The world of film and television begins with Hikaru no Go

"Hey, you must be Honghe?" Xu Hou walked in with a smile. "Are you still setting up the chessboard?"

"Just finished setting them up." Hong He tossed the chess pieces back into the basket, stood up, and looked a little reserved. "Is Xu Hou, the fourth dan, going to sleep with us tonight? He can sleep on the lower bunk here; it's cleaner."

"OK."

Not long after, Ban Heng came over with a clean set of sheets and blankets. Zhang Rui took them and helped make the bed.

Seeing that he couldn't get involved, Xu Hou didn't cause any trouble and simply continued chatting with Hong He and the others: "You two are sharing a room? That's pretty good treatment."

"Oh, actually there's another one, Yue Zhi, but he doesn't live in the dorms."

"I heard someone comes to pick you up every day?"

"That's right." Hong He clicked his tongue twice. "Their pomp and circumstance is astounding. Every day, a black Mercedes arrives at the dojo entrance precisely on time. The first time I saw it, I thought some important figure had come."

Shen Yilang laughed from the side, "You're just envious and jealous."

"I'm just envious, so what?"

Xu Hou was amused and glanced at the chessboard on the table: "How long has it been sitting here?"

Shen Yilang hesitated for a moment: "...About twenty times."

"We just can't figure out why Brother Rui got that 33 point today, no matter how we arrange it."

Zhang Rui didn't react much when the three of them talked about him.

"Your bed is made up, get some rest."

After saying that, he prepared to leave.

Seeing this, Ban Heng didn't linger. After giving the three a few instructions, he left.

Walking back down the corridor, you could still faintly hear Xu Hou saying inside, "You know, although I didn't quite understand those moves either, when we reviewed the game later, it felt like Zhao Bingfeng was losing no matter what he did..."

After going downstairs, Zhang Rui said goodbye to Ban Heng and went back to his room by himself.

After washing up, I opened the window.

A cool evening breeze blew in.

I turned on the TV again, flipped through a few channels, found a TV series playing, and then went back to the window and stood there watching.

They were showing "Kangxi's Private Visits," which was quite interesting.

Zhang Rui's favorite thing to do is watch TV series to pass the time. There aren't many other interesting entertainment activities, and he'll probably encounter other TV series he's seen before in the future.

Chu Ying would occasionally watch along, but most of the time, he would have Zhang Rui look up various chess scores for him.

But I usually don't stay up very late. Today it's mainly because I just took a shower and my hair is still wet.

He doesn't really like using a hairdryer and prefers to let his skin air dry, even though he's heard it's bad for his health and can cause headaches. Zhang Rui doesn't care.

After standing for a while, feeling that it was about time, I closed the window and turned off the TV and lay down on the bed.

I closed my eyes and remembered a scene from a long time ago—

My mother was cooking in the kitchen, the spatula sizzling against the wok. Seeing me running over, she turned back, smiling, and said, "Are you hungry? It'll be ready soon."

That smile was already a little blurry, as if seen through a layer of mist.

Zhang Rui took a deep breath, pulled the blanket over his head, and went to sleep.

The next day, Zhang Rui was woken up by a phone call.

I squinted and fumbled around for a while before finally finding my phone on the bedside table.

I bought a Nokia 8250 last year. It has a blue screen, but it's small.

"Feed—"

"Xiao Rui, did I wake you up?"

It was his aunt's voice on the other end of the phone. Hearing Zhang Rui's weak reply, she guessed that he was still asleep, and her voice was clearly somewhat restrained.

Zhang Rui sat up, rubbed his eyes, and lifted the curtains; it was already broad daylight outside.

"No, I'm awake. I was just about to get up. What's wrong, Auntie?"

"It's nothing much..." Auntie paused, "It's just that Shiguang, I don't know what's wrong with him lately, he's suddenly become interested in Go again. A couple of days ago he took out the Go board and set it up in the room by himself for a long time. This morning at 6:30, when I went to wake him up, I found that he had set up the Go board again. I've never seen him get up this early before when he's studying..."

Zhang Rui leaned against the headboard without saying a word, but Chu Ying had told him what had happened.

"I was thinking... you're a professional Go player, you know a lot about these things, so I wanted to ask for your opinion. As for Shiguang... I don't think there's any hope for him in his studies, but do you think he'll just lose interest after a short time? He used to cause trouble when he was little, playing for a while and then stopping."

"This time should be different."

"Why is it different?"

Zhang Rui paused for a moment. He couldn't very well say that it was because there was a ghost claiming to be the number one chess player in Southern Liang who was urging him on every day, could he?

"He's serious. When have you ever seen him pick up something twice?" Zhang Rui put it another way. "I know him."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone; my aunt seemed to be processing what I was saying.

"Come to the dojo, it's mine. You've already met Teacher Ban and Teacher Zhu, they're both very nice people. You can learn Go properly here, practice with classmates, and I can help keep an eye on things for you."

"A dojo..." Aunt hesitated. "What about his studies? His grades are average, but he should be able to continue his education normally. If he goes to the dojo, what about the school..."

"Take a break from school. Many students at the dojo do this. Last year, we even had someone who took a break after finishing the college entrance exam to learn Go. If you want to achieve a high dan rank and go the professional route, your studies have to take a backseat. Look at me, I didn't continue my studies."

"You've been smart since you were little, but times have changed..."

"You should have faith in Shiguang; he has a talent for this. If he really can't reach the next level, it's not too late to go back to school."

"But……"

"Auntie, just let time decide for itself. After all, we have to walk our own path."

There was silence on the other end of the phone again. After a while, my aunt finally relented: "Then should I talk to him? But you know his personality; he might not listen to me. You're the same age as him, why don't you talk to him?"

"Okay," Zhang Rui agreed. "I'll go find him."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Rui sat on the bed for a while.

The birds outside the window chirped and twittered, and sunlight streamed through the curtains, casting a thin strip of light on the floor.

As Zhang Rui gradually regained consciousness, he threw off the covers, got out of bed, washed up, and changed his clothes.

As I went downstairs, I passed the game room. The door was open, and there were already quite a few people inside.

Hong He sat in front of the chessboard, holding a black piece in his hand, muttering something to himself, while a group of students watched the spectacle from the sidelines.

"Good morning, Brother Rui!" Someone noticed Zhang Rui and quickly greeted him.

Zhang Rui nodded, which was considered a greeting.

"Honghe, where is Xu Houren?"

"You're not up yet? What's wrong?"

"It's alright, you can continue."

I had originally planned to hitch a ride with him to Shiguang School, but now it seems I should just take the bus and let him get some rest.

"Alright—come on, watch this variation. If White were to cut here at this moment..."

Zhang Rui didn't linger. He went to the cafeteria, grabbed two steamed buns and a bag of soy milk, then went to the office to say goodbye to Ban Heng, telling him he was going out for a bit. He then went to the bus stop not far from the entrance of the dojo.

The morning air was a bit chilly, but luckily Zhang Rui had put on a jacket when he came out, so it wasn't too cold.

I finished breakfast in the blink of an eye, and then the bus arrived shortly afterward.

The main reason was the good location selection at the time. Zhang Rui won the world championship then, and the government also gave him preferential treatment. The bus stop was specially set up.

As the car started, Zhang Rui glanced at the time on his phone: 8:40. Shi Guang should be in class.

The bus passed by their school, and Zhang Rui got off just as the second period was ending.

It was very quiet at the school gate, with only an old man reading a newspaper.

Zhang Rui walked over and greeted him, "Hello, I'm looking for Shi Guang from Class 3, Grade 9."

The old man looked up at him and asked, "Who are you to him?"

"I'm his brother."

"Please register."

Zhang Rui picked up a pen and wrote his name and phone number in the visitor registration book.

The old man glanced at him, then looked up at him again, as if he felt he had seen the name and appearance somewhere before, but he didn't say anything, just waved his hand and let him in.

The campus is spacious, and trees are everywhere you look.

It is growing vigorously, and the layers of green leaves look particularly bright in the sunlight, with a refreshing green view everywhere.

Zhang Rui had been here before. He walked along the main road and found the junior high school building. He went up to the third floor with ease.