Recipes

The Physics Department coursework was heavy and difficult. Jiang Feng had to run between school and the restaurant every day, and after a while, even an iron body could not take it.

More importantly, Jiang Feng would definitely inherit the Jiang Family's generations-old culinary tradition and become the head chef of Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant.

Of course, dropping out was impossible. He would never drop out in this lifetime. He had spent three years in high school burning the midnight oil, getting up earlier than chickens and sleeping later than dogs, all to finally get into A University. Only an idiot would drop out!

A University was not particularly strict about attendance. As long as final exam scores were high, the instructors would generously give decent participation grades even if attendance was a little low. Of course, if someone could get full marks in every subject, the professors would not care even if they never attended class.

There had been a legendary student in the year above who never attended class. In the end, he achieved the remarkable feat of failing eight courses in one semester and was expelled.

If Jiang Feng followed in that legend's footsteps, the consequences...

Jiang Feng simply did not dare imagine what would happen if Comrade Wang Xiulian's ten-plus-pound palm came slapping toward his face.

After thinking it over for a long time, Jiang Feng decided to proceed step by step. First, skip a few classes on a small scale, then start missing classes on a larger scale, and finally achieve the ultimate goal of skipping every class while only taking the final exams.

However—

The plan had only been in effect for a few days, before he had even begun missing classes on a large scale, when Jiang Feng was summoned to the counselor's office for tea.

The counselor was a young, newly hired teacher. Over the past year, aside from relaying the school's various notices in the class group chat and holding one class meeting at the beginning and end of each term, he had practically had no presence at all.

For the first time in all his years of studying, Jiang Feng had been invited to a teacher's office for tea. He was a little nervous.

"Student Jiang Feng, the class monitor recently reported to me that your attendance rate has not been very high." The counselor smiled as soon as Jiang Feng sat down.

"Uh, well, I..."

"We all know your family is having difficulties. We can solve them together, and there are many ways to do that. But neglecting your studies and skipping class to work part-time or help out at the restaurant—isn't that a bit like losing the bigger picture for a small gain?"

"Teacher, I'm not..."

"If your family is struggling, you can apply for financial aid. Don't be too embarrassed to ask; it is nothing shameful. You may think that what you learn in school is unimportant and not worth studying, so you skip class. But what if you fail and lose your degree, or get expelled like that student from the year above? Wouldn't that be more trouble than it was worth? Once you leave school, you will realize that everything your teachers taught you was valuable. If you do not cherish it now, it will be too late for regrets later."

"I..."

"Financial difficulties are only temporary. Once you leave school, you will realize that none of this amounts to much. But if you fail to learn now, then in the future..."

The counselor truly deserved to be a politics graduate. He lectured Jiang Feng earnestly for ages without giving him a chance to get a word in. Only at the end did he give Jiang Feng an opening. "Say whatever you want to say."

"Teacher, I'm... I'm... Actually, I already taught myself all of this semester's courses over the summer. I only started skipping because I felt I had no problems with them..." Before the system update, Jiang Feng had used experience points to raise mathematics to Intermediate. Even without attending class, reviewing for a few days before the finals would be more than enough.

"Taught yourself everything?" The counselor looked at him with an ambiguous smile. "If I remember correctly, your Electromagnetic Waves and Advanced Mathematics last semester were only passed because the instructors went easy on you. Taught yourself everything—"

The counselor did not press the matter too hard. He himself had completed his bachelor's and master's degrees at A University before staying on as faculty, and he had seen plenty of quiet students who suddenly made a name for themselves. If Jiang Feng could complete his studies smoothly without attending class, then there was nothing for him to persuade Jiang Feng about.

There was a student at the neighboring School of Economics and Management who had started his own business and was worth nearly ten million. He was never on campus throughout the year, yet he had failed five courses at once in last year's finals. Hadn't the instructors simply turned a blind eye and gone easy on him during the retakes so he could pass?

If he wanted to skip class, fine. But he had to prove he was capable.

In the end, the counselor told Jiang Feng to use his own judgment.

Jiang Feng said goodbye to the counselor. He had already reached the office door when he suddenly heard the counselor say leisurely behind him.

"Jiang Feng, Professor Li thinks highly of you. Don't let him down."

When Jiang Feng turned around, the counselor was looking down at his phone as though he had not said anything at all.

Jiang Feng was left speechless.

Who would have thought their counselor was such a drama queen?

As for Comrade Wang Xiulian and Comrade Jiang Jiankang, their combined educational background did not even add up to one university degree. They had no concept of university coursework at all, and their understanding of university mostly came from hearsay over the years. Things like, study hard in high school and university will be easy; university students play every day and barely have classes.

They did not raise any objections when Jiang Feng suddenly became free and spent every day at the restaurant.

After being invited to tea by the counselor, Jiang Feng specifically went to Professor Li to explain the situation. After writing out an entire exam paper in front of Professor Li, Jiang Feng received official permission to skip class. After that, he repeated the process with every instructor, making a strong impression on all of them and skipping straight past the large-scale absenteeism stage to achieve the feat of skipping every class.

Everyone had originally thought Jiang Feng had given up on himself because his family was deeply in debt and was only skipping classes to help with the family business.

Then young Teacher Wang used Jiang Feng as an example while joking with the students and revealed that he had been officially authorized to skip class, making Jiang Feng completely famous in the Physics Department.

The price was that Jiang Feng discovered Wang Hao had been looking at him strangely lately.

"Ahem. If you have something to say, just say it." After being stared at by Wang Hao for four days with that strange look, Jiang Feng finally could not take it anymore.

"Brother Feng, something's off about you this semester!" Wang Hao looked deep in thought.

"No, I think I'm perfectly normal!" Jiang Feng laughed it off.

"This semester, it's like you received guidance from some master. You've been completely reborn, rising from loser to winner." Wang Hao analyzed calmly. "Your family suffers a sudden crisis, your cooking skills are exceptional, you become a top student overnight, and you make a stunning debut. This is practically the template for a protagonist in an urban novel!"

Jiang Feng: "..."

"Wasn't the whole family-crisis thing a rumor you made up? Now when people see me outside, they look at me like I'm the protagonist of some inspirational movie. Also, were those ridiculous stories about me charging in and out of the counselor's office seven times, meeting Professor Li single-handedly, and defeating five professors while conquering six exam papers all made up and spread by you?" Jiang Feng turned the tables and interrogated him.

"Artistic embellishment, artistic embellishment." Wang Hao wore a shameless grin and did not mention the protagonist-template matter again.

"Jiang Feng, one Stir-fried Pork with Chili over rice!" Ji Yue called from outside.

"I'm done talking to you. I'm going to cook." Jiang Feng tied on his apron and went to get the ingredients.

A few days earlier, Jiang Jiankang had found a meat supplier with especially good-quality meat, but they had been unable to settle on a price. He and Comrade Wang Xiulian went to the breeding farm and negotiated with the supplier every day, leaving the restaurant's business entirely to Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng spooned the freshly cooked Stir-fried Pork with Chili over steaming rice. Wang Hao took the plate out, and just as Jiang Feng was about to untie his apron, he heard the long-awaited system notification.

"Ding, game update complete."

Jiang Feng was nearly moved to tears.

This update had lasted more than a month. He had watched as shirts were replaced by sweaters, sweaters were covered with padded jackets, and bright sunshine turned into howling winter winds, yet the update progress bar had stubbornly refused to move. Every time Jiang Feng checked the game update's progress bar, he suspected it had frozen. Especially these past few days, when it had been just a tiny bit away from full, it had dragged on until now.

He impatiently opened the attributes panel and discovered an additional section for achievements.

Achievements: Bitter Tears (slightly increases seasoning ability when making wontons)

Title: None

Item: A Memory of Li Mingyi

Recipe: Pure Meat Wontons (click to view details)

Evaluation: An utterly ordinary beginner

Pure Meat Wontons?

Bitter Tears?

What were these supposed to be?

Jiang Feng opened Pure Meat Wontons and was surprised to find that the recipe even came with an illustration. The picture did not look very good, though. Most of a perfectly fine bowl of wontons had spilled out, and the bowl itself was chipped and broken.

Wait, why did this bowl of wontons look so familiar?

Pure Meat Wontons, F-rank:

Creator: Wang Shitou

Dish Details: Wontons with terrible ingredients, preparation methods, and seasoning, yet they were incomparably precious in Jiang Huiqin's memories. After consumption, they could make someone recall the most bitter memories of their youth.

Times craftable per day: 3. (0/3)

Below that was the detailed method for making the wontons, complete with video instruction. It was quite thoughtful.

But...

The ingredients, methods, and seasoning were all terrible, and they would make people recall their most bitter memories. If he made these wontons and sold them to customers, they would smash up the restaurant!

How much hatred did someone need to have to feed this to another person?

Jiang Feng stared blankly at the recipe.

"Jiang Feng, Jiang Feng!" Ji Yue called several times from outside, but when no one answered, she simply ran into the kitchen. "Why are you staring into space? Two orders of fish-fragrant shredded pork, one order of scrambled eggs with chives, and three plates of stir-fried rice noodles with shredded pork. Make the fish-fragrant shredded pork extra spicy, cook the chives thoroughly, leave the scallions out of one plate of noodles, and make the other two mildly spicy."

"Oh, right, I'll have them ready right away." Jiang Feng snapped out of it and went to get the ingredients.

Comrade Jiang Jianguo, please come back soon. Being the head chef of Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant is exhausting!

After spending an entire day working the wok, Jiang Feng roared inwardly.