The Game of Life

In the following days, Jiang Feng devoted himself to practicing the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon.

He cycled through practice with squab and duck repeatedly, barely noticing the passage of time, and seven days flew by in an instant. Sun Guanyun said to teach for seven days, so he did exactly that, teaching not a day more. As soon as the time was up, he disappeared without a trace.

Now, Jiang Feng had mastered the art of deboning a whole pigeon, and Jiang Weiguo and Jiang Weiming, the two seniors, had also gotten a good grasp of it, being able to offer a tip or two on everything except the thickening sauce.

These days, countless squabs and ducks met their end at Jiang Feng’s hands. The duck didn¹1 taste as good as the squab and was sold off by Wang Xiulian as a discount dish, which turned out to be very popular. The squab, on the other hand, was consumed internally. Now, every staff member at the Healthy Stir- fry Restaurant could gobble down two to three squabs a day on average, and Wang Hao had such a perpetual pigeon scent that everyone joked he had turned into a pigeon himself, the aroma never quite dissipating.

At 3:37 p.m. on March 30th, Jiang Feng perfectly deboned another squab.

He had become a true Pigeon Assassin, devoid of sentiment and of profit. Just as he was about to put the trimmed bones into the pot to make soup, Ji Yue came in with his phone.

“Jiang Feng, your call.” Ji Yue handed him the phone.

“Hello,” Jiang Feng said, wiping his hands.

“Hello, may I speak to Mr. Jiang Feng? I am a staff member from the Good Taste Cooking Competition. Are you available tomorrow morning?”

“Yes, I am.”

“It’s like this: since our competition broadcasts live on TV starting from the top 32 and will later be edited for exclusive online streaming on a certain video platform, we need you to help us record a short VCR segment for pre­competition promotion.”

“VCR?”

“Yes, it’s just about a minute long, and you can say anything you want, like a pre-competition declaration or a brief account of your cooking practice, as long as there’s no advertising involved. It won’t take much of your time. Tomorrow morning at nine, on the 7th floor of the provincial station, our staff will be waiting for you at the elevator entrance.”

After thinking it over, Jiang Feng figured a one-minute video shouldn’t be too hard and agreed.

After hanging up, Jiang Feng became somewhat distracted.

Should he put on a facial mask tonight?

He finished stuffing the squab, blanched it, inserted needles, then placed it in the steamer to steam. At the moment, Jiang Feng couldn’t see any mistakes, and he would only be able to tell once the squab was out of the steamer in an hour.

After washing his hands clean, Jiang Feng went to Mrs. Wang Xiulian to ask for a facial mask.

Wang Xiulian was busy tallying accounts at the counter. Since the Healthy Stir- fry Restaurant had expanded its operations, the accounting had become more complicated. Every day, Mrs. Wang Xiulian was either crunching numbers or en route to do so, meticulously making sure not to miss a single figure and give partners an unintended discount.

“Mom, do you have a facial mask? I could use one,” Jiang Feng said.

Wang Xiulian didn’t even look up at him, too lazy to lift her eyelids, keeping her focus on the calculator, dismissively replied, “What does a boy need a facial mask for, go back to your ducks!”

“Oh right, the price of squabs has gone up recently, so practice with ducks more and squabs less. Eating squab every day is too nourishing – even someone my age has gotten a pimple,” Wang Xiulian said, involuntarily touching the fresh, shiny pimple on her forehead with her left hand, while her right continued to tap away at the calculator.

“You could just sell the pigeons as well, mark them at a discount – they won’t know the original price,” said Jiang Feng, knowing well that practicing with ducks was not nearly as effective as with squabs.

“A squab is so tiny and sells for dozens of yuan, you think our place is a fancy restaurant?” Wang Xiulian finally looked up at Jiang Feng with a gaze that said you don’t know the cost of living because you don’t run the household, “They won’t sell, son. Go back to the kitchen, I need to finish the accounts, don’t bother me. Have you seen your father, where has he gone off to this time?”

“He went to settle the accounts with Shaxian Snacks,” Jiang Feng said, ready to head back to the kitchen when he realized that Mrs. Wang Xiulian had sidetracked him – he was there to get a facial mask.

“No, Mom, the organizer’s staff called earlier asking me to go to the provincial station tomorrow and record a VCR short as pre-competition promotion,” Jiang Feng said, “Isn’t that what you said before? To put on a facial mask before appearing on TV to look more presentable.”

Only then did Wang Xiulian take it seriously, stopping what she was doing and asked earnestly, “That VR short, will it be aired on TV?”

“Should be,” Jiang Feng said.

“Why didn’t you say early, applying a mask, huh? Mom supports you, tonight your dad will bring one down from upstairs. I thought you and Ji Yue were watching those crappy TV shows of Mr. Zou and wanted to learn from those young idols how to use facial masks for skincare. Son, let me tell you, it’s unnecessary. These things don’t do jack, it’s just a waste of money!” Wang Xiulian said, “Let me tell you, the hydrating mask that the beauty salon gave us works really well, much better than those you buy outside for dozens of yuan!”

Jiang Feng: “…Okay, I got it, Mom.”

“Right, after applying the mask, you still need to do skincare. Seriously, where’s your dad? He’s been tying up that money for so long, he must be slacking off somewhere again. Every single day, he’s only diligent in hiding his private money. Yesterday, I found thirty thousand of his, and he wasn’t even upset, definitely has more stashed away,” Wang Xiulian said indignantly.

Jiang Feng:…

Better not say anything more, better light a candle for Jiang Jiankang’s poor acting, his little bank is surely doomed.

A blissfully unaware Jiang Jiankang happily walked in eating a tea egg gifted by the Shaxian Snacks owner and saw Jiang Feng wasn’t in the kitchen, “Son, taking a break, huh!”

“Your kid needs to go to the provincial station tomorrow to record some VR thing, tonight go upstairs and get him a face mask, and bring my set of skincare from the bedside to him too. Take the face mask that the beauty salon gave, not the ones I bought from Hong Kong City last year,” Wang Xiulian instructed.

“Sure thing!”

That evening, Jiang Feng carried a bag full of Mrs. Wang Xiulian’s skincare products back to his dorm, inspected each item after taking them all out, but then he had trouble.

Most of Wang Xiulian’s skincare products were from the same brand, probably given by the beauty salon. The bottles all had things like RADICAL NEW AGE, FACIAL TREATMENT REPAIR C on them. Jiang Feng could understand the English part – serum, toner, cream, eye cream, etc. – but the descriptions in Japanese on the back stumped him.

As a straight male who had been single since birth, his limit in skincare was basically Dabao.

“Feng, what are you looking at?” Wang Hao saw Jiang Feng fiddling with the various bottles and jars and asked.

“My mom’s lending me her skincare products for the night, but I don’t know how to use this stuff!” Jiang Feng replied, “You don’t say, her beauty salon is pretty westernized; it’s all in English and Japanese.”

“They all do that, anything not in Chinese gets sold for more.” Wang Hao picked up a bright red bottle, couldn’t make heads or tails of it, and gave up, pulling out his phone, “Let’s ask Baidu, Feng, can you understand the English on it?”

“That bottle you’re holding is face cream,” Jiang Feng said.

“Let me see, before applying the mask you should slap on some toner, no wait, this one says you don’t need to, no wait, this one says you do. Never mind, never mind, you should just slap on some toner first, Feng. Is this bottle toner?” Wang Hao said, holding up a bottle, as confused as if he was reading Signals and Systems.

Jiang Feng felt like Wang Hao was spitballing random words so he took the phone himself. He couldn’t understand it either.

“It’s probably best to just slap on some toner before the mask, Feng. This bottle is toner, right?” Wang Hao said, picking up a bottle.

“I feel like, shouldn’t you wash your face with a cleanser first?” Jiang Feng suggested, drawing on his scarce experience with skincare.

Finally, after a series of haphazard operations, Jiang Feng managed to complete his skincare routine, marveling at how troublesome women’s daily lives are, then began to tidy up the bottles and jars on the table.

He wasn’t sure if it was a placebo effect or not, but he felt like his skin really did look brighter and whiter.

Seeing Mrs. Wang Xiulian’s generosity, the face mask and skincare products given by the beauty salon weren’t bad at all.

Wang Hao, holding the bottle of toner that Jiang Feng had accidentally wasted earlier, remarked, “Feng, you’re not wrong, your mom’s beauty salon has a pretty fancy name, it’s even called SK-II.”

“Yeah, itworks pretty well,” Jiang Feng sighed, “Such a conscientious store!”