The Game of Life

There was no need to hit the streets and drag in customers; the Promotional Board, which was buffed with a visibility-increasing effect from the game rewards, was quite effective. Ji Yue, who had the best handwriting in the restaurant, was asked to write a line of promotional copy. Jiang Feng then placed the Promotional Board directly in the middle of the road.

It was not only obstructive, but also highly conspicuous!

The Promotional Board displayed just two lines:

Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant—Blanched Shrimp Tasting! (Limited to one per person)

Create your exclusive delicacy!

The slogan was also Ji Yue’s idea, and after Jiang Feng had placed the Promotional Board in the middle of the road and went back inside, Ji Yue was still smugly proud of her brilliant advertising copy.

“If I had studied graphic advertising design, imagine where I’d be now!” Ji Yue began her usual daydreaming.

A dreamy girl’s procrastination skills are usually not too bad.

Not two minutes later, Master Huang from the opposite noodle shop popped in to inquire about the tasting event.

“Um, Ji Yue,” Master Huang rubbed his hands together curiously as he asked, “I saw your sign out there about the Blanched Shrimp Tasting, what’s the deal with that?” He had run his noodle shop for 20 years next to UAL University, starting from a stall and later renting a storefront, and hadn’t seen this kind of tasting event before.

“Give me a sec, Master Huang. Jiang Feng, Jiang Feng! Master Huang is here for the tasting, come out quick!” Ji Yue shouted towards the kitchen.

“Coming, coming!” Jiang Feng came out promptly with a notepad and pen, smiling as he asked, “Master Huang, do you like to eat blanched shrimp?”

“Never had it.” Master Huang was honest.

“…Then, what are your taste preferences? What do you like and what don’t you like?” Jiang Feng continued to ask.

“Taste preferences?” Master Huang pondered and hesitated, “Well, not too salty, a bit of spiciness is good, not too strong on the ginger, not too sour, sometimes a bit sweet is fine, I don’t eat beef, grilled is okay, but recently my teeth aren’t in great shape, shreds of meat always get stuck…”

“Okay, that’s enough. Please wait a moment, Master Huang.” Jiang Feng tore off the sticky note he had just used to jot down Master Huang’s taste preferences and handed it to Ji Yue, “If more people come later, could you help me to take note of their preferences, and the feedback too, please?”

Ji Yue first gave Jiang Feng a ‘2’ sign, meaning she wanted two glasses of cranberry juice, then quickly switched to an ‘ok’ gesture when he nodded, and went back to watching TV.

Just as Jiang Feng stepped into the kitchen, Mr. Luo, the boss of the neighboring braised food shop, arrived. Seeing Master Huang seated inside, he greeted him warmly with a chuckle: “Master Huang is here too. I got curious when I saw Jiang Feng setting up the board, so I came over to see how this tasting works.”

“Mr. Luo, have a seat, just tell me your taste preferences and I’ll take note for Jiang Feng to prepare,” said Ji Yue.

Mr. Luo smoothly pulled up a chair and sat to Master Huang’s right, the two men lined up: “Oh, how could I trouble you to make something special for me? See, that’s too much fuss. I was just curious and came to ask.”

“I like sour flavors, more vinegar, leave out the dark soy sauce for light soy sauce, it’s better with a bit of sugar, add some Xiaomi peppers, no cilantro, a little bit of green onion is fine, garlic is okay too, best not to add ginger, and sesame oil, whatever, and then that other thing…”

Ji Yue:”…”

Three minutes later, Jiang Feng came out from the kitchen nervously, holding a single shrimp in one hand and a dish of dipping sauce in the other, only to find the restaurant had already seated quite a few customers.

The boss of the neighboring braised food shop, Mr. Zhang, the grandmother of the lady who runs Shaxian Snacks holding her grandson, Dongsi from Dongsi Dumpling House, the boss of the Hunan rice noodle shop, the stationery store lady and the student who worked part-time at the milk tea shop across the street.

It could be said that everyone from nearby businesses who had seen the Promotional Board on the street had come to Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant.

“Here.” Ji Yue handed a stack of sticky notes to Jiang Feng, shooting him a look that said, ‘You’re on your own, buddy.’

Jiang Feng was puzzled and began flipping through the sticky notes.

“So, Jiang Feng, we can eat now, right?” Master Huang felt a bit uneasy being the first one to taste, while all eyes were on him, “Is there anything special I should do?”

“Nothing special, just eat the shrimp the way you usually do, dip it in the sauce, better after peeling it,” Jiang Feng said with a smile, “I’m waiting for your feedback.”

“Oh, right.” Master Huang picked up the shrimp directly with his hand – it was clear he wasn’t accustomed to eating shrimp, as he was slow at peeling and a lot of meat came off with the tail end. He dunked the shrimp meat into the sauce dish until it was covered, then popped it into his mouth.

“How is it?” Jiang Feng eagerly awaited his response.

“Mm, it’s pretty good. I don’t usually eat shrimp, but it’s tasty,” said Master Huang indistinctly.

“Anything else? Such as the sauce, anything you’re not happy with?” Jiang Feng persisted.

“It’s good overall, just a little salty, I guess. Maybe I just dipped a bit too much.” Master Huang stood up, “So, that’s it, right? I’ll head back. I’ll call my wife over.”

“All right, take your time leaving,” Jiang Feng said with a smile, glancing at the speed-writing expert Ji Yue, who had already finished taking down Master Huang’s evaluation.

“Please wait a moment, everyone, I’ll be done very quickly,” Jiang Feng said as he took the sticky notes and went into the kitchen.

Sun Guanyun was waiting in the kitchen for Jiang Feng to come back.

“You’ve used too much light soy sauce; you shouldn’t use just light soy sauce, you should mix in some dark soy sauce,” Sun Guanyun said.

Jiang Feng was a bit surprised: “Master Huang said he wanted light soy sauce, not dark soy sauce, and he also mentioned it was a bit too salty.”

“Customer opinions can be taken into account, but not fully trusted,” Sun Guanyun replied. “You are the head chef; the final say on the taste is in your hands. Most customers only think they know what they like, but in reality, even they don’t understand their own preferences.”

Jiang Feng nodded, feeling that Sun Guanyun made sense, and started flipping through the sticky notes again.

The fourth one, from Granny Qian of Shaxian Snacks:

Doesn’t like shrimp, grandson allergic to shrimp.

Jiang Feng:…

Granny Qian really is… unique.

Seven or eight minutes later, Jiang Feng brought out the newly adjusted six servings of sauce, and noticed that more people had arrived in the restaurant.

There were familiar faces from other bosses of the food street stores, as well as students from UAL University who came to buy milk tea/snacks/stationery but ended up coming in after seeing the Promotional Board as if led by some ghostly presence.

While watching TV, Ji Yue, without shifting her gaze from the screen, tore off a small stack of sticky notes and handed them to Jiang Feng.

“There are four more who went to the opposite side to buy milk tea, they will come over soon.”

Jiang Feng brought the shrimp and the dipping dishes to the respective customers, waiting for their feedback.

All the feedback was positive. Even Granny Qian, who claimed not to like shrimp, gave a “not bad” rating, perhaps because it was free, everyone was quite forgiving. But if Jiang Feng insisted, they could probably find something dissatisfactory to say.

Taking the dishes and sticky notes back to the kitchen, Jiang Feng decided to make them in batches of five, as a tray could just nicely fit and was easy to handle.

He flipped to one of the sticky notes that stood out with especially long and numerous characters.

No green onions, ginger, garlic, vinegar, Sichuan pepper, MSG, star anise, cinnamon, not too salty, can be slightly spicy, no sesame oil or fragrant oil, can’t eat brown sugar or granulated sugar, the rest is whatever.

What a “whatever”!

This client’s list of requirements was even longer than the hypothetical client Sun Guanyun had previously mentioned.

Eventually, the tasting event ended due to an emergency with the shrimp at Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant.

Many people expressed that if there was another tasting event tomorrow, they would come again, not just for a single shrimp, but because having a chef who could customize sauces according to the customer’s taste was a very good feeling.

Many said that having been customers for so many years, it was the first time they felt like gods.

Serving these ‘gods,’ Jiang Feng also felt great. He rarely asked others directly how his cooking tasted; most often, the person he asked was Sir, from whom he’d usually get a good scolding. Today, being praised in various ways by so many different people, Jiang Feng felt truly elated.

He now understood why when Wu Minqi was young, she used to run around asking customers for their feedback.

Being praised by so many people, even getting scolded in the end was worth it!

After a day’s practice, Wang Xiulian said they could get fresh shrimp early the next morning. Although she was always frugal, she never scrimped on Jiang Feng’s cooking practice, embodying the spirit of parents not skimping on their children’s education no matter how poor they are.

“Tonight, come up with three sauces, align them, and no matter what the customers say their preferences are, use these three sauces,” Sun Guanyun left Jiang Feng with this homework and departed.

Three sauces.

Jiang Feng pondered, it didn’t seem quite enough..