Chapter 174

Having finally made normal crab roe shumai, Qin Huai immediately decided to strike while the iron was hot and made another batch.

The new batch of shumai was also normal.

Qin Huai was so moved that he was on the verge of tears.

To share this joy, Qin Huai immediately took out his phone, adjusted it to the gourmet photography filter, snapped a delicious and beautiful photo of the crab roe shumai, and sent the original image to Qin Luo.

Calculating the time, Qin Luo would likely be out of school in about half an hour.

Based on Qin Huai's understanding of Qin Luo, she would take out her phone the moment she walked out of school, not even waiting to get on the bus home.

Sure enough, half an hour later, Qin Luo replied to Qin Huai with a long string of drooling emojis.

Luo Luo: Wuwuwuwu, Brother, you're back, right? Brother, I knew you were the best to me. You made salted egg yolk steamed dumplings, right? Okay, okay, I'm getting on the bus to come back and eat it now!

Did Luo Luo: Brother, wait for me, don't let Brother Yang eat it all!

Did Luo Luo: Brother, are you still there, Brother? Is the shumai in the steamer? It won't get cold, will it? Brother, I want to eat 12 shumai. The shumai Dad makes is too awful; I haven't had shumai in so long 【Crying loudly】.

Did Luo Luo: Brother, did you go back to sleep? Reply to my message, Brother. Is the shumai still there?

Did Luo Luo: Brother! I just called Mom and she said you didn't come back. Brother, where are you?!!!

Through the phone screen, Qin Huai could hear Qin Luo's heart-wrenching voice.

Having finished his massage and sitting in the bone-setting shop starting on a fruit platter, Qin Huai calmly replied to the message.

Qin Huai: It's crab roe shumai, I made it today.

Qin Huai: I didn't go back, I'm in Gusu. When your semester ends, if you do well on your final exams, I'll pick you up to come to Gusu for winter break, and you can sit at the entrance of the Huang Ji Restaurant's back kitchen and eat.

Sitting on the bus, holding her phone with sorrow flowing like a river, Qin Luo: qaq

Ever since she started high school, Qin Luo had barely eaten any snacks, but had eaten a bellyful of "pies" (empty promises). Pop quizzes, midterms, finals, and monthly exams were all pies. Of course, Qin Luo hadn't let down the pies Qin Huai drew for her; she basically hadn't done well on any of them.

She had done okay on this month's monthly exam, not in the bottom 10, but Qin Huai wasn't in Shanshi this month, and Qin Luo couldn't come to Gusu, so the pie could only be saved to eat during the break.

Qin Luo sadly started scrolling through her Moments, scrolling while mentally dissing her second brother for only knowing how to draw pies.

She was almost stuffed from eating pies day after day.

Qin Huai: 【Image】 【Image】 【Image】 【Image】

Qin Huai sent a few pictures of the welcome banquet and the staff meal he cooked on the side.

Qin Huai: Come to Gusu during the break, I'll find you a few tutors to help you catch up. Study hard; not only will there be snacks to eat, but there will also be these dishes to eat.

Qin Huai: I'll share half of my staff meal with you.

Did Luo Luo:!!! Brother, love you, mwah!

Qin Luo, stuffed from eating pies, expressed: I love eating the big pies Brother draws the most!

Our Qin family just loves eating staples!

After drawing the pie, Qin Huai ate the fruit platter for a while longer, felt the honey tangerines in the platter were good today, and asked the clerk for two to tuck into his pocket to take away.

After Qin Huai left, the clerk took a photo of the fruit platter Qin Huai had left over, recording how much of each fruit had been eaten.

The next day, Qin Huai continued to practice the filling for the crab roe shumai.

Huang Shengli didn't go easy on him, and Zheng Da was defeated again.

However, this time Zheng Da wasn't obviously discouraged; presumably, yesterday's teaching made Zheng Da realize that the effect of the teaching qualification videos he was watching wasn't as good as he had imagined.

Qin Huai noticed that Zheng Da had changed to a different teaching qualification video.

In the previous video, a female teacher was lecturing, but now it had changed to a man, and the content of the lecture had also changed from expression to how to interact with students.

Qin Huai really wanted to tell Zheng Da, "Master Zheng, don't make things hard for yourself; with your clumsy mouth, lecturing is likely not in your cards." Everyone has their own teaching method; some rely on speaking, some rely on doing.

Zheng Siyuan had also learned this way for so many years, which shows that Zheng Da's teaching method wasn't completely ineffective; it mainly relied on the students' own comprehension.

Qin Huai felt his own comprehension was okay, and didn't need the teacher to be able to speak.

Moreover, in terms of speaking, Zheng Da would never be able to out-talk Huang Shengli in this lifetime.

Qin Huai really wanted to persuade him.

But Zheng Da was watching the video with great interest, so Qin Huai opened his mouth, then decided against it.

As long as Master Zheng is happy; he is the teacher, and the teacher must have his reasons for doing this.

The days of steadily practicing the basics passed like this for two or three days. On the fourth day, Huang Shengli felt it was time for Zheng Da to take the stage, so he argued a couple of times just for show, lost to Zheng Da, and retreated behind the scenes.

While Zheng Da and Huang Shengli were arguing casually, Qin Huai noticed that Gong Liang hadn't come today.

Gong Liang had come over for breakfast in the morning, but was nowhere to be seen by lunch. There were no orders for the 888 private room, and now that Huang Shengli and Zheng Da were almost done arguing, Gong Liang still hadn't brought his ergonomic chair to sit at the kitchen entrance, which was very unusual.

Could it be that the "Big Boss" had work to deal with today?

How moving, Gong Liang finally went to work!

Seeing Zheng Da reciting his opening remarks from the notes on his phone, Qin Huai pulled back his wandering thoughts and began to study seriously.

Teacher Zheng had written lesson plans for four whole days; regardless of whether they were useful, he would listen carefully first.

"Little Master Qin, our shop has received a new batch of honey tangerines. I see you really love eating them, so take this bag of honey tangerines home to eat."

As Qin Huai was finishing his fruit platter and tea at the bone-setting shop as usual and getting up to leave, the deputy manager of the bone-setting shop came out from inside, carrying a bag of honey tangerines in his hand.

The golden-yellow honey tangerines occasionally had a few spots of green, were of different sizes, and their shapes weren't very regular, but it was often these tangerines with poor appearance that tasted better.

Qin Huai took them gracefully and asked, "Your boss... I mean Mr. Gong, is he away on business and not in Gusu today?"

Not only had Qin Huai not seen Gong Liang at the kitchen entrance in the afternoon, but he had also specifically asked the head waiter if Gong Liang had booked a private room for the evening when he got off work, and the result was no.

This was a rare occurrence; Gong Liang had always treated Huang Ji as his cafeteria. If a student doesn't come to the cafeteria to eat, they must have gone home for the holidays.

The deputy manager indicated that this question was really a bit difficult for him, saying, "I'm not clear about that; we rarely see Mr. Gong throughout the year."

Qin Huai was just asking casually and didn't expect the deputy manager to give him an answer. He planned to send a WeChat message to check on Gong Liang after he got home.

Today's trial of the crab roe shumai was still very smooth, and the quality was not much different from the previous few days. Qin Huai knew in his heart that his learning of crab roe shumai was already on the right track and had entered a stage of steady improvement.

This time was no different from the last because the improvement wasn't enough yet.

Once Qin Huai finished practicing all the basics related to crab roe shumai, Huang Shengli could hand over the teaching work and let Zheng Da be fully responsible for the teaching of crab roe shumai.

Once he reached this stage, all Qin Huai had to do was practice more.

Practice the dish more.

Qin Huai set a time limit of one week for himself. He felt that in at most a week, he could completely get rid of his "crab person" status and find a chef at Huang Ji who was good at handling shrimp and crab to help him as an assistant.

By then, it would be impossible to make crab roe shumai as leisurely as he was now, spending a whole afternoon slowly making only two batches and having to savor them carefully.

These good days were about to be gone forever.

When the learning of pastry snacks enters a stage that requires a large amount of practice, quality is not as important, replaced by a quantity comparable to assembly-line production.

What Qin Huai needed to do was like making fermented rice steamed buns, producing them batch after batch without interruption, strictly calculating the time between each step, and doing his best to be seamless with no spare time for rest.

Hopefully, the people at Huang Ji won't get sick of eating crab roe shumai by then.

Eating A-grade or even S-grade crab roe shumai for a month is a treat, but eating C-grade crab roe shumai for a month might be torture.

Qin Huai expressed that he would work hard, striving to upgrade the C-grade crab roe shumai to a B-grade level within a month, even if it's just B-.

That way, after everyone has eaten C-grade crab roe shumai for a month, they can eat B-grade crab roe shumai for another half a month.

Yes, Qin Huai planned to keep grinding crab roe shumai for a month and a half. What level he can grind it to depends on when the crabs go off the market.

The key to crab roe shumai is having good crab roe; this snack is a seasonal dish.

When Qin Huai realized that crab roe shumai was actually a seasonal limited item, he had reason to suspect that the reason Gong Liang could only eat crab roe shumai for a month back then was because the crabs went off the market after a month, and there was no crab roe to make shumai for him.

It was now mid-November, the time when crabs are at their fattest. By the end of December, the crabs would be completely off the market, and Qin Huai would also have to say goodbye to crab roe shumai.

There wasn't much time left for Qin Huai.

If he couldn't complete Gong Liang's task before the crabs went off the market, this task would likely have to wait another year, until the crabs came back on the market in September of the second year to practice crab roe shumai again.

Qin Huai was even a little glad that he wasn't a procrastinator. Before he truly understood the two ingredients of shrimp and crab, he had never realized that crabs were seasonal. His family rarely ate crabs, and even if they did, they ate more seafood.

If Qin Huai hadn't asked Zheng Da to teach him crab roe shumai as soon as he returned, but had procrastinated for half a month until December to ask, then the time left for Qin Huai to learn crab roe shumai would have become very little, and this task would likely have been delayed until the second year.

Ordinary crab roe shumai certainly couldn't satisfy Gong Liang's taste buds.

Having been in contact with Gong Liang for this period, Qin Huai also saw that although Gong Liang wasn't very good at speaking, he was very picky about eating, and he wasn't accommodating; he only ate what he liked. Moreover, Gong Liang wouldn't have a filter for food like most ordinary people; this filter refers to the filter that a chef brings to food.

Take Qin Luo as an example; Qin Luo was someone who was very good at adding filters to food. For Qin Luo, as long as it was made by Qin Huai, especially if it was something Qin Huai had specifically learned and made for her, it was delicious.

This "delicious" wasn't literal; it was a brainwashed kind of delicious. Even if the snack quality was only average, a C-grade or D-grade snack, Qin Luo would automatically brainwash herself to upgrade it by a level.

Ouyang could also do it; he didn't do less brainwashing for himself when helping Qin Huai test the soup, and he did it very successfully.

Chen Huihong and Luo Jun also had a little bit of it; because they had a good relationship with Qin Huai and considered Qin Huai one of their own, they were always particularly tolerant when eating snacks made by Qin Huai.

Not to mention the regular customers of the Cloud Canteen; those Seven-Flavor Dampness-Removing Teas sold were all evidence of their love for Little Master Qin.

But Qin Huai felt that it was difficult for Gong Liang to do this; perhaps it could be said that there were very few chefs that Gong Liang could be tolerant of.

This isn't to say that Gong Liang wouldn't be tolerant; Gong Liang's tolerance depends on the situation. He could be tolerant of potential stocks, such as the crab roe shumai made by Qin Huai or the Gastrodia stewed pigeon made by Qin Huai, but he wouldn't brainwash himself.

He was absolutely not tolerant of many dishes that represented beautiful memories, such as fermented rice steamed buns or braised whole pig head.

Huang Jia's level of braised whole pig head was considered quite good, even quite good compared to many similar chefs on the market, but Gong Liang felt it wasn't good enough.

Zheng Siyuan's level of fermented rice steamed buns was actually okay, able to stabilize at C-grade, occasionally able to reach B-grade, but Gong Liang also felt it wasn't good enough.

For Gong Liang, if there is clearly something better but you can't do it, then it's not good enough.

Therefore, Qin Huai knew very well that if he wanted to make crab roe shumai that satisfied Gong Liang, he must make it to a level better than Zheng Da.

And what level was Zheng Da's crab roe shumai?

Qin Huai felt it should be A-grade.

Qin Huai couldn't make A-grade snacks, he couldn't make a single one, and he knew this very well in his heart.

The reason snacks couldn't reach A-grade should be purely because the numerical values weren't enough. Qin Huai's dough leavening and filling preparation were both advanced, and crab roe shumai only needed these two skills. Qin Huai's seasoning was the highest numerical value on his panel among all his skills.

In a sense, crab roe shumai could become the best snack Qin Huai had ever made, bar none.

Qin Huai guessed that advanced skills couldn't make A-grade snacks; at least it had to reach the master level.

During this period, Qin Huai had been practicing filling preparation specifically, and the proficiency of filling preparation had advanced by leaps and bounds, now at (7666/100000).

The progress bar hadn't even passed 1/10.

Thinking of this, Qin Huai sighed deeply.

Difficult to handle.

It really was impossible to complete this side quest for Gong Liang within this year, no matter how he thought about it.

Sure enough, there were no simple tasks given by the game system. This task, which looked the simplest and clearest, actually had the highest difficulty to complete.

Qin Huai began to think about whether it was more likely that he would grind out more than 93,000 points of filling preparation experience within a month and a half, or whether it was more likely that he would grind Gong Liang's favorability to be about the same as Did Luo Luo's within a month and a half, making Gong Liang trust his snacks brainlessly like Did Luo Luo, automatically beautifying them, and automatically adding filters.

Qin Huai thought about it the whole way.

When he reached the entrance of the unit, Qin Huai felt that dreaming was more suitable for him.

Everything is in dreams.

When he reached the entrance of the unit, Qin Huai realized that the unit door was wide open today, and a small truck was parked on the side. On the truck were two large boxes that looked like refrigerators, televisions, etc. It seemed like someone was moving in.

Eh, someone actually moved into this residential area.

Qin Huai was a little surprised.

He had lived here for a while and had a certain understanding of the residential area nearby.

This was just an ordinary old residential area, housing prices were not high, it wasn't a school district, and the property management was average. The residents were mostly older, and there were many elderly people with children living here. In the eyes of many people, this kind of living environment meant noise and trouble, and young people were unwilling to move in.

There were no office buildings or business districts near the residential area, and it wasn't close to the subway entrance. There was a bus stop, but not many people took the bus these days.

If it weren't for Huang Ji opening right across from this residential area, the housing prices in the residential area would probably be even lower.

It was a rare thing for new residents to move into such an old residential area.

Qin Huai walked towards his home.

Then he discovered that the new residents seemed to be his neighbors.

No one had lived next door to Qin Huai before.

The door next door was wide open, and moving workers were going in and out to arrange furniture. Qin Huai quietly glanced inside; it was a bit messy, with many paper shells and plastic strips on the floor, and the furniture was all brand new.

Extra-large TV, solid wood tables and chairs, exquisite screens, beautiful porcelain.

Rich people.

"Remember there are still a few pieces that haven't been moved up; whoever has time, go down and take a look. Xiao Wang, I'll leave this side to you to be responsible for. I'm going home to persuade my wife to move in with me. When I come back, this house should be ready for move-in, no problem, right?"

"Okay, Gong Zong, don't worry, there will definitely be no problem."

Gong Zong?

Qin Huai stood at the door and poked his head out, just in time to run into Gong Liang who was coming out.

Eyes met.

Both knew what the other was thinking.

Both showed fake and polite smiles at the same time.

"Little Master Qin, off work, huh? Thank you for your hard work. What a coincidence; I was thinking that it's a bit far and inconvenient to come to Huang Ji to eat every day, so I bought a house right across from the residential area. I didn't expect it to be right next door to your house." Gong Liang was as surprised as if it were really a coincidence.

Qin Huai silently complained in his heart: You even handled my house's cleaning, changing fruits and snacks every day, and you can still calmly pretend you don't know where I live. You really are a gold-medal salesman.

"That really is a coincidence. Mr. Gong, moving here to live won't affect your normal work, will it?" Qin Huai asked with concern.

"It won't affect it, it won't affect it. To tell you the truth, my company is quite close to here. And living here is more comfortable and free; I lived near here when I was young. Look, it's that direction. It's a pity that the houses over there were demolished long ago, otherwise I would definitely have moved there to live."

"Little Master Qin, since you're off work and back, rest quickly. I'll tell them to keep the noise down and not disturb your sleep."

"By the way, what are we eating tomorrow morning?" Gong Liang asked.

"Crab roe shumai," Qin Huai said, "I plan to make crab roe shumai every morning from now on, to practice more."

"By the way, Mr. Gong, I don't know if you have any free time in the afternoon for the next month or so. If you have time, I'd like to ask you to come to the shop often to taste the crab roe shumai I make and appreciate how the taste is."

"I believe you must be very professional in terms of eating crab roe shumai."

These words went straight to Gong Liang's heart.

"If you don't have time, it doesn't matter. If you don't mind, I'll bring a few back when I get off work. Since you've moved next door, it's convenient for you to taste them."

Gong Liang felt that his decision to buy this house in a rush was really the right choice.

The whole Huang Ji couldn't find a chef more willing to cook for him on the side than Qin Huai.

"What's there to mind? It's good enough to have something to eat; I'm just someone waiting to eat. Don't worry, I'm definitely professional when it comes to eating crab roe shumai!" Gong Liang patted his chest and guaranteed.

He would tell his assistant to buy back all the "Zhi Wei" from the past few years tomorrow and cram hard.

Qin Huai watched Gong Liang leave.

Qin Huai couldn't grind out more than 90,000 points of filling preparation experience in a month and a half, nor could he grind Gong Liang's favorability to be as high as Qin Luo's. He could only follow his conventional method and let Gong Liang participate in the tasting.

Tasting can let Gong Liang taste the process of his hard work and progress.

Hopefully, Gong Liang can lower his standards a little bit, seeing that Little Master Qin really worked hard.

Please.

Qin Huai savored the taste of the crab roe shumai made by Zheng Da, opened the door, and went home.

Forget it, dreaming is faster.

Everything is in dreams.

I'll dream tonight and let this side quest be completed in the dream.

Asking for monthly tickets at the beginning of the month~

(End of chapter)