The Game of Life-Chapter 649 - 647: Gathering to Climb the Great Wall

Chapter 649 -647: Gathering to Climb the Great Wall

Jiang Feng continued his self-isolation.

Seeing that they had chatted for a while, drank a bottle of water, munched on a few packs of snacks, and gnawed an apple, yet Jiang Feng was still wrapped up in his self-isolation, Ji Yue felt it was time to take a moment to address the boss’s self-isolation issue.

Ji Yue gave Wu Minqi a meaningful glance and walked over to Jiang Feng, loudly saying, “Jiang Feng, have you ‘liked’ my post in the Moments?”

Jiang Feng: …

I’m gonna like your damn post, you steal the number one spot for climbing the Great Wall on my Moments and still expect me to ‘like’ it, dream on!

That’s what Jiang Feng cursed inwardly, but his body honestly took out his phone and ‘liked’ the previously unliked posts.

...

Once self-isolation is interrupted, it can’t really be considered complete self-isolation anymore. The sentence Ji Yue came over to say was an opportunity for Jiang Feng to break out of his self-isolation. While he was deep in self-isolation just now, Ji Yue and Ji Xia had been crunching on chips beside him with a crispness that struck his eardrums like a fierce storm battering his door of self-isolation.

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During his self-isolation, Jiang Feng had been internally debating whether he had given Ji Xia too much allowance money. Where did this kid get the money to buy so many chips, and all tomato flavored at that.

Despite cucumber flavor being quite tasty as well.

“Qiqi, how are you feeling now? Shall we climb to the top and take a look?” Jiang Feng stood up.

“Sure,” Wu Minqi said with a smile, passing the water in her hand to Jiang Feng, “Fengfeng, do you want to drink some water first?”

Jiang Feng took the water, gulped down a few mouthfuls, returned it to Wu Minqi, who then stowed it in her bag and handed the bag to Ji Yue for safekeeping as they both embarked on climbing the final stretches of the Great Wall together.

There were notably fewer people on the last few sections of the Great Wall than there had been further down the trail. Most tourists, like Ji Yue’s group, took the cable car up to the cable car station, then walked the last few parts to the highest point, took a photo, rested a bit, and could take the cable car back down.

Convenient, fast, and labor-saving, though a bit pricey.

The allure of spending money.

With so many people on the Great Wall, Wu Minqi couldn’t walk side by side with Jiang Feng as before, so she followed behind him, keeping a two to three-step gap, while pondering how to start a conversation with him once they reached the top.

The scenery was naturally the best at the highest point, where one could overlook all the surrounding hills, and it was also the best spot for taking photos. Seeing that nearly everyone around him was either taking selfies or helping others to take photos, Jiang Feng stopped and turned back to ask Wu Minqi, “Qiqi, do you want to take a couple of photos?”

“You’ll take them for me?” Wu Minqi hesitated. She knew about Jiang Feng’s photography skills—they weren’t bad enough to turn someone of 1.5 meters into 1.2 meters, but reducing them to 1.3 or 1.4 meters tall was certainly within the realm of possibility.

“Did you bring a selfie stick?” Jiang Feng looked at Wu Minqi’s pants pocket, feeling that it did not seem capable of fitting a selfie stick.

“Then you take the photo,” Wu Minqi said, indicating that as long as her boyfriend was happy, it was fine since the photos could be edited by Ji Yue later.

A couple who had occupied a prime spot and were taking photos saw Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi’s intention to take pictures and quickly relinquished their space, even reminding them that this spot produced good-looking photos.

Jiang Feng took two photos of Wu Minqi that had a 1.4-meter tall effect, muttered about the poor pixel quality of the phone which made people look a bit odd in the photos, and sent them to Wu Minqi.

While Jiang Feng was sending the photos, Wu Minqi felt that she had found an opportunity to start the conversation.

“Fengfeng, do you really want to get on ‘Master Chefs’ this year?”

In fact, Jiang Feng did not want to. Before bragging today, he had never cared about ‘Master Chefs’. When he first learned about ‘Master Chefs’, he was far from being considered for it, and even now that the distance seemed to have shortened, Jiang Feng didn’t feel it was relevant to him. But once the bragging commenced, he suddenly got the illusion that he could do it, he was capable, and he would certainly make his dream come true.

“I guess I do,” Jiang Feng said.

“Guess?” Wu Minqi looked at him.

“Which chef doesn’t want to be on ‘Master Chefs’?” Jiang Feng said. “Those not on the list want to be on it, and those who are on it want higher rankings. Since I’m planning to be a chef for life, of course, I should have some ambitions.”

Jiang Feng paused: “I do want to.”

Talking about aspirations atop the Great Wall, Jiang Feng felt like he was the lead in a motivational drama shouting about dreams on a rooftop.

What Jiang Feng didn’t know was that his words had made Wu Minqi even more worried.

Wu Minqi truly believed that Jiang Feng’s current state of total immersion to the point of fanaticism, which seemed slightly deranged, was for the sake of gearing up for ‘Master Chefs’. Now Wu Minqi was no longer just worried about the current Jiang Feng; she started to worry about the future Jiang Feng.

If he’s like this during preparation, what would it be like if he doesn’t make the ‘Master Chefs’ list by the end of the year?

“Fengfeng, actually ‘Master Chefs’ isn’t that important for a chef…” Wu Minqi struggled to find the right words, “The rankings after the 80th place on ‘Master Chefs’ tend to fluctuate a lot and it’s not solely based on skills. It’s influenced by many other factors. Many chefs who are good enough don’t get on the list immediately, but they will get there once they reach a certain level of skill.”

“Many chefs make it onto the list for the first time in the sixties or seventies, even the fifties.”

Jiang Feng nodded, failing to detect the underlying consolation in Wu Minqi’s words and assuming she was informing him about the little secrets of ‘Master Chefs’.

Wu Minqi thought Jiang Feng’s nod meant he took her words to heart, and she felt much relieved, with a smile forming on her lips: “Fengfeng, it’s not often we get to climb the Great Wall, why don’t you take a couple of pictures and post them on Moments? I’ll go ‘like’ them for you.”

Jiang Feng thought that made sense. Even if he couldn’t claim first place, there was no need to drop out of the race entirely, so he took out his phone, snapped a few photos of the scenery, added the caption ‘Spring blossoms, climbing the Great Wall’ and posted them on Moments.

After updating his Moments, Jiang Feng finally emerged from his self-imposed isolation of not having snatched the first place in the Great Wall climb and first place in Moments popularity. He started browsing Moments to see where the Taifeng Building staff had climbed to.

Mrs. Wang Xiulian and the great-aunt had already successfully met up with the main Jiang Family group, a fact Jiang Feng deduced from the Moments of Jiang Jianguo and Jiang Jiankang.

Dong Shi and Dong Li actually climbed quite fast and caught up with Zheng Siyuan and his group, even specially posting in Moments about the wonderful coincidence.

The more Jiang Feng scrolled, the more enthused he became, until he came across a post that was almost identical to his own Moments update:

Spring blossoms, climbing the Great Wall.

The photos all look alike, one glance and you know they were taken in the same place.

Jiang Feng: ?

Upon closer inspection, it was from Lu Sheng.

Posted quite early, more than half an hour earlier than Ji Yue’s social media updates.

What day is today? Are all the restaurant owners in Beiping skipping work to climb the Great Wall?

No more business?

“Qiqi,” Jiang Feng handed his phone to Wu Minqi so she could see the post that Lu Sheng shared, “Mr. Lu came to climb the Great Wall today too, probably took the cable car up. Looking at the time, he must have gone back by now.”

“Mr. Lu also came to climb the Great Wall?” Wu Minqi was also surprised, took the phone and glanced at it, “Just now Ji Yue told us that she saw Mr. Xu Cheng down below.”

“He also came to climb the Great Wall?” Jiang Feng was genuinely shocked now.

“Not sure, Ji Yue might have seen wrong from a distance,” Wu Minqi said, checking the time, “It’s past 12 o’clock, let’s head down. Mrs. Wang and the others should be arriving soon.”

Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi retraced their steps and from a distance they saw Wang Xiulian and the aunt-in-law sitting on the ground, exhausted. Jiang Jiankang and Jiang Jianguo were beside them, passing water, drinks, cakes, and apples.

The climb up the Great Wall had really exhausted Wang Xiulian and the aunt-in-law. As veteran restaurateurs, they hadn’t done much physical work over the years. Even though it wasn’t to the point that climbing the Wall could kill them, the part earlier, chasing after Jiang Feng, had worn them out, and they hadn’t recovered since.

When Jiang Feng reached behind Wang Xiulian, he just heard his mom pouring out her woes.

“I think climbing the Great Wall is way more tiring than going to the gym. At least on the treadmill, you can step off, but once you’re on the Wall, it’s not like you can come down whenever you want; going down will also wear you to death! Later, I’ll go down with Yueyue in the cable car; I don’t have the life in me to climb down.”

“Mom, why did you climb so hastily at first? You must’ve tired yourself out by going too fast earlier,” Jiang Feng said.

Wang Xiulian thought, I was climbing like my life depended on it at the start, and it was all for your unlucky son, but she couldn’t say that. She could only pretend not to hear what Jiang Feng said.

Wang Xiulian’s water bottle was empty. Jiang Feng dug through his bag to see if there was any surplus water. While he was searching, he suddenly heard commotion; it seemed that someone everyone knew had arrived, and everyone crowded around, even the sitting Wang Xiulian and the aunt-in-law struggled to get up.

Jiang Feng, squatting on the ground, craned his neck trying to see who had arrived, so popular and sensational, probably even Zhang Guanghang wouldn’t get this treatment.

Unfortunately, his uncles, tall and sturdy, blocked the view, and Jiang Feng saw nothing; he could only glimpse the color of the clothing hems through the crowd.

There was no more purified water in the bag, but there was a small bottle of energy drink he had taken from the car earlier. Jiang Feng took out the drink, closed the bag, and headed towards the crowd.

It was Professor Li and Chen Suhua.

Jiang Feng, extremely baffled, pulled out his phone to check the recent weather forecast. Could it be that it would rain for the next ten days, which was why everyone came to climb the Great Wall today?

“So Feng is here; I thought he hadn’t come up yet,” said Professor Li upon seeing Jiang Feng.

“That kid Feng has been up here for a long time,” Wang Xiulian said.

Jiang Feng hurriedly greeted Professor Li and Chen Suhua.

Seeing Jiang Feng looking normal and able to speak coherently, not as if he was possessed or depressed, Professor Li felt quite relieved.

“I heard from your Grandma Chen that today is your birthday and your restaurant is organizing a climb; I’ve been staying home these days, doing nothing and felt like I was rusting. So I dragged your Grandma Chen to the Wall to stroll around, breathe some fresh air,” Professor Li said, pulled out a USB drive and handed it casually to Jiang Feng.

“This is…” Jiang Feng didn’t understand why Professor Li was giving him a USB drive. Ever since he left UAL University, no one had given him one.

“Actually, it doesn’t matter when I give this to you, but today is your birthday right? I should have prepared a present for you, but I hadn’t planned in advance. So this is a fortunate coincidence, consider it a birthday gift,” Professor Li said with a smile, leading Jiang Feng aside, “It’s mid-April now and it won’t be long before the defense. This is the thesis I helped you revise.”

“I’ve sorted out the formatting and plagiarism check for you, and I’ve corrected a few citation issues – the data should be fine. Take a look at it, and you can send it to your advisor for final approval.”

Jiang Feng: !!!

Though there might be a gap in generations, he really wanted to kneel down and call him dad.

To be honest, he had forgotten about his defense.

“I’ve heard you’ve been busy practicing cooking recently. Don’t overwork yourself, you need to balance work and rest, it’s not worth it if you ruin your health,” Professor Li said with a laugh, “People can’t handle being too tense.”

“Thank you, Grandpa Geriatric,” Jiang Feng said, gripping the USB drive, feeling like he had grasped the whole world.

“Oh yeah, I heard from your Grandma Chen that you’re having a what tonight… b-b…”

“BBQ.”

“Right, that’s it, I really don’t get you young people’s stuff. Your Grandma Chen loves a lively scene, I was wondering if there’s room for us two old folks to join the fun?”

“Of course, there’s room. BBQ is actually just a barbecue. Originally, Ji Yue said doing it outdoors would be more atmospheric, but it’s still a bit cold in the evening and it’s hard to find a good spot outdoors without camping. So my mom simply rented out a self-service barbecue restaurant, had them rearrange the tables to create some extra space and set up some grills. If you and Grandma Chen aren’t into barbecue, you can have other dishes as well, there’s a kitchen. Worst comes to worst, I could borrow a spot and whip up a couple of dishes for you,” Jiang Feng said.

“That sounds really nice, where is it?” Professor Li asked.

“Not far, just diagonally across from Yonghe House.”