Sun Mei's Nicknames

Sun Mei was not really into gambling. She would rather spend her money in a big department store or visit one of the all-you-can-eat buffets in Las Vegas. Yu Zan, however, really wanted to try the roulette.

"Please, please, Sun Mei… Pretty, pretty please?" she said while looking at Sun Mei with her big eyes.

"Look who's using Lily's tactics now."

"I can also throw a tantrum if you say no."

"Fine! But we'll stay only for 10 minutes."

"I love you!"

"That's a little premature."

Yu Zan gave Sun Mei a bunch of dollar bills and asked her to convert them to chips in her stead.

"What is that?" Sun Mei asked in shock.

"What does it look like?"

"I don't know. Like your entire salary?"

"Seems about right. Now stop acting like my mother and bring me the chips! I mean, your chips. I'm not gambling or anything. I'm underage. I'm a lawful beautiful underage girl…" Yu Zan added in case someone happened to hear her.

"Here you go, lawful beautiful underage girl." Sun Mei handed her the chips. "You can hold them for me. I believe that is not illegal."

Yu Zan led her to the roulette table, where there were already about a dozen people, even though it was still noon.

"Look at those addicts," Yu Zan whispered in Sun Mei's ear.

Sun Mei laughed at the irony. "You are about to become one of them."

"Technically, you are. Now listen up, puppet..."

"Do not call me puppet."

"What about marionette?"

"No."

"Marion? Short for marionette?"

"That's an entirely different name, dummy."

"I'd call you doll, but it would seem flirty."

"What if you call me Sun Mei for a change?"

"Fine, spoil my fun."

As it turned out, Yu Zan was quite a lucky person. Ten minutes later, thanks to Sun Mei's adult help, she had bet 100 dollars and earned back 313.

"Can we stay a little more?" she begged Sun Mei.

"Okay, but you might want to take the advice you gave Mr. Wu. Try losing every once in a while so people don't get suspicious."

Yu Zan suddenly started laughing as if she had heard the funniest thing in the world.

"That advice doesn't apply to the roulette!" she told Sun Mei amid tears of laughter. "This is just a game of luck. There are no cards involved. What would one even memorize? The trajectory of the ball?"

Sun Mei blushed as Yu Zan kept laughing.

"I'm sorry I don't know how casinos work," Sun Mei told her. "It's not like we had a casino back in my village."

"You think we had one in mine?" Yu Zan asked her incredulously. "The closest thing to a casino in my village was the rusty slide on the playground. We took turns sliding down and bet on who would break less limbs!"

"Sounds like a fun game. Did you ever win?"

"Girl, people paid me to fall on purpose and then gave me a share of their profits."

"You mean you rigged the game."

"Yes."

"That explains a lot..."