When Zhirui came, I had already returned to my room to clean my hands, and the maids below had already taken advantage of my absence to put the rosin between the strings of the zither good, and at this moment there was a faint fragrance floating on my face.

I flicked it with my hand, and the deep sound from the strings broke the silence in the room in an instant, and I panicked, and hurriedly pressed it with my fingertips. I slowly lowered my head, gently tugging at the strings, not wanting it to make too much noise, and lowered my eyes and whispered, "Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one." ”

Zhirui looked at me with a smile and said, "How long has it been since you practiced this piano, and you have regressed to this point?" ”

I looked up and smiled at him, didn't speak, and thought to myself, I haven't learned the guzheng, so of course I can't play.

Bai Ge lifted the curtain, brought a cup of tea and handed it to Zhirui.

Zhirui took a sip and waved his hand at Bai Ge, who retreated. He put down the teacup, sat on the chair and pulled his cuffs casually, and said to me, "What I asked you just now, you haven't answered yet?" ”

I looked at him and said, "I'm just playing a string and you can hear me regressing?" ”

He thought for a moment and said: "That's natural, there is a saying, 'five tones on the seven strings are cold', and there is a saying, 'Yanghu, the hope of the ancient tune', just one note can actually glimpse the ordinary effort," he paused, sighed leisurely, and said, "Speaking of which, I haven't been to the Liuxiang Music Pavilion for a few days." ”

I frowned and asked, "Liuxiang Music Pavilion?" Do you go often? ”

Zhirui smiled and touched the tip of his nose and said, "I don't go often, it's been about two or three years since I last went," there seemed to be a lot of regret in his tone, "There are eight streets in Zhao'an City, and there are ancient music halls in the streets, and the most influential ones are the Siye Music Hall and the Liuxiang Music Hall organized by Mr. Zhang Yonggu." The music hall meets friends with music, and the music is full of music at night, and it is very lively. Mr. Zhang Yonggu plays the guzheng by himself, and is also equipped with strings, bamboo strings, dong flute, small three strings, Shuangqing and other musical instruments, with seven or eight players and more than ten people. They do not play tide music, but only worship ancient music, and sometimes add qudi to sing along with the Kun dialect to help music. Yunxiao County and Zhangpu County are also very popular in social activities. ”

I sighed lightly and pouted, "I thought you would go a lot, just a few steps from us, it's so far, what's the use of talking about it now?" ”

Zhirui said slowly: "I really miss the days when I was a child, carefree, sometimes I think about it, in this world, I think it is a good way to live by fighting a sword." ”

I glared at Zhirui and said, "What? Do you regret it? ”

Zhirui smiled: "Is there a regret medicine in this world?" ”

I pursed my lips and smiled, shook my head and said, "Probably not." ”

Zhirui replied: "If not, what's the use of regretting?" His gaze suddenly became serious and resolute, "The path I have chosen, even if it makes me bleed, I must finish it." ”

I gasped and frowned, "Haven't you ever thought about giving up?" I don't know whether to be proud of him or feel sorry for him. If it was Makoxi, I would be proud of him.

Zhirui glanced at me, "From childhood to adulthood, have you ever seen me give up on anything I decide to do?" ”

I also thought, anyway, history is there, how to develop is not something that can be changed by my state of mind alone, even if I feel sorry for him in every way, then what can I do?

I stood up, walked to Zhirui and sat down opposite him, and said, "Let's play chess." ”

Zhirui shook his head and said, "No." ”

I asked, "Why?" You won't? ”

Zhirui looked at me and said, "It's not that I won't, but I don't want to go down with you, you will always be religent." As he spoke, he raised his hand and flicked the door of my head.

I dodged backwards, but I still hit the trick, and hurriedly rubbed it and said, "Whoever wants to play Go with you, let's play chess." ”

Zhirui couldn't help but laugh twice and asked me, "Are you sure?" ”

I "ah" for a while, I didn't know what to do, so I had to slowly lower my head, pretending to unintentionally break my fingers to play, suddenly thought of the scene of playing backgammon with my dad at home before, slowly raised my eyes, looked at Zhirui, and asked carefully: "I don't know, have you ever heard of backgammon?" ”

Zhirui asked in surprise: "Backgammon? ”

I nodded, looked at him and said, "Haven't you heard of it?" ”

Zhirui frowned and said, "Where did you hear about this, you've never played with this thing." ”

I sighed, "Forget it." ”

Zhirui hurriedly said: "Let's play backgammon!" ”

I asked, "Don't you know how to get down?" ”

Zhirui said: "No, can't I learn?" He rolled up his sleeves again, "Who is born to know anything!" ”

I thought about it and said with a smile: "Okay, I'll teach you to play, in fact, this is very simple, you and I hold a color of chess pieces, the sunspots go first, anyway, up and down, left and right, including slashes, whoever has a place that can take the lead in connecting into a line of five pieces, who wins." ”

Zhirui listened carefully, his eyes seemed to be flashing with dazzling clear light, like a meteor crossing the night sky.

I acted like a gentleman and gave him the sunspot that was the first to go.

He thought about it, Xu was still thinking about the way to play Go, and he actually found a corner and landed a piece. I looked at Zhirui, surprised and happy in my heart, and laughed at him: "You are looking for death like this." ”

Zhirui stared at me and said, "It's not certain who wins or loses!" ”

I covered my mouth and said secretly, "Let you look at my plum blossom array." "made a crucial one, and successfully connected into two double kills.

Zhirui pondered and said, "What? ”

After a while, but after three more sons, I smiled deeply and said, "Zhirui, you lost." ”

Zhirui's face was full of depression, and he said, "Why did I lose?" ”

I suddenly remembered that when I played backgammon with my dad in modern times, every time I lost, my performance was exactly the same as that of Zhirui in front of me. When my dad looked at me scratching my ears and cheeks, he would always drop a sentence and say, "I'll go take a shower, and you can study it yourself." Then he walked away, leaving me alone in a mess.

At this moment, I easily tasted victory in ancient times and in Zhirui, and my heart suddenly blossomed, and I couldn't help grinning: "Second brother hasn't seen it yet?" After clearing my throat, I pretended to say again: "Then you think about it first, and I'll ask Bai Ge to pour a cup of tea to drink." ”

Zhirui looked up and said, "You can't win!" ”

I let out an "um" and spread my hands out, "So what?" ”

Zhirui said in a soft voice: "This is the first time I have played this backgammon, and you won't let me." ”

I said, "How do you know I didn't let you?" ”

Zhirui sighed, "Let it all be like this, then how miserable it will be if you don't let it go!" ”

I glanced at the chessboard and said, "Actually, it's okay, it's not miserable, it's much better than the first time," I thought about it, and then said, "You just lost at the starting line." ”

Zhirui was puzzled: "What do you mean?" ”

I said: "Backgammon is completely different from Go, which is 'the center blooms 30 meshes, and the chess is born from the break', while the backgammon is 'defend first to attack, then to defend, to attack for defense, to defend for attack. Switch between offense and defense, think carefully about changes, fight first, and break the ground. Defend the external momentum, attack and gather internal strength, gossip is easy to defend, and angles are easy to attack', remember that it is best to 'kill one son and two kills', do you understand? ”

Zhirui nodded as if he didn't understand, frowning and pondering something.

I asked, "Do you want to go down again?" ”

Zhirui smiled and didn't speak again, and took out a silver round pocket watch from his arms, which clearly outlined the pattern of auspicious clouds holding rich peonies, tied by a thin silver chain, he opened the lid and looked at it, and said with a shudder: "It's so late before I know it," slowly stood up, glanced at the chessboard, and still didn't finish his words, "I won't play today, I'll go back to study and study, and I'll kill you next time." ”

I smiled and nodded, "Hmm." I couldn't say anything, so I could only stand up, call Bai Ge in, and explain: "Send the second brother out." Then he instructed the maids to prepare a bath soup.

Bai Ge replied lightly, and respectfully led Zhirui to lift the curtain.