The Game of Life

Just like that, Jiang Feng spent two days at home like a salted fish, yet content.

Although somewhat bored, scrolling through social media and listening to radio dramas, with no TV dramas to watch and those crappy games fraught with irritating bugs, it was indeed because of those glitches that, aside from listening to radio dramas, Jiang Feng would casually tap on the Sweet and Sour Yam recipe, watching Jiang Huiqin’s cooking videos over and over, perhaps twenty or thirty times, until he knew every step by heart.

The actual results were, brain: I got it!

Hands: No, you don’t.

The more he watched, the itchier his fingers got to try cooking. Disregarding the bullshit setting that falling in love could enhance the taste of dishes, Sweet and Sour Yam itself was a C-level dish. The game only mentioned that his sugar frying and Sweet and Sour technique was subpar, leading to a high chance of failure during cooking, not that the dish’s level exceeded his cooking skill level like the last time with the chopped pepper fish head. This meant…

His cooking skill level was sufficient to make C-level dishes!

After rounding up, he wasn’t far from the B-level chopped pepper fish head!

Jiang Feng himself didn’t really feel it; both Fire Control and Seasoning had naturally leveled up to advanced after maxing out proficiency, with no profound enlightenment as if doused by sudden insight, and besides, during that time, he was stir-frying potatoes so much he was virtually in a trance, not really sensing any significant improvement in his cooking skills.

However, these past few days, as he cooked, Jiang Feng felt much more adept, even holding the spatula much more comfortably.

It seemed his cooking skills must have improved considerably.

At the end of the summer break, Chen Xiuxiu was only giving experience points in single digits when eating his dishes, maybe ten or so at most. The day before yesterday, just eating a carrot could give over forty experience points. Just by that metric alone, Jiang Feng’s cooking skills had improved fourfold.

Four-fold!

Jiang Feng even felt a bit inflated, thinking that as long as he went back to the countryside to practice sugar frying and Sweet and Sour techniques for a few days, he could easily make Sweet and Sour Yams at Jiang Huiqin’s level.

After watching the Sweet and Sour Yam cooking process one more time before bed, Jiang Feng finally fell asleep satisfied.

At 4 a.m. the next morning, he was woken up by the ring of an incoming call.

“Hello, who is this?” Groggily woken from a deep sleep, Jiang Feng answered the phone in a daze, feeling like he was still dreaming.

“Feng, pack up your things, we’re going to grandpa’s house for the New Year!” Jiang Jianguo said energetically, “Your Auntie and I and Zaide will be downstairs at your place at 4:20 to pick you up, okay!”

“Huh?” Jiang Feng thought he was dreaming.

“Feng, hurry up. We’ll try to get to grandpa’s house by 6:30 this morning while the roads are clear!” Jiang Jianguo hung up the phone.

Jiang Feng put down the phone and collapsed back into bed, drifting for a few more minutes before suddenly waking up with a start, as if seized by a deathbed realization.

Today was the preliminary New Year celebration!

They were heading back to the countryside for Sir’s breakfast!

Apart from this year when Sir exceptionally cooked many meals himself, the Jiang Family’s annual revelry traditionally began on the preliminary New Year celebration and continued all the way to the Lantern Festival. Since everyone was self-employed, they took days off at their own discretion, and the holiday would last as long as Sir was willing to cook.

Jiang Feng felt that if Sir was willing to cook for a year, aside from his dad who might have to open shop as usual because he owed Uncle money, the rest of the uncles would readily give themselves a year off.

Put plainly, apart from his own massive debt, the rest of the Jiang Family wasn’t short of money.

And the food during the New Year is really amazing!

The once-a-year pork dish couldn’t be compared to the various pork dishes Feng had tasted from Da Hua. How could the pork dishes prepared in batches and stored in the freezer match up to a pot of freshly slaughtered pork, cooked all together, organizing the pig from snout to tail?

After quickly washing up and packing his things, Feng appeared lively, dragging his suitcase downstairs just ten minutes later.

As soon as Jianguo’s car arrived, Feng opened the trunk, placed the luggage, closed the trunk, opened the door, got in the car, closed the door – all in one smooth sequence of movements. Within a minute, Jianguo had pressed the gas pedal, and they had set off.

The sky was still dark, with a few dim stars hanging in the night sky. Feng turned to look at his eldest cousin, Zaide, who was also sitting in the back seat. He hadn’t seen Zaide in a long time and noticed that there was indeed less hair on his head, dark circles under his eyes, and a sleepiness that made it unclear whether he had just woken up or was about to go to sleep.

Seeing Feng looking at him, Zaide explained, “Last night, after eleven, that damn client complained again that my design was too natural and needed a modern touch – a combination of nature and fashion that would be striking at first glance. I’ve been revising the design until just now and haven’t slept all night.”

“I’ve revised that design more than twenty times, and every time they find something new to nitpick about,” Zaide said through gritted teeth.

“Why not just refuse the job?” Feng asked, puzzled.

“This job is nearly one hundred thousand.”

Understood – the money made it worthwhile.

At five-thirty, Jiankang sent a message in the WeChat group saying that Sir had already gotten up to start cooking. When Xiulian read the message aloud, Jianguo immediately became anxious and pressed the gas pedal harder, turning the fine SUV into something akin to a bumper car.

“From the photo that our younger brother sent yesterday, I saw in the bottom right corner there was brine, and the second brother bought beef again. Dad didn’t cook beef last night. Dad always makes noodles on the day before the New Year’s Eve; this morning, it’s either beef ramen or beef shaved noodles. If we arrive late and it gets cold, the texture won’t be good,” Jianguo mused, speeding up even more with the speedometer reaching 130, and not forgetting to tell Xiulian, “Send a message in the group asking the fourth and fifth brothers to hurry up as well.”

Feng:…

His uncle’s keen observation was really wasted on being a tailor.

Under Jianguo’s speeding, the group arrived at Sir’s house at 6:20. They found a random spot to park the car, and then almost jogged to the kitchen door.

As Jianguo had predicted, the scent of the braised beef wafted from the kitchen.

Jiankang and Jiandang, both in their forties, sat on stools about a meter from the kitchen door, waiting for their meal as if they were kids, with Jianguo expertly joining them with his own stool.

Xiulian and Mrs. Jiang were washing bed sheets in the backyard, with the aunt joining in to help. After weighing their options of helping or waiting for food, Feng and Zaide each grabbed a stool and joined the waiting ranks.

When Weiming returned from pulling a bunch of green onions from the vegetable garden, what he saw was the scene of four heavy-set and one thin man sitting in a row waiting to be fed.

Jianguo was quick to react, immediately standing up to greet him: “Hello, Granduncle Weiming, I’m Jiang Jianguo.”

“Hello, Granduncle Weiming, I’m Jiang Zaide,” Zaide also responded in kind.

Weiming nodded with a smile, “Big nephew and big grandnephew, right? And Feng, you’ve all arrived really early. Just give it about ten more minutes, and we can start eating.”

Then he headed towards the kitchen. Before entering, Weiming couldn’t help but size up Jianguo’s build, thinking to himself.

No wonder the younger brother once said he was a bit biased towards the oldest nephew. This oldest nephew indeed looks a bit heavier than the second and third nephews.