of potentially becoming friends with you. Otherwise, you definitely won’t be able to sell it.”

I thought that he had a good point. I had never tried this kind of high-tech stuff before, so I asked his employee to help me set up the equipment. We started working on it without any hesitation. Wang Meng even bought a new computer because of it. The screen was twice as big as his previous one, and was curved. I told him to go away before I started selling the goods live.

Of course, since I was doing it, I definitely wouldn’t just sell one item. I told people all of my stories about the past, but none of my goods were sold. A group of passersby came and gave me two cents as gifts.

Just when I was feeling dispirited, I suddenly saw that the Crescent Hotel was also holding a live stream.

I clicked the link to their live stream. Damn. They were having an online auction. I saw that their items were all small; it seemed that the economic slump had also affected them.

I put my real name as my username and immediately called Fatty. He used his phone to get on the live stream and also used his real name.

When the chat room manager saw our names, he began to broadcast, “To the friends who join this room, there are some names we simply don’t accept. Please don’t joke about it.”

Fatty immediately scolded, “Stop talking nonsense. Fat Master is here to give face to you. If you spew out any more nonsense, I’ll have Zhang Qiling come in and blow up your live stream.”

As a result, the both of us were muted.

<Men in the Shower Room><Table of Contents><Tie Yihan Chapter 1>

****

TN Notes:

(1) This is an example of what Seven Pairs would look like. Basically, Wu Xie would need seven kinds of tiles that matched each other to win. 

(2) One Bam Bird Tile is basically a tile with a bird on it. Bam=bamboo. There’s a theory/breakdown here.

(3) Kong is a set of four identical tiles. Concealed kong means that the players lay down the four tiles face-down as a set in front of them.

****

Translated by: Tiffany X
Edited by: merebear226