Since the winter of 1997, after my grandfather passed away, my grandmother became the single person living in the old house on Tuanjie Road. I grew up with my grandmother then because my parents are so busy with work, like many Chinese families.

Grandma sent me to school every morning. And then she invited her neighbors to play mahjong at home. In order to create a comfortable environment, she moved redundant furniture out and placed one table and four chairs under the middle lamp in a single room for playing mahjong. Many retired elder living around the old house became my grandmother's mahjong buddies. They spent time playing mahjong together frequently. More importantly, they can share their family life and personal stories and communicate with each other when playing this game. In my memory, the room is always full of people.

In 2013, several of her friends passed away, and she began to feel anxious about death. In order to forget and get rid of this anxiety, she spent more and more time playing mahjong. One day, she fainted at the table because of cervical spondylosis after overworking and lack of sleep.

Because of her poor health condition, my father did not allow my grandmother play mahjong anymore. My grandmother lost her only hobby and her mental condition got worse and worse. She fell seriously ill soon after.She had to accept treatment in the local hospital. She said unconsciously that she wanted to go back to Yangzhou(her hometown) to find her friends to play the game of mahjong. She got out of bed and wanted to take a bus to go back home. Then she stumbled and fell in the hospital. After half a month, she passed away. After her death, I found a box with mahjong in the old house.

She needs accompany of others. However, in reality, she was left alone after her husband and old friends’ death and her children leaving home. She is addicted to mahjong for getting rid of loneliness. When the game is over, what she has are only endless loneliness and sadness.