The Game of Life

After leaving the Zhao Family, Mrs. Jiang took her six grandchildren to another house to mooch food and drinks.

On this journey, they had eaten lantern cakes, fried sugar cakes, cotton seed cake, honey tri-cut, sugar dates, fried dough twists, sticky rice cake, and fried twist dough, managing to suppress their burps while visiting other homes for New Year’s greetings. Mrs. Jiang was much the same, having had seven or eight cups of tea, cracking a couple of sunflower seeds while chatting, and, after having a bowl of dumplings in the morning, she wasn’t even hungry by the time she got home for lunch, settling for a water-filled belly.

Back home, it was much the same with Jiang Jianguo and his brothers, all sitting at home and burping, with different flavors of burps, sweet, salty, and even spicy ones.

“The village head has some pickled little fish, really flavorful but too spicy. Mom, don’t forget to go have a taste this afternoon,” Jiang Jianguo said.

“So all your New Year’s visits are just for the eating, huh!” scolded Mrs. Jiang. “Who wants lunch? If anyone wants lunch, I’ll go make a few bowls of dumplings for you.”

Only Jiang Weiguo and Jiang Weiming indicated they wanted to have lunch.

For the past few days, they either ate leftovers or dumplings; it wouldn’t be until the seventh day of the new year that Sir would restart the fire for cooking rice, as starting from the third day of the new year, the daughters-in-lawof the Jiang Family would begin taking their husbands and sons to visit their maternal homes. That included Mrs. Jiang, who on the third day would lead everyone to visit her brother’s home.

On the first and second days, everyone had mooched a bit here and there, nibbling from the east and west, filling up by mooching food and drinks. On the evening of the second day, Mrs. Jiang rallied the entire family to make dumplings.

These dumplings were to be taken to Jiang Feng’s maternal uncle; in recent years, his stomach couldn’t handle much, so he could only eat vegetarian food. Sir had specially prepared a filling of carrots, winter bamboo shoots, winter mushrooms, and cabbage for the dumplings, and the bamboo shoots were even boiled in clear broth to ensure they were utterly delicious.

Since it was a visit to Mrs. Jiang’s biological brother, it wasn’t appropriate for Jiang Weiming to join, so he stayed at home while Mrs. Jiang, brimming with energy and pride, led her children and grandchildren to her brother’s house in the neighboring village for New Year’s greetings.

Saying it’s the neighboring village, it still took them nearly half an hour to walk there.

“Brother, I’ve brought Jianguo, Jiandang, Jiankang, Jianye, and Jianshe to wish you a Happy New Year!” Mrs. Jiang hadn’t even reached the entrance of the village when she bellowed with vigour.

Jiang Feng’s maternal grandfather had already been waiting at the village entrance with his walking stick, chuckling as he responded. As they approached, he grinned broadly, squinting through his severely long-sighted eyes, looking over each of his robust nephews one by one, then contentedly surveyed the younger generations again, before finally laying eyes on Jiang Feng.

“Feng, this won’t do. I feel like you’re even thinner than last year. A fine young man needs to eat more and bulk up, that’s how you get people to like you!” the grandfather said.

“Of course, maternal grandfather, I’ll eat more when I get back,” Jiang Feng replied with sincerity.

“No need to wait until you get back. I’ve stewed a meat soup for you today, big pieces of braised meat. Feng, eat a couple more pieces,” the grandfather said cheerfully.

The grandfather led everyone back home and along the way, the villagers who saw them would remark, “Oh, Mrs. Jiang is leading her kids to pay you a New Year’s visit!”

At that moment, Jiang Feng’s grandfather stood even straighter than usual.

Jiang Feng’s great-grandmother gave birth to six children, with Mrs. Jiang being the fifth. Other than the eldest brother, the rest were all girls. The great-grandmother once doubted her life; in an era where having male members in a family was considered prestigious, she lacked confidence when speaking in public.

When Jiang Feng was little and his great-grandmother was still alive, he vaguely remembered that whenever they came to pay respects to the maternal grandfather and great-grandmother, they would always be waiting at the village entrance early on. The great-grandmother was quite elderly by then, thin and petite, but her voice was extraordinarily loud. She would make sure the whole village knew.

My daughter has come with her five big and chubby boys to pay me a New Year’s visit!

Jiang Feng’s great-grandmother loved Mrs. Jiang the most for a very simple reason: this one daughter bore five big and chubby boys, each one tall and strong, restoring the face she had lost in the previous decades.

Uncle Grandpa really liked everyone from the Jiang Family, including the normally built Jiang Feng, but none of that could change the bitter reality that Uncle Grandpa’s braised meat skills were terrible.

Mrs. Jiang’s cooking was still atrocious, possibly a family trait, since Uncle Grandpa’s meat broth was always hard to swallow, not only because it was big pieces of braised meat, but also because it was large chunks of fat.

It was just flavored with green onion, ginger, garlic, and cooking wine to remove the gamey taste, lacking even oil-absorbing and greasy-cancelling winter melon or white radish, practically no different from boiled plain pork belly. Drop a big chunk of that fat in, and you’d ascend to heaven right there and then.

Ever since middle school, Jiang Feng’s Uncle Grandpa had taken to stuffing him with chunks of braised fat, and his acting skills had progressively improved over the years, inextricably linked to Uncle Grandpa’s braised meat.

Uncle Grandpa’s family was much less populated than the Jiangs, having just one son whose health was not great, and only one granddaughter, who was already married. She hadn’t been able to buy a ticket back and wouldn’t return until the fifth day of the new year.

A few elders were having tea and chatting in the living room while Jiang Feng and the others slipped into the kitchen to scope out the situation, where Aunt Tian Lin was busy washing vegetables, and the big meat was already simmering in the pot.

With such a large pot of meat, it was crystal clear whose stomachs it would end up in; their faces all turned a shade of green on the spot, with Jiang Feng’s undoubtedly the greenest.

Without a doubt, when the time came, it would be he whom Uncle Grandpa stuffed the most.

“Oh boy, what’s going on with Aunt this year, I feel like there’s even more than last year’s haul,” Jiang Zaidi was instantly panicked.

“I think I heard my dad say that Uncle Grandpa’s pig this year is especially fat, over four hundred pounds,” Jiang Shoucheng said, his voice quivering.

“Over four hundred pounds?” Jiang Ran let out a cry of alarm, “That would eat more than Erhua, that meat must be so fatty!”

Jiang Ran spoke too loudly and caught Tian Lin’s attention. She looked over, smiled, and said, “Still two hours to dinner, you’re hungry already? Auntie will cook it quicker for you, we are having braised pork belly today too!”

Braised pork belly!

The four brothers felt their fate was sealed here today.

Jiang Feng felt that he had to do something to save his own life.

“Auntie, look, you must’ve been cooking these past days, and you’ve been hard at it too. Why not let me help you?” Jiang Feng suddenly had an idea.

“No, no, when you come to our house to pay a New Year’s visit, you’re guests, and it’s not right to have guests cook,” Tian Lin felt it was inappropriate.

“It’s fine, Auntie, Feng has been practicing at home for a long while just to cook a meal for Uncle Grandpa. It’s a little token of our respect as the younger generation. Please, you should take a rest. Leave the kitchen to us, go relax, have a drink of water in the living room,” the three brothers quickly caught on, coaxing and pulling Tian Lin away, leaving the kitchen to Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng took off his down jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and tied on an apron.

After special training during the winter break, it was time to show everyone the results!

*On the first day of the new year, I even post twice, just to loudly tell you all how much I love you!!!