(20 years ago)

"That's ...... Providence!"

The old man's gaze fell on the chessboard again.

"Providence, what is Grandpa's providence?"

The little boy continued;

Hearing the little boy ask rhetorically, the old man paused, his eyes became deeper at this moment, as if he was reminiscing, recalling that a young man had asked the same question, and before that story, there was a more distant story.

"Does Liang'er want to hear the story?"

When the memory was recalled, the old man's eyes gradually turned to the ancient pine next to the chessboard, because the beginning of the story had to start with the humble ancient pine......

A long, long time ago, when that ancient pine was young, there was sunshine and rain, and it was like a person experiencing the happiest time of his life, carefree, greedily absorbing the gifts of heaven and earth every day.

But the quiet time is always short and precious, and when one day a thunderbolt slips across the sky, its life is completely changed, and under the power of the brilliant sky, the young pine tree is instantly torn apart!

The breath of prosperity is gone, but its extraordinaryness in the world has only just begun.

After the catastrophe, the first to rush to Honka was a handsome young man, his eyes were full of indifference and calm, and he stared at the thunderbolt pine for a long time, as if he wanted to see something unusual from it.

But in the end, he didn't seem to find anything until a second person appeared.

The second person who appeared looked like a Confucian student, with a kind face, dressed in white, and looked gentle and elegant.

When he came here, he was a little surprised to find that there were already other people walking in front of him, and then he smiled with a spring breeze on his face: "I thought I would be the first one to come here, dare to ask you who ......"

But he received no answer, for the first young man had been standing there for a long time, his eyes closed, as if meditating, as if in a fugue.

But the second young man who arrived didn't care, just looked up at the sky.

Then a third young man appeared, dressed in coarse cloth and carrying a bamboo basket on his back, who had climbed up a steep hill beside him, and who had already been sweating profusely by the time he arrived.

He wiped his forehead with his hand, and looked at the two people in front of him with some curiosity, but when he wiped his sweat, the dirt on his hands was inadvertently wiped on his forehead.

At this time, the white-clothed man who arrived second quickly looked back at him and nodded, but the eyes of the young man who arrived third quickly fell on the lightning pine tree in front.

After a long, long time, the eyes of the first young man who had arrived suddenly opened as if he had sensed something, and the other two seemed to feel the same way, and both looked at him.

I saw that the young man who was the first to arrive moved under his feet, and his body turned into a swift black shadow and rushed towards the lightning pine tree.

When he came to the pine, his hand quickly grabbed forward, and it turned out that among the thunderbolt pine, there was a very strange existence, which seemed to be the heart of the pine, but it was completely different from the surrounding pine fragments and branches, because there was not the slightest scorch and crack on the pine!

When his hand grasped the piece of pine wood, the other two looked at the pine wood in the first man's hand, and even the second man in white flashed a trace of surprise and shock in his eyes again!

"Click!"

With a crisp sound, the man snapped the pine heart from the root in his hand, held it in his hand, and then turned his attention to the other two, but he still didn't say anything, still so indifferent.

After getting what he wanted, he didn't stay any longer, jumped back to his original position, turned around and was about to go down the mountain.

When he came to the second man in white, the man in white wanted to say something, but in the end he couldn't speak.

And when he came to the young man with the bamboo basket on his back, he turned his head and looked at the young man whose face was still full of earthy smell, but at this time the young man seemed to have recovered from the surprise just now, and his eyes were still staring at the remains of the thunderous pine wood, and he did not speak.

So the young man who was the first to hold the heart of the lightning strike was the first to arrive and the first to leave.

After a long time, the sky had darkened, but the sky seemed to be cloudy this night, and there was a faint thunderclap.

"So, what are you waiting for?"

At this moment, the second young man suddenly asked.

"I want to wait for an early morning ......"

The young man with the bamboo basket on his back said, and then he also looked at the man in white and asked, "What about you?"

Hearing this, a smile appeared on the corner of the man's mouth, and then he looked up at the dark sky, his brows furrowed slightly.

"I want to see the night here......"

Although the words of the man in white were strange, the young man with the bamboo basket on his back did not continue to ask, and he did not feel sleepy, but continued to pay attention to the broken wood in front of him.

The wind at night was very cool and cool, and the beasts, insects and ants in the mountains seemed to become more presumptuous in the dark night, but neither of them chose to leave.

Finally, when a trace of fish white in the eastern sky gradually climbed out of the distant mountains, the dew in the mountains had already wet the corners of their clothes.

The next day finally came, and the young man with the bamboo basket on his back finally showed a smile on his face.

"How...... Possibly?"

The man in white was shocked again, and when the boy passed by him, he had a gut feeling that he knew that the night he was waiting for would shock him again.

For in the wreckage of the thunderbolt-struck pine, on top of the charred shards scattered all over the place, there was a touch of green, a touch of green that could not have appeared.

And the young man with the bamboo basket on his back came to the new green, knelt down, put down the bamboo basket on his back carefully, and then picked up the fragment with both hands, put it in the bamboo basket, and then got up and patted his trouser legs.

"Good luck!"

He took one last look at the man in white, then picked up his bamboo basket and left without looking back......

He was the only one left in the mountains, but he was still waiting, and the day was a long day for him, and when the sun went over his head and down to the west, he knew that he would soon be out of here.

"You know that...... Tonight was a wonderful night!"

At this moment, another voice suddenly sounded in his ears, and he was startled, and he suddenly raised his head to see two more people appear under the original pine wood.

It was a white-haired old man with a boy of eight or nine years old by his side.

"Who are you?"

He was a little suspicious and a little surprised, because he didn't know when these two people came here, but fortunately he knew a truth, the world is big, and there are no surprises.

"Before enjoying this night, can you accompany the old man and me to finish this game of chess?"

The old man looked at him, his face looked amiable, and the man in white was startled again, because a chessboard had appeared under the pine tree at some point, and he hesitated for a moment, but chose to go over and sit down.

The chess pieces are divided into black and white, after he hesitated, he finally chose Kuroko, the old man smiled, but he stretched out his hand to signal the man in white, but when he picked up the Kuroko with his hand, his eyes were always staring at the chessboard, and there seemed to be an illusion in an instant.

The chessboard seemed to have become a shrunken map, and the lines were like mountains and rivers, so the chess pieces in his hand did not fall for a long time, until a trace of sweat appeared on his forehead!

It seemed to be in some strange state, his hand was suddenly a little unstable, and the black piece in his hand fell down all of a sudden, and this unintentional fall was exactly the center of the chessboard.

The sunspot fell, and the strange feeling suddenly swept through him like a breeze, and after a moment he was back to normal.

He looked up at the old man, who seemed to be looking at him all the time, still with the same smile on his face, but the child next to him didn't seem to understand this chess game, his brows furrowed, a puzzled look on his face, and he was scratching the back of his head.

"Although the chessboard is small, black and white kill each other, and when there is a profit, it loses. ”

The old man smiled, he didn't look at the chessboard, he just picked up a white piece casually, and gently placed it on the chessboard, everything went so lightly, he didn't seem to care whether he was right or wrong, listening to the old man, the man in white frowned gradually, obviously this game was just the beginning......

Time passed, and the night covered the mountains again, but the moonlight was very bright this night, or rather it was surprisingly bright.

That night, when the man in white stood up from the side of the chessboard, he looked up at the sky, and the starry sky was like the sea this night, and it seemed that there was no night as vast as tonight.

He smiled, seemed to have finally gotten what he wanted, and turned to leave.

In the end, the game became a story, and the child next to the old man did not know how it would end, nor did he know who would win or lose, and he did not understand the truth when he knew chess.

"Grandpa, which of you won?"

"Why win?" said the old man.

"If you don't win or lose, then why play chess?" the boy asked.

Hearing the boy's question, the old man looked back at him, still with a kind smile on his face, and said: "Life is like quicksand, like the stars and universe, if you have to find this black and white victory, you need to find a trace of cause and effect!"

"What do you mean?"

Hearing this, the boy scratched his head again, looked at the game of chess, and also looked up at the night sky, still not understanding the meaning.

"Huh...... Grandpa meant that if anyone wins this game one day, then that day will change!"

The old man touched the little boy's head and smiled.

"Changing the sky?"

The boy didn't seem to understand, the old man looked at him thinking, looked in the direction of the white clothes leaving, and muttered, "What if there really is such a person?"

No one knows what happened that night, it was the third year after everyone left Honka, and there were three gates in the world, which were for Fang Mu, Dan Yin, and astrology!