Chapter Thirty-Six: A Chess Match Difficult to Win

  "Of course, the treasure can only be opened in front of the old man, how can we enjoy it first?" Xue shook his head and vetoed his idea.

  An Weihong was hesitant and indecisive. He knew that Xue Xiang would never bring fake things in front of his own grandfather, but he couldn't understand why he wanted to offer such a good thing. Although the antique market is now basically paralyzed, it's still easy to get rid of such a good thing for tens of thousands of yuan. Is he asking for something from his own grandfather? Looking at his age, it doesn't seem possible. It must be for the sake of his family members, yes, that must be it.

  An Weihong indeed guessed Xue Xiang's thoughts clearly. Since he knew what Xue Xiang meant, his suspicions disappeared: "Third Brother Xue, I basically understand your intention now. You want to take advantage of the opportunity to present the treasure to meet Old Master, right? But this way, this treasure and I have nothing to do with each other anymore. This doesn't count as helping me, brother."

  Xue Xiang didn't expect him to be so perceptive, guessing his thoughts, and laughed: "Wei Hong, what you said makes sense. This painting is my gift to Old Master for his birthday. As for your gift, of course, it's on me. I guarantee it won't lose to Red Chou's 'Willow Twig Paste'. Besides, isn't General Wei's birthday still ahead? If you send the gift now, when your brothers and sisters present their gifts later, can you just stand by and watch?"

  An Weihong saw Su Zijian's calligraphy, it was impossible to get his hands on it. However, getting a piece that wasn't inferior to "Liu Xiang Tie" wouldn't be bad either. He immediately agreed: "I won't bother with Mr. Xue's treasure anymore. As promised, I'll entrust my birthday gift to you. You can name any price, I'm buying it, not begging for it. It's a birthday gift for the old master, I don't dare take it for free."

  "Got it, I've got this." Xue Xiang and An Weihong clinked glasses a few times, and the bottle of Port was almost empty. An Weihong's two guards, who had been served by the waiter to lie down on the sofa, woke up. The two guards thought for a while with their dizzy heads before realizing they had been knocked out, which was truly embarrassing. As soon as they stood up, they rushed towards Xue Xiang, but were stopped by An Weihong: "You're still from the Central Guard Unit, and you can't even withstand one move from my brother. How shameful. Forget it, you two don't have to follow me either. I'll let Old Wang arrange a unit for you later." It wasn't that Xue Xiang's fighting skills were much stronger than the two guards, but rather that the two guards were too careless, thinking their opponent was just an ordinary young man who wouldn't go all out. Secondly, Xue Xiang struck too quickly, hitting the vital points and rendering the two men unable to resist in an instant, turning what was supposed to be a fierce battle into Xue Xiang's solo performance.

  When An Weihong said this, the two men's faces changed greatly. They knew that with this arrangement, they would forever lose their chance to advance. At the time, the private guards of the leader were somewhat similar to the personal bodyguards of a Ming dynasty general, relying on each other as master and servant. The leader would arrange for guards who had been used for a certain number of years to be transferred to the military, where they would take charge of troops. The guards also regarded the leader they protected as their master. In the early days, there were even conflicts between leaders, resulting in firefights between their guards. From this it can be seen that the guards of high-ranking leaders are indeed trusted individuals.

  Xue Xiang knew that his actions had ruined the future of the two warriors, and he couldn't shake off the feeling of guilt. He spoke up, "Wei Hong, I was just taking advantage of their carelessness, it was just luck. I'm well aware of the skills of the two security guards, they're definitely among the best in the security team. Are you trying to make me out to be a bad guy?"

  Xue Xiang spoke up, and An Weihong had to give him face. Firstly, he was genuinely intimidated by Xue Xiang, even with the two bodyguards standing beside him, the icy feeling deep down reminded him not to mess with this smiling tiger. Secondly, he still hoped Xue Xiang could help him get a birthday gift for his grandfather, so he had to give him face. Besides, he was just taking advantage of the situation to scold the two bodyguards, after all, they had followed him for so many years, how could he say change them just like that?

  "Let's just drop it this time, for the sake of Brother Xue. You guys should be more vigilant in the future, or else one day my head will be gone and you'll still be clueless." He couldn't get that broken glass cup out of his mind.

  Two guards rushed to salute, nodded at Xue Xiang, and gave a respectful salute to Hua Wei Hong without saying a word. An Wei Hong ordered the two guards to go settle the bill, telling Xue Xiang to wait for a moment before taking him home.

  Xue Xiang got up and went to Kang Tong's place, took a red long wooden box, and instructed Kang Tong and Lei Xiaotian to go to work first. He himself had something else to attend to and it wasn't convenient to bring them along. Kang Tong and Lei Xiaotian knew that Xue Xiang's matter was settled, so they bid him to be careful before leaving in big strides.

  ……….

  General An Lao was a member of the J Committee, and although he had an independent residence within the palace, he didn't like its solemn atmosphere. So, he always stayed at Songzhu Zhai on Wangfu Street. Songzhu Zhai was a spacious four-sided courtyard that occupied more than three mu of land, named after the pine and bamboo trees planted inside. Xue Xiang followed An Wei Hong through the gatehouse and into the courtyard. This was an unconventional Beijing-style courtyard with a vast garden but not many rooms, unlike typical courtyards where houses were built on all four sides. This unique courtyard had only one main house, with the rest of the space used as a garden. The interior was spacious and sunny, with a broad view. Besides the scattered pine trees and bamboo groves, there was a pavilion built in the western part of the garden, surrounded by flowers and grasses that were not rare species but ordinary folk plants, yet fragrant and blooming. The pavilion was surrounded by flowerbeds, leaving only four paths for people to walk through. The flowerbeds were planted with cloves, crabapples, elm-leaved cherries, and mountain peach blossoms. Inside the pavilion were various potted plants that occupied more than half of the 15-square-meter space. There were pomegranate trees, jasmine, osmanthus, silver osmanthus, rhododendron, and gardenias, some of which had already borne fruit. On the right side of the courtyard was a vegetable patch covering about half a mu, where vegetables grew luxuriantly, with cucumbers green, peppers red, and tomatoes half-red hanging from the branches. This season was when all flowers were in bloom, and butterflies danced around, making the garden elegant and pleasant to walk through, like strolling through an ocean of flowers.

  Xue Xiang followed An Weihong through the bamboo forest and pine array, along the small path between the flowers and grass, towards the pavilion. They passed by the nursery and climbed up to the pavilion. Inside the pavilion were already three people, a guard standing on one side, while two old men sat at the stone table and stone bench in the center, playing chess. The old man on the left had white hair and beard, a round face, a collapsed nose bridge, shiny skin, and a ruddy complexion, clearly showing that he was still vigorous despite his age, with excellent self-care. The old man on the right had black hair without any white, a square face, big ears, a straight nose, and a wide mouth, making it difficult to guess his age from afar. Upon closer inspection, the sparse white spots on his face and his thinning hair all indicated that he was an old man in decline.

  An old man with white hair held a red piece, while an old man with black hair held a black piece. The Chu River and Han border had long been at odds, with the two sides engaging in fierce battles that were difficult to resolve. Xue Xiang followed Hua Wei Hong to the table, but no one paid attention to their arrival. An Wei Hong was used to it and stood quietly on the side, watching the game. Xue Xiang imitated him, not daring to speak out of turn. On the chessboard, the red side's main force still had two horses and a cannon, while the black side only had two cannons and a chariot. From a military perspective, the black side had a slight advantage, but from the current situation on the board, the black side was already in a desperate situation. The red side's two horses had entered the central palace, and the momentum of the killing would soon be unstoppable. The black side's one chariot and two cannons were barely able to cross the border, with no strength to attack or defend. The old man with white hair sipped his tea, tapped on the table, and hummed "The sky is bright for liberation, the people love liberation..." with a smile all over his face, shaking his head from side to side. The old man with black hair waved his fan faster and faster, but in fact, the breeze in the pavilion was gentle and refreshing, cooler than the air-conditioned rooms of later generations, so there was no need to use a fan at all. The old man with black hair furrowed his brow tighter and tighter, one hand hovering over his chess pieces, apparently thinking deeply about the game.

  "Lao An, admit defeat already! It's about time I won a round. If I hadn't been careless and rushed into the previous few rounds, you would have lost miserably by now." The white-haired old man sipped his tea, narrowing his eyes as he advised the black-haired old man. The white-haired old man was extremely pleased with himself, resorting to psychological tactics.

  With a single glance, the identity of the old man with black hair was self-evident. In fact, Xue Xiang had long suspected that the old man with black hair must be General An Lao without a doubt. Firstly, during the battle, An Wei stood behind the old man, making their relationship clear; secondly, at the old man's advanced age, there was no need to dye his hair, obviously for the sake of appearances.

  "Old Qian, you've lost four out of five games and still have the nerve to say it's because you underestimated me. Why don't you just admit that your chess skills aren't up to par? You always look for subjective reasons and ignore objective facts. Not studying dialectics well is bound to lead to mistakes."

  "Alright, alright, don't lecture me, I know you're from a political work background, let's not drag this into our chess game. My chess skills aren't high? Then why did you lose to me? You should be the one winning." Old Qian said with a raised and twitching eyebrow, taking the upper hand.

  "Has Laozi lost? The game isn't over yet, you old fellow are being too smug."

  "You'd better keep going down then, don't just talk about it. If you don't continue to go down, of course, you won't lose. With your usual calm demeanor, it shouldn't be like this."

  you

  The old general was speechless on the scene, and his chess pieces were also about to be trapped by Old Qian. He was at a loss for what to do next, staring blankly at the chessboard. Old Qian savored his tea with relish, humming his revolutionary tune.

  "Hmmph!" General An exclaimed, then cheered and jumped up, tossing his fan to the side: "Old Qian, watch this!" He then pulled back the cannons from the front line, holding down the second-to-last line with the soldiers guarding the cross-shaped star, blocking Old Qian's potential horse.

  "Impossible, absolutely impossible! How did you little brat think of this move? You must have cheated!"

  "Hey, hey, here we go again. Every time it's like this, it's no fun at all. I didn't cheat or move any pieces, did I? There are only five people here and nobody said a word, you're the one who's being reckless, now it's my turn to take care of you."

  The old man was speechless for a moment, and the duck that had been about to be eaten flew away.