The Game of Life

When Jiang Weiming arrived back at Taifeng Building with a big bag of hairy crabs, most of the kitchen staff had already gathered.

Everyone saw Jiang Feng treating the cooking process like a scientific experiment, focusing on three steamers at once, each containing corn, corn, and sweet potatoes. Jiang Feng would intermittently start and stop the fire, open and close the lids, and each time he opened a lid, he would poke at the surface of the sweet potatoes and corn with chopsticks to assess their cook. Beside the stove was a small notebook and a pen, into which Jiang Feng would jot down some mysterious numbers after each poke of the corn or sweet potatoes.

Jiang Jiankang and Sang Ming both stood next to Jiang Feng, their eyes wide with curiosity as their faces brimmed with it. Even Zhang Weiyu, who was chopping vegetables at a distance, paused his work occasionally to crane his neck for a glimpse at Jiang Feng, with everyone wearing a look on their faces that said they wanted to ask but didn’t dare to.

Primarily because Jiang Feng’s expression was so serious, unprecedentedly so, like a scientist devoted to research, as depicted on television dramas.

Everyone wanted to know what exactly Jiang Feng was up to, yet they feared disrupting his sacred experiment and becoming sinners on his path of exploration, so they could only watch eagerly from the sidelines, hoping to discern something.

Jiang Weiming put down the bag of hairy crabs and joined the crowd observing Jiang Feng.

By the time Jiang Feng realized it, he had become the center of attention in the entire kitchen.

Jiang Feng: …

Sang Ming always liked to join a crowd, and it wasn’t surprising to see Granduncle Weiming, a major onlooker, join the spectators as soon as he returned. But Dad and Zhang, what’s going on with you two?

Especially you, Zhang Guanghang, don’t think that just because you’re standing further away that I can’t notice you’re actually joining Sang Ming and the others in watching the commotion. Your height of 1.92 meters and your mixed French-Chinese features can’t be hidden!

“Dad, if you want to ask something, just ask,” Jiang Feng said expressionlessly.

Jiang Jiankang immediately perked up, appearing eager to try. Sang Ming, who had been watching with him the whole time, seemed a bit dejected; he felt that he had been more obvious and wondered why Jiang Feng didn’t ask him instead.

Zhang Guanghang, who had been pretending to look for dishes on the shelves from afar, silently took a couple of steps forward with his plate.

“Son, you’re poking the sweet potatoes and then the corn and taking notes—are you doing some experiment?” Jiang Jiankang asked curiously, “Are you conducting research for your thesis? I heard you all have to do experiments for your graduation papers. Will Taifeng Building’s name appear on yours when you graduate?”

Mr. Jiang Jiankang looked as if he was saying, “See, I’m your father, I remember you have to write your graduation thesis this year.”

Jiang Feng truly admired Mr. Jiang Jiankang’s wonderful imagination and meticulous logical reasoning, however misplaced those were, as Mr. Jiang Jiankang’s theory was wrong from the start. Anyway, braising wasn’t any secret technique, and Jiang Feng saw no need to hide or conceal it from everyone. He would likely be spending his mornings and afternoons at Taifeng Building studying how to braise, and it was impossible to keep it secret, so he simply repeated what he had told Wu Minqi and Sir that morning.

After hearing Jiang Feng’s explanation, Sang Ming was quite clueless; after all, he was just a Kitchen Apprentice Cook who wasn’t even allowed to touch a knife. Zhang Weiyu, too, found it tasteless and lost all interest, being just a Furnace Chef who couldn’t even touch the pots.

Jiang Jiankang didn’t react much; he had eaten braised rice made by Mrs. Jiang more often than Jiang Feng had eaten crabs, so he was not unfamiliar with the braising method. Therefore, there was no surprise when Jiang Feng explained it—Jiang Jiankang not only didn’t know how crab-stuffed oranges were made but had also eaten only one bite.

Three people, however, had stronger reactions. Leading was Jiang Weiming, who felt very gratified, even delighted, looking at Jiang Feng with eyes so tender it was as if they might brim with laughter; he kept nodding his head constantly while Jiang Feng spoke, clearly agreeing with his perspective.

Zhang Guanghang wasn’t much interested in crab-stuffed oranges, but he was very intrigued by the braising cooking method. He carelessly set his plate down somewhere and headed towards Jiang Feng. He prodded a freshly steamed sweet potato and fired off a barrage of questions like a machine gun.

“How long did it take you to braise this sweet potato?”

“How long was it from the first time you lit the fire to the second time?”

“Do you wait for the water to boil every time you light the fire, or do you go by feel?”

“Actually, I think if you keep it at a low temperature for a long time…”

Zhang Guanghang’s barrage of questions had Jiang Feng utterly baffled.

This was also his first foray; the first time he tried braising with a gas stove.

When he was a child, Sir didn’t allow Jiang Feng to touch the pots. Wanting to both touch the pots and finding Mrs. Jiang’s rice braising amusing, Jiang Feng would often beg Mrs. Jiang to let him stay in the kitchen to watch the rice, to get a feel for handling the pots. Once, Mrs. Jiang got so fed up with Jiang Feng’s nagging that she actually let him stay in the kitchen. Feeling that he was already touching the pots, Jiang Feng decided to go all the way and added some firewood.

As you might expect, the pot of rice burned completely.

That thoroughly scorched pot of rice became Jiang Feng’s dinner for the day, and even now, he remembered the angry words Mrs. Jiang had uttered, “The little rascal needs to learn his lesson, one stick wasn’t enough, so he added two!”

Indeed, Mrs. Jiang’s heartache from beginning to end was not for the rice, but for her firewood.

While Jiang Feng was in a daze, Zhang Guanghang had already finished asking his questions.

Zhang Guanghang looked at Jiang Feng, who felt like an impostor, a failing student pretending to be a top scholar, unable to meet Zhang Guanghang’s eyes and shifting his gaze away, pretending to twist his neck a bit.

As soon as he turned his head, Jiang Feng noticed something off about Zhou Shi, who was standing in the corner.

Zhou Shi was a Furnace Chef with a very low presence. Despite being a top-tier Furnace Chef in the food chain of Taifeng Building’s kitchen, Zhou Shi had even less presence than Sang Ming, the Kitchen Apprentice Cook.

Moreover, Zhou Shi often received criticism, and the customers’ reviews of him were never very high. Although there weren’t many negative comments, positive ones were also scarce. In the over two months since Taifeng Building opened, the price of dishes cooked by Zhou Shi continuously dropped; it had never gone up.

Add to that the fact Zhou Shi didn’t talk much and wasn’t very sociable, so people often overlooked him.

Zhou Shi stood beside the shelf.

That shelf was in a corner and quite unassuming, typically holding ingredients that could be stored for a long period but were not yet used up, like sweet potatoes. With Zhou Shi’s presence combined with the location of that shelf, 9.9 out of 10 people in Taifeng Building would ignore him if he stood there.

It was normal for Zhou Shi to stand there on any given day, but today, Jiang Feng felt something was very wrong.

The shelf was empty; perhaps the two sirs had decided to clear all the ingredients off of it the day before. When Jiang Feng went to look for sweet potatoes earlier, he couldn’t find any there, so he had to search all the shelves in the kitchen and even ran to the storeroom to find two sweet potatoes.

Clearly, Zhou Shi stood by an empty shelf, pretending to look for something. Was he slacking off?

Jiang Feng, an expert in slacking off, asserted that if one were to slack off, it shouldn’t be by that shelf, because it wasn’t a blind spot. The other shelf near the freezer, that was a blind spot.

Seeing that Jiang Feng was watching him, Zhou Shi appeared nervous, which to Jiang Feng, naturally seemed like the nervousness of someone with a guilty conscience.

Zhou Shi looked at Jiang Feng, walked a few steps ahead, and asked loudly, “That… Little Boss, the temperature control for the braised crab stuffed oranges must be quite difficult, right?”

Jiang Feng was startled; he hadn’t expected Zhou Shi to actually start discussing the matter with him in earnest.

“So I’m still figuring it out, but I think this method is feasible. You always have to keep trying with dishes; how would you know if it’s possible without trying?” Jiang Feng’s reply was somewhat vague.

“Are you interested in the crab-stuffed oranges?” Jiang Feng asked.

“A little,” Zhou Shi said with an embarrassed smile, “I heard you guys talking about it yesterday, and because I’d never heard of it, I got curious and looked it up online. I found out it’s a dish that was lost and then later restored. I’ve always been quite interested in this kind of dish.”

It served as an explanation for Jiang Feng.

“If you’re interested, you should give it a try,” Jiang Feng said politely.

But he still felt that Zhou Shi was not quite normal; he didn’t remember discussing anything about the crab-stuffed oranges with Minqi in the kitchen yesterday. This was the kind of topic he would normally save for a leisurely chat with Minqi while walking home.

Even if they had talked about it, it would have likely been just an offhand remark. So how could Zhou Shi remember it so clearly?

And to actually go back and look it up.

Unless he had a crush on Minqi.

Or a crush on him.

Or he was up to something.

Jiang Feng used his years of experience watching idol dramas and playing Werewolf to deduce that the truth was probably the third option.

In early years when Jiang Feng was still a child and often watched idol dramas on TV with comrade Wang Xiulian in the evenings, the idol dramas were not like the pure love stories they are now. Back then, idol dramas often mixed love with business wars, ethics, morals, internal strife, domestic politics, betrayal, and other unspeakable elements, some of which could even be censored.

Like, for instance, “If Heaven Has Affection”.

At this moment, Jiang Feng felt like the script in his hands had turned into a business warfare drama.

He knew this day was bound to come eventually; after all, he was the hidden boss behind Taifeng Building. How could he fulfill his role as boss without occasionally pulling out a script for a corporate drama?

To verify his guess, Jiang Feng chose to escape to the restroom.

Upon reaching the familiar second-floor men’s room, Jiang Feng silently opened the employee management system.

Because he never managed employees on a daily basis, and employee turnover generally occurred only in the lobby, Jiang Feng hardly ever accessed this interface.

He remembered Zhou Shi’s loyalty score seemed to always hover just above 50 but below 60. It wasn’t high, not even passing, but it wasn’t very low, either. After all, everyone was just involved in a normal and dirty financial transaction devoid of personal feelings: You pay money, I do the job. Zhou Shi was not a key figure, so such a high degree of loyalty wasn’t necessary.

Moreover, Zhou Shi’s abilities were actually quite good, with advanced skill in knifework and fire control, and even master-level seasoning. But since his heart wasn’t really in his job and nobody knew what he was thinking all day, his performance had always been poor, and he would occasionally make minor mistakes while cooking.

It took Jiang Feng a while to find Zhou Shi in the list.

Name: Zhou Shi

Age: 29

Position: Furnace Chef

Loyalty: 19

Skills: Knifework (Advanced), Fire Control (Advanced), Seasoning (Master level)

Employee Rating: B

This guy definitely has a problem!

At this point, Jiang Feng even wanted to slam the desk and loudly praise himself for truly being an excellent behind-the-scenes boss.

To be able to discover an employee’s betrayal right away.

Brilliant!

But why exactly had Zhou Shi betrayed them out of the blue?

Wasn’t it better to maintain a dirty but simple financial transaction?

Jiang Feng fell into deep thought.

He believed there was one person with significant suspicion.

Ling Guangzhao.

Anyway, no matter who betrayed them, blaming Ling Guangzhao was the right move.

The guy had a notorious history, and when he got ruthless, he would even poach the opponent’s boss. It wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility for Ling Guangzhao to rashly decide to poach Zhou Shi and have him act as an undercover spy in Taifeng Building. Although everyone in the Beiping catering circle, and even the Taifeng Building staff, believed that Sir Jiang was the real boss of Taifeng, it didn’t stop Jiang Feng from dissing Ling Guangzhao.

Just poaching for the sake of poaching, without any persistence. He dropped it as soon as he mentioned it last time, utterly insincere.

Definitely him!

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