The Game Of Life

Jiang Weiguo returned to his hometown ahead of time. There were three days left before Jiang Feng resumed schooling. The reason was simple. He was worried about the precious pigs he reared.

"Dad, Mom will take care of those pigs. You can just live here without any worries! If third brother"s house is not comfortable, you can come to my house." Jiang Jiandang attempted to get him to stay longer at the station. Tears welled up in his eyes when he thought of the good days of having the old master"s dishes crossed his mind.

"No, that won"t do. Your mother can"t cook pig feed. I saw the picture she sent me yesterday, the pigs are growing thinner with her food." 

Jiang Weiguo took out his mobile phone with heartache as he showed Jiang Jiandang a picture with three fat and plump pigs barely squeezed into it. "They are used to eating the pig feed cooked by me."

Two lines of tears cut across Jiang Jiandang"s pudgy face.

"Xiao Feng, practice your culinary skills even when you"re in school, don"t neglect them. I read the news some time ago about how you college students like cooking in dormitories, right? Learn more, practice cutting some vegetables and the Faire Sauter technique when you have the time." 

After Jiang Weiguo had finished speaking, he took his newly bought set of knives and boarded the small coach that headed back to his hometown.

"Xiao Feng, learn how to cook well and live up to your grandfather"s teachings." Said Jiang Jiandang as he wiped the tears off his face.

If he ever dared to cook in the dormitory, the dormitory supervisor would be the first to chop him up.

He"d probably use the roll cut technique to chop him up into 10 or 20 pieces.

Chen Xiuxiu"s school resumed two days earlier than Jiang Feng"s, and she booked the tickets for the next day. In order to express his unwillingness for his neighbor to resume lessons and to gain experience points more conveniently, Jiang Feng personally prepared a table of dishes for Chen Xiuxiu.

Jiang Jiandang and his wife were not interested in Jiang Feng"s dishes. Jiang Jiandang"s cooking skills were possibly a little higher than Jiang Feng"s.

w.a.n.g Xiulian, who had eaten meals made by the old master himself for over a dozen days, also expressed her disdain for the dishes cooked by her son. She used the excuse that Jiang Jiankang"s shop was busy to get out of eating.

The shop wasn"t that busy when the old master was there, but it started becoming busy out of the blue when he left.

Chen Xiuxiu was the only guest who had come to taste Jiang Feng"s craftsmanship.

There were five dishes and a bowl of soup, all of them home-made dishes.

Stir-fried cauliflower, scrambled egg with tomato, cabbage with vinegar, chinese cuc.u.mber salad, laver egg drop soup, and the most difficult dish - braised shrimp.

It looked good, because of the descriptions provided by the game, Jiang Feng knew that among the six dishes, the chinese cuc.u.mber salad was the best, he had accidentally seasoned the scrambled eggs with tomatoes with too much salt.

After all, practicing his knife work for the past two weeks was not for nothing!

Chen Xiuxiu had discerning eyes that could tell greatness from mediocrity. She extended her chopsticks towards the chinese cuc.u.mber salad first.

She pried off a small piece of cuc.u.mber with her chopsticks and brought it to her mouth.

"Ding, gained three experience points."

Jiang Feng: ...

You have changed. You used to give me nine experience points even when you just had corn kernels.

Chen Xiuxiu"s taste, that had been pampered by Jiang Weiguo for a dozen days, had become picky. The experience points awarded for each dish was about one or two points. She had adopted the stinginess of Jiang Jiankang, and no longer had the style of giving him more than 30 experience points when drinking his congee.

Chen Xiuxiu"s University was located in S City, S Province, where the cost of living was so high that even A city could not compare with it.

Considering that the tastes of the people in S Province were different from that of the local people, Jiang Feng brushed aside his unwillingness and stuffed a jar of chili sauce that had been marinated by the old master himself into the hands of Chen Xiuxiu.

Chen Xiuxiu happily finished the second half of the meal with the chili sauce mixed into white rice.

Jiang Feng, who had lost a jar of chili sauce but didn"t get experience points, tapped the control panel with grief.

Chen Xiuxiu had just given him the remaining experience points needed to promote him to level 5. Jiang Feng clicked on the level up b.u.t.ton.

"Ding, congratulations to the player on reaching level 5 and completing the beginners" tutorial."

"Reward: Appraisal (Intermediate)."

"The game shall start the update. After the update, the functions to explore skills and upgrade skills shall be unlocked in the game."

An update?

The game is quite up to date.

Jiang Feng tried to open the control panel again, but the only thing he saw was the progress bar.

Update Progress: 0%

It might be that the earth was a little far away, causing the network speed to be slow.

After an hour later, the update progress was only at 2%.

Jiang Feng: ...

No wonder people referred to Earth as a global village, the speed of the network in a village was slow.

Since the game was updating, Jiang Feng decided to go help out in the store.

All the old customers knew that Jiang Feng"s small shop was moving away so business was booming these days. Regardless of the time, the shop was packed full of people from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m, even during non-meal hours.

At noon the next day, when Jiang Feng went to help, he heard an old customer of 20 years lament: "We will never be able to find such a delicious restaurant like yours around here again."

The small Z City was not without good cooks, but the only other chef of a 30-year-old restaurant in the city had better culinary skills than Jiang Jiankang. The restaurant had been developed into a hotel, and the price of dishes there was more than several times higher than that of Healthy Restaurant.

There was a period of time in the past when it had been popular to promote the local unknown but very delicious small shops. Healthy Restaurant appeared the most frequently on the list. 

During that time, Jiang Feng was out delivering meals every day and his skin had tanned more than a shade darker. Those who didn"t know would"ve thought that he had gone to the construction site to move bricks diligently.

To be honest, Jiang Jiankang was also reluctant to part with these old customers.

Back then, Jiang Jiankang had lost his job when the state-owned hotel had closed down, his iron rice bowl had vanished, and it felt as if the sky had collapsed. He and w.a.n.g Xiulian had emptied their savings and bought this storefront to start this little restaurant. At the very beginning, if it wasn"t for the support of these old customers, Jiang Jiankang would have been so poor that he would have had to beg for food on the bridge.

It would have been impossible for him to save a sum of money to open a hotel in A city like this.

Today was the last operating day of Healthy Restaurant. It was originally planned to stay open for another two days. However, as a result of the old master returning to his hometown in advance, Jiang Jiankang and w.a.n.g Xiulian had also decided to go to A city in advance.

The new store was opening for business soon, and it was best for them to familiarise themselves with their surroundings.

On the last night of business, Jiang Jiankang invited and treated all the old customers and old neighbors of Healthy Restaurant to dinner. The shop could not sit so many people, so they had tables set up outside the shop. Almost all the shopkeepers in this street were old acquaintances of Jiang Jiankang"s, and they were old friends. Knowing that this was the last operating day of Healthy Restaurant, they all freed up the s.p.a.ces in front of their own shops. Many shopkeepers had lent out tables, chairs, and benches as well. Several shopkeepers had even lent out their own dishes and chopsticks.

Tables, chairs, and benches of different specifications and colors covered the entire street.

Jiang Jiankang was in the back kitchen. He had been working non-stop from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Plates of Shandong cuisine were brought out by Jiang Feng like running water.

Jiang Feng had an impression of almost all 34 tables of guests present.

Only then did a sudden realization hit Jiang Feng, unbeknownst to him, Healthy Restaurant had already gained so many frequent customers.

At 11 o"clock, the last table had left.

Jiang Jiankang was tired and sweaty. His oversized shirt had long since been soaked in sweat. He sat under the ceiling fan in the shop and enjoyed the cool relief.

Jiang Feng and w.a.n.g Xiulian cleaned up the tables, chairs, bowls, and chopsticks, they cleaned them up and sent them back to their owners, with a note of grat.i.tude.

It was already past midnight when they were done with their ch.o.r.es. There was no nightlife in Z city, so there were no other lights shining on the street except for the few street lights.

Jiang Jiankang stood in front of the store, sighed as he gazed at the old and damaged sign, and brought it down.

He had not intended to sell or rent the shop, it would be fine to let it just stay here.

Since then, Healthy Restaurant no longer existed in Z city.

"Son!"

"Yes."

"Learn from your grandfather properly, then take in some apprentices, start a chain store, and when we come back from A city, we"ll open a bigger store!"

"Chain store?"

"I"ve even thought of the name already. It shall be called the Health Restaurant!"

"..."