The Game of Life

The Suzhou-style mooncake originated in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty, lesser-known compared to the more famous and widely spread Cantonese-style mooncake, the Suzhou-style mooncake is even unknown in many regions.

Take Jiang Feng, for example, before attending university, he only knew of Cantonese-style mooncakes and was completely unaware that there are in fact many different types of mooncakes; he always thought there was only one kind: the Cantonese-style mooncake.

The only difference being whether they contained egg yolks or not.

Then there’s Wang Hao, a local from Alan City, where Suzhou-style mooncakes weren’t sold in earlier years, only in recent years did they become popular in Alan City.

When he first saw a Suzhou-style mooncake, he insisted it was just a baked sesame cake and even argued with the shop owner, ultimately getting himself blacklisted from the store.

Over the next few years, Wang Hao regretted his impulsive actions back then. That mooncake shop later expanded and opened a branch in Alan City, becoming the best place in town for Suzhou-style mooncakes, not only selling mooncakes but other pastries as well.

It’s said that Wang Hao’s photo was posted at the cashier’s counter.

Listeners felt sorrowful, those who heard shed tears.

Jiang Feng had forgotten who told him this, probably Wang Hao, since that guy could have developed a love-hate relationship with the topic. That person said if you were to rank Suzhou-style mooncakes, it would be too unfair to the other mooncakes because they aren’t even mooncakes at all, they are a dish.

But from any perspective, even from the biased view of someone like Wang Hao, Suzhou-style mooncakes are a high-difficulty White Chef pastry.

After taking a shower, Jiang Feng returned to his room, repeatedly checked that the door was closed, then excitedly clicked to open the attribute panel. Finding the recipe for Suzhou-style mooncake, he hesitated for a moment, then chose the fresh meat mooncake and began watching the video tutorial.

The tutorial had two parts: the first was making the filling, and the second, making the mooncake itself. The fresh meat mooncake’s filling was quite intricate, requiring everything but the sesame oil to be mixed into the meat, kneaded until sticky, then adding scallion and ginger water in three installments, mixing evenly in a clockwise direction.

In the video, what caught the eye was a pair of hands.

Long-fingered, fair, with neatly trimmed nails, well-maintained hands.

The hands of a White Chef.

Throughout the meat filling process, Jiang Feng didn’t once see Gu Li’s face; from start to finish, only his hands appeared in the video, along with the teachings of a mysterious man whose identity was not revealed.

If Jiang Feng wasn’t mistaken, the enigmatic man who only spoke and never showed his face was probably Gu Li’s master, the late Master White Chef, Master Tan.

After all, dropping a few questions like surprise quizzes while someone is cooking, an act frustrating enough to make one’s hair stand on end, could only come from the master of the person cooking.

At the end of the video, Master Tan asked Gu Li one last question, which seemed less like a question and more like a voice-over narration provided especially for Jiang Feng in the game.

“How should you handle the finished meat filling?”

“Refrigerate overnight to be used as needed.”

Here concluded the making of the filling.

For Jiang Feng, making the filling wasn’t difficult, whether making dumpling, wonton, or helping Wu Minqi make Sichuan dumpling filling, the method was basically the same, with just some small details differing.

The real challenge of Suzhou-style mooncakes lay in making the pastry skin.

To make the pastry skin, you first needed to make the oil dough, mixing all the required ingredients in a large bowl by hand until smooth, then covering it quickly with plastic wrap to rest for 20 minutes. ṙ𝖆ℕօ𝖇Ε§

Next, you make the oil paste, using the same method as the oil dough, only with different materials. Once the oil dough had rested, Jiang Feng watched as Gu Li slowly rolled it into small balls. The oil paste was also rolled into balls, only much smaller than those made of oil dough, half the size, to be precise. After rolling them out, Gu Li covered them with plastic wrap to prevent drying.

Then came the pastry skin production, which required water-oil dough for Suzhou-style mooncakes.

Water-oil dough is created by mixing water, flour, and oil in certain proportions, then rolling it out, adjusting with sugar and salt for different needs.

Gu Li used lard and maltose for his water-oil dough, which had more complicated steps because he needed to first melt and blend the lard with the maltose.

Gu Li covered the freshly kneaded dough with plastic wrap to let it rise, just like before, but Master Tan spoke up as soon as Gu Li finished covering it.

“That’s wrong.”

Gu Li, who had been corrected by his master, quickly realized his mistake and opened the plastic wrap to cover it again.

This time was different, the previous attempt by Gu Li to cover with plastic wrap had been sloppy, but this time he left many gaps.

“Why can’t the plastic wrap be sealed tightly?” Master Tan asked.

“Leaving air allows the dough to relax more,” Gu Li replied.

“Exactly, remember this well, you cannot make such a basic mistake again,” Master Tan’s voice became particularly stern.

“I’ll remember, Master, I won’t make the same mistake next time,” Gu Li said firmly.

Jiang Feng watched as Gu Li rolled out the rested water-oil dough into small pieces and slowly wrapped them, observing as each fresh meat mooncake took shape, watching as Gu Li brushed egg wash on the tray, sprinkled sesame seeds, and put the fresh meat mooncakes into the oven.

The video ended, and there was no shot of the dish after it came out of the oven. Throughout the entire video, Gu Li never showed his face, and even the part where he was carrying the baking tray with the fresh meat mooncakes to the oven only featured the part below his neck.

The winner of the Good Taste Cooking Competition truly has prestige, even the teaching videos don’t show his face. While other people’s faces are not often shown, they at least appear once or twice. Gu Li, let alone a second, didn’t even appear for a single frame.

After watching these two tutorial videos, Jiang Feng seemed to vaguely understand why the game chose Gu Li’s tutorials.

Gu Li’s video tutorials weren’t the best, but they were definitely the most suitable.

Gu Li moved slowly.

So slowly that even a beginner could clearly and distinctly understand each of his steps. And in the tutorial videos of Gu Li’s dish, Master Tan, who had been dead for many years, was there guiding him. This meant that Gu Li must have been quite young when he made these fresh meat mooncakes, and his culinary skills weren’t very high either.

Nowadays, Gu Li still cooks slowly. It seems that the word “slow” has merged into his body, woven into his culinary arts. But the current slowness of Gu Li exudes steadiness, while in the video, his slowness made him seem like a novice.

Gu Li stepped on every possible landmine when making fresh meat mooncakes, creating a complete guide to the potential pitfalls.

This could also very effectively help and remind Jiang Feng where it was easy to make mistakes, how to avoid them, and where making mistakes would end up like Gu Li’s.

Jiang Feng guessed that this was probably why the video did not show the final product.

The final product probably wasn’t very good.

With so many mistakes made by Gu Li along the way, even though Master Tan was there to promptly instruct Gu Li to rectify them, the final product was likely still not up to satisfaction.

So, does this mooncake really have a B-level rating?

Jiang Feng had wanted to see how sweet mooncakes were made, but then he thought better of it. After all, one needs to eat meals one bite at a time, and similarly, one has to learn how to make mooncakes one type at a time.

If he was going to practice, he should start with fresh meat mooncakes, especially since they contain meat.

Even if comrades Mrs. Wang Xiulian and Mr. Jiang Jiankang scorned them and wouldn’t eat them, Ji Xia would certainly eat them.

“Ah,” Jiang Feng sighed somewhat regretfully.

If only Xiaxia had an appetite as big as that of his great-aunt.

Then he could just let loose and make fresh meat mooncakes. No matter how unsuccessful or bad they tasted, at least they wouldn’t go to waste.

Xiaxia is a good apprentice.

Always there to solve problems for her master.

Jiang Feng silently praised Ji Xia in his heart, intending to close the attribute panel and go to sleep, but he accidentally clicked on the item bar below.

A certain item that had been hidden deep in the item bar for so long, already forgotten by Jiang Feng, caught his eye: “A Fragment of Ji Xue’s Memory.”

“A Fragment of Ji Xue’s Memory”

Where did this memory come from?

Jiang Feng was somewhat puzzled; he couldn’t remember ever having acquired this memory, nor did he recall completing any task to obtain it. At this moment, Jiang Feng felt like a forgetting youth who had prematurely entered old age, not remembering when the teacher assigned the homework at the time it needed to be handed in.

Sitting on the bed and pondering for a long time, Jiang Feng finally remembered that it seemed to be connected to some task related to Ji Xue. Anyway, the task was already completed when he took it. It was another self-sufficient, inspiring task; he realized it and completed it himself, without any need for Jiang Feng to lift a finger.

A good task should complete itself, not require the player to make an effort.

Do you hear that, mainline tasks!

Jiang Feng shouted in his heart.

His progression on the mainline task was only 3/10. Of course, 3/10 is not the focus, but he doesn’t know where the remaining 7/10 are.

It doesn’t feel like any dish could easily reach an A-level standard.

Most of the special effect dishes in the cookbook are big and famous dishes, and the few simple ones like fried sauce noodles are still outside of Jiang Feng’s abilities.

So, special effect dishes should have the standard of special effect dishes. Can’t you dishes learn from the previous side tasks and level up to an A by yourselves, without having the player do it personally?

Having the player do it personally lacks soul. You’re special effect dishes; you need to have your own consciousness and opinions!

Jiang Feng mentioned that he has weak teeth; the doctor advised him to eat more soft food.

Despite his grumbling, Jiang Feng’s fingers moved honestly towards “A Fragment of Ji Xue’s Memory” and silently clicked yes.

Jiang Feng was instantly surrounded by fog.

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