The Game of Life

Chapter 497: Chapter 495: In-depth Conversation

After dinner, Wu Hanxue and Old Sir Wu stayed at the Wu Family Restaurant to continue working, while Mrs. Wu drove Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi back home.

Although Mrs. Wu was always gentle and kind to Jiang Feng, and her eyes were always filled with a warm smile when she looked at him, not even his own mother was more loving, Jiang Feng still felt very restrained sitting in the back seat.

Mrs. Wang Xiulian, his real mother, rarely gave him such warm smiles; when he was a child, she would occasionally give him a warm slap on the face instead.

“Jiang, did Qiqi take you to the giant panda base this afternoon?” Mrs. Wu asked with a smile, her eyes on the road ahead, “Did you have fun?”

“It was fun, very interesting,” Jiang Feng replied.

“That’s good. There are quite a few scenic spots around here, too. It’s just a pity you’re not staying longer, or I’d have Qiqi take you around,” Mrs. Wu said, “I heard from Qiqi that you booked a ticket to go back the day after tomorrow morning, is it a plane or a high-speed train ticket? It must be quite a long trip if it’s by train.”

“High-speed train ticket, for ten o’clock the day after tomorrow morning. It’s not particularly long, just about ten hours. I’ll arrive by eight in the evening,” Jiang Feng explained.

“Ten hours is still quite a long time. Poor Jiang, you’ve had such a long journey right before the New Year just to accompany Qiqi to her cousin’s engagement party. Originally, Qiqi’s father and I thought you didn’t need to make this trip just for an engagement party, but since Qiqi is closest to this cousin, she wanted you to come along, get to know, and recognize faces in advance.”

“You’re too kind. You and Mr. Wu trusting Qiqi to work at Taifeng Building is the greatest trust in me, and because of the distance, I haven’t been able to visit you all in Shu this past half year. It’s only right for me to come and pay my respects before the New Year, even if Qiqi’s cousin isn’t getting engaged, I should come to see you both at this time,” Jiang Feng said sincerely, even though Mrs. Wu couldn’t see his expression.

“What a good kid,” Mrs. Wu laughed, her smile so wide she couldn’t close her mouth.

When they got back to Wu Minqi’s house, Mrs. Wu cut two plates of fruit and washed a bunch of cherries for Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi and brought them into Wu Minqi’s room, saying she knew that young people couldn’t relax in front of elders, so she wouldn’t disturb them.

After delivering the fruit, Mrs. Wu went back to her room to watch television, giving the younger generation plenty of space and freedom.

Wu Minqi’s room was simply decorated with a desk, bookshelves, a wardrobe, and a bed without too much additional adornment, except for a few obviously inexpensive dolls on the bookshelves, which very much suited Wu Minqi’s domineering CEO persona—except for the pink bedsheets and covers.

“Fengfeng, take a seat,” Wu Minqi said casually, very relaxed as she sat on the bed, while Jiang Feng sat facing her on the chair in front of the desk.

Jiang Feng glanced at the books on the desk, which were not the novels and magazines he had imagined, but study guides like “Five-year College Entrance Exam Three-year Simulation,” “Experimental Class,” and “Golden Test Papers,” reminding him of his own towering final year in high school.

“Qiqi, why haven’t you thrown away your high school study guides?” Jiang Feng asked curiously; he had sold all his high school study guides as soon as he was sure he wouldn’t need to retake the exams after receiving the results, selling them to a scrap collector downstairs.

He still remembered the price, 89.6 yuan, which Mrs. Wang Xiulian had casually pocketed without giving him any.

“I threw away the rest, but my mom said I probably won’t use the desk much in the future, and it doesn’t look good empty, so we kept them mostly as decoration on the desk,” Wu Minqi explained, “Initially, when I applied for UAL University, my dad wasn’t happy; he wanted me to attend a local university, so it would be convenient to practice cooking and come home.”

Jiang Feng understood Wu Hanxue’s thinking; if there were no good universities in his own small city in Z city, Jiang Jiankang and Mrs. Wang Xiulian would probably want him to attend university locally, too.

Parents always want their children to stay close to them.

Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi actually rarely talked about their lives before university after they started dating, not because they were avoiding anything, but simply because their everyday conversations never veered in that direction. Even though they lived together and were inseparable, they spent most of their time working. They hardly had time to discuss the present, let alone the past.

“Qiqi, I’ve always been curious, why did you go to university?” Jiang Feng suddenly asked, turning the conversation into something resembling a deep interview.

“Hmm?” Wu Minqi was a bit slow to react.

“Like Zhang Guanghang, you’ve aspired to become an outstanding chef since you were little, and you didn’t suddenly switch paths midway through like Sun Jikai and I did. Logically speaking, shouldn’t you have stayed in Shu to take over the family business?” Jiang Feng had been curious about this for a long time.

“Because my mom wanted me to live a normal person’s life,” Wu Minqi looked up slightly, “I’ve been quiet since I was little, my only hobby other than cooking was playing chess, and I didn’t have many friends. I mostly hung out with my cousins. My mom said if I didn’t go to university and give up the last legitimate chance to interact with others and make friends, she was afraid I’d become an introvert like my dad.”

“But it turns out I’m really bad at making friends. I couldn’t get along with my roommates in university and didn’t make friends right away, which caused a lot of trouble. I didn’t make a single friend during my entire first year and even wasted a lot of time that I could have spent on cooking. After going back home for the summer break of my first year, I told my mom I didn’t want to study anymore, that it was a waste of time and I’d rather work in the restaurant like my older cousins. She persuaded me to stick it out for one more semester and to try joining more activities to meet new people, and then…” Wu Minqi looked at Jiang Feng and smiled.

“Then, I saw the club recruitment on the street, and there was a long line in front of the Chess Club’s tent. I thought the mung bean cakes were made by you and wanted to challenge your cooking, so I filled out the application. I was worried that you wouldn’t accept second-year students while waiting for the result.”

“It’s a good thing you got it wrong, Qiqi, or you would have missed out on an excellent boyfriend like me,” Jiang Feng pretended to be relieved.

“Pfft.” Wu Minqi couldn’t help but let out a big smile.

“But the truth is, I’m still not good at making friends,” Wu Minqi sighed, “I didn’t make any friends at school, but I got to know quite a few people at the Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant.”

“That’s enough,” Jiang Feng laughed, “Nobody says you have to make friends in a particular place, your mother was just worried you’d become isolated without friends. No matter the process, as long as the result is correct, that’s all that matters.”

Jiang Feng ended the in-depth interview with comforting words and switched the topic to Old Sir Wu.

“By the way, Qiqi, were your grandpa and my Granduncle Weiming very close before?” Jiang Feng asked.

“Close?” Wu Minqi furrowed her brows and thought for a moment, “Not particularly close, I guess, but then again, it’s not like they weren’t. It’s hard to say. Last year, when you came looking for Grandpa Jiang, I asked my grandpa about it. After coming to Shu, didn’t Grandpa Jiang change his name to Jiang Yuanchao? My grandpa said that the person you were looking for must be Jiang Yuanchao, but he didn’t know where Grandpa Jiang lived at that time. I remember later my grandpa also asked me if you had found him, so I think my grandpa and Grandpa Jiang must have had a pretty good relationship. He rarely takes the initiative to care about people.”

“And I think my grandpa likes you too,” Wu Minqi continued.

“Hmm?”

“My grandpa is very strict with his family and apprentices, he almost never laughs. He’s a bit nicer to outsiders, but he still rarely smiles. He laughed so many times during dinner tonight that my parents and I were a bit startled.”

Jiang Feng roughly understood; Old Sir Wu’s personality was very much like Sir’s, except that the younger generation of the Wu Family hadn’t mastered the skill of flattering as the Jiang Family’s younger generation had.

“Qiqi, believe me, just compliment your grandpa more, just like De, Cheng, and I usually do with my grandpa. Don’t be afraid to overdo it, the more extravagant, the better. Even if it’s ostentatious, it doesn’t matter, the most important thing is to be sincere. As long as it’s words of praise, just lay it on thick!”