The Game of Life

Seconds later, the fog gradually dispersed, and Jiang Feng realized he was in a dark room. Since it was nighttime and no lamps were lit inside, he could barely make out the faint moonlight filtering through a small window. Visibility was extremely low; he could hardly see anything.

Jiang Feng looked around and could only vaguely see the furniture near the window and a cabinet very close to him. The rest was invisible, not to mention people.

This was his first time entering a memory at night, blind in the pitch darkness, unable to see anything clearly.

After a fruitless search around the room, Jiang Feng went straight through the wall to exit. It wasn’t his first time spending the night in a memory; the outside was definitely brighter than inside. Since he couldn’t see anything indoors, he might as well go outside.

Once Jiang Feng passed through the wall, the first thing he did was look up for the moon.

The moon shone bright with sparse stars; it seemed the next day would bring clear skies.

With the help of the moonlight, Jiang Feng could finally see where he was.

He was in a residence, and at first glance, it wasn’t small. The room Jiang Feng had just walked through was flanked by two side rooms, in front of which lay a wildly overgrown garden. It looked as if the garden had been untended for a long time; the wild grass had grown tall enough to envelop the originally planted flowers, obstructing much of the path.

Using the moonlight, Jiang Feng took a closer look at the buildings and confirmed that this was an old house that had not been cared for or repaired in a long time.

The house was made of wood, the species of which Jiang Feng could not identify. The paint on the wooden door frame and door, symbols of face, had flaked and peeled off from prolonged exposure to the elements without anyone bothering to fix them. The papered windows in the side room had torn and were left as they were. Jiang Feng guessed that either the owner of the house didn’t care enough to maintain it or they had run out of money so even the window paper wasn’t replaced in time.

But why would Great-Grandfather be here?

Jiang Feng went back through the wall into the house, which was still pitch-black. He could not see his hand before his face, except for that table near the window. Everything else was invisible.

After staying in the room for a while without hearing any noise, he figured that people must be asleep. As Jiang Feng had no interest in staying inside the dark room, he went back through the wall to find a spot by the door to sit and wait for daylight when he could see things.

As Jiang Feng quietly sat by the door, he speculated what time it might be.

According to Jiang Feng’s knowledge, Jiang Chengde’s father had lost the family fortune to opium in his youth and sold Taifeng Building to others. Later, Taifeng Building was moved to Beiping City, and Jiang Chengde also took his sister, wife, and children to Beiping. The Jiang Family lived in Beiping for many years until the fall of the city, when they fled south to escape famine, along with the events that followed.

Jiang Feng had seen the small siheyuan in Beiping that belonged to the Jiang Family in Jiang Huiqin’s memories before. It had just a tiny courtyard; Jiang Huiqin’s room was very small, so the other rooms likely weren’t much bigger. The house also wasn’t as dilapidated as this one. This wasn’t Beiping, and during the southward escape to avoid famine, it was unlikely that Jiang Chengde would have stayed in a place like this—that only left Outside the Pass.

This was Jiang’s Old House, the true ancestral home.

Having figured this out, Jiang Feng couldn’t help but stand up and look around, walking about to see as far as he could go.

Jiang Feng’s Travels were limited; at the end of the neglected garden, there was a small gate, but it was locked. Behind this row of houses, there was a small path leading to what seemed like another row of houses. Jiang Feng also saw a wall that appeared to enclose this area.

No matter how he looked at it, this layout did not resemble that of a normal residence, but rather it seemed like a specific area that had been deliberately enclosed.

Suddenly, Jiang Feng saw a light.

A person carrying a lantern was walking toward Jiang Feng from the other end of the path. The light from the lantern was weak but sufficient to illuminate the way.

As the person approached, Jiang Feng realized that the one holding the lantern was a pregnant woman, or rather, it would be more fitting to describe her as a young girl, who despite her sizable belly appeared to be only in her teens or around twenty.

The girl carrying the lantern held it in her right hand, used her left to support her waist, and walked very slowly. Her hair was loose, and she seemed somewhat fatigued, yawning incessantly.

Jiang Feng watched as she approached the house, pushed the door open, and walked straight in. Then she carefully closed the door behind her to avoid making too much noise.

With a person inside and the lantern lit, the interior of the house became visible, and Jiang Feng quickly followed, slipping through the wall to enter.

“Chengde, why haven’t you gone to bed?” Just as Jiang Feng entered, he realized there had been someone in the room all along. Jiang Chengde had been sitting on a chair in the corridor, so still and silent that Jiang Feng hadn’t noticed anyone was there.

Since Jiang Chengde was in the room, the identity of the young pregnant woman before him was evident—she was Jiang Feng’s great-grandmother, the long-deceased lady never mentioned by Sir.

“I can’t sleep,” Jiang Chengde stood up, helped his wife to the bed, and poured her a cup of tea, “Are Weize and Weijin causing trouble again?”

Bringing up the children brought a smile to Qin Wan’s (the great-grandmother’s) face: “Weize is at that mischievous age, and Weijin has just started to talk. Huiqin is too young to handle the two boys once they get going. I’m already content that she isn’t joining in their mischief. I let Huiqin go to sleep in the next room first. I calmed down the two boys before coming back. Having two boys is already quite a handful; I’m hoping that the one in my belly is a girl, otherwise, three boys would really be too much for me to handle.”

Qin Wan prattled on, then looked up to realize that Jiang Chengde hadn’t been paying close attention to her story, so she nudged him, “What’s on your mind?”

“Wanwan, are you giving birth next month?” Jiang Chengde asked.

“Doctor Zhou said it should be around the 10th of next month.” Qin Wan looked at Jiang Chengde and saw he was still troubled, thinking he was worried about the baby yet to be born, “Doctor Zhou said my pregnancy looks very good and there won’t be problems.”

“Today, Mr. Lu spoke to me about something,” Jiang Chengde said.

The smile on Qin Wan’s face froze, she became nervous, “Wha… What?”

“He said he wants to move Taifeng Building to Beiping City.”

Qin Wan let out a sigh of relief, “I thought…”

“What did you think?”

“I thought Mr. Lu was pressing us…”

“Mr. Lu is not that kind of person,” Jiang Chengde said.

“I know. When father had to sell the house and Taifeng Building, Mr. Lu bought it and even set this part aside for us to live in. He didn’t rush us to repay the debt and has taken care of us a great deal, treating us beyond what justice and humanity would demand,” Qin Wan said, “It’s just that I heard Mr. Lu’s business hasn’t been doing too well recently, so I thought maybe he was short of money and that’s why…”

“Moving to Beiping is a good thing. Beiping is more prosperous than Outside the Pass, and I’ve heard they have schools for girls there. Moving there would be good for Huiqin and the kids,” Jiang Chengde said, his expression revealing that in his heart, he didn’t quite feel that way.

Qin Wan noticed what Jiang Chengde was worried about. She gently stroked her belly and smiled, “Are you hesitating about whether to take father with us to Beiping?”

Jiang Chengde remained silent.

“Chengde, why don’t you visit father in the hospital tomorrow? If you want, we can go together,” Qin Wan said with a smile, “Huiqin and the others haven’t seen father in a long time. Weize and Weijin, those two rascals, don’t really think about it, but even though Huiqin doesn’t say it, I know she’s been missing him.”

“If the doctor agrees, we should bring father home tomorrow. It’s been a long time since our family has had a meal together.”