So Delicious

Early the next morning, Jiang Feng was, as usual, making porridge for Chen Xiuxiu in the kitchen.

With Basic Porridge-Making Skill, cooking a simple pot of coix seed porridge had become incredibly easy.

The only ingredient was coix seed, so there was no need to weigh anything specially. He could just grab a handful, and instinct would tell Jiang Feng how much rice to use with how much coix seed. Jiang Feng, who had once despised the game's stinginess, now kept muttering that it was truly delicious.

Truly delicious!

Seeing the porridge in the pot begin to bubble and thicken, Jiang Feng started stirring it.

The door opened, but he paid no attention. He assumed Comrade Wang Xiulian had come back to fetch something.

"Making porridge?" An aged, stern, and very familiar voice came from behind him.

Jiang Feng turned around and saw Old Master Jiang Weiguo standing behind him.

"Gra... Grandpa!"

Jiang Weiguo snatched the ladle from Jiang Feng's hand, leaned in to inspect the pot, and scolded, "What the hell is this? Pig feed?"

Jiang Feng could only give an awkward laugh from the side.

Jiang Weiguo skillfully turned down the heat while stirring the porridge steadily. "You can't even control the heat properly. Look at this porridge—you cooked it too thick! You can't even stir it right. How did that little bastard Jiang Jiankang teach you?"

The old master of the Jiang family was angry, so Jiang Feng could only stand obediently to one side and listen.

After a while, the porridge was served.

A bowl of passable coix seed porridge.

Old Master Jiang Weiguo had spent barely ten minutes salvaging that pot of porridge and turned it into something passable. Jiang Feng held the bowl, blew on it, and drank, unable to help sighing.

The gap between one cook and another really could be greater than the gap between a person and a pig.

Just thinking about how Old Master Jiang Weiguo's pigs got to eat pig feed personally cooked by him every day made Jiang Feng insanely jealous.

Jiang Feng filled two bowls of porridge and brought them next door.

"Two bowls?" Chen Xiuxiu, who had resolved to drink porridge for one final day, stared at the two bowls before her in surprise.

"My grandpa came over. He helped control the heat for this porridge, so I brought some for Uncle Chen to try too. By the way, is Uncle Chen here?" Jiang Feng asked.

"My dad is sleeping." Since Old Master Jiang Weiguo had lived in the countryside for more than a decade, Chen Xiuxiu had never had the chance to taste his cooking.

Jiang Feng did not linger. He needed to find out why the old man had suddenly come here without a word.

Could something have happened in the countryside?

"Grandpa, why didn't you tell me you were coming? I could've picked you up at the station!" When Jiang Feng returned, he found the old man inspecting the kitchen.

"My body's perfectly fine. Why would I need picking up?" After looking over the kitchen utensils, Jiang Weiguo opened the refrigerator to inspect the ingredients. "This pork is obviously hormone-fed meat. Throw it out."

Jiang Feng hurriedly obeyed the old man's instructions and threw the meat away.

"I saw the porridge you made just now too. It's improved quite a bit from your previous cooking, which even pigs wouldn't eat. You're dating someone, aren't you?" Old Master Jiang Weiguo said.

Jiang Feng: ???

"Your eldest uncle was the same when he was young. Asking him to learn cooking was like asking for his life, but once he started dating your eldest aunt, he buried himself in the kitchen every day to please her."

Jiang Feng felt that the old man was reminiscing about the past in order to lead into what came next.

"I dreamed about your great-grandfather last night. In the dream, he scolded me for cutting off the inheritance of Jiang Family Cuisine. He also scolded me for having five useless descendants, not one of whom could carry Jiang Family Cuisine forward." Jiang Weiguo sighed. "Your father is as good as he'll ever get in this life. He can only be a cook who's mediocre at best. None of your cousins have any talent for cooking either, and your two younger female cousins look sturdy enough, yet they can't even toss a wok."

"I thought about it all night. Among the younger generation, you're the only one with any talent." Jiang Weiguo looked at Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng: !!!

Jiang Feng knew what the old man was thinking.

Every Jiang child had been sent to the old man's place to learn cooking during school vacations when they were little. The old man thought Jiang Feng was too small and skinny, like he had no strength, so he made him hang sandbags for more than a year.

Training through the hottest days of summer and the coldest days of winter was nothing compared to that.

He spent six years just practicing knife skills. The potatoes, cucumbers, radishes, tofu, and everything else he cut were all taken by the old man to feed the pigs.

Jiang Feng did not start using a wok until his second year of middle school.

He had only used the wok for one year and was not even half-trained. He had barely learned anything about Heat Control or ingredient pairing before entering his third year of middle school and beginning preparations for the high school entrance exam.

Later, he lived at school during high school, his studies became busy, and four years passed in neglect. After that, he never went back to the old man's place to learn cooking.

Jiang Feng's three cousins had gone through the same thing, though they had studied cooking for less time than he had. Before they had even finished practicing knife skills, the old man had sent them home.

Those six years of practicing knife skills were enough to bring tears to his eyes just thinking about them.

Sometimes, he was even slicing cucumbers in his dreams.

Sure enough, what he feared most came to pass.

"Isn't your father preparing to open a new shop near your school? That lousy optoelectronic information major of yours obviously won't get you a job. In the future, you'll inherit your father's shop and carry Jiang Family Cuisine forward." Comrade Jiang Weiguo and Jiang Jiankang were indeed father and son—they both loved dreaming.

"Starting today, you'll learn cooking from me!"

"Huh?!" Jiang Feng seemed to see his past self, cutting pig feed every day. "Grandpa, I still have classes normally!"

"Winter and summer vacations! After you graduate from college, train for another decade or so. They say diligence can make up for lack of talent. Your grandpa is in excellent health, so teaching you for another ten years won't be a problem!" Jiang Weiguo was full of ambition.

Jiang Feng: ...

Alright, Grandpa. No problem, Grandpa. Everything you say is right, Grandpa.

What was that saying again? Elders always liked forcing their unfulfilled dreams onto their children.

Such a grand ideal as reviving Jiang Family Cuisine should be left for his future child to accomplish!

Kid, Dad believes in you!

Old Master Jiang Weiguo's arrival caused a sensation throughout the Jiang family.

Jiang Jiankang did not even open his shop. After receiving Jiang Weiguo's instructions, he went to the farmers' market to buy groceries. Second Uncle Jiang Jiandang and Second Aunt Li Mingli came hurrying over after hearing the news. Even Jiang Feng's second cousin Jiang Shoucheng, Second Uncle's son, bought the earliest high-speed rail ticket back.

At lunchtime, four big, sturdy fat men gathered around the Jiang family kitchen door, drooling as they smelled the food.

"Third Brother, you're the lucky one!" Jiang Jiandang sighed.

"I never thought Xiao Feng would have such good fortune." Jiang Jiankang sighed. "Just last night, I thought the kid had a little talent for cooking, and then Dad showed up."

"Dad's cooking has improved again." Just from the smell, Jiang Jiandang recalled the happy days of his childhood, when he could eat the old man's cooking every meal. "This Guo Bao Rou smells much better than it did last New Year."

"Why aren't you coming in to help? Are you two little bastards trying to work me to death?" Jiang Weiguo grew angry just looking at his two sons, whose cooking skills were worse than his own. "When your great-grandfather was around, even stir-fried cabbage tasted like immortal grass!"

Jiang Jiankang and Jiang Jiandang hurried into the kitchen, one chopping vegetables and the other washing them, cramming the already spacious kitchen completely full.

At twelve o'clock, the table was packed with eight dishes and one soup, all perfect in color, aroma, and taste.

Sitting among five fat men, Jiang Feng felt utterly out of place in the Jiang family.

That's right.

It felt like New Year!

Four Happiness Meatballs, Nine-Turn Large Intestine, Guo Bao Rou, Sour Shredded Potatoes, Jarred Pork, Quick-Fried Double Crisps, First-Rank Tofu, Stir-fried Water Spinach, plus a bowl of West Lake Beef Soup—he did not even get this treatment during New Year!

Wang Xiulian and Li Mingli had been married into the Jiang family for so many years, yet neither had ever seen such a spread.

"Eat already. What are you standing around for?" Jiang Weiguo disliked seeing them act like they had never seen the world.

"Let's eat, let's eat!" Everyone quickly echoed.

"Oh, right, Xiao Feng, go invite Xiuxiu and Uncle Chen over to eat with us." Jiang Jiankang suddenly remembered, then turned to explain to Jiang Weiguo, "They're our old neighbors. You should remember Chen Duxiu, right?"

Jiang Weiguo nodded. "That kid used to come to our house all the time to mooch food when he was little."

Jiang Feng went next door, where Chen Duxiu happened to be home as well.

"Uncle Chen, my grandpa made a whole table of dishes. My dad asked me to invite you over to eat with us," Jiang Feng said.

"Uncle Jiang is here?" Chen Duxiu suddenly became excited and hurried toward the door, like an old lady rushing to grab discounted supermarket goods. "Xiuxiu, hurry to Uncle Jiang's house. If we're late, there won't be any left!"

Jiang Feng looked at the two clean empty bowls on the table, then turned to Chen Xiuxiu in confusion. "You didn't tell Uncle Chen that this morning's porridge was made by my grandpa?"

Chen Xiuxiu: ...

She turned her head slightly, avoiding Jiang Feng's gaze. "I forgot."

Jiang Feng and Chen Xiuxiu had barely entered the house and had not even reached the table when they heard the old man say, "Xiao Feng, your girlfriend is a little too skinny!"

"Look at your second aunt. When choosing a wife, you need someone blessed like this!"

Li Mingli proudly lifted her chin.

When it came to sheer body weight, Wang Xiulian still fell a little short of Li Mingli.

"Yes, yes, Uncle Jiang is right." Chen Duxiu was happily devouring Jarred Pork. "Xiuxiu, girls look better with a little more weight on them. Come, come, eat more meat."

Two more sets of bowls and chopsticks had already been added to the table.

Looking at the table full of rich meat dishes, Chen Xiuxiu could only feel her saliva rapidly pooling.

So...

So fragrant!