The Game of Life-Chapter 839 - 838 Unparalleled in the World

Chapter 839: Chapter 838: Unparalleled in the World

Chapter 839 -838: Unparalleled in the World

Two minutes later, Jiang Jiankang, whose hands and feet were already ice-cold from the frigid winds at the door, finally encountered the door opening. Jiang Feng, still clad in pajamas, with bed hair, unclean face, and a very noticeable eye booger at the corner of his eye, was ushered inside from the outdoors.

“Son, you got the…”

“I saw it,” Jiang Feng lifted the cellphone in his hand, pouring another bucket of cold water over Jiang Jiankang, who was already shivering from the cold.

Actually, it wasn’t really Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi’s fault for not opening the door for Jiang Jiankang; his timing in knocking was just very unlucky.

Wu Minqi did hear some noise at the door and wanted to open it, but she was wearing pajamas and had to change clothes first. As for Jiang Feng, at the time Jiang Jiankang was knocking, half of his body was still on the ground. It took him some time to get up, grabbing Wu Minqi’s phone before finally going to open the door for Jiang Jiankang.

Jiang Feng truly hadn’t expected that Jiang Jiankang would have the courage to come knocking on the door in just a shirt and Da Hua boxer shorts on a freezing Beiping morning at the end of December, with temperatures well below zero.

“Dad, go pour yourself a hot…” Jiang Feng walked over to the sofa to look for his phone, which he had tossed there to charge the night before. Initially, he wanted to suggest to Jiang Jiankang to warm himself up with a glass of hot water, then suddenly remembered there was no hot water at home at the moment.

“Dad, go boil some water and drink it warm to heat yourself up,” Jiang Feng corrected himself.

Th𝓮 most uptodate nov𝑒ls are publish𝒆d on ƒreewebηoveℓ.com.

Jiang Jiankang: ?

Although Jiang Jiankang was shivering from the cold outside just a few dozen seconds earlier, his thick layer of body fat, an excellent cold-resistant system, and the warmth of the indoors had already helped him to fully recover. He continued the conversation that he hadn’t finished earlier.

“Son, you have no idea, I was sleeping so well this morning when your mom woke me up with a couple of slaps on my face. I thought I had done something wrong, like being discovered for buying kitchen knives with my private stash of money. But the moment I opened my eyes, your mom informed me about this great news.”

“Who would have thought, eh? That our family could produce someone as promising as you, ranked sixth in Culinary Masters! It’s something I wouldn’t even dare to dream about. Back when I was studying, I never even managed to achieve sixth place in any competition, and together your mom and I have never achieved that either!” Jiang Jiankang, who had been sitting on the sofa, got so excited that he stood up again as he was speaking.

“Dad, don’t get too excited, did you finish reading the whole ranking? Granduncle Weiming is ranked second!” Jiang Feng couldn’t help but laugh.

When he initially heard from Wu Minqi about his sixth-place ranking in Culinary Masters, he was so excited that he fell right out of bed, but as he was lying on the floor checking the rankings and spotted Jiang Weiming at second place, he instantly calmed down.

Second!

It was the ranking that Chef Arno had long been dreaming of.

Yet, it was effortlessly taken by Jiang Weiming.

“Ah? Granduncle Weiming is ranked second?! No way, I need to go and tell Granduncle Weiming this good news; I’m going now, son.” Instantly feeling that Jiang Feng’s sixth-place was nothing much in comparison, Jiang Jiankang decided not to bother boiling the water, fearless of the cold wind. He swung the door open and whooshed down the stairs, not even waiting for the elevator.

Jiang Feng: …

As Jiang Feng heard the door close, Wu Minqi, who had been tidying her hair in the room, hurried out to find that only Jiang Feng was left in the living room, looking somewhat puzzled.

“Fengfeng, where is Mr. Jiang?”

“He went downstairs to tell Granduncle Weiming about his second-place news,” Jiang Feng replied.

Wu Minqi, shocked: “What?! Grandpa Jiang actually ranked second? I didn’t even notice before, this won’t do, I need to call my mom and tell her this great news. Hey, where’s my phone? Is my phone with you? Where’s my phone?”

Jiang Feng: ?

Do you all read the rankings backwards?

Wu Minqi went back to her room to call Mrs. Wu, while Jiang Feng sat on the sofa, starting to reply to the messages from people congratulating him on WeChat.

Actually, it’s no wonder everyone was so excited; the news had really just been announced.

Yes, for some unknown reason, Xu Cheng decided to post the most eagerly awaited culinary ranking, which comes out only once every four years and is watched by everyone both in and outside the culinary circle, at 5:27:34 a.m. on December 29 on Weibo.

Who could imagine? The ranking everyone had been waiting four years for was announced on Weibo.

Jiang Feng even suspected whether Xu Cheng couldn’t sleep and woke up early, found nothing to do, and thus simply released the rankings.

In previous years, the rankings of Culinary Masters were published by Taste magazine through a special issue; it used to be printed on paper, but with the development of the internet over the last two years, it became digital for easier distribution. The publication would feature the profile of the chefs, their rankings, and the reasons for their specific ranks. The reviews for the top twenty were typically written by Xu Cheng himself, while the rest were authored by other food critics.

Normally, everyone would have been squatting on the Taste app waiting for the rankings, but Xu Cheng kept delaying and dragging on till the end of the month with only a few days left. Many waiting for the Culinary Masters rankings announcement just camped out on both the app and Weibo, and unexpectedly struck gold there.

After seeing the rankings, they instantly understood why Xu Cheng delayed for so long, because this ranking was truly explosive, and not dragging it out a little bit longer would not do justice to the list.

This Culinary Masters ranking can definitely be described as the most sensational since Xu Cheng established the ranking system.

A massive shake-up in the top ten.

In previous Culinary Masters rankings, the major shifts usually occurred among the last seventy names, with new talent jumping in and underperforming veterans falling out. The positions before the seventieth were generally fixed, with some changes in ranks, but the persons were mostly the same.

Normally, not only would the people be constant, but their ranks rarely changed either. It took Chef Arno more than ten years to progress from ninth to sixth place.

For chefs outside the top ten aspiring to break into the top, they could only wait for the older elites to pass on, hoping to age their way into the top ranks. For instance, Sun Maocai had been stuck in the eleventh position for a full eight years and was widely recognized as the hot favorite to make it into the top ten this year.

Sun Maochai finally scraped through, while those who had been firmly seated in ninth and tenth place for ages were squeezed out.

What Xu Cheng posted on Weibo was a simple ranking, listing just names, ages, and affiliated work units, with a blank space for the work unit if someone had retired. Since the chefs at the top of the list hardly ever changed, everyone had become accustomed to reading the list from the back to the front.

The familiar faces were at the front, and the new blood was at the back.

However, this year there wasn’t much new blood at the back, but rather an unexpected amount at the front.

Peng Changping was first, Jiang Weiming skyrocketed to second place in his debut on the chef rankings chart, Chef Arno frustratedly took third place, the original second place was squeezed to fourth, and third to fifth, while Jiang Feng secured the sixth spot, and Sun Maochai not only successfully broke into the top ten but also squeezed into ninth place.

Several aged chefs with seniority who had been at the bottom of the top ten were now squeezed out to ranks beyond ten.

The aspect that shocked the spectators the most wasn’t that there were two completely unheard-of names in the top ten.

But the appearance of a work unit that seemed familiar but did not leave a strong impression on anyone.

Taifeng Building!

As everyone knows, the only active player in the top ten of the chef rankings used to be Chef Arno, which endowed his previous restaurant, New York Light, with the reputation of being America’s number one Western restaurant.

Now it’s different. The work units now include Taifeng Building.

Which appeared in the top ten three times.

What’s the implication of appearing three times?

Simply by looking at the published chef rankings, one gets the feeling that Taifeng Building is ganging up on the elite restaurants in a three against one bullying scenario.

If New York Light could claim the title of America’s number one Western restaurant by virtue of having a single top ten active chef from the chef rankings, Taifeng Building has three.

Forget being the number one Chinese restaurant; there wouldn’t be much dispute even if it claimed the title of the world’s number one restaurant.

Unprecedented.

The ranking published by Xu Cheng made countless editors and staff of gourmet magazines in the country go crazy.

Although Peng Changping has been sitting at the top of the chef rankings as a Chinese cuisine chef for years, there was a consensus that Chinese cuisine chefs were weaker in the rankings of top chefs.

Last time, the top ten of the chef rankings had only two Chinese cuisine chefs, one was Peng Changping, and the other was Xia Mushi.

After Xia Mushi passed away, many were speculating which Chinese cuisine chef had a chance to squeeze into the top ten of the chef rankings once Peng Changping also passed away, apart from Sun Maochai.

There had been many guesses, but none seemed likely.

Before this, the Chinese cuisine chef ranked just below Sun Maochai on the chef rankings was Pei Shenghua, at seventeenth place. According to the consensus that chefs could only break into the top ten after the death of those ahead, Pei Shenghua would have to wait for seven to die.

Even though he was in his prime and had a great chance of making it into the top ten, it was unknown how many more years he would have to wait.

Chinese cuisine chefs ranked within the top thirty were few and far between, mostly concentrated in the middle range between thirtieth and sixtieth place. They were neither here nor there—neither bad nor notable.

Moreover, in recent years, there had been no young Chinese chefs emerging with stunning brilliance, which led to a lot of pessimistic talk in the industry.

Staff from gourmet magazines and many food critics had been stifling their frustration, just waiting for the day when the Chinese cuisine world would produce another stunningly talented individual like Sun Maocai, Chef Arno, or Peng Changping—an individual who would shine brightly, allowing them to vent their spleen and write their articles with a bit more gusto.

And then that day arrived, so swiftly and unexpectedly, on December 29 at 5:27 AM and 34 seconds, via Xu Cheng’s Weibo update.

In the eyes of many industry insiders, Jiang Feng’s sixth place was much more sensational than Jiang Weiming’s leap to second.

Jiang Weiming was already a hundred years old. Even if this was his nominal age, his actual age was ninety-nine.

Jiang Feng was different; he was only twenty-four.

He had ample time and limitless future prospects, enough to compete with Chef Arno for the number one position on the chef rankings chart in the coming years.

All industry insiders who were WeChat friends of Jiang Feng sent him congratulatory messages the moment they received the news. They weren’t looking to help in times of trouble but to add luster to what was already bright.

No matter who he was before, known or unknown, from today onward for many days into the future, he will be a huge topic of conversation among chefs all around the world.

Twenty-four years old, sixth on the chef rankings.

Unmatched in the world, more dazzling than the sun, all geniuses would pale in comparison to him.

Everyone knew that, for many years to come, the future of Chinese cuisine would be written by him.

Just like Jiang Chengde once did.