The Game of Life

Compared to cooking proper dishes, making pig feed was much quicker. If he felt like practicing his knife skills, he’d carefully chop the ingredients; if not, he’d just roughly dice them up. Mix all sorts of ingredients together, stir-fry with a bit of seasoning—whether fried, steamed, boiled, or grilled, Da Hua would devour them all and give Jiang Feng a considerable amount of experience in return.

So you could say, Da Hua is a good comrade.

After preparing Da Hua’s pig feed, Jiang Feng turned his attention to the two large sacks of crabs that were placed in the corner.

Earlier, when outside, Jiang Feng thought that Chen Suhua meant plastic bags when she mentioned two bags of crabs, only to learn after entering the kitchen that the bags she referred to were burlap sacks.

Was Professor Li’s student in the aquaculture business?

Jiang Feng figured that with that many crabs, even if the whole Jiang Family mobilized, it’d take two to three days to finish them all.

With both crabs and oranges at hand, Jiang Feng felt he should at least make Crab-Stuffed Oranges before leaving; after all, having taken so many crabs from Professor Li, he felt obliged to leave something nice behind.

Based on yesterday’s experience of making Grade B Crab-Stuffed Oranges, Jiang Feng deduced that the optimal steaming time for Crab-Stuffed Oranges should be between five and five and a half minutes. As for the exact best timing down to the second, and whether he could accurately time it to the second—that would depend on continual practice and accumulation from now on.

The preliminary steps were done by Cao Guixiang following Master Peng’s method, and Jiang Feng had confidence in the abilities of both Cao Guixiang and Master Peng. Therefore, the only way to make Grade A Crab-Stuffed Oranges was to figure out the best steaming time.

Jiang Feng used a stopwatch this time, but after steaming, he always felt something was off—like the Crab-Stuffed Oranges he made were strange and soulless.

Chinese chefs trust their instincts a lot, and right now Jiang Feng’s biggest issue was not being able to find that feeling.

He had a good feeling when picking crab meat and prepping the oranges initially, but as soon as the oranges went into the steamer, the feeling disappeared.

Practice was still needed.

Thinking this, Jiang Feng walked out carrying four Crab-Stuffed Oranges.

One for each of them—himself, Professor Li, Chen Suhua, and Da Hua. As Da Hua’s nominal owner, and not having visited for so long, it was only right to compensate with some good food.

Professor Li was still lying on the lounge chair, browsing his phone, exemplifying the term ‘internet-addicted elderly’. Da Hua, who had been chased into the pigsty for a meal earlier, had taken the opportunity to get bathed by Chen Suhua, and now lay clean and tidy on the ground, watching “Peppa Pig” on TV with Chen Suhua.

Approaching with the Crab-Stuffed Oranges, Jiang Feng could still smell the scent of Da Hua’s body wash—a lime fragrance.

For a moment, Jiang Feng thought of lime juice with Roasted Pig.

Other than playing Mahjong, Chen Suhua had few hobbies, and unlike Professor Li, who was adept at amusing himself in the digital world, she had no children or grandchildren to entertain and spent her days idly, passing time with Mahjong and housework.

Raising Da Hua could be considered her second spring in life.

Seeing Chen Suhua seated and Da Hua lying on the ground, both focused on “Peppa Pig” on the screen, Jiang Feng actually found the scene very harmonious, even reminiscent of a grandmother peacefully watching cartoons with her grandchild.

Considering pigs’ intelligence is comparable to a human child of a certain age, and Da Hua was no ordinary pig—he was a pig who had awakened and could give Jiang Feng experience points for leveling up—rounding up a bit, Da Hua and a child really weren’t all that different.

So it was technically accurate to say Chen Suhua raising Da Hua was like raising a grandson.

By that logic, Chen Suhua watching “Peppa Pig” with her grandson was also on point.

On TV, Peppa Pig was humming along with her little brother George, while Da Hua lay motionless outside the TV, as Jiang Feng placed the Crab-Stuffed Oranges on the table and enthusiastically invited Professor Li and Chen Suhua to eat.

“This is Crab-Stuffed Orange?” Professor Li adjusted his glasses.

Chen Suhua lifted the top off the orange and confirmed confidently, “It’s Crab-Stuffed Orange alright, the same one your student took us to eat years ago.”

Professor Li used facts to prove to Jiang Feng the benefits of having a widespread reputation.

Chen Suhua and Professor Li each picked up a crab-stuffed orange and slowly began to eat. Jiang Feng picked through the plate and chose one that was slightly overdone and a bit too broken down, placing it in front of Da Hua.

Da Hua, a pig that would never reject food, sniffed the orange in front of him and gradually stood up, gobbling it down in one bite.

“Ding, 999 experience points gained.”

Jiang Feng: …

The pig is a good pig; it just has a rather large mouth.

After finishing the orange, Jiang Feng continued to chat with Professor Li and Chen Suhua for a while. The conversation went smoothly as Jiang Feng managed to talk about mahjong with Chen Suhua while also discussing humorous incidents from years past at UAL University with Professor Li. If it weren’t for the fact that it was getting late and Jiang Feng needed to rush back to Taifeng Building, the three of them probably could have talked until midnight without pause.

The afternoon’s activities concluded successfully, and Jiang Feng managed to make 4 crab-stuffed oranges and even brought home two sacks full of crabs.

Carrying the crabs back to Taifeng Building, Jiang Feng became the most eye-catching figure there; even the kitchen staff and the lobby attendants suspected that Jiang Feng had gone out to procure supplies that afternoon.

Jiang Feng gave Mrs. Wang Xiulian a brief explanation of where the crabs came from, and Mrs. Wang Xiulian’s eyes began to sparkle at the sight of them. After all, free things always looked pleasant, sumptuous, delicious, and made her think of all sorts of crab dishes such as steamed crab, spicy crab, mala crab, drunken crab…

Jiang Feng suspected that Mrs. Wang Xiulian might already be searching her mind for 17 different ways to cook crab.

“Tonight’s staff meal will include a dish of spicy crab—have your dad make it,” Mrs. Wang Xiulian decided with finality.

“Mom,” Jiang Feng felt it was time to discuss with Mrs. Wang Xiulian the idea of Taifeng Building regularly stocking up on crabs. “I’ve been practicing a new dish recently that requires crabs. What do you think…?”

“What new dish are you practicing now?” Wang Xiulian frowned, sensing that the matter wasn’t so straightforward.

Her son had been practicing new dishes at a quite frequent rate these past few months, and most crucially, no one knew where Jiang Feng was learning them from—neither of the old men had taught him.

“Crab-stuffed orange. It combines fruit and crab; it’s healthy, beautifying, and nourishing. I’ll deliver it to you tonight after I finish making it,” Jiang Feng offered eagerly.

Wang Xiulian nodded subconsciously in agreement, then felt she couldn’t indulge her son’s inconsistency—picking up this and that on a whim. The tasks the two old men had set for him, like mastering sea cucumber dishes, were yet to be completed, and yet here he was, learning some messy new dishes.

“Son, you have to focus in whatever you do, just like your mom—when it’s time to diet, I diet; when it’s time to eat, I eat. You can’t just give up learning one thing halfway through. Your task right now is to learn cooking properly with your grandpa and Granduncle Weiming. There’s plenty of time to learn other dishes later,” Mrs. Wang Xiulian began her ideological education with Jiang Feng. “That crab-stuffed orange thing should be made earlier, and don’t bother if it gets too late. Eating after half-past ten isn’t good for the body.”

“Alright, Mom, I’ll make sure to deliver it before half-past ten,” Jiang Feng responded.

Mrs. Wang Xiulian nodded in satisfaction and continued with her affairs. Jiang Feng was about to change clothes and head to the kitchen when he suddenly remembered something very important he hadn’t done yet.

He hadn’t placed an order for the mooncakes from Eight-treasure House.

Jiang Feng checked—the Eight-treasure House stopped delivering after nine o’clock, so if he wanted mooncakes, he needed to order early.

Taifeng Building wasn’t too far from Eight-treasure House. If the delivery guy was fast enough, the mooncakes should arrive still warm, hardly different from freshly baked.

With that in mind, Jiang Feng decisively opened his phone to place an order, filling in the delivery address of the 24-hour convenience store next door.

After all, Jiang Feng was the boss of Taifeng Building; if he were to procure from the competition, he had to do it secretly.

Also, could the boss’s actions really be considered procuring from the competition?

That’s called scouting the enemy.