Chapter 165

For the rest of the time, Qin Huai kept making pastries, filling not only the two refrigerators in Luo Jun's house but also the three refrigerators in Chen Huihong's house.

After these 5 refrigerators were filled, Qin Huai still felt like he hadn't done enough and made some more. Chen Huihong took Qin Huai's house key and filled his refrigerator as well. When she opened the door, she ran into Qin Huai's neighbor, who was overjoyed, thinking that Qin Huai was finally returning from Gusu.

However, Chen Huihong was a battle-hardened neighborhood committee auntie; lies came to her lips easily. She said she had stockpiled too much recently and her house couldn't fit it all, so she was borrowing Qin Huai's house to store some things.

Chen Huihong's love for stockpiling was obvious to all. Her home's air purifiers, paper towels, trash bags, wet wipes, and laundry detergent were all testaments to this. Plus, she not only loved buying things herself but also liked to organize group purchases to lead the neighbors to buy things. Every time she started a group purchase, her house would be filled with a pile of goods destined to never be used up.

Qin Huai had always suspected that Chen Huihong had so many properties in the Cloud Complex but didn't rent them out. Besides thinking that renting was troublesome, the main reason was that these houses were needed to store things.

Chen Huihong's excellent lie fooled Qin Huai's neighbor, who could only leave in disappointment, muttering about when the bitter days without Master Qin Huai would ever end.

Chen Huihong thought to herself that there was still a long way to go.

Your Master Qin Huai wouldn't return to the Cloud Canteen until after the Lantern Festival.

The next morning, after boiling the Chen Pi tea, Qin Huai instructed Zhang Shumei on the time to take the Gastrodia and Pigeon Stew out of the pot, picked up his empty suitcase, fully armed, went to the underground garage, and got into the Cullinan driven by Chen Huihong to head to the airport.

Don't say, Chen Yingjun had quite a few cars, many more than Chen Huihong; Chen Huihong only had one Bentley.

At 10 o'clock, before the plane took off, Qin Huai sent a message to Huang Jia, stating that he had already boarded the plane and was expected to arrive at Huang Ji in the afternoon. He wasn't sure if he could make pastries, so he asked Huang Ji not to put his pastries on the menu for the evening.

Qin Huai also informed Huang Jia of some good news: he had obtained a new recipe for Gastrodia and Pigeon Stew yesterday. The taste might not necessarily be delicious, but it had great medicinal value and could clear the eyes and calm the spirit. If Huang Ji didn't mind putting this dish on the menu, they could order more plump meat pigeons when ordering ingredients tomorrow.

Qin Huai knew that D+ grade Gastrodia and Pigeon Stew definitely wouldn't be enough to impress at Huang Ji. If a customer ordered a stir-fried vegetable dish at Huang Ji and was served a D+ grade one, a customer with a bad temper would probably flip out on the spot.

But medicinal food was different. It was common knowledge that as long as it was related to medicinal food, the taste wasn't necessarily guaranteed to be good.

Qin Huai hoped that Huang Ji's customers could lower their requirements slightly, given that this medicinal dish could truly clear the eyes and calm the spirit.

He really needed to make Gastrodia and Pigeon Stew. This dish was not only a soup that required low buffs, but it could also train heat control, and the volume was large; it was truly not to be missed.

At ten in the morning, the Huang Ji kitchen had already started working.

The moment Huang Jia saw the message, he showed his phone to Zheng Da, who was kneading dough with a very unhappy face.

If Qin Huai had returned to the Cloud Complex for the past two days, watched a long memory, felt a bit like he wanted to punch the Bifang, but ultimately chose to provide hospice care, made a pile of pastries, and confirmed that he would inherit all of Luo Jun's estate within a few years to achieve financial freedom, then Zheng Da's past two days hadn't been going well.

Zheng Da was already annoyed.

His long-awaited future closed-door disciple had finally come to Gusu, to his own turf. As Qin Huai's future master, not only did he fail to host a lavish welcome banquet for Qin Huai to show off his skills, but his own factory had run into problems ahead of schedule, causing him to run to Hangcheng and miss Qin Huai entirely.

Heaven knows, Zheng Da couldn't talk to anyone about how anxious he had been during this time.

Hearing that Qin Huai was shining brightly at Huang Ji Restaurant, attracting crazy pursuit from new and old diners, turning Huang Ji's lunch into breakfast, and having customers lining up every day to buy steamed buns, with Gong Liang even setting his sights on Qin Huai, Zheng Da was both happy and miserable.

What made him happy was that the pearl he had his eye on wasn't covered in dust; the eyes of the masses were sharp. As long as Qin Huai changed his environment, he could shine brightly immediately.

What made him miserable was that this pearl wasn't his disciple yet.

Senior brother, I can understand your desire to let Qin Huai see the world, but can you let him apprentice under me before letting him see the world!

Was it really necessary to be in such a rush for a day or two?

If he really saw the big world and knew his own strength, how could I still take him as a disciple?

Zheng Da felt bitter inside.

He was terrified that Qin Huai would stay in the Huang Ji kitchen and forget about him, this Uncle Zheng.

He was the Uncle Zheng who had sent over a dozen boxes of pastries to Luo Luo!

He was the Uncle Zheng who was very active in liking every WeChat Moments post and never missed a comment.

Zheng Da felt that his unlucky son, Zheng Siyuan, wasn't a thoughtful son either. It was one thing that he didn't date or want to go on blind dates. At such a critical moment, he didn't know how to say a few nice words for his father in front of Qin Huai. His head was full of that broken fruit, big spoon flipping. You're a pastry chef, why are you learning big spoon flipping? Even I, your father, don't know how.

Knowing that his senior brother and son couldn't be relied upon, Zheng Da knew very well that if he wanted to take Qin Huai as a closed-door disciple, he had to do it himself.

For the sake of his closed-door disciple, Zheng Da could only work like crazy, rushing and hurrying, finally solving the problems at the Hangcheng factory, and quickly rushing back to Gusu.

Then he discovered that just as he arrived in Gusu, Qin Huai had left.

Zheng Da: qaq

Zheng Da glanced at the message and continued kneading dough with an unhappy face.

Because Qin Huai wasn't there, Wang Jun, who had returned to the cutting station, rarely felt a bit of curiosity and asked Dong Shi beside him.

"Why did Master Zheng suddenly take the initiative to cook today, and he doesn't look very willing either?"

The well-informed Dong Shi immediately shared the gossip: "I heard that he had dinner with Mr. Gong last night and was flattered by Mr. Gong, so he happily agreed to make dough fruits for Mr. Gong."

Wang Jun was truly surprised now: "What did Mr. Gong say that could make Master Zheng happy enough to agree to make dough fruits?"

This was truly a rare thing. This kind of situation usually happened with Huang Shengli; Zheng Da belonged to the type that was impervious to persuasion. Soft tactics and hard tactics might not necessarily work, let alone two pretty words.

Dong Shi lowered his voice: "I'm not very sure either, don't tell anyone else."

"It seems Mr. Gong said Master Zheng has a good eye, picking Master Qin Huai at a glance, and he will definitely be able to take Master Qin Huai as a closed-door disciple."

Wang Jun:...

Dong Shi glanced at Zheng Da's side, and seeing that Zheng Da hadn't heard, whispered a comment: "I think Master Zheng is being a bit delusional."

"Sure enough, everyone has a way of being scammed that suits them."

Zheng Da didn't hear Dong Shi's words, but Zheng Siyuan, who was slightly closer to Dong Shi, did.

He felt that what Dong Shi said was very reasonable; his father was somewhat delusional. He should just knead more dough to wake up his brain.

Zheng Siyuan continued kneading dough, thinking about the techniques of big spoon flipping while kneading.

On the other side, Qin Huai was bored on the plane and clicked on the game panel to watch the video tutorial for dough fruits.

Sitting on a plane and tapping on empty air looked quite strange, but Qin Huai's ticket was first class, and there was no one in the seat next to him. Even if a flight attendant saw it, she couldn't just walk up and ask Qin Huai, "Sir, is there some illness acting up? Do we need to ask if there's a doctor on the plane?"

Qin Huai watched quite unscrupulously.

After watching the video tutorial for apple dough fruits, he watched the video tutorial for locust flower steamed buns, and finally went through the one for longevity noodles simply.

Qin Huai felt that although the locust flower steamed buns were of a very high grade, the video tutorial really had nothing worth watching.

The technique was too superb; it had no learning value.

Master tutorials were for masters to watch. He hadn't reached that threshold yet; watching such tutorials was no different from reading a heavenly book.

On the contrary, the tutorial for apple dough fruits was the one truly suitable for Qin Huai's current level. Although he couldn't learn the savory part, he could understand it. He could learn the pastry part and understand it, and he could even surpass it, but it also had its merits.

Qin Huai deeply felt that the tutorial for apple dough fruits was truly fresh every time he watched it.

As for the tutorial for Gastrodia and Pigeon Stew.

It was best not to watch it; watching too much would easily contaminate the database.

After happily watching the tutorials for the entire flight, Qin Huai landed and transferred to the high-speed rail. Gong Liang didn't know where he got the news that Qin Huai was returning today and had already boarded the plane, so he sent Qin Huai quite a few WeChat messages.

Usually, Qin Huai only looked and didn't reply. There was no way around it; replying to Gong Liang's messages carried a great risk. Once he replied, he would easily get entangled, and once entangled, it would be easy to get tempted.

Qin Huai felt that it was a good thing Gong Liang was a spirit from the Classic of Mountains and Seas. If he were a spirit from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, he would definitely be the kind of villainous demon who was very good at bewitching people's hearts and using all kinds of jewelry and glory to tempt humans. Today was different; Qin Huai was a bit bored on the high-speed rail and chatted with Gong Liang for a bit.

Gong Liang was really helping Qin Luo find a famous teacher.

Gong Liang stated that although Qin Luo wasn't very good at a series of courses like math, physics, chemistry, geography, and computer science, and didn't look like she was cut out for studying at all, her English grades were very good. Compared to other grades, they were even outstandingly good, which showed that the child might have a talent for learning languages.

When there were no conditions, one could only cultivate children in a balanced way. But now that we have the conditions, we must cultivate them in a targeted way.

Gong Liang had resources for famous teachers in Spanish, German, Russian, Arabic, and French. If Qin Luo really had talent in this area, one might consider Arabic, a minor language, which might be helpful for the child's future.

Qin Huai was convinced on the spot. He felt that what Gong Liang said was truly reasonable. He immediately asked him for the WeChat contacts of several teachers, learned more about them, and prepared to spend a huge sum of money to give Qin Luo a brutal one-on-one tutoring session.

There was definitely no time during school, but the winter vacation time could be fully utilized. Qin Huai felt that after Shuanghai High School went on vacation, he could bring Qin Luo to Gusu for a period of one-on-one language tutoring classes. This way, not only would Qin Luo have something to do during the vacation, but she could also eat something good.

Oh, he really was a thoughtful and good brother.

After Qin Huai arranged Qin Luo's winter vacation clearly, the high-speed rail arrived at the station. This time, Qin Huai didn't need anyone to pick him up; he carried his suitcase back to the house Zheng Da had helped him rent.

The house was still very clean after not being lived in for two days. Zheng Da had considered everything comprehensively when renting the house; not only did he rent the house, but he also hired a cleaner to come and clean every afternoon.

After Gong Liang learned that the house Qin Huai was living in was rented by Zheng Da, he helped Qin Huai equip some smart appliances and also gave the cleaner a sum of money to buy fresh fruit and delicious snacks every day.

Qin Huai put his suitcase in the room, came to the living room, opened a small bag of spicy strips, and picked a golden-yellow honey tangerine that looked very sweet. One bite of spicy strips, one bite of honey tangerine, sour, spicy, and sweet all at once, a strange taste, a wonderful enjoyment.

Qin Huai sent a message to Luo Jun.

Qin Huai: Mr. Luo, I have arrived in Gusu. On the way here, I researched the errand services from Gusu to Shancheng. If you want to drink Chen Pi tea in the future, you can hire an errand runner to deliver it via plane and high-speed rail relay. Gastrodia and Pigeon Stew can also be delivered.

Luo Jun: I know.

The two ended their brief exchange, and both tacitly didn't mention the matter of spending 100,000 yuan to hire Bing Bingzi to paint a portrait of Liu Tao.

Qin Huai knew that Luo Jun's showroom wouldn't have any new portraits.

After eating some fruit simply, Qin Huai glanced at the time and found it was only 3 p. m., so he could go to Huang Ji for a stroll.

Idle is idle.

Qin Huai went out, and just as he went out, he ran into a neighbor who recognized him.

Qin Huai didn't know this neighbor; he was a regular customer at Huang Ji. When Qin Huai made pastries at Huang Ji, he generally didn't go to the lobby outside to look, so he didn't really know the customers.

"Master Qin Huai, you're back from your hometown." The neighbor greeted him enthusiastically, his joy overflowing, "Tonight you..."

"I'm resting today, back to work as usual tomorrow," Qin Huai said.

The neighbor was a bit disappointed, but nodded knowingly. It was normal for Master Qin Huai to rest for half a day after a long journey back; it would be too inhumane to start working as soon as he got back.

"By the way, I might have a new stewed soup tomorrow, Gastrodia and Pigeon Stew. The taste is relatively average, but it has the effect of clearing the eyes and calming the spirit. It's a medicinal dish. If you're interested, you can come to Huang Ji to taste it," Qin Huai thought for a moment and decided to promote his new dish to the neighbors first.

Qin Huai knew that his dishes would definitely not be hard to sell at the Cloud Canteen. Even if it was Seven-Flavor Dampness-Removing Tea, as long as he boiled it himself, there would be loyal diners willing to buy a bowl with tears in their eyes, drink it in front of him, and then order a hand-beaten lemon tea.

But Huang Ji wasn't the Cloud Canteen. Huang Ji had savory chefs with superb cooking skills. The Chen Pi tea that made everyone flock to Qin Huai at the Cloud Canteen sold poorly at Huang Ji, barely selling out every day. Qin Huai was a bit worried that the D+ grade Gastrodia and Pigeon Stew, which had no taste-enhancing buffs, would encounter a Waterloo.

It would become the least popular dish Master Qin Huai had sold since coming to Huang Ji.

That was why Qin Huai added a word and shallowly promoted the new dish to this enthusiastic neighbor who recognized him.

But Qin Huai clearly underestimated his influence in the surrounding area.

At the same time, he also underestimated the influence of a popular chef at Huang Ji.

Just as Qin Huai walked into the Huang Ji kitchen, the news that Master Qin Huai was back from Shancheng and was going to launch a new nourishing soup dish tomorrow had already spread throughout Huang Ji's circle of diners.

Qin Huai was still discussing with Huang Jia whether to let Dong Shi or Dong Li handle the pigeons tomorrow when Gong Liang, who had just finished eating at Huang Ji at noon, arrived upon hearing the news.

Zheng Da was still showing Qin Huai that he, a pastry chef, actually had some skills in savory cooking, such as handling pigeons, which was something he was good at. He wasn't just good at pastry boards; he was also good at heat control, and his knife skills were not bad either. When he volunteered to handle the pigeons and took the knife to go on a killing spree against the plump meat pigeons, Gong Liang had already arrived.

Looking at the chaotic scene before him, Qin Huai felt that the situation he had envisioned wasn't like this.

Zheng Da was handling the pigeons.

While handling them, he stated that although Huang Shengli had a high level of savory cooking, his teaching wasn't necessarily stronger than his. He hadn't had the space to show his talent in previous years, and now he felt it was time to let the world know his skills.

Zheng Da wanted to replace Huang Shengli and teach heat control himself tomorrow afternoon.

Huang Jia was judging the grade of the meat pigeons. Qin Huai couldn't say what kind of meat pigeons were best for Gastrodia and Pigeon Stew—fat, big, small, thin, gray, or white—he couldn't say why.

Huang Jia felt that since he couldn't be sure, they might as well try them all. This afternoon would just be for testing dishes for tomorrow's new product launch.

Huang Ji had pigeon dishes, so the kitchen naturally prepared pigeons. Huang Jia felt that Master Zheng was probably crazy, while performing strict quality control.

Huang Ji's foreman and Huang Anyao squatted at the kitchen door, pointing at everything happening inside, and by the way, setting a price for the Gastrodia and Pigeon Stew.

Dong Shi was eating melon in the front row.

Wang Jun wanted to fight for the job of handling pigeons; it was all about helping Qin Huai, and he wanted to help with something professional.

Dong Li was searching whether Gastrodia and Pigeon Stew could really clear the eyes and calm the spirit. If the effect wasn't good, wouldn't their restaurant be involved in false advertising?

Gong Liang sat in the lobby, heard that Qin Huai was testing new dishes, and strongly requested to be the new dish tasting officer, stating that he had contributed to Huang Ji and invested in Huang Ji, so it wouldn't be too much to take a bite first at a time like this, right?

As for Qin Huai.

Qin Huai actually wanted to ask Zheng Da about crab roe shumai.

Yes, in this situation, Qin Huai only had crab roe shumai in his heart.

The heart that wanted to do tasks was moving.

But Qin Huai looked at the chaotic scene and felt that asking about crab roe shumai at this time was a bit inappropriate.

Zheng Da was still showing off his knife skills.

Although Qin Huai couldn't quite see it, he didn't understand why Zheng Da had to debone a pigeon; Gastrodia and Pigeon Stew didn't need to debone the pigeon.

Things like deboning Dezhou braised chicken only appeared in the works of unprofessional food writers. That was because the author, without checking the information, finished writing the chapter and then discovered that Dezhou braised chicken didn't need to be deboned, and in the end, could only bite the bullet and send the chapter out.

Using deboned pigeons to make Gastrodia and Pigeon Stew, was this dish a bit too high-end?

Qin Huai looked at Zheng Da, thought for a moment, and organized his language in his heart.

"Zheng... Master, I have a question I would like to ask you."

"Do you know how to make crab roe shumai? I've been very interested in this dish lately and want to learn."

Zheng Da:!

My good disciple, whatever you want to learn, your master will teach you!

Zheng Da's eyes moistened, and at the same time, his voice was incomparably firm: "Of course I do!"

"To tell the truth, what I am best at is crab roe shumai!"

(End of chapter)