92: Chapter 92 The Li Family Chess Mastery Lives Up to Its Name

"Double Cups Offering Wine"?

Zhao Jian didn't understand.

He saw that his opponent had lined up two chariots, one cannon, and one soldier in a straight line, targeting the red bishop.

Meanwhile, his own cannon and chariot were positioned at the back rank, faintly threatening the opponent's general.

He couldn't see any signs of losing. Could this old guy really have some secret technique?

The Zhang Family Members gathered around.

They didn't understand either.

But they didn't need to; after all, Li Tiezhu's chess skills had been recognized by their Zhang Family patriarch!

Zhao Jian moved his knight, blocking the opponent's general.

Li Tiezhu, meanwhile, continued to move his cannon onto that same vertical line.

To Zhao Jian, who didn't understand chess and had never read a chess manual, this playstyle was unlike anything he had ever seen.

"See that? The 'Double Cups Offering Wine' is complete. Young man, if you don't concede now, you're going to lose face in a big way!"

He spoke with absolute confidence.

The Zhang Family Members chimed in:

"Why bother with a death struggle? Do you really have to humiliate yourself?"

"Just surrender already! You're not just losing face for yourself now, but for the Zhang Family as well!"

"It's no shame to lose to a successor of the Li Family Chess."

"Don't be a sore loser. The 'Double Cups Offering Wine' is already set up, what are you still being stubborn for!"

Amidst the cacophony of voices urging him to concede, only Zhang Tao came over to offer sweet encouragement:

"Don't listen to them, you're the best."

It was Zhao Jian's turn again. He noticed his opponent had raised the left guard.

It just so happened that his other chariot could capture it, so he made the move immediately.

"Young man, aren't you just handing it over? You're giving me a chariot for free!"

Li Tiezhu laughed, shaking his head, and immediately used his right guard to capture the chariot.

Seeing that Zhao Jian had lost another chariot, the Zhang Family Members became even more excited.

"Chess skill reflects intelligence. Giving away a chariot for nothing—his brain is clearly lacking!"

"To think someone like this can earn tens of millions; it must be his ancestors accumulating virtue for him."

"Who can say for sure? Even a pig can fly if it stands in the path of a strong wind. He's just got good luck, nothing you can do about it."

"Luck always runs out eventually. Look, isn't he about to lose now?"

"Master Li is truly formidable. That one move of 'Double Cups Offering Wine' has him completely dazed."

"And that's not even the full 'Double Cups Offering Wine' yet. Once it's fully executed, he'll be finished."

"Exactly, he won't even be able to move by then."

Zhao Jian watched his chariot being captured without a hint of panic.

It was intentional.

With the guard now gone, he had a cannon and a chariot on the back rank, while the opponent had a bishop.

"Capture!" Zhao Jian used his remaining chariot to take the opponent's bishop.

"Check."

The red bishop was captured, leaving the general exposed to Zhao Jian's chariot.

It was also blocked by Zhao Jian's knight, preventing it from moving upward.

With no other choice, the opponent had to drop the guard back.

Most of the onlookers still didn't think it mattered.

The red side had more pieces, with its chariots, cannons, and knights all intact, while Zhao Jian had already lost two of his strongest pieces—a chariot and a knight.

"What's the point of your check? They've dropped the guard back; do you dare to take it?"

"His brain is a beat slow; he probably can't even see it."

"Young people are just too naive. How could he possibly compare to someone with formal training?"

"Just give up. It's no shame to lose to a professional."

"He's one of those people who won't shed a tear until they see the coffin, and won't give up until they reach the Yellow River."

"Just watch. When he loses in a moment, he'll probably start crying. I've seen plenty of his kind—sore losers."

Zhang Tao frowned,

"All of you, shut up! Don't you know the rule that spectators should remain silent?"

It wasn't that she was worried about Zhao Jian being distracted by them.

While others might not understand, she knew some of the basic rules.

As long as Zhao Jian wasn't throwing the game on purpose, he had already won.

Sure enough, Zhao Jian used his chariot to capture the cannon on the line.

"Check!" With the chariot moved away, only a single guard stood between the cannon and the red general.

Check.

Li Tiezhu's expression shifted.

After a long moment of deep thought, he had no choice but to raise the guard again.

Zhao Jian's chariot moved to the back rank.

"Check!"

The guard dropped.

He captured the opponent's chariot.

Check.

The "Double Cups Offering Wine" had turned into a "Double Cups Offering Pieces," allowing for a series of skewers along the line.

"Uncle Li, your guard is starting to look like a windshield wiper, moving back and forth like that."

Some of the Zhang Family Members, unable to stand watching Li Tiezhu be so pathetic, couldn't help but complain.

But Li Tiezhu was suffering inside.

He didn't want to keep moving his guard back and forth either, but he had no choice.

If he didn't move the guard, he'd die; if he did, he'd get skewered.

"Check!" Zhao Jian skewered and captured the last chariot of the "Double Cups Offering Wine."

At that moment, the onlookers felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted; they felt relaxed and relieved.

Finally, no more skewers!

"Let's see how you skewer us now! Uncle Li, it's time to counterattack!"

The younger Zhang Family Members wore excited expressions.

But Li Tiezhu felt like they were mocking him.

His pieces had all been picked off—what was he supposed to counterattack with? The chessboard?

He was surnamed Li, not Liu!

Zhao Jian saw that his opponent had chosen to raise the guard.

He still moved his chariot to the back rank, check.

Then, he skewered and captured the red side's last knight.

By now, the red side was left with only three soldiers, one bishop, and one guard.

The defeat was sealed.

Li Tiezhu threw the captured pieces back onto the board: "I've lost."

The most painful part of his concession wasn't for him—it was for that group of Zhang Family juniors.

They had pinned their hopes on suppressing Zhao Jian, but instead, they had let him show off!

"Uncle Li, don't give up! You're a successor of the Li Family Chess; you can't just admit defeat so easily!"

The person trying to persuade him sounded sincere, but to Li Tiezhu, it sounded full of mockery.

He snapped in a fit of rage:

"You do it then! If you don't want to give up, you play against him!"

With that, he stood up, took Li Yi, and left.

The birthday banquet felt very oppressive.

Most of the Zhang Family Members were both unable to do anything to Zhao Jian and unwilling to accept defeat.

Yet, the Zhang Family patriarch's attitude had changed completely.

As a result, everyone felt a strange sense of, "We, your subjects, were ready to fight to the death, Your Majesty—why did you surrender first?"

Zhao Jian didn't stay long.

His purpose in coming had only been to stop the Li Family from proposing.

Although, looking at the outcome, it didn't make much difference whether he stopped them or not; Zhang Tao had ended up having a conflict with her relatives regardless.

But seeing her expression, she actually seemed proud of it.

He left the villa area and returned home.

It wasn't too late, but he felt exhausted and went to bed early.

...

[Today's Intelligence (White): Tomato Platform Novel Copyright. The exclusive adaptation rights for 'After My Rebirth, I, a Green Tea Bitch, Became the Global Richest Man's Dark Moonlight' were sold today. After the adaptation of the same name was released, it became a massive hit, with a net income of 100 million.]

One hundred million!

Although Zhao Jian already had 600 million in savings and didn't lack money, he wouldn't turn his nose up at more.

The only problem was that he didn't know how to contact them to purchase the copyright.

He searched for keywords online but didn't find any particularly clear information.

Following the clues he had gathered, he sent an application expressing his interest in purchasing the copyright to their official email.

He received a reply before long.

Fortunately, the customer service representative was very enthusiastic and explained the detailed steps for the application one by one.

He followed the procedures and contacted the person in charge.

Under their guidance, he registered an account.

He could then browse for novel copyrights he was satisfied with from the backend and could even place an order directly.

He searched for the novel's name and immediately found its copyright.

Exclusive adaptation rights: 1.2 million!

This wasn't expensive for Zhao Jian, and the profit margin was a hundredfold.

He placed the order immediately and paid.

After securing it, he also bought the usage rights for a few other novels while he was at it.

The usage rights were very cheap—the expensive ones were 30,000, and the cheap ones were 15,000.

If he hadn't been limited by time and energy, he wouldn't have planned to enter the film industry, otherwise, he would have bought out the entire database!