The Game of Life-Chapter 709 - 708 Revenge
Chapter 709: Chapter 708 Revenge
About how to welcome Sun Jikai and let him feel the warmth of society, experiencing Taifeng Building’s care for employees firsthand, Jiang Feng has had many discussions with Ji Yue and others these past few days.
Ji Yue feels that there’s nothing a barbecue can’t solve. Once Sun Jikai gets off the plane and drops his luggage, everyone should head straight to a barbecue stall. After two beers, Sun Jikai will be his most genuine self.
Jiang Feng thinks that won’t do.
Ji Xia believes everyone can treat Sun Jikai to a big meal—roast duck, pig’s trotters, braised pork, lamb chops, all in full array, plus various desserts like chocolate ice cream and ice-cold cola. Sun Jikai would definitely forget all his troubles.
Jiang Feng thinks that Ji Xia must have sneaked some junk food again.
Wu Minqi thinks they could charge Sun Jikai the same price for his stir-fried beef ho fun as they do for Ji Xue.
Wang Xiulian thinks that won’t do.
Zhang Guanghang believes everyone could go to a concert together to cultivate their taste and relax their bodies and minds.
Including Ji Yue, everyone thinks that won’t do.
After several days of intense debate, Jiang Feng finally persuaded Wang Xiulian to cut the price of Ji Xue’s stir-fried beef ho fun by 4 yuan, and raise Sun Jikai’s by 4 yuan, making Sun Jikai’s stir-fried beef ho fun reach an unprecedented equivalent to Ji Xue’s. This time, the three new arrivals were all authentic Cantonese cuisine chefs. Jiang Feng thought that if Qiu Fu was willing to make stir-fried beef ho fun, both Sun Jikai and Ji Xue’s dishes could be taken off the menu.
Besides these trivial preparations, the Jiang Family Members made some very useful ones as well.
For instance, they immediately agreed to provide the “five insurances and one housing fund”, including meals and accommodation. Jiang Jiandang contacted the housing agency and rented all two-bedroom apartments on the 19th, 18th, and 16th floors of their building that met the employee dormitory standards, with the room with the best lighting and fine decoration being given to Sun Maochai. Sun Jikai and Qiu Fu were left to choose whichever they preferred.
Considering that Sun Jikai had just gone through a brutal inheritance dispute and might be penniless and down and out, Jiang Jianshe thoughtfully prepared all the items he might need for daily life. Naturally, things like toothbrushes, towels, dishwashing liquid, and laundry detergent were provided, and he even bought hundreds of rolls of trash bags and stored them in the cabinet, not knowing if Sun Jikai would ever use up all these trash bags in his lifetime.
The interview was set for August 2nd. In order not to delay, Sun Maochai and the other two arrived the night before on August 1st, their plane landing at 10 PM. As always, the pick-up ace Jiang Feng went to the airport.
To emphasize Taifeng Building’s importance on Sun Maochai, this time the pickup was not only carried out by the skillful Jiang Feng but also by the face of Taifeng Building, Zhang Guanghang. Because Zhang Guanghang was there, for the first time, Jiang Feng didn’t take the subway for the airport pick-up but rode in Zhang Guanghang’s Mercedes, finally having a bit of a capitalist’s pomp.
“Zhang, do you know when Manager Fan and the others have set the Midsummer Banquet?” Jiang Feng asked while sitting in the passenger seat, checking his phone again for the flight details of Sun Maochai and his group.
“Orchid said they have to wait for the results of tomorrow’s tasting before they can set a date, but the invitations are ready. Once the menu is confirmed, they’ll set the date. The earliest would be next week. There’s no need to rush these things,” Zhang Guanghang replied, focusing on the road.
The top-floor restaurant had made a precise strike in May by offering a chef’s tasting menu through a lottery, snatching away many of Taifeng Building’s premium customers. This had caused a significant slump in Taifeng’s business, which only began to ease recently. Now that they were rivals, Taifeng had to retaliate in kind, so Fan Mei proposed leveraging Sun Maochai’s fame to invite those past and potential premium customers of the top-floor restaurant to the Midsummer Banquet at Taifeng.
The name was easy to come by, just say Taifeng Building’s new top Cantonese chef Sun Maochai has launched a new menu, and we’ve specially invited a select group of diners to taste the new menu and provide feedback. Jiang Feng believed that the majority of guests wouldn’t refuse such an invitation.
The name Xiulian has chosen was also ready, “The Banquet of August,” naturally called the Grand Summer Feast.
Jiang Feng was messaging Ji Yue. Although Ji Yue’s suggestion to treat Sun Jikai to barbecue was vetoed by Jiang Feng, she still felt that only barbecue could soothe Sun Jikai’s wounded heart these past days. So she was still persistent, asking Jiang Feng to inquire whether Sun Jikai wanted to eat barbecue when picking him up from the airport. After all, work was almost over, and if he wanted, she would treat everyone to a barbecue downstairs; if not, they could just go to sleep directly at home, ready for the holiday tomorrow.
Jiang Feng replied to Ji Yue with an “okay.”
After sending the message, Jiang Feng remembered that Zhang Guanghang seemed to have learned some skills from Sun Maochai. He must be quite familiar with Sun Maochai.
“Right, Zhang, I remember you said that you’ve learned a few dishes from Master Sun Maochai. You must be quite familiar with him,” Jiang Feng said.
Zhang Guanghang, still focused on the road, didn’t even turn his head: “We’ve had some interactions. To say I learned cooking from him, it was really just a few days of his guidance. To say we are familiar, we’re not particularly close.”
“Did you go to Hong Kong City specifically to ask for his advice?” Jiang Feng asked curiously.
“No, I met him during a culinary competition,” Zhang Guanghang said, “In fact, if we really talk about it, Master Sun and Chef Arno should be quite close.”
“Ah?” Jiang Feng was surprised.
Zhang Guanghang began to explain to Jiang Feng.
Because domestic culinary competitions are seldom held, the culinary community generally acknowledges that the more prestigious culinary competitions are overseas. Domestic culinary competitions are mostly commercial in nature and localized. The fact that the Good Taste culinary competition expanded its venue to the national level was already considered to be a huge scale, or else it wouldn’t have attracted so many capable young chefs, making the second Good Taste culinary competition the chef selection contest for Taifeng Building.
Because of the different culinary styles, few domestic chefs participate in overseas competitions. Even if they do, they mostly can’t achieve good results due to the disadvantages of competing away from home and different judges’ tastes. In recent years, only Sun Maochai from the domestic chefs enjoyed participating in these competitions.
It was not so much enjoyment, as his frequency of participating in competitions was not high—once or twice a year. And he participated mostly to interact and exchange skills with other chefs, not so driven by the desire to win. But with his skills and ranking in the famous chefs’ list, even if he participated casually, he could still achieve notable results, either first or second place. If Chef Arno participated, he would be first; if Chef Arno didn’t, he would be second. The two of them would always meet at a culinary competition once a year, so Zhang Guanghang felt they must have some kind of relationship, although probably not a particularly good one.
At this point, Zhang Guanghang also took pains to mention a non-noteworthy hobby of Chef Arno as the villainous big boss—tormenting dishes.
Chef Arno, as a nationally famous chef in America who had made a name for himself with his sharp and poisonous tongue on reality shows, took great pleasure in tormenting dishes, and he did so by participating in culinary competitions. Other chefs of his stature participated in competitions as a courtesy to the organizers, but he participated out of passion. Even in competitions where he was clearly supposed to be part of the judging panel, if he felt like it and happened to be free—for instance, when he had just fired his old boss and hadn’t found a new one—he insisted on competing as a contestant.
After defeating his competitors, Chef Arno didn’t follow the usual path. Not only did he not offer encouragement, not bothering to console them with a show of sympathy, but he would also mock the competitors. He would say things like, “Ten more years of practice won’t be enough for you. To be called a genius like this, the younger generation is truly going downhill,” a standard villainous sort of talk.
Why did Zhang Guanghang remember it so clearly? Because these were the words Chef Arno had said to him during a previous culinary competition.
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Yes, even a genius like Zhang Guanghang had a tough time under Chef Arno’s hammering.
After hearing all this, Jiang Feng: …
Well, he suddenly felt that the last time he ran into Chef Arno at the market and got sarcastically mocked, it wasn’t so hard to understand anymore.
After all, this was the man’s hobby.
Chef Arno’s favorite pastimes were tormenting food and mocking others.
“Zhang, do you tg boldly speculated.
“That’s unlikely; Chef Arno would probably scheme to win the customers back and then give us a very harsh mocking,” said Zhang Guanghang. “He’s a principled man, he respects those stronger than him and disdains the weaker.”
“So, who does he respect?”
Zhang Guanghang thought for a moment: “Probably only Master Peng.”
“After all, more than once he has claimed there’s a problem with the celebrity chef rankings, and he should be second. I remember he also said that Master Black, ranked second, only got his spot because of his old age,” said Zhang Guanghang helplessly, “Master Black has been in a wheelchair for three or four years now and is 96 years old.”
“Actually, many people do feel the same way, but Chef Arno is the only one brazen enough to say it out loud.”
Jiang Feng: …
“Zhang, just park the car later, and I’ll go pick up our guest. Send me the location afterward so that I don’t struggle to find the car,” Jiang Feng decisively changed the subject.
What is the villain, Chef Arno, doing at this very moment?
He’s on a video call with Rolan, both looking extremely impatient, talking with his boss who, apart from giving a lot of money, is absolutely useless in his opinion.
Chef Arno had already zoned out, while on the tablet, his boss kept on blabbering about the top-floor restaurant’s future strategic plans.
“According to our big dad capture not only the elite clientele but also the upper-middle class. We are ready on our end and expect to open three more Michelin three-star Western restaurants in Beiping this year. Once we take over the Beiping market, we’ll advance southward. By then, we’ll need Mr. Arno to…”
Impatiently, Arno cut his useless boss off mid-sentence: “You chase down your markets, what does that have to do with me?”
The video call’s boss: ?
“Mr. Arno, I remember when we initially agreed, you were to this time…”
“I only came to Beiping this time to help you beat the local Chinese restaurants and help this trashy restaurant stand firm. The rest isn’t my business. What’s the deal with your so-called alliance of noobs? Did I sign any contract?”
Boss: …
“In fact, we…”
“Don’t call me for these useless meetings in the future, wasting my time without overtime pay.” Chef Arno walked away, hanging up the video call without looking back.
Rolan: …
After ending the call, Chef Arno was in a much better mood, his expression softened, and he took out his recent study material, “My Chinese Classroom Volumes 1 to 3.” While reading, he asked, “Have you figured out why Taifeng Building is closed tomorrow?”
He said the words “Taifeng Building” in Chinese, which made the whole sentence sound rather odd.
Rolan: …
To think that hemply intolerable!
Never mind, just tolerate it. If it weren’t for getting scammed last year in his investments, losing all his money and almost going bankrupt, he wouldn’t have left a perfectly good job as a chef to travel all the way to Beiping to compete with strangers. Now, he doesn’t even have his position as a head chef anymore.
“I’ve found out. It seems Taifeng has somehow managed to poach Sun Maochai. He’s starting tomorrow,” Rolan reported.
Arno nodded, not showing much interest: “What about their Jiang Feng? Has he been to Yonghe House recently?”
“No,” Rolan said.
Arno looked contemplative.
Seeing Arno’s expression, Rolan couldn’t help but become a bit curious. He cautiously inquired, “Chef Arno, may I ask why you came here too?”
To Rolan, it seemed unlikely that Chef Arno, who was far wealthier than himself, had come for the money—he wouldn’t have talked back to the boss if it was just for the money.
Arno’s face darkened instantly, and he let out a cold and slightly malicious sneer that looked terrifying.
“Revenge.”
