The Game of Life

Even now, with fresh spiny sea cucumbers in front of him—sea cucumbers that had been soaked and had spit out all their sand—despite having meat broth and chicken broth always at the ready in the kitchen, he had no delusions about attempting Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup.

If Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup were an A-grade dish, Jiang Feng might have steeled his resolve and tried it on the spot. At worst, he would waste a pot of chicken broth, a pot of meat broth, plus a few sea cucumbers, garnering a failed soup and Mrs. Wang Xiulian’s affectionate slap.

He now required tricky methods even to make an A-grade dish; S-grade dishes were far beyond his reach.

His immediate priority was to make ten A-grade system dishes to complete his main task. If the game were likened to a banquet, the side tasks would be the garnishing cold dishes, while the main tasks were the sequential main courses served hot, and the hidden tasks were the unpredictable surprise dishes that could be presented at any time.

Although cold dishes were delicious, they could not replace the main course.

Since Jiang Feng had received this game, every main task had seemed like a pair of hands pushing him forward. Rather than saying these main tasks were tasks assigned by the game, it made more sense to say they provided him with guidance.

Mr. Jiang Jiankang had purchased a shop near UAL University to open Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant, and the main task then directed him to make the restaurant’s business prosperous. The senior Mr. Li Mingyi wanted to give Taifeng Building to him, and the main task guided him on how to revitalize Taifeng Building. Jiang Feng even wondered if they had chosen to reject that gift and he refused to accept that main task of reopening Taifeng Building, whether the game would have issued him another main task to take Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant to the next level.

These tasks only provided the direction of choice; the ultimate decision was in his hands.

Jiang Feng even began to suspect that this main task issued by the game was not simply due to a disdain for his culinary skills, but rather it seemed like a reminder for him to strive to improve his cooking.

Thinking this way, Jiang Feng revisited his character panel to review the recipes he had obtained. Only the recipes acquired through memory could display a grade after being made, which meant Jiang Feng had a very limited range of dishes to practice. Otherwise, his Eight Treasures Porridge would have been categorized as an A-grade dish too.

After scanning through his recipe list, he ignored dishes like Superior Soup Braised Lobster and Two-Colored Prawns, which were already A-grade dishes with high difficulty. The game clearly indicated he was bound to fail these dishes, so there was no point in abandoning the ones he could work on to climb these high peaks.

Uplifting the dishes originally graded B or C through constant practice to reach A-grade could be a good choice.

Jiang Feng set his sights on Crab-Stuffed Oranges.

Ever since he saw Mrs. Cao Guixiang making this dish in his memory, he had been very interested in it.

The combination of fruit and crab, a dish that seemed fitting for a cafeteria, was a famous recipe passed down from the Southern Song Dynasty. Compared with robust dishes such as pork knuckle or sweet and sour carp, Crab-Stuffed Oranges seemed somewhat lesser, like a delicate and beautiful young maiden beside the sturdy and vigorous men.

This was a dish that couldn’t be achieved through shortcuts but demanded meticulous crafting.

Not to mention, it was now the season for crabs to hit the market. Although it wasn’t yet the season for oranges, a few days ago at his uncle’s place, Jiang Feng had seen the imported oranges his aunt had bought for making fruit salad at the supermarket.

The cost was higher, but Jiang Feng felt if he could make one Crab-Stuffed Orange a day, that would be the limit and such a cost spread out daily wouldn’t amount to much.

With a goal in mind, Jiang Feng found motivation, clearing all the miscellaneous thoughts from his head to start practicing sea cucumber dishes in earnest.

When the clock hanging in the hall pointed to four, the kitchen staff gradually started to increase in number. Jiang Feng found it odd that Ji Xia hadn’t returned by this time and asked Wu Minqi if she had seen Ji Xia.

He had already thought of the words of praise, but the person to be praised hadn’t arrived yet.

“Qiqi, have you seen the kid?” Since he had taken Ji Xia as his apprentice, Jiang Feng had shortened her designation from “Ji Xia the kid” to simply “the kid.”

“Xiaxia hasn’t come back yet?” Wu Minqi also found it strange.

“I haven’t seen her. It’s not early anymore, she’s been gone for almost three hours, right?” Jiang Feng felt he had been negligent in some aspects, “If I had known, I would have bought her a mobile phone. Even if not a smartphone, at least one of those senior phones that can receive calls.”

Not buying Ji Xia a smartphone was a collective decision, given that she’s still in her rebellious phase and has a history of misdemeanors. Everyone was worried she might suddenly go from being a rebellious teenager to an internet-addicted one.

Although it seemed Jiang Feng, Wu Minqi, Ji Yue, and Zhang Guanghang—the four people who couldn’t live without their phones—hardly had the right to make such a comment.

“I was browsing the internet last night, and we could get Xiaxia a child phone watch,” Wu Minqi said.

Jiang Feng: ???

A child phone watch???

Minqi, are you serious? Why do I feel like you’re actually raising Ji Xia as if she were your daughter?

Before Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi could delve deeper into whether Ji Xia should own a smartphone, Ji Xia returned on her own.

“Master, my bike got stolen!” Ji Xia ran back, gasping for air and drenched in sweat, and complained to Jiang Feng as soon as she entered the kitchen. Realizing she probably shouldn’t be in the kitchen in her current state, she quietly stepped back out.

Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi left the kitchen with her, and Jiang Feng was the first to ask, “Your bike got stolen? Didn’t you lock it?”

“I did lock it—I even wound the chain around those bars several extra times to make sure it was tight!”

“Bars?” Jiang Feng thought he misheard, “What bars?”

“The two iron bars that form a triangle, those long iron bars,” Ji Xia explained.

Jiang Feng: …

The fact that your bike wasn’t stolen sooner with that kind of locking method is quite surprising.

Jiang Feng patted Ji Xia’s shoulder helplessly and consoled her, “It’s okay, what’s gone is gone. We’ll deduct the money from your future wages. Next time, I’ll show you how to properly lock a bike.”

“Also, Grandma Chen asked me to tell you that you haven’t visited Da Hua for a long time. Da Hua misses you and wants you to find time to visit in the next couple of days,” Ji Xia began conveying Chen Suhua’s message to Jiang Feng, “Grandma Chen can’t keep a pet for her health anymore, but I think she wants to see you, and that’s why she’s using Da Hua as an excuse. Have you not visited for a long time?”

Ji Xia had already seen through everything.

With Ji Xia’s reminder, Jiang Feng also realized that indeed, he hadn’t visited the Li Mansion for quite some time.

He was the one who had initially wanted to keep Da Hua and now had left Da Hua for Chen Suhua and Mrs. Jiang to look after. Raising a pet was already a hassle, and his negligence wasn’t exactly justifiable.

“How about this, take the afternoon off tomorrow. There’s no need for you to go—I’ll go,” Jiang Feng said and pulled a 100-dollar bill out of his pocket, “Go to the supermarket next door first and buy some oranges. The rest is your allowance for this week.”

“Okay, Master,” Ji Xia took the money and ran off to buy oranges.

“Fengfeng, do you feel like eating oranges?” Wu Minqi asked.

“I saw a recipe online a while ago. It’s a dish made with oranges called crab-stuffed oranges, and I thought it was quite interesting, so I wanted to give it a try,” Jiang Feng explained.

“What about the crab? We don’t seem to have crabs in the restaurant now, do we?” Wu Minqi pointed out the key issue.

“My uncle has crabs. I saw them when I went to borrow sesame oil last night,” Jiang Feng said with a slight smile, “I haven’t returned the sesame oil I borrowed last night, have I? I’ll return the sesame oil today, and while I’m at it, I’ll also borrow a couple of crabs from my uncle.”