The Game of Life

Because Sun Jtkai passed out drunk early, the kebab dinner party ended sooner than expected, and when Ji Yue returned home with the takeout crawdads, it was only 10:40 PM.

As she had predicted, Ji Xue wasn’t asleep yet and was still busy in the kitchen, but she wasn’t frying food; it looked like she was making soup.

Approaching the kitchen, Ji Yue caught the scent of a vegetable tofu soup. You’re back!” Ji Xue exclaimed, her apron still on. “Come and taste the vegetable tofu soup I made.”

Vegetable tofu soup?” Ji Yue placed the crawdads on the dining table and went to look inside the kitchen.

Indeed, it was a vegetable tofu soup-not only with greens but also peas, lettuce, leafy greens, baby bok choy, cabbage, and white cabbage. Ji Xue had thrown all the vegetables she brought back from the kitchen into this pot of soup.

It wasn’t just a vegetable tofu soup; it was also a huge green hodgepodge. Because of the tofu, the soup was slightly off-white. The vegetables were all chopped and mixed, snuggled between the blocks of soft white tofu, making for a light and plain elegance.

It was Ji Yue’s first time seeing so many different vegetables and tofu mixed together to make soup.

“Xue, how did you come up with this soup?” Ji Yue asked, leaning in for a sniff. It smelled good; it should be quite tasty too.

She had just eaten so much greasy barbecue and had polished off a pound of crawdads. The burps on her way home had even tasted slightly oily and fishy. Ji Xue’s pot of light, greasy-cleansing, green, and healthy vegetable tofu soup was exactly what Ji Yue needed.

“We often make this soup at home; my sister loves it. It’s just that peas have always been a bit pricey, so we usually don’t add peas when we make this soup at home,” JiXue explained. “I knew you’ve been frustrated these days because you couldn’t finish your draft and went to East Gate for the barbecue to unwind, but eating like that every day is not good for your stomach. Drinking this light soup is perfect for cutting through the grease.”

“Ah, Xue, I love you so much!” Ji Yue gave Ji Xue an affectionate bear hug and excitedly went to get a bowl to ladle out some soup.

The vegetable tofu soup tasted very light; Ji Yue guessed Ji Xue hadn’t added anything besides salt, not even a drop of sesame oil, yet the flavor was surprisingly good.

If the barbecue and crawdads she ate that night could be compared to a rich and colorful, stunning yet heavy oil painting, then Ji Xue’s vegetable tofu soup was like a gentle and plain, clean, and delicate ink wash painting.

“Delicious! Super delicious!” Ji Yue was not stingy with her praise. “Actually drinking this after eating barbecue would simply be amazing!”

“I’m glad you like it.” Ji Xue also appeared delighted. “We had suggestions from customers that the restaurant doesn’t have light soups, so I was thinking about whether to add this soup to the menu.”

Definitely, this soup is certainly light enough and tastes really good too, certainly no problem!” Ji Yue encouraged Ji Xue.

“I’ll make it a few more times to see if other vegetables will taste better. We have a taste test at the restaurant on the 27th, and there’s still more than a week to go.” Ji Xue turned back to tidying up the kitchen trash.

With a bowl of soup in hand, Ji Yue stood in the kitchen drinking while Ji Xue cleaned up efficiently, ready to take out the trash bag downstairs when Ji Yue stopped her.

“Oh no, I was so fixated on the soup I forgot about the important stuff. Xue, don’t throw out the trash yet. There on the table are the crawdads I brought back for you. You should eat them first; there’s still broth inside, and I’ve already picked out the garlic leaves and ginger slices for you. You’d better eat it now; it might not taste good by tomorrow and lose its flavor.” Ji Yue put down her soup bowl and took the takeout box from the table, opened it, and continued, “Their garlic crawdads are especially delicious. It’s aromatic without any garlicky taste; you’ll definitely like it.”

I…” Ji Xue hesitated momentarily.

“What ‘I’? I’ve been eating so much of your cooking these days I’m going to get fat! You have to eat some too. However many pounds I put on, you need to put on too. Eat up; it’s still warm! It won’t taste good once it gets cold,” Ji Yue urged.

“Alright…”

With Ji Yue’s prodding, Ji Xue walked to the dining table, put on gloves, and began to peel the crawdads slowly and somewhat clumsily.

The crayfish in her hand was still warm, its fragrance tempting, and juice plentiful. The crayfish were quite large, with deep red shells that were slightly blackened, and very hard, which presented quite a challenge to a novice at peeling shrimp like Ji Xue.

It took Ji Xue a good two to three minutes to peel the first crayfish, and the already not so firm flesh ended up being shredded by her efforts.

This barbecue restaurant by the east gate also had a knack for cooking crayfish; each one was slit open on the back, allowing the juices to seep into the flesh turning the originally white crayfish meat a pale pink, salty, and spicy.

Ji Xue hadn’t had crayfish for many years.

Her father was a chef, not highly skilled, but the small family restaurant they once ran did make for a prosperous life. Ji Xue, growing up surrounded by the family business of preparing and serving food, could be considered to have inherited some expertise. It was for this reason that after a series of misfortunes befell her family, Ji Xue chose to drop out of school and work in the restaurant.

Her happy childhood came to an end when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of seven.

By the time her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, it was already at an intermediate stage; after enduring a long year of painful and desperate chemotherapy, a mastectomy was the only option.

Soon after, her father was diagnosed with diabetes. At that time, Ji Xue’s mother was still undergoing chemotherapy, and his own illness was left unattended as he was too busy running the restaurant and taking care of her mother, which led to a rapid deterioration of his condition, eventually causing blindness due to complications.

By the time Ji Xue was thirteen, the family was deep in debt, her father’s diabetes was worsening, advancing towards uremia, and his blindness resulting from the complications showed no signs of improving.

It was also that year when she chose to drop out of school and become an apprentice in the back kitchen of the Tan Family Small Restaurant, with meals included but no lodging, and a monthly wage of 800.

Her reason for choosing the Tan Family Small Restaurant was simple: she was not yet fourteen, and no other shops would dare to take her, only the owner of the Tan Family Small Restaurant, who was also the son of Master Tan, was willing to accept her. The willingness was straightforward; she was young, cheap, without a contract, easy to exploit, doing no less work than anyone’else, and was a vulnerable, low-cost labor force.

Now at nineteen, life hadn’t treated her much better; her mother’s breast cancer was cured, but her father’s diabetes had turned into uremia, and even if there were a kidney available for transplant, her family couldn’t afford the surgery.

She continued to live frugally as before, not daring to eat well, dress well, rest or stop.

The good things she tasted during her childhood, those snacks that exist only in her memory like crayfish, milk tea, lollipops, chips, and barbecue, had all faded from her world, becoming dreams she couldn’t touch.

But now, it was as if she was living in a dream.

Her boss was a good person, her colleagues were good people, her friends were good people, and her roommates were good people.

The touch on her hand was real, the taste in her mouth was real.

“Xue, I see you’re tired today, and it’s almost eleven o’clock, you should eat and go wash up for bed. I’ll clean up here since I need to draw later, I still have some soup to drink,” Ji Yue said from the kitchen.

“Okay.”

Ji Xue remembered a poem her mother taught her when she was little.

Give me a papaya, in return, I present a precious ruyi.

It’s not just to repay you, it’s to cherish forever!

Give me a peach, in return, I present a precious jade ornament.

It’s not just to repay you, it’s to cherish forever!

Give me a plum, in return, I present a precious jade bead.

It’s not just to repay you, it’s to cherish forever!