The Game of Life

Jiang Feng had plenty of experience receiving guests.

Picking up his grandfather, his grandmother, two cousins, his parents, welcoming freshmen during the orientation, and receiving external guests for school events—however, picking up a pig was truly a first for him.

Beiping City’s traffic had always been problematic; even if the subway system looped round and round, it was still better than driving. Setting off from home at 8 a.m. to meet friends for lunch over the weekend was no joke.

With the location Jiang Jiankang had sent, Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi took the subway, switched to the bus, and then walked for over 40 minutes before they finally arrived at the destination.

There was a large truck parked by the road.

Jiang Feng was startled at first sight, thinking to himself, could Da Hua have gained that much weight?

That they needed such a large truck just for her.

Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi walked toward the truck, and the driver, excited to see them approaching, jumped out as soon as he opened the door.

“You’re here for the pig, right? Where exactly is your place? My GPS can’t locate it at all. I still have other deliveries to make and can’t afford to waste too much time,” said the truck driver, showing his phone to them.

Jiang Feng:…

Silently he took out his phone, opened the second location Jiang Jiankang had sent him, and passed his phone to the truck driver to see.

“Hey, how did you manage to get the location right? That’s strange, what kind of lousy phone do I have?” the truck driver complained. “Come on up, my truck can seat three people just fine. You can put your luggage and bags in the back with the cargo. The stuff I’m hauling isn’t dirty, you don’t mind, do you?” “No problem,” Wu Minqi said.

Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi, both slender, found the truck cab spacious enough for three. The driver followed the GPS navigation while chatting casually with them.

“Traffic in Beiping is really terrible, I’ve been stuck here since six this morning,” said the driver.

“Maybe,” replied Jiang Feng, who wasn’t a local Beiping resident and typically just took the subway or the bus when he went out; he didn’t feel qualified to comment.

“Well, back to what we were talking about, why are you transporting a pig here? I heard that old lady say you’re planning to raise it, right?” The driver, naturally chatty, seized the opportunity to talk when he had someone to converse with.

“Yes,” Jiang Feng replied.

“As a pet?”

“Mhm.”

“You can raise pigs in Beiping?” The driver grew interested.

“Should be… okay, I guess. There’s no rule that says you can’t,” Jiang Feng wasn’t quite sure. A pet pig was still a pig, and a domestic pig was also a pig. There seemed to be no reason you could keep a pet pig but not a domestic pig. That would be discrimination against pets!

“But won’t the strong smell of a pig bother the neighbors?” the driver asked, curious. “Your house must be quite large if you can keep a pig.”

“We plan to keep it in the courtyard, if we clean regularly the neighbors probably won’t smell anything,” Jiang Feng said.

Driver: ???

???

Are you kidding me?

The driver prided himself on having passed the English Level 4 exam.

Guided by the GPS, the truck stopped at the entrance to the courtyard house.

Once out of the truck, all three of them were astonished.

Jiang Feng still vividly remembered what Chen Suhua had said at Professor Li’s house that day.

“The old house is actually a small courtyard house that my father rebuilt on the original site after he returned to the country.”

A small courtyard house.

Small!

This area was basically full of courtyard houses, and only thanks to the driving skills of the master could they navigate through these alleys. The area was inhabited by the discreetly wealthy, and Jiang Feng had seen a good number of old men walking back with bird cages in hand.

Thanks to an elective course he took, Jiang Feng knew a bit about courtyard houses. They varied according to the local conditions without a fixed size. A standard courtyard house is north-facing with a northern room that has three main and two wing rooms, making up five rooms in total. Both the eastern and western rooms each have three rooms. The southern building, not including the main gate, has four rooms. Together with the gatehouse and the decorative arch gate, there are 17 rooms in total, covering an area of about 400 square meters.

This was a single entry courtyard, and the typical three-entrance quadrangle courtyards are generally around a thousand square meters. Jiang Feng had looked up a bunch of courtyard layouts for an elective course assignment, and it was clear at a glance that the Li family old house was a large three-entrance quadrangle.

Indeed, a woman’s mouth, a deceiver’s ghost.

The taxi driver was basically dumbfounded; he stopped the car at the front gate, somewhat uncertain: “Young man, are you sure it’s this place?”

Jiang Feng:…

I’m not sure either.

The three of them got out of the car and stared at the quadrangle courtyard, looking at each other in bewilderment.

Before Jiang Feng could call Jiang Jiankang to confirm, the gate opened, and a middle-aged man wearing glasses came out, smiling and asking, “May I ask if you are Mr. Jiang Feng?”

“I am.” Jiang Feng said.

“I am Mr. Li’s manager. Mr. Li asked me to come to pick you up. My last name is Zhong; just call me Zhong,” Manager Zhong said.

“Thankyou, Uncle Zhong,” Jiang Feng said, then turned to the taxi driver, “Brother driver, I’ll need your help to get Da Hua down.”

“No problem.” The driver opened the cargo box, set up the ramp, took out Wu Minqi’s luggage first, and then dragged out Da Hua, who was wrapped in a burlap sack with all four limbs tied up and only her head sticking out.

Jiang Feng: “Pff.”

He couldn’t help bursting out laughing at the moment, mainly because Da Hua’s getup was just too funny.

“Young man, your pig hasn’t eaten for over a day. Remember to feed it some pig food,” the driver reminded, “And deal with the sack too. I wrapped it up to prevent it from pooping in my cargo box; I have other goods, and it wouldn’t be nice if they got dirty.”

“Right on.”

“Is your pig obedient? If it is, I’ll untie it and you can herd it inside. If not, I’ll help you drag it in.” The driver was still quite kind-hearted.

“She’s very obedient,” Jiang Feng said while trying to contain his laughter, watching Da Hua lying on the ground grunting.

Herding Da Hua into the quadrangle courtyard, she, having not eaten for over a day, wanted to nibble on anything she saw. Wu Minqi, who grew up in the provincial capital of Shu, has seen many a slaughtered pig but this was her first encounter with a live one; everything Da Hua did was novel to her.

Manager Zhong led them to the newly set up pigsty and explained, “This place was originally a pet room, intended for cats and dogs. Because Mr. Li instructed to raise pigs, I had someone come to remodel it a bit.”

Jiang Feng looked at the pigsty before him:…

Bigger than my room A

Then he looked at Da Hua, still trying to root something edible out of the ground.

“Uncle Zhong, is there a vegetable market nearby? I need to cook some pig food for her and earn some experience points,” Jiang Feng said.

“Mr. Li has already made arrangements; the vegetables are in the kitchen. I’ll take you there. This is a spare key; Mr. Li asked me to give you one,” Manager Zhong handed the key to Jiang Feng, along with a business card, “This is my card. Contact me anytime if you need anything.”

Jiang Feng glanced at the business card, Zhong Sheng, contact number Bxxxxxxxxx.

After Zhong Sheng left, Jiang Feng looked around the kitchen and noticed that he bought quite a lot of vegetables—a good variety of them, from potatoes, cabbages, spinach, water spinach, baby bok choy, and other common vegetables, even a bag of cilantro.

“How do you cook pig food?” Wu Minqi was eager to try; she had never cooked pig food before, “Do you add seasoning, or do you cook it like porridge? Does it need to have taste? What vegetables does Da Hua like to eat?”

Jiang Feng thought for a moment and said, “Da Hua likes stir-fried dishes.”

Wu Minqi: ???

“You mean stir-fry it like you do for people?” Wu Minqi doubted she heard correctly.

“Yes, the same way you would for people,” Jiang Feng said, “I’m going to check the bathroom to see if there’s hot water.”

“Hot water? Does Da Hua like drinking hot water?” Wu Minqi was shocked; this was indeed a pig that marched to its own drum.

“No, I’m going to use hot water to mix with cold water and wash herdown first, then scrub her with a brush.” Jiang Feng took a plastic bucket from the kitchen and headed to the bathroom, preparing to give Da Hua a bath.

Cooking pig food, feeding the pig, cleaning the pigsty, bathing the pig—Jiang Feng was familiar with all these tasks.

And it wasn’t just Jiang Feng; Jiang Zaidi, Jiang Shoucheng, and Jiang Ran were also familiar with them.

When it came to raising pigs, every man of the Jiang family was a masterful hand!