This Dream Is Quite Interesting

“Pair of twos.”
“No.”
“Joker.”
“Pass.”
“A straight! I’m down to my last card!”
“Want... I can’t beat it.”
“Bam! Spring! I win!”
...
Du Fang threw his final card onto the table, and a chorus of playful groans erupted around him.
“You’re impossible! Can’t you let Auntie win just once?”
“Little Du, you play cards too well!”
Across from Du Fang sat two elegantly dressed women, both with curled hair and an air of grace, looking to be in their forties or fifties. They exchanged a few good-natured complaints, then slid several chips across the table to him.
Du Fang accepted the chips with delight and began to shuffle the deck again.
“It’s pure luck, really—every hand I get the jokers. There’s nothing I can do.”
“In this game, it’s all about luck. With luck like yours, not only do you win the land, you could flip the whole world.”
Du Fang chuckled, his hands moving quickly and skillfully over the cards, which flowed and fanned through his fingers with a sound like running water.
The two aunties propped their chins in their hands, gazing at him with eager eyes.
“How old are you, Little Du?”
“Twenty.”
“Do you have a girlfriend? Auntie knows a wonderful girl, very pretty—want to meet her?”
“No, please don’t. Let’s just play cards, Auntie, don’t get into all that. I’m not going to go easy on you.”
“Oh, look at him, he’s shy!”
“It’s not that—I have a five-year-old daughter. If you introduce me to a girl, she’ll end up as an instant mom, isn’t that unfair to her?”
“But yo