Chapter 102: Heat Upgrade

Bing Bingzi's efficiency was very high. At 4:30 AM, she sent two pictures to Qin Huai: one of Liu Tao singing on stage in costume, and one of Liu Tao wearing a purple qipao holding a lunch box.

The drawing skills were good, and the basic charm had been captured. Perhaps because oral description and seeing it with one's own eyes were still different, the Liu Tao that Bing Bingzi drew only looked three-tenths like the one Qin Huai had seen.

Qin Huai immediately sent a voice message to Bing Bingzi asking her to modify the eyebrows and eyes, emphasizing the large and lively eyes and relatively ordinary facial features, and asked Bing Bingzi to strive to draw the official first draft today.

Bing Bingzi replied to Qin Huai with a string of silent ellipses in seconds.

Qin Huai felt that the other party's level was good and she was very talented, so he transferred another 8,000 as a deposit.

Bing Bingzi: Received, Boss. Don't worry, Boss, I'll definitely rush out the first draft for you today!

Qin Huai went to work at the canteen with peace of mind.

Chen An was kneading dough. Seeing Qin Huai arrive, he greeted him enthusiastically and then asked for advice on what exactly was wrong with his dough and why it was so different from Qin Huai's.

If it had been two months ago, Qin Huai could only say "here, here, there, and here," mainly because "you understand the feeling, right?"

Now, after professional training, Qin Huai could be accurate about the flour, water, hand strength, technique, and time, and could explain everything in detail and write another paper.

Qin Huai gave guidance for a few minutes, and Chen An felt enlightened, feeling that he had really found the right job, and kneaded the dough even more enthusiastically and seriously.

Qin Huai also started kneading dough.

While kneading dough, he asked Zhao Rong to prepare the ingredients for the dried tangerine peel, white fungus, and lotus seed soup. The white fungus and lotus seeds both needed to be soaked in advance, so that he could cook the dried tangerine peel, white fungus, and lotus seed soup right after making the first batch of breakfast.

"Mom, when Sister Xi comes later, tell her to have the sign for the dried tangerine peel tea remade and change the price to 15 yuan," Qin Huai said.

Zhao Rong's hand grabbing the goji berries paused, and she asked tentatively and somewhat troubled, "Huaihuai, our family's dried tangerine peel tea... isn't worth that price, right?"

In Zhao Rong's view, although Qin Huai had found a secret recipe from somewhere a while ago and slightly improved the cooking method of the dried tangerine peel tea to make the taste "alright," dried tangerine peel tea was always dried tangerine peel tea.

Adding brown sugar and salt couldn't change the fact that it was dried tangerine peel that could be cooked after a boil in hot water.

Selling this kind of simple and crude drink for 15 yuan a cup was a bit too profitable.

It was purely cutting leeks; it would ruin the reputation.

Zhao Rong felt that this kind of trend shouldn't be started.

"Mom, what you're preparing now are the ingredients for dried tangerine peel tea," Qin Huai explained.

Under the surprised gaze of Chen An, Zhao Rong, and Qin Congwen, Qin Huai nodded calmly and affirmed, "That's right. Although its ingredients are a bit complex and rich, and it looks a bit like dried tangerine peel, white fungus, and lotus seed soup, this is indeed dried tangerine peel tea."

As long as the dried tangerine peel tea produced by Liu Tao reached Grade D, it was considered qualified. The buff was very practical—warming the consumer for a whole day. Whether it was physical warmth or spiritual warmth, it was a very heartwarming buff.

If it was physical warmth for a whole day, then dried tangerine peel tea would be an indispensable drink for the canteen in winter.

Not to mention that the dried tangerine peel tea buff could take effect 1314 times a day. The quantity was large, so not using a large pot for high-quality soup to cook it would simply be a waste of heaven's gifts.

Put it on the menu, it must be on the menu, and it must be a permanent guest.

When the first batch of morning-running grandpas came to the canteen for a meal one after another, and the first batch of three-diced baozi, five-diced baozi, and Jiang Mi nian gao were out of the pot, Qin Huai started cooking dried tangerine peel tea.

Large pot cooking.

Large pot might still be a bit modest; to be precise, it was a large barrel.

Cooking such a large quantity at once was completely different from using a stew pot to time it and cooking it in small portions in terms of heat requirements.

Using a stew pot to cook dried tangerine peel, white fungus, and lotus seed soup had no technical requirements; anyone with hands could do it.

But using such a large pot to cook dried tangerine peel, white fungus, and lotus seed soup had certain requirements for heat.

Qin Huai was very glad that he had been working overtime to practice large-pot soup cooking during this period.

I guessed the exam question, family!

So this is what it feels like to guess the question? It's simply too great!

Qin Huai poured the ingredients into the large barrel one by one, added water, turned on the fire, boiled it over high heat, stirred, turned it to low heat, covered the lid—a series of actions flowed like clouds and water.

Qin Huai felt that he had never been so smooth when cooking beef soup, pork soup, duck soup, and normal high-quality soup during the previous period.

This feeling was... the feeling had arrived!

That feeling of being helped by a god when making white-case desserts, everything being under control, no need to worry about this or that, and as long as you follow the feeling, the things you make will definitely not be bad, had returned!

Qin Huai hummed a little tune happily and continued kneading dough.

The feeling was so good today, he should cook mutton soup in the afternoon to challenge himself.

Eh, why did the feeling feel so good today?

Could it be...

Qin Huai's hand kneading dough paused. He thought for a moment, continued to finish kneading the dough, placed the dough on the cutting board to let it slowly ferment, and then walked to the side of the pot, turned his back, and checked the game panel.

Chen An, who was always paying attention to the boss's movements, saw Qin Huai suddenly start to click strangely in the void and asked Qin Congwen, somewhat confused about the situation, "Uncle Qin, is Master Xiao Qin..."

"He's imagining that he has a system. Maybe he's checking to see if there are any new side quests now." Zhao Rong continued to wrap wontons, unsurprised.

Chen An:???

Zhao Rong explained, "When Did Luo Luo was young, Huaihuai lied to her that he had a system. Did Luo Luo really believed it and made quite a few embarrassing mistakes because of it. Over the years, Huaihuai hasn't made less fun of this matter and often clicks a few times in front of Did Luo Luo to tease her. Maybe he's used to it. Now that he's running a canteen, Huaihuai is under a lot of pressure and often does these little actions to relieve pressure."

Chen An didn't understand; Chen An was greatly shocked.

What a niche way to relieve stress.

What a beautiful mental state.

What a magical boss family.

Chen An thought for a moment and felt that people shouldn't try to understand things they couldn't understand, so he continued wrapping baozi. At the same time, Qin Huai was staring at the game panel in a daze.

At this very moment, his game panel was clearly:

Player Name: Qin Huai

Unlocked Illustrations: 3/12

Skills:

Dough Leavening (Intermediate): Your dough leavening technique has defeated 99% of breakfast shop masters in the country. (4127/10000)

Filling Seasoning (Advanced): Your filling seasoning level has defeated 100% of breakfast shop masters in the country (2112/100000)

Finger Technique (Beginner): You don't do any styling for dim sum at all. (193/1000)

Oil Case (Intermediate): The fried dough sticks you fry are not bad. (219/10000)

Knife Work (Beginner): Household level. (99/1000)

Heat (Intermediate): Barely passable. (11/10000)

Food Tasting (Advanced): Alright, you're quite good at eating. (Cannot be upgraded)

Management (Intermediate): Still quite good at doing business, won't lose money. (911/10000)

Lying (Master): "Say human words to humans, say ghost words to ghosts"—that's you, right! (6112/1000000)

His heat skill had been upgraded!

My god, his white-case skill hadn't been upgraded, but his red-case skill had been upgraded first!

The soup hadn't been cooked in vain these days, and Ouyang's soup hadn't been drunk in vain!

However, this game system's requirements for red-case were really harsh. Intermediate heat was "barely passable," while intermediate dough leavening was "defeating 99% of breakfast shop masters in the country."

The reputation of breakfast shop masters was damaged.

However...

Qin Huai glanced at the dough Chen An had kneaded.

Maybe the dough kneading level of breakfast shop masters was generally not very good.

Qin Huai closed the game panel and continued kneading dough.

There was quite a lot of work today.

Besides the fixed breakfast and dim sum, there were also the crab-shell yellow, four-joy dumplings, shaobing, white jade frost cakes, mung bean ice cakes, elm bark baozi, locust flower baozi, and three bags of fermented rice baozi that he had promised Ouyang yesterday.

Even if these dim sums were made in small quantities, it was impossible to make only Ouyang's portion, so there would definitely be random drops.

Now that the heat had been upgraded, Qin Huai felt it was time to challenge high-difficulty mutton soup cooking.

Ouyang started work at 9:00 AM.

He skipped work punctually at 9:05 and came to the Cloud Canteen to buy breakfast.

He came very coincidentally, of course, also because Qin Huai knew him well enough to time it just right. When Ouyang walked into the canteen, the crab-shell yellow had just come out of the oven.

The unique wheat fragrance brought by baking permeated the air.

Ouyang took a deep breath intoxicatingly, feeling it was truly a beautiful day.

My god, happiness came too suddenly. If Qin Huai could be as crazy as he was yesterday afternoon and ask him every day what he wanted to eat the next day, that would be great.

Qin Huai had already prepared breakfast for Ouyang.

"Here, your breakfast, four-joy dumplings with crab-shell yellow. Come over to get the dried tangerine peel tea in 15 minutes, and bring a portion for Sister Hong too."

"Yes, sir!"

Ouyang looked at the four-joy dumplings that were still steaming, and his saliva was almost flowing out. He asked, "Then what about lunch?"

"Elm bark baozi, shaobing, and white jade frost cakes."

"Mung bean ice cakes are dim sum for drinking soup in the afternoon. Take the locust flower baozi and fermented rice baozi back yourself to eat slowly."

Ouyang felt that a happy life was nothing more than this.

"What soup are we drinking this afternoon?" Ouyang asked casually.

"Cooking something different this afternoon, mutton soup."

A happy life came to an abrupt end.

Ouyang:???

"Mut... mutton soup?" Ouyang was so scared he stuttered.

It wasn't that he didn't believe in Qin Huai's level; it was that he knew Qin Huai's level too well.

Sitting in a duck pen to drink soup last time was barely acceptable, but drinking soup in a sheep pen was really impossible to swallow, sir.

Ouyang realized that the dim sum today was medical expenses.

After thinking about it, Ouyang gritted his teeth: "Drink!"

"What I love to drink most is mutton soup!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 103 =====