Wrong Steps
Mrs. Qingtian and Qingtian Guang rested until noon. At lunchtime, the housekeeper prepared a sumptuous Chinese lunch with nearly thirty classic dishes. However, the mother and son only ate a little. Before leaving, the rest was sent to Jiang Zhizhi and Pu Yu's room.
The two girls feasted on the food.
However, during the meal, Jiang Zhizhi and Pu Yu both noticed that something was wrong with the mother and son.
It feels too distant.
During lunch, Qingtian Guang didn't even look up at Mrs. Qingtian.
After lunch, they rested for more than an hour. Mrs. Qingtian wanted to go to the entertainment area to play, but Qingtian Guang was still in the room, so she asked one of Jiang Zhizhi and Pu Yu to accompany her downstairs, and the other one would stay here in case Qingtian Guang needed anything.
Pu Yu looked at Jiang Zhizhi for help. Jiang Zhizhi saw that she didn't want to stay with the difficult Qing Tianguang, so she said, "You go with the madam. I'll stay."
After the two of them made their decision, Pu Yu immediately said in fluent Mandarin, "Madam, let me accompany you."
"That's great! President Qin is so thoughtful. He arranged two translators for us. Otherwise, I would be a little worried about Xiaoguang being here alone." Madam Qingtian smiled gently at Jiang Zhizhi, "Then I'll leave Xiaoguang in your care."
After Madam Qingtian and Pu Yu left, Jiang Zhizhi felt a little bored. She entered Qingtian Guang's suite through the connecting door. The bedroom door was tightly closed and there was no sound from inside.
Jiang Zhizhi walked onto the terrace, walked around the azure terrace, went to the railing and looked down.
Seeing the scenery below, she took a deep breath in surprise.
What you see from here is not a street, but an indoor forest in the inner circle of Jinhai City.
The ecology on the first floor of Jinhai City is very well done, and each hot spring hall has a primitive feel.
The indoor forest below should be on the second or third floor, right?
It can actually simulate the ecological environment of a dense primeval forest. I wonder how much effort it took.
No wonder it’s so expensive here, most people can’t afford it.
Even a well-off family like Li Rongrong's can only afford to spend on the first and second floors.
Jiang Zhizhi admired the beautiful scenery below, feeling as if she was in a city in the sky.
Suddenly, she heard some noise not far away and subconsciously looked to the side.
On the small terrace of the bedroom next door, Qingtian Guang was sitting sideways, with a notebook on his arm and a pen in his other hand. He seemed to be writing something, but his eyes were now looking towards Jiang Zhizhi.
The two looked at each other for a moment, and then he looked away again, looking at the glass forest below.
From here, it was impossible to see his expression, but Jiang Zhizhi could tell that he seemed quite interested.
"If you want to go downstairs, I can go with you." She said to him in N Mandarin.
Hearing Jiang Zhizhi's voice, he looked at her again.
After a moment of silence, he nodded to her, although his face still showed no expression.
Jiang Zhizhi returned to his bedroom door and finally heard some noises from inside.
Three minutes later, the bedroom door opened, Qing Tianguang walked out and said to Jiang Zhizhi, "Let's go."
His voice was soft and sticky, and he spoke standard Mandarin.
Jiang Zhizhi was stunned for a moment, "You can speak our language?"
"Yeah, a little bit." He spoke slowly, but his pronunciation was very clear.
Jiang Zhizhi first asked the housekeeper about the specific location of the small forest. After knowing that it was on the third floor, she took Qingtian Guang into the elevator.
After leaving the room, Qingtian Guang didn't speak again. I don't know if he was born not to like talking, or if it was inconvenient to communicate in words that he remained silent.
Jiang Zhizhi continued to speak to him in N Mandarin. "I've never been to the third floor before, so there are many things I don't understand about this place. I hope you don't mind."
"Yeah." He nodded briefly.
Exiting the elevator on the third floor, there is a long solid wood flower corridor outside. At the end of the corridor is a quiet rest area and several service staff.
With the help of a service staff, Jiang Zhizhi and Qing Tianguang walked through the rockery area and came to the entrance of the huge glass forest.
"Spruce Secret: Deeply restored forest ecosystem, where over a thousand plant species coexist..."
The content on the notice board was rather written, and Jiang Zhizhi's translation was a bit halting, but fortunately, Qing Tianguang didn't seem to mind it much.
He entered the secret realm without saying a word, and Jiang Zhizhi hurriedly followed him.
The entire secret realm covers an area of 500 to 600 square meters, with trees and broad leaves stacked layer upon layer. Some of the plants inside are real, and some are plastic, mixed together, creating a chaotic feeling of being both virtual and real and immersive.
Jiang Zhizhi looked up and saw the blue sky through the glass cover that was more than ten meters high.
"Maybe you can see the stars here at night."
She couldn't even imagine how beautiful it would be to lie on the grass in the forest and look at the stars at night.
But Qing Tianguang on the side looked a little lost and sad. He walked to a huge tree. There was a lot of sand around the tree. The sand was full of blue and white flowers. The hideous roots arched out from the sand, as if showing the vigorous vitality.
"There are no birds singing or insects chirping." Qingtian Guang reached out and touched the brown-black tree roots, whispering in N Mandarin.
He grabbed a handful of sand from under the tree and said, "This kind of sand cannot support life. The tree is dead, and the leaves on it are fake."
Jiang Zhizhi said, "It's impossible to grow tall trees on a floor. It's rare to be able to achieve this effect here."
"Indeed." Sand flowed from his fingertips. "Humans always like to spend huge amounts of money on meaningless things like this."
"Is it meaningless? I think this place is beautiful. Being here seems to calm my restless mood." Jiang Zhizhi closed her eyes. The fresh air seemed to carry a gentle breeze, and she could smell a faint floral fragrance. "But if you don't like it, we can go somewhere else."
"There's nothing interesting here." Qing Tianguang was bored.
Why does he look like a cynical child? Looking at his expression, Jiang Zhizhi also felt a little puzzled.
Although Qingtian Guang was not interested in this place, he still walked around the glass forest and walked out from another exit.
The exit on this side is also next to a rest area. The floor is covered with spotless wooden tatami mats, and on the tatami mats, a Go board is placed at intervals.
"There's no difference between this place and Country N." Qingtian Guang looked a little bored.
Jiang Zhizhi thought he didn't like it here and was thinking of taking him somewhere else, but Qingtian Guang walked to a Go board, knelt down, took out a few cold chess pieces from the box, and rubbed them in his hands.
"Do you like playing Go too?" Jiang Zhizhi sat down opposite him.
Qing Tianguang looked at Jiang Zhizhi in surprise, "You can play Go?"
"A little."
Qingtian Guang clenched the chess pieces in his hand and stretched his fist in front of Jiang Zhizhi.
Jiang Zhizhi saw what he meant and took a chess piece from the black chess box and placed it on the chessboard. "Guess who goes first?"
Qing Tianguang opened his palm, revealing five chess pieces. "You play black first."
"Okay, let's play a round then."
Just in time, the game was over and it was almost time for dinner, so she could take Qingtian Guang home.
After the initial confrontation, Jiang Zhizhi realized that Qingtian Guang's Go skills were very good, at least on par with Pu Yuxiang's.
Moreover, he seems to prefer some ancient patterns.
In Pu Shao's reference room, Jiang Zhizhi had read many chess records from ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad. This kind of opponent was exactly in her comfort zone.
But Qingtian Guang soon realized that something was wrong.
He started learning Go at a very young age and had few rivals among his peers.
I originally played chess with Jiang Zhizhi just because I was bored and wanted to kill time, but I didn't expect her chess skills to be so strong.
He is the type who plays steadily and takes every step firmly. When he meets an aggressive opponent, he only needs to wait for the opportunity and defeat him easily.
But Jiang Zhizhi is more stable than him, especially the opening layout, which has no loopholes at all.
"How old were you when you started learning Go?" The young man, who had always been indifferent to everything, suddenly showed a competitive spirit in his deep eyes.
Jiang Zhizhi scratched her head and lied, "I've learned it since I was a child."
Both players were defensive, and the situation remained deadlocked for quite a while with no change in the game.
"Aren't you going to attack? Or are you deliberately giving in to me?" Qingtian Guang frowned.
Under Jiang Zhizhi's suppression, his layout was not so good. If the situation turned around, he would definitely attack, but Jiang Zhizhi had no intention of attacking.
"I'm not very good at attacking." Jiang Zhizhi said honestly.
Seeing that Jiang Zhizhi didn't seem to be lying, Qingtian Guang took a white piece, and a cold light flashed in his eyes.
Since she wasn't coming, he had no choice but to go!
In the rest area, the two young men were fighting back and forth.
At some point, an old monk dressed in shaman costume passed by, saw their chess game, and stopped.
Jiang Zhizhi and Qingtian Guang didn't pay any attention to him. Both of them were focused on the chess game.
In the end, Jiang Zhizhi lost to Qingtian Guang by half a point.
"You let me go?" Qingtian Guang felt that Jiang Zhizhi's stamina was a little insufficient, no longer the iron wall she had been in the early stage.
"No."
Jiang Zhizhi did give up a piece in the middle game.
But after giving in, she found that Qingtian Guang was closing in on her step by step, and it became very difficult for her to defend herself.
She tried her best until the end.
After the game was over, Qingtian Guang became indifferent again, stood up and was about to leave.
Jiang Zhizhi also got up and chased after him.
"Little girl, your chess pieces haven't been collected yet." The shaman monk who had been watching the game silently suddenly spoke.
"Oh, sorry."
Jiang Zhizhi hurried back and raised her hand to tidy up the chess pieces scattered on the chessboard.
"Little girl, how old are you?" The shaman looked at her with a hint of curiosity.
Jiang Zhizhi was stunned for a moment, but still answered politely, "Thirteen."
"You're not like other kids."
Although he was old, his gentle eyes were very clear, as if he could see through Jiang Zhizhi's body and into her heart.
Jiang Zhizhi lowered her head and said, "I'm just an ordinary kid."
Hearing Jiang Zhizhi's answer, the shaman monk chuckled and took out a black chess piece from the chessboard. It was the black chess piece that Jiang Zhizhi had given to Qingtian Guang in the middle game. "Little girl, life is like chess. You have to be careful."
Jiang Zhizhi had already placed all the chess pieces on the chessboard and looked at the old monk in confusion.
"Do you know why you lost?"
"I made a wrong move." Jiang Zhizhi said, looking at the chess piece in the old monk's hand.
"One wrong step leads to another, but little girl, you made more than one mistake."
The old monk sighed and placed the chess piece back into the chess box. "Every move you make reveals cowardice. It's as if there's something invisible holding you back."
"I see your future, with flowers and applause accompanying you, but the top of that mountain is destined to be lonely. Do you know what you want?"
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