Volume I.

The first chapter of the night: sonata.

......

Autumn 2022.

A light rain fell from the gray sky and fluttered down the city streets.

It's autumn, and from time to time you can see pedestrians who don't have umbrellas, hurrying by with their hands on the top of their heads.

In the narrow military and civilian alley, a seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy was sitting opposite an old man under the canopy of the supermarket commissary.

The whole world outside the canopy is gray, the ground is black with rain, and only the ground under the canopy still has a dry area, as if the whole world is left with only this pure land.

The boy sat there with a clean face and clear eyes, dressed in a plain school uniform.

In front of them was a dilapidated wooden chessboard with a red 'Fulai Supermarket' sign overhead.

"General," the young man stood up after speaking, leaving the old man with thinning hair to sit still.

"I can still ......," the old man said unwillingly, "It's only thirteen steps......

The young man Qingchen glanced at the other party and said calmly: "Don't struggle." ”

The chessboard has been killed, and it is the last moment of the poor dagger.

The old man threw the chess pieces he had raised in his hand onto the chessboard, and the abandoned pawn admitted defeat.

Qingchen walked into the counter of the supermarket next to him as if no one was around, and took 20 yuan from the change basket under the counter and put it in his pocket.

The old man scolded and looked at Qingchen: "I have to lose 20 yuan to you every day! I just won 20 yuan from Lao Li and Lao Zhang in the morning, and I will lose it all to you now! The fortune teller said that I can live to be seventy-eight years old, and I am only fifty now, if I lose 20 yuan a day, how much money will I have to export?"

"But I also taught you to play chess to find them to win back face," Qingchen sat back next to the chessboard with the money, and replied calmly: "In this way, you will not lose." ”

The old man muttered, "But what you've been teaching for the past two days is useless. ”

Qingchen glanced at him: "Don't talk about yourself like that." ”

Old man: "???"

The old man rearranged the chessboard angrily, and then said eagerly: "Okay, okay, let's review." ”

At this moment, Qingchen suddenly lowered his head.

The time that had just passed seemed to be replaying in his head.

The cannon that struck at the head, the fierce pawns on the Chu River and Han realm, echoed in my mind one by one.

And that's not all.

There was also an uncle who passed by them during a game of chess, carrying four freshly bought baked cakes in his hand, and the freshly baked baked baked cakes blurred some water vapor and stained a layer of white mist in the transparent plastic bag.

A little girl in a white dress walked by with an umbrella, and there were two beautiful butterflies on the upper of her small leather shoes.

Above the sky, the fluttering rain falls in the alley, crystal clear.

At the end of the alley, bus No. 103 flashed past the narrow alley, and a woman in a beige trench coat ran to the bus stop with an umbrella.

The sound of footsteps, the sound of running water as the rain enters the manhole cover by the roadside, these noisy sounds make the world seem extraordinarily silent.

Qingchen has never forgotten all this.

This strange memory is Qingchen's innate talent, just like he casually extracted a save from the long river of time, and then read the picture in the archive magnetic stripe.

Qingchen pinched the pieces on the chessboard.

The old man stared at the chessboard intently, and the review after each game was also the agreed terms of the gambling game: Qingchen was responsible for teaching chess, and the old man learned chess after losing money.

This scene is a bit weird, the boy does not have the humility and shyness that he should have when facing the elderly, but is more like a teacher.

"Red cannon 2 flat 5, black cannon 8 flat 5, red horse 2 into 3, black horse 8 into 7......" Qingchen moved the chess pieces step by step.

The old man didn't blink his eyes, and the front was a normal start, but he couldn't figure out how to get to the sixth step, he obviously ate the opponent's horse, but suddenly fell into a decline.

"The essence of the thirteen moves of abandoning the horse lies in the sixth step of entering the car and abandoning the horse, which is the killer weapon to tear apart the defense line," Qingchen said quietly: "I watched the chess you played with that Lao Li in Wangcheng Park the day before yesterday, he likes to run to the beginning, and you have no problem beating him with this thirteen moves of abandoning the horse." ”

The old man on the other side fell into deep thought, and then asked in a low voice, "Can you really win him?"

"Learn the thirteen tricks I taught you to abandon the horse in a week, and you can get your face back," Qingchen said, "After all...... He didn't do much either. ”

The old man's face showed a hint of joy.

But he suddenly asked: "If I can win him in a week, how long will it take for me to beat you?"

Under the canopy, Qingchen thought seriously: "The fortune teller said that you can live to be seventy-eight years old...... It was too late. ”

The old man's face froze: "If you don't say a few words, I may be able to live to seventy-nine...... Hey, you're supposed to be studying at night, why are you leaving school so early today?"

Qingchen thought for a while and replied, "I'm waiting for someone." ”

"Wait for someone?" the old man was stunned for a moment.

Qingchen got up and looked at the alley outside the canopy, his eyes wandered in the rain curtain of the alley, and he didn't answer again.

The old man said, "You kid is so good at chess, why don't you go to the chess competition? ”

The young man Qingchen shook his head: "I just memorized a lot of chess games in my head, it's okay to play with you, but if I really meet a master, I will be timid." My path is not here, and playing chess is only temporary. ”

"It's all in my head...... the old man sighed: "I used to think that this kind of thing was made up by others. ”

The rain slowly stopped.

At this moment, the old man found Qingchen stunned for a moment.

He followed the boy's gaze and happened to see a couple walking with a little boy outside the alley.

The middle-aged woman wears a delicate trench coat and carries a cake box with a purple and beautiful ribbon tied on it.

The gray world couldn't stop the joyful looks on the three of them, Qingchen turned around and left, leaving the old man to sit under the canopy at the entrance of Fulai Supermarket and sigh softly.

The middle-aged woman saw Qingchen's back, and she opened her mouth to call Qingchen's name, but Qingchen disappeared at the end of the alley without looking back.

The walls on both sides of the alley are very old, and the white walls have fallen off, leaving behind the appearance of mottled red bricks.

The person Qingchen was waiting for came, but he didn't want to wait.