Happiness Lane hides a shocking secret: Wang Jianguo, a retired old man, has an orange cat named Matuan that can feel out tiles with its paws and comes with a special buff that guarantees a win at gambling. Ever since it used its tail to draw a pure suit and amaze everyone, the whole neighborhood has descended into chaos. Liu Pangzi, the mahjong parlor owner, has lost everything but his floral shirt. Li Xiaopang, a middle schooler, shows up with a sausage to beg the cat to teach him its “cat-style tile counting.” Even Zhao Si, the property manager, has dropped his ban on mahjong and now chases Matuan every day, begging it to help him win.
The chubby orange cat uses its paws to mediate marital quarrels, becomes an online sensation with its adorable plop, and even frightens the neighboring poodle’s red dragon tile into looking like a spicy snack during an inter-neighborhood mahjong tournament. Old Wang’s reading glasses are always sliding down his nose, Zhao Si’s leather shoes have gone missing for the third time, and Auntie Zhang’s ball of yarn is forever tangled around the cat’s paws... Only when Matuan gets too fat to jump onto the mahjong table does everyone realize that life doesn’t offer that many winning hands. It’s really just a bunch of oddballs spending their days in lively company with a cat that can play mahjong.
