The Game of Life

After having lunch, Ji Yue continued to rush her draft, while Jiang Feng went upstairs for a nap. By the time Jiang Feng woke up and came downstairs, Ji Yue was still on deadline.

Art students, can’t mess with them.

Heading to the kitchen, Jiang Feng found the yams that Mrs. Wang Xiulian had bought that morning, washed, peeled, and cut them into chunks – enough to make ten plates’ worth – and then dug out some loose granulated sugar from the pantry, getting the prep work done.

Shandong Chefs’ signature technique is sediments of sugar at the bottom of the oil. They fry the main ingredients on top while caramelizing the sugar below. The ingredients are fried and candied at the same time, requiring great skill in fire control from the chef.

Previously, Jiang Huiqin’s method of making Sweet and Sour Yam involved using two pots simultaneously, which interestingly shared similarities with the technique of sugar sediments in oil. After learning about the latter, Jiang Feng once suspected that Jiang Huiqin resorted to using two pots because she didn’t master the other technique.

As the reigning champion of candied dishes, Sweet and Sour Yam was legendary, with claims that could fit all sorts. The most reliable was found in “Summary of Vegetarian Dishes”: peel the yams, cut into angular chunks, fry in oil, then add rock sugar dissolved in water and bring to a boil to create long threads. But if the sugar is pan-fried, no threads will form. Chefs in the capital favor this dish.

When eaten hot, the sugar threads could stretch over ten feet – more than three meters. Jiang Feng couldn’t imagine what sort of Sweet and Sour Yam could produce strands over three meters long; his own attempts could only reach twenty centimeters at most.

And using the sugar sediments method often resulted in failures.

With his current level in fire control, mastering the sugar sediments technique was too difficult. Both Jiang Weiguo and Jiang Weiming knew how to do it: Jiang Weiguo developed his method based on childhood memories and his own exploration—unorthodox, while Jiang Weiming was taught hand-in-hand by Jiang Chengde himself, authentic Jiang Family Dishes technique.

Jiang Feng was taught by Jiang Weiming, and this could be considered the most high-end technique he had learned so far. The problem was that he was lousy at it, often botching the job; out of ten plates of Sweet and Sour Yam, it was considered a success if threads formed on two plates.

Jiang Feng recalled all of the advice from Jiang Weiming before starting the process: lighting the fire, pouring the oil, adding sugar, and frying the yams.

After a series of haphazard operations, four plates were successfully candied with threads.

One of them was an exceptional performance, with evenly coated sugar and delicate threads. As instructed by Sir, Jiang Feng took photos and videos of each plate, with the most successful one being recorded in a two-minute video. He used chopsticks to pick up a piece to showcase the candying.

Jiang Feng placed the other nine plates of finished Sweet and Sour Yam in the delivery box, carrying the most successful plate out for Ji Yue to try.

Ji Yue was still in the same spot, rushing her draft. Jiang Feng suspected she hadn’t moved for hours. He tapped her shoulder and said, “Try the Sweet and Sour Yam, remember to dip it in water.”

“Ah? Oh.” Ji Yue looked dazed, as if waking from a long dream. She numbly picked up a piece of the yam with the chopsticks and put it in her mouth – and the next second, she jumped up.

“Holy shit, it’s burning me.” Ji Yue immediately spat out the Sweet and Sour Yam.

Jiang Feng helplessly said, “It just came out of the hot oil; how could it not be hot? I told you to dip it in water. By the way, how many drafts do you still owe from over the New Year?”

“Not many, just over a dozen.” The burn seemed to shock Ji Yue awake. She grabbed a rag to deal with the Sweet and Sour Yam she’d just spit out. “It’s fine, I’ll definitely finish them before the submission date.”

“When do you need to submit them?” Jiang Feng asked.

“The day after tomorrow.”

Jiang Feng:…

There’s no hope, you’re doomed.

Procrastination in its terminal stage.

After cleaning up her mess, Ji Yue sat back down and picked up another piece of yam with her chopsticks. The still-hot yam instantly formed long sugar threads, causing Ji Yue to exclaim in surprise, “Wow, it’s really candied with threads!”

“This is… Sweet and Sour Yam…” Jiang Feng said.

“I know that.” Ji Yue replied, stuffing the yam into her mouth and chewing thoughtfully before praising, “Not bad at all, much better than the candied sweet potatoes I had at a restaurant back home during the winter break.”

This was the compliment Jiang Feng was waiting for; he also thought this plate of Sweet and Sour Yam turned out well. “You mean you never had candied dishes with actual threads before?”

“A 28-yuan portion of candied sweet potatoes with no threads.” Ji Yue continued, “An 88-yuan pizza won’t give you threads unless you opt for double cheese to get any stretch.”

Jiang Feng returned to the kitchen and brought out a plate where the fire control was off, resulting in a failed candied sweet potato with no threads, and asked, “Like this plate?”

After tasting with her chopsticks, Ji Yue replied, “Worse than your plate. But the restaurant I went to mainly sold lamb, so maybe their chef wasn’t good at making candied sweet potatoes. The one I had there, not to mention threads, the sweet potatoes were all stuck together, with a thick layer of sugar just like sugared haws. It’s slightly better to suck on it without chewing; biting into it was unbearably sweet. Though it looked nice, orange-red, and the sweet potatoes on their own were quite sweet.”

Jiang Feng:…

“That chef definitely isn’t good at making sweet and sour sweet potatoes.”

There wasn’t much sweet and sour yam on the plate, and between Jiang Feng and Ji Yue taking turns, the plate was quickly emptied. Ji Yue hadn’t had sweets in a while and wasn’t satisfied after eating most of the dish, so she moved the failed dish Jiang Feng later brought out in front of her to continue eating.

There were still 8 plates left in the delivery box, and making them with the method of cooking sugar in oil was both a waste of sugar and oil. Mrs. Wang Xiulian would definitely feel pained if they were thrown away. Jiang Feng wiped off the writing on the sign at the door and changed it to: Sweet and Sour Yam (Special Price) 19 Yuan!!!

He looked at his phone, it was already four o’clock, and business was about to start. Jiang Jiankang was still nowhere to be seen, so Jiang Feng called him, but the call was cut off right after the first beep.

“I’m watching a movie with your mom, will be back later, you hold down the fort in the back kitchen first.”

Jiang Jiankang sent a message to Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng:…

His intuition told him that this “moment” might just be the entire dinner service.

Wu Minqi arrived on time at four-thirty. There were a few customers scattered around the restaurant. After Wu Minqi greeted Ji Yue, she went into the kitchen, put up her hair, put on her hat, tied her apron and asked, “What dishes can I cook?”

Jiang Feng glanced at the order list: “Two servings of fish-fragrant pork over rice for delivery, one serving of spicy pork, one serving of mapo tofu. My parents probably won’t be back until late tonight, and my grandpa won’t be coming either. It’s just the two of us in the kitchen.”

Wu Minqi nodded, said little, and got straight to work.

The special sweet and sour yam sold out early, and Ji Yue even helped Jiang Feng to check customer feedback. The response was quite good. Although not all positive, there were no glaring negative reviews.

Just as Jiang Feng predicted, Jiang Jiankang and Wang Xiulian didn’t return until after nine at night. Jiang Jiankang, carrying several large bags of Wang Xiulian’s shopping spoils, slumped tiredly into the restaurant.

By then, there were no customers left in the restaurant. Ji Yue went off to deliver the last few orders, Jiang Feng was wiping tables, and Wu Minqi had already left.

“Son, how did the competition go today?” Wang Xiulian asked, her spirits were quite high.

“All votes advanced, the specific time for the next competition hasn’t been notified yet,” Jiang Feng said.

“Good job, you really are my son. Here, this face wash is specially bought for you!” Wang Xiulian rummaged through a bag and pulled out a small tube of face wash that cost a few tens of yuan, and said to Jiang Jiankang, “Get your new chopping board out of here, didn’t I buy it for you? And why do you still look so down?”

“What I wanted wasn’t a chopping board. That set of knives was really good, the last set left. Who knows when someone else might buy it,” Jiang Jiankang said.

“A set of knives costs over twenty thousand, and you only earn so much a day?” Wang Xiulian frowned.

“I can make about that much in a day too,” Jiang Jiankang muttered under his breath.

“What did you say?” Wang Xiulian was angry.

“Nothing, nothing,” Jiang Jiankang said quickly, his mind still on that set of knives he had seen earlier.

“Dad, Mom, have you eaten dinner?” Jiang Feng asked, knowing his own dad too well. If his dad was eyeing those knives, he might end up buying them tomorrow with his little stash of money.

“We have eaten,” Wang Xiulian said, moving to Jiang Feng’s side to take the cleaning rag from his hand, “That’s enough, son. You’ve worked hard all day. Go rest, and let your dad take care of the remaining cleanup.”

Jiang Jiankang, who had spent the day accompanying his wife shopping: ???

Jiang Feng, of course, was happy to not have to work. He gave his dad a sympathetic look and quickly slipped off to the dormitory.

There was no one in the dorm. Wang Hao was still at the library clinging on to “Signals and Systems,” grappling with death. His makeup exam was the day after tomorrow, and with the comprehensive exam cancelled, if he failed the makeup again, he would have to retake the class. These last few days, he bravely skipped classes, wishing he could live and eat in the library.

Back in the dorm, Jiang Feng didn’t idle, opening his computer to look up information related to the Good Taste Cooking Competition.

*Last chapter saved, my drafts box passed away peacefully..