Chapter 849 Showdown (2)

Unlike Luo Xueyan, although Prince Rui cordially asked everyone in the Shen family to call him "Jingxing", and Luo Xueyan did so, Shen Xin couldn't get over it. Men and women are different. Women can use their intuition to judge whether a person is friendly or malicious, but men can't rely on intuition, especially Shen Xin. He prefers to act based on evidence.

Prince Rui raised his eyes and casually placed the book on the table. Chen Xin saw that it was a military book, and a very obscure one at that. Only an ordinary veteran would read it. Prince Rui was only twenty-two years old now. Reading such a book was either a pretense or a sign of his hidden talent.

Before Prince Rui came to visit, in Shen Xin's eyes, Prince Rui was just an idle prince who acted casually and arrogantly because of the name of Emperor Yongle's younger brother. However, after the competition with Shen Qiu that day, looking at Prince Rui again, Shen Xin always felt that this person was not that simple.

Maybe this is a man's intuition.

"General Shen, please play a game of chess with me." He didn't call him "Master Shen" or any other intimate name, as it always felt like there was a sense of farewell.

Shen Xin said: “I don’t know how to play chess.”

"War chess." King Rui raised his hand and took the chessboard from the other side, placed it on the table, gave Shen Xin a jar of white pieces, and kept a jar of black pieces for himself. He said, "General Shen and I will use the board as our country, the chess path as our boundary, and the pieces as our soldiers. How about a game?"

Chen Xin was excited when he heard about military affairs, but when he saw that the other party was only young, he felt unhappy about being looked down upon, so he said, "Come on!"

The two of them set up their chess pieces and started playing chess.

Unlike Prince Rui's appearance, his chess style astonished Shen Xin. His opponent possessed a shrewdness and ruthlessness belying his age. War chess is inherently demanding, requiring careful consideration of every move, each one a matter of course. But Prince Rui's chess seemed to take no time for reflection at all, instead making his moves spontaneously. And those seemingly careless moves, upon closer inspection, revealed the opponent's placement to be incredibly ingenious.

Chen Xin was usually good at playing chess, but when compared with King Rui, he was often at a disadvantage. Chen Xin even had an illusion that he had played chess with King Rui before. Otherwise, how could King Rui seem to know in advance where his next chess piece would be placed?

At the end of the game, the outcome was not surprising, Shen Xin lost.

King Rui said, "You lose."

Shen Xin waved his hand and said, “Come again!”

"It will be the same if you come again." said King Rui.

"What do you mean?" Shen Xin frowned.

"You lose," he said.

Shen Xin had lived so long that Emperor Wenhui always gave him enough face. Apart from Luo Xueyan, no one dared to speak to him like that. He immediately became angry and was about to lose his temper when he saw Prince Rui say lightly, "General Shen came to Prince Rui's mansion today, I'm afraid you didn't come here to play a game of chess." He raised his lip and asked, "What's the matter?"

Shen Xin’s angry words got stuck in his throat.

Prince Rui always seemed to have a knack for stirring people's wrath, then seamlessly changing the subject, as if nothing had been said. This skill perfectly resembled the young Lin'an Marquis Xie Ding, who always displayed this cynical air when he argued with Shen Xin. Shen Xin, a simpleton who tended to get serious, was easily fooled by Xie Ding.

Suddenly thinking of Xie Ding, he remembered the purpose of his visit to Prince Rui's mansion today. When Shen Xin thought of this, even the thought of being angry with Prince Rui disappeared. He looked directly into Prince Rui's eyes, not missing the smile on his face, and slowly asked: "When you were competing with Shen Qiu at the Shen residence before, where did you learn that move of holding the dagger against Shen Qiu's neck?"