The Game of Life

Chapter 567: Chapter 565: Who is Your Master? (4th Update!) (Extra for Glint Alliance Hierarch!)

Meeting Master Huang and Zheng Da was Professor Li’s idea.

Although they were not blood relatives, as master and apprentice, they were considered half-relatives. Professor Li didn’t have many relatives besides the Jiang Family Members, and he wished to meet even a half-relative.

Therefore, he set the meeting place at Taifeng Building. Since there weren’t many people, he didn’t book a private room, planning to chat while dining with Master Huang, Zheng Siyuan, and Zheng Da.

Jiang Feng didn’t care much about this matter, nor did he have the time to care. He had been practicing making the flaky pastry at home until 4 a.m. the night before.

Ji Xia, since successfully making the flaky pastry, seemed to have understood a secret martial arts manual, and even if Jiang Feng taught him using the tutorial, he could barely keep up anymore. He had to secretly work overtime behind the scenes to keep ahead of Ji Xia.

Even using the concealer that Wu Minqi lent him to have Wu Minqi apply foundation, it still didn’t cover up the dark circles under his eyes.

“Yo, Jiang Feng, you’ve even put on makeup today. What’s the occasion, going on a date with your girl Qiqi tonight?” Despite the light makeup, Ji Yue immediately spotted the difference.

“What were you up to last night? Committing a burglary? Those dark circles are pretty dark, what time did you go to bed?” Ji Yue asked curiously.

“No date, no burglary, slept at 4.” Jiang Feng yawned.

Ji Yue revealed a knowing smile, “Slept at 4, you wouldn’t happen to be…”

Jiang Feng, now so sleepy that his eyelids were fighting each other, just wanted to head to the kitchen quickly to prepare the ingredients for tonight’s special Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon that the customers ordered, and then sleep in the surveillance room until it was time to cook.

Today, he was only making Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon, and wouldn’t even make Sweet and Sour Yam or pure meat wontons.

“Get rid of those 404 thoughts in your head. Last night I was kneading dough till after 4 in the morning, nearly fell into the dough and suffocated myself.” Jiang Feng yawned again, “I’m not wasting time with you anymore, I’m off to debone the pigeons.”

“Just a reminder, the foundation shade from Qiqi doesn’t quite suit you – it’s obvious at a glance. I have some BB cream and makeup remover in my bag, want me to give you the remover so you can go to the bathroom, take off your makeup, and then put on some BB cream? It’s just as effective.” Ji Yue reminded him.

Jiang Feng: …

“Yes, thanks.”

10 minutes later, Jiang Feng entered the kitchen and started deboning the pigeons listlessly.

Zhang Weiyu, who was closest to Jiang Feng, kept sneaking glances at him because he thought Jiang Feng looked a bit odd today.

“Dong Li.” Zhang Weiyu stopped Dong Li who was about to fish out an eel from the sink, “Don’t you think the young boss’s complexion looks weird today? It’s much paler than usual.”

“It must be from staying up late. Sometimes when I go to bed late, I also wake up with dark bags and a pale face the next day,” Dong Li replied nonchalantly. “But the young boss must have pulled an all-nighter to be so pale. I guess he didn’t sleep at all.”

Jiang Feng, half-asleep while boning the squab, profoundly realized that he truly lacked the talent for staying up late. Compared to those beasts in his university class who could pull an all-nighter studying and still be energetic and bright for an exam the next day, he was just a noob.

Wu Minqi could only help him with half of it, the rest he had to manage on his own.

“Jiang Feng, if you’re really too sleepy, go get some rest. I’ll take care of the rest for you.” After Jiang Feng nearly jabbed a pair of scissors into his own finger while nodding off, Zhang Guanghang finally couldn’t stand it and spoke up.

“Thanks.” Jiang Feng immediately put down the scissors, washed his hands, and took off without a backward glance, leaving the kitchen.

Zhang Guanghang: ?

The joyfully kneading Ji Xia: ?

Jiang Feng, having slept the entire day, came down at noon to finish preparing the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon (which actually only involved thickening the sauce at the end, as the previous steps had been taken care of by Wu Minqi and Zhang Guanghang), spent most of the remaining time sleeping in the surveillance room. He didn’t regain his energy until about half an hour before the evening business started.

Because of this, Jiang Feng got a severe scolding from Sir.

Through this scolding, Jiang Feng deeply realized he couldn’t teach Ji Xia on his own.

No matter how hard he worked himself to death, he couldn’t keep up with Ji Xia’s progress.

Ji Xia needed a better, more outstanding, and more professional master with deeper experience to teach him. Without a doubt, that person was Jiang Jianguo.

Jiang Feng decided to send Ji Xia to Jiang Jianguo’s house tonight to learn how to make flaky pastry. Ji Xia had called Jiang Jianguo master granduncle for so long; it was time to collect some interest.

It was time for the master granduncle to show his true talent.

Jiang Feng said he would not learn any further; the baker’s trade was not for him. Life was more important.

Since Professor Li was coming to dine in the evening, Jiang Weiguo and Jiang Weiming decided to each prepare a dish for him, considering that Professor Li rarely visited Taifeng Building, preferring to stay at home browsing newspapers, reading papers, or looking at his phone and not going out.

“Feng, we’re nearly out of white sugar; go get a box from the storeroom.” Jiang Weiming was preparing sweet and sour carp and discovered there were only two packs of white sugar left in the kitchen.

“Alright, Granduncle Weiming.” Jiang Feng, rejuvenated after sleeping the whole day, still in high spirits even after being scolded for half an hour by Sir, immediately ran off to fetch the white sugar from the storeroom.

Jiang Feng rarely visited the warehouse to find things, and after about 8 minutes of searching, finally found the sugar on the top shelf. With some effort, he carried the sugar down and returned to the kitchen with the box in his arms.

At the entrance, he saw Zheng Da poking his head into the kitchen, looking almost no different from a burglar.

“Master Zheng, you’ve come so early.” Jiang Feng stretched his neck to glance at the table reserved by Professor Li. Seeing that the professor hadn’t arrived yet, he said, “Sir hasn’t come yet, so why don’t you sit and wait at that table by the window, B17.”

“Right, where’s Master Huang? He didn’t go in, did he?” Jiang Feng suspected that Master Huang was already inside fighting with Dong Shi and Dong Li over a frying spatula.

“He’s afraid of heights. I had Siyuan take him to the drugstore to get some medicine; it’ll probably be a while before they return. I came early, so I thought I’d come to the kitchen to have a look. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a proper restaurant kitchen, and I kind of missed it,” Zheng Da explained.

“Afraid of heights?” Jiang Feng was puzzled.

“Today we went to the Great Wall, right? With his old arms and legs, he struggles to walk far, so there’s no way he’s climbing the Great Wall. We took the cable car instead. But who could have guessed that just a two-minute cable car ride would leave him barely able to stand afterwards, with weak knees and almost throwing up,” Zheng Da shook his head, “Can you believe it? Afraid of heights and he still took the cable car, saying he forgot about his acrophobia. Who forgets something like that?”

Jiang Feng: …

“Is Master Huang doing okay now?” Jiang Feng asked with a worried face.

“He felt somewhat better after taking in a bit of fresh air and taking photos on the Great Wall. But then…” Zheng Da let out a deep sigh, “since he can’t climb, he had no choice but to take the cable car back down. What goes up must come down.”

“I feel like going down is more exciting than going up.”

Jiang Feng: …

Okay, he got it.

“Do you want to go inside and have a look?” Jiang Feng asked.

Zheng Da immediately perked up though he pretended to demur, “You all are busy working, and it wouldn’t be right for me to go in right now. I’d just be getting in the way.”

“Just remember to wash your hands, and I believe you know your limits,” Jiang Feng said with a smile, carrying the box inside.

His arms had started to ache from standing and chatting at the door for so long.

Zheng Da followed Jiang Feng inside, looking around curiously, feeling as though he’d returned to a battlefield where he had once strived. He was flooded with a wave of nostalgia.

Upon reflection, he realized it had been decades since he’d seriously done what a chef is supposed to do. The last time he had really baked pastries was 10 years ago, covering for Zheng Siyuan. That was when he arranged a blind date for Zheng Siyuan, who refused to go because he said the pastry shop couldn’t be closed. Annoyed, Zheng Da shooed him off to the date and took over his shift, selling pastries at the entrance to the neighborhood for half a day.

Of course, that blind date didn’t work out. If it had, his grandchildren would be in elementary school by now.

At that thought, Zheng Da sighed sadly.

Then, Zheng Da saw Ji Xia happily kneading dough in the corner.

A few days before, he had seen Ji Xia, but he hadn’t paid much attention then. Seeing her kneading dough now, he grew interested and hurried over to watch.

He had always thought that Taifeng Building didn’t have a white case chef, let alone such a young girl.

Zheng Da stood there, watching Ji Xia knead.

Ji Xia noticed Zheng Da too. Having seen him a couple of days ago, she knew he wasn’t a stranger and didn’t mind his presence, continuing to focus on her dough.

“Young lady, that’s a water-oil dough you’re making, right? What are you planning to make with it?” Zheng Da finally asked after a while. He had watched her for some time and thought that Ji Xia’s basic skills were quite decent. However, it seemed to him that she wasn’t very experienced with water-oil dough and was somewhat blindly going about it.

“Don’t know,” said Ji Xia, for the water-oil dough she made usually ended up boiled with a bit of salt and fed to Da Hua as pig food. She had no idea what else it could be used for.

“Maybe it’s for savory meat mooncakes.”

Zheng Da: ?

So the white case chef at Taifeng Building is this casual with their work?

“If it’s for savory meat mooncakes, the ratio here is a bit off. You’ve added too much warm water. The water-oil dough you’re making this way won’t work. If you use it for savory meat mooncakes, the pastry might not have a good texture once baked,” Zheng Da said.

Hearing this, Ji Xia became displeased. Jiang Feng had just complimented her a moment ago and she was basking in the praise: “Nonsense, my master said I did a great job, and he didn’t say there was anything wrong.”

“Who is your master?” Zheng Da felt he needed to have a word with Ji Xia’s master. What kind of teaching was this? Leading a disciple astray!

“My master is over there!” Ji Xia pointed towards Jiang Feng.

Zheng Da: ?

Seeing Ji Xia pointing at him, Jiang Feng: ?