Yu Bai was realizing for the first time just how much he liked something in particular.
In that instant, a wave of intense novelty and awe crashed over him. His thoughts scattered, and he completely forgot what he was supposed to be doing. His gaze lingered for a long time on this newly awakened interest.
So long, in fact, that even the man across from him—who was utterly absorbed in Go—noticed something was off.
In those gray-blue eyes, the person before him had suddenly gone quiet. The one who had been listening attentively enough, responding now and then, now seemed to have lost his train of thought. Emotions churned in those light brown pupils, his mind clearly drifting far from the little Go board.
Xie Wufang watched him, pulling back the hand that had just placed its stone. “What are you thinking about?” he asked.
The gaze of the man in front of him shifted with his own, and Yu Bai answered on instinct. “I’m thinking about Doctor Chen.”
Doctor Chen had been with him through nearly his entire teenage years, always concerned with every little detail of his life. Every time they met, she would ask how he had been lately, whether anything happy had happened.
When someone encounters a person or thing they like, something that interests them, it naturally brings joy.
Yet Yu Bai’s answers had almost always been the same.
Good grades on the exam—very happy. Work and the move went smoothly—very happy. No accidents lately—very happy.
In truth, he had never once given her the kind of answer she might have truly wanted to hear.
That was why, in this moment when his… not his kink, but his interest first awakened, Yu Bai’s immediate reaction was that he really wanted to tell Doctor Chen about it.
But the Doctor Chen from the real world had retired right on schedule. She was off traveling the globe with a senior tour group.
“Doctor Chen?”
“She’s my psycholo—”
As he spoke, Yu Bai suddenly snapped out of it. He hurriedly backpedaled. “Ah? It’s nothing!”
He reconsidered and decided that something trendy among young people like a hand fetish would sound odd coming from him to Doctor Chen, who was like a mother figure. It felt a little embarrassing, too.
There was probably a generation gap there.
Still, it felt so novel right now. He really wanted to share it with someone—and take a look at other people’s hands while he was at it.
He’d go find Yan Jing later.
With that in mind, Yu Bai quickly shifted his gaze just a little, moving from the man’s fingertips to the white stone that had just been placed. He casually changed the subject. “You said that spot was a forbidden point and took my black stone away. So why were you allowed to play there?”
There was no way he was going to bring this up with Xie Wufang, who was right there beside him.
Staring at someone’s hands for ages, then announcing, Hey, I think I might be into hands!
…He wasn’t some kind of pervert!
Hearing words that had so obviously veered off course midway, Xie Wufang fell silent for a moment. Surprisingly, he didn’t press the issue.
“A forbidden point is one-sided,” he said calmly. “White can play there because it doesn’t leave black with zero liberties afterward.”
“That spot’s only a forbidden point for black.”
Yu Bai made a sound of sudden understanding. “I must’ve misremembered. I thought a forbidden point meant neither side could play there.”
Xie Wufang across from him nodded faintly at the explanation.
His slightly curly black hair draped over his forehead, veiling the emotions in his gray-blue eyes. His voice remained even. “It’s fine. Go has a lot of rules. Take your time learning—no need to rush.”
Yu Bai let out a silent breath of relief.
Excellent. He’d successfully glossed over it.
He picked up a black stone from the chess jar at his side and offered it over, feigning great eagerness to learn. “So in that earlier position, if it were you, where would you play the black stone?”
The jet-black Go stone rested on those warm, pale fingertips.
After the briefest pause, Xie Wufang reached out and took it.
Cool skin brushed against that fervent warmth, then parted in an instant.
The slightly cool black stone landed quietly on the board.
“Here,” he said softly.
Clear midday sunlight poured into the room, spilling over those long, slender fingers.
In the serene Chess Room, the student watched his teacher place the stone with full focus. When he piped up with a question now and then, he always received a patient, thorough explanation in return.
“Little Doctor Yu is studying so seriously!”
Zhang Yunjiang, ambling past the Chess Room door for the seventh time, couldn’t help whispering this observation.
The old man, out for his after-lunch stroll, always made a point of lingering by the open window whenever he reached his Chess Room—moving especially slowly, of course.
“Yeah, good thing Uncle takes the initiative to ask questions. It lets Little… Little Teacher Xie play those moves. They were brilliant!”
Yuan Yuxing, perched under the Chess Room window and sneaking peeks inside every so often, whispered his agreement.
The little boy with puffy eyes sat on the edge of the corridor, keeping the damp-furred, short-legged corgi company as it sunned itself. He had simply chosen his sunbathing spot right under this window.
“You guys need to be quieter, or you’ll disturb the people inside,” said He Xi.
She was squatting by the Chess Room door, peering in. She turned her head, hands cupped over her mouth, and reminded the old man and the youth beside her in the tiniest possible voice.
Grandpa Yuan had given her a quick rundown of Go’s basic rules last night. When she watched God Big Brother’s game against Grandpa Zhang, she had found herself utterly captivated without realizing it.
So when she heard that God Big Brother was going to teach Brother Little Bai Go, the little girl wolfed down her lunch and hurried over out of curiosity to sneak a peek.
Lunch today had been especially lavish, but aside from Yan Jing Brother—who was probably still back in the dining room stuffing his face—everyone else had eaten with record speed.
Now they were all milling about outside this room, thick with the air of instruction.
The two old men, acting all sneaky, froze under the little girl’s pure, straightforward gaze. They both felt a touch embarrassed.
Yuan Yuxing made a zipping motion at his mouth and whispered, “I won’t say another word.”
Zhang Yunjiang considered it, then plopped down beside the sunning corgi. “I won’t wander anymore,” he whispered.
Just a wall away, Brother Little Bai’s bright, lively questions and God Big Brother’s gentle replies kept drifting out.
Surrounded by this lively yet peaceful air, He Xi couldn’t help smiling. She nodded impishly, listening with rapt attention.
Go really was a fascinating pursuit!
Early summer sunlight, warm as molten gold, bathed this corner of the tranquil courtyard in exceptional brightness.
People occasionally passed along the nearby corridor, catching sight of the heartwarming scene.
“That’s the guest Mr. Zhang brought back last night, right? Another chess buddy?”
“Yeah, it’s rare to see Mr. Zhang this happy. Must be quite the player.”
The afternoon hung lazy and relaxed. Servants who had bustled about all morning finally caught a breather. They yawned and gathered to chat idly.
Some watched for a good long while, committing it all to memory.
“Why are there two kids, though?” one asked. “Kids can’t be chess buddies.”
“No idea. Come to think of it, Mr. Zhang played chess with the guest last night. Why’s he hanging around outside now?”
“Maybe they’re more than chess buddies. I heard him call one of the young guys inside ‘doctor.’”
“Which young guy inside? The brown-haired one or the black-haired one?”
“The brown-haired one! I remember the black-haired young man’s a chess whiz.”
“Oh! Those blue eyes of his are something else. Foreigner? Mixed race?”
“Nah, I heard him talk—no accent. And that good at Go? Couldn’t be a foreigner…”
The familiar servants chatted as they walked, their conversation meandering everywhere, voices fading into the distance.
Only one lagged behind, her steps slowing more and more.
She slipped away from the group and found an empty corner. She pulled out her phone and dialed in secret.
When the call connected, she lowered her voice and spoke fast. “Several strangers showed up at the old master’s yesterday, and they’re still here. No clue who they are, but there are two kids I’ve never seen before—and apparently a doctor…”
Her furtive glances accompanied words that scattered like whispers on the breeze.
The short-legged little dog, sprawled out sunning itself, seemed to notice. It sprang up alertly, paced back and forth, and let out a bark.
“Woof! Woof woof—”
But it hadn’t even finished when three simultaneous “Shh!”s cut it off.
The three humans eavesdropping outside the Chess Room stared tensely at the suddenly vocal pup.
The baffled corgi blinked its big round eyes, let out a cat-like whimper, and didn’t dare bark again.
With the barking cut short, the lesson inside the Chess Room paused as well.
The student—who had finally stopped nodding off—turned to look outside. The teacher’s gaze followed his.
Yu Bai, who spaced out now and then, had spotted them long ago: one geezer-in-training and one kid-in-training, crouched outside and listening in. He’d pretended not to notice and asked extra Go questions on purpose.
Given non-human senses, Xie Wufang had surely noticed, too.
Perhaps because Yu Bai didn’t mind, Xie Wufang simply acted like the lurkers didn’t exist.
But what Yu Bai hadn’t expected was that the little dog with the odd name was out there, too.
From the doorway, one could just make out half of a round, fluffy corgi rear and two ridiculously short little legs.
So cute.
How could something this cute be named Zhang Wei?
At that thought, Yu Bai couldn’t help but chuckle softly.
And so, beneath that quietly watching gray-blue gaze, the brown-haired young man by the door suddenly smiled as he glanced sideways.
Those eyes of his—which hadn’t been particularly bright since he’d started watching the Go tutorial videos, and which sometimes even seemed a bit dull—suddenly lit up in that dazed moment.
They were like vessels brimming with the stars of midday, sparkling with brilliant cheer. Even framed by his glasses, one could clearly see the elegant brows and eyes behind them curved in light, joyful laughter.
Only after a moment did he realize he’d lost focus.
As Yu Bai pulled his gaze away, he met Xie Wufang’s eyes exactly. He quickly schooled the smile from his face and said with utmost seriousness, “Where were we again… Right, why did you play that move?”
He gestured toward the Go board sprawled between them, strewn with black and white Go stones, hoping to steer the conversation back to their interrupted lesson.
But the man sitting across from him didn’t respond to his question right away as he usually did. Nor did he lower his eyes to study the board.
In the steady lock of their gazes, some complex undercurrent stirred in those gray-blue depths—ripples Yu Bai couldn’t quite read.
Yu Bai froze for a second, his mind flashing back to that unexpected pause from moments before.
…Was Xie Wufang wondering why he’d laughed?
Because of that corgi named Zhang Wei, of all things.
Out of habit, Yu Bai started to explain himself, but he hesitated just as the words reached his lips.
He had once tried explaining the pun from Skystar City’s welcome message to Xie Wufang and why it was funny. He’d also described how Yuan Yuxing—hunched over like an old man yet still called “little friend” by Gatekeeper Grandpa—had cracked him up.
But the Zhang Wei joke? That was on a whole different level of difficulty.
Yu Bai wasn’t even sure how to convey it just right.
How could someone who hadn’t spent much time on this soil, steeped in its cultural quirks, grasp the sheer contradiction—the absurdity—born when the most commonplace, everyday guy’s name like Zhang Wei got slapped onto a darling little pup that should’ve been called something like Ball-Ball or Fortune?
To Xie Wufang, that short-legged corgi probably looked the same no matter its name. No distinction at all.
He surely wouldn’t find it funny.
Even so, after a moment’s thought, Yu Bai pressed on. “I saw that little dog just now,” he said lightly, a touch of hope in his expression. “I remembered it has a name that sounds just like a person’s, and I couldn’t help laughing.”
Sure enough, the man across from him didn’t crack a smile.
If anything, the shadow in those gray-blue eyes deepened.
…Well then. Joke explanation: failed.
Yu Bai felt no real disappointment—just a quiet pang of regret.
The kind he’d half-expected all along, deep down.
People born and raised here were worlds apart from gods hailing from the other shore.
A vast river seemed to stretch between them.
No ordinary boat could hope to cross it.
And truth be told, Yu Bai had never dreamed of making the full journey anyway.
His thoughts drifted for a moment before he decided to circle back to Go questions. That way, he could give the real enthusiasts outside a chance to learn something.
Lost in his own head, he didn’t notice that the non-human sitting across from him hadn’t laughed. Nor had he started probing for reasons, as he normally would.
“Sorry,” Yu Bai said. “I won’t zone out anymore.”
Before this teacher who’d been putting in real effort, Yu Bai ducked his head like a contrite student and tried to redirect. “So, about that move you played earlier…”
But another voice cut him off—cool and edged with frost.
“Go doesn’t make you happy.”
The black-haired man with blue eyes ignored the board and its stones entirely now. He fixed Yu Bai with a steady stare, his tone utterly certain.
“You don’t like Go.”
…How had he seen right through him?!
His true feelings laid bare, Yu Bai’s eyes snapped up in shock. He started to stammer an excuse on instinct. “I—”
But no explanation was what the other wanted.
In the sudden flood of panic and bewilderment washing through his chest, Yu Bai heard a question that blindsided him completely.
The ever-focused teacher turned the tables, questioning his student instead.
He spoke softly, but with piercing earnestness.
“So… what does make you happy?”
