The Game of Life

Chapter 616: Chapter 614: What Does Hot Pot Taste Like?

Question: Did Jiang Feng scold Sun Jikai on the second day?

Answer: He did.

Question: Did Jiang Feng feel good about it?

Answer: He did.

Question: Is Jiang Feng happy now?

Answer: No, he is not.

Far from happy, he even had some doubts about life.

[Orange Juice Candy (failure) Grade B]

It turns out that an A-level dish is an A-level dish, even if it’s just candy. It’s still A-level.

Failure does not discriminate, treating all categories equally, A-level included.

Jiang Feng looked at the just-cooled orange juice candy that hadn’t yet been cut and sliced a piece off with a knife, putting it in his mouth.

It was sweet with a distinct orange flavor, but the texture was slightly off and not as smooth, making it feel no different from commercial candy.

“Sun Jikai, would you like to try the candy I’ve made?” Jiang Feng offered.

It was the halftime break, and the next batch of Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon for practice was still steaming in the pot. Since Sun Jikai needed to crash course on the thickening part of Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon, Qiu Fu was responsible for the initial parts.

Jiang Feng made the candy right next to Sun Jikai, who saw the whole process. Since he wasn’t blind, of course, he would notice what Jiang Feng was doing right beside him.

Sun Jikai approached Jiang Feng, took the small knife from his hand, cut a piece of the candy, and tried it.

“It’s quite good, tastes of orange,” Sun Jikai said. Seeing Jiang Feng’s not-so-pleased expression, he thought for a bit and added, “It’s just… candy with orange flavor, quite tasty indeed.”

“Did you feel it was a bit… rough on the tongue?” Jiang Feng asked.

“Rough on the tongue? Oh, you mean it’s not very smooth. That’s normal, handmade candy usually feels like that when the temperature isn’t controlled well.”

“Chocolate is the same, simply melting and solidifying chocolate won’t look good, and it doesn’t melt evenly when eaten, because the crystal structure is disordered. To achieve a smoothly surfaced chocolate, one needs to temper it, which is actually quite complex—much narrower temperature range than making candy.” (Note ①)

Sun Jikai cut another small piece of candy and stuffed it into his mouth, then continued: “Actually, I think handmade chocolate is harder to make than handmade candy. It’s easy if you just mess around, but quite difficult to do well, the correct temperature is just too hard to control.”

As if to prove his point, Sun Jikai specifically added: “It’s just like thickening the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon.”

Jiang Feng: …

Thickening isn’t going well, and you still justify it.

“How do you know all this?” Jiang Feng watched as Sun Jikai began to stuff the fifth piece of candy into his mouth.

“I learned it back at Wharton.”

Jiang Feng: ???

They teach this at Wharton?

Sun Jikai could tell Jiang Feng misunderstood and hastily explained: “I learned it during the holidays. Back then, my ex-girlfriend wanted to learn DIY chocolate, so she dragged me along.”

“Oh.” Jiang Feng, who had a girlfriend, was fearless.

Then Sun Jikai went on to eat nearly half a pot of the orange juice candy, one piece after another.

Indeed, like Sun Maochai in the instructional video, Jiang Feng also used a flat pan to make it.

It was the first time Jiang Feng saw Sun Jikai eat so much candy in one go; in his memory, the number of times he saw Sun Jikai eat snacks could be counted on one hand. It could also be because Sun Jikai had financial difficulties during his time working at Taifeng Building and couldn’t afford snacks.

After eating half a pot, Sun Jikai finally stopped and went to the stove to check on the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon in the pot.

The pleasant break was always short, and it was soon time for class again.

The Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon was ready to come out of the pot, and Sun Jikai poured the pigeon soup into another pot to prepare the thickening sauce, filling the small kitchen with the fragrance of the pigeon once more.

Smelling the familiar scent, Sun Jikai couldn’t help but belch, a pigeon belch tinged with the flavor of orange candy.

Jiang Feng, standing beside him: …

Now the mere smell of Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon made him feel like throwing up.

From early morning until now, he had lost count of how many portions of Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon he had eaten.

To judge how well a dish is made, what faults it has, and where it can be improved, the best method is to taste it for oneself. This is what Jiang Feng and Sun Jikai did, tasting it from morning until afternoon, from initially tasting a whole pigeon to later half a pigeon, to now just a couple of bites, Jiang Feng felt he had eaten all the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon he was meant to eat in his lifetime today.

If only Sun Jikai had made it tasty, then it would have been fine, but the problem was, he didn’t.

The path between discovering and solving problems is filled with many obstacles and detours, all of which are normal. But it’s one thing to see others take a wrong turn, and quite another to swallow the wrong turns they’ve made.

Jiang Feng and Sun Jikai would discuss the food after each tasting and naturally make corrections. However, Jiang Feng was not a professional teacher, and Sun Jikai was not a particularly brilliant student; sometimes their corrections would drift off target, leading to dishes that tasted even worse. The more inedible the dishes became, the more they felt compelled to correct them, sinking into a vicious cycle from which there was no turning back.

Now, Jiang Feng didn’t want to curse anyone; he just wanted to persuade Sun Jikai to let go.

To let both of them off the hook.

The latest batch of Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon had undoubtedly failed again, and Sun Jikai decided not to practice with the other ingredients left in the pot. Having cooked pigeons all day and eaten so many sweets just now, Sun Jikai felt like a roasted pigeon glazed with orange candy. What he needed to do was to leave the kitchen, eat something normal, and rid his mouth of the incessant taste of the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon.

“Why don’t we call it a day,” suggested Sun Jikai.

“I think that’s a good idea,” Jiang Feng eagerly agreed with a nod.

Checking his phone for the time, Sun Jikai said, “Call Wu Minqi and see if she’s done shopping. In a little over an hour it will be time for dinner. I’ll treat you guys.”

Sun Jikai left the small kitchen to say a few words to Qiu Fu in the back kitchen, while Jiang Feng went straight outside to air out the smell on his clothes, taking the opportunity to call Wu Minqi and ask about her shopping progress.

Wu Minqi’s shopping wasn’t finished yet; she asked Jiang Feng and Sun Jikai to pick a place first and send her the location so she could take a taxi there.

After ending the call, Sun Jikai came out from the inside.

“I don’t think you’re getting the timing wrong for the cornstarch slurry; it’s more of a mindset issue.” Even after school was over, the conscientious Mr. Jiang hadn’t stopped his teaching, “Actually, I think that the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon you made in the morning was slightly better. The ones in the afternoon completely lost their flavor. Why are you so nervous about adding a cornstarch slurry to the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon?”

Sun Jikai: …

Wasn’t it because you scolded me so harshly this morning, training me as if I were your grandson?

“I feel like I’ve started to get a feel for it; let’s see how it goes tomorrow,” Sun Jikai said, his speech somewhat muffled by the food in his mouth.

“What are you eating?” asked Jiang Feng.

“I went back to the small kitchen to grab something and saw there was still some sugar in the pot, so I just cut myself a piece,” Sun Jikai replied.

“It’s that good? Didn’t you say the batch I made was just so-so because I didn’t have good control over the temperature range?” Jiang Feng was already browsing through a review app, pondering what to eat for dinner that night.

“The temperature control only really affects the texture, not the taste that much,” Sun Jikai explained, “And for some reason, I think your candy tastes a bit like one I used to eat when I was a kid, orange-flavored as well, but then I could never find it again.”

Jiang Feng glanced at Sun Jikai, noting no particular change in his expression, then casually asked, “You remember what you ate as a kid?”

“I just have a vague impression. I almost forgot the taste, but after eating the one you made today, it kind of came back to me. It feels similar,” Sun Jikai said.

“What brand was it? Was it good?”

Sun Jikai shook his head, “I don’t remember, I was very young, hadn’t even started primary school. It was probably imported; all I remember is that the candy wrapper was all in English. My dad bought it for me, and I loved it so much back then.”

“And after that?”

“After that, I ate too much candy and got a cavity in my front tooth, so my parents stopped letting me eat candy.”

There was no reason for Sun Jikai to lie to Jiang Feng about such a trivial matter, so all Jiang Feng could do was scroll on his phone and inwardly marvel at how unreliable memory can be. Clearly, it was Sun Maochai who had made the candy, and the first candy had been given to Sun Jikai by Sun Maochai, yet Sun Jikai remembered it as a candy his dad had bought him.

“By the way, where’s Wu Minqi now?” Sun Jikai inquired.

“She’s not done buying clothes yet; she told us to decide where to eat first.”

“What shall we eat? How about Japanese food? There’s a decent Japanese place around here,” Sun Jikai suggested.

Jiang Feng shook his head, indicating no, “I don’t eat raw food.”

“Does this area have a skewer shop?”

“Ah?”

“If there’s no skewer hot pot, that’s fine too. Let’s have something spicy tonight,” said Jiang Feng, licking his lips. He had spent the whole day eating bland and slightly odd Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon and now craved something spicy to invigorate his spirit.

He could already visualize it in his mind.

Various meatballs, vegetables, seafood, and slices of beef and lamb tumbling in a hot, red-oil broth brimming with Sichuan peppercorns and dried chilies.

Gurgle, gurgle.

A dish of fragrant oil mixed with minced garlic and chopped green onions.

Spicy, numbing, and delightful.

After eating light-flavored dishes for several days and a whole day of bland Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon, could there be anything happier than indulging in a spicy, soul-deep, bone-marrow penetrating hot pot that’s rich and aromatic?

His Qiqi would definitely like it.

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PS: Note ① Excerpt from what was published in chapter six hundred and thirteen by Youying Qiyu.