Sato and Suzuki are classmates, they have a common hobby - playing chess, and the two often play chess. To tell the truth, in terms of "playing shogi", Suzuki's strength is stronger than Sato's. This also became his capital for showing off, often making fun of Sato.
One day, Sato's wife took her children to the countryside, and Sato was alone at home. After a while, Suzuki came, and the two began to play chess again.
At first, the two were evenly matched, and neither of them lost, but as the chess pieces fell more and more, the situation in Sato became more and more dangerous. Suzuki is a little arrogant, he has defeated Sato many times, this time seeing that he is going to win again, he can't help but laugh at Sato again.
Unexpectedly, Sato took it seriously, and the two quarreled, from the school period to the marriage, the two quarreled more and more fiercely, and finally entangled together. Sato squeezed Suzuki's neck with his hand and told him not to say anything more, he kept this position for a long time, and by the time he reacted, Suzuki was no longer breathing.
Sato was panicked, and he sat in front of the chess table and gasped for breath. He didn't know what to do, what if Suzuki's family came to him?
After sitting for an unknown amount of time, the sky had darkened, Sato finally came back to his senses, he looked back at the body of Suzuki, which had cooled, and thought about disposing of it quickly.
Sato's home was small, but it also had a small yard with a few trees, and he dragged Suzuki's body into the yard, dug a pit with a shovel, and buried him in it. Then he swept a few fallen leaves on it and covered up the renovated soil.
Then he went home and cooked casually.
Sure enough, Suzuki never came home, and his family was also anxious and began to come out to look for it. The family came to ask Sato if he had seen Suzuki, and Sato very calmly told Suzuki's family that he would leave after playing chess.
On this night, Sato was the only one in the family, but he was not as happy as he had been at the beginning, because there was another person in the family, and this person became a big stone in his heart. After a night of tossing and turning, Sato did not sleep soundly.
On the morning of the second day, the wife came home with the child, and the wife did not notice anything unusual in the yard, and Sato did not tell her everything that happened at home.
But the frequency of Sato's reading of the newspaper has become higher in the past few days, and he wants to see if there are any clues from above, and whether Suzuki's family has reported the crime. But it's been 4 days since it's been going on and there's no news at all.
Later, another of Sato's friends, Misaku, came to him to play chess. Misaku's chess skills are slightly worse than Sato's, and he is very humble, and Sato likes him very much and often plays chess with him.
However, when he came to play chess this time, Misaku obviously felt that Sato's mind was not on it, and one of the chess pieces fell to the bottom, and he did not notice it, but instead showed a very panicked look, as if he had encountered something terrible.
Sato was panicked when he saw that the "horned step" chess piece was missing, and he was worried about whether he had brought the flag into the soil when he moved Suzuki. The more he thought about it, the more nervous he became, and Sato's breathing began to become rapid, and he actually fainted.
Seeing her husband faint, Sato's wife was very anxious, pinching and shouting, and finally Sato woke up. He told his wife not to worry, he was just overworked.
Where did the pieces go? He must find it.
In the dead of night, when his wife and children were asleep, Sato came to the courtyard and quietly shoveled away the land where Suzuki was buried with a shovel. Using the moonlight to grope Suzuki buried in the soil, he touched Suzuki's hand, but Suzuki's hand was empty, there were no chess pieces at all, and he quickly buried the soil back.
Without finding the chess piece, Sato sat down on the ground like a deflated leather ball. This chess game is his most precious thing, usually even the child will not let touch, where will it go?
The more Sato thought about it, the more he wondered, and he planned to count it again. So he struggled to get up, returned to the chess and card room, opened the chess box to see, found that the chess pieces were complete, the "horned step" was in the box, Sato felt very incredible.
The chess pieces were found, and now he began to worry about Mizuo, and his actions were all in his eyes during the day, would he have any other thoughts?
The next day, Misaku came again, still coming to Sato to play chess as usual. Seeing his old friend coming, Sato happily came out to greet him, and greeted his friend politely, not at all like yesterday.
When the two began to play the chess pieces, Sato suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart, and the chess pieces might be missing again. Sure enough, at the end, the "horned step" disappeared again, this time Sato could not calm down, he felt that there were eyes on his back staring at him, his whole body was trembling, and his friends and wife were frightened by him.
Sato finally told the whole story about Suzuki's killing, and Misaku's face was frightened after hearing it. He took the chess piece out of his sleeve and returned it to Sato, saying, "I'm sorry, I just wanted to play a prank, I didn't expect you to have such a terrible secret." ”
It turned out that yesterday Misaku saw the chess pieces fall in the corner of the table, Sato did not look for it but looked panicked, he wanted to scare him, today when the chess pieces were arranged, Sato did not pay attention, he hid the chess pieces in his sleeve. Unexpectedly, this small act actually made Sato tell his secret.
Sato didn't blame Misaku, he wanted to thank Misaku, he let himself say everything, and finally didn't have to carry the burden anymore, but he should spend the rest of his life in prison.