After all of us are reborn, who plays Go?

“Zhan Lang, 9th Dan, thank you for visiting the Korean Chess Institute for exchanges. Knowing that you were coming, I came back from Japan to entertain you.

I’m Cao Mingxun. This is probably our first official meeting. We’ve met before in Japan, but we probably didn’t say more than a few words.

Heroes emerge young! Your victory over Mr. Fujii Hideaki at the age of 18 can be said to have broken the myth that the Japanese top-notch players are invincible, which greatly boosted the confidence of the Chinese and Korean Go circles!
We have quite a few of your chess fans in Korea. After this exchange, I have organized some fan meet-and-greets. I hope you can come and join us.

I'm really sorry to say that, due to our mistake in not investigating clearly, when we submitted the application to you, we didn't realize that the time of this exchange conflicted with the time of your exchange trip to Japan, which caused problems in your staff's itinerary.

I'm so sorry to have delayed your trip to Japan.

But we are extremely happy and welcome you to Korea!"

It can be said that Zhan Lang and his team's trip to South Korea was rather troublesome. After all, the two sides had not yet established formal relations, and there was no way for them to enter the country through normal channels.

Zhan Lang and his team need special channels to enter South Korea, and their movements are also subject to certain restrictions.

After arriving today, it took a long time to check in at the hotel. It was not until the evening dinner that Zhan Lang finally saw the Korean chess players.

Leading the way is Cho Myung-hoon, who is recognized as the best player in South Korea. He was promoted to a professional ninth-dan player this year and has been studying Go in Japan. In fact, if we go by seniority, he is the uncle of many of the six super players.

However, when it comes to strength, most people don't take him seriously. After all, he doesn't have any good record in Japan. He was even beaten by another top-notch Korean player. It is said that he became autistic as a result of the beating.

The only thing Zhan Lang knew about him was that he seemed to be a chess player who loved to fight with all his might. As for the rest, he knew nothing at all.

However, the opponent's strength should still be able to barely reach the ninth level.

"No, no, for the peace and friendship between our two countries."

Zhan Lang remembered that he and Cao Mingxun seemed to have met twice during the competition in Japan, but they never communicated with each other, or at most they spoke no more than three sentences.

So both parties have no impression of each other, let alone any communication.

Anyway, they were just not familiar with each other, so Zhan Lang just laughed off the other party's polite words.

Anyway, the purpose of coming here this time is to complete the mission and promote people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

Just complete this task, nothing else matters.

Cao Mingxun also smiled and said: "Peace and friendship, we also hope to have all-round exchanges with China, especially in Go. After all, we have the huge mountain of Japanese Go on our heads, right? Haha.

Let me introduce you, this is Xu Zhixi, 8th dan, from South Korea. He is one of the best players in Korea and has won many runner-up awards in various competitions in Korea. Apart from me, he is the strongest player in Korea.

This is my apprentice Li Shiqing. You should have met him last time. You participated in the same competition, but now you two are no longer the same.

I often use you to motivate him, hoping that he can work harder to achieve better results. After all, you won all the games in the last competition, and he only won one game, so the gap is still huge."

Cao Mingxun smiled and introduced the two people standing behind him. Or rather, in Korea, these two people are the only ones who are worth introducing to the outside world as a showcase.

One is the second best player in South Korea after Lao Cao, and the other is a talented young man who represents the hope for the future of South Korea.

Apart from these two people, there is really nothing Korean Go can introduce to the outside world.

When Xu Zhixi saw Zhan Lang, he looked as if he had seen some precious treasure. After listening to Lao Cao's introduction, he leaned over and held Zhan Lang's hand.

"You are the Chinese Zhan Lang. A few months ago, you defeated Fujii Hideaki. I watched the entire match and took in every detail, including your final counterattack. I was deeply impressed by every move you made.

You did a good job. The arrogance of the Japanese should have been severely dealt with long ago. They must have forgotten that this is not the era they used to look down on others decades ago. Times have changed.

I have always wanted to defeat a top-notch chess player to prove that the so-called top-notch Japanese players are not only defeated by Japanese. I didn't expect that you would achieve this goal first.

You are awesome, I admire you so much.

But I am not afraid of you. If this is you, I have also proved myself. It won’t be long before I can defeat the top players in Japan.

I will be the first one to fight you tomorrow, I hope you can give me more surprises! Also, don’t show mercy!”

Zhan Lang felt a little scared when he saw Xu Zhixi staring at the beautiful woman like an old pervert.

What's your look like?
This should be Seoul, not Jincheng, right?

But the other party said a lot of gibberish and I didn’t understand a word he said!

I just upgraded my Japanese language skills, and now I have to upgrade my Korean language skills?
Then I might as well stop playing Go and just become a translator.

But there is no way, communication is difficult without a language barrier. Nowadays, let alone legendary headphones, there is not even a translation pen.

Zhan Lang could only turn his head to look at the translator of the exchange group.

Fortunately, I found a translator this time, otherwise I would have been blind.

"He really admires you for defeating the top-notch Japanese player. This is something he has always wanted to do. I hope to have a good match with you tomorrow. I hope you can give it your all."

"It's that simple?"

"That's probably what it means."

The translator also had a headache because the other party kept talking for a long time. Even if you spoke in Chinese and asked me to repeat it, it would be impossible for me to repeat it completely.

Anyway, this is the general idea. I'm not a professional translator, so just make do with it.

Zhan Lang nodded when he heard this: "Then tell him that I am also looking forward to tomorrow's exchange competition, and I will not show mercy."

Seeing Zhan Lang having difficulty communicating due to the language barrier, Cao Mingxun smiled and said, "It does seem that not knowing Korean is inconvenient for communication, but it doesn't matter. This time we are communicating about Go, and everything will be discussed on the chessboard.

There is nothing better than playing Go games to facilitate communication between Go players. We Korean players are looking forward to your guidance. "

Cao Mingxun also doesn't know Chinese, but he knows Japanese, so Zhan Lang can communicate with him in Japanese.

Although it is quite strange, it can be described as outrageous that a Chinese and a Korean communicate in Japanese in the capital of South Korea.

But there is no way. To some extent, it is also a manifestation of the soft power of Japanese Go culture, and hard power affects soft power.

“Who are the members of this Chinese exchange group?”

“Besides me, there are Ye Qing 6th dan, Wang Linzhi 5th dan and Zhang Zhihao 5th dan.

Several of my disciples, including some elite players from the Chinese National Youth Team, also came to see the charm of Korean Go. " "Your disciples?"

Cao Mingxun was a little surprised to hear this. As far as he knew, Zhan Lang seemed to be only eighteen years old. Was he accepting a disciple at this age?

It’s not that Zhan Lang’s level is not good enough. Theoretically speaking, ordinary professions are qualified to teach apprentices, not to mention the level of professional strong nine. He is qualified to teach any apprentice.

But at his age, he focuses his energy on his apprentice. Doesn’t this delay his normal training time?

I feel like it's a bit of a waste of time for me to take this little apprentice in.

"Yes, Ritian, you guys come here."

Lu Hao, who was standing at the back of the crowd, heard his master calling his nickname again and walked to the front with a painful expression on his face.

Didn’t I say it myself? Just call me by that nickname when there’s no one around, but don’t call me by that nickname in front of others.

Hearing this nickname and Lu Hao's expression, the other members of the Chinese team covered their faces and laughed.

Now Lu Hao can only thank Koreans for not understanding Chinese, otherwise he would have brought shame upon himself internationally.

My name is so nice, how come it can be broken down into these two words?
What kind of nickname did my master give me? !
At least Xiaozhu and Dazhuang could tolerate it, but any Chinese would laugh when hearing this nickname.

"Shi Qing, they seem to be your peers. Go over and have a good chat with them."

Looking at the child coming forward, Cao Mingxun patted Li Shiqing who was standing behind him and motioned him to sit at the children's table.

Li Shiqing nodded expressionlessly and walked in front of Lu Hao, saying his name: "Li Shiqing."

Lu Hao seemed to be able to tell that the other party was introducing himself: "Lu Hao."

Hearing this, Li Shiqing's originally expressionless face showed a hint of doubt.

If I heard correctly just now, when China's Zhan Lang called this child over, there was no pronunciation related to the two words Lu Hao in what he said.

Is this guy lying to me?

Regardless of what happened at the children's table, Cao Mingxun smiled and pulled Zhan Lang into the restaurant.

"Near here is the Blue House of the Republic of Korea. This restaurant is a standard for state banquets. Thank you very much for coming all the way from China to toast to the friendship between Korea and China."

Hearing this, Zhan Lang nodded.

Before I traveled through time, I had eaten Korean food near the university, such as stone pot rice, barbecue, etc., and the taste was acceptable.

Although I’ve heard people complain about the Korean state banquet before, saying that it was full of kimchi, Zhan Lang always felt that it was an exaggeration. After all, it was a state banquet, how could it be full of…

They are all kimchi...

Zhan Lang glanced at the dozens of side dishes on the table with a look of pain on his face, then looked at the several members of the Chinese delegation sitting next to him and found that they all had the same unspeakable expression.

How to evaluate this?

Can this dish really be served?!

"Eat, why not?"

Cao Mingxun looked at the Chinese delegation who were not moving their chopsticks and urged them, "Are you at a loss as to how to eat after seeing such a sumptuous meal?"
I have heard for a long time that the conditions in China are not good, and it seems to be true. The Chinese Go exchange group was surprised by the standard of the state banquet in the Republic of Korea.

But this is also the time to show the strength of the Republic of Korea!
"Okay, everyone, eat."

Zhan Lang could only smile awkwardly when he heard this, and asked a few people around him to start eating.

I could only complain in my heart while eating Zhan Lang. To be honest, when I ate Haidilao before, these dishes were only available on the condiment table, and they were all free...

Zhan Lang could only comfort himself slightly. At least this was not Mark Chong’s private kitchen. You have to know that the food there was so bad that even the boss’s facial expression control would collapse.

People even suspected that there were British and German chefs hiding inside.

Koreans just let us eat kimchi, that’s good enough for us!
This dinner was a great success, and after sending Zhan Lang and his party back to the hotel, Cao Mingxun finally put away his smile.

"Not long ago, he was just an ordinary rookie, but now he can beat Fujii Hideaki."

As a Korean chess player who has been studying in Japan, Cao Mingxun is well aware of Fujii Hideaki's strength.

In other words, if he didn't have the real ability, he would have been eliminated from the Japanese chess world long ago. How could he still hold the title?

Hearing this, Xu Zhixi turned his neck and said, "I watched that game, and it can even be called a miracle. The Chinese chess player played exceptionally well in the final desperate situation, and his style is not as soft as the Japanese.

But it seems that Chinese Go doesn’t take us seriously enough. Apart from Zhan Lang, there are no strong players.”

“That’s normal. Respect must be earned with fists. Our goal this time is to defeat Zhan Lang.

You go out to fight first tomorrow and test his strength."

Cao Mingxun was not angry when he heard this, because South Korea cannot be said to have no strength at this time. If it were to participate in an international competition, it would be difficult to find eight people to make up the numbers.

Xu Zhixi was quite unhappy when he heard what Cao Mingxun said. It seemed that the other party was treating him as a cannon fodder to test his opponent, as if he did not believe that he could win at all.

"He is undefeated against Japan, but he cannot be undefeated against South Korea. I have communicated with some Japanese and Chinese chess players a lot, and they may not be able to adapt to my style. I may not have no chance of winning."

When Cao Mingxun heard this, he just smiled. It would be best if Xu Zhixi could win, but it was almost impossible.

Xu Zhixi did not plan to take action against other members of the Chinese team. He planned to concentrate on studying Zhan Lang's game in South Korea in the next few days, and then snipe the opponent on the last day.

Cao Mingxun still has a deep sense of crisis about the sudden rise of Zhan Lang.

With Japanese Go facing a formidable enemy and Chinese Go emerging as a rising star, what is the future of Korean Go?
Cao Mingxun turned his head and looked at Li Shiqing, who was standing and waving goodbye to the young Chinese chess player, and it seemed as if a stone in his heart was slowly lifted.

Maybe the future has already arrived, but this time it can be proven.

(End of this chapter)