Chapter 233: The Game Pool
Five in the afternoon, in front of a hot pot restaurant.
Bai Liu sits in front of the hot pot with boiling water, besides him is Lu Yizhan who is holding a menu with visible confusion.
He rarely has to work overtime, the explosion that happened yesterday was handed over to the Anomaly Authorities, letting normal civilians like them stay home so that they won't be affected.
So when Bai Liu asked him to treat him to hot pot, Lu Yizhan came over obediently.
Though Lu Yizhan came over mainly to figure out what happened that day.
Lu Yizhan still doesn't understand when the department is struggling with the overloaded work because of the explosion, and even the televisions everywhere are broadcasting what happened that day.
Why is Bai Liu, who is the culprit, able to sit next to him so at peace, sipping on the free barley tea given by the shop, even ordering another shrimp paste shamelessly.
Lu Yizhan is fed up and snatches the menu from him, glaring at Bai Liu angrily.
Bai Liu sips on his tea leisurely and gives him a small glance, "what? Are you gonna ask me what happened that day?"
"No!" Lu Yizhan says in great pain, "even if I'm paying, you can't order more! This is enough to feed six people!"
Bai Liu, "..."
This guy's thought process actually works differently from normal people's.
About the explosion that happened, Lu Yizhan had not said a word about it after they met up, as untroubled as ever.
If Bai Liu didn't see Lu Yizhan with his own eyes that day, he would've thought Lu Yizhan doesn't know the fact that the 【bomber】 is him.
"Aren't you curious about how I blew up the Rose Factory--" Bai Liu turns his head, lifting his gaze to stare at Lu Yizhan, "--and I'm able to retreat without losing a limb, and is even able to sit here to have hot pot with you?"
Lu Yizhan nods honestly, "I'm curious, but allow me to correct something."
Bai Liu asks, "correct what?"
Lu Yizhan answers, "I don't think you blew up the factory."
"Why not?" Bai Liu asks rhetorically, "didn't you see it with your own eyes?"
"Because I saw it with my own eyes, that's why I don't think it was you," Lu Yizhan lifts his cup and drinks from it, letting out a sigh, "--from my sensibility, I feel like you're not a person of vested interest, but the owner of the factory is. So from this angle, I'm leaning toward the bomber being the owner of the factory that got arrested, and you're just a ploy that popped up."
"I don't understand why would you butt in and take the blame, but you have your own reasons for the things you do, I won't ask about it."
Lu Yizhan's assumption didn't miss anything, it was completely correct.
Bai Liu knew even when he was younger that Lu Yizhan is particularly smart.
He has excellent grades, is a man of action, and never hesitates in anything that he wants to do. He's an unbelievably persistent and stubborn person.
Even though Bia Liu always beat Lu Yizhan in games, Bai Liu knows clearly that he is able to win only because Lu Yizhan wasn't taking it seriously.
Lu Yizahn never paid any mind to winning or losing a game, he uses all of his intelligence and energy to be a good person. People that don't know him well would think that Lu Yizhan has a stupid naivety that can't be understood.
Though Lu Yizhan is actually not a naive person, in fact, he is very realistic -- he wouldn't accept Bai Liu's trade so easily if that weren't the case.
Normally, an emotionally naive person wouldn't be able to accept their friend taking advantage of them, it's too cold-blooded.
Though Lu Yizhan doesn't mind that at all, meaning that Lu Yizhan truly agrees with Bai Liu's deals.
Bai Liu spins the pencil for making orders between his fingers lazily, "--wanna play Gomoku⁽¹⁾?"
Lu Yizhan sighs heavily with the cup in his hand as he rejects, "--playing games at this time--"
"If you win three times in a row, I'll tell you what happened after the factory explosion that you've been worrying about," Bai Liu spins his pencil to draw a cross on the grids on the menu and lifts his eyes, "if you win five times in a row, I'll help you deal with this."
Bai Liu who had already dealt with the factory explosion calmly uses the same thing to trick Lu Yizhan.
"Deal!" Lu Yizhan hastily took the bait. He hurriedly puts his cup down and grabs the pencil that is handed over by Bai Liu. After deliberate consideration, he draws a circle on the paper cautiously.
They are quick to make their moves, almost the moment one of them picks up the pencil, the other would immediately draws on the paper. Though there aren't any matches that filled the paper and are left unsolved, the time of a match is basically finished within a minute. The moment that it's determined who's going to win or lose, the paper would be ripped and thrown into a trash can.
When Tang Erda arrives, the trash cans beside the two are already filled with scrap paper.
Lu Yizhan is so hyper-focused on the paper that he fails to notice that more people have arrived, simply swiftly drawing circles right after Baii Liu.
This continues until the other five are all here. Bai Liu covers the paper, "stop, let's eat first, you haven't beaten me yet at this moment."
Lu Yizhan lifts his head sadly after Bai Liu said that, only to be met with the gazes of the group surrounding him to watch him, almost causing him to
fall over from his chair.
"Let me introduce you to my new co-workers, "Bai Liu raises four fingers, introducing them in order, "Tang Erda, Mu Sicheng, Mu Ke, the little kid that you know, Liu Jiayi. Everyone, this is my childhood friend, Lu Yizhan."
Mu Ke nods in good manners as he greets him, "it's nice to meet you, Mr Lu."
Mu Sicheng scratches his head in uneasiness, "...hello."
Tang Erda nods his head uprightly, "greetings."
Liu Jiayi who is sitting on a chair and swinging her legs rests her head on her hands as she smiles sweetly at Lu Yizhan, "hello Mister Lu."
Lu Yizhan stares at Liu Jiayi in utter shock, "No?! Bai Liu, what kind of company are you working in?! Why are they using child labour?!"
"If I really have to say it..." Bai Liu thinks for a moment, "it's a huge company for idols?"
Lu Yizhan looks at these dazzling people that are about to blind his dog eyes⁽²⁾, and he gulps nervously as he asks shakily, "i-is it legal?"
Bai Liu gives him a small smile, "it's legal." Lu Yizhans is about to ask Bai Liu more specific questions, but seeing that these people have started eating casually, while he is feeling immense pain, he feels the need to swallow his questions.
...No wonder Bai Liu ordered so much at once, he's actually waiting for them!
But quickly, Lu Yizhan's attention is diverted as Bai Liu starts to play Gomuku with him while eating hot pot. Lu Yizhan instantly fixates on the game against Bai Liu again, barely eating as he focuses on studying the match. Liu Jiayi can't eat that much, so she finishes quickly.
She then drags a chair and sits beside them to watch the two play.
Liu Jiayi is wearing a pair of lenses item so she can see them, and Lu Yizhan who is focused on the game hasn't noticed her at the moment.
The two's speed of drawing circles and crosses only quickens. Bai Liu stops eating so leisurely to play with Lu Yizhan, turning his body to face him entirely as he props up his chin with a hand while staring at the paper.
Sitting by the side and watching them, Liu Jiayi's expression slowly turned serious.
She can't help but lift her head to look at Lu Yizhan in disbelief -- this guy looks like an overly nice guy, yet his thought process is able to keep up with that psycho Bai Liu??!
He's even closer and closer to winning?!
Mu Ke is intrigued by their game, so it doesn't take him long to approach them.
Mu Sicheng isn't full yet, but he's too curious about what Bai Liu trickery Bai Liu is up to this time, so he grabs his bowl that is filled with food and moves closer to them clumsily.
But Bai Liu and Lu Yizhan are making their moves too rapidly, Mu Sicheng's eyes can't catch up with them. Before he can grasp what's on the paper, the two have already ripped the paper and started over again.
Mu Sicheng has to seek help from Mu Ke, "What are they playing?"
"Gomoku." Mu Ku answers.
That only confuses Mu Sicheng further, "I thought it was Gomoku, but when only three of them connected, they stared all over again..."
"Because it's already stalemate," Mu Ke replies as he concentrates, "they had probably already played many times before and are familiar with each other, so they would know how it's going to end at a certain point." As he's speaking, Bai Liu already lost two matches in a row.
Mu Sicheng's eyes widen in bewilderment, "I can't believe Bai Liu would lose a game..."
Mu Ke takes a deep breath, "simple chess games like Gomoku tests people's logical abilities and reaction speed. Bai Liu's intelligence is very high, in normal circumstances he would have an advantage, and it's true that Lu Yizhan kept losing at the beginning too..."
"As he's playing with Bai Liu, his logical abilities and reaction speed continue to increase rapidly..."
"The longer they play, Lu Yizhan only seems to become stronger..."
"You mean Lu Yizhan has the upper hand and it's Bai Liu's turn to keep losing right?" Mu Sicheng looks at the paper in disbelief.
In Mu Sicheng's eyes, Bai Liu and 【continuing to lose】 being together is defying the natural law.
Bai Liu stops writing. He intertwines his fingers on the table, string at Lu Yizhan without any expression on his face.
Lu Yizhan is still indulged in making his chess moves rapidly, seeing that Bai Liu's pencil stopped moving, he lifts his head to stare at Bai Liu in a daze, "what's wrong?" "I won't be able to win even if we keep going on," Bai Liu admits honestly. Getting up and standing behind Liu Jiayi, he lets Liu Jiayi sits on his seat, giving Lu Yizhan a small smile, "from this point on I'll let Jiayi replace me. If you can win her three rounds in a row, our deal will be carried out." Lu Yizhan frowns, "this little girl can't see, don't make jokes like these..."
"Mister Lu, I can see." Liu Jiayi points at her eyes and explains, "I wore lenses that Mister Bai bought for me, it partially recovers my vision."
Liu Jiayi cups her hands around her cheeks, staring at him with big doe eyes as she pleads, "Mister Lu, I watched you guys play and it looks really fun, can I play too?"
"...As long as it doesn't affect your eyes," Lu Yizhan hesitates for a moment, but he agrees.
Liu Jiayi's innocent look dims, holding the pencil that Bai Liu gave her and lowering her head to stare at the paper, she draws her first cross.
Mu Sicheng is confused by the turn of events, "what's going on?"
"Liu Jiayi's intelligence point is higher than Bai Liu," Mu Ke's gaze is locked firmly on the paper, "she has a better advantage in chess games like Gomoku -- Bai Liu is testing Lu Yizhan's intelligence."
Liu Jiayi makes her move faster and faster. She keeps seizing victory, Lu Yizhan who originally dominates the game against Bai Liu starts losing again, hardly winning once.
But this quickly changes.
Liu Jiayi grits her teeth, her expression becoming sourer. The speed of her pencil starts growing more sluggish, yet Lu Yizhan's speed never decreased.
Mu Ke concludes, "Liu Jiayi can't handle it anymore."
After half an hour, everyone left the hot pot restaurant. Lu Yizhan counts the total fee of their meal with teary eyes, not forgetting to pay for the two booklets they used up when they were playing Gomoku, then waving Bai Liu and the others goodbye.
Liu Jiayi sweetly says 'goodbye mister Lu', but right after Lu Yizhan turns around, her smile drops, "Bai Liu, something is wrong with your friend."
"What is?" Bai Liu has three crumpled papers in his hands. He unwraps them aloofly, inside are the last three rounds of Liu Jiayi and Lu Yizhan's game.
-- It's also where Liu Jiayi loses three times in a row. "Simple games like Gomoku is the easier game to test a person's intelligence," Liu Jiayi looks up at Bai Liu, "to a highly intelligent person, they would immediately grasp the game; to a person with low intelligence, they would only keep losing if they play these kinds of games."
"There's no such thing as losing at the beginning, only to become better as they play on --" Liu Jiayi frowns as she remembers how their game went, scratching her hair in frustration, "--especially when Li Yizhan's intelligence seems to increase along with their opponents, and he will always end up dominating you, it's like this guy's intelligence kept increasing--"
"--As if it's limitless, yes?" Bai Liu glances at Liu Jiayi from the corner of his eyes, lifting his eyes to look at Lu Yizhan's back, "when I play with him, I always had that feeling too."
"But it's always like when I felt that, he ends up letting me win."
Liu Jiayi pauses, "why did he...stop going easy on you today?"
Perhaps it's because I put what he wants in front of him," Bai Liu nonchalantly, crushing the peppermint given by the hot pot shop in his mouth, "so he had decided to play with me seriously."
Pot Fish Chili's words: Lu Yizhan: I'm not gonna pretend anymore, y'all thought I'm a dumbass, but I'm actually really smart.
Bai Liu: there's a stray kid crying
Lu Yizhan: ! Dad is here!
Extra notes from Pot Fish Chili:
I understand when you guys call him dad last chapter, I can also understand you guys calling him mom, but why grandma?!?!
"
1) Gomoku: also known as Five in a Row, it's a strategy board game that usually uses Go pieces and is played on a Go board, you win by getting five of your pieces connected.
2) Dog eyes: it's a slang in Chinese that is self-deprecating to the person that uses it, such as when someone says "it's hurting my dog eyes." It's used by people when they see shocking images and whatnot. (I don't really know how to translate this properly, feel free to give me a better word to replace it if you have any lol-)
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