The Game of Life

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On the 15th of August in the lunar calendar, the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is auspicious to get married, make vehicles, install machinery, offer sacrifices, and pray for blessings; it is inauspicious to engage, form alliances, saddle horses, litigate, or dig channels.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a grand day, equivalent to the New Year for the Jiang family’s reunion dinner. Jiang Feng got up early to check the almanac, but before he could figure anything out, he received a call from Mr. Jiang Jiankang to pick up Aunt, Jiang Junqing, and Jiang Junlian from the airport.

As for why Jiang Feng was again chosen for airport pick-up, it might be because of his extensive experience with such tasks. Whenever someone needed to be picked up from the airport, Jiang Feng was the first person everyone thought of.

Aunt and her party were arriving on a flight at 9:48 AM. Jiang Feng roughly estimated the time it would take for the plane to land, reach the baggage claim area, and wait for the luggage to arrive, successfully timing his arrival at the airport for pick-up.

Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian had lost weight.

Since school started, Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian had been studying intensely, hanging beams and piercing thighs with awls, staying up late doing problem sets until the dead of night for fear that during the winter break, Sir would once again use the excuse that since their academic results weren’t good and studying was pointless, they might as well come back to the countryside with him to train in cooking.

Aunt often posted photos of Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian studying diligently in the family group chat. At such times, everyone would chime in to flatter Sir with sugar-coated praises, creating a harmonious atmosphere.

Anyway, since Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian’s cellphones had been confiscated, they couldn’t see what was happening in the chat.

Looking at the siblings who were once identically corpulent in xxl size, and now identically reduced to xl size, Jiang Feng couldn’t help but marvel at the scary power of twin sisters.

It’s not hard to bulk up to the same extent, but slimming down to the same extent is no small feat. Jiang Feng had always hoped that one day the sisters would vary—one getting fatter, the other slimmer—so it would be easier to tell them apart.

Seeing Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian, wearing xl-sized shirts and trousers, excitedly dragging their suitcases and rushing over while shouting in unison, “Brother!”

“What are we having for lunch today?” Jiang Junqing asked eagerly.

“Are we having roast duck for lunch today?” Even after getting roast duck, Jiang Junlian still had an inexplicable obsession with it.

Jiang Feng: …

That’s right, it’s the familiar cousins with the familiar formula; even though they went from xxl to xl, they were still the same cousins as before.

Jiang Feng thought for a moment, “Today for lunch we’ll have Roasted Pig, Crab-Stuffed Oranges, Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon, Pickled Vegetables Fried Rice, Crispy Double Delight, Supreme Tofu, Dry Braised Beef Strips, Crab Meat Lion’s Head, Nine Turns Intestine, and Garlic Vegetable Hearts.”

Taking a breath, Jiang Feng was about to continue reciting the menu when Aunt, hauling an extra-large suitcase, came towards them.

“It’s really trouble for you, Feng, to come all the way to pick us up. Are we going to the restaurant first or going home?” Aunt asked.

Jiang Feng looked at their luggage. Jiang Junlian and Jiang Junqing each carried a small suitcase, while Aunt was dragging an extra-large suitcase, indicating that they definitely needed to go home to drop off their luggage first.

“Aunt, let’s go home to drop off the luggage first. We are only eating once today, at the Li Mansion, with Professor Li and the others. It should start around 3 PM, so there’s no rush. You, Junqing, and Junlian can go back first to get settled. We’ll head over around 2 PM,” Jiang Feng said.

Hearing the words “Li Mansion,” Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian’s expressions visibly changed.

The most horrifying and miserable summer of their lives was spent at the Li Mansion, slicing pig feed for Da Hua daily in the dark. Slice too little and they’d get scolded; slice poorly and they’d be chided. While Da Hua had food to eat, they had none, not to mention the scoldings they endured from Sir.

Truthfully, Sir was relatively lenient with his granddaughters Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian. Compared to the severity of his training with Jiang Feng, he was a kindly grandfather since their ultimate purposes were different. Sir truly wanted Jiang Feng to inherit the Jiang Family Dishes, whereas training his granddaughters was simply because he thought they needed disciplining.

But the difference was Jiang Feng had been raised this way since he was a child and had grown used to it. In contrast, the sisters had been lazy from their youth and had never faced the harsh lessons of socialism. An occasional punishment made them feel their lives were exceedingly tragic. When learning to cook, the first time you feel miserable, the second time you think it’s not bad, and by the third time, you’ve gotten used to it.

“Brother, can… Da Hua still eat?” Jiang Junlian asked tentatively.

Jiang Feng: …

His cousin had developed a psychological shadow from slicing pig feed for Da Hua all summer.

Seeing Jiang Junlian in this state, Jiang Feng knew that the time for vengeance had come.

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Jiang Feng smiled faintly, “She’s been eating quite well lately, Da Hua has grown more robust than before, much sturdier than when you were here during the summer break. I remember during the summer, it was Junlian and Junqing, you two, who chopped up the pig feed for Da Hua, right? Da Hua must miss you both. Why don’t you go to the Li Mansion to see her after you’re done unpacking?”

Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian’s faces turned green.

“No need, actually… actually… actually, we have quite a lot of stuff, it might take a long time to get sorted out, don’t you think, Junlian?” Jiang Junqing started to make excuses.

“Right, right, right, it’s going to take us a long time to unpack, my mom brought over so many mooncakes, it will take us forever to sort them out,” Jiang Junlian nodded vigorously.

Aunt had seen right through Jiang Feng’s teasing of Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian, but she just stood by, smiling without a word.

Seeing the strong reaction from Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian, Jiang Feng thought it would be wise to drop the subject. After all, he probably wouldn’t be a match for two XL-sized cousins put together.

“Auntie, did you actually bring mooncakes over especially?” Jiang Feng changed the subject.

“Yes, this big box I brought is filled with nothing but mooncakes,” Aunt said. “Their uncle, isn’t he a businessman? He somehow came by a bunch of mooncakes, all kinds of weird and wonderful varieties: snow skin mooncakes, abalone mooncakes, bird’s nest mooncakes… I really can’t keep up with all these sorts of mooncakes nowadays. Their uncle’s family couldn’t finish them all, so he sent them to my house. Now we are just three people at home, my two nieces and I, and we can’t possibly finish that many mooncakes. So, I picked out the good ones to bring over—perfect for everyone to enjoy more mooncakes during Mid-Autumn Festival. You all have to help us finish them. There’s still a lot more at home!”

Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian knew their uncle Jiang Feng, and if they were to describe him in two words, it would be wealthy.

As far back as Jiang Feng could remember, he knew that their uncle was very wealthy. Among his uncles, Auntie’s cooking skills were the worst, yet Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian managed to grow into XXL sizes without eating much of Sir’s food—credit must be given to their uncle.

“Auntie, do you have any egg yolk mooncakes in there?” Jiang Feng inquired.

Aunt was taken aback, then responded, “Oh, of course, there are egg yolk mooncakes. I specially brought several boxes of double-yolk lotus seed mooncakes. Why, Feng, do you want to eat egg yolk mooncakes?”

“My apprentice wants to eat them. She mentioned to me just yesterday afternoon that she wanted egg yolk mooncakes. I was planning to find time to buy a box for her this morning, but since you’ve brought some, could you please bring a box to her at noon?” Jiang Feng asked.

“No problem. Since Feng’s apprentice wants them, I’ll bring her several boxes. I haven’t met your apprentice yet; I’ve only seen a photo. I was thinking about what kind of gift to bring her when I was coming over,” Aunt said with a smile.

“You don’t need to bring her a welcome gift. Just bringing her more boxes of mooncakes or meat floss cakes will make her very happy,” Jiang Feng said.

Although Ji Xue said Ji Xia liked sweets, Jiang Feng always felt that what Ji Xia truly loved was meat.

The last time he went out for fried chicken with Wu Minqi and Ji Xia, Ji Xia’s eyes practically glowed as she stared at the fried chicken.

She didn’t even react like that when eating sweet and sour yam, and it’s worth noting that Jiang Feng’s sweet and sour yam is a limited daily special, only six servings a day.

Jiang Feng and Aunt walked ahead, while behind them, Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian whispered to each other.

“Junlian, you don’t think grandpa will make us go chop up pig feed for Da Hua today, do you?” Jiang Junqing was quite worried.

“Let’s go over later, just in time for mealtime,” Jiang Junlian suggested.

“What if grandpa asks us to stay and chop after the meal?”

Jiang Junlian fell silent.

Suddenly, a brilliant idea popped into her head.

“What if we take all the mooncakes with us? After all, no one’s going to eat mooncakes during the meal today. We can feed all the mooncakes to Da Hua, then she’ll be full!” Jiang Junlian said.

The two sisters quickly agreed on the plan.

Deal struck.

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