The Value of Dead Stones

Old Wang was a cleaner at the Go academy, a quiet, gray-haired old man. His daily job was to sweep the playing rooms, wipe the Go boards, and pick up the scattered stones from the Go bowls and put them back in place. He had witnessed countless battles and heard countless sighs, but none of that concerned him. He only cared about the black and white stones, especially those that had been deemed "dead stones."

According to the rules, dead stones are removed from the board and placed in a special small box. But Old Wang always felt that these dead stones were unwilling to accept their fate. They were abandoned by their former owners, ruthlessly defined as "worthless" by the rules, and then thrown into the box, waiting to be used again, and abandoned again. Old Wang felt they should have some value, at least they shouldn't be treated like this.

Recently, a strange incident happened at the Go academy. A 9-dan Go player named Byun Sang-il lost a game in a public tournament because he put a "dead stone" back on the board. According to the rules, this is not allowed. He was furious after the game, saying that the "dead stone misplaced rule" was meaningless. He believed that dead stones were useless anyway, and he shouldn't be penalized for losing just because of a meaningless rule.

Old Wang thought Byun Sang-il had a point. Dead stones are indeed useless, and rules are made by people, but rules can determine wins and losses, and determine value. Old Wang looked at those dead stones every day and felt more and more like them, defined by society as "useless," and could only silently clean up the mess in the corner.

That day, Old Wang was cleaning the board again. The game had just ended, and a young man who had lost miserably stormed away. Old Wang picked up the Go bowl and found that there were more "dead stones" inside. He suddenly remembered Byun Sang-il's words, and a bizarre idea came to his mind. He began to pick up the dead stones one by one, not putting them back in the small box, but placing them back on the board. He placed them carefully, as if playing a game that had never been played before. He placed those dead stones in important positions, forming a new Go game, a game that no one had ever played, a game that only belonged to dead stones.

When Old Wang placed the last dead stone in the very center of the board, the entire playing room went dark. He heard a voice in his ear: "You have done well, Old Wang. You have given us new value." Old Wang looked around, but did not see anyone. He smiled and continued his work as if nothing had happened.

The next day, the staff of the Go academy found a strange game on the Go board in the playing room. It was not any known Go game, but a strange pattern made up of a pile of dead stones. They found it very strange, but no one could understand what it meant. An old Go player looked at the board and said thoughtfully: "This… could this be… the counterattack of dead stones?"

This incident caused a small commotion at the Go academy. Some people said it was Old Wang who did it, but Old Wang denied it. He still swept the floor and wiped the tables silently every day, as if those dead stones had nothing to do with him. Later, the incident was gradually forgotten, leaving only a legend about the "value of dead stones" circulating in the Go academy.

Years later, Old Wang retired. When he was leaving, the head of the academy asked him: "Old Wang, why did you do that?" Old Wang smiled, revealing his teeth that were missing a few, and said slowly: "Because, dead stones are also stones, they should also have their own value."

After Old Wang left the Go academy, a new cleaner came to the academy, a young college student. His daily job was to clean the playing rooms and wipe the Go boards. One day, he inadvertently looked through the old archives of the academy and found an old photo. In the photo, Old Wang was in the playing room, looking at the dead stones on the board with a mysterious smile. In the corner of the photo, there was a line of words written in very small letters: "Dead stones are not worthless, but stones waiting to be redefined."

The college student put the photo away and began to think about a question: who exactly determines the so-called rules and the so-called value? And are those defined as "dead stones" really worthless? Perhaps, the real absurdity lies in the fact that we always easily accept those imposed definitions and forget to think and resist.