Chapter 8: Truth and Lies

“Sure, what are we playing?” the two girls answered in sync, exchanging a glance and smiling. The difference was that She Yujun looked a little shy, while Su Shiyi’s eyes were full of mischief.

“Let’s play Dou Dizhu. The loser...” Zhou Zhuang took out a deck of cards, paused, and then revealed the real point. “has to play Truth or Dare!”

He and his girlfriend basically had no secrets between them, aside from some of the shady little things between him and Su Shiyi. But there was no way she would dare bring that up to his face, so no matter how you looked at it, he was the one setting the trap.

“Oh, sure. But in Dou Dizhu the peasants lose as two people, while the landlord loses alone. That’s unfair. Let’s switch to Stud Poker instead.” Su Shiyi brushed the loose hair by her ear. She liked games like this better, the kind that tested people’s psychology and had a stronger gambling element.

She didn’t take Zhou Zhuang’s little tricks seriously at all.

“Neither of those are really my thing. How about... Gan Deyan instead? It’s all luck. What do you think?” She Yujun didn’t object either. She didn’t understand card counting or calculating plays at all. Every time she played cards with family or her boyfriend, she was basically just bluffing her way through, and she had always needed her boyfriend to feed her cards if she wanted to win.

A luck-based game like Gan Deyan, where you could only play cards in sequence and had to skip if you couldn’t answer, suited her much better.

“Fine, we’ll go with Yujun’s choice. But... the loser can only pick Truth. If they choose Dare, they still have to do it. We’ll switch to that.” Su Shiyi took a bottle of plum wine out of her little backpack. The pale purple-red color hinted at its mellow sweetness.

“That doesn’t seem right. We’ve never drunk before.” Zhou Zhuang frowned hard. Su Shiyi’s performance was completely outside his expectations, and the feeling of walking into his own grave had already wrapped around him.

He wasn’t controlling the game anymore. Instead, he had become an unknowing participant. Judging by the endings in the movies he had watched before, that was obviously not a good sign.

“Kid, you’re already eighteen, aren’t you? Still worried that minors can’t drink? Or are you afraid we two girls will get you drunk and drag you home?” Su Shiyi challenged him, then turned to She Yujun and shook the bottle at her.

“This wine is very low-proof. It’s sweet and sour, almost like a drink. It’s perfect for girls.”

“Fine, I’ll drink with you. Yujun can skip it.” She Yujun didn’t understand what “drag you home” meant, but Zhou Zhuang had heard enough about it already.

Wang Liyang had once been bragging that he was going to hit the bar street at night and try his luck, hoping to lose his virginity, and he even wanted to drag Zhou Zhuang along.

Zhou Zhuang had sneered at that kind of behavior. He hadn’t expected to end up as the target of a girl’s taunt today, and anger flared up in him at once. That kind of provocation still worked on him.

“No, I want in too.” She Yujun took the bottle and sniffed it. The fresh, mellow fruit aroma mixed with the wine scent made her tempted, and she voiced support for Su Shiyi’s suggestion.

Zhou Zhuang looked at her in surprise. It was almost like he didn’t know his own girlfriend anymore. He hadn’t expected his sweet, obedient girl to have this rebellious side too.

Su Shiyi opened the bottle, poured a little into a paper cup, and let her try it first. She Yujun tasted it on the tip of her tongue, pressed her lips together, and nodded to show it was pretty good.

“So, Zhou Zhuang, do you want to try it?”

He looked back and forth between the two girls. Two against one meant there was no room to negotiate. Shaking his head, he could only swallow his unease and add the rest of the rules.

“Then we’ll play Gan Deyan. The first person to run out of cards wins, and the winner of the next round deals first. Whoever has the most cards left loses. The winner can ask the loser one question. As for the wine...” He wasn’t sure about the amount since he had never drunk before, so he could only leave the punishment standard to Su Shiyi, the one who had proposed it.

“Just one finger’s worth each time. This bottle is enough for more than ten rounds.”

“What if two people have the same number of cards left?” She Yujun asked a detail.

“Then we go by seat order. The loser is the one sitting after the winner.”

Once they settled the seating, Zhou Zhuang took the seat after She Yujun, then Su Shiyi, and after the deck was shuffled, the game began.

In the first round Zhou Zhuang was dealer. His six cards had no pairs, no straights, not even a 2 he could use to control the table. His luck was miserable.

He played a 3 and then watched the two girls answer each other’s cards in turn. When it came back to him, his hand was trash, and he could only sit there and watch. When She Yujun finally clapped happily and laid down her last card, he had spent the whole round doing nothing at all, staring helplessly. With all five of his remaining cards untouched, he naturally became the first loser.

Zhou Zhuang drank the small cup Su Shiyi poured for him. Besides a slight burn, it was full of fruit flavor, with a lingering sweetness after he smacked his lips. It really was pretty good. His bad impression of her faded a little; at least on this point, she hadn’t lied to him.

“Ask away.” He was very confident in his girlfriend. This girl probably wouldn’t ask anything too embarrassing.

“Have you ever secretly liked another girl?”

That question was nasty. Cold sweat broke out on Zhou Zhuang’s back. This girl really had gone bad today.

Still, he answered frankly, “No. Didn’t a girl write me a love letter in my second year of high school? I rejected her and told you about it, didn’t I? I’ve always been devoted to you, heart and soul, for life.”

As he spoke, he secretly glanced at Su Shiyi out of the corner of his eye. Even though he and her had already had two inexplicable intimate encounters, those were mostly just bodily pleasures. There was no real emotion involved, so his words probably didn’t count as a lie.

That answer earned him a tender, lingering hand-hold from his girlfriend. If not for the third wheel sitting there, it probably would have led straight to a kiss.

And that third wheel came with built-in sound effects, constantly making tsk-tsk noises. Whether she was mocking him or just teasing him for being mushy, Zhou Zhuang found it infuriating.

In the second round, Zhou Zhuang’s luck improved. He drew a bomb right away and, unsurprisingly, took the win. She Yujun, thanks to the dealer’s first move, ran off a triple straight and had very few cards left, while Su Shiyi became the loser.

Even though the bottle was in her hands, she didn’t play favorites. She poured herself a proper amount and downed it in one gulp.

“What do you want to know?”

“Before you transferred to our school... what happened to you?” With his girlfriend sitting there, he didn’t dare ask anything too explicit, like, “How did you become so slutty?” That was their unspoken secret. He could only hope she would understand and follow the rules.

Su Shiyi gave him a bitter smile and didn’t answer right away. Instead, she took out her phone, tapped a few times, and held it out between the three of them.

“He was my boyfriend. Now he’s... basically my ex.” She pointed at the photo on the screen. Half of it was her, smiling like a flower, wearing an off-white top embroidered with a sleeping kitten, looking innocent and adorable.

The other half was a very handsome boy who looked a little more mature than his age, and their two hands formed a heart in the middle, linking them together.

Her gaze had gone unfocused. Her mind had already fallen into the whirlpool of memory.

“Zhou Zhuang, why did you ask her that? She’s already hurting.” She Yujun chided her boyfriend, wrapping her arms around her best friend to comfort her.

She had already heard Su Shiyi tell this story once while crying. Pouring salt into the wound a second time would definitely not feel good.

“It’s fine. It’s part of the game, and besides... once you say it out loud, it hurts less.” She patted She Yujun’s hand and, her eyes on Zhou Zhuang, continued her story.

“He was a classmate of mine.”

“At that time, my parents... had only just passed away. I was really sad... Even though a lot of people showed concern and comforted me, I knew they all had their own motives.”

“Only he...”

“He was very mature and steady, and I happened to be at the point where I felt the least secure. The moment I saw him, I liked him.”

“I only found out later that he had felt something the first time he saw me too. The two of us... probably fell in love at first sight.”

“Later I ran into some trouble, and after he found out, he used his family connections to help me deal with it. I was very grateful to him. We hadn’t known each other long before we confessed our feelings for each other.”

“I didn’t have any mind for class at all back then. His grades were really good, and he kept lending me his notes to copy. On weekends he even tutored me and said he was doing it for my future. I didn’t really like school to begin with, but with him, I could start to like it.”

“He was very brave. When I went to the amusement park and was too scared to ride the roller coaster, the drop tower, or the giant pendulum, he stayed with me and encouraged me to go with him. But that idiot, what’s the point of being brave? After the roller coaster, he still ended up puking his guts out.”

Thinking about those beautiful memories, Su Shiyi’s face broke into a stupid little smile without her even realizing it. Then something else came to mind, her smile collapsed, her voice began to choke, and pain took over everything.

“But recently... I found out... his feelings changed... He was actually with another woman!”

“He said... he couldn’t keep going with me... that we weren’t right for each other... that he had someone he truly loved.”

“If we weren’t right... then why did he come after me in the first place... I gave him everything... He pulled me back from the edge of despair, and then threw me off a cliff...”

“So... I chose to transfer schools. If I leave him, maybe I can slowly forget.”

“My heart is still waiting in the same place... but he’s gone...”

She Yujun clung to her friend’s shoulder, trembling nonstop. The sound of choking sobs and sniffles spread through the group with a heavy, mournful air, and even She Yujun, who was just as sentimental, had tears glistening at the corners of her eyes.

Zhou Zhuang said nothing, unsure whether the story was really true. Wantonness and deep affection, two things that should have clashed, had somehow fused together in her, filling the whole thing with absurdity and black humor.

Her ex had been a total piece of trash too. A cheating bastard, a heartless jerk who toyed with her and then dumped her, the phrase fit him perfectly.

Even if what she said was fake, setting aside everything else, the ability to cry at any moment was already enough to crush those traffic-idol celebrities into the dirt.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that.” Seeing the two girls getting more and more worked up, Zhou Zhuang hurriedly cut in. Tears really were a girl’s ultimate weapon.

“Then go get tissues if you know that!” The shoulder She Yujun was leaning on was already soaked through with tears. She helplessly ordered her boyfriend to fetch some cleanup supplies, not even noticing that her own face was also covered in tear tracks.

“Keep playing?” Once the two girls had collected themselves and fixed their clothes and hair, Zhou Zhuang looked at the little paper balls scattered all over the floor and asked guiltily.

Half the afternoon had almost been wasted because of the mess he’d started.

“Play! Crying helped a lot. I’m still young; I need to look forward.” As she said that, Su Shiyi untied her ponytail and went back to wearing her long hair loose the way she had in the morning.

Seeing that his girlfriend was already nodding too, he stopped overthinking it, shuffled the deck, and continued.

In the third round, the wheel of fortune turned. Su Shiyi drew the two jokers and treated them as wild cards, easily taking the round. When she laid down her last card, she flashed a bright smile, completely carefree, with no sign at all of the sorrow from before.

She Yujun, who had been sitting after her, never got control of the table and became the loser this round.

“What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done? Between a man and a woman.” After she finished her punishment drink, Su Shiyi took her hand, wore a teasing smile, and dropped a bombshell.

It was She Yujun’s first time drinking, and her face was already a little red. That question instantly spread the blush all the way to the base of her neck.

“Can you change the question?” she said weakly, covering half her face with one hand.

“A bet’s a bet.”

“Then...” She Yujun looked at her boyfriend, and her blush deepened. The words reached her lips, but she just couldn’t get them out. After a long pause, she finally blurted out the rest.

“Before, Zhou Zhuang kind of indirectly asked me to help him... touch him down there. I couldn’t win against him, so I... I helped him finish...”

Su Shiyi blinked, then leaned over and whispered a few words into her ear, making the girl’s face flush even deeper.

As the main man in the topic, Zhou Zhuang could only touch his nose and pretend he wasn’t embarrassed.

In the fourth round, Su Shiyi seemed blessed by the gods. She drew five cards in a straight right off the bat; if she hadn’t been the dealer, it would have been a natural heaven hand.

Although she started shedding single cards afterward, giving the other two a little back-and-forth, she still emptied her hand first, while She Yujun once again had the most cards left.

This time the question was, “Have you ever had a sex dream at night?” The scale was getting bigger and bigger. She Yujun was very shy, but she still nodded honestly.

“When did it happen? Was the person your boyfriend?” Su Shiyi pressed on relentlessly. Zhou Zhuang pretended to look at the sky, but in reality he was pricking up his ears and eavesdropping. He usually didn’t dare ask these things.

“If you can still win, then ask! If I win, I won’t let you off either.” She angrily reached out to tickle the underarms of the culprit who had embarrassed her. The two girls burst into a fit of horseplay, their skirts fluttering, their fair thighs faintly visible. Zhou Zhuang secretly stole a couple of looks, then coughed twice and started shuffling cards, finally putting an end to their indecent antics.

In the fifth round, none of them had a good hand. No straights, no bombs, nothing. Su Shiyi used reverse order play, going from big cards to small. The 2s that could have controlled the table were all spent in the first two rounds, and when she played her last 2 to take back the lead, nobody could stop her anymore. In the end, she won again and She Yujun lost.

“You know the question. Spill it honestly.” Su Shiyi was in a great mood after winning again. She poured She Yujun another drink and kept teasing her.

After downing three cups in quick succession, She Yujun, who had little experience, was already showing signs of drunkenness. She let out a belch and shyly covered her mouth.

“It was just once. The night after I helped Zhou Zhuang get off, I dreamed about him...”

The stimulation of the alcohol made her stop hesitating, but after she finished she was still too embarrassed to look at the two of them, especially her boyfriend. It was the kind of little secret she would absolutely never dare say in front of him normally.

During the day, she had already gotten wet from him touching her. At night, in her dream, he pinned her on the bed and stripped her naked, and that thick, hot thing pressed against her most private place, thrusting in and out in a shameful position.

She had changed her underwear again the next morning. There was no way she could say that out loud.

Zhou Zhuang was a little surprised, then moved and guilty. His girlfriend had given all her love and lust to him, and yet he had been fooling around physically with Su Shiyi behind her back.

Su Shiyi... thinking of her made Zhou Zhuang frown. She had already gotten his girlfriend drunk three times in a row.

Gan Deyan was mostly luck, but it still took some skill. Her card play was clearly better than theirs. If this went on, it would not do.

In the sixth round, Zhou Zhuang intentionally held back and didn’t play a single card. In the end Su Shiyi still won, but he was the one who lost.

“Wait, let me see.” Zhou Zhuang had been about to cover the cards and push them back into the pile when Su Shiyi caught him red-handed. She flipped over the hand, and the two 2s hadn’t moved at all.

“Your expression while playing was off. You didn’t look like you were thinking at all. I knew it.” She glanced at Zhou Zhuang, then at She Yujun with a thoughtful look.

“Feeling sorry for your girlfriend, huh? Fine, then this punishment is tripled. Don’t do it again.”

“It’s fine with me. It’s just a game, so follow the rules.” She Yujun tugged at his sleeve and said softly.

Her half-drunk, half-sober eyes were full of moving gratitude, and her pitiful tone made him ache with tenderness.

“Fine, but the winner always deals first, and being first to act is an advantage. Let’s change it so we decide by flipping cards instead.”

“Mm, I have no objection. Yujun, I really envy you.” Su Shiyi poured out half a small cup of wine and handed it to Zhou Zhuang. “Come on, take your punishment first.”

Zhou Zhuang downed it in one gulp. It was a little different from his earlier timid sip. The aroma was richer, and the afterburn was stronger too. He shook his head to stay awake.

“This time the question is, have you ever lied to your girlfriend about anything?”

What was this woman trying to do? Mutual destruction?

He couldn’t help staring wide-eyed. Wasn’t this question a self-destruct truck? If he told the truth, he’d be exposing their secret in front of his girlfriend.

She hadn’t even drunk that much yet. Or had he gotten drunk and heard wrong?

The paper cup in Zhou Zhuang’s hand was starting to cave in from his grip. He shot her a doubtful look, but all she wore was that teasing smile. Nothing else could be read from her face.

She was doing this on purpose. He was already certain of it, but there was nothing he could do about it. There wasn’t enough time to think through a strategy. If he hesitated any longer, he would be telling his girlfriend there really was something guilty in his heart.

“No. Yujun knows everything about me. We grew up together; we tell each other everything.” Zhou Zhuang suppressed the turbulence in his chest and finished in a calm voice.

He had already broken the game’s rules, but his girlfriend didn’t know that. Only she knew it, the girl who had this strange, unspeakable relationship with him.

Yujun was still a blank sheet of paper, while he had already gotten smeared with black ink.

After saying that, Zhou Zhuang lost all interest in the game. Truth had lost its meaning. All that remained were lies spoken against the heart.

Su Shiyi and She Yujun smiled and nodded together. The taste of it all could only be understood by the ones involved.

In the rounds that followed, Zhou Zhuang was completely reduced to a tool, just a machine for playing cards.

The two girls traded wins and losses, though Su Shiyi lost more often.

He had good positioning, so after a few rounds the whole thing had little to do with him, and he could sit quietly as an eavesdropping audience member.

She Yujun didn’t have enough imagination for this kind of thing, so she could only throw the exact same questions back at Su Shiyi.

In the end, Su Shiyi answered smoothly, saying things like “having sex with my boyfriend, and even in dreams it’s still him,” which only left the girl asking the questions blushing red instead.

All the water they had brought was gone. Under the pretext of being thirsty, Zhou Zhuang quietly poured himself quite a lot of wine, and not without the intention of numbing himself.

“I thought of a more fun way to play. One hand decides the winner. Want to try it?” Seeing that the bottle was nearly empty and all three of them were already flushed with alcohol, Su Shiyi made a new suggestion.

“We just played Truth or Dare. Now let’s play a liar’s chain game. Whoever tells the truth first drinks the rest!”

Zhou Zhuang said nothing. She Yujun looked eager to try, and the alcohol rising in her head had clearly made her bolder.

Again it was two against one, and he was dragged into a new game. Su Shiyi cleared her throat and prepared to start. In her tipsy state, her voice had taken on a lazy, soft quality that was seductive to the core.

“I’m not having a good time today.”

“If you’re not happy, go home and do your homework. You’ll be very happy then.” Zhou Zhuang added from the next seat.

“I’m not happy either. I’m not playing with Shiyi anymore.” She Yujun was already a little foggy-headed, and only after a moment did she pick up the thread.

“What I just said was the truth!” Su Shiyi started the second round with sly delight, fully into the deduction game now.

“Lies can’t become truth, and truth can’t become lies.” That line from Zhou Zhuang was less a lie than nonsense, and it naturally earned disdainful looks from the two girls.

“Zhou Zhuang, you were terrible at Truth or Dare. I don’t like it.” Thinking back on her boyfriend’s performance, She Yujun sweetly lied with a voice full of affection.

“Zhou Zhuang, you’re so useless. Should I tell Yujun to hand you over to me?”

“No!” Before he could answer, She Yujun rushed to reply. When she noticed both of them were looking at her, she went “oh” and opened her mouth wide. Concern made her panic, and she knew she had lost.

“I’ll drink for you. You’re a little drunk.” She picked up the bottle, her lips pouting, the unwillingness of losing the game written all over her face. Zhou Zhuang quickly snatched it back.

“No, I can lose at games.” She grabbed the bottle back again, and the last bit of wine slowly disappeared into her mouth.

She lightly wiped at her mouth, but the woozy haze of drink had already taken over her head.

Falling into her boyfriend’s arms, she found his warm embrace to be the safest harbor she had. Before she lost consciousness, she murmured the last few words she had left.

“But you? I can’t afford to lose.”

He felt the corners of his eyes grow damp. His girlfriend had never once confessed her feelings to him outright, but every careless little thing between them, every word she said, was full of tenderness.

Red sunset clouds had already bloomed on the horizon. White doves skimmed low over the water and settled on a reed. The sun sank in the west, like a glass of spilled red wine, soaking the whole evening in a soft, tipsy intoxication.

They should go home now.