I Really Didn’t Mean to Play Go!
Chapter 9: Do You Shine When You Play?

“Alright, enough. Just go to sleep already,” Yu Shao said helplessly, deciding to stop engaging Zhou De in conversation. If they kept talking and the topic veered back to Cheng Mengjie, Yu Shao would seriously get a headache. After all, this was the mess his "past self" had created.

The next class was art, which Zhou De happily slept through. For someone like Zhou De—a sports student—teachers outside the core subjects generally couldn’t be bothered to keep him in check.

By the time physical exercise class came around, Zhou De, having only napped for one period, was already full of energy again. High schoolers’ stamina truly was insane.

After exercise class, Yu Shao deliberated for a moment before finally making his way to the classroom office.

Upon arriving, he knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Receiving permission, Yu Shao entered the office.

Li Kang was busy grading homework. When he saw Yu Shao enter, he was slightly surprised and asked, “Yu Shao, what’s the matter?”

“Teacher, I’d like to sign up for next week’s Go simultaneous exhibition match,” Yu Shao answered honestly.

Li Kang paused, setting down his red grading pen. He looked up at Yu Shao with surprise and asked, “You know how to play Go?”

In his impression, Yu Shao was one of those students who performed decently in academics but loved to have fun and stir up trouble. He didn’t seem like the type to have the patience for Go.

Yu Shao nodded. “I do.”

“How well do you play?” Li Kang pressed further.

“Uh...”

The question left Yu Shao a bit conflicted.

This was a perfect opportunity to brag, but overdoing it could easily make him look foolish instead of impressive.

After a moment of hesitation, Yu Shao settled on a modest answer: “I’m okay.”

Li Kang didn’t think Yu Shao was lying. He was simply surprised that Yu Shao actually knew how to play Go. After a moment of thought, he nodded and said, “Alright, I’ll register you. You can head back now.”

“Thank you, teacher.”

Yu Shao breathed a small sigh of relief, turned, and left the office.

When he returned to the classroom, Zhou De immediately came running over, asking, “Yu, what were you doing in the teacher’s office just now?”

He saw me?

Yu Shao was a bit surprised but figured there was no need to hide it. “I signed up for next week’s Go simultaneous exhibition match,” he replied truthfully.

Zhou De’s eyes widened, almost popping out of his head. “You’re risking your life for conduct points?! If Li Kang finds out you don’t actually know how to play, forget the points—he’ll kill you!”

Yu Shao shot Zhou De a glance and said, “I do know how to play Go.”

“Come on, don’t joke around. I know you better than that,” Zhou De said, wearing an expression that screamed, You can fool others, but not me.

Yu Shao couldn’t be bothered to explain. Knowing Zhou De, the more he explained, the less Zhou De would believe him.

“Wait, you’re serious?” Zhou De stared intently at Yu Shao, as if trying to spot any hint of a lie on his face.

But Yu Shao remained silent, treating Zhou De like thin air.

“Holy sh*t, you really do know how to play!” Zhou De’s initial shock quickly turned into exaggerated outrage. “You actually went so far as to secretly learn Go just to show off? I seriously underestimated you, Yu! You’re ruthless!”

“Betrayal! Absolute betrayal! You’ve betrayed your bros! The wound from this betrayal will never heal!” Zhou De wailed dramatically.

Yu Shao felt like he should find a needle and sew Zhou De’s noisy mouth shut. “Can you quiet down a bit?”

After his outburst, Zhou De leaned in conspiratorially and asked in a hushed tone, “Alright, bro, one question: since you know how to play Go, do you know how to do that?”

“What’s that?” Yu Shao asked, puzzled.

“You know...” Zhou De mimicked a dramatic motion of placing a Go piece on the board. “That thing where, as soon as you place a stone, it glows brightly, and then—whoosh!—a beam of light shoots straight into the sky.”

“What the hell? Have you been watching too much anime?”

Yu Shao had always known Zhou De wasn’t quite right in the head, but he hadn’t realized the extent of the problem.

“What’s the point of playing Go if it doesn’t glow?” Zhou De said disdainfully.

For a moment, Yu Shao was at a loss for words. He felt like responding would only lower his own IQ to Zhou De’s level.

At 5 PM, school finally ended. After the chemistry teacher—the one even Zhou De didn’t dare to sleep through—declared class dismissed, Yu Shao began packing his books to head home.

“Yu, come on, let’s hit the internet café. You didn’t go yesterday, so you’ve got to come today!” Zhou De said enthusiastically.

“Yeah, Yu, let’s go for a five-man squad,” Old Zhang chimed in, confidently adding, “I checked the lunar calendar today. Guaranteed wins!”

Yu Shao thought about it. His homework wasn’t too heavy today, so going to the internet café for a bit wouldn’t hurt.

After all, being reborn, he wanted to truly experience his youth. Gaming at an internet café with classmates was definitely a quintessential part of that.

“Alright, let’s play for a bit, but you know the deal—I can’t stay too late,” Yu Shao agreed.

Zhou De gave him a knowing look and said, “Got it, got it. You have to be home before your parents, right? Fifteen minutes per match. We can play plenty!”

Suddenly, Yu Shao didn’t feel like going anymore.

Mountain-Sea Chess Hall.

A man in his early thirties, wearing a jacket, walked into the chess hall. As soon as he stepped inside, he felt every pair of eyes in the room instantly fix on him.

For a moment, he was so overwhelmed by the attention that he didn’t know where to look or how to react.

But in the next moment, as everyone realized who he was, their gazes shifted away with visible disappointment.

Relieved, the man in the jacket let out a breath and walked over to the front desk. While paying, he asked, “Are they all waiting for that high schooler?”

“That’s right,” the receptionist nodded, glancing toward Zheng Qin, who was currently sitting in the chess room, repeatedly reviewing a game from the day before.

“Zheng has been here waiting since noon,” she said. “He’s been analyzing that same game over and over.”

“Well, no wonder,” the man in the jacket said with a sigh. “Zheng is preparing to qualify as a professional Go player this year, but he lost to a high schooler with no formal training and not even a rank. That must’ve been a huge blow to him.”

Talking about it, the man couldn’t help but feel a sense of disbelief himself. “Honestly, it still feels hard to believe.”

“Still, I trust Zheng,” the man continued after a pause. “I watched that entire game yesterday. I think Zheng was just overconfident.”

“In the opening, his moves clearly weren’t as meticulous as usual. During the middlegame, when things got tangled, he didn’t opt to play aggressively either. Many of his moves were overly greedy, trying to have it both ways.”

“If it were a typical opponent, playing like that wouldn’t be a problem. Zheng would’ve completely suffocated them. But that high schooler? He’s clearly not an ordinary player.”

“Zheng underestimated him. By the time he realized the situation and wanted to take it seriously, the board was already beyond saving—it was too late.”

“But if Zheng had gone all out from the very start, that high schooler wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

Hearing this, the receptionist couldn’t help but chuckle.

“What? Miss Su, you don’t agree?” the man asked, puzzled.

“No.” The receptionist shook her head, smiling. “It’s just that you’re not the first person to say that. Everyone’s been saying the same thing. That’s exactly why so many people are holding their breath, waiting here for that high schooler to show up.”

“They’re all waiting to see Zheng and that high schooler face off again—this time with both of them giving it their all.”

Hearing this, the man in the jacket couldn’t help but laugh. “I imagine it’ll be quite the spectacular match, won’t it?” he said, full of anticipation.