Chapter 62#

If one were to describe Li Meng, 3-dan, in words, “exceptional chess talent” would be sufficient.

He learned Go at the age of two, could play independently at six, started reviewing games at nine, and by thirteen, he had no rivals in the chess clubs near his neighborhood. City H has a strong Go culture, and he accumulated rich on-the-spot experience through a large number of games. Moreover, he has a photographic memory, storing a huge number of game records in his brain, and often plays miraculous moves.

At fourteen, he obtained the title of 9-dan in an online game room, which, converted to real-life ranking, would be at least amateur 5-dan. At fifteen, he successfully sniped a Korean professional 6-dan master. Initially, it only circulated on a small scale on Weibo, but after he signed up for the Three Kingdoms Hegemony Tournament and stood out, that video was dug up and became popular for a while.

Although the name “Three Kingdoms Hegemony Tournament” sounds nice, in reality, due to the prize money and background, many veterans do not participate. In recent years, those who have emerged in this competition are mostly teenage players. Because of the rule in Japan and South Korea that “winning a title in an international competition allows for skipping grades to promote,” the winners in this competition are mostly from Japan and South Korea.

So, Li Meng, as a mere amateur 3-dan, made a Korean young 5-dan cry, beat a Japanese rookie king, and finally broke through the siege to win the championship, which was actually quite shocking.

Coincidentally, a new regulation was introduced at this time, stating that those who achieved a certain ranking in bilateral confrontation matches could skip grades for promotion. Although Li Meng’s championship title was won against a group of young teenagers, it was still earned with real skills, so he was exceptionally promoted from amateur 3-dan to professional 2-dan.

Do not underestimate this 2-dan. There is an invisible chasm between amateur and professional players. Many strong amateur players may not be able to cross the threshold of professionalism for several years. If one were to convert chess strength, an amateur 8-dan or even 9-dan is only equivalent to a professional 1-dan.

Li Meng was lucky. At this time, the national Go institute’s promotion tournament started. On the day he received his professional 2-dan certificate, he took a car to the competition. Those few days, Jiang Qin had just been released from prison, and Jin Yan had no time to take care of the child (“Tashi is quite reliable, let Tashi take care of him for two days first”)—so Li Meng quietly went out to compete for two weeks. With a record of 36 wins and 4 losses, he successfully promoted three rounds ahead of schedule and became a professional 3-dan.

Those who won by a large margin in the promotion tournament would have relevant reports. Li Meng also appeared in the newspaper, but it didn’t attract much attention—after all, he was already older, and there were so many eleven or twelve-year-old children promoting before him, all of whom were more eye-catching than him.

But immediately after, Li Meng didn’t rest at all and signed up for the Huashuo Cup Bilateral Confrontation Match without stopping. His energy and passion, which had been suppressed for many years, erupted like a blowout. In the preliminaries, he killed gods and buddhas alike, winning all sixteen rounds of three-game matches without a single defeat, and fought his way into the semi-finals from two hundred elite players from China and South Korea.

The gold content of this semi-final was even greater than that of the Three Kingdoms Hegemony Tournament. After all, the opponents were all famous Go players. Li Meng, with the lowest rank, youngest age, and best preliminary results, was quite eye-catching.

In a report by a well-known online media outlet, little student Li Meng was described as a genius boy with a solid style, steady pace, and exceptionally high IQ. The pretty reporter sister from this media outlet bribed Li Meng with chocolate to get a five-minute interview. The record is as follows:

“In this competition, you successfully sniped the young Korean 7-dan Kim Woo-ki. The last rapid game was really dangerous. Were you nervous about it?”

“Didn’t feel much.”

“…Many people say your calculation ability is extremely strong. Do you have any secrets for this?”

“Eat more candy to nourish the brain.”

“…Little student, you’re not joking, are you?”

“I just like eating candy, hehehe!”

…

This conversation was cut by the editor-in-chief on the grounds that it was too obviously trolling, and publishing it might make people think they were venting anger for the defeated Korean player.

The genius boy Li Meng, with a solid style, steady pace, and exceptionally high IQ, was hugging Jiang Qin’s thigh and wailing on the hotel floor: “I must eat mango cake—! Chocolate cake is not—al—lowed—! If there’s no mango, taro is fine, but I want real taro. Food flavoring is simply an insult to my dignity as a dignified rich second generation! —Dignity!!”

“…Rich second generation,” Jiang Qin picked up the soft skin at the back of Li Meng’s neck and asked coldly, “Do you want to have your pants pulled down and be spanked in public, rich second generation?”

Li Meng blinked his eyes, and two seconds later, he wagged his tail ingratiatingly and said, “Meow.”

Jiang Qin threw him to the dining table with a wave of his hand.

Li Meng then sobbed and pitifully lowered his head to eat the chocolate cake. Tashi held the little sheep and guarded him expressionlessly, feeding him water while occasionally pressing the little sheep’s head back, otherwise it would stretch its neck to nibble on Li Meng’s hair.

Wei Hong happily drove over in the afternoon to find Director Duan, and the two went home arm in arm to play some unknown heavy-flavored play; Hellen came to find Guan Feng because of company matters, and a mighty convoy took the Great Lord of Namek away; finally, Jin Yan pretended to pass by inadvertently, poking his head in from the private room door with a toothpick in his mouth: “Yo! What a coincidence! Wifey, you’re here too, hahaha. I just came to the hotel to borrow the toilet!”

Before coming to borrow the toilet, he definitely had the company’s makeup artist style him. The Italian imported handmade shirt clearly wrapped around his hormone-overflowing pectoral muscles.

Jiang Qin nodded and said, “Hmm, I really admire your spirit of dressing up before going to the toilet.”

Jin Yan squeezed into the room shamelessly, sat shyly next to Jiang Qin, and signaled Tashi with his eyes to take Li Meng out to play.

As a result, Tashi (as always) ignored him. Depressed, Jin Yan had to pull Jiang Qin out, saying, “Come on, let hubby accompany you for a walk, let’s go for a walk.”

“…Not going.”

“Come on, come on.”

The waiter knocked on the door and came in with almond porridge. Jin Yan instantly put on the airs of a big shot. As soon as the waiter turned around, he immediately scooped a spoonful ingratiatingly: “Come, wifey, let hubby serve you.”

This sounded a bit familiar. Jiang Qin’s ears turned suspiciously red: “Put it down! I’ll eat it myself!”

Jin Yan agreed obediently and ran to serve tea and water, even taking a towel to wipe his wife’s face. When Jiang Qin finished eating, he asked attentively, “Are you done?”

Jiang Qin stared at him suspiciously.

“Let’s go for a walk,” Jin Yan reverted to his old ways: “Come on, come on.”

Jiang Qin was dragged out of the private room by CEO Jin, who was like a furry bear, and they went for a walk in the courtyard, being clingy all the way to cultivate feelings. The hotel’s private garden was very well constructed, with small bridges, flowing water, and a bright moon. When the night breeze blew, it was incredibly romantic. Jin Yan looked at the tree full of golden osmanthus flowers and thought how great it would be to have a field battle here, so he started drooling.

Jiang Qin didn’t know that CEO Jin’s mind was full of obscene images. He just felt that the atmosphere here was good, so he was in the mood to play tsundere: “Aren’t you thinking about Fang Yuan? What are you doing here?”

Jin Yan sobered up instantly with a shudder and said seriously, “Nonsense, I only love you.”

Jiang Qin hummed and turned his head to admire the moon.

Jin Yan clingily grabbed his hand to apologize: “Wifey, I was wrong. I will never mention that guy named Fang again. Let’s go home and live a normal married life, okay? Look, I even brought you a gift. For the sake of this…”

He fumbled in his pocket and took out a ring box. Opening it, there was a plain band inside, exactly the same as the one Jiang Qin threw into the sewer back then.

“I specifically found the shop from back then and ordered it again according to the old style. Actually, I wanted to go to the sewage treatment plant to see if I could find the one you threw away, but it should be impossible…”

Jin Yan carefully picked up the plain band and showed it to Jiang Qin under the moonlight. Inside, the name “Jin Yan” was engraved in cursive script, forming a pair with Jin Yan’s ring which had “Jiang Qin” engraved in pinyin inside.

This was what they had agreed upon when they got married, engraving each other’s name on the inside of the ring.

“I also asked if there were men’s rings with five-carat diamonds, but that style almost blinded my eyes. I guessed you wouldn’t like it either… Come, wifey, let your man put it on for you.”

Jiang Qin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “You really are… Wait, wearing the ring so simply? Kneel down and propose to me first!”

“—Huh?”

“Huh what? You didn’t even propose back then! Kneel for a full two hours with interest!”

Jin Yan: “…”

Jin Yan’s mouth twitched, and he knelt on one knee holding the ring.

Jiang Qin looked down at him condescendingly for a while, barely calming his anger: “Say it.”

“…Say what?”

“Ask me if I’m willing to marry you.”

“…Just ask like that?”

“What else do you want to ask?”

Jin Yan thought hard, and after a while, his eyes lit up and he clapped his hands: “I got it!”

He immediately adjusted his kneeling posture, held the ring solemnly, looked up piously and asked, “Dear Comrade Jiang Qin, are you willing to go home with me… to live a married life?”

Jiang Qin: “…”

Bandit Jin indiscriminately put the ring on Tsundere Jiang’s hand and said, “Going home~!” Then he picked up his wife in a princess carry and ran away in a hurry.