My Chess Dream of Broken Blue Bridge

My Chess Dream of Broken Blue Bridge

by 随缘321

Different environments and lands will shape different people. People in the South are usually different of the North. In the Southern cities, signboards of Xiangqi and Card Clubs are more openly displayed, the activity more plenty and more convenient. In the North, the activity is not that openly supported, and it is up to the local authority to decide.

A friend of mine has recently opened a Xiangqi and Card Club（棋牌会所）in a Southern coastal city, it is situated right in the city center, in the 3rd floor of an Hotel, with dozens of rooms to conduct club's activity. Having large scale and luxurious setting, with bars, lounges, plenty of mahjong tables, pool tables, table tennis, with abundance of snacks, tea and so on. In-room sofa, couch, air conditioning, TV, WiFi, restrooms, all are available.

Xiangqi spans the major fields of Culture and Sports, and is officially recognized and enjoyed by the population. Chess and Card Clubs across the country, under the big flags acting like a sort of tiger skins, putting chess in front of the signsboards, in reality however, in these Clubs, there is almost no real Xiangqi activity, just like in the market, people selling Wife Cakes（老婆饼）without wife, just using the name only.

My good friend, making things to appear for real, has asked me to set up the Xiangqi room in his Club, he only charged me a minimum monthly utility bill, covering partly for water and electricity, and I was very happy and thrilled, now my dream comes true. I just need ploughing, regardless of the harvest, so I bought brand new tables, chairs, benches, Xiangqi sets and many other supplies. If someone comes to my Xiangqi room to play, I will only charge him or her for the tea, the idea is that through Xiangqi one will meet many new friends, and hopefully the attraction of the game entertainment will be in full swing.

There are many Xiangqi fans in the city, playing the game is quite popular, in parks, streets, alleys, and squares, you can see many people bringing their own chess set with them, calling their friends and together they will have endless fun. The establishment of the Xiangqi room, in my opinion, coincided with the good timing. Like planting of trees, you will enjoy the shade under the trees. I printed lots of business cards, distributed them everywhere.

After a while, seeing no movement or response, I went to the square to find someone or anyone to play, so a few chess people caught up with the business cards, took them to the hotel looking for the Xiangqi room, when they just entered the luxurious hotel lobby, a few of them looking around amazed, a bit of suspicion on their face, hesitant, and embarrassed. As soon as the elevator door opened, the group immediately scattered, and one of them blurted out and shouted: "pyramid schemes, scammers".

Because of the helping of my good friend, my running cost is not that expensive, if the business does not work smoothly, at least I can entertain people who come to play Xiangqi for free. My hard work paid off, and in the days coming, I actually found one or two people who came to the chess room to play, I brewed monk-fruit tea, handed over cigarettes, I did not charge them at all, I explained to them the reason, cleared as much as possible the other party's doubts and misgivings. Despite all these, those people did not come back again. I called them by phone, and they said that they were sorry to disturb me too much. I ponder on the matter, finally I think this is because the Xiangqi room looked too luxurious, lavish and opulent, unlike the atmosphere in the park or street corner.

The Chess and Card Club has never got improved, few people came along. Now the weather is getting hot, I am a person from a cooler place, not accustomed to the hot weather, then my family came and picked me up home. It was a Dragon Boat Festival the day before leaving, my good friend gave me a lot of rice dumplings（粽子）, it was really delicious.

I haven't been seeing him for a long time, if I have time I will go to see him again during the Dragon Boat Festival, and to bring back again more delicious rice dumplings. The Dragon Boat Festival has again arrived, so I take up pen and write down some words as memory of our friendship.

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Source : 象棋大师网
Dated 2019-June-9th