The Game of Life TGOL

Chapter 422: Chapter 420 Province

The next morning, Jiang Feng woke up feeling clear-headed and refreshed.

Due to the personal reasons of a never-been-in-love dog author, a male lead like Jiang Feng who held the scripts for both a cooking show and a business drama, and who also owned a game company, only managed to experience holding hands, hugging, kissing, and some indescribable, red-hot romance after six months of dating.

Up until then, his love life was as insipid as if he wasn’t an adult.

Glancing at his phone, Jiang Feng saw it was still early, so he decided to cook a pot of Xiaomi porridge and then go downstairs to buy Wu Minqi the green bean buns she used to love so much. There were also pickles sent over by Ji Yue’s mom just last week in the kitchen, which tasted very good and refreshing, perfect to go with the porridge.

After achieving great success and profit with her Shanghai pickled vegetables, Ji Yue’s mom did not become proud and complacent, or limit herself to only making that type of pickle. Instead, she continued to diversify, making pickles, sauces, jams, and even vinegar without a miss.

Jiang Feng could even imagine how rich the aroma in Ji Yue’s basement must be.

Thanks to Ji Yue’s mom’s persistence, Jiang Feng and the others received a variety of pickles, sauces, and jams from the Huaiyang area (Ji Yue’s home) every week. There were so many different kinds that everyone could always find a few they liked, greatly enriching their porridge-drinking life.

Quietly stirring the porridge in the kitchen, Jiang Feng felt the fire control was about right, so he put down the stirring spoon and picked out a small dish of sauce from the pickle jar. Then he turned the flame down low to let the Xiaomi porridge slowly simmer on the stove.

Pickles with Xiaomi porridge and two steaming hot buns right out of the pot, a wonderful day starts with breakfast.

When he was about to leave the house, Jiang Feng peeked into the room and saw Wu Minqi was still asleep. So, he gently closed the door halfway, took his keys and phone, and got ready to leave.

In a half-asleep state, Wu Minqi faintly sensed some movement outside, closed her eyes again and turned over.

Before Jiang Feng could even leave, someone knocked on the door.

When he opened the door, it was Mrs. Jiang with the aromatic scent of scallion pancakes.

They were super luxurious scallion pancakes sprinkled with double the amount of white sesame and a normal portion of black sesame.

Instantly forgetting about the green bean buns, beef buns, and glass noodle buns, Jiang Feng warmly welcomed Mrs. Jiang inside.

“Oh my, Grandma, you didn’t have to deliver the pancakes yourself, just making them would have been enough. You could have called me, and I’d have come to get them, there was no need for you to take the trouble of riding the elevator to bring them over,” Jiang Feng took the plate and placed it steadily on the dining table.

“Grandma, I’ve made some Xiaomi porridge, would you like to have a bowl before you leave?” Jiang Feng offered, ready to head to the kitchen to serve Mrs. Jiang some porridge.

Mrs. Jiang put out her hand to stop her dutiful grandson’s actions.

“No need, I simply woke up early today and had nothing better to do, so I just made a pancake. I’m planning to go out for some soybean juice later,” Mrs. Jiang, a standard southern old lady, somehow mutated after arriving in Beiping, fell hopelessly in love with soybean juice, which even the Sirs kept their distance from. She would walk more than half an hour every morning to a small shop a few blocks away to drink soybean juice.

Mrs. Jiang had simply come to deliver the pancakes and after speaking a few words with Jiang Feng, she was ready to leave. Before leaving, she looked around and didn’t see Wu Minqi, then asked, “Where’s Qiqi?”

“Has she gone down to buy buns?” Mrs. Jiang often bumped into Wu Minqi buying buns at the entrance of the neighborhood.

“Qiqi went to bed late last night; she hasn’t woken up yet,” Jiang Feng replied.

“You young people these days, clutching your phones all day isn’t enough, you have to hold onto them all night as well. Are phones really that interesting? How many hours a day do you spend on them without getting tired?” Mrs. Jiang started to speak at length whenever mobile phones were mentioned, “I just visited your Uncle Five’s place, and your two cousins haven’t woken up yet. Your Aunt told me they got home after 11 last night. Their WeChat shows over a hundred steps even though they haven’t gotten out of bed. How late did they actually go to sleep last night? They walked over a hundred steps in the middle of the night when they usually aren’t so active.”

Jiang Feng: ???

Such tactics exist?

It seems it’s time to turn off the WeChat step counter.

Mrs. Jiang, especially when scolding her grandchildren, spoke so loudly when she got excited that the noise woke Wu Minqi up in the room.

Wu Minqi heard the commotion outside and thought there was a quarrel happening. Sleepy-eyed, confused, and somewhat hurried, she emerged from the room with her hair unkempt and looking a bit listless.

When I came out, I saw Mrs. Jiang had arrived, the living room still filled with the aroma of the pancakes she’d made. If you sniffed carefully, you could even detect a generous amount of sesame oil mixed in. Wu Minqi was taken aback for a moment, thinking she was hearing things.

“Qiqi, you’re up,” Mrs. Jiang said with a beaming smile, as if she hadn’t just been criticizing young people for staying up late on their phones and not getting up in the morning. “I made pancakes for you. Go wash up and have some while they’re hot.”

“Ah, oh, thank you, Grandma,” said Wu Minqi, who was slower to respond than usual just after waking up, and she went into the bathroom to wash.

“Okay, I’m going to head over for breakfast too. If I’m late, there won’t be any fried dough twists left,” Mrs. Jiang said, truly preparing to leave this time.

“I’ll walk you out,” the ever dutiful grandson Jiang Feng never missing a chance to show his filial piety, even if it was just accompanying Mrs. Jiang to take the elevator down.

Details determine success or failure!

Jiang Feng and Mrs. Jiang entered the elevator together, and he quickly pressed the button for the first floor before Mrs. Jiang could reach for it, watching as the elevator doors slowly closed.

Inside the elevator, just the two of them, Jiang Feng suddenly remembered how Mrs. Jiang had turned off the heat at the end of making pancakes yesterday and took this opportunity to ask.

“Grandma, why did you turn off the heat at the end of making pancakes yesterday?” Jiang Feng asked.

Mrs. Jiang was busy with her phone and hadn’t heard a word he said, murmuring to herself, “Strange, why aren’t my WeChat messages coming through?”

“The signal is bad in the elevator, it’ll be fine once we’re out,” Jiang Feng explained.

Mrs. Jiang nodded, stubbornly tapping on her phone, attempting to summon the network back by sheer will.

“How can I call someone to play mahjong if I’ve got no internet signal? It says three are lacking one,” Mrs. Jiang said with worry written all over her face.

“It’ll come back once we’re out,” Jiang Feng said.

As he spoke, the elevator reached the first floor, and the doors opened.

The signal came back too.

Mrs. Jiang began rallying her friends in her senior center group chat to set up a mahjong game for the afternoon, stepping out, with Jiang Feng hurrying after her.

“That’s enough, you can go back now. Hurry back and eat,” Mrs. Jiang pressed Jiang Feng back towards the elevator.

“Grandma, about making pancakes yesterday…”

“Of course I turned off the gas to save it. If the pancakes are getting done, why keep the gas on? You kids,” she said then shifted her attention saying, “Old Chang, are you free this afternoon? We are one short for mahjong!”

The elevator door closed.

Gas saving!

A true master of thrift, saving on gas as well as wood.

Jiang Feng firmly remembered the principle of saving gas/natural gas and pressed the floor button again.

PS:

I’ve set up a WeChat public account named: Starting with a Ton of Dots. I’ll be posting some character side stories, character designs, and other book-related content there for those interested.

ヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉ~