Gold Heart, Warm Soul

16| Let's play a game

The dinner reunion was going smoothly. Assortment of dishes was piled up in each family's table. The variety of food range from Chinese style Lobster to braised pork. Everyone was eating happily and the atmosphere was light-hearted and harmonious. As desserts was given out, an attendant came into the hall and announce that there will be a game for family members to participate it. Excited murmurs could be heard from the audience. The winner would win a golden bracelet with dragons carving and a jar of lotus wine that was worth more than a thousand dollars. The prize was astounding as both the bracelet and the lotus wine is very rare and one in million could obtain them.

The game was a card game, where 52 cards are placed on the table. You have 2 minutes to memorise all the cards. Once the time is up, all the cards would be flipped backwards onto the table, where only the cover could be seen. You have 3 minutes to match the card you first flip open to the next card you you flip. The game is to test your memory skills. However, the card deck does not contain ordinary cards. There are only 2 of the same cards in the set. For example, there are 2 king cards with a golden crown and 2 king cards with no crown but a purple robe. The cards may have 4 similar cards, such as the king, the queen, the joker, the club, the diamond and etc. However each group of 4 cards have differences in them. The differences could vary from the colour of the card to just minute details on the card, but only 2 cards are the same. Cards wrongly matched will be flip closed and you will not be able to flip them open again for 30 seconds.

The winner would be the person with highest number of correct cards matched. Since the level of difficulty is high, you will be awarded a bonus if you got 16 cards matched in the first minute. Since the Lee family are the sponsor and the host, they would not be able to participate in the game. You can ask any of the Lee family members to help you continue the game. The game will be paused and the remaining cards will be flipped open for your "helper" to memorise the cards once again. The game will then resume with the remaining time. Of course, the bonus will be valid only if the Lee family members would want to help you. However, a transaction must occur to compensate the "helper" if you won.

Once the rules are laid out, the game started with a participant from the Hong Family. Niya Hong walked forward to the game table. Everyone anticipated that the Hong family would win as they were a military family and they were trained to have good memory skills. The Hong family would be the most familiar with games such as these. Without putting our expectations, Niya Hong had gotten 38 cards matched, that was short of only 14 cards. Everyone was in amazement as she did not ask for help and had such a high score. An average person could only successfully match 18 cards in 3 minutes. Claps and cheers could be heard from the audience. The next contestant that went was Titus and he got 32 cards matched, losing to Niya. From the Peng family, Peng Li Shan, the second eldest son of the family, step forward to play the game. He, too, had the same number of cards matched with Titus. However, Li Shan asked for a bonus, and looked for Kace to helped him when he had 18 cards at the end of the second minute. Finally, it was the Lou Family's turn and of course, it was Felicia who volunteered to play the game.

By the first minute, Felicia already had 16 cards matched. Half a minute past, she had another 8 cards matched. However, her momentum slowed down as she made a mistake. She then decided to have a bonus. The game was paused and everyone held in her breath, wondering who she would call out to help her as Kace was out of her options. There were 1 minute and a half left to the game. With a lazy smirk on her face, she turns towards me and said, "I want you to help me continue the game, Ambar." I raised my eyebrows, wondering if she made a mistake by intention. After all, Felicia was a mischievous person who likes to make an event more entertaining. "What would I get out of it, if I helped you?" I asked her in a relaxed manner. All of the family members were engaged in our conversation. "Well, if you help me win, I'll give you the key to the Cloud Palace library," Felicia said with a smile on her face. Everyone in the audience sucked in a breath. Only the Lou family had access to the Cloud Palace Library. It was one of the greatest library built in X country by Empress Yang during the Qi Dynasty. Giving Ambar access to the Library is a high honour. It contains the history of X country since the very beginning. I could see where Felicia was going with her plan. She could not give me the Key without a challenge as the Lou family would disapprove. Besides, obtaining the Lotus wine was worth giving me the key and Felicia wanted to give me access so I could gain the knowledge about the curse and the past. As I was deliberating whether to take on her challenge, Felicia spoke, "Ambar, are you up for it?"

In a laidback manner, I replied, "sure, why not. I have nothing to lose." Kace turns towards me and looked at me as if saying "that's the key to Cloud Palace at stake! What do you mean you have nothing to lose?" I stood up lazily, ignoring my brother's stare and walked towards Felicia. Let the games begin!