The Game of Life

It was a face that resembled the old man’s in his middle age.

Jiang Weiguo had six older brothers, so it was self-evident who the Chef Jiang of the state-run restaurant was.

Jiang Feng stood there, dumbstruck, as if his feet were rooted to the ground, staring fixedly at Master Jiang, while a storm of shock and disbelief raged in his heart.

This appearance, and also surnamed Jiang—it couldn’t be wrong!

The old man still had relatives in this world!

And he was a chef at a state-run restaurant in the provincial city of Shu in

1987!

Master Jiang was holding a plate of braised pork, smiling cheerfully, slightly chubby, but much thinner than the old man in middle age.

Jiang Feng wanted to take a longer look, but an invisible wall bumped into him, urging him to catch up with Han Guishan.

Reluctantly, Jiang Feng memorized the signboard of the state-run restaurant and staggered forward to catch up with Han Guishan.

In his youth, Han Guishan was a man who stubbornly stuck to his principles, saying if he would go to County Yalom, he would reach County Yalom. Wang Jing said it was a sixty-li journey, mostly through the mountains, with rough and shoe-wearing paths that were difficult to navigate, not to mention Han Guishan was carrying two large sacks of goods, which made the journey even tougher.

in his memory, Jiang Feng never felt tired, hungry, or thirsty. Aside from the difficult roads posing some obstacle, he felt no sense of the length of the journey.

But it was different for Han Guishan. He was truly walking the path, wearing new cloth shoes knitted by his fifth sister. Halfway through, worried the mountain paths would ruin his shoes, he simply took them off. After walking the entire night, as dawn was just breaking, Han Guishan finally arrived at the county town.

Compared to the provincial city, County Yalom looked much more decrepit. Han Guishan’s feet, which were already thick with calluses, were still cut and bleeding from the rocks and wild grass along the way. He seemed not to feel it at all, casually brushing the mud off his feet and putting his shoes back on.

It was still very early, so Han Guishan sat by the street waiting for the shops to open.

He nervously opened and closed the mouths of the sacks over and over again, checking the goods inside.

After waiting for who knows how long, people began to come out, and shops started opening. Jiang Feng thought Han Guishan would go door to door at each shop asking around as he did in the provincial city, but instead, he stopped an old granny in ragged clothes.

“Granny, may I ask if your family has any wild vegetable buns for sale, could I buy a few?” Han Guishan stopped the old granny and asked.

The granny was initially stunned, then looked at Han Guishan up and down repeatedly with a wary demeanor.

Han Guishan’s attire wasn’t impressive in Shenzhen, but it was considered fashionable in County Yalom. Though he was dusty and disheveled, with two dirty sacks, he looked trustworthy enough to the granny.

“We only have cornmeal at home. We don’t have the fine grain of white flour, one for ten cents.” The granny quoted an exorbitant price.

“That’s fine, that’s fine, I only want cornmeal, I’ll take five.” Han Guishan had no money to buy dry food at a restaurant.

-My son is at home, so don’t you try anything. Just wait here,” the granny warned him.

The granny hurried backhome, and before long, she came back carrying a coarsely wrapped package, inside were five small cornmeal wild vegetable buns. After taking the money, the granny quickly took back the cloth and ran off, as if fearful that Han Guishan would change his mind.

Han Guishan ate two buns on the spot, nearly choking. He then took out a towel and wrapped the remaining three buns, dragging his sacks deeper into the township.

Han Guishan asked many people which nearby village was the farthest and most remote. He begged a bowl of water from one household and even sold an iron frog at another for three yuan.

After inquiring from over a dozen people, Han Guishan chose a village and set off again.

This journey took over two days, even more challenging than the night travels before, as it was almost entirely through mountains and narrow paths, initially, there were some muddy roads, but later on, they all turned into trails trampled by human feet. Along the way, whenever he encountered a river, he would stop to drink some water, eat a corn bun when it got dark, and apart from the deep night when he was too exhausted to proceed and would lean against a tree to sleep a few hours, he hardly rested and kept walking.

Jiang Feng began to wonder whether Han Guishan was following the map he had obtained from asking for directions or just going by intuition, as the way seemed to have no trace of human life. He even started to fear that Han Guishan would get lost in the wilderness of the mountains and forests.

At that time in Shu, there were still quite a few untamed mountains.

And so, Han Guishan walked for another two days.

Because he only slept deep into the night, and since they were on the mountain, Jiang Feng didn’t dare to walk too far. Han Guishan slept leaning against a tree, and Jiang Feng just sat beside him, lost in his thoughts.

He could hardly guess what Han Guishan was thinking.

It was all because of something Wang Jing had said that he had traveled over mountains and through rivers, determined to reach the most remote village that even peddlers were unwilling to visit.

Now Jiang Feng didn’t want to think about anything else; he just hoped that these memories would last until Han Guishan returned to the provincial capital, wishing that Han Guishan would visit that state-owned restaurant again so that he could properly identify its location to help him in his search for relatives.

On the morning of the third day, after Han Guishan awoke and ate the last dumpling, he continued on his way, carrying the sack.

He was silent the entire journey, not speaking or even mumbling to himself, like a silent wooden figure, just knowing to keep moving forward ceaselessly.

In the half-afternoon, Jiang Feng finally saw the village.

Such a village nestled deep in the mountains, inaccessible even to bicycles, let alone motor vehicles, relied entirely on feet for access, and outsiders almost never came.

At the entrance to the village, a child was playing with mud. Seeing this, Han Guishan dragged his sack over and asked cheerfully, “Little friend, I am a peddler. May I ask if this is the Production Brigade Anhe?” The mud-playing child, hearing the words ‘peddler’, sprang up and darted back to the village without answering, shouting as he ran, “The peddler’s here, the peddler’s here!”

Han Guishan was bewildered by his reaction.

After a while, the village entrance was crowded with people, who surrounded Han Guishan the way they might stare at a panda.

No, this is Shu, where a peddler like Han Guishan might be even rarer than a panda.

-Where’s the peddler? I am the brigade leader here.” The brigade leader, in his fifties but looking older than his actual age, shouted, and the villagers finally made way for him.

“Hello, I am the peddler, ah, no, my surname is Han, and I am here to sell goods,” Han Guishan hurriedly said when he saw the leader of the production brigade approaching, “May I ask if this is the Production Brigade Anhe?” When Han Guishan spoke, the previously quiet crowd exploded like a bomb had been dropped into a pond, immediately in an uproar.

“It really is a peddler, how many years has it been since one visited our village?”

“What does this peddler sell? Does he have soap?

“Mom, I want some candy.”

“Mr. Anhe’s brigade is even more remote than our village, what’s he doing going there?”

“You say…”

“Ahem!” The brigade leader coughed loudly, and everyone fell silent. It seemed he had considerable authority among the villagers. “Peddler Han, the Production Brigade Anhe is another ten-odd miles west of here. This is the Barley Production Brigade. Are you here to visit relatives?

“No, I’m here to sell goods,” Han Guishan said.

The crowd stirred again.

“Why go to Mr. Anhe’s brigade? It’s so much better to sell here!

“Exactly, Mr. Anhe’s brigade is so poor, they can’t afford to buy anything. What is this peddler thinking?”

“Ahem.” The brigade leader signaled for silence and said to Han Guishan with a smile, “Peddler Han, you may not be familiar with our situation. Mr. Anhe’s brigade had a poor harvest last year, and you might not be able to sell your goods there. What do you think about our brigade?”

A sharp glint flashed in the brigade leader’s eyes. In recent years, the weather had been good, and none of the production brigades had experienced a bad harvest. But in this poor and remote area, with mountainous terrain and some evil spirit seeming to loom over it, there was no supply and marketing cooperative, and it took a whole day and night’s journey to reach the nearest one. Now that an out-of-town peddler had finally arrived, how could he simply let him go on to the Production Brigade Anhe.

Standing to the side, Jiang Feng watched as the brigade leader and Han Guishan skirted the real issue in their conversation, both dodging and weaving through the crowd’s scrutiny, and he couldn’t help but find it amusing.

Han Guishan had trekked through the mountains for two days, and it seemed his mind had become clear, for now, he’d learned to bide his time and hold out for a better deal..