The Game of Life

A normal university student, over the course of a semester, would often end up creating seven to ten spreadsheets for all kinds of strange reasons, three or four PowerPoint presentations, and one or two papers with attached plagiarism reports due to some famous personage.

The content of the spreadsheet was actually quite simple, apart from tick-box answers like gender, age range, and occupation, there were only a few questions that required writing:

How did you find out about Taifeng Building?

What was your favorite dish?

Why were you satisfied with this dish?

Are you satisfied with the service at Taifeng Building?

What expectations do you have for our future service?

Jiang Feng truly cared only about the first two questions, the rest were all smoke screens.

It had been so long since Jiang Feng had made a spreadsheet that he seemed a bit rusty, and while working on it, he suddenly remembered a serious matter and pulled out his phone to send Wang Hao a WeChat message.

Jiang Feng: Hao, did the counselor mention anything about the thesis before?

Last semester Jiang Feng had pretty much just lived on campus and taken the final exam; almost all new rules and requirements were relayed to him by Wang Hao.

Wang Hao was likely on his phone, replying almost instantly.

Wang Hao: Yeah, he did, other classes who interned last semester started their theses right after the vacation; our class and the electronic class will start after the internship ends next semester.

Wang Hao: Didn’t the counselor mention it in the group? Feng, didn’t you see it in the chat?

Jiang Feng: …

A class group isn’t that something you’re supposed to mute?

Wang Hao: Oh, by the way, everyone has basically found their thesis advisor, everyone’s afraid if they wait too long the professors won’t take students anymore, have you found one, Feng?

Jiang Feng: …

And you tell me the most important thing last…

Before Jiang Feng had a chance to reply to Wang Hao, Wang Hao made a voice call to him.

“Hello,” Jiang Feng answered.

“Feng, you got a minute?” Wang Hao’s familiar sly voice came through the phone.

“What is it?” Jiang Feng was very wary.

“Brother Feng, that reaction really breaks my heart, could I possibly do anything to you?”

Do anything?

In your freshman year, you asked me for money because you were short on dating funds, and in your sophomore year, you borrowed money from me again because you were broke after a breakup.

Every start of term you’d borrow money, then pay it back during a vacation.

Isn’t it always preceded by a call that starts affectionately with, “Brother Feng, got a minute?”

“I have no money, I’m in a relationship, my family is drowning in debt right now.” Jiang Feng’s triple declaration of poverty.

“Brother Feng, what’s with that talk, have we brothers been reduced to such a cold relationship based solely on money?” Wang Hao retorted with moral righteousness, feigning distress.

“Hmm?”

“Didn’t I fail my Optical Information Processing last semester? Brother Feng, the makeup exam is at the start of the term, and it’s almost starting, I’ve only reviewed up to the first section of the first chapter!” Wang Hao said with feigned desperation.

“Are you sure that’s not called pre-reading?”

“Brother Feng, save me!” Wang Hao wailed, not at all swayed by Jiang Feng’s cold response, “There are a few questions I just can’t crack, please, save me!”

A few questions?

“Then send me the questions,” Jiang Feng relented for a moment; if Wang Hao had one more makeup exam to retake, he might really end up delayed in his graduation.

“Alright, thanks Feng, I’ll send the document to you now!” Wang Hao decisively hung up the phone.

Jiang Feng: ???

Document???

Five seconds later, Jiang Feng received a 1.2MB document from Wang Hao.

Jiang Feng: (▼皿▼#)

It’s hopeless, just wait to die, wait for the delayed graduation!

…

The next morning, Jiang Feng took the 100 printed questionnaires to Hu Li.

A hundred questionnaires aren’t a small number, and Hu Li could tell just by weighing them in her hand, even without knowing the exact total.

“Boss, do all these surveys need to be handed out by lunch?” Hu Li asked.

“No need, just give out as many as you can. Make sure to reach the customers who order the pure meat wontons. You can deal with any remaining surveys yourself,” Jiang Feng said.

“Sure, boss, if you have other things that need help in the future, just ask me anytime. I’ll do my best,” Hu Li said as she took the stack of surveys to the changing room to store them in her locker first.

When Hu Li entered the changing room, she found it empty except for Lin Ling, who was tidying up things in front of her locker.

“Lin Ling, it must have been you who told the boss to find me, right?” Hu Li asked, seeing that they were alone in the room.

“Told him what?” Lin Ling glanced at her, continuing to tidy up her locker.

“You’re usually sitting directly in the hall at noon. The boss recognizes faces but not people. If he had questions, he would probably ask you. It must have been you who told him to find me, right?” Hu Li said.

“The day before yesterday, one of the tables you served ordered the pure meat wontons. The boss asked me who else had served pure meat wontons to the customers, and I just answered truthfully,” Lin Ling replied.

“If I remember correctly, didn’t Xiaojuan’s customers also order pure meat wontons at two tables?” Hu Li continued.

“Oh? Really? I didn’t notice that,” Lin Ling closed her locker. “Is there anything else? If not, I’ll be leaving first.”

“Just asking out of curiosity. There’s a dessert shop nearby that makes a really delicious fruit salad, want to go together?” Hu Li invited.

Lin Ling smiled at her, “I’m on a diet; I only eat salad.”

“Then, maybe another day when I find a nice salad shop, I’ll invite you to go with me,” Hu Li responded with a smile.

At the entrance of the changing room, Qi Rou, hesitating: …

She felt like she might have overheard something significant.

…

After the lunch service ended, Hu Li was the first to hand over the 31 completed surveys to Jiang Feng. The surveys from the five customers who had ordered the pure meat wontons were among them; Hu Li had folded the top-right corner of these surveys to mark them.

“Boss, is 31 enough? If not, I can continue handing them out tonight,” Hu Li asked.

“That’s enough; it’s just a simple survey,” Jiang Feng replied, taking the surveys and beginning to look through them.

“Okay then, I won’t disturb you any longer. Let me know if there’s any problem,” Hu Li said with a smile as she left.

Although there were only 31 of them, the answers on them were quite varied.

Some said they had seen Taifeng Building on a software APP, some had passed by while shopping with friends, others had heard about it from friends, and some had read about it in magazines or news articles.

The answers to the favorite dishes question were also diverse: some favored sweet and sour yam, some mentioned mapo tofu, others preferred kung pao chicken, and there were even mentions of red wine braised lamb. It seemed like the back kitchen chefs all got their share of appreciation.

However, none of them mentioned the pure meat wontons; it seemed that everyone’s taste buds were fairly normal.

At first glance, these surveys didn’t seem to have any issues, but Jiang Feng still found a connection in those five folded surveys.

The answers about how they came to know of Taifeng were strikingly similar among these five surveys.

Three said it was recommended by a teacher, and two said it was introduced by classmates.

Could it be… they were from the same school?