The Game of Life-Chapter 714 - 713 Business Trip (Part 1)

Chapter 714: Chapter 713 Business Trip (Part 1)

Rarely arriving home before eight o’clock to ‘vegetate,’ Jiang Feng, who hadn’t ‘vegetated’ for a long time, wasn’t quite sure how to do so anymore. He flipped through all the popular TV series in the app after turning on the television but couldn’t find one he wanted to watch. Wu Minqi didn’t seem interested in watching TV either. Jiang Feng thought that Zhang Guanghang’s original dish might have been a bit too stimulating for her, so she went to bathe and sleep early, and the lights in her room were off before nine o’clock.

Jiang Feng sat in the living room, watching legal edutainment short plays on the law channel.

As he watched, Jiang Feng felt that these things were less interesting than exploring memories.

Wait, memories.

Jiang Feng finally remembered the segment of memories lying untouched in his inventory.

He opened the property panel and the inventory, where he found quite a few memories lying around—[A Piece of Zhang Chu’s Memory], [A Memory of Zhao LanHua], [A Memory of Jiang Weiming], [A Memory of Jiang Weiguo]—and one he hadn’t seen before, [A Piece of Sun Maochai’s Memory Fragment]. One could say that the collection was complete for the elder group, and if he added a memory from Peng Changping or Qin Guisheng, it would be like a full star lineup making a debut.

Having too many memories to choose where to start was a problem, but after some hesitation, Jiang Feng ultimately chose [A Piece of Zhang Chu’s Memory].

From past experience, Zhang Chu’s memories were definitely related to Cao Guixiang.

Guixiang’s production, guaranteed to be quality.

So Jiang Feng sat casually on the couch and clicked on [A Piece of Zhang Chu’s Memory]—even thinking to himself how bold he had become, daring to explore memories wherever he was as long as no one was around. He clicked yes, and immediately, a thick fog enveloped him.

In almost the blink of an eye, Jiang Feng felt that it was just a matter of closing and opening his eyes, and the fog had cleared. He found himself standing at the entrance of a standard rural earthen house. The door was open, and the house was small and simply furnished, with just a bed and a chest of drawers, not even a table and chairs. In one corner, there were several bamboo baskets covered with dusty, grey cloths, tightly wrapped around the baskets.

The last time Jiang Feng saw such a similar house was in Han Guishan’s memory; it was pretty much like this when Han Guishan first sold goods and stayed in the village chief’s house—the layout was similar. The walls were dusty, the bed simple, with a small paper-covered window that could be closed to block wind or opened to let in the sun, but Han Guishan’s room had a desk and chair because the village chief’s son needed them for reading and homework.

As Jiang Feng was looking around the room, he faintly heard the sound of people talking not far away. The voices of the two speaking were low and indistinct; Jiang Feng could hear them primarily because the house had poor sound insulation. Following the sound, Jiang Feng stepped out of the room and determined that the voices were coming from next door.

The neighboring room was obviously bigger than this one, and the door was tightly closed. Jiang Feng simply walked through the wall and found himself face to face with Zhang Chu, who was talking to a skinny and dark-skinned middle-aged man.

This room was also a bedroom, much bigger than the next door one, and was better furnished. It had a tall cabinet that towered over a person, with locks on it, clearly containing valuables. Besides that, there was a long wooden bench and a small square table. Perhaps because there was only one wooden bench, both people were standing around the table instead of sitting.

At this time, Zhang Chu could no longer be called a young, handsome lad—the handsome was still there, but not the young lad. Zhang Chu was thin and tall, with the same angular, distinctly ‘good guy’ handsome face that instilled an aura of integrity. The slightly yellowed white shirt he wore from prolonged use remarkably had the effect of a new summer release when worn by him.

Compared to the last memory, Zhang Chu now had a touch more steadiness in his brows and lost some of the youthful vitality and shyness. It was clear that his experiences over the years had changed him significantly, as well as darkened his skin. The appearance of his face hadn’t changed much, but his aura had.

“Brigade Leader, I understand all that you’re saying. I didn’t avoid labor exchange in other villages in the past years, but this year is truly different. In the past years, we never went so far for labor exchange, right?” Zhang Chu said, “Guixiang needs to stay home to take care of the child, and Chiyuan is at the age where he is learning to walk and needs someone to watch over him. Neither Guixiang nor I have experience with this.”

“We’re all ‘sent-down youths,’ with neither elderly nor siblings in our family. As you just mentioned, this trip is far, to Longkou Production Brigade where we’ll have to stay over, a week at the least I suppose. Leaving Guixiang alone at home for more than a week, having to work and take care of the child, she simply can’t manage all on her own.”

“Zhang, I understand what you’re saying, but the brigade leader of Longkou Production Brigade personally came to our team to find me, and he was very sincere. You’ve been here for over two years now, and you know our situation—we lack carpenters!” the Brigade Leader sighed, “Before you came, our team and the seven or eight other production brigades around us only had one carpenter, and we had to borrow carpenters from other villages for labor exchange.”

“Longkou Production Brigade is far from us; they wouldn’t normally come here even for a carpenter exchange. But this time is different, their carpenter, Carpenter Liao, fell into a ditch and broke his hand, and they need someone to repair the farming tools. Normally, the labor exchange is one for one, but now they’re willing to give two for one labor. We’re short of labor in our brigade, so you see…”

Zhang Chu hesitated a moment: “Actually, going to Longkou Production Brigade is not impossible, just the work points…”

“Same as usual, full points, however many days you go, however many days are counted!” the Brigade Leader promised with a slap on his chest right away.

“If there are really too many tools, I might need Guixiang to go with me to give a hand.”

“No problem, go together, and all work points will be recorded. Since you two will be a couple living in one room, it’ll be easy to arrange over there.”

“And Chiyuan…”

“Send him over to my place, let your auntie help take care of him for a few days. You know your auntie’s skills in child-rearing—clearly, they’re excellent. By the time you two return, Chiyuan might already be running around,” the Brigade Leader said.

“That works too; I just worry about troubling the Brigade Leader and auntie. When do we leave? I should let Guixiang know so we can pack our things,” Zhang Chu agreed.

The Brigade Leader’s face lit up with joy: “We set off in a while. Your Uncle Zhao will be driving the tractor to the town to haul fertilizer soon; you and Guixiang can hitch a ride and save yourselves a dozen miles or so. The work exchange team from their side will arrive by noon today, and they’ll be heading to the fields right after that.”

Zhang Chu: ?

A baffled Zhang Chu was enthusiastically sent out by the brigade commander, who not only stuffed him with a boiled ear of corn but also urged him to quickly go home, pack his things, and bring his son over as soon as possible, as the tractor wouldn’t wait for anyone.

As Zhang Chu gnawed on the corn, he pondered over what had just happened; by the time he reached his doorstep with only half of the corn left, he finally figured out that he might have been tricked, but it seemed he still came out ahead.

Shaking his head, Zhang Chu walked into the courtyard.

Cao Guixiang was squatting and holding a bowl, trying to feed congee to her restless son who sat in a chair and kept trying to crawl away.

The bowl contained finely cooked sweet potato congee with a bit of rice mixed in, fragrant and sweet, clearly the kind that children love.

“Why are you only coming back now? There’s still warm food in the pot; go and eat by yourself. Hey, where did you get that corn?” Cao Guixiang took notice of the half-eaten ear of corn in Zhang Chu’s hand.

“The brigade commander just gave it to me,” Zhang Chu said.

This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.

Cao Guixiang didn’t dwell on it, “Oh, did you go fix something at the brigade commander’s house this morning? The chair leg broke again? Next time fix it more sturdily, so it doesn’t break every couple of months. Even though his kids are lively, tough and prone to running into furniture, the frequency of these breaks should make the brigade commander suspicious.”

“No, I was fixing hoes this morning.” Zhang Chu continued to nibble on the corn. “Ever since you mentioned it last time, I’ve made them sturdy. Even if his kids bump into them every day, they wouldn’t break this year. The brigade commander was just talking to me about changing work.”

Cao Guixiang stuffed a spoonful of sweet potato congee into her open-mouthed son, and glancing up at Zhang Chu, she asked, “When are you leaving? Didn’t the neighboring villages all switch a few months ago?”

“We’re going to Longkou Production Brigade. Since it’s far and we can’t come back, we’ll have to stay there. The brigade commander said we’d go together, and we’re leaving in a bit. We can hitch a ride on Mr. Zhao’s tractor to save some distance, and these next few days we’ll send Chiyuan over to his place.”

No sooner had Zhang Chu finished speaking than Cao Guixiang stood up from feeding and walked over, while Zhang Chiyuan, with his mouth still wide open, looked at his mom bewildered, clearly puzzled as to why the feeding had suddenly stopped.

“You should’ve said earlier. You take Chiyuan to the brigade commander’s house first; I’ll go pack our things. This little one has been so restless these past few days, barely able to walk a few steps without causing a fuss. Before you know it, he’s crawled onto the floor, and I can’t keep up with the laundry. He’s also never still when it’s time to eat, always trying to run away. It’ll be good to have Auntie help look after him for a couple of days.” Cao Guixiang put down the bowl and was about to go inside to pack when she saw Zhang Chu still standing there and urged him, “What are you standing around for? Hurry up and take Chiyuan over.”

Zhang Chu: …

“The food…”

“He’s already had half a bowl; he won’t starve. After you take him over, just tell Auntie to feed Chiyuan a small piece of sweet potato,” Cao Guixiang said as she went inside.

“The clothes…”

“I’ll sort them out and bring them over.”

Zhang Chu felt Cao Guixiang made some sense. Looking at the bowl on the ground, he thought about how, since his son’s birth, all he had been eating was sweet potato meals with cabbage. The kind of time-consuming and firewood-wasting sweet potato congee before him was something he only dreamt of. Adhering to not wasting, Zhang Chu picked up the bowl and drank all the remaining congee.

After finishing, he didn’t forget to smack his lips in remembrance of the good old days before having a son.

Zhang Chiyuan, who was waiting for his father to continue feeding him: …

“WAAHH!!!”

The child’s cry immediately filled the entire courtyard.

“Zhang Chu, what have you done now?!” Cao Guixiang’s yelling came from inside the house.

Zhang Chu hurriedly picked up his son, clumsily patting him, but only got louder cries in return.

“I’m taking him over now, right now!” Zhang Chu, carrying the son, broke into a run, swift as the wind, resembling every guilty father.

Jiang Feng, who witnessed all this: …

He felt like he now understood the sort of feeling Comrades Wang Xiulian and Jiang Jiankang must have had when they sent him off to learn cooking in the countryside as a child.

It was probably this kind of celebratory, New Year’s style sending off.