Jiang Wenyan

Biodata

Background / History

From Neighboring Vendor to Customer

Jiang Wenyan begins running a hand-pounded lemonade stall after learning a recipe online. His business is new and earns little, and he initially regards neighboring vendor Shen Chuan as another young entrepreneur with whom he might exchange tips. Seeing Shen’s exceptionally precise knife work changes that impression immediately; Jiang records the chopping and shares it with his roommates 3.

Despite admiring Shen’s technique, Jiang considers ten yuan excessive for a chive pocket and suspects Lu Xiaotao’s enthusiastic praise might be paid advertising. The food’s appearance and aroma eventually persuade him to order one, even though his own stall has not yet made its first sale 4.

He tastes it during a video call intended to make his roommates hungry, only to become too absorbed in eating to continue his planned performance. After ordering more, he challenges his skeptical roommates to try the food themselves. Their visit helps attract passersby and contributes to Shen selling out his first day’s stock 5 6 8.

Becoming Shen Chuan’s Assistant

After selling out, Shen offers Jiang two hundred yuan to pack up the stall and take him home. Jiang wins the job over his competing roommates by emphasizing his own stall-running experience. He cleans and organizes the equipment meticulously, feeling that he should earn the generous payment through genuine effort 8 9.

The next day, Jiang waits outside Shen’s residential complex and secures another transport-and-setup job. His request to receive his wages in chive pockets is refused, but Shen acknowledges him as the first customer of the day. Jiang then begins helping serve customers, leaving his own stall unattended 10 11.

As the arrangement continues, Jiang handles sales pitches, queues, customer concerns, setup, and cleanup. When diners accuse him of cutting in line, he explains that he bought first but had been too busy working to eat. The revelation that he earns two hundred yuan per trip prompts other customers to compete for his position 13 14.

Regular Driver and Student Contact

Jiang continues transporting Shen when the menu changes to scallion pancakes, reassuring disappointed customers that Shen’s new dish will also be good. By this stage, he eagerly treats the work as a combination of income and reliable access to food 18 19.

His round-trip work brings in four hundred yuan, substantially more than his own stall. After Jiang repeatedly waits without knowing whether Shen will open, Shen proposes exchanging contact details so he can notify Jiang when his services are unnecessary 34.

When traffic blocks their route to the food street, Jiang investigates and shares a photograph in his group chat. News of Shen’s predicament reaches the waiting customers, who help clear the illegally parked vehicles 36 37.

Financial Independence and the Roujiamo Menu

By the time Shen prepares to introduce roujiamo, Jiang’s part-time earnings mean he no longer needs to ask his family for money. He also adopts Shen’s advice about treating himself better, taking a rest day and bringing an umbrella and sunscreen when waiting outside 48.

During the same outing, Jiang finally tastes his own lemonade and discovers that it is sour, bitter, and excessively sweet. He realizes that its poor flavor—not simply his attention to Shen’s business—explains his stall’s weak sales 48.

He helps set up the new roujiamo ingredients and opens the pot of braised pork for the waiting crowd. Tempted by the meat’s aroma, he chooses to exercise his first-purchase privilege immediately rather than working for a while before eating, as he usually does 49 50.

Personality

Jiang is outgoing, playful, and highly motivated by food. He banters with his roommates using mock father-and-son language, stages a video-call eating show, and confidently stakes humiliating forfeits on the quality of Shen’s chive pockets. His enthusiasm also makes him protective of the job that supplies both wages and first access to Shen’s cooking 3 5 6 14.

His comic shamelessness coexists with a strong work ethic. He invents a melodramatic, meme-based sob story when customers threaten to replace him, but performs the actual work carefully and refuses to let friendship interfere with serving the queue fairly 9 11 14.

Jiang recovers quickly from embarrassment. After discovering his lemonade tastes terrible, he initially blames the paid tutorial rather than himself, then soon returns to his usual cheerful manner. Shen explicitly admires his ability not to turn against himself when something goes wrong 48.

Abilities & Skills

Stall Setup and Maintenance

Jiang’s experience running his own stall makes him an efficient assistant who follows Shen’s exacting arrangement and cleaning requirements 8 9.

• Arranges bottles and jars by height and places equipment according to Shen’s instructions 9 18.
• Repeatedly wipes storage containers, counters, and glass, using his own reserve water when necessary 9.
• Handles packing, setup, and transport as a recurring paid service 13 34.

Sales and Customer Service

Jiang combines confident promotion with practical attention to waiting customers, allowing Shen to concentrate on cooking 12 13.

• Bags orders and serves customers with tongs 11.
• Explains prices and ingredients, including a personal promise to pay if a customer finds the food unsatisfactory 13.
• Distributes free ice water from his own stall to ease complaints about the heat and long wait 13.
• Helps customers with small difficulties, including retrieving a dropped item for a woman holding a child 13.

Transport and Communication

Jiang drives or pedals Shen’s stall vehicle and keeps his roommates informed about departures 10 18 35.

• Sends group-chat notices when Shen is heading to the food street 10 18.
• Investigates road obstructions and shares information with waiting diners through his contacts 36 37.
• Warns classmates that leaving only after his departure message is no longer early enough to guarantee food 42.

Culinary Limitations

Jiang’s practical service skills exceed his cooking ability 3 48.

• His uneven lemon slices contrast sharply with Shen’s uniform chopping 3.
• His lemonade remains unpalatable despite following an online stall tutorial that cost one hundred yuan 48.

Equipment / Items

• Hand-pounded lemonade stall — His original business, located next to Shen’s stall; he also uses its water and supplies while assisting Shen 3 9 13.
• Phone and group chat — Used to record Shen’s knife work, video-call his roommates, and circulate stall-opening and traffic updates 3 5 10 37.
• Sun umbrella and sunscreen — Added to his routine after adopting Shen’s emphasis on personal comfort; he applies sunscreen spray to Shen as well 48.

Relationships

• Shen Chuan — Neighboring vendor turned employer. Jiang admires his cooking, anticipates his needs, and jealously guards his position as driver and assistant. Shen values his diligence and finds the recurring arrangement more convenient than hiring someone new each day 8 13 34 41.
• Zhang Jiale — Roommate and fellow enthusiast for Shen’s food. Jiang’s messages help Zhang and the other students coordinate visits, though growing crowds eventually force them to arrive ahead of the stall 7 42 49.
• Fatty — Roommate who initially suspects Jiang has been cheated or paid to advertise. He later explains Jiang’s paid transport arrangement to other customers 5 6 13.
• Lu Xiaotao — The first customer whose enthusiastic eating persuades Jiang to try a chive pocket. Jiang later recognizes him as the first-day “sucker” and serves him the last available pocket 4 30.
• He Wencai — Customer whose offer to help prepare ingredients briefly makes Jiang fear that his work is being taken over. Jiang promptly reclaims the assisting duties 27.

Notable Quotes

“I'm working for the God of Cooking, so of course I have to treat everyone equally. I can't mix business with personal relationships.” 11

“Boss Shen is right! Anything a cooking god makes has to taste good. I'll take three!” 19

Trivia

• His claim to have a gambling father, sick mother, and rebellious younger brother is a deliberately performed sob story built from familiar memes, not an established account of his family 14.
• He jokingly boasts that two years of electrical-engineering study let him identify a live high-voltage wire “with one touch”; the passage presents this as banter, not a demonstrated ability 3.