Porridge

After the girl paid through WeChat, she left with her boyfriend. Jiang Feng swiftly cleared the table while Qiu Chen stared in astonishment from the side.

"Brother Feng, does your restaurant have such strict requirements for clean plates?" Qiu Chen had not even finished editing his WeChat Moments post. He was completely stunned by the girl's fierce behavior just now.

"She misunderstood," Jiang Feng explained.

"Ding, gained 1 point of fame. Mission progress (3/100)."

"Brother Feng, we'll help you." Liu Zixuan was the first to finish posting to WeChat Moments and eagerly took the plates from him.

Jiang Feng did not stop him. "There are only my parents in the kitchen. Just put the plates in the dishwasher. You won't need to ask my mom."

Liu Zixuan said he knew how to use a dishwasher and carried the plates into the kitchen.

"Ding, gained 1 point of fame. Mission progress (4/100)."

"Ding, gained 1 point of fame. Mission progress (5/100)."

"Ding, gained 1 point of fame. Mission progress (6/100)."

The other three also began helping out. They took orders and cleared tables—simple tasks. They were not as practiced as Jiang Feng, but they did not make mistakes.

Jiang Feng also realized his family had not thought things through. He had always felt that their old little restaurant did not need employees, but now it seemed they would have to hire a few student workers.

He used to think the small restaurants near the school were heartless for hiring student workers, providing two meals, and paying only a few hundred yuan a month. Now that he had to start hiring people himself, he discovered that student workers were the best option.

They were available during mealtimes, cheap, and could work while saving him money.

Liu Zixuan stayed in the kitchen for quite a while. When he came out, he was carrying a plate of fish-fragrant shredded pork, and there were still suspicious traces around the corners of his mouth.

"You brat, you actually stole a bite!" Wang Hao immediately noticed something off about Liu Zixuan's mouth. Thinking of the whole table of food they had just eaten, he could not help sighing. "And you can still eat?"

"Auntie poured me a cup of herbal tea." Liu Zixuan savored the memory happily.

When he first entered the kitchen, he had been surprised by how different Jiang Feng's parents' builds were from his. But the moment the herbal tea entered his mouth, he had no time to think about anything else. All that remained in his mind was the tea.

Auntie Jiang really was an angel.

Just a somewhat plump angel.

The professors were the last table of customers to leave.

As the professors were leaving, Professor Li even smiled and said a few words to Jiang Feng, leaving Liu Zixuan, who was watching from afar, utterly bewildered.

Of all of them, only he had taken Professor Li's class. He also knew full well how serious an old man Professor Li was. He rarely smiled around students, and when it came to failing people at the end of the term, he never showed mercy. He was practically an elderly rakshasa.

"Brother Feng, what did Professor Li say just now?" After the professors left, Liu Zixuan leaned closer and asked curiously.

"The professor asked whether I was from Yanjing, and whether my grandfather's generation was from Yanjing too." Jiang Feng found it strange as well. They had only eaten one meal, so why had Professor Li asked that?

Comrade Jiang Jiankang specialized in Lu Cuisine, not Beijing Cuisine. Though the two had some similarities, it should not have been enough to make anyone think Jiang Jiankang was from Yanjing.

"Your restaurant mainly serves Lu Cuisine, right?" Liu Zixuan knew a thing or two about food.

"Maybe Professor Li thought the Sour Plum Drink tasted like authentic Yanjing flavor, so he asked out of curiosity," Jiang Feng said.

"Oh, right, you..." Jiang Feng had originally wanted to ask whether they wanted to eat with them, but then immediately remembered that they had already eaten. He changed his wording. "Do you want to have dinner with us tonight?"

The four of them nodded so quickly that their frequency was nearly twenty hertz.

Qiu Chen and the other three each left happily with a cup of herbal tea. Despite already secretly drinking plenty of Sour Plum Drink, herbal tea, and Mung Bean Soup, Wang Hao heroically maintained a normal appetite. Jiang Feng estimated that if Wang Hao kept eating like this, he would soon surpass even his eldest cousin Jiang Zaide in size.

That afternoon, Jiang Feng wrote up a notice looking for part-time workers and posted it on the glass outside the restaurant.

Hiring:

Part-time workers and delivery staff. Two meals included. Salary negotiable.

After posting the hiring notice, Jiang Feng went inside, found a corner, and began checking his attribute panel.

His knife skill proficiency had increased by 326 after slicing vegetables all morning, and the main mission progress had become (19/100). The mission was progressing wonderfully. He estimated that if he kept up the clean-plate discount for a few more days, he would be able to complete it.

"Ding, gained 1 point of fame. Mission progress (20/100)."

He had actually gained a point of fame for no reason!

Jiang Feng froze for a moment before quickly realizing what had happened.

It was probably because some customers who had eaten lunch recommended Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant to their friends. The principle was the same as posting on WeChat Moments—both could earn fame.

It seemed the main mission would be completed very soon.

Comrade Jiang Jiankang and Comrade Wang Xiulian had been tired out after half a day of work, so they went upstairs to rest. Jiang Feng took the opportunity to light the stove in the kitchen and cook several pots of porridge.

Ever since obtaining the Porridge Cooking (Intermediate) skill, he had not cooked porridge before. This was the perfect chance to see what intermediate-level porridge tasted like.

Jiang Feng cooked two pots of porridge: one pot of Preserved Egg and Lean Pork Congee, and one pot of Black Rice Congee.

One sweet and one savory. The Sour Plum Drink had sold out, so they would give out porridge that evening. A small bowl for each customer would be just enough to tide them over.

Guided by the intermediate Porridge Cooking skill, Jiang Feng could keenly sense when to use high heat, when to use low heat, when to stir, and when to add ingredients. It was as though a culinary god had possessed him. Under normal circumstances, no one could develop such sharp instincts without decades of porridge-making experience.

The two pots of porridge were done.

A pot of passable Preserved Egg and Lean Pork Congee, with preserved egg that was not chopped finely enough and lean pork that had not been marinated long enough.

A pot of passable Black Rice Congee with stale oats.

Jiang Feng tasted them. They were already comparable to the porridge Comrade Jiang Jiankang cooked.

He went to the restaurant entrance and changed the special offer to: Receive a free bowl of porridge with any meal. Then Jiang Feng prepared to open for business.

He went upstairs and woke Comrade Jiang Jiankang and Comrade Wang Xiulian, who had already fallen asleep, and had them come down to taste the freshly cooked porridge.

Jiang Jiankang, still bleary-eyed, took a sip of the porridge.

"Ding, gained 9 experience points."

Comrade Wang Xiulian took a sip of the porridge while yawning.

"Ding, gained 11 experience points."

Jiang Feng: ...

Just then, Wang Hao came to the restaurant to help.

"Hao, come taste the Black Rice Congee I just cooked." Wang Hao had a sweet tooth, so Jiang Feng called him over to try the sweet porridge.

"Ding, gained 31 experience points."

Jiang Feng: ...

Hao, you had changed. You were not like this yesterday.