The Game of Life

Chapter 566: Chapter 564: The Snack Business (3rd Update!) (Extra for Alliance Hierarch Shen Shen Shen Shen Shen Jing!)

Mr. Zheng and Master Huang didn’t really enter, just stood at the door chatting, mainly discussing Zheng Siyuan’s lifelong matter for over ten minutes. They only stopped when Zheng Siyuan, carrying bags big and small of packed pastries, came out.

“Why did you buy so much?” Mr. Zheng was surprised; he had been making pastries all his life but didn’t want to have these sweet and salty pastries for dinner.

It was rare for him to come to Beiping, wasn’t it? Tonight, he wanted to eat Peking duck.

“It’s rare to come here, so I bought a little of everything,” Zheng Siyuan said, “Dad, Master, where do you want to go next?”

“Let’s just go to a nearby place and then go for dinner. Siyuan, let me make it clear to you, your master and I are going to eat Peking duck tonight, ha. You will have to eat these pastries by yourself and don’t force us to eat them,” Mr. Zheng felt the need to say this in advance, “Your master’s legs aren’t great, so if we walk too far, he’ll get tired. Just pick a nearby place to stroll around and that’s enough, then we can go to the Great Wall tomorrow.”

“Oh,” Zheng Siyuan started flipping through his travel guide, looking for the nearest place to start hailing a ride.

Zheng Siyuan’s attention was all on the pastry boxes he was carrying, just thinking about finishing the sightseeing quickly and sitting in the Peking duck restaurant to taste each of the pastries one by one, to see what was different from his own creations at the famous Court pastry shop.

Mr. Zheng was focused on quickly finishing the sightseeing so that he could eat Peking duck and persuade Zheng Siyuan to find a girlfriend in Beiping. This would allow him to both take care of his grandson and earn money, making the money-earning process more comfortable and enjoyable.

Master Huang was somewhat interested in the tourist spots, but due to his legs being not so good, he started to feel pain after walking a few extra steps. He quickly found a place to sit down, waiting for Mr. Zheng and Zheng Siyuan to finish sightseeing before they all went to the Peking duck restaurant.

Under this conviction of preferring to visit the Peking duck restaurant over sightseeing, the three-person tourist group quickly and perfunctorily finished their tour and headed straight to the Peking duck restaurant.

Just as they took their seats, Zheng Siyuan couldn’t wait to open the pastry box and started tasting them one by one.

Seeing Zheng Siyuan indulging in the pastries before the duck was even served, Mr. Zheng said what every parent loves to say to their children, “Eat less now, save it for after the meal, you won’t have room for dinner if you eat too much.”

Would Zheng Siyuan listen to him? Since he was 13, he had started to ignore Mr. Zheng’s words, let alone now that he was over 30. Zheng Siyuan continued to nibble on the peach pastries.

“Are they that delicious?” Mr. Zheng, seeing Zheng Siyuan eating with concentration, asked out of curiosity.

“They’re tastier than the ones you sell,” Zheng Siyuan said, finishing the peach pastry and starting on the milk custard grape pastry.

“Isn’t that stating the obvious? The ones I sell are made by machines; these are handmade. If handmade ones can’t beat the ones made by machines, then all the pastry shops in the world might as well close down and stop embarrassing themselves,” Mr. Zheng replied, “If I made them by hand, they would definitely be better.”

“I haven’t seen you make them, though.”

Mr. Zheng: …

Even though Mr. Zheng had branched out into entrepreneurship, what he actually did was still related to pastries, selling various kinds that could be industrially produced, such as peach pastries, almond pastries, rose pastries, mung bean cakes and, following recent trends, egg yolk pastries.

Originally, Mr. Zheng’s pastry business was limited to Gusu and the surrounding cities; it was virtually unknown in other cities. Although his pastries were produced on an assembly line, the recipes were actually personally refined by him, making them taste a bit better than similar pastries on the market, so his reputation had always been good.

In the past few years, e-commerce had developed rapidly, and Mr. Zheng took advantage of this trend to expand his pastry business. He even began cooperating with some famous restaurants, increasing his earnings rapidly.

As smoothly as his career was going, his family life was equally distressing.

Not convinced, Mr. Zheng picked up a peach pastry, stuffed it into his mouth, and chewed with a surprised expression, “Wow, this is really good. Siyuan, which store is this from, do you have contact information?”

Zheng Siyuan didn’t want to respond and bit into a date cake instead.

“Siyuan, don’t think I’m nagging and don’t resent me for bringing this up. But you really are not getting any younger, you’re almost 40, you should get married, right? If you don’t get married soon, I’m worried I won’t live to see your kids go to college,” Mr. Zheng said earnestly, “Just now outside the pastry shop, your master and I were also talking about it, and your master also thinks you should get married.”

Zheng Siyuan looked toward Master Huang, who pretended to be deeply captivated by his phone, squinting as he stared at the screen, seemingly unsure if he was actually seeing it clearly.

“Dad, I’m only 35, there’s no rush. Didn’t Brother Fang get married at 37?” Zheng Siyuan’s eyes then drifted toward the bean roll pastries.

“Brother Fang got married and has kids now. You don’t even want to date and you’re talking about being 37. If you could get married at 37, I definitely wouldn’t rush you!” Mr. Zheng replied.

Zheng Siyuan: …

“I found a problem with this date cake; when you first take a bite, there’s a slight…”

“Don’t change the subject.”

Zheng Siyuan: …

Zheng Siyuan looked around, wondering if there was anything nearby that could attract Mr. Zheng’s attention so that he would stop focusing on him and start focusing on someone else.

Then Zheng Siyuan saw Ling Guangzhao.

The boss?

Zheng Siyuan was startled, holding the date cake in his mouth and forgetting to swallow.

He used to see Ling Guangzhao only when he left Eight-treasure House, but recently, whenever he left, Ling Guangzhao seemed to be everywhere.

“I’m talking serious business here, stop looking around,” Zheng Da swatted Zheng Siyuan’s hand.

“Dad, I think our boss is over at the next table, the one wearing sunglasses,” Zheng Siyuan pointed to Ling Guangzhao.

Don’t ask why Ling Guangzhao was wearing sunglasses inside a roast duck restaurant in the dead of winter. If you do, the answer’s the bright lights.

“I’ll go over and say hello.” Zheng Siyuan got up to approach, and Zheng Da didn’t stop him, clearly understanding the importance of the encounter.

Zheng Siyuan walked up to Ling Guangzhao, who was absorbed in his phone and hadn’t noticed Zheng Siyuan arriving at his table.

“Mr. Ling, what a coincidence,” Zheng Siyuan said, “Why are you wearing sunglasses today?”

Ling Guangzhao: …

“Ahem, well, the fact is Master Wang, who’s in charge of roasting ducks in our shop, was poached by me from this place a few years ago.” Ling Guangzhao laughed slightly awkwardly.

Zheng Siyuan didn’t see anything wrong with headhunting. It had always been a game of who offers more; his dad had poached plenty of talent in his business days.

“Didn’t expect to see you here for roast duck today. Have you ordered yet? How about joining us at our table?” Zheng Siyuan invited.

“Sure, yeah.” Ling Guangzhao had guessed that Zheng Siyuan and his family would probably come here for dinner tonight, which was precisely why he showed up—he wanted to get to know Zheng Da.

Ever since Ling Guangzhao poached Zheng Siyuan to Eight-treasure House, he had learned a bit about his family, knowing that Zheng Da was in the pastry business and had started collaborating with high-end restaurants in the South over the past few years.

Even though Eight-treasure House’s reputation was built on Zheng Siyuan’s pastries, any collaboration with Eight-treasure House was essentially a collaboration with his own son. Nevertheless, Ling Guangzhao felt that he should at least try. In business, if you can’t make a deal, you can still maintain goodwill. It’s good to make more friends and connections.

“Dad, this is my boss, Ling Guangzhao,” Zheng Siyuan introduced Ling Guangzhao at their table.

Ling Guangzhao looked around and, seeing that the hall manager was quite far away, took off his sunglasses and held his head down.

“Mr. Ling, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you,” Zheng Da said with a smile.

“Mr. Zheng, the pleasure is all mine. I’ve long heard your name and am glad to meet you today,” Ling Guangzhao replied politely.

Once they sat down, they began to chat about this and that, with Master Huang chiming in from time to time. Seeing that his father’s attention had finally been diverted to Ling Guangzhao, Zheng Siyuan continued to happily taste the pastries.

And in his mind, he rated them.

Zheng Siyuan was beginning to miss Jiang Feng.

Over the years, Jiang Feng was the only one willing to sit and listen to his pastry reviews without wandering off. Now, he could only swallow those critiques without being able to share them with anyone else.

Zheng Da was enthusiastically recounting his entrepreneurship journey to Ling Guangzhao, who was listening attentively, occasionally spouting some fabulous flattery.

Zheng Da’s storytelling was in full swing when he was interrupted by Zheng Siyuan.

“Dad, just now I got a WeChat message from Junior Brother Jiang, saying that the son of the Benevolent Doctor and Auntie is going to dinner at Taifeng Building tomorrow night. He’s asking if we want to join; the son wishes to meet us.” Zheng Siyuan read from the message, “Dad, what should I call the son of the Benevolent Doctor and Auntie?”

Zheng Da: …

How would I know? I don’t even know what I should call him.

“If he’s older than your dad, call him ‘uncle,’ if he’s younger, call him ‘younger uncle.’ Don’t worry about seniority, just go by age. If you stress seniority and end up making someone feel old, they might not be pleased,” Master Huang advised with the air of experience.

Zheng Siyuan and Zheng Da both nodded in agreement.

“By the way, Mr. Ling, why don’t we exchange WeChat contacts? It will make it easier to stay in touch if anything comes up,” Zheng Da suggested.

“Of course, feel free to reach out to me anytime.” Zheng Da’s words were music to Ling Guangzhao’s ears.

The two quickly shared WeChat information.

Ling Guangzhao sent Zheng Da a friendly smiley face.

Zheng Da replied to Ling Guangzhao, “If you know of any suitable girls, remember to introduce one to Siyuan, thanks in advance.”

Ling Guangzhao: ?