The Game of Life

There were no nails at the junction of the window and the frame. Jiang Feng gave it a try and lightly pushed; the window swung open easily.

Once open, the wind came in. Although it was a hot wind and not really cool, it was still better than staying in the stuffy and airless room.

Leaning against the window to catch the breeze, Jiang Feng was soon joined by other guests who, seeing the window opened, opened nearby windows one after another to gather in groups and enjoy the wind.

“Feng, move over a bit, let me feel the breeze too,” said Zhang Zhiyuan, who disliked the heat and already had fine beads of sweat covering his forehead after just a short while.

“Come over here, this is where the breeze is,” Jiang Feng made room for Zhang Zhiyuan, turning his body to lean his hand on the window frame.

“Ding, you have obtained a fragment of Cao Guixiang’s memory,” the system alert suddenly sounded.

Jiang Feng: ???

Jiang Feng shifted his gaze to the window frame below his hand—it was just an ordinary frame, made of wood, seemingly mundane without even a carved flower.

But the fact that the frame held a fragment of Cao Guixiang’s memory meant that the fire at Yonghe House thirty years ago hadn’t reached the place by the window.

Scanning the surroundings, Jiang Feng saw that aside from the wooden tables and chairs, only these windows were made of wood.

So, was it actually the windows that Zhang Chu repaired back then?

Jiang Feng examined the window carefully—front and back, left and right, up and down, inside and out—without finding any trace of repairs.

“Feng, what are you looking at?” asked Zhang Zhiyuan curiously.

“I find this window interesting. There’s not a single nail in sight.” By now, Jiang Feng could lie without missing a beat.

“The work of any skilled carpenter doesn’t show nails. They use wooden pegs that are completely concealed. My grandfather can do that. I remember, as a kid, someone asked my grandfather to fix a broken window at their house. I even went to see it. Not a single nail was used. The broken parts were all connected by wood, and after the repair, you couldn’t see any signs of it being mended,” explained Zhang Zhiyuan.

“Sir Zhang is that skilled!” Jiang Feng exclaimed in admiration.

“Indeed, my grandfather is quite a renowned carpenter back home,” Zhang Zhiyuan said with pride.

“So, can Sir Zhang repair screens or other large items?” Jiang Feng inquired.

“Large items?” Zhang Zhiyuan thought for a moment, unsure, “He might be able to, though I’ve never seen him repair such things. I only remember him making cabinets, and I think he had once made a bed for someone, but that was a collaboration with several other carpenters.”

“But my grandfather has made me many wooden toys, like little horses and pigs. Oh right, he even made me a Pikachu out of wood once. It looked so much like one after being painted, but sadly, it’s nowhere to be found now,” recalled Zhang Zhiyuan.

As they spoke, the electricity came back on.

“The power’s back so soon,” Zhang Zhiyuan said, surprised.

“The hotel usually has a small diesel generator. Now that the power is back, let’s close the window,” Jiang Feng said as he closed the window and sat back down with Zhang Zhiyuan.

The waitstaff brought each table a jug of fresh watermelon juice and two discount coupons as compensation for the inconvenience caused by the unexpected power outage. It wasn’t Yonghe House’s fault, and since the outage had only lasted for about ten minutes before the power was restored, everyone accepted the gesture gracefully without further complaint.

Jiang Feng and his table were only waiting for the stir-fried broccoli and the two-colored prawns to be served; Zhang Chu and Mrs. Zhang had already stopped using their chopsticks and were quietly sipping tea. Only Jiang Feng, Zhang Zhiyuan, and Zhang Chiyuan were still battling on the front line of eating.

“Strange, what exactly did I fix back then?” Zhang Chu was still mulling over the old question, talking to himself.

“Dad, stop thinking about it, you hardly ate anything. It’s hot and you don’t have an appetite for meat dishes. Have some more of this silver fungus with vegetables, it’s vegetarian,” urged Zhang Chiyuan, trying to get Zhang Chu to eat more.

“Sir Zhang, was it a window frame that you fixed?” Jiang Feng took the opportunity to ask, “Just now, Zhang Zhiyuan mentioned to me that you did an especially good job on the window frame, and there are no visible signs of repair.”

“Right, grandpa, was it the window that you fixed?” Zhang Zhiyuan echoed.

“Window?” Zhang Chu was startled, tilting his head to recall, then turned to look at the window behind him as if he vaguely remembered something.

“Yes, the window! I remember now, it seems to be this very window! Back then, looking down through this window, I could see the storytelling stall set up by the Storytelling Sir across the street. Every time I left my mentor’s house, I would listen to a bit of storytelling here before heading home,” Zhang Chu recalled with a prompt from Jiang Feng and Zhang Zhiyuan.

“Grandpa, did you used to live here?” Zhang Zhiyuan suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. His family used to own an apartment within the second ring road of Beijing as well.

“I didn’t live here; my place was far from here. My mentor lived around this area, but those old alleys are gone now. If you asked me to find it, I wouldn’t be able to,” explained Zhang Chu.

Zhang Chu had now remembered, but Jiang Feng had yet to receive the game notification for completing the side quest.

Could it be a mistake?

“Sir Zhang, how do you usually repair wooden windows?” Jiang Feng asked.

“It depends on the situation; some are broken, and some have wood that wasn’t treated against rot or moisture and decayed over time. A break is easy to handle; just finding a similar piece of wood to join it is enough. Though the work is delicate and costly, it could be more expensive than making a new window altogether,” said Zhang Chu as he stood up to examine the window next to him.

Zhang Chu looked over the window for a while and proudly said, “It’s this window. Come and see, this spot is where I joined it all those years ago, and it hasn’t failed yet!”

Zhang Chu stood by the window, gazing out.

Everything outside the window had changed: the road, the houses, the shops, and even the person standing at the window.

From a spirited teenager, he had turned into an old man.

He remembered, he remembered it all.

What he had been fixating on wasn’t what he had repaired but what he saw after the repair as he stood by the window, catching the breeze and sweating profusely.

The Storytelling Sir, as always, stood on the street corner, with his stall surrounded by children, articulating clearly and with great inflection, his voice so loud it carried up to the second floor of Yonghe House, where he could hear every word of the tale.

That day, he told the story of “Generals of the Yang Family” about the execution at the camp gate.

Yang Zongbao and Mu Guiying fell in love at first sight and married. After their betrayal, the sixth brother was furious and wanted to behead Yang Zongbao at the camp to show the people. Mu Guiying, anxious to save her husband, presented the Dragon Descend Wood needed to break the array, and together with Yang Zongbao, they went into battle and broke through Heaven’s Gate Array.

That day, the Storytelling Sir vividly described to a bunch of older children about Yang Zongbao and Mu Guiying falling in love at first sight, while he, by the window, fell in love with Cao Guixiang at first sight.

“Ding, side quest [Zhang Chu’s Dilemma] completed. Reward received: a segment of Zhang Chu’s memory.”

Jiang Feng’s intuition told him, this memory would certainly be overwhelming..