That afternoon in town, dark clouds suddenly blotted out the sun.
The vendors at the roadside stalls began hurriedly packing up too.
People's calls and the rumble of cart wheels filled the narrow street.
"Oh no, it's going to rain! Let's hurry back."
With that, Xu Wang grabbed Pei Yanchuan and ran through the crowd toward the guesthouse.
Just as Xu Wang had predicted, barely had they stepped into the guesthouse when a fine drizzle began falling from the sky, gradually growing heavier.
The rain pattered against the roof tiles as though playing music, then streamed down the tiles, dripping into the gaps between the stone paving below.
Incense burned inside, and tea had already been brewed.
Xu Wang poured a cup of tea for himself and another for Pei Yanchuan. The tea was wonderfully fragrant.
At that point, Pei Yanchuan and Xu Wang were the only two who had returned to the guesthouse early.
Xu Wang took a quick look around the room and found a board and some game pieces in a corner.
Xu Wang set the board on the table between himself and Pei Yanchuan.
"Want to play a round of gomoku?" Xu Wang invited Pei Yanchuan, who sat across from him, with a smile. He did not know how to play other board games, but he was very good at gomoku.
"Sure." Seeing his eager gaze, Pei Yanchuan smiled and nodded.
Pei Yanchuan took white, and Xu Wang took black.
Black went first. Xu Wang gently picked a black stone out of the container and placed his first stone at the center point of the board.
Pei Yanchuan unhurriedly picked up a smooth, rounded white stone between his fingers and placed it diagonally down and to the right of the black stone.
For a while, aside