The Game of Life

Taifeng Building opened for business at 5 pm, and Xu Cheng arrived precisely on time. Accompanying him was the Han Guishan family, who had come to freeload a meal.

A Four-person Qixi Festival was indeed out of the ordinary.

The hostess was even a bit flustered when she heard Xu Cheng report his reservation name.

Arrivals like Xu Cheng, who came this early, were in the minority; most diners didn’t start to show up until after 6 pm. Among them were Fang Zhuoyue and Huang Chenxuan, who had just finished watching a movie and decided to come here for dinner.

Although Jiang Feng had told Fang Zhuoyue that the 520 and 1314 set menus were a bit of a rip-off and not recommended, Fang Zhuoyue still wholeheartedly reserved the 520 set menu.

Qi Rou was the one who led them to their seats. She had some recollection of Fang Zhuoyue, remembering him as a friend of Jiang Feng, and when she served the drinks, she even intentionally put in fewer ice cubes.

Huang Chenxuan wore a beige, over-the-knee Lolita-style dress and a headband, looking a bit overexcited and ceaselessly surveying everything around her as she sat.

“You are my sunshine,” Huang Chenxuan picked up the heart-shaped card on the table and read the sentence aloud, “The phrases written by this restaurant are quite interesting.”

Fang Zhuoyue was worried about Huang Chenxuan’s condition and asked, “Are you okay right now? Do you want to take your medication first?”

“No need, I feel quite good right now. I took lithium carbonate before I left this morning,” Huang Chenxuan said, “Taking other medications always makes me nauseous and want to vomit. Bipolar disorder is just like this, with manic and depressive episodes alternating. I’m just a little bit excited; there’s no problem.”

“Hello, here’s your bubble tea. Would you like the cake served before or after the meal?” Qi Rou brought the bubble tea to the table.

“Let’s have it before the meal, you can bring it now,” Huang Chenxuan’s eyes lit up.

“You’ve recently become fond of sweets. I remember you didn’t use to eat sweets much,” Fang Zhuoyue took a sip of the milk tea.

“Because sweets make people feel good,” said Huang Chenxuan, “Even though they don’t actually do much, it’s better to believe they might help than not. What if, after eating that cake, my mood really does improve?”

Fang Zhuoyue suddenly didn’t know what to say.

“Fang Zhuoyue, do you understand my condition?” Huang Chenxuan looked at him, “If you don’t, I can tell you about it now. It’s not too late to back out.”

“What nonsense are you talking about?” Fang Zhuoyue deeply felt that Huang Chenxuan needed to take her medication.

“I’m serious. Even though bipolar disorder doesn’t require lifelong medication, it still prevents me from living a normal life. I’m struggling even with my studies now, and I can’t imagine what I’ll do when it’s time for internships. On weekends, I can sleep for 13, 14 hours at a stretch, and I’m practically never fully awake in my everyday life. Yesterday, before boarding the plane, I took my medication and then felt nauseous, ran to the toilet to vomit, and almost missed my flight while I was at it. Others looked at me as if I were insane,” Huang Chenxuan looked up at the ceiling, “For the past year, there’s barely been a time when I felt happy. I moved out of the dormitory, lost normal social interactions, and am left with only one or two friends I can talk to. The thing I do most often is run to the bathroom in the middle of the night to cry and throw up. I didn’t dare to tell you about my condition, and I didn’t even dare to tell my parents. All I could do was to tell them I was fine, there was nothing wrong, and that the doctor said I should just stay put without any pressure.”

“I can’t even see my own future clearly now; I don’t even know what I can do after I graduate. What do you think I can do? As a patient myself, how can I expect a hospital to hire me?” Huang Chenxuan bit her lip, her gaze becoming a bit vacant.

“At least you’re happy today,” Fang Zhuoyue looked at her, “You were happy yesterday when you got off the plane, weren’t you?”

“Right,” Huang Chenxuan smiled, “I realized during the New Year’s that as long as I see you, I feel happy.”

Fang Zhuoyue was stunned, “During New Year’s?”

“You probably don’t remember much about it, it was during the New Year’s when I asked you to come out with me for tofu pudding. That day I had a big fight with my parents, slammed the door, and went out crying. I rode the yellow bike all the way to the tofu pudding shop. At the crossroads, I saw you waiting for the traffic light to cross the street.”

“You wore a particularly ugly down jacket that day, with a red hat, hands stuffed in your pockets, and a brown wool scarf wrapped around your face—it looked pretty comical. But the moment I saw you, I suddenly felt very relieved. Before going to the tofu pudding shop, I first went to wash my face in the restroom of a mall, so you didn’t notice that I had been crying.”

“Then… what about last semester…” Fang Zhuoyue suddenly remembered some embarrassing past incidents.

“You really think so? You actually believed I was just confused from cramming for finals and that’s why I suddenly came over to ask you how you’d feel if a girl liked your brother?” Huang Chenxuan chuckled in disbelief.

“Cough… That… I didn’t know, I thought you were just asking casually, how could I have guessed, oh dear, that, at that time, I truly just answered randomly.” Fang Zhuoyue had never hated his good memory so much.

At the time, he had rattled off a whole bunch of stories about how he had snubbed someone who had liked his brother back in the days.

“Do you know which sentence of yours almost killed me with anger?”

“Which one?”

“You said that when you found out your buddy was no longer single, you felt like throwing a hot water bottle at him,” Huang Chenxuan looked at him.

“Cough… Cough cough cough… Cough.” Fang Zhuoyue almost choked on his own saliva.

“At that moment, I thought I had fallen for a gay man.”

“Cough… Cough cough cough… Cough.”

“Hello, here’s the tiramisu cake. We’re a bit busy with customers, so the service is a bit slow, please forgive us,” Qi Rou brought the cake to the table.

“Great, thank you, thank you, thank you, just place it on her side,” Fang Zhuoyue expressed his relief.

Qi Rou: ???

“The chrysanthemum fish and the ‘earth three fresh’ will be ready soon. Would you like the pickled vegetable dumplings now or later?” Qi Rou asked.

“Bring them now,” Fang Zhuoyue said, then quickly changed the subject to Huang Chenxuan, “A friend of mine who works in this restaurant recommended those pickled vegetable dumplings to me, saying they are healthy and good for weight loss, and being whole grain, they’re good for the body. Girls will definitely like them.”

Huang Chenxuan lowered her head and scooped up a spoonful of cake.

Sweet.

Maybe sweets really can make one’s mood better, she felt quite good at the moment.

Huang Chenxuan turned her head to look once more at the heart-shaped card she had placed on the corner of the table.

You are my sunshine.

“You are my sunshine,” Huang Chenxuan said.

“Hmm?”

“I like this card,” Huang Chenxuan smiled.

You are a beam of light, the only one in my dark life.

“Ding, earned the recognition of a customer, task progress (7/10),” a game notification rang in Jiang Feng’s mind.

Jiang Feng: ???

Who ate what again?