Indulging in a game or two of mahjong once in a while isn’t that big of a vice, just as long as it doesn’t become a gambling problem.
But if you are like Taiwan-based Singaporean singer Huang Jinglun, you better not be thinking about those 144 tiles.
In a recent episode of Taiwanese variety show Zhen Xin Fen Xiang Xiao Lin Dang, the 41-year-old singer opened up about his love for mahjong.
However, his fave pastime had to take a back seat after becoming a father in 2020.
He has to accommodate his now four-year-old son ‘Xiao Xiao Lun”s schedule and his mahjong kakis, who are all from showbiz, find it hard to arrange for a time to play.
But there was one occasion, Jinglun actually managed to get everyone together for a quick game.
He needed to get permission from his 32-year-old wife first though.
Jinglun had to offer her monetary incentives, including a 10 per cent cut of his winnings, so she would allow him to head out.
You would think after all that he could enjoy his game in peace, right?
Halfway through, Jinglun suddenly received a message from his wife. “Why don’t you go and die?” she wrote.
While we would have expected the singer to stop whatever he was doing and reply his wife, he chose to ignore the message as he was on a winning streak.
She then sent him another text.
“Let’s just get a divorce!” were her words.
That was the wake-up call Jinglun needed and he quickly ended the game to head home.
He then pretended nothing happened and went to sleep as normal.
According to Jinglun, his wife ignored him the next day and his takeaway from that incident was that from then on, he would only sneak out to play mahjong and not tell his wife about it.
Um, priorities?