Chapter 177

Qin Huai's vacation went very smoothly, basically without causing any waves.

As a well-known high-end restaurant, Huang Ji not only has expensive dishes but has also done a very good job in service for so many years.

For example, when Huang Huang Shengli was still working normally, if he happened to be resting and the diners ordered Huang Huang Shengli's famous signature dishes, such as stir-fried eel paste, the waiter would remind the guests that the head chef was not there today, and this dish would be made by Huang Jia or other stove chefs.

Of course, only Huang Huang Shengli's signature dishes would be reminded like this; after all, the prices of these signature dishes at Huang Ji Restaurant are far ahead of others.

Later, Huang Huang Shengli's waist started to be not very good, and the frequency of rest gradually increased, so Huang Ji re-customized a batch of menus. This batch of menus was called "A-menu" and "B-menu" by old customers.

The A-menu is the menu when Huang Huang Shengli is there, and the prices are all original prices. The B-menu is the menu when Huang Huang Shengli is not there, and the prices of Huang Huang Shengli's signature dishes will be significantly lowered.

After changing the menu, old customers of Huang Ji don't need to ask the waiter how Huang Huang Shengli's waist is today when they come to Huang Ji; they just flip the menu to know.

Of course, B-menu doesn't mean Huang Huang Shengli won't drop by randomly. Sometimes Huang Huang Shengli will also be itchy and stir-fry a few dishes randomly, letting guests who eat the dishes he stir-fried experience the surprise of opening a limited edition blind box.

With a head chef like Huang Huang Shengli who takes vacations from time to time, old customers accepted Qin Huai's 6-day vacation very well.

Qin Huai's customers are the most stable of all chefs at Huang Ji.

He is a pastry chef and sells dim sum. The most famous, most acclaimed, and most recognized by the public is the fermented rice steamed bun, which is relatively cheap.

Selling a fermented rice steamed bun for 18 yuan in an ordinary breakfast shop is of course an astonishing sky-high price. But placed in Huang Ji, and paired with its taste, the price is not so unacceptable.

Qin Huai's dim sum is only sold during lunch hours, and many guests buy his dim sum as breakfast.

Those who are well-off even eat it every day. If they don't have time, they call a runner to squat. Among the dim sum Qin Huai puts on the menu, except for baked dim sum like crab shell yellow and dream-fulfilling sesame seed cakes, which need to be fresh out of the oven and eaten immediately to be delicious, the rest can be packed and ordered for takeout without affecting the taste.

When Huang Ji announced to the outside world that Master Xiao Qin would take all the holidays of this month and last month at once, taking 6 days off in a row, many guests even breathed a sigh of relief secretly.

Regular customers, especially neighbors living nearby, all know that Huang Ji's chefs take 4 days off a month, and these 4 days are not fixed.

Everyone has different arrangements for precious holidays. Some people like to take one day off a week, combining work and rest; some people like to take it all at once at the beginning of the month to enjoy the holiday; some people will save it to take off around the holidays, achieving both visiting relatives and friends without affecting the peak business during the holidays.

The most common is to take time off when there is something to do: blind dates, dating, traveling, attending exchange meetings, watching dramas saved for a month within two days...

This kind of vacation method is the most random, and it is impossible to guess which day they will rest.

And small things like chefs resting, restaurants generally won't notify guests, let alone issue announcements.

But Qin Huai is different; Qin Huai is a rare and precious pastry master who owns exclusive dim sum.

Qin Huai's vacation affects many people's hearts.

Before, Qin Huai hadn't taken a day off for more than a month, so many old customers guessed that Qin Huai intended to save the holidays together to take a big one. Now that the conjecture was confirmed, everyone just felt that the stone in their hearts had fallen, and they didn't have to be suspicious and worried about which noon they wouldn't be able to buy steamed buns when they went to Huang Ji.

Facing Master Xiao Qin's vacation, neighbors accepted it well. Some well-informed people even heard that Qin Huai took 6 days off at once to go home to see his family, so they ran to Huang Ji to stuff Qin Huai with souvenirs, asking Huang Ji's waiters to hand them to Master Xiao Qin.

Master Xiao Qin makes dim sum every day and hasn't rested for more than a month. It's so hard, so he must have no time to go shopping or play, and he doesn't know much about Gusu, not knowing what local specialties are worth buying.

We who eat dim sum must consider the chef who makes dim sum well, and buy some truly characteristic souvenirs for Master Xiao Qin to take back, so that his family can see that our Gusu is still not bad.

The guests are all very good, and the working environment is also very good, no need to worry.

Come back after staying for 6 days, just in time for New Year's Day, and soon it will be the New Year. Everyone is waiting for Master Xiao Qin to show his skills during the New Year.

Every year during the New Year, Huang Ji Restaurant will have New Year's Eve dinner limited, and the three-head banquet, which is only limited to wedding banquets on weekdays, will also appear in the New Year's Eve dinner.

It can be said that many residents in these old residential areas near Huang Ji have children who work hard for a year locally or in other places and save money for a whole year to go home for the New Year. It is just to grab a table of the highest-grade New Year's Eve dinner and have a good meal with the whole family.

Gusu is popular for eating dim sum, not to mention during the New Year. Every household must have cakes, rice cakes, and eight-treasure rice. As long as there is a restaurant with pastry, they will launch New Year dim sum gift boxes during the New Year, making the dim sum exquisite, beautiful, and festive.

Huang Ji Restaurant hasn't had a pastry chef for the past few years, so they don't sell dim sum gift boxes during the New Year.

But isn't there one this year?

Although it is only December, many people have already started looking forward to what this year's dim sum gift box will be.

Qin Huai didn't know that someone had started looking forward to the dim sum gift box, and he didn't even know that dim sum gift boxes could be sold separately at a high price during the New Year.

In previous years, the Qin family breakfast shop would not be open during the New Year.

They would open the shop on the morning of New Year's Eve to sell breakfast for the last day, and they would have to pack up and close the shop at 9 am regardless of whether they sold out or not, clean up the house, and carry large and small bags of New Year goods and luggage back to the countryside for the New Year.

Grandpa Qin and Grandma Qin only gave birth to two children, Qin Congwen and Qin Qin Xiuli. In that era, it was definitely a small number of people. Qin Congwen only had Qin Huai, an adopted son, and Qin Luo, a biological daughter, and Qin Qin Xiuli only had He Cheng, a biological child.

Although Qin Qin Xiuli is a daughter who married out, her husband He Ye is from the next village. Every year during the New Year, Qin Qin Xiuli would worry because there are few people in the family, and her parents would be very lonely during the New Year, so she often took her husband and children to Qin Family Village, and even on New Year's Eve, she would stay until 5 or 6 pm before going back.

For Qin Qin Xiuli's behavior, her parents-in-law, sisters-in-law, and uncles and aunts all strongly supported it, wishing they could go there too.

The family of three still had limited ability, and the dim sum they could bring back was not much. He Cheng walked slowly and ate while walking.

If the conditions didn't allow it and the eating posture was too ugly, they would all want to suggest that the two families spend the New Year together. What's wrong with having a New Year's Eve dinner together, even if they have different surnames, they are all one family.

And for Qin Huai, he never felt that there were few people in the Qin family.

There are not many direct relatives, but there are many other relatives.

And the relatives are very enthusiastic. I don't know why, they came to visit on New Year's Eve, and they didn't come empty-handed. They came with large and small bags, and it wouldn't be right not to return some dim sum.

On the first day of the New Year, the house in the old home was so big that it couldn't seat people. People had to move chairs and sit in the courtyard outside, and the New Year gifts sent couldn't even fill a room.

Every year during the New Year, Qin Huai stayed in the kitchen from New Year's Eve to the 15th day of the first lunar month, steaming dim sum until people far away would think the Qin family was on fire.

This is also why, although Qin Huai worked at Huang Ji for a month, making breakfast every morning, working normally in the morning and noon, and practicing crab roe shumai in the afternoon, he still felt that the intensity was not enough and could be increased.

Because he had really worked a job with higher intensity.

This intensity is just a warm-up for the New Year.

Qin Huai sat on the plane, a little puzzled why he suddenly thought of the New Year, even though there were nearly two months left before the New Year.

Maybe it's because he hadn't made dim sum for Qin Luo for too long.

Think carefully, this is probably the first time in more than a month since Qin Luo could eat flour-based dim sum that she hadn't eaten pastry dim sum made by Qin Huai.

It's really hard for Did Luo Luo.

Qin Huai looked at the phone memo, which recorded the dim sum he wanted to make for Qin Luo during this time.

Qin Luo did okay on this monthly exam and the last monthly exam. The last one was 12th from the bottom of the class, and this one was 17th from the bottom of the class. The progress was very obvious and worthy of a good reward.

Excluding the two days back and forth, with the remaining 4 days, Qin Luo should be able to eat crab roe shumai, fermented rice steamed buns, five-diced buns, Sophora flower steamed buns, dream-fulfilling sesame seed cakes, crab shell yellow, lard rice cakes, cakes, glutinous rice cakes, date paste yam cakes, apple dough fruits, and fruits.

Qin Huai couldn't make B-grade fruits alone, so he specifically brought a batch of raw embryos back this time, and would steam them for Qin Luo when he went back.

As for cakes and lard rice cakes, they were learned by Qin Huai when he wanted to change his hand feel when doing something else in the back kitchen of Huang Ji.

Count as newly learned, made okay, can let Qin Luo taste it.

Qin Huai's plane landed at 2:27 pm.

This time he didn't ask Chen Huihong to pick her up, because he didn't bring the 80 jin of crispy cakes Chen Huihong wanted—Zheng Zheng Siyuan really didn't want to make so many crispy cakes.

Qin Huai only brought 20 jin.

Okay, Chen Huihong couldn't come to pick him up because today is Saturday, and Chen Huihong had to go to school in the morning to hold a parent-teacher meeting for Chen Chen Huihui, and in the afternoon she made an appointment with several familiar parents to take the children to the zoo, so she couldn't spare time.

She asked Chen Chen Yingjun to arrange a driver to pick up Qin Huai.

Chen Huihong sent the driver's photo and license plate to Qin Huai, telling Qin Huai that the driver would wait for him at the pick-up entrance.

Qin Huai had no experience of being picked up, and was originally a little nervous, but he wasn't nervous as soon as he walked out of the exit.

A familiar figure attacked him like a cannonball, almost knocking him off balance.

Not seen for more than a month, Qin Luo seemed to have grown a bit taller.

"Brother! You finally came back, I thought you were going to stay in Gusu and not come back! Do you know how much I miss you? Do you know what I eat every morning now? I've lost weight, did you see? I'm starving to death!!!" Qin Luo poked her chin. Qin Huai indicated that he didn't see it.

"Did you buy crabs?" Qin Huai asked.

Qin Luo nodded repeatedly: "Bought, bought a lot. The day before yesterday, as soon as you called Dad, Dad let Sister Xi find someone to order them. Bought a big pile, raising them in a water tank and crawling everywhere."

"I heard Sister Xi say that crabs are not as fat as before, and there is not much crab roe, and they are about to go off the market. Brother, if you had come back earlier, it would have been better." Qin Luo pouted her small mouth, full of grievances.

"You don't like eating crabs anyway. A few years ago, you wanted to vomit when you smelled crab. I don't know if you can eat crab roe shumai. If you eat one and vomit again, I'm afraid I'll smash my signboard," Qin Huai smiled, seeing Qin Luo full of dissatisfaction, and quickly comforted her with a smile.

"Don't worry, I've seen your monthly exam results for the past two months. You did quite well. Our Did Luo Luo has also worked hard during this time, and it's a grievance not to eat good food."

"There is half a suitcase of fruit embryos in this suitcase, as well as the raw embryos of crispy cakes, Dingsheng cakes, and fresh meat mooncakes made by your Brother Zheng Siyuan. I'll steam and bake them for you when I go back."

"Have you eaten today?"

"Ate a roasted chicken leg," Qin Luo said honestly.

Qin Huai understood. Ate an appetizing chicken leg, just waiting for himself to come back and make delicious food.

"Then go back and eat some crispy cakes to pad your stomach first. If there is anything you want to eat, say it, and I'll make it for you when I go back."

"Let you eat enough these few days!"

Qin Luo originally wanted to pretend to be calm, pretending to be "I'm not the kind of sister who will be dismissed by a little bit of profit, Brother, you don't have me in your heart at all, it's too much not to come back for more than a month." As a result, hearing Qin Huai's last sentence, she couldn't help it, and smiled so much that her back teeth were exposed.

Can't help it, really can't help it.

Qin Luo now even regrets buying a roasted chicken leg at the pedestrian street near the mall in the morning.

Oh my, why eat chicken legs? If I had known that dim sum was enough and I could order food, I shouldn't have eaten since yesterday!

Qin Luo happily helped Qin Huai take the suitcase.

"Didn't ask just now, why did you run over to pick me up?" Qin Huai followed Qin Luo and walked out.

Qin Luo poked her head to find the car and said: "Mom said I was jumping up and down in the canteen all morning and couldn't sit still, and she was annoyed, so she let me pick you up so you wouldn't find the driver arranged by Uncle Chen."

It took Qin Huai a few seconds to react that the Uncle Chen in Qin Luo's mouth was Chen Chen Yingjun.

He called Chen Huihong "Sister Hong," Chen Chen Huihui called him "Brother Qin Huai," and his sister called Chen Huihong's younger brother "Uncle Chen."

Very good, everyone is indeed talking about their own things.

Soon, Qin Luo led Qin Huai to find the car. The driver arranged by Chen Chen Yingjun was an honest-looking middle-aged man who only drove and didn't speak throughout the journey. Qin Huai and Qin Luo sat in the back row and chatted happily.

"How is the business of the canteen in the month or so that I wasn't there?" Qin Luo asked.

"Quite good, anyway, it can be sold out," Qin Luo usually has to go to school and doesn't have a very concrete concept of the business of the Yunzhong Canteen. "Not enough manpower, so two more odd-job workers were recruited, and new helpers were recruited in the back kitchen, but I'm not very familiar with them."

Qin Huai knew about recruiting new helpers, and Huang Xi greeted Qin Huai, and Qin Huai also agreed.

In the month or so that Qin Huai was not at the Yunzhong Canteen, he recruited two pastry chefs with good levels before he left, both of which were restaurant-level.

Qin Huai could be very popular at Huang Ji, and two restaurant-level chefs were more than enough for a community canteen. Although the diners were slightly dissatisfied (after all, the level was far inferior to Qin Huai), they had no choice, and other shops' dim sum was even harder to eat.

Everyone could only mutter about when Master Xiao Qin would come back, but their bodies were very honest, visiting and consuming every day.

Plus, Li Hua and Pei Xing were very mature professional chefs, with stable styles and high efficiency. After the canteen recruited the helpers they needed, the efficiency was even higher. In the month or so, the turnover of the Yunzhong Canteen did not decrease but increased.

Plus, the boss didn't go out to play, but went out to work another job with high wages. From the perspective of efficiency, the Yunzhong Canteen made a fortune.

From the perspective of diners, everyone was almost crying with greed.

Honestly, Pei Xing and Li Hua's cooking skills were indeed good, and both were from Zhiwei Residence.

Before Qin Huai had seen the world, he had no concept of the five words "from Zhiwei Residence." Now that he had seen the world, he deeply realized that if Zheng Da hadn't acted as a bridge, these two chefs would absolutely not have come to work at the Yunzhong Canteen.

But the guests of the Yunzhong Canteen had eaten better.

Qin Huai, Zheng Zheng Siyuan, and Zheng Da.

In a sense, the guests of the Yunzhong Canteen had seen quite a lot of the world.

Without comparison, there is no harm. Pei Xing and Li Hua were trained in the orthodox school, but they couldn't compare with Qin Huai, Zheng Zheng Siyuan, and Zheng Da.

The guests of the Yunzhong Canteen missed Qin Huai so much they were almost crazy.

The grandpas and grandmas in the Yunzhong residential area sitting in the Yunzhong Canteen chatting were not just chatting; that was purely "seeing things and thinking of people," "touching the scene and feeling the emotion"!

Everyone was thinking day and night, hoping that Qin Huai would come back soon.

If he didn't come back, everyone would almost forget what it felt like to eat five-diced buns and fermented rice steamed buns every morning.

They didn't feel anything when they ate it every day before, but now they know how to cherish it after losing it.

Not only the grandpas and grandmas in the Yunzhong residential area missed him, but the office workers in the nearby office buildings also missed him.

Before, they complained that the breakfast at the Yunzhong Canteen was expensive, and they only dared to buy three-diced buns and five-diced buns after gritting their teeth. Now they don't even have the chance to complain about the price, and they can't buy it directly.

They want to eat but can't, and they have no energy to go to work.

The breakfast made by the new chef is not bad, but it can't compare with the "white moonlight" in their hearts.

This is not the most miserable thing. The most miserable thing is that after working for a morning, they subconsciously clicked on their phones to grab Chen Pi tea, only to find that there was no Chen Pi tea to drink.

That really made them not even want to go to work.

Many office workers didn't dare to think about how they survived before without three-diced buns and five-diced buns to eat and without Chen Pi tea to drink.

At 3:59 pm, a black sedan stopped at the entrance of the Yunzhong Canteen.

The grandpas and grandmas in the canteen who were "seeing things and thinking of people" glanced out the window, didn't care, and continued to "touch the scene and feel the emotion."

Then the car door opened.

Qin Luo walked down.

Xu Tuqiang, who was sitting by the window, said: "Did Luo Luo is back from playing, how long has it been since she went out to play."

Then Xu Tuqiang widened his eyes, rubbed his eyes in disbelief, widened his eyes again, and rubbed them again.

It wasn't until Qin Huai walked to the trunk and took the suitcase down that Xu Tuqiang dared to believe everything he saw, stood up, and shouted in surprise:

"Master Xiao Qin is back!"

"My God, Master Xiao Qin is back!!!"

For a time, the entire Yunzhong Canteen was sensational. The grandpas and grandmas who were not sitting by the window ran towards the door or the window one after another, stretching their necks and widening their eyes to look out.

Seeing the familiar face, their tears were about to fall.

It's Qin Huai, it's really Qin Huai, he's back!

Two minutes later, the photo of Qin Huai opening the trunk to take the suitcase spread throughout the owner group of the Yunzhong residential area and the group-buying group of the Yunzhong Canteen.

On this day, all the guests of the Yunzhong Canteen were running around telling each other.

Master Xiao Qin is back, there will be breakfast tomorrow morning!

My wallet, what are you still waiting for? I'll say a number, 10 five-diced buns, I want to eat them tomorrow!

(End of chapter)