The Game of Life

Translator: 549690339

By the time Jiang Feng had finished washing the pig and returned to the kitchen, Wu Minqi had already chopped most of the vegetables, arranging them on plates, except she was having trouble with the potatoes.

“Does Da Hua prefer potato cubes, slices, or shreds?” Wu Minqi asked.

Jiang Feng:…

That was indeed a problem.

After some thought, Jiang Feng said, “Just cut them into cubes. It’s quicker that way. Besides, once my grandma arrives this evening, we still need to go out for dinner. Let’s just prepare one meal for it for both lunch and dinner.”

Wu Minqi nodded and started cutting the potatoes.

Jiang Feng fired up the wok to cook.

He hadn’t fed Da Hua since winter break and didn’t know how many experience points he would receive from a single bite; he was only level 21 now needing 210,000 experience points to level up. In the three months since the last game update, Jiang Feng had scraped together just over 300,000 experience points. The main reason was that the patrons of Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant had become spoiled by the random drops of the chef’s nurturing and were getting harder to fool, which meant his experience was accumulating slower and slower.

Once the Taifeng Building opened and Jiang Feng became the chef on the first floor, one could only imagine how slow his experience accrual would be He would have to rely on Da Hua to level up.

In just one winter break, Da Hua had managed to gobble up nearly a million experience points. Surely it was a very easy-to-please pig!

After Wu Minqi finished chopping, she joined Jiang Feng in cooking, attempting to split the experience points that were about to fall into Jiang Feng’s lap. Although it pained him, seeing how eager she was, Jiang Feng let her share.

One day’s worth of experience points wouldn’t be missed too much.

Zhong Sheng had even prepared the bucket for the pig’s feed, along with three extras for easy washing. The dishes cooked separately by Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi were placed in their respective buckets. Both were skilled workers, and in less than half an hour, Da Hua’s meal for the day was ready to go.

“May I feed the pig?” Wu Minqi asked excitedly.

She had never fed an animal before; Wu Family Restaurant sometimes prepared ive animals, but since they were always meant to be killed, she was never allowed to feed them.

“Let’s go together,” said Jiang Feng, lifting the bucket in front of him, while Wu Minqi picked up the other bucket and they headed towards the pigpen. Da Hua, now squeaky clean, was grunting hungrily in the pigpen. Jiang Feng lifted his bucket to show Wu Minqi, “Just do as I do, pour the feed into the trough, Da Hua will eat on its own.”

Wu Minqi nodded.

While Wu Minqi was on tiptoes trying to get a better look at the pig, Jiang Feng turned his back to open the attributes panel and enable the experience value notification sound.

“^Dir|g, gained 99 experience points.”

“Ding, gained 132 experience points.”

“Ding, gained 92 experience points.”

“Ding…”

The dense game notification sounds started ringing in his head.

Jiang Feng was moved to tears, looking at Da Hua in the pigpen who kept burying its head in the feed, so low-key, so simple, so silently giving.

Da Hua was a good comrade!

Although the experience points given each time weren’t much, the sheer volume made up for it!

After feeding the pig, the bond between Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi grew a little deeper. The Li Mansion was a bit far from the small community where the Jiang Family rented their house. Jiang Feng checked the traffic conditions, which were pretty good, so he decided to call a car.

The driver was quite a talker. Seeing Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi, two young people with luggage in tow, he mistook them for tourists and kept introducing them to interesting places in Beiping.

By the way, did you see that restaurant we just passed?” the driver asked. There was only one very noticeable restaurant they had just passed, Taifeng Building. Jiang Feng asked, “Is it that Taifeng Building we passed?” “That’s the one,” the driver said, a mysterious gleam in his eyes. “The person behind it is no ordinary fellow.”

“Huh?” Jiang Feng was puzzled.

“You know where we are, right?” the driver asked.

“The second ring road.”

“This is the commercial area of the second ring, where the land prices are sky- high. That restaurant has been abandoned for many years, and in recent times many people took pictures there, treating it like a historical landmark Suddenly, out of nowhere, it started undergoing renovations, and it’s about to open soon. You tell me, doesn’t that imply the owner behind it is someone big? the driver articulated his logic flawlessly.

Jiang Feng: “…”

He actually couldn’t refute it.

“Pfft,” Wu Minqi couldn’t help but laugh.

Hey, beautiful, what are you laughing at?” the driver asked.

“Nothing much, I just read a joke,” Wu Minqi said with a laugh, looking at Jiang Feng.    °

Bringing Wu Minqi home, Jiang Junlian and Jiang Junqing, who had stayed in the house, immediately became excited. Aunt thought the two sisters were too young to go out alone, and with Jiang Feng out to pick up guests for several hours, the sisters were feeling cooped up.

“Feng, Wu, let’s go out and have fun!” Jiang Junlian was ready to rebel.

Jiang Feng glanced at the time, saw that it was almost four o’clock, and flatly refused.

“Mrs. Jiang will be here for dinner, we are definitely eating together tonight; there’s no time to go out and play.”

The two sisters were on the verge of tears.

Mrs. Jiang’s flight was arriving at six o’clock. Jianguo went to pick her up, while Zaidi had booked a private room at Yonghe House, which was another chance for the Jiang Family to have a big meal to welcome Mrs. Jiang.

Jiang Feng even doubted whether they could eat their way through all the old restaurants in Beiping before the opening.

Poor Jiang Shoucheng had duty today, missing out on the feast.

It was Mrs. Jiang’s first time flying, and she had no discomfort; she even had the leisure and elegance to post photos on her social circle to show off, which triggered her senior sisters group to like and comment.

“That must be Feng’s girlfriend, she’s really pretty!” Mrs. Jiang was seeing Wu Minqi for the first time and spoke with beaming approval, then turned her head and saw her eldest grandson Jiang Zaidi facing the menu with a troubled look.

Because the roasted leg of lamb was sold out, Zaidi was agonizing over whether to order beef shank or five-spice roasted chicken. He wanted to eat both, but was unsure how authentic the sweet and sour mandarin fish was at this restaurant, though the picture was enticing.

Ah, he wanted all three.

Only kids do multiple choices, he had money, he’d take them all!

Waiter, replace the roasted leg of lamb with beef shank; also, I’ll have the five-spice roasted chicken and the sweet-and-sour mandarin fish,” Zaidi handed the menu to the waiter.

Waiter: ???

“Sir, which dish do you want to replace?” the waiter asked.

“I want all three dishes, remember to serve two portions of each, we have two tables,” Zaidi reminded.

“Sir, you’ve already ordered fifteen dishes, and these three are main courses that’s a lot-” the waiter glanced around the private room at the Jiang Family members and immediately changed his tune, “Alright, all three it is. Would you like to order anything else?”

“No need,” Zaidi said, his mother was trying to lose weight; she needed to eat less at dinner.

Mrs. Jiang looked towards Zaidi.

“Zaidi, you’re not young anymore. Feng has a girlfriend now, how come we’ve heard no news on your end? Your dad had you at your age, you… really…” What was supposed to be a pleasant dinner suddenly turned into a large-scale marriage pressure event.

Even the arrival of the dishes wasn’t enough to stop Mrs. Jiang’s mouth.

The dishes at Yonghe House were still excellent, made by an experienced chef with deep skills, especially the sliced braised lamb. Thin and tender slices evenly coated with sauce, the right balance of fat and lean, and the steamed lamb didn’t even have that gamey smell, definitely the work of an experienced chef.

After dinner, sisters Junlian and Junqing excitedly discussed where they would go tomorrow; Jiang Feng didn’t have the heart to tell them they’re not going anywhere.   ^&

Zaide sat to Jiang Feng’s right during dinner and told him that the renovation company called this afternoon to notify that Taifeng Building would be finished by tomorrow morning.

This meant it was time to start taste-testing the dishes.

The two sisters were also going to be drafted by the Sir to practice cooking, becoming free and unqualified kitchen hands.

Since the opening was approaching, the menu needed to be finalized. During dinner, Jiang Feng sent a WeChat message to Ji Xue and Ji Yue asking them to come over in the next few days, especially Ji Xue.

After returning, Jiang Feng showed the tablet to Wu Minqi so she could get familiar with the Ordering System.

Like every member of the Jiang Family, Wu Minqi held the tablet and randomly pressed away; after a long time, she exclaimed, “This ordering program is quite interesting.”

“By the way, I just heard De mention that the construction will be completed tomorrow. When are we going to start tasting the dishes?” Minqi asked.

“It should be in these next few days. The kitchen staff need to get in sync first.

Zhang Guanghang, De, and Cheng have contacted quite a few media reporters food critics, and famous food lovers. We absolutely can’t have any mess-ups on the opening day,” Feng said.

“Is the opening date set?” Minqi asked.

“Yes, July 12th. My mom checked the almanac; it’s a lucky day,” Feng said.

July 12th is suitable for weddings, lighting fires, demolition, sacrifices, prayers for blessings, consecrations, logging, earthworks, starting construction work, trading, issuing certificates, moving in, moving house, setting the bed, buying livestock, and funerals.