The Game of Life

Chapter 539: Chapter 537: Mother and Child Are Safe

Due to Jiang Feng’s family returning home with a bounty, the Jiang family enjoyed pork at every meal, entirely dispelling the gloom of previous pork-less days. Everyone reveled in a porky paradise, with ribs in the left hand and belly pork in the right, occasionally interspersed with some lean meat.

But happiness always seems fleeting, and the time to say goodbye to the village was quickly approaching.

Mrs. Jiang had been playing mahjong with her fellow village sisters for over ten days, dominating the mahjong table and feeling quite content. Thanks to the collective effort of the Jiang family, the pork brought back by Mrs. Wang Xiulian was completely finished just before the Lantern Festival.

Having decided to spend the Lantern Festival at the Li Mansion, the family booked high-speed train tickets for the afternoon of the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, arriving in the evening, just in time to rest and be energetic for the festivities the next day.

Jiang Feng also invited Wang Hao to join them at the Li Mansion for the Lantern Festival—Wang Hao, who had recently joined the workforce and was highly regarded by his superiors, was not as lucky as the Taifeng Building employees who had holidays until the Lantern Festival; he had returned to Beiping for work on the eighth day of the lunar new year.

Wang Hao even made a special trip to the train station to pick up the Jiang family.

Even through the layers of thick winter clothing, the mask that covered half of his face, and a backpack, Jiang Feng could tell that Wang Hao had gained weight.

People say that one gains about three kilograms during the festive season, but Wang Hao seemed to have gained the square of 3, a whole nine kilograms.

“Hao, how did you manage to gain so much weight over the new year?” Jiang Feng exclaimed in surprise.

Wang Hao let out a deep sigh, “Don’t even mention it, my grandma’s been feeding me; she insists I’ve become too thin from all the hard work since moving to Beiping. Eating big meals every day and lounging around without moving, how could I not gain weight?”

Jiang Feng could relate; in fact, he had gained weight himself.

This year, except for the few days around New Year’s Eve, he hardly did any cooking and had spent most of his time holed up in his room working on his thesis. Since Sir saw he had important work, he didn’t expect him to practice cooking, and so, eating and then sitting or lying down all day, he naturally put on weight.

“Are you going to work tomorrow?” Jiang Feng asked.

“I took the day off. I told my boss I was going out to seek inspiration for the Lantern Festival, and he approved my leave without hesitation,” said Wang Hao. “Minqi probably hasn’t arrived yet, right? I’ll just crash at your place tonight, Feng. It saves me a trip tomorrow; our dormitory is too far from Professor Li’s house.”

“Feel free to stay,” Jiang Feng said indifferently, as Wu Minqi wouldn’t be coming back home until after the Lantern Festival.

Because the train arrived late and the subway had already stopped running, and since everyone had lots of baggage, they decided to just take a taxi home. Jiang Feng, Wang Hao, Jiang Shoucheng, and Jiang Zaidi shared one taxi, and as Jiang Feng was now the most favored among the younger generation of the Jiang family, he got the spacious front passenger seat while Wang Hao, Jiang Shoucheng, and Jiang Zaidi—the three ‘heavyweights’—squeezed into the back.

Wang Hao was someone whose mouth rarely stopped moving. Although he wasn’t very familiar with the brothers Jiang Shoucheng and Jiang Zaidi, he had met them a few times and considered them acquaintances, chatting enthusiastically all the way.

As the conversation went on, Wang Hao began to feel that something wasn’t quite right.

“De, Cheng, why are you guys returning so late? Don’t you have to work?” Wang Hao questioned.

“I’m a designer; my work is quite flexible, and I can work from anywhere—it’s not necessary to be in the office,” Jiang Zaidi explained.

Wang Hao turned to Jiang Shoucheng, knowing that he was a doctor.

“Just take leave, and it’s fine. Besides, I don’t make much salary anyway,” said Jiang Shoucheng nonchalantly.

Wang Hao: …

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Jiang Feng didn’t join the chat, as he prefers to look at someone’s face when conversing. Turning his head to look at the three people in the back from the front seat could easily give him a crick in the neck.

He was talking to Jiang Xiaoran. Xiaoran would accompany Jiang Weiming back to Beiping tomorrow, a suggestion from Jiang Yong.

Jiang Yong specifically asked Xiaoran to take a couple of days off to escort Weiming back to Beiping and also take the opportunity to meet the rest of the Jiang family and recognize relatives. Deep down, Jiang Yong really hoped his son would get closer to the other members of the family, and Xiaoran was more than willing. He hardly met any relatives growing up, so now that a whole bunch of them suddenly appeared, he was too happy to take it all in.

“Ding, side mission completed: ‘Benevolent Lies,’ reward received: ‘A fragment of Tian Lin’s memory.’

The game notification sound caught Jiang Feng off guard, but he quickly realized what it meant.

Zhao Mei had given birth.

The mission could only be completed after Zhao Mei had her baby.

True enough, two minutes hadn’t passed before Jiang Feng received a call from Tian Lin.

“Feng, your sister Meimei gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, both safe and sound!” Jiang Feng could tell from Tian Lin’s voice just how excited and joyful she was right then. “I just called your grandma to share the good news, and she told me you’re in a taxi and not together right now, so I couldn’t wait and decided to call you directly to let you know.”

Zhao Mei having a safe birth was certainly something to celebrate, and Jiang Feng felt happy for Tian Lin as well, responding with a laugh, “How is Sister Meimei now?”

“She’s doing great. It was a natural birth, and she was in the delivery room for just over 20 minutes before the babies came. The doctors said it’s quite rare to see such a quick birth. It must be because the kids didn’t want Sister Meimei to suffer too much, so they came out quickly.” Tian Lin chuckled. “The babies are a bit on the light side, one at 4.8 pounds and the other at 5 pounds, and they’ve been put in the incubator. The doctor says that’s pretty normal for twins, nothing to worry about.”

“That’s good to hear. Have names been chosen?” asked Jiang Feng.

“Yes, they’ve been chosen a long time ago. At first, we didn’t know whether they would be boys or girls, so we picked out two names for each gender. Now that a boy and a girl are born, each of them can have one of the names.” Tian Lin said, “Feng, your sister Meimei could have a smooth birth largely thanks to you. If it weren’t for you teaching me how to make that lion’s head dish, Sister Meimei wouldn’t have been able to eat and who knows what might have happened. It certainly wouldn’t have gone as smoothly as it did.”

“Your brother-in-law’s job was just transferred to Beiping, and Sister Meimei is planning to quit her job and look for new work in Beiping. Your brother-in-law said that they will hold the children’s one-month celebration at Taifeng Building in Beiping, which will also bring some business to your restaurant,” Tian Lin chuckled. “I’ve got to call others to share the news, so I’ll talk to you later. They’ll be going to bed if it gets too late.”

“Alright.” Jiang Feng said with a laugh, hanging up the phone.

“Little brother, has Sister Meimei given birth?” Jiang Shoucheng asked, having guessed from Jiang Feng’s phone conversation that Zhao Mei had given birth.

“Yes, she had twins, a boy and a girl, and it was a natural birth,” Jiang Feng replied with a smile.

“That’s good, a natural birth is good. This must have put Aunt’s mind at ease,” said Jiang Shoucheng.

“Aunt also mentioned that my brother-in-law’s work has been transferred to Beiping and Sister Meimei is planning to resign and look for a new job there. Aunt said my brother-in-law plans to hold the baby’s full-month celebration at Taifeng Building,” Jiang Feng said.

“They have to hold it at Taifeng Building, of course. The full-month celebration won’t require that many tables. Besides, why let outsiders benefit from our prosperity when our family owns a restaurant?” Jiang Zaidi chimed in.

A completely bewildered Wang Hao: ???

What aunt? What full-month celebration?

Weren’t we just discussing how to ask for time off from our boss?

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