The Game of Life TGOL

Chapter 759: Chapter 758 S+ Grade Chicken Tofu Pudding (4700) Chapter 759: Chapter 758 S+ Grade Chicken Tofu Pudding (4700) Wu Minqi was truly filled with anticipation.

It was the kind of obvious, unmistakable anticipation that everyone could see.

Despite having slept at only five in the morning and looking utterly exhausted with dark circles so pronounced that anyone could tell she had been “cultivating” late into the night, she was excited. In her lethargic, listless state, she was oddly bubbly, causing virtually everyone who saw Wu Minqi to inevitably ask Jiang Feng if something good had happened to her.

Then Jiang Feng would simply tell them the truth, that Minqi was so excited because Chef Arno was coming to dine at the establishment today.

Everyone: ?

Not having followed the subsequent episodes, Jiang Feng didn’t understand why Minqi had completely reversed her impression of Chef Arno overnight, becoming an avid fan so quickly. With an attitude both analytical and exploratory, Jiang Feng sneaked to the break room before the midday service began to catch the last episode, constantly fast-forwarding to the part Minqi had told him about.

Indeed, he was handsome.

Although the production team was crappy, their editing and musical score were quite good. In less than ten minutes of footage cutting, coupled with a tense, exhilarating, and rhythmic BGM, Jiang Feng felt like he was watching a climax scene in a movie—the hero single-handedly saving the world.

If that scene wasn’t specially designed by the production team and was instead Ad-libbed by Chef Arno, then Chef Arno truly had formidable skills.

In just a matter of minutes, he was procuring ingredients, deciding on the menu, processing the ingredients, and demonstrating knifework; his seasoning and fire control were all on par with top-tier masters. Aside from his culinary skill, based solely on his rapid adaptability and keen sense for ingredients, he could confidently carve the words “I’m the second-best in the world” across his forehead.

This made Jiang Feng feel even tenser.

He had never seen Peng Changping at his peak, but he had witnessed Chef Arno’s prime through the show.

It was downright frightening.

Because of this tension, Jiang Feng was even more careful while making the Chicken Tofu Pudding.

Making Chicken Tofu Pudding already required full commitment and concentration, and giving it one’s all can turn an already perfect dish to something even beyond. However, consumed by anxiety today and fearing any mishap, Jiang Feng somehow managed to push this already extreme twelve points to thirteen or even fourteen.

At precisely noon, the Chicken Tofu Pudding was ready.

Since he had concentrated exclusively on making Chicken Tofu Pudding without any time to spare for other dishes, Jiang Feng didn’t even prepare the Pure Meat Wontons and Sweet and Sour Yam. The customers, along with Chef Arno, were eagerly waiting in the main hall.

Chef Arno was seated at a table for two by the window.

Ji Yue and Fan Mei stood not far from him, subtly keeping an eye on him with peripheral vision, afraid that the chef from the upper-tier restaurant would do something that might be irredeemable.

Exactly what kinds of irredeemable things Chef Arno might do, Ji Yue and Fan Mei didn’t know, but they had the feeling that he was capable of them.

“Did he order anything else?” Fan Mei asked in a low voice.

Ji Yue shook her head, “No, he didn’t order anything.”

Chicken Tofu Pudding wasn’t on the menu as it was a reserved dish, and since Chef Arno was invited by Jiang Feng and didn’t need to pay, his meal was essentially a freebie.

“At this time, the Chicken Tofu Pudding is usually ready. Go to the kitchen and check on it, ask Jiang Feng why it isn’t ready yet,” Fan Mei glanced at her watch.

After receiving the command, Ji Yue stepped briskly toward the kitchen but stopped short of entering. She just leaned halfway through the door and immediately caught sight of Jiang Feng staring blankly at a pot.

“Jiang Feng, is the Chicken Tofu Pudding ready?” shouted Ji Yue with a strong voice, prompting Jiang Feng to turn around.

“Yes, yes, I’m plating it now,” Jiang Feng replied, as Sang Ming, who had been waiting nearby, quickly handed over the exclusive dish for Chicken Tofu Pudding.

There was only one reason for Jiang Feng to zone out staring at a dish after finishing it—it had surpassed his expectations.

[Chicken Tofu Pudding S+ Grade]

Jiang Feng himself was astonished; he felt that the sweat he had worked up from being nervous while making the Chicken Tofu Pudding wasn’t in vain.

Although he had started to relax now, and the breeze from the electric fan made his back feel a little chilly and uncomfortable, this grade was much more unexpected than he had imagined.

He had always thought that S grade was the highest rating a dish could receive in the game.

“`

And then, suddenly, an S+ level skill emerged.

Keep in mind, his Sweet and Sour Yam, with the First Love Buff providing a 100% boost to all attributes, still hadn’t reached S+ level!

What amazing virtue does this serving of chicken tofu pudding possess!

Well, it’s chicken tofu pudding, so it can.

Jiang Feng had a vague feeling that he seemed to have discovered some subtle rules of the game that it had not disclosed to him.

After plating, the chicken tofu pudding didn’t require any presentation; it was served directly. Jiang Feng specifically prepared a full serving for Chef Arno, and Ji Yue personally delivered it to Chef Arno.

After sending out the chicken tofu pudding, Jiang Feng didn’t immediately go outside to check Chef Arno’s reaction; he still had Sweet and Sour Yam and Pure Meat Dumplings to prepare, and the customers in the lobby were anxiously waiting, their eyes filled with eager anticipation.

Once the chicken tofu pudding was served, Chef Arno stopped surveying the other customers around him and began to focus on the chicken tofu pudding.

Since Chef Arno did not eat tofu pudding, he wasn’t overwhelmed by its exquisitely crafted appearance and didn’t find it stunning. To him, it was merely a dish he hadn’t eaten before.

Ji Yue stood only two meters away from Chef Arno, staring at him nervously.

Chef Arno picked up a spoon and indulged in a full spoonful, taking a large bite.

Chef Arno paused for a moment, glancing inadvertently into the bowl, obviously surprised.

Then the surprise faded, turned into shock, and finally transformed into enjoyment.

A face full of enjoyment.

Chef Arno didn’t open his mouth or swallow; the large spoonful of chicken tofu pudding just stayed in his mouth as if time had stopped.

The chicken tofu pudding could be considered the most special and most potent buff dish among Jiang Feng’s creations.

During consumption, it gradually elevated the diner’s sense of taste. For each customer, the first bite of chicken tofu pudding was like opening the door to a new world.

To reach the pinnacle and be called a master chef, aside from those like Jiang Feng who relied on cheats to make up for innate deficiencies, the rest essentially possessed superior taste buds, with the only difference being how fine-tuned those taste buds were.

Chef Arno was among the elite.

His esteemed status in the culinary world, the speed of his growth in cooking in his youth, couldn’t be separated from his gifted taste buds.

Jiang Feng couldn’t judge the extent of the enhancement in a person’s taste buds by asking; he could only observe. After some time spent observing, Jiang Feng felt that the base level determined the upper limit of enhancement. Those with inherently high taste sensitivity had a greater chance of experiencing a significant improvement after eating the chicken tofu pudding. In contrast, those with less sensitivity wouldn’t feel much after eating it.

In essence, this top-tier dish was designed for top-tier customers.

The flavors you can discern depend entirely on what kind of taste buds you have.

Chef Arno felt that he couldn’t describe his current experience in words.

He could only say that Peng Changping must have been blind to not take Jiang Feng as a disciple and instead take in some unknown youngster.

Chef Arno had always thought of himself as the second best under heaven, a true genius with exceptional talent. But at that moment, he felt that perhaps he wasn’t as talented as he’d believed.

He felt his tongue undergoing a baptism.

An unprecedented baptism.

If one were to use an exaggerated adjective to describe the sensation on the tip of his tongue, it would be like a beautiful woman dancing gracefully upon it.

The performance was roughly on par with Yang Yuhuan’s Rainbow Dress and Feather Robe Dance.

A simple S-level chicken tofu pudding, cleansing the palate of diners with each mouthful, enabling them to develop a deeper appreciation for flavor every second, was sufficient for top food connoisseurs like Xu Cheng to become nostalgically addicted and unable to forget it, let alone the S+ level chicken tofu pudding that Chef Arno was consuming now.

Chef Arno was not a refined person; he was hot-tempered and unrestrained, behaving with the same ferocity when eating. Normally, a person would savor such an unprecedented delicacy carefully and slowly, but not him.

After a long savoring of the first bite, Chef Arno opened his eyes, took up the bowl and spoon, and ate the chicken tofu pudding ravenously, gobbling it down like a wild beast, finishing the entire bowl in less than a minute.

“`

Then Chef Arno sat down in his seat, set his bowl aside, closed his eyes with a satisfied face, as if he were savoring the taste, completely motionless.

Ji Yue: ?

To tell the truth, she had wanted to rush over and beat him when she saw Chef Arno eating the chicken tofu pudding.

Jiang Feng only prepared one pot of clear soup each day, and made just one pot of chicken tofu pudding. If it was his day off or he was too busy or too tired, or if the clear soup got messed up, he would skip it.

This precious chicken tofu pudding, that they were so eager to eat by licking it like a cat, Chef Arno had wolfed it down in just one minute!

If Ji Yue hadn’t been certain that she probably wouldn’t be able to beat Chef Arno, she really would have liked to go up and have a real-life PK with him.

It’s too much, this damned foreigner has no respect whatsoever for the chicken tofu pudding!

He was holding the bowl up instead of cradling it!

Of course, Chef Arno was unaware that the server, who looked like a supervisor and was only two meters away from him, had such a rich inner monologue that she even wanted to hit him. He was enjoying himself.

This man had many peculiar habits, and his way of enjoying food was also different from most people.

He liked to eat quickly, letting the food slide over his tongue, leaving behind the flavor as it went down to his stomach, and then he would close his eyes to slowly savor the taste he had just experienced.

He didn’t like to taste; he liked to savor the aftertaste.

In Chef Arno’s view, savoring the aftertaste was more charming and joyful than tasting.

Until he heard a muffled sound of crying.

And it wasn’t just one person crying.

Chef Arno opened his eyes and was surprised to find that about five meters away from him, the customers at two tables were crying. It was a peculiar scene, with six people crammed into a four-person table, and all twelve people at the two tables were crying.

And it was the kind of deep sadness that you could tell was genuine, as if they had been reminded of some heartbreakingly painful memories, and were crying for real.

Chef Arno was somewhat puzzled; in his many years as a chef and his brief stint running a restaurant, he had never encountered such an odd scene.

Were Taifeng Building’s servers all this unprofessional? Seeing two tables of customers crying at the same time, they neither intervened nor did anything else, just passed by indifferently as if it were normal.

Chef Arno looked towards Ji Yue, knowing that she was the supervisor.

Seeing Chef Arno suddenly looking at her, Ji Yue quickly walked towards him and asked, “Is there anything I can help you with?”

“They, why are they, crying?” Chef Arno asked slowly.

Ji Yue: …

She felt it was really difficult to explain to a foreign chef in just a few words why people were crying during lunchtime at Taifeng Building.

“Because they ate the meat-only wontons,” Ji Yue said.

Chef Arno: ?

He thought it must be that his Chinese wasn’t good enough, which was why he didn’t understand what the server in front of him was saying.

“Wontons?” Chef Arno knew what wontons were; he had eaten them before. They were just a simple snack with no special technique required.

Ji Yue thought that Chef Arno was asking why eating wontons made them cry. She thought about it and explained, “Our restaurant’s meat-only wontons are quite special. They are very unpalatable, but not just plainly unpalatable; they evoke a sense of sorrow in those who eat them. Basically, everyone who eats the meat-only wontons can’t help but cry, even recalling some unhappy memories because of them.”

Ji Yue felt she had explained this abstract matter quite concretely.

Chef Arno: …

He hadn’t understood a single word of what Ji Yue had just said.

“Can you speak English?”

“No, I can’t,” replied Ji Yue without a second thought.

Are you kidding? Asking her to speak English was like asking for her life. If she had been any good at English back then, scoring seventy out of one hundred and fifty, her dad would have thrown her into an international school so she could study abroad.

Chef Arno: ?

What on earth are the standards for hiring servers at Taifeng Building?

Since he couldn’t properly communicate with Ji Yue, Chef Arno could only simply express his wish: “Serve me one.”

Ji Yue: …

“Okay, please wait a moment,” Ji Yue squeezed out a smile.

If Chef Arno was set on courting death, she couldn’t stop him; she just hoped that after eating the all-meat wontons, he would still be the same Chef Arno.

As usual, Ji Yue walked to the kitchen doorway and asked the person nearest the door to pass on a message to Jiang Feng, telling him to make another order of all-meat wontons for Chef Arno.

Jiang Feng was making the final plate of Sweet and Sour Yam when he heard this. He thought there was something wrong with his ears and even trembled a bit, nearly flipping the Sweet and Sour Yam out of the pan with his spatula.

“He wants to eat all-meat wontons, are you sure you heard right?” Jiang Feng couldn’t believe it.

“Ji from the neighboring class just told me so, and she’s still at the doorway. Maybe you could go ask her yourself,” the messenger suggested.

After swiftly finishing the Sweet and Sour Yam, Jiang Feng rushed to the doorway. Before he could be seen, his voice could be heard, “Are you sure Chef Arno wants all-meat wontons? Why would he want to eat all-meat wontons?”

“How would I know? It seems like he doesn’t understand me very well, and I have no idea what he’s talking to me about,” Ji Yue replied helplessly.

“Did you rap to him just now?” Jiang Feng was baffled; he thought Chef Arno’s Chinese was pretty good—there shouldn’t be a problem with normal communication.

“He just asked me directly, ‘Can you speak English?'” Ji Yue said with a forced smile. If she had to pick the English sentence she hated the most, it would undoubtedly be, ‘Can you speak English?’

Back when she was a vibrant and attractive college student, this phrase was what the Filipino teacher often yelled at her.

Jiang Feng could only assume that Chef Arno was hell-bent on a death wish, but at the moment, he was more concerned about Chef Arno’s reaction.

“Right, did he have any reaction when he ate the chicken soft tofu earlier? Was he satisfied?”

Ji Yue thought for a moment, “I don’t know. His reaction was weird. He seemed normal at first bite, then suddenly started devouring it like a wolf, finishing it in less than a minute. After that, he just put down his bowl and started meditating with his eyes closed.”

“As for his expression… I can’t really tell. His beard makes it hard to read his face, but I think he seemed alright, definitely not a terrible expression.”

Hearing this, Jiang Feng felt a chill in his heart.

Since watching Chef Arno’s highlights for a few dozen minutes that morning, he and Wu Minqi had a significant change in their opinion of Chef Arno. Although they hadn’t gone from haters to fans immediately, they at least went from haters to neutrals.

Frankly, if Chef Arno were willing to compete, and if this season’s reality show could be as good as the first one—even with a simple formula and without any major problems, healthy competition—he was quite looking forward to competing with Chef Arno.

Wu Minqi was right; having the opportunity to compete and test one’s skills against such a distinguished and powerful opponent was indeed a rare and valuable experience.

Even if Chef Arno’s cursing was indeed extremely unpleasant, filled with ‘shit’.

Jiang Feng sighed in disappointment.

He felt he had no chance left.

“I’ll go make the wontons for him. Sang Ming, hang my name up for a twenty-minute break,” he said.

Jiang Feng wanted to see for himself how Chef Arno would cry, although the competitive stage was no longer hopeful.

The top-floor restaurant chef’s tears shed over Taifeng Building—what heart-wrenching reason could there be?!

He had already thought of the headline.

He was just waiting for Wang Hao to write it.