Chapter Fifty-Five: The Factory Shutdown

Lin Miaomiao nodded, carefully gathering the game pieces one by one. Afterward, she played another round of Go with the Third Prince, Li Taian. Before she even realized what had happened, she had already lost. Staring at Li Taian in disbelief, she asked, “How did I lose?”

The Third Prince pointed to the five white stones connected on the board and explained, “They were linked together just now.”

Lin Miaomiao felt as if her years of experience playing Go in class had been utterly insulted. She said to Li Taian, “Let’s play again.”

Xiao Gexu sat nearby, sipping tea and reading. Upon hearing Lin Miaomiao’s challenge, he nearly laughed out loud. The Third Prince’s skill at Go was exceptional; no matter how many rounds Lin Miaomiao played, the outcome would likely remain unchanged.

Sure enough, in the following rounds, just as Xiao Gexu had predicted, although Lin Miaomiao managed to place many stones, she still ended up losing every time. She recalled playing Go with Li Yanhe before—she had lost repeatedly as well.

When playing with Li Yanhe, Lin Miaomiao always felt as if she were up against a master. She would inevitably regret her moves and try to take them back, but to no avail.

Feeling as though her intelligence had been thoroughly slighted, Lin Miaomiao unhappily gathered the game pieces, sneaking a glance at the tea-drinking Third Prince and, without being noticed, tried to move one of the stones.

But Li Taian had clearly seen her little trick. He set down his teacup and remarked, “Actually, you lost completely. Every route was blocked by me.”

Lin Miaomiao was speechless.

He must be doing this on purpose. She didn’t know why, but she pouted unhappily. “It’s just a game—did you have to be so serious? Couldn’t you have let me win a couple of moves?”

Hearing her muttered complaint, the Third Prince raised an eyebrow and replied, “You didn’t ask me to go easy on you.”

Lin Miaomiao widened her eyes. “So if I had asked you before, would you have let me win?”

Li Taian took a sip of tea and shook his head. “Probably not.”

Lin Miaomiao shot him a look. “Honestly, playing games with you is no fun at all—there’s no sense of accomplishment.”

She fished a deck of cards from her small bag. They had been carved for her by Li Yanhe from wood—light, though not quite suitable for shuffling with flair.

With a hint of pride, Lin Miaomiao looked at Li Taian and asked, “Want to play poker? This time, I definitely won’t lose.”

The Third Prince’s handsome smile broke through as he replied, “Introduce the rules first.”

Lin Miaomiao explained, “This game is called ‘Fight the Landlord.’”

Li Taian nearly choked on his tea, only his good manners saving him from spitting it out. “Fight the Landlord?”

She nodded. “The first to play all their cards wins.”

After explaining, she showed Li Taian two cards and then, realizing the game required three people, handed them to Xiao Gexu as well. As Xiao Gexu was about to decline, Lin Miaomiao quickly said, “If you don’t play, we’ll be one short.”

So Xiao Gexu listened seriously as Lin Miaomiao explained the rules. She handed them each a “Joker,” explaining, “These are the Big Joker and the Little Joker. The Big Joker beats the Little Joker.”

“The Little Joker is higher than any other card,” she continued, drawing four matching cards from the deck. “If you have four of a kind, that’s a ‘bomb’—it can beat most combinations, except the Jokers.”

“If you have both Jokers, that’s the highest ‘bomb’—the King Bomb—nothing can beat it.”

Li Taian nodded as she spoke, carefully following her explanation. Once she finished laying out the rules, she dealt the cards. Li Taian ended up as the landlord.

“Can I refuse to be the landlord?” he asked.

Lin Miaomiao shook her head. “No, the card was dealt to you, so you’re the landlord. He and I are a team.”

In the first round, Lin Miaomiao won easily. Since Li Taian and Xiao Gexu were unfamiliar with the rules, it was easy for them to lose.

Her confidence restored after the defeats in Go, Lin Miaomiao started the second round—only to lose this time.

She was the landlord again, but luck was with her—she held both Jokers, the King Bomb.

Yet, before she even had a chance to play her King Bomb, she lost. Lin Miaomiao was suddenly in awe of Li Taian and Xiao Gexu’s skill.

In the third round, Li Taian and Lin Miaomiao became the peasants, while Xiao Gexu was the landlord. Lin Miaomiao clung to Li Taian, and together they won.

She felt as if she’d won effortlessly, while Xiao Gexu, with his usual serene expression, seemed to find the game surprisingly entertaining.

Lin Miaomiao discovered that whenever she was on someone’s team, she could win by doing nothing. But when she was the landlord, she didn’t stand a chance.

Catching the aroma of food, Lin Miaomiao said to Li Taian, “Let’s finish this round and stop—it's already noon and time to eat.”

Li Taian nodded. After they finished playing, he seemed quite taken with the game and asked Lin Miaomiao, “Could you give me this deck of cards?”

She shook her head. “No, Li Yanhe carved these for me. I can’t give them away. But I can draw them for you, and you can carve your own set.”

Li Taian nodded and said nothing more. When Lin Miaomiao left his tent, she found Li Yanhe already waiting for her outside.

She skipped over to him, chattering excitedly about her morning playing games with the Third Prince.

Back in the tent, Li Taian sipped his tea. He could faintly hear Lin Miaomiao’s clear, lively voice outside. Xiao Gexu seemed to notice that the Third Prince was in a subdued mood.

Quietly, Xiao Gexu poured him another cup of tea. “Your Highness, as with drinking water, only you know yourself whether it is warm or cold.”

The Third Prince took a sip and turned to Xiao Gexu. “Cousin, shall we head back soon?”

Lounging lazily, his tone was not so much a question as a statement, and Xiao Gexu understood this perfectly.

That afternoon, Lin Miaomiao didn’t seek out the Third Prince for more games. In the evening, when she went to deliver the set of drawn cards to him, he was busy and not in the tent.

Li Yanhe waited for her to return. Seeing her come back with a hint of disappointment, she handed him the card drawings.

Li Yanhe looked at her, puzzled. She explained, “He wasn’t there. If you see him, just give these to him.”

He nodded silently. They climbed into the carriage and returned to Lin Miaomiao’s small courtyard.

Li Yanhe, of course, knew why the Third Prince was absent. He’d been busy preparing to return to the capital and was seldom in the camp lately.

The next day, when Li Yanhe went to the camp, the Third Prince had already packed up and was preparing to leave with Yuan Sihan.

Seeing Li Yanhe walk over expressionless, the Third Prince thought he’d come to see Yuan Sihan off. Instead, Li Yanhe stopped in front of him, drew a stack of papers from his robe, handed them over, and left.

Li Taian, feeling that he and his second brother were not that close, opened the stack and saw that it was the poker card drawings from the previous day. Instantly, he knew who had asked Li Yanhe to deliver them and couldn’t help but shake his head with a smile.

Yuan Sihan watched his nephew and said nothing, just patted Li Yanhe on the shoulder, then mounted his horse and rode away.

In the days that followed, Lin Miaomiao was busy distributing wages, pastries, and New Year goods to the workers. Each of the three factories received a share.

She was occupied reconciling accounts and handling many affairs, as the factories would soon shut down for the New Year. That morning, after sending off the last batch of overtime orders, she officially closed the factories. After distributing wages as usual, the workers bid her farewell joyfully, carrying their gifts and pay.

After the workers had left, Lin Miaomiao, accompanied by Lin Qi, Lin Ji, Ruoyu, and Lanzhi, locked all the doors and departed by carriage.

With the New Year just days away, Lin Miaomiao slaughtered a pig and a sheep from her own ranch—since eating beef was forbidden in this dynasty. Anyone harming or consuming beef would face punishment, so naturally, she would not tread near the edge of the law.

Cuiliu had already cleaned the house thoroughly. Although not responsible for the accounts, Cuiliu was highly capable and kept the household immaculate, never flustered.

Lin Miaomiao sat in a room with the two children, Lin Langluan and Lin Langze, cutting paper window decorations.