After Sebastian and the others left, Jade Golding’s lips curved into a smile. She glanced at Cecilia Croft, who was drawing her tiles, her expression one of feigned concern.

"Now that Sebastian is gone, there’s no one to help you with your hand. You’d better be careful, Miss Croft. Don’t go calling a false win."

Cecilia Croft gave Jade Golding a slight smile, her voice gentle.

"Thank you for your concern, Miss Golding. I’ll do my best to play more slowly."

Jade Golding just smiled faintly and continued to draw her tiles.

Cecilia looked away as well. Once all the tiles were drawn, she quickly sorted her hand. She laid all her tiles face down, pushed them to the edge of the automatic table, arranged them in neat rows, and then set them upright again.

Her movements were fluid and practiced, a stark contrast to how she had fumbled in front of Sebastian, looking like she couldn’t even sort her own tiles.

Jade Golding stared, momentarily stunned by her actions.

Cecilia had already drawn a tile and quickly made her discard. Seeing Jade still staring at her with a baffled expression, she said with a smile,

"Miss Golding, it’s your turn to draw."

Jade Golding’s expression shifted slightly as she drew her tile.

After discarding her tile, she let out a scornful laugh and said,

"Miss Croft, you don’t look like someone who can’t play mahjong. You weren’t just tricking Sebastian earlier, were you?"

A smile remained on Cecilia’s face as she replied softly,

"Weren’t you the one who reminded me this morning, Miss Golding, that Sebastian loves to dote on women? I was just taking your advice."

"Besides, my mahjong skills really aren’t as good as Sebastian’s."

Jade Golding’s brow furrowed, a flicker of displeasure in her eyes. Her chest rose and fell, a clear sign she was angered by Cecilia’s words.

Yet she had to maintain her composure and couldn’t afford to throw a tantrum.

From then on, Cecilia stopped being greedy. When her hand wasn’t great, she aimed to go out as quickly as possible, taking any win she could get.

If her hand was strong, however, she would play for a bigger score.

Jade tried to win off Cecilia’s discards but never could. Worse, she couldn’t seem to draw any good tiles herself and was often the one paying out. When she declared a Kong, she never managed to win off the replacement draw. Instead, she ended up discarding the exact tile Cecilia needed, allowing her to win with a limit hand off the Kong.

As she handed over her chips, she couldn’t help but complain.

"Giselle, couldn’t you see she was going for a flush? Why did you keep discarding Dot tiles for her to Pong?"

Giselle Grant didn’t take it personally; she just kept playing. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

After winning the next hand, she laid down her tiles and said softly,

"I kept discarding Dots because I was trying to make a Bamboo flush myself. Sorry, Jade. It’s a limit hand for me, too."

Jade was instantly deflated, utterly speechless.

By the end of the game, Jade Golding had lost nearly all her chips, with only 20 remaining.

The other three had all won at her expense.

After Cecilia calculated her winnings, she said softly,

"I won exactly 200 chips."

Jasmine Vance: "I only won 120."

Giselle Grant: "I won 160."

The smile on Jade Golding’s face vanished completely.

Jasmine Vance pulled up her bank account details on her phone, placed it on the table, and turned to Cecilia.

"Cecilia, you’re incredible! 200 chips... that’s ten million! Good thing I wasn’t the one losing, or I’d be sick to my stomach."

Jade Golding’s lips pressed into a thin, hard line.

Cecilia also pulled up her bank account on her phone and set it on the table, putting on a shaken expression.

"I didn’t realize fifty thousand a chip was so much. I don’t think I can play for stakes this high again. If I had lost, my sister would have skinned me alive."

Hearing this, Jade finally saw an opportunity to mock Cecilia. She put on a relaxed expression and said,

"It’s not that big a deal. It’s just the price of a few designer handbags. We’ll be sure to invite you next time we play."

Cecilia, pretending not to notice Jade’s mockery, quickly shook her head.

"No, I’d better not. I just got lucky today. The Croft family doesn’t exactly have the funds for me to be this reckless right now."

Jade felt like she had thrown a punch into a bale of cotton; she was left with no idea how to retort.

With a grim expression, she transferred the money to each of the three winners, a knot of fury tightening in her stomach.

But there was no one there on whom she could take out her frustration.

After seeing Sebastian and his friends to the adjacent private room, Wendy Rhodes had returned for a look. She’d assumed that without Sebastian’s guidance, Cecilia wouldn’t even know how to play.

She hadn’t expected Cecilia to not only know how to play but to be quite skilled.

The way she drew and discarded tiles was with the practiced ease of a veteran.

Sensing that Jade Golding looked absolutely furious, Wendy didn’t dare sit beside her to keep watching the game. Besides, Giselle Grant wasn’t giving her a warm reception either. Not wanting to stick around and be snubbed, she went to find another group to hang out with and left the room.

When Cecilia received the bank transfer notification, she looked at Jade with a brilliant smile.

"Thank you, Miss Golding."

Jade looked at her smiling face, her chest rising and falling once before she managed to force a smile of her own.

"You’re welcome. Just think of it as a donation to the poor."

Giselle Grant glanced up at Cecilia, curious to see her reaction, but Cecilia’s smile didn’t falter.

"You’re such a great philanthropist, Miss Golding. I’m sure plenty of people would love to play with a generous benefactor like you."

The smile on Jade Golding’s face instantly cracked.

Jasmine Vance laughed and looped her arm through Cecilia’s. "My brother’s game isn’t over yet. Let’s go see how they’re doing."

Not wanting to get tangled up with Jade any further, Cecilia nodded.

"Sounds good."

Seeing how thoroughly Cecilia had angered Jade, Giselle asked in a low voice,

"Should we go take a look?"

Jade took a deep breath to compose herself. "Yes."

Giselle nodded, and they headed toward the private room where Sebastian was.

The moment they walked in, they heard Jasmine Vance talking to Finn Vance.

"Miss Golding lost to all three of us. She lost 480 chips in total—that’s twenty-four million!"

Jade Golding: "..."

Seeing the dark expression on Jade’s face, Giselle cleared her throat, trying to signal Jasmine.

Jasmine had already seen them enter out of the corner of her eye, but she had no intention of stopping. She continued,

"Miss Golding really lives up to her name. After losing so much money, she wasn’t even upset. In fact, she happily said we should consider it a donation to the poor."

Jade had always cultivated a public image of being dignified, positive, and cheerful.

She had only spoken so rashly because Cecilia had provoked her.

She never thought that little tattletale Jasmine would blurt it out for everyone to hear.

She quickly stepped forward, smiling.

"Jasmine, I was just joking with you girls. Why do you have to broadcast everything?"

Jasmine blinked, retorting to Jade,

"I’m not broadcasting it. My brother isn’t an outsider. Besides, aren’t you good friends with them, Jade? It was just a joke, so there’s no harm in letting everyone in on it, right?"

Jade could only force a smile and hum in agreement.

Jade shot a furtive glance at Sebastian, terrified he might read something into Jasmine’s words.

At the same time, she made a mental note. ’I have to be more careful about what I say in front of Jasmine from now on.’

’That little tattletale tells them everything.’