Chapter 23: 12.1

Xu Youyou did not understand Weiqi. After watching for a little while, she went to help Madam Ji with the customers. After Madam Ji took over the pottery studio, she made a bunch of reforms to the store’s products. She tried combining popular elements to create a beautiful porcelain design. Plus, there were a lot of tourists in the ancient town, so business had been pretty good. 

“Your deskmate, Qiao Mu, is different from what you described.” Madam Ji said to her daughter as she wrapped up the sold product. 

“How is he different?” Xu Youyou asked. 

“Last time you were stuck in the rain, he specifically went to pick you up. I thought he would be a warm, kindhearted person, but looking at him I get a sense of coldness.” Madam Ji said. 

“Mom, you are judging his appearance.” Xu Youyou said. 

“Is your mom really that superficial of a person? I’m talking about his demeanor, it’s cold.” Madam Ji said. “Besides, if we were really talking about appearance, Qiao Mu doesn’t look too bad.” 

Xu Youyou looked at Madam Ji in surprise: “Why do you say that?”

“I studied art, when I look at one’s appearance I am not as shallow as you. Qiao Mu’s five facial organs are very pretty. If he were skinnier, he would absolutely be a beautiful youth.” Madam Ji said with certainty. 

Xu Youyou curled her lip and smiled. She then returned to take care of two waves of customers, until the two finished playing their game. She hurried over. 

“Who won?” Xu Youyou had a look of curiosity as she asked. 

“I lost.” Qiao Mu said, he grabbed his backpack off the ground and got ready to leave. 

“You don’t want to replay the game*?”

“No, I wish you……success in getting your rank,” Qiao Mu nodded and turned to leave. Before leaving the pottery studio, he went to say goodbye to Ji Leyao, very politely.

Xu Youyou stared at the board for a while. She didn’t understand Weiqi and could only see the board was densely packed with black and white chess pieces almost covering the entire board: “Did Qiao Mu lose by a lot?”

“No, just by one piece” Li Xiuran said. 

This Li Xiuran was first in the training center and was about to participate in the rank competition. If Qiao Mu only lost to him by one piece, then that means Qiao Mu’s skills could be compared to a professional player?

Xu Youyou silently assessed Qiao Mu’s playing skills and sat down in Qiao Mu’s spot wanting to clean up the board. 

“Wait.” Li Xiuran hurried to grab Xu Youyou, “My teacher wants to come here to see the game. I will clean it up after he has seen it. Can you leave it out for a bit?”

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“Teacher?” Xu Youyou asked curiously. 

“My teacher teaches in the training center behind here. I already sent him a message. He will be here soon.” Li Xiuran said. 

Around four to five minutes later, a familiar person walked into the pottery studio. The teacher Li Xiuran mentioned was Teacher Wang who had bought a tea set from the pottery studio. 

Teacher Wang entered and went straight to where Li Xiuran was. He stared at the board for a moment and said: “Qiao Mu lost by one piece?”

“Teacher, do you also find it weird? I think Qiao Mu purposely lost to me.” Li Xiuran said. 

Xu Youyou brought Teacher Wang a cup of tea, and arrived just in time to hear those words. 

Teacher Wang didn’t drink the tea and gestured for Li Xiuran to continue speaking. 

“When Qiao Mu and I were playing, there wasn’t much difference from when we had played previously. The time it took to place each piece was very well-distributed and stable, until this piece.” Li Xiuran pointed to a white piece as he said, “Here Qiao Mu pause for a bit and then placed this piece down. And after this piece, I slowly gained the upper hand. To force Qiao Mu to play with me, I said that if I could not win against him I would not have the confidence to win at the rank competition.”

“So Qiao Mu purposely left a flaw here.” Teacher Wang realized.

“That’s right, it doesn’t make sense that during the entire game, the only move he deeply considered was a losing one.” Li Xiuran said confidently. “Besides Teacher look, does this look like a board which a person who hasn’t played for six can play? Although growing up I have never been able to beat Qiao Mu, now I have skills close to a professional player and if I were to play Qiao Mu from six years ago I would definitely be able to win. So, Teacher, Qiao Mu has still been playing Weiqi.”

When he said the last line, Li Xiuran had a look of excitement. 

Teacher Wang was silent for a while, then he finally said: “Return to the training center, let me look at it again.”

After Li Xiuran left, Teacher Wang sat by the window staring at the chessboard. He didn’t leave even after staring at it for an hour.

After hearing the two’s conversation, Xu Youyou could infer that that Li Xiuran purposely went to find Qiao Mu today not because if he couldn’t beat Qiao Mu he wouldn’t be able to pass the rank competition like he’d said, but because he wanted to test if Qiao Mu really gave up playing Weiqi. 

Honestly, Xu Youyou didn’t care where Qiao Mu continued playing Weiqi or not. In the past life, Qiao Mu wasn’t a professional Weiqi player, but was warm and openhearted. So from her understanding, Weiqi wasn’t that important to Qiao Mu. But from Qiao Mu’s unwavering stare at the Weiqi board and the light in his eyes when holding the chess piece, Xu Youyou knew Qiao Mu liked playing Weiqi. 

Or perhaps, this reason is why Qiao Mu’s personality change. Although she knew Qiao Mu would later untangle the knot in his heart, if he were able to do it a few years earlier, he would have more happiness and less sadness in his life. 

———————–Translator’s Note ————————–

* Meant to analyze the game, move by move

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