Strategy

Jiang Feng put the lid on the pressure cooker, puzzled as to why Chen Xiuxiu had secretly eaten corn while he was in the kitchen.

If she was too embarrassed to ask...

Chen Xiuxiu had done at least eight hundred embarrassing things in front of him over the years. She shouldn't have risked secretly eating a few kernels of corn.

Ding. Obtained 9 experience points.

She'd stolen another bite!

Jiang Feng secured the pressure cooker lid, then came out and glanced at the corn on the table.

There wasn't much difference. She had probably only stolen one or two kernels.

"I'm taking the dish away," Jiang Feng said tentatively.

"Take it away," Chen Xiuxiu said without changing expression.

"Don't you want to try some?" Jiang Feng decided to lure the enemy deeper.

"No!" Chen Xiuxiu replied resolutely.

Now that was strange.

"I'll bring a bowl over later to take the congee from the kitchen. I'll come make you fresh congee again tonight." As he spoke, Jiang Feng picked up the mixed corn dish from the table.

Jiang Feng deliberately slowed his pace. When he reached the doorway, he deliberately paused, then secretly glanced back.

Chen Xiuxiu was looking down at her phone.

Come to think of it, she was rather pretty with her head lowered and her bangs covering her face.

Jiang Feng carried the plate home at an unhurried pace. There was no one at home, so he put the dish in the refrigerator and went straight back to his room.

He opened his attribute panel, wanting to see whether there had been any progress in the task after he'd made Chen Xiuxiu's stomach problems flare up today.

(Repeated content omitted)

Task Hint: Reputation is key to developing a new restaurant. Fame can only be gained within A University.

2. Neighbor's Wish: Chen Duxiu's daughter, Chen Xiuxiu, has recently become obsessed with dieting to lose weight. Please fulfill your neighbor's wish and help Chen Xiuxiu return to a normal diet.

Task Hint: Chen Xiuxiu has begun showing signs of anorexia due to excessive dieting and induced vomiting. Please act quickly. (Chen Xiuxiu prefers slightly sour Smashed Cucumber Salad. Chen Xiuxiu has no resistance to food placed before her.)

Jiang Feng slapped his thigh. Why didn't it say so earlier?

So the reason Chen Xiuxiu's home had nothing but uncooked rice wasn't simply to lose weight—it was because that was the only way she could lose weight.

Exactly. A leopard couldn't change its spots. How could Chen Xiuxiu, who had once eaten her way through every restaurant within ten miles without a rival, turn into some ascended fairy who didn't touch rice or water in just one year?

But her stomach was a huge problem.

They had grown up together, after all. He couldn't just deliberately put lavish dishes in front of Chen Xiuxiu every day to tempt her into secretly eating them for the sake of completing the task.

Congee was more suitable for her.

If categorized by ingredients, congee could be divided into six or seven types. But by flavor, there were only plain congee, sweet congee, and savory congee. Every region had its own specialties, and one could eat congee every day for two months without repeating a single kind.

However, Jiang Feng only knew how to make plain congee and Stomach-Soothing Congee.

There was no congee category in the Jiang family cooks' recipe collection.

What Old Comrade Jiang Weiguo was proudest of in his life was not having four sons, but leading the whole family to eat solid food at every meal during an era when ordinary families ate gruel every day. Even after reform and opening up, when the days of using gruel to fool one's way through hunger had passed and drinking congee was no longer shameful, congee still never appeared in Old Comrade Jiang Weiguo's recipes.

If Jiang Feng hadn't had a bad stomach, Comrade Jiang Jiankang would never have specifically sought out an old master from a congee shop to learn how to make Stomach-Soothing Congee.

Jiang Feng somewhat regretted that Comrade Jiang Jiankang hadn't learned a few more kinds of congee from that old master. If he had, Jiang Feng could now use his superb congee-making skills to lure Chen Xiuxiu back to a normal diet. But now...

He could only hope she had unusual tastes and happened to love plain congee.

He also had no idea whether the game's requirement for returning to a normal diet meant eating a small bowl of congee that could be finished in several big gulps at every meal, or a bowl from the huge sea-bowl Chen Duxiu had specifically bought for Chen Xiuxiu when she was in her senior year of high school.

No, it was more like a sea basin.

That afternoon, Jiang Feng brought the congee to the restaurant.

Comrade Wang Xiulian had never tasted congee made by her son before. She eagerly tried some, then silently put down her spoon.

The expression on her face was so profound that every piece of fat on it seemed to radiate melancholy.

"Poor Xiuxiu," Comrade Wang Xiulian sighed, not talking nonsense just because this bowl of congee had been made by her own son.

Jiang Jiankang followed behind and took a sip, nodding in agreement. "Xiuxiu has had a good temper since she was little. If I'd drunk congee like this when I was young, I might've flipped the table and slapped it in the cook's face."

Jiang Feng: ...

Didn't they think their son needed a little encouragement?

"This congee can't be given away as a free gift. We still need to keep this restaurant open for another month. What if we scare off all the customers?" Comrade Wang Xiulian made the final decision. "Tonight, we'll see whether that kid in the blue shirt from the day before yesterday comes to eat. Give all of it to him. How dare he say behind my back that I'm as fat as a pig? Let's see if I don't poison him to death!"

As she spoke, Comrade Wang Xiulian encouragingly patted Jiang Feng's right shoulder with her sturdy right hand. "Good job, son!"

Jiang Jiankang expressed support for every one of his wife's decisions. "Exactly. Does he even know how to talk? A pig weighing two hundred pounds would already be sent to slaughter."

Jiang Feng didn't know whether his shoulder hurt more or his heart did. But when he saw Comrade Wang Xiulian's face gradually darkening while Comrade Jiang Jiankang was still happily chuckling to himself in total ignorance, Jiang Feng felt a little better.

This pot of congee might end up becoming Comrade Jiang Jiankang's dinner.

After helping clean up the restaurant, wiping down the tables Comrade Wang Xiulian hadn't cleaned properly, washing dishes, and preparing some vegetables, Jiang Feng took the ingredients for that evening's congee home.

He was going to make Preserved Egg and Lean Pork Congee!

Before that, he first needed to search Baidu for how to make Preserved Egg and Lean Pork Congee.

After watching every video related to Preserved Egg and Lean Pork Congee, Jiang Feng, with his abundant cooking experience, declared that there shouldn't be any problem. Tonight, he would wash away his humiliation and let Chen Xiuxiu taste his real congee-making skills.

Ding. Achievement obtained: Diligent and Inquisitive.

An achievement!

Jiang Feng hurriedly opened his attribute panel.

Achievement: Diligent and Inquisitive (No attribute bonuses)

Jiang Feng: ...

What a cheapskate!

It could at least have given him something like Master-Level Preserved Egg and Lean Pork Congee Skill, or some glowing cooking effect. How could something with no attribute bonuses even have the nerve to call itself an achievement?

Pah!