Daomu Biji: Wu Xie’s Private Notes

Xiao Xiejiu, Xie Jiuye, (1) was the only orthodox intellectual in the underworld back then, and he had also studied in Japan for a year.

The Xie family was a model family, and unlike all the people I had mentioned before, the biggest feature of the Xie family was that they had no special characteristics. They were average in every way, whether it was manpower, routines, or connections. Although their performance wasn’t the most outstanding, it was definitely adequate.

That was why the Xie family had the most stable business among those in the Mystic Nine. They may not be the wealthiest family, but there had never been any controversies. No one picked on them, and no one asked them for help.

Moreover, Xie Jiuye was the type of person who did everything on a step-by-step basis. He would think of every possibility before it happened, and planned countermeasures in advance, which might have been the reason why no one wanted to be their opponents.

This type of person was generally unremarkable, so there wouldn’t be any strange anecdotes. If there was anything to say, there was only one interesting story.

Xie Jiuye was good at scheming, and loved playing chess in his free time.

At that time, a chess master in Guangzhou was invited to Changsha by an officer who wanted to watch him play. The chess master played eight games of chess with eight people at the same time. In the end, the Changsha chess players lost.

Xie Jiuye was also a chess enthusiast. Speaking of this, during that ten-year period, there were two people who were famously good at playing chess. One was Xie Jiuye, the other was my Uncle Two.

Xie Jiuye was famous for playing unexpected games, and was good at setting up traps, while Uncle Two was good at solving traps. This meant that one liked to attack, and the other liked to defend and counterattack.

But Xie Jiuye and Uncle Two were people from two different eras. When Xie Jiuye’s skills were at their peak, Uncle Two’s skills hadn’t matured yet.

As a result, Xie Jiuye was the one who could go up against the chess master, but he didn't like to make public appearances.

They finally decided to open another one-vs-eight chess game, one of which was directed by Jie Jiuye behind the scenes. The result was jaw-dropping. The master won the chess game with Xie Jiuye, but lost the other seven games.

A few chess enthusiasts were watching the game, and were amazed.

It turned out that even though it was full of flaws, the chess game with Xie Jiuye was thrilling. Every time Xie Jiuye seemed close to losing, he always found a way to stay in the game.

But when Xie Jiuye made his counterattacks, he didn’t have the obvious advantage, and was still pressured by the master. This went on until he eventually lost the game.

Xie Jiuye said that it was “a chess game of courtiers”, which was invented by those who had superb skills, but had to play chess with those who were of a higher status.

For example, if you were asked to play chess with the emperor, you had to lose, but you needed to make it very difficult so that the emperor would think that he won by his own strength.

It was very hard to play this kind of game spontaneously, so there were some people who planned all the moves in advance in order to come up with a difficult game.

But despite all the planning, the end goal was to lose the chess game. Other people asked Xie Jiuye why he didn’t just win directly so that the master couldn’t feel proud of himself.

Xie Jiuye said that the master made his way here from Guangdong and had countless experiences playing chess. Naturally, he would have his own methods for winning.

This kind of person only picked the easy games, so if one of the eight people was as skilled as him, he would bypass that person. In the end, he would win seven games and only lose one. That way, he wouldn't be ashamed because it would still look like he had excellent skills. But this way of playing was a trap in itself.

Of course, the skills that the master exhibited were definitely brilliant. His way of playing required a very strong memory and the ability to be familiar with the chess games, but resilience wasn’t as important.

As a result, Xie Jiuye first used the “chess game of courtiers” strategy to reveal some flaws, and then lured him into the trap.

The master must have thought that this person had the weakest skills, so he would attack first to gain an advantage, and wouldn't care too much about the other seven games.

It was the basic method when playing one-against-many chess games. It was impossible to guarantee that all sides would be on the offensive, so you would decide which games to attack and which ones to defend. Within a few rounds, the attention given wouldn’t be even.

Xie Jiuye took advantage of this. Seeing that the master was about to win, Xie Jiuye turned the game around with another unexpected trick. He continued maintaining this kind of situation where the master was about to win, but couldn’t actually do it.

It may have seemed like there were many flaws, but none of them allowed him to make a breakthrough. It was like when a girl teased you so much that you had erotic desires, but she wouldn’t let you get close to her. It was a really uncomfortable feeling.

As a result, the master wasn’t willing to lose that one game. He focused on dealing with the others, but he also couldn’t get any further. He failed the other seven games because one game dragged on for too long.

The players from Changsha had wanted to defeat him, and with one win and seven losses, the master would obviously feel upset, but once he reflected on it, he wouldn’t think that it was a conspiracy.

Everyone admired Xie Jiuye more than ever. They drank and celebrated that night without mentioning it again, but when everyone left, his son asked him again, “Dad, what happened exactly?”

Xie Jiuye laughed and said, “I sacrificed something in order to win in the end.”

It turned out that every player was supposed to be in separate rooms, but the master couldn’t see what was going on in those rooms. That “chess game of courtiers” was actually played by the seven players in the same room at the same time, and the other seven games were played by Xie Jiuye alone.

Xie Jiuye’s skills weren’t as good as the master’s, so if they had played the game in an honest manner, Xie Jiuye definitely would have lost.

With this method, the power of those seven players was bound to be better than the power of one player, and they would subdue most of that person's energy.

On the other side, Xie Jiuye was on the offense in every chess game. He wasn’t concerned about losing a game or two, because he could also take advantage of the fact that the master’s energy was drawn, and could play the other seven games without worries. The whole incident was neither noticed nor flawed.

Master Xie set up one trap, solved another, played chess, and avoided answering people’s questions. Every step he took was almost seamless, and showed the depth of his wisdom and how tricky his schemes could be.

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TN Notes

(1) "Xiao Xiejiu” means “Little Xie Nine”, and “Xie Jiuye” means “Ninth Master Xie” in Chinese.