The Game of Life

Before heading out in the morning, Jiang Jiankang and the others had arranged to meet Jiang Feng at the parking lot. After parting ways with Wu Minqi, Jiang Feng walked towards the parking lot and immediately saw the familiar seven- seater business van, with Jiang Jiankang excitedly waving from the driver’s seat.

Opening the door and getting on, Jiang Feng silently took a seat in the last row. “Son, what are you competing in for the semifinals? Who are you competing against?” After watching today’s competition, Jiang Jiankang was more confident than ever and even believed his son could win the championship.

“Wu Minqi, freestyle, I can’t make any dish I’ve made before,” Jiang Feng said. “I haven’t decided what to make yet.”

“The odds are not great,” Jiang Weiming said bluntly.

“There isn’t much of a chance,” agreed Jiang Weiguo, but he rarely offered encouragement, “Give it your all, and if you lose, do so without any regrets.” Jiang Feng nodded solemnly, thought for a moment, and organized his words to roughly explain the situation with Xia Mushi.

Both elder gentlemen fell silent.

After a while, Jiang Weiming finally exclaimed, “I didn’t expect he would still be around.”

“We’re not exactly his match,” Jiang Weiguo said, then turned to Jiang Feng, “Do you want to reopen Taifeng Building?”

“I…” Jiang Feng began, but found himself at a loss for words.

Of course, he wanted to reopen it.

It was Xia Mushi’s lifelong obsession, the two old men’s regret and dream, Jiang Huiqin’s youth and childhood, and Li Mingyi’s longing and memories of his late wife.

It was also the persistence of several generations of the Jiang Family.

But doing business all over again with a restaurant that had been derelict for half a century wasn’t just about wanting it.

“I do want to,” Jiang Feng said.

Ever since he accepted the transfer of Taifeng Building from Li Mingyi, it had been his responsibility.

It was his duty, and even more so, his mission.

“If you want to, then reopen it,” Jiang Weiguo said with a look of satisfaction, “Work hard, and don’t let me and your Granduncle Weiming be disappointed.” Having just heard about Xia Mushi from Jiang Feng, he suddenly had an epiphany. They were all old men, Xia Mushi stubbornly refused to cross over even at death’s door, and he and Jiang Weiming were also one foot into the afterlife. Over the years, they had lost too much and had too many regrets. At their age, there was nothing left to lose. Being scared and hesitant about reopening Taifeng Building because of fear made no sense at all.

This era no longer belonged to him; the future was for the younger generations. Rather than looking back and hesitating, it was better to let go and give it their all.

Jiang Jiankang drove the two old men to the bottom of Jiang Jianguo’s building, and Jiang Feng moved up to sit in the second row.

Downstairs, Jiang Weiming smiled at Jiang Weiguo, asking, “Have you figured it out?”

“I’ve figured it out,” Jiang Weiguo said.

“As long as you’ve figured it out, that’s fine. The children and grandchildren have their own fortune. Feng is a good kid. We’ll do what we can; leave the future to them,” Jiang Weiming said, patting Jiang Weiguo’s shoulder as they both went upstairs together.

Meanwhile, no sooner had Jiang Feng taken his seat in the second row than the hitherto silent Wang Xiulian asked, “Son, do you really stand no chance against Qiqi?”

“Basically no chance,” Jiang Feng replied honestly. If Wu Minqi were not allowed to cook Sichuan cuisine, Jiang Feng would win easily. But if they each prepared their specialty dishes and he couldn’t cook porridge, the gap between him and Wu Minqi was clear. Unless Wu Minqi completely messed up like Sun Jikai had, with a total mental breakdown, Jiang Feng basically stood no chance. “Ah, I had been thinking that if you made it to the finals, I could set up a sign at the restaurant entrance to advertise,” lamented Wang Xiulian, the business genius, utterly disappointed.

“Qjqi is also from our restaurant. Wouldn’t it be just as effective to advertise with her success in the finals?” Jiang Jiankang asked.

“True,” Wang Xiulian realized instantly, “No matter, son, just focus on the competition. What if you win?”

Then Wang Xiulian and Jiang Jiankang started to talk about the purchase of goods. Wang Xiulian harshly criticized the poultry supplier for trying to pass off inferior products, even after being caught red-handed, and they discussed replacing the supplier. She didn’t stop talking all the way, and Jiang Feng couldn’t get a word in edgewise.

The car stopped right in front of the Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant, and Jiang Feng walked back to his dormitory. The competition ended early today, and it wasn’t very late, so he didn’t have to climb back onto the balcony. He could enter through the front door right in front of the dormitory supervisor, which was a nice change.

Wang Hao had just returned from his nightly run and was showering in the bathroom. Since the progress he made with his goddess over dinner last time, he had been even more conscious of his physique, insisting on morning runs and evening jogs, along with a light and regular diet. In the restaurant, he always grabbed veggies and tofu dishes. He believed that soon he would be able to reinvent himself and move from being single to being part of a couple again. Spring had arrived, once again the season of love.

As Wang Hao was showering in the bathroom, Jiang Feng took the opportunity to sit down on a chair and open the attribute panel to check his current recipes, looking for inspiration to decide on a dish for the semifinals.

Wontons. No way, not only are they unappetizing, but the heartbreaking sobs of Jiang Jiankang and Wang Xiulian from last time were still echoing in Jiang Feng’s ears. If he made that, all the judges might end up weeping together.

Liu Ye Yan Cai (Fake) could be made, but even with improvements, it was still a D-grade dish. With that foundation, facing Wu Minqi in the semifinals and choosing this dish would be like walking a dead-end street.

There weren’t many dishes in the recipe column to begin with. Li Hongzhang Hodgepodge was actually a good choice, but Jiang Feng had neither practiced it before nor was the dish’s buff any different from wontons in its unusual effects. Serving it up and having everyone on the judges’ panel cry a river might be a powerful scene, but the scores would surely be even more memorable—in a bad way.

After sorting through everything, only Sweet and Sour Yam and Duo Jiao Fish Head seemed suitable.

Duo Jiao Fish Head was a B-grade dish. The game still showed it was slightly above the player’s cooking skill level, so giving it a try might actually work. But the problem now was that Jiang Feng didn’t know how to make spicy dishes. Because he didn’t eat spicy food, Jiang Feng rarely cooked spicy dishes, only capable of making simple stir-fries like stir-fried pork with chili or scrambled eggs with chili. Even though he had reviewed the process of making Duo Jiao Fish Head many times and was quite familiar with every step, he was confident he could quickly get the hang of this dish, but it still didn’t feel quite secure.

After some indecision, Jiang Feng settled on Sweet and Sour Yam.

This dish meant for couples, a single dog chef with no rights and no buffs, radiated deep malice to all the singles from start to finish.

Jiang Huiqin made this dish a C-grade because she couldn’t do the caramelization with oil, and had to run two pots at the same time. But Jiang Feng could do the caramelization, and he was confident he could do it better than Jiang Huiqin.

Since his last attempt at making Yun Chicken ended up as a C-grade, coupled with the game’s description of Li Hongzhang Hodgepodge, Jiang Feng had an idea he had been waiting to put into practice.

If things went smoothly, he could confirm his hypothesis in the morning.

Whether the game’s assigned dish grades represented their maximum potential or just the passing standard.

The sound of water in the bathroom stopped, and Jiang Feng closed the attribute panel. He grabbed some clothes and prepared to take a shower, waiting for Wang Hao to exit the bathroom.

“Feng, how did today’s competition go? Did you advance?” Wang Hao came out of the bathroom, lugging his bucket of clothes.

“You didn’t watch?” Jiang Feng was surprised. Wang Hao had always been a loyal viewer of Good Taste Culinary Master’s live streams.

“I went to the library with Zhenzhen tonight.” Wang Hao said with a sweet expression.

“Oh.”

Jiang Feng indifferently took his clothes and walked into the bathroom.

Wang Hao happily texted sweet nothings to Zhenzhen on his phone, looking ecstatic to the point of bubbling over, with the tart smell of love permeating the air.

“You’ve never been in a relationship, Feng; you wouldn’t understand.” Wang Hao couldn’t resist the urge to twist the knife.

Jiang Feng suddenly remembered the time in his freshman year when, naive and clueless, he saw someone asking on the school’s confession wall what it was like to be the only one in a dorm room in a relationship. At the time, he innocently thought that the comments under the confession wall were displayed in chronological order, so he casually replied, “I know what it’s like to be the only single person in a dorm.” Little did he know, the confession wall prioritized showing comments from friends.

The next day, the whole class knew Jiang Feng was the only single dog in his dorm.

??

sad.