Chapter 6 rules of the game

rules of the game —The Story of Waverly Gong one As early as six years old, my mother taught me that the only way to succeed is to be quiet, which is a strategy, like a game of chess.Although at that time, few of us knew how to play chess. Once when I walked past a store where I bought candied fruit, I grabbed my mother's hand and refused to leave, crying and begging to eat candied fruit. "Shut up. A wise person will observe words and actions, and act according to the wind.You have to at least learn to tell which way the wind is blowing.The wind is the most powerful, it disappears without a trace, but it is the most powerful. "

So, when we walked past this candied fruit shop again, I kept my mouth shut without saying a word. After the mother picked out the food she needed to buy, she took a bag of candied fruit from the shelf and put them on the counter. My mother was good at housekeeping, so under her careful management, my brothers and I were able to live well, at least not limited by our surrounding environment.We lived in San Francisco's Chinatown, and like most Chinese kids, we played on gravel paths behind restaurants and antique shops.I don't feel poor at all.We have three meals a day, and we are all full, with five dishes and one soup for each meal.

We live in a bright, comfortable and clean apartment with two bedrooms.Downstairs from our apartment is a Chinese pastry shop.At dawn, when the morning light on the small street has not yet cleared, I can smell the sweet and rotten boiled bean paste.Then, the aroma of fried sesame balls and curry chicken dumplings overflowed.Often when I was still in bed, I heard my father knock on the door and go to work. At the end of the path between the two rows of apartments is an open space, which is a small playground with slides, swing sets, etc. There are stone benches lined up around the playground, where old people often like to sit and bask in the sun, crack sunflower seeds, and use melon seed shells to lure cooing pigeons.But what we like most is a path at the other end, dark, quiet, and winding, which is somewhat mysterious to us.My brothers once sneaked into the back door of a traditional Chinese medicine shop along it, and saw that Lao Li sold the weird dried shells of snakes and insects, dried leaves and dried flowers in small packages to sell to others. patient and his family.It is said that once, he used this ancestral secret recipe to cure a patient who was sentenced to death by an American doctor.Next to the pharmacy is a printing room, which specializes in printing hot stamped wedding invitations and colorful flags for festivals.

Going forward is the fish market.There are pools of soft-shelled turtles and other aquatic products that are doomed not to survive in the display window. They are struggling in vain in the pools covered with green tiles, and at the same time they are fighting each other to win a more comfortable space for themselves.An advertisement was written above them: "Only for food, no pets for sale." The butchers in blood-stained white coats quickly cut open the fish selected by customers, while resolutely assuring customers: They are alive and fresh, just caught.” When the business is relatively light, we can still see baskets of live frogs and crabs.The grown-ups warn us not to offend them.There are also boxes of dried squid, frozen prawns, squid and eel.The thing that scares me the most is the flounder.With their flattened bodies and squinted eyes, they reminded me of a little girl crushed by a car.I didn't see her being crushed to death, but when I think of the word "squashed", I will think of this flounder.

At the corner of the small street is a restaurant named "Hongxin" with only four tables.In the hidden part of the corridor, there is a door marked "for the owner's own use". My brother and I believe that at night, robbers will appear from behind this door.Tourists never go to Hongxin because the menu there is only in Chinese and not in English.There was once a Caucasian tourist who insisted that my companions and I pose for a photo in front of Hongxin's window. The background of the window is a roast duck with thick oil and sauce.After taking photos, I introduced Hongxin Restaurant to him.He asked me what dishes were there, and I counted them out loud: "Pig offal, duck feet, and octopus gizzard..." Then my friends and I laughed and ran away.

We fled to the doorway of the China Gem Company, fearing that he would catch up. My mother named me Waverly after the street we lived on.Waverly Gong is the name I use on my documents and ID cards, and at home I am called "Sister".I am the only daughter in my family and the youngest. Before going to school every day, my mother always combed my hair. She twisted my thick black hair tightly and braided it into two hard braids.That day, when she was working with my hair with that sharp-toothed hardwood comb again, I had the idea of ​​playing a little trick on her. "Mom, what is Chinese torture?" Mom just shook her head with a hairpin in her mouth.Then she wet her palms with water, flattened the hair behind my ears, and put on a hairpin. The sharp hairpin made my scalp hurt.

"Who said that?" she asked me, without reprimanding me for my trouble.I shrugged and said, "All the boys in our class say that. They say being Chinese is the hardest thing." "The Chinese are the most capable," my mother said succinctly. "The Chinese can do business. They also have Chinese medicine and traditional Chinese painting, which enjoy a high reputation in the world. Americans are lazy. The Chinese are willing to endure hardships." My brother Vincent has a chess set.At the end of the side street is the First Chinese Baptist Church, and we go to that church every Christmas.The women of the church gave us Christmas presents.

Santa Claus is played by a church person.He was wearing a Santa Claus robe and a white cardboard beard with cotton balls floating in it.When it was my turn, I answered all kinds of questions from Santa Claus so earnestly that everyone thought I was too young and believed that he was really the Santa Claus who brought gifts to the children.In fact, I was just pretending to be stupid and not showing my face.When Santa Claus asked me how old I was, I immediately estimated in my heart: According to the American calendar, I am seven years old, but according to the Chinese calendar, I am eight years old.So I replied: I was born on March 17, 1957.This answer obviously satisfied him.So, he asked me seriously again, if I would like to be a good boy, believe in Jesus, and obey my parents.I knew what kind of answers he liked, so I followed his mind and answered them seriously.

The children couldn't wait to open the presents they got.I have known for a long time that the one with the big bun is not necessarily the best. A girl who is about my age gets a big gift, and when I open it, it is just a picture book about the characters in the Bible.And another girl, chose a small gift, which turned out to be a bottle of perfume.Also, the sound of the gift box matters. A little boy chooses a gift that jingles when he shakes it. He thinks it must be full of dimes and nickels. A pewter piggy bank in the shape of a globe, he was disappointed all of a sudden, but after being slapped on the ear by her mother, he quickly followed her away.

When I was grabbing presents on the wheel, I carefully touched the remaining gifts with my fingers, tried their weight, and estimated the contents inside.In the end, I settled on a heavy gift wrapped in shiny tinfoil and tied with a red ribbon.I chose correctly, it was a row of twelve-color, circle-shaped lollipops, and I played with them for a long time with satisfaction.The elder brother Winston was also very smart in his choice. He found a box of plastic inserts with an instruction manual attached, and he could build a submarine during World War II according to the instructions in the instruction manual.

Another brother, Vincent, touched a chess set.It would have been a decent Christmas present, but it was clearly a used set of old chess pieces, and missing a black pawn and a white knight.My mother politely thanked the unknown sponsor: "It's too expensive!" At this time, an old lady with silver hair nodded and smiled at our family: "Merry Christmas!" But as soon as he got home, his mother asked Vincent to throw away the chess pieces: "She didn't want it herself, so she gave it to us! Throw it away, we're not picking up trash." She said angrily.The elder brothers pretended to be deaf and dumb, and saw that they had laid out the chess pieces with great interest, and started playing while referring to the worn-out instructions. During the whole week of Christmas break, I watched Winston and Vincent play chess, and I just felt that the chessboard had a mysterious attraction for me.It is more attractive than those strange herbs that Lao Li has in the herb shop.The expressions on the faces of my brothers when they played chess were so serious, which convinced me that there was an indescribable mystery in this game, which was more exciting than the dark and mysterious door in Hongxin Restaurant. "I'll come too, I'll come too!" When one of the brothers sighed in frustration, while the other was complacent, it meant that the game of chess had come to an end, so I took the opportunity to plead.Vincent initially refused to let me participate until I contributed two donuts to fill in the two missing pieces.He chose a cherry candy to be the black pawn, and a mint candy to be the white knight. Anyone who eats chess can eat it in one bite. Vincent began to teach me the rules of chess: "There are sixteen pieces here, and I have sixteen. Here, the emperor or queen, two fortune tellers, two knights, two cannon mounts, and eight pawns." .Soldiers can only walk forward in the first step, and then they can take two steps in a row..." "Why can they only take two steps and not more?" I asked, fiddling with my soldiers. "Because they are soldiers!" he replied. "Why do they have to take a cross step to capture a piece? Why are there no women and children in the pieces?" "Why is the sky blue? You always ask these stupid questions!" Vincent said. "Bing", turn the manual to the page about "Bing": "Bing P-A-W-N, Bing, you can see for yourself." The mother who was making the dough clapped the flour in her hands and said, "Show me!" She took the instructions and glanced at them with a casual look. "Such an American rule!" She laughed noncommittally. "Everyone who comes to a foreign country first has to obey the local rules. If you don't know anything about it, the referee will say: what's wrong with you, go back. They don't explain to you why it has to be like this. You can’t do that. If you ask, they say they don’t know, so you can figure it out for yourself! In fact, they have their own ideas. So the best way is to take the chess pieces and figure out the mystery by yourself.” She said. She smiled slyly. Since then, I have studied chess seriously, looked up materials, looked up dictionaries, and went to the library in Chinatown to read various books about chess. Finally, I realized many of the mysteries, how to play chess?And how to control the overall situation?A good chess player, every time he thinks about taking a move, he must always think about the next three or four moves.I began to learn to concentrate on the chessboard, think twice about every move, and consider its consequences. At the same time, I also got enlightenment from it. I should not reveal my "why" too much.This is the art of chess, the knack of playing chess, but it is also the principle of doing things in the world.But you have to be quiet, undisturbed. This world composed of sixty-four black and white squares has infinite power for me.I carefully drew a big chessboard by myself and nailed it to the wall beside the bed. Every night when I lay in bed, I would think about the chessboard again.Soon, I won't have to trade candy for a chance to play chess, but I can't find a chess opponent.My two older brothers made it clear to me that they'd rather put on their Hopalong jeans and hit the streets after school than play chess with me. two On a chilly spring afternoon, coming home from school, I walked across the field at the end of the path where a group of elderly people had gathered watching two players play chess.I rushed home and fetched Vincent's pair of chess pieces tied with rubber bands, and I didn't forget to bring two fruit candies to cover the gaps of those two chess pieces.I went back to the field and approached a gentleman who was watching a chess game. "Playing chess?" I asked him.His eyes were wide open, but when he saw the chess box under my arm, he smiled. "Little girl, I haven't played with dolls for a long time." As he said, he glanced at me lovingly.I immediately took out the chess pieces as a challenge, and set up a battle in front of him. This old man, he asked me to call him this way, his chess skills are much better than my two brothers, I lost several games in his hands, and naturally lost a lot of fruit candy, but I feel that I have gained Many new tricks about playing chess.The old man taught me a lot of tricks: such as "secretly hiding the warehouse", "throwing a stone into a well", "surprise attack", "stabbing a knife in the back", "ecstasy array", "killing without blood"... There are also many gentlemen's agreements in chess: the pieces you eat must be arranged neatly, and if you don't have the right time, don't call them "generals", and after you lose, don't throw the pieces away in a fit of anger, because you have to pick them up yourself afterwards Get up, and have to apologize to the other party.By the end of summer, the old man had solved everything, and almost passed on all his skills, and my chess skills became even better. When I played chess in that small square, I would be surrounded by a crowd of Chinese and tourists, even my mother would join in.She will explain to everyone with Chinese-style modesty: "This little girl is just a coincidence!" One of the gentlemen suggested to my mother to send me to a chess game in the city.Mom smiled and shook her face ambiguously.I was itchy in my heart, and I really hoped that my mother would agree, but I didn't say a word.I knew she would not agree to let me play chess among strangers, so on the way home, I deliberately expressed that I didn't want to participate in the game in the city. I am not very familiar with their American rules. If I lose , that would be a shame. "No one is forcing you to go, it's embarrassing for you to be so timid!" Mom said, implying that she agreed with me to go. When I competed for the first time, my mother sat with me in the first row and waited. I couldn't help shaking my legs because the metal brackets on the seats were already wet with sweat.When my name was called, I jumped up.Mother took out a small piece of ruby ​​from her pocket, it was fiery red, it was her mascot. "Good luck," she said softly, slipping the king into my pocket.I looked up at my opponent: it was an Oakland boy, about fifteen or sixteen years old, and he wrinkled his nose and looked at me somewhat disdainfully.But immediately, he disappeared from my field of vision. In front of my eyes, there were only my white chess pieces and his black chess pieces facing each other.A gust of wind blew past my ears, and only I could understand what it was saying to me. "Attack from the south." It taught me softly, "Come without a shadow, go without a trace, give the opponent a surprise." I set up camp step by step, and advanced towards the opponent along the route I opened up.It's like the wind blows through the leaves, and there are rustling sounds in the auditorium. "Be quiet, be quiet." Someone reproachfully issued a warning to the surroundings.I held my breath and went deeper step by step.The breeze blew strongly in my ears: "Lure the enemy from the east to go deep." The opponent's pace was a bit out of order. "Take advantage of the victory to pursue. Chase! Chase! He is already dizzy." The invisible and intangible wind blew stronger and stronger, and finally, like a wind blowing away, with a sound of "will", the wind stopped and the clouds suddenly stopped, only the sound of his own gentle breathing was heard . Mom put the first trophy I brought home next to a new plastic chess set that my neighbor gave me. Mom wiped the two chess pieces gently with a soft cloth, and said, "Next time you win better, and you don't want to eat some chess pieces." "Mom, it doesn't matter how many pieces you lose." I said, "Sometimes, you just have to lose your pawns." "It's better to try to let the opponent take away some chess pieces as little as possible." In another game of chess, I also won.My mother smiled triumphantly and said: "This time you lost eight pieces, last time it was eleven. You have improved. But it is better to lose a few less." She said that I was very impatient, but I couldn't say anything to her. My reputation is getting better and better, and the number of competitions is also increasing, and I win every game.The Chinese pastry shop downstairs displays my ever-growing collection of trophies in the window along with those dusty pastry models.Once, when I took home a trophy in a competition with a large area, in the window of the pastry shop, there was a fresh cake poured with thick cream, topped with red sugar The oil poured out: "Congratulations, Waverly, the little chess master in Chinatown." Soon, the owners of several flower shops, tombstones, carving shops and funeral parlors suggested that I could participate in national competitions.From that moment on, my mother decided that I would no longer have to cook for the family, and that Winston and Vincent were bound to take care of me. "Why does she get away with it so much and let us do this chore?" they protested. "It's the latest American rule," said Ma. "Your sister is free to play. She's racked her brains to play chess. How about you? It's helpful that you can rack your own towels!" At the age of nine, I was already a national chess champion.It seems that leaving the identity of the master is close at hand.I was hailed as America's hopeful, rising chess star, child prodigy.My photo was also published in Life Weekly.Bob Fisher wrote in the margin: "There has never been a female grandmaster in chess." The photo they took of me was published in a magazine that day.My hair is routinely slicked and slicked with plastic rhinestone barrettes.Opposite me sat an American, who was about the same age as the old man who had abandoned me in the small square. I still clearly remember how the old man in the small square made my chess pieces sweat profusely.A bandanna was tucked into the pocket of his dark, sweaty coat.Every time he moved a chess piece, he took out his handkerchief and wiped his palm vigorously. The lace neckline of my pink and white crepe dress made it uncomfortable, and it was specially made by Ma for the occasion.I posed according to the movement my mother designed for me: I clenched my fists and supported my chin, and my elbows gracefully rested on the edge of the table. students as well.Then, I stopped shaking, bit my lip and hesitated in thinking and indecisiveness, and then, with a threatening gesture, I snapped the chess piece in a pivotal position, and then burst into a victorious smile.Here's a whole set of looks designed for the press. three I don't play in Waverly Street anymore, I don't go to the little square full of pigeons and old people, I go to school and go home every day.As soon as he entered the house, he plunged into the chess pile and realized more secrets from it. But it soon became apparent to me that there were too many disturbances at home, mainly from my mother.Whenever I was pondering a new strategy on the chessboard, she would stand beside me. I think it was because she considered herself my ally.Every time I move a chess piece, a "huh" will be gently exhaled from her nostrils. "Mom, I can't even practice chess if you keep standing by the side like this." One day, I finally proposed to her.She went back to the kitchen without a word, banging the pots and pans.When the ping-pong sound fell silent, I found her standing at the corner of the corridor, and a "hmm" leaked from her tightly closed mouth again. In order for me to study chess with peace of mind, my parents were obedient to me.Once I complained that my two older brothers who shared the bedroom were too noisy, and as a result they were immediately moved to the living room facing the street, where beds were set up for them.If I left food at the table to show that I was too full, my stomach would be upset, it would affect my thinking, and my parents would never blame me.But there is one thing that can't be forgiven, that is, every Saturday, on the days when I don't play, I have to go to the market with my mother.At this time, Ma will triumphantly take me on her arm, go into and out of almost every store, buy a lot of things, and then lose no time and proudly introduce to anyone who glances at her: "This is Waverley. Gong, my daughter." Once when I stepped out of a certain store, I begged her in a low voice: "Mom, you seem to be advertising." My mother immediately stopped in the street, ignoring the pedestrians with large and small bags behind her, bumping into us from time to time. "Geez, you think it's embarrassing to be with Mommy?" She took my hand and squeezed it even tighter. I looked at my toes and replied, "That's not what I mean, it's just that you embarrass me like that." "Oh, isn't it embarrassing for you to be my daughter?" she asked angrily. "That's not what I meant, that's not what I said." "Then what did you say?" I know that this kind of misunderstanding gets worse the more it is explained.But I still heard a long string of words slipping from the tip of my tongue. "Why do you insist on showing me off? If you want to show off yourself, why don't you learn to play chess?" Mom squinted her eyes in anger, as if two unpredictable slits had suddenly opened on her face.She said nothing, but tormented me with her silence. I just felt that my ears were hot, and my blood vessels were throbbing, like hot wind blowing past my face.I struggled to free my hand from my mother, and ran away. An old lady hit me, and the oranges and cans were scattered all over the floor. "Hey Qing, this child!" Mom and the old lady screamed at the same time, Mom leaned over to help her pick up the things, and I took the opportunity to run away. I fled like a loach among the crowd, and my mother screamed from behind: "Sister! Sister!" Without looking back, I ran onto a small road, crossed an alley, and ran into a street full of tourists. The road turned into another small street, and I just turned around and ran aimlessly until I couldn't move anymore.I was gasping for breath like an overworked motor.I felt chills all over, so I sat down on an upside-down plastic bucket with my chin on my hands.I imagined my mother, how to find that street from this street. In the end, she had to give up searching and had to wait for me at home.About two hours later, I dragged my tired feet and walked home. The side street leading to our apartment was silent, and I could see the honey-yellow lights in my windows, twinkling like tiger eyes.I followed the tiptoes, walked up the 16 stairs, walked to the door like a cat, raised my hand and twirled the croquet lightly.The door is locked.Only the chairs in the room were pushed away, and then there was a sound of small footsteps, and the door opened with a click. "You're back at last," Vincent said. "What's the matter, girl, what's the matter?" He said, and went back to the table.There is only a skeleton left in the fish plate, so the head of the fish appears to be very large. The head of the fish is raised high, retaining the stubborn and stubborn posture it had in life.I guess as punishment, this is the dish left for me. Inside, came the mother's cold voice: "Don't pay attention to her. She doesn't think much of us at all." I quickly sat down at the table by myself, and put the rice into my belly silently. No one answered me, and I could hear the sound of chopsticks scratching the rice bowl. Putting down the bowl of rice and walking into the room, closing the door, I fell headlong on the bed.The lights in the room were not turned on, and the lights from the neighbors were reflected on the ceiling through the window lattice, reflecting different patterns. In a trance, the sixty-four black and white chessboards appeared in front of my eyes, and my opponent had two angry eyes like a silent abyss. She showed a winner's smile and said to me: "A cat that can catch mice can't Call." She led the black soldiers under her, overwhelmingly pressing towards me with overwhelming momentum.My white pieces screamed and lost in panic.I felt myself levitating involuntarily, blown out of the window by an invisible wind, and I saw the little street we were on, getting smaller and smaller under me, and finally disappeared from view.The sky stretched out, boundless, and the surrounding area was empty, and I was floating alone. I closed my eyes, thinking about the next move, how should I go?