The Game of Life

Jiang Feng finished feeding the pigs and then went back to the kitchen to wait for Sir to return.

Based on his many years of instruction by Sir, Jiang Feng knew that “resting for a bit” meant not going beyond the kitchen area. If he really ran into the room to lie down like a “Happy fatty,” he’d have to spend the afternoon hanging from the sandbag in the backyard.

So, Jiang Feng sat on the wooden chair in the kitchen and listened to a radio drama on his phone.

“I don’t want to die.”

“You’re right, but don’t you want to give something to your father…”

“Once with the Red Army, this one going down the mountain, the autumn wind…”

Jiang Feng: ???

What the hell, the BGM for radio dramas is all this red and positive energy now?

Then Jiang Feng realized that it was actually Jiang Weiming’s phone ringing; both old gentlemen had gone out for a walk without their phones. The caller ID on the phone screen lit up with three big characters: Jiang Yanlu.

It must be Jiang Weiming’s grandson.

“Hello, yes?” Jiang Feng answered the phone.

“Hello, who areyou, where’s my dad?” Jiang Yanlu, Jiang Weiming’s eldest son, was so nervous that even his voice was trembling.

“I am…”

“I’m telling you, pyramid schemes are illegal. My dad is 97, and if anything happens to him, you’ll be in big trouble.”

“I didn’t…”

“Is it just money you want? We can give you money, as long as it’s not too much, we can give it. Just let my dad go.”

Jiang Feng:…

Why does he feel like he and the person on the other end of the call were not on the same page? He had only said seven words and it had escalated from pyramid schemes to kidnapping.

If he spoke any more, he reckoned it could directly lead to a death sentence.

If explanations don’t work, then don’t bother explaining. Anyway, the two Sirs would be back soon, and he could let Jiang Weiming call and talk to him himself. Jiang Feng felt that even if he did explain, the person on the other end probably wouldn’t believe him.

“I can’t make you understand, but when Granduncle Weiming gets back he’ll call you back and explain it himself.” After Jiang Feng finished speaking, he hung up the phone and went back to listening to the radio drama in his original seat.              °

On the other end of the line, Jiang Yanlu felt his heart tum cold.

He regretted leaving his father alone in the rural outskirts of the provincial city because of disagreements with his son and daughter-in-law. Now something had happened—his father had been tricked by someone else!

Jiang Yanlu stood in front of Jiang Weiming’s rural house, tears streaming down his face with regret. When he thought about who was to blame for all this, his anger flared unchecked. He called his thirty-something, still leeching off his parents son and started berating him: “You ungrateful thing, are you satisfied now? Your grandpa’s been tricked and taken away by a scammer.” Jiang Yanlu’s son, Ming, was playing cards and replied discontentedly “Dad what are you ranting about now? If Grandpa’s been conned by someone because he’s senile, what’s that got to do with me?”

“I’m busy here; I’m hanging up if there’s nothing else.”

Jiang Yanlu had his call ended by his son and, remembering the purpose of his visit, couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by grief. He squatted on the ground and cried.

It had not been easy; he had saved a few thousand yuan behind his son and daughter-in-law’s backs and rented a small apartment in Kolton City. This time, he secretly returned without telling anyone but his spouse, intending to take Jiang Weiming to live together. Once his father was there and the rent was paid, it would be a done deal, no matter how dissatisfied his son and daughter-in-law were, and no matter how much they made a fuss.

But why, oh why, was it just two days off?

When he first arrived and saw the locked gate and no one inside, he thought that hang Weiming had gone to Jiang Weisheng’s home again. But a phone call revealed that his father had already left for Zet City two days prior with some relative named Feng.

His dad had been on his own since his teens, without even a brother, so there were no such things as nephews or grand-nephews.

Jiang Yanlu felt his father was getting old and senile, and Jiang Weisheng was also becoming foolish from cooking every day, just watching as his father was swindled away by con artists.

Jiang Yanlu had been squatting at the doorway crying for nearly ten minutes, until his phone rang again.

Once the two old men returned, Jiang Feng immediately talked about the phone call, omitting the part where Jiang Yanlu thought he was a kidnapper. Sir went to find faults in the ten dishes of greens he had stir-fried for Jiang Feng, and Jiang Weiming picked up his mobile phone to call back Jiang Yanlu. Jiang Weiming was feeling somewhat conflicted. Jiang Yanlu was his eldest son, the child he favored most, but also the one who had hurt him the deepest. “Hello.” The call connected.

Hello, I was telling you… Dad?” Jiang Yanlu was startled.

“What were you going to tell me?” Jiang Weiming walked to the kitchen doorway, “I forgot to mention earlier that the grandson of my younger brother found me a few days ago; I am now in Zet City.”

“Dad, how could you not tell me about such a big matter? How do you know if the other party is not a scammer?”

“Scammer?” Jiang Weiming laughed in annoyance, “What is there to scam from me? What do I have that’s worth scamming? I have no house, no car, barely any pension, I can’t earn money, my son doesn’t acknowledge me, and my grandson loathes me. I’m just a decrepit old man from the countryside with not much longer to live. What’s there to scam?”

“Dad, how can you say that? We wanted to take you in to live with us before but you refused, didn’t you? Ming, he, he just doesn’t know any better, no one detests you.”

“Right, he doesn’t know any better. He’s a thirty-year-old man, doesn’t work lives in your home with his wife and kid, freeloading off you, despises me because I’m an old grandpa who’s useless and penniless, can’t even cook a meal, wouldn’t let me live in the house and made me stay in the storage room He’s young, he doesn’t understand; you’re also young, you don’t understand either, crushed under the oppression of your son and daughter-in-law, not daring to so much as breathe.”

Jiang Weiming grew angrier as he spoke, “As a father, I set a poor example, I favored you for thirty years, turning you into this useless wreck, and also hurt your younger brother’s heart so that he hasn’t visited me for many years.” “Even during the New Year, you wouldn’t come back to celebrate with me making this ninety-something-year-old man travel to you instead to spend the holiday.”

“All of it is the karma I created for myself, the predicament I’m in is the karma I brought upon myself! You dote on your precious son, willing to support him for a lifetime rather than take care of your father. You just stay put in Kolton City and don’t worry about whether I live or die.”

In a moment of rage, Jiang Weiming hung up the call.

On the other end of the phone, Jiang Yanlu was so scolded by Jiang Weiming that he didn’t know what to say.

He had always thought that because his younger brother was unfilial, and his two sisters had married far away, his father had always favored him the most, would understand him, forgive him, and wouldn’t blame him.

But the truth turned out to be that his father was deeply hurt by him; he had just never voiced it out loud.

Jiang Yanlu cried, truly and deeply, heartbrokenly cried.

At this end of the phone, Jiang Feng and Jiang Weiguo were dumbfounded.

Jiang Weiguo had been reprimanding Jiang Feng that out of the ten dishes of greens, only one was passable, and accidentally overheard Jiang Weiming’s domestic woes, thinking that this was the kind of situation that only happened in TV dramas. Now, the grandfather and grandson duo didn’t dare to speak.

Jiang Feng pondered that if he had dared to do what was done to his granduncle, at the age of thirty-refusing to let the old man stay in the house relegating him to the basement—…

His parents, uncles, and aunts’ hefty slaps weren’t just for show; they could turn Iron Man into the Hulk.

Jiang Feng didn’t know what to say, and neither did Jiang Weiguo.

He wasn’t fond of gossip. Mrs. Jiang enjoyed listening to gossips and watching family drama, having heard a lot, she might have been able to promptly come up With comforting words, but Jiang Weiguo, other than suggesting starting over with a new one, had no idea what to say.

“Ah, having you witness such an embarrassment.” Jiang Weiming sighed, feeling very disheartened.

Jiang Weiguo knew that he had to say something to comfort his third brother now.

“Third brother, it’s okay.” Jiang Weiguo said, “If you ask me, it’s better to raise pigs than sons. With pigs, you feed them every day, and they grow meat that you can eat. Sons, you feed them every day, and all they do is eat and eat.”

Jiang Feng: ???

The Jiang siblings, Jiang Jiandang and Jiang Jiankang, who were excited to have caught a big fish and were carrying it back into the kitchen: ???

They…. how did they offend Sir again?