He sat alone on the stone-carved chessboard under the old birch tree, quietly, following the path on the chess game, rain or shine.

Sometimes the sun slowly rises in the east until it sets in the west, and sometimes the moon rises slowly from the willow tops until the sun slowly rises in the east.

And so it goes, and so on, and so on...... I don't know how many times it has evolved with that broken chess game.

In fact, in Shang Tianxiang's opinion, he had already deeply remembered the chess moves on the chess game that had been completely yellowed on the title page, and he could play it even with his eyes closed.

However, he was still engrossed in staring at the game, and carefully followed the path set by the game, as if he was afraid of accidentally making a wrong move.

It was as if all his life had been integrated into this little chessboard.

The people of Guiyunzhuang did not disturb him, and the people who came to Guiyunzhuang did not disturb him, no one dared to disturb him, and he did not want others to disturb him.

for all who troubled him became dead.

Fifteen years ago, when a young man who couldn't help but be curious suddenly died, no one dared to disturb him.

I remember it was a summer fifteen years ago.

On a summer morning, when the damp fog in the sky had not yet completely cleared, he was already sitting alone in front of the stone-carved chessboard and began to play chess, and had already played two games according to the tattered and yellowed chess game.

A young man who had just come from out of town looked at him, as if he couldn't help it, so he sat down on the stone bench opposite him and said, "Let's make a next dish."

He didn't even raise his head, he didn't speak, he still played according to the number of paths on the game, step by step, very carefully.

The young man, however, sat down unceremoniously across from him, and after he had taken a step, he did not hesitate to pick up a chess piece and place it where he thought he was proud.

Then, looking at him proudly, he said, "It's your turn."

However, he still did not speak, did not look at him, and did not deal with it, still slowly continuing the chess pieces according to the tattered and somewhat yellowed chess game.

The young man pointed to his chess path and suddenly shouted, "How can you play chess like this, you see, this move you made is a dead move."

Hearing this, his body suddenly trembled, as if he had accidentally touched a poisonous snake, and as if he had been accidentally pricked by something.

At this moment, he finally looked up at the young man, and then sighed slightly, as if he was feeling sorry for the young man, and as if he was saying: You came to Guiyunzhuang to have fun with the girl, but why did you come to me, an old man, and follow me to stir up trouble?

In my life, I have never missed a single move, let alone missed a move, but now you actually say that I have made a dead move?

However, he did not say anything at that time, not even any surprises, but sighed slightly when the young man said that he had gone to death, and went on to play his chess, according to the chess score.

The young man knew he was not interested, and walked away suspiciously.

However, after about a pillar of incense, the young man was holding a girl and drinking flower wine, when he suddenly jumped up, strangled his neck vigorously, grabbed the chopsticks on the table, kept sticking his hands and chest, and cried out, "I am wrong, I am wrong......

When he didn't have a single piece of flesh on his body, he suddenly jumped from the three-story flower building in Guiyunzhuang, limped, and ran outside.

At dusk that day, someone found the body of this young man in the long and narrow valley outside Guiyunzhuang, the muscles of his body were already in pieces, and he had no appearance at all, only a pair of eyes were wide open, full of fear and uneasiness, as if he had met a messenger from the region.

From then on, everyone knew that there was a strange man living in the backyard of Guiyunzhuang, and no one dared to approach him again, and everyone regarded him as the embodiment of a ghost.

In the backyard, it gradually became deserted.

Sunlight would fall through the cracks between the dense bamboo leaves every morning, sprinkled on the chessboard, and the banban was like a little bit of broken gold.

At this moment, although it is already the late autumn season, the bamboo in the backyard is still verdant, as if all the spring has been hidden here.

In addition, there are countless small birds inhabiting the bamboo leaf forest, all of which become quiet at dusk, and during the day, they are fully active, constantly shuttling through the forest, chirping, as if looking for companions, and as if calling for spring.

This not only did not make the backyard very noisy, but it set off the silence inside, it was so quiet, as if it was a ruin that had been abandoned for many years.

Every day, he quietly played chess according to the tattered chess book with a slightly yellowed title page, one black step, one white step, and never got bored.

His life seems to have nothing else to do except playing chess, or he is looking for some secret, a shocking secret, between the black and white chess pieces.

In the blink of an eye, twenty years passed quietly between the black and white chess pieces he picked up, but the traces of those years did not leave any trace on him.

When he came, he had just turned forty, and now he was sixty, but his appearance remained the same as that of forty, and nothing had changed.

The only thing that has changed is that the chessboard, which was carved out of whole marble and originally had sharp corners, had been polished by him to a smooth and smooth jade.

No one knows what his name is, no one knows where he came from, and no one knows what he is hiding here for.

He didn't say it, and no one else asked, and he didn't dare to ask.

But there's no denying that everyone wants to know about that.

Shang Tianxiang casually straightened the soft green silk on the corner of his forehead, and then, put on a lilac shawl, and walked into this weird back garden that was not so much quiet.

Although this courtyard belongs to Guiyunzhuang, and Shang Tianxiang is the owner of Guiyunzhuang, Shang Tianxiang feels that the strange person is the real owner here at this time.

Every time she walks in, she will feel like an uninvited guest who suddenly breaks into someone else's house, and she is uneasy.

I don't know if it was because Shang Tiandao suddenly appeared just now and was messed up by the little girl called Jiaojiao, at this moment, Shang Tianxiang seemed to be a little tired, and her appearance looked very old.

No, I should say it's very emaciated.

Although she is only in her forties now, the years seem to have left deep marks on her face, like a layer of dust on the otherwise clean road.

She still felt that she was very young, and she was not inferior to those young women in many things, but, for some reason, she suddenly felt a serious and unprecedented feeling of exhaustion when she came in.

Could it be that this weirdo in the back garden invisibly gave her some kind of pressure?

She didn't know, and she couldn't be sure.

That's why she would come from the front yard every day and watch him play chess.