Chapter 233: Game Pool

5:30 p.m., in front of the hotpot restaurant.

Bai Liu sits at the mouth of a boiling pot next to Lu Yizhan, who has just gotten off work and is incredibly confused, holding up a menu.

It was a rare occasion when he didn't work overtime, and yesterday's explosion of unprecedented magnitude had allowed the Heresy Authority to take over Lu Yizhan and his department for a short time so that they, the commoners, could stay at home and not be affected.

So Bai Liu asked him to come over for hot pot, and Lu Yizhan came out honestly.

But Lu Yizhan came out this time, mainly to find out what happened that day.

Lu Yizhan still doesn't understand why the Bureau was so busy with the bombing, and why the TV was broadcasting the day's events with such urgency.

And Bai Liu, the culprit, is still sitting comfortably next to him, holding up a cup of free barley tea from the hot pot restaurant, and shamelessly signaling to the clerk that he'd like to add another order of shrimp sliders.

Lu Yizhan couldn't stand it any longer and grabbed the menu, staring angrily at Bai Liu.

Bai Liu slowly pecked a mouthful of tea and glanced at him, "What, are you going to ask me about the other day?"

"No!" Lu Yizhan said sorrowfully, "Even if it's my treat, I can't add more food! This is enough for six people!"

Bai Liu: "......"

This guy's brain circuits are really different from the norm.

Lu Yizhan hasn't said a word about the explosion since we met, and he's as steady as a rock.

If Bai Liu hadn't been sure that he did see this man that day, he might have thought that Lu Yizhan didn't even know that [the bomber] was him.

"Aren't you curious as to how I blew up the Rose Factory-" Bai Liu sidled his head and raised his eyes to Lu Yizhan, "-and then get out in one piece and still sit here and eat hot pot with you?"

Lu Yizhan nods honestly, "Curious, but I stand corrected."

Bai Liu asked, "Correct what?"

Lu Yizhan replied, "I don't think you blew up that factory."

"Why not me?" Bai Liu asked rhetorically, "You saw it with your own eyes didn't you?"

"Precisely because I saw it with my own eyes, that's why I don't think it was you." Lu Yizhan lifted his mug to take a sip and exhaled a long breath, "- sensually, I believe you won't easily renege after dealing with me, and rationally, your favorite thing is money."

Lu Yizhan turned to Bai Liu: "Detonating a factory like this, I have a feeling that you're not the one who has a vested interest in it, the factory owner is, so I'm going to guess from that, I'm leaning towards the bomber being the factory director who was arrested, and you're just a front that jumped out at me."

"I don't understand why you're jumping in and volunteering to take the fall, but you have your reasons for doing things and I'm not going to ask."

Lu Yizhan's speculation is word-for-word spot on.

Bai Liu has known since he was a child that Lu Yizhan is exceptionally smart.

High achiever, action-oriented, decisive, never hesitates to do what he wants to do, and an incredibly resilient and stubborn guy.

Although Bai Liu has been winning against Lu Yizhan in various games, Bai Liu knows very well that he can win only because Lu Yizhan is not serious.

Lu Yizhan doesn't care if he wins or loses the game, he uses all his intelligence and energy to be a good person, so people who know him roughly usually think that Lu Yizhan carries a kind of naïve stupidity that people can't understand.

But Lu Yizhan is not a naive person, on the contrary, he is very realistic - otherwise he wouldn't have accepted Bai Liu's trading code so easily.

Typically, an emotionally naive person can't entertain the idea of a friend being paid for what he or she gives to them; it's just too cool.

But Lu Yizhan doesn't care about that at all, which suggests that Lu Yizhan fully agrees with Bai Liu's concept of trading.

Bai Liu, with the ordering pencil clutched in his hand, turned back and forth in boredom, "--playing backgammon?"

Lu Yizhan sighed in a long drawn out tone as he clutched his cup with a heavy heart and refused, "--What a time to be playing games--"

"Win three in a row and I'll tell you the follow-up to this factory explosion thing you've been worrying about." Bai Liu turned his pencil and drew a cross on the checkered menu of fondue, lifting his eyes, "If you can win five in a row, I'll help you out with this thing."

Bai Liu, who has already solved the factory explosion, does not change his color as he fools Lu Yizhan about the same thing.

"Deal!" Lu Yizhan quickly took the bait as he swished down his cup, took the pen Bai Liu handed him, and after a few moments of careful thought, discreetly drew a circle on the paper.

They play chess extremely fast, almost in this one person to raise the pen the moment, the other person down the pen, and there is no kind of drawing full of a whole sheet of paper are not solved chess game, a game of time basically control in one minute, win or lose has been determined immediately tear off the paper and throw it into the garbage can.

By the time Tang Er called, the trash can next to these two men was full of scrap paper.

Lu Yizhan's concentration is so intense on the paper that he hardly even notices that someone is coming, and he just follows Bai Liu's backhand and draws circles quickly, one after the other.

This continued until all five were present and Bai Liu closed the paper on which he was playing: "Pause, eat first, you haven't beaten me in a row so far."

Lu Yizhan only looked up regretfully, and then was so startled by the throng of people gathered in unison before him to watch them that he almost didn't topple over the back of his chair.

"Introducing my new colleagues." Bai Liu puts up his four fingers and introduces them in turn, "Tang Er 打, Mu Sicheng, Mu Ke, the little friend you know, Liu Jiayi, and everyone else, this is my youngest friend, Lu Yizhan."

Mu Ke nodded his head in formal greeting, "Hello, Mr. Lu."

Mu Sicheng scratched his head uncomfortably, "...... Hello."

Tang Er hit the head with a stern nod, "Hello."

Liu Jiayi, who was sitting on a chair and shaking her feet, cupped her face and smiled sweetly at Lu Yizhan: "Hello, Uncle Lu."

Lu Yizhan looked at Liu Jiayi with a shocked face: "No? Bai Liu what kind of company do you work for anyway? Why did you hire child laborers?!"

"If you have to say ......" Bai Liu pondered for a moment, "a large star-making company?"

Lu Yizhan looked at the rows of people who were packed so brightly that they were going to blind him, gulped nervously, and asked shakily, "Hop, is it legal?"

Bai Liu smiles, "Legit."

Lu Yizhan still want to ask Bai Liu specific things, but see this bunch of people do not see the outside at all in Bai Liu's greetings began to eat hot pot, in the flesh at the same time, had to swallow the question.

...... No wonder Bai Liu The guy ordered so many at once!

Soon, however, Lu Yizhan's attention was diverted, as Bai Liu began to eat hot pot while distracted from his game, and Lu Yizhan quickly got into the game with Bai Liu, not even eating much of the food, and concentrating on the game.

Liu Jiayi has a small appetite and eats pretty much everything in no time.

She moved a small bench to sit beside her to watch these two play chess.

Liu Jiayi wears visual contact lens props and can see, and Lu Yizhan, who is playing chess seriously, doesn't notice this for the moment.

As the two of them scratched and crossed on the paper faster and faster, Bai Liu stopped eating and playing chess with Lu Yizhan, and instead turned around and stared at the paper with one arm propped up on his jaw.

Liu Jiayi's face, who was watching from the sidelines, grew serious.

She looked up at Lu Yizhan with a bit of incredulity -- this guy looked like a good old boy, and his thinking reaction actually kept up with Bai Liu, the pervert?

And the wins are getting bigger?

Mu Ke was intrigued by the matchup and quickly went over to watch it as well.

Mu Sicheng didn't have enough to eat, but he was really curious about what Bai Liu was up to, so he carried a small bowl full of food and ran over to look at it upside down.

But Bai Liu and Lu Yizhan were playing so fast that Mu Sicheng was dazzled, and usually before he could get a clear view of the paper, these two were already tearing it up and starting over.

Mu Sicheng had to turn to Mu Ke next to him, "What kind of chess are they playing?"

"Backgammon." Mu Ke replied.

Mu Sicheng is getting more and more confused, "I think it's backgammon too, but I only saw at most three moves connected before they tore up the paper and started over ......"

"Because it's already a dead game." Mu Ke replied gently, "They should have played it so many times that they know the board well enough to play it to a certain point and see what's going on."

As we speak, Bai Liu has already lost two games in a row.

Mu Sicheng stared in amazement, "Bai Liu could actually lose the game ......"

Mu Ke took a deep breath, "A relatively simple game like backgammon tests thinking ability and reaction speed, Bai Liu's intelligence is extremely high, so it's reasonable to say that he's very dominant, and it's also true that this Lu Yizhan has been losing in the beginning ......"

"But in the course of playing chess with Bai Liu, his thinking ability and reaction speed are rising rapidly ......"

"The longer you play, the stronger this Lu Yizhan gets instead ......"

"You mean now that Lu Yizhan has the upper hand, it's Bai Liu's turn to keep losing, right?" Mu Sicheng looked at the paper incredulously.

Bai Liu and [losing all the time] are linked together, which in Mu Sicheng's eyes is something that defies common sense.

Bai Liu stopped his pen, and he placed his hands on the desk with his fingers crossed, gazing at Lu Yizhan without any expression on his face.

Lu Yizhan was still immersed in the atmosphere of rapid chess play, and when he saw Bai Liu stop his pen, he looked up at Bai Liu a bit confused: "Why don't you continue to play?"

"I can't win if I keep playing." Bai Liu frankly admitted this, he got up and stood behind Liu Jiayi who was sitting on the side, letting Liu Jiayi sit on his own seat, looking at Lu Yizhan with a smile, "Jiayi will play for me next, if you can go on to win three consecutive rounds against her, we'll have the same deal as before."

Lu Yizhan frowns, "This little girl can't see, don't make jokes like that ......"

"Uncle Lu, I can see." Liu Jiayi pointed to her eyes and explained, "I'm wearing contact lenses that Uncle Bai Liu bought for me to restore some of my vision."

Liu Jiayi cupped her hands over her heart, blinked her big eyes, and prayed, "Uncle Lu, I think it's fun to watch you guys play, can you let me play?"

"...... It's fine if it has no effect on your eyes." Lu Yizhan agreed after a moment's hesitation.

Liu Jiayi gathered his good-natured demeanor, lowered his head to hold the pencil Bai Liu handed him, gazed at the pen and paper, and drew the first cross.

Mu Sicheng looked a bit bewildered at the direction of the situation, "What's going on here?"

"Liu Jiayi's intelligence value is higher than Bai Liu's." Mu Ke's eyes were firmly locked on the piece of paper, "She is more dominant in a game like backgammon - Bai Liu is testing Lu Yizhan's intelligence value for the game."

Liu Jiayi played faster and faster, killing all the way, and Lu Yizhan, who had the advantage in Bai Liu's hand, started to lose all the time, and it was very hard to win once.

But soon that changed.

Liu Jiayi's gritted her teeth and her complexion became quite ugly as the speed of her strokes began to become slow, while on the contrary, Lu Yizhan's speed of his strokes did not decrease at all.

Mu Ke concluded, "Liu Jiayi can't hold out any longer."

Half an hour later, all of them left the hotpot restaurant, Lu Yizhan tearfully settled the hotpot bill, along with the money for the two books they had used up playing backgammon, and waved goodbye to Bai Liu and the others.

After Liu Jiayi sweetly said goodbye to Uncle Lu, Lu Yizhan's face sank as soon as he turned around, "Bai Liu, this friend of yours is not right."

"What's wrong?" In Bai Liu's hand were three balls of paper, which he slowly and methodically broke open; inside were the last three games played by Liu Jiayi and Lu Yizhan.

-- also the three games Liu Jiayi lost in a row.

"A simple game like backgammon is the easiest way to measure a person's game intelligence value." Liu Jiayi looked up at Bai Liu, "For a person with a very high intelligence value, this game has no starting period or a very short starting period, while for a person with a very low intelligence value, playing this game means that they will lose all the time."

"There's no such thing as the front not being able to, and the back getting stronger and stronger-" Liu Jiayi wrinkled his brows as he recalled the scene of the game he had just played, scratching his hair in annoyance, "- -especially since Lu Yizhan is still rising all the time as the intelligence value of the person he's playing against rises, always suppressing you, it feels like this person's intelligence value is rising-"

"--No limits like that, right?" Bai Liu squinted at Liu Jiayi, then raised his eyes to Lu Yizhan's back, "I often felt that way when I played games with him."

"But basically as soon as I felt a little bit, he let me win."

Liu Jiayi was stunned, "Why does ...... he not let you go today?"

"Maybe I put what he wanted in front of him." Bai Liu turned as if nothing had happened and bit into the mint in his mouth that had been given to him by the fondue restaurant, "So he decided to play the game with me seriously."