The Game of Life

Chapter 752: Chapter 751: Misunderstanding

When Jiang Feng, Lu Sheng, and Peng Changping entered the private room together, everyone stared at them in unison, even Chef Arno swiftly shifted his gaze toward them.

What made Jiang Feng feel a bit uncomfortable was that he felt Chef Arno’s gaze lingered on him longer than on Peng Changping, as the chef’s eyes kept switching back and forth between him and Peng Changping. When Jiang Feng started to look back at Chef Arno to carefully observe his eyes and expressions, he discovered that his eyes weren’t filled with the hostility and aggression he had previously thought.

On the contrary, they even carried a sense of determination and satisfaction.

It was as if he had seen something that pleased him, even filled him with delight.

Chef Arno really was a man shrouded in mystery.

The others had a rather uniform look in their eyes when they looked at the three of them; every pair of eyes spelled out SOS. In their opinion, with Chef Arno showing up uninvited, Jiang Feng and Lu Sheng leaving under the guise of needing to use the restroom, and now Peng Changping being directly brought over, they must be seeking the most influential person to deal with this unexpected guest.

Then everyone watched as Peng Changping smiled at Chef Arno, who also nodded to Peng Changping, just like regular friends would. Peng Changping went straight to Chef Arno’s side, sat down next to him, and started conversing with him in English very naturally.

“When did you arrive?” Peng Changping asked.

“Just got here,” Chef Arno replied.

“Have you seen the apprentice I’m planning to take on? What do you think?” Peng Changping couldn’t wait to boast, finding someone familiar to flaunt his new apprentice was too hard to pass up.

Chef Arno’s expression was complex, a mix of displeasure and joy, an extreme contradiction that seemed impossible to appear on a human face.

“Not bad,” Chef Arno said, with joy winning over his displeasure.

Although Peng Changping found Chef Arno’s expression somewhat odd, he wasn’t too acquainted with him, knowing him as nothing more than an acquaintance with whom he had conversed, so he thought maybe Chef Arno was always unable to manage his expressions well and didn’t pay it much mind.

The door opened, and five waiters came in, each carrying a dish and placing them on the table in order. Since the boss and the big clients were present, everyone had impeccable control over their expressions, wearing smiles that were distant but seemed quite cordial, moving uniformly without making any unnecessary noise, and left after presenting and introducing the dishes without dragging their feet or trying to steal the show.

“Spiced Fish.”

“Braised Shark’s Fin with Yellow Sauce.”

“Phoenix Egg.”

“Crabmeat on Fish Maw.”

“Jade Double Vegetables.”

Among the first five dishes served, other than the Braised Shark’s Fin with Yellow Sauce, Spiced Fish, and Phoenix Egg, the rest were new to Jiang Feng, with the Phoenix Egg being something he had seen only in his memories. Jiang Feng had long heard about the extensive hidden menu at Yonghe House, where many dishes could be ordered by savvy regulars even if they weren’t listed on the menu, requesting the chef to prepare them on-site. However, considering the chefs from Yonghe House hardly ever made house calls, Jiang Feng had never seen them despite having insider access.

Jiang Feng hadn’t seen them, but that didn’t mean Xu Cheng hadn’t.

“Phoenix Egg, I feel like I haven’t seen this dish in years,” Xu Cheng exclaimed upon seeing the Phoenix Egg, and had Peng Changping not remained silent and refrained from picking up his chopsticks, one of the eggs might have already ended up in Xu Cheng’s bowl.

“There are quite a few dishes today, and since all of you are friends who came especially to attend my apprentice’s welcome banquet, there’s no need to be formal about the order in which the dishes are served; they are brought out as soon as they are ready. I hope everyone doesn’t mind. Don’t just stand there; the dishes will get cold if we wait any longer. Good food should not be kept waiting, so let’s eat,” Peng Changping called out to everyone.

Everyone started picking up their chopsticks.

Jiang Feng had been longing for the Phoenix Egg for some time, and unsurprisingly, his chopsticks and those of Xu Cheng met over the same delicate and smooth egg that looked as if it had the bouncy texture of tender skin—an exquisite Phoenix Egg.

This was undoubtedly a fine egg.

Jiang Feng and Xu Cheng exchanged glances for a split second, and Jiang Feng, acting on the innate impulse of Jiang Family members to excel at securing dishes on the dining table, made the first move powerfully and deftly without giving Xu Cheng a chance to react, snatching up the coveted Phoenix Egg they both had set their sights on and sending it directly into his mouth.

Xu Cheng: ???

Jiang Feng bit into the Phoenix Egg.

An explosion of flavor.

No sooner had his tongue barely touched the egg’s surface than his teeth bit into the fish ball, releasing the juice tightly packed inside that sprayed around his mouth. The warm, even slightly hot seafood-flavored juice made Jiang Feng’s tongue retract slightly, and he almost couldn’t help but reflexively spit out the fish ball.

Fortunately, he held it in.

Though the fish ball was small, it was made with an abundance of ingredients. The outermost layer was a fish paste fashioned into a fish ball, the inside filled with a mix of diced squid and young bamboo shoots, and included a whole fresh shrimp. It’s unclear what cooking technique was used, but the juice was plentiful and purely maritime.

So small a morsel, yet it concealed such a diversity of ingredients; it truly lived up to the name Phoenix Egg.

With only a dozen or so Phoenix Eggs on the plate, there weren’t many, and Jiang Feng counted that if everyone took one, there would be just enough, so he refrained from reaching for another and turned to other dishes instead.

Chef Arno, seeing Jiang Feng and Xu Cheng’s first choice had been the Phoenix Egg, followed suit and picked one up as well. It has to be said that as a true American, Chef Arno was quite adept with chopsticks, securing his egg solidly with precision on his first try without a hint of clumsiness.

Then, Chef Arno also got burned.

Although he hid it well, Jiang Feng still noticed.

“Fengfeng, Chef Arno has been watching you,” Wu Minqi whispered.

Actually, Jiang Feng had noticed it a long time ago because he had also been watching Chef Arno.

“I feel like he hasn’t really paid much attention to Zhou Shi,” Wu Minqi continued.

Jiang Feng nodded in agreement. Logically, the protagonist of this apprentice banquet should have been Zhou Shi, after all, he was the lucky one to be taken as an apprentice. But because of Chef Arno’s unexpected intrusion, everyone was paying attention to Chef Arno, and Chef Arno was constantly staring at him, with nobody paying attention to Zhou Shi at all.

Zhou Shi was also accustomed to not being the center of attention, quietly eating his food without saying much.

A normal table absolutely couldn’t fit as many as 27 dishes.

Everyone was eating and serving dishes simultaneously, replacing dishes as they went. The more famous and seemingly delicious dishes, like Braised Shark’s Fin, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, and Sunflower Duck, were almost ready to be removed from the table after a single round. Dishes allocated per head, such as Clear Soup Stewed Bird’s Nest, were also devoured as quickly as they were served.

By the last few dishes, everyone was somewhat unable to eat any more.

It wasn’t that the food wasn’t delicious, it was simply too much.

Except for the two warriors, Han Guishan and Ji Xia, the rest could only put down their chopsticks with regret, slouching in comfortable positions, gazing at the remaining dishes on the table, and occasionally mustering the courage to sit up straight, pick up a bite with their chopsticks, then relapse into their previous slouched state.

When Ji Xia began eating, she would ask with great curiosity about the ingredients and why the food was so delicious. Later, perhaps realizing that she couldn’t remember the answers and wouldn’t know even if she did, she stopped asking and, like Han Guishan, focused on eating heartily. Relying on the fact that she was still growing and should eat more, she soon rivaled Han Guishan in the amount of food consumed.

Han Guishan probably found a match at the dinner table for the first time, and his opponent was a tall young girl, which immediately aroused his competitive spirit. At first, Han Guishan still paid attention to how much his son was eating and helped Han Youxin with his dishes, but eventually, he forgot about his son—mainly because his son was also full—and began competing with Ji Xia for the title of the day’s most ravenous eater.

The second half of this meal was essentially everyone watching Han Guishan and Ji Xia eat.

In theory, a man in his prime from the United States of America, known as No.1 on the food waste chart, and a natural-born hunk like Chef Arno should also have had the potential to compete for the championship. He looked as if he could eat as much as any of the Jiang Family Members. Whether he preferred to keep healthy or just couldn’t eat much that day, Chef Arno dropped out of the eating battle quite early, like every young person involved in a dull dinner event, lowering his head to look at his phone.

It wasn’t until Ji Xia could eat no more and Han Guishan had narrowly claimed victory that the eating portion of the event finally came to an end.

The focus of an apprentice banquet was never on the eating.

Take Jiang Feng’s apprenticeship last year as an example; although none of the participants had a bite to eat from start to finish, the apprenticeship was considered successful. All the necessary steps were followed: offering tea, drinking tea, accepting the apprentice; not a single part of the process was missed.

Zhou Shi hadn’t even offered tea yet.

Back when Peng Changping was young and about to accept an apprentice, the event would have surely been grand. It wasn’t just about inviting over a hundred people for a lavish banquet; the final tea offering and apprentice acceptance ceremony would even have an emcee to officiate. Times have changed, and now Peng Changping no longer liked such large-scale events. Although he hadn’t taken an apprentice for many years, he was well acquainted with the procedure, quite different from Jiang Feng who was slightly nervous during his first apprenticeship tea ceremony with his apprentice.

Peng Changping gave Lu Sheng a look.

Lu Sheng immediately got the hint, instructing the servers outside to promptly clear the empty plates, bring in some tea and fruit, and amid the puzzled looks of some guests who didn’t understand the proceedings, led by Han Guishan, Zhou Shi stood up.

He finally became the focus of the entire room.

It was also finally noticed that he was dressed very formally for the day, in a garment resembling a traditional long robe but with a simplified design for easier wearing.

This was definitely not an outfit for a supporting character. Chef Arno, who had been fixated on Jiang Feng, finally spared some attention for Zhou Shi. As he watched Zhou Shi in obvious confusion, the actual apprentice banquet finally began.

The tea offering.

The space was quite small, even simple and rustic. Just beside the dining table, Zhou Shi stood up, moved his chair away, bowed respectfully, and offered the cup of tea to Peng Changping.

Peng Changping accepted the tea with a smile, took a light sip, and nodded at Zhou Shi.

Chef Arno looked at the two with a face full of question marks.

“Master,” Zhou Shi said.

“Hmm.”

It was clearly a tender apprentice acceptance scene.

The only discordant note was Chef Arno, sitting beside Peng Changping and looking perplexed. Suddenly, his expression changed dramatically as he blurted out in shock.

“Master?!”

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