Cherish the time

Chapter 173

After this matter came to an end, Shindo signed up for a new round of [-]-dan competitions, and started defending his existing three titles one after another.

Judging from his previous performance level, there should be no suspense in the results of these three games, but considering the fact that he is participating as the defending champion for the first time, it is inevitable that some people will have some doubts and concerns about this. worry.

Just because of these, there has been a lot of discussions and criticisms on the Internet. If they know the real purpose of Shinto, they will probably set off another heated war of words.

But Shinto Hikari didn't care about that.

——Because he... has no chance to do it all over again.

With such a firm belief, and the strength to match the realization of the belief, what else can he not do?

So he simply and neatly solved all the challengers of the year and entered his second year of the Triple Crown.

To this day, Go players all over the world know that there is a young Honinbo in Japan, who is very powerful, but he has been staying in the country and has never come out to play international games.

Gradually, some extremely idle people began to talk about it.

At first, he just said that he was content with the achievements he had made in the country, and he didn't think about making progress. He was like a frog in a well who didn't know how big the outside world was.

Later, it involved the declining status of Japanese Go in the world, the bad habit of "long examination" in Japan, and the ivory tower-like environment in the Japanese Go world.

Shinto Hikari has never cared much about these things—except for Go, there is only a small part of his life left, which is only enough to distribute to family and friends, and there is really no room for such troublesome things.

However, troublesome things will always come to the door by themselves.

Just when Shinto Hikaru finished the whole stage of the Chess Master Tournament and advanced to the round-robin round with the first place in the total score, Shinoda led another person in charge of the chess academy named Amamiya to pay a visit in person.

"Please... Teacher Shinto." The two elders sat in front of them with sincere faces, "Please join the 'Chunlan Cup'!"

The Chunlan Cup is a professional Go competition jointly organized by the Chinese Go Association and Jiangsu Chunlan Group. It is one of the six major professional Go cups in the world. Most importantly, it is the latest international competition to start.

Shinto was very puzzled, "Didn't I say..."

"Yes, you did say before that you will not participate in international competitions until you win the seven major titles," Mr. Amamiya spoke quickly, reflecting his inner anxiety very straightforwardly, "but now the Ministry of Culture said This year we plan to have you participate in at least one international competition—”

As soon as Shinto heard this, he understood.

Although the Ministry of Culture has never interfered with the daily affairs of the Chess Academy, he can indeed decide many things, including the candidates for major international competitions.

It's just that generally...they don't do it.

Knowing that these two elders were also forced to do nothing, Shinto simply accepted the gifts and snacks they brought, and agreed to the invitation to participate in the Chunlan Cup.

But before sending the two away, he also reiterated his meaning - it's not that he doesn't intend to participate, it's just that the time has not come.

The two also expressed that they would try their best to buy him time with officials from the Ministry of Culture.

Another year of summer and autumn solstice.

Autumn is a season full of sadness.

When the dead leaves are curling up and the autumn wind is howling, Shinto, who just said goodbye to Saoi, receives another bad news.

This news was brought by Zhusheng Wujian.

— Lena is dying.

Even though Shinto was already mentally prepared for this outcome the moment he saw Takebu appear.

But when he actually heard this sentence, he was still slightly taken aback.

——Lena's life...has come to an end.

So... how long does he have left?

Zhusheng didn't care about his distraction, he just paused for a moment and continued, "Didn't you want to see her last time?"

Shinto nodded.

"Still want to see it?"

"—Even if she... is not what you remember?"

Zhusheng asked two questions in succession without expression.

Shinto still nodded.

Zhusheng then took out a notebook and supporting video equipment from his bag, connected and set it up a little clumsily, and connected the video call with the other party.

After a short noise, Lena's face appeared on the video screen.

"...Shinto-kun?" Through the external sound source of the notebook, her voice sounded distorted.

"Good afternoon, Lena." Shinto smiled and waved hello to her.

"It's really Shinto-kun!" She suddenly became happy, and immediately approached the screen and said loudly, "Long time no see!"

"Long time no see, Lina is getting more and more beautiful." Shinto praised very skillfully, his expression and tone were very sincere.

"Hee hee hee, of course Lina will grow more beautiful." She made a face at him, the joy on her face did not seem to be fake, but her eyes were a little dull.

"It seems that my temper is much better than before." Shinto raised his eyebrows slightly, and talked about the time when we first met, "I still remember the way Lena asked me to come down the slide with her arms akimbo ...It's so cute and cute."

"If Lina didn't let you down, how could you know Lina, how could you know brother," she said while wringing her fingers, and her mouth gradually started to run, "How can you play chess so well, how can you become a chess-"

"Lina," Zhusheng Wujian suddenly called out, interrupting her, "Didn't you say that you have something to tell him?"

Lina stuck out her tongue, "Then, brother, please avoid it for a while."

However, he just continued to sit in silence, giving Shinto a wink.

Shinto frowned slightly, and suddenly understood what was going on.

"Brother?" Lina on the other side of the screen urged.

Takebuo glanced at him again, and stretched out his hand to grab the bracelet on Shinto's wrist.

So Shindo had no choice but to say cooperatively, "He has already left."

"...Shinto-kun." Hearing Jinto's words, Lina's cheerful expression suddenly subsided—this made her look a lot more mature, "You...don't worry about me too much."

Her calm narration immediately confirmed Shinto's guess.

——This girl who once had a pair of bright eyes, now... can no longer see this world.

"In the world of Onmyoji, there are many existences that you can't imagine. I am one of them."

"To me, death is just something that has been repeated countless times-although it is not worth looking forward to, it is not worth worrying about."

"So... don't worry about me." She smiled slightly, with a little water in her dull eyes, "...I... woo..." She choked up as she spoke, but she insisted on continuing, "I ,It does not matter…"

"—But, but I'm so worried, so worried about my brother..."

"...Shinto-kun, I want to... tell you on behalf of my brother..."

"He actually... woo... likes you very much..."

"You're the first... hiccup to treat him like a normal person..."

"Because he has never had a friend... so he doesn't know how to get along with friends..." she said, gradually calming down, "...because no one has ever taught him the rules of this world...so when he meets many When things happen...he doesn't know how to do the right thing..."

"...he has all kinds of problems...nor is he a good guy at heart..."

"...but please...don't hate him."

"...Please..." She lowered her head, her slightly trembling voice revealed that she was not as fearless of death as she said, "...After I leave...I will...please you about my brother."

Shinto glanced at Takeo next to him, and found that he didn't have any special reaction.

——This expression of lack of emotion... is so similar to the current him....

Shinto didn't know what to think of, lowered his eyelids slightly, the shadow of his eyelashes sprinkled on his cheeks, there was a kind of lonely beauty.

"...I promise you." He replied softly.

"...until...the day I leave."

The author has something to say:

I showed it to a friend before posting it, and she said that she couldn’t understand what Lena was, so I’ll quote a paragraph from the previous article here...