AUBTN -Chapter 146 President Yu Who Keeps Fighting Despite Repeated Defeats

“Our household affairs need not trouble the Commander,” Shen Jue said lazily. “But Lord Lu, as a close minister to the Son of Heaven, you’d better make sure you sit firmly in that position.”

“Three Bamboo,” Lu Yan snorted coldly.

“The Jinyiwei handle matters with clear order and discipline. Unlike the Eastern Depot, which hides filth and corruption.”

“Eat.” The smile on Shen Jue’s lips grew colder as he took the Three Bamboo into his hand. “If the water is too clear, there are no fish. Commander, don’t tell me you don’t even understand such a simple truth. Discard—Eight Wan.”

The two of them exchanged words back and forth, every tile they played seeming to carry the flash of blades and clashing swords.

They had somehow turned a simple mahjong table into something with the imposing atmosphere of a court debate in the Golden Throne Hall.

Caught in the middle, Yu Qing was already so pressured by the aura of the two men that she could barely breathe. She clutched a Nine Dots tile in her hand, her palm slick with sweat. She didn’t dare play it at all, terrified of discarding the winning tile for someone else.

Just then, Su Hewan—who had been quiet and inconspicuous the whole time—suddenly reached out and lightly picked up the Eight Wan Shen Jue had just discarded.

“Mahjong.”

Her voice was gentle as she calmly pushed her tiles forward.

【A Pure One Suit. All Pungs.】

“This…” Lu Yan froze.

“Wanwan, when did you get ready to win?” Yu Qing stared with wide eyes.

Su Hewan smiled faintly, a trace of cunning flashing through her eyes.

【Go on, keep playing! While the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman profits. The two of you were so busy blocking each other’s tiles that you exposed all your cards. Lu Yan stubbornly held onto the Wan tiles, Shen Jue desperately guarded against his Bamboo tiles, and neither of you noticed that I was quietly building a Wan-only hand this whole time. As the ancients say: make a fortune quietly. The ancients truly never deceive!】

Hearing the phrase “make a fortune quietly” in his ears while looking at Su Hewan’s harmless, gentle expression, the hostility in Shen Jue’s eyes instantly vanished.

In its place appeared a deep indulgence and amusement.

“Miss Su truly strategizes within the tent and wins from a thousand miles away,” Shen Jue chuckled softly, pulling out banknotes without hesitation.

“I’m willing to accept the loss.”

Lu Yan also sighed and willingly took out his money. “Miss Su’s talent is remarkable. Lu has learned something today.”

“Wait, hold on…” Yu Qing stared at the pile of banknotes flowing toward Su Hewan and suddenly realized something.

“So after I worked all night inventing all these games… I’m the only one who lost money?!”

Su Hewan slowly folded the banknotes and tucked them into her sleeve while gently patting Yu Qing on the shoulder.

“Qingqing, this is called the law of conservation of energy. Your money didn’t disappear—it merely changed its form and came to accompany me.”

“Su Hewan! You heartless woman! You’re paying for dinner tonight!”

Inside Wutong Courtyard, Yu Qing’s grief-stricken protest burst out, mixed with Su Hewan’s soft laughter—and the rare, unguarded sighs of two powerful officials.

Carried by the late autumn night breeze, their voices drifted far into the distance.

The hot pot broth began bubbling again, steam rising and blurring the smiling faces around the table.

In this treacherous capital, where lives could be lost at any moment, the noisy quarrels around this small card table had somehow become the most precious comfort they could steal from fleeting days of peace.

The following night, at Yuyuan.

The four of them once again sat around the round rosewood table. Only this time, the atmosphere was overwhelmingly tragic—entirely thanks to Yu Qing.

Smack!

Yu Qing slammed a paperweight onto the table like a judge striking a gavel.

“Yesterday I underestimated the enemy! But today, President Yu will wipe away that humiliation!”

She pointed proudly at the messy pile of cardboard cards on the table, all scribbled over with charcoal.

“Landlord is about card skill. Mahjong is about calculation. Today we’re playing something different! Today we play—Werewolf! A game purely about logic, deduction, and acting skills!”

Su Hewan shook her head, smiling helplessly. Her best friend truly didn’t know the meaning of worry.

【Eating, drinking, and having fun seemed to be the most important thing in her world.】

【Hopefully she could remain this happy forever.】

【No—hopefully all of them could remain this happy.】

【Heh, tremble, ancient people! This is the absolute home ground of a top student from the acting department! Today I’m definitely going to win back Lu Yan’s underwear—ah no, my five thousand taels of private savings—with interest!】

Lu Yan was quietly holding his teacup, gently skimming away the foam on the surface.

Hearing that thunderous and shameless inner monologue beside his ear, his fingers suddenly froze.

A strange and indescribable expression appeared on his usually icy face.

He slowly set the teacup down…and looked toward his own crotch.

Underwear?

This woman—couldn’t she put something in her head besides all that messy, vulgar nonsense?

Sitting on the other side, Su Hewan rested her chin on one hand, maintaining a gentle, delicate smile on her face.

“Qingqing, are you sure about this? Playing Werewolf with these two old foxes who are basically human lie detectors… I think this move of yours is like an old man eating arsenic—basically asking for death.”

Yu Qing widened her eyes. “Wanwan, whose side are you on? How can you boost their morale while crushing mine!”

“Alright, alright! You’re impressive. The most impressive!”

Shen Jue and Lu Yan leaned lazily back in their chairs, watching the two sisters bicker back and forth.

A faint trace of amusement rippled through Shen Jue’s narrow, sinister phoenix eyes.

“Oh?” Shen Jue’s long fingers tapped lightly on the table as he looked at Yu Qing with a half-smile.
“President Yu’s new little novelty sounds quite interesting. I’d like to experience it myself—what exactly is this ‘werewolf’?”

“The rules are simple! It’s just—”

Just as Yu Qing was about to launch into an enthusiastic explanation—

“Report—!”

A sharp shout suddenly tore through the quiet of Yu Garden.

A Jinyiwei spy dressed in a flying-fish uniform darted into the courtyard like a ghost. Dropping to one knee, his expression was cold and urgent.

“Commander! Zhao Jieyu has been spotted in the waters near the Wangyou Pleasure Boat on the Jinshui River! We dared not alert the enemy and came to await your orders!”

The moment these words fell, the atmosphere in the waterside pavilion instantly froze.

The slightly helpless expression on Lu Yan’s face vanished at once.

He sprang to his feet.

“Prepare the horses! Seal off every waterway up and down the Jinshui River—don’t let even a fly escape!”

Moving with decisive efficiency, Lu Yan turned toward Yu Qing. In his eyes flashed a trace of reassurance that even he himself didn’t notice.

“Stay home and behave. Don’t go anywhere.”

Shen Jue also slowly stood up. The lazy aura around him instantly turned dark and chilling.

He hadn’t expected Zhao Jieyu to sneak back onto the pleasure boat again.

So she was trying to play the dark under the lamp trick with them.

Shen Jue spoke coldly:

“Pass down my order. Deploy the elite of the Eastern Depot and surround the Wangyou Pleasure Boat. Anyone who dares interfere—kill without mercy.”

After speaking, he slightly turned his head and looked deeply at Su Hewan.

The girl was still sitting there quietly.

“Wanwan, things outside will be chaotic tonight. You two stay here and don’t go out.”

Su Hewan nodded obediently. “Alright. Be careful.”

The spacious waterside pavilion was instantly left with only Su Hewan and Yu Qing.

“Hey, wait! I haven’t even finished explaining my game yet!” Yu Qing held up the playing cards in her hand, pouting at the now-empty courtyard.

“These two are such workaholics—leaving the moment work calls. Wanwan, should we just play by ourselves?”

Su Hewan smiled helplessly.

Thinking there weren’t enough people, Yu Qing temporarily dragged a few servants and maids into the game as well.

Everyone was soon carried away by Yu Qing’s enthusiasm, and the atmosphere quickly reached a peak.

No one noticed that danger outside the door was quietly approaching.

Just as the final round began, before Yu Qing could finish speaking—

“BOOM—!!!”

The vermilion-lacquered gates of Yu Garden were smashed apart by an unimaginably terrifying brute force.

“Assassins! Protect—”

A warning shout from an Eastern Depot shadow guard came from outside the courtyard.

But the voice abruptly stopped amidst the horrifying sound of bones being crushed.

A thick smell of blood rushed into the pavilion with the wind.