The Game of Life TGOL

Chapter 491: Chapter 489 Night Talk

Jiang Weiming’s Baiwei Soup and Jiang Weisheng’s Guiwei Soup are completely different, and if one were to pinpoint the difference, the simple answer would be that it tastes good, but the complex answer is that it has a unique feeling.

Without any exaggeration, Jiang Feng actually tasted the feeling of home from the soup in his bowl.

It was just like those old TV dramas where parents and children are separated for years due to various reasons, with countless entanglements and resentments, which are all finally resolved in the grand finale. At the end of the story, the family gathers happily for a meal, and with the last bowl of soup served amidst the steam and laughter, the TV show concludes.

The Baiwei Soup that Jiang Weiming made today was exactly that last bowl of soup.

Jiang Feng drank the soup from his bowl with relish, feeling warm both in body and heart, and then put down the bowl and picked up his chopsticks to start eating the dishes.

After dinner, Jiang Xiaoran went back to his room to fix bugs, Lin Juan washed dishes and tidied up the house, and Jiang Yong took Jiang Feng and Jiang Weiming for a walk outside, also taking the opportunity to familiarize Jiang Weiming with the surroundings in case he wanted to go out alone.

After wandering for over an hour, Jiang Feng returned to Jiang Yong’s home, performed a simple wash-up, experienced the frequently malfunctioning toilet of Jiang Yong’s home, and sat on the living room sofa for a half-hour video call with Wu Minqi before entering Jiang Xiaoran’s room.

At 10:17 PM, Jiang Feng was ready for bed, as his flight was booked for the next morning and he needed to wake up early, so he planned to sleep early.

Jiang Xiaoran was still clattering away at the keyboard, fixing bugs on his computer screen.

Seeing that Jiang Feng had gone to bed, Jiang Xiaoran sensed that his newly-met cousin wanted to sleep. He glanced at his computer, hesitated for a moment, and decisively shut it down, going out to wash up.

10 minutes later, Jiang Xiaoran returned to the room, turned off the lights, and went to bed.

Jiang Feng didn’t fall asleep, turning over. As a qualified cultivation youth, going to bed at 10 PM really wasn’t his style.

5 minutes later, Jiang Xiaoran turned over in bed as well.

10 minutes later, Jiang Feng turned over once more.

15 minutes later, Jiang Xiaoran turned over with a large movement, and Jiang Feng followed suit, both of them sighing in unison.

Both Jiang Feng and Jiang Xiaoran knew clearly that neither was asleep but, with an outsider present, they were too embarrassed to take out their phones and cultivate as usual, instead trying hard to force themselves to sleep.

“Cousin, are you asleep?” Jiang Xiaoran was the first to speak.

“No,” Jiang Feng answered, his eyes open, staring at the pitch-black ceiling.

“My dad told me you and my grandfather as well as a few cousins all live together in Beiping, is that right?” Jiang Xiaoran asked.

“Yeah, we only moved to Beiping this July. Our family has a restaurant there, where several of my uncles and aunts, as well as my parents, work. I’m there too, along with my grandfather and Granduncle Weiming, who is your grandfather. All three of us are chefs,” Jiang Feng explained.

“That’s really nice,” Jiang Xiaoran couldn’t help but remark.

“Hm?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mean anything by it. I just think it’s nice to have such a big family all together,” Jiang Xiaoran clarified, “I’m different. I’m an only child, and my mom is an only daughter. I’ve always been alone without any cousins of my age to grow up with. You probably won’t believe this, but I’ve never even seen my two aunts from the time I was a child.”

“You’ve never seen them?” Jiang Feng asked incredulously.

“That’s right, never. In fact, I haven’t seen my grandfather many times either. Today when I saw my grandfather, I didn’t even recognize him. My family doesn’t have pictures of my grandfather, just one of my grandmother. I don’t know if you’re familiar with my eldest uncle. I’ve heard he works somewhere in Shu, and I haven’t seen him much either, nor have I had much contact with my cousins,” Jiang Xiaoran continued, “Previously, when my dad told me that my grandfather was coming to our house for the New Year, I thought he was joking. We haven’t gone back for the New Year at grandfather’s for nearly ten years, and when I was little, we used to leave right after the New Year’s Eve dinner.”

“I still don’t understand what’s going on, but I always feel like there’s some tension between my dad and my grandfather.”

Jiang Feng could tell that Jiang Xiaoran was completely unaware of the affection and disputes between his father and grandfather and was a standard fringe character.

But why would a fringe character get a “beep” when touching a game? Previously, a “beep” would only occur with key characters, like with Zhang Zhiyuan and the window frame of Yonghe House, which both had stories.

Jiang Xiaoran didn’t seem like a person with a story.

“So, Xiaoran, how do you find Granduncle Weiming’s cooking?” Jiang Feng inquired.

Jiang Xiaoran was silent for a while before speaking, his tone seemingly a bit embarrassed.

“To be honest, I remember as a kid, I got beaten by my dad for wanting to stay at my grandfather’s house on New Year’s Eve so I could eat the meal on the first day of the lunar year,” he said.

Jiang Feng perked up and began sharing his and his cousins’ experiences of being beaten by their grandfather when they were younger: “That’s quite normal. When I was a kid, my cousins and I got beaten by our grandfather just for trying to eat a few more bites of food. To say something a bit disrespectful, my grandfather’s cooking skills weren’t even as good as Granduncle Weiming’s.”

Jiang Xiaoran chuckled, “I thought I was the only one like that. I always found it embarrassing and never dared to tell others. My dad doesn’t mention it either. I had no idea that you, my cousin Feng, had been through the same.”

Having a shared experience of being beaten brought Jiang Xiaoran and Jiang Feng closer together, and Xiaoran’s way of addressing Feng shifted from “cousin” to “cousin Feng.”

“Did you end up staying in the end, Xiaoran?” Jiang Feng asked curiously.

“No, after my dad gave me a beating, he dragged me away. I remember that day my dad was driving, and I was crying in the back seat while my mom handed me tissues,” Jiang Xiaoran recounted, “But why I especially wanted to stay at my grandfather’s that day, I don’t remember now. Perhaps it was because I tasted a dish that I found particularly delicious. So many years have passed that I’ve forgotten the specific reason.”

“As long as you got to eat, it’s not a loss. It’s worse not to eat and get beaten,” Jiang Feng comforted.

Regarding being beaten over food, Jiang Feng felt their Jiang Family’s children were especially qualified to speak about it. Starting with his father’s generation, half of the reasons for being beaten had to do with food, and the other half had to do with cooking—it was always linked to food one way or another.

“True.”

“By the way, Xiaoran, how old were you when you were beaten that time? I remember when I was around twelve or thirteen, I got beaten by my grandfather over food, and my eldest cousin was beaten over such issues even after he started middle school,” Jiang Feng said.

Jiang Xiaoran: “…16.”

Jiang Feng: “…”

A bit strong.

Jiang Feng couldn’t help but respect him.

A moment of silence filled the room.

“Ahem, it’s late, let’s go to sleep. I remember you have to catch a flight tomorrow morning, and I have to go to work early as well,” Jiang Xiaoran rolled over, facing the wall.

“Yeah, yeah, time to sleep, time to sleep, we all need to get up early,” Jiang Feng also rolled over, facing the apples.

As soon as Jiang Feng closed his eyes, the fragrance of apples lingered on the tip of his nose, impossible to shake off.

The tighter he closed his eyes, the stronger the scent of apples became, the more he wanted to sleep, the more he craved to eat.

Jiang Feng: …

Damn, I really want an apple.

Especially crispy apples, cut into pieces and wrapped in batter made by Sir himself, then fried in hot oil.

They were fragrant and crunchy, especially when snatched from many cousins’ chopsticks at the New Year’s Eve dinner table, they tasted even more delectable.

Jiang Feng could almost hear the crunching sound of biting into a crispy apple.

Jiang Feng silently swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and turned over once more, facing Jiang Xiaoran.

“Xiaoran, do you feel like having an apple?”

“Huh?”

“Shall I go and peel two apples for us, I heard that eating fruit before bed helps with sleep,” Jiang Feng started to spout his serious nonsense, even sitting up from the bed.

Jiang Xiaoran was a bit puzzled, not understanding why the topic had shifted to whether to eat an apple. But after a second thought, he felt what Jiang Feng said made sense; since he couldn’t sleep anyway, why not have an apple to calm down?

“Sure.” Jiang Xiaoran also sat up and turned on the light.

The light illuminated the room, and was even somewhat dazzling.

Jiang Feng groped for two apples from the suitcase, found a fruit knife in the kitchen to peel the apples. Then he and Jiang Xiaoran sat face to face on the bed, crunchily munching on the apples.

After finishing the apples, they turned off the light, got into bed, and went to sleep.

With a turn, Jiang Feng fell peacefully asleep.

Half an hour later, still awake, Jiang Xiaoran uncertainly asked in a soft voice, “Cousin Feng, are you asleep?”

The response was Jiang Feng’s steady breathing.

Jiang Xiaoran was startled, could it be that eating apples really helped with sleep?

But why had Jiang Feng fallen asleep so quickly while he was still suffering from insomnia?

Could it be that he hadn’t eaten enough, and that was why the effect wasn’t noticeable?

Jiang Xiaoran carefully got up, quietly took an apple from the suitcase, peeled it in the kitchen, and sat alone at the dining table in the living room to eat the apple.

After finishing the apple, Jiang Xiaoran went back to bed to sleep.

An hour later, Jiang Xiaoran got up again and once more carefully took an apple from the suitcase, like before he peeled it and sat alone in the living room to eat the apple.

In the silent night, with no one around, the only things accompanying Jiang Xiaoran were the apple in his hand and a dim light.

What a warm, lonely, eerie, frightening, and even slightly chilling scene!

Lin Juan, getting up for a midnight bathroom visit and pushing the door, was startled to see her son sitting alone at the dining table, lost in thought while munching on an apple.

“Xiaoran, what are you doing? Why aren’t you sleeping in the middle of the night?” Lin Juan asked.

That brought Jiang Xiaoran back to his senses: “Mom, I just can’t sleep. I heard that eating more fruit at night helps with sleep.”

“Burp.”

Lin Juan: “…”

“Stop eating, get back and go to sleep. Just lie down on the bed and close your eyes, you’ll fall asleep soon.” Lin Juan shook her head helplessly and went into the bathroom.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Jiang Xiaoran quickly finished the apple and went back to bed to sleep.

In the silent night, Jiang Xiaoran lay in bed, closing his eyes and trying hard to fall asleep.

Three minutes later.

“Burp.”

Whether eating apples helps with sleep or not, Jiang Xiaoran didn’t know, but it surely filled his stomach.