Setup

Early the next morning, Jiang Jianguo drove his Wuling Hongguang to the Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant, towing a load of wooden molds. There were not only molds, but also several large bags of red beans, mung beans, and peas that had been soaked overnight, along with several large pots. He hauled the whole pile into the back kitchen.

Ever since Eldest Aunt had been diagnosed with high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol, she had stopped eating these high-sugar pastries. Jiang Jianguo's collection of equipment had also lost its purpose.

The kitchen was divided into two halves. One half was for Comrade Jiang Jianguo to make pastries, while the other was for Comrade Jiang Jiankang to conduct business as usual. There were few customers at the restaurant on weekends, and only a handful of delivery orders. Ji Yue could handle everything alone, so Jiang Feng messaged Qiu Chen and the others, telling them not to come help at the restaurant today.

Comrade Wang Xiulian had arranged to go to the beauty salon with Eldest Aunt for a facial, and she headed out early in the morning.

"Xiaofeng, I didn't know what kind of pastries you wanted, so I just soaked some beans first." Jiang Jianguo dumped several large bags of beans into basins with a rustle, filling three huge basins to the brim.

"Let's deal with these beans first. I still have dozens of pounds of flour, so we can make some Cantonese pastries later," Jiang Feng said.

With everything prepared, they naturally had to make Pea Cake, Mung Bean Cake, and Red Bean Cake.

Jiang Feng put the peas into a pot to boil, while Jiang Jianguo put the red beans into a pressure cooker. Then the two sat beside the basin full of mung beans and began removing their skins together.

Removing mung bean skins was painstaking work, but if they wanted to make fresh Mung Bean Cake and were unwilling to buy commercially available mung bean flour, this was their only option.

Jiang Feng could only handle this sort of assisting work. Once the beans had all been cooked soft and mashed into paste, there was basically nothing left for him to do. Jiang Jianguo had his own sense of proportion for the ratios of ingredients, how to mix them, and what to use to combine them.

After rubbing mung bean skins off for a full two hours, Jiang Feng felt like he had rubbed the skin off his own palms before they finally finished processing the huge basin of mung beans. They put the mung beans into the pressure cooker as well, and Jiang Feng's work was finally done.

Jiang Jianguo was cooking the pea paste. When he saw Jiang Feng finish up, he pointed at several dark, large bags on the floor. "Xiaofeng, take a look and see what kind of molds you want."

The moment he opened a bag, he found it full of wooden molds.

There was no need to ask. Quite a few of them had definitely been looted from Old Master Jiang.

Animal-shaped ones, flower-shaped ones, all kinds of floral patterns, long ones, wide ones, square ones, round ones, heart-shaped ones, engraved ones—there was everything.

Anyone who didn't know better would have thought they had walked into a mold factory.

Jiang Feng picked out several attractive designs, feeling that victory was already in his grasp.

With these molds alone, it would be hard for the Chess Club not to recruit people this year.

To thank his eldest uncle for his wholehearted help, Jiang Feng had catered to his preferences yesterday and asked Liu Zixuan to buy several popular health-preserving floral teas for him. Eldest Aunt had recently become obsessed with health preservation and had posted several complaints on WeChat Moments about being unable to buy the trending floral teas. Liu Zixuan came from a business family with extensive connections. Once Eldest Aunt received the teas, she would surely be delighted. Eldest Uncle's allowance for the month might even double.

From top to bottom, it was always the wives of the Jiang Family who controlled the money. Even Old Master Jiang had to ask his wife's permission if he wanted to improve the diet of his precious darling pig.

Ji Yue had already finished her deliveries and was sitting idly in the restaurant, playing on her phone. Seeing Jiang Feng come out of the kitchen, she looked up and asked, "Finished?"

"Not even close." Jiang Feng found a chair and sat down.

"Jiahui finished the flyer. Take a look. If there's no problem, she'll go have it printed now." Ji Yue handed her phone to Jiang Feng.

The flyer's design was very simple, with nothing fancy about it. At a glance, it was clearly the product of cutting corners. If not for the six words "Chess Club Recruitment!" written on it, Jiang Feng would have suspected it was an advertisement for the Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant.

There was even a QR code for the Official Account in the lower right corner.

Jiang Feng was very satisfied.

"Let's go with this. Get it printed. Senior, do you remember how much club funding we had left from last year?" Jiang Feng asked.

"Fifty."

"...Print three hundred copies first. I'll cover the cost for now, then reimburse myself once the funding is approved." Jiang Feng took out his phone to transfer money to He Jiahui. "How's the venue situation?"

"Are you the club president, or am I? I seem to recall that I already graduated." Ji Yue couldn't help complaining. "You still need your former president to sacrifice her looks to secure a venue. If the Chess Club gets dissolved this year, I'll skin you all alive."

In theory, the booths for club recruitment were fixed. But that was only in theory. If someone managed to grab some extra space around the edges and expand outward, the Student Union couldn't do anything about it. The premise was that they had to get that edge space first.

For the past few years, the Culinary Club had occupied the biggest plot of land, claiming they needed the space to display their equipment. In plain terms, it was just pots, bowls, and pans, plus some cakes they made themselves. With sugar-coated bait and pretty, eloquent senior girls, they lured countless unsuspecting freshmen into joining.

"The capable ones should do more. Thank you for your hard work, Senior Ji Yue." Jiang Feng smiled. "There's chilled Sour Plum Drink in the freezer. Want me to bring you a bowl?"

Ji Yue solemnly held up two fingers and said seriously, "Two bowls!"

By mid-afternoon, Jiang Feng and the others needed to take their things over to set up the recruitment venue.

In theory, recruitment would begin at seven o'clock the next morning. Some of A University's more casual clubs did not limit their membership, and clubs like the badminton club and basketball club had one or two hundred members. Elite clubs had much higher thresholds, since they offered academic credits and perhaps even opportunities to earn decent awards. Clubs like the Chess Club, which were casual, unpopular, offered no credits, and barely had any club funding, were very rare.

A shortage of manpower meant a huge workload.

By the time Jiang Feng and the others brought over the tables, chairs, props, decorations, banners, and shade equipment, the other clubs had basically finished setting up.

"Is everything here?" Jiang Feng asked.

"Everything's here. I counted it. Let's get started." Qiu Chen began setting up the canopy.

The others sprang into action as well.

"Jiang Feng?" Jiang Feng was spreading out a tablecloth when he looked up and saw Wang Hui, the president of the Home Economics Club, standing in front of him with an armful of decorative fake flowers.

"I went to the Student Union to ask for a venue, and they told me this area had already been assigned. What does your Chess Club need such a large area for?" Wang Hui examined their layout. "Are you putting out a row of chessboards?"

"We're displaying club benefits," Jiang Feng said.

"Give me a break. Your club only had four hundred yuan in funding last year. What benefits could you possibly offer? This place is so out of the way, what use is it? You'd be better off asking for a spot near the front. I heard that if you still can't recruit enough people this year, your club will be dissolved." Wang Hui said, "Switch venues."

The Chess Club and the Home Economics Club truly had no prior grudge. There was only Jiang Feng's personal grievance from when the former president of the Home Economics Club had refused to let him join because he was male. After all, the Home Economics Club was a major club with two hundred members. The Chess Club never had the chance to feud with it.

"No." Jiang Feng refused directly. "The spots up front are too sought-after. There isn't enough room."

"What are you putting out?" Wang Hui asked curiously.

"Secret!"

"Tch." Wang Hui hugged her fake flowers and went back.

"Why did Wang Hui come over here?" Qiu Chen asked.

"Their venue seems to be next to ours." In fact, the Home Economics Club's area was not small either. Wang Hui had been right: this place really was out of the way.

"Next to ours?" Qiu Chen was shocked. "What if the freshmen mistake us for the Home Economics Club tomorrow?"

Jiang Feng: ...

"Wouldn't it be great if we used our club's application forms to trick them into joining?"