Yu Sheng's manner was far too intimate. With a little deliberate encouragement, once that impression grew strong enough, it would hardly be unreasonable to think some lingering ties remained between them.
Gu Xuanlin had meant to do as he had before, using an elder's reminder to conceal his increasingly powerful selfish desires.
He wanted Yu Sheng to behave himself, wanted Yu Sheng to let go, and meant to use Shen Shuangjian's inability to eat properly as an excuse.
Yet the truth was that, with the words on the tip of his tongue, he swallowed them back for some unknown reason. Averting his gaze and taking a step back was, in fact, not out of the question.
[This breakfast was a real clash of blades, with gunpowder smoke everywhere.]
[Yu Sheng might as well glue himself to Shen Shuangjian. Have some dignity!]
[Is that a lack of dignity? That's being a dog for love.]
[Yu Sheng: your wife is mine now.]
[Hahahahaha, how did the latecomer get ahead? Because he fights and grabs for what he wants.]
[Yu Sheng: you snooze, you lose.]
After breakfast, Shen Shuangjian was excused from going out because of his illness. Unlike the others, he did not have to endure the production team's torments outside, and simply waited in the villa for everyone to return.
Xie Jinghui did not participate in these dull, shallow activities for fools. He openly declared that he would stay behind to look after Shen Shuangjian.
So, after everyone else had left, Shen Shuangjian curled up on the sofa with a book, while Xie Jinghui sat idly by the window, playing through recorded Go games.
The stones landed gently on the board with crisp clicks, like water murmuring against rocks.
Shen Shuangjian's drowsiness came on so suddenly that he did not even know when he fell asleep.
The unfinished book had fallen onto the rug beside the sofa. By the time Xie Jinghui noticed, Shen Shuangjian was already sound asleep.
Shen Shuangjian had always been a light sleeper. Even after noticing, Xie Jinghui did not dare move him rashly, afraid that carrying him upstairs would wake him and earn a faintly displeased look.
So Xie Jinghui could only leave things as they were, fetching his own coat and draping it over Shen Shuangjian to keep him from catching a chill.
The midday sunlight was dazzling, and the living room received more light than the other rooms. Xie Jinghui had only spent an hour playing through game records when Shen Shuangjian, his arm numb from being pressed beneath him and the light disturbing his sleep, woke from his light slumber.
The aching sensation slowly spreading up from his forearm made him frown. Shen Shuangjian slowly sat up, and the coat, steeped in a familiar scent, slipped off him.
"You're awake."
Xie Jinghui lightly placed a stone, a trace of quiet gentleness in his expression. "They're not back yet. Do you want to sleep some more? Would you like to go upstairs?"
Shen Shuangjian shook his head at that. Seeing this, Xie Jinghui, who also feared that too much sleep would give him a headache, picked up a stone and asked, "Would you like a game?"
Perhaps it really was because he had nothing to do and was too much at ease, or perhaps he was still a little slow after just waking up, but Shen Shuangjian accepted what he saw as a challenge.
Xie Jinghui gathered the stones from the board one by one. Once he had put them away, he pushed a bowl of black stones toward Shen Shuangjian.
"You can take black and play first."
Since this was a casual game, there was indeed no need to stand on too many formalities. Shen Shuangjian lightly gathered the long hair spilling down his back and placed the first stone on the board.
Perhaps it was a stereotype, just as Shen Shuangjian had quite naturally labeled Xie Jinghui as domineering when he first learned who he was.
As with the game before them: although Shen Shuangjian held black and played first, he cautiously placed his stone on the three-four point.
-Avoiding battle before it even began.
Go was a war of sieges and territorial conquest, except the battlefield had shifted from the land to this grid of intersecting lines, and all the fighting lay in the two pairs of hands holding the stones.
Over the first twenty moves, Shen Shuangjian sensed that Xie Jinghui's play seemed even more cautious than his own. Black and white remained distinctly separate, each within its own boundaries, neither willing to step into the other's territory first to plunder it.
But after the twentieth move, Xie Jinghui suddenly played an attachment. He invaded deep into black's corner territory, driving straight in alone, utterly unafraid of black turning on him.
This move instead left Shen Shuangjian at a loss for a response. He had thought Xie Jinghui would advance cautiously, just as he did.
But Xie Jinghui's sudden aggression gave Shen Shuangjian pause. Holding a stone, he pondered for a moment before lowering his eyes and playing a cut.
Since Shen Shuangjian cut, Xie Jinghui played another attachment. He showed no hesitation about letting all his white stones fall within black's territory, charging recklessly, concerned only with plunging in and leaving himself no retreat.
As the game approached the middle stage, both sides had secured their edge territories well. Victory would depend solely on the capturing race in the middle game.
Shen Shuangjian thus had no choice but to engage Xie Jinghui in the middle game. Yet Xie Jinghui still left himself no fallback, plunging once more into black's encirclement, and naturally, without question, Shen Shuangjian surrounded all his stones.
Even so, Xie Jinghui remained composed. A gentle smile lingered on his lips as he placed another stone, delivering his entire great dragon of white stones into Shen Shuangjian's hands.
At this point, Xie Jinghui's white stones were like an ailing lion beneath black's butcher knife, with only two liberties remaining. As long as Shen Shuangjian took the initiative to approach and cut off white's last two liberties, the outcome would be decided.
And so Shen Shuangjian, who had retreated throughout the game, finally picked up a stone. His fingers, slender as fine bamboo and fairer than snow, held the black stone as he moved toward white of his own accord.
With that stone placed, he accepted the stakes white had offered up as though surrendering. He was only one step away from winning this game against Xie Jinghui.
At that moment, however, Xie Jinghui suddenly gave a soft laugh. The stone at his fingertips landed lightly, and the tightly entwined black and white stones underwent an earth-shattering reversal in an instant.
White finally bared its fangs and claws, linking together its expertly concealed encirclement. He counterattacked with an atari against black, attempting to strangle Shen Shuangjian's great black dragon.
On the board, Xie Jinghui had originally had no way to turn things around. If Shen Shuangjian had continued to avoid battle and cut him off completely, Xie Jinghui would have lost the entire game.
Yet by the same token, the entwined dragons could change in an instant. If Shen Shuangjian took the initiative to approach, Xie Jinghui's scabbard would reach Shen Shuangjian's throat a step before his own.
By now, black had no room to breathe. With only one final liberty left, it would be devoured by white. Shen Shuangjian knew he had been outplayed by one move.
He lowered his eyes, no longer wishing to put up a desperate resistance. He took two stones from the bowl, but before he could lift them, he heard Xie Jinghui speak first:
"I lost."
He placed two stones on the board, accepting defeat willingly.
"I should have been the one to lose." Shen Shuangjian's expression was impassive as he stated the facts exactly as they were.
"My victory was too narrow. What harm is there in conceding?"
Xie Jinghui gathered the stones one by one, his voice mellow and low. "I thought you wouldn't approach."
"In this game, no matter how I tempted you, no matter how I placed the stakes in your hands, you refused to take the initiative and entangle yourself with me."
The smile on Xie Jinghui's lips gradually faded. He closed the bowl of stones, then raised his eyes to Shen Shuangjian.
His expression remained calm, his eyes, black as Yunzi stones, trembling faintly and concealing countless delicate, interwoven threads.
"If you had stepped back once more, I would have laid down my stones and conceded."