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Chapter 3: Sisterhood and Childly Infatuation [Act 1] Repaired (2)

Xu Pingjun looked at the blue dolphin pendant in his hand in a daze, and his lips trembled slightly. Admit it right, this is her gift to her best friend! Besides, this style of threading the needle and thread is only from her alone in this world! But it is clearly a thing of the future, how can it appear in this era? She stared at the other party tightly, secretly wondering if the other party was really Lin Jingru, why would he have this souvenir from the future and only given to 'her'?

Yu Wei quietly watched Xu Pingjun's expression, her heart was surging, if Xu Pingjun and Ruotong really had nothing to do with it, how could she react so strongly in the face of this pendant? She secretly rejoiced that her previous doubts were becoming clearer and her judgment was confirmed. But before she could speak, Xu Pingjun pressed her shoulder sharply and asked in Chinese: "Please tell me, how can you have this thing?" ”

"This is a gift from an old friend." Yu Wei remained silent, forcibly suppressed her beating heart, and tried her best to keep her tone calm, "Why are you so excited?" Such a rhetorical question was just to force Xu Pingjun to immediately confess his connection with Ruotong.

I didn't want Xu Pingjun to take a deep breath, quickly collected the loss of control of Fang Cai, his face was calm, and he returned the pendant in his hand to her.

"What's going on? Isn't Xu Pingjun still angry about 'that incident'? Yu Wei saw that Xu Pingjun had regained his former reserve and indifference, and the previous ecstasy and excitement were instantly dispelled away by disappointment and loneliness. She stopped talking and sat back silently with the blue dolphin pendant.

Seeing Yuwei's lonely back, Xu Pingjun felt astringent in his heart, and lowered his head to hide the helplessness and pain in his eyes. Who is the other party, the answer has already been revealed, after all, the pendant is enough to prove a qiē. Judging by the sudden change in the other party's expression, it is obvious that he also has doubts about his identity - after all, they have been together for more than ten years, how can they not be familiar with each other's habits and temperament? Even if she has changed her identity, whether it is her soul or her memory, it is Hu Ruotong - she glanced at the bugs hidden in all corners of the carriage out of her eyes, and secretly wondered how to tell her honestly on this densely monitored train?

However, there is no way. Xu Pingjun's mind was racing, and he quickly took out a chessboard and two chess jars from the suitcase, and opened his palms towards her: "It's still early to arrive at the destination, and the journey is boring, I wonder if Miss Lin would like to talk to me about a game?" ”

"Jing Ru is not good at chess, and I hope that Miss Pingjun will give me more guidance." Glancing at the black and white two sons in the other party's hands, Yu Wei immediately understood Xu Pingjun's intentions and turned to great joy: she had actually roughly guessed who she was. Besides, the chess style is like its own person, at this moment, what better way to quickly confirm each other's true identities than a game?

But for some reason, it was only five steps away from Xu Pingjun's seat, but Yu Wei felt her heart beating like thunder, and her legs trembled so much that she couldn't take a step. In her apprehension, she finally met the other party's gaze.

"However, although my father tried his best to teach me, I was still not proficient in Go." Xu Pingjun waited for Yuwei to sit opposite her, and gently placed the black and white chess pieces in his hand between the chessboards, "Forbidden five sons, I don't know if it's okay?" ”

Forbidden backgammon? Yu Wei fixed her eyes on the chessboard, hooked the corners of her lips, and suddenly remembered a chess tournament held on campus in her junior year, in which the forbidden backgammon made her and Ruotong, who love backgammon, eager to try it and happily sign up. Then the two of them drew lots and grouped up, and passed all the way until they advanced to the finals.

"Well, please forgive me for following the 'old rules.'" Yu Wei skillfully grabbed a sunspot between her index finger and middle fingertips, and made a slight gesture to Xu Pingjun, and then landed it at the intersection of the center of the chessboard [56], "Tian Yuan [57], the so-called place of Taiji, the foundation of all things, and the principle of running in the years.

This arrogant remark made Xu Pingjun slightly stunned, and then secretly rejoiced that the other party was really 'her'! After all, this forbidden backgammon is a number of restrictive 'prohibitions' set for black chess with an obvious chance of winning first, so as to ensure that both sides of the competition have an equal chance of winning. Black loses if he is not careful, and plays the pattern of 'double three', 'double four', and 'long link' [58]. Therefore, most chess players play white and then avoid prohibitions.

Only 'she' has advanced in the face of difficulties, and has always insisted on black first, and has always followed the 'old rule', that is, according to the usual practice, the first work [59] falls on the central star position of 'Tian Yuan'. As a result, the spectators were in an uproar, and White was so shocked that he forgot to play [60].

"Sure enough, it's a good star!" Xu Pingjun bowed his head, and unhurriedly landed the white son at the intersection above the black zi, "Although Tian Yuan is the first point of the chessboard, my upper right seven or seven positions are not inferior." ”

Yu Wei looked at the chessboard and sighed secretly that after a round, the sunspot couldn't get half a penny. If it is a freestyle [61], as long as the sunspot falls directly below the Tian Yuan, the pattern can be stabilized and slowly drawn. But in the forbidden hands, if Kuroko is really here, he will immediately break the ban and admit defeat. But she was not afraid, and skillfully landed directly below Baizi: "Seven or six places on the lower right, please advise." ”

"Just in time!" Xu Pingjun thought for a while, and then placed the second white seed directly above the previous white son without hesitation, "Seven or six on the upper right, please be careful." ”

Yu Wei immediately smiled lightly, and soon fell close to the left of the second sunspot: "Since you have two whites that are closely connected, I might as well try it too--it is eight or five below." ”

"Since you're killing yourself, it's no wonder I'm not to blame." Xu Pingjun smiled when he saw it, but it was a small piece that quickly fell on Yu Wei's sunspot that was ranked in Tianyuan, "If today's Yuan Road has been blocked by me, and see how you save yourself from danger, it is eight or seven below." ”

Yu Wei raised her eyes and smiled, calmly leaning the sunspot to Tian Yuan's right: "The so-called 'blocking', where does it come from?" Seventh or eighth from the right. ”

Xu Pingjun laughed twice on his back, and quickly put his confession at another intersection: "How to intercept it?" Upper left seven seven bits. Suddenly, three adjacent whites were horizontally connected in a line on the plate. If Black does not block both ends decisively, White will form a 'live four'[62] even if Black is not bound by any prohibitions.

Yu Wei frowned slightly, secretly thinking that Xu Pingjun's move was really sharp - even if the two ends of the three white discs were blocked, White could still land at the intersection of the seventh or eighth discs on the left, which happened to form a new triple with the fourth and sixth discs arranged earlier. If she doesn't follow up with her at this point and block White's three-in-a-row, she will most likely present a new 'live four' position. But the seventh or eighth place on the left is another forbidden area for sunspots, which must not be touched.

Obviously, Xu Pingjun was forcing her to abandon her son and admit defeat, but--she showed a trace of elegant smile, she Lan Yuwei never fought a battle that she was not sure of!

"Six or seven on the right!" With a crisp sound, she picked out an oblate black piece from the chess jar and placed it at the right end of the horizontal triple connection, blocking Xu Pingjun and Baizi from forming a 'live four' situation.

Xu Pingjun saw that Yuwei still blocked the horizontal three companies, and smiled: "This move is tantamount to suicide, it is really 'one son is careless, and the whole will lose'!" ”

"Definitely." Yu Wei played with the sunspot in her hand and smiled lightly, "'The mountains and rivers are exhausted and there is no way out, and the willows and flowers are bright and another village.'" Now that there are nine black and white pieces, which have not yet reached the stage of official [63], it is premature to assert this. ”

Xu Pingjun saw that Yuwei was always calm and unhurried, and smiled with his chin bowed. She lowered her eyes slightly, tapped the board lightly, and continued to ponder the chess game.

***

Just as the two black-haired and black-eyed Chinese women from the East were playing a game, in the University of Munich, a hundred miles away, Hikaru Tajiri was extremely shocked to find that the number of people in the medical school's study room had plummeted, and some familiar faces were gone.

"Strange! Where did Shu Ze and Xu Pingjun go? Also, the damn woman is also inexplicably gone. In the past, she should have been in the study room or the library with her roommate Shu Ze—" Tajiri Hikaru also closed the textbook irritably, full of doubts.

It turned out that after conspiring with Ancoste, Tajiri Mitsuya left the Gestapo Munich branch with great ambition and returned to the campus at about 8 o'clock this morning, officially preparing to start monitoring the movements of 'Lin Jingru'. He knows very well that compared with other departments of Munich University, the medical school is known as one of the best medical schools in Germany, and has always been fiercely competitive, and implements a cruel last-place elimination system, so that outstanding students such as Xu Pingjun and Christina, even on their days off, do not dare to relax in the slightest and insist on studying and exploring. Therefore, as long as Christina's whereabouts are discovered, you can find the 'Lin Jingru' who is inseparable from her.

However, at this moment, he was annoyed to find that whether it was 'Lin Jingru', Christina, or even Xu Pingjun, they had disappeared mysteriously. Looking at the sparsely populated classroom, Hikaru Tajiri kicked over the desks and chairs in anger, hurriedly packed up his books and left the classroom. As soon as I walked out of the teaching building, I saw Professor Conrad, who was surrounded by several men and women, carefully arranging his black suit and looking solemn.

"Dear Professor, please stay." Seeing that it was rare for the vice dean Professor Conrad to stay on campus on weekends, Tajiri Hikaru also hurriedly stepped forward, "Have you ever seen that - the Chinese student Lin Jingru, that is, 'Mia'?" I've got something to look for her. ”

Professor Conrad turned his face sideways and glanced coldly at Mitsuya Tajiri: "Is there a 'thing'?" It's no wonder that Mitsuya Tajiri has been absent from class recently, and it turns out that he wants to go through the 'thing' of withdrawal procedures! In that case, please come to my office on Monday. He then straightened the frame and turned to the man and woman beside him with a gentle smile, "Let's go quickly, we must not miss Mass." ”

'Dropping out? Tajiri Hikari was also shocked that his face changed suddenly, and he hurriedly grabbed the hem of Professor Conrad's clothes, and argued loudly: "No, honorable vice dean, please listen to my explanation!" I'm—"

"I don't have time to listen to your lazy crap right now!" Professor Conrad looked at the pleated suit again, angrily interrupted Mitsuya Tajiri's defense, pointed at his knife face and shouted, "You want to know where Mia is?" I'll tell you the truth: because of her academic excellence, the institute has approved her to go to Berlin for a month's internship, and she is currently on the train to Berlin! If you understand, get out of the way, and don't get in the way of the Holy Sacrifice! 【64】”

Tajiri Guang also suddenly realized, and immediately became anxious, after all, he received the Gestapo's honorarium named 'Ancosta', and promised to monitor 'Lin Jingru''s every move as an eyeliner. But if he could not provide reliable information to Ancoster within a month, wouldn't he offend this high-ranking Munich official? What's more, even Yoshio Kato, who dared to shout at Yuan Shikai of China at that time, is now afraid of Ankost's intelligence agency, how should he, a down-and-out bureaucrat, parry?

"Then—the honorable professor, will you give me immediate permission to go to Berlin? I've got something to look for Mia. The more Tajiri Hikaru thought about it, the more frightened he became, and the more he clutched the corner of Professor Conrad's clothes, bowing frequently with a sad face, "I beg you!" ”

Professor Conrad saw that the suit that had finally been ironed out became crumpled, and he couldn't bear to slap Tajiri Mitsuya's hand away, and scolded angrily: "With your attitude of abandoning your studies, you are also qualified to go to Berlin?" I sue you, during this period, you have given me every class honestly, and you must not slack off in the slightest! At the same time, you will be punished to clean all the men's toilets in the medical school for a week, and I will send someone to inspect them! If you dare to leave school without permission and skip school, let me go back to the Far East and don't come to Germany again! After speaking, he cursed a foul language, and under the persuasion of those men and women, he left without looking back.

Such harsh words are like a bolt from the blue for Hikaru Tajiri. He froze in place, full of chagrin and his intention to go to Berlin again, and he was unable to fulfill his promise to keep an eye on 'Lin Jingru' at all times. Knowing that the school had such an arrangement, why did he bother to rush to Berlin before, and spend the night next to the stinking garbage bin on a street corner in Berlin, and almost couldn't even return to school?

What is even more intolerable to him is that now that even 'Lin Jingru' has been allowed to go to Berlin for an internship, he has not only been disqualified but also severely warned. remembered that in order to allow him to go abroad for further study, his already ruined family had to raise money everywhere and was in debt. If you can't return home with honors this time and devote yourself to the great cause of imperial expansion, but you are ordered to drop out of school and return home, how should you face the expectations of your family? Reviving the Tajiri family in Hokkaido? So much so that the neighbors and relatives unanimously decided that the so-called 'Tajiri family's new hope was actually a 'Dunma' (Japanese: stupid, dementia) that was not even as good as a Chinese woman!?

For a while, the panic and fear were like stormy waves, and wave after wave rushed towards Tajiri Hikari in his heart, making him so restless that in this cold and bleak season, his body was dripping with sweat. He suppressed his extremely suffocated feelings, ran back to the dormitory angrily, and in the surprised and stunned gaze of the Bulgarian roommate, he pulled out a heavy katana from its scabbard in an instant, and the blade was as cold as a note!

"Red deer! How can I be an outstanding student of the Japanese Empire, how can I be defeated by you, a damn woman!? You must have slandered me in front of the professors, stolen the honor that should have belonged to me, and brought such a great shame on me and my empire! If I, Hikaru Tajiri, don't let you die without a place to be buried, I will use this to disembowel, and apologize to my family and His Majesty the Emperor! Tajiri also yanked Narita's mustache and looked directly at the katana, which was said to have been given by the shogun Tokugawa Yoshiki, left behind by his deceased father, and the two buckteeth sank deep into his lips.

Outside the window, the wind rose suddenly, the trees were sparse, and countless dead leaves were like dying spring butterflies, unable to float in the air, falling to the ground.

Exegesis:

[56] The intersection point at the very center of the chessboard (the point where the horizontal and vertical lines visible on the board intersect perpendicularly, referred to as "points"). ）

[57] The place of Tai Chi, the foundation of all things, and the principle of running at the age of time. (The central area is "Tai Chi", so, place.) At the age of the year, level four, one year. Reason, reason, law. The word "Tianyuan" first appeared in the "Historical Records and Almanacs", and later mentioned in the "Wei Shu Guan Ge Biography" and "Later Han Shu Chen Zhong Biography". ）

[58] "Double Three", "Double Four" and "Long Connection" (the term for forbidden five-in-a-row, double three, i.e., three three forbidden hands. Sunspots fall to form two or more live threes (or embedded fours) at the same time; Double four, that is, four four forbidden hands, the sunspot falls at the same time to form two or more fours, whether live four, rush four, embedded five of the four are all within this "four"; Long connection, that is, more than six sons are connected. ）

[59] First move (During the game, the player lands a piece on a point on the board without a piece, regardless of whether the hand of the fallen piece is detached from the piece, it is considered a move.) ）

【60】Falling pieces (The pieces fall directly on the blank intersection of the board.)

[61] Freestyle (i.e., non-forbidden style, without any restraint on sunspots.) ）

[62] "Live four": There are two points that can be five of four.

[63] Guanzi, also known as the finale, is the last stage of the three stages in chess art (layout, midgame, and official), which refers to the stage in which the two sides have established the boundary of competition after the battle in the middle game has been roughly determined.

[64] Holy Sacrifice: The "Mass" above, the highest Catholic sacrifice, in which the Eucharist and Blood of Christ are consecrated on the altar and become a true sacrifice, is a reenactment of the sacrifice of the Cross, referring to the Christian religious rite of remembrance of the sacrifice of Jesus. ）”