The Game Of Life

When Jiang Feng saw them acting like customers naturally, he was speechless.

They should"ve majored in acting instead.

The first customer of the night was the girl with her boyfriend from lunch time. But this time she came alone without her boyfriend.

"Give me a serving of Braised Pork Intestine," the girl ordered and sat down by the window seat. "Is the Sour Prune Juice still free?"

"Sorry, we ran out of juice," Jiang Feng apologized. "We"re giving out free congee instead. Pork Congee with Preserved Egg or Black Rice Congee?"

"Black Rice Congee!" the girl immediately replied. "And a bowl of rice too."

Upon hearing the girl"s order, Liu Zixuan couldn"t help but stare at her for her huge appet.i.te.

The girl noticed Liu Zixuan"s stare and asked, "Are you guys students from A University too?"

Liu Zixuan nodded.

"The food here is excellent, right? Too bad it"s a little expensive," the girl started a conversation with them.

"Not at all," Liu Zixuan smiled. "This restaurant belongs to our club president"s family. They bought the whole shop, and now they are seriously in debt."

"Your club president? Which club are you in?" the girl asked out of curiosity.

"Chinese Chess," Liu Zixuan replied and came up with an idea. "Do you want to join us? Members can get a discount here… How much was it again?"

"10%," Jiang Feng answered as he came out with a bowl of Black Rice Congee. "Members of the Chinese Chess Club can get a 10% discount."

There were only eight members in the club in total. The only freshman they had managed to sway into the club the year before was Liu Zixuan. Since there weren"t many activities going on in the club most of the time, they would just gather to have a chat or have a friendly match. Their club never gained any reputation on the campus nor won any compet.i.tions.

They needed more members if they wanted the club to survive.

"Really? Let me introduce myself first! I"m Liu Qian, I major in Chinese Language and Literature," the girl quickly introduced herself. "Can I add you on WeChat? I"ll fill in the form for the club in a day or two."

"Do you know how to play?" Jiang Feng asked. Even if they lacked members, there was no way they could recruit a person who did not have experience playing chess.

"Of course! I play with my dad all the time!" Liu Qian replied.

"Good! Welcome to the Chinese Chess Club! I"m the president, Jiang Feng," Jiang Feng introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you. I"m the vice-president, Qiu Chen," Qiu Chen came over to introduce himself too when he overheard the conversation.

"I"m Liu Zixuan."

"Zhao Yang."

"Zhao Yu."

The other three introduced themselves too.

"Hey, Zhao Yu, get our new member her application form," Qiu Chen ordered.

"Oh, right!" Zhao Yu smiled embarra.s.sedly and took out a form and pen for Liu Qian.

"…"

Liu Qian was rendered a little speechless. She wondered what kind of club would actually have application forms with them all the time.

After Liu Qian had filled up the form under Qiu Chen"s "supervision," she finally set her eyes on the congee.

Liu Qian rarely ate congee and chose the Black Rice Congee because it was sweet. She didn"t know much about congee either. All she could tell from the look of the congee was that it looked tasty. The rice was sticky, and the sweet aroma was evident.

Liu Qian ate one spoonful, and the congee slid down her throat. The congee wasn"t hot but warm. Oats were added into the congee to give it another texture and sweetness.

"President! How much is a bowl of Black Rice Congee?" Liu Qian asked after finishing the bowl of congee in seconds.

"10 dollars. It comes with a side dish," Jiang Feng answered.

"Then, get me a bowl. No, wait. Two bowls!"

"Do you still want your rice, then?"

"Of course!"

All four of Jiang Feng"s friends turned to look at Liu Qian at the same time.

Liu Zixuan then helped Jiang Feng take the empty bowl into the kitchen so that he could sneak a few bowls of congee for himself.

Customers began to visit their restaurant after half-past five. Since giving a free bowl of congee was much more appealing than a cup of Sour Prune Juice, half of the customers were attracted by the promotion. Only a few were customers who came for a second round due to the expensive pricing. If they were to dine at Healthy Restaurant every day, they would have to up their food expenses by at least three times.

Since the customers were slowly increasing, Qiu Chen and three other Chinese Chess Club members halted their act and started helping out.

Business for dinner was better than in the afternoon. As the first floor was fully seated, customers who arrived later were guided to the second floor. The restaurant was busy until it closed at nine.

"Thank you for your help, everyone," Jiang Jiankang smiled as he served the club members" food. "I didn"t expect so many customers to show up. Thank G.o.d, you guys were here."

"No worries at all!" Qiu Chen smiled as he munched on a pork rib. "We can be here to help every day if needed."

Jiang Jiankang was a person who treated his own food with extra care. He would sometimes over-season or under-season foods for the customers, but the food for himself was always prepared perfectly.

Since Jiang Jiankang sold a piece of pork hock during lunch, he treated the other one as if it was his treasure. He braised the meat over low heat for hours, making sure that the meat was tender and flavors reached into every nook and cranny.

After the students who helped out tasted the pork hock, it was as if they"d found their heaven. They wanted to stay in the restaurant for the rest of their life.

Liu Zixuan then suddenly had an idea.

"Hey, did anyone apply for the part-time job?" Liu Zixuan asked Jiang Feng.

"No," Jiang Feng shook his head. There was no way he would get a reply just after a few hours of posting the hiring ad.

"Then, why not just hire the four of us?" Liu Zixuan suggested. "We can help with everything, from cleaning to food delivery. And, get this, you don"t have to pay us! You just have to feed us lunch and dinner. I"ll definitely be here as soon as the cla.s.s ends. How about it?"

After tasting Jiang Jiankang"s food, there was no way Liu Zixuan would want to dine in the canteen again.

The other three nodded in agreement too.

"Sure thing. I"ll include breakfast too. That"s it if you are willing to come in the morning," Jiang Feng accepted the proposal. "I"ll still need to hire someone else with an emptier schedule. There"s no way you guys could help out 24/7 with your busy schedules."

The Physics course of A University was famous for its abundance of cla.s.ses per semester.

"Oh, right," Jiang Feng suddenly thought of something and asked. "Hao"zi, did you check your schedule? What cla.s.s do you have tomorrow?"

"Wait, let me check," w.a.n.g Hao said and checked his phone. "I have three periods of Signals and Systems in the morning. Professor Li"s cla.s.s. And at noon… Oh my G.o.d! It"s the Electromagnetism taught by our dean! I failed his cla.s.s last semester… Looks like I"m going to fail this too…"

w.a.n.g Hao quickly took a bite of the pork hock to console himself.

After dinner, w.a.n.g Hao and the rest went back to the dorm while Jiang Feng stayed back to help Jiang Jiankang clean. w.a.n.g Xiulian was tapping away on the calculator in charge of sorting out the turnover since she had a degree in Accounting and Finance.

"Oh, boy!" w.a.n.g Xiulian exclaimed. "If we can get turnovers like this every day, we can pay back our debt before the year ends."

"How much did we earn?" Jiang Jiankang asked out of curiosity.

"After deducting the costs, 11 thousand," w.a.n.g Xiulian replied. "Big cities sure are different. How many days would we have to work our a.s.s off just to earn this much back at home?"

Jiang Feng never knew that his family restaurant could actually earn this much. His jaw was already on the floor.

It was at that moment Jiang Feng realized his grandfather was right. Being a chef was better than being an engineer.