Chapter 10

The next morning, Jiang Feng, as usual, was in the kitchen cooking porridge for Chen Xiuxiu.

With the basic skills of porridge-making, cooking a simple bowl of Job's tears porridge became very easy.

The only ingredient was Job's tears, and there was no need to weigh it precisely. A handful was enough, and his intuition would tell him how much rice to pair with the Job's tears. Jiang Feng, who once complained about the game being too stingy, now repeatedly muttered, "It's really good!"

Really good!

As the porridge in the pot began to boil and thicken, Jiang Feng started stirring.

The door opened, but he didn't pay attention, assuming it was Wang Xiulian coming back to get something.

"Making porridge?" A familiar, stern, and elderly voice came from behind him.

Jiang Feng turned around to see Grandpa Jiang Weiguo standing there.

"Gr... Grandpa!"

Grandpa Jiang Weiguo snatched the ladle from Jiang Feng's hand, leaned in to look at the pot, and scolded, "What is this? Pig feed?"

Jiang Feng could only laugh awkwardly.

Grandpa Jiang Weiguo skillfully turned down the heat and began to stir the porridge at a steady pace. "You can't even control the heat. Look at this porridge, you've made it too thick! You can't even stir properly. How did Jiang Jiankang teach you?"

With Grandpa Jiang Weiguo's scolding, Jiang Feng could only stand by and listen.

After a while, the porridge was ready.

[A bowl of decent Job's tears porridge]

Grandpa Jiang Weiguo had only taken over for a few minutes, but he had transformed the porridge into a decent bowl. Jiang Feng, holding the bowl and blowing on it, couldn't help but marvel.

The gap between cooks can be greater than the gap between humans and pigs.

Just thinking about how the pigs Grandpa Jiang Weiguo raised could eat the pig feed he cooked every day made Jiang Feng incredibly envious.

Jiang Feng served two bowls of porridge and took them to the next door.

"Two bowls?" Chen Xiuxiu, who had decided to drink the last bowl of porridge, was surprised to see the two bowls in front of her.

"My grandpa is here. He helped control the heat for the porridge. I thought I'd let Uncle Chen try it too. Is Uncle Chen around?" Jiang Feng asked.

"My dad is sleeping." Chen Xiuxiu had never had the chance to taste Grandpa Jiang Weiguo's cooking, as he had been in the countryside for over a decade.

Jiang Feng didn't stay long; he needed to find out why Grandpa Jiang Weiguo had suddenly shown up without a word.

Could something have happened in the countryside?

"Grandpa, why didn't you let me know you were coming? I could have picked you up from the station!" Jiang Feng returned to see Grandpa Jiang Weiguo inspecting the kitchen.

"I'm fine, no need to pick me up." Grandpa Jiang Weiguo finished checking the kitchen utensils and opened the fridge to inspect the ingredients. "This pork looks like it's full of hormones. Throw it away."

Jiang Feng quickly followed Grandpa Jiang Weiguo's instructions and threw the meat away.

"I saw the porridge you were making earlier. It's much better than the cooking skills you had before, which even pigs wouldn't eat. You must be in love," Grandpa Jiang Weiguo said.

Jiang Feng: ???

"When your uncle was young, he was like that too. Making him learn to cook was like asking for his life. But once he started dating your aunt, he would go to the kitchen every day to please her."

Jiang Feng felt that Grandpa Jiang Weiguo was reminiscing about the past to lead into something else.

"Last night, I dreamed about your great-grandpa. He was scolding me for breaking the tradition of our family's cuisine and for having five unworthy descendants who couldn't carry on the legacy." Grandpa Jiang Weiguo sighed. "Your dad is just an average cook, and none of your cousins have any talent for cooking. Your two female cousins are strong, but they can't even flip a spoon."

"I thought about it all night, and among the younger generation, only you have some talent." Grandpa Jiang Weiguo looked at Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng: !!!!

Jiang Feng knew what Grandpa Jiang Weiguo was thinking.

When the Jiang family children were young, they would be sent to Grandpa Jiang Weiguo during holidays to learn cooking. Grandpa Jiang Weiguo thought Jiang Feng was too small and weak, so he made him hang sandbags for over a year.

Hanging sandbags in summer and winter was just the beginning.

He practiced knife skills for six years, and the potatoes, cucumbers, radishes, and tofu he cut were all fed to the pigs.

Jiang Feng only started touching the pot in junior high school.

He only touched the pot for a year, not even mastering the basics of heat control and ingredient pairing before he started preparing for the high school entrance exam.

After high school, he lived on campus and was busy with studies, so he didn't return to Grandpa Jiang Weiguo for four years.

Jiang Feng's three cousins had similar experiences, but they didn't practice as long as he did. They were sent back by Grandpa Jiang Weiguo before they finished their knife skills.

Those six years of knife skills practice were truly heart-wrenching.

Sometimes, he would even dream about cutting cucumbers.

Sure enough, what he feared came true.

"Isn't your dad planning to open a new restaurant near your school? Your major in optoelectronic information is useless. In the future, you'll inherit your dad's restaurant and carry on our family's cuisine." Grandpa Jiang Weiguo, like his son Jiang Jiankang, was a dreamer.

"Starting today, you'll learn cooking from me!"

"Huh?!" Jiang Feng could see himself cutting pig feed every day again. "Grandpa, I have classes to attend!"

"During the holidays! After you graduate, you can practice for another ten years. Diligence can make up for lack of talent. I'm in good health, so teaching you for another ten years is no problem!" Grandpa Jiang Weiguo was full of enthusiasm.

Jiang Feng: ...

Okay, Grandpa, no problem, Grandpa, you're right, Grandpa.

As the saying goes, elders always impose their unfulfilled dreams on their children.

The great ideal of reviving the Jiang family's cuisine should be left to his future children to achieve!

Son, I believe in you!

Grandpa Jiang Weiguo's arrival caused a stir in the entire Jiang family.

Jiang Jiankang stopped planning the new restaurant and went to the market to buy ingredients as instructed by Grandpa Jiang Weiguo. Uncle Jiang Jian dang and Aunt Li Mingli also came, and even Jiang Feng's second cousin, Jiang Shoucheng (Uncle Jiang Jian dang's son), bought the nearest high-speed train ticket to return.

At lunchtime, four tall, fat men stood outside the Jiang family kitchen, drooling at the smell.

"Brother, you're the lucky one!" Uncle Jiang Jian dang sighed.

"I never thought Xiao Feng would have this opportunity." Jiang Jiankang sighed. "Last night, I just thought Xiao Feng had a bit of talent, and then our father came."

"Our father's cooking skills have improved even more." Uncle Jiang Jian dang, just from the smell, recalled the happy times of his childhood when he could eat Grandpa Jiang Weiguo's cooking every day. "This sweet and sour pork is much better than last year's New Year's."

"Stop standing there and come help. Do you want to tire me out, you two brats?" Grandpa Jiang Weiguo, seeing his sons who were worse at cooking than him, was furious. "When your great-grandpa was around, he could make cabbage taste like fairy grass!"

Jiang Jiankang and Uncle Jiang Jian dang quickly went into the kitchen to chop and wash vegetables, crowding the spacious kitchen.

At twelve o'clock, a table full of eight dishes and one soup, all beautifully presented, was ready.

Jiang Feng, sitting among the five fat men, felt out of place.

Yes.

It felt like New Year's!

Four-joy meatballs, nine-turns intestine, sweet and sour pork, stir-fried potato shreds, pot meat, oil-burst double crisp, first-class tofu, stir-fried hollow heart vegetable, and West Lake beef soup—this was better than New Year's!

Wang Xiulian and Li Mingli, who had been married into the Jiang family for many years, had never seen such a spread.

"Eat, what are you waiting for?" Grandpa Jiang Weiguo didn't like their inexperienced looks.

"Eat, eat!" Everyone quickly agreed.

"By the way, Xiao Feng, go invite Xiuxiu and Uncle Chen to join us." Jiang Jiankang suddenly remembered and turned to Grandpa Jiang Weiguo. "They are our old neighbors. You should remember Chen Duxiu, right?"

Grandpa Jiang Weiguo nodded. "That kid used to come to our house to eat all the time."

Jiang Feng went to the next door, where Chen Duxiu was also at home.

"Uncle Chen, my grandpa made a table full of dishes. Dad asked me to invite you to join us." Jiang Feng said.

"Grandpa Jiang is here?" Chen Duxiu suddenly became excited and quickly walked out, like an old lady rushing to grab discounted goods. "Xiuxiu, go to Uncle Jiang's house quickly, or you'll miss out!"

Jiang Feng looked at the two clean, empty bowls on the table and asked Chen Xiuxiu, puzzled, "Didn't you tell Uncle Chen that the porridge this morning was made by my grandpa?"

Chen Xiuxiu: ...

She slightly turned her head away from Jiang Feng. "I forgot."

As soon as Chen Xiuxiu entered the door, before she even reached the table, Grandpa Jiang Weiguo said, "Xiao Feng, your girlfriend is a bit too thin!"

"Look at your second aunt. You should find a wife who is as blessed as her!"

Li Mingli proudly raised her head.

In terms of weight, Wang Xiulian was still a bit lighter than Li Mingli.

"Right, right, Grandpa Jiang is right." Chen Duxiu, enjoying the pot meat, said, "Xiuxiu, girls should be a bit heavier to look good. Come, have some meat."

Two more sets of bowls and chopsticks were added to the table.

Chen Xiuxiu, looking at the table full of meat dishes, felt her saliva rapidly increasing.

So...

So good!