At 5:50, Zhou headed out the door with his thermos.
The motion-sensor light in the stairwell hadn't come on yet, but the box in the lower left corner of his vision already had.
[Games: 0 won, 8 lost | 0 days left]
[Morning, Elder Zhou! Today's the last day, so you'll want to be full of pep! Is your thermos full of hot water?]
At the top of the stairs, he unscrewed the lid and checked. Full.
At morning exercise, he was in the back row again, at the far end. The empty circle around him was still there. Nobody on either side had moved back.
The auntie in the knit hat had her tai chi fan with her today, and she'd moved up into the front two rows.
All through the routine, the same bit of arithmetic kept running through his head. Closing moves at 6:40. He had to leave at 7:05. That left twenty-odd minutes.
Enough for one game.
Evenings, the plaza by the east gate belonged to Auntie Fang's dance group. The old men at the stone tables only played in the mornings.
At 6:40 the music stopped, and he went straight to the scholar trees.
Old Gu was already sitting at the stone table.
The red and black pieces were all set out. The wooden chess box sat by his hand, its lid not quite closed, as usual. Old Gu rested both hands on his knees. He didn't say a word, just jerked his chin at the stone stool across from him.
Zhou sat down and set his thermos on the edge of the table.
Uncle Ma squeezed through the crowd, planted himself behind Zhou, and thumped his chest.
"Today I'm not saying one word!"
Then he clapped a hand over his own mouth.
One of the watchers laughed out loud. "Old Ma, how many moves do you think you'll last?"
Uncle Ma glared at the man over his hand. He really didn't make a sound.
Zhou went first. He put his cannon on the center file, and his hand had barely left it when Old Gu's horse jumped out.
Smack.
Old Gu always moved fast. Today he moved faster. The moment Zhou let go of a piece, Old Gu's came smacking down in answer, as if he'd had every move ready in his palm, waiting.
A few rounds in, every sound at the table was coming from Old Gu's side.
Before every move, Zhou unscrewed his thermos, blew on it, took a sip, screwed the lid back on, and only then reached for a piece.
Old Gu's fingers started drumming on his knee.
"Done yet?"
Zhou took one more sip before he put the thermos down.
No rush. Take it slow.
Around move seven or eight, one of Old Gu's pawns crossed the river and parked itself right on Zhou's line of pawns, bold as you like, waiting for him to reach out.
A few days ago, he'd have taken it in a heartbeat. Then he'd have looked up and found he'd lost more than he'd taken.
He ignored the pawn and jumped his horse from the edge back to his own doorstep.
Behind him, Uncle Ma sucked in a big breath and swallowed it back down.
A few moves later, Old Gu pulled back the cannon on one side, and a whole file opened up from the riverbank. It ran straight to Old Gu's back rank, completely empty. One chariot could charge down it and give check.
The past few days, whenever he got anxious, he'd charged. And once he charged in, he never made it back out.
Old Gu figured Zhou ought to be getting anxious about now.
The author did not permit this copy from their publication on NovelPhoenix; the chapter at that source supports the writer.
The thing he'd worked out yesterday was still with him. Old Gu was playing the man.
Zhou didn't send a chariot down that file. He unscrewed his thermos and had a drink.
Old Gu's next piece went down without a sound.
Zhou took out his phone and glanced at it. 6:58. The box in the lower left corner was still lit. 0 days left.
They were still in the middlegame. Neither side had lost many pieces.
Smack.
One of Old Gu's horses jumped across the river and landed right in the line of Zhou's cannon.
The hand behind him couldn't hold it in any longer.
"Take it!" Uncle Ma's voice went off like a firecracker. "You're out of time!"
Zhou looked at the horse.
Taking it would save him a good few moves. But the horse had been handed over too neatly. It was just like that pawn earlier, and that empty file. Old Gu was sitting over there waiting for him to reach out.
Take it, and he'd be back to playing Old Gu's game.
He left the cannon alone and pulled back the elephant he'd sent out earlier.
"Hey, you…" Uncle Ma turned a full circle on the spot. When he came back around, his face had gone red from holding it in.
If he couldn't finish by 7:05, then he couldn't finish.
Not finishing meant ending the week with zero wins. Whatever else the Service Center had in store for him, he'd take it.
Old Gu didn't look at the horse again.
He glanced up toward the east gate. That was where Zhou left from every day at 7:05.
On his next move, Old Gu's hand was fast.
One of his chariots came charging down the far side, crossed the river, and drove all the way up to the front of Zhou's palace.
Smack!
It was the loudest move of the whole game. After it, Old Gu's hand stayed hanging in the air. He didn't pull it back.
The spot where the chariot had landed was exactly one jump from the horse Zhou had kept at home. And the way back out was blocked by the elephant he'd just pulled in.
Zhou unscrewed his thermos, blew on it, and took a sip.
Then he moved his horse and took the chariot.
Uncle Ma's hand went back over his mouth.
Only then did Old Gu's hand come down. It came down on his knee.
Zhou looked over at Old Gu's half of the board. Chasing him, Old Gu had long since pushed both advisors up, and both elephants had flown out to the riverbank. There was a wide empty space at the black general's feet.
Zhou's own chariot had sat at home the whole game.
His phone said 7:04.
He pushed the chariot up.
"Check."
The black general looked left, looked right. Nowhere to go.
Old Gu stared at the board, his hand on his knee. He didn't reach out again.
Someone among the watchers went, "Whoa."
Then the whole ring went quiet. Zhou could hear his own thermos lid turning.
A ding sounded in his ear.
[Games: 1 won, 8 lost]
[This Week's Hobby Task: complete]
[Reward: Skill — Chess Sense (Beginner)]
[Elder Zhou, you've still got it! The Service Center is giving you a gold star. Now go home and have a few more sips of hot water!]
Uncle Ma slapped his thigh.
"I taught him that!"
An old man next to Uncle Ma gave him a sideways look. "All you did was yell 'take it,' and he didn't."
"I still yelled it!"
Someone at the back chimed in. "So Old Gu can lose after all."
Old Gu leaned back and slapped both hands down on his knees.
"I am but a carefree man of Sleeping Dragon Ridge…"
This time the tune didn't wander off on man. It landed square on the note.
Only after he'd finished the line did he speak.
"No shame losing to you."
Zhou looked down at the board again, and what he saw there wasn't what he'd seen a minute ago.
It was as if some old man had sat down beside him and reached over to tap a finger on one spot. Out of all the pieces on the board, the chariot that had driven up to his palace jumped out at him on its own. The move Old Gu had made right after that glance at the east gate was the only hurried move of the whole game.
He looked at Old Gu again.
Old Gu had already swept the pieces together and was setting up the next game, head down. Red and black, he pressed them onto the board one after another, faster than usual.
He didn't look up. He didn't ask, "Tomorrow morning?"
At 7:05, Zhou screwed the lid onto his thermos and stood up.
"Tomorrow morning."
The piece between Old Gu's fingers hung in the air for a moment before he pressed it into place.
He grunted through his nose. It was a long one, and it curled at the end, to the same tune as the line he'd just sung.
Zhou picked up his thermos and headed for the east gate.
The day on the seventeenth floor was the same as any other.
At 5:29, he tucked his thermos into his bag. Across the way, behind the wall of monitors, Lu Heng's eyes came up from his screen. They landed on the clock on the wall first, then on Zhou, then went back down, and he typed a few keys.
Zhou saw it.
At 5:30, he got up and went downstairs. The turnstile beeped, and right behind it came a ding in his ears.
[Ding! Elder Zhou, this week's Retirement Living Summary is here!]
[Left on time: 5/5]
[Morning exercise: 7/7]
[Early to bed: 6/6. Tonight's isn't here yet, so don't stay up!]
[Water: 7/7]
Last week, the water line had said 3/4.
He'd just stepped out the main doors when there was another ding.
[Games: 1 won, 8 lost. Your first win, on the very last day! The Service Center hereby commends you!]
[Next Week's Hobby Task: Keep a plant at your desk. Water it every day, and keep track of how it grows]
[Time limit: 7 days (ends at midnight next Friday)]
[Reward: Skill — Gardening (Beginner)]
A plant.
He thought of the pothos on the windowsill back at his shared apartment. His grandma had insisted he take it. It had been sitting there almost two weeks.
On the subway, his phone buzzed in his pocket.
The intern group chat. HR had sent a spreadsheet.
HR: Attendance Confirmation, Weeks 1–2 has been sent. Please check your own turnstile in and out times. If they're correct, reply to confirm.
He opened it. Ten names ran across the top, one column each.
Down his column, ten rows of clock-out times: 17:33, 17:31, 17:34, every one of them crammed into the first few minutes after 5:30. The columns beside his said eight o'clock, nine o'clock, and in one cell, eleven.
Less than a minute after the sheet went out, the first reply popped up.
Lu Heng: Confirmed.
He read his own column again from top to bottom, then sent a reply too.
Zhou Yinian: Confirmed.
He laid the phone face down on his knee.