The Game of Life

6 Chapter 6: Strategy

Editor: Larbre Studio

Jiang Feng closed the lid of the pressure cooker while wondering why Chen Xiuxiu snuck some corn kernels while he went into the kitchen.

If it was because she was too embarrassed…

In front of him over the years, Chen Xiuxiu had done countless embarrassing things—there had to be at least eight hundred if not a thousand of them, so it was unlikely she took such a risk for mere corn kernels.

"Ding, earned 9 experience points.”

She snuck another bite!

After securing the lid on the pressure cooker, Jiang Feng came out and glanced at the corn kernels on the table.

There wasn’t much change, she must have only snuck one or two kernels.

"Go ahead,” Chen Xiuxiu said, unflustered.

"Don’t you want to taste it?” Jiang Feng decided to deepen the trap.

"No!” Chen Xiuxiu was resolute.

That’s strange.

"I’ll get a bowl later to take the porridge from the kitchen, and I’ll come back in the evening to cook you a new batch,” said Jiang Feng as he picked up the plate of assorted corn kernels.

Jiang Feng deliberately slowed his steps, pausing at the door, and stealthily glanced back.

Chen Xiuxiu was looking down at her phone.

Hey, don’t say, but she actually looks pretty beautiful with her bangs covering her face as she looks down.

Walking leisurely, Jiang Feng returned home with the plate. No one was at home, so after putting the dish in the fridge, he went straight to his room.

Opening the attributes panel, Jiang Feng wanted to see if today’s feeding had aggravated Chen Xiuxiu’s stomach ailment, and whether the task had made any progress.

(Repeated parts omitted)

Task Hint: Reputation is key to developing a new store, fame gains restricted to UAL University.

2. [Neighbor’s Wish] Chen Duxiu’s daughter, Chen Xiuxiu, has recently become obsessed with dieting to lose weight. Please, player, complete the neighbor’s wish and help Chen Xiuxiu return to a normal diet.

Task Hint: Chen Xiuxiu has shown signs of anorexia due to excessive diet vomiting. Please, player, act quickly. (Chen Xiuxiu likes sour-smacked cucumbers, Chen Xiuxiu cannot resist food placed in front of her.)

Jiang Feng slapped his thigh, just say it earlier!

It turns out the reason Chen Xiuxiu only had raw rice at home and no other food was not to diet, but because that was the only way she could lose weight.

Just as I thought, nature is hard to change; how could Chen Xiuxiu, who used to conquer all in eating within ten miles, become an ascetic fairy that refrains from food and water in just one year?

But, her stomach is going to be a big problem.

After all, we grew up together as good friends; I can’t just tempt her with big meals every day just to complete the task.

Porridge is more suitable for her.

Porridge can be categorized into six or seven types according to ingredients, but if categorized by taste, there are only clear, sweet, and salty porridges. Each place has its own specialty, and you can eat different porridge every day for two months without repetition.

But Jiang Feng only knows how to make plain porridge and stomach-consoling porridge.

The Jiang family’s cook’s menu does not include porridge.

Jiang Weiguo’s proudest achievement in life wasn’t having four sons, but managing to ensure his family had solid meals when most people drank gruel. Even after reforms and opening up, when the era of inadequate meals passed, porridge never appeared in Comrade Jiang Weiguo’s recipe book.

If not for Jiang Feng’s stomach being weak, Comrade Jiang Jiankang would not have gone out of his way to learn how to make stomach-consoling porridge from an old porridge shop’s master.

Jiang Feng regretted that Comrade Jiang Jiankang back then didn’t learn a few more types of porridge from the master. If he had done so, he could now tempt Chen Xiuxiu back to a normal diet with his exquisite porridge-cooking skills, but now…

He just hoped she might have a unique taste and only love plain porridge.

He also didn’t know whether the game’s requirement for returning to a normal diet meant drinking a small bowl of porridge that could be finished in a few bites, or if it meant the large bowl of porridge that Chen Duxiu bought specially for Xiuxiu to eat her meals from when she was in her senior year of high school.

No, more like a large basin.

In the afternoon, Jiang Feng took the porridge to the store.

Mrs. Wang Xiulian had not yet tasted the porridge cooked by her son and excitedly tried it, then silently put down her spoon.

The expression on her face, meaningful as if each piece of fat revealed a resigned sadness.

"Xiuxiu really endured hardships,” Mrs. Wang Xiulian sighed, not sugarcoating just because her own son had cooked the porridge.

Jiang Jiankang followed behind and tasted it, nodding in agreement,

“Xiuxiu has been good-tempered since she was a child, but if I were young and tasted such porridge, I might flip the table and slap it on the chef’s face.”

Jiang Feng: …

Don’t you think your son deserves a little encouragement?

"This porridge can’t be given away as a freebie, our shop still has to stay open for another month; what if it scares away the customers!” Mrs. Wang Xiulian hammered down a decision,

“Tonight, let’s see if that boy in the blue shirt comes to dine, and we’ll give it all to him. Daring to tell me to my face that I’m fat as a pig, I’ll show him!”

As she spoke, Mrs. Wang Xiulian gave Jiang Feng a supportive pat on the shoulder with her robust right hand:

“Well done, son!”

Jiang Jiankang supported every decision his wife made:

“Exactly, he should watch his words, even pigs gotta be sold when they reach two hundred pounds.”

Jiang Feng wasn’t sure if the pain was greater on his shoulder or in his heart, but seeing Mrs. Wang Xiulian’s increasingly dark expression and Mr. Jiang Jiankang chuckling to himself, clueless of the brewing storm, Jiang Feng felt a bit better.

Perhaps this bowl of porridge would end up as Comrade Jiang Jiankang’s dinner.

After cleaning up the shop, wiping down the tables Mrs. Wang Xiulian had left uncleaned, helping wash the dishes, and sorting out some vegetables, Jiang Feng, with the materials for making porridge that evening, returned home.

He was going to cook preserved egg and lean meat porridge!

But before that, he needed to check Baidu for the method of cooking preserved egg and lean meat porridge.

After watching a variety of videos related to preserved egg and lean meat porridge, Jiang Feng, with his rich cooking experience, felt it shouldn’t be a problem and was determined to redeem himself that evening, letting Chen Xiuxiu taste his true porridge-cooking skills.

"Ding, achieved: Diligent Learning.”

Achievement!

Jiang Feng quickly opened the attributes panel.

Achievement: Diligent Learning (no attribute bonuses)

Jiang Feng: …

So stingy!

Throw me a Special Level Preserved Egg and Lean Meat Porridge Technique, or even a cooking effect that glows would suffice, but to call it an achievement with no attribute bonuses?

Pah!