In the school building corridors today, the students looked exceptionally relaxed, chatting as they walked, some even chasing and playing, a completely different scene from usual.
"Haha, General, you lost again."
"No, I didn't mean to move that just now."
"Ah, no regrets after a piece is placed. You lost, hurry up and switch."
"It's my turn, it's my turn."
"Three with one."
"Isn't that a bomb on you?"
"King Bomb! Who else is playing?"
"No."
...
When the two arrived outside the classroom, they could hear laughter coming from inside. Students were gathered in small groups, chatting idly, without the usual urgency of memorizing texts.
"Gu Xiao, Lu Li, you're here."
Seeing the two enter, all the students in the classroom raised their hands to greet them.
Both of them were good-looking and had pleasant personalities, so they were naturally popular in the class.
"Playing? Count me in."
Seeing some students playing chess, Gu Xiao also felt a bit eager and wanted to play a few rounds with them.
"This game hasn't started yet. Gu Xiao, sit here."
Zhang Li, the male student who had just sat down, immediately stood up upon hearing Gu Xiao wanted to play.
"Alright, then I won't be polite."
Gu Xiao didn't refuse and sat down in the spot.
"No worries, no worries, it's a small thing, why be polite?"
Zhang Li waved his hand with a smile, then naturally sat down in the seat next to Gu Xiao.
He looked up and met the scornful gazes of the other male students. You scoundrel, what a clever move!
Lu Li, on the other hand, sat down on Gu Xiao's other side, quietly watching her play chess.
"You go first."
After Lu Li sat down, Gu Xiao said to the student opposite her.
"Uh, oh, okay."
Suddenly being stared at by two campus beauties, Jiang Hui felt inexplicably nervous.
Although they were all in the same class, their usual interactions weren't really that frequent.
Generally speaking, in a class, apart from close friends, the scope of everyone's communication was only with the classmates around their own seats.
For other classmates, at most they could call out their names when they saw them.
Those with face blindness might have to think for a long time to recall a name, or simply not remember it at all.
And Jiang Hui happened to be quite far from Gu Xiao and Lu Li's seats, hardly exchanging a few words in a semester.
However, the nervousness was only momentary. Unless one was severely socially anxious, becoming rigid or making a fool of themselves when facing beauties would probably only happen in anime.
In reality, when encountering handsome men and beautiful women, people will subconsciously take a few extra glances. Everyone appreciates beauty; it's an instinct. But if someone is drooling, then that person definitely has some issues.
However, Jiang Hui soon couldn't bother with these things, because he discovered that Gu Xiao's chess skills were extraordinarily high.
Less than three minutes into the game, Jiang Hui realized that only a few pawns were left of his pieces that could cross the river.
Gu Xiao's side of the board was like a Bagua Formation; every one of his pieces that crossed died, as if no matter where he moved, it would be captured.
He had clearly observed the board very carefully, but he found that as soon as his pieces crossed the Chu-Han Border, they suddenly became uncontrollable.
Within a few moves, his pieces would be forced little by little to the opponent's desired spot, then captured.
The most frustrating part was that Gu Xiao often found the right moment to give him a choice between two options.
Protect the chariot or the cannon? Protect the horse or the chariot? Or protect the cannon or the horse?
After a grueling five-minute struggle, Jiang Hui was burnt out.
Mainly, Jiang Hui was too careless at the start; otherwise, if he had just moved randomly on his own territory, Gu Xiao wouldn't have been able to finish the battle in five minutes.
"Jiang Hui, you're no good. I checked the time, it's only five minutes."
Seeing Jiang Hui's crushing defeat, the surrounding classmates promptly offered merciless taunts.
"If you think you can do better, you go."
Facing the taunts, Jiang Hui silently stood up.
"I'll go then." Feng Kai, standing next to Jiang Hui, immediately sat down. "Little Jiang, today I'll show you what a Chess Sage is."
Ten minutes later.
"W-what the heck."
Looking at his chessboard with only a lonely General left, Feng Kai on the opposite side twitched his mouth in astonishment.
"Keep bragging then, let me see how strong you are?" Jiang Hui, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately seized the opportunity to taunt, his tone full of vengeful satisfaction. "Let me see what you have left? Oh, it turns out there's still an old General."
"Well, it still took longer than you. You only lasted five minutes."
Feng Kai refused to be outdone. No matter how bad, I lasted longer than you.
"If you just stay cooped up at home and don't go out, of course it takes longer, right?"
As if he couldn't turtle in his own territory too. You only captured a few of Gu Xiao's pawns in the entire game, how could you even say that?
"Hurry up, switch places." A student behind urged Feng Kai to get up quickly.
Subsequently, students continuously played against Gu Xiao, but no one managed to last more than ten minutes under Gu Xiao's hands.
And as more and more students lost, more students were attracted by the commotion.
When the homeroom teacher entered, he saw over forty students in the class gathered in a circle, with students on the outer edge craning their necks over the shoulders of those in front to peek inside.
"What's going on here?"
Seeing so many students gathered, the homeroom teacher walked up curiously and asked.
"Brother Hou, they're playing chess with Gu Xiao."
The homeroom teacher's surname was Hou, and his name was Hou Yong. Because he wasn't much older than the students and got along well with them, he was often called that.
Hmm, 'Journey to the West' and such also exist in this world. Jing Yuan strongly suspected that Azure Star was Earth before entering the interstellar era, or perhaps a parallel Earth.
"Chess, huh? Who won?"
Hou Yong peered inside with interest.
"It's Gu Xiao, she's super strong. Now several of them are teaming up against Gu Xiao, and they're still getting utterly thrashed."
This student enthusiastically informed Hou Yong about Gu Xiao's "great achievements" before he arrived.
"Check!"
Just then, Gu Xiao's clear voice came from the crowd.
"I give up, completely give up."
Qian Yi, sitting opposite Gu Xiao, leaned back and let out a breath. So many of them together couldn't win; what more could they say?
Just then, Qian Yi saw Hou Yong standing behind the students.
"Brother Hou, come play a round."
Qian Yi stood up and waved to Hou Yong, who was standing outside the crowd.
"Brother Hou."
"Brother Hou."
Many students inside, who had been too focused on the game, only now noticed Hou Yong behind them.