Go: The Deadly Game

Thirteen years ago, the Gu family, a household of Go champions, fell overnight. The prodigy Gu Qingci was falsely accused of having a disgraceful playing style and vanished without a trace. Thirteen years later, under the alias Qingci and wearing a dark hoodie faded from countless washes, she appeared at the national professional qualification tournament.

Skepticism rang out inside and outside the venue. “Some unknown amateur thinks she can qualify?” “What kind of killer instinct could a girl possibly have at Go?” But when she played at lightning speed, using her “short blade” style to cut down one seeded player after another and turn the board into a storm-tossed battlefield, everyone realized: the prodigy of old had fought her way back.

Her moves were sharp as knives, every strike drawing blood. Yet when she met Shen Yanzhi, the Go association consultant who was as gentle and refined as jade, she showed a weakness. He was a living legend of the Go world, yet he paid special attention to her. “Your game conceals an obsession that has been building for far too many years.”

On the road to clearing her name, she must face not only gender bias in the Go world, but also the hidden hand that framed her family all those years ago. When the truth comes to light and a place among the national team is within reach, Gu Qingci smiles as she holds a black stone in one hand and a white one in the other. “I don’t just want to win at Go. I want to win back everything that belongs to me.” Shen Yanzhi is already standing behind her. “I’ll stand by you on your battlefield.”