The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#552 - The only enemy

Kui stared at the chessboard before her, silent. Read М

At this moment, she was like a statue, her breathing almost imperceptible, maintaining her previous posture without moving.

Just as the man opposite her was wondering if she had fallen asleep, Kui suddenly reached out and grabbed another black stone from the Go bowl, ignoring the white-hot battle in the upper left corner, and placed it on the right side of the board.

The man raised his eyebrows. "A useless move? At this time?"

Kui remained silent, simply putting her hand down again.

Seeing this, the man opposite her couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

One moment he felt that Kui's sudden move must have a deep meaning, and the next he felt that Kui was just bluffing, because the black pieces in the upper left corner had always been at a disadvantage, and Kui was probably unable to turn the tide, so she had to use this kind of unorthodox trick to distract him.

The man had already taken a white piece from the Go bowl, but it hovered in the air, always hesitant, not knowing where to place it.

"Too long," Kui said.

The man scratched his head. "Don't rush me, I've already seen through your tricks." As he spoke, he moved his hand to the lower left corner of the chessboard, and then secretly glanced at Kui.

However, he couldn't read anything from the latter's face, so he moved his hand to the right side of the board again.

Kui still didn't react.

The man's inner entanglement grew even stronger.

Until Kui spoke again, repeating, "Too long."

The man finally made up his mind, but he neither placed it on the right side nor on the lower left corner, but launched an attack on Kui's other corner.

After placing the piece, the man said complacently, "Now it's your turn to guess me."

However, Kui didn't pay any attention to the man's words. Immediately afterwards, she placed another piece, continuing to fight with the man's black pieces in the lower left corner.

The man couldn't help but feel a little bored, and seeing Kui's serious attitude, he had to perk up.

After that, the two of them didn't speak again, and each placed five more pieces. The man suddenly let out a soft exclamation, "Are you trying to play 'ladder' with me?"

The so-called 'ladder', also known as 'bent sheep's head', is a common technique in Go.

It roughly involves one side blocking the other side's pieces from the left and right, forcing the latter to only be able to go straight down, until there is no escape at the edge of the chessboard, and then eating them all in one breath.

If successful, the gains are huge, basically determining the outcome of the game.

However, the corresponding risks are also very high, because it involves blocking from the left and right, and the pieces are isolated and helpless. If the opponent escapes and launches a counterattack, it will be an inescapable nightmare.

After discovering that Kui was planning to play 'ladder' with him, the man finally realized the meaning of Kui's previous idle move.

Kui's white piece was right on the 'ladder' route, so if the man didn't want to force the 'ladder' and cause his own collapse, he could only give the white pieces in the lower left corner a way out.

Fortunately, the loss was not too great. The man still occupied nearly 60% of the territory in the lower left corner, but it was not a complete victory.

But after Kui made the white pieces in that area live, the man was already behind Kui in total territory.

So he sighed and said, "Why do people always have the stereotype that the mastermind behind the scenes in every story must also be good at Go? I'm just a terrible Go player, always losing more than winning."

Kui didn't respond. After resolving the battle in the lower left corner, she had already turned her attention to the corner where the man had previously placed his piece, thinking for a moment and starting to figure out how to surround and kill that black piece.

"Tsk tsk, you really are as cold as the rumors say. From the time we met until now, I've been doing almost all the talking. You've only answered five sentences in total. Even if you don't care about other things, you should at least ask who I am, right?"

"I know who you are," Kui said faintly after placing a piece.

"Oh?"

"It doesn't matter. Anyway, Mr. Ji is just a title."

"That makes sense," the man nodded, placing another piece. "But I'm not the kind of person who would lend my name to others to use indiscriminately. Everything you've heard about me is indeed what I've done."

Kui fell silent again upon hearing this. Then, for the first time, she shifted her gaze from the chessboard, looking directly at the man opposite her and said seriously, "Why turn people into strange objects?"

"Good question," the man's expression also became serious. "Because strange objects can bring power."

"So in the end, you're no different from those other bad people. You're just pursuing power, and you don't care about the lives of others at all."

"No, please don't lump me in with those mediocre fools. I pursue power not to satisfy my own selfish desires, but to bring hope to the world," the man said sincerely.

"It is said that there is a Mirror Lake Valley in the academy, where many paper people live. They are mostly people who have run out of options, and for various reasons, are not tolerated by the world. So the academy found them and provided them with a new life, and this is what I have been doing all along—bringing hope to people in desperate situations."

The man gestured that it was Kui's turn to play.

So Kui placed another piece on the chessboard, and then said, "Is turning people into strange objects also giving people hope?"

"You have to admit that there are still many terrible things in this world. In comparison, being turned into a strange object is nothing. Take you, for example."

The man said while playing Go, "When you were young, your family suddenly suffered a great change. Your father was beheaded, and your mother and sister were sold into the brothel. As a result, your mother would rather die than submit, and stabbed the guest to death with a hairpin, and then committed suicide. And your sister chose to accept her fate, but fate did not spare her.

"In the second year in the brothel, she was favored by an elder of the Salt Gang and bought as a concubine. She thought it was a turn for the better, but only two months later came the news of her death. You later went to dig out her body and found that her limbs were gone.

"I have always felt that if it were you, you should be able to understand me, because at that moment you must have also desperately desired power.

"Not just revenge, if you had enough power, maybe you could have rewritten these misfortunes from the beginning. Your parents wouldn't have died, and your sister could still be her well-bred lady, and one day in the future meet a gentle and kind man and marry with a smile on her face."

The man placed a piece. "Although you have always been hostile to me, I am not your enemy. I have always felt that in this life, people only have one enemy, and that is fate."