The Game of Life

As the president of the Chess Club, Jiang Feng felt he ought to do something.

The porridge in these big pots would manage to fill up about two hundred people with a watered-down meal, but it seemed rather mean to make the elderly, who had come specially to be helped by everyone, taste hardship through their meal.

"Mr. Chen, do we not have any noodles in the storage?” Jiang Feng asked, thinking that making noodles would be a good idea.

"Well, our school doesn’t provide breakfast, so…” Mr. Chen said with an awkward smile,

“This volunteer activity was also notified to us at the last minute, and we lack experience. We weren’t prepared for this.”

Jiang Feng could tell that among the four teachers in the kitchen, only Mr. Chen looked like he usually cooked, while the other three cut the pumpkins in a way that was barely worth mentioning. After Wu Minqi took over the task of cutting the vegetables, the other three teachers went to lead the students, leaving only Mr. Chen to wash and peel the sweet potatoes.

Mr. Chen’s peeling skills were even worse than Liu Qian’s. The sweet potatoes that passed through her hands were significantly reduced in size.

"However, we still have vegetables and meat, and enough eggs. We could provide each person with a boiled egg,” Mr. Chen added.

Jiang Feng glanced at the clock. It was 6:05.

"Mr. Chen, what time are we starting the meal?” Jiang Feng asked.

“7 o’clock, at the latest 7:30,” replied Mr. Chen.

"There’s still time. Liu Qian, go boil some eggs for egg custard, and ask the student council for the exact number of people dining. We should make extra to ensure it is enough. Mr. Chen, do we have flour in storage?” Jiang Feng asked.

"You want to make noodles?” Wu Minqi looked up at Jiang Feng and sized up his rather frail figure,

“You won’t have enough time to make over forty pounds of noodles.”

Jiang Feng:…

"The elderly and children don’t eat much; just over twenty pounds of noodles will be enough to fill them up.”

"President, I can’t make 231 bowls of egg custard either!” Liu Qian exclaimed upon seeing the number provided by the student council,

“I’ll be doing well if I can manage forty bowls.”

"Sister, sister, I know how to stir egg liquid!” a little girl with pigtails raised her hand and said loudly.

"I can do it too!” another little girl beside her also shouted.

"I can too, I can too, I stir egg liquid at home every day!!” a little boy cried out, not to be outdone.

The rest of the little creatures also refused to show weakness, combining their small statures and loud voices to create a dozen audio attacks that nearly overturned the entire kitchen.

"Quiet, no more shouting!” Mr. Zhou feigned anger to calm the boisterous little creatures, who instantly quieted down like chickens. Only then did Mr. Zhou show satisfaction with a smile and kindly said,

“Let’s have a competition to see who can stir the fastest and the best. The winner will get a lollipop!”

Jiang Feng:…

He vaguely remembered that when he was in primary school, his teachers also lured him with lollipops.

Familiar formula, familiar taste.

Now that the little creatures were helping with the steamed eggs, Liu Qian just had to pay more attention to the fire control. Jiang Feng went to the storeroom to get a big bag of flour for kneading dough, while Wu Minqi, after cutting the pumpkins and sweet potatoes, portioned them into three parts and put them into the pots.

Kneading dough needed time, so Jiang Feng started by frying some onions in lard.

"Are you making plain noodles?” Wu Minqi guessed Jiang Feng’s intentions just by seeing him fry onions.

"Yes,” Jiang Feng nodded, accidentally scooping up half a spoon extra lard.

"Let me do it,” Wu Minqi took the spatula from Jiang Feng’s hand, causing him to step aside sheepishly.

He had already noticed that Wu Minqi’s knifework was on par with his, and her fire control and seasoning were likely much better. His own knifework had improved quite a bit recently, but they weren’t even on the same level before.

In the culinary profession, women are at a natural disadvantage because they generally lack the strength of men, making their practice more arduous and often less effective. Jiang Feng, already quite sturdy among the thin counterparts of his level, was nearly indistinguishable from a weakling in the eyes of Sir, just as Wu Minqi, with her ordinary female physique, had surely endured many times the hardship Jiang Feng had during her culinary studies.

Jiang Feng went to check on the porridge.

Since his Cooking Porridge skill reached the intermediate level, and with the practice and integration from this period, Jiang Feng’s porridge cooking had become almost unbeatable.

Jiang Feng guessed that if his Cooking Porridge skill could advance to a high level, probably all the Cantonese style porridge shops in the country combined would not match him.

Considering that only his Knifework had reached a high level, such a scenario could only happen in his dreams.

At least for the moment, Jiang Feng was mysteriously confident in his porridge cooking skills.

He lifted the lid and stirred with a spoon.

These sweet potatoes… they seemed a bit too sweet.

Sweetness was expected in winter sweet potatoes.

But the sweet potatoes in this pot were too sweet.

Excellent quality, smooth in color, rich in smell, they were definitely top-notch red heart sweet potatoes, yet they completely overpowered the flavor of the pumpkin, even the fragrance of the porridge.

Wu Minqi added the sweet potatoes for seasoning, not to dominate the dish.

Jiang Feng covered the pot again and went to cut the sweet potatoes.

Slice into large, irregular chunks.

"Why are you cutting sweet potatoes?” Wu Minqi watched the onions tumbling in the pot and glanced at Jiang Feng.

"The sweet potato flavor in the first pot was too strong, so I decided to cut a few sweet potatoes and cook them directly into sweet potato porridge,” Jiang Feng said.

Jiang Feng sliced 9 sweet potatoes in total and added them all to the first pot, slowly stirring the porridge with a large iron spoon, skimming the froth off the surface bit by bit.

The dough was ready, and the porridge was cooked just right.

Jiang Feng glanced at his watch, 6:47.

"Mr. Chen, we can start delivering the porridge and steamed egg custard. I’m going to start pulling the noodles now,” Jiang Feng reminded.

Mr. Chen nodded repeatedly,

“I’ll call someone.”

The three large pots of porridge weren’t something a few female teachers and a dozen little creatures could move.

Shortly after, several tall and strong male teachers came in to help carry the pots. The leading male teacher was surprised to see that they also made egg custard,

“Mr. Chen, you really went to a lot of trouble, making so much egg custard as well.”

Mr. Chen didn’t dare take the credit and modestly mentioned the assistants:

“These three students helped make it. Noodles will be served later, so if someone is still hungry, they can have noodles.”

The male teacher was even more surprised,

“These three students… they must be from the Home Economics Club, right? Your A-grade students are indeed impressive!”

"We are from the Chess Club,” the three said in unison.

Male teacher: ???

Mr. Chen: ???

Jiang Feng divided the dough.

Wu Minqi stared at him.

Jiang Feng hesitated.

Wu Minqi stared at him.

Jiang Feng took a deep breath.

Wu Minqi stared at him.

"Aren’t you going to help distribute the porridge?” Jiang Feng suggested kindly, as everyone else had left and now only he and Wu Minqi were in the kitchen.

His knife skills were already poor, and his noodle pulling technique was even worse. He couldn’t even match the uncle who pulled noodles in the cafeteria. Wu Minqi staring at him this way put a lot of pressure on him.

"I just want to see how you pull noodles,” Wu Minqi said frankly.

Jiang Feng grabbed the dough and pulled it in two directions.

Snap.

It broke.

Wu Minqi:…

She began to doubt whether her taste buds were out of order when she ate the mung bean cake that day.

Based on her observations over the past few days, Jiang Feng’s cooking skills were decent among his peers, about the same as her several older male cousins, but far behind when compared to her. She had even suspected that Jiang Feng specialized in pastry, but judging by the way he just attempted to pull noodles, it seemed he hadn’t really learned pastries either.

Why on earth did she mistakenly invite Jiang Feng to a cooking contest?

Wu Minqi felt like she was bullying someone.

Jiang Feng’s family had just opened a small stir-fry restaurant, and there she was, the heiress of the renowned Wu Family cuisine, picking on the little guy.

Wu Minqi even felt a bit guilty.

Walking leisurely to the cafeteria, everyone was busy splitting porridge and egg custard into plates.

"Minqi, go and scoop out that pot of porridge,” Liu Qian was dividing the egg custard.

Wu Minqi walked up to the pot and lifted the lid.

The sweet and fragrant smell of the sweet potato porridge hit her nostrils.

"It smells so good!” Liu Qian exclaimed.

Wu Minqi stood there stunned and hurriedly stirred the porridge with a spoon. The rice grains were plump and firm, sticky, and the chopped pumpkin and sweet potatoes mixed together had turned the original white porridge into an orange-yellow color. Large chunks of sweet potatoes were evenly dispersed throughout, dominating the pot of porridge.

How…. how was this possible!