Chapter 24
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Chapter 4: Surrender of the army, Part 6 of 7
Hands propping up her chin, Gu Yun peered askance at Su Yu, chuckled and quipped: "No opponent, no better option but to play and beat oneself, a certain simple-minded brawny person will of course never ever understand this kind of pleasure and loneliness." Within today, to be bickering with this buffoon, her day had turned out to be a tad amusing.
Su Yu looking somewhat embarra.s.sed refuted: "who are you calling a simple-minded brawn? How about you against second brother?!" Admittedly his chess is really bad, but it’s not just him, n.o.body in the General Manor is a match to second brother ah! She‘d be sorry to utter such words!
After listening to his words, Su Ren suddenly brightened up laughing somewhat excitedly he said: "That’s a pretty good idea! I heard of the three young ladies of the Qing family, the fame of Qing Ling’s guqin skill is all over the land, Qing Feng’s calligraphy and painting are unrivalled, and Qing Mo’s chess skill is until now uncontested. Today, I’d like to ask your guidance." How come he has altogether forgotten this thing, like this afterwards he can pit and hone his chess skill against someone equally capable.
Gu Yun’s body stiffened all over, oh no! The Qing family three sisters were that excellent huh? The problem is… in the game of Go her skill is merely that of a beginner’s level, nothing more. And playing Go with him, how could he not expose her ident.i.ty, Su Ren is an astute man, she’d better not take chances.
Quickly wracking her brain and pondering for countermeasures, her eyes fixed on the chessboard, Gu Yun’s heart suddenly quickened, her Go skill sucks, but in a variant of Go she’s still truly uncontested.
Gently picking up a white Go chess piece, Gu Yun scoffed, clicking her tongue, she laughed: "This game is already outdated, I have long ago got tired of it. If you want to play, let’s play a new game. Although this game I frequently play is simple, the time for a round is short. However, it’s very interesting and difficult to win."
A new game? Su Ren’s mind was stirred up, he asked: "what’s this new game?"
Grouping the chess pieces according to its color, respectively placing them into separate boxes, Gu Yun adeptly picked up the black pieces using her one hand, while her other hand was also busily picking the white ones. While doing this, she was also explaining the rules of the game. "The game is played on this board, the pieces are placed on the board line intersections, two people can play, or even three, but now there are only black and white chess pieces so only two people can play, both sides play with the same color, on alternate turns the player places his piece on the board, who can first form a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line of five or more pieces of the same color together in a continuous row, he wins." That she would end up playing Gobang (Five-in-a-Row), whew!
Su Ren appeared to be earnestly reflecting, but Su Yu loudly exclaimed: "This is very simple ah, not to separate the pieces but link together at least five! It can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, that’s way much easier than Go!"
Gu Yun’s eyebrows raised a bit, smiling faintly she replied:
"Then you and I, let’s try one round."
"Come on, come on!"
Su Yu sat in front of the black pieces, Gu Yun smiled and said: "I’ll let you start, okay? Black piece precedes."
He started on his piece. The first piece of Su Yu was placed in the very middle of the board. Gu Yun immediately placed hers on the right side of this. Su Yu bristling also placed a piece, Gu Yun without much thinking used her white piece to block at one end, Su Yu knitted his brows, on the next direction, Gu Yun again blocked.
It seemed wherever he went, she would follow and block, if this continues like this, n.o.body wins!
Just when Su Yu was silently cursing, Gu Yun gracefully put down a piece, smiled and said: "You lost."
"What, so fast?! No way!" He only has just placed less than twenty pieces ah! Su Yu looked carefully, and sure enough, when he was not paying attention, Gu Yun has already completed a five-in-a-row.
Unconvinced Su Yu said: "Come on, let’s play another round." This time he was being careless, next time he’ll pay close attention certainly he’ll not lose.
"Alright."
Pus.h.i.+ng the black pieces to Gu Yun, Su Yu said: "This time you go first."
"Fine." Gu Yun indifferently smiled, black pieces are for the attacking side, she prefers to attack, the blacks are the best! Handing over the white pieces to him, Gu Yun started by putting a piece in the middlemost part of the board.
This time, Su Yu did exercise a lot of caution, using a step-by-step approach, wanting to beat Gu Yun, imagining himself winning! Just when Su Yu was inwardly getting pleased with himself, Gu Yun again leisurely smiled: "You lost!"
A piece laid down, from top to bottom in succession, indeed are five pieces in a row!
"This is really weird!" Su Yu could hardly believe his eyes. He did not see this one, just where did it pop out? Gu Yun slowly looked up, threw a glance to the one who was quietly standing to the side, his eyes still staring at the board, looking to Su Ren, she said with a smile: "Do you want to try it?"
"Okay." Su Ren seated himself casually smiling, but his eyes were filled with a pa.s.sionate and deep glow. He’s really a relatively profound person, before making any moves he plans and determines, he first observed both rounds, he must have had some experience with Gobang, Gu Yun dared not underestimate the opponent, in this round both the players were relatively slow and cautious.
This time Gu Yun as before was the one to open the round, Su Ren followed suit, after thirty chess pieces placements neither appeared to be winning or losing, when it was again Su Ren’s turn, he appeared to be just holding high his white piece for a very long time not putting it down, after a while, shaking his head he smiled, sighed and said: "It seems I’ve already lost."
Indeed it’s not a time-consuming long game, but it is difficult to score a win ah! Su Yu stared at the chessboard for a long time, still not quite understanding, pointing to a spot of three blacks in a row, he said: "No ah, on this side she obviously has only three, you still can block her!" So even if she places a piece on the other side, second brother can also block, so how can he lose?
Su Ren replied: "You have not noticed on the other side there are also three, if I block here, it will be too late to block the other side." Under closer inspection, sure enough on the other side there were three blacks in a row, so that how he’s stuck with which row to block.
Gu Yun smiled, in order to beat Su Ren, she meticulously fixed up a double game.
One by one collecting the white pieces into the small box, Su Ren whose interest was heightened asked: "it’s indeed a fascinating game. What’s the name of this game?" Although the rules of the game are simple, yet it’s also not a tad inferior to the exquisite game of Go.
"Gobang. I play it during my leisure time." In reality, she’s only playing it now just to fob Su Ren off concealing her inability to play Go. Gu Yun certainly did not want to continue a discussion with them, tomorrow at six in the morning she still must continue training the soldiers. Straightening her body, Gu Yun got up and said: "then you chew it over, okay?! I’ll not keep you company, remember to deliver the things I required on time."
"Okay." Su Ren smiled and nodded.
After Gu Yun left, Su Ren turned to look to Su Yu, and asked: "how’s the training of your recruits?" Su Ren suddenly looked too serious, Su Yu was puzzled and laughed: "it’s going well ah, step by step following the usual routine, this isn’t my first time to train recruits, you don’t have to worry about me!"
"This time, the allotted period is only fifteen days, the manner of battle is different from the usual, you are competing in a night raid." She wanted something odd every time, moreover last time he heard Han Shu went to observe her training the army. Not only did he watch all day long, but also when he came back he immediately let forged the daggers she required. Han Shu is one of big brother’s fierce generals, he has seen far too many elite troops forces. He surprisingly spent one whole day with her, clearly there must be something unique with her method of army training.
Su Yu waved his hand and quipped: "Don’t worry, I’ll train them rigorously, that woman doesn’t have the slightest chance of winning." Su Yu so carelessly underestimating the enemy, Su Ren helplessly shook his head, sighed and said: "I hope so, ok?!"
Tonight, within a brief period of an hour, she was repeatedly astonis.h.i.+ng him, this kind of a woman, definitely is able to succeed in her schemes, talking somebody round fiercely, Yu is so complacent, victory or defeat is difficult to predict.