Freshmen Welcome

Jiang Feng did not go to the club recruitment event the next day. Other than attending classes, he stayed in the back kitchen helping Jiang Jianguo make pastries. Starting around four or five in the afternoon, the system notifications kept ringing. They came so densely that Jiang Feng's head was practically about to explode.

It looked like club recruitment had entered its most intense stage.

"Ding, side quest 'Keeping Up with the Times' completed. Quest reward item obtained: Promotional Standee."

Jiang Feng happily continued kneading dough. Seeing Jiang Jianguo take the freshly steamed custard buns out of the steamer, he said, "Uncle, once we finish this last batch, let's stop, okay?"

"Sure!" Jiang Jianguo felt as though he had made all the pastries he was supposed to make over the next ten years today.

After two days of nonstop work, they put the last batch of custard buns into the steamer. Jiang Jianguo sat down on a stool in the kitchen, casually found something to fan himself with, and asked, "Xiaofeng, I forgot to ask yesterday. Why did Grandpa suddenly think of coming to A City?"

"A customer invited Grandpa here to cook." Jiang Feng cleaned up the kitchenware as he spoke. "A professor at our school invited Grandpa to make Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices."

"A grand dish!" Jiang Jianguo's eyes lit up. "Even your father never got the chance to make that."

Jiang Feng nodded, his hands never stopping as he chatted intermittently with Jiang Jianguo.

As a near-empty-nester whose son was busy with work all day, whose tailor shop had poor business, and whose wife was obsessed with health regimens and family melodramas, Jiang Jianguo had a bellyful of things with no one to tell. Now that he had finally caught hold of a younger relative, he naturally let it all out.

Jiang Jianguo was just talking about how Jiang Feng's eldest cousin, Jiang Zaide, worked overtime at the company every day when Jiang Feng's phone rang. The caller ID showed that it was Wang Hao.

"Hello, Brother Feng, we've run into a bit of trouble. Um, um..."

"Um what? Give me the phone. Jiang Feng, what do you mean by this? Fine, I won't even mention how your Chess Club set out so many free snacks and drinks right next to our Home Economics Club, but what's with that Chen Mengxing from your club? He's outright tricking people! A freshman our club had already secured was lured over to your side with a bag of pastries. What exactly do you mean by this?!"

Jiang Feng:...

He could practically picture Wang Hui roaring at him in person.

"Um, Wang Hui, give the phone back to Wang Hao first. Let me ask him about it. I'm not there, so I don't know what's going on."

"Hmph."

"Hello, Haozi, what was that about Senior Chen stealing someone? If what Wang Hui said was true, then Chen Mengxing really had acted improperly."

"That junior really is a promising prospect. She went to the same high school as Liu Qian, and Liu Qian recognized her. She won a provincial chess championship. Besides, we didn't steal anyone. She never said she wanted to join the Home Economics Club. She only took an application form," Wang Hao said quietly.

Jiang Feng:...

Jiang Feng felt that if Wang Hui knew where he was, she was probably already on her way here with a kitchen knife.

"Ahem, um, is there any Sour Plum Drink left? Give Wang Hui a cup to calm her down."

"Sour Plum Drink? It's been gone for ages. We gave it away with the forms, so it ran out early. Oh, right, I think I saw Liu Qian secretly stash a bottle. Hold on."

"Junior Liu Qian, hand over the Sour Plum Drink in your thermos."

"What Sour Plum Drink? I didn't bring a thermos!"

"Hey, hey, that isn't my thermos. It's my roommate's, really. She left it with me."

"President Wang, look, this matter has already..."

Jiang Feng waited on the other end of the call for a moment. Wang Hui took the phone and said, "Jiang Feng, you think a cup of Sour Plum Drink is enough to brush me off?"

She sounded to be in a slightly better mood.

"How does the Sour Plum Drink taste?" Jiang Feng asked.

"It's... pretty decent."

"You know my family opened a restaurant on Food Street, right?"

"I know. Your recruitment flyers look like restaurant ads. 'Chess Club members receive ten percent off meals,' and you even make people scan a QR code to follow your Official Account when they fill out a form. Watch me report you to the Student Union!" Wang Hui threatened.

"Ahem... How about this? We really did act improperly here. You've tasted the Sour Plum Drink, and I'm sure you have some idea of how good our restaurant's cooking is. From now on, members of your Home Economics Club can get five percent off whenever they eat at our restaurant. They must show their club ID!"

Wang Hui fell silent for a moment. "Ten percent off."

"No, ten percent off is a Chess Club benefit. At most, six percent off!"

"Eight percent off."

"Your Home Economics Club has over two hundred people. Eight percent off would eat my restaurant into bankruptcy. Six percent off!"

After a round of haggling, Wang Hui finally compromised. They settled on six percent off.

"Min, go revise the flyers and print a new batch. Add that our club members can receive six percent off when dining at Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant."

Jiang Feng:...

"Add the QR code too!"

That evening, everyone who had spent the day recruiting for the club gathered at Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant. He Jiahui, Zhao Lin, and Chen Mengxing, the three people who always claimed that senior year was too busy for them to check the group chat, all somehow had time to come eat lunch and dinner. After paying their monthly meal fees, the ranks of people eating staff meals at Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant grew a little larger.

Once they had eaten and drunk their fill, it was time to show off the day's results.

"Ta-da-da-da!" Zhao Yu pulled a thick stack of completed club application forms from his bag and slapped them onto the table. The heavy smack made everyone jolt.

"Three hundred forms, and you handed them all out?" Ji Yue stared wide-eyed at the thick stack of applications on the table.

"All of them. We even wrapped up early," Zhao Yu said with a firm nod.

Everyone stared at the application forms.

"What are you standing around for? Divide them up and pick people!" Ji Yue urged.

Only then did everyone snap out of it.

Pick people. What an unfamiliar phrase. And yet it had actually appeared in the Chess Club.

They roughly divided up the forms and began screening applicants.

"Wu Minqi, two-time provincial champion. Junior Liu Qian, this is that schoolmate of yours, right?" Liu Zixuan handed the form to Liu Qian and sighed. "We're about to strike it big!"

Throughout the Chess Club's history, a member who had won a neighborhood competition could already be considered talented.

After several rounds of screening, nineteen people remained, all of whom had won awards at city-level competitions or higher. Adding those with black belts in taekwondo, national-level piano awards, mastery of flower arrangement, martial arts, and other "special talents" that looked impressive but had little to do with chess, the Chess Club expected to recruit twenty-six new members this year, including Liu Qian.

After reading the new members' resumes, the old members felt too ashamed to remain in the Chess Club.

"I've decided!" Ji Yue slapped the table. "I'll still be the one going to the Student Union for funding this year."

"Senior, if you go, it might be a little..." Jiang Feng wanted to remind her that she had actually already graduated.

"What do you mean, 'if I go'? The Student Union president hasn't changed. You think he won't recognize me?" Thinking of the hardships she had endured asking for club funds during her years as president, then looking at the club application forms before her, Ji Yue felt that she absolutely had to shout the words she had wanted to say to those stingy Student Union people for three years.

I, the Chess Club, demand money!

This story... I suddenly feel like I still want to keep writing.