Chapter 774 - Chapter 774: Chapter 773: The 2nd Teaching Task
Chapter 774: Chapter 773: The 2nd Teaching Task
When she arrived, she was in high spirits; when it was time to leave, she was as quiet as a chicken. Just as Jiang Feng put the photo album back into the picture frame and returned to the dining room to take his two younger female cousins and Ji Xia back home, ending the meal that he had enjoyed (though he wasn’t sure if the other three did), Jiang Feng was surprised to find that the three of them were actually very silent.
This was definitely not the style of the Jiang family’s two young ladies.
Since childhood, Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian were known for their chatter, one could equal the noise of five thousand sparrows. When they were chubby little toddlers, plump and quite cute to look at, people often lamented that the two young girls of the Jiang family were cute indeed, a pity they just couldn’t stop talking.
How did they suddenly sew their mouths shut today?
Jiang Feng thought that as soon as he returned to the dining room, his two younger female cousins would swarm around him, pestering him to find out who the winner was today—who would get to eat the chicken douhua.
Something was off.
“Did you break something?” Jiang Feng felt that it was highly likely these two had done something guilty.
“No no no, we didn’t break anything, we just simply washed the dishes,” Jiang Junlian quickly denied.
On the other hand, Ji Xia, seeing Jiang Feng speak up, seemed a bit restless and tentatively asked, “Master, didn’t you eat enough at lunch today?”
“No, I ate plenty,” Jiang Feng immediately said.
Ji Xia was puzzled, “Then why did you just now seem so hungry that you even wanted to drink the leftover soup in the dish?”
Jiang Feng: …
Jiang Feng pursed his lips, showing a very difficult and insincerely forced smile: “That wasn’t hunger.”
“Just a bit thirsty.”
The three of them: ?
On the way back, Jiang Feng announced that today’s winner was Ji Xia, and that the little friend Ji Xia would receive a handmade exquisite chicken douhua from the master himself within three days.
Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian were still worried that Jiang Feng’s earlier mention of being thirsty was just a ploy to mislead them, and that the reality was they finished all the vegetables, leaving Jiang Feng with nothing to eat, they were in the panic that this meal might indeed be the last.
Throughout the journey, Jiang Junqing and Jiang Junlian didn’t say a word.
This made Jiang Feng quite uncomfortable; he had become accustomed to a myriad of birdsong whenever he was with his two younger female cousins. Now that the two ‘Bird Kings’ had suddenly gone silent, it made him, the birdkeeper, wonder if they were ill.
It wasn’t until they all went their separate ways to their respective homes that Jiang Junlian and Jiang Junqing spoke up. However, Ji Xia seemed to have something on her mind and didn’t head home to be a happy salted fish; instead, she followed Jiang Feng out of the elevator.
“Master, I have something I want to discuss with you.”
Jiang Feng: ?
“I remember in our shop, the chicken douhua you used to make sold for one thousand two hundred eighty-eight yuan a portion, right?” Ji Xia asked.
Jiang Feng nodded; ever since his chicken douhua had exploded in popularity city-wide and was in short supply, the profiteering Wang Xiulian had brazenly jacked up the price.
Even at that price, there were people who complained it wasn’t expensive enough—there was simply too much competition and it was impossible to nab a portion.
“Can I not eat the chicken douhua? Can you just give me the money?”
Jiang Feng: ???
????????
Jiang Feng stared at Ji Xia, giving her a thorough look. She seemed perfectly normal, no dark circles under her eyes, her body shape very normal without any drastic weight loss—why had she suddenly become abnormal?
Under normal circumstances, Ji Xia wouldn’t bring up money; she was the kind of person who could live a happy life without money, and with money, she would just be happier and able to buy snacks—Ji Xia never cared about money, mainly because she didn’t have any.
If Ji Xia remembered correctly, this should be the first time Ji Xia had actively asked him for money.
His family’s Xiaxia was actually short on cash, but what did Xiaxia need money for?
One thousand two hundred eighty-eight yuan, judging by Xiaxia’s daily munching of a sweet potato, a fried chicken strip, a fried chicken leg, and, if really necessary, an additional cup of oden, this should be enough to cover Xiaxia’s secret snacking for a whole month.
“Xiaxia, have you been short on money lately?” Jiang Feng asked.
Ji Xia nodded, “I’ve been trying to save money recently, but I just can’t seem to save any. Master, you’re not in the shop these days, and without your crab-stuffed oranges or fried sauce, my noodles can’t be sold either. I can’t even sell pastries. I was thinking of waiting until I learned how to make [Make a Level C Fresh Meat Mooncake] to sell them, but Grandmaster said I couldn’t sell my mooncakes either.”
“Xiaxia, what do you want the money for?” Jiang Feng didn’t really understand why Xiaxia would suddenly be in need of money. If her father’s health had taken a turn, it would have been up to Ji Xue to approach him about borrowing money or getting an advance on her salary; it didn’t make sense for Ji Xia to be the one to speak up, it was illogical and abnormal.
“I want to save money to bring grandma to Beiping for a visit,” Ji Xia’s eyes shone with excitement. “Last week, grandma called me and told me someone from their village came to Beiping to see Tiananmen, and when I asked grandma if she wanted to come, she said no, but I think she still wants to come and see.”
“Did you spend all the New Year’s money from last year?” Jiang Feng asked.
He had given Ji Xia such a large red packet last year, which should have been more than enough for her to bring her grandma to Beiping for a few days.
At the mention of this, Ji Xia looked distressed: “The bonus, salary, and the red packet you gave me last year were all taken by grandma and put into the bank. She says she’s saving it for my dowry, so I can’t spend it.”
Jiang Feng: …
It sounded like those New Year’s money gifts he never got back over the years—promised once he got into college, Jiang Feng graduated with a debt of three hundred million and still hadn’t received the New Year’s money from the previous years.
Although one thousand two hundred and eighty-eight would make the already poor Jiang Feng’s situation worse, he still agreed and directly transferred the money to Ji Xia through WeChat, fulfilling his disciple’s filial piety—after all, a master also falls within the category of individuals deserving of such devotion.
With the start-up capital in hand, Ji Xia left happily, while Jiang Feng, who had just lost a grand, could only sit on the sofa sadly and flip through his inventory, looking for any memory worth watching.
He needed to find a memory that might somewhat likely be happy to cheer himself up.
After looking through, Jiang Feng didn’t feel any of them were reliable, as no one can guarantee their memories will always be happy. After checking his inventory, Jiang Feng also clicked through all the other tabs, even checking the employee system to see if Taifeng Building had any traitors with very low loyalty lately.
None.
Everyone’s loyalty was up to par, all above sixty, with most stabilized between seventy and eighty. Recently, business at Taifeng Building was booming, wages were on point, bonuses were issued as usual, and with the addition of the great Sun Maochai to the employee dining options, the loyalty values were inseparably steady.
In the end, Jiang Feng clicked on the apprenticeship tab.
Ji Xia’s attributes hadn’t changed much, as Ji Xia didn’t have a system and wasn’t taught by an especially skilled master; his main focus was still on pastry, and pastry requires years of practice to transition from quantitative to qualitative change.
The teaching task section was entirely empty.
When that useless pastry-making task was there, it gave Jiang Feng a headache at the sight of this task tab. Now that the useless task had been completed, Jiang Feng still got a headache whenever he saw the task tab.
What kind of task should he issue?
He was just a player, not a planner, nor a game developer. Shouldn’t the game be responsible for issuing tasks?
Had the game designers resigned or gone on strike? Why did it come down to the players themselves to issue tasks these days?
Jiang Feng lay on the sofa, utterly at a loss.
Racked his brain.
Beating his chest and stamping his feet.
Gave up on treatment.
What task should he issue?
What constitutes a quality task?
Jiang Feng thought about the tasks he had received since he got the game and realized they held no reference value.
Most of those tasks were based on his life trajectory and decisions, with the few that looked more like game leveling tasks being to make ten Grade-A dishes or create one Grade-S dish—clearly very perfunctory tasks.
Speaking of which, Jiang Feng hadn’t seen a main quest for months.
After much contemplation, Jiang Feng felt he couldn’t drag it out any longer. He had thought for several days without coming up with a suitable task, so might as well go with something perfunctory. He decided to issue a task in the dismissive way traditional games do.
Following the traditional game designers’ perfunctory approach to the players, Jiang Feng issued the second task to Ji Xia.
[Make a Level C Fresh Meat Mooncake]: The irresponsible master, after some irresponsible thinking, finally came up with this somewhat responsible task. Learning from the lesson of the last failed task, he issued this task that seeks quality not quantity but can’t provide any guidance. Make a Level C fresh meat mooncake to give a little boost to the disciple’s cooking progress.
Current task progress: (0/1)
Jiang Feng: …
My thinking is very responsible, okay?
I’m way more responsible than you, this trashy game! The tasks you issue are the irresponsible ones!
Trashy game!
Jiang Feng angrily quit the attribute panel, growing more enraged and indignant the more he thought about it, wishing he could drag the game developers in front of him and point to his own task list for them to see.
Let them see what a trashy task is, a lack of tasks is what’s trashy!
It had been months since he had seen a main quest!
Jiang Feng was so upset that now he just wanted to watch a memory to calm down.
He clicked on the attribute panel again, randomly selected a memory, clicked to enter, and after entering, he realized what he had done.
Why was he watching the memory of this stranger?
And come to think of it, who was Chen Shi?
Source: Webnovel.com, updated on N𝘰vgo.co