The Game of Life

Chapter 749: Chapter 748 Tea Leaves

Buying gifts is a skill, especially when purchasing for someone you’re not familiar with but holds a high status. Given Jiang Feng’s current social abilities and experience, he lacked this skill.

Wu Minqi was right: apprenticeship celebrations are just like weddings and baby’s full-moon parties, where hosts invite people for a meal, and guests need to bring gifts. But gifts for an apprenticeship celebration are more complicated than those for weddings or full-moon parties. At least with the latter, you could just give a red envelope; that wasn’t acceptable for apprenticeship celebrations.

So now, the question arose: what did Peng Changping like?

Jiang Feng knew that Peng Changping enjoyed eating melon seeds and watching operas, and sometimes he even liked to perform himself, but beyond that, he knew nothing.

Finding himself at a loss for gift ideas, Jiang Feng had no choice but to subtly probe Xu Cheng and Han Guishan through messages, to see what kinds of gifts these socially experienced moguls would bring.

Mr. Xu Cheng was the first to reply, telling Jiang Feng that he had prepared a tea cake from a Pu’er tea he had acquired at an auction a few years back as his congratulatory gift.

Han Guishan replied after 9 p.m., his gift was also tea leaves, but not Pu’er, rather Liuan Melon Seed Tea he had similarly bid for at last year’s auction.

Jiang Feng: …

In the novels, business tycoons are always depicted buying antiques, jade, calligraphy, and paintings at auctions, yet here you all are buying tea leaves.

Because Jiang Feng had spent the entire evening shift pondering what to give, he seemed distracted, in sharp contrast to Wu Minqi who had been the inattentive one at noontime.

Wu Minqi was back to normal, but now it was Jiang Feng who seemed to have his head in the clouds.

Sun Maochai, as the only chef at Taifeng Building who was paid as a head chef but also doing the work of one, had noticed Jiang Feng’s distraction right from the start. He hadn’t said anything until it was time to clock out and approached Jiang Feng, intending to offer him a few words of advice.

“How did the dove stuffed with sparrow turn out today?” Sun Maochai asked.

Jiang Feng was already cleaning up his station; seeing Sun Maochai’s concern about the progress of the dove stuffed with sparrow, he hastily replied, “It went alright, no problems.”

“That’s good to hear,” Sun Maochai smiled and nodded, watching Jiang Feng tidy up, “Actually, you don’t need to do such things, just leave them to others.”

A head chef’s time is usually very precious, and they would never waste it on menial tasks that lack significance.

“I’m used to it,” Jiang Feng didn’t cease his actions.

Sun Maochai smiled understandingly, knowing that Jiang Feng was not yet accustomed to what he ought to be. He felt Jiang Feng had already made significant progress, at least he had finally learned to command the other chefs to help with the preparation and fetching of items.

“Did something happen this afternoon? You seemed a bit distracted tonight,” Sun Maochai asked casually, as if inquiring about what Jiang Feng had for dinner that evening.

Sun Maochai’s question struck right at the heart of Jiang Feng’s concerns. He had been planning on messaging Sun Maochai after getting home that night to ask what gift he was preparing; now that Sun Maochai himself had brought it up, he asked him outright.

“Yes, there’s something, Master Sun, what gift have you prepared for Master Peng’s apprenticeship celebration tomorrow?”

Peng Changping didn’t expect Jiang Feng to ask this and was rather surprised.

“I haven’t prepared much; with such short notice I couldn’t get something really good together. Fortunately, I have a canister of top-quality Maojian tea in my possession, so I’ve decided to bring that as a congratulatory gift,” Sun Maochai said.

Jiang Feng: …

Apart from tea leaves, can’t you give something else? Can there be a little innovation?

Noticing Jiang Feng’s awkward expression, Sun Maochai feared he might have touched on some taboo—for example, perhaps Peng Changping loathed receiving tea leaves as gifts. He immediately grew serious.

“Is there something inappropriate?”

“No… nothing.” Jiang Feng subconsciously bit his lip, “I just haven’t decided what to give yet; I asked you today, as well as Mr. Xu Cheng and Mr. Han, and it turns out all three of you are giving tea leaves.”

Sun Maochai immediately became interested, “Oh, what kind of tea did they give?”

“Mr. Xu Cheng gave Pu’erh, and Mr. Han gave Liuan Melon Seed Tea.”

Sun Maochai nodded, “Those are indeed good teas. If you really don’t know what to give, I still have a can of Tieguanyin. How about I give it to you first?”

Jiang Feng was delighted, “That would be really great, thank you so much. I’ve been worrying about what to give and time is really tight. Please check how much the Tieguanyin costs when you get back, and I’ll transfer the money to you via WeChat.”

“It’s not much, I bought it at an auction a few years back and I can’t remember exactly how much it was, just round it up to 100,000.” Sun Maochai said.

Jiang Feng: ???

Jiang Feng suppressed the urge to gasp on the spot, tried to keep calm, but the slight quiver in his voice gave him away, “This… how many pounds of tea leaves?”

“It should be about two liang (around 50 grams). This can of Tieguanyin was the champion tea of that year, a fragrant type, which I particularly liked, so I bought a pound. I came to Beiping in a hurry this time and didn’t bring much. If you like, I can have my wife send some more to you later, and I’ll give you two cans.” Sun Maochai was very generous.

“No need, no need.” Jiang Feng repeatedly declined. He wouldn’t be able to afford even one can with his private funds without asking Wang Xiulian for extra money, and he definitely wouldn’t be able to cover another can.

As a tea connoisseur of such low caliber, he didn’t deserve such fine tea.

Now that the issue of the gift was settled and his wallet was empty, Jiang Feng wanted to focus on something else.

“Master Sun, there’s something I want to ask you.”

“Go ahead.”

“Why are all the gifts you’re preparing tea leaves?” Jiang Feng felt he needed to seriously study the art of gift-giving, as it would definitely come in handy in the future.

As he became more amazing and acquainted with more and more important figures, he would definitely face situations where he needed to give gifts. Even if these bigwigs may not have events like weddings or their children’s full-month celebrations, there were still their grandchildren’s full-month celebrations, as well as 60th, 70th, 80th, 90th birthday banquets that called for gifts.

The more he asked and learned now, the fewer hairs he would lose when preparing gifts in the future.

“Well, as for why Mr. Xu Cheng and that Mr. Han… Mr. Han chose tea, I’m not quite sure, but the reason is probably similar to mine. It’s mainly because we don’t know Master Peng’s preferences.” Sun Maochai explained, “If you know the other person’s likes, of course you give something to their taste. But when you don’t know, gifting tea is the safest choice.”

“Why?” Jiang Feng didn’t understand.

“Antiques, calligraphy, and paintings, along with other items, may indeed be valuable and nice, but there’s always the chance someone won’t appreciate them and you might step on a landmine. Pricey tea leaves, however, even if the person doesn’t enjoy drinking them can still appreciate them as a collectible, and they can always re-gift them to someone else if all else fails. It’s a safer bet.”

“By the way, do you know of any places nearby that handle gift wrapping? I can’t just carry a can of tea leaves there; it has to be packaged nicely,” Sun Maochai said.

“I know a place. After work, I’ll go to your house to get the tea leaves. Tomorrow morning when I head out, I’ll take care of the wrapping and bring it along in the evening for you,” Jiang Feng promptly promised.

On his way home from work, the more Jiang Feng mulled over it, the odder it seemed. Peng Changping’s apprenticeship banquet, where Peng Changping himself would be cooking, yet everyone’s congratulatory gifts were tea leaves.

The more he thought about it, the more it felt like the gift wasn’t for Peng Changping but for Lu Sheng instead.

It seems like with Peng Changping taking an apprentice, Lu Sheng ended up being the ultimate winner.

A feast and gifts. The more he thought about it, the more a twinge of jealousy crept in.

Jiang Feng felt the pain in his wallet.

Source: NovelFull.com, updated on N𝘰vgo.co