The Game of Life TGOL

Chapter 520: Chapter 518 Blind Date (Part 4) (4000 words)

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Jiang Weiguo’s face was painted with a big question mark as his hand, grasping the lotus root, paused mid-air, unsure whether to proceed or withdraw.

“Drink?” Jiang Weiguo couldn’t quite believe his own ears.

Once the arrow is shot there’s no getting it back, even if Zhao Lanhua’s face was already embarrassingly red, she had to press on: “Just a sip, a tiny bit.”

While speaking, she even stretched out her hand to indicate a small amount.

The question mark on Jiang Weiguo’s face hadn’t faded: “Then drink, there are bowls there.”

Zhao Lanhua moved quickly to grab a bowl and didn’t forget to take a ladle, scooping up less than half a bowl of sugar water made from brown sugar and white sugar, and happily squatted on the ground, drinking from the bowl in small sips like a kitten lapping water.

Just a tiny bit at a time—by the time Jiang Weiguo had covered the pot to build up the fire, the sugar water in Zhao Lanhua’s bowl seemed untouched.

Watching Zhao Lanhua crouching on the ground sipping sugar water, Jiang Weiguo found it both funny and interesting and couldn’t help but ask, “Is it that delicious?”

“Delicious,” Zhao Lanhua replied, “This is my first time drinking brown sugar water, delicious.”

“You’ve never had sugar water before?” Jiang Weiguo was somewhat surprised; he knew that Zhao Lanhua’s family was poor, as one could tell from her appearance and physique that her family circumstances were destitute.

But a household that could raise five daughters shouldn’t be so poor as to not afford some sugar water during the New Year.

At least judging from the new jacket she wore, they shouldn’t be too poor to afford sugar water.

“I’ve had sugar water. Every New Year, my mother would chip off a small piece of sugar, make a bowl of sugar water, and divide it among us to drink. But I’ve never had brown sugar water,” Zhao Lanhua explained, taking another sip.

“Our village is different from your city; we usually can’t buy brown sugar at the supply and marketing cooperative. If we want brown sugar, we have to go to the county town. It’s only available when a woman is in confinement or a child is sick. You only get it for serious illness, not a minor one. I remember when I was little, once my eldest sister fell into a pond and got sick for several days. She drank a bowl of brown sugar water and got better.” Zhao Lanhua spoke of the brown sugar water as if it were a panacea, “Previously, when my sister-in-law was in confinement, my mother also made a bowl for her. She wanted to share a sip with me, but she only had that one bowl, so I didn’t drink any.”

Jiang Weiguo watched as Zhao Lanhua slowly finished the small bowl of sugar water and asked, “How’s the taste?”

“Sweet, not the same as malt sugar, better than what we have at home, sweeter,” Zhao Lanhua replied.

“Would you like something else to eat?” Jiang Weiguo asked.

“No need, this is enough, I’m almost full now,” Zhao Lanhua said, “Actually, I don’t eat much; two corn cobs a day are enough for me to work in the fields.”

Hearing her say this, Jiang Weiguo couldn’t control his facial expression for a moment and frowned, then glanced at the clock on the wall and said, “The glutinous rice with lotus root will take four hours to cook, Zhao Shén said I should take you out for a walk in the street. Let’s go while it’s still daylight.”

“Won’t it delay your time? You’ll have to go to work later, won’t you?” Zhao Lanhua asked.

“Today I’m only working a half-day shift. Wait a moment; I’ll leave a note for them, telling them not to touch the things in the pot,” Jiang Weiguo said and then went out to look for paper and pen. He wrote a note and placed it under the chopping board.

A place absolutely visible to any chef.

Zhao Lanhua, amazed at the writing on the note, exclaimed, “Wow, you know how to write, and your handwriting is so nice!”

Jiang Feng came over to take a glance, and saw a few characters as scribbly as his own dog-crawl, all in traditional characters: Do not touch the steamer on the table or the soup pot on the stove.

Jiang Feng: …

“Comrade Lanhua, you have a really heavy fan filter on.”

In the end, it’s still a matter of cultural disadvantage.

Jiang Weiguo, leading Zhao Lanhua, left the state-run restaurant. Jiang Weiguo had no idea which street he should take a girl down, and Zhao Lanhua also didn’t know which street she wanted to stroll. So, the two of them aimlessly walked down the main road.

Zhao Lanhua, because she couldn’t read, couldn’t understand the signs of the stores, and basically, every time she saw a shop she hadn’t seen before, she would ask Jiang Weiguo what the shop was for. As they continued talking all the way, they surprisingly had quite a lot to say, and even their tone of voice and gestures became much more natural than before, like friends chatting about everyday things.

Jiang Weiguo had faced all kinds of big storms during his years on the road, and he was very tight-lipped. Walking along, Zhao Lanhua would spill everything with just a little probing from him, while on the contrary, Jiang Weiguo didn’t reveal a thing about himself.

As time passed, the sky grew dark, and many shops closed their doors for the night, making the corner bars that were brightly lit and bustling with noise stand out even more.

“Mr. Jiang Weiguo, what is that shop for, why are there so many people inside?” Zhao Lanhua asked curiously.

“It’s a pub, lots of people go there to drink at night so it’s very lively,” Jiang Weiguo said.

“Just drinking?” Zhao Lanhua asked.

“I don’t know, I’ve never been there.”

“You don’t like drinking? I thought all men loved to drink. My dad loves to drink, so does my brother. At our place, we neither have money to buy alcohol nor spare grains to brew it, so my dad and my brother can only drink at my uncle’s house during the New Year,” Zhao Lanhua unwittingly betrayed her own father and brother.

“I usually drink at home or at Master Huang’s house, and we brew the alcohol ourselves,” Jiang Weiguo said.

“Oh right, you’re a chef; you must also know how to brew alcohol.” Zhao Lanhua had already equated the profession of a chef with having boundless magical skills.

The two continued walking forward. Magic City wasn’t big, and there were only a few busy streets. If one simply walked, it would take less than an hour to cover them all. On their way, Zhao Lanhua, pulling Jiang Weiguo along with endless questions, and upon seeing shops selling fabric or items she didn’t recognize, couldn’t resist the urge to enter and take a look, which took up quite a bit of time. Jiang Feng roughly estimated that at most it would take three hours.

If they returned now and walked a bit slower, they should be able to make it just in time for the glutinous rice lotus roots to come out of the pot.

Jiang Weiguo also seemed to have calculated the time in his mind, and like having a stopwatch in his heart, he precisely timed their return, walking and stopping along the way. When they got back to the state-run restaurant, it was still devoid of customers.

It seemed that the business hours were over; the real operating hours of a state-run restaurant are usually very brief.

The plump waiter was wiping the tables, and upon seeing Jiang Weiguo and Zhao Lanhua return, he greeted them enthusiastically: “Master Jiang and Miss Zhao are back, huh? Did you go to see a movie? I heard today’s movie at the cinema is really good, a new release!”

“We didn’t watch a movie, I just took her out for a walk,” Jiang Weiguo replied indifferently.

The plump waiter, clearly accustomed to Jiang Weiguo’s rather cold demeanor, said with a smile, “Well, next time Master Jiang, you really should take Miss Zhao to watch a movie. Our city’s cinema doesn’t get a new movie even once a year, it’s the same few movies over and over again; I could act them out for you by now.”

Jiang Weiguo nodded and led Zhao Lanhua into the kitchen.

Master Huang was cooking something special in the kitchen when he saw someone coming in, he flinched in shock, but relaxed when he turned and saw it was Jiang Weiguo and Zhao Lanhua.

“Do you like watching movies?” Jiang Weiguo asked.

“Huh?” Zhao Lanhua was puzzled as to why Jiang Weiguo would suddenly ask this, “Yes, I like it. A few years ago, someone came to our village to show one. Everyone brought their stools from home and gathered to watch it. I was in the last row and couldn’t squeeze in front; the picture was too blurry to see clearly, but the seeds the village chief gave me were really tasty.”

Master Huang saw that Jiang Weiguo and Zhao LanHua were chatting among themselves, yet the expression on his face didn’t seem very warm. He couldn’t guess whether they actually hit it off or not.

“Jiang, what’s this in your soup pot? What soup are you cooking? I didn’t dare to open it while you were gone,” Master Huang asked. “I added some wood to the stove a few times in the meantime. The fire must be about to go out by now; do you think it needs more?”

“Glutinous rice with lotus root,” Jiang Weiguo replied. “Just let it extinguish naturally. You guys didn’t touch the steamed buns in the steamer, did you?”

“How could we dare touch your dinner?” Master Huang said with a laugh.

Jiang Weiguo took the soup pot off the stove and lifted the lid.

A sweet fragrance wafted through the air, filling it with a sugary scent.

The two sections of tender lotus root in the pot had completely absorbed the color of the syrup, which had darkened and thickened from the long stewing time.

Master Huang leaned in for a look and exclaimed, “Good gracious, how much sugar did you put in there?”

“Over four pounds.”

Master Huang couldn’t help but marvel at Jiang Weiguo’s lavishness.

Using four pounds of sugar for two sections of lotus root; if he were to cook this dish at home, his wife would probably break his leg.

“Are we eating it now?” Jiang Weiguo asked.

Zhao LanHua really wanted to nod, but she felt somewhat reluctant to consume lotus root prepared with four pounds of sugar, as if she weren’t worthy to eat it and should instead take it home to cherish.

“We… might not be able to finish it,” Zhao LanHua said.

Jiang Weiguo thought Zhao LanHua was too shy to eat in front of Master Huang, so he took out a piece of greaseproof paper from the cupboard and wrapped up the two sections of lotus root.

“Then take it home and eat it. Steam it again before you eat, separate the sections of lotus root, remove the bamboo stick in the middle, and then slice the lotus root,” Jiang Weiguo said.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“Alright, thank you.” Zhao LanHua suddenly felt incredibly fortunate that her long trip to the city for a blind date turned out to be so fruitful, coming away with both food to eat and to take home.

After wrapping up the glutinous rice and lotus root, Jiang Weiguo took his enamel cup and tin lunch box from the cupboard, stuffed the now-cold meat buns into the lunch box, and poured all of the syrup left in the soup pot into the enamel cup.

“Master Huang, when are you leaving?” Jiang Weiguo asked.

“Ah? I’ll pack up and leave once the noodles are done,” Master Huang replied, suddenly feeling a bit out of place in the kitchen. “Jiang, I just remembered I might have left my lunch box outside. I’ll go look for it; can you keep an eye on the noodles for me?”

With that, Master Huang made his escape.

“What about you, Comrade Zhao LanHua? When are you heading back?” Jiang Weiguo inquired.

“I’ll go back tomorrow morning. I’m staying with my aunt tonight; she’ll set up a temporary little bed for me in the living room,” Zhao LanHua explained, her voice deflating a bit. Even though the experience was pleasant, the outcome was still a failure.

She had come for a blind date today, and instead of finding a match, she ended up with food to eat and take away.

Jiang Weiguo pushed the tin lunch box and the sugar-coated cup towards Zhao LanHua: “Take it home to eat.”

Zhao LanHua repeatedly refused, “No, no, Mr. Jiang Weiguo, that’s too precious. Four pounds of sugar, and I can’t possibly finish four meat buns; I’m leaving tomorrow morning and I don’t eat much.”

“You haven’t eaten properly today,” Jiang Weiguo said.

Zhao LanHua was startled and defended herself in a soft voice, “I really did eat enough, I don’t eat much.”

“I have seen people starve to death. Over ten years ago, in Magic City, the war had not yet been won. It was a young mother who lived next door to me; her husband had died, and she supported three children by washing clothes for others,” Jiang Weiguo said.

Zhao LanHua looked at Jiang Weiguo, unsure why he was telling her this.

“She always ate very little, she was all skin and bones, even thinner than you, looking like nothing but a skeleton. The words I heard her say most were about her small appetite; every day when I came back from my work, I could hear her telling her children this,” Jiang Weiguo said.

“Then what happened?” Zhao LanHua asked.

“Then she just starved herself to death.”

Zhao LanHua gasped in horror, her eyes widening. Although she had rarely been full since childhood, she had never heard of anyone in the village starving to death.

Although some families would abandon newborn daughters in the mountains, Zhao LanHua had only heard of such things and never witnessed them herself.

“What about her three children then?”

“I don’t know, after the young mother died the room next to mine was rented to another family, and her three children probably died too. At that time, the one thing Magic City had no shortage of was orphans dead on the streets, frozen, starved, or sick; even human traffickers would not bother with them,” Jiang Weiguo said.

Zhao LanHua couldn’t help but shudder.

“So don’t say you don’t eat much. If there is food, you should eat it; eat your fill when you can, eat heartily if you like it. Being able to eat isn’t something to be ashamed of, you need to be full to have the strength to work, drink the sweet soup in big gulps if you like it,” Jiang Weiguo said.

“But… but Mr. Jiang Weiguo, I really can’t eat four buns tonight or tomorrow morning,” Zhao LanHua said with a troubled face.

Jiang Weiguo was left speechless by Zhao LanHua’s retort.

“Actually, you could also take them home to eat,” Jiang Weiguo said.

“Your lunchbox…”

“I have a day off next Saturday. I was going to ask someone to buy movie tickets today, but they didn’t get any. If you’re free, I’ll ask someone to get them early. If I get them, I’ll invite you to the movies. Remember to wash the lunchbox and bring it to me,” Jiang Weiguo said.

Zhao LanHua, who took several dozen seconds to realize what Jiang Weiguo meant, suddenly flushed red, overwhelmed with disbelief and excitement, her words tumbling out incoherently.

“I… I wash the lunchbox very clean.”

“Not that; I mean, if you have time, I’m free, next Saturday I… I’ll definitely be there… on time,” Zhao LanHua said, not knowing where to look and lowering her head, just in time to see the enamel cup, which she picked up and took a large gulp of the thick syrup.

Jiang Weiguo revealed a hint of a smile.

As Jiang Feng marveled at Sir’s impressive turnaround from his younger days, he found the mist lifted.

Jiang Feng left the memory.