The Game of Life

Jiang Feng’s group was the first to conclude their interviews. Kitchen apprentice cooks are always in demand, and the five people they found were decent in skills and speed. Excluding Sang Ming, whose unusual passion for mahjong was puzzling, the others could become quite competent chefs if they were willing to dedicate a few years to training at Taifeng Building.

“Taifeng Building will be opening soon, and the exact date will be announced later. We’ll draft the contracts in the next few days, and if there are no issues from your end, then we’ll finalize everything,” Jiang Feng said. “You may leave for now.”

The candidates were thrilled and left without lingering.

The recruitment process went smoothly. To ensure that shifts could be covered, four bakers were hired, and one or two extra individuals were recruited for each of the other positions. In addition to Zhang Weiyu, whom Jiang Weiming was particularly fond of, there were two competent chefs – Tang Tang and Wei Shiheng – who applied for the chopping board positions. Sun Jikai was the best among the furnace chefs, but Sir wasn’t too fond of him, casually mentioning on the way back that his basics weren’t strong.

Recruitment took the entire afternoon. Dinner was again at the fast-food restaurant they went to for lunch; Jiang Jiankang particularly enjoyed their braised meat. Seeing the Jiang Family Members, the fast-food restaurant’s owner smiled as if they were old friends he hadn’t seen in years and warmly mentioned that their establishment could offer delivery services without a fee for large orders.

After dinner, a representative from each household gathered back at home to discuss who would be responsible for what in the upcoming days while Jiang Feng retreated to his room to check out the Ordering System provided by the system.

In the props section, it appeared to be a box, and when he took it out, it indeed was a box.

Inside the box were tablets, bearing no brand name as they were without any logo; it contained only tablets and their respective chargers.

It seemed that the game knew Jiang Feng was too poor, so it even prepared the tablets for him.

Jiang Feng counted – there were two more tablets than the number of tables and chairs planned on the Renovation Blueprint. At the bottom, there was also a USB drive, which likely contained the relevant software.

The software was quite interesting, divided into customer and staff interfaces. The ordering interface not only allowed customers to choose dishes but also the chefs preparing them, with different chefs commanding different prices, and each dish came with a corresponding queue time.

The staff interface showed the prep, kitchen apprentice cook, and furnace chef for each dish, though customers would only see the final chef on their end. Jiang Feng knew of restaurants that used tablets for ordering, but he had never seen an Ordering System with such detailed division of labor. He clicked through every feature, testing everything from start to finish, immensely enjoying himself.

Stowing everything back in the box and into the props section, Jiang Feng needed to come up with a plausible explanation for their appearance in front of everyone.

After stealthily observing from the entrance for about fifteen minutes, he finally heard the sounds from outside and the voices of Wang Xiulian and his great-aunt, faintly making out that they were planning to go shopping.

Jiang Feng decided to confront the situation head-on.

“Xiaofeng, your great-aunt and I are going shopping, do you want to join us?” Wang Xiulian seized the opportunity to look for helping hands.

“Mom, I have a delivery to pick up, I’m going to get a parcel,” Jiang Feng said. “What parcel?” Wang Xiulian asked involuntarily.

“It’s a tablet I bought; I had someone develop an ordering program,” Jiang Feng said as he closed the door and ran downstairs.

The elevator was under repair, and fortunately, the floor they rented wasn’t too high, or climbing up more than ten flights of stairs would have been unbearable.

“What program?” Wang Xiulian asked her sister-in-law, somewhat puzzled.

“I think it’s… an ordering program?” her sister-in-lawsaid uncertainly. “Shall we wait for Xiaofeng to bring it up and take a look before heading out?”

“Sure, let’s see what it is first!” They both agreed.

Almost 20 minutes later, Jiang Feng climbed back to the 8th floor, out of breath, with a box full of tablets.

To enhance the authenticity, he truly climbed from the 1st floor with the box.

“Mom, let’s go upstairs to the 10th floor and show it to Grandpa and the others.” Jiang Feng felt he might have been too earnest and should have started carrying from the 5th floor as the heavy box left him breathless, just as it would have been on any other floor.

A few minutes later, each member of the Jiang Family was holding a tablet and tapping away chaotically.

Jiang Jiankang and Jiang Feng, true father and son, even resembled each other when using the tablets.

“This is great, it’s convenient and saves trouble!” Jiang Jiankang praised.

Wang Xiulian also nodded in satisfaction, thinking it was a good device. With her years of experience as a restaurateur and waitress, she recognized the time-saving potential of the gadget.

After enjoying the bustling scene, Wang Xiulian extended another invitation, “Feng, do you want to go shopping at the mall?”

“No, no, I still have to video call Qiqi later,” Jiang Feng executed a perfect “slip-away” tactic.

Wang Xiulian weighed the choice between using her son as hard labor and giving him space to communicate with his girlfriend, and chose the latter.

“Tell Qiqi to come over earlier, and you can show her around Beiping City,” Wang Xiulian said.

It wasn’t easy to find a “cabbage” willing to throw itself into the mouth of her “silly pig” of a son, and she certainly didn’t want to let this opportunity slip away.

Of course, Jiang Feng was not actually planning to go back to his room to video chat with Wu Minqi; at this time, Wu Minqi was still busy helping out in the kitchen at Wu Family Restaurant. Their time for romance usually happened after ten o’clock at night.

He was now returning to view Xia Mushi’s memories.

He had already nearly mastered the game’s recipes that he could explore.

Jiang Feng was now able to make the Li Hongzhang hodgepodge even better than Jiang Huiqin’s version, and he had also managed to produce a tolerable failure of the notoriously impossible-to-successfully-make Yun Chicken.

He had also practiced making chopped chili fish head, and with the guidance of Jiang Weiming, the success rate was quite high. As for how many lucky students at UAL University successfully confessed their feelings after trying this dish, that remains a mystery.

The steamed lobster in superior soup had eluded him due to financial restraints – not only was lobster out of reach, but the superior soup too, in part due to some technical difficulties. The Fire Control in Jiang Feng’s seasoning was indeed lacking a bit. To directly practice Sun Zheran’s version of the superior soup was a bit too ambitious; Sir had intended to teach him properly how to make superior soup during the summer holiday. He was planning to start practicing after that.

What he urgently needed now was a new dish he had never made before, and Xia Mushi’s memories offered a great opportunity.

With that, Jiang Feng returned to his room and opened the prop menu, selecting yes.

His surroundings were instantly shrouded in mist.

The first thing to reach him was the sound of rain, and it was heavy, pattering against the ground like a barrage of drumbeats.

When the dense fog finally lifted, Jiang Feng easily found Xia Mushi because he was the only person around.

The Xia Mushi that Jiang Feng saw was critically ill, his life hanging by a thread, looking gaunt, feeble, more ghost than human.

But the current Xia Mushi was even more frightening.

His hands, body, and face were all covered in wounds, with rainwater, yellow mud, and other unidentifiable things all over him. His clothes were torn as if slashed by knives or some other sharp weapon, and his old coat was soaked in blood – it was unclear if the blood was his own or someone else’s.

His hair was filthy and disheveled, a mess like a chicken’s nest, glued together in clumps. Jiang Feng even suspected there were no less than ten lice or fleas hidden within his hair.

Jiang Feng couldn’t make out his features, only feeling worried that his wounds might become infected in this state. Xia Mushi, clutching two heavy-looking bundles, kept walking hurriedly forward.

This place seemed quite remote, without even a path; underfoot was nothing but yellow mud and weeds. Xia Mushi didn’t seem to want to find shelter from the rain, instead silently walking on, just moving forward with the bundles in his arms.

The rain grew heavier, and the sight of the large raindrops pattering against Xia Mushi made Jiang Feng wince in empathy, especially when they hit the wounds, causing him to involuntarily gasp in pain just by watching.

At last, Xia Mushi found a large tree and started digging a hole at its base.

In such a stormy thunderous weather out in the wilderness, it was rather unscientific for Xia Mushi to dig a hole at the base of a tree without getting struck by lightning, making him quite fortunate indeed.

Jiang Feng guessed that the two bundles probably contained silver dollars or gold bars. He had forgotten who had once complained to him, saying that landlords always liked to bury their treasures by digging a hole under a big tree.

After burying the items, Xia Mushi noticed that his outer garment was covered in blood. He removed it promptly, tossed it aside without any attachment, and continued on in another direction.

He seemed quite familiar with this area.

And so, Jiang Feng followed him until they reached a dilapidated temple.