Over at Guangnan Affiliated High School.
The boy sitting across from Su Yiming stared blankly at the Go board. After a moment, he slowly lowered his head.
"I... lost..."
He kept his head down, his voice faint, as if all the strength had been drained from his body. He chose to resign.
"Thank you for the game."
Su Yiming nodded at him.
But the boy across from him did not answer right away. He continued to keep his head deeply lowered, his body trembling slightly. The next moment, tears dripped onto the Go board.
Seeing this, Su Yiming was slightly taken aback, then hurriedly comforted him. "You managed to hold out this long. You're actually already amazing!"
Hearing Su Yiming's words, everyone watching the game nearby froze.
Teacher Jin, standing behind Su Yiming, changed expression. He quickly pulled Su Yiming up from his chair and led him away.
Su Yiming looked puzzled. "Teacher, what's wrong?"
Teacher Jin was speechless. "You're asking me what's wrong? Were you comforting him or mocking him?"
"Comforting him, of course."
Su Yiming was baffled. "Why would I mock him?"
"You won after only how many moves, and then you said that he was already amazing for holding out this long. If that isn't mockery, what is?"
Teacher Jin wore a strange expression. "Who comforts people like that? It sounds as if he was supposed to lose to you. How could that not sound like mockery?"
Su Yiming blinked. Only then did he belatedly realize that he was now merely an ordinary high school student, not Shen Yi from more than a hundred years ago.
If it had been his former self, saying that would have been perfectly reasonable. But for him now to say such a thing really did not quite fit his current identity.