29 The Feast of Philosophers04
◎This is the true meaning of the universe◎
This time, Zhu Heng, holding the Legalist black pieces, was unstoppable and easily broke through the defensive position of the Confucian white pieces.
It went incredibly smoothly.
Zhu Heng was stunned for a moment as he looked at the pile of black obsidian chess pieces that shone with the luster of glass.
"I don't understand." He looked up.
"That's perfectly normal," Mozi said meaningfully. "If you find it incomprehensible, it's because you haven't reached a high enough level."
Zhu Heng rubbed his fingertips unconsciously, and the black chess piece fell into his palm through his fingers.
He stared at the black chess piece in his palm, lost in thought. After a moment, he made a new request to Mozi: "I want to try again, using the black piece."
Mozi readily agreed: "Okay, it's the last round."
In this round, Zhu Heng made every move casually, almost randomly, but the white chess pieces in Mozi's hand continued to lose ground and gradually entered a dead end.
The last moment.
Just one more move and White is about to lose.
Zhu Heng withdrew his momentum.
The hand holding the black chess piece stopped in mid-air.
No more doubt.
It is indeed as Mozi said, the one who plays black chess will win the world.
He asked, "Why is this?"
Mozi replied: "I told you that you can't understand because you are not standing high enough."
Zhu Heng put the black piece between his fingers back into the chess pot and thought seriously about what Mozi said.
Mozi suddenly stood up and invited him, "Come with me."
After saying that, he opened the blue door and walked out without looking back.
Zhu Heng took one last look at the game on the table and set off to catch up.
As Zhu Heng followed Mo Zi out of the room, he was stunned when he saw the scene in front of him.
Outside the door was not the familiar tree-hole conference hall, but a pure white sky. He turned around and found that the blue guest room he had just stayed in suddenly became smaller as if it collapsed, becoming a visible cube.
Standing from this God's perspective, Zhu Heng saw another "Mozi" sitting in the middle of the cube, as well as another "himself".
Between them is a blank chessboard.
At this moment, another "him" is choosing the color of the chess piece.
Zhu Heng felt a chill on his back, and the sweat oozing from his forehead rolled down his cheeks and dripped into the cubic space.
It hit the back of the hand of another "him".
In the cubic space, "Zhu Heng", who had just chosen the white chess piece, stared at the water stains that appeared inexplicably and raised his head in confusion.
Zhu Heng subconsciously stepped back, and a hand reached out from behind and held him down.
Mozi stood beside Zhu Heng, his hand stroking his back and then his shoulder, patting him: "Don't be surprised yet, just look at what we're doing."
Zhu Heng calmed himself down, turned his gaze, and looked at the chessboard.
In the clear cube, "Mozi" and "Zhu Heng" started the first round of the game.
However, the white chess pieces in Zhu Heng's hand are not white chess pieces, but white puzzle pieces.
As more and more white pieces were placed on the chessboard, the incomplete word "ritual and music" was gradually formed.
As for the black chess piece in "Mozi's" hand, it is not an obsidian black piece, but a black cloud.
Dark clouds gathered around the city, gradually forming an impenetrable encirclement around the white chess pieces.
"Let's see something more interesting." Mozi suddenly said. He reached his hand into the cube, pushed aside the black clouds, and the situation below appeared to Zhu Heng.
All I saw was a chessboard painted black.
In the thick, inky blackness that resembled the mouth of an abyss, Zhu Heng saw a fist-sized statue of Confucius, with a person on top of its head.
Someone who looked familiar to him.
The man was as small as an ant, wearing a black combat uniform. He seemed unaware that he was standing on the top of the statue. He strode forward towards the edge of the darkness.
“Pah.”
The sound of chess pieces falling came from the front of the chessboard.
"You lost." Zhu Heng heard another "Mozi" say.
At the same time, in the field of vision, Helan Dao, who was walking on top of the statue, missed a step and fell straight to the ground, losing his life and unable to move.
Zhu Heng was stunned.
"Come again."
The second game started with the front of the board.
And above the statue of Confucius, Helan Dao's figure appeared again.
This time he learned his lesson and prepared several rappelling ropes, allowing him to descend safely from the top of the statue.
However, he failed to find the puzzle of Confucius' rituals and music.
The black cloud on the chessboard gradually enveloped Helan Dao. The bone-chilling coldness emanating from the cloud froze him to death in the endless darkness.
On the chessboard, Zhu Heng's white piece lost again.
"Come again."
By the third round, Helan Dao finally found the bead in the palm of the statue's hand. The bead sank into the soil, allowing him to successfully dig out six items related to Confucius.
But he was unable to accurately match the contents of the Analects one by one. Due to the unsuccessful matching, he died in the article about the three-year mourning period for Zai Wo.
In the third game, Black wins again and White loses.
"Come again."
Game 4.
"Come again."
…
"Zhu Heng", who played with white pieces, lost again and again. Under the dark clouds, Helan Dao also died again and again.
It wasn't until "Zhu Heng" switched to black chess pieces that Helan Dao finally collected all the white puzzle pieces in the dark chessboard world.
At this time, Helan Dao suddenly stopped moving. He crossed his legs and sat sideways on the ground, looking as if he was talking to someone.
But Zhu Heng did not find the second person.
He listened attentively, carefully analyzing Helan Dao's words.
The voice was too soft and I couldn't hear it clearly. I could only vaguely hear a few words like "daddy" and "son".
Zhu Heng: “…”
If he had known that Helan Dao was a dog that could not spit out ivory, he would not have done the despicable thing of eavesdropping.
Just as he withdrew his attention from Helan Dao, another "self" in the three-dimensional space seized the black chess piece and broke through the white chess piece's defense line.
At this time, Helan Dao had successfully put all the puzzle pieces together before the statue of Confucius woke up, but the black cloud swept towards him like a huge wave, covering his body.
"Zhu Heng" at the chess table knew nothing about this.
He was asking "Mozi" for one last round.
…
Outside the cube, Zhu Heng was truly like a spectator, watching everything happen.
Helan Dao was like a game player who reloaded the game infinitely. After his death, he returned to the starting point and appeared above the statue again.
But this last round is a little different from the previous ones.
In addition to Helan Dao, there are several more human figures above the statue's head.
Xu Wenjun and Wang Kunshu arrived almost at the same time, followed closely by Old Man and Duck Voice.
But they didn't realize that there was a man hiding in the darkness.
Helan Dao was like a cheetah hiding in the dark. While no one was noticing, he rappelled down the rope alone to the ground, quietly cleaned up all his own bodies left over from the previous rounds, and dug a pit to bury them.
Just as he was dealing with the last one, the sixth spectator arrived.
The three parallel time and space where Zhu Heng was located were synchronized at this moment.
The "Zhu Heng" on the statue's head, the "Zhu Heng" playing chess with Mozi, and the Zhu Heng observing everything from a God's perspective in the present time and space.
"Zhu Heng", who had just arrived in Confucius' world, had no idea that in the near future, the puzzle piece they had to piece together would be the white chess piece that was destined to be defeated.
In the blue room, "Zhu Heng", who was playing chess, did not understand what kind of disaster his unbelieving game after game would bring to Helan Dao.
As for Zhu Heng outside the blue room, he knew everything but could do nothing.
On the pitch-black chessboard, all six spectators were present.
Helan Dao was afraid of complications and had no time to continue, so he had to stuff his body into Yan Yuan's coffin in a hurry and push it into the pit, letting the dark earth automatically swallow the coffin and wrap it tightly with mud.
Then he grabbed the rappel rope and returned to the top of the statue. Before Zhu Heng could notice anything was wrong, he smiled and said, "What are you arguing about?"
…
Time passes by every second.
The last round of chess has entered the second half.
Zhu Heng looked at the puzzle pieces in the hands of six people standing beside the statue of Confucius.
Just one piece left, and we'll be done soon.
At this time, "Zhu Heng" who was playing chess was holding the black piece and had come to the most critical step to win.
According to the original plot, "Zhu Heng" in Confucius' world opened up the connection and rushed to her side to stop Xu Wenjun before she put the last piece of the puzzle together.
Zhu Heng, who was playing chess, also stopped at this moment and released the white chess piece.
That's dangerous.
Just a little bit.
Zhu Heng clenched and unclenched his fists.
Mozi saw all this and asked, "Do you know why?"
Zhu Heng looked at him.
"The black pieces represent the Legalist trend; the white pieces represent the Confucian ideal of ritual and music, which is inconsistent with the prevailing trend of the Spring and Autumn Period," Mozi explained. "Now I tell you, black pieces represent the new trend, white pieces represent the old system; playing black pieces is following the trend, while playing white pieces is going against it. No matter what world we live in, reformers and innovators thrive, while dreamers and conservatives go against it and perish. This has been an unchanging, eternal truth for thousands of years."
Mozi smiled and said, "But you, who are in the midst of it, don't know the reason behind all this."
"And this, this is the true meaning of the universe."
For some reason, after hearing Mozi's words, Zhu Heng subconsciously touched his heart on the right side and said, "I want to ask another question."
"You ask."
"I once..." Zhu Heng hesitated for a moment and said carefully, "I once heard someone talking to me when I first came to this world, but..."
"But you don't know whether you should tell me?" Mozi continued.
Zhu Heng looked up at him.
Mozi smiled, his expression clear, and winked at Zhu Heng. "You can choose not to speak, but if you truly want to, don't worry about the consequences. Because, if your life were a deck of cards, you'd find that no matter how you play, fate always has only one card—one and only one."
Zhu Heng pressed his lips into a straight line, and a huge wave was brewing in his eyes.
Mozi said, "So, in reality, we are all the white chess pieces at the moment, surrounded by the black chess pieces destined to succeed. Whether a great flood submerges civilization, the sun never rises, or even the world is devoid of night, it doesn't matter. Existence is reasonable, and everything that happens must have its reason."
Mozi paused and said, "Now, you can decide whether to tell me or not."
Zhu Heng suppressed the tip of his tongue and swallowed the question back into his stomach.
He wasn't going to ask any more questions.
When the time is right, he will naturally know the answer.
Mozi looked at him and nodded: "Okay, I understand. Are you going to accept it?"
"Accept? No." Zhu Heng laughed briefly and shook his head in denial. "You know what the only thing you can do when you're a white chess piece destined to be surrounded by black chess pieces?"
"What is it?"
Zhu Heng stared at Mozi, an indescribable, glittering light lurking in his eyes. "It's a breakout."
【Author’s words】
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or provided me with nutrient solution between 2022-06-12 17:12:34 and 2022-06-18 08:40:47~
Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution: Passer 20 bottles; Wen Zhu Sheng 9 bottles; Centenarian Ye Li 5 bottles;
Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
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