Chapter 22: 11.2

Right as Xu Youyou was debating whether or not the other person had fallen in love at first sight, Li Xiuran passed her and grabbed onto Qiao Mu who was beside her. 

“Qiao Mu.” Li Xiuran’s eyes blazed into Qiao Mu. 

Qiao Mu looked at Li Xiuran without any emotion. 

“Play a round with me.” Li Xiuran said straightforwardly. 

When he said this, those around them were shocked. Much of the audience’s attention now turned to focus on Qiao Mu. 

“Who is he? Why did Li Xiuran find him to play Weiqi?”

“No way, he isn’t in our school’s Weiqi club.”

Qiao Mu frowned as if he wasn’t used to being watched: “I stopped playing Weiqi.”

“Didn’t you just play Liu Wenbin last week?” Li Xiuran said. 

“That was a special circumstance.” 

“Qiao Mu, don’t be a bully. The chess records say everything. Was that round something a person who had given up playing could play?” Li Xiuran said, “From the starting board, from Liu Wenbin’s first piece, you had already calculated his last move. You slowly trapped him until all his paths lead to death. Can a person who hasn’t played Weiqi in six years be able to calculate that far?”

Qiao Mu’s face paled. He frowned and didn’t say anything. 

Xu Youyou watched Qiao Mu and suddenly thought of the chess records she had picked up last Friday. Li Xiuran was right, Qiao Mu had indeed not given up Weiqi. At the very least, he has been training by himself secretly. 

“You can fool other people, but you can’t fool me. We grew up playing together. I am familiar with your skill level.” Li Xiuran took a deep breath and warmly said, “I will be participating in the dan competition this year. You know that my parents don’t support me learning Weiqi so they never approved for me to just focus on playing Weiqi. I finally was able to get this opportunity to participate in the competition. If I cannot pass on my first try, I would have to give up playing Weiqi and focus on getting into college.”

“Qiao Mu, this dan competition is very important to me so I would like to play a round with you.” Li Xiuran said. 

Qiao Mu was silent for a while. And right when Xu Youyou thought he wouldn’t respond, he finally opened his mouth: “Playing with me won’t mean anything. I did not pass the competition.”

“But I have never won against you.” Li Xiuran said, “If I can’t even beat you, how can I have the confidence to participate in the competition?”

Qiao Mu frowned, his eyes showing his disagreement. 

“You played with Liu Wenbin, why can’t you play with me? Am I not better than Liu Wenbin?” Li Xiuran was upset. “Do I have to wait until the next time Grandmother becomes unstable? Or should I learn from Liu Wenbin and trigger her? 

Qiao Mu lifted his head, his eyes flashed a warning. 

“I don’t want to do that either so don’t force me.” Li Xiuran said. 

Qiao Mu was convinced. When Li Xiuran suggested a place to play, he did not object. The most suitable place to play Weiqi in Hongluo Town was the training center. Sometimes in the park along the road or the tea shop you could also find elders playing chess. But Hongluo Town wasn’t big and all the older generation all knew each other. Qiao Mu didn’t want Grandmother to find out and eventually the two decided to book a hotel room. They were going to borrow a Weiqi set from the training center. 

The corner of Xu Youyou’s lips lifted after hearing them and she said: “That is such a hassle. My family has a shop on the main road, inside there is a cheese set my grandfather left behind.” 

Li Xiuran did not know Xu Youyou, but since she and Qiao Mu walked out together and she had followed them, he naturally thought they were friends and so he agreed: “Okay, thank you.”

Qiao Mu didn’t want to continue to delay this event and agreed. 

The three of them sat on the bus going to the main road, following Xu Youyou to her family pottery shop. 

The pottery studio wasn’t far from the training center and when they arrived Li Xiuran recognized it: “This is Grandfather Ji’s pottery shop, Grandfather Ji is your grandfather?”

Qiao Mu learned to play chess at the training center when he was younger and also naturally knew Xu Youyou’s grandfather. Thinking about it he wanted to retreat: “Is Grandfather Ji at the shop?”

“Don’t worry. My grandfather took my grandmother to travel around the world. They won’t come back for another half a year.” Xu Youyou said. 

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Qiao Mu then finally walked in. 

Ji Leyao saw her daughter bring two boys of similar age back and her eyes lit up. Her eyes scanned over the two faces and they settled upon Li Xiuran. 

“Hello Auntie.” Qiao Mu and Li Xiuran politely greeted Ji Leyao. 

“Hello, hello. Are you guys Youyou’s classmates?” Ji Leyao asked?

“Mom. can’t you see the school uniform?” Xu Youyou mainly introduced Qiao Mu, “This is Qiao Mu, the other is Qiao Mu’s friend, from the No. 1 High School.”

Ji Leyao heard Qiao Mu’s name and she quickly became excited: “You are Qiao Mu, I’ve been wanting to meet you. I heard Youyou say that you have been taking care of her.”

Qiao Mu wasn’t accustomed to responding to other’s enthusiasm and had temporarily froze not knowing how to respond. Luckily Xu Youyou had already become familiar with Qiao Mu’s personality and noticed the situation. She quickly cut in: “Mom, didn’t you say that Grandfather had a Weiqi set? Where is it?”

“It is stored in the cupboard. Why do you want it?” Ji Leyao asked. 

“They are going to play. I specifically invited them here.”

Hearing that her daughter specifically invited them here, Ji Leyao hurriedly brought out the Weiqi board and pieces to give to Xu Youyou: “You can go sit by the window, it’s quiet over there.” 

Xu Youyou received the board and shoved it towards Qiao Mu. 

Qiao Mu abruptly grabbed hold of the board. He was a bit muddle headed but subconsciously tightly hugged it. His eyesight did not stray from the board. He had once had a board like this, but six years ago Grandmother had chopped it up and used it as firewood. 

“This board is quite heavy.” Xu Youyou shook out her hands. 

“It’s wooden. Of course it is heavy.” Li Xiuran said. 

“You guys can go inside, I’ll go get you guys something to eat.” Xu Youyou said. 

“You don’t have to bother.” Li Xiuran politely said. 

Xu Youyou waved her hand ignoring him and went to go get some snacks. 

Li Xiuran turned back and saw Qiao Mu’s eyes still on the Weiqi board. His eyes were full of nostalgia: “I remember you used to love cleaning your board.”

Qiao Mu came back to his senses and looked at Li Xiuran. He hugged the board and walked inside. 

The two took off their backpacks and sat down by the window. They each grabbed a basket of pieces and placed it by their hand. Qiao Mu habitually lifted his hand to wipe the board and his hand turned gray. 

Li Xiuran saw. He grabbed a cleaning cloth and handed it towards Qiao Mu. 

Qiao Mu didn’t grab it. 

Li Xiuran didn’t mind and used the cloth himself to wipe the board. 

“We’re only playing one round.” Qiao Mu said. 

“We’ll talk about it after playing.” Li Xiuran opened up the basket of pieces by his hand. It happened to be black. He picked up a piece and placed it on the board, “I play black.”

Qiao Mu’s hand froze just as he was about to play first when he suddenly let go. He then grabbed a white piece and placed it on the board. 

—————————Translator’s Note —————————

*围棋定段赛 – Weiqi rank determining competition. The ranks are called dans derived from 段 (duan).

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