The Game of Life

Although sometimes she resorts to fists to solve problems when she’s not good with words or just doesn’t want to talk, most of the time describing her as “simple and unpretentious” is not an exaggeration at all.

So when Ji Xia came back with a big bag of oranges with a price tag of 99.67 yuan attached, Jiang Feng was not at all surprised.

“I have already watched your vegetable cutting video today,” Jiang Feng said as he took the oranges from Ji Xia and placed them into the cabinet. “The cucumber slices you cut today are clearly much neater than yesterday’s.”

With this fresh compliment, Ji Xia was very excited and felt full of energy: “Master, what should I do now?”

“Go to the chopping board and see if there’s anything that needs cutting.”

“Sure thing!”

…

In the evening, Jiang Feng spent a few minutes selecting two of the best-looking oranges from the bag, round and plump with bright color and a faint fruity fragrance when brought close to the nose, deciding to make crab-stuffed oranges with them tonight.

One for Minqi and one for himself, noodle pulling could be set aside for now, for Jiang Feng, with his rather inaccurate intuition, sensed that Minqi seemed not too keen on eating pulled noodles lately.

In the past few days, every evening when Minqi held her bowl, there was a hint of resistance in her eyes.

After picking the oranges, just as Jiang Feng was about to go to the kitchen for sesame oil and borrow crabs from downstairs, he saw Ji Xia holding a freshly washed mop, ready to mop the floor in the room.

After becoming an apprentice, Little Apprentice Ji Xia profoundly realized what it meant to be ‘eating from someone else’s hand, and being short on reciprocation.’ Now not only did she eat and carry things every day, but she also accepted clothes bought for her by Jiang Feng, as well as hand cream and face cream bought by Wu Minqi. Apprentice Ji Xia deeply felt that what she did every day, just helping out in the kitchen and learning skills, and doing pig feed for Da Hua at the Li Mansion in the afternoon, was not enough to reciprocate her master’s generosity. Thus, Apprentice Ji Xia would clean Jiang Feng’s house every evening.

Since she had also lost Jiang Feng’s bike today, she decided not only to mop the floor but also to clean the windows.

Time was tight, and the task was heavy; it had to be done quickly and decisively.

Jiang Feng looked at Ji Xia, who was actively working, and silently pulled out another orange from the bag.

It wasn’t easy for the apprentice to come to clean late at night, so he, as a master, should treat her to something good as a reward.

Carrying the sesame oil, Jiang Feng went downstairs and knocked on the door of the Jiang Family home. It was Jiang Jianguo who answered, and Jiang Feng could keenly smell the crab on him.

“Uncle, did you eat crab?” Jiang Feng asked.

“Yes, an old classmate sent it to me a couple of days ago, big hairy crabs from Yangcheng Lake, especially plump!” Jiang Jianguo happily took the sesame oil. “My classmate sent me dozens at once; they are all kept in the water pond. Wait, Uncle will get a few for you!”

With that, Jiang Jianguo went to the balcony to get crabs for Jiang Feng.

Without Jiang Feng having to ask to borrow them, the crabs were delivered straight to him.

The aunt who should have been doing yoga on the mat was sitting by the dining table, holding a crab leg in her hand, with some crab shell, from recently eating a crab, still sticking to her mouth.

Jiang Feng and his aunt’s eyes met, and she smiled politely at Jiang Feng, offering, “Feng, there’s another crab left in the pot. Do you want to eat it?”

“No need, Aunt, you eat it,” Jiang Feng replied.

The aunt nodded with content and continued to gnaw the crab leg,

Crushing the shell and biting out the meat.

The violent way to eat a crab.

It wasn’t long before Jiang Jianguo came out from the balcony holding a thin red plastic bag, and Jiang Feng could clearly see through the plastic bag that there were four crabs inside, tied up and subdued, unable to wave their claws around.

The crabs were large and meaty; it seemed that Jiang Jianguo had carefully picked them from a pond full of crabs on the balcony.

“Come to Uncle’s place after you finish eating to get more!” Jiang Jianguo handed the plastic bag to Jiang Feng.

“Thank you, Uncle. I will,” Jiang Feng responded gratefully, indicating he would come again tomorrow night to borrow crabs.

Carrying the crabs back home, Wu Minqi was still showering, and Ji Xia was mopping the floor of the bedroom while Jiang Feng went to the kitchen to clean the crabs with a brush.

Jiang Jianguo had given Jiang Feng four female crabs, which was exactly what he wanted, for crab-stuffed oranges needed to be made with both crab meat and crab roe to be delicious.

The Jiang Family, who once sold healthy snacks in Z city, sold anything that was in season; spicy crabs when crabs were in season, spicy little crayfish when crayfish were in season. So, Jiang Feng had a lot of experience cleaning crayfish and crabs.

He skillfully cleaned three of the female crabs and left the fourth to live for another day; Jiang Feng steamed the three tied crabs directly and then started to deal with the oranges.

Jiang Feng had read the recipe for Stuffed Orange with Crab many times already. It wasn’t really that difficult; it was all about the attention to detail, using fine ingredients, and handling the materials with care.

Take, for instance, the Shaoxing Xiangxue Wine that’s required for Stuffed Orange with Crab—it’s a type of wine made by substituting distiller’s grains liquor for water and using the method of drizzling over rice to ferment it twice, imparting it with a rich, aromatic flavor coupled with a hint of sweetness. It’s called Xiangxue Wine because the distiller’s grains are white as snow. This wine possesses both the strong aroma of liquor and the mellow sweetness of yellow wine, making it one of the most upscale varieties of Shaoxing wine. If it hadn’t been for Mr. Jiang Jiankang’s special fondness for incorporating Shaoxing wine into dishes and his collection of various Shaoxing wines, Jiang Feng wouldn’t have been able to obtain this high-quality Shaoxing Xiangxue Wine so easily.

This wine has a low alcohol content, high sugar content, and a strong fragrance, making it particularly suitable for culinary use.

Jiang Feng imitated Master Peng’s actions that he remembered and cut off the top 1/4 of the orange. He carefully snipped the membranes inside that were connected to the orange flesh, alternating between a small pair of scissors and a small spoon, almost wishing he could stick his head inside the orange and carefully scoop out the pulp bit by bit.

Once he had emptied one orange, Jiang Feng felt as if his neck was about to break.

Not only was his neck sore, but his head was dizzy too. The feeling reminded him of the time he helped Ji Xue peel beans for Granduncle Weiming’s birthday.

It was like being only one bean away from a cervical spine disease.

Having completely removed the orange pulp, Jiang Feng was left with only a shallow layer of orange juice inside the fruit. Perhaps because he often boned pigeons, Jiang Feng was rather fast at this delicate task. The crabs were still steaming on the stove, but after stretching his neck, Jiang Feng started to scoop out the next orange.

Ji Xia had just finished mopping the floors in the rooms, living room, and balcony. Holding the mop and ready to clean the dining room floor, she caught sight of Jiang Feng holding an orange in his left hand and a small spoon in his right, squinting one eye as if he was trying to scoop out something from the orange.

When you don’t know, you should ask loudly—that was the first thing Ji Xia learned in the Taifeng Building’s kitchen.

“Master, what are you doing?” asked Ji Xia.

“Making Stuffed Orange with Crab,” replied Jiang Feng.

“Stuffed Orange with Crab?”

“It’s a dish that uses oranges and crab. Wait here after you finish mopping; there’s a share for you too,” Jiang Feng said.

“Great!” Ji Xia said, delighted.

Oranges are fruits, and crabs are meat. Both were things she seldom had the chance to eat before.

The fruit and meat dish made by her master must be exceptionally delicious.

She decided that today she would not only clean the windows but also polish the vases!

Ji Xia continued her enthusiastic mopping while Wu Minqi finished her long bath, emerging from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her hair as usual, and was surprised to see that Jiang Feng wasn’t pulling noodles today.

Even a bit relieved.

Carbohydrates really are a woman’s nemesis.

“Fengfeng, aren’t you making pulled noodles tonight?” Wu Minqi asked.

“Not tonight. I figured you might be getting tired of eating noodles every evening, so we’ll switch it up tonight. I’ll make Stuffed Orange with Crab for you,” Jiang Feng said.

Wu Minqi immediately beamed with a smile and asked, “Do you need any help?”

Wu Minqi had hit the nail on the head with her offer to help, as Jiang Feng could really use it after scooping out two oranges. He was now feeling dizzy, weak in limbs, and found even looking at a light to be unbearably bright.

“Minqi, could you help me pick out the crab meat? I still have one more orange to scoop and can’t manage it all,” Jiang Feng said. “The crabs should be about done too.”

“Sure,” Wu Minqi said as she walked towards the kitchen to lift the lid. The crabs were indeed cooked. She used chopsticks to pick up the strings tied around the crabs and placed them onto a plate.

“Xiaxia, do you want to help me pick crab meat?” Wu Minqi asked.

“Pick crab meat?” Ji Xia was a bit confused with her mop in hand.

“It means to separate the crab meat and crab roe, which you definitely need to learn. Many dishes require the use of crab meat or crab roe,” Wu Minqi explained.

“What if I don’t do it well?” Ji Xia hesitated, worried about delaying Jiang Feng’s cooking.

“I’ll teach you. It’s very simple. You just need to be patient and careful,” Wu Minqi said with a smile. “Don’t mop the floor anymore tonight and learn with your master instead. Learning to cook is like this: most of the time, your master won’t teach you directly. You have to watch and learn on your own, and as you watch, you’ll understand. It was the same in the kitchen. Don’t just stand there cutting vegetables ignorantly; you need to learn more, listen more, and look more. Your master didn’t place you in the kitchen to be a helper, but to learn the craft from him.”

And so began another mini-class with the gold-medal wife, Wu Minqi.

“Okay.” Ji Xia went to the balcony to put away the mop and made sure to wash her hands clean.

She decided she would clean the windows, vases, and the TV cabinet tomorrow.

She had just noticed how dirty it was behind the TV cabinet when she stooped to mop the floor.