Chapter 43: What Do Six Decks of Cards Look Like? The Underworld's Card Repository Has Been Moved Here

The Netherworld Card Game: From Fighting the Landlord to Six-Chong
Volume Three, Chapter Forty-Three: What Do Six Decks of Cards Look Like? The Netherworld Card Depository Has Arrived

The sweet soup aroma from the Six-Chong victory had barely dissipated when a heavy dragging sound echoed from the entrance of the City God Temple. Thump, thump, thump! Black Impermanence and White Impermanence were laboring to move a black wooden card chest taller than Wang Erima. Carved across the chest were the eight characters "Special Card Depository for Netherworld Six-Chong," and the corners were still stained with soil from the banks of the River of Forgetfulness, making it look as though it had been hauled directly from the deepest archives of the underworld.

"Lord Ma! The card chest has arrived! All six decks are inside!" White Impermanence’s face was drained of color, his voice completely hoarse. Black Impermanence trailed closely behind, his black cloth cap listing crazily to one side while he clutched a tattered rag to wipe away sweat. "This chest is even heavier than Lady Meng’s vanity case from last time! It took both of us ages just to inch it over here!"

Wang Erima hurried forward and gave the chest a tentative pat. A dull, muffled *thump* echoed out, startling him into taking two steps back. "Are you packing cards in here, or boulders? Can six decks really weigh this much?" As he reached out to flip open the lid, the Judge suddenly sprinted over, his three pairs of reading glasses sliding right down to the tip of his nose, and thrust out a hand to block him. "Don't open it! Don't open it! The Six-Chong card depository has strict opening protocols. You must recite the *Six-Chong Depository Opening Incantation* three times first, or the cards will scatter in a chaotic frenzy!"

"What kind of incantation? Is it more complicated than the 'Opening Door Chant' they use at the mahjong parlor in my residential compound?" Wang Erima scratched his head. Little Li hurriedly whipped out his yellow paper notebook, flipping to a page covered densely with handwriting. "Lord Ma! I composed the *Six-Chong Depository Opening Poem* last night. Reciting this should work just as well! The Judge said a poem is pretty much the same as an incantation—they're both just rhythmic speech!"

Before the Judge could raise an objection, Little Li cleared his throat and belted out: "The six-deck chest is heavy and grand, recite the poem to lift the hand! The paper is printed with Managara flowers, don't slack off when washing for hours!" With a smug expression, he looked over at the Judge. The Judge frowned, counted the characters in the poem, flipped through his pocket-sized *Detailed Rules of Six-Chong*, and muttered, "Although it isn't a traditional incantation, the rulebook doesn't explicitly forbid poetry... Proceed!"

With a combined heave, Black Impermanence and White Impermanence forced the lid open. A chilly aura carrying the crisp scent of paper and fresh ink billowed out, followed immediately by stacks upon stacks of cards spilling forth like an avalanche, piling up into a miniature mountain on the floor. Red and black card faces mixed together haphazardly, and a few stray cards fluttered right onto Wang Erima’s face, nearly blinding him.

"Good grief! This card pile is taller than Old Zhang’s Napa cabbage heap back in my residential compound!" Wang Erima peeled the cards off his face and picked up the Ace of Hearts. The card was a size larger than the ones used for Fighting the Landlord, and stamped across its surface was a shimmering golden design of Managara flowers. "So this is what six decks look like? In all my years—well, my ghostly existence—this is the first time I've ever seen so many cards. Shuffling these won't finish until next year, will it?"

Old Zhou squatted down beside the card mountain, cautiously picking up a few cards to compare them against his stash of melon seed shell chips. "Lord Ma, can these cards double as betting chips? They feel sturdier than my melon seed shells, and they won't poke my hands when I hoard them." Wang Erima smacked him lightly on the arm. "These are for playing the game, not for chips! If you dare hoard the cards as chips, the Judge is going to sentence you to copy the *Detailed Rules of Six-Chong* ten times!"

Overhearing this, the Judge immediately nodded in agreement. "Precisely! Old Zhou, if you dare misappropriate the cards, not only will I punish you by making you copy the rules, but I'll also assign you to wash all six decks of cards for three whole days!" Terrified, Old Zhou quickly dropped the cards back onto the pile and clutched his blue cloth pouch tightly. "I'm not touching them! I'm just looking!"

Black Impermanence and White Impermanence tentatively tried their hand at shuffling. Even four decks had been a struggle for the pair, and six decks left them completely flustered. White Impermanence grabbed a clump of cards and slammed them down onto the table, attempting to divide them into two stacks, but the cards went flying in every direction, scattering across the floor like drifted paper grave-money. Black Impermanence squatted down to scoop them up, but the more he gathered, the more he started stuffing them into his own cap, muttering under his breath, "This is the fastest way to collect them, just like when I hid the Big Joker last time!"

"You're pocketing cards again!" White Impermanence leaped up and lunged for the cap. As the two ghosts tugged and wrestled, the cap slipped with a *clack* and fell to the floor, spilling a cascade of hidden cards that landed squarely inside the soup cauldron brought by Lady Meng. Lady Meng had originally come over to deliver sweet soup, but seeing the card mountain collapse, she had set her cauldron aside to help pick them up, never expecting it to be transformed into a "card cauldron."

"Oh my! My sweet soup cauldron!" Lady Meng panicked, rushing over to fish out the cards. The sweet soup splashed all over the floor, and the cards became thoroughly soaked and soggy. "Can cards still be played with after taking a bath in soup?" Wang Erima walked over, plucked out a soggy King of Spades whose Managara flower design had completely smeared, and chuckled. "No problem at all! Once they dry out, we can just call them 'Sweet Soup Cards'—they'll taste sweet when we play!"

Little Li pulled out his yellow paper notebook, his brush flying furiously across the page before he chanted aloud: "The six-deck pile is like a hill, Black and White are shuffling with a thrill! If they clump together, don't fret and sigh, soaked in sweet soup, they look twice as high!" He proudly shoved the notebook right into the faces of Black Impermanence and White Impermanence. Black Impermanence’s face darkened, while White Impermanence scratched his head and grinned. "We'll shuffle slower next time, we promise not to plunge them into the soup!"

Squatting beside the card mountain, the Judge began counting the cards. Switching between his three pairs of reading glasses, he poked his fingers through the heap. "Six Aces of Hearts, six Aces of Spades... Wait, why is there an Ace of Hearts missing?" After rummaging around for a long while, he suddenly pointed an accusing finger at Wang Erima’s shoulder. "It's right there on you!"

Wang Erima patted his shoulder, felt a slip of paper, and pulled it down. Sure enough, it was the missing Ace of Hearts, the corner still flecked with a tiny drop of sweet soup. "It must've drifted onto me earlier, no wonder it was missing during the count! Judge, your card-counting speed is even slower than the elderly folks back in my neighborhood counting their pensions. By the time you finish counting these, we'll all be due for reincarnation!"

The Judge’s face flushed red as he put away his reading glasses. "I am simply being thorough! If even a single card is miscounted out of six decks, the entire game will be thrown into chaos!" Muttering defensively, he pulled a traditional counting abacus from his robes, clicking the beads with every single card he tallied. Before long, however, the abacus beads began to slip loose, rolling off the frame and tumbling straight into the card pile, where they mixed seamlessly with the cards, making it impossible to tell which was an abacus bead and which was a card.

Looking at the chaotic mess of a card pile, then at the flustered Black and White Impermanences, the overly meticulous Judge, and Old Zhou who looked physically pained to stay away from the cards, Wang Erima finally burst out laughing. "Forget it, let's practice shuffling first! Black and White, stop fighting over that cap and come lend a hand. Old Zhou, stop squatting there staring and help me scoop up these cards. Little Li, whip up another 'Shuffling Poem' to pump everyone up!"

Little Li sprang to his feet, cleared his throat, and declaimed: "Lord Ma leads the charge to clean the floor, Black and White, don't hoard them anymore! Old Zhou grips his melon seed bag tight, shuffling six decks is a pure delight!"

At that, everyone broke into laughter and threw themselves into cleaning up the card mountain. Though six decks were enough to induce a headache, with so many quirky companions pitching in, the task didn't seem quite so daunting after all.

Sunlight streamed through the lattice windows of the City God Temple, casting a warm glow over the card pile where the golden Managara flowers caught the light and glittered. Lady Meng laid out the soup-soaked cards to dry on a nearby stone table; Old Zhou occasionally attempted to sneakily pocket a melon seed shell or two while gathering cards; and Black and White Impermanence had finally ceased their bickering, cooperating to divide the cards into neat stacks. Watching this lively scene unfold, Wang Erima thought to himself: Six decks of cards are six decks of cards—even if it makes shuffling until his hands fell off, it was worth it. After all, playing cards with such an amusing crowd beat anything else in the world!