Lost again.

Everyone could see it clearly. In the first game, Wu Zhixuan might have been a bit complacent and failed to show her full strength, but in the second game, Wu Zhixuan really gave it her all.

Yet even so, facing the girl, no matter how much effort Wu Zhixuan put in, she still had no way to counter.

“Resign again!”

Hearing Wu Zhixuan choose to resign, the girl couldn’t help but exhale slightly, a faint smile appearing on her face.

Seeing the game end, the crowd around remained in disbelief at the match. After coming back to their senses, they looked toward the girl sitting opposite Wu Zhixuan, whispering with shock.

“The girl playing black has already played beautifully, but the one playing white this time is even more amazing.”

“How old is she? And she’s a female player too... this is... just too strong.”

“What’s her background? Is she a professional player?”

“The white player’s performance in this game— even ordinary professional players couldn’t pull that off, right?”

The crowd murmured among themselves, eyes constantly shifting to the girl, trying to guess her identity.

Hearing the discussions beside him, Wu Shuheng’s expression darkened slightly. After taking a deep breath, he walked directly to Wu Zhixuan’s side, looked up at the girl sitting opposite her, and said, “I’ll play the next game!”

At this announcement, the chatter abruptly stopped. All eyes turned to Wu Shuheng.

“He’s with the girl who just lost, right?”

“After watching those two games, he’s stepping up? Could he be stronger than the girl who lost earlier? That girl’s level was already quite high.”

“He really thinks he can win? Trying to reclaim face for his teammate?”

None of the onlookers left;

instead, they watched Wu Shuheng curiously and whispered among themselves.

Yu Shao also glanced at Wu Shuheng, but his thoughts were completely different from the others.

In his view, Wu Shuheng was indeed much stronger than Wu Zhixuan, but winning against that girl would be extremely difficult. So there was no way Wu Shuheng was just trying to help Wu Zhixuan regain face.

To reclaim face, one must be sure of victory;

otherwise, it would be a joke. And Wu Shuheng clearly did not have much confidence in winning.

Wu Shuheng simply wanted to experience the girl’s skill and face her in a match—purely out of curiosity.

“Alright.”

The girl, having played two games already, didn’t feel tired but rather was getting into the rhythm. Without hesitation, she smiled and nodded, “Bring it on.”

Wu Zhixuan’s expression was somewhat gloomy. She stood up silently and gave her seat to Wu Shuheng, taking the spot where Wu Shuheng had stood before.

As soon as Wu Zhixuan moved, Wu Shuheng immediately sat down, opened the go bowl, and said, “Let’s nigiri.”

The girl nodded, quickly reaching into the go bowl to grab a handful of white stones. Wu Shuheng then took out the black stones and placed one on the board to start the nigiri.

The result was that Wu Shuheng took white, and the girl took black.

They exchanged go bowls, bowed to each other, and the game began again.

The boy slowly placed a stone, making the first move.

Tap!

Column 17, row 4, Komoku!

Wu Shuheng stared at the board with a serious expression, as if facing a formidable enemy. He was extremely focused. After some thought, he carefully placed a stone on the board.

Column 4, row 16, star point!

Tap, tap, tap...

The players alternated moves, quickly forming a pattern of small point versus twin-star formation. Then the girl hung a high move, and Wu Shuheng responded with a low diagonal blocking move in the second line, signaling the start of a fierce battle.

The second floor of the go parlor became quiet again. Everyone concentrated intensely on the game, watching every move as if swords and blades were flashing across the board.

Seeing Wu Shuheng’s performance in this match, many people showed surprised expressions.

“He’s really not simple. That guy plays very forcefully;

every move is beautiful.”

One person quietly spoke to a friend beside him while watching the board, “White is aggressively surrounding and attacking the black stones at the Komoku, but he actually sacrifices stones and thickness decisively.”

His friend, focused on the board, nodded slightly and said, “More importantly, even with very complicated positions, he can react immediately with deep calculations.”

“Black spent so many moves launching a strong attack but couldn’t secure thickness. White faced the siege and sacrificed stones directly.”

“Though black captured a group of white stones, by sacrificing stones, white gained influence. Black didn’t gain any advantage, let alone white showing signs of counterattack!”

“They’re both so strong!”

Tap, tap, tap...

The sound of stones being placed echoed repeatedly in the parlor.

On the board, black and white stones spread continuously, and the position gradually became more complicated and unpredictable. The crowd frowned slightly, and as the game grew more intense, they fell into deep thought.

“The thought process is very coherent, and the understanding is deep. Where thickness is needed, it’s absolutely thick;

when attacking, there’s no hesitation. The build-up of influence and swallowing up the opponent is done decisively...”

The girl stared thoughtfully at the board in front of her. She seemed to have a grasp of Wu Shuheng’s strength.

“He has no weaknesses, his style is balanced and comprehensive, much stronger than the girl earlier, but... he’s too textbook.”

“If it were just like this, then winning against me is impossible.”

The girl quickly reached out again and gently placed a stone.

Tap!

Column 6, row 8, pincer!

Everyone was immersed in the game, calculating the next moves, but the girl’s move suddenly broke their train of thought.

“Placed... here?”

Everyone looked baffled, completely unable to understand why black would move there. They stared at the board, furrowing their brows, and started long contemplation.

Not only them, but Wu Shuheng also frowned deeply and pondered.

“Pincer?”

Yu Shao finally couldn’t help but take a closer look at the girl opposite. Seeing her play this move truly surprised him.

This was a highly unconventional, counterintuitive move. To find and play this move required not just skill, observation, overall judgment, and calculation, but a break from conventional imagination.

Or rather, this move felt like a post-AI era technique.

Just like when humans first challenged Go AI, the AI played moves that seemed incomprehensible, even absurd. Human players at first had no idea what the AI was aiming for.

Only after continuing to play did human players realize the purpose of these moves and were deeply shocked by the cleverness.

Because human players rely on past experience to play, AI’s moves were things they never imagined, completely outside human blind spots.

For example, AI’s aerial pincers.

Later, as Go AI became widespread and most players analyzed and dissected these moves, they gradually discovered these blind spots and dared to try them, even in major tournaments.

However, these moves are not fixed patterns. They require specific formations. So even with AI in the past, and many blind spots found by human players, not everyone could play these moves.

But in fact, some post-AI era moves had been played before AI existed.

The difference was that AI found these moves through cold calculation and winning probabilities, while human players must break conventions and use imagination—just like the Fifth Line Shoulder Hit.

And now this pincer move subtly carried the feel of a post-AI era technique.

After a moment more, Wu Shuheng stared at the board and suddenly seemed to realize something. His expression changed sharply, his jaw clenched tightly, and a thin sweat appeared on his forehead.

Wu Shuheng still did not move, staring at the board, entering a long period of deep thought.

Meanwhile, the crowd still did not understand the purpose of this pincer move. Their frowns deepened.

“This...”

Finally, after some time, someone’s pupils constricted slightly. They seemed to have discovered something and stared at the board in disbelief, unable to hold back speaking, “This is...”

“What is it?”

Many around looked over with confusion, asking, “What’s the big deal?”

“White...”

That person stared tightly at the board, sweat also appearing on their forehead, and said with difficulty, “It’s no longer possible for white to build thickness and swallow up. This move by black has completely shattered white’s thickness!”

“How is that possible?”

Hearing this, many thought it ridiculous but still looked back at the board and continued calculating the game’s further development.

White cuts, black attacks, white extends, black extends, white extends again, black hane-connects, black peeps...

More and more people’s expressions changed. Someone who was smoking nearby, upon realizing the key to the position, subconsciously removed the cigarette from their mouth, staring at the board in shock.

Finally, after a while, Wu Shuheng’s eyes flashed with a sharp light. He took up a stone again and placed it.

The boy opposite looked even more focused, thought for a moment, then also took up a stone and placed it in a clever spot.

Tap!

Tap!

Tap!

White and Yu Shao’s stones gradually decreased, and soon more than eighty moves had passed.

The girl’s expression remained intensely focused from start to finish, so concentrated that she seemed to exude an oppressive aura.

Wu Shuheng’s expression, however, was extremely grim. Sweat streamed down his cheeks, and every move was painfully difficult.

Finally, someone in the crowd stared closely at the board and said, “It seems... he’s not the match for that girl either.”

Everyone was silent because they all knew it wasn’t just a feeling. This young man was completely no match for the girl.

“Who exactly is that girl?”

A burly man, drenched in sweat, couldn’t help but ask.

Although he wasn’t involved, even watching this game he could feel the immense pressure pouring down.

No one around answered because they didn’t know either. This was the question they all wanted to know.

Time continued to pass.

“I lost.”

Finally, after about ten more minutes, Wu Shuheng looked at the board and, with difficulty, said he resigned.

By this point, the position was very stable. There was no chance left. Even if black fought through the endgame and secured all the big and small endgame territories, it was an obvious and overwhelming victory.

So he had no choice but to resign.

Silence fell around.

Wu Shuheng was already very strong. His performance in this game was enough to earn everyone’s respect. But against the girl, he had no way to fight back and even performed worse than Wu Zhixuan in the previous game.

“Thank you for the lesson.”

The girl lowered her head and said to Wu Shuheng.

Wu Shuheng returned the bow dejectedly, “Thank you for the lesson.”

The girl smiled, tidying up the stones, then raised her head and looked at Yu Shao. As if playing a game level, she called out, “Next one.”

Hearing this, Yu Shao was momentarily stunned.

Next one?

Yu Shao pointed at himself, confused, and asked, “Me?”

Not only Yu Shao, but Wu Zhixuan and Wu Shuheng also looked stunned upon hearing the girl’s words.

“Yeah.”

The girl nodded matter-of-factly and asked strangely, “Weren’t the three of you together? They can play Go, so you should be able to play too, right? They played;

don’t you want to play?”

“I can, but...”

Yu Shao opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say.

If he said he could play, it seemed like he had to play by default;

if he said he couldn’t, it would seem strange.

At this moment, all the customers in the go parlor turned their heads and looked at Yu Shao.

Feeling all these gazes, Yu Shao thought for a moment, then finally closed his mouth, stepped forward, and sat down opposite the girl, next to Wu Shuheng.

Seeing Yu Shao take his seat, Wu Shuheng finally snapped out of it. He blinked, glanced at Yu Shao, then at the still-dazed Wu Zhixuan.

Then Wu Shuheng immediately stood up and quickly made way for Yu Shao. Yu Shao pulled the chair and sat opposite the girl.

“Do you want to play black or white?”

Seeing Yu Shao sit down, the girl smiled and asked, “Or shall we nigiri?”

“Nigiri then.”

Yu Shao opened the go bowl as he spoke.

The girl looked a bit surprised but quickly nodded and said, “Okay, then nigiri it is.”

No one around left;

everyone silently stayed in place, ready to watch this game to the end.

After speaking, the girl reached into the go bowl and grabbed a handful of white stones. Yu Shao also took two black stones from the bowl and placed them on the board.

The girl released her hand, and several white stones fell onto the board.

“Eight stones, an even number. You guessed correctly.”

The girl counted the stones, then looked at Yu Shao and smiled, “I’ll take white.”

“I’ll take black.”

Yu Shao nodded, returned the black stones on the board to the bowl, then bowed to the girl and said, “Please give me your guidance.”

The girl also put all the white stones back into the bowl, bowed to Yu Shao, and replied, “Please give me your guidance.”