The Game of Life

Jiang Feng struggled to get up from the ground.

This place looked like a storeroom, probably the backstage of a theater, with dresses and suits, desk lamps, telephones, racks, oil paintings, and other old or broken props piled together.

Jiang Huiqin was holding a plumply wrapped and tightly secured cloth bundle in her arms.

"Huiqin, I really don’t understand what you dislike about that wedding dress. I was trying to surprise you, but you’ve really let me down!”

"I dislike everything about it, we’re taking wedding photos, it’s pictures of me getting married. What to wear should be my own choice!”

"You mean to wear that red jacket-like wedding dress of yours? To make our wedding look feudal, ignorant, and laughable?” Li Mingyi raised his voice,

“Me in a suit and you with the phoenix crown, don’t you find it absurd? Huiqin, we both have been educated in the new ways, how can you be as old-fashioned as those old pedants?”

Ridiculous? You think it’s ridiculous?” Jiang Huiqin looked up at him, her composed makeup smeared by tears.

She unwrapped the bundle, revealing the neatly folded wedding dress inside. She took out the outer jacket, shook it open, held it up, pointed at it, trembling all over with anger.

You find it ridiculous? Li Mingyi, I embroidered for 4 years, this wedding dress took me a full 4 years! My mother had a difficult labor giving birth to me I have no mother, my sister-in-law is also dead, no one taught me how to embroider the dress, I figured it out all by myself, ruining so many pieces, only this one turned out well.”

"You think it’s ugly, ridiculous, it’s not as beautiful as the one you found from a tailor in Paris, is it? But I embroidered it myself, a girl should wear the wedding dress she embroidered herself when she gets married! I’m telling you, don’t talk to me about being feudal or open-minded, I studied in a girls’ school, I didn’t learn all those advanced physics or chemistry, what we learned was to support the husband, educate the children, and manage domestic affairs, I am feudal, I am conservative.”

Jiang Huiqin, sobbing, folded the jacket neatly and put it back, picked up the cloth bundle, and hurried out.

"Go find some open-minded, liberated woman to take photos and get married with! I’m not taking photos today!”

Jiang Feng quickly followed her.

"Miss Jiang, have you thought it through, are we taking the photo or not?” The photographer saw Jiang Huiqin coming down from the upstairs and hurriedly greeted her with a smile.

"No, let him find someone else to take photos with.” Jiang Huiqin wiped the tears off her face and left the photo studio straight away.

Fortunately, this time Jiang Huiqin wasn’t running away; otherwise, Jiang Feng’s bottom would suffer again.

His Aunt had quite the temper, but Li Mingyi deserved it too.

Calling his fiancee feudal, stodgy, and laughable probably means he no longer wants a wife, right?

Walking along, Jiang Huiqin stopped in front of a wonton stall.

"A small bowl of wontons, no green onions.” Jiang Huiqin found a table to sit down, put the cloth bundle beside her, and handed some coins to the stall owner.

The wonton stall was set up at the entrance of an alley, and the owner was a middle-aged man with a slightly hunched back. There were only three small tables at the stall, bumpy and greasy, and the edges of the tables were full of splinters.

The stall owner took the money, wiped the table in front of Jiang Huiqin with a greasy and dirty rag in a cursory manner, then casually threw the rag onto the next table. Without washing his hands, he grabbed a small handful of wontons that had been premade from the bamboo basket and threw them into the boiling pot.

In a short while, a bowl of wontons was ready.

After adding just a couple drops of sesame oil, and nothing else, the stall owner brought the chipped bowl to Jiang Huiqin’s table.

The wontons were unappetizing, with thick skins and little filling, not even properly wrapped, with most of them coming apart in the bowl. Jiang Huiqin wasn’t thinking about the wontons; she kept looking back but didn’t see the person she wanted to see.

On the street paved with bluestone, there were many passersby: gentlemen wearing long robes, laborers in short shirts, young men dressed as students, rickshaw drivers, and beautiful women in cheongsams.

Li Mingyi was nowhere to be seen.

Jiang Huiqin tilted her head, staring blankly at the street, and before long, tears began to fall. After silently shedding tears for a while, she turned her head stubbornly, looked at the now cold wontons in front of her, and tried one.

The tears fell even harder.

It was so bad that Jiang Feng almost handed her a tissue.

Crying and almost desperately upset, Li Mingyi finally arrived.

"Huiqin, why did you run here to eat wontons?” As soon as Li Mingyi spoke, Jiang Feng wanted to cover his mouth.

Falling in love should be a natural talent for a teenager, but for this big brother, it seemed like a congenital deficiency, a talent that hadn’t been awakened.

Jiang Huiqin looked at him, her face full of grievance,

“Didn’t you go to find that liberal, democratic, open-minded life partner of yours? Why come to find someone feudal, stubborn, and laughable like me?”

"Who said I was going to find some liberal, democratic, open-minded person? Huiqin, can we be reasonable please?”

Oh my lord, I beg you, stop talking!

Jiang Feng watched on the sidelines, wishing he could shove the dumplings from the table into his mouth to shut him up. Weren’t those sweet nothings spoken so smoothly last night? How come he’s so stubborn today?

"Then go find someone else who’s reasonable to talk to!” Jiang Huiqin turned her head away and stared at her bowl, as large teardrops pitter-pattered into the dumpling soup.

The two fell silent for a while.

Don’t cry,” Li Mingyi said, taking out a handkerchief and gently wiping the tears off Jiang Huiqin’s face, his voice soft,

“Your eyes will swell up from crying, and then you won’t look good in photos later.”

"Who’s going to take photos, you think the clothes I embroidered are ugly, don’t you?” Jiang Huiqin whispered.

Whatever you wear looks good, in my eyes you are the most beautiful person in the entire world.”

"Even more beautiful than Ruan Yuling?”

"A million times more beautiful than Ruan Yuling!”

"Liar.” Jiang Huiqin broke into a smile through her tears.

Li Mingyi, holding Jiang Huiqin’s hand, walked toward the photo studio.

The girl’s hand clung tightly to the boy’s, as if afraid he would run away.

The next second, Jiang Feng was back in his room.

He glanced at his phone; only five minutes had passed.

"Ding, congratulations to the player for exploring a new feature, the game is about to update.”

"The game is updating, current progress: o%.”

Jiang Feng:…

Here it came again, the excruciatingly slow update.

However, in the memory of Jiang Huiqin just then, apart from the couple’s sickly sweet displays of affection and their lovey-dovey routine, there was also a dish made by Jiang Chengde.

Clear Soup with Willow Leaf Swallow Vegetables!

Jiang Feng had watched the entire process of making that dish from all angles, not missing a single detail.

It was just too bad that Jiang Huiqin had left early and hadn’t seen the final plating or the pour of the soup.

Sitting on the bed, Jiang Feng tried hard to recall the method of making the Clear Soup with Willow Leaf Swallow Vegetables that he had seen in Jiang Huiqin’s memory.

It’s no good, too difficult.

Having seen it only once, it was easy to discern the ingredients and handling, but mastering Fire Control and Seasoning without having tasted it was just too hard for Jiang Feng. Not to mention capturing the essence of the dish-the clear soup.

Jiang Feng had only smelled the aroma and was clueless about the ingredients used in the broth.

If he had the talent to determine ingredients by smell alone, he wouldn’t have been smacked on the head with the bottom of a pot by Sir when he was learning to cook as a child.

Convinced that he couldn’t master the Clear Soup with Willow Leaf Swallow Vegetables, and finding sleep impossible after reviewing the memory, Jiang Feng simply went downstairs to walk around.

Since the start of school, he rarely found leisure time, and it would be a waste to spend it sleeping.

Ji Yue was still drawing downstairs. Jiang Feng, having spent the better part of a day in Jiang Huiqin’s memory, had experienced only a few minutes in reality. Seeing Jiang Feng descending the stairs, Ji Yue was somewhat surprised.

"Not sleeping anymore?”

"Not sleeping, going out for a walk.”

This time was when the food street was at its most deserted.

The lingering heat of the late summer made one dizzy and completely quashed any appetite while walking under the sun.

Jiang Feng was mulling over something.

Something that, if Mrs. Wang Xiulian and Jiang Jiankang found out about, might entail a mixed doubles beating, kneeling on the kitchenware rack, and dealing with the high pressure cooker..