Go: The live broadcast queen launched a gorgeous rebellion against the dog

"……Eh?"

Rui Zhao's words were like a pebble thrown into Lei Qi's heart, making Lei Qi's heart skip a beat!
He instinctively wanted to deny it, but when he looked up and met Rui Zhao's eyes, which seemed to see right through him, he instantly realized...

His own secret schemes had probably already been exposed to her!

"...Uh, this..."

Xiao Lei, a ninth-dan player, instantly felt a little embarrassed and could only awkwardly squeeze out the words:

"When...when did you arrive..."

"When will we ever need to do anything!"

Seeing his jaw nearly drop in astonishment, Rui Zhao's smile deepened, and she interrupted him without hesitation:

"When I saw you raise your eyebrows at Chairman Shang, I had a feeling you might be planning this!"

"Now it seems... I was right after all!"

So perceptive?!
Seeing the slight smugness in the other person's expression, as if saying "As expected of me," Lei Qi felt a helpless groan in his heart.

No wonder Liu Shixian said before that she is "growing more mature" and becoming harder to fool!
Now it seems that this statement was absolutely correct!
Having his thoughts exposed so directly, Lei Qi's face flushed slightly, but he could only helplessly confess:

"I...I'm mainly a little worried...that you might actually lose a challenge match unexpectedly."

"Although you played a very beautiful game against Liu Shixian in the first game, it is only one game and is not representative of the general situation!"

"Especially since I'm probably the strongest person besides you right now, what if it really happens..."

"no problem!"

Rui Zhao interrupted him before he could finish, his tone crisp and decisive, filled with unquestionable absolute confidence:

"I'm very strong! Even if you go all out, Lei Qi, I won't lose!"

"It's Lei Qi who's not taking this seriously... that's what disappoints me!"

Yong Shi Zhaojun's words were like a checkmate, completely sealing off any possibility of Lei Qi "letting things slide" or "planning a failure".

Having said all that, Lei Qi clearly realized that he had no other choice—any normal young man would find it difficult to accept what the person he admired had said.

As for a superficial agreement... that's not even worth considering.

As she grew older, Miss Zhaojun's extraordinary wisdom extended far beyond the chessboard. Even while focused solely on chess, she could keenly perceive the possibilities hidden behind certain details in life.

If you outwardly comply but inwardly disagree, she is very likely to notice, and you will be left with a bad impression of being hypocritical. You can only go along with her wishes and do your best!
That's right...

It would be one thing if this matter were discovered...

Lei Qi mechanically reached for the box containing the black pieces, while subconsciously swallowing.

Fearing that a deeper secret might be discovered, he couldn't help but ask another question:

"...I understand, it's..."

"Is this the only thing you noticed was wrong?"

The moment those words were spoken, the air seemed to freeze for half a second.

Rui Zhao was clearly not expected to ask such a question, and a hint of pure confusion flashed in her beautiful eyes.

She tilted her head slightly, her gaze lingering on Lei Qi's face for half a second, probing intently.

The confusion in his eyes was instantly replaced by shrewdness, and he immediately countered with a question:

"If that's the case..."

"Lei Qi, is there something you're hiding from me?!"

!!!

Oh no! We've been exposed!!!

Lei Qi felt a chill run down his spine and wished he could bite his tongue off on the spot!
Judging from Rui Zhao's very natural and immediate reaction, this beautiful and refined woman of the same age was clearly completely unaware of the secret hidden deep in his heart...

But by bringing this up out of the blue, isn't it just like "protesting too much"?!
Why do I feel like my IQ drops drastically every time I'm in front of her?!

"...Uh, no, no!"

"What I mean is, I'm afraid you'll misunderstand and think I'm hiding a lot of things from you... Actually, there's only this one thing!"

While trying to argue his point, Xiao Lei, a 9-dan player, quickly grabbed the black Go board box and changed the subject:

"Um... back to the match!"
"Since you've said that, you'd better be prepared!"
“I’ve studied your game against Liu Shixian very carefully. You won’t win so easily.”

as predicted!

Once the topic returned to the chessboard, Rui Zhao's attention was immediately captured, and her earlier slight doubts and curiosity were instantly forgotten. Her eyes blazed with the purest fighting spirit, as if a spark had been thrown into them.
"Well...you said it yourself!"
"Don't blame me if you get stunned by the killing!"

...

...

"...Hello, everyone, fans and chess enthusiasts!"

"Welcome everyone to watch the second game of the 'Yongzhao Junwei' Handicap Special Challenge, brought to you by [Weiqi Xiaozhao]'s live stream. I'm Ranran..."

Five minutes later, at Nie Yunyi's home in Binfen City, Jinfen Province.

Hua Ran's familiar opening remarks came from the tablet next to her. Xiao Nie Miao, who had finished her journey before the New Year and returned home to rest, was sitting in front of the computer, watching the live broadcast of [Weiqi Xiao Zhao] while preparing to watch and learn from her crush's game.

only……

Although Nie Yunyi had been looking forward to this game for a long time, and this time in the South China Sea Cup, the 8-dan Nie played brilliantly and made it into the quarterfinals of the World Championship for the first time, which can be considered a good result to go home for the New Year, his mood has been rather so-so lately.

Firstly, compared to himself, who lost to his team's captain in the quarterfinals, his arch-rival Uesaka Rei, after a hard-fought battle with white, surprisingly defeated Xiong Siyi by a narrow margin of one-quarter of a point, making it into the World Championship semifinals for the first time. In the competition for the strongest "post-10" generation, his opponent is one step ahead again.

That's bad enough, but for some reason, all his teammates were convinced that he liked Uesaka Rei! Sun Yi even encouraged him after the match to seize the opportunity to congratulate her on reaching the semifinals... This left him speechless!

Who likes that skinny, short Japanese guy?!
I clearly prefer more mature women, okay?!
Xiao Nie Miao groaned inwardly, but he dared not say a word more.

Secondly, and even more troubling for him...

He has completely lost contact with the person he truly likes now.

In the past, when Rui Zhao was still participating in competitions, although Nie Yunyi was afraid of revealing his feelings, he dared not be too persistent. However, he would always find an opportunity to chat with her casually at the competition venue, hotel, or training room, or find some excuse to send her a WeChat message.

Although Rui Zhao replied slowly, he always did. That anticipation and the small thrill of receiving a reply were once a precious comfort to him.

But everything changed after the press conference for the special challenge.

Rui Zhao no longer appears in any public settings, completely withdrawing from the world. Sending her a WeChat message always results in the same cold, automated reply: "[Sorry, I need to focus on preparing for the handicap challenger tournament and on chess recently. Please contact Ms. Ai Jian'an first for important matters.]"

This made Xiao Nie Miao experience the true pain of unrequited love!
After being eliminated from the South China Sea Cup, he even considered staying in Singapore for a few more days, not for any other reason than to try to catch the same flight back with Rui Zhao after she finished the challenge match.

But with the year-end approaching and her family pressing her for a good reason, Xiao Nie Miao had no choice but to obediently go home for the New Year as soon as possible.

"Well……

"I wonder how long she'll stay like this..."

While waiting for the game to officially begin, Xiao Nie Miao couldn't help but mutter something under her breath.

really……

If you want to see her up close again, hear her voice, and feel her presence, you'd better seize the opportunity to take on the challenge!

Only by standing on that challenge stage can I rightfully get closer to her again!
Thinking of this, Xiao Nie Miao secretly made up her mind.

Just then, the warm-up session between Hua Ran and Xiaotianquan in the [Go Xiao Zhao] live stream ended, and they officially began their game analysis:

"...Both sides opened with a double star point and a small eye point. After that, Black made a high approach in the upper left corner, and White played a move in the lower right corner to form a common and simple shape."

"After that, Black made a small knight's move in the lower left corner, White continued to play defensively and then played in the upper right corner. Lei Qi thought for a moment and then played in the lower right corner to solidify the shape..."

"Then the AI ​​suggested that White extend a stone on the lower right outer side. I wonder if the AI ​​will make this choice... Ah! It didn't!"

After thinking for a while, Sister Rui Zhao chose to first hang a small flying hook in the upper right corner, and then hang a high hook on the other side...

"This is a rather rare chess pattern..."

Hmm... I knew it!
Her main strategy in giving up the first challenge was to gain ground first and make more unexpected moves that could easily lead to chaos.

Upon seeing Yong Shi Zhaojun's opening strategy, Xiao Nie Miao couldn't help but nod in approval.

Nie Weiping, an 8-dan professional, has always studied the playing style of the world's number one player. After the first game of the challenge match where Nie Weiping gave the first move, he made an even deeper judgment.

In his view, Rui Zhao's preparations for the match with the first team handicap were quite thorough.

In these two games, she made one mistake at the 3-3 point and another at the 3-3 point, clearly indicating her focus on solid ground and not giving her opponent any opportunity to easily empty the 3-3 point.

During the opening phase, she will intentionally avoid conventional opening strategies as soon as possible, and will try to choose variations with a slightly lower winning probability but less common, to test the opponent's research and judgment, and drag the game into the mid-game battle that she is most proficient in as early as possible!

This strategy worked very well in the previous game: Liu Shixian began to counterattack against White on move 27, and the situation suddenly became complicated.

In this situation, the invincible power of the contemporary killing god was fully displayed, and a local move in the lower right corner directly reversed the situation, even before the game had reached sixty moves!
However... today, Miss Zhaojun is facing the even stronger new four-time champion, Lei Qi!
Furthermore, it's clear that Lei 9-dan had thoroughly researched and prepared for the strategy Rui Zhao used in the first handicap challenge match.

Despite the unusual shape of the upper right corner, the former Go master still demonstrated his formidable strength as the second-best player in the world! He passed Rui Zhao's test flawlessly!
By move 33, when the shape in the upper right corner was finalized, White had not only failed to close the gap at all, but its winning percentage had further dropped to 10.7%...

Nearing the end of the chain! (End of Chapter)