The Game of Life

Did Jiang Feng’s life change after finding out Professor Li was his relative?

It did. Jiang Feng got many more opportunities to be called on by Professor Li during class.

These opportunities were so frequent that some classmates began to suspect Jiang Feng had offended Professor Li and was being deliberately targeted. After all, Jiang Feng’s image as a poor student was well-known, making it hard for people to imagine Professor Li was keen out of admiration for talent.

It had been over half a month since the start of the semester, and Jiang Feng could deftly navigate between honing his culinary skills, helping out at the shop, and bluffing his way through his academics. Ji Yue had successfully obtained this year’s club funding from the student council, the Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant had begun to attract a stable clientele, and the completion rate of the main quest was slowly but steadily increasing.

But Jiang Feng always felt that life, which consisted of chopping in the kitchen, occasionally stirring pots, and idling away at the club on weekends, was somewhat too dull.

"Feng, the porridge seems ready, go deliver it to your uncle,” Jiang Jiankang shouted from the back kitchen.

Jiang Feng entered the kitchen, lifted the lid of the small pot on the gas stove, and stirred with a spoon; it looked about right. He ladled the porridge into a lunch box and carried it to Professor Li’s house.

Professor Li’s house was less than ten minutes away from Food Street, a

20-year-old faculty apartment allocated by the school. The neighborhood was old with cement on its walls full of pits and holes.

Jiang Feng had delivered the porridge on several occasions. Once, when he arrived, Li Mingyi was in a daze, grabbed Jiang Feng’s hand and shouted,

“Chengde ah, why have you only just arrived? Huiqin and I have been looking for you for over a decade…” Despite being a frail and thin old man, Li’s grip was unusually strong. Jiang Feng didn’t dare to struggle, for fear of hurting him, and could only listen as he rambled on indistinctly about the old days.

However, it didn’t take long for Li Mingyi to no longer recognize him and to release his hand, searching everywhere for Huiqin.

Professor Li hadn’t come back yet, and it was his wife, Chen Suhua, who opened the door for Jiang Feng.

"Auntie, how is uncle doing?” Jiang Feng asked.

"He’s quite well, he’s lucid right now. Go in and keep your uncle company for a while,” Chen Suhua took the lunch box and headed to the kitchen,

“He’s been clear-headed these past couple of days. I saw some really good dates at the market this morning; I’ll wash some for you. Take a seat first.”

Chen Suhua was the daughter of the village party secretary whom Professor Li married during his time as an ‘educated youth’ in the countryside. She wasn’t well-educated, having not even completed primary school, and despite being in her fifties or sixties, she was always bustling with energy and couldn’t stay still.

Li Mingyi was sitting on the edge of the bed with reading glasses, looking through a photo album. Seeing Jiang Feng enter, he smiled and waved at him.

"Feng has come to deliver porridge.” Li Mingyi called Jiang Feng to sit by his side and pointed to a black-and-white picture in the album,

“This is the wedding photo of me and your great-aunt. It’s a pity we didn’t have color photos back then to capture the colors. Your great-aunt’s wedding dress was really beautiful. I said we should only take a western-style wedding photo, but she wouldn’t have it, refused to wear a wedding dress. In the end, I’m in a suit and she’s in traditional bridal attire for the wedding photo…”

"Dad, it’s time to eat.” Chen Suhua, holding a bowl of porridge in one hand and a plate of dates in the other, placed the dates on the bedside table,

“The porridge is still a bit hot; I’ll stir it for you. Oh, and Feng, have some dates, they’re really sweet.”

"No need, I’ll do it myself.” Li Mingyi slowly put down the album, took the bowl, walked to the desk, and began stirring the porridge with a spoon.

Jiang Feng looked at the album spread out on the bed, an old, somewhat yellowed black-and-white photo. The young man and woman in the photo appeared to be of high school age. The man wore a formal suit with no expression, and the woman had a phoenix crown with a square scarf partly covering her face, a mirror hanging at her chest, all dressed in bridal attire. There was no physical contact between them at all; if not for Li Mingyi saying this was his wedding photo, Jiang Feng really wouldn’t have been able to tell.

Li Mingyi scooped up a spoonful of porridge, blowing on it gently by his lips.

Jiang Feng noticed a short white hair sticking to the photo.

Li Mingyi opened his mouth.

Jiang Feng reached out his hand.

Potage met lips.

Hand brushed hair away.

"Ding, you’ve completed the side quest [The Last Good Medicine] and obtained a reward item: [A Piece of Li Mingyi’s Memory].”

"Ding, you have acquired [A Piece of Jiang Huiqin’s Memory].”

Eh?

The stingy game actually gave two items at once?

How generous?!

Jiang Feng twisted the strand of hair he pulled out and tossed it into the trash can.

Perhaps it was because he had looked at photographs or because he found another younger person to share tales of his youth with, but Li Mingyi’s spirits were high today, and so was his appetite. After drinking a bowl and a half of porridge, he enthusiastically recounted many stories about his early days with his late wife while pulling along Jiang Feng.

The wontons from the stall in the east of the city, Jiang Huiqin’s wontons, a dress with a hole in it, he reminisced about whatever came to mind. He eventually ran out of energy, as older folks do, and amidst his storytelling, he became sleepy, which is when Jiang Feng left with a bag of dates that Chen Suhua had insisted on giving him.

After delivering porridge for over an hour, by the time Jiang Feng got back, Liu Zixuan had already left for the library, and only Ji Yue was sitting at the table, drawing on a digital tablet.

"The shop’s closed, and I’m watching over it. Uncle and Auntie went to buy groceries; they said they found some great stuff and rushed out,” Ji Yue said.

“You should go get some extra sleep; I can handle things here by myself.”

After Ji Yue’s suggestion, Jiang Feng really felt a bit sleepy and in need of a nap, but there was no need to go back to the dormitory; he could just go upstairs to get some rest.

He shut his bedroom door and opened his attribute panel, where two new clusters of mist appeared in his inventory.

[A Piece of Li Mingyi’s Memory]: A piece of memory that can be entered repeatedly.

[A Piece of Jiang Huiqin’s Memory]: A piece of memory that can be entered only once.

One-time use?

Out of curiosity, Jiang Feng clicked on Jiang Huiqin’s memory, and selected yes when asked if he wanted to enter the memory.

The next second, Jiang Feng found himself in a lady’s boudoir.

A girl dressed in a Republic of China-style school uniform held a big red jacket tenderly as she carefully embroidered a pattern on the cuff of the sleeve, and to his surprise, her face was that of Jiang Huiqin from the photo Li Mingyi had looked at earlier on that day.

However, it seemed Jiang Huiqin couldn’t see Jiang Feng; she was focused entirely on the jacket in her arms. Jiang Feng tried to pick up a teacup on the small table beside her, but his hand passed through it like a ghost. He then tried to walk through the wall but was blocked by an invisible barrier; realizing he could only stay by Jiang Huiqin’s side, he began to observe the room.

It was a very cramped room with simple furnishings: a bed, a wooden cabinet, a small table, a chair—the essentials were all there, albeit in a tiny space.

The bed was an ordinary wooden plank bed, covered with a dusty quilt. The cabinet was as tall as a person, very new, seemingly freshly made, with shiny brass clasps, evenly applied paint, and carved decorations—a piece that looked quite expensive.

The room was clean, with a Literature textbook lying on the table, and a tin can filled with soil on the windowsill, in which two small green onions were planted.

"Little sister, little sister!”

Someone was calling from outside the door.

"Yes, brother, wait a moment, don’t come in, I’m coming out!” Jiang Huiqin put the jacket down, opened the door, and walked out. Jiang Feng quickly followed..