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Some inmates with favourable performance grades or low security assessments would be assigned to help the prison staff with tasks such as distributing goods or keeping hygiene.

Jiang Chijing believed that this was what Yu Guang meant by ‘snooping’, in which he was assigned to do tasks at the clerical department. But seriously, he had no clue how he had become the God of Go.

“I checked the God of Go’s IP address from the stock trading forum and it ended up leading to Southside Prison.” Yu Guang touch the bridge of his nose with his index finger, nudging up his completely non-existent glasses. “Then I looked into who in prison had computer access, and found that they were all prison staff in civilian posts.”

The patrol team could be eliminated from those with computer access, restricting his search to the admin block.

But this wasn’t the main point. Jiang Chijing quickly captured a key piece of information from Yu Guang’s words—the God of Go was in Southside Prison.

“And then, I went to snooping around the clerical department, sounding out every mister sir. But the radius was still too big and I couldn’t accurately pinpoint anyone.”

As Yu Guang recounted his deduction process, Jiang Chijing couldn’t help but lose himself in thought as well.

From Yu Guang’s words, the God of Go was a great stock-trading god, who abruptly vanished into thin air over a month ago and appeared again later, except his IP address now was different from before, and quickly after, vanished again…

“Therefore!” After going on a whole ramble of how he deduced this, Yu Guang finally paused to breathe, and he continued, “I went back to where I first started and checked the God of Go’s previous IP address. And I found out that it wasn’t far from Southside Prison, located in a residential community just a few kilometres away.”

An answer gradually surfaced in Jiang Chijing’s mind.

“And guess who lives there?” Yu Guang suppressed his excitement and said, “It’s you, Officer Jiang!”

Jiang Chijing wasn’t the only one who lived in that community and was also present in Southside Prison.

Unlike Yu Guang’s exuberance, Jiang Chijing remained calm, checking the desk calendar by his hand. He asked Yu Guang, “Which date did the God of Go last appear?”

Yu Guang gave it a thought then reported a date from last week and claimed that it was impossible for him to misremember it.

Everything aligned.

Jiang Chijing had changed the password on the very day that Zheng Mingyi had touched his computer. He couldn’t think up any complicated yet easy-to-remember password on the spot, so he used the calendar on his desk for inspiration. The password he came up with was comprised of information such as the present date at that time, such that even if he forgot it later on, he could jog his memory just by glancing at the calendar on his desk.

And the date that Yu Guang reported was precisely the date that he had circled in red on his desk calendar.

“Idol.” Yu Guang waved a hand in front of Jiang Chijing’s eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ll be your little disciple from now on, I definitely won’t leak your secret.”

Jiang Chijing was still lost in his thoughts. He was considering the God of Go’s username—Go. This word had the same meaning as weiqi in English, and the ‘yi’ in Zheng Mingyi’s name also had the same meaning as weiqi in Chinese.

At the thought of this, Jiang Chijing suddenly laughed. Dense interest pooled in his unfocused eyes.

“Idol, are you okay?” Yu Guang seemed to be scared stiff by the way Jiang Chijing was acting. “You can believe in me, really! I’m super reliable! So what’s the next move?”

Just then, Jiang Chijing’s walkie-talkie suddenly crackled to life. The warden’s secretary was requesting that he drop by the warden’s office.

“There’s no next move. Just behave.”

Jiang Chijing responded with a “roger” into the walkie-talkie and got the prison guard in charge of Yu Guang to bring him away.

“Idol, I haven’t finished what I want to say. I must express my eternal worship and devotion to you, from the very depths of my—”

“I got it, I got it, hurry up and go, you can express it in the future.”

Jiang Chijing wasn’t the God of Go. Naturally then, there was no reason for him to accept Yu Guang’s adoration. After the prison guard took Yu Guang away, he got distracted looking at the bandages on his hand for a while before collecting his thoughts and taking it off, going up to the warden’s office on the third floor.

When his walkie-talkie crackled to life just now, Jiang Chijing already had an inkling of what the warden was looking for him for. As expected, after he reached, it was regarding how Zheng Mingyi should be rewarded for helping a prison officer out of trouble.

“Officer Jiang, you were an involved party, what do you think?” the warden asked.

From an impartial point of view, Jiang Chijing felt that the rewards shouldn’t be excessive as the situation just now wasn’t critical; he could have controlled the scene even if Zheng Mingyi had not appeared.

But from a personal point of view, Jiang Chijing felt that Zheng Mingyi had done a great service by thrashing that rapist.

“Give him performance points,” Jiang Chijing proposed.

“Naturally, naturally, he’s failing now.” The warden said, “The question is how many points we should award him.”

With the way that Zheng Mingyi persistently got into fights, he was left with only twenty or so performance points. In such a situation, he couldn’t receive early parole even when close to his release from prison.

Jiang Chijing deliberated for a moment, then opened his mouth. “Warden, the situation just now was extremely critical; if it weren’t for Zheng Mingyi rushing over in time, I’m afraid I…”

“I understand.” The warden nodded. “Although we can’t reduce his sentence, we must make sure that he is accordingly rewarded.”

“How about clearing his previous negative performance record, then?” Jiang Chijing tentatively said. “And give him full points for performance.”

Jiang Chijing was very clear that these rewards had exceeded what Zheng Mingyi should be getting, nor was he expecting the warden to agree on the spot. He was only trying to set the bar high first so that there would be room for negotiation after.

Little did he expect that the warden would nod pensively, agreeing, “Splendid. I feel that this reward is very suitable.”

Jiang Chijing soundlessly raised his eyebrows. He was willing to wager that the warden had already intended to reward Zheng Mingyi handsomely, and had only come looking for him to round up the act. He said meaningfully, “Warden, your stocks have been doing well recently, haven’t they?”

“Pretty decent, pretty decent,” the warden said. “My wife no longer objects to my stock trading at last.”

Having personal guidance on how to trade from an acclaimed great god on the stock trading forum was not treatment that just anyone could enjoy.

“Speaking of this, I think that the rewards still aren’t enough yet.” The warden continued, “The stock market closes at three, but Zheng Mingyi’s free time is only until two-thirty. I think that we can extend this time by half an hour.”

Suddenly reminded, Jiang Chijing asked, “Who’s reading for Zheng Mingyi now?”

“Isn’t it still you?” The warden said, “Zheng Mingyi told me that you were having a sore throat and needed to rest for two days. I think you look all better already.”

So this was it…

Which also meant that Zheng Mingyi had only planned to give him two days to rest and smooth his ruffled feathers, but would come back still when it was time. In light of this, Jiang Chijing said, “Then I don’t think it’s necessary to give him another half hour.”

He used to be free after two in the afternoon. As long as nothing else cropped up, the remaining three hours of the day was his to kick back and relax. Now, with Zheng Mingyi hogging so much of time, he naturally didn’t want to give him half an hour more.

However, the warden acted as if he hadn’t heard him, saying heedlessly to the secretary, “Okay, that’s settled. Go make the arrangements.”

“Warden—”

“Officer Jiang.” The warden raised a hand, cutting into Jiang Chijing. “Your job is relatively idle. Since you have so much time, it won’t hurt to learn stock trading, no?”

Hearing this, Jiang Chijing quietened. He used not to have any interest in stock trading, because he was not short on money.

But he suddenly changed his mind at the mention of this. After all, he had just discovered something amusing—as it turned out, Zheng Mingyi had a little secret too.

Translated on ninetysevenkoi.wordpress

***

Please do not repost or retranslate.

After work today, Jiang Chijing spent the night surfing the stock trading forum.

Go had a lot of followers on this forum. Jiang Chijing finally understood why Yu Guang would worship his idol so ardently, because Go was indeed a figure with a pre-installed heroic glow.

He went through the posts Go made before becoming famous. Go’s several predictions of stock market crashes were met with ridicule until the market really did crash without warning later on. Then, the style of the replies under that thread would suddenly transform into masses of people prostrating themselves in worship. There were still people conducting archaeological studies, digging out his old posts, to this day.

Zheng Mingyi’s claim to fame could be matched up to a particular stock market crash—he had gone against the trend, shorting a large number of stocks while the market was on the rise, ultimately raking it in big.

He made a name for himself both on the internet and in reality.

Jiang Chijing read through Go’s old posts one by one. Most of them merely comprised of several sentences bringing up bullish or bearish stocks, but he would also expose problematic listed companies on occasion, advising retail investors to avoid the landmine.

Every time he named a company, there would always be people replying in jest for him to watch out for his personal safety, as his words held too much weight and would deal a significant blow to companies.

It was also for this reason that conspiracy theories flooded the forum after Go’s disappearance. Some claimed that the God of Go was being imprisoned by black-hearted companies, and some claimed that the God of Go was being investigated by the regulatory board. In short, everyone was pessimistic.

It was no wonder that that kid Yu Guang would get so worried.

Jiang Chijing used to think that Yu Guang was making a mountain out of a molehill and didn’t take it seriously at all. But after browsing around the forum now, he then found that there were actually so many people concerned for Go’s well-being.

Jiang Chijing was tempted to tell these people, I bet you didn’t expect that your great god is in prison.

He was the only one who knew this secret.

He had to admit that this made him feel pleased.

Jiang Chijing continued to excavate Go’s old posts, and he found an interesting tidbit.

Go would often make typos, such as typing ‘fund’ (jī jīn) into ‘chicken essence’ (jī jīng), ‘short term’ (duǎn qī) into ‘last breath’ (duàn qì). So, every time he gave tips on whether to buy or sell, there would always be people repeatedly confirming beneath, whether it was to buy (mǎi) or sell (mài).

Many fans had advised God of Go to be more careful and make fewer typos. Only Jiang Chijing knew that their God of Go was dyslexic; what he typed on the forum was very possibly written using a voice-to-text converter, either that or he had simply typed it out like a blind cock.

At this, the corners of Jiang Chijing’s lips quirked up. This guy, Zheng Mingyi, was actually… a bit cute.

Jiang Chijing read until midnight, by which time his eyes had already started to go sore and swell, before finally turning off the computer with great reluctance.

Lying in bed, he recalled the visual of Zheng Mingyi boxing. He once thought that this man would be very cold and ruthless, but little did he expect that this guy was actually hiding such a sense of justice on the inside.

If someone got Jiang Chijing to analyse Zheng Mingyi the way he did others, in truth, he would be unable to.

The only thing he could say was that Zheng Mingyi was very, very, very much the most interesting person he had ever met.