The Game of Life-Chapter 814 - 813 A Fortuitous Encounter

Chapter 814: Chapter 813: A Fortuitous Encounter

Chapter 814 -813: A Fortuitous Encounter

Sun Maochai and his two companions had basically finished analyzing the menu and had selected the dishes they were prepared to handle. Yonghe House specializes in Shandong cuisine, and their menu dipped into other cuisines as well, such as Cantonese, Jiangsu, and Shanghai cuisines, and even a few Southeast Asian dishes—though these were not very popular and had mediocre sales at best.

After reviewing the dishes chosen by the trio, Jiang Feng removed a few that had particularly poor sales, ones that were simply there to bulk up the menu, and thus the menu for the next two weeks was set.

This was the advantage of being familiar with the interchange restaurant. If Jiang Feng and his team had not known about Yonghe House, they would certainly have made some missteps in the first two days, then would have had to adjust the menu, wasting precious days that could have been spent accumulating points and falling behind the competition.

By five in the afternoon, the menu was finally set. Lu Sheng wanted to treat Jiang Feng and his group to dinner at Yonghe House, but all the private dining rooms had been booked for the day. With the reality show currently popular, many locals from Beiping who had watched the show could potentially recognize Jiang Feng and his team if they went out alone, but recognition was almost inevitable if they were together, which could cause unnecessary trouble.

After weighing the options, Lu Sheng led Jiang Feng and the others to a small, unpretentious eatery in the village within the city for dinner.

Although the eatery wasn’t the cleanest, the chefs had good skills. According to Wu Minqi, it had the essence of “underground” cuisine, and this restaurant’s specialty was Sichuan cuisine.

“Underground” cuisine with an “underground” vibe was more atmospheric eaten in such an unpretentious eatery than in a fancy restaurant.

Lu Sheng’s invitation for dinner was actually an opportunity to familiarize himself with the other three. Since Yonghe House was out of the running, and since he had good relations with Taifeng Building, there was no need to play tricks; making friends through this occasion was an excellent idea.

Over the next few days, Jiang Feng and his team visited Yonghe House during non-business hours, getting to know the other chefs without disrupting the usual operations, familiarizing themselves with the kitchen’s layout and some of the utensils. Jiang Feng didn’t need the familiarity, but whenever he visited Yonghe House and Peng Changping was there, he would be pulled aside to demonstrate how well he could make the Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup and Phoenix Egg, to see if his culinary skills had suffered at all during the competition.

There was no deterioration, but also no progress.

The rest period between competitions was a gap in the reality show’s schedule. The cameras at Yonghe House continued to roll, but there was no cameraman following them around. The footage captured by the program team this week would be edited down to half an hour’s worth to show daily life and post-competition rest, and many things that were filmed were not things Jiang Feng minded being on camera, knowing that a lot of it wouldn’t make it to the broadcast.

Progress at Taifeng Building was good, and the top-floor restaurant was also doing well. Even though Jiang Feng wasn’t at Taifeng, Ji Yue, Ji Xia, and Mrs. Wang Xiulian would enthusiastically update him every day on what Chef Arno did at Taifeng Building.

On Thursday, Chef Arno and his team, like Jiang Feng’s, went to Taifeng Building to finalize their menu. Chef Ale’s team took on all of Zhang Guanghang’s menus, which meant that for the next two weeks, Zhang Guanghang could take a long vacation since he had no dishes to make.

Zhang Guanghang was delighted about this and booked a ticket to France to visit his family.

Jiang Feng felt that visiting family was just an excuse; the real reason was his reluctance to meet Chef Arno.

Apart from Zhang Guanghang’s dishes, Chef Arno’s team also took over some desserts and some Cantonese dishes from Sun Maochai and Sun Jikai, clearly indicating that among the purely foreign chef team, someone was knowledgeable about Cantonese cuisine.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Chef Arno and his “underlings” stayed at Taifeng Building, just like Jiang Feng’s team, not disturbing the normal business operations. They wouldn’t interfere during business hours, merely observing each chef’s work. During non-business hours, Chef Arno would use Taifeng’s ingredients and utensils to prepare the agreed-upon dishes to ensure every dish could be produced smoothly and coordinated flawlessly.

This could be called quite professional.

As for why the top-floor restaurant quartet was called Chef Arno and his “underlings,” according to Ji Yue’s observations, Chef Arno was an absolute tyrant in the kitchen, a one-man authority extremely good at giving orders, who could smoothly direct his three companions. It felt as though Chef Arno had brought his three “underlings” to provide free labor for Taifeng Building.

Language barriers were an issue for Chef Arno’s team, but not a significant one. Theoretically, swap competition participants are supposed to coordinate with the chefs in the kitchen of the restaurant they swap to. Jiang Feng’s team was following this approach, familiarizing themselves with Yonghe House’s chefs over the past few days to understand their methods and habits for better coordination during operations.

Chef Arno took a different approach. He did collaborate, but not with Taifeng Building’s chefs; instead, he had his three “underlings” coordinate with him.

According to informants, this approach was quite effective for Chef Arno. With three excellent and familiar “underlings” to assist, Chef Arno didn’t need the help of other chefs from Taifeng Building to quickly produce high-quality dishes. The only downside was that the four chefs effectively functioned as one and a half, with Rolan counting as half a chef.

But their problem was originally a language barrier, poor communication, so choosing not to communicate wasn’t a bad method.

Everyone was actively preparing for the second round of the competition, whether they had hope to advance or not, but with the outcome seemingly decided, attitude became especially important.

Even if they were destined to lose, losing with dignity was still honorable.

In such a positive atmosphere, the second round of the competition began.

At this time, the diners hadn’t realized that the head chef of their favorite restaurant had quietly been replaced. Some guests who followed the variety show and came to support their favorite restaurant didn’t realize they might not be supporting the chef they loved.

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They were inadvertently aiding the enemy.

Take Liu Qian and Zhang Xi, for instance, they came to Taifeng Building to aid the enemy at a very inappropriate time—the enemy being the rival restaurant on the top floor.

Actually, it wasn’t their fault. Due to editing, post-production, and a series of approval issues, there was a considerable time gap between the filming and the airing of the variety show. However, many viewers failed to realize how long this time gap was.

It wasn’t until the snack street episode was broadcast, and the production team spent real money to show how impressive their hired chefs were, that the show really took off. Liu Qian, as a direct beneficiary, realized as soon as the show aired and became popular that the variety show they filmed that day was a competition, and guessed that the long duration meant it was probably still ongoing.

She indeed wanted to go to Taifeng Building to support Jiang Feng right away, but she was just starting her internship and hadn’t got the hang of many tasks yet. She was so busy in the first two weeks that she couldn’t even make time on her days off. It was not until nearly a week into the second round and on a Saturday that she finally had time to go to Taifeng Building for a meal.

Then, she ran into Zhang Xi, who also had time to go to Taifeng Building to eat and support Jiang Feng because it was the weekend and there was no school.

Zhang Xi had originally intended to bring her roommate along, but the overwhelming influence of Jiang Feng’s pure meat dumplings had left her three roommates with a psychological shadow, adamantly refusing to come, forcing her to come alone.

With Taifeng Building being very popular, Zhang Xi and Liu Qian both arrived late and alone, and there happened to be only one four-person table left, so the server suggested they share the table, and both agreed.

Having never been to Taifeng Building, Liu Qian was not familiar with the menu, so she let Zhang Xi order first. Actually, these two had met before. After the Good Taste culinary competition had ended, when Zhang Xi went to the regular stirring restaurant to eat, Liu Qian had seen her, but they had only seen each other a few times and so much time had passed that they no longer remembered who the other was.

Zhang Xi realized something was off about the menu as soon as she started to order.

Her father was also a chef, the head chef at a large hotel, and as soon as she saw the menu, Zhang Xi knew that Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi were probably not working that day.

To prevent patrons from noticing the chef change, Taifeng Building also tactically adjusted the menu, doing away with ordering by chef and switching to traditional dish ordering, claiming there was a system issue that was being fixed and adjusted, so all limited dishes were temporarily unavailable.

These days, any system could have issues, and most patrons hadn’t yet sensed anything amiss. The few who guessed that Jiang Feng wasn’t in had not taken it to heart.

Jiang Feng had been absent from the restaurant for over half of the year anyway.

Zhang Xi, on the other hand, did not think of it as a chef swap, she just thought it was a day off and everyone was not working. Somewhat disappointed, she casually ordered a few dishes, including the French Pan-Seared Steak.

After ordering two dishes, Zhang Xi passed the tablet to Liu Qian. Liu Qian’s ordering was not as typical as Zhang Xi’s; she ordered four main courses, three vegetarian dishes, and four desserts all in one go, constantly inquiring which dishes were made by Jiang Feng and his team. By the end, she wasn’t worried anymore. In Liu Qian’s view, as long as she ordered enough dishes, she was sure to include some made by Jiang Feng and his colleagues.

Little did she know that all the dishes she ordered were Chef Arno’s.

Liu Qian’s assertiveness in ordering startled Zhang Xi, who then realized Liu Qian looked familiar. After thinking for a bit, she remembered that Liu Qian was the one on the variety show called President Jiang Feng.

“You’re… the food blogger from the last episode of the variety show?” Zhang Xi asked tentatively.

“Yes,” Liu Qian nodded, “I’ve been wanting to support our president’s family restaurant, but I’ve been quite busy these past two weeks. Today was the first day I had time to come out for a meal.”

Zhang Xi chuckled, “I’m also here to support Taifeng Building’s business, only it seems I won’t be able to today, they’re probably off and not working.”

“How do you know?” Liu Qian was puzzled.

“You can tell from the menu. Jiang Feng’s signature and main dishes are missing, which clearly indicates the head chef isn’t here.”

Liu Qian had a moment of realization, “You’re so skilled to be able to tell that from the menu.”

“It’s because my dad is also a chef, so I know a little bit,” Zhang Xi explained.

Hearing this, Liu Qian stared at Zhang Xi for a long time, feeling more and more that she’d seen her somewhere before. After a long thought, she uncertainly began, “Weren’t you the contestant who cooked porridge with our president in a cooking competition?”

Zhang Xi didn’t expect Liu Qian to actually know her and readily admitted, “Yes, that was me.”

“I was there watching the competition live. Back then, I thought your cooking skills were quite impressive too. You were the youngest, and the dish you made looked very appetizing, it’s a pity I didn’t get the chance to try it.” Liu Qian started to mutually praise, “It’s really such a coincidence, I never expected to end up at the same table with you by chance.”

As she spoke, Liu Qian pulled out her phone, “Let’s take a photo together and send it to the president, he’ll definitely be surprised too!”

Zhang Xi agreed, and they took a selfie together, also exchanging WeChat contacts.

“Oh right, are you attending university in Beiping?” Liu Qian remembered Zhang Xi was apparently still a high school student when she participated in the competition.

“Yes,” Zhang Xi nodded, “I’m studying Chinese literature.”

“Wow, that’s really such a coincidence, I studied Chinese literature as well.” Liu Qian exclaimed, and the two started to engage in a deeper conversation, chatting about all sorts of things.

Perhaps it was because they were indeed fated to get along, Zhang Xi ended up sharing quite a few things with Liu Qian. Both talked about their recent situations, Liu Qian about her internship and Zhang Xi about starting university, respectively marking the beginning and end stages of their university lives.

“Actually, our major isn’t as easy to find a job as some of the science and engineering ones, but it’s not that hard either. Do you have any plans for what job you want to do in the future?” In just ten or so minutes, their conversation had escalated to future jobs and aspirations.

Zhang Xi shook her head, “I don’t know, I didn’t initially apply for Chinese literature, but got reallocated because my scores weren’t high enough.”

After pondering a moment, Zhang Xi smiled, “I want to do something I enjoy.”

“What do you enjoy?”

“I enjoy cooking porridge.”

“Then you could open a porridge shop. I think porridge shops are great, with good air conditioning and not bad business,” Liu Qian said totally based on the porridge shop chosen by Jiang Feng that she saw on the snack street, “I think porridge is wonderful. Our dormitory head makes really tasty porridge.”

“Yes,” Zhang Xi agreed with a nod, “His porridge is indeed delicious.”

When the food arrived, they stopped chatting. Liu Qian, with more dishes, ate slowly, while Zhang Xi, apparently having obligations that afternoon, transferred her share of the food costs to Liu Qian and left first. They agreed to come back to Taifeng Building next week if they had time and sit together again for a meal.

After finishing the meal, Liu Qian edited the photo, shrinking her face a bit, and sent it to Jiang Feng.

Liu Qian: President, I came to your restaurant today to support the business, guess who I randomly sat with? ~(≧▽≦)/~

Liu Qian: [Image]

Liu Qian: [Image]

Liu Qian: I left all positive reviews!

The first image was the selfie with Zhang Xi, and the second was the bill for their meal.

Just as Liu Qian sent the WeChat messages to Jiang Feng, he had just finished lunch service on his end and immediately saw her messages.

Upon seeing the photos, Jiang Feng was struck dumbfounded.

Liu Qian and Zhang Xi.

How did these two end up together?

Then he saw the second image of the bill.

Ding Lake Vegetarian Delight, Black Forest Cake, French Seared Steak, Shafu Roast Chicken…

Damn, they were all Chef Arno’s dishes.

Jiang Feng silently sent back an emoji to Liu Qian.

Jiang Feng: (´இ皿இ｀)

Liu Qian: ?

Did the president send the wrong emoji?

Should she share her sticker pack with the president?