The Game Of Life

Ever since his son started to cook, he was both in pain but happy at the same time. This was due to Jiang Feng not having any interest in cooking in the past. The only time that Jiang Feng had any decent training was before the ninth grade. There was once a time where Jiang Jiankang gave up counting on his son to continue the tradition of the Jiang family.

But Jiang Feng"s sudden interest in making congee made him find new hope.

But… why congee?

Jiang Jiankang asked himself. He couldn"t see his son, a member of the Jiang family, having congee as his signature dish.

Jiang Jiankang has been eating congee as dinner for the past few days. It felt like he had chucked down a lifetime"s worth of congees into his gut.

After taking a sniff, Jiang Jiankang could tell it was minced pork congee with preserved egg.

At least there"s meat in it.

Jiang Jiankang sighed and scooped a bowl for himself.

Times were different. Now that they were in debt, they would have to cut down expenses to pay the debt off.

Wait… This taste…

Jiang Jiankang exclaimed as his eyes shot wide open.

This… this is as good as big bro"s food.

Even though the flame was too high when Jiang Feng made the congee, the ratio of all the ingredients was on point. Jiang Jiankang could tell that it was made through experience and not from some random recipe found online.

There was a hierarchy system for cooking skills in the Jiang family. Jiang Weiguo was at the top of the hierarchy, with Jiang Jiankang following behind him. Jiang Feng"s four other uncles were on the third level. As for Jiang Feng, he was on the fourth. All his nephews and nieces didn"t even have the right to be on the ranks.

Yet, the congee that Jiang Feng made today pushed him up a level. He was now on par with Jiang Jianguo, who was the worst cook amongst the siblings.

He finally made it!

Jiang Jiankang couldn"t help but sigh with emotion.

"Son!" Jiang Jiankang called for his son as he ran towards Jiang Feng"s room.

Jiang Feng was lying on his bed with the system screen on. When Jiang Jiankang suddenly burst the door open, he almost fell from his bed.

"I"m going to teach you to cook!" Jiang Jiankang announced. All he wanted at that moment was to teach all he knew to Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng looked at his dad with a big question mark over his head.

What the h.e.l.l, dad? It"s 11 pm now!

Jiang Feng then spent the next few minutes persuading his dad to have his dinner first. He didn"t even have the chance to turn the screen off, and it was making him dizzy.

Jiang Jiankang gulped down the whole pot of congee while smiling the whole time. The commotion managed to attract w.a.n.g Xiulian"s attention even though she had a night mask on.

Even though it was the biggest night mask on the market, w.a.n.g Xiulian still had to squeeze her face to try and fit into it.

w.a.n.g Xiulian frowned and asked, "What"s wrong with your dad now?"

"He said he wants to teach me how to cook," Jiang Feng replied.

w.a.n.g Xiulian sighed and patted Jiang Feng on his head. But the pats from her were strong enough to make Jiang Feng dizzy.

"With the sudden debt we owe now, your dad has his own worries. You should just stop cooking congee. Look at how much weight your dad has lost."

Jiang Feng looked at Jiang Jiankang. His body was still huge, and his chin was big enough to touch the top of his chest.

Jiang Feng then noticed he could see a small portion of Jiang Jiankang"s neck showing.

Jiang Feng couldn"t help but nod at how hard his dad"s life was.

"You"re right, mom. Don"t worry. I"ve asked my friend to help advertise our new shop."

"Now, that"s my son!" w.a.n.g Xiulian laughed and went back to her bedroom.

"Ding! Achievement: Hard Worker gained."

"Ding! Secret Quest: To Pa.s.s on Knowledge found."

With the system message sounding in his ears, Jiang Feng hurried back to his room.

His information had changed.

Achievement:

Diligent and Inquisitive (no additional attributes)

Humble in Learning (no additional attributes)

Hard Worker (no additional attributes)

Available Secret Quest: To Pa.s.s on Knowledge (Accept/Decline)

t.i.tle: None

Item: None

Rating: Beginner

After touching on the "Accept" b.u.t.ton, a new section appeared in the side quest section.

Secret Quest: (Only activates under specific prerequisite)

[To Pa.s.s on Knowledge]: The biggest regret of Jiang Weiguo was his five useless sons that did not possess the talent to inherit his cooking skills. Then those five useless sons had four other useless sons. Make a dish that Jiang Weiguo acknowledges. Progress: (0/1)

Reward: Unknown

As one of the useless sons, Jiang Feng could only stare at the screen speechlessly.

Jiang Feng never knew that his grandfather had such a dream.

Jiang Feng could remember the story that his grandfather told him when he was younger and was learning under him during a school break. The story was as follows. The dishes made by the Jiang family were handed down through generations. It was even told that some of the Jiang ancestors were chefs for emperors. Before the war with j.a.pan began, Jiang Feng"s great-grandfather, Jiang Chengde, pushed the fame of Jiang cuisine to its peak.

Before Jiang Chengde took over the helm, the Jiang cuisine was always part of the Shandong cuisine. During his prime, the boss of the restaurant that Jiang Chengde worked at moved the restaurant to Beiping (now Beijing) and hired chefs from all four biggest cuisines in China. Jiang Chengde took a chance and incorporated cooking skills from other cuisines and made his own genre.

He achieved what the ancestors of the Jiang family always dreamt of.

Jiang Weiguo had 6 other older brothers. Every one of them was a great chef, so profoundly known that they were invited to cook for imperial dinners.

 But before Jiang Weiguo could learn everything from his father, Jiang Chengde and all six of Jiang Weiguo"s brothers died in the war.

The legacy was cut off from then.

Before the seventh grade, Jiang Feng always thought that Jiang Weiguo was just boasting until he first tasted canteen food.

Since Jiang Feng only ate foods made by Jiang Weiguo or Jiang Jiankang, he couldn"t help but exclaim at how bad the food was.

To Jiang Feng, canteen food was worse than the foods Jiang Jiankang made for pigs.

Yet, his friends were enjoying canteen food as if it was delicious.

It was then Jiang Feng realized how lucky he was to be born into the Jiang family.

From that day onwards, Jiang Feng put his great-grandfather at the same level as a celestial being in his mind.

The only thing that Jiang Weiguo always wished for was to find another person like Jiang Chengde to carry forward the Jiang cuisine to another level.

Jiang Feng couldn"t help but exclaim at the dream that Jiang Weiguo had.

The only problem was that Jiang Weiguo was now raising gra.s.s-fed pigs by the countryside. There was no way he had the time to teach his grandson how to cook.

It was impossible.