The time for the outing was finally set.

Exactly one week later.

During this period, they needed to settle things at home because Dong Junwei would also accompany them. In that case, Tang Jing could only temporarily take over the position of chief. Tang Jing's abilities were undoubtedly reliable, but she usually didn't get involved in ordinary affairs, so there was still a need for a smooth handover of work.

Additionally,

They needed to make further improvements and repairs to the vehicles.

Wei Dalei had been driving around almost every day these past few days and had noticed some problems. Despite the toy cars being perfectly scaled down, the center of gravity of the vehicles was, therefore, not rational, making them more prone to flipping over during driving. Most of the high-speed toy cars had a low chassis, like the appearance of a four-wheel-drive car. Tang Jing had explained the principle behind this, but when she started using terms like "scaling law," Chen Mu could no longer understand.

As this outing had a clear objective and was quite important, Chen Mu had made extensive preparations. He brought more food and weapons than on previous trips and put some thought into selecting the members of the team.

He still didn't intend to take Wei Dalei with them as the family needed him more.

As for He Ying, his old partner, of course, he couldn't be absent.

The others, as previously thought, Sun Yuan and Chang Junyan, were brought along as important support.

In addition, he brought the chubby guy Yu Yuan along.

Although this guy was quite annoying at home, his usefulness became apparent once they went out.

Though the truck had plenty of space, it needed to carry gold, so they couldn't bring a lot of food. They only brought a limited amount for emergencies.

After the last meeting, the atmosphere in Qiming had eased, and it was no longer as busy as before. Everyone had more time to chat and have fun together.

They didn't have many entertainment options, and the most popular game they played was simply deciding who would sing by playing rock-paper-scissors.

So far, everyone except Tang Jing had shown their talents. Even Chen Mu, who was tone-deaf, performed a two-minute one-handed handstand.

It's not that Tang Jing didn't want to perform; it's just that no one could win against her in the rock-paper-scissors game.

However, this kind of entertainment was gradually losing its appeal. After the last time Xue Xu was almost forced to perform fart sounds, everyone's enthusiasm waned significantly.

As the old Chinese saying goes: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

But without smartphones or computers, these high school students couldn't think of any other forms of entertainment.Until one day,

Chen Mu saw Qian Fei and Cao Zishan squatting on the ground, drawing something.

When he walked over to take a look, he saw that it was a chessboard.

"Five in a Row (Gomoku)?" Chen Mu asked curiously.

"Sure, just playing around to kill time." Qian Fei smiled and then drew a circle on the ground with a stone.

Instead of using physical pieces, they used drawn circles and triangles to represent the pieces.

Both of them were big and tall people, so squatting on the ground seemed a bit difficult for them.

Soon, Qian Fei won this round.

Then, they moved to another spot, drew grid lines again, and prepared for the next round.

"It's kind of troublesome. How about I make a set of chess pieces for you?" Chen Mu suggested.

"Huh?" Both of them were taken aback.

Qian Fei said, "That would be great, but won't it take up too much of your time?"

"I've been relatively free lately, and it's not bothersome," Chen Mu replied.

Then, Chen Mu took a piece of stainless steel from his weapon. Since they couldn't be colored, he could only differentiate them by shape—circles and triangles.

It looked a bit strange, but the effect was quite good.

Soon, a pile of chess pieces was stacked on the ground.

Cao Zishan picked up two pieces and compared them, saying, "Senior Chen, you're amazing! These chess pieces are so delicate and small. The most surprising thing is that they are all the same size, just like they were made by a machine."

"Upon closer inspection, there are still some flaws," Chen Mu chuckled, "but they should be sufficient for playing chess."

"More than sufficient," Qian Fei said, unable to put down these stainless steel pieces. Suddenly, he had an idea, "Hey, since you've made these, why not make a set of Chinese chess (Xiangqi) for us?"

"Chinese chess?" Chen Mu asked."Yes, we've been playing Five in a Row because it's relatively simple. We can't play Chinese chess like we did just now, but Five in a Row can get boring after a while."

"Do you both know how to play Chinese chess?" Chen Mu recalled that when he was in the welfare home as a child, he often played various board games, including Flying Chess and Animal Chess, but Chinese chess was a bit dull for kids back then.

However, the welfare home's chess sets were limited, and the fun ones were usually taken by the older kids, leaving him and some other less competitive children playing Chinese chess for years.

Of course, their skill level was still low. At that age, with no one seriously teaching them, they just played around.

"We both know," Qian Fei replied.

Indeed, birds of a feather flock together. Over time, even among the twenty or so people in Qiming, they naturally formed closer relationships with certain individuals. For example, Cao Zishan and Qian Fei bonded over their shared love for chess. Zhu Hao, Chang Junyan, and Sun Yuan were already a close-knit group. On the girls' side, Feng Xiaoyu and Zhao Xiaoyan had become closer friends...

These were not small cliques, but due to differences in personalities and interests, people naturally gravitated towards those they could have more fun with. With work being less demanding now, these group dynamics became even more apparent.

"Okay, then I'll make a set of Chinese chess for you." Chen Mu pushed the Five in a Row set he had made aside. It was still useful, so he wondered if anyone else wanted to play with it later. Then he asked, "Should I differentiate the pieces with different shapes since we won't have colors?"

"It does seem a bit strange."

"Can we use different materials?"

"That makes sense," Chen Mu said, "we can use stainless steel for the black pieces and copper for the red ones; that should make it clearer."

The three of them gathered the appropriate materials.

Making the chess pieces was relatively easy.

As for the characters on the pieces, it wasn't too difficult for Chen Mu now.

In just a few minutes, a set of Chinese chess was completed.

The silver-white and yellow colors made them distinguishable.

Chen Mu was quite satisfied with the result.

Qian Fei and Cao Zishan were thrilled and were about to draw a chessboard on the ground. Chen Mu took it a step further and made a wooden chessboard for them.

They were delighted, and without delay, they sat on the ground and started playing.

Chen Mu watched from the side, reminiscing about the scenes of playing chess in his childhood. Back then, he had even figured out the rules on his own, but he had taken many detours. Playing chess was a matter of talent to some extent, and he realized that these two were indeed stronger players than himself.

It seemed that Cao Zishan's level was even higher.

Not long after, he heard Cao Zishan laugh heartily, saying, "General, your horse and cannon formation is unstoppable. Sorry, senior, I got you."