On our wedding night, my wife acted strangely.

The two craftsmen took the silver and the paper pattern and left.

Lin Yi leaned back in his chair, thinking about how to teach them to play.

The rules are actually not complicated: pong, chow, kong, and win. These are the basic operations.

The difficulty lies in strategy and calculation, but these women are all very clever, especially Su Meier, who should be able to get the hang of it in a couple of rounds.

As expected, the craftsman delivered the goods by evening.

The mahjong tiles were 136 pieces made of huanghuali wood, and they were a little larger than Lin Yi had imagined, but they felt very good in the hand.

The words on it were clearly engraved, and the paint was applied neatly.

Lin Yi picked it up and weighed it in his hand, satisfied.

"Alright, fifty taels of silver! You won't be leaving for the next few days. You'll be making mahjong sets for me. Start with... a hundred sets."

"Yes, Your Highness, this humble subject thanks you for your generosity!"

The two craftsmen were especially happy.

He could easily give away fifty taels of silver, enough to buy himself a concubine or pay for his son's wedding.

Ultimately, Lin Yi is willing to give money to the lower classes because they dare to spend it! Wealthy families often like to hide their money and leave it to their children and grandchildren, but ordinary people are different; they don't need to hide money, they don't have any at all.

After receiving the reward, they would calculate how to spend the money little by little, so that the economy of the Great Zhou could gradually recover.

The two craftsmen left, expressing their deepest gratitude, and went back to continue making mahjong tiles.

Lin Yi placed the mahjong set on a square table that had been prepared beforehand and asked Qiangzi to invite people.

"Qiangzi!"

"Oh, Your Highness."

"Go and call the Princess, Lin Mi, and Manager Su over. Tell them I have something good to show them."

"Yes."

In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the three women arrived one after another.

Nangong Min arrived the fastest. As soon as she entered, she saw a pile of wooden blocks neatly stacked on the table and asked curiously, "Husband, what is this?"

"Mahjong." Lin Yi sat in the main seat and pointed to the other three chairs. "Come on, sit down, I'll teach you how to play."

"Oh? Are we going to play a game?" Nangong Min was still a little surprised.

Because she is a princess, she needs to be mindful of her status and cannot play hide-and-seek with Lin Yi or anything like that.

"Yes, don't be nervous, it's not the kind of game you're thinking of, sit down quickly."

"Um."

Nangong Min dared not refuse.

Mimi followed her in, and as soon as she saw the things on the table, she sat down to study them, picking up a piece and examining it over and over.

"Your Highness, what is this? It's quite exquisitely made."

Su Meier was the last to enter. She stood to the side, glanced at the table, and didn't say anything, but there was clearly some interest in her eyes.

"Please sit down." Lin Yi pushed the tiles to the middle. "This is called mahjong. It's played by four people. I'll explain the rules step by step."

He first separated the three types of tiles (万条饼) and introduced them to them one by one.

"These are four of each of the ten thousand to ninety thousand. These are four of each of the one to nine stripes. These are four of each of the one and nine rounds. In addition, there are four of each of the four cardinal directions (east, south, west, north, center, fortune, and white), for a total of one hundred and thirty-six cards."

Nangong Min listened attentively and was already calculating in her mind.

Mimi looked bewildered: "So many? I don't think I can remember them all..."

"If you can't remember, just play a few more rounds. You'll remember it as you play," Lin Yi said with a smile. "Come on, let me tell you how to win."

He spent about fifteen minutes explaining the basic rules.

What is a straight, a triplet, and a pair? How do you pong, chow, and kong? What are the conditions for winning?

Su Meier listened without saying a word, then said, "This concubine understands."

Lin Yi glanced at her.

This woman had entered his dream and had some understanding of what was in Lin Yi's mind, so she learned quickly.

Nangong Min asked, "Shall we give it a try first?"

"Okay, let's play a round to practice, it's free."

The four people sat down.

Lin Yi arranged the cards, rolled the dice, and dealt the cards—the whole process was smooth and efficient.

The three women reacted differently after receiving their cards.

Nangong Min quickly arranged the cards, classifying them by suit (wan, tiao, bing), neatly and orderly.

Su Meier was the same, and she could arrange the cards even faster than Nangong Min; her fingers were incredibly nimble.

After setting up the cards, Mimi looked left and right, looking completely bewildered.

"Your Highness, I'm not touching anything, what should I do?"

"Draw a card first. Keep the one that matches your hand, and discard the one that doesn't."

"Oh……"

The first game was played very slowly, and Lin Yi had to explain each card for a long time.

But by the third round, Nangong Min had already figured it out, and Su Meier even managed to pull off a hidden combo.

Mimi was still confused.

"I can't do it, Your Highness, my mind can't process it..."

Lin Yi looked at the cards in his hand.

He could have won, but he deliberately didn't, and instead discarded a 30,000 tile.

"Thirty thousand, anyone interested?"

Mimi looked down at her cards, then suddenly her eyes lit up: "Hey! I have two 30,000s! Pong!"

"Yes, yes, let's bump them together, hahaha." Lin Yi encouraged her with a smile.

With this touch, Yang Mi's situation immediately improved significantly.

After a few more rounds, Lin Yi deliberately picked another card for her.

"Nine coins!"

"Hey! I won! Hahahaha!" Mimi slammed her tiles down and jumped up excitedly, "Your Highness! Your Highness! I won!"

"That's impressive."

Nangong Min, who was standing nearby, saw it all clearly and knew that Lin Yi had deliberately let him win, but she didn't say anything, she just smiled and shook her head.

Su Meier noticed it too, and her lips curved slightly, remaining impassive.

Yang Mi didn't care about any of that; she was happy because she had won.

"Again! Again!"

"I'm going to beat you all to a pulp today!"

……

Once you get the hang of mahjong, you can't stop.

The next day, when Lin Yi went to the main courtyard, he found that Nangong Min was already teaching Yang Siyu how to fight.

In the east courtyard, the mother and daughter sat facing each other, with a mahjong set on the table.

It has to be said that Min'er knew how to live well. Seeing that there were a few unused ivory pieces in the storeroom that were taking up space, she ordered the two craftsmen to make a set of ivory mahjong tiles overnight. They looked crystal clear and particularly noble.

At this moment, Yang Siyu was looking at a nine-bamboo card over and over, while Nangong Min patiently explained it to him.

"Mother, if we can't gather enough Kujo, we should just send him away. He's useless."

"Oh... but I think this number is quite large, it would be a waste to play it."

"When playing mahjong, it's not about the size of the numbers, but whether you can form a set."

Lin Yi stood at the door for a while, then turned and left without going in to disturb them.

In the afternoon, commotion also came from Tingsongyuan.

Mimi pulled Shuying and two new maids, and the four of them squeezed into the room, rubbing their hands together enthusiastically.

"bump!"

"eat!"

"Wait, wait, wait! You can't eat that. You have to eat the other way around!"

"Huh? What if I typed it wrong?"

They were making a lot of noise; you could hear them even across the yard.

Lin Yi smiled as he passed by and ignored it.

I thought to myself, let them make a fuss, it's better than them scheming against each other all day long.

By the third day, even Su Meier was captivated.

Lin Yi went to the entertainment center on business. After finishing her work in the basement, Su Meier actually took the initiative to go and have a chat with Nangong Min for the whole afternoon.

Zhu Zhu told Lin Yi about this.

"Your Highness, Manager Su spent the whole afternoon in the main courtyard beating that... what was it again?"

Mahjong.

"Yes, yes, mahjong. They played until dark before leaving. I heard they won more than two hundred taels of silver from the princess."

"Hahaha."

Lin Yi laughed loudly.

Su Meier's brain is so sharp, her card counting skills at mahjong are simply outclassed. I bet Nangong Min is furious.

Sure enough, when they returned to the main room that evening, Nangong Min complained to him.

"Husband, Mei'er is such a good card player! She knows exactly what I play and won three hundred taels of silver from me this afternoon!"

"Then you should invite Mimi to play together tomorrow. Mimi is clumsy, so you can win back the score."

"...Isn't that bullying people?"

"The point of playing mahjong is to win money, so why talk about morality?"

Nangong Min glared at him, but couldn't help but laugh.

"Hehehe, alright, alright, I'll fight her again tomorrow. I refuse to believe I can't beat her."

Lin Yi thought it was good to see his wife's defiant attitude.

It's good for women to have a competitive spirit; it's better than spending all their time scheming and plotting in the backyard.

Moreover, with mahjong, four people sit together, and even if there are some minor conflicts, they forget about them as they play.

Everyone's attention is on the cards, who has time to think about anything else?

Another advantage is the flow of information.

The four of them sat at a table, chatting about everything under the sun.

The news about whose maid made a mistake, which servant was punished, and so on was even more comprehensive than what Lin An reported.

Of course, mahjong also has its downsides, namely that it's too addictive.

On the fifth day, Lin An came to report that the people in the main courtyard were playing mahjong during the day, making too much noise and having a bad influence.

Lin An said, "Your Highness, you didn't see it, the Princess and Manager Su almost came to blows in the end."

"Why?"

"They say Manager Su intercepted the princess."

Lin Yi suppressed a laugh and said, "Hehehe, and then?"

"Then Madam Mi fanned the flames from the side, saying that Manager Su was doing it on purpose, that she just didn't like the Princess. You know the Princess's temperament, she couldn't stand it and got a little angry. Later, Consort Yang came over and beat everyone up, which eased the atmosphere."

"Alright, let them make a fuss, just don't go too far."

"Yes."

After Lin An left, Lin Yi thought about it and felt that it was necessary to set some rules.

Playing mahjong is fine, but you can't play for too long each day, at most two hours.

Otherwise, these guys would definitely play all night long.

So he sent Qiangzi to deliver a message that the prince had set a rule that card games could not exceed two hours a day, and those who exceeded the time limit would be fined silver.

The effect of this rule was immediate.

Although everyone was somewhat reluctant, no one dared to disobey the prince's words, so they obediently finished their work within two hours.

But what did they do after the two hours of fighting were over?

Let's discuss the card game.

Several women huddled together, reviewing the hand they had just played.

You said what you should have hit back then, and I said what I shouldn't have touched, and we chatted happily.

Lin Yi thought this was a good idea.

At least the backyard is finally at peace.