10 So Good (1/2)

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

With the aid of the basic congee cooking skills, he was in his element when whipping up a pot of simple barley congee.

There was only one other ingredient - barley. He did not need to weigh it. With just a casual grab, Jiang Feng's intuition would tell him how much rice was needed to compliment that handful of barley. Jian Feng, who used to dislike the game's stinginess, was marveling at how good the game was now.

So good!

As the congee in the pot began to bubble and turn thicker, Jiang Feng began to stir.

The door opened, and he did not pay much attention to it. It was probably just Wang Xiulian coming back to fetch something.

”Cooking congee?” An old, grim, and familiar voice came from behind.

As soon as Jiang Feng turned around, he found old Jiang Weiguo standing behind him.

”Gran... Grandpa! ”

Jiang Weiguo snatched the ladle from Jiang Feng's hand, looked closely at the contents of the pot, and scolded: ”What is this thing that you're cooking? Pig's feed? ”

Jiang Feng could only chuckle dryly beside him.

Jiang Weiguo skillfully lowered the heat and stirred the congee in the pot at a constant speed: ”The heat is not well adjusted. Look at the congee, it has been thickened by you! You don't even know how to stir. How did that rascal Jiang Jiankang even teach you?”

The old master of the Jiang family was fuming. Jiang Feng could only stand by and receive the criticism.

After a while, the congee was served.

[A bowl of barley congee with acceptable taste]

The old Jiang Weiguo had only tried to salvage the pot of congee for a dozen or so minutes and it had turned into a bowl of congee with an acceptable taste. Jiang Feng held the bowl in his hands as he blew on it to cool it down while drinking the congee. He could not help but sigh.

The gap between one cook and another could indeed be wider than the gap between humans and pigs.

Just the thought of the old Jiang Weiguo's pigs getting pig feed made personally by him every day made Jiang Feng green with envy.

Jiang Feng brought two bowls of congee next door.

”Two bowls?” Chen Xiuxiu, who had decided that this was the last day that she was going to have congee, looked at the two bowls of congee in front of her in surprise.

”My grandfather's here. He helped to control the heat for these. I brought some for Uncle Chen to try as well. By the way, is Uncle Chen in? ” Asked Jiang Feng.

”My father is sleeping.” Because the old Jiang Weiguo had been in the countryside for more than 10 years, Chen Xiuxiu had never had the honor to taste his cooking.

Jiang Feng didn't stay long either. He needed to know why the old master had arrived here without a word of notice.

Has something happened in the countryside?

”Grandpa, why didn't you tell me when you were arriving, I could've picked you up at the station!” Jiang Feng returned to see the old master inspecting the kitchen.

”I'm in good health so there was no need to fetch me.” After inspecting the kitchen utensils, Jiang Weiguo opened the refrigerator and began checking the ingredients. ”This is obviously hormone fed pork. Dump it.”

Jiang Feng hurriedly obeyed the old master's orders and threw the meat away.

”I saw the congee you cooked just now. It's much better than your cooking that pigs wouldn't even eat before. You've fallen in love right?” Jiang Weiguo remarked.

Jiang Feng was confused.

”It was the same situation when that rascal your eldest uncle was young, asking him to learn how to cook was akin to asking for his life. However, when he fell in love with your aunt, he would enter the kitchen every day to please her.”

Jiang Feng thought that the old master was reminiscing now to draw out his unsaid words.

”I dreamed of your great grandfather last night. In the dream, he scolded me for breaking the inheritance of the Jiang family dishes, and scolded me for giving birth to five unworthy descendants, none of whom could bring the Jiang family dishes to new heights.” Jiang Weiguo sighed, ”Your father is going to stay that way all his life. He can only be a cook that is worse than some, and better than many. None of your male cousins have a talent for cooking. Both of your female cousins look strong but they can't even shake a ladle.”

”I've been thinking about it all night, and only you've got some talent in your generation.” Jiang Weiguo looked at Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng knew what the old master was thinking.

The children of the Jiang family would be sent to the old master to learn cooking skills every school holiday as kids. The old master thought that he was small, thin and weak. He had instructed him to hang sandbags for more than a year.

Training on the coldest day of winter and the warmest day of summer was a piece of cake compared to that.

He had practiced knife cutting skills for six years. Potatoes, cucumbers, radishes, tofu and other things that he had cut up had been taken by the old man to feed pigs.

Jiang Feng only began to touch the pot in his second year of high school.

He had only begun cooking for a year and couldn't even be considered an amateur. He had to start preparing for the mid-term examinations in his third year of high school before he had a chance to learn about the techniques regarding heat control and side ingredients.

Later, he stayed in his high school's dormitory and was busy with his studies. He had neglected his culinary lesson for four years, and he had never been to the old master's place to learn cooking since.

All three of Jiang Feng's cousins had gone through this as well, but the time they had spent learning to cook was not as long as Jiang Feng's, they were chased back by the old master before they could finish learning their knife work.

The six years spent perfecting his knife work were hard times indeed.