In the next few days, Zhou Jun would have sex in the afternoon and he would always see Kong You outside Anshang's door.
Kong You always had a silly smile on his face, holding the chessboard outside the imperial city gate, waiting for Zhou Jun to appear on time.
When those officials saw Kong You, they would always tease him, and even worse, they would kick him and laugh twice.
Kong You was not upset, he just stood quietly on the street, staring at the imperial city in a daze.
Kong You, who is like a clay sculpture, will only move when he sees Zhou Jun appear.
Faced with this strange man who came to play chess every day, Zhou Jun couldn't bear the disturbance. He tried to leave quickly, shouted loudly, and tried to avoid the way.
That Kong You is really like a fool. No matter what Zhou Jun says or does, he can't drive away or hide away every day. He just wants to play a game of chess.
Zhou Jun was so annoyed by Kong You that he had no choice but to agree.
But what annoyed Zhou Jun the most was that if it was just a chess game, that would be fine.
The key is that in so many days of chess games, Zhou Jun never won a single game, whether it was Lan Ke, Piao Qiao, or Zhi Zhang.
There were several times when Zhou Jun became aggressive and went back to hone his chess skills. He was quite confident that he could win the next time. However, after the second day of the game, he still suffered a disastrous defeat.
On this day, Zhou Jun and Kong You finished another round of hand-holding.
Seeing that his side's situation was in dire straits, Zhou Jun closed his eyes and sighed: "X is defeated."
Kong You nodded and began to pack up the chess pieces.
Zhou Jun looked at the other party, unable to restrain his curiosity, and asked, "Bo Hong, I have a question."
Kong You's hands didn't stop moving.
Zhou Jun: "There are so many people who are proficient in chess in Chang'an City. Why do you have to pester me every day?"
Kong You put away the chessboard, stood up and looked at Zhou Jun. Instead of answering the latter's question, he asked: "Zhou Lingshi has been losing for so many days, doesn't he want to win once?"
Zhou Jun was stunned.
After asking this question, Kong You didn't pause any longer. He just handed over to Zhou Jun and said: "No matter what kind of chess game, if Zhou Lingshi can win a game, I will no longer be entangled in my future plans."
Zhou Jun looked at Kong You's leaving figure and recalled the scene just now.
When the latter was speaking, his eyes were clear, his brows were raised, and the corners of his mouth were slightly raised, but he had a confident expression, showing no symptoms of dementia.
Zhou Jun was suspicious. The next day when he went to Shangshu Province to inspect the matter, he took the time to inquire about Kong You's life experience.
After understanding it, Zhou Jun realized that Kong You's experience was quite tragic.
He was known as a child prodigy since he was a child. He knew the Five Classics at the age of five and could write poetry at the age of seven.
During the Kaiyuan period, there was a literary banquet in Qujiang. Kong You, who was still a child, was invited to the banquet in the name of a child prodigy.
The host of the literary banquet was He Zhizhang He Jian. He took the theme of "Sorrow in the Winding River" and asked Kong You to spread out the selected prose on a stick of incense and compose a poem.
Unexpectedly, Kong You composed three Fus in a row, one in Ci Fu, one in Parallel Fu, and one in Rhythm Fu within the time it took him to burn an incense stick. Everyone was impressed by his outstanding literary talent.
Supervisor He was so happy that he accepted Kong You as his disciple.
It stands to reason that with Kong You's talent and learning, his future prospects should be limitless.
But something unexpected happened. Half a year after the banquet in Qujiang, the Kong family was involved in a conspiracy case, and the whole family was expelled.
During the arrest, Kong You unfortunately injured his eye. Due to lack of medical treatment, he eventually lost his eye.
As for the Confucius family, they were all official slaves. The women were sent to Yeting and the men were exiled.
Supervisor He cherished Kong You's talents, traveled around a lot, and personally asked for help, thus preserving the latter.
At that time, although the young Kong You was an official slave, under the care of Supervisor He, he was spared the pain of being remarried and became a miscellaneous servant of Taifu Temple.
In the following years, Kong You's father, brother, uncle, and nephew all died in the war on the frontier. His mother and sister were also given to Tibetan generals, and there was no news from them again.
In the end of the huge Kong family, he was the only one left alone.
From that time on, Kong You was sometimes in a daze and sometimes talking to himself. He became taciturn and lived in isolation.
Some people thought that he was suffering from hysteria, so he was nicknamed "Confucius Chi".
After finding out Kong You's experience, Zhou Jun also sighed.
Starting from the second year of Jingyun (711 AD), in just six years, there were seven coups and four emperors in the Li and Tang dynasties.
Tang Zhongzong, Tang Ruizong, Empress Wei, Princess Anle, Princess Taiping, Wu Sansi, Wu Chengsi... there was no one in the court who could truly control the situation.
In those years, coups and rebellions were as common in the Tang Dynasty as drinking water and eating.
Because of this, Xuanzong Li Longji, who had personally experienced the chaos, was particularly sensitive to the issue of imperial power after he succeeded to the throne.
During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao years, countless people were executed and expelled for being involved in treason cases.
Zhou Yuping, Song Ruo'e...and now there is Kong You.
Remembering that Kong You would come to play chess with him again after dinner in the afternoon, Zhou Jun took a piece of white paper and drew eight horizontal and eight vertical grids, sixty-four grids, on it with a chicken-tip pen.
He also took the black and white chess pieces from Go and put them into the bag.
After finishing his day's work, Zhou Jun walked out of Anshang's door and saw Kong You waiting at the door as usual.
Zhou Jun stopped Kong You from taking the chessboard and said, "I have been playing your chess game these days. Today I will change it and play my game of Othello."
Kong You was startled and asked somewhat unexpectedly: "Zhou Lingshi's Othello?"
Zhou Jun walked to the stone platform on Fang Street, spread the piece of paper on the ground, took out the Go pieces, and said, "I tell you the rules, please listen."
"Both sides hold chess pieces of one color and take turns placing the chess pieces into the empty space."
"No matter horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, if the chess pieces can be placed in a pinch position, replace the chess pieces of different colors with your own chess pieces of the same color."
"If it is your turn and there is nowhere to place a piece on the chessboard, your opponent can make consecutive moves. When both sides have no pieces to place, the chess game ends, and the outcome is calculated based on the number of pieces. The side with more pieces wins."
Kong You looked at the sixty-four-square chessboard with eight horizontal and eight vertical squares, frowned, and said after a long while: "Although the rules are simple, the chess moves are endlessly varied."
Zhou Jun stretched out his hand and said, "You go first."
Kong You took the chess pieces, hesitated for a long time, and finally placed the chess pieces into the four squares in the middle.
Zhou Jun smiled softly. Most people who have played Go but have never played Reversi will put their pieces in the middle first.
But in fact, the key to Othello is to grab the four "golden corners" of the chessboard.
Because these chess pieces placed in the corners cannot be captured under any circumstances.
In addition to the golden horn technique, Reversi also has four silver-edged elephants, not occupying two or two, embedding cloth, cutting diagonally horizontally and vertically, cutting in the middle, etc.
Beginners who are not familiar with these techniques will be easily defeated.
As expected, Kong You and Zhou Jun were playing Othello, but they only played half of the game. The former shook his head and gave up, saying, "There is nothing we can do to save the day."
Putting down the chess pieces, Kong You bowed to Zhou Jun and said, "Thank you very much, Zhou Lingshi."
When Zhou Jun heard this, he was a little puzzled: "It's just a new chess game, why be so polite."
Kong You looked at Zhou Jun, with a faint smile on his face for the first time: "Zhou Lingshi has clarified Bo Hong's doubts."
Zhou Jun felt even more strange after hearing this.
Just when he was about to ask again, Kong You stood up and left without looking back.
From then on, Kong You, who lost one game, was true to his promise and never looked for Zhou Jun to play against An Shangmen again.