THE GAME OF LIFE

Chapter 672: Chapter 670: The Majestic Tranquility

Jiang Feng perked up, ready to listen to stories.

It was precisely the moments when the elderly relatives reminisced about the warmth of the past that the younger generation relished in listening, since they couldn’t contribute to the conversation anyway.

The dishes on the table had all been cleared away, but Xu Cheng still embodied the spirit of hard work, simplicity, and thriftiness in line with socialist core values by packing up the leftover straw mushroom chicken and white fungus vegetarian dish.

The ingredients for the Swallow-wing Feast were all provided by Xu Cheng, and one could say that in a sense, it was like Boss Xu treating everyone.

After the dishes were cleared, each person was served a portion of almond tea by the waitstaff, followed by two plates of desserts. Jiang Feng originally didn’t plan to eat anymore, his condition could be lightly described as being stuffed to the throat with food. He felt as if his stomach had just gone through a physical experiment: it started empty, then he laid a foundation with a bit of bird’s nest and shark fin soup, stuffed in abalone and sea cucumber in the middle sector, packed in chicken, duck, fish, and vegetables to fill it up, and finally poured in soup to fill all the gaps.

Jiang Feng proved to everyone with his actions that stomach capacity was like water in a sponge – if you squeezed, there would always be room.

Seeing the almond tea, Jiang Feng felt like the sponge had dried out, but when Peng Changping told him that he had prepared the almond tea earlier, Jiang Feng felt that, actually, there might still be a bit more water to squeeze out of the sponge.

Jiang Feng struggled to pick up a spoon and scooped up a spoonful of almond tea, brimming with raisins, sesame, and crushed peanuts, eating his first mouthful.

The second mouthful.

The third mouthful.

…

The bowl of almond tea wasn’t large, but it wasn’t small by any means; Jiang Feng initially only wanted to have a few tastes, but as is with desserts, before he knew it, he had gobbled it all up, his stomach taken by surprise without putting up any defense.

Zhang Zhiyuan watched with wide eyes as Jiang Feng, who had already bowed out of the battlefield, started the battle anew with vigor, stunning and admiring him for his astonishing stomach capacity. He exclaimed, “Feng, you really can eat!”

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Jiang Feng nodded humbly, hardly daring to open his mouth.

He couldn’t open his mouth, for the food would fall out.

And, his stomach was a bit sore.

He would never overeat again.

Unless Peng Changping was cooking.

While Jiang Feng was overeating, the progression of Zhang Chu’s story had left reality behind and started veering into the realm of fantasy.

After Zhang Chu and Cao Guixiang were sent to the countryside as educated youths, Cao Guixiang’s cooking skills found no use, but Zhang Chu’s carpentry skills shone brightly. With his skills, one day Zhang Chu would fix a desk for the Party secretary, another day repair a chair for the accountant, the day after mend the village granary gate, and the next day repair the fence at the Brigade Leader’s home. Whenever he found the time, he would also carve simple toys from scrap wood for the village children who had nothing but mud to play with, chopped pigweed, and foraged wild vegetables, gifting them without asking for a penny in return. He became incredibly popular within just two months, and there wasn’t a single educated youth within ten miles who was as welcomed as he was.

From then on, Zhang Chu led a blissful life, working the least yet earning the most work points. Even though there was some isolation from other educated youths, he had his wife—why would he be afraid? As a result, Cao Guixiang also got the easiest job of guarding the granary.

“If only I had a higher education level, having forgotten everything I learned in primary school and barely able to write a few words, I might have been recommended for a worker-peasant-soldier university!” Zhang Chu boasted while telling his story.

Jiang Feng: …

“Then why didn’t you return to the city when the educated youths were called back?” Peng Changping asked.

At this question, Zhang Chu’s expression changed, and after a pause, he still spoke, “It’s because… it didn’t relate to us.”

When Cao Guixiang resigned to go to the countryside as an educated youth, the street office tried to compensate her family by arranging a temporary street-sweeping job for her brother. Perhaps her parents truly felt guilty and wanted to make amends; for the first few years, it wasn’t too bad—they sent Cao Guixiang some goodies not found in the countryside every few months.

But the feeling of guilt fades quickly over time.

The correspondence between Cao Guixiang and her family became less and less frequent, and even when she took the initiative to write, the replies were often perfunctory, containing only a few words. Later, the longest reply she received was in response to a letter informing them that she was planning to marry Zhang Chu in the countryside.

It was a letter of harsh rebuke, a stark contrast to the congratulations and gifts sent by Peng Changping and others.

You should know that that year, Qin Guisheng had spent half a year’s wages to splurge on the most expensive dress he could afford from the department store, pricier than a wristwatch, as a wedding gift to Cao Guixiang—by then he was already married, and his wife was not Amin.

Yet, Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu’s parents didn’t send even a single cube of brown sugar.

After that, Cao Guixiang and her family basically lost all communication.

Latter, when the sent-down youth were allowed to return to the cities, Zhang Chu, despite being quite successful in the village, had no connections at all in the city. By that time, Zhang Chiyuan and Zhang Siyu had both been born, and Cao Guixiang had wanted to move back to Beiping so the children could go to school more conveniently, but the letters she sent vanished without a trace, with no replies.

Even her own parents were unwilling to help, and the families of Peng Changping and Qin Guisheng also had relatives desperate to return to the city. Everyone was looking for connections, and everyone lacked them. Cao Guixiang didn’t want to bother her senior brothers specifically with letters, so she stayed in the village with Zhang Chu, unlike other sent-down youth who tried everything possible to find connections, even if it meant abandoning their wives and children to return to the city.

Zhang Chu was lucky, or perhaps it was because the storekeeper and the accountant’s furniture, such as tables, chairs, and cabinets, had broken too often over the years, owing Zhang Chu too many favors. Less than two years after Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu had wasted their time in the village, the storekeeper and the accountant helped Zhang Chu find a job as a carpenter in the county town.

After moving to the county town, Zhang Chu worked as a carpenter, and Cao Guixiang picked up her old trade and started working as a chef in a newly opened restaurant in the county. With Cao Guixiang’s help, the restaurant took only half a year to oust the only state-run restaurant in the county. It became the talk of the town and once achieved legendary status.

When Zhang Chu mentioned this, Xu Cheng was still shocked and interjected. He had heard legends about this restaurant years ago when he traveled to seek out hidden eateries among the people. The restaurant had prospered for a few years, and then the owner suddenly closed shop to pursue other business ventures, which had been a great regret to him.

Then Zhang Chu told him that the owner changing career was because Zhang Chiyuan was going to start elementary school and the whole family was moving to the city—Cao Guixiang resigned and stopped working. Cao Guixiang’s former boss was quite grateful, and to thank her for the money she helped him make over the years and for making him a mysterious legend, he paid for half of the family’s house in the city. The rest of the money came from Cao Guixiang’s saved wages. The savings Zhang Chu had accumulated over the years were only enough to buy some furniture and make some simple decorations.

At this point in the story, it sounded very much like the rise of a generation of catering magnates.

And then Cao Guixiang became a full-time housewife.

There were two reasons: one was that the household had two children, and Cao Guixiang strongly felt that neither of the siblings had a knack for carpentry or culinary skills; fearing they may starve if they followed in those trades, she believed studying was their only way out and needed close attention. The other reason was that she was not an ambitious person by nature.

With Cao Guixiang’s skills, even if she set up a stall selling hot and spicy soup on the night market, she could quickly become the “Spicy Soup Queen,” and then open a shop, start a chain, expand, and eventually own a restaurant. Even if she did not want to be an entrepreneur, with her culinary skills, she could pick and choose among the nation’s top restaurants, all of which would offer her a leading chef’s treatment.

But she didn’t.

The epic tale of Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu came to an abrupt end when they moved to the city.

Zhang Chu continued his carpentry, gaining a modest reputation, and then retired smoothly as the demand for carpenters gradually decreased, becoming an old man who spent his days playing chess, drinking tea, and looking after his grandson.

Cao Guixiang became an ordinary housewife, spending her days cooking, shopping, dancing, chatting over tea, occasionally shopping and climbing mountains with other housewives, and dropping her grandson off at a tutoring class whenever she felt like shopping.

Perhaps it was because their lives had been too exciting and too full of hardship for a time, leaving no room for choices, so when the time came to choose, they unanimously opted for the most ordinary and mundane way of life.

They did not seek dramatic success or stupendous wealth, but rather a life of simple necessities, with a harmonious family and smooth relationships.

If it weren’t for Peng Changping’s return from abroad and Zhang Chu’s visit, Zhang Zhiyuan might never have known about his seemingly ordinary grandparents’ once incredibly vibrant lives.

Zhang Zhiyuan was completely stunned; so was Jiang Feng.

Somehow, listening to Zhang Chu tell these stories gave him an inexplicable sense of relief.

Peng Changping also looked relieved. During the years of no contact with Cao Guixiang, he and Qin Guisheng had been most worried about their junior sister not doing well in China, struggling with life without relatives to support her. Now, knowing that she was living a content life just like any other normal, happy old lady, he felt no regrets left.

“Then… how did she pass away?” Peng Changping asked the most critical question.

Zhang Chu’s gaze dimmed, “Bad luck. She was hit by a speeding truck while crossing the street to buy groceries in the morning. It was instantaneous, no suffering.”

Peng Changping sighed deeply.

The story of Cao Guixiang ended there.

Jiang Feng’s side quest had not yet concluded.

While listening to Zhang Chu, he and Zhang Zhiyuan were at a loss for words but he couldn’t figure out why Zhang Chu felt regret for not being able to treat Peng Changping to a meal with the taste of Shunhe Building.

He thought it was about a wedding banquet, but the game told him otherwise.

What was it that was not right?

What was still missing?

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