The Game of Life-Chapter 684 - 682 It’s Him

Chapter 684: Chapter 682 It’s Him

After leaving his memory, Jiang Feng immediately opened the attribute panel, scrolled to the recipe section, and found that another one of the old man’s recipes had indeed been illuminated.

Jiang Weiguo (2/4)

[Stewed Pork in Brown Sauce C-grade]

Creator: Jiang Weiguo

Dish Details: Although a quite ordinary household dish, it became particularly precious due to the uniqueness of the era. The careful selection of ingredients and the chef’s excellent skills added an extraordinary touch to this common dish. If not for a bit of white sugar accidently added due to unforeseen circumstances, which affected the taste and fire control, the flavor could have been even better. Despite its flaws, this ordinary yet delicious dish deeply ingrained itself in the eater’s heart, becoming her initial memory of tastiness as well as a profound memory of the fruits of labor. After eating this dish, within the next 12 hours, the customer’s enthusiasm for labor will be stimulated.

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Number of times that can be made per day (0/6)

Jiang Feng: …

What is this, a Labor Day special meal?

Comparing the old man’s recipes with others’, Jiang Feng suddenly felt like the old man was slightly lacking in prestige.

Among those with a significant number of recipes, aside from Jiang Huiqin, who lacks a high-level recipe due to insufficient proficiency, the others basically start at B-grade along with some A and even S-grade ones. Even Jiang Weisheng has B-grade recipes. Only the old man has produced two recipes, one D-grade and one C-grade.

No prestige at all.

Absolutely no prestige.

Jiang Feng felt that if the old man couldn’t produce an S-grade in the remaining two recipes, he might continue to lack prestige indefinitely.

If not S-grade, A-grade would also be fine.

Anyway, he can’t make S-grade.

After reviewing the details of the stewed pork again, Jiang Feng felt that this dish was very suitable for staff meals.

Cheap, homely, in large quantity, and most importantly, the buff is beneficial.

Just one bite would stimulate the customer’s passion for labor, inspiring them to work hard for 12 hours.

Which boss in the world wouldn’t need such an excellent buff dish?

Jiang Feng decided he could make it tomorrow, and let Mr. Jiang Jiankang try it first. The two biggest slackers in Taifeng Building’s kitchen are Jiang Feng and Jiang Jiankang, and while Jiang Feng hasn’t been slacking due to diligent leveling and going out to learn for a while, only Jiang Jiankang continued to steadfastly and unwaveringly slack off.

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Jiang Feng determined to let his dear father try the buff tomorrow and see just how effective this labor buff was.

As it turned out, it was really effective.

Who was Jiang Jiankang? He was a champion of sleeping in, allergic to books, a little expert at skipping classes, a king of slacking, Jiang Feng could even boldly claim that his own indolence was all thanks to his father’s excellent teaching by word and deed.

It could be said that in his life, Jiang Jiankang only ever strived for two things: as a child, to avoid school, he zealously learned cooking to outperform his eldest brother and stand out amongst his five brothers to inherit the old man’s mantle (position), and the other was to work hard to pay off debts after being laid off.

And on May 3rd, a day that was bound to be extraordinary, Jiang Jiankang didn’t slack at all after having a bite of stewed pork at lunchtime.

Not only did he not slack, but he also worked actively and hard, not even taking a break to grab a can of iced Cola from the fridge due to thirst or the heat in the kitchen.

Jiang Feng was astonished by his own cooking.

After the evening business ended, Jiang Feng specially asked his father about his feelings, of course, in a tactful way.

“Dad, why were you working so hard today, did mom say something to you last night?” Jiang Feng felt his expression of shock was very well feigned, at least Jiang Jiankang didn’t notice it was an act.

“I don’t really know what got into me today,” Jiang Jiankang said, puzzled, touching his somewhat greasy head, “I’ve just felt uneasy ever since lunch, restless whenever I’m not busy.”

Jiang Feng: !!!

This labor buff is actually so useful.

“It’s not exactly unease.” Jiang Jiankang pondered, “It’s more like… discomfort, you understand what I mean, son.”

Jiang Feng shook his head.

“It felt like, everyone else was working, and if I slacked off, it would just be unbearable, I’d feel uncomfortable and guilty inside, really strange. But I do feel somewhat guilty, after all, the restaurant is essentially ours, and our family still owes Professor Li so much money that hasn’t been paid back. Sigh, the more I think about it, the guiltier I feel, and I should indeed work hard from now on.”

“Son, you haven’t been around the restaurant much lately so you might not know, don’t be fooled by the good business these past few days, it’s only because of the May Day holiday that there are more customers. While you were learning dishes with Master Peng, business at the restaurant has been rapidly falling. Ever since the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon was removed from the menu, many of our regular customers haven’t been coming. The dining hall’s occupancy rate is still decent, but the private rooms are far from good, your mother has mentioned it many times to me recently,” mentioned Jiang Jiankang with a sense of headache.

Jiang Feng was also shocked; he hadn’t realized his Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon had such a big impact on Taifeng Building’s business.

“But Manager Fan said it’s not actually a problem with the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon, it’s the top-floor restaurant that is the issue. That head chef there has quite a reputation, you know about their head chef’s set meal, right? Manager Fan took the time to check it out two days ago, do you know what he found?”

“What did he find?” Jiang Feng asked, fully attentive.

“It’s just bizarre, almost as soon as you started learning dishes with Master Peng, the top-floor restaurant started acting like it was bewitched, all the customers winning the head chef’s set meal were our restaurant’s original regulars. You should remember Mr. Zhou and Mr. Ouyang, they used to come eat at our place every now and then, Mr. Zhou always brought his wife and kids,” Jiang Jiankang asked.

Jiang Feng nodded, he certainly remembered, Ouyang Yang even had a side mission related to the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon lying incomplete in his taskbar. These two were quite famous among food enthusiasts, affluent and leisurely, often dining together, and basically all well-known restaurant owners recognized them.

“They’ve stopped coming, Mr. Ouyang even came to Beiping the day before yesterday but didn’t visit Taifeng Building,” Jiang Jiankang said with a worried look, “It seems he dined at the top-floor restaurant for both meals. A lot of customers are like that—they go to the top-floor restaurant once they win a chef’s package and hardly come to us thereafter.” “I feel like they’re doing it on purpose.”

Jiang Feng also believed the top-floor restaurant was doing it intentionally.

Before, the top-floor restaurant had been indiscriminately aggressive, whether it was through various promotions, events, or package deals—every high-end restaurant in Beiping was targeted, which is how it quickly became a public enemy within the industry.

But this time, the top-floor restaurant had obviously changed tactics from an all-out battle to a precision strike, and its target was Taifeng Building.

But why?

Based on previous records, it was clear that Eight-treasure House was more significantly affected. Taifeng Building was impacted due to its close proximity, while Eight-treasure House suffered greatly because of a high overlap in clientele. Logically, even if the top-floor restaurant changed strategies, they should first hammer down on Eight-treasure House, which seems more vulnerable.

What does it mean to target Taifeng Building first?

Did they look down on Taifeng Building or Eight-treasure House?

Jiang Feng felt he might have been the last person at Taifeng Building to learn about this, or perhaps no one wanted to tell him for fear that he would overthink it. On the surface, it seemed that because of his absence for training away recently, and many dishes being taken off the menu, the loss of customers was so rapid and severe.

“Dad, how about I only go for half a day now, in the morning and return in the afternoon? At least let’s bring the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon back on the menu,” Jiang Feng suggested.

If it really came to a head-on clash with the top-floor restaurant, Taifeng Building definitely couldn’t win. Times had changed. When the top-floor only had Rolan, Taifeng Building wasn’t afraid, but now they had Chef Arno, and Jiang Feng had tasted Chef Arno’s skills.

To be frank, we can’t win.

The enemy is simply too strong.

With Sir’s skills, he definitely cannot outmatch the top-floor restaurant, and Jiang Weiming, due to taste issues, can’t join the fight. Taifeng Building has no recourse against the deliberate precision strike on them by the top-floor restaurant.

The only good news might be that Taifeng Building hadn’t suffered losses yet.

Both the land and the restaurant are our own, so there’s no rent to pay.

“No way, you should fully commit to learning. There’s no such thing as working half a day and learning half a day. Then what’s the point of learning anything at all?” Jiang Jiankang, not knowing who he picked up the habit of saying “hammer” from, spoke in a tone that brooked no refusal, “We haven’t lost money, and even if we did, your mother and I will figure something out. If worse comes to worst, we still have your grandfather. The chance to learn from Master Peng is so rare, even if our restaurant closes down, you must learn.”

Jiang Feng: …

It really wouldn’t come to that, it truly wouldn’t.

“So tomorrow I should…” Jiang Feng was somewhat uncertain.

“Go as usual!” Jiang Jiankang felt like he was filled with infinite confidence from nowhere, “Let your mother and me handle it if the sky falls. What’s there to fear?”

Jiang Feng suddenly felt a bit touched.

“Dad.”

“Yeah!”

“What if we really close down and can’t repay the three hundred million we owe Professor Li?”

Jiang Jiankang: …

“Didn’t we pay back some of it at the end of the year?” Jiang Jiankang’s confidence faded.

“But there’s still more than two hundred million left.”

Jiang Jiankang: …

“Ah,” Jiang Jiankang sighed deeply, “Son, it’s up to you now. Learn well, learn more, learn quickly, and come back sooner. Perhaps the business will pick up by then.”

Jiang Feng nodded, knowing that when it came to critical times, they still relied on him…

The Chicken Douhua that hadn’t yet been created.

Neither he nor Sir had the skills to compete with Chef Arno.

Jiang Weiming did.

As a chef, as long as you’re on even footing, even if just for a few days working on one dish, having a signature dish could mean the outcome remains uncertain.

Jiang Feng thought about his own seasoning skills.

94.6w proficiency.

Just 5.4w short.

If both seasoning and fire control reached Grandmaster Level, maybe he could create an S-grade Chicken Douhua.

Jiang Feng suddenly realized who was the most suitable person to benefit from the “Stewed Pork in Brown Sauce” labor buff.

It was him.