Buddha Jumps Over the Wall

Jiang Feng arrived at the restaurant with his backpack at 12:40. Sure enough, the teacher for the last class had lived up to expectations and dragged the lesson out, successfully solving the students' problem of fighting for food at mealtime and allowing everyone to enjoy the delights of cold leftovers in an empty cafeteria.

Jiang Feng spotted a lunchbox on the counter in the back kitchen.

It was a blue, three-tiered, expensive, highly insulated aristocratic lunchbox—very common in high school and exceedingly rare in college.

"Senior, is this your lunchbox?" Jiang Feng asked. He truly could not imagine who would still use such a lunchbox in college.

"It's not mine. It belongs to Zhang Wei. He has another one. He asked me to put rice in the first tier, dishes in the second, and soup in the third," Ji Yue explained.

Jiang Feng nodded. Nice. Environmentally friendly.

It seemed Zhang Wei had made up his mind to order takeout from their restaurant every day. As expected of someone from a wealthy family who had sold a piece of software for tens of thousands. A month of his food expenses could match most students' living expenses.

Even though lunchtime had long passed, Jiang Jiankang was still busy in the kitchen. He had taken out his precious Shaoxing wine, and there were twenty or thirty plates of varying sizes spread across the counter.

A Shaoxing wine jar?

Jiang Feng leaned closer. Sure enough, lamb elbow, pork tripe, pig's trotters, pig tendons, abalone, shark fin, sea cucumber, dried scallops—every single premium ingredient essential for Buddha Jumps Over the Wall was present. Judging by their quality alone, none were the usual goods found on the market, nor did they seem like ingredients Comrade Jiang Jiankang could have gathered in such a short time.

Their family ran nothing more than an ordinary stir-fry restaurant. They did not have the broad procurement channels of a large hotel.

Jiang Jiankang was scoring the deer tendons, the dried scallops were soaking, and to his left sat an authentic piece of Jinhua ham that one of Old Master Jiang's friends had given him years ago.

From the looks of it, Comrade Jiang Jiankang was going all out.

That piece of Jinhua ham was his treasure. Jiang Feng had never even gotten a taste of it.

"Dad, where did you get so many ingredients?" Jiang Feng asked curiously.

"The customer brought them himself. That professor of yours, the one who came to eat here at noon on opening day. I think... I think his surname was Chen. He was quite old." Jiang Jiankang pointed at the abalone on a plate. "Go score the abalone."

Jiang Feng went to get a knife.

The abalone was four-head abalone, in superb condition. He had no idea how Professor Li had managed to obtain live, fresh four-head abalone in inland A City. Dried abalone was generally used for Buddha Jumps Over the Wall because its aroma was richer, but since the customer had brought the ingredients himself, everyone had their own preferences. For Comrade Jiang Jiankang, who was skilled at making stock, fresh abalone suited his tastes better.

Jiang Feng had never tasted Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.

It was not because the ingredients were expensive. These days, one could buy a serving of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall at a hotel for a few hundred yuan. But Old Master Jiang had extremely high standards for ingredients. He would not touch hormone-fed meat or pesticide-laden vegetables, so if the Jiang family made Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, they had to use the very best ingredients.

After all, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall had once been one of Tai Feng Lou's signature dishes. Old Master Jiang would never allow his unworthy descendants to tarnish one of Jiang Family Cuisine's finest dishes from back then.

There were eighteen main ingredients and twelve supplementary ones. Jiang Jiankang patiently handled each ingredient in turn. In the meantime, he hurriedly made everyone a rough lunch. By the time Jiang Feng left for class, he was still waiting for the fish maw to soak.

Jiang Jiankang was no longer the head chef he had once been at a state-run restaurant. Getting such excellent ingredients and making a grand dish with them was a rare opportunity for him as well.

The midday sun was blazing, leaving people dizzy and lightheaded beneath its fierce rays.

On his way to class, Jiang Feng called Old Master Jiang.

The old man had never been in the habit of taking naps. According to his biological clock, he should have been cooking pig feed for his beloved pigs right now.

An afternoon tea snack. How enviable.

"Hello, Xiao Feng. What is it?" Old Master Jiang's vigorous voice came through the phone.

"Grandpa, a professor from our school wants to invite you to make Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices," Jiang Feng said, getting straight to the point.

"No." The old man refused just as decisively.

"Our professor is bringing his own ingredients. He came to the restaurant today to ask Dad to make Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, and he brought the ingredients himself too. I saw them. They're incredibly good, absolutely top-grade ingredients that are rarely seen." Jiang Feng still hoped to complete this side quest.

The words "incredibly good ingredients" clearly moved Old Master Jiang. There was a brief silence on the other end before he said, "Why does a professor from your school want to specifically ask me to make this dish?"

If someone had invited Old Master Jiang to make a dish thirty years ago, he would not have found it strange. Back then, he had been a moderately famous state-run restaurant chef and had hosted quite a few people who came seeking his reputation. But now he had been retired for so many years. There were so many good chefs in the world; they hardly lacked one more.

"Our professor's father tasted Great-Grandpa's Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices at Tai Feng Lou when he was young. He wants his father to taste it again," Jiang Feng explained.

"I'll go to A City next week." The old man sighed. "Seventy years, and someone still remembers Tai Feng Lou."

Jiang Feng hung up. The call had only lasted a few minutes, yet his phone was already faintly warm. He did not know whether the sun was to blame or whether Xiaomi's instinct to run hot was simply too strong.

During afternoon class, Jiang Feng was somewhat absent-minded.

This was the first time he had seen Comrade Jiang Jiankang make Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. Unable to witness the entire process firsthand, he could not stop thinking about it.

"Brother Feng, what are you thinking about? You've checked the time three times in the last two minutes." Wang Hao nudged Jiang Feng with his elbow.

"My dad is making Buddha Jumps Over the Wall in the kitchen," Jiang Feng said.

"I've had Buddha Jumps Over the Wall before. Yi Pin Xuan in our city has it—688 yuan a serving. Two bites and it's gone. It tasted pretty good, but it wasn't as miraculous as novels make it sound." Wang Hao made it clear that he was someone who had seen the world.

Jiang Feng knew Yi Pin Xuan. It specialized in Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine, and Buddha Jumps Over the Wall was not even one of its signature dishes.

"If you'd had the 1,888-yuan version, you wouldn't think that way. My grandpa said there's a restaurant in Fujian whose Buddha Jumps Over the Wall has an aroma that carries for ten miles. They only make a hundred servings a day, and even booking three months ahead won't get you a spot," Jiang Feng said. Pretending to listen to the lecture, he turned a page in his book along with the teacher.

"Can Uncle's dish today achieve that?" Wang Hao began involuntarily salivating.

"Definitely not, but it'll absolutely be better than the 688-yuan one you had," Jiang Feng said.

The former head chef of that Fujian restaurant could be considered half of Old Master Jiang's teacher. Old Master Jiang had learned his Buddha Jumps Over the Wall from his guidance.

That man now owned a restaurant famed throughout the country, while the Jiang family now owned a thriving little eatery.

They also had a pharmacy about to open, a tailor shop left to fate, a pet store surviving on low profits and high volume, and Old Master Jiang's beloved three pigs.

As soon as class ended, Jiang Feng and Wang Hao grabbed their backpacks and raced to the restaurant.

Comrade Wang Xiulian was sitting in front of the counter with one leg crossed over the other, propping up her triple chin as she watched a drama. Comrade Jiang Jiankang had moved a chair into the kitchen and was sitting there guarding his Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.

The chairs at Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant all shared one characteristic: they were sturdy.

The lotus leaf had sealed in all the fragrance. Buddha Jumps Over the Wall looked like nothing more than an ordinary wine jar.

"Son, chop the vegetables." Jiang Jiankang gave the order without taking his eyes off the jar for even a moment.

Jiang Feng picked up a knife and started chopping vegetables.

Starting at five, customers gradually began arriving.

Jiang Jiankang handed all authority over the wok to Jiang Feng. Though it was somewhat cruel to the customers, Jiang Feng had not heard the wonderful notification sound of gaining experience points in a long time. His experience points had barely increased over the past two days, and he had even spent 1,000 that morning to level up Physics, successfully achieving negative growth.

Near six o'clock, Professor Li and his wife helped an elderly man with a cane into the restaurant.

"Dad, be careful." Professor Li helped his father to the nearest table and seated him.

Ji Yue entered the kitchen to tell Jiang Jiankang that Professor Li had arrived.

Jiang Jiankang carried out the entire wine jar.

He removed the lid and lifted the lotus leaf.

The fragrance rushed forth and spread throughout the restaurant.

The customers who had been looking down at their phones could not help raising their heads, searching for the source of the aroma.

"What dish is that? It smells so good!" a bespectacled young man asked.

"Buddha Jumps Over the Wall," Ji Yue answered helpfully.

Poverty made him shut his mouth.

Li Mingyi shook his head and slowly rose to his feet. Professor Li and his wife hurried to support him, afraid he might fall.

"This isn't the smell." Li Mingyi's voice was extremely hoarse.

"I'm sorry, Chef Jiang. Please pack it up for us," Professor Li said apologetically.

"My cooking skills are lacking."

Ji Yue hurried to find a takeout container.

"Student Jiang, I wonder about your grandfather..." Professor Li turned his gaze to Jiang Feng.

"My grandfather said he'll come to A City next week," Jiang Feng said.

"Sorry to trouble you. We've truly troubled you," Professor Li said repeatedly.

"Your grandfather—is he Jiang Weiguo?" Li Mingyi asked.

"Yes." Jiang Feng nodded.

"I remember him. Back then, he wasn't even as tall as my waist. When he served dishes, Huiqing said he was such a handsome boy." A trace of light appeared in Li Mingyi's cloudy eyes.

Then he muttered fragmented words no one could understand before leaving the restaurant with Professor Li and his wife supporting him.