I’m Really a Superstar

In the morning.

Zhang Ye’s parents and Old Wu were preparing to head out.

Sisi was getting anxious. “Mommy, where are you going?”

Wu Zeqing patted her head. “Mommy is going out to buy some groceries with Nana and Pops.”

“Don’t go.” Sisi tugged at her.

“Your daddy is a picky eater and isn’t used to eating non-home-cooked meals. Mommy and Nana will cook something nice for you and Daddy later.” Wu Zeqing smiled and said, “Mommy will be back soon, so why don’t you play Go with Daddy and have him teach you? Be good and listen to Daddy, OK?”

Zhang Ye’s mother instructed, “Keep your eye on the child.”

Zhang Ye smiled and said, “I got it.”

His father added, “Don’t let her run out to the beach by herself.”

Zhang Ye said, “I know. Do you have to be so worried with me around?”

“It’s precisely because you’re back that we’re worried,” his mother muttered.

Zhang Ye rolled his eyes at her.

After they left the villa, Zhang Ye’s father said, “Is it alright to leave them by themselves?”

Wu Zeqing smiled and said, “It’ll be fine, Dad.”

Zhang Ye’s mother said, “Let’s go. We’ll be back in an hour or two anyway.”

Zhang Ye’s father thought about it and agreed. They would only be away for a short while, so no matter how unreliable their son was, what was the worst that could happen? With that thought in mind, he felt reassured. Actually, they were deliberately doing this because they wanted to let the father and daughter spend some time together, to see how they could get along and get to know each other better.

In the villa.

Only the two of them were left in here.

It was quite evident that Sisi was starting to panic. The little kid kept peering towards the door while playing Go with Zhang Ye and would ask questions every now and then.

“When is Mommy coming back?”

“In a while.”

“When is Nana coming back?”

“They just left. It’ll be a while.”

Her childish voice and behavior were incredibly adorable.

Zhang Ye smiled and said, “Why? Is Daddy really that scary?”

Sisi lowered her head and stammered, “A-Are you really my daddy?”

Zhang Ye said, “Of course I am. I cannot be more real than this, so why don’t you believe it? Didn’t Mommy tell you? Would she lie to you?”

Sisi still did not seem to believe him. Zhang Ye’s return had really come too suddenly.

Zhang Ye smiled and asked her, “Then how did you imagine Daddy?”

Sisi suddenly became a chatterbox. “Mommy said that my daddy is the most amazing person in the world who knows everything. Mommy would tell me stories that Daddy wrote. I’ve heard the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and the Emperor’s New Clothes too. They were all written by my daddy.”

Zhang Ye reminisced. “Daddy wrote those stories when he first debuted.”

Sisi said proudly, “My daddy can also sing, and he’s the king of singers. He can write too, and is a calligraphy master, so he’s very, very awesome.”

Zhang Ye bragged, “I’m not that awesome, I’m just better than most people, that’s all.”

Sisi blinked and looked at him.

Zhang Ye said, “I really am your dad. What can I do to make you believe me?”

Sisi asked, “C-Can you beat the robot?”

Robot?

Did she mean the artificial intelligence?

Zhang Ye chuckled, “That thing has lost to me before.”

Sisi said, “You’re lying. Only my daddy has beat the robot before.”

Zhang Ye said with a smile, “But I am your daddy. Why don’t you believe me?”

Sisi bit her lip and said, “My grandma said that if my daddy comes back, he’ll definitely beat the robot. Then Grandpa won’t be so unhappy every day.” Sisi then made a face that was just like Old Wu’s as she looked at Zhang Ye with big, puppy dog eyes, waiting for him to say something.

Zhang Ye gulped and hesitated.

Sisi was immediately disappointed. “If it’s my daddy, he would win.”

Zhang Ye said with a wry smile. “My daughter, it’s not that I can’t win. I just want to spend more time with you and your mommy. Be it the entertainment circle or the matters of the Go world, I don’t wish to get involved now that I’ve just returned. Your daddy hasn’t been in contact with society for three years, and the world has experienced such rapid changes. Daddy has become really outdated, so there are many things that I would like to understand before I decide what to do next.” Taking a pause, he said, “However, since it’s a request from my daughter, I don’t see a problem with it. Alright then, let me try playing against PeterGo to see how it is. I would like to see how much that loser has improved over the years.”

Sisi was in a daze.

Zhang Ye belly laughed. “Come, let’s go and see Daddy fight the robot!”

Sisi also got excited. “Can you win?”

Zhang Ye chuckled. “Give me a kiss first. If you give me a kiss, I’ll be able to win for sure.”

Sisi wasn’t willing to.

Zhang Ye crouched down and pushed his face towards her.

Sisi clamped her lips together and planted a kiss on Zhang Ye’s cheek.

Zhang Ye was on cloud nine. He bent down and picked his daughter up, then planted a kiss on her tender cheek. “Hahahaha, let’s go, Daddy is full of strength!”

In the study room.

Zhang Ye booted up the computer.

Sisi sat down beside him and stared at the computer screen without blinking.

Zhang Ye said, “Wait while Daddy looks for his account.”

Sisi said, “Mmm.”

Zhang Ye typed in his password several times to no avail. “Man, my old account is gone. It’s been more than three years, so I suppose they’ve shut it down? This Go server also seems to have been updated. It’s totally unlike the one that I used before. Never mind, I’ll just register a new account. Daughter, what name do you think we should call ourselves?”

Sisi blurted out, “Hero!”

Zhang Ye said in amusement, “Why did you choose that name?”

Sisi said, “Mommy says that my daddy is a hero.”

Zhang Ye said, “Alright, we’ll use that then.”

The account registration didn’t accept Chinese characters and could only be made with English letters.

Zhang Ye typed “HEOR” into the registration field and then said to his child confidently, “This is how you spell hero in English. Do you know English? Yes, this is the word for hero.”

He went on and on explaining to her, but this fellow didn’t even know that he had actually spelled it wrong.

The account registration was completed.

They logged on to the Go server.

After three long years, this was the first time that Zhang Ye was touching a mouse. It was so nostalgic that he found the feeling of a mouse in his hand a little unfamiliar. Holding the mouse, he pressed it several times but did not manage to click on the correct place on screen.

Sisi said anxiously, “Over there!”

Zhang Ye said in confusion, “Where?”

“There.” Sisi reached out and pointed it out to him.

Zhang Ye followed to his daughter’s instructions and finally found where PeterGo was hiding. This was a competition zone that was specially segregated for the artificial intelligence. Zhang Ye browsed through the instructions and found that PeterGo could accept a challenge from anyone. Perhaps due to server constraints or other restrictions, PeterGo wasn’t able to challenge multiple players at once and could only play against one person at any point in time. Zhang Ye thought that he would have to queue to play since there were so many Go enthusiasts around the world and only one of PeterGo. If there were three to five people waiting ahead of him, then it would take several hours of waiting at least, wouldn’t it?

However, he discovered upon clicking into the match room that there was not a single person inside!

No one was challenging PeterGo!

No one was viewing any games in here!

It was quiet beyond imagination. The competition match room was totally empty except for Zhang Ye’s “HEOR” account. The only other thing that existed in here was a series of shocking records!

7451 wins!

0 losses!

Zhang Ye narrowed his eyes and smiled. What an arrogant track record this was. He suddenly remembered the things that the people from China Qiyuan had told him about on the way to Sanya. Just the number of games that the professional Go players around the world had challenged PeterGo to numbered in the thousands. The records here probably included those matches as well, while the rest of it was probably contributed by the semi-professional players and amateur enthusiasts. In two years, it had recorded 7451 wins in total. This was indeed too arrogant!

Zhang Ye smiled and said, “It’s been two years, so it’s about time that someone puts it in its place.”

He felt like he had returned to the time he took on the machine years ago.

PeterGo, do you remember me? You made a comeback the moment I left? Did you think that I wouldn’t return? Or did you think you’ve studied the games that we played thoroughly? But you definitely do not know that there are still many classic Go strategies from my previous world that you’ve never seen before, right? Hur hur, then I’ll show them to you. Humans are still different from machines.

…

Sanya.

In a seafood marketplace.

Zhang Ye’s mother suddenly rubbed her eyes. “Why are my eyes twitching?”

Wu Zeqing asked, “Are you alright?”

His mother said suspiciously, “Why does it feel like something is about to happen?”

His father curled his lips. “Stop going on and on about that. Little Ye has just returned. What could possibly happen?”