The Game of Life

22 Chapter 22: Three Sets of Ducks

Editor: Larbre Studio

Ji Yue sipped her black rice porridge with delight, reluctant to put down her bowl after three hearty servings that left Jiang Feng gaping in amazement.

"Senior sister, tell me the truth, how many days has it been since you’ve last eaten?” In Jiang Feng’s memory, Ji Yue’s appetite wasn’t like this.

"I had a little money left, but the boss who commissioned the illustrations hasn’t paid me yet. Your senior sister has been living on plain porridge from Cafeteria 7 for a week.” Ji Yue swiftly tidied everything up, washed the dishes, and took the opportunity to clean the kitchen.

Cafeteria 7 was a discount canteen, whose meals were very cheap due to subsidies: a bowl of plain porridge cost just thirty cents, vegetable dishes were one yuan and twenty cents, and meat dishes two yuan and eighty cents. The corresponding downside was that the taste was hard to swallow.

Aside from being simply unpalatable, there were no other shortcomings.

While Ji Yue cleaned the kitchen and took care of the household waste generated from Jiang Feng’s chopping, he continued to chop vegetables. The Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant never kept vegetables overnight. Regardless of whether they would be needed, they had to be prepared in advance. Unsold veggies ended up as meals for the local stray cats and dogs.

Before long, a rested Jiang Jiankang and Mrs. Wang Xiulian came downstairs from the second floor. Jiang Feng introduced Ji Yue to them, and Mr. Jiang Jiankang expressed a strong welcome.

"Don’t worry, Ji. Although your uncle is broke, I can still provide meals, so feel free to work as long as you want without any psychological burden.” Mr. Jiang Jiankang, burdened with enormous debts, could totally relate to Ji Yue’s current situation. Noticing the styrofoam box in the corner of the kitchen, which was ready to handle meat, his keen eyes caught sight of it immediately.

"Feng, did you get another delivery box this afternoon?” Jiang Jiankang noticed the large

“Delivery” characters on the styrofoam box, poked it a couple of times, tapped it, removed the lid, then placed it back on, appearing very satisfied.

“This box is good, sturdy!”

"We just happened to have a foam box, so I left it in the kitchen,” Jiang Feng lied smoothly.

“Let’s keep it there in case we need it for deliveries later on.”

"Who has that kind of free time for deliveries? By the time the food reaches the customer, it’ll be cold, and the taste will have changed. Don’t do frivolous things like those other shops; we just need to take care of our own store,” Jiang Jiankang clearly did not fancy the idea of making deliveries.

After inspecting the vegetables Jiang Feng had chopped, there were three large plates of carrot shreds and two large plates of carrot slices—probably because carrots were especially cheap at the market today, and Mrs. Wang Xiulian had bought too many.

"We’ll have a special on stir-fried shredded pork with carrots and stir-fried shredded chicken with carrots tonight,” Jiankang said.

Jiang Feng went outside and attached red special offer stickers behind the signs for stir-fried shredded pork with carrots and stir-fried shredded chicken with carrots.

"Jiang Feng, doesn’t your family’s store do deliveries?” Ji Yue was quite surprised.

Being a technical institute, UAL University was brimming with students who lived off delivered food. Not offering delivery would undoubtedly result in the Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant losing a large customer base.

"My dad doesn’t want to lose the platform’s cut of the money.” When the family didn’t have debts, Mr. Jiang Jiankang was already reluctant to let go of that money, let alone now that they were heavily indebted. Jiang Jiankang would certainly not allow the platforms to take advantage of them.

"You guys could start your own WeChat Official Account or Mini Program!” Ji Yue suggested.

“Our Art Institute has its own WeChat Official Account, and we receive small illustration commissions through it. It’s really simple; you just need to find someone from the Computer Science Department to do it, and it won’t cost much.”

"Ding, an optional side quest appears, please choose at your discretion,” the game system’s notification sound echoed in Jiang Feng’s mind, signaling that Ji Yue’s idea was definitely a good one. He nodded,

“I’ll ask around at the Computer Science Department when I have time.”

"But we don’t have an electric bike!” Jiang Feng suddenly realized a serious problem.

"I have one! Extra charge for delivery!” Ji Yue said to Jiang Feng with a smile.

Jiang Feng went to the second floor and found a corner to open his character panel.

Side Quest: (Optional)

1. [Mother’s Wish] Wang Xiulian has always hoped for a gentle, understanding, and slender daughter-in-law. Please help fulfill mother’s wish by finding a gentle, understanding, and slender girlfriend. [Choose: YES/NO]

2. [Li Junming’s Wish] Li Junming’s father Li Mingyi won’t be in this world for much longer. Born into the distinguished Yanjing family, the Liu Ye Swan Dish in clear soup made by Taifeng Building’s head chef Jiang Chengde left an unforgettable taste in his mouth. Please help fulfill Li Junming’s wish, allowing Li Mingyi to taste the clear soup Liu Ye Swan Dish from his memory. Task Progress (0/1)

Task Tip: This quest is extremely hard; please explore at your own pace.

3. [Keeping Up with the Times] As a restaurant aspiring to dominate among the eateries near UAL University, how could you not keep up with the times by having your own WeChat Official Account? Please help the Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant to have its own WeChat Official Account and get a hundred people to follow it. [Choose: YES/NO]

After clicking YES, the quest became:

3. [Keeping Up with the Times] As a restaurant aspiring to dominate among the eateries near UAL University, how could you not keep up with the times by having your own WeChat Official Account? Please help the Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant to have its own WeChat Official Account and get a hundred people to follow it. Task Progress: Official Account (0/1) Followers (0/100)

Task Reward: Unknown

Task Tip: Just spend a little money to start a public account and get a hundred followers—it’s as easy as pie.

It looks like this task is indeed very easy, almost like a beginner’s benefit.

At dinner time, there were still many customers in the restaurant. Perhaps because there was no pressure from napping or rushing to class, the customers arrived at staggered times, greatly reducing everyone’s workload.

"Sister Ji, is the postgraduate entrance exam difficult?” Liu Zixuan, after cleaning up a table’s dishes, curiously approached and asked.

Jiang Feng had already explained to everyone the reason Ji Yue took a part-time job at the store, so naturally no one would be so clueless as to come forward and ask what exactly happened to Ji Yue’s family.

"What do you think? I failed it,” Ji Yue said with an unchanged expression, clearly indicating that the postgraduate entrance exam was not a pleasant experience for her.

“If I had passed, I could have at least tutored.”

Liu Zixuan wisely shut his mouth.

"Hao, do you know anyone from the computer science college?” Wang Hao sneaked into the kitchen to drink some mung bean soup and got caught red-handed by Jiang Feng.

"Ah, yeah, I know lots of people,” Wang Hao hastily finished the soup in his bowl and wiped his mouth.

"Among the people you know, is there anyone who has the technical skills to help me set up a WeChat public account? We can negotiate the price. My dad is reluctant to spare the platform’s money, but I think that kind of WeChat public account, the kind that can order takeout, is also pretty good,” Jiang Feng said.

"Oh, Feng, you’re quite keeping up with the times!” Wang Hao thought for a moment.

“The one who came for lunch today, bringing his girlfriend, seemed to be called… Zhang Wei, right? Wasn’t there a buzz in the Moments last semester about him selling a program and making tens of thousands? I have his WeChat, I’ll go ask him.”

With that, Wang Hao took out his phone.

Jiang Feng was called by Mr. Jiang Jiankang to assist him. Today was Ji Yue’s first day on the job, and Jiang Jiankang had asked Ji Yue where she was from. He planned to make her a table full of Huaiyang cuisine as a welcome from Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant to the new employee.

There were still several ducks and pigeons in the restaurant, all raised by Mr. Jiang Jiankang himself after picking good ones to buy. Although they were not Gaoyou sesame ducks nor wild ducks, it was still passable to make a dish of

“Three Sets of Duck.”

Crab meat lion’s head, a clear-broth variety, was steaming on the stove, and Jiang Jiankang was busy minding the fire control, handling the task of deboning and stuffing the three birds, and blanching them in water, which naturally fell to Jiang Feng.

Making such a complex dish for the first time, it was fortunate that Jiang Feng had good knifework skills, so deboning a whole duck was no problem. Although he had practiced deboning chickens, deboning ducks and pigeons wasn’t much of an issue either.

After processing the three birds, he boiled them in water to remove the blood, then inserted the pigeon into the duck’s cavity, stuffed it full with mushrooms and ham slices, and then placed the duck into a larger duck and blanched it again.

He took out the Shaoxing wine treasured by Mr. Jiang Jiankang and put the stuffed duck and other ingredients into the pressure cooker.

Though it should be slow-cooked for hours, there wasn’t enough time. Pressure-cooking it and adding Mr. Jiang Jiankang’s broth would ensure it would be just as delicious when served.

"Feng, what dish are you making?” Wang Hao was dazzled by the series of operations.

"Three Sets of Duck, a famous Huaiyang dish,” Jiang Feng explained. The rest, managing the fire control, would be left to Mr. Jiang Jiankang.

"Sister Ji Yue is really lucky.” Thinking that Ji Yue came from the Huaiyang area, Wang Hao sighed genuinely from the heart.

Jiang Feng: …

Given the complexity of Three Sets of Duck, Ji Yue probably hadn’t eaten it many times…

"By the way, Zhang Wei just messaged me back. He said this kind of public account is very simple and can be done in a few days at no cost, just that…”

"Just what?”

"He asked if we could deliver takeout to him during the time the public account isn’t ready. He said their computer science department has so many classes they literally have no time to leave school for meals. He can bring his own food container,” Wang Hao said, showing Jiang Feng the chat record on his phone.

Jiang Feng: …

"Fine…”