5:30 PM, at the entrance of a hotpot restaurant.

Bai Liu sat in front of a boiling pot. Beside him was Lu Yizhan, who had just gotten off work and looked utterly bewildered while holding a menu.

It was rare for him to have a day when he didn’t need to work overtime. Yesterday’s unprecedentedly massive explosion had caused the Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau to briefly take over Lu Yizhan’s department, allowing these ordinary people to stay home and avoid being affected.

So Bai Liu asked him to come out and treat him to hotpot, and Lu Yizhan honestly showed up.

But Lu Yizhan’s main purpose in coming out this time was to figure out what had happened that day.

Lu Yizhan still did not understand why the department had already been turned upside down because of this explosion case, and why the situation from that day was being urgently broadcast everywhere on television—

Yet Bai Liu, the culprit, could still sit so steadily and calmly beside him, holding a cup of free barley tea provided by the hotpot restaurant, shamelessly telling the waiter that he wanted to add another serving of shrimp paste.

Lu Yizhan could no longer endure it. He snatched the menu and glared at Bai Liu in anger.

Bai Liu took a slow sip of tea and glanced at him. “What, do you want to ask me about what happened that day now?”

“No!” Lu Yizhan said sorrowfully. “Even if I’m treating you, you can’t keep adding dishes! This is already enough for six people!”

Bai Liu: “...”

This guy’s brain circuitry was indeed different from ordinary people’s.

From the moment they met until now, Lu Yizhan had not mentioned a single word about the explosion. He was as steady as Mount Tai.

If Bai Liu had not been certain that he had seen this man that day, he might have thought Lu Yizhan had no idea at all that the “bomber” was him.

“Aren’t you curious about how I blew up the Rose Factory—” Bai Liu turned his head and looked at Lu Yizhan. “—and then escaped unscathed to sit here eating hotpot with you?”

Lu Yizhan nodded honestly. “I am curious, but let me correct one point.”

Bai Liu asked, “Correct what?”

Lu Yizhan replied, “I don’t think you were the one who blew up that factory.”

“Why wasn’t it me?” Bai Liu asked back. “You saw it with your own eyes, didn’t you?”

“Precisely because I saw it with my own eyes, I don’t think it was you.” Lu Yizhan lifted his cup and took a sip, letting out a long sigh. “—Emotionally speaking, I believe you wouldn’t easily violate our trade after making a deal with me. Rationally speaking, your favorite thing is money.”

Lu Yizhan turned to look at Bai Liu. “I don’t think you are the primary beneficiary of detonating a factory like that. The factory owner is. So from that perspective, I’m inclined to guess that the bomber was the arrested factory director, and you were just a front who jumped out.”

“I don’t understand why you jumped out to take the blame, but you have your reasons for doing things, so I won’t pry.”

Lu Yizhan’s deduction was exactly right. It struck the mark.

Bai Liu had known since they were young that Lu Yizhan was incredibly smart.

His grades were excellent, his execution was strong, and his actions were decisive. He never hesitated when it came to things he wanted to do. He was an exceptionally persistent and stubborn person.

Although Bai Liu always won against Lu Yizhan in various games, Bai Liu knew very well in his heart that he only won because Lu Yizhan was not being serious.

Lu Yizhan did not care about winning or losing games. He spent all his intelligence and energy on being a good person. Because of that, people who only understood him superficially usually felt that Lu Yizhan carried a kind of incomprehensible, naive stupidity.

But Lu Yizhan was actually not a naive person. On the contrary, he was very realistic—otherwise, he would not have accepted Bai Liu’s trade rules so easily.

Generally speaking, a person who was emotionally naive could not accept a friend making their contributions transactional. It was too cold and detached.

But Lu Yizhan did not mind this at all, which showed that Lu Yizhan completely identified with Bai Liu’s concept of trade.

Bai Liu held the pencil used for marking the menu and turned it back and forth listlessly. “—Want to play Gomoku?”

Lu Yizhan, weighed down by worries, held his cup and let out a long, drawn-out sigh of refusal. “—What time is it, and you’re still playing games—”

“Win three games in a row, and I’ll tell you the follow-up of that factory explosion you’ve been so worried about.” Bai Liu turned the pencil and drew an X on the grid of the hotpot menu, lifting his eyelids. “If you can win five games in a row, I’ll help you solve this matter.”

Bai Liu, who had already resolved the factory explosion, used that same matter to trick Lu Yizhan without changing his expression.

“Deal!” Lu Yizhan took the bait instantly. He slammed his cup down, took the pencil Bai Liu handed him, thought seriously for a moment, and then cautiously drew a circle on the paper.

They played extremely fast. Almost at the instant one person lifted their pen, the other person put theirs down. There were no games that filled an entire sheet of paper without being resolved; a single game was basically controlled within one minute. As soon as the winner and loser were decided, the paper was immediately torn off and thrown into the trash can.

By the time Tang Erda arrived, the trash can beside the two of them was already filled with waste paper.

Lu Yizhan’s focus was highly concentrated on the paper. He hardly noticed that someone had arrived, merely following Bai Liu’s moves and repeatedly, swiftly drawing circles.

This situation continued until all five people arrived. Bai Liu closed the paper they were playing on. “Pause. Let’s eat first. As of now, you haven’t beaten me consecutively.”

Only then did Lu Yizhan look up with regret, and then he was startled—nearly flipping backward off his chair by the group of people neatly surrounding them and watching.

“Let me introduce them. My new colleagues.” Bai Liu extended four fingers and introduced them one by one. “Tang Erda, Mu Shicheng, Mu Ke, and the child you know, Liu Jiayi. And everyone, this is my childhood friend, Lu Yizhan.”

Mu Ke greeted him formally. “Hello, Mr. Lu.”

Mu Shicheng scratched his head awkwardly. “...Hello.”

Tang Erda nodded stiffly. “Hello.”

Liu Jiayi, sitting on a chair and swinging her feet, held her face and gave Lu Yizhan a sweet smile. “Hello, Uncle Lu.”

Lu Yizhan looked at Liu Jiayi with a shocked expression. “Wait?! Bai Liu, what kind of company are you working for?! Why did you even hire child labor?!”

“If I had to say...” Bai Liu pondered for a moment. “A large-scale star-making company?”

Lu Yizhan looked at this row of people, dressed brilliantly enough to blind his eyes. He swallowed nervously and asked in a trembling voice, “Is it... is it legal?”

Bai Liu smiled slightly. “Legal.”

Lu Yizhan wanted to ask Bai Liu for details, but seeing that this group of people did not treat themselves as outsiders and had already started eating hotpot under Bai Liu’s invitation, he could only swallow his questions while feeling the pain in his wallet.

...No wonder this fellow Bai Liu had ordered so much all at once. So he had been waiting here!

But soon, Lu Yizhan’s attention was diverted. Bai Liu began playing Gomoku with him while eating hotpot. Lu Yizhan quickly threw himself into the battle against Bai Liu, barely eating any food, focusing entirely on studying the game.

Liu Jiayi had a small appetite and soon finished eating.

She moved a small stool over to the side to watch the two of them play.

Liu Jiayi was wearing the visualization invisible-lens item, so she could see, and the highly focused Lu Yizhan did not notice this for the time being.

The speed at which the two of them drew circles and crosses on the paper became faster and faster. Bai Liu stopped lazily eating while playing and instead turned around, propping his chin on one arm as he looked down at the paper.

The expression of Liu Jiayi, who was watching from the side, gradually became serious.

She looked up at Lu Yizhan in some disbelief—this guy looked like a complete “good old man,” yet his thinking and reaction speed could actually keep up with a freak like Bai Liu?!

And his odds of winning were getting higher and higher?!

Mu Ke was drawn over by this duel and soon went to watch as well.

Mu Shicheng was not full yet, but he was truly curious about what kind of trouble Bai Liu was stirring up again. He trotted over with a small bowl piled with food and leaned over to look.

But Bai Liu and Lu Yizhan were playing too fast. Mu Shicheng’s eyes blurred from watching them. Usually, before he could clearly see the layout on the paper, the two of them had already torn it off and started over.

Mu Shicheng couldn’t help asking Mu Ke beside him, “What kind of chess are they playing?”

“Gomoku,” Mu Ke answered.

Mu Shicheng became even more confused. “I thought it was Gomoku too, but at most I see three moves connected before they tear the paper and start over...”

“Because it’s already a dead end,” Mu Ke replied with concentration. “They must have played many times before. They’re very familiar with the board. Once it reaches a certain point, they can see the general outcome.”

While they were talking, Bai Liu had already lost two games in a row.

Mu Shicheng’s eyes widened in surprise. “Bai Liu can actually lose a game...”

Mu Ke took a deep breath. “Gomoku, as a relatively simple game, tests thinking ability and reaction speed. Bai Liu’s intelligence is extremely high, so logically speaking, he should have a huge advantage. This Lu Yizhan was indeed losing constantly at the beginning...”

“But in the process of playing against Bai Liu, his thinking ability and reaction speed are rising rapidly...”

“The longer they play, the more dominant this Lu Yizhan becomes...”

“You mean Lu Yizhan has the upper hand now, and it’s Bai Liu’s turn to keep losing?” Mu Shicheng looked at the paper in disbelief.

Connecting Bai Liu with “keep losing” was something that defied common sense in Mu Shicheng’s mind.

Bai Liu stopped his pen. He sat with his fingers interlaced on the table, staring at Lu Yizhan without any expression on his face.

Lu Yizhan was still immersed in the atmosphere of the high-speed game. Seeing Bai Liu stop his pen, he looked up at Bai Liu a little blankly. “Why aren’t we continuing?”

“If we keep playing, I won’t be able to win either.” Bai Liu admitted this frankly. He stood up from beside Liu Jiayi and let Liu Jiayi sit in his place, looking at Lu Yizhan with a faint smile. “Jiayi will play for me next. If you can win three games in a row against her, our trade remains as agreed.”

Lu Yizhan frowned. “This little girl can’t see. Don’t make this kind of joke...”

“Uncle Lu, I can see.” Liu Jiayi pointed to her eyes and explained, “I’m wearing invisible lenses Uncle Bai Liu bought for me. They can restore part of my vision.”

Liu Jiayi held her hands to her heart, blinked her large eyes, and pleaded, “Uncle Lu, watching you play looked very fun. Can you let me play?”

“...As long as it doesn’t affect your eyes.” After hesitating for a moment, Lu Yizhan agreed.

Liu Jiayi retracted her well-behaved expression, lowered her head, grasped the pencil Bai Liu handed her, stared at the paper and pen, and drew the first cross.

Mu Shicheng was a little dazed by the direction of the situation. “What’s going on?” 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

“Liu Jiayi’s intelligence value is higher than Bai Liu’s.” Mu Ke’s eyes remained locked on that piece of paper. “She has a greater advantage in a game like Gomoku—Bai Liu is testing Lu Yizhan’s game intelligence value.”

Liu Jiayi’s play grew faster and faster. She slaughtered in all directions. Lu Yizhan, who had held the advantage against Bai Liu, began losing constantly again, only managing to win once in a while with great difficulty.

But soon, this situation changed.

Liu Jiayi gritted her teeth, her expression becoming quite unpleasant. The speed of her pen began to slow down, while in contrast, the speed of Lu Yizhan’s pen did not decrease at all.

Mu Ke gave his conclusion. “Liu Jiayi can’t hold on anymore.”

Half an hour later, everyone left the hotpot restaurant. Lu Yizhan paid for the hotpot with tears in his eyes and also paid for the two notebooks they had used up playing Gomoku, waving goodbye to Bai Liu and the others.

After Liu Jiayi sweetly said goodbye to Uncle Lu, her face darkened the moment Lu Yizhan turned around. “Bai Liu, there’s something wrong with this friend of yours.”

“What’s wrong?” In Bai Liu’s hand were three crumpled balls of paper. He slowly unfolded them. Inside were the last three games played between Liu Jiayi and Lu Yizhan.

—And they were the three games Liu Jiayi had lost in a row.

“A simple game like Gomoku is the easiest way to measure a person’s game intelligence value.” Liu Jiayi looked up at Bai Liu. “For someone with very high intelligence, there is no learning curve for this kind of game, or the learning curve is extremely short. For someone with low intelligence, playing this game means losing constantly.”

“There is no such thing as being unable to play at first and then getting stronger and stronger—” Liu Jiayi frowned as she recalled the scene just now, frustratedly scratching her hair. “—Especially since Lu Yizhan’s intelligence seems to keep rising as the opponent’s intelligence increases, always suppressing you. It feels like this person’s intelligence is rising—”

“—As if there is no limit, right?” Bai Liu looked sideways at Liu Jiayi, then lifted his eyes to look at Lu Yizhan’s receding back. “When I play games with him, I often have that feeling.”

“But usually, as soon as I feel it a little, he lets me win.”

Liu Jiayi was stunned. “Why today... did he not let you?”

“Perhaps because I placed what he wanted most in front of him.” Bai Liu turned around as if nothing had happened and crushed the mint candy given by the hotpot restaurant in his mouth. “So he decided to play the game seriously with me.”

—

Author’s Note:

Lu Yizhan: Showed my hand. Not pretending anymore. You all think I’m a fool, but I’m actually a smart person.

86: Where is there a lost child crying?

Lu Yizhan: ! Papa is here!

Supplementary complaints:

In the last chapter, I can understand all of you calling those two men “Papa.” I can also understand “Male Mommy.” But calling them “Male Grandma” is a bit... off, isn’t it?!?

To add a patch: I saw some reader friends in the comments section mention the issue of professional Gomoku competitions. The situation here is completely different from a formal competition. No one has undergone professional training; they are playing “fast chess,” and the black pieces are required to start from the edge of the paper. This is equivalent to a swap-hand plus restriction system to maintain the relative fairness of the match. There won’t be so many “first-move-must-win” situations. The seven-step first-move-win is also relatively difficult to pull off because the black pieces start from the edge. However, I didn’t elaborate on this in the text because it would be very long and has nothing to do with the main story, so I didn’t write it out specifically!

As you can see, both sides are playing extremely fast. For beginners who haven’t undergone long-term training, fast chess generally competes on thinking speed and does not reflect comprehensive quality or anything of that nature. It is simply being used as a tool to roughly reflect game intelligence values. I hope everyone doesn’t take it too seriously! I just wrote it casually! It’s only a medium!