The world of film and television begins with Hikaru no Go

The person most affected by Long Yan's arrival was Shen Yilang.

On his first day there, he played a game with Long Yan.

Shen Yilang lost that game of chess.

The loss was by a small margin, half a point.

But the way he lost still bothered Shen Yilang – in the middle game, he clearly had the opportunity to establish an advantage in one fell swoop, but he chose a conservative approach and handed the initiative to Long Yan.

Long Yan seized the opportunity and gradually caught up in the score in the second half of the game, eventually turning the tide.

During the debriefing, Long Yan pointed to that particular area and said, "Why didn't you dare to cut your losses here?"

Shen Yilang was silent for a moment: "I'm afraid that if we cut off the perimeter, you'll be able to use it."

"So what if I borrow it?" Long Yan scratched his head. "If you cut off the connection, I'll suffer; if you don't, I'll be fine. Isn't Go a game about making your opponent suffer without killing yourself?"

Shen Yilang was stunned for a moment. The sentence was simple, even a little rude, but for some reason, it touched a certain part of his heart.

For the next few days, Shen Yilang asked Long Yan to play chess every day, of course, during Long Yan's non-working hours.

Shen Yilang's strength is quite good, and Long Yan is happy to play along.

One plate, two plates, three plates...

Sometimes Shen Yilang wins, sometimes Long Yan wins, but Long Yan wins more often.

Regardless of winning or losing, Shen Yilang felt that he was playing a completely different kind of Go.

Long Yan's chess moves lack any rules, but not in the sense of "not understanding the rules," but rather in the sense of "knowing the rules but deliberately ignoring them."

He will attack when he shouldn't, he will break away when he shouldn't, and he will choose to confront head-on when everyone thinks they should back down.

If some of these methods were used in a classroom at a temple, the senior teacher would definitely scold them as "nonsense."

But ironically, these seemingly random and haphazard methods often prove effective.

Because the opponent is not used to it.

The students at the dojo receive systematic training from a young age, and their playing styles are all very "orthodox".

They are used to their opponents making "reasonable" moves, and then playing the game within that "reasonable" framework.

But Long Yan doesn't play by the rules. His moves are like a rusty kitchen knife, leaving jagged wounds that are impossible to stop.

Shen Yilang was not used to it at first.

He was used to calculating step by step, to mentally simulating a dozen or so possible scenarios, and then choosing the safest one.

But Longyan didn't give him any time to calculate—because many of Longyan's moves weren't in Shen Yilang's "variation diagrams".

"You're overthinking it."

One day, Long Yan said to Shen Yilang.

The two had just finished a game of chess, and Shen Yilang lost again.

It wasn't that he lacked skill, but rather that he spent too much time thinking about a particular area in the middle game, and eventually ran out of time, leading to a series of mistakes in the endgame.

Shen Yilang looked up: "Isn't it bad to calculate a lot?"

"You've calculated it very well," Long Yan said, "but you're overthinking it."

"What's the difference?"

"Calculating moves is about thinking, 'What should I do if my opponent plays here?'" Ryuhiko tapped the board with his fingers. "Thinking too much is about thinking, 'Will my opponent think I'm stupid if I play here?'"

Shen Yilang opened his mouth, but no words came out.

He couldn't refute what Long Yan said.

Often, he hesitates to make a move not because he can't calculate the consequences, but because he's afraid—

He was afraid that the move he made "didn't seem like something a composed player would make," afraid of being scolded by the master for "fooling around," and afraid that after losing the game, others would say, "See, he was just too reckless."

He cares too much about what others think.

Long Yan didn't care.

Long Yan doesn't care what others think of him because he's not a professional Go player.

He plays chess simply because he enjoys it, and he plays however he wants. Losing isn't shameful, and winning is a bonus.

Shen Yilang did not have this mindset.

Long Yan's influence on Shen Yilang was multifaceted.

On Shen Yilang's bedside table was a note he had written himself: "Fixed grade".

Only two words.

Every night before going to bed, he would glance at those two words and silently tell himself: I must get it this year.

But sometimes, those two words become a pressure, making it hard for him to breathe.

Long Yan first entered Shen Yilang's dormitory when Shi Guang dragged him there to play.

He saw the note on the bedside table, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "Shen Yilang, you must be under a lot of pressure, right?"

Shen Yilang was taken aback for a moment, but did not deny it.

"I used to be like that too." Long Yan sat down on Shen Yilang's bed. "When I first started playing chess online, I would check my ranking every day after logging off. If I moved up a rank, I was so happy I couldn't sleep; if I dropped a rank, I was so angry I wanted to smash my computer."

"And then?"

"I stopped looking at the rankings later. I realized that looking at the rankings didn't help me play better; it only made me more anxious. I'd rather spend my time playing chess."

Shen Yilang didn't speak, but he was pondering those words in his mind.

Long Yan glanced at him and suddenly asked, "Why do you want to achieve a professional ranking?"

Shen Yilang thought for a moment: "Because... I want to prove myself."

"Who are we proving this to?"

"For everyone," Shen Yilang said, "For Teacher Da, Class Teacher, my family, and myself."

"I'm different from you. I initially wanted to achieve professional status because I wanted to play more games. Professional players can participate in more tournaments, encounter stronger opponents, and play better games." Long Yan paused, his tone becoming somewhat wistful, "But later I realized that I couldn't achieve professional status. Not because I wasn't strong enough, but because I was too old."

Shen Yilang wanted to say something to comfort him, but Long Yan waved his hand.

"Don't try to comfort me, I've figured it out. Whether I'm ranked or not, I'll still be playing Go. Playing Go has nothing to do with being a professional or not." Long Yan stood up and patted Shen Yilang on the shoulder. "You're different, you're still young, you still have a chance. But don't push yourself too hard—ranking is for playing Go, not for the sake of ranking."

After saying that, Long Yan was pulled away by Shi Guang to play chess.

Shen Yilang sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the note on the bedside table for a long time.

Then he took the note down and rewrote it: "Play chess well."

In mid-March, Ban Heng organized a debriefing session within the dojo, asking each student to choose a game they had recently played and review it in front of everyone.

Shen Yilang chose the game he played against Long Yan—the one he lost the day after Long Yan arrived.

Standing in front of the blackboard, Shen Yilang set up the chess pieces while explaining.

"Here, I chose to back down. But during the post-mortem analysis, Longyan told me that if I had broken down here, the situation would have been completely different."

He laid out a diagram on the blackboard showing the changes after the break.

"If Black cuts, White has two possible responses. First, Black captures, Black extends, White presses again, and Black pushes back—this way Black gains two points by first move, and then turns around to collect the big endgame pieces."

"The second option is for White to retreat, and Black to rush in directly, which would cut off half of White's corner territory."

"So no matter how White responds, Black won't lose out."