Page 36 of He Is My Bride

Li Ying had an uncanny ability in the game for a first timer, but he was good at rock, paper, scissors -psychology as well as quick witted, and didn’t mess up once.

It helped that he only lost a few rounds and had to take fewer shots.

But the longer he would remain the reigning champion, the more shots he would accumulate and the harder it would be for him to focus, making it easier for him to commit mistakes and thus for his opponent to prevail.

Or so they thought, but Li Ying also had a particularly good alcohol tolerance.

“This is impossible… ”

“Miss Li, it’s okay to stop.”

“Ha! I’m no quitter! If you want to dethrone me, you have to win me fair and square! Next opponent!” Li Ying tapped the table before the empty seat in front of him.

Up until this point, he had competed against Huang Xiang and two women—his earlier discussion partners—but now before him sat a man, one of Hanjun’s old schoolmates.

“I’m sorry, but I won’t go easy on you either.” Li Ying grinned and shook the hand the man had offered, as if they were about to engage in a formal chess match.

“I expect no less than a fair game,” the man said and held out his hands. They did the little dance and rhyme while the ones watching sang along, and threw out their hands.

‘Fei ya!’ It was a tie over rocks, and they smacked kisses in the air over the table: ‘ mwah, mwah!’

Hanjun scowled and his eyes grew dark. He glanced at the people queueing to play: a girl who was already wasted as it were and wouldn’t last, another one of his schoolmates, and his young wife… Then Wang Hao.

Li Ying had to lose before his turn, Hanjun wouldn’t stand for the Wang dog to blow even mock kisses at his Li Ying, even if it was just a game. Alas, Li Ying was a beast.

“Drink up!” Li Ying said as he claimed another victory.

His match against the drunk girl was swiftly over, but Li Ying offered to drink her shot for her and asked someone from the crowd to get her a taxi because she was obviously done for the night.

He then played against the other business major, a friend of Hanjun’s, and he seemed confident until Li Ying crushed him as well, after many more shots.

Li Ying had begun to feel it, but this was probably the most exhilarating drinking game he’d played—and he had played many—and he wasn’t done. Besides, Wang Hao was coming up, and Li Ying would enjoy humiliating him especially .

The young wife was cunning in her tactics and made Li Ying drink up many times, and only after a prolonged battle did she start losing her nerve and mess up, raising her hand in a slap when it was her paper against Li Ying’s scissors.

“Not so fast, little sister! It’s your loss, bottoms up!

” Li Ying rejoiced, and although the girl seemed disappointed, she downed her shot gracefully and got up from the seat.

She speed-walked towards the restrooms—probably to hurl—passing Xiuxiu and her two friends, who were returning to the group.

Now Wang Hao stepped forth.

Alright! Li Ying was ready. Bring it on—Huh?

“Wu Hanjun? It’s not your turn!”

“My turn.” Hanjun had shot up from the couch and rushed to the challenger’s seat, cutting off Wang Hao.

“Is this the famous Wu manners, huh?!” Wang Hao complained. “Cutting in line?”

Hanjun paid him no regard. He sat down and looked Li Ying in the eyes.

“Are you sure about this, Junjun?” Li Ying taunted.

Hanjun said nothing, only held out his hands in the starting position for the beginning rhyme.

“Had someone suggested my cousin hasn’t deviated from his usual ways?” Hanrong laughed, but looked concerned at his cousin.

“What’s the harm in a Wu letting loose every now and then? Let him play, I say,” Lin Yong said.

“Hanjun, you know I will drink you under the table, right?” Li Ying said. He knew his man couldn’t hold his liquor like him.

“Looks like his years in America did change Sir Hanjun after all,” Lin Yong thought out loud, himself only observing the game from his seat without any intention of participating.

“Play,” was all Hanjun said, staring Li Ying in the eyes.

Li Ying stared back at him, but he recognized that stubborn expression; Hanjun would not budge .

“Fine, fine, but don’t blame me tomorrow.” Li Ying raised his hands and people cheered, everyone eager to see how this might go.

“Two little bees fly down to a flower and fly, fei ya! ” Li Ying threw rock, Hanjun threw scissors.

“ Pya, pya! ” Li Ying pretended to slap Hanjun, not toning down the dramatics just because it was him, and the man turned his head right, left, his movement muted. He then grabbed a cup and downed it in one fell gulp as the crowd went wild.

“Your fiancée is humiliating you, Wu Hanjun! You need to step up!”

Hanjun visibly grimaced at the taste of the spirit as he put down the cup, but he got back into the game and his expressionless state soon, and they threw again:

“ Fei ya! ” Li Ying threw out rock again, and Hanjun, paper.

“Damn!” Li Ying managed under his breath and tossed his head for Hanjun as he performed the slapping motions with a swish of his wrist.

“ Pya, pya. ”

“Ah!” Li Ying took his shot.

“ Fei ya! ” Hanjun threw rock, Li Ying scissors.

Damn Hanjun, you’re good! But your face is already getting red.

It was true: Hanjun’s cheeks had already flared up after downing a single shot of hard liquor.

They didn’t tie for a while, their approach to the game entirely different.

Seeing as they were foils to each other at every turn, they both had to keep taking shots.

Soon Hanjun had a distant look in his eyes, struggling to focus them, but he didn’t mess up and kept up with the psychology of the game.

Li Ying himself was getting to a point where he considered losing on purpose to get out, but he couldn’t lose now; if he lost, he would have left Hanjun to sit as the reigning champion, and seeing how well the man played even while already obviously drunk, Li Ying feared no one else could beat him, and Hanjun would inevitably have to keep drinking and drinking until he passed out.

Hanjun teetered dangerously.

“Hanjun,” Hanrong called out, “please resign!”

“No,” Hanjun slurred.

“You’re not experienced enough to keep going.”

Please, Hanjun, you have to mess up now! “ Fei ya! ” Li Ying threw paper to Hanjun’s paper. Li Ying leaned forward, “Mwa—Mh?!”

Instead of just pretending to smooch him, Hanjun grabbed Li Ying’s face and kissed him, kissed him wet and kissed him sloppy, and Li Ying’s unsuspecting mouth got filled with his tongue. Li Ying heard the rowdier men around them whistle and holler.

Oh, Hanjun, you really shouldn’t drink hard liquor!

Li Ying felt Hanjun grow heavy against him as he fell completely limp, and Li Ying struggled to lay him face down on the table.

“He’s totally passed out,” someone said.

“Guess that means Li Ying wins this one too,” said Huang Xiang.

“Help me lay him down,” Li Ying asked, and Hanjun’s schoolmates came to drag him up by his arms and carefully laid him on the couch.

Hanjun was out cold. Li Ying folded his hands over his belly neatly and swept a strand of hair from his face, making him appear as graceful as a passed-out drunk could. Standing upright, Li Ying realized how drunk he was himself. Everything was going ‘whee!’

“Will Li Ying continue to defend her title?”

“Come on, sweetheart!” Wang Hao taunted now that Hanjun was out of the game. “Come play, you won’t beat me!”

“Ahaha, I have to forfeit!” Li Ying raised his hands. “I really need to go powder my nose, like, right now!”

That earned him some good laughs, but no girl offered to come hold his hair when he ran to the washroom. No matter, Li Ying could hold his own. In the ladies’ room, he dived right into an empty stall, not bothering to close the doo r

“Wow, I love your dress—Hey, are you okay, little sister?” asked some other drunk girl from the bottom of her heart.

“Thanks, little sister, yeah, hold on…” With his other hand Li Ying kept his bangs and ponytail out of his face, and with the other he shoved his fingers into his throat and purged what he could before it entered his gut and his bloodstream.

Chilies aren’t nice coming back up this way.

“It’s okay, little sister, it’s okay, let it out!” The drunk girl clumsily patted his back.

Li Ying spat, flushed, and stood up. The girl waited for him to wash his hands and then offered him a bottle of water. Li Ying thankfully took it, poured water into his mouth and rinsed thoroughly.

Shit, Hanjun, look what you made me do! But mostly Li Ying was concerned with Hanjun’s wellbeing, after all, he was himself a veteran binge drinker while Hanjun was a lightweight.

“Do you want a breath mint?” the girl asked and held out a packet.

“Thanks! I think I love you.”

“Aww honey! I love you too!” She hugged him.

This girl is so wasted. Li Ying hugged her back while checking in with his own wellbeing: the floor wasn’t entirely steady, but he would manage. Maybe. No more for Li Ying!

He let the girl go and went to check himself in the mirror, making sure he wasn’t in any call-Anne-immediately-kind of situation, but he only needed to touch up his lip gloss—Hanjun had eaten it all up.

Meanwhile back at their table, Hanjun was still out and Wang Hao thought he had something clever to say about it:

“Tch, even his woman could hold liquor better than him. Pathetic.”

“In his defense: that Li Ying seemed like she would have drunk any one of us under the table,” said Huang Xiang .

“Including you,” supplemented Lin Yong and leered at Wang Hao.

“What about you then?” Wang Hao confronted Lin Yong. “You were too cowardly to even play!”

“Striving so hard to make a fool out of yourself is hardly courage.”

“Hah! Like how Wu Hanjun made a fool out of himself?”

“Hmh.” Lin Yong didn’t deny, and since he didn’t step up to defend Hanjun, Wang Hao got emboldened:

“Wu Hanjun turns out to be a typical ‘little Shanghai man’ after all: whipped and henpecked.”

“But aren’t you Shanghai-born?” someone asked.