The Game of Life - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Congee

Translator: Larbre Studio

Editor: Larbre Studio

The girl settled the payment using Wechat pay and left with her boyfriend. Jiang Feng wiped down the table quickly. Qiu Chen was staring dumbfounded at one side.

“Feng’ge, your store’s requirements for finishing the entire plate are so high?” The social media post on Qiu Chen’s phone hadn’t been typed out completely, he had been completely shocked by the girl’s tough behavior.

“She misunderstood.” Jiang Feng explained.

“Ding, One Reputation gained, Task Progress (3 / 100).”

“Feng’ge, let us help you.” Liu Zixuan took the lead in sending out the social media post and grabbed the plate.

Jiang Feng did not stop him either: “Only my parents are in the back kitchen, you can just place the dishes in the dishwasher, ask my mom if you don’t know how.”

Liu Zixuan said that he knew how to use the dishwasher and carried the dishes into the back kitchen.

“Ding, gained One Reputation gained, Task Progress (4 / 100).”

“Ding, gained One Reputation gained, Task Progress(5 / 100).”

“Ding, gained One Reputation gained, Task Progress(6 / 100).”

The other three also began to help out with simple tasks like taking meal orders and cleaning up the table. Although they were not as skilled as Jiang Feng, they would not make mistakes.

Jiang Feng also realized that his family had not thought things through. They had always felt that this would be like their original small shop, and wouldn’t need to hire workers. It seemed that they had to recruit a few student workers.

He used to think that the small restaurants near his school were coldhearted whenever he saw them recruiting students to work for a measly wage of two meals and a few hundred dollars per month. Now that he had to start recruiting people, he realized that student workers were indeed the best choice.

The food was cheap. They could save money and hire enough help at the same time.

Liu Zixuan went into the kitchen for a long time. When he came out, he had a plate of Shredded pork with Garlic Sauce in his hands, and there was a suspicious smear on the corner of his mouth.

“How can you eat it sneakily by yourself!” Wang Hao could see at a glance that the corner of Liu Zixuan’s mouth was fishy. Thinking of the meal they just had, he couldn’t help but exclaim, “It’s impressive that you can stomach it.”

“Auntie poured me a cup of herbal tea.” Liu Zixuan said as he thought of the taste cheerfully.

When he entered the kitchen, he was surprised at how Jiang Feng’s parents’ body shape was so different from his. The instant the herbal tea entered his mouth, he no longer had the time to think more about it.

Auntie Jiang was really like an angel.

It’s just that she appeared a little too well rounded.

…

The professors were the last guests to leave.

When the professors were leaving, Professor Li said a few words to Jiang Feng with a smile, causing Liu Zixuan, who was far away, to be stunned.

Out of all the people there, only he had taken Professor Li’s classes. He also knew that Professor Li was a serious old man, who rarely smiled at his students, and would never go easy on the students during finals. He was a real-life Rakshasa.

“Feng’ge, what did Professor Li just say?” When the professors had left, Liu Zixuan went up to him and asked curiously.

“The Professor asked me if I was from Yanjing and if my grandfather’s generation was from Yanjing.” Jiang Feng also felt that it was weird. They were just having a meal, why would Professor Li ask about that?

Jiang Jiankang was good at Shandong cuisine, not Beijing cuisine. Although they had some similarities, they were not enough to make people think that Jiang Jiankang was from Yanjing.

“Your family restaurant’s main cuisine is Shandong cuisine, isn’t it?” Liu Zixuan was also a little knowledgeable regarding food.

“Professor Li may have drunk the sour plum soup and thought it very similar to the authentic Yanjing flavor, prompting him to ask that.” Jiang Feng said.

“By the way, do you guys…” Jiang Feng had wanted to ask them if they would like to eat together, then immediately remembered that they had already eaten, so he changed his words: “Do you want to eat with us tonight?”

The frequency of nodding from all four of them almost reached 20Hz.

Qiu Chen and the others each took a cup of Herbal tea and left happily. Wang Hao had already secretly drunk a lot of Sour Prune juice, Herbal tea, and Mung Bean soup and had bravely eaten a normal serving as well. Jiang Feng predicted that if he were to maintain this amount of food intake, he would soon catch up to his big cousin Jiang Zaide’s figure.

In the afternoon, Jiang Feng wrote up a part-time job notice and stuck it on the glass outside the shop.

Recruiting: Part-time workers and Delivery Men, includes two meals, salary negotiable.

After posting the recruitment notice, Jiang Feng went into the store, found a corner and began to check the control panel.

After an entire morning of cutting vegetables, his Knife Skill Mastery had increased by 326, and the progress of the main task became (19 / 100). The progress of the task was very gratifying. He could probably complete the quest by maintaining the plate emptying discount for a few days.

“Ding, Reputation gained, Task Progress (20 / 100).”

He had gotten a Reputation Point out of the blue!

Jiang Feng was stupefied for a moment, before quickly understanding.

One of the guests that had eaten at Health Restaurant earlier had probably recommended it to their friends. The principle was the same as that of posting on social media, both would get him Reputation Points.

It seemed that he would be able to complete the main quest soon.

Jiang Jiankang and Wang Xiulian had busied themselves for half the day and had gone to the second floor to have a rest. Jiang Feng took the opportunity to start the fire in the kitchen and cook several pots of congee.

He hadn’t cooked any congee since he had acquired the Congee Cooking (Intermediate) skill. He had the chance now and wanted to see how the taste of intermediate skilled congee was.

Jiang Feng cooked two pots of congee, one pot of Minced Pork Congee with Preserved Egg, and one pot of Black Rice Congee. A pot of sweet congee, a pot of savory congee. The Sour Prune Juice had sold out. The congee would be given in place of the sour plum soup in the evening. A small bowl per person, just enough to keep the hunger away for a bit.

Under the guidance of the Intermediate Congee Cooking skills, Jiang Feng knew when it was time to turn the heat up, and when it was time to bring it to a simmer, when to stir, and when to add in ingredients skillfully as if he had been possessed by a God of Cooking. In general, without decades of experience in congee cooking, one would not have such keen intuition.

The two pots of porridge were ready.

[A pot of good-tasting Minced Pork Congee with Preserved Egg where the egg chunks were not fine enough, and the meat was not marinated for long enough]

[A pot of good-tasting Black Rice Congee with old oats]

Jiang Feng tasted it. The taste was comparable to the congee cooked by Jiang Jiankang.

He went to the door of the shop and changed the special offer into a bowl of congee instead of Sour Prune Drink, then Jiang Feng was ready to open the store.

He then went upstairs to wake up Jiang Jiankang and Wang Xiulian who had fallen asleep and asked them to come down to taste the congee he had just cooked as well.

Jiang Jiankang took a sip of congee bleary-eyed.

“Ding, gained 9 experience points.”

Wang Xiulian yawned and took a sip of the congee.

“Ding, gained 11 experience points.”

Coincidentally, Wang Hao came back to the shop to help out .

“Hao’zi, have a taste of the Black Rice Congee I just cooked.” Wang Hao was fond of sweetness, and Jiang Feng greeted him with sweet congee.

“Ding, gained 31 experience points.”

Hao’zi, you have changed. You were not like this yesterday.