Che Xixi once loved playing chess. As a child, every evening around sunset, he'd sit by the doorway, waiting f…
Che Xixi once loved playing chess. As a child, every evening around sunset, he'd sit by the doorway, waiting for the sky to turn golden. His mother's voice would ring out, "Che Xixi, call your father—dinner's ready!" And he'd dash to the Immortal Tree, where the familiar clatter of chess pieces falling into the box told him his father was near. His father always won. "Knights move in an L, elephants fly diagonally—those are the chess rules. But the rules for living? They're far, far harder," his father would say after each victory. Those words stayed with Che Xixi for years.