The Game of Life - Chapter 503

Chapter 503: Chapter 501: Pork Crisis

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On the morning of January 19 at 10 a.m., Jiang Feng, dragging his suitcase, boarded the train home.

Only Mrs. Wu and Wu Minqi were there to see him off, with Mrs. Wu still driving. Wu Hanxue maintained his image of a cool, distant father and workaholic very well, choosing to go to work at the Wu Family Restaurant rather than send his future son-in-law to the train station.

Although Wu Hanxue did not see him off, he handed over two jars of pickles to Jiang Feng before he left, one short and plump, the other tall and skinny. The short and plump one contained pickles personally made by Old Sir Wu, while the tall and skinny one came from the hands of Wu Hanxue himself. The former and current head chefs of the Wu Family Restaurant had combined their talents to produce pickles that absolutely qualified as the highest form of honor.

It was also an acknowledgment of Jiang Feng.

A high-speed train ride accompanied by pickles is destined not to be too lonely…

Pfft, what company on a high-speed train isn’t lonely? No matter if it’s pickles, roast duck, roast pig, roast camel—if there’s no internet, it’s lonely.

Jiang Feng, bored out of his mind, leaned back in his seat and aimlessly scrolled through his phone, which, except for WeChat and QQ messages, had nothing else to offer. He was considering whether to bother someone and get his silly online friends to keep him company during the long ten hours when Wang Hao, the prime example of those friends, reached out to him proactively.

Wang Hao: Feng, you’d never guess what an amazing topic I’ve come up with for my thesis!

Jiang Feng sent a question mark laced with skepticism.

Wang Hao: Don’t be so cold, Feng. My thesis topic is truly a historic breakthrough for our physics department. Unprecedented, unmatched, it will go down in history, and countless juniors will cheer for me in the future.

Wang Hao: This is a small step for me, but indeed a giant leap for our physics department!

Jiang Feng: …

This kid must have fried his brain trying to decide on a thesis topic.

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Jiang Feng: What topic have you settled on?

Wang Hao: The history of photonic crystal development!

Jiang Feng: …

Holding his phone, Jiang Feng was speechless for a long time. He thought of many things, even the fact that photonic crystals were first independently introduced in 1987. If Wang Hao really planned to write about them, it would definitely be modern history, as the economic reforms and opening-up had started earlier than that.

Of course, Jiang Feng’s most recurrent thought was how Wang Hao would meet his end when he submitted his proposal at the start of the term.

Would he be chopped to death by his furious supervisor or hammered to death?

On the other end of the phone, Wang Hao, happily staying home as a ‘happy fatty,’ had no clue that Jiang Feng was once again anticipating his demise. Self-convinced that he had thought of a brilliant thesis topic while indulging at home, he eagerly messaged Jiang Feng.

Wang Hao: Feng, don’t you think my topic is incredibly cool?

Wang Hao: I’ve got it all planned out. Not only can I write about the history of photonic crystal development, but also the history of optics, laser development, quantum mechanics, quantum optics, electromagnetic theory—it’s like everything has a history. We could write a series on historical developments!

Jiang Feng silently exited the chat with Wang Hao, deciding to let his old roommate cool down by himself for a while.

Once the excitement wore off and his IQ returned to the average, he would realize how he was going to meet his end.

Wang Hao, with his actions, proved that silly online friends could not help Jiang Feng relieve the boredom of a long high-speed rail journey. After some thought, Jiang Feng figured that on this day of welcoming the new spring and family reunion, only family could help him overcome his loneliness. So he decided to announce his imminent return in the family group chat.

It was strange to say, but the Jiang Family’s group chat was always the liveliest around the New Year, because that was the only time of year when everyone could feast on dishes personally made by Sir.

In the years past, especially the days leading up to the New Year, when some members couldn’t return home early due to various reasons, the Jiang Family’s chat would be extraordinarily lively with incessant messages making it impossible to keep up.

Pictures were sent before meals, reviews were shared after eating, interspersed with flattery for Sir and, when necessary, pings towards those who weren’t able to return—joyous and tearful, both satisfaction and fat coexisting.

Yet this year, with the thrilling Chinese New Year’s Eve approaching, the family chat was quiet as a mouse, as still as a pond of water, even more silent than the class chat which Jiang Feng had muted—simply a fantasy. During Jiang Feng’s days in the Magic City and Shu, surprisingly, not a single message was sent in the Jiang Family’s chat.

Incredible!

In the past few days, Jiang Feng had been either on the go or accompanying his girlfriend. When not flaunting or enduring displays of affection, he hadn’t noticed this issue. Now that he had a moment to himself, he realized something was amiss.

Not just normally amiss, but very, very amiss.

Given the personalities of De and Cheng, even if they were the nicest guys around, at most they’d refrain from tagging him when posting pictures, but they’d definitely post pictures.

Such tranquility in the group meant something was up.

Jiang Feng initially wanted to simply post “I’m back!” in the main group, but after thinking it over, he didn’t think it was appropriate. He switched to the small group chat shared with his cousins.

Being a chef is nice except for the early hours: I’m back!

Being a chef is good, but you have to get up early: I’ll be at Grandpa’s house tomorrow morning!

Five minutes went by, and no one responded to Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng didn’t believe that in those five minutes, not a single person was on their phone.

After some thought, Jiang Feng pulled out the big guns.

Being a chef is good, but you have to get up early: Uncle Wu and Sir Wu gave me two jars of pickles to bring back with me tomorrow. Besides pickles, is there anything else you guys want me to bring back?

Although the village has Sir’s homemade delicacies and the assorted no-brand snacks and spicy strips from the convenience store, there were always some snacks that couldn’t be bought in the village or town.

The younger members of the Jiang Family who have a sweet tooth always filled half their suitcases with snacks when returning to the village.

After two minutes, someone finally replied.

It’s good to study design, but it makes your hair thin: Little Bro, bring back a pig with you.

Jiang Feng: ???

Bring back a pig??? Is this some new trendy New Year’s greeting? Has bringing home New Year’s goods become so hardcore these days, that people are directly bringing pigs instead of anything else?

Being a chef is good, but you have to get up early: A pig?????

It’s good to work in emergency medicine, just with lesser pay: Yeah, Little Bro, don’t bother bringing anything else. Right now, nothing else is useful since Grandpa specifically wants a pig. If you can find a way, bring back a pig similar to Da Hua, Erhua, and Sanhua.

Jiang Feng was completely baffled by the responses from Jiang Zaidi and Jiang Shoucheng. He felt that this situation, which was beyond the comprehension of ordinary people, couldn’t be explained with just a few words over WeChat and decided to call Jiang Zaidi directly.

The call was answered instantly.

“De, what’s this about Grandpa wanting a pig that you and Cheng just mentioned?” asked Jiang Feng.

“Boss, don’t you have any other pigs here? Do you know if there’s another household whose pig hasn’t been slaughtered yet? Oh, I’m sorry for the disturbance,” Jiang Zaidi’s clearly outside, and the background noise on the phone was noisy, he even didn’t have the time to answer Jiang Feng’s question.

“De, are you at a farm?”

“Don’t even start.” Jiang Zaidi’s voice was full of exhaustion, “We’re not at home right now, Little Bro, you might as well not come back since there’s no one home, we’ve all gone out looking for pigs.”

“Looking for pigs?” Jiang Feng was utterly confused; he couldn’t understand what Jiang Zaidi was talking about at all.

“Why are you looking for pigs? With New Year’s almost upon us, the yearly pigs raised by each village should have been slaughtered by now, why look for pigs now?” Jiang Feng had a fairly good understanding of the pre-New-Year pig-slaughtering situation.

“Little Bro, did you forget our family was supposed to all be in Beiping this year so Grandpa didn’t raise any pigs?” Jiang Zaidi explained, “On New Year’s Eve, Grandpa wants to cook the traditional pork dish, but we returned late this year. Not only did we miss the pig-slaughtering, but there wasn’t even any good meat left. Nobody thought about it until it was too late, and by then our uncle’s family had only a little more than 20 pounds of pork left. You know how scarce pork is during the New Year’s period. Nowadays, hardly any household raises pigs, and the good ones are long taken. My dad’s even gone to the neighboring county to look around.”

“Little Bro, if we can’t find suitable pork before the 29th, our family won’t be able to have our New Year’s Eve dinner!”

“It’s a minor issue if we don’t have the New Year’s Eve dinner, but if we can’t find pork, we won’t have any meat for the entire New Year’s!”

Jiang Feng swallowed nervously, “How… how much do we need?”

“If we ration it, we’ll need at least half a pig,” Jiang Zaidi said gravely.

Finding half a pig of the same quality as Da Hua, Erhua, and Sanhua during such a critical time was undoubtedly a big challenge.

Failing this challenge meant the New Year’s Eve feast would be greatly diminished, and pork would be in critical supply on the Jiang Family’s table throughout the holiday. This was an outcome no one wanted to see.

The task was urgent and important.

No wonder no one talked in the chat group during this time, it wasn’t just about having no meat now, but potentially in the future as well.

“Little Bro, think of something. Our family has the best chance of finding a pig. Your uncle and aunt are already contacting slaughterhouses in the next city.”

Jiang Feng felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders and said solemnly, “I understand, De. I’ll do my best to make contact.”

“Good, I’m heading to the next village.”

The call ended.