LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 578 - 576: Let Your Master Check How Well You've Learned
Chapter 578: Chapter 576: Let Your Master Check How Well You’ve Learned
Zheng Siyuan’s last blind date ended in failure as well, putting a perfect ellipsis on his long history of matchmaking attempts.
Jiang Feng even felt that when Zheng Siyuan put on his coat and left without a second glance, four bold words appeared on screen: “To Be Continued.”
And it was the kind that’s bolded and in black.
Yes, Jiang Feng even went to watch Zheng Siyuan’s last blind date.
As the creator of “buff” dishes, Jiang Feng wanted to see for himself how these previously invincible buff dishes kept flipping over when it came to Zheng Siyuan.
If it were Wang Hao, nine blind date meals would have directly sent him to the graveyard of marriage.
After personally witnessing the tenth blind date, Jiang Feng found that the buff dishes were still quite useful. Perhaps the “Fated Love Meal” temporarily failed because Zheng Siyuan had no luck in love, but the “Matchmaking Artifact” still played its subjective role effectively.
At least the girl didn’t get angry, even though Zheng Siyuan’s expression and movement in putting on his coat and turning to leave were so practiced and natural, the girl didn’t show any sign of being angry.
Jiang Feng, who witnessed the entire blind date process, could feel the awkwardness at Zheng Siyuan’s table along with Zheng Da, even from several tables away.
According to Zheng Da, Ling Guangzhao had initially introduced outgoing and lively girls. Possibly because it was getting harder to find such girls who could lighten the mood in the later stages, Ling Guangzhao began introducing Zheng Siyuan to more normally behaved girls.
By the tenth girl, today’s date, she had become as silent as Zheng Siyuan and didn’t talk much.
The blind date was mostly silent with hardly any conversation and finished unusually quickly, in less than half an hour.
Zheng Siyuan didn’t seem to come for a blind date; he looked like someone who came to share a table for a meal. From start to finish, aside from a self-introduction at the beginning, Zheng Siyuan didn’t say anything; he didn’t even recommend any of the tastier dishes to the girl. He just ate by himself the whole time, even downing two bowls of sweet soup.
The girl, who was having the blind date with Zheng Siyuan, was also silent, possibly because she was shy and didn’t know how to start a conversation. However, while eating, she kept stealing glances at Zheng Siyuan, seemingly having some fondness for him. Thinking that the sweet soup must be particularly delicious since Zheng Siyuan kept drinking it, she served herself a full bowl. After taking a sip, she displayed a life-questioning expression.
But the most interesting thing about this girl was that after questioning her life choices, seeing Zheng Siyuan continuing to drink made her doubt life even more, so she took a second sip, a third, and many more to follow. Doubting life with each sip, she finished off the whole bowl of life-questioning sweet soup, prompting a moment of surprise from Zheng Siyuan as he glanced at her.
But that was just a glance, and after the meal, Zheng Siyuan still left without mercy, without even adding WeChat contacts.
The girl who had finished a bowl of sweet soup, after such a suffocating blind date, did not get angry or dissatisfied either. She sat in her place and sent some messages, then left somewhat dejectedly with her bag.
Zheng Da, sitting across from Jiang Feng, was despondent. In previous blind dates, he would call Zheng Siyuan after he left to question what he was dissatisfied with. When Zheng Siyuan said he had no complaints and even felt that a few of them were quite nice, Zheng Da would loudly curse him.
Now Zheng Da not only refrains from cursing, but even stops making phone calls. He can only pray silently in his heart that his son’s object of affection is not the same sex.
Just when Zheng Siyuan was going on a blind date, Zheng Da even considered in his heart what he should do if Zheng Siyuan confessed that he was not interested in women: whether to accept it, commit suicide, or force Zheng Siyuan to commit suicide.
Zheng Da no longer wants to stay in Beiping. All he wants is to return to the south as soon as possible to sort out his business affairs, to use money to numb his body and soul, and to temporarily forget his damn troubling son.
“Master Zheng, when do you plan to go back to Gusu?” Jiang Feng knew after the blind date ended that it was impossible for Zheng Da to stay in Beiping.
“I’ll leave tomorrow.” Zheng Da couldn’t wait to go back and make money.
“And what about Master Huang?” Jiang Feng asked.
Master Huang’s enthusiasm greatly waned after Zheng Siyuan’s third blind date, no longer keen on snatching the spatulas from his two disciples, and he returned to the daily life of a wealthy, idle old man—eating, drinking, playing, and strolling around.
Since Dong Shi and Dong Li didn’t have much time to accompany him, he wandered around Beiping City alone. Unlike his peers, Master Huang was skilled at using various mobile apps, whether it was navigation or group deals, and he even joined some mysterious chat groups, meeting a bunch of old men in the park who boasted every day.
Ever since Master Huang fell in love with watching others walk dogs, playing chess, and boasting in the park, he seldom hung around in Taifeng Building. From a regular-spinning Suzhou cuisine chef, he became a random-spinning one, which resulted in complaints from Dong Shi and Dong Li’s food critic fans diminishing. Many diners complained, feeling that these two chefs had slacked off recently, and the frequency of their exceptional performances was dwindling.
But for some reason, even though Master Huang appeared less frequently, Dong Shi and Dong Li’s rate of being requested increased. Jiang Feng even heard some unrealistic rumors, as if some bored diners were secretly calculating the probability of Dong Shi and Dong Li’s exceptional performances to discern a pattern.
To this, Jiang Feng thought there was no need for calculations; one simply had to squat at the back kitchen door and watch for when a cheerful old man walked in.
That was also why Jiang Feng was very concerned about when Master Huang was planning to return. He worried that once Master Huang left, Dong Shi and Dong Li’s reputation would not just be damaged. It could plummet dramatically, possibly resulting in many diners unfollowing and even giving negative feedback.
Then the capitalist Mrs. Wang Xiulian would seize the opportunity to drastically cut their wages, and Dong Shi and Dong Li, hit hard economically and mentally, would decide to strive for excellence, toil in their culinary skills, and aim to reach their master’s level. In the end, Taifeng Building would gain two chefs who were not inferior to Master Huang as masters of Suzhou cuisine…
Hey, thinking about it this way, it seems quite good for Master Huang to go back earlier.
Zheng Da was unaware that Jiang Feng had just thought so much random stuff in such a short time and said, “He probably won’t go back anytime soon; I even heard him telling his son yesterday to come and stay in Beiping for a few days.”
This was the first time Jiang Feng had heard them mention Master Huang’s son and couldn’t help but ask with curiosity, “What is your brother doing now?”
Jiang Feng always found Master Huang’s lineage to be quite intriguing. In other families, if a son were to bankrupt and ultimately sell a well-reputed restaurant that was painstakingly built up over many years, he would either be beaten or become a villain; either way, his public image wouldn’t be good.
But it seemed that Master Huang’s son was not portrayed as a villain; he was just another innocent bystander. It was as if Huang Ji Restaurant was not sold off by him but had voluntarily put itself up for sale, and Master Huang’s son was merely a minor character in the process.
“He? Just idles at home teaching the kid homework, doing some other chores. That child has been pampered since birth, and since Master Huang’s restaurant has been sold anyway, as long as your older martial brother doesn’t gamble all that money away, he’ll never be able to spend it all in his lifetime. Let him do what he likes,” Zheng Da said indifferently.
Jiang Feng: …
What an enviable life this is.
If he were to sell Taifeng Building…
He’d probably only have one way out, and that’d be death.
“By the way, Feng, there’s something I must remind you of. Ji Xia is really a good seedling, teach her well. If it really doesn’t work out, consider hiring an appropriate Master White Chef to let Xiaxia stay in the kitchen and learn by stealth. She has already reached the beginner’s level and has been learning to make peach crisp with me these past few days. If possible, please ask the two Master Uncles to take some time to give her some guidance now and then. I heard they both have some skills in pastry,” Zheng Da continued.
“Don’t let it go to waste, really.” Zheng Da had initially only taught casually for the sake of a deal, but after teaching for a while, he genuinely developed a fondness for talent and didn’t want to see an excellent prospect like Ji Xia wasted by a seemingly unreliable master like Jiang Feng.
In fact, even if Zheng Da hadn’t mentioned it, Jiang Feng would have looked for other Master White Chefs for Ji Xia, but now that Zheng Da was the most suitable candidate, it would be a pity to settle for less.
“So, have you… taught Xiaxia how to make peach crisp yet?”
Zheng Da: ????
Was peach crisp my main point?
“I just taught her the day before yesterday.” Zheng Da’s meaning was clear: he taught her, but whether Ji Xia understood was something he wasn’t sure about.
Jiang Feng instantly understood and rushed out to grab Ji Xia from the neighboring convenience store.
He had just spotted Ji Xia sneaking out while he was covertly observing Zheng Siyuan during his blind date, and nine times out of ten, she had gone to the convenience store to watch anime with the owner.
Jiang Feng walked into the convenience store, and sure enough, there was Ji Xia, sitting behind the cash register, intently watching an anime she couldn’t understand—because she started watching from season three.
Ji Xia was just like every other kid who happened to pass by the TV while doing homework, and the TV just happened to be showing an interesting-looking drama or anime.
Even if she didn’t understand it, it was still enjoyable to watch.
“Xiaxia.” Jiang Feng felt that although he wasn’t married and didn’t have kids, he’d already directly transitioned to the stage where he was like a parent coming out to catch a truant child.
“It’s time to eat.”
Unfortunately, he wasn’t a parent coming to drag a kid back to class; he was a master calling his apprentice to come eat.
With both him and Zheng Da absent from the kitchen, and Ji Xia not being allowed to play with her phone in the kitchen, it indeed must have been hard for her.
“Oh.” Ji Xia obediently ran out from behind the cash register and followed Jiang Feng back to Taifeng Building.
“Xiaxia, your Master Uncle Zheng intends to return to Gusu tomorrow,” Jiang Feng said.
Ji Xia just looked at Jiang Feng, not yet realizing her bargain of a master was about to be gone.
“Just now, your Master Uncle Huang praised that you’ve been doing well lately and have begun to grasp the basics of pastry. He also said he just taught you how to make peach crisp the day before yesterday,” Jiang Feng said with a smile, “How well have you learned to make peach crisp?”
Ji Xia hesitated a bit. She wasn’t sure if Jiang Feng wanted to hear the truth or overstatements: “It’s… okay, I guess.”
“Did you learn it all?”
“Learn… learn it all?”
“Have you actually learned it?”
“I probably have… maybe?” In the end, Ji Xia’s response turned into a question.
“Well, that’s great, because I’ll assess how well you’ve learned tonight. Remember to bring the ingredients for the peach crisp when we go back, so your master can see how you do it…”
“Let me check how well you’ve learned.”
Jiang Feng felt like he had truly taken on a good apprentice.
A truly excellent apprentice was one who would step up when her master couldn’t.
٩(๑òωó๑)۶