The Game of Life

That night, Jiang Feng had a bizarre dream.

He succeeded in making Li Hongzhang’s hodgepodge, and after Wang Hao tasted it, he hugged him and cried bitterly, saying that the Fourier stuff was too difficult and that he had failed “Optical Information Processing” again. The dream ended with Wang Hao’s crying throughout.

So much so that when Jiang Feng saw Wang Hao brushing his teeth on the balcony the next morning, he felt a bit guilty. The image of Wang Hao sobbing and calling “Daddy, teach me Fourier analysis!” while hugging his own thighs was still fresh in his mind.

“Feng, when did you come back last night?” Wang Hao asked while brushing

his teeth.

“A little after midnight, you were already asleep. Our family went out to dinner with my uncle and fourth and fifth uncles,” Jiang Feng replied, turning on his phone to begin the new day with checking Wang Hao’s updates on the forum.

Huh, no updates?

“Feng, the competition last night was awesome, except for the fall, you were like a male god. I’m ready to… I really admire you deep down in my heart, seriously, my idol. If you win the championship, you’ll bring honor to our physics department, even get banners up at our alma mater!” Wang Hao almost let something slip, but quickly diverted the topic.

Jiang Feng imagined the banner in Wang Hao’s words: Congratulations to our physics department’s famous alumnus, Chef Jiang Feng, on visiting his alma mater!

A shiver ran down his spine, and Jiang Feng asked, “Why didn’t you update yesterday?”

“I’m not writing novels anymore, it’s a waste of time,” Wang Hao said earnestly, “I have too many classes this semester, and writing novels has seriously affected my studies. I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf and become a better person. Study hard and progress every day!

Jiang Feng didn’t expect Wang Hao to have such resolve and instantly held him

in higher regard.

After washing up, Jiang Feng went to the restaurant.

This morning, he had a Jiang Jiankang special-sized ultra-deluxe sandwich with extra ingredients-lettuce, tomatoes, eggs, beef loin, chicken fillets, and pork cutlets-all stuffed between two ordinary slices of fresh toast bought from a street bakery. Even Jiang Jiankang couldn’t finish it in three bites, showing how generously filled the sandwich was.

Finding it difficult to bite through four layers of meat plus one layer of vegetables and two slices of bread, Jiang Feng ate the sandwich in small bites while eyeing the dozen or so live chickens delivered by the supplier that morning.

“Mom, can you leave me a few chickens today?” Jiang Feng asked.

“What do you want chickens for?” Wang Xiulian immediately became wary; those chickens were meant for Texas-style roasted chicken, and each one represented a hefty profit.

-The theme for the 16 to 8 round of the competition is chicken, and I want to try if I can use the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon method to make an Eight Treasures Chicken,” Jiang Feng explained.

Since it was a competition, he wanted to do something he was good at. In theory, the method for making Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon was applicable to all poultry, but it required adjustments to the filling ingredients and proportions. Jiang Feng felt that with guidance from the two Sirs around mid-morning, this dish would be possible.

“If you’re making chicken, sonny, why not make Dingqiao Eight Treasures Chicken?” Jiang Jiankang suggested, “It’s all vegetarian stuffing. When your grandpa and Granduncle Weiming come later, have them teach you the right proportions for the stuffing. You’ll pick it up quickly.”

“Are Eight Treasures Chickens easy to sell?” Wang Xiulian was more concerned about this issue.

“Easy to sell, definitely,” Jiang Jiankang affirmed, thinking of Jiang Feng’s usual unreliability and tendency to mess up on the first try, he added, “Of course, if they’re made well!”

“Alright, son, go pick out a few,” Wang Xiulian said generously, ‘Til contact the supplier tomorrow to deliver a few more.”

-Pick the tender young hens, the ones with tender meat!” Jiang Jiankang reminded.

Jiang Feng quickly finished the sandwich in his hand, wiped his hands, and went to the kitchen to select chickens. Amidst a cacophony of clucks, he checked over all the tied-up young hens, chose three of the tenderest, and took them to be slaughtered first, saving the deboned whole chickens for later, and continued to prep other ingredients in the kitchen while waiting for the two Sirs to provide field guidance.

Ji Yue arrived before the two Sirs, having worked hard on her drafts for two days. Now exuding an air of a wealthy matron, she had grown so pompous that she no longer brought her drawing tablet to the shop.

upon entering the restaurant, she headed straight for the kitchen and excitedly said to Jiang Feng, who was chopping vegetables, “Jiang Feng, you’re on fire!”

I’m on fire?!

Jiang Feng looked up sharply. Could it be that his real talent lay not in cooking but in the entertainment industry, considering he had become famous after his first TV appearance?

“Oh, how so?” Jiang Feng asked, feigning calm and detachment to show his disinterest in fame.

“Trending searches! Oh, I forgot you don’t use Weibo. Hang on a sec!” Ji Yue took out her phone, scrolled to the Weibo trending searches, and handed her phone to Jiang Feng.

When Jiang Feng glanced at the phone:

#ZhangGuanghang#

#ZhangGuanghang’sFather#

#ZhangGuanghang’sNationality#

#TheHandsomestChefInHistory#

#BestActressRecountsFirstLove#

#TraveledThroughTimeAfterThatIncident#

# ZhangGuanghangGraduationPhoto #

Jiang Feng: ???

He saw his screen full of Zhang Guanghang, without even a hint of the character “Jiang.” How did he end up on the trending search???

“There’S nothing about me!” Jiang Feng stated, feeling wronged. “How can there not be?” Ji Yue took back her phone, pointing at the tag #TraveledThroughTimeAfterThatIncident#, “Isn’t this it?”

Jiang Feng was utterly bewildered.

“Everyone on Weibo is saying that after you took that fall, you were reborn. Some even wrote fanfiction, lots of jokes-I spent all morning reading and died laughing. You’re on fire, just slightly less than Zhang Guanghang.” Ji Yue continued scrolling through her phone, “Look, this blogger! The fanfiction they wrote is wicked good!”

Jiang Feng took a look.

Did you Fourier transform today?

Wang Hao’s alternate account.

And that talk in the morning about studying hard and aspiring to improve every day, pah!

-I won’t disturb you anymore. You’ve got a competition coming up in a few days, best of luck!” Ji Yue said, “Oh, right, are you close with Zhang Guanghang? Invite him for a casual meal!”

Women, huh.

“Yeah, pretty close,” Jiang Feng replied without batting an eye.

After Ji Yue left, Jiang Feng continued to chop vegetables-slicing cucumbers, slicing carrots, slicing winter melon—soon enough, there was a small mountain of vegetable strips by the cutting board.

As he chopped, Jiang Feng muttered to himself: “Writing novels, always writing novels.”

“Have you mastered Fourier transforms? Do you still remember Laplace? Have you learned convolutions? Can you recall matrices? Do you understand two-dimensional Fourier analysis…”

He pulled out a thick, roughly-skinned white radish, clearly scrubbed forcefully by Mrs. Wang Xiulian, and cut it in half with one swift stroke.

“Pff, trash,” Jiang Feng chuckled to himself.

At the kitchen doorway, having watched for five minutes, Jiang Weiguo & Jiang Weiming:…

“Hey, the kids these days aren’t like we were back then, they haven’t had it as hard, their ability to withstand pressure isn’t as good. Let’s not push him too far,” Jiang Weiming sighed.

Jiang Weiguo:…

• Til call the old lady and ask her to take good care of Da Hua.”

With that, he sighed and walked outside..