The Game of Life

Xue Shaoheng clearly had significant issues with expressive language. He could only blurt out a word or a phrase at a time, and even his sister could not understand what he meant.

Zhang Chu was quite elderly; if Xue Shaoheng got excited all of a sudden and started to gesticulate, he might accidentally knock into, bump, orpush Zhang Chu, which wouldn’t be good at all.

“Miss, your brother might have mistaken me for someone else. I just came over from Guangdong Province and just got off the plane. It’s impossible for your brother to have seen me before,” Zhang Chu said.

“Large Dendrobium, Large Dendrobium!” Xue Shaoheng insisted, pointing at Zhang Chu excitedly, pulling on his sister, trying to get closer to him. “Guangdong Province?” Xue Shaoheng’s sister paused, “Could you please think carefully, did you meet my brother over 20 years ago?”

“My brother has an exceptional memory. He never forgets a face; he must have

seen you.”

“Large Dendrobium, Large Dendrobium!” Xue Shaoheng, seeing that his sister wasn’t paying attention to him, was so anxious that he started hoppmg.

“Over 20 years ago?” Zhang Chu was troubled.

His memory was not as good due to his age, and the matter was from 20 years ago. Judging by age, Xue Shaoheng would have been a child or a young teenager back then, which made it even more difficult for Zhang Chu to recall.

“Large Dendrobium, Large Dendrobium!” Xue Shaoheng looked at Zhang Chu, seemed to recall something, and struggled to say, “Park, Large Dendrobium, park, Large Dendrobium!”

“Dad, did you really sell Dendrobium in the park over 20 years ago?” Zhang

Chiyuan was also confused.

“What nonsense! A costly thing like Dendrobium, could you even buy that in a park over 20 years ago? The only thing was…” Zhang Chu hesitated, squinting at Xue Shaoheng, “This seems to be the kid I picked up and brought home for a meal 20 years ago!”

” Picked up and brought home for a meal?” Zhang Chiyuan felt as if he had run away from home over 20 years ago; he had no recollection of this incident.

“How can your memory be worse than mine? It was during the year of your middle school entrance exams when your mom made you Braised Big Black Sea Cucumber for your birthday. That dish cost me two months’ salary, and you gobbled it up faster than a pig.” Zhang Chu, seeing that Zhang Chiyuan still hadn’t remembered, continued to remind him, “It was the time your mom complained that the sea cucumber I bought wasn’t good enough. After shopping, I went for a walk in the park and picked up a kid who couldn’t speak clearly.”

Zhang Chiyuan seemed to remember, chiming in, “I do recall something like that. I remember that day when you came back from thepark, you broughtakid a few years younger than me, which shocked my mom. She even thought you had switched careers to become a human trafficker.”

“That’s the one!” Zhang Chu clapped his hands, solving the mystery, “That kid kept saying he wanted to go home, go home, and we couldn’t stop him from walking out. Your mom was worried and followed him for a while until he got home.”

Zhang Chu said to Jiang Feng, “AU right, Mr. Jiang, don’t stop them anymore. They haven’t mistaken me; indeed, we have met before.

“I didn’t expect this kid to have such a good memory. I’ve become an old man, and he can still recognize me at a glance,” Zhang Chu said, looking at Xue

Shaoheng with amazement.

Listening to Zhang Chu, Xue Shaoheng’s sister nowknew who they were, “So it wasyour wife who brought mybrother back then. I am so grateful. My brother has difficulty speaking clearly, and your wife left rather quickly, so I never even saw her face, and I always didn’t know whom to thank. I can’t believe we would meet here today.”

“You haven’t had dinner yet, have you? Let me treat you to a meal as a way to express my gratitude,” Xue Shaoheng’s sister said.

“No need, no need; it was just a helping hand at the time,” Zhang Chu declined. “I insist on treating you. This meal is something I should have offered over 20 years ago. It’s been delayed until now, but since we’ve fortuitously met here today it must happen,” Xue Shaoheng’s sister said gratefully, “Mybrother really likes you. He doesn’t usually get this excited. Eating a meal with you would make him very happy.”

Xue Shaoheng nodded obediently.

Zhang Chu hesitated.

“Let me be the one to treat for this meal. Excuse me, waiter, do you still have private rooms available?”

“I’ve reserved a private room for them; it’s number 306,” Jiang Feng said. “That’s perfect. Waiter, could you please pack up the dishes on this table and hold them at the front desk for now? I’ll come to pick them up after we eat,” Xue Shaoheng’s sister said as she pulled Xue Shaoheng up the stairs.

Xue Shaoheng seemed to really like Jiang Feng and, while going upstairs, grabbed Jiang Feng and pulled him along.

“My brother really likes you. When he likes someone, he’ll drag them to where he wants to go,” said Xue Shaoheng’s sister with a smile.

Jiang Feng was pleasantly surprised.

When they arrived at Private Room 306, Jiang Feng sat to the left of Xue Shaoheng, with Xue Shaoheng’s sister on his right, Zhang Zhiyuan sitting next to Jiang Feng, Zhang Chu sitting across from Xue Shaoheng, and the couple, Zhang Chiyuan, both seated to the right of Zhang Chu.

Itwasalarge round table,and although there were notmany people,they were seated very evenly.

Jiang Feng and Xue Shaoheng’s sister introduced the ordering system to Zhang Zhiyuan’s family. Without a second word, Zhang Zhiyuan ordered the most expensive dish, Ji Xue’s dry-fried beef ho fun, while Zhang Chu immediately followed by ordering Sun Jikai’s cheaper eight-yuan dry-fried beef ho fun.

It seemed that Xue Shaoheng’s sister was a regular customer at Taifeng Building, as the dishes she recommended to Zhang Zhiyuan’s family were all specialties of the chefs.

During the short time just now, Zhang Chu remembered some more about Xue Shaoheng. It was not that he had a good memory; it was mainly because the impression Xue Shaoheng had left on him back then was far too deep, allowing him to recall a lot as soon as he remembered a little.

“Oh right I was a bit too excited earlier and forgot to introduce myself. My name is Xue Hua, and my younger brother is Xue Shaoheng. He’s not a fool; his behavior just now is because he has acquired savant syndrome, which presents certain expressive barriers. However, he has no problems listening to you talk and can understand everythingyou say,” Xue Hua explained.

The names of this brother and sister didn’t match at all.

“What is acquired savant syndrome?” Zhang Chu admitted he had never heard this term before.

Everyone curiously looked towards Xue Hua, as they hadn’t heard the term either.

“Savant syndrome refers to someone who has cognitive disabilities but possesses abilities far beyond the average person in certain areas,” Xue Hua explained, as she had clarified what savant syndrome was to others more than once and was very practiced at it, “Acquired savant syndrome refers to people who develop savant syndrome later in life. Mybrother, when he was seven, fell and hit his head on a rockwhile playing. Since then, he’s been an acquired savant.”

“I see. That’s why he speaks unclearly. I remember his drawings were quite good, eerily lifelike,” Zhang Chu realized suddenly.

“Drawing?”

“When I came across him in the park that day, I saw him wandering around. Noting his young age and clean appearance, I thought he might have been separated from his family. I approached him, but he couldn’t speak clearly and just kept saying he was hungry, so I took him home for a meal,” Zhang Chu began recalling how he picked up Xue Shaoheng and brought him home.

“After bringing himhome, we just had ameal, and after we finished, he saw my son’s pens and paper on the table and started drawing. It was either a vase or a teacup from our house-I don’t remember exactly-but it was so well-done and lifelike. My son had taken drawing lessons for a year or two and still wasn’t as good as him,” Zhang Chu said, “By the way, what does he work as now?” “My brother now works as a librarian at the city library. He has an excellent memory and never forgets anything he reads, so he sorts books very quickly,” Xue Hua proudly stated, “He also occasionally paints, gaining some fame, and some of his paintings sell at a good price.”

” Amazing, he’s an artist!” exclaimed Zhang Chu.

Xue Shaoheng smiled happily.

“It’s all thanks to you. Before that, I couldn’t afford to buy him pens and paper, so he never painted. After we went back that time, he kept tugging at me saying ‘paint, paint,’ which made me go out and buy him pens and paper, and that’s when I discovered how well he could paint.”

Feeling a sense of pride in having accidentally played the role of a discerning discoverer, Zhang Chu was somewhat smug.

“Food, food,” Xue Shaoheng suddenly spoke up.

“My brother’s hungry. He saw you just as we sat down to eat,” explained Xue Hua.

Jiang glanced at the tablet: “The dry-fried beef ho fun will be ready in one minute, it will be served very soon.”

Xue Shaoheng immediately quieted down.

He indeed understood what others were saying; he just couldn’t express it himself.

Xue Hua was right; he was not a fool.

On the contrary, he was a genius.