Chapter 113 – Ten games of Yongzi and a story

Xu Fengyen left the Diaoyutai and wandered around the city with Yu Youwei, he saw an alley full of people, there was no lack of young gentlemen in green shirts, when he got closer, he realized that they were betting on chess, squatting and sitting and standing, Xu Fengyen remembered at this time that Xiangfan was famous for its gold grottoes in addition to Xiangguo Alley, there is also this Yongzi Alley which is as famous as it is not small, the alley is seated against the wall and are all the wild chess players who have put out the chess duns and chess boxes to place bets on different amounts based on the strengths and weaknesses of their chess skills, luring the itchy travelers and chess addicts to take the bait. Amount, lure the itchy tourists and chess obsessed to hook, this game, naturally difficult to enter the chess world everyone’s eyes, but the most can kill the time of the people of the city and the poor scholar, plus the bets are often nothing more than a few dozen coins, is considered to be a small gamble for the good of the heart.

Xu Fengnian smiled, vigorously gnawed a bite of beef wrapped in greaseproof paper sauce, when penniless and hungry, there is a period of time will be to alleyway gambling chess to earn money for food, in order to be his national scholar Li Yishan coaching as well as Xu Weixiong boiled out of the chess power, winning chess is not difficult, but often the place where the chess counterparts want to make ends meet, reasonable well, well water does not offend the river water, unreasonable, relying on the locals to drive away the son of the Highness, and then there is a winning game! Telling, can not figure to slaughter the big dragon, have to leave a few small win a few pieces, or let the opposite side of the defeat of armor, will not be happy to continue to pay for chess, this is Xu Fengyen was forced to slowly realize the slang and common sense of the minutiae.

His Highness let Lu Yang Shu three people away from the distance, only left Ning Emei standing behind, pulling the fish Youwei picked a gap in the needle, betting on the chess player is a downtrodden student-like young man, clothing sewing, shoes and socks white, he is in front of the empty chess board rested on the ten chess pieces, meaning that the game of chess to lose to give ten copies of the money, the unusual betting on the game of chess, is to set up two or three, five are uncommon, visible the wild chess player is quite confident, Xu Fengyen! Xu Fengnian squatted down and was about to hesitate to take out a few dollars to place a bet, when he glanced up, he saw that the chess player was blind, so how could he play this game?

Seemingly accustomed to this kind of situation, the blind chess player said warmly, “No harm, when I hear the sound of discs falling, I will know where the discs will fall.”

Xu Fengnian nodded and said, “I’ll bet ten wen.”

The blind chess player took out his money bag from his sleeve, weighed it, looked ashamed, and softly said, “This gentleman, if I lose, I will owe you sixteen Wen, if you don’t mind, I have an ancestor’s chess book in my hand, it should be worth this amount.”

Xu Fengyen smiled, “Good.”

Chess records, Xu Fengyen is not interested, listening to the tide pavilion can let the chess world celebrities crazy chess records countless, “peach blossom spring game records” “South China Sea Linglong Bureau” “Immortals granting records” and so on, His Highness can give you a pile of a hill, not to mention that nowadays the board vertical and horizontal fifteen into nineteen, often the more the number of years of the chess records will be more and more worthless.

Ancient and modern chess players hand tendon power on the whole, the latter is ultimately getting stronger and stronger. The blind chess player sitting against the wall with a box of black discs in his lap, slightly extended his hand, signaling Xu Fengnian to play white first. Although this wild chess player was dressed shabbily, his demeanor was not to be underestimated, and he raised his hands and feet with the elegance and ancient style of a true family man.

Prior to the official game, each side placed two discs on the diagonal star positions, called potential discs, which are the ancient seat discs, limiting the advantage of the first move to a great extent, and destined for a fierce battle in the center of the midgame.

Xu Fengyen handed over the beef in his hand to Yu Youwei, and took the lead with a three-six move, a corner that was rated the best invasion corner by Huang Longshi, the self-proclaimed Huang Sanjia, a great grandmaster of the country. The young blind chess player looked calm and could really recognize the position by listening to the sound, and the black disc responded with 9-3, holding the position with white.

The black and white pieces in the next nine moves did not escape from their forefathers. From the sidelines of the battle fish young Wei’s father was a chess world in western chu heh everyone, in the upper yin school palace when studying also only lost to the claimed strength of the world’s unrivaled Huang Longshi, she since childhood, quite father chess style, naturally, is proficient in the game of theory, I’m afraid that wutong garden in the north of the small state player green ants do not dare to say that the fish young Wei won steadily. See each other ten hands, fish Youwei some disappointment.

However, Xu Fengyen’s white eleven breaks brightened up the eyes of Yu Youwei. The blind chess player is also slightly stagnant, no longer drop the ball quickly, a little thought before lifting the son to drop the ball again.

As the old saying goes, “Chess is born from a break”, Xu Fengyen’s next few moves were all born from this break, which is not to say that it was not original. The blind chess player held back all the way, but finally Black 18 attacked before the corners could be stabilized, attacking in 5-6, and Yu Youwei frowned and thought deeply that there were as many as 44 variations in this pattern.

Subconsciously went to see Xu Fengnian, he still did not move, the speed of the fall is always the same, white 43 gently pull out, the board in an instant killing opportunities, see fish young Wei heart jumping, this hand is really too fierce some, white 59 fly fill and 83 tip, also aggressive, but not expected the blind chess player position as a flatboat on the sea, rocking, but not down, to the black one hundred and eighty moves later it was already! After 180 moves of black, it was already a good position for Xu Fengnian to make a first move to win the game, and Xu Fengnian calmly conceded the game.

Xu Fengnian took out another ten coins and said, “Still ten wen.”

The blind player went first with white, and in this game, it was still Xu Fengyen stirring up the smoke early on, and the blind player responding calmly. Fish Youwei vaguely see the clues, Xu Fengyen very heavy attack, the blind chess player is not the same as most of the world, the most important terrain condensed shape, some of the current seemingly casual evil hand of the drop, always be able to echo with the middle game or even the end of the game, the spirit of the rhinoceros, if not for Xu Fengyen by virtue of an endless variety of tricks to set off waves of irrational killing, the two games can not be dragged to two hundred hands later. At the moment is a woman’s great talent Xu Weixiong change fifteen to nineteen and break the seat system of the game forest thousand years has not changed, to fish young Wei view, chess slightly better than his highness a chip of the blind chess player is destined to be amazing, and this chess player whether to hide the strength is not easy to say, it is really the city of hidden dragons and alleyway crouching tigers.

“Again.”

Xu Fengyen, who had lost two games in a row, laughed softly, this time White opened with Double Flying Swallows, this pattern was once widely spread, but in the past fifty years, the most outstanding national players had abandoned it in the summit battle, and Huang Longshi even said that the starting Double Flying was not too tight, losing the mellow flavor, so it was considered as a death sentence for this classic layout.

Xu Fengyen simply sat on the ground, the result of a more comfortable position, the chessboard defeat is faster, easily three consecutive losses, the blind chess player in front of the pile of thirty coins. Xu Fengyen raised his head and looked at the sky through the eaves of Yongzi Alley, it was already dinner time, but it was rare to meet such a brilliant wild chess player, so he waved his hand and called Shu Shy to his side, letting her go to the wine shop to get some food, and soon Shu Shy brought a large food box with four pairs of bowls and chopsticks, Yang Qingfeng tried to make sure it was not poisonous before Shu Shy dared to put it in front of Xu Fengyen, who asked with a smile, ”For a moment I’m not planning to leave, or do you also have to go to the restaurant? Xu Feng Nian asked with a smile, “I’m not going to leave for a while, why don’t you eat some too?”

The blind chess player was not formal and nodded with a smile. Fish Youwei was a pampered and delicate woman, she didn’t feel out of place sitting and eating with Xu Fengnian, while the halberd Ning Emei stood and downed a meal in a few mouthfuls. The wild chess player slowly eating even took the initiative to talk to Xu Fenian about the gains and losses of the three games lost, said Xu Fenian’s wonderful strong hand, did not hide his admiration, mentioned a few moves with the hand of the irrational hand, but also bluntly stated the shortcomings of Xu Fenian frequently nodded, benefited a lot from the conversation, Xu Fenian laughed and asked the chess player whether he studied in the chess world celebrities, the blind chess player shook his head and said that his family history is mediocre, blindness in his youth before he began to contact the game of chess, after blindness, nothing to rely on, but only to learn to play. After losing his sight, he had nothing to rely on but to play chess as a companion, and he had been gambling on chess in Yongzi Lane for a little over ten years, earning only enough money to feed himself, and when he had spare time, he went to buy famous chess players, and he could not save up a little bit of silver. As he spoke, the blind chess player patted his brain and pulled out a few Confucian books from his traveling bag, handing them over to Xu Fengyen, whose buttocks could only be next to the floor, and laughed softly and said, “Cushion it.”

Xu Fengyen took the books, pulled out two books and handed them over to Yu Youwei, whose feet had long been numb, and laughed, “It’s not right, is it? It insults the saint’s doctrine.”

The blind chess player smiled and shook his head, “Manners, righteousness, integrity and shame are not in the books.”

Xu Fengyen no longer pretentious, and in front of him won him thirty wen wild chess player together with food and drink, and then up nineteen road on the smoke, Xu Fengyen repeatedly defeated tireless, blind chess player soldiers come to block the water to cover the earth, fall crispy, calm demeanor.

Yongzixiang ten games, kill the sky dark, from noon to twilight to the moon, the dust settled, Xu Fengyi a drum and even lost ten, pay one hundred Wen. Yongzi Lane wild chess player have withdrawn, Xu Fengyen sat on his knees on a Confucian classic, looked at the losing game on the board, sighed heavily and said, “This kind of hand strength of yours, you can compete with Shangyin School Palace Xu Weixiong.”

The wild chess player shook his head and said, “Ordinary people playing chess is probably considered to be only one side of the game, I can barely have two sides, today’s chess world celebrities can be three sides of the game, Mr. Weixiong is with Huang Sanjia double solo game four sides, how do I dare to go to overrate the tree. However, if I can have a game with Mr. Weixiong in this life, I have no regrets even though I die.”

Xu Fengyen helped pack up the chess pieces into the box, then got up and joked: “I don’t have your kind of realm where you can die at the end of the day, so it’s not a shame to lose to you, I’m willing to accept the loss this time. Hey, that on the Yin school palace famous moving four directions when the lake ten games, we are also counted to have Yongzi ten games. Farewell.”

Blind wild chess player laughed: “These books will be gifted to the gentleman.”

Xu Fengyen pointed out that, two of the books in the fish under the buttocks for a long time, must be a wild chess player has long been listening to the sound and smell, know that he brought out of the “family”, out of avoidance of suspicion, and then asked back inappropriate, Xu Fengyen and then took out ten Wenqian, handed over to get up behind the figure of the skinny chess player, joked and said: “This last ten pennies, as from your side to buy two more pounds of propriety, righteousness, honesty and shame.”

The chess player hesitated for a moment, but still took it, smiling warmly, “Your Excellency does not lack these.”

Xu Fengnian laughed and left.

The blind chess player packed his bag and stood alone in the silent and unoccupied alleyway, facing the alleyway and bending deeply, bowing to the end.

……

Walking out of Yongzi Alley, steering his horse back, Xu Fengnian tsked, “There are such powerful characters in the small Yongzi Alley.”

Fish Youwei frowned and asked, “He is an assassin?”

Xu Fengyen was dumbfounded, his chin rested against the head of fish yuwei in his arms, with a helpless face he said, “You are overthinking it, I am just lamenting the amazing chess power of that wooden blind chess player, he claimed that he can only play two sides of the chess board, he is overly modest, I dare to say that second sister has to lose two or three games even if she plays ten games with him, I think it must be because he has never talked to a top national player hand to hand and thus doesn’t know his own greatness. ”

Fish Youwei nodded and said, “This person is good at playing chess with a broad vision of discarding for taking and flexing for stretching. But not only only limited so, in the ninth game by your unreasonable hand annoyed, only to reveal his even if it is a frontal fight, the power is even more strange side. If he is really of an ordinary family background and self-taught after losing his eyesight, then there is no doubt that this man is a born giant of the chess path.”

Xu Fengnian said softly, “His eyes were stabbed blind.”

Yu Youwei was stunned.

Xu Fengyen lamented, “Every family has a difficult lesson to learn, these behind-the-scenes sorrows are not of interest to this Shizi.”

Yu Youwei rubbed Wu Meiniang’s head and asked, “Haven’t you ever thought of hiring a staff member to your side?”

Xu Fengnian shook his head, “Being good at chess doesn’t mean being a smooth official. I’ve already lost a hundred Wen in gambling, so I won’t go back to it.”

Yu Youwei smiled without saying anything, this His Highness the Prince’s chess ability could be considered quite not weak, he must have lost ten games in a row and already lost his face, he was too embarrassed to have too much contact with that blind chess player.

Xu Fengyen said for no reason, “It depends on how King Jing’an Zhao Heng’s gambling luck is.”

Xu Fengyen suddenly said with a bitter face, “It’s over, I have such bad luck in gambling today, with this and that, that old turtle Zhao Heng is going to make a fortune in nine cases out of ten.”

Fish Youwei asked suspiciously, “What’s wrong?”

Xu Fengnian muttered a few curses and did not make a sound.

Yongzi Alley, the young blind chess player struggled to carry his traveling bag, but the chess pier two boxes of chess pieces plus a few chess books only, it is a bit tiring, the chess player silently laughed at himself for not being useful as a scholar, walked a few steps, raised a warm smile, ten games of Yongzi, a full one hundred Wen Qian Li, these two years in Yongzi Alley, except for the intentional show of weakness, they have not really lost a game, Xiangfan local chess lovers have been reluctant to gamble for themselves, unless some come to Yongzi Alley to visit. The local Xiangfan chess lovers are no longer willing to bet on chess themselves, unless it is some foreign guests who come to Yongzi Alley to play, then they will take the bait, so earning 100 Wen in a day is a rare good scene. Moreover, that gentleman is extremely interesting, his life is naturally very good, he is blind heart is not blind, that kind of family superiority of the gentleman, but a good hand of chess, these years they have been very difficult to go to the trouble and effort to play chess, when I was a young boy to learn chess to win the chess happy to lose the chess even more joyful, and now has been to win the chess not to lose the chess, chess hobby will be more and more clear to reduce the fear of the day is really just to make ends meet to go to chess, there really is the day is the chess road stops the day. I was afraid that one day I would really be playing chess just to make a living, and that day would be the day when I would stop playing chess. Thinking about his miserable life, the blind chess player’s face was cold and seemed to have forgotten how to mourn.

In this world, it is good to be blind and not to see.

If you can meet more than a few chess ten games of goodwill gentleman, perhaps only then will regret that year since the stabbing of both eyes, but the family is in the middle of the road, down and out like a lost dog, in order to survive, playing chess for ten years, met a few?

Rowed to the corner of the alley, the blind chess player was stopped.

A majestic voice came: “My master wants to see you.”

The blind chess player calmly said, “I don’t see him.”

Not far away stopped a carriage, the car in the elegant man holding a blind chess player’s life record, the ink on the paper has not yet dried up, clearly is just put pen to paper to write things, Yongzi Lane ten games, the alley gambling chess onlookers no less than hundreds of people one after another, even if it is in the bureau of the young chess player, did not think much about it, just that good luck meets the good-hearted gentleman, but do not know that the first game will be the end of the news spread to the Xiangfan City, the most powerful place, down to the third game, it will be the most important thing is to see you. place, down to the third game on the chess game sent to the door of the mansion with a lion, the fifth game in the house of the Lord has let the subordinate to thoroughly investigate the identity of the blind chess player, the eighth game is over, the man in the carriage is still hesitating how to dispose of it, until the ninth game, to see that the young blind man of the real chess, which is smiling personally out of the house, has been waiting patiently until now, when the hand to get the last few pages of blind chess player’s ten years of chess career, trivial fragmentary records, he is a good person, he has no idea that he has met with good fortune. When the last few pages of the blind chess player’s ten years of gambling career were in his hands, he felt that his patience could be greater, so when the personal guards outside the carriage said that the man was missing, he was not annoyed at the boy’s eyes not recognizing Mt. Tai, and then again, the boy was a blind man.

The man burned a few pages of paper that was just a few hundred words about the life of a mole cricket, and then personally dismounted and walked to the blind chess player with extremely hard bones and slowly said: “Lu Deng, from Haichang County, Qingzhou, his grandfather, Lu You, was a Confucian scholar of the previous generation, and his father, Lu, was not bad, a family of three masters, who majored in history and history, and did not want to compile the history of the state of Western Chu, but he did not want to say a few words for the scholars, and was framed by a villain, and nearly all of his family were accused. The villain framed him and almost killed his whole family. You stabbed yourself in the eyes and cut off your career prospects to save your life. In the past ten years, you have been gambling on chess in Yongzi Alley, and at night, you went to Xiangguo Alley to play the qin for the women in the brothel, earning dirty silver, do you know that your enemy has already become the governor of Haichang County?”

The blind chess player calmly said, “This silver, is not dirty.”

The middle-aged man laughed and asked, “Let’s not talk about whether the silver is dirty or not, let me ask you, do you want to show your talent instead of camping in two alleys to seek a living?”

The young chess player laughed, “Even though it’s already nighttime, Lu Dang still doesn’t really want to dream.”

The man laughed, “I heard that you once said: my generation has a thousand pounds of books and ten thousand pounds of talent in their bellies, but they only sell them to the emperor’s family.”

The blind chess player frowned and said, “This kind of reading a few days of books and then do not know the sky high wild talk, when not true.”

The man said in a deep voice: “But I want to take it seriously!”

The blind chess player smiled bitterly and said, “Even now, you still refuse to let the Lu family go?”

The man with a string of rosary beads on his hand said flatly, “My surname is Zhao Heng. Imperial family, how can I be considered an imperial family? Is one King Jing’an enough?!”

……

King Jing’an Mansion, the son Zhao Xun found his father who was copying Buddhist scriptures in the study with his head full of fog, and asked softly, “I heard that my father has brought a blind chess player who carries a zither back to the mansion? What is the deep meaning?”

King Jing’an laughed: “This son is the last person of the Lu family in Haichang County, if only to watch chess, no one in the house can beat him, to you to keep it, anyway, it won’t cost a few dollars, if it’s just a chessboard on the war chest to talk about the goods, as a dog that won’t bite, if it’s true that there is some talent, it will be included in the royal family’s staff, carve up a bit, and in the future, you’ll clean up the Haichang County in his presence, the governor Yu Hanliang, and he’ll have a lot to say about it, and he’ll have a lot to do. Yu Hanliang, the governor, he then plan will be really sincere. Scholar for a close friend dies, Xun child, this point of the ancients said rotten reason, you have to keep in mind. And how to get along with this kind of scholar, you have to put away with Wei Wei that playboy heart that set, don’t rely on the identity of the pressure, the world readers are not all stupid, the most delicate mind, perhaps not read the righteousness, but read out can not be divided into conceited or inferiority complex character, is not a difficult thing. Xun son, father teach you one thing, deal with these scholarly talents, you take them as His Royal Highness King Jing’an, you as them.”

Zhao Xun laughed: “I know, father will be a Buddha’s heart for a long time.”

King Jing’an Zhao Heng narrowed his eyes and smiled, “No need for you to slip up.”

Zhao Xun carefully withdrew from the study.

Zhao Heng continued to copy the Buddhist scriptures with a rod of soft hair, finished copying, and coldly said, “Lu Dan, this king keeps you for nothing more than wanting to tell you a story in a few days. This king is such a big shot, if there isn’t a confidant who has nothing to do with the big picture, it would be too boring.”