I'm Really a Superstar

At China Qiyuan.

"This idiot!"

"I'm convinced!"

"Master Xiang, you might be able to take this lying down, but I can't!"

"This YE is basically insulting us!"

"I'll smack that newbie face of his!"

"You're the one who's the goddamn newbie, alright?"

But the second, a notification popped up: Xiang Rong has been kicked from the room by YE!

He even got kicked!

YE had actually kicked Xiang Rong 9-dan out!

Everyone was floored!

The room and the password had been set up by Wu Changhe. YE had entered the room first, followed by Xiang Rong. When Wu Changhe left the room, the second person to enter was handed the administrative rights and got the highest privileges. He could kick any person he wanted to.

Wu Changhe cursed, "This young bastard!" He pointed at Xiang Rong and said, "Little Xiang, use my account! Let him have a taste of what it means to play Go!"

"Right!"

"Show him what we are capable of!"

"Teach him that there's always someone stronger out there!"

"Master Xiang, it's your turn!"

"This joker is infuriating!"

"Destroy him!"

"Let this idiot know what it really means to be a pro Go player!"

Everyone was clamoring!

...

On the other end.

Wu Zeqing returned to the study.

"I brewed another pot of tea." Old Wu placed it on the table. "What's the matter? You're not playing anymore?"

Zhang Ye laughed and said, "Your dad went offline without saying where he was going. After that, some silly fool came into the room wanting to play me, but I kicked him out."

Old Wu asked, "Who was it?"

Zhang Ye smacked his lips and said, "I don't know. It was a newbie. I ignored him."

All of a sudden, someone came into the room!

It was Wu Changhe's account which reappeared after going offline a while ago.

Zhang Ye chortled. "He's back, he's back!"

His opponent sent a message right off the bat.

Wu Changhe: "Begin?"

Zhang Ye replied: "Sure!"

It was nearly 6 PM. Go is a relatively time-consuming activity, with a typical match between the masters easily taking up to an hour or two. And that would be a rapid match. In a real high-level tournament, it would not be unreasonable for a match to take up to 10 hours or more. Even further back, in ancient times, a match could drag on for three whole days and nights and would not even be uncommon.

But Zhang Ye had been playing a fast game today. It was the same for "WuChanghe." This was very common for online Go and a match would seldom get dragged out for too long. Due to the atmosphere being different, it naturally brought about a difference in the pace of the game. You couldn't possibly expect an online game between two players to be dragged out for over ten hours. But of course, the length of a match was also affected by the time limit, the opponent, and skill levels.

On the screen.

"WuChanghe" picked Black.

Zhang Ye went second with the white stones.

With the laying of the first stone by the black side, another round began!

...

At the computer.

The players at the Qiyuan all shifted back, trying to give the most space and quiet to Xiang Rong for his match. Everyone watched the monitor as the match took place and their mood swung with the progress of the game!

"Ah, Master Xiang has made his move!"

"An approach 1 ?"

"And it's even a high approach 2 ?"

"What a good move! Great move!"

"Splendid!"

"Haha, Master Xiang has almost never lost as Black!"

"Aiyo, White has made a stand 3 !"

"Damn!"

"This fellow is so slippery!"

"What a miser!"

Many of the professional Go players were taken by surprise!

Xiang Rong thought for a long while before placing his next stone down without any expression.

His opponent switched from his fast game of responding with immediate moves and went into a long thought process before making a horizontal stretch.

The game had only just started, but it was already making a lot of people tremble nervously just from spectating. Some of them were even sweating profusely from the intensity of the match!

"How marvelous!"

"This horizontal stretch was great!"

"Just where did this strange YE person come from?"

"Master Xiang still has a huge lead!"

"Xiang Rong 9-dan turned serious!"

"YE, prepare to cry! This fella definitely doesn't know who his opponent is! If he did, he'd surely be scared to death. Hahahaha!"

But before that person finished speaking, YE's absent spamming started up again!

YE: "Make your move."

YE: "Uncle, what are you doing?"

YE: "Did you fall asleep?"

YE: "Why don't I go take a nap as well? Call me when you've made your move, OK?"

Long strings of text totaling more than 20 messages were sent over!

Xiang Rong maintained indifference, pretending like he didn't see the messages.

But the other Go players started to hurl abuse!

"He's so arrogant!"

"He's willing to distract himself with typing while playing against Xiang Rong 9-dan?"

"I doubt he's even distracted. This is his style!"

"He's doing it on purpose! He's absolutely doing it on purpose!"

The pace of the game had been slowed!

The two of them started playing slower!

...

On the other end.

Wu Zeqing was looking at the computer screen and said, "This game doesn't seem to be going as smoothly?"

Zhang Ye was still unaware of things. He looked rather relaxed as he laughed and said, "Your dad really is strong. He's improving with every game. Looks like I underestimated him. He's really not that bad when he gets serious."

Old Wu smiled. "You've already won so many times. Why don't you let him win for once?"

"Ai, that won't do." Zhang Ye said, "I have my bottom line."

Yet, for a future son-in-law who had just visited his future father-in-law for the first time yesterday to demolish him to such a sorry state, that lacked any kind of bottom line!

On the board, the game progressed with much tension.

The stones of both sides were stuck in " mutual life 4 "!

Old Wu looked at him with a smile. "What do you want for dinner?"

"Anything is fine."

"Then I'll go make dinner now?"

"Alright, thank you so much."

Zhang Ye placed another stone down. "Haha, watch me harass your territory!"

As he played, he continued to talk to himself and type out messages to send to his opponent. It wasn't that Zhang Ye did not take this seriously, but that this was just his style. He enjoyed playing Go this way.

He prattled:

"Yo, that was a great one! What a great move!"

"You're making things difficult for me, Comrade Changhe!"

"You're trying to trick me! How can I allow you to succeed?"

"Come, let me see how you will defend this move!"

"Yoho, nice! How about this move?"

"Whoa, you captured my stone? But I sacrificed it!"

"Haha, it would be impolite if I don't respond in kind. This bro will capture a stone of yours too!"

"What? You're still capturing? Aren't you afraid of overeating 5 ? I'll let you capture them then! Go on? Why aren't you capturing them? Good thing this bro thinks quick. Otherwise, I would really have been forced into a corner by you!"

Old Wu's voice sounded from downstairs.

Old Wu asked, "How's the game going?"

Zhang Ye shouted from the room, "It's really close! I wonder if your dad is on steroids or something. It feels like he got possessed! I was nearly overwhelmed by him!"

This old guy!

He's too stubborn!

Old Wu laughed. "Don't underestimate a 9th dan pro Go player. A retired 9th dan is still a 9th dan, after all. If you don't mind, let me invite my dad's disciples over some time to play you. They're all active players ranked 6th dan and above, and they all play better than my dad. You can practice by playing them."

Zhang Ye laughed and said, "Forget it. I nearly couldn't even hold out against your dad. With my skill level, I should just play against retired pros and amateurs. I can bully them a little. But I can't win against a true pro Go player for sure, so this bro shouldn't try to look for trouble." He did not know how well was playing Go, nor did he care. All he wanted was to beat Wu Changhe. That was enough. "Haha, respond to this move!"

...

At China Qiyuan.

Everyone at the place was shocked!

"This is amazing!"

"This YE is so fearsome!"

"How did he train?"

"After taking White, he can equalize against Master Xiang in the opening?"

Earlier, no one thought that Xiang Rong 9-dan would lose!

But now, there were some people thinking otherwise!

Like Chen Ying.

Like Tian Weiwei.

These two disciples of Wu Changhe exchanged a glance and saw the disbelief in each others' eyes. Th-This was truly too frightening!

Would Xiang Rong 9-dan really be able to win?

All of a sudden, for some reason, they were feeling very uncertain!

YE's messages were still as sarcastic as ever!

Talking about going to the bathroom!

Talking about how the flowers have wilted!

Talking about remembering to bring toilet paper!

But now, no one was swearing. YE's messages were just like voodoo curses being recited to hasten their demise. It made them all tremble nervously!

Ring, ring, ring.

Chen Ying's cell phone rang.

She quickly answered it. "Ma'am."

Li Qinqin's voice came from the other end. "Little Ying, where's your teacher?"

Chen Ying gave a bitter laugh and said, "Teacher is watching the game."

"Who's playing right now?" Li Qinqin said, "I was watching too until I suddenly got kicked out of the room. I think they're not allowing us to spectate or something? This latest game has already been going on for over an hour, hasn't it? Have they not determined a winner? Could it be a 9th dan player going up against YE? Is it Li Yi 9-dan?"

Li Yi?

Chen Ying didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She said, "Ma'am, Li Yi 9-dan already lost to that guy way before this game."

"What?"

"That's right."

"Then who's playing?"

...

Elsewhere.

Dinner was ready. Old Wu brought the dishes upstairs.

"Dinner is server."

"Smells great. I'm hungry just from the smell!"

"Play on, play as you eat."

"Alright."

Zhang Ye picked up a chopstick's worth of food, his eyes glued to the computer screen. He chuckled as he placed a stone with the mouse. "I finally got to see you make a mistake! What an opportunity! I miscalculated earlier and nearly got crushed by you and almost didn't recover. It looks like it's finally your turn to experience that! Watch this! Haha!"

Wu Zeqing inched close and took a look.

Evenly matched?

It looked like it would take a tough time to determine a winner?

At this moment, Wu Zeqing's cell phone rang. Checking the caller ID, she saw it was from her mother. She put down her chopsticks and left the study to answer the call.

"Mom, what's the matter?"

"Where's Little Zhang?"

"He's at my place. We're having dinner right now. Why?"

"He's not playing Go?"

"He is. Hasn't he been playing against Dad the entire day?"

"Are you sure it's him who's playing the match?"

"What's the matter?"

"What's his account name?"

"YE?"

"So it's really him!"

Li Qinqin's voice over the phone became very loud. After confirmation, she sounded like she was quite shaken!

Wu Zeqing laughed and said: "Is Dad getting frustrated from losing too much?"

Li Qinqin said: "It's not only your dad who's getting frustrated! All of China Qiyuan is getting frustrated as well!"

Old Wu was taken aback and couldn't help but let out a laugh. "China Qiyuan? Why are they getting frustrated?"

"Daughter, did you really think that Little Zhang has been playing against your dad?" Li Qinqin said.

Old Wu didn't know how to react. "Huh?"

Li Qinqin said: "Your dad retired many years ago, so how could he still play that well! Your dad only played two games against him this morning. The rest of the day, the games were all played on behalf of him by the pro Go players from the Qiyuan! Hu Liang 7-dan, Xu Han 8-dan, Chang Han 9-dan, Tian Xi 9-dan, Li Yi 9-dan, all of them lost! All of the Qiyuan has been swept by Little Zhang!"

Old Wu found that funny and said: "Mom, stop joking."

Li Qinqin said: "Why would I joke about this! Do you know who's playing against Little Zhang right now? Do you know?"

Old Wu said: "It's really not dad?"

Floored, Li Qinqin said: "How could that be your dad! If your dad could still play like that, would he have to retire! Would he have lost to Little Zhang after being given a two stone handicap?"

Old Wu asked: "Then who's playing?"

Li Qinqin inhaled and said: "Xiang Rong 9-dan!"

Old Wu: "What?!"

1. 挂/Guà/kari - Approach is a general term which includes any move which reduces the liberties of an opposing stone or chain of stones | https://senseis.xmp.net/?ApproachMoves

2. A corner approach which is one space away in a straight line, is called in full a one-space high corner approach | https://senseis.xmp.net/?HighApproach

3. https://senseis.xmp.net/?Stand

4. https://senseis.xmp.net/?Seki

5. "Capturing" uses the same verb as "eating" in Chinese.