County Town Chapter 51: Gazing at Each Other from Afar

  Liáng Shí Qiū once said, "I dislike playing chess with people who are too refined. When I kill off a large part of their side or capture one of their pieces, they remain calm and composed, not getting angry or worked up, as if it were nothing to them. This makes the game feel dull and uninteresting."

  Yi Tianxing also believed in this principle, he was not a gentleman, and on the field of victory or defeat, he would fight for a win or loss. Seeing the girl opposite him, Qin Zi, with her eyelashes slightly lowered, her skin as white as snow, and her spirit condensed, she didn't speak, pretending to be unaffected by worldly affairs, but Yi Tianxing felt somewhat uneasy.

  "It's your turn." he reminded.

  Qin Zi slightly nodded and then stretched out her jade-like fingers to pick up a black stone, lightly placing it on the right lower corner.

  Students' competition, naturally will not conduct a tiebreaker, in the case of one game deciding the outcome, Yi Tianxing has no great grasp on Go, so he concentrates his mind on Chinese Chess, operating according to a deep impression of an ancient manual. The reason for this deep impression is that the name of that ancient manual is really cumbersome.

  "Old name: Shun Pao Heng Che Gong Zhi Che Bu Shi Qi Ma Ju"

  “Cannon two advances five”, “Horse two advances three”, Yi Tianxing muttered to himself, posing in a stance. If the opponent followed common logic and responded with Cannon eight advances five or Horse eight advances seven, it would have been a smooth continuation of that long ancient route. But unexpectedly, this woman was unmoved, setting up her Over-the-Palace Cannon formation, jumping with her Linked Horses, seemingly like a small farmer without any ambition, self-sufficiently tending to his own one mu three fen land.

  Yi Tianxing slightly furrowed his brow, thinking that this probing was far from conclusive.

  The Go game was still in the exploratory stage, but the two men's Weiqi had already started a fierce battle on the edges. Unfortunately, Yi Tianxing was not an old hand at this, and Weiqi was indeed easy to learn but difficult to master, with some profound subtleties. Before long, he suffered a big loss in the corner due to a reverse capture, losing three pieces for one, then five pieces for one, resulting in a significant disadvantage. In his excitement, he even neglected the simplest opportunity to plunder, letting several moves go to waste and suffering heavy losses.

  He couldn't help but sigh and pat his forehead.

  Qin Zi's long eyelashes fluttered slightly, her thin lips pursed, and her expressionless face made it impossible to tell whether she was happy or excited.

  Yi Tian's heart was filled with curiosity about this girl, and he wasn't very concerned about winning or losing on the board. He took out a white chess piece from the woven basket made of orchid grass, placed it between his index finger and middle finger, gently stroking it, while his gaze somewhat rudely fell upon Qin Zi's slightly pale but beautiful face.

  ……

  ……

  Go had reached the middle game, Qin Zi's 156th move gently landed on H9, tightly attaching to Yi Tianxing's pitiful and dim white piece.

  Yi Tian Xing smiled slightly, his body leaning back as he let out a sigh. Although his chess skills were not refined, looking at the current situation he also knew that the overall trend had already passed, so he pretended to be carefree and conceded defeat.

  The chess has also reached its endgame.

  Yi Tian Xing Black Chess Double Cannons Horse Double Pawns vs Qin Zi Double Cannons Horse Knight Elephant Full.

  This chess is also mostly on the surface, Qin Zi casually pushed the cannon up along the Chu-Han line to support the horse's hoof, raised his face and spoke for the first time: "Draw?"

  Yitian Xing, who had never thought much about Go before, suddenly propped up his chin and began to deliberate carefully.

  After a long while, he finally lifted his head and revealed a sly smile.

  "Not reconciled." Yi Tian Xing shook his head and said, "If I reconcile with you, I'll lose. Although I don't know why you've come here, sister, but I'm a competitive person. Even if it's to sympathize with the weak, I must stand on the winner's side."

  Qin Zi still had no expression on his face, slightly lowering his head.

  Yi Tian Xing smiled slightly and said in a clear voice: "If I win this game, will you give me a reward?"

  Qin Zi finally lifted her face, her clear eyes shining brightly, exuding a cold aura that was breathtaking, and said lightly: "Alright."

  Yi Tianxing placed a pair of ordinary hands on the chessboard.

  "I won, you promise me one thing."

  Qin Zhiwei's eyes narrowed slightly, and she gently brushed aside the strands of hair at her temples. "I'll answer your question myself," she said slowly. "However, if you can't win, I want something from you."

  Yi Tianxing's fingers gently stroked his own chin, and after closing his eyes for a moment, he said, "If it's mine, I'll naturally agree."

  Qin Zi listened to his parrot mimicking him and couldn't help but shake his head, saying coldly: "On you, it's naturally yours."

  Yi Tianxing nodded suddenly after a moment of contemplation.

  …………………………………

  Fire at 6 o'clock! Retreat at 5 o'clock!

  The crowd that had been quietly watching from the side finally couldn't help but let out a soft gasp. In this evenly matched situation, Yi Tianxing's black chess piece retreated voluntarily, looking like an idle move. Of course, at this time, no one could see that this retreat was extremely cleverly planned and was actually the key to winning.

  Qin Ziyu's eyebrows were slightly furrowed, and his face was square with a flat forehead.

  Yi Tian Xing Ma 4 advances 63, Qin Zi responded with a pawn move six flat five, he also didn't think twice and directly replied with a horse move 6 advancing 54.

  ……

  ……

  Next, the two of them moved their pieces swiftly on the chessboard at Chu River and Han border. The red side's rear cannon advanced again, seemingly about to resolve the crisis in front of it. Unexpectedly, Yi Tianxing smiled slightly and sacrificed his old general five pawns six, exposing this piece of fat to the opponent horizontally.

  Qin Zi's expression gradually became more serious.

  She suddenly thought of the bet with Yi Tianxing, furrowed her brow, and began to look for opportunities to exchange pieces on the chessboard. After all, if she abandoned all her major pieces, the situation would become simpler, and Yi Tianxing's black pieces wouldn't be able to play any more tricks.

  Yi Tianxing seemed to be in a trance-like state, and when faced with the opponent's clear intentions, he didn't put up any resistance at all. He easily handed over a horse and a red child as compensation.

  It was this exchange that suddenly changed the situation on the scene.

  Qin Zi was slightly startled, as if he had seen through the number of roads behind him.

  But the onlookers were still in a daze.

  Yi Tianxing smiled and said: "You and I have won one each, it's a draw."

  Qin Zi said lightly: "Let's talk after we're done."

  Yi Tianxing saw that she was stubborn and didn't say much, silently operating his own black chess pieces. After a few moves, the originally complex chessboard suddenly revealed a fierce killing intent that charged straight at the Red General's camp.

  Black chess moves forward with cannon flat four, red chess moves king.

  Black Chess: Cannon Opens with Five Pieces Advancing Five Steps.

  The red chess piece has no way out.

  It is the most pitiful situation in Chinese chess.

  Watching others until the red chess is defeated, only then did he understand the subtlety of it, and couldn't help but shout a cheer, but because Qin Zi was the loser and also a beauty, the cheering sound didn't seem so righteous and majestic.

  Qin Zi had been keeping her head down, and at this moment she slowly lifted that beautiful and unobstructed face, with eyes as calm as a autumnal stone quietly looking at Yi Tian Xing. Then she stood up and whispered something to the person beside her before turning around and leaving.

  Yi Tian Xing furrowed his brow as he looked at her. He knew it wouldn't be that simple.

  ………………………………………

  This time, Yi Tianxing's harvest was: a big red certificate and ten chicken leg tickets sponsored by his dormitory roommates, the envious glances of male students on the road and the disdainful expressions of female students.

  He didn't know why these girls would despise him. Was it because he wasn't gentle and courteous to Qin Zi, the top student in the Chinese department? Or was his potential as a gambler too strong, causing the girls to have an instinctive aversion to him?

  He wrote about this matter in a letter to Zou Leli, lamenting and trying to win her sympathy. However, Leli's reply was as calm and clear as ever. So he wrote again in the second letter, describing all sorts of things about Qin Zi, pretending to be casual but actually intentionally revealing some non-existent sweetness, just wanting to make Leli jealous. Unexpectedly, Leli's reply made him panic. There was not a single private or intimate word in that letter, but instead an essay on Xunzi's "Encouragement to Learning", it seemed that the short-haired girl was really angry.

  Yi Tianxing had always been a spiritual pervert with a colorful heart but no guts, and that day when he met Qin Zhi, although he was also attracted by her elegant and refined demeanor, he absolutely did not have any improper thoughts, let alone the fact that he was very clear that this talented woman named Qin Zhi was definitely not simple. Judging from her appearance and expression, she must be closely related to the auspicious Tian in the upper three heavens. After some consideration, for safety's sake, he ruthlessly ordered the little Zhuque not to return to the big tree outside the old sixth house at night, temporarily cutting off contact with the little guy, waiting for this matter to end before doing anything else.

  It seems that in order to prove this judgment, he found that Qin Zi, who had always been straightforward and simple, seemed to have become a kind of reverse image of himself in the campus life afterwards, a reminder of his own existence at all times.

  When Yitian Xing was reading a letter from Lere at the lotus pond in front of the teaching building, Qin Zi was walking far away behind him through the three buildings. When Yitian Xing was practicing his Eight-Armed Golden Fist on the playground, Qin Zi would occasionally ride his bicycle and walk by from afar. Perhaps on some boring night, Yitian Xing leaned against the broken windowsill of room 247 in old dormitory six, looking out, while several kilometers away, Qin Zi stood in front of the ancient bronze bell at East District of Provincial University, gazing in a certain direction.

  In the eyes of ordinary people, their lives really have no intersection at all.

  In the eyes of ordinary people, this "brushing past" hundreds of meters apart doesn't even count as a slight connection.

  But the two of them were different, both cultivators - gazing from afar by the lotus pond, a glance on the edge of the playground, and that night, two geniuses on the path of cultivation, looking at each other from kilometers away - the six senses of cultivators are sharp, these scenes that seem unrelated to ordinary people, for them, were crystal clear.

  He knew she was looking at him, she knew he knew she was looking at him.

  That's it.

  Finally, one day, this kind of distant gaze came to an end.

  That day was a high sky and light clouds, autumn wind brought coolness, fallen leaves gradually arrived, with a hint of killing intent.

  Qin Zi pushed her bicycle in front of Yi Tian Xing, who was gnawing on a chicken leg, and softly said: "Your chess skills are not bad."

  Yi Tian Xing knew she must have something to say, and the chess game was just an excuse. He smiled and replied: "It's not that I played well, but rather my memory is good. The move I used was from a 1984 national tournament between Jiangsu's Xu Tian Hong and a Henan player."

  Qin Zi hummed a sound, seemingly indifferent, but just before leaving, walked to his side and handed him a note.

  Yitian Xing glanced at the note and put it in his wallet. When he opened his wallet, Zou Lere's pure and lovely face appeared again with that arrogant finger, making him smile secretly and mutter to himself, "What a fierce woman!"

  There was an address written on the paper strip.

  Under the Seven-eye Bridge, beside the Prefectural North River.

  Yitian walked alone to the bottom of Qiyan Bridge.

  At this time, a gentle breeze blows from the river surface, and the weak willows on the riverbank sway gently.

  Yi Tian Xing's mind was clear and calm at this moment. He knew Qin Zi must have come with an ulterior motive, but he had made up his mind to take things as they came, so he wasn't too afraid. Knowing that the people from Ji Xiang Tian wouldn't let him off easily, it might be a good thing for them to show themselves in front of him sooner rather than later, at least then he wouldn't have to live in constant suspicion and fear.

  He waited by the river for a while and finally saw the girl riding a bicycle.

  "Hello, is there something?" Yitian Xing admired the beauty of the girl.

  Qin Zi said lightly: "There are some things I'd like to trouble you with."

  Yi Tianxing was slightly tense: "What's going on?"

  "It's what was said in the bet."

  Yi Tianxing let out a mouthful of stagnant air, sat down on the chair by the river with his knees hugged to his chest, and looked at Qin Zhi saying: "That day you lost, it seems like you should be the one granting me a wish instead."

  "What's going on? You speak first." Qin Zi seemed to always have that calm and collected expression, but this somehow made Yi Tianxing feel a surge of unexplained anger.

  He said with a hint of helplessness: "Don't bother me again, okay? I don't understand, aren't you half-immortals? What's the point of entangling with a poor guy like me?"

  Qin Zi pushed his bicycle and stood in front of him, not turning around, but staring directly at the white stones that occasionally appeared on the surface of the turbulent river, quietly saying: "What are you talking about?"

  Yi Tianxiao smiled and took off his shoes, letting the stinky feet that had been suffocated for a day be served by the cool breeze on the chair: "Although I am not from your world, I can also see that you are a person with a certain realm, but I don't know to what extent. Recently, I have seen your shadow in school many times and felt a little strange."

  Qin Zi turned around and saw his unrefined sitting posture, slightly furrowed her brow, saying: "You are also a cultivator, why do you want to distance yourself from us?"

  Yi Tianxing shook his head and said: "I have no master, no superior, no desires, no demands, I just want to live an ordinary life, why do you have to drag me into your world?"

  "What's our world?" Qin Zi's eyes flashed with a hint of confusion, "What kind of world is our world?"

  "Ji Xiang Tian." Yi Tian Xing, although he enjoyed having beautiful women in front of him, was very impatient with this kind of conversation that seemed to have a lot of flavor. He spoke directly and said: "Those who know me and are interested in me are no more than Ji Xiang Tian. Although I don't know why you're observing me, I want to make it clear that I have no hostility towards you, please don't make things difficult for me."

  "You don't know?" A hint of mockery flashed across Qin Zi's face.

  Yitian Xing suddenly felt that his own tyrannical classmate Lelai was so cute, and sighed: "I don't want to have this boring conversation where you don't come and I don't go. Anyway, you lost at Chinese chess to me, so you have to agree with me, from now on don't come looking for me to cause trouble."

  Qin Zi's expression changed to one of surprise, then she smiled and said: "I've told you before, as long as it's my own business, I can promise you anything, but unfortunately this is an internal affair."

  "Don't be perfunctory." Yi Tianxing said with a hint of mockery, "Why did you look surprised just now? Don't you think it's ridiculous that I would try to resolve such a big matter through a small game of chess? Do you half-immortals think it's foolish of me to think this way?"

  He stood up and walked to Qin Zi's side, looking at her weak shoulders with his peripheral vision and said: "I'm a simple person who values promises, it's my principle, so I hope you can respect the bet between us."

  Qin Zi turned her head sideways, and the river breeze wrapped around her hair, which fell on her forehead.

  "I can only agree to your personal request, which is also my principle."

  Yi Tian Xing pursed his lips and smiled, a smile that was extremely evil.

  "Personal request?"

  "Not bad."

  Yi Tianxing sighed, "I've always heard that the top three heavens are famous, and I thought they were just a distant existence in the sky, having nothing to do with ordinary people like me. Who would have thought...". His eyes scanned Qin Zhi's charming body, "It seems that even the top three heavens want to use the beauty trick."

  Qin Zi seemed somewhat startled, her two clear big eyes revealing a hint of embarrassment.

  Nor did he see how she moved, but only felt that the wind by the riverbank had slightly shifted, and she was suddenly three steps away from Yi Tianxing.

  Yi Tianxing's eyes widened in surprise, and he exclaimed: "What a brilliant display of lightness skill!" He then sighed and said: "Don't worry, I wouldn't dare make any overly personal requests."

  He smiled and patted his chest, pretending to be cute and silly, saying: "There's a girl in charge of the household here."