The Game of Life TGOL

Chapter 464: Chapter 462 Recruitment

“Oh, there’s one more thing. Your Granduncle Weiming caught a bit of cold last night while sleeping, and this morning he was coughing a lot, so your Aunt asked Dede to take him to the hospital,” Wang Xiulian pulled out her phone, scrolled to her chat history with Jiang Zaidi, and showed Jiang Feng, “Your grandpa also went along with them, and then Chengcheng suggested that since both your grandpa and Granduncle Weiming are getting on in years, they should go for a checkup at the medical examination center tomorrow, so they probably won’t come to the restaurant these next two days.”

Jiang Feng was momentarily stunned, “Granduncle Weiming is okay, right?”

“He should be fine, just a sore throat from coughing all morning. Your grandma and your maternal grandma have also been like this these past couple of years,” Wang Xiulian said, old folks tend to easily catch these minor ailments like headaches and colds, especially during winter.

Today and compared to yesterday, the temperature dropped several degrees overnight, so Jiang Weiming catching a cold seemed quite normal to her.

It’s actually more uncommon for an elder like Sir, who hasn’t been sick in over a decade.

Jiang Feng flipped through the chat history, which was nominally between Mrs. Wang Xiulian and Jiang Zaidi, but in reality, it was a conversation between Mrs. Wang Xiulian and Sir. Jiang Zaidi had only provided a WeChat account, and all the voice messages were from Sir.

The two elders would probably spend all day in the hospital today—they hadn’t even registered yet, and on New Year’s Day, not only are all the big restaurants full, but so are the major hospitals.

That’s also why there were only Jiang Feng and Jiang Jiankang left as the interviewers for this afternoon’s recruitment session. Sir had suggested that Jiang Feng should also bring along Zhang Guanghang, because even though Jiang Feng’s culinary skills had improved quite a bit recently, he still wasn’t all that confident in Jiang Feng’s judgment in selecting people.

After reviewing all the voice messages converted to text, Jiang Feng handed the phone back to Mrs. Wang Xiulian, grateful that Sir’s Mandarin was so standard that he had no trouble understanding it.

Mrs. Wang Xiulian was thoroughly enjoying the article about Jubao Building, nodding frequently, clearly very pleased. Jiang Feng, unable to hold back his curiosity, moved closer to take a look and discovered the entire article was about a single dish, Sun Guanyun’s new dish, crab cooked with shark’s fin. The name seemed unremarkable, but the dish itself was very expensive because it involved shark’s fin.

Taifeng Building didn’t even have a shark’s fin dish on their menu.

Thinking about it made them feel somewhat embarrassed for a high-end restaurant.

“Mom, do you want to come and help with the recruitment this noon?” Jiang Feng asked.

Wang Xiulian waved her hand dismissively, “That’s a matter for your kitchen staff, what would I be doing there?”

Jiang Feng had only asked out of politeness, and upon hearing his mother’s response, he was just about to leave when suddenly Mrs. Wang Xiulian who had thought of something stopped him, “Wait a minute, Feng, I need to remind you of something. Don’t casually promise any pay raises during recruitment.”

Jiang Feng: ???

“Zhang Weiyu’s salary is now a bit too high.” So high that Mrs. Wang Xiulian had several times entertained the idea of firing him.

Jiang Feng: …

“Remember to ask Sun Jikai about the prices of the dishes at Jubao Building when you have time,” Mrs. Wang Xiulian reiterated.

Jiang Feng nodded to show he remembered, and went back to work in the kitchen.

The customer flow on New Year’s Day was undeniably huge, and with Taifeng Building being so popular recently, just after 12 o’clock there was already a long line forming at its entrance. People always have a herd mentality, and when they saw a long queue in front of a restaurant they normally wouldn’t give a second glance, they couldn’t help but want to try it out and see for themselves how delicious the food was. Plus, on holidays, everyone has more free time and doesn’t mind spending extra time standing in line and chatting with friends, resulting in a surprisingly long queue at the entrance of Taifeng Building, making the staff wonder if Mrs. Wang Xiulian had hired some extras just for the New Year’s Day rush. It felt like they were a hair’s breadth away from needing the police to maintain order.

With two steadying figures like Sir missing in the kitchen, it was often chaotic enough to lead to mistakes that normally wouldn’t happen. If Fan Mei hadn’t considered that Jiang Feng and the others needed to go to Fen Garden for employee recruitment at 3 PM and deliberately controlled the number of customers by sending Mrs. Wang Xiulian and two tall male waiters to turn away those who arrived after 12:30 to queue, the kitchen staff might have had to work straight until past 3 o’clock.

After finishing the lunch service, Jiang Feng felt deeply that he should hire a couple more chefs in the afternoon recruitment.

It had been a long time since he took a break to watch a movie with Wu Minqi, and he had missed quite a few movies that he really wanted to see due to being too busy at work.

Jiang Feng felt it was time to hire a few cheap and obedient employees to drain, so he could take a good rest as the boss for a while.

With impure intentions, Jiang Feng and Jiang Jiankang took Zhang Guanghang’s car to Fen Garden after the lunch service ended.

They had previously arranged to meet with 17 job candidates at 3 p.m., but when they arrived at Fen Garden just before 2:30 p.m., there were already four people waiting at the entrance, two of whom looked quite similar and were probably brothers.

Jiang Feng and Jiang Jiankang got out of the car first to open the door for the candidates, while Zhang Guanghang went to park the car. While opening the door, Jiang Feng explained to them, “Sorry to keep you waiting. The restaurant was open for regular business today, and we just finished up, so we might have arrived a bit late.”

Since Xia Mushi’s death, Zhang Guanghang hadn’t changed a single decoration in Fen Garden; everything remained as it was, which made Jiang Feng feel as if he was opening the door to a private restaurant after a long time.

Everything was just as before; the floor was very clean, and even the flowers and grass in the garden had been meticulously trimmed. Although Zhang Guanghang didn’t live there, he had hired someone to maintain Fen Garden.

The vast Fen Garden felt empty and lacked liveliness.

The four early arrivals seemed to be very close in age, probably all around 30. Although Jiang Feng had reviewed their resumes beforehand, he still couldn’t match their faces with their names, except for the two brothers who somewhat stood out. It seemed they were also chefs at a famous restaurant before and had worked in the south, but for some unknown reasons, they had traveled all the way to Taifeng Building in Beiping to apply for the job.

Although Fen Garden was a private restaurant opened by Xia Mushi, it was also his residence, so the entire garden was divided into a business area and a residential area. Leading the four who arrived early to the kitchen, Jiang Jiankang, on the other hand, moved a small stool to wait by the door for the others.

Along the way, perhaps due to nervousness or something else, everyone was very quiet. Jiang Feng could only hear the younger brother whispering in astonishment to his elder brother, “Bro, it’s a courtyard house!”

“What a big courtyard, wow!”

“This is a restaurant, right? Why aren’t they operating here?”

Jiang Feng felt that the younger brother seemed to want to continue speaking, but after a fierce glare from his elder brother, he dared not to speak anymore and stayed quiet along with everyone else.

For those visiting Fen Garden for the first time, the journey from the entrance to the kitchen was somewhat winding. As they walked, Jiang Feng reminded them, “If any of you have a poor sense of direction and might want to use the restroom later, it’s best to let me take you there. During the last recruitment, someone went to look for the restroom and couldn’t find their way back.”

Everyone was silent, and the younger brother appeared to want to say something but was stopped with a glare from his elder brother again.

To be honest, if it weren’t for the somewhat mature appearance of the brothers, Jiang Feng felt that they, especially the younger one, possessed a sense of youth and liveliness that did not quite fit their age.

The kitchen equipment and ingredients had been prepared in advance by Zhang Guanghang. Having prior experience in recruitment, Jiang Feng felt there was no need to make it more grandiose. Recruiting chefs was actually quite simple: they just had to cook a dish, taste it, and the level of skill would be evident. Moreover, due to the heavy workload at noon today, Jiang Feng was quite tired and already wanted to sleep. Therefore, he decided not to waste any more time and got straight to the point.

“All of you who have come to participate in today’s recruitment must be chefs with certain culinary achievements. I believe you are all clear about the welfare and treatment at Taifeng Building before recruitment, so there’s no need for me to say more. Since the four of you are here early, there’s no point in waiting idly. Please register your names here, and as there are four stoves in the kitchen, let’s start now,” Jiang Feng said.

“The ingredients are on the cabinet over there, the seasonings are all on the cooking station, the pots are in the cabinet over there, and fresh produce is next door. I believe we have already prepared the ingredients you’ll need, so please each of you make a dish that you’re good at, and try not to take too long,” Jiang Feng instructed.

The four were all taken aback—they hadn’t expected Jiang Feng to start early without any preamble.

“Do you have any questions?” Jiang Feng asked.

“I have a question,” the younger brother spoke up, and everyone immediately turned to look at him. “May I know where the restroom is?”

Jiang Feng: ???