“Huh?” Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong exclaimed in unison.
“Chen Junan…” Zheng Yingxiong looked utterly exasperated. “Why don’t you let Qi Xia have a moment to himself…?”
Qi Xia frowned slightly at that and turned to look at Chen Junan.
“What?” Chen Junan ignored Zheng Yingxiong, raising a middle finger at Qi Xia. “Why you staring, huh? Lao Qi, write it! Don’t tell me you can’t write the word for ‘grass’? The ‘grass’ in ‘plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum’!”
Qi Xia sighed, his expression resigned. “If you knew this character, why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong froze again.
“You… knew it?” Zheng Yingxiong asked.
“Damn it…” Chen Junan looked like he was about to crumble. “No way… Lao Qi, you’re telling me you didn’t fall for that? Was my acting not convincing enough this time?”
“One middle finger meaning ‘grass’ isn’t exactly a solid argument,” Qi Xia said. “Try something else next time.”
“Ah?” Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong exclaimed in unison.
“Chen Junan…” Zheng Yingxiong looked utterly exasperated. “Why don’t you let Qi Xia have some time alone…”
Hearing this, Qi Xia frowned slightly and turned to look at Chen Junan.
“What’s up?” Chen Junan ignored Zheng Yingxiong and raised his middle finger at Qi Xia. “Why are you staring at me, Old Qi? Write it! Don’t you know how to write ‘grass’? The ‘grass’ from ‘plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum’!”
Qi Xia sighed helplessly and said, “If you knew this character, why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong were stunned once again.
“You know it…?” Zheng Yingxiong asked.
“Damn it…” Chen Junan felt a bit defeated. “No way… Old Qi, you saw through my act again? Was my performance not convincing enough this time?”
“Raising a middle finger and calling it ‘grass’ isn’t a very reasonable explanation,” Qi Xia replied. “Try something else next time.”
Without another word, Qi Xia wrote “grass” on the screen.
Sure enough, after flickering for a few seconds, the screen displayed “Creation Successful.”
“Chen Junan,” Qi Xia called out. “What’s going on? Do you know a lot of rare characters?”
Qi Xia had always believed that appearances could be deceiving. Although Chen Junan seemed unreliable, it was entirely possible that he had once read through an entire dictionary out of boredom.
“You’re giving me way too much credit…” Chen Junan said. “Old Qi, as embarrassing as it is, you should know that my specialty isn’t physical combat or brains—it’s cursing people out.”
Qi Xia nodded. “What does that have to do with knowing this character?”
“One time, I wanted to pick a fight with someone online, but I found it hard to fully express myself when cursing people out digitally. A lot of the things I usually say would turn into asterisks when typed out, so I decided to study ‘relevant techniques’…” Chen Junan laughed. “This character ‘屮’ is something I summarized after mastering various online cursing techniques.”
What a way to “master” something.
Qi Xia had expected Chen Junan to have some profound insight, but he never imagined the reason would be both absurd and logical.
Still, it was fortunate that what seemed like a useless “towel” character had turned into a second character in Chen Junan’s hands, making up for the point recklessly lost by Qiao Jiejin earlier.
Losing a point due to a rare character and gaining one back with another rare character meant the team broke even overall.
At that moment, Qi Xia turned to Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong. “Why did you two come back?”
“I got a ‘chariot’ from the fake Chen Junan,” Zheng Yingxiong said. “Even though I’m also a ‘chariot,’ having this character is better than not having it, right?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia nodded, then looked at Chen Junan. “Does the opponent’s screen have a ‘chariot’ now?”
“Shit!” Chen Junan suddenly slapped his thigh as if remembering something. “Now that you mention it, the opponent’s screen doesn’t have a ‘chariot,’ but there are some really weird ‘characters’ on it! I was stunned when I saw them!”
“Weird ‘characters’…?” Qi Xia asked, puzzled.
Chen Junan: “Yeah! I stared at them for a long time and still couldn’t figure out where those ‘characters’ came from!”
“Like what?” Qi Xia asked.
“The ‘sunset’ character!” Chen Junan said. “And the ‘inch’ character! There was even a damn ‘ten’! Where the hell did these ‘characters’ come from? They seem way more useful than ours!”
After pondering for a few seconds, Qi Xia nodded. “Just as I thought.”
“What?” Chen Junan was taken aback. “You know where these characters came from?”
“If I’m not mistaken, we’ve all been misled by the ‘characters’ on our side,” Qi Xia explained. “Since all the ‘characters’ on the ‘Red Team’ can be split into at most two parts, we assumed the same applied to the opponent. But I suspect the opponent has two ‘characters’ that can be split into three parts.”
Chen Junan suddenly realized which character those strange on-screen components had been split from.
“It’s ‘general’?!” Chen Junan exclaimed. “This one ‘character’ was split into ‘丬,’ ‘sunset,’ and ‘inch’?”
“Exactly,” Qi Xia said. “If you think about it carefully, it makes sense. Fist and I tested it once—using three parts can indeed form a new ‘character,’ which means existing ‘characters’ can also be split into three parts.”
After some thought, Zhang Chenze nodded. “Indeed, the ‘characters’ in this game can be split both horizontally and vertically. After ‘general’ is split horizontally, it can be split vertically. This means the opponent starts with more ‘characters’ than we do.”
“Well, you can rest easy,” Chen Junan said. “I took a quick glance earlier, and the opponent probably only has seven or eight points. With ‘屮’ added, we now have eleven points.”
Chen Junan counted the characters on the screen: “wood,” “eye,” “mutual,” “soldier,” “mound,” “eight,” “rice,” “narrow eyes,” “soldier” (variant), “wrap,” “towel,” and “grass,” totaling twelve characters.
Among them, “narrow eyes” didn’t score any points, so the total was eleven points.
“It’s normal for us to have more points in the early stages.”
Chen Junan stared at the screen for a moment before suddenly freezing. “Old Qi… that ‘ten’ on the opponent’s side… could it also be from a character split into three parts…?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia said. “This is the opponent’s most important ‘character.’ From what I can see, this ‘character’ has a lot of potential for combinations…”
“You mean ‘pawn’…?” Chen Junan wrote it out with his hand and realized that “pawn” could be split into “亠,” “from,” and “ten.” Each of these parts could form other characters, making it extremely versatile.
Zhang Chenze also stared at the screen and calculated silently, realizing that although this game was entirely text-based, it required a lot of strategic thinking.
“So that means…!” Chen Junan mused. “Is ‘pawn’ on Xiao Chu?”
“Hard to say,” Qi Xia turned his head. “Do you remember whether the opponent scored with ‘ten’ first or with ‘inch’ first?”
Chen Junan lowered his head in silence. When he had glanced at the screen earlier and seen the already assembled “characters,” he had been instantly captivated by these strange individual components and had forgotten the order in which they appeared.
“It seems like ‘ten’ came first…” Chen Junan confirmed after a moment. “First ‘ten,’ then ‘inch.’ I saw ‘ten inches’ and thought the opponent had formed a phrase on the screen.”
“Good,” Qi Xia nodded. “I suspect that Chu Tianqiu doesn’t have ‘pawn’ but ‘general.’ We may need to temporarily abandon the three characters ‘sunset,’ ‘inch,’ and ‘general’ and focus all our efforts on围攻 Jin Yuanxun when the opportunity arises.”
Sure enough, after a few seconds of flickering, the screen displayed: 「Creation Successful」.
“Chen Junan,” Qi Xia called out. “What’s really going on? Do you know a lot of obscure characters?”
Qi Xia couldn’t help but think that appearances could be deceiving. Even though Chen Junan seemed unreliable, maybe he had actually memorized an entire dictionary out of sheer boredom.
“You’re giving me way too much credit…” Chen Junan said. “Lao Qi, as embarrassing as it is, you should know my specialty isn’t fighting or thinking—it’s cursing.”
Qi Xia nodded. “And how does that relate to you knowing this character?”
“Ah?” Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong exclaimed in unison.
“Chen Junan…” Zheng Yingxiong looked utterly exasperated. “Why don’t you let Qi Xia have some time alone…”
Upon hearing this, Qi Xia frowned slightly and turned to look at Chen Junan.
“What’s up?” Chen Junan ignored Zheng Yingxiong and raised his middle finger at Qi Xia. “Why are you staring at me, Old Qi? Write it! Don’t you know how to write ‘grass’? It’s the ‘grass’ from ‘plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum’!”
Qi Xia sighed helplessly and said, “If you knew this character, why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong were stunned once again.
“You know it…?” Zheng Yingxiong asked.
“Damn it…” Chen Junan felt utterly defeated. “No way… Old Qi, you saw through my act again? Was my performance not convincing enough this time?”
“Using a middle finger to represent ‘grass’ isn’t very reasonable,” Qi Xia replied. “Try something else next time.”
Without another word, Qi Xia wrote “grass” on the screen.
Sure enough, after flickering for a few seconds, the screen displayed “Creation Successful.”
“Chen Junan,” Qi Xia called out. “What’s going on? Do you know a lot of rare characters?”
Qi Xia had always believed that appearances could be deceiving. Although Chen Junan seemed unreliable, it was entirely possible that he had once read through an entire dictionary out of boredom.
“You’re giving me way too much credit…” Chen Junan said. “Old Qi, as embarrassing as it is, you should know that my specialty isn’t physical combat or brainpower—it’s cursing people out.”
Qi Xia nodded. “What does that have to do with knowing this character?”
“One time, I wanted to pick a fight with someone online, but I found it hard to fully express myself when cursing people out digitally. A lot of the things I usually say turn into asterisks when typed out, so I decided to study some ‘related techniques’…” Chen Junan laughed. “This character ‘屮’ is something I mastered after thoroughly studying various online cursing techniques.”
What a way to “master” something.
Qi Xia had expected Chen Junan to have some profound insight, but he never imagined the reason would be both absurd and logical.
Still, it was fortunate that what seemed like a useless “towel” character had turned into a second character in Chen Junan’s hands, making up for the point recklessly lost by Qiao Jiajin earlier.
Losing a point due to a rare character and gaining one back with another rare character meant the team broke even overall.
At that moment, Qi Xia turned to Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong. “Why did you two come back?”
“I got a ‘chariot’ character from the fake Chen Junan,” Zheng Yingxiong said. “Even though I already have a ‘chariot,’ it’s better to have it than not, right?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia nodded, then looked at Chen Junan. “Does the opponent’s screen have a ‘chariot’ now?”
“Shit!” Chen Junan suddenly slapped his thigh as if remembering something. “Now that you mention it, the opponent’s screen doesn’t have a ‘chariot,’ but there are some really weird ‘characters’ on it! I was totally stunned when I saw them!”
“Weird ‘characters’…?” Qi Xia asked, puzzled.
Chen Junan: “Yeah! I stared at them for a long time and still couldn’t figure out where those ‘characters’ came from!”
“Like what?” Qi Xia asked.
“The ‘sunset’ character ‘夕’!” Chen Junan said. “And the ‘inch’ character ‘寸’! There was even a damn ‘ten’ character ‘十’! Where the hell did these ‘characters’ come from? They seem way more useful than ours!”
After pondering for a few seconds, Qi Xia nodded. “Just as I thought.”
“What?” Chen Junan was taken aback. “You know where these characters came from?”
“If I’m not mistaken, we’ve all been misled by the ‘characters’ on our side,” Qi Xia explained. “Since all the ‘characters’ on the ‘Red Team’ can only be split into two parts at most, we assumed the same applied to the opponent. But I suspect the opponent has two ‘characters’ that can be split into three parts.”
Chen Junan suddenly realized which character those strange fragments on the screen had come from.
“It’s ‘general’?!” Chen Junan exclaimed. “This one character was split into ‘丬,’ ‘夕,’ and ‘寸’?”
“Exactly,” Qi Xia said. “If you think about it carefully, it makes sense. Fist and I tested it once—using three parts can indeed form a new ‘character,’ which means existing ‘characters’ can also be split into three parts.”
After some thought, Zhang Chenze nodded. “Indeed, the ‘characters’ in this game can be split both horizontally and vertically. After ‘general’ is split horizontally, it can be split vertically. This means the opponent starts with more ‘characters’ than we do.”
“Well, you can rest easy,” Chen Junan said. “I took a quick glance earlier, and the opponent probably only has seven or eight points. With ‘屮’ added, we now have eleven points.”
Chen Junan counted the characters on the screen: “wood,” “eye,” “mutual,” “soldier,” “mound,” “eight,” “rice,” “squint,” “soldier” (variant), “wrap,” “towel,” and “grass,” totaling twelve characters.
Among them, “squint” didn’t score any points, so the total was eleven points.
“It’s normal for us to have more points in the early stages.”
Chen Junan stared at the screen for a moment, then suddenly froze. “Old Qi… that ‘ten’ character on the opponent’s side—could it also be from a character split into three parts…?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia said. “This is the opponent’s most important character. From what I can see, this character has a lot of potential for combinations…”
“You mean ‘pawn’…?” Chen Junan scribbled with his hand and realized that “pawn” could be split into “亠,” “from,” and “ten.” Each of these parts could form other characters, making it extremely versatile.
Zhang Chenze also stared at the screen and calculated silently, realizing that although this game was entirely text-based, it required a lot of strategic thinking.
“So that means…!” Chen Junan mused. “Is ‘pawn’ on Chu Tianqiu?”
“Hard to say,” Qi Xia turned his head. “Do you remember whether the opponent scored with ‘ten’ first or with ‘inch’ first?”
Chen Junan lowered his head in silence. When he had glanced at the screen earlier and seen the already assembled “characters,” he had been instantly captivated by these strange individual characters and had forgotten the order in which they appeared.
“It seems like ‘ten’ came first…” Chen Junan confirmed after a moment. “First ‘ten,’ then ‘inch.’ When I saw ‘ten inches,’ I thought the opponent had formed a sentence on the screen.”
“Good,” Qi Xia nodded. “I suspect Chu Tianqiu doesn’t have ‘pawn’ but ‘general.’ We may need to temporarily abandon the three characters ‘sunset,’ ‘inch,’ and ‘general’ and focus all our efforts on围攻 Jin Yuanxun when the opportunity arises.”
What a way to “master” something.
Qi Xia had expected some profound reasoning, but instead, the explanation was both absurd and oddly fitting.
“Ah?” Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong exclaimed in unison.
“Chen Junan…” Zheng Yingxiong looked utterly exasperated. “Maybe you should let Qi Xia have some time alone…”
Hearing this, Qi Xia slightly furrowed his brow and turned to look at Chen Junan.
“What’s up?” Chen Junan ignored Zheng Yingxiong, raising his middle finger as he said to Qi Xia, “Why are you looking at me? Old Qi, write it! Don’t you know how to write ‘grass’? The ‘grass’ from ‘plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum’!”
Qi Xia sighed helplessly and said, “If you knew this character, why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong were stunned once again.
“You know it…?” Zheng Yingxiong asked.
“Damn it…” Chen Junan felt a bit defeated. “No way… Old Qi, you saw through my act again? Was my performance not convincing enough this time?”
“Using a middle finger to represent ‘grass’ isn’t a very reasonable explanation,” Qi Xia replied. “Try something else next time.”
Without another word, Qi Xia wrote “grass” on the screen.
Sure enough, after flickering for a few seconds, the screen displayed “Creation Successful.”
“Chen Junan,” Qi Xia called out, “What’s really going on? Do you know a lot of obscure characters?”
Qi Xia had always believed that appearances could be deceiving. Although Chen Junan seemed unreliable, it was entirely possible that he had, out of boredom, memorized an entire dictionary.
“You’re giving me way too much credit…” Chen Junan said. “Old Qi, as embarrassing as it is, you should know that my specialty isn’t physical or mental prowess—it’s cursing people out.”
Qi Xia nodded. “What does that have to do with knowing this character?”
“One time, I wanted to pick a fight with someone online, but I found it hard to fully express myself when cursing people out digitally. A lot of the things I usually say would turn into asterisks when typed out, so I decided to study some ‘related techniques’…” Chen Junan laughed. “This character ‘屮’ is something I mastered after thoroughly exploring various online cursing techniques.”
What a way to “master” something.
Qi Xia had expected Chen Junan to have some profound insight, but he never imagined the reason would be both absurd and yet somehow logical.
Still, it was fortunate that what seemed like a useless “towel” character had, in Chen Junan’s hands, become the second character, making up for the point recklessly lost by Qiao Jiejin earlier.
Losing a point due to an obscure character and then gaining one back with another obscure character—overall, the team broke even.
At that moment, Qi Xia turned to Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong. “Why did you two come back?”
“I got a ‘chariot’ from the fake Chen Junan,” Zheng Yingxiong said. “Even though I’m also a ‘chariot,’ having this character is better than not having it, right?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia nodded, then looked at Chen Junan. “Does the opponent’s screen have a ‘chariot’ now?”
“Shit!” Chen Junan suddenly slapped his thigh as if remembering something. “Now that you mention it, the opponent’s screen doesn’t have a ‘chariot,’ but there are some really weird ‘characters’ on it! I was stunned when I saw them!”
“Weird ‘characters’…?” Qi Xia asked, puzzled.
“Yeah! I stared at them for a while and still couldn’t figure out where those ‘characters’ came from!” Chen Junan replied.
“Like what?” Qi Xia pressed.
“The ‘sunset’ character!” Chen Junan said. “And the ‘inch’ character! There was even a damn ‘ten’ character! Where the hell did these ‘characters’ come from? They seem way more useful than ours!”
After a moment of thought, Qi Xia nodded. “Just as I suspected.”
“What?” Chen Junan was taken aback. “You know where these characters came from?”
“If I’m not mistaken, we’ve all been misled by the ‘characters’ on our side,” Qi Xia explained. “Since all the ‘characters’ on the ‘Red Team’ can be split into at most two parts, we assumed the same applied to the opponent. But I suspect the opponent has two ‘characters’ that can be split into three parts.”
It suddenly dawned on Chen Junan which character those strange on-screen components had been split from.
“It’s ‘general’?!” Chen Junan exclaimed. “That one character was split into ‘丬,’ ‘sunset,’ and ‘inch’?”
“Exactly,” Qi Xia said. “If you think about it carefully, it makes sense. Fist and I tested it once—using three parts can indeed form a new ‘character,’ which means existing ‘characters’ can also be split into three parts.”
After pondering for a moment, Zhang Chenze nodded. “Indeed, the ‘characters’ in this game can be split both horizontally and vertically. After splitting ‘general’ horizontally, it can be split vertically. This means the opponent starts with more ‘characters’ than we do.”
“Well, you can rest easy,” Chen Junan said. “I took a quick glance earlier, and the opponent probably only has seven or eight points. With ‘grass,’ we now have eleven points.”
Chen Junan counted the characters on the screen: “wood,” “eye,” “mutual,” “soldier,” “mound,” “eight,” “rice,” “squint,” “soldier” (variant), “wrap,” “towel,” and “grass”—twelve characters in total.
Since “squint” didn’t earn any points, the total was eleven points.
“It’s normal for us to have more points in the early stages.”
Chen Junan stared at the screen for a moment before suddenly freezing. “Old Qi… that ‘ten’ character on the opponent’s side—could it also be from a character split into three parts…?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia said. “This is one of the opponent’s most important ‘characters.’ From what I can see, this ‘character’ has a lot of potential combinations…”
“You mean ‘pawn’…?” Chen Junan traced the character with his finger and realized that “pawn” could be split into “亠,” “from,” and “ten.” Each of these parts could form other characters, making it extremely versatile.
Zhang Chenze also studied the screen, realizing that although this game was entirely text-based, it required a surprising amount of calculation.
“So that means…!” Chen Junan mused. “Is ‘pawn’ on Chu Tianqiu?”
“Hard to say,” Qi Xia replied, turning his head. “Do you remember whether the opponent scored with ‘ten’ first or with ‘inch’ first?”
Chen Junan fell silent, thinking back. When he had glanced at the screen and seen the already assembled “characters,” he had been immediately captivated by these strange individual components and had forgotten the order in which they appeared.
“I think ‘ten’ came first…” Chen Junan confirmed after a moment. “First ‘ten,’ then ‘inch.’ I saw ‘ten inches’ and thought the opponent had formed a phrase on the screen.”
“Good,” Qi Xia nodded. “I suspect Chu Tianqiu doesn’t have ‘pawn’ but ‘general.’ We may need to temporarily abandon the ‘sunset,’ ‘inch,’ and ‘general’ characters. For now, we should focus our efforts on围攻 Kim Wonsoon when the opportunity arises.”
They lost a point due to an obscure character but gained one back the same way—overall, the team broke even.
Qi Xia then turned to Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong. “Why did you two rush back?”
“I got a ‘chariot’ from the fake Chen Junan,” Zheng Yingxiong said. “Even though I already have ‘chariot,’ having an extra one can’t hurt, right?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia nodded, then glanced at Chen Junan. “Does the other side have ‘chariot’ on their screen now?”
“Shit!” Chen Junan slapped his thigh as if suddenly remembering something. “Now that you mention it, they don’t have ‘chariot,’ but there are a few really weird ‘characters’ on their screen! I was stunned when I saw them!”
“Weird ‘characters’…?” Qi Xia frowned.
“Yeah! I stared at them forever and still couldn’t figure out where they came from!” Chen Junan said.
“Like what?” Qi Xia asked.
“Ah?” Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong exclaimed in unison.
“Chen Junnan…” Zheng Yingxiong looked utterly exasperated. “Maybe we should let Qixia have some time alone…”
Qixia frowned slightly upon hearing this and turned to look at Chen Junnan.
“What’s up?” Chen Junnan ignored Zheng Yingxiong and raised his middle finger at Qixia. “Why are you staring at me, Lao Qi? Write it! Don’t tell me you don’t know how to write ‘grass’? It’s the ‘grass’ from ‘plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum’!”
Qixia sighed helplessly. “If you knew this character, why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong were stunned once again.
“You know it…?” Zheng Yingxiong asked.
“Damn it…” Chen Junnan felt a bit defeated. “No way, Lao Qi… you saw through my act again? Was I not convincing enough this time?”
“Using a middle finger to represent ‘grass’ isn’t very logical,” Qixia replied. “Try something else next time.”
Without another word, Qixia wrote “grass” on the screen.
Sure enough, after a few seconds of flickering, the screen displayed “Creation Successful.”
“Chen Junnan,” Qixia called out. “What’s going on? Do you know a lot of rare characters?”
Qixia had always believed that appearances could be deceiving. Although Chen Junnan seemed unreliable, it was possible he had actually read through an entire dictionary out of boredom.
“You’re giving me way too much credit, Lao Qi…” Chen Junnan said. “Although it’s a bit embarrassing, you should know that my specialty isn’t physical strength or brains—it’s cursing people out.”
Qixia nodded. “What does that have to do with knowing this character?”
“Once, I wanted to have a verbal sparring match with someone online, but I found it hard to fully express myself. A lot of the things I usually say turn into asterisks when typed out, so I started studying ‘related techniques’…” Chen Junnan laughed. “This character ‘屮’ is something I mastered after thoroughly learning all kinds of online cursing tricks.”
What a way to “master” something.
Qixia had expected Chen Junnan to have some profound insight, but he never imagined the reason would be both absurd and logical.
Still, it was fortunate that what seemed like a useless “towel” character had turned into a second character in Chen Junnan’s hands, making up for the point recklessly lost by Qiao Jiajin earlier.
Losing a point due to a rare character and gaining one back with another—overall, the team broke even.
At this point, Qixia turned to Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong. “Why did you two come back?”
“I got a ‘chariot’ from the fake Chen Junnan,” Zheng Yingxiong said. “Even though I’m also a ‘chariot,’ having this character is better than not having it, right?”
“Of course,” Qixia nodded, then looked at Chen Junnan. “Does the opponent’s screen have a ‘chariot’ now?”
“Shit!” Chen Junnan suddenly slapped his thigh as if remembering something. “Now that you mention it, their screen doesn’t have a ‘chariot,’ but there are some really weird ‘characters’ on it! I was totally stunned when I saw them!”
“Weird ‘characters’…?” Qixia asked, puzzled.
“Yeah! I stared at them for a long time and still couldn’t figure out where those ‘characters’ came from!” Chen Junnan replied.
“Like what?” Qixia pressed.
“The ‘sunset’ character!” Chen Junnan said. “And the ‘inch’ character! There was even a damn ‘ten’ character! Where the hell did these come from? These ‘characters’ seem way more useful than ours!”
After a moment of thought, Qixia nodded. “Just as I suspected.”
“What?” Chen Junnan was taken aback. “You know where these characters came from?”
“If I’m not mistaken, we’ve all been misled by the ‘characters’ on our side,” Qixia explained. “Since all the ‘characters’ on the ‘Red Team’ can only be split into two parts at most, we assumed the same applied to the opponent. But I suspect the opponent has two ‘characters’ that can be split into three parts.”
Chen Junnan suddenly realized which character those strange on-screen components had come from.
“It’s ‘general’?!” he exclaimed. “That one character was split into ‘丬,’ ‘sunset,’ and ‘inch’?”
“Exactly,” Qixia confirmed. “If you think about it carefully, it makes sense. Fist and I tested it once—using three parts can indeed form a new ‘character,’ which means existing ‘characters’ can also be split into three parts.”
After pondering for a moment, Zhang Chenze nodded. “Indeed, the ‘characters’ in this game can be split both horizontally and vertically. After splitting ‘general’ horizontally, it can be split vertically. This means the opponent starts with more ‘characters’ than we do.”
“Well, you can rest easy,” Chen Junnan said. “I took a quick glance earlier, and the opponent probably only has seven or eight points. With ‘grass,’ we now have eleven points.”
Chen Junnan counted the characters on the screen: “wood,” “eye,” “mutual,” “soldier,” “mound,” “eight,” “rice,” “squint,” “soldier” (variant), “wrap,” “towel,” and “grass”—twelve characters in total.
Since “squint” didn’t earn any points, they had eleven points in total.
“It’s normal for us to have more points in the early stages.”
After staring at the screen for a while, Chen Junnan suddenly paused. “Lao Qi… that ‘ten’ on the opponent’s side—could it also be from a character split into three parts…?”
“Of course,” Qixia replied. “This is one of the opponent’s most important ‘characters.’ From what I can see, this ‘character’ has a lot of potential combinations…”
“You mean ‘pawn’…?” Chen Junnan scribbled with his hand and realized that “pawn” could be split into “亠,” “from,” and “ten.” Each of these parts could form other characters, making it extremely versatile.
Zhang Chenze also studied the screen and realized that although this game was entirely text-based, it required a lot of calculation.
“So that means…!” Chen Junnan mused. “Is ‘pawn’ on Xiao Chu?”
“Hard to say,” Qixia turned his head. “Do you remember whether the opponent scored with ‘ten’ first or with ‘inch’ first?”
Chen Junnan fell silent, lowering his head. When he had glanced at the screen earlier and seen the already assembled “characters,” he had been instantly captivated by these strange individual components and had forgotten the order in which they appeared.
“I think ‘ten’ came first…” Chen Junnan confirmed after a moment. “First ‘ten,’ then ‘inch.’ When I saw ‘ten inches,’ I thought the opponent had formed a phrase on the screen.”
“Good,” Qixia nodded. “I suspect that Chu Tianqiu doesn’t have ‘pawn’ but ‘general.’ We might need to temporarily abandon the three characters ‘sunset,’ ‘inch,’ and ‘general’ and focus all our efforts on围攻 Jin Yuanxun when the opportunity arises.”
Qi Xia pondered for a few seconds before nodding. “Just as I thought.”
“What?” Chen Junan blinked. “You know where those characters came from?”
“If I’m not mistaken, we’ve all been misled by our own side’s ‘characters,’” Qi Xia said. “Because all of the ‘Red Team’s’ ‘characters’ can only be split into two parts at most, we assumed the same applied to the other side. But I suspect they have two ‘characters’ that can be split into three.”
Chen Junan suddenly realized where those bizarre characters on the screen had come from.
“Ah?” Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong exclaimed in unison.
“Chen Junnan…” Zheng Yingxiong looked utterly exasperated. “Why don’t you let Qi Xia have some time alone…”
Qi Xia frowned slightly upon hearing this and turned to look at Chen Junnan.
“What’s up?” Chen Junnan ignored Zheng Yingxiong and raised his middle finger at Qi Xia. “Why are you staring at me? Old Qi, write it! Don’t you know how to write ‘grass’? It’s the ‘grass’ from ‘plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum’!”
Qi Xia sighed helplessly and said, “If you knew this character, why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong were stunned once again.
“You know it…?” Zheng Yingxiong asked.
“Damn it…” Chen Junnan felt a bit defeated. “No way… Old Qi, you saw through my act again? Was my performance not convincing enough this time?”
“Using a middle finger to represent ‘grass’ isn’t very reasonable,” Qi Xia replied. “Try something else next time.”
Without another word, Qi Xia wrote “grass” on the screen.
Sure enough, after flickering for a few seconds, the screen displayed “Creation Successful.”
“Chen Junnan,” Qi Xia called out. “What’s going on? Do you know a lot of rare characters?”
Qi Xia had always believed that appearances could be deceiving. Although Chen Junnan seemed unreliable, it was possible he had actually read through an entire dictionary out of boredom.
“You’re giving me way too much credit…” Chen Junnan said. “Old Qi, as embarrassing as it is, you should know that my specialty isn’t acting or thinking—it’s cursing people out.”
Qi Xia nodded. “What does that have to do with knowing this character?”
“One time, I wanted to pick a fight with someone online, but I found it hard to fully express myself when cursing people out digitally. A lot of the things I usually say would turn into asterisks when typed out, so I started researching ‘related techniques’…” Chen Junnan laughed. “This character ‘屮’ is something I mastered after thoroughly studying various online cursing techniques.”
What a way to “master” something.
Qi Xia had expected Chen Junnan to have some profound insight, but he never imagined the reason would be both absurd and logical.
Still, it was fortunate that what seemed like a useless “towel” character in Chen Junnan’s hands had turned into the second character, making up for the point recklessly lost by Qiao Jiajin earlier.
They lost a point due to a rare character but gained one back with another rare character. Overall, the team broke even.
Qi Xia then turned to Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong. “Why did you two come back?”
“I got a ‘chariot’ from the fake Chen Junnan,” Zheng Yingxiong said. “Even though I’m also a ‘chariot,’ having this character is better than not having it, right?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia nodded, then looked at Chen Junnan. “Does the opponent’s screen have a ‘chariot’ now?”
“Shit!” Chen Junnan suddenly slapped his thigh as if remembering something. “Now that you mention it, the opponent’s screen doesn’t have a ‘chariot,’ but there are some really weird ‘characters’ on it! I was stunned when I saw them!”
“Weird ‘characters’…?” Qi Xia asked, puzzled.
Chen Junnan: “Yeah! I stared at them for a long time and still couldn’t figure out where those ‘characters’ came from!”
“Like what?” Qi Xia said.
“The ‘sunset’ character!” Chen Junnan said. “And the ‘inch’ character! There was even a damn ‘ten’! Where the hell did these ‘characters’ come from? They seem way more useful than ours!”
After pondering for a few seconds, Qi Xia nodded. “Just as I thought.”
“What?” Chen Junnan was taken aback. “You know where these characters came from?”
“If I’m not mistaken, we’ve all been misled by the ‘characters’ on our side,” Qi Xia said. “Since all the ‘characters’ on the ‘Red Team’ can be split into at most two parts, we assumed the same applied to the opponent. But I suspect the opponent has two ‘characters’ that can be split into three parts.”
Chen Junnan suddenly realized which character those strange screen elements had been split from.
“It’s ‘general’?!” Chen Junnan exclaimed. “This one character was split into ‘丬,’ ‘sunset,’ and ‘inch’?”
“Yes,” Qi Xia said. “If you think about it carefully, it makes sense. Fist and I tested it once—using three parts can indeed form a new ‘character,’ which means existing ‘characters’ can also be split into three parts.”
After some thought, Zhang Chenze nodded. “Indeed, the ‘characters’ in this game can be split both horizontally and vertically. After ‘general’ is split horizontally, it can be split vertically. This means the opponent starts with more ‘characters’ than we do.”
“Well, you can rest easy,” Chen Junnan said. “I glanced earlier, and the opponent probably only has seven or eight points. With ‘屮’ added, we now have eleven points.”
Chen Junnan counted the characters on the screen: “wood,” “eye,” “phase,” “soldier,” “hill,” “eight,” “rice,” “squint,” “soldier” (variant), “wrap,” “towel,” and “grass,” totaling twelve characters.
Among them, “squint” didn’t score any points, so they had eleven points in total.
“It’s normal for us to have more points in the early stages.”
Chen Junnan stared at the screen for a moment before suddenly freezing. “Old Qi… that ‘ten’ on the opponent’s side… could it also be from a character split into three parts…?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia said. “This is the opponent’s most important character. From what I can see, this character has a lot of potential for combinations…”
“You mean ‘pawn’…?” Chen Junnan scribbled with his hand and realized that “pawn” could be split into “亠,” “from,” and “ten.” Each of these parts could form other characters, making it extremely versatile.
Zhang Chenze also stared at the screen and calculated silently, realizing that although this game was entirely text-based, it required a lot of strategic thinking.
“So that means…!” Chen Junnan murmured. “Is ‘pawn’ on Xiao Chu?”
“Hard to say,” Qi Xia turned his head. “Do you remember whether the opponent scored with ‘ten’ first or with ‘inch’ first?”
Chen Junnan lowered his head in silence. When he had glanced at the screen earlier and seen the already assembled characters, he had been instantly captivated by these strange individual characters and had forgotten the order in which they appeared.
“It seems like ‘ten’ came first…” Chen Junnan confirmed after a moment. “First ‘ten,’ then ‘inch.’ I saw ‘ten inches’ at a glance and thought the opponent had formed a phrase on the screen.”
“Good,” Qi Xia nodded. “I suspect that Chu Tianqiu doesn’t have ‘pawn’ but ‘general.’ We may need to temporarily abandon the three characters ‘sunset,’ ‘inch,’ and ‘general’ and focus all our efforts on围攻 Jin Yuanxun when the opportunity arises.”
“Exactly,” Qi Xia said. “If you think about it, it makes sense. Qiaojin and I tested it—three parts can indeed form a new ‘character,’ meaning existing ones can also be split into three.”
Zhang Chenze nodded after a moment of thought. “True. In this game, characters can be split left-right or up-down. ‘General’ can be split left-right first, then up-down. That means the other side starts with more ‘characters’ than we do.”
“Ah?” Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong exclaimed in unison.
“Chen Junnan…” Zheng Yingxiong looked utterly exasperated. “Why don’t you let Qi Xia have some time alone…”
Qi Xia frowned slightly upon hearing this and turned to look at Chen Junnan.
“What’s up?” Chen Junnan ignored Zheng Yingxiong, raising his middle finger as he spoke to Qi Xia. “Why are you looking at me? Old Qi, write it! Don’t you know how to write ‘grass’? The ‘grass’ from ‘plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum’!”
Qi Xia sighed helplessly and said, “If you knew this character, why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong were stunned once again.
“You know it…?” Zheng Yingxiong asked.
“Damn it…” Chen Junnan felt a bit defeated. “No way… Old Qi, you saw through my act again? Was my performance not convincing enough this time?”
“Using a middle finger to represent ‘grass’ isn’t very reasonable,” Qi Xia replied. “Try something else next time.”
Without another word, Qi Xia wrote “grass” on the screen.
Sure enough, after flickering for a few seconds, the screen displayed “Creation Successful.”
“Chen Junnan,” Qi Xia called out. “What’s going on? Do you know a lot of rare characters?”
Qi Xia had always believed that appearances could be deceiving. Although Chen Junnan seemed unreliable, it was entirely possible that he had read through an entire dictionary out of boredom.
“You’re giving me way too much credit…” Chen Junnan said. “Old Qi, as embarrassing as it is, you should know that my specialty isn’t physical or mental prowess—it’s cursing people out.”
Qi Xia nodded. “What does that have to do with knowing this character?”
“One time, I wanted to pick a fight with someone online, but I found it hard to fully express myself when cursing people out digitally. A lot of the things I usually say would turn into asterisks when typed out, so I decided to study some ‘related techniques’…” Chen Junnan laughed. “This character ‘屮’ is something I mastered after thoroughly learning all sorts of online cursing tricks.”
What a way to “master” something.
Qi Xia had expected Chen Junnan to have some profound insight but never imagined that the reason would be both absurd and logical.
Still, it was fortunate that what seemed like a useless “towel” character had turned into a second character in Chen Junnan’s hands, making up for the point recklessly lost by Qiao Jiajin earlier.
Losing a point due to a rare character and gaining one back with another—overall, the team broke even.
At that moment, Qi Xia turned to Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong. “Why did you two come back?”
“I got a ‘chariot’ from the fake Chen Junnan,” Zheng Yingxiong said. “Even though I already have a ‘chariot,’ having this character is better than not having it, right?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia nodded, then looked at Chen Junnan. “Does the opponent’s screen have a ‘chariot’ now?”
“Shit!” Chen Junnan suddenly slapped his thigh as if remembering something. “Now that you mention it, the opponent’s screen doesn’t have a ‘chariot,’ but there are some really weird ‘characters’ on it! I was totally stunned when I saw them!”
“Weird ‘characters’…?” Qi Xia asked, puzzled.
Chen Junnan: “Yeah! I stared at them for a long time and still couldn’t figure out where those ‘characters’ came from!”
“Like what?” Qi Xia said.
“The ‘sunset’ character ‘夕’!” Chen Junnan said. “And the ‘inch’ character ‘寸’! There was even a damn ‘ten’ character ‘十’! Where the hell did these ‘characters’ come from? They seem way more useful than ours!”
After pondering for a few seconds, Qi Xia nodded. “Just as I thought.”
“What?” Chen Junnan was taken aback. “You know where these characters came from?”
“If I’m not mistaken, we’ve all been misled by the ‘characters’ on our side,” Qi Xia said. “Since all the ‘characters’ on the ‘Red Team’ can be split into at most two parts, we assumed the same applied to the opponent. But I suspect the opponent has two ‘characters’ that can be split into three parts.”
Chen Junnan suddenly realized which character those strange on-screen components had been split from.
“It’s ‘general’?!” Chen Junnan exclaimed. “This one character was split into ‘丬,’ ‘夕,’ and ‘寸’?”
“Yes,” Qi Xia replied. “If you think about it carefully, it makes sense. Fist and I tested it once—using three parts can indeed form a new ‘character,’ which means existing ‘characters’ can also be split into three parts.”
After some thought, Zhang Chenze nodded. “Indeed, the ‘characters’ in this game can be split both horizontally and vertically. After ‘general’ is split horizontally, it can be split vertically. This means the opponent starts with more ‘characters’ than we do.”
“Well, you can rest easy,” Chen Junnan said. “I took a quick glance earlier, and the opponent probably only has seven or eight points. With ‘屮’ added, we now have eleven points.”
Chen Junnan counted the characters on the screen: “wood,” “eye,” “phase,” “soldier,” “hill,” “eight,” “rice,” “squint,” “soldier” (variant), “wrap,” “towel,” and “grass,” totaling twelve characters.
Among them, “squint” didn’t earn any points, so the total was eleven points.
“It’s normal for us to have more points in the early stages.”
Chen Junnan stared at the screen for a moment before suddenly freezing. “Old Qi… that ‘ten’ on the opponent’s side—could it also be from a character split into three parts…?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia said. “This is the opponent’s most important ‘character.’ From what I can see, this ‘character’ has a lot of potential for combinations…”
“You mean ‘pawn’…?” Chen Junnan wrote it out with his hand and realized that “pawn” could be split into “亠,” “from,” and “ten.” Each of these parts could form other characters, making it extremely versatile.
Zhang Chenze also studied the screen and realized that although this game was entirely text-based, it required a lot of calculation.
“So that means…!” Chen Junnan mused. “Is ‘pawn’ on Chu Tianqiu?”
“Hard to say,” Qi Xia turned his head. “Do you remember whether the opponent scored with ‘ten’ first or with ‘inch’ first?”
Chen Junnan fell silent, lowering his head. When he had glanced at the screen earlier and seen the already assembled “characters,” he had been instantly captivated by these strange individual components and had momentarily forgotten the order.
“It seems like ‘ten’ came first…” Chen Junnan confirmed after a moment. “‘Ten’ first, then ‘inch.’ I saw ‘ten inches’ at a glance and thought the opponent had formed a phrase on the screen.”
“Good,” Qi Xia nodded. “I suspect that Chu Tianqiu doesn’t have ‘pawn’ but ‘general.’ We may need to temporarily abandon the three characters ‘夕,’ ‘寸,’ and ‘将.’ In the time ahead, we should seize the opportunity to focus all our efforts on围攻 Jin Yuanxun.”
“Ah?” Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong exclaimed in unison.
“Chen Jun’nan…” Zheng Yingxiong looked utterly exasperated. “Maybe you should let Qi Xia have some time alone…”
Hearing this, Qi Xia frowned slightly and turned to look at Chen Jun’nan.
“What’s up?” Chen Jun’nan ignored Zheng Yingxiong and raised his middle finger at Qi Xia. “Why are you staring at me, Old Qi? Write it! Don’t you know how to write ‘grass’? The ‘grass’ from ‘plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum’!”
Qi Xia sighed helplessly. “If you knew this character, why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong were stunned once again.
“You know it…?” Zheng Yingxiong asked.
“Damn it…” Chen Jun’nan seemed on the verge of a breakdown. “No way… Old Qi, you saw through my act again? Was my performance not convincing enough this time?”
“Using a middle finger to represent ‘grass’ isn’t very logical,” Qi Xia replied. “Try something else next time.”
Without another word, Qi Xia wrote “grass” (草) on the screen.
Sure enough, after a few seconds of flickering, the screen displayed “Creation Successful.”
“Chen Jun’nan,” Qi Xia called out. “What’s going on? Do you know a lot of rare characters?”
Qi Xia had always believed that appearances could be deceiving. Although Chen Jun’nan seemed unreliable, it was possible he had actually read through an entire dictionary out of boredom.
“You’re giving me way too much credit…” Chen Jun’nan said. “Old Qi, as embarrassing as it is, you should know that my specialty isn’t physical combat or brains—it’s cursing people out.”
Qi Xia nodded. “What does that have to do with knowing this character?”
“One time, I wanted to pick a fight with someone online, but I found it hard to fully express myself when cursing people out digitally. A lot of the things I usually say would turn into asterisks when typed out, so I decided to study some ‘related techniques’…” Chen Jun’nan laughed. “This character ‘屮’ is something I mastered after thoroughly learning all sorts of online cursing tricks.”
What a way to “master” something.
Qi Xia had expected some profound insight from Chen Jun’nan, but instead, the reason was both absurd and logical.
Still, it was fortunate that a seemingly useless character like “towel” (巾) had, in Chen Jun’nan’s hands, become the second character, making up for the point recklessly lost by Qiao Jiajin earlier.
Losing a point due to a rare character and gaining one back with another—overall, the team broke even.
At this point, Qi Xia turned to Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong. “Why did you two come back?”
“I got a ‘chariot’ (车) from the fake Chen Jun’nan,” Zheng Yingxiong said. “Even though I’m also a ‘chariot,’ having this character is better than not having it, right?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia nodded, then looked at Chen Jun’nan. “Does the opponent’s screen have a ‘chariot’ now?”
“Shit!” Chen Jun’nan suddenly slapped his thigh as if remembering something. “Now that you mention it, their screen doesn’t have a ‘chariot,’ but there are some really weird ‘characters’ on it! I was stunned when I saw them!”
“Weird ‘characters’…?” Qi Xia asked, puzzled.
“Yeah! I stared at them for a long time and still have no idea where those ‘characters’ came from!” Chen Jun’nan replied.
“Like what?” Qi Xia pressed.
“Like ‘sunset’ (夕)!” Chen Jun’nan said. “And ‘inch’ (寸)! There’s even a damn ‘ten’ (十)! Where the hell did these ‘characters’ come from? They seem way more useful than ours!”
After a moment of thought, Qi Xia nodded. “Just as I suspected.”
“What?” Chen Jun’nan was taken aback. “You know where these characters came from?”
“If I’m not mistaken, we’ve all been misled by the ‘characters’ on our side,” Qi Xia explained. “Since all of the ‘Red Team’s’ ‘characters’ can only be split into two parts at most, we assumed the same applied to the opponent. But I suspect the opponent has two ‘characters’ that can be split into three parts.”
Chen Jun’nan suddenly realized which character those strange on-screen components had come from.
“It’s ‘general’ (将)?!” he exclaimed. “This single character was split into ‘丬,’ ‘夕,’ and ‘寸’?”
“Exactly,” Qi Xia said. “If you think about it carefully, it makes sense. Fist and I tested it once—using three parts can indeed form a new ‘character,’ which means existing ‘characters’ can also be split into three parts.”
After pondering, Zhang Chenze nodded. “Indeed, the ‘characters’ in this game can be split both horizontally and vertically. After splitting ‘general’ horizontally, it can be split vertically. This means the opponent starts with more ‘characters’ than we do.”
“Well, you can rest easy,” Chen Jun’nan said. “I took a quick glance earlier, and the opponent probably only has seven or eight points. With ‘屮,’ we now have eleven points.”
Chen Jun’nan counted the characters on the screen: “wood” (木), “eye” (目), “mutual” (相), “soldier” (兵), “mound” (丘), “eight” (八), “rice” (米), “narrow eyes” (眯), “soldier variant” (梹), “wrap” (包), “towel” (巾), and “grass” (屮)—twelve characters in total.
Since “narrow eyes” (眯) didn’t earn a point, the total was eleven points.
“It’s normal for us to have more points in the early stages.”
Chen Jun’nan stared at the screen for a moment before suddenly freezing. “Old Qi… that ‘ten’ (十) on the opponent’s side—could it also be from a character split into three parts…?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia said. “This is one of the opponent’s most important ‘characters.’ From what I can see, this ‘character’ has a lot of potential combinations…”
“You mean ‘pawn’ (卒)…
?” Chen Jun’nan muttered, writing it out with his hand. He realized that “pawn” (卒) could be split into “亠,” “从,” and “十.” Each of these parts could form other characters, making it extremely versatile.
Zhang Chenze also studied the screen thoughtfully, realizing that although this game was entirely text-based, it required a lot of calculation.
“So that means…!” Chen Jun’nan mused. “Is ‘pawn’ (卒) on Chu Tianqiu?”
“Hard to say,” Qi Xia replied, turning his head. “Do you remember whether the opponent scored with ‘ten’ (十) first or with ‘inch’ (寸) first?”
Chen Jun’nan fell silent, thinking back. When he had glanced at the screen and seen the assembled characters, he had been instantly captivated by those strange standalone components and had forgotten the order in which they appeared.
“I think ‘ten’ (十) came first…” Chen Jun’nan confirmed after a moment. “First ‘ten,’ then ‘inch.’ I saw ‘ten inches’ and thought the opponent had formed a phrase on the screen.”
“Good,” Qi Xia nodded. “I suspect that Chu Tianqiu doesn’t have ‘pawn’ (卒) but ‘general’ (将). We may need to temporarily abandon ‘sunset’ (夕), ‘inch’ (寸), and ‘general’ (将) and focus our efforts on围攻 Jin Yuanxun when the opportunity arises.”
“Ah?” Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong exclaimed in unison.
“Chen Junnan…” Zheng Yingxiong looked utterly exasperated. “Shouldn’t we let Qi Xia have some time alone…?”
Hearing this, Qi Xia frowned slightly and turned to look at Chen Junnan.
“What’s up?” Chen Junnan ignored Zheng Yingxiong, raising his middle finger as he said to Qi Xia, “Why are you staring at me, Old Qi? Write it! Don’t you know how to write ‘grass’? The ‘grass’ from ‘plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum’!”
Qi Xia sighed helplessly. “If you knew this character, why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong were stunned once again.
“You know it…?” Zheng Yingxiong asked.
“Damn it…” Chen Junnan seemed on the verge of a breakdown. “No way… Old Qi, you saw through my act again? Was my performance not convincing enough this time?”
“Using a middle finger to represent ‘grass’ isn’t very logical,” Qi Xia replied. “Try something else next time.”
Without another word, Qi Xia wrote “grass” on the screen.
Sure enough, after a few seconds of flickering, the screen displayed “Creation Successful.”
“Chen Junnan,” Qi Xia called out. “What’s going on? Do you know a lot of rare characters?”
Qi Xia had always believed that appearances could be deceiving. Although Chen Junnan seemed unreliable, it was possible he had actually read through an entire dictionary out of boredom.
“You’re giving me way too much credit…” Chen Junnan said. “Old Qi, as embarrassing as it is, you should know that my specialty isn’t action or brains—it’s cursing people out.”
Qi Xia nodded. “What does that have to do with knowing this character?”
“One time, I wanted to pick a fight with someone online, but I found it hard to really let loose. A lot of the things I usually say would turn into asterisks when typed out, so I decided to study ‘relevant techniques’…” Chen Junnan laughed. “This character ‘屮’ is something I mastered after thoroughly learning all kinds of online cursing tricks.”
What a way to “master” something.
Qi Xia had expected some profound insight from Chen Junnan, but instead, the reason was both absurd and oddly logical.
Still, it was fortunate that what seemed like a useless “towel” character had, in Chen Junnan’s hands, become the second character, making up for the point recklessly lost by Qiao Jiajin earlier.
Losing a point due to a rare character and gaining one back with another—overall, the team broke even.
At this point, Qi Xia turned to Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong. “Why did you two come back?”
“I got a ‘chariot’ from the fake Chen Junnan,” Zheng Yingxiong said. “Even though I’m also a ‘chariot,’ having this character is better than not having it, right?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia nodded, then looked at Chen Junnan. “Does the opponent’s screen have a ‘chariot’ now?”
“Shit!” Chen Junnan suddenly slapped his thigh as if remembering something. “Now that you mention it, their screen doesn’t have a ‘chariot,’ but there are some really weird ‘characters’ on it! I was stunned when I saw them!”
“Weird ‘characters’…?” Qi Xia asked, puzzled.
“Yeah! I stared at them for a while and still couldn’t figure out where those ‘characters’ came from!” Chen Junnan replied.
“Like what?” Qi Xia pressed.
“The ‘sunset’ character!” Chen Junnan said. “And the ‘inch’ character! There was even a damn ‘ten’! Where the hell did these ‘characters’ come from? They look way more useful than ours!”
After a moment of thought, Qi Xia nodded. “Just as I suspected.”
“What?” Chen Junnan was taken aback. “You know where these characters came from?”
“If I’m not mistaken, we’ve all been misled by the ‘characters’ on our side,” Qi Xia explained. “Since all the ‘characters’ on the ‘Red Team’ can only be split into two parts at most, we assumed the same for the opponent. But I suspect the opponent has two ‘characters’ that can be split into three parts.”
Chen Junnan suddenly realized which character those strange fragments on the screen had come from.
“It’s ‘general’?!” he exclaimed. “That one character was split into ‘丬,’ ‘sunset,’ and ‘inch’?”
“Exactly,” Qi Xia said. “If you think about it, it makes sense. Fist and I tested it once—using three parts can indeed form a new ‘character,’ which means existing ‘characters’ can also be split into three parts.”
After pondering, Zhang Chenze nodded. “Indeed, the ‘characters’ in this game can be split both horizontally and vertically. After splitting ‘general’ horizontally, it can be split vertically. This means the opponent starts with more ‘characters’ than we do.”
“Well, you can relax,” Chen Junnan said. “I took a quick glance earlier, and the opponent probably only has seven or eight points. With ‘屮,’ we now have eleven.”
Chen Junnan counted the characters on the screen: “wood,” “eye,” “mutual,” “soldier,” “mound,” “eight,” “rice,” “squint,” “soldier” (variant), “wrap,” “towel,” and “grass”—twelve characters in total.
Since “squint” didn’t earn a point, they had eleven points in total.
“It’s normal for us to have more points in the early stages.”
Chen Junnan stared at the screen for a moment before suddenly freezing. “Old Qi… that ‘ten’ on the opponent’s side—could it also be from a character split into three parts…?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia said. “This is the opponent’s most important ‘character.’ From what I can see, this ‘character’ has a lot of potential for combinations…”
“You mean ‘pawn’…?” Chen Junnan traced the character with his finger and realized “pawn” could be split into “亠,” “from,” and “ten.” Each of these parts could form other characters, making it extremely versatile.
Zhang Chenze also studied the screen, realizing that although this game was entirely text-based, it required a lot of calculation.
“So that means…!” Chen Junnan mused. “Is ‘pawn’ on Xiao Chu?”
“Hard to say,” Qi Xia replied, turning his head. “Do you remember whether the opponent scored with ‘ten’ first or with ‘inch’ first?”
Chen Junnan fell silent, thinking back. When he had glanced at the screen and seen the assembled “characters,” his attention had been immediately captured by those strange standalone characters, and he’d forgotten the order.
“I think ‘ten’ came first…” Chen Junnan confirmed after a moment. “First ‘ten,’ then ‘inch.’ When I saw ‘ten inches,’ I thought the opponent had formed a phrase on the screen.”
“Good,” Qi Xia nodded. “I suspect Chu Tianqiu doesn’t have ‘pawn’ but ‘general.’ We may need to temporarily abandon the ‘sunset,’ ‘inch,’ and ‘general’ characters. For now, we should focus our efforts on targeting Jin Yuanxun when the opportunity arises.”
“It’s normal for us to have more points early on.”
Chen Junan stared at the screen for a while before suddenly freezing. “Lao Qi… their ‘ten’… it couldn’t have come from another character split into three parts, could it?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia said. “That’s their most important ‘character.’ From what I can tell, it has a lot of potential combinations…”
“Ah?” Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong exclaimed in unison.
“Chen Junan…” Zheng Yingxiong looked utterly exasperated. “Maybe you should let Qi Xia have some time alone…”
Hearing this, Qi Xia frowned slightly and turned to look at Chen Junan.
“What’s up?” Ignoring Zheng Yingxiong, Chen Junan raised his middle finger and said to Qi Xia, “Why are you staring at me? Old Qi, write it! Don’t you know how to write ‘grass’? The ‘grass’ from ‘plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum’!”
Qi Xia sighed helplessly and said, “If you knew this character, why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong were stunned once again.
“You know it…?” Zheng Yingxiong asked.
“Damn it…” Chen Junan seemed on the verge of a breakdown. “No way… Old Qi, you saw through my act again? Was my performance not convincing enough this time?”
“Using a middle finger to represent ‘grass’ isn’t very reasonable,” Qi Xia replied. “Try something else next time.”
Without another word, Qi Xia wrote “grass” on the screen.
Sure enough, after flickering for a few seconds, the screen displayed “Creation Successful.”
“Chen Junan,” Qi Xia called out, “What’s going on? Do you know a lot of rare characters?”
Qi Xia had always believed that appearances could be deceiving. Although Chen Junan seemed unreliable, he might have actually read through an entire dictionary out of boredom.
“You’re giving me way too much credit…” Chen Junan said. “Old Qi, as embarrassing as it is, you should know that my specialty isn’t action or brains—it’s cursing people out.”
Qi Xia nodded. “What does that have to do with knowing this character?”
“Once, I wanted to pick a fight with someone online, but I found it hard to fully express myself when cursing people out digitally. A lot of the things I usually say turned into asterisks when typed out, so I decided to study some ‘related techniques’…” Chen Junan laughed. “This character ‘屮’ is something I mastered after thoroughly exploring various online cursing techniques.”
What a way to “master” something.
Qi Xia had expected some profound insight from Chen Junan but instead got a reason that was both absurd and logical.
Still, it was fortunate that what seemed like a useless “towel” character in Chen Junan’s hands had turned into the second character, making up for the point recklessly lost by Qiao Jiajin earlier.
Losing a point due to a rare character and gaining one back with another rare character meant the team broke even overall.
At this point, Qi Xia turned to Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong. “Why did you two come back?”
“I got a ‘chariot’ character from the fake Chen Junan,” Zheng Yingxiong said. “Even though I already have ‘chariot,’ having an extra one is better than not, right?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia nodded, then looked at Chen Junan. “Does the opponent’s screen have a ‘chariot’ now?”
“Shit!” Chen Junan suddenly slapped his thigh as if remembering something. “Now that you mention it, the opponent’s screen doesn’t have ‘chariot,’ but there are some really weird ‘characters’ on it! I was stunned when I saw them!”
“Weird ‘characters’…?” Qi Xia asked, puzzled.
“Yeah! I stared at them for a long time and still couldn’t figure out where those ‘characters’ came from!” Chen Junan exclaimed.
“Like what?” Qi Xia pressed.
“The ‘sunset’ character!” Chen Junan said. “And the ‘inch’ character! There was even a damn ‘ten’ character! Where the hell did these come from? These ‘characters’ seem way more useful than ours!”
After a moment of thought, Qi Xia nodded. “Just as I suspected.”
“What?” Chen Junan was taken aback. “You know where these characters came from?”
“If I’m not mistaken, we’ve all been misled by the ‘characters’ on our side,” Qi Xia explained. “Since all of the ‘Red Team’s’ ‘characters’ can only be split into two parts at most, we assumed the same applied to the opponent. But I suspect the opponent has two ‘characters’ that can be split into three parts.”
Chen Junan suddenly realized which character those strange on-screen components had been split from.
“It’s ‘general’?!” he exclaimed. “That one ‘character’ was split into ‘丬,’ ‘sunset,’ and ‘inch’?”
“Exactly,” Qi Xia said. “If you think about it carefully, it makes sense. Fist and I tested it once—using three parts can indeed form a new ‘character,’ which means existing ‘characters’ can also be split into three parts.”
After pondering, Zhang Chenze nodded. “Indeed, the ‘characters’ in this game can be split both horizontally and vertically. After splitting ‘general’ horizontally, it can be split vertically. This means the opponent starts with more ‘characters’ than we do.”
“Well, you can rest easy,” Chen Junan said. “I took a quick glance earlier, and the opponent probably only has seven or eight points. With ‘屮,’ we now have eleven points.”
Chen Junan counted the characters on the screen: “wood,” “eye,” “mutual,” “soldier,” “mound,” “eight,” “rice,” “narrow eyes,” “soldier” (variant), “wrap,” “towel,” and “grass,” totaling twelve characters.
Among them, “narrow eyes” didn’t score any points, so they had eleven points in total.
“It’s normal for us to have more points in the early stages.”
Chen Junan stared at the screen for a moment before suddenly freezing. “Old Qi… that ‘ten’ on the opponent’s side—could it also be from a character split into three parts…?”
“Of course,” Qi Xia said. “This is the opponent’s most important ‘character.’ From what I can see, this ‘character’ has a lot of potential combinations…”
“You mean ‘pawn’…?” Chen Junan traced the character with his finger and realized “pawn” could be split into “亠,” “follow,” and “ten.” Each of these parts could form other characters, making it extremely versatile.
Zhang Chenze also studied the screen and realized that although this game was entirely text-based, it required a lot of calculation.
“So that means…!” Chen Junan mused. “Is ‘pawn’ on Chu Tianqiu?”
“Hard to say,” Qi Xia replied, turning his head. “Do you remember whether the opponent scored with ‘ten’ first or with ‘inch’ first?”
Chen Junan fell silent, thinking back. When he had glanced at the screen and seen the already assembled “characters,” he had been instantly captivated by these strange individual components and had forgotten the order in which they appeared.
“I think ‘ten’ came first…” Chen Junan confirmed after a moment. “First ‘ten,’ then ‘inch.’ When I saw ‘ten inches,’ I thought the opponent had formed a phrase on the screen.”
“Good,” Qi Xia nodded. “I suspect Chu Tianqiu doesn’t have ‘pawn’ but ‘general.’ We may need to temporarily abandon the ‘sunset,’ ‘inch,’ and ‘general’ characters. From now on, we should focus our efforts on围攻 Jin Yuanxun when the opportunity arises.”
Zhang Chenze also studied the screen, realizing that despite the game being entirely text-based, the calculations involved were surprisingly complex.
“So that means…!” Chen Junan muttered. “‘Pawn’ is on Xiao Chu?”
“Hard to say,” Qi Xia turned his head. “Do you remember whether they scored with ‘ten’ or ‘inch’ first?”
Chen Junan fell silent, trying to recall. When he’d glanced at the screen earlier, the assembled characters had caught his attention so abruptly that he hadn’t registered the order.
“I think ‘ten’ came first…” he said after a moment. “‘Ten,’ then ‘inch.’ I saw ‘ten inches’ and almost thought they’d written a whole sentence on the screen.”
“Good,” Qi Xia nodded. “I suspect Chu Tianqiu isn’t holding ‘pawn’—he has ‘general.’ We might need to temporarily abandon ‘evening,’ ‘inch,’ and ‘general,’ and focus all our efforts on attacking Jin Yuanxun when the opportunity arises.”
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