Chapter 1389
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Chapter 1389 Playing Chess
Li Kengqiang held two fragrant fish skewers in his hand, walked through the dim forest, and finally stopped slowly at the top of the mountain.
Under the star-studded night sky, a white-clad figure was sitting at the edge of the cliff, looking at the few silhouettes around the bonfire in the clearing below, lost in thought.
“I brought you one,” Li Kengqiang sat down beside him and handed him a skewer. “After all, you caught them yourself, you should at least taste it, right? An Qingyu’s grilling skills are quite good.”
Tang Yusheng glanced at him, smiled helplessly, and took the skewer:
“Why did you leave so soon? Why not chat with them more?”
“If you want to chat, go chat yourself. Why do you always make me accompany them? I’m not their babysitter,” Li Kengqiang took a bite of his skewer and spoke leisurely.
Tang Yusheng opened his mouth as if wanting to say something, but after a while, he just sighed.
The two sat at the edge of the cliff, silently eating their skewers, as silence fell over them.
After some time, Li Kengqiang looked down at the mountain and suddenly spoke:
“I’m sorry.”
Tang Yusheng was slightly startled, “What?”
“You must have seen how these youngsters performed,” Li Kengqiang smiled bitterly. “If we had been like them back then… those tragedies wouldn’t have happened.”
“Uncle Li, you’re overthinking it,” Tang Yusheng shook his head repeatedly. “If you all hadn’t fought to the death, I wouldn’t have been born at all. If you hadn’t raised me during your time leading the special team, I wouldn’t have been able to grow to that stage…
Lin Qiye and the others did very well, but history is history. Without you all, there would be no Tang Yusheng.”
Li Kengqiang didn’t speak. He sat still for a long time, patted Tang Yusheng’s shoulder, and stood up to walk away:
“Try to spend more time with these youngsters. You’re just too solitary…”
Li Kengqiang waved his hand under the night sky, his figure disappearing into the forest. Tang Yusheng remained sitting still, slowly closing his eyes…
…
Gods Psychiatric Hospital.
“Good evening, Director.”
“Mm, hello.”
Lin Qiye, wearing a white coat, nodded slightly to the two attendants coming toward him and continued walking down the corridor.
Suddenly, as if remembering something, he turned back and asked, “By the way, where is Supervisor Li?”
“He’s playing chess with the repeater… oh no, with Yerande in the courtyard,” the attendant replied.
Chess?
With Yerande?
Lin Qiye was stunned for a moment, then turned and headed toward the courtyard.
Playing chess was something that didn’t match Li Yifei’s style at all, and playing with Yerande was even stranger. Could it be that during his absence, Yerande’s condition had improved?
Lin Qiye’s brain worked rapidly as he quickly arrived at the spacious courtyard.
It was late, and the hazy moonlight fell on the courtyard’s lawn, as if covered with a layer of gauze. Under the large tree in the center of the courtyard, two figures were sitting motionless at a small square table.
One was Li Yifei, and sitting across from him was the kindly old man in cloud-like white robes, Yerande.
Lin Qiye silently approached the chessboard, not calling out to Li Yifei, but quietly standing behind him, leaning forward to look at the board.
The board was a Go board, and the pieces were Go pieces, with black and white occupying most of the grid. Strangely, the way they were playing wasn’t the Go that Lin Qiye remembered, nor was it Five-in-a-Row… the whole situation was a mess, seemingly without any rules.
Li Yifei was rubbing his chin with one hand, frowning, as if deep in thought…
“Grandpa Ye, what on earth are you playing?”
After a while, Li Yifei finally couldn’t hold back and asked.
“You’re doing very well, child,” Yerande smiled and spoke, raising his gaze to look at Lin Qiye behind Li Yifei.
Li Yifei also sensed something and turned to look behind him. Seeing Lin Qiye in a white coat in the middle of the night, he was startled, his wrist jerking up and flipping over the board and pieces, scattering them all over the ground.
“Qiye? Why don’t you make any sound when you walk?” Li Yifei recognized Lin Qiye’s face, patting his chest while complaining.
“What are you two doing?”
“Playing chess, of course.”
“What kind of chess?”
“…I don’t know either.” Li Yifei scratched his head. “Originally, Azhu and I were playing Five-in-a-Row here for fun, then Grandpa Ye came over. Azhu and I played more than a dozen rounds, and he just stood watching, not moving, occasionally blurting out ‘You’re doing very well, child’…
I thought, since he’s been watching for so long, why not let him play too? So I asked Azhu to make room for him, and Grandpa Ye sat down by himself.”
Li Yifei pointed at the scattered pieces on the ground and spoke with some frustration:
“I thought, even if the old man had never seen Five-in-a-Row before, he’s still the Holy Master of the Holy Church. After watching Azhu and me play for so long, he should have grasped how to play… but unexpectedly, he just played randomly. I was completely confused.”
From Li Yifei’s words, Lin Qiye understood what had happened. After thinking for a moment, he said:
“It’s fine, you go ahead with your business… I’ll keep him company for a while.”
Lin Qiye picked up the board and pieces, setting them back on the table, and sat down in Li Yifei’s place.
Regardless of whether Yerande was playing correctly, at least this was the first time since coming to the hospital that he had done anything other than “overlooking.” Perhaps this was a breakthrough in his condition.
Lin Qiye pushed the two bowls containing black and white pieces to the center of the table and politely said:
“Please, you first.”
“You’re doing very well, child.”
Yerande smiled kindly, reached out and directly took the bowl of black pieces, grabbed a handful, and scattered them all over the grid in front of him.
Lin Qiye’s mouth twitched.
“Um… Elder Yerande, that’s not how you play this game. Let me explain it to you briefly…”
Lin Qiye patiently began to explain the rules of Go to Yerande. After finishing, he added, “Do you understand?”
“You’re doing very well, child.”
“Good, I’m glad you understand.”
Lin Qiye gathered up the black pieces from Yerande’s side of the board, put them back in the bowl, and made a “please” gesture:
“You first, please.”
Yerande smiled and again grabbed a handful of pieces, scattering them on the board.
Lin Qiye: …
Lin Qiye sighed helplessly, about to just play along with Yerande’s random moves, when his gaze fell on the board and he suddenly froze.
On the board, the messy black pieces were scattered randomly in front of Yerande, with no apparent pattern… but strangely, both the number of pieces scattered and their positions were exactly the same as when Yerande had scattered the pieces the first time.
