Chapter 882: Extra Story 4: Sun Family Father and Son Chapter (1) Chapter 882: Extra Story 4: Sun Family Father and Son Chapter (1) If it weren’t for seeing it with their own eyes and experiencing it firsthand, Jiang Feng and all the employees at Taifeng Building who had heard of Sun Changping’s glorious deeds would have never believed that he was actually a born server.

Yes, a born server.

Although it might not sound like a compliment, as serving isn’t a profession one would normally boast about, Sun Changping’s talent in the service industry was truly terrifying. He could not only outperform Ji Yue, but he could even outperform both Ji Yue and Fan Mei combined.

Let me put it this way, even though the Michelin star restaurant rating took advantage of the fame from the “Master Chef Record” and “Good Taste Sino-American Chef Showdown,” the results of the Beiping Michelin restaurant rating were announced on the day before Taifeng Building reopened, which was on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival. Both Taifeng Building and its top-floor restaurant were awarded three Michelin stars, Yonghe House two stars, and Eight-treasure House barely scraped one star, causing crowds of Beiping people to line up every day as if they didn’t have to work, just waiting to dine as soon as Taifeng Building reopened. Jiang Feng didn’t think the bustling business was caused by the Michelin three-star rating.

He thought it was caused by Sun Changping.

At first, only Jiang Feng felt this way. Later, Wu Minqi started to agree with Jiang Feng’s opinion, and so did Ji Yue, and Fan Mei began to see Sun Changping in a new light. By the time Sun Changping had been on the job for three months, which was when Taifeng Building was preparing to switch to the summer menu in May, the entire staff of Taifeng Building started to agree that Sun Changping was a celestial-level service worker capable of taking on a hundred at once.

They even began to suspect that the reason Jubao Building could hold the title of FJ’s top restaurant was not because of its cooking, but because of Sun Changping.

His memory and temperament were just too good.

People with exceptional skills are often described as having a photographic memory, but Jiang Feng believed that Sun Changping was beyond that.

He not only remembered regular customers, but he also remembered any customer who had visited within a week, not just their faces, but also which table they sat at, and what dishes they had ordered last time.

Imagine the wonderful feeling when you visit a restaurant for the second time, and a server–who looks like the supervisor–approaches you to ask if you are satisfied with your seat this time, whether you prefer this seat by the wall or last time’s by the window, if the food suits your taste, and if you still like the stir-fried beef ho fun you had last time.

What the guests felt was hard to say, but Jiang Feng was completely astonished the first time he witnessed it.

Jiang Feng felt that a supervisor of Sun Changping’s caliber couldn’t be defined as a regular server. He was more like the adept, long-sleeved Sir Hu from Taifeng Building whom he had seen in his memories before–not a server, but more of an intermediary between the restaurant and its customers, specially maintaining relationships with the customers.

And indeed, Sun Changping was just as skillful, with a good temperament and a genial personality. He wouldn’t make friends actively, but he could always say something as refreshing as a spring breeze at the most critical moments.

He was so attentive and remembered every ordinary guest, let alone VIPs and regulars of Taifeng Building. Fan Mei and Ji Yue used to maintain these old customers by calling or messaging them when there were new dishes to try, or special set meals and discounts available, or sending over some pickles that the customers liked during the holidays.

Everyone thought this was already good enough, but after Sun Changping arrived, they realized what they did was far from enough.

It wasn’t just the chefs at Taifeng Building who needed to constantly strive for improvement; the servers needed to do the same.

Sun Changping would pay attention to the menu ordered by these regulars each time, deducing their tastes and favorite dishes and remembering their birthdays, even going so far as to learn about their friends, social circles, and family members’ birthdays without disturbing them. Then, when necessary, such as a week before a family elder’s birthday, he would seemingly casually inquire how they planned to celebrate the birthday, whether with a large or small affair, and if it was a large one, whether they had selected a hotel.

With his personal efforts, Sun Changping brought countless banquets to Taifeng Building and retained many regular customers.

His abilities and talents were breathtaking, and even Fan Mei felt inferior.

Let’s just put it this way, with a miracle worker like Sun Changping at Jubao Building, Jiang Feng couldn’t understand what the Sun family members were thinking. Rather than keeping such a talent in the hotel to maintain customer relations and manage operations, they sent him to battle in the commercial arena, a field where he did not excel. That was not just a misuse of his abilities; it was simply a waste of Heaven’s gifts!

Such questions had been brewing in Jiang Feng’s mind for two months, and finally, on a day in June, he couldn’t resist asking them while having lunch with Sun Jikai, who was sitting at the same table.

As soon as the question was asked, Ji Yue, Wu Minqi, and Zhang Guanghang all pricked up their ears to listen. Everyone was curious and wanted to know, but no one was as bold as Jiang Feng.

At some point, Jiang Feng had acquired the blunt demeanor of Pei Shenghua, the previous melon king.

Sun Maochai chewed on the stir-fried pork in his mouth, swallowed, and hesitated a long time before answering.

“Because of my mom.”

“Initially, Grandfather’s plan was for my second uncle to join the company to handle other affairs, and for my dad to continue staying at the restaurant to manage it. My dad also felt that this arrangement was fine, preferring the restaurant to joining the company. But she was not pleased.” Everyone knew that the “he” Sun Jikai referred to was his mom.

Ever since Sun Jikai’s mother had performed that miraculous maneuver, stabbing her own son and husband in the back and leaving the household empty-handed, he seldom referred to her as “mom” and instead used “she” to refer to her.

“She felt that Grandfather not allowing my dad to join the company was favoring my second uncle and not valuing my dad enough. After our family’s business expanded beyond the restaurant and established a group company that went public, she started to look down on the restaurant’s business. She believed the restaurant made less money than the company, and money was the most important thing, so she thought my continuous learning of cooking skills from Grandfather was a dead-end without prospects. She believed that to have a future, I should study business abroad, learn management, and come back to manage the company.”

Of course, the result goes without saying.

Jiang Feng and the others could only shake their heads and sigh at how nonsensical Sun Jikai’s mother was.

The Sun family’s very foundation was the Jubao Building; all of their industries revolved around it. Not having the resolve or determination of Sun Chang Ning to transition the restaurant to a hotel, nor having the capabilities, she demeaned the restaurant business which made looking down on short-sightedness an understatement.

“Actually, I think it’s quite good now,” Sun Jikai turned his head to glance at Sun Changping, who was sitting at the same table with Wang Xiulian and Jiang Jiankang, “At first, when my dad said he would come work at Taifeng Building after the New Year, I was worried that he wouldn’t be able to adapt to the environment. I didn’t expect him to be so at ease here, like a fish in water, even making me feel a bit like he was when I was young.”

“Uncle Sun was right; my dad is suited to work here,” Sun Jikai said with a faint smile.

“By the way, I heard you and your dad stayed in Beiping for the New Year this year,” Ji Yue added.

Sun Jikai nodded, “We didn’t have anywhere else to go, and my dad really likes our current house, especially the small yard where he can garden. He bought the house over the New Year, so if nothing unexpected happens, we’ll probably be spending New Year’s in Beiping every year from now on.”

Jiang Feng: ?

Is gardening such a simple and unadorned hobby for you rich folks? If you like a house, you just buy it, and even though he likes courtyard houses, it’s a shame he can only look at them.

“So you’re planning to settle down in Beiping?” Zhang Guanghang asked.

“We’ll see,” Sun Jikai said noncommittally, “Right now, I don’t want to think too much. As long as there’s nothing wrong with my dad and me, that’s all that matters. My cooking skills still aren’t good enough, I’m still learning from Uncle Master. Even if I did have other ideas, they’d just be thoughts for now.”

Speaking of cooking, Jiang Feng suddenly remembered that there was one very important dish he had yet to learn–Buddha’s Jumping Over the Wall.

Even with his current abilities, it wasn’t a dish he could make perfectly just by watching a tutorial.

Buddha’s Jumping Over the Wall is different from ordinary high-end dishes where making a good broth means you’re halfway to success; with Buddha’s Jumping Over the Wall, a good broth is just the beginning.

He had already agreed with Sir over the New Year that he didn’t want to learn anything else but to focus on learning Buddha’s Jumping Over the Wall from Sir and also seek advice from Sun Maochai, aiming to master the dish within two years.

Two years was already an incredibly ambitious timeline, considering that Sir had taken nearly ten years to learn it back in the day.

Although the actual learning time each year was only a little over half a month, he would contemplate it for the remaining eleven months, which could also be considered a form of studying.

“By the way, I’m going to start learning Buddha’s Jumping Over the Wall from my grandpa in a while; Old Sun, do you want to join me?” Jiang Feng asked.

Even though he was used to Jiang Feng’s generosity, Sun Jikai still choked on his rice when he heard something like, “I’ve got an exotic skill to learn, do you want to learn it with me?”

Even though, in theory, that exotic skill was from his own family.

After all, Jiang Feng had learned more than one of their family’s secret techniques.

“Sure,” Sun Jikai replied without hesitation.

“Great, get ready then. Starting next week, you’ll be working overtime with me every afternoon,” Jiang Feng said cheerfully.

Sun Jikai: ?

Wu Minqi had been listening without speaking, but when she glanced at her phone, she realized the time and hurried Jiang Feng to eat faster.

“Fengfeng, you need to eat faster. It’s almost 2:30. Xiaxia is about to take a nap, otherwise, when you do a video call while eating, Xiaxia won’t be able to hear you clearly,” she said.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Feng stopped chatting and hurriedly started to eat, with the determination of a Jiang Family member not to keep his disciple waiting.

Xiaxia, as Taste House’s newest and most promising apprentice, had ignited the affectionate hearts of all the master chefs at Taste House within a few short months. The head of Taste House even called Jiang Feng to question why such a talented student had been sent to them so late, asking if it was a sign of disrespect to Taste House.

Now Xiaxia not only had to get up early for normal training every morning but also had masters voluntarily staying after work to teach her, leading to a truly early-to-rise and late-to-sleep workaholic life.

This turned into Xiaxia being too tired and lacking the energy to call Jiang Feng at night, yet she insisted on scheduling calls as a daily task to be completed, no matter how tired or sleepy she was. She would make two calls–one to Ji Xue and one to Jiang Feng.

In the first two months, the calls were made at night and sometimes Xiaxia would fall asleep in the middle of them, which pained Wu Minqi on the other end. Therefore, the call time was changed to lunchtime/rest time.

“Fengfeng, hurry up, what’s with that half bowl left? You’ve only got three minutes, it’s almost 2:30!” Wu Minqi controlled the time, constantly urging him.

Jiang Feng had to pick up his eating pace again, wolfing down his food, and nearly choked himself.

He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that ever since Xiaxia went to Taste House, his importance in Wu Minqi’s heart had plummeted.

He was no longer the person her Qiqi cared about the most.

Sigh.

Jiang Feng sighed to himself.

Was this what it felt like to be neglected by your children in advance?

“Fengfeng, faster!”