Chapter 629 — A Grave Loss of Face

But seeing that Su Taizao was drunk as well, and mindful of the face they owed each other, Chen Yutian did not make a scene.

Wei Zhao, however, was taken aback. Chen Yutian—one of Qiu Lingshan's suitors? From the looks of it, Qiu Lingshan was not particularly keen on him. Wei Zhao wondered: if he were to kiss Qiu Lingshan himself, how would she react? Most likely, she would swallow her anger and say nothing.

"What is Truth or Dare?" Wei Zhao had never heard of the game, nor played it.

"Heh, it seems Brother Wei Zhao has never played. Taizao, explain the rules to him!" An Jianwen said to Su Taizao.

"All right, the game is very simple!" Su Taizao said. "Truth or Dare is a game for several people. You can use rock-paper-scissors, or spin a bottle, to decide who gets questioned. Of course, you can also just go around in order. Since there are so many of us, we'll skip rock-paper-scissors—too much trouble! Now, say I'm the questioner. I can pose a question, and the person being asked must answer, and must tell the truth—no spouting nonsense. If you're caught lying, you drink a bottle as penalty! Of course, if the question is rather sensitive and touches on personal privacy, you may decline to answer, but then you must choose Dare! And a dare means I name something, and the person being asked has to do it, no objections, whatever it is! And once you've chosen Dare, you can't go back on it—unless you choose to drink a bottle as penalty beforehand!"

"Oh, then you all play a round first. I'll watch." Wei Zhao felt this was a game he could do without; it had little to do with him.

"Fine, we'll play first, you watch!" Su Taizao nodded and agreed readily. As far as he was concerned, whether Wei Zhao joined in or not made no difference to him at all—so long as Gu Mengyao played. "Then I'll start. I'll begin by questioning Brother An!"

"All right, ask away!" An Jianwen nodded, calm and unhurried. As he saw it, Su Taizao could not possibly ask him anything too tricky or bizarre, and this first round certainly would not have him confess to Gu Mengyao outright—that would be too abrupt. He would have to wait at least until they had gone a full round before confessing.

"Then I'll kick things off. I won't make the first question too tricky—just you wait until the next round, heh heh!" Su Taizao said this on purpose. "My question is: what is the bravest thing you have ever done?"

"The bravest thing..." An Jianwen thought it over. If he had to name the bravest thing he had ever done, it would have to be harvesting someone's kidney—but of course he could not say that! He still had to maintain a positive image in front of Gu Mengyao, which made it all the more impossible to bring up those old tales of brawling and fighting. He thought for a long while. Among the bad and nasty things he had done, plenty were impressive enough, but when it came to anything positive, he came up empty.

At this thought, An Jianwen could not help but feel irritated at Su Taizao's question. What the hell kind of damn question was that?

Yet he could not refuse to answer—refusing would defeat the whole point of Truth or Dare. Whether it was the truth, though, only An Jianwen himself knew.

Marshaling his words, An Jianwen thought of some adventure films he had seen before, and said, "If we're talking about the bravest thing I've ever done, it would have to be fighting a shark!"

"Ooh, ooh, ooh! I love shark-fighting! Sister Yaoyao likes brave people too!" Shen Yushu clapped her hands and cried out.

Gu Mengyao shot Shen Yushu a glare, but said nothing.

Hearing Shen Yushu's words, An Jianwen was overjoyed. Gu Mengyao liked brave people? It seemed Su Taizao's question had actually hit the mark! Then he would have to give a proper performance. So he said, "Once I was at a seaside swimming area, swimming, when suddenly I heard screams and cries for help from somewhere behind me! I turned around and saw a great shark swimming toward us at speed! In that moment, what I thought of was not fleeing, but saving those tourists from danger. So I swam swiftly toward the shark. Seeing me swim over, the shark thought a fool had come to deliver himself as a meal, and was delighted, about to swim over and eat me—little did it know that the one delivering himself as a meal was really the shark itself!"

"Wow, Brother Jianwen, you're so brave!" Shen Yushu exclaimed.

"It was nothing, really!" Hearing Shen Yushu's praise, An Jianwen grew even more excited, and fueled by the wine he began to spin his tale wildly. "I drove my fist into the shark's mouth and shattered its teeth outright. Just like that, the shark had no teeth left—it became a toothless tiger, unable to eat me, and it was instantly dumbstruck! Then it turned to flee. How could I let it get away? Frighten people and then just run off—was it ever that simple? So I grabbed the shark by the tail and swung it around, and with a bang it slammed onto the beach and gave itself a concussion!"

"No way!" Shen Yushu's eyes went wide with disbelief. "Brother Jianwen, you're amazing! I've heard that shark teeth are the strongest teeth of any animal in the world, and you shattered them—that's incredible!"

An Jianwen was slightly taken aback. How would he know whether shark teeth were hard or not? He had only ever seen living sharks in an aquarium—when had he ever touched a real one? He had just been making up a story, only to show off his bravery, without thinking that far.

But now the words were out, and there was no taking them back. He could only tough it out and say, "It was all right. Not really that impressive."

"Oh, Brother Jianwen, I have a keychain made from a shark's tooth right here. Why don't you show us how you shatter it?" As she spoke, Shen Yushu took out a keychain and set it on the table.

This was from the shark Wei Zhao had killed last time. When it was brought home, Shen Yushu had taken one of its teeth and, out of sheer boredom, made it into a keychain.

"Gah?!" An Jianwen's eyes bulged, and his face nearly twitched into a cramp. He had not expected Shen Yushu to actually produce a tooth for him to shatter—was this some kind of joke? Never mind that shark teeth were the hardest teeth in the world; even an ordinary tooth, he could not shatter!

An Jianwen's face was turning green. How was he supposed to explain this? Was this not just a joke? How could he possibly shatter a shark's tooth? But if he refused, he would need a reason—otherwise he would lose face completely! Yet what reason could he possibly give?

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