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"This is Ningning’s property, Brother Fan, you better pay up!" Lin Wanning stretched out her hand, demanding payment.
After dinner, the four kids continued their Monopoly board game from before.
"I’m out of money," Xu Qingfan spread his hands, expressing his helplessness.
"Xu Qingfan is bankrupt, let’s keep going!" Xia Xiaoxiao picked up the dice and rolled.
"One, two, three..." Xia Xiaoxiao moved her game piece step by step, navigating through the squares on the board.
"Hahaha~ You’re going to jail!" Xu Qingfan pointed at her final destination and mocked her.
"Ah~ I don’t have enough money to pay the bail!" The bail was fifty dollars, and Xia Xiaoxiao counted her remaining thirty-something Game Coins at the table, speaking with a sense of defeat.
"Yay! Ningning wins!!" Lin Wanning scooped up the large pile of coins before her, tossing them into the air.
"Awesome!" Zhang Yiyi also clapped and cheered.
Perhaps it was home-field advantage, but Lin Wanning cleaned house several games in a row, leaving Xu Qingfan a bit bored with Monopoly. He suggested, "How about we play ’Don’t Take the Challenge’ instead?"
"What is ’Don’t Take the Challenge’?"
"Brother Fan, is this a new game you’re bringing up?"
"Hmm?"
The three girls looked at him, puzzled, tilting their heads.
"This is a game I thought up. We cut out card-sized pieces of paper and write actions on them. Once written, we randomly tie them to our heads; we can’t see them but our opponents can. Then you have to coax me into performing the action written on the card," Xu Qingfan explained.
"Don’t get it." Lin Wanning shook her head, looking clueless like a bobblehead doll.
"Like this, I write ’drink water’ on a card, then tie it onto Ningning’s head," he gestured the action of tying something around Lin Wanning’s head with both of his empty hands, "Wanning, you can’t see the words on the card, only the three of us can."
"Ningning can’t see!"
"Right, and then we’d talk and lead you into drinking water. If you perform the action of drinking water, then Ningning, you’d lose. That’s the ’Don’t Take the Challenge.’ Do you understand?" Xu Qingfan looked at each of the three in turn.
"Mhm, mhm, mhm!"
"Seems like it could be really fun!~(*°▽°*)~" Lin Wanning’s eyes sparkled with enthusiasm.
"Let’s play!"
The four of them quickly prepared the tools needed for the game, cutting out colored greeting cards and repurposing unusable hair ties.
"Let’s draw lots to decide who gets to challenge whom." Xu Qingfan spread out four crumpled pieces of paper with their names on them in his palm for the others to take.
"Xu, Ningning gets to challenge Brother Fan!" Lin Wanning unfolded her piece of paper and announced with excitement.
Xu Qingfan drew Zhang Yiyi’s name, Xia Xiaoxiao got Lin Wanning, and the remaining Zhang Yiyi would write for Xia Xiaoxiao.
Considering that Zhang Yiyi rarely spoke more than three words at a time, he wrote on the first card: Look up.
"Can Brother Fan write anything?" Lin Wanning asked loudly from afar, making sure to keep her distance.
"You can’t write something too easy or too hard, like breathing or blinking; that’s impossible not to do, right!?" Xu Qingfan clarified.
"Hee hee, okay~" Lin Wanning nodded her head and went back to writing earnestly.
After exchanging the five written cards, the game began promptly.
In the first round, the card on Xu Qingfan’s head read ’speak’, Xia Xiaoxiao’s was ’laugh out loud’, Zhang Yiyi’s was ’look up’, and Lin Wanning’s was ’say Brother Fan’.
After tying the cards onto their heads, each of them cautiously tested the others with their eyes.
Xu Qingfan was the first to strike. He pointed to the ceiling and asked, "Ningning, why is there a gecko on your ceiling?"
"Hahaha~" As soon as Xu Qingfan began speaking, the three girls pointed at him and roared with laughter.
"Wait, I lost?" Xu Qingfan incredulously took the card off his head and after reading that it said ’speak,’ he glared at Lin Wanning menacingly.
"So dumb!" Xia Xiaoxiao taunted.
"Hee hee, Brother Fan, you can’t blame Ningning if you’re just unskilled."
"Hahahaha!" The three turned their finger-pointing at Lin Wanning’s card.
"Ah!" Lin Wanning covered her mouth in surprise after seeing it.
"Still laughing, hand it over!" Xu Qingfan reached out and pulled the card off Xia Xiaoxiao’s head to show her.
"Damn!" The usually quiet Xia Xiaoxiao let out a rare curse.
Zhang Yiyi was desperately trying to hold back laughter, covering her mouth to prevent herself from speaking, fearful of following suit with the rest.
The three reset with new cards. This time, Xu Qingfan’s task was to say a four-character idiom, Xia Xiaoxiao’s was to indicate agreement, and Lin Wanning’s was to say ’strawberry cake’.
Learning from the first round, everyone became more guarded. Xu Qingfan inexplicably looked up at the ceiling for no apparent reason.
Lin Wanning and Xia Xiaoxiao understood the cue immediately and mimicked him.
Zhang Yiyi, confused by the actions of the other three, also looked up.
The three covered their mouths, giggling silently, none of them speaking. Xu Qingfan took the card off Zhang Yiyi’s head and showed it to her.
After seeing what was written, Zhang Yiyi smiled slyly and put on a new card (high-five someone) on her head.
"Power in numbers," Xia Xiaoxiao, with the guidebook in her hand, initiated the second round.
"Majestic as a tiger," predictably, Xu Qingfan, who always loved to play word games with idioms, immediately fell for it.
"Commanding presence, and Brother Fan, you’ve lost!" Lin Wanning pointed at him, laughing.
"Damn! Xia Xiaoxiao, you just wait." n𝚘vp𝚞𝚋.com
"Miss Xiaoxiao is so clever!"
"So clever!" Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi applauded.
"As if I’m afraid of you!" Xia Xiaoxiao’s face lit up with a smug expression.
"Hand it over!" Xu Qingfan snatched the card from Xia Xiaoxiao’s head.
"Come on, when did I ever indicate agreement?" Xia Xiaoxiao spoke up in protest after reading the contents.
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