Super Soldier in the City

Chapter Seventeen: I Will Expose You

But, after all, with a patron around and Xu Shanshan's luck seemingly improving, she indeed started winning more often.

The Xu Zhenguo Couple didn't notice anything amiss with Xu Shanshan this time, even if the tiles Li Yifei played allowed Xu Shanshan to make a move, it seemed normal.

After playing for more than three hours, Xu Shanshan had won over two thousand yuan, looking incredibly pleased with herself. Unfortunately, more than half of the winnings were from Li Yifei, who kept feeding her tiles. His own game was a mess, having won not even three rounds. No wonder he lost.

Li Yifei himself didn't have much money; if Xu Yingying hadn't given him three thousand yuan in advance, he would've been broke by now. Having lost over a thousand and after buying Xu Shanshan a set of clothes, he didn't have much left.

"We'll play again tonight; I need to go chop the filling now," said Xu Shanshan's mother as she got up from the table. It was a custom to eat dumplings on New Year's Eve, and she disliked buying ready-made frozen dumplings, so everything had to be prepared from scratch.

At that moment, Xu Shanshan, quite satisfied, stuffed the money into her pocket and happily ran off.

Li Yifei's foot was finally free. During this time, his foot had really taken advantage of her, and now it was time to relax.

He went into Xu Yingying's bedroom, closed the door behind him, and Xu Yingying removed her laptop from her laps, asking, "Lost quite a bit, huh?"

"Yes, I'm not good at this."

"Here." Xu Yingying took out a stack of cash from under her pillow and handed it to Li Yifei.

"What's this for?" Li Yifei asked, puzzled, looking at Xu Yingying.

"All the money lost is on me. You play with mom and dad to make them happy," Xu Yingying said with a light smile. She didn't like playing mahjong, but she wanted to please her parents. Now that Li Yifei was keeping her parents company, she was quite content.

"Then, I won't be polite about it; otherwise, if we play again later, I won't have the money to lose."

"Hmm, you've done well," Xu Yingying praised him again.

"Brother-in-law, brother-in-law," Xu Shanshan's voice came calling.

"Quick, put the money away," Xu Yingying urged Li Yifei in a hurry.

Li Yifei swiftly put away the money, just as Xu Shanshan burst into the room. Seeing one of them sitting on the bed and the other standing, she laughed, "Didn't interrupt anything good, did I?"

"What good thing? What do you want?"

"Brother-in-law, come help me with something," Xu Shanshan said, blinking her eyes.

"Sure!" Li Yifei agreed cheerfully and followed Xu Shanshan to her room.

With a flick of her wrist, Xu Shanshan closed the door and locked it. Then she gave Li Yifei a thumbs-up. "Brother-in-law, you're so cool."

Having played a whole game with Xu Shanshan, Li Yifei was quite casual with her and laughed, "You're telling me? My foot is almost bruised from your stepping."

"Hehe, come on, let's split the loot," Xu Shanshan hopped onto her bed, crossed her legs, and took out all the money.

Xu Shanshan's room was filled with little trinkets on the headboard and windows—unlike Xu Yingying's simpler room. With a sizable stuffed toy on the bed, she seemed to have retained some childlike traits, a significant difference from her sister, though they were close in age.

Casually sitting on the edge of the bed, Li Yifei said with a grin, "No need."

"What do you mean 'no need'? You don't have money, and besides, you were deliberately letting me win. You could hardly make a winning hand yourself, of course, we'll split the loot. Oh right, you just came from my sister's room—did she reimburse you?"

"You really guessed it," Li Yifei smiled.

"Hehe, then I won't share with you, consider it my win over my sister," Xu Shanshan said, unapologetically pocketing the money again.

Xu Shanshan looked at Li Yifei with surprise and then smirked, "Tell me, brother-in-law, are you really my sister's boyfriend?"

Li Yifei asked with a smile, "Do you think I'm an imposter?"

"Yes, you are an imposter," Xu Shanshan replied confidently.

"Why?" Li Yifei sat down.

"Do I even need to say why? My sister, so proud, how could she find a boyfriend so easily? And with her character, if she did find a boyfriend, he would have to be better than her. I don't believe your kind of story. A security guard with her, intersecting paths, I don't buy it for a second."

"Love is often blind."

"Pfft, I believe love is blind, but it takes two people genuinely in love for one to sense the endearment. Look at you two together. Apart from putting on an act, there's not a trace of affection in my sister's eyes when she looks at you. When you look at her, there's no sense of tenderness either. So, you're definitely posing."

"Then do you think, with your sister's personality, she would let an impostor like me sleep in the same room as her?"

"This..." Xu Shanshan immediately stumbled over her words.

"Hehe, you're half right. Although my relationship with your sister hasn't reached the point of a death-do-us-part kind of love, we really are together and both of us are trying hard to adapt to each other. Give us some time, and you should see all the things you're looking to find," Li Yifei said.

"Really?" Disbelief was evident in Xu Shanshan's eyes.

"You can see for yourself," Li Yifei said, a proud smile on his face before leaving Xu Shanshan's room.

Xu Shanshan waved her fist, self-assuredly saying, "Hmph, I will definitely expose you both. Big sis, you think you can fool me? No chance."