"Grandpa, what exactly happened?"
"I’m so angry, so angry, so angry!" Grandpa repeated to Jian Dan three times in a fury.
"Grandpa, I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?" It was Jian Dan’s first time seeing Grandpa this angry.
"If you have something to say, direct it at me. You’re scaring Jian Jian." Chu Liyuan pulled Jian Dan behind him protectively.
"You? You’re useless! I’m looking for Little Jian!" Chu Zhiyuan shook his head at Chu Liyuan and pointed at Jian Dan behind him.
"Grandpa, can you tell me what I did to make you this angry?" Jian Dan peeked out her head from behind Chu Liyuan and asked.
"What? You’ve never made me angry." Grandpa looked baffled as he spoke.
"Huh? No? Then what is going on..." Hearing that it wasn’t about her, Jian Dan immediately relaxed.
"Little Jian, e over here, let me tell you!" Chu Zhiyuan beckoned Jian Dan to sit with him at the dining table. Just as he was about to speak, he glanced at Chu Liyuan and ordered, "Stop standing there like a log; go help Xiao Jin prepare breakfast."
"I..." Chu Liyuan hesitated, looking uneasily at Jian Dan.
"Relax, I’m not going to eat your wife!" Before Jian Dan could respond, Chu Zhiyuan already jumped in first.
"Uncle, it’s okay, go ahead." Jian Dan gave Chu Liyuan a reassuring look, and only then did he turn toward the kitchen.
"Grandpa, what’s this about?"
"Don’t even get me started! Little Jian, you have no idea. I’m so mad I could burst because of that old guy!" Grandpa spoke dramatically, clearly showing he was genuinely agitated.
"Old guy? What old guy?"
"Who else could it be—Wang Jianzi, that old bastard!"
"Wait, isn’t he your old army buddy?" Jian Dan vaguely remembered hearing about that name before.
Wang Jianzi was Grandpa’s rade from his younger days in the army. Strangely enough, these two loved to pete about everything, no matter how trivial—even the sizes of their shoes were subject to parison.
"That’s right. No one else in the world could have such an annoying name as his." Grandpa’s breathing grew increasingly huffy as he spoke.
"Grandpa, calm down first! Tell me what happened exactly?" Jian Dan figured that since Grandpa came looking for her, it must be something she could help with.
"That old geezer just came back from England a few days ago. You know, it’s fine that he came back, but he had to meet me. Fine, we meet—but then he challenged me to chess."
"So... you lost, didn’t you?" Hearing the word "chess," Jian Dan had already guessed most of it.
"Ugh!" Grandpa reluctantly nodded his head.
"Grandpa, it’s just a chess game. Why are you so worked up?"
"It wasn’t just one game!" Chu Zhiyuan blurted out in a fit of emotion before hurriedly covering his mouth with his hand.
"Huh?"
Chu Liyuan pulled a long face and held up two fingers toward Jian Dan.
"Oh! Two games?"
"It was twenty games! He beat me in twenty games straight.
You have no idea the smug look on his face. Anytime I think about it, my blood boils."
"Twenty games—that’s definitely... hehe!" Jian Dan didn’t want to provoke Grandpa further, so she left the rest of her sentence hanging.
"And that’s not even the worst of it. You know, fine, he wins; but then he went and told everyone! All my friends know about it now. Little Jian, can you imagine swallowing this humiliation?"
"So Grandpa, you’re planning..."
"I’ve already scheduled a rematch. This time, Little Jian, you’ll pete on my behalf. You must beat him by forty games! If not, I won’t be able to swallow my pride."
They say people turn into children when they grow old, and it truly seems to be the case now.
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