The Game of Life

With stuffed crab and oranges on his mind, Jiang Feng did not forget that he needed to visit Professor Li’s home the next day to see Chen Suhua and to prepare pig food for Da Hua.

Once the midday business ended the next day, Jiang Feng hopped into a Didi car headed for Li Mansion.

His bicycle had been stolen, and walking there would have taken at least half an hour. Though not tiring, the sun was so intense it was killing him, and without Wu Minqi by his side, Jiang Feng had no excuse to brazenly use a sun umbrella.

It was only mid-September and not yet the Mid-Autumn Festival, with the high heat continuing unabated and no rain in sight. The midday sun was fiercely scorching, the kind that made it impossible to open one’s eyes if you looked up. Standing outside for too long, one could feel a burning pain on the exposed skin, and walking half an hour without an umbrella would peel your skin off, if not kill you.

Speaking of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Jiang Feng was contemplating whether to order a batch of mooncakes and distribute a box to each Taifeng Building staff member as a festival benefit. After all, mooncakes come in all shapes and sizes nowadays – ice skin, fresh meat, mixed nuts, chocolate, star anise, spicy strip, braised pork, and preserved vegetable and pork belly mooncakes were all available on the market. Anything you can’t imagine, no bakery would fail to make.

Jiang Feng figured that in two more years, any Chinese dish could be stuffed into a mooncake, and perhaps even international dishes could find their way in – like Tom Yum Goong mooncakes, sashimi mooncakes, or black pepper steak mooncakes.

With that in mind, Jiang Feng thought why not Taifeng Building take the lead and launch Kung Pao chicken or pickled vegetable fried rice mooncakes to capture the market early, and if they’re not tasty, just blame Mr. Jiang Jiankang’s cooking skills.

A half-hour walk only took a few minutes by taxi.

The car stopped at the entrance to Li Mansion. Jiang Feng nodded to the driver, promising to remember the 5-star rating, then pushed the car door open and got out.

Jiang Feng had a key to Li Mansion, as Professor Li had given him one fearing that Jiang Feng might come over when they weren’t home.

Upon entering, Jiang Feng headed straight for the pigsty, only to find that Da Hua was not inside. The pigsty was empty, and the door was closed, so it couldn’t have been Da Hua escaping on her own.

It was highly unlikely that Da Hua had figured out how to close the door after leaving the house.

But in the scorching midday heat, it would be unreasonable for Chen Suhua to take Da Hua for a walk. If you took a pig out for a walk at this time, you might bring home a roasted pig instead — perfectly cooked, sizzling hot, the kind that oozes oil when you poke it.

Jiang Feng scratched his head, puzzled as he pushed the door to the main hall.

Professor Li was sitting on a recliner, reading on his phone with reading glasses on, while Da Hua lay beside him.

Seeing Jiang Feng, Professor Li took off his glasses, sat up, and greeted him with a smile, “You’re here, Feng.”

“I’ve been a bit busy lately, but I had some free time today so I decided to come and see how you and Aunt Chen are doing,” Jiang Feng replied with a smile.

The relationship between Jiang Feng’s family and Professor Li’s family was always a bit complicated. Professor Li was first and foremost his teacher, yet by seniority, he was akin to a grandfather. For the past few years, Jiang Feng had addressed Chen Suhua variously as “teacher’s wife” or “aunt”, and suddenly shifting to “grandma” felt like an insult that was hard to utter, as if he aged her substantially for no reason. Chen Suhua and Professor Li didn’t really care about the titles, letting the younger generation call them whatever they preferred.

“Suhua, Feng is here. Go cut some fruit for him,” Professor Li shouted into the house.

“No need, I just came over…”

“It’s just a bit of fruit. With Mid-Autumn Festival coming soon, we’ve had students visit us daily. One brings something, another brings something else. We have so much fruit, mooncakes, and crabs at home we can hardly finish them all. You coming over is great; you’ll help us eat more and save it from going to waste,” Professor Li said. “Also, we have crabs. A student brought over several bags yesterday, and I was thinking of finding a time to send some to you. But since you’re here today, take some more with you – your family has more people and eats more quickly. There’s just the two of us here, Aunt Chen and me; it takes us days to eat anything.”

“Oh right,” Professor Li seemed to remember something else. “Suhua, also bring out the Eight-treasure House mooncakes that Zheng brought yesterday for Feng to try.”

“Got it!” Chen Suhua responded loudly from inside.

“Eight-treasure House sells mooncakes?” Jiang Feng was surprised. Eight-treasure House conducted quite the expansive business, not missing a single opportunity, even delving into mooncakes.

“It was brought over by a student who visited me yesterday. The flavor of the Gusu-style mooncakes is quite good; there are still a few left, you should try them,” Professor Li said with a smile, bending down to stroke Da Hua’s back as if petting a cat.

Jiang Feng nodded but couldn’t help finding it strange that Da Hua was not laying in the pigsty but sprawled in the main hall, asking, “Professor, why not keep Da Hua in the pigsty and instead have her lying here?”

“The air conditioning in the pigsty is broken, and your Aunt Chen feared she’d be too hot. But Da Hua is well-behaved; having her stay in the room doesn’t cause any problems,” explained Professor Li. “She’ll go back to the pigsty when it’s time to eat.”

Before long, Chen Suhua emerged carrying a tray from the inside.

The tray contained two plates, one with jujubes, sliced dragon fruit, and oranges, the other with three Suzhou-style mooncakes. The mooncakes were exquisitely made and stamped with two red seals on top: one indicating the flavor and the other bearing the words “Eight-treasure House”.

“There’s also a box of mooncakes from Eight-treasure House in the house, Feng,” said Chen Suhua as she started divvying up what Feng should take with him when he leaves. “There are several bags of crabs in the kitchen. Take them all if you can carry them. There’s also fruit—you can take some when you leave …”

“Enough, Feng only has two hands. How can he carry so much?” Professor Li chuckled.

“This is all because those students brought these things over last night. You don’t like to eat crabs because they’re troublesome, and I can’t eat much on my own. It’s a waste to keep them here!” Chen Suhua then complained to Professor Li. “If you ask me, you’re just getting old and fussy. It was never like this when you were younger.”

Professor Li, having no comeback, could only smile sheepishly.

Feng picked up a mooncake and, based on the stamp, figured it should be pine nut and jujube paste flavored.

On the first bite, sweet.

He tasted the sweetness of sugar and the richness of jujube paste, with a distinct flavor of jujubes and a fragrance of osmanthus. Inside, Feng found not only pine nuts but also melon seeds—the filling was truly generous.

Sweet but not cloying, with the filling containing some lard. If it had been freshly baked, it must have been delicious. The Master White Chef who made this mooncake was certainly skilled.

How did Eight-treasure House come upon such an exceptional mooncake chef? Could it be that Ling Guangzhao had poached talent even from Gusu?

While Ling Guangzhao might not be good at other things, his ability to headhunt was indeed strong. The scope of his business was extensive, not even sparing Gusu.

As Feng stared at the two remaining mooncakes on the plate, he fell into thought.

“Feng, have two more. Finish off those two on the plate,” Chen Suhua encouraged warmly. “When they were brought over yesterday evening, they were so delicious that they must have been fresh from the oven—just so fragrant when you eat them!”

“Auntie, are these mooncakes sold by Eight-treasure House as Mid-Autumn gift boxes, or are they sold for dine-in?” Feng inquired.

His question seemed to stump Chen Suhua. After pondering she replied, “They’re probably not sold as gift boxes. Li, when Zheng brought them over last night, they were just in a bag, right? There wasn’t any packaging box?”

“No packaging box, it was just in a bag like they do with roast buns,” Professor Li said.

Feng appeared thoughtful.

He took out his phone.

Opened the Ele.me app.

Sure enough, Eight-treasure House was delivering.

Ling Guangzhao was indeed Ling Guangzhao, never missing a chance to make money.

Feng started browsing the menu, and in the special Mid-Autumn section, he found the Suzhou-style mooncakes.

One hundred eighty-eight yuan for six, quite pricey.

True to Ling Guangzhao’s style.

Feng couldn’t help but sigh in admiration again.

Looking at the mooncakes on the table, then back to his phone, Feng felt like he was indirectly supporting the enemy.

How could Eight-treasure House’s mooncakes be so delicious?

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