Chapter 1020: One Hand Pays, the Other Delivers
“Of course not.”
Chen Junnan smiled and stepped forward as he said, “The same trick works on a Saint Seiya only once.”
“Saint Seiya…?” Yan Zhichun showed a look of exasperation. “Can you be serious?”
“Alright, I’ll put it bluntly. Let’s just exchange our ‘Characters’ right here,” Chen Junnan said. “You don’t trust me, right? I came up with a new plan. We give our ‘Characters’ to each other at the same time—one hand in each hand—and trade simultaneously. After we finish using them back in our base, we’ll give the ‘Characters’ back to each other. It’ll be like nothing ever happened. No hard feelings, and both sides get extra points. What do you think?”
Yan Zhichun’s expression clearly shifted as she pondered the feasibility of this plan.
If it’s a true cash-on-delivery exchange, there’s naturally less reason to worry about the other party cheating.
But the only problem now was… whether the ‘Character’ in the other’s hand was as valuable as the one in her own.
As if seeing through Yan Zhichun’s hesitation, Chen Junnan opened his fist and then clenched it again.
A crisp ‘clatter’ distinctly reached the ears of all three people present. It sounded as though Chen Junnan was holding a bunch of keys in his hand.
“Sister Chun… what are you waiting for? Would a chain alone make a sound like that?” Chen Junnan said. “It’s left-right structured, damn it—no cheating, fair and square.”
“Let me hear it once more,” Yan Zhichun said.
“Alright, alright, still don’t believe me?”
Chen Junnan turned around, cupping his hand into a bowl shape with the ‘Character’ in his palm and the back of his hand facing Yan Zhichun. Then he tapped the door handle—also made of metal—with his palm.
Two ‘clang clang’ sounds rang out. The thing in Chen Junnan’s palm striking the door handle indeed didn’t sound like a chain.
“Now you can confirm it’s a ‘Character’, right?” Chen Junnan said. “Listen again!”
Chen Junnan clenched his fist again, and another ‘clatter’ sounded.
By now, Yan Zhichun was certain that Chen Junnan was indeed holding a ‘Character’, and that it was of the ‘left-right structure’.
“You don’t even know what ‘Character’ I’m holding, yet you boldly propose to trade with me…” Yan Zhichun asked. “What if I have an ‘integral structure’ ‘Character’? What would you do then?”
“Good question!” Chen Junnan said. “I’m laying it all out today! No matter what ‘Character’ you have, as long as it’s one that can be used in this game, I swear I won’t cause you any trouble.”
With that, he slowly pushed his right hand forward.
“So far, neither of our teams has obtained a ‘Character’ from the other side, right? If you exchange with me, we both earn points for our teams, and we can go back and tell everyone about our heroic moves. Isn’t that a good thing?”
What Yan Zhichun had in mind was naturally not some ‘heroic moves’ but a much more practical issue.
Because in her hand was the ‘Cannon’.
In this game, each side only has three left-right structured ‘Characters’.
The red side: ‘Minister’, ‘Marshal’, ‘Cannon’.
The black side: ‘Advisor’, ‘General’, ‘Cannon’.
The rules of ‘Cangjie Chess’ dictate that these left-right structured ‘Characters’ can be used as two separate characters. The ‘commanders’ would only allow some capable individuals to carry these ‘Characters’, so it’s not strange that Chen Junnan’s ‘Character’ is left-right structured.
But there was one problem: if the other party held the ‘Marshal’, then this exchange would be somewhat disadvantageous.
After all, whether it’s the component ‘リ’ (knife radical) or ‘巾’ (cloth radical), the characters that can be formed are too few. Even if a few could be awkwardly pieced together, they might be rare characters. Its value simply couldn’t compare with her own ‘Cannon’.
If the other party had ‘Cannon’, then both sides would essentially be swapping radicals—exchanging the ‘fire’ radical for the ‘stone’ radical. Both radicals are very useful, so overall it’s a break-even, a reasonable trade.
The best-case scenario would be exchanging for ‘Minister’, because both ‘wood’ and ‘eye’ can serve as radicals. Although she couldn’t think of what characters they could form right away, it would certainly be more profitable than the previous two.
Yan Zhichun didn’t know if Chen Junnan was just a blind cat bumping into a dead rat—pure luck—or if he really had that kind of foresight.
Superficially, it appeared to be a break-even one-for-one swap, but the three ‘Characters’ she could potentially receive corresponded to ‘gain’, ‘even’, and ‘loss’.
The probability of ‘gain’ was one third, while the probability of ‘no gain’ was two thirds. In theory, she couldn’t gamble on this round.
After all, she had no way to guess which ‘Character’ Chen Junnan was carrying.
At the same time, Chen Junnan was racking his brains. He knew that in his hand was the ‘Marshal’, which was the least useful among all the left-right structured ‘Characters’. If he could really exchange it for the other party’s left-right structure, he wouldn’t lose out no matter which one he got.
But he was a bit worried that Yan Zhichun might not have a left-right structure but rather ‘Chariot’ or ‘Horse’.
After all, there were four pieces that could ‘cross the river’: besides ‘Chariot’, ‘Horse’, and ‘Pawn’, the only left-right structure was ‘Cannon’.
It was a gamble with very low odds for both sides, hinging on whether the other party dared to agree.
“So what do you say, Sister Chun?” Chen Junnan raised the ‘Character’ in his hand and asked, “Trade or leave?”
Hearing this, Yan Zhichun seemed to make a decision. She slowly reached behind her head, lifted her long hair, and with a ‘snap’, a small hair clip was unfastened. She also clenched her hand into a fist and took down an object.
It was the ‘Character’ hidden in her hair.
“Whoa…” Chen Junnan exclaimed softly. “I really didn’t see that coming. You clipped the ‘Character’ to your hair with a hairpin?”
“Chen Junnan, let’s trade,” Yan Zhichun said.
Chen Junnan didn’t act immediately. Instead, he stared at Yan Zhichun’s fist and said, “I need to first confirm you’re really holding a ‘Character’. Otherwise, if things turn sour later, it’ll be bad for everyone.”
“Don’t worry.” Yan Zhichun turned around, placed the ‘Character’ in her palm just like Chen Junnan did, and then struck the door handle with her palm.
Clang, clang.
Two crisp sounds—she was indeed holding a ‘Character’.
“Classy,” Chen Junnan said. “Come on, Sister Tiantian, be our witness.”
Tiantian paused, then nodded, and walked solemnly to stand between them.
Both held their left hands in fists and right hands open, stepping forward step by step.
When they were close enough, each placed their fist above the other’s open palm. The atmosphere grew tense.
“Sister Chun… let’s be clear…” Chen Junnan said. “Once the deal is on, no backing out. No objections.”
“Alright…” Yan Zhichun said. “After the exchange, we’ll leave this room immediately. We’ll only look at the ‘Characters’ in our hands after we’re outside. No one can go back on their word.”
“Don’t worry…” Chen Junnan said with a smile. “As long as you give me a ‘Character’, I won’t cause you any trouble. But if you give me a chain…”
“You can rest assured,” Yan Zhichun said. “You already stole my chain. How could I have that many chains?”