The Game of Life

Manager Zhang had been waiting at the door for a while, and hurriedly greeted Golden Carpenter with a smile when he saw him, “Golden Carpenter, it must have been tough walking all the way here in this devilish weather. You must be roasted. Come, come, here’s some cool tea we brewed yesterday, you guys have a drink first.”

After each had a cup of cool tea, Golden Carpenter and Zhang Chu finally felt revived.

“The cabinet is still on the second floor in the old spot, right?” Golden Carpenter asked.

“Yes, it’s still in the same place. We didn’t dare to move it, fearing we might damage it further,” Manager Zhang said. “And the window frame is also on the second floor. Strange to say, it was all fine yesterday, but this morning when Cao came in, he found the window frame was broken and told me. There wasn’t any rain last night, so it’s baffling how it could have just broken like that for no good reason. Could something have crashed into it? It’s truly puzzling.”

“It’s just a broken window frame, repairing it won’t be troublesome,” Golden Carpenter said, finishing his cool tea and pouring himself a glass of cold water, gulping it down. “Manager Zhang, could you please find someone to take my apprentice upstairs to look at that window frame? I’ll go fix the cabinet.”

“Sure, thank you for your trouble,” replied Manager Zhang, turning to look for a strong lad and just happened to catch Cao Guixiang sneakily trying to get a peek at Zhang Chu from the kitchen doorway. He waved at her, “Guixiang, come here, take this young Master Zhang upstairs to fix the window frame.”

Cao Guixiang had initially just wanted to find a concealed spot to watch Zhang Chu, never expecting to be caught red-handed by Manager Zhang. She hurriedly touched her face a few times, then grabbed at her hair as if trying to make it look better, before slowly emerging with her head bowed.

“That, uh, young Master Zhang, I’ll take you, upstairs,” Cao Guixiang said quietly, her voice sounding a bit strange due to her whisper.

“You girl, weren’t you just fine this morning? What happened to your voice to make it sound like that?” asked Manager Zhang.

“Just now, the second brother was frying fish in the kitchen, and I got choked,” Cao Guixiang chose to pass the blame to Qin Guisheng.

This was Zhang Chu’s first time going out to do repair work for someone, and he was just as nervous. He had his head buried in the big bag of tools he’d dragged along, not lifting his head at all, and hadn’t gotten a clear look at Cao Guixiang’s face.

Cao Guixiang led the way in front, with Zhang Chu following behind her. Throughout the journey, neither of them spoke a word until they reached the window frame that was more than likely broken by Cao Guixiang’s own hand the night before.

“This is it. I discovered it was suddenly broken when I came in this morning,” Cao Guixiang outright lied.

Zhang Chu stepped forward to inspect it, and saw that the break was clean. Even Jiang Feng could tell it wasn’t naturally broken, and it was highly likely it had been broken by someone either bumping or knocking it.

“This break doesn’t look like it was caused by dampness, more like it was broken by something hitting it,” Zhang Chu murmured. As an inexperienced newbie who had never repaired a window frame, he dared only to mutter to himself, hesitant to make a definitive judgment.

However, Cao Guixiang heard Zhang Chu’s mutterings and thought her little act had been easily exposed. She became somewhat panicked and blurted out without thinking, “Wasn’t there a downpour last month? Maybe it got damp then, and maybe last night some bird or something hit it and it just broke on impact. I don’t know, it was already broken when I found it this morning.”

Cao Guixiang had spoken quickly and softly. Jiang Feng only caught the gist of it. Zhang Chu was still focused on inspecting the break in the window frame, likely pondering how to fix it, and Jiang Feng felt he probably hadn’t heard what Cao Guixiang had just said.

Or perhaps, he hadn’t even noticed that Cao Guixiang had spoken at all.

After speaking, Cao Guixiang looked at Zhang Chu nervously and expectantly, hoping he would respond, but Zhang Chu kept his gaze on the window frame and completely ignored her. Cao Guixiang thought Zhang Chu found her too talkative to even offer a polite response and left looking downcast and a little heartbroken.

Jiang Feng was curious to see what reaction Zhang Chu would have upon noticing Cao Guixiang’s absence, so he didn’t follow her downstairs but stayed beside Zhang Chu.

Zhang Chu scrutinized the break in the window frame for a few minutes, then turned his head and asked, “Comrade, your shop’s…”

“Eh, where did that comrade go?” Zhang Chu was utterly confused.

Unable to find Cao Guixiang, Zhang Chu set about solving the problem by himself, walking over to where Golden Carpenter was and loudly asked, “Master, do you have…”

Jiang Feng didn’t hear the rest because he had already dashed downstairs to see what Cao Guixiang was up to.

When Jiang Feng arrived, he had noticed that there were very few customers at Yonghe House that day. There wasn’t a single table occupied on the second floor, and only one table on the first floor had diners. It was supposed to be story-telling time, but he hadn’t seen Mr. Che across the way, probably because the weather was too hot. The heat deterred customers from eating out and likely caused Mr. Che to skip work and stay home to cool off.

With no customers, it meant the kitchen staff must be quite idle. Jiang Feng nonchalantly walked into the kitchen and saw Cao Guixiang and Qin Guisheng seated side by side on small stools, drinking cool tea.

“What should I do? He must think I’m really annoying. Does he not want to see me or talk to me anymore? If our shop breaks a window frame again, would he be willing to come fix it?” Cao Guixiang, clutching the tea cup in both hands, wore a worried expression.

Qin Guisheng almost spat out his tea when he heard her last sentence; his speech became stammering.

“Sis…Sister…Sister apprentice, do our shop’s window frames still need breaking?” Qin Guisheng calculated in his mind, if their clandestine activities from last night were discovered by the master, the master might spare his favorite junior because of his fondness for her, but for him, the master would likely be ruthless and unsparing.

He was only in his 20s, just held hands with Amin, and they hadn’t even gotten engaged yet. He couldn’t just die so tragically.

“Of course, it must be over!” Cao Guixiang said, “I went to ask Manager Yin yesterday, and after Golden Carpenter takes the custom order for the Qian Gong Bed, he won’t take any other jobs. The Qian Gong Bed is being made in a different courtyard that belongs to Manager Yin’s family, which is not even on the same path as ours. After that, he won’t pass by our street, nor will he stay to listen to Mr. Che’s storytelling.”

“Junior Sister, don’t be impulsive, let your second senior brother think it over for you. When you led him upstairs earlier, did he say anything to you?” Qin Guisheng asked.

“He said exactly 28 characters to me: ‘This broken end doesn’t look like it’s from dampness, rather it looks like it was smashed by something.’ That’s the 28 characters,” Cao Guixiang said with a sad face.

Qin Guisheng: ???

Are you sure he said that to you and not to himself?

“Emmm, that’s,” Qin Guisheng suddenly didn’t know what to say, “but no matter what, we can’t continue destroying the window frame. If our shop keeps breaking window frames every now and then, anyone would find it strange. And the way you smash the window frame is way too dangerous, climbing on the external wall to do it. If you fall one day, then I’m done for. Master would skin me alive.”

“What did you do now? My father would skin you alive?” Peng Changping appeared behind them at some point, “What are you so absorbed in talking about that you didn’t even hear the call for lunch?”

“Oh, nothing, ah, it’s time to eat, come on come on come on, Junior Sister, let’s hurry and eat,” said Qin Guisheng, springing up at once.

Perhaps because of the hot weather, the food was quite simple: stir-fried watermelon rind, smashed cucumber, cold tomato salad, scrambled eggs with chili, with plain steamed buns as the main dish, no soup, but plenty of iced tea.

Cao Guixiang was absentmindedly nibbling on a steamed bun, occasionally picking up a chopstick of watermelon rind, her mind clearly elsewhere.

“Guixiang, what are you thinking about? You’re not even eating properly,” Master Peng tapped the back of her hand with the end of his chopsticks.

“Ah, oh, Master, I was thinking that it doesn’t seem quite right for us to eat without inviting Master Jin and Little Zhang to join us. They’re still working upstairs,” said Cao Guixiang.

“Originally, there was such a custom that when a master comes to work, you have to not only pay but also provide meals. But now the rules have changed. If you pay, meals are not included; otherwise, it would disrupt the rules. The finances of our shop are predetermined, and if we mess around like this, it would be hard to account for at the end of the month,” Manager Zhang explained.

“But I remember Little Zhang doesn’t charge for fixing the window frame, right? Since he isn’t taking money, we should at least provide a meal, otherwise wouldn’t that be too inconsiderate?” Cao Guixiang said.

“That makes sense. How about this, deduct the cost from my salary this month. Guixiang, later you go make a bowl of zhajiang noodles for Little Zhang and take it up to him,” Master Peng nodded.

Cao Guixiang immediately lit up, finishing the bun in her hand in a few bites before slipping into the kitchen.

“Master, I’m going to make zhajiang noodles for Little Zhang!”

“Aren’t you going to eat?”

“I’m full already!”

Master Peng shook his head helplessly, smiling: “This child, the older she gets, the less proper she becomes.”

Master Wang, however, had noticed something and smiled mysteriously, “I think it’s because Guixiang is growing up, and she’s taken a liking to that Little Zhang upstairs, right?”

Qin Guisheng nearly choked on a mouthful of bun.

“Wow, look at Xiaoguisheng’s reaction. It seems Guixiang really has a thing for him,” said Master Wang.

“Master Wang, don’t talk nonsense. It wasn’t me who said that, it was you,” Qin Guisheng protested.

“But if Guixiang really has her sights set on Little Zhang upstairs, that could be quite troublesome. That Little Zhang is known as the handsome bachelor in his neighborhood, and there are a lot of young girls who like him,” Master Wang said.

Hearing Master Wang talk like that, Qin Guisheng suddenly became unhappy, “Master Wang, listen to how you speak. My junior sister is also… She’s well-known for her beauty at Yonghe House, and besides, my junior sister is still young. In a couple of years, she might even become a regular employee. Zhang Chu is just an apprentice of Golden Carpenter and hasn’t even finished his apprenticeship yet; he doesn’t have any steady income. In terms of work and appearance, where is my junior sister not a match for this Zhang Chu? It’s Zhang Chu who isn’t worthy of her.”

Cao Guixiang was the only female employee at Yonghe House.

Everyone laughed.