The Game of Life

The first day of the Lunar New Year, out with the old and in with the new.

No one could sleep in because from around four or five in the morning, the sound of firecrackers in the village was already incessant. The opening barrage of firecrackers left the ground covered in red paper bits, making the streets outside look as though a red carpet had been laid down, creating a festive atmosphere.

The Jiang Family didn’t have many relatives to visit for the New Year; Jiang Feng would go to his maternal grandfather’s house on the sixth day of the new year. In the next few days, they would make the rounds in the village, stopping by each household to have a chat, exchange New Year’s greetings, and when they saw children, they’d hand out handfuls of candy or some homemade pastries.

In the morning, they ate dumplings.

The four brothers ate very little, just waiting for the opportunity to mooch off others when they went out for the New Year visits. A few families in the village had some decent pastry-making skills. After all, who didn’t have a skill or two at that time?

So among the younger ones, only Jiang Junlian and Jiang Junqing could barely be considered kids, but it didn’t matter. The Jiang brothers had thick skins and as long as they ate quickly during the visits, the other kids couldn’t beat them to the treats.

The first stop was the neighboring house, which happened to be Li Cuihua’s, the one who attempted to poach their pig.

Li Cuihua’s husband was an honest and reticent man, previously working for the street office. He didn’t talk much, and since he couldn’t cook, he was even less noticeable in the eyes of the Jiang Family Members. The two families had been neighbors in the city and were still neighbors after moving to the countryside, which meant they had known each other for many years.

Li Cuihua had one son and three daughters and had known Mrs. Jiang for many years. The two women were good friends when they were younger but were always competing. At first, it was about getting married. Sir was a chef at a state-owned restaurant, while Li Cuihua’s husband worked at a street office, so they were comparably matched. Then the competition shifted to having sons, and when Li Cuihua couldn’t win in that regard, they compared who could raise a stronger son, which Li Cuihua also lost.

Li Cuihua gave up on her son and instead focused on raising a grandson, finally managing to raise him into a big chubby boy. However, the grandson went off to college, lost weight for love, and negated years of her effort, which extinguished the fire of competition between Li Cuihua and Mrs. Jiang in terms of raising children.

Li Cuihua’s mother was from Jiangzhe and was skilled at making pastries. Li Cuihua had learned a bit from her mother. Although she couldn’t cook much else, she was superb at making rice cakes, which were on par with those sold in markets.

Rice cake was the old term; now they’re called White Elephant Fragrant Cakes. Made from glutinous rice flour, sugar, candied orange peels, sesame, and maltose, the method involved steaming. The finished rice cakes were white as paper, with a sesame filling that tasted sweet but not greasy and had a soft, crumbly texture. The only downside was how easily they fell apart, and in winter, everyone wore thick down jackets which would get covered in crumbs after eating just a couple of pieces.

However, among the younger Jiang Family Members, only Jiang Feng faced this problem; the rest could eat one in a single bite, so the crumbs would fall into their mouths instead of on their clothes.

Mrs. Jiang took the lead, with Sir staying home in case others came to visit for the New Year. Mrs. Jiang didn’t come empty-handed, bringing a bag of dumplings as a gift for her dear frenemy of many years, Li Cuihua.

“Mushroom, cabbage, and pork filling, your grandson’s favorite,” Mrs. Jiang handed the dumplings to Li Cuihua.

Li Cuihua accepted the dumplings with a beaming smile, “I’ll cook these for lunch today.”

“Hey, where are your five chubby boys?” Li Cuihua wondered. Her aesthetic preferences hadn’t changed over the years; back when people couldn’t eat their fill, being skinny was the norm, and chubby individuals were treasured. Chubby people had the strength to work hard. Even though chubby people weren’t as popular now as they were back then, Li Cuihua still preferred them.

Not to mention, the Jiang Family Members were tall. Only Jiang Feng was short at 1.78 meters; the others were all sturdy men over 1.8 meters tall. Except for the juniors who appeared a bit flabby after years of eating without much exercise, the others were solidly built!

Even though Jiang Jianguo outwardly worked as a tailor, when he cooked for his oldest uncle, he had to wield the spatula.

Li Cuihua’s favorite was Jiang Jianguo, for a very simple reason: he was tall, big, chubby, and strong, which clearly marked him as a sturdy laborer.

“They’ve first gone topay a New Year’s visit to the village chief’s home, and will be over here shortly,” Mrs. Jiang said, “We’ve at least brought dumplings to your place, you can’t possibly deny us tea just because my eldest hasn’t arrived yet, can you?”

“Psh, what nonsense you’re talking. If the water wasn’t still heating up, would I not make tea for you? I’ve already steamed the rice cakes, let the kids start with those. We can have a good chat, and once the water is ready, I’ll brew some tea for you, Pu’er, my grandson bought it especially for me when he went to Yungui, my, such a big brick of tea!” Li Cuihua boasted.

Mrs. Jiang:…

Upon hearing Li Cuihua’s words, Jiang Feng and the others rushed into the house to eat the rice cakes, and Zhao Liang (Li Cuihua’s grandson) had already started eating, scattering crumbs all over the floor.

Jiang Feng took a good look and saw that Zhao Liang had indeed lost quite a bit of weight!

Zhao Liang used to be chubby, and Li Cuihua fed her grandson like she was stuffing a duck, but Zhao Liang wasn’t as tall as the Jiang Family kids, nor was he taught cooking by Sir like they were; he had been flabby, all fat and no muscle.

But today, he looked completely transformed!

“My, Liang, how much weight have you lost!” Jiang Ran exclaimed.

“Not much, just over ten pounds,” Zhao Liang replied with his mouth full, “Exercise made the flesh firm, I just look thinner. Come on, come and eat; it’s so fragrant fresh out of the pot. Once it cools, it won’t taste the same. My grandma also made some with osmanthus jam, but I think it tastes a bit odd.” Jiang Zaidi, taking the lead, grabbed a piece with osmanthus jam and chewed it, offering his criticism: “It’s okay, but the osmanthus jam isn’t quite there, can’t compare to the sesame seeds stir-fried by Old Madam Li herself.”

“Exactly, Old Madam Li’s stir-fried sesame seeds are fragrant. Sprinkling some maltose on them makes it even tastier,” Jiang Shoucheng chimed in.

“But did you notice the weird look Grandma gave us at the end just now?” Jiang Zaidi asked.

“It’s all Feng’s fault for not buying any local specialties for Grandma when he went to Shu,” Jiang Ran immediately passed the buck.

Jiang Feng: ???

“I didn’t buy specialties, but I brought Granduncle Weimingback. You didn’t bring anything back for Grandma from Changxi either,” Jiang Feng retorted.

“Exactly, you could have bought some tea cakes at least, but now Grandma is definitely going to scold us when we go out,” Jiang Shoucheng said.

Jiang Ran: “… Tea cakes are from Xunyang City, not Changxi.”

“What’s the distance, just a two-hour train ride, right? Feng at least brought Granduncle Weiming back, you didn’t even bring back some stir-fried noodles, you’ll have to apologize to Grandma yourself when we go out,” Jiang Zaidi piled on.

Zhao Liang, an onlooker enjoying the drama: ???

These days, bringing back local specialties from a trip could involve bringing back a living person?