The Game of Life-Chapter 692 - 691: The Aftereffects of the Buff

Chapter 692: Chapter 691: The Aftereffects of the Buff

Jiang Feng experienced this feeling for the first time. He had eaten Li Hongzhang hodgepodge, and even harsher pure meat dumplings than that, but none of those had given him this feeling.

All the suppressed, unvented pressure, anxiety, resentment, anger, and various other negative emotions that had been tormenting him these days erupted as the chewed pigeon egg was swallowed along with those feelings, making Jiang Feng want to weep, want to cry loudly, want to bury his face in the table and sob unabashedly.

That’s what Jiang Feng thought, and that’s what he did.

He cried with his bowl in hand, tears streaming down his cheeks and dripping into the soup. He started in silence, but gradually his cries grew louder, until he was crying so much he could no longer swallow.

Everything had lost its meaning; Jiang Feng now didn’t want to think about anything, he just wanted to cry his heart out.

He finally understood what had been torturing him all these days.

...

It was guilt.

Guilt toward his two grandfathers, toward Wang Xiulian and Jiang Jiankang, toward Wu Minqi, toward his colleagues at Taifeng Building, toward Peng Changping.

He hadn’t done anything wrong; he just felt he hadn’t lived up to the expectations they held for him, nor his own expectations for himself.

Indeed, it is expectations that create pressure in people.

These silent expectations had become shackles that weighed on him, light and small at first, but as time passed, they grew heavier and heavier with pressure, straining his mental state, leaving him feeling suffocated.

He didn’t even know where these shackles had come from before.

But now he knew, and those shackles were unlocked and laid down.

Along with the tears, they left his body.

People can shout on rooftops, howl in empty rooms, or cry in a house where no one else is present.

“I’m so useless,” Jiang Feng repeated the phrase just like he did the night before while drunk, only this time there was no Wang Hao by his side, so he could cry loudly without restraint, he could curse himself louder than his own sobs.

“Why am I so useless, it’s been over two months, why can’t I even make a proper broth.”

“I’m so useless…”

“I really am…”

He felt so useless that when he tried to scold himself, he didn’t even know what to say, only capable of repeatedly mumbling the monotonous phrase, “I’m so useless.”

He really was so useless. It was always just a little bit off, just a tiny bit, and yet he couldn’t reach it, always missing by that little bit.

Jiang Feng felt cried out, too tired to even muster the energy to say how useless he felt, too exhausted to even bother with his sobs.

He didn’t notice that the door had already been opened, and that two people were standing at the entrance.

It was Jiang Jiankang and Wang Xiulian.

Wu Minqi had told them Jiang Feng wasn’t feeling well today, and so, worried that he might have no food at noon, they made a special trip to bring him a meal. They also took this opportunity to have a heart-to-heart talk with Jiang Feng, only to witness the scene that had just unfolded.

By the time Jiang Feng realized his parents had been standing at the door for quite a while, he had already finished crying, and his heart felt much lighter. The pent-up negative emotions of many days had been released, leaving him with a feeling of relief and catharsis he had never known before.

“Dad, Mom…” Jiang Feng was stunned; he had no idea when Wang Xiulian and Jiang Jiankang had arrived, or how much they had seen.

“Son.” Wang Xiulian had already been wiping her tears at the doorway for over ten minutes.

“If you can’t learn it, then don’t. If the restaurant goes bankrupt, we’ll just go home. I and your father will continue to run our small stir-fry shop. We’ll pay off the debts, and you can do whatever you want.” Jiang Feng stopped crying, and Wang Xiulian began to.

“Right!” Jiang Jiankang agreed loudly, “Son, if you don’t want to learn anymore, we’ll just go home; we won’t stay in Beiping, we’ll return to City Z. If your grandfather hits you, your dad will take the beating for you. We’ll return the restaurant to Professor Li; we won’t learn it anymore, we won’t put up with this humiliation.”

Jiang Feng: …

He felt like crying again.

Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.

Wang Xiulian rushed forward and grabbed Jiang Feng’s hand: “Son, don’t despair. Don’t end up like those kids in the news who commit suicide because of work pressure. If the pressure is too much, we’ll just quit. If we can’t bear it, we’ll go home. If anything happens, you still have your father. Don’t scare me, don’t lose hope.”

Clearly, Wang Xiulian and Jiang Jiankang both thought that Jiang Feng had just broken down because of too much pressure.

Jiang Feng: “…Mom, I just had Li Hongzhang hodgepodge.”

Wang Xiulian’s sobs suddenly ceased.

Wang Xiulian was dumbfounded.

Jiang Jiankang was dumbfounded as well.

When they had pushed the door open, they were too shocked by Jiang Feng’s appearance to notice the food on the table, and had thought that Jiang Feng had broken down while eating his meal.

“You… you child.” Wang Xiulian was a bit at a loss and feeling somewhat embarrassed, hurriedly wiping the tears from her face, “Why eat that dish and scare your mom and dad like that? Stop eating it; your dad and I brought you food, all made by your grandfather, and your dad didn’t sneak a single bite.”

“Jiankang, what are you still standing at the door for? Close the door and bring over the food, our son has been crying for so long and hasn’t eaten yet!”

“Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,” Jiankang snapped out of his daze and immediately closed the door.

“Mom and Dad, I’m fine, don’t overthink it,” Jiang Feng said, his voice hoarse from crying too hard just now.

Wang Xiulian was silent as she took the Hodgepodge Li Hongzhang away to the bathroom.

Jiankang looked at Jiang Feng as if he was thinking about something.

“Wife, don’t you think our son looks a bit off?” Jiankang spoke only after Xiulian had brought the empty bowl back.

Jiang Feng hurriedly explained, “I’m really fine.”

“It does seem a little,” Xiulian entered and expertly reached out to touch Jiang Feng’s forehead with a gasp of alarm, “No good, our son seems to have a fever.”

Jiang Feng himself was stunned and quickly went to find a thermometer to take his temperature.

Upon checking, it was 39.2℃.

A high fever!

Only then did Jiang Feng realize that his continuous drowsy feeling was not from a hangover, but from a fever.

He hadn’t had a fever for about six or seven years, to be precise, he rarely even had a cold, so he had long forgotten what it felt like to be sick and have a fever.

A sudden high fever in an adult to this temperature was definitely not a minor matter; neglecting it could lead to pneumonia and cause trouble. So Wang Xiulian and Jiankang no longer cared about Jiang Feng’s moment of agony and called Jiang Shoucheng to help Jiang Feng register at the hospital, then dragged Jiang Feng to Benevolent Doctor to see a physician without even letting him eat.

To be safe, Jiankang also requested the doctor to conduct a thorough examination on Jiang Feng.

The result of the examination was that Jiang Feng needed to be hospitalized for observation for a few days, not because of the fever, but for other reasons.

“Young man, you must have been under a lot of work pressure recently, right? Try to work less overtime, and don’t always work through the night; your body can’t handle that,” the doctor advised while Jiang Feng was receiving a drip on the hospital bed.

“Work through the night?” Jiang Feng was baffled, his daily work hours were long but not to the extent of staying up all night.

“Young people shouldn’t exhaust themselves at work just because they’re young and healthy. Your body belongs to you. You’re Jiang’s younger brother, right? I’ll speak frankly. If you continue to overwork like this, sooner or later your body and energy will not be able to keep up. I heard from Jiang that today is your day off, right? It’s a good thing you took a break; otherwise, who knows what serious problem might have occurred,” the doctor continued, giving extra advice considering Jiang Feng was Jiang Shoucheng’s cousin.

“Your high fever is temporary; you should be fine after today’s and tomorrow’s fluid therapy. It’s best to stay in the hospital for a few more days to observe. After you’re discharged, you should request leave from your company and rest more, relax more, have some fun, then you should be alright,” continued the doctor. “Jiang is in a meeting now; he’ll come to talk to you about other precautions after the meeting is over. If you feel uncomfortable, just ring for the nurse. Your parents probably went back to pack up some stuff, right? No need to bring too many things, just some changes of clothes would be enough.”

“The cafeteria in the Orthopedic Department has decent food; if you’re not used to the food in other cafeterias, you can go to that one. Eat better food to replenish your nutrients, sleep more, rest more,” the doctor recommended.

Jiang Feng listened to the doctor’s long explanation before finally reacting, “Doctor, are you saying that my high fever is due to exhaustion from overworking?”

“That’s one way to understand it,” the doctor nodded. “Long-term, high-intensity work and sustained mental stress can easily lead to certain illnesses once the body relaxes. Moreover, some of the disruption in your endocrine system was caused by long-term intensive work; it’s not serious and doesn’t require medication, just more rest. Return to a regular routine and you should quickly recover to normal.”

After finishing, the doctor left, and Jiang Feng sat on the hospital bed in a daze.

He was overworked?

This counted as overwork?

Could this really be overwork?

Jiang Feng felt if his condition counted as overwork, then the majority of 996 workers might only have sudden death as their way out.

Jiang Feng sat on the hospital bed for a long while before he reluctantly came up with a reason that could explain why he was overworked.

Red braised pork.

The hardworking buff from red braised pork.

The buff from red braised pork allowed a person to maintain enthusiasm for work continuously for 12 hours, striving hard and giving it their all; but human energy is finite, and 12 hours of fully focused work would certainly bring a certain level of burden to the body.

You might handle it mentally, but not necessarily physically.

Not to mention that Jiang Feng had been consuming the buff for over two months straight, so it wouldn’t be impossible for his body to show symptoms of overwork.

This buff from red braised pork was like a tonic; an occasional dose was useful, very useful, but if you consumed tonic as if it were your daily meal, overdoing the tonic would turn it into poison.

Having realized all this, Jiang Feng couldn’t help but sigh.

As good as buffs may be, you can’t indulge every day.

Every medicine has its side effects; this stuff has aftereffects!