The Game of Life

Feng felt like he was a child trafficker.

Even though he knew Zhang Chu meant well, based on his appearance and the words he had just spoken, Jiang Feng couldn’t shake the feeling that Zhang Chu had the aura of a child trafficker.

Xue Shaoheng looked up at him, shook his head, and continued searching for

flowers.

Seeing that Xue Shaoheng ignored him, Zhang Chu added another comment, “It’s getting late now, you should go home for dinner.’

After Zhang Chu finished speaking, he prepared to leave.

Reminded by Zhang Chu, Xue Shaoheng remembered that he should go home to have dinner with his sister.

But he hadn’t found the flower yet, and he wanted to find the purple flower to pick and bring back to his sister.

“Dinner,” Xue Shaoheng said.

“Flower,” Xue Shaoheng looked towards the flowerbed.

“Dinner.”

“Flower.”

“Dinner.”

Zhang Chu heard Xue Shaoheng’s words and looked at him with a bit of surprise.

Xue Shaoheng vacillated between dinner and flowers, spinning in place, and anyone unaware of the situation could easily think he was lost.

“Kid, are you lost? Do you know where your home is?” Zhang Chu asked again.

“Dinner.”

“Did your mom and dad bring you here?”

“Flower.”

Zhang Chu:…

Zhang Chu hesitated. He could tell that the kid before him probably had some issues and was definitely separated from his family; that’s why he was wandering alone in the park.

“Kid, are you hungry?” Zhang Chu didn’t hear the word “flower,” he only heard “dinner.”

“Hungry,” Xue Shaoheng repeated Zhang Chu’s words, “Dinner.

Zhang Chu thought for a moment; if he hadn’t seen the boy, he could have ignored the situation, but now that he had, he couldn’t just leave it be. Letting such a kid, who could hardly speak clearly, alone in the park – and a boy at that – was certain to attract the attention of child traffickers.

“Kid, how about Uncle takes you to his home for dinner? After we eat, Uncle will take you to the police station so the police can help you find your mom and dad,” ZhangChu offered.

Jiang Feng, having witnessed all of this:…

Although he didn’t know what Zhang Chu was thinking, he truly believed Zhang Chu had a talent for being a child trafficker.

It was like a natural gift, effortless and innate.

Xue Shaoheng was still hesitating between finding a flower and eating dinner. His biological clock and habits told him it was time to eat, but he also really wanted to find the purple flower first.

“Dinner.”

Taking that as an agreement, Zhang Chu took Xue Shaoheng’s hand and led

him towards his home.

Xue Shaoheng could feel Zhang Chu’s kindness and obediently followed him.

At that moment, Zhang Chu’s home, as seen later in Zhang Zhiyuan’s memories, had not much difference from its current state. The layout and general decor were the same, only the furniture had changed. The furniture and the color TV in Zhang Zhiyuan’s memories were more numerous, while the current house had no television, just a radio on the table.

“Why are you back so late, Yuan has already come home and you-” Cao Guixiang still had her apron untied when, hearing the door open, she walked out of the kitchen. Seeing Zhang Chu leading a child, she froze.

“Zhang Chu, if you went to the park for a stroll, you went for a stroll. But you even brought back a child? Have you quit carpentry to become a child trafficker?” Cao Guixiang said angrily. “Whose child is this that you just lead home, the parents are going to be frantic.”

“This child seems to have some issues and got lost in the park. I bumped into him, and since it’s dinner time, I brought him back to have a meal before taking him to the police station,” Zhang Chu explained.

“Dinner,” Xue Shaoheng said.

Cao Guixiang wiped her hands on her apron to dry them, walked up to Xue Shaoheng, and squatted down in front of him to be at his eye level. She smiled and asked him, “Kid, can you tell auntie your name?”

“Shaoheng,” Xue Shaoheng said.

“Shaoheng? Are you surnamed Shaoheng?” Zhang Chu began to guess wildly.

Xue Shaoheng shook his head, struggling to say, “Shaoheng.”

He hadn’t yet received any professional training or guidance, and most of the time, he could only blurt out words one by one. Sometimes he could say a whole word, and other times just a letter, but most of the time, he couldn’t say anything at all.

“Mom, is Dad back? Let’s start dinner. You’re— Who is this?” Zhang Chiyuan walked out of the room and saw Xue Shaoheng.

“Your dad picked up a little brother for you from the park,” Cao Guixiang said with a smirk, looking at Zhang Chu.

“Sister,” Xue Shaoheng said, looking at Zhang Chiyuan.

ZhangChiyuan: ???

“Don’t listen to your mom’s nonsense. It seems like this kid got separated from his family. I brought him back to have a meal, and we’ll take him to the police station afterwards,” Zhang Chu explained Xue Shaoheng’s situation to Zhang

Chiyuan.

“By the way, honey, is dinner ready?” Zhang Chu asked.

“I’ve been waiting for you to come back. I almost thought you lost someone on your walk. The braised big black sea cucumber is still in the pot. I didn’t dare to rotate the pan and thicken the sauce because you weren’t back,” Cao Guixiang said angrily, glancing at Zhang Chu, “Come in and give me a hand.”

“Sure thing,” Zhang Chu cheerfully followed her and didn’t forget to remind Zhang Chiyuan, “Yuan, take care of this little brother, will you?”

“Sister,” Xue Shaoheng said again.

ZhangChiyuan:???

Zhang Chiyuan couldn’t figure out why Xue Shaoheng would think he was a girl, considering he was a tall and strong sports star at school, who even received love letters secretly stashed in his desk by girls, although he hadn’t yet grown to his full height, he surely would in the future.

“I’m your brother, call me ‘brother’,” Zhang Chiyuan decided to uphold his dignity as a ‘seven-foot man¹.

Xue Shaoheng said nothing.

Zhang Chiyuan was at a loss; he simply had no idea how to take care of little kids. Although he had a younger sister, Zhang Siyu, who was only two years younger, the age difference wasn’t significant.

“Mom, Siyu went out early in the morning, why isn’t she back yet?” Zhang Chiyuan had no choice but to hope Zhang Siyu would come back to keep Xue Shaoheng company. He hadn’t finished his art homework, nor his math; he had a pile of things to do and it was giving him a headache.

“Siyu went out to play with her classmates and won’t be back until evening,” Cao Guixiang said, and didn’t miss the chance to chide Zhang Chu, “It’s all because you spoil her rotten. I told her not to go out today since it’s Yuan’s birthday, but she insisted on going.”

“That’s all your spoiling. If you hadn’t saved her a portion and eaten all the good food, she definitely wouldn’t go out next time and would eat at home every meal,” Zhang Chu started to deflect the blame.

Jiang Feng just stood at the entrance of the kitchen, in a strategic location- able to keep an eye on Cao Guixiang’s actions in the kitchen and also see what Zhang Chiyuan and Xue Shaoheng were up to in the living room.

In the tradition of top-level Chinese banquets, there must be a representative of the delicacies from the mountain and the sea—sea cucumber.

Since the fishermen offered sea cucumbers to Emperor Qin after he unified the six states, claiming they had the power to prolong life, sea cucumbers became an important delicacy in the royal court. Before the Song period, the smooth sea cucumbers from the south were the most sought after until people discovered the spiny sea cucumber from the north. The flesh of the spiny sea cucumber was even more plump, tender, and tasty than that of the smooth sea cucumber, which then overshadowed the latter.

Steamed sea cucumber is a type of smooth sea cucumber. Since the nutritional value of smooth sea cucumbers is lower than spiny sea cucumbers, and their price is relatively cheaper, restaurants generally use smooth sea cucumbers for their dishes.

The braised big black sea cucumber is a famous dish from Tan Family Cuisine, an extremely complicated and intricate cooking method, belonging to one of the more difficult classes of sea cucumber dishes. The big black sea cucumber itself is one of the harder varieties to cook; just the initial preparation can be quite a hassle.

The black outer skin of the big black sea cucumber has a tannic and numbing taste and must be properly processed and rehydrated before cooking, otherwise, it’s too tough to swallow. If today weren’t Zhang Chiyuan s birthday, Cao Guixiang wouldn’t bother with such a complex dish. Just preparing the sea cucumber and other ingredients took her nearly an hour, plus slow cooking on a low heat for another two hours, meaning she had spent almost the entire morning on this one dish.

“Wife, hasn’t the sea cucumber been stewing for over two hours already? Isn’t it time to take it out?” Zhang Chu asked.

“It hasn’t been two hours. I haven’t cooked in a while so my hands are a little rusty, which took some extra time,” Cao Guixiang said, glancing at the clay pot in front of her and lifting the lid.

Inside the pot, besides a black and glossy sea cucumber, there was a whole old hen, Jinhua ham, and dried scallops wrapped in a small cloth bag.

Almost simultaneously with the lifting of the lid, a delicious aroma wafted out. “I told you to buy a sea cucumber that weighed three pounds, and this one is just over two,” Cao Guixiang said as she removed the other ingredients from the clay pot, transferring the broth and sea cucumber into a pan to reduce the sauce over low heat.

“Wife, you really can’t blame me for this. I went early in the morning and there were no sea cucumbers weighing three pounds available. How was I supposed to buy one?” Zhang Chu protested.

“Chop up that chicken into small pieces. I’m going to stir-fry it with the ham later; it’ll be another dish,” Cao Guixiang commanded.

“Alright,” Zhang Chu picked up the cleaver and started chopping the chicken. Cao Guixiang stopped talking, focusing all her attention on the pot in front of her, carefully controlling the fire, ready to reduce the sauce and adjust the seasoning.