"Rose, I challenge you. If you’re not good at chess, you can choose another talent," Alma confidently proposed. "I can play the piano, chess, and even do painting and calligraphy."
Alma, being the daughter of a wealthy family, had plenty of opportunities to hone her talents. Many around her secretly admired the shimring aura she exuded. If they could, they’d love to have the sa impressive background and talents—and be the object of others’ envy.
"Fine, chess it is," Rose reluctantly agreed. "One minute."
Alma was secretly delighted. She borrowed a chess set and graciously allowed Rose to make the first move.
"No need, I’ll give you a three-move advantage."
What?
Alma was insulted by Rose’s offer. She smiled and said, "That wouldn’t be fair, would it? Competition is about fairness. I’ll call you sis. Respecting the elders is a traditional virtue in Solterra. So please, make the first move."
Rose didn’t want to waste her breath arguing, so she made the first move.
Alma thought Rose was speechless in the face of her wit and felt even more triumphant. However, her smile didn’t last long as she watched the ga progress.
It was supposed to be a simple ga, but Rose maneuvered with such ease, leaving Alma at a disadvantage. Her pieces were continuously captured by Rose.
In less than a minute, the outco was clear. Many of the onlookers who had just arrived saw the end of the ga, with Rose as the winner.
Rose maintained her indifferent deanor, as if winning or losing was a trivial matter to her.
But Alma sat before the chessboard, thunderstruck. She had believed she could maintain a lead for at least a minute. But now, looking at the disastrous state of the board, she was filled with sha and couldn’t utter a word.
How could this be?
How could Rose’s chess skills be so formidable?
It was one thing for her to be good at violin, but to also crush her at chess?
As Rose stood up, soone exclaid, "It’s Professor Oswald!"
Professor Oswald had sohow appeared amongst the crowd. No one knew how long he’d been standing there watching. His warm smile and approving applause were directed at Rose.
"Wonderful, absolutely wonderful. I had no idea you were also skilled at chess. Who did you learn from?"
To win over Alma in both violin and chess was impressive.
Alma was equally talented in chess as she was in violin.
But instead of boasting about her ntor, Rose asked, "What brings you here, Professor Oswald?"
Instead of judging the competition, what brought him backstage?
"I wanted to add you on WhatsApp," Professor Oswald replied with a gentlemanly smile.
He had ntioned, while comnting on Rose’s violin performance, that if she ever changed her mind, she was welco to seek him out at the Violin Association, or he could add her on WhatsApp.
He was serious!
As soon as Rose left the audience area, he followed!
Everyone was stunned by his actions. It was clear he was very fond of Rose and satisfied with her performance. He intended to take her as his student.
In front of so many people, Rose didn’t want to embarrass him. She took out her phone, opened her QR code, and handed it over.
After scanning her contact card, Professor Oswald said, "Added."
After accepting his request, Rose comnted, "I have another team to coach for the competition. I won’t keep you, Professor."
"Very well," Professor Oswald nodded. "Feel free to reach out anyti."
As he walked past Alma, he didn’t spare her a glance.
He thought that by pretending not to see her, he could spare her the bruise on her ego.
But Alma misunderstood his good intentions and felt even more jealous and dissatisfied.
She felt that Professor Oswald was ignoring her and repeatedly showing favor to Rose, treating her as invisible.
Everyone else was gathering around Rose.
"Rose, you’re amazing! Not only are you good at violin, but your chess skills are also top-notch!"
"When did you start playing chess?"
"So folks have miscalculated their moves. They wanted to beat you but ended up embarrassing themselves again."
"Hahaha, exactly."
Just then, a resonant and robust voice reached every ear.
"Well, well, let see what’s happening over here. It’s quite lively!"
Everyone turned to the voice, surprised to see none other than the renowned Mr. Eugene!
Mr. Eugene is a well-known Chess Master, mastering all types of chess, especially Go.
Because of his extre obsession with chess, many people called him "Chess Fanatic."
Why would such a big shot appear at a small competition like the one at Sumrfield College—and even wander backstage?
Could it be, like Oswald, Mr. Eugene was also looking for gifted young players in the competition to take as disciples?
Thinking that, everyone’s gaze turned to Alma.
Alma’s Go skills were taught by Chess Master Morgan, who was said to have received guidance from Mr. Eugene.
However, Alma lost to Rosemary. Would Mr. Eugene still consider her worthy? Would he take her as his protégé?
"Can soone tell what’s going on? Why are there so many people?"
There were too many people; the old man couldn’t spot Rosemary.
He had heard from Grandpa Beck that Rosemary would lead the team to Sumrfield College today, so he ca here specifically to catch her!
The girl had promised to play a few gas of chess with him, but it had been three to four months, and he hadn’t seen her!
He had to make a special trip here.
Unreliable.
What’s more infuriating was that Grandpa Beck had been flaunting photos of him and the girl conducting experints, irking everyone.
Every ti they saw the girl experinting with him, the group couldn’t help but scold Grandpa Beck—but he seed to enjoy it.
Today, Grandpa Charles, the Principal of Sumrfield College, was busy.
Instead, Vice Principal Mr. Leopold was bending over backward to accommodate him, looking very respectful.
"I heard that Alma from the Collins family is playing Go against Rosemary from Westerly College," Mr. Leopold said with a jovial smile.
"Good heavens!"
Rosemary was playing Go here?
Who dared to challenge Rosemary?
Wasn’t that just asking for trouble?
"Let’s go have a look."
Maybe he should be ready to call 911, considering Rosemary’s chess skills could easily give soone a heart attack.
Mr. Leopold thought the Chess Master was interested in the ga of Go. As soon as he took a few steps forward, he noticed that Rosemary was ready to leave.
The ga seed to be over?
"Grandpa Eugene?"
Rosemary was surprised to see the old man and regretted wasting a minute with Alma earlier. Otherwise, she could have avoided Mr. Eugene.
"You young lady, I had to co all this way to catch you."
As soon as Mr. Eugene saw Rosemary, he couldn’t help but start nagging.
Everyone was taken aback.
It sounded like Mr. Eugene had co to find Rosemary.
But Rosemary seed like she wanted to slip away.
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