The Game of Life

Over the next few days, Jiang Feng kept a close watch on how Ji Xue made the pottery jar flower-carved chicken.

During this time, stuffed orange with crab was added to the menu, but that wasn’t important.

Zhou Shi spent a few days learning the stuffed orange with crab and said he had understood some of it and could teach Jiang Feng how to prepare cold sea cucumber salad. That wasn’t important either.

Ji Yue’s younger brother once again demonstrated his skill at climbing walls: he scaled the dormitory building and the school’s perimeter wall, and attempted to escape with money to the train station at night, only to be apprehended by the school authorities and local police at the station’s entrance.

Of course, this was… actually a bit important.

Even though whatever Ji Xue saw was definitely more important, Ji Yue’s troubles could be indulged on the side as well.

As long as the melon doesn’t fall on yourself, it always tastes so crisp and sweet.

The only thing Jiang Feng felt was a bit off these days was that Zhou Shi’s gaze had been strange. Especially when Zhou Shi noticed him watching Ji Xue cook, Zhou Shi’s evasive eyes always made him feel uneasy, as if he had caught him in some non-existent act.

After the midday rest, Jiang Feng, as usual, finished teaching Zhou Shi and Ji Xia how to make stuffed orange with crab. He checked the time, thought it was about right, and went to the freezer to grab a bottle of ice-cold Coke, then took Ji Xia upstairs to eat melons.

Today was the day Ji Yue’s mother went to the school to deal with her brother’s escape, and Ji Yue was somewhat distracted at work in the morning, constantly worried about how her mother would beat her brother. According to Zhang Guanghang, Ji Yue had complained to him for most of the day about the hundred ways to punish her brother, both psychologically and physically, and Zhang Guanghang had even kindly offered a few suggestions.

Whoever said women are the most vicious, should look at this woman’s boyfriend.

When Jiang Feng arrived, Wu Minqi and Zhang Guanghang were already sitting neatly at the table, and Ji Yue was on the phone with her mother.

Of course, they didn’t come up specifically to eat melon; they were all friends. How could they be so heartless as to revel in Ji Yue’s family troubles? They came to offer Ji Yue advice and strategies, and Ji Xia was included in this as well.

“What, you told the school you’d take Ji Qiran home and then transfer him back to an international school? Mom, he was caught by the police escaping over the school’s wall to the train station. If the police caught him today, they could arrest him tomorrow. You can’t coddle him!”

Ji Xia, who had also been caught and brought back by the police, even in a cross-province joint capture: …

“Did you figure out where his money came from? How could he have so much money to buy a high-speed train ticket for over a thousand yuan, and even a business class seat at that? Didn’t I tell you not to give him a penny more than his living expenses?”

“This time he must learn his lesson. It was bad enough he climbed over the wall at home, but now at school he dares to do it again and even runs to the train station. If you don’t discipline him, even if you bring him back home, he’ll still dare to run away!”

The louder Ji Yue spoke on the phone, the more agitated she became, and her words seemed to be laced with the notion of beating him, not at all like a caring sister.

A caring sister would usually do the beating herself, not encourage her mother to do it.

However, as Ji Yue’s phone call went on and she seemed itching to buy a plane ticket to rush home and thrash Ji Qiran herself, Jiang Feng was convinced that she was indeed Ji Qiran’s real sister.

More than half an hour passed, Ji Yue hung up the phone, and slumped into a chair with an expression full of helplessness and regret.

“Sigh,” Ji Yue let out a sigh.

“How did it go?” Jiang Feng asked.

Ji Yue glanced at Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng instantly switched to a concerned expression, the transition was very natural, and even his tone became extremely caring: “How did it go?”

Ji Yue: …

Well, he’s the boss now.

“Don’t mention it, I don’t know what my mom is thinking. She actually… eh, where’s Xue?” Ji Yue suddenly realized someone was missing.

“You still called Ji Xue?” Jiang Feng was shocked.

Ji Xue, for the past few years due to her insane work ethics, had become like a tool without worldly desires, without friends and not socializing. Jiang Feng, Wu Minqi, and Ji Xue could be considered her closest friends, even though she might only greet them once a day.

Ji Xue had almost no social skills and belonged to the type of person who would nod instead of speaking, much like Ji Xia. When Ji Xia first arrived, she was also always expressionless, with a wooden face that looked even more standoffish due to her naturally cool and sharp features.

Ji Xia was much better now, after all, she’s just a teenager who’s finished junior high and at heart, hoping for someone to talk to and befriend.

But Ji Xue was different, perhaps used to this lifestyle over the years, with not much to say even to family, let alone friends. Usually, when everyone gathered to eat melon, Ji Xue wouldn’t show much expression or reaction, never voicing any opinion, and being a workaholic, she had no interest in gossiping.

Eventually, when it came to eating melon, everyone didn’t include her much. Typically, it was Ji Yue who encountered some sensational melon, digested it a bit, and then shared it with Ji Xue.

“Of course, we had to call Ji Xue, she has experience handling these kinds of situations,” Ji Yue said earnestly.

Jiang Feng looked at Ji Xia, who showed no change in expression but seemed curious.

“What’s going on?” Ji Xia asked.

“I didn’t tell you… Oh, right, you went to Jiang Feng’s house last night, I only told your sister,” Ji Yue realized, she had brought Ji Xia here to speak from the perspective of someone involved, but forgot this involved party didn’t know about the other party’s deeds.

“Two nights ago, my little brother took advantage of the dark, windy night and the sleeping dorm supervisor to climb down from the sixth floor with his bags, scaled the perimeter wall, and made it to the train station. In the end, he was captured in the train station’s waiting room by a joint effort of the police and schoolteachers,” Ji Yue explained with colorful language the dramatic ups and downs of Ji Qiran’s life over the past two days.

Listening to this, Ji Xia was startled and felt nothing unusual, only that Ji Yue spoke with a rhythm that felt like she could start rapping the next second.

To her, fleeing home and being caught by the police didn’t seem like such earth-shattering events; in fact, she even thought Ji Qiran was a bit lame for getting caught at the train station.

Having already heard about Ji Qiran’s runaway attempt, Jiang Feng instantly spotted a loophole, “Hang on, didn’t your brother scale the wall at night to make a run for it? Shouldn’t he have booked a train for the early morning or evening? How could he be caught by teachers and the police in the train station’s waiting hall, does their school check the dorms in the middle of the night?”

Ji Yue responded with a schadenfreude grin, “He did have a ticket for the 5 AM high-speed train, but that train was delayed by eight hours due to some reasons. It seems fate determined that he was meant to be caught.”

“Man proposes, God disposes!”

Jiang Feng: …

Poor kid, he even felt a bit of sympathy for Ji Qiran at this point.

“But Yue, where did your brother get the money for a high-speed train ticket? Did your mom give him his allowance?” Wu Minqi asked.

“My mom only gives him 500 yuan a month for pocket money; he doesn’t even have enough to buy a Coke after lunch. My mom just told me that according to the teachers’ investigation, he earned the money by playing games for classmates. Two yuan per star in ‘Honor of Kings’, and he’d go up to the King rank,” Ji Yue explained. “This little rascal didn’t do anything these past few months; he didn’t even touch the study guides I bought for him, he just played games.”

“Damn, that’s so cheap,” Jiang Feng, whose ‘Honor of Kings’ rank forever hovered around Gold and sometimes even dropped to Silver, was tempted.

Ji Yue: ???

“You should confiscate your brother’s phone. You’ve got to be on guard against this, otherwise he’ll just help classmates and earn enough to buy a train ticket again,” Jiang Feng quickly changed his tune and started suggesting strategies.

“That guy is too clever by half; even if you confiscate his phone, he can get himself a new one,” Ji Yue shook her head helplessly, then turned to Ji Xia with hopeful eyes as if seeing a savior.

“But why did he want to run away, anyway? He wouldn’t be running from the school to the train station just to come home, would he?” Wu Minqi still had some questions.

“I know why without him saying it. If he had had the money, my mom wouldn’t have dumped him in a strict boarding school in the county where he can only come home once a week, and she forbids him from coming back. He probably couldn’t stay put for a week before running away,” Ji Yue said.

“Now, the problem is, my mom’s solution is to bring him home and then transfer him back to the international school.” Ji Yue started discussing the serious matter in earnest, “Transferring back to the international school, I have no problem with that. Although my dad hasn’t made a comeback yet, my mom has already made her own way. Our original plan was to transfer him back to the international school after he finished his first year of high school, but the issue now is, we can’t just let his midnight escape to the train station go without consequence. Otherwise, this little rascal will do it a second time if he did it once. Today he can run off to Xishuangbanna, tomorrow it could be Siberia.”

Jiang Feng didn’t notice anything else but thought Ji Yue might really have a knack for rapping.

Everyone fell silent, momentarily unsure of what advice to offer that could control a child who was determined to run away from home.

Especially a kid resourceful enough to both earn money and scale walls.

“Xiaxia, from your perspective, how do you think we should handle this?” Ji Yue felt that since some things were beyond her ability to understand, it was better to consult someone who had thought it over.

“I think he picked the wrong time. Even if he scaled the wall and ran to the train station at midnight, he should not have chosen a time during class hours. He should have bought a ticket for Saturday or Sunday; then even if the train was delayed, the teachers wouldn’t have found out,” Ji Xia advised. “He could easily say he was going home for the weekend; that way, he’d be less likely to be discovered, and he could instantly add a few more days to his time.”

Ji Yue: …

I must never let Ji Qiran meet Ji Xia.

Ji Yue sighed, feeling that consulting these friends was futile and that she needed to talk to Ji Xue about this matter.

Only Ji Xue could truly empathize with her.

“I’ll go find Xue. You guys keep brainstorming for me,” Ji Yue got up and went to look for Ji Xue.

Upon Ji Yue’s departure, Jiang Feng, Wu Minqi, and Zhang Guanghang all turned to stare at Ji Xia, leaving her completely baffled.

“What’s up?” Ji Xia asked hesitantly.

Jiang Feng shook his head and sighed.

Although his apprentice seemed a bit foolish on the surface, and indeed was a bit foolish, her nature was still that of a bad girl who didn’t like to study and had run away from home.

Her perspective on the problem was different from those like us who had never run away from home.

A real pro.

.

PS:

I haven’t been able to see the comments and thoughts on this chapter recently, but if everyone has any brilliant comments or ideas, feel free to send me a private message on the official account. I’d gladly copycat some of your witty insights, as my stomach hasn’t been feeling great lately.

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