Chapter 184: The Deceitful Beast (Part 4)

San Ding Bao!

Gong Liang didn't have much of a reaction yet, but Qin Huai had already widened his eyes.

Because Zheng Siyuan and Zheng Da had never made San Ding Bao, Qin Huai had never thought he could see San Ding Bao in Gong Liang's memory.

Actually, thinking about it, it made sense. San Ding Bao and Wu Ding Bao were both specialty dim sum of Guangling. Guangling was so close to Gusu that it was not surprising that Jing Lixiang knew how to make them.

In this era, San Ding Bao was absolutely a top-tier luxury item.

Year-old hen, pork belly, and fresh crispy bamboo shoots were all top-notch ingredients. Especially the first two—looking at the look in Gong Liang's eyes when he looked at the pork belly, one knew they were definitely good things that ordinary families could only eat during the New Year.

Gong Liang's family didn't have a calendar, and the newspapers he read at work were not the day's newspapers, but the amount accumulated within a few months. Qin Huai didn't know the specific date now.

But Qin Huai remembered that when Jing Lixiang persuaded Gong Liang to go home last night, he said it was late autumn, probably between mid-October and November. In this time period, winter bamboo shoots were already on the market. In a sense, now was not only a good time to eat crab roe shumai, but also a good time to eat San Ding Bao.

Jing Lixiang gave Gong Liang full choice, but he would determine the most suitable dim sum to make at the same time Gong Liang made his choice, which could be considered as putting in a lot of thought.

Jing Lixiang made more than twenty crab roe shumai, but Gong Liang only ate 5 and stopped.

Seeing Gong Liang not eating, Jing Lixiang didn't persuade him again, took a lunchbox from the cabinet, put 6 in the lunchbox, and left the rest. He let Gong Liang take the lunchbox home and bring it over tomorrow afternoon.

Gong Liang didn't refuse, taking the lunchbox and returning home silently.

When Gong Liang returned home, Gong Mu was wiping Gong's father's body.

Taking care of a patient was a long, trivial, energy-consuming, and troublesome matter. Gong Mu wouldn't let Gong Liang help, telling him she could handle it, and closed the bedroom door tightly to prevent Gong Liang from entering.

Gong Liang couldn't help either, so he could only decoct medicine with a small stove, and while decocting the medicine, he took out a notebook and pen from the room to write things in a thick notebook.

Qin Huai leaned over to take a look and found that Gong Liang was writing scripts and character analysis.

The notes were very neat and beautiful, the language was concise and clear, and it could be seen that Gong Liang's academic performance should have been good when he was studying, and he had practiced calligraphy.

This was Gong Liang's work summary notebook.

It contained many character analyses and case studies, such as what kind of personality a certain factory director had, what kind of personality a deputy director had, what kind of personality a purchasing specialist had, and what kind of personality a leader had. Their preferences, itineraries, speaking habits, integrity, which factories they had successfully cooperated with in the past, and whether there were successful cases worth referring to.

This notebook was recorded until the Modu order factory at the beginning of the year and then stopped abruptly.

For a full half-year, Gong Liang had never recorded any information in this notebook again.

Now Gong Liang took out the notebook again and started writing.

Qin Huai looked and found that Gong Liang was writing case studies of three different factories in Jin Ling, which were a clothing factory, a bedsheet factory, and a village-run factory that made handicrafts and was more like a small workshop.

Gong Liang wrote in detail, without needing to flip through materials; all the information was recorded in his mind.

Qin Huai watched him from day to night. During this time, Gong Mu came out to be busy but didn't disturb him. Gong Mu didn't know what Gong Liang was doing; she felt that as long as Gong Liang had something to do, it was a good thing. She didn't even call him to eat, just silently placed the bowl and chopsticks beside him.

Gong Liang finished writing information, ate, washed dishes, tidied up the room, and went to sleep.

The next day, he went to work as usual.

Section Chief Chen still readily agreed to Gong Liang's leave. Gong Liang asked for leave for two consecutive days, which made Liu Hai jealous, so he also ran to ask for leave, but was scolded by Section Chief Chen, complaining with a mournful face why he also had to work in the afternoon.

Then he was blocked by a few sentences from the middle-aged man next door: What is your performance? What is Xiao Gong's performance? What is your situation? What is Xiao Gong's situation?

Gong Liang turned a blind eye to this, and after eating, he headed to the state-run cafeteria.

Although there were no noodles to eat at the state-run cafeteria, and the food was ordinary, the food was still much better than the silk weaving factory.

Plain white rice, cabbage braised meat balls, and tofu stewed with small fish.

Yesterday's waiter was not there. Sitting in the lobby was a young man who looked about the same age as Gong Liang. The young man had a good attitude toward Gong Liang, smiling and pointing to the direction of the kitchen door, signaling Gong Liang to go in.

Jing Lixiang was already prepared in the kitchen.

He had already finished leavening the dough.

Seeing Gong Liang come, Jing Lixiang asked him with a smile how his day was.

This time Gong Liang answered: "Read newspapers all morning and checked a lot of information."

"Oh, what information did you check?" Jing Lixiang seemed very interested.

"Many village-run factories have opened in Jin Ling in recent years." Gong Liang said, "Although they are all small factories with only dozens of people, many factories don't even have machines, and they sell ordinary handicrafts, but the quantity is large."

Jing Lixiang signaled Gong Liang to continue.

Gong Liang continued: "The market sells wooden products, some sell rattan weaving, and some make simple small toys. The goods they sell are mixed and numerous, basically producing whatever the market needs."

"I think they all have the potential to make silk products. Silk can not only be used to make clothes, bedsheets, and curtains, but also fans, handicrafts, and toys. Last year, a silk weaving factory at the trade fair successfully negotiated a big order for foreign exchange, which was exporting silk to overseas Chinese in Nanyang to make silk screens."

"Our factory's previous foreign exchange creation was also exporting silk to factories in Dongying to make silk fans."

"But these village-run factories don't have that much capital to order a large amount of silk. I also know something about the situation of your silk weaving factory. As far as I know, the amount of silk hoarded in the warehouse this year, last year, and even the year before last has reached the point where even clearing the warehouse and selling it at a loss will result in a loss."

Gong Liang nodded: "But I want to try."

"Master Jing, you said yesterday, how can you know if you don't try."

"If you try, there is still hope; if you don't try, there is no hope at all."

Jing Lixiang smiled, didn't answer, and focused on making San Ding Bao.

The content of the two people's conversation was actually very wonderful, but Qin Huai basically didn't listen much.

All his attention was focused on Jing Lixiang, who seemed distracted, absent-minded, chatting, and talking, but in reality, his movements were coherent, flawless, ingenious, and natural in making San Ding Bao.

First of all, Jing Lixiang's knife skills were very good.

As someone who was excellent in both savory and pastry cooking, a pastry master who could teach Zheng Da, a master who didn't do his proper job, and a culinary master whose mantle was inherited by Huang Shengli in savory cooking, his knife skills were absolutely peerless among pastry chefs, and he could kill wildly even with his eyes closed.

Qin Huai initially felt that making San Ding Bao didn't require much knife skills.

The main fillings of San Ding Bao were chicken cubes, meat cubes, and bamboo shoot cubes. Just cutting the ingredients into cubes was enough. This difficulty was very low; anyone with hands could do it. In fact, even if they weren't cut into cubes, as long as they were cut into sizes roughly like cubes, it would work.

Jing Lixiang told Qin Huai that making San Ding Bao could be done without knife skills, but having them was better, and having them could add icing on the cake.

Qin Huai also always felt that making San Ding Bao didn't require much heat control. San Ding Bao did need to be boiled, but it only needed to be boiled.

Jing Lixiang told Qin Huai that it indeed didn't require much heat control, but awesome heat control could really be awesome.

The filling boiled by a chef with average heat control was just ordinary filling. The filling boiled by a chef with powerful heat control made people want to take a spoon and scoop a spoonful out to taste it just by looking at it from the side.

The dough was even more so. Although Qin Huai didn't see the process of kneading the dough, he saw the finished product.

Awesome, no need to say more. The difficulty of crab roe shumai was not low, but the technology of Jing Lixiang it could display was really limited. Crab roe shumai paid more attention to seasoning, and there was very little performance in kneading dough and heat control.

In San Ding Bao, Qin Huai saw Master Jing's versatility.

Versatile to the point of being omnipotent.

Qin Huai didn't know what to say; he felt he should kowtow to Jing Lixiang.

Qin Huai couldn't quite understand Jiang Chengde's teaching videos, so Qin Huai knew Jiang Chengde was awesome, but he couldn't say exactly where he was awesome, only that he was indeed awesome, an awesome that couldn't be understood.

Jing Lixiang's awesomeness belonged to the awesomeness that could be understood.

For Qin Huai at the current stage, this was truly awesome.

Qin Huai stood on the side and sighed in admiration, wishing he could let Gong Liang move to the side. He stood too close to Master Jing, hindering Qin Huai from watching the technique.

Qin Huai glanced at Gong Liang.

Very good, he was dazed and thinking about things again, probably pondering how to negotiate the order and start over.

Gong Liang was now at the stage where he knew Jing Lixiang was very awesome, but he didn't know how awesome he was, because he couldn't understand it.

Qin Huai: Gong Liang, I hate that you are a piece of wood!

The wood knew nothing about how awesome Jing Lixiang was in front of him. He just watched ignorantly from the side until the San Ding Bao was wrapped and put into the steamer, steaming out the aroma, and then he began to swallow saliva as if in a different world.

Smelling such a scent, swallowing saliva was a human instinct.

Qin Huai couldn't imagine how firm a person's heart had to be to not swallow saliva when facing this kind of aroma.

Did people who didn't swallow saliva have no sense of taste?

After swallowing saliva for two minutes, the buns were out of the pot.

The kitchen was full of steam, but no matter how thick the steam was, it couldn't cover up Gong Liang's longing eyes.

Who said Gong Liang had been dead, soul-crushed, and absent-minded during this period? Qin Huai thought he was quite spirited.

The look in his eyes when looking at the San Ding Bao was so hot that he wished he could eat it with his eyes.

"Eat." Jing Lixiang said with a smile.

Gong Liang didn't hesitate at all and took a big bite of the hot bun.

It was so hot that he stomped his feet, almost doing a tap dance on the spot.

He couldn't bear to spit it out.

Not only couldn't he bear to spit it out, but he also had to chew hard; he couldn't bear to spit it out or swallow it.

It was simply a textbook-level performance of eating buns!

Gong Liang chewed mouthful after mouthful, and Jing Lixiang asked from the side: "What do you want to eat tomorrow?"

Gong Liang:!!!

Qin Huai:???

Qin Huai: No, he can still eat, that's about enough. It's crab roe shumai and then San Ding Bao. If Gong Liang continues to eat, he, who is watching the memory, will be jealous.

At this moment, the gold content of Gong Liang eating crab roe shumai for a month was still increasing.

Gong Liang swallowed the last bite of the bun, thinking blankly for a while, but couldn't think of anything.

From his expression of having never seen the world, Qin Huai and Jing Lixiang both saw that he really couldn't think of anything.

Lack of experience limited his imagination.

Jing Lixiang said: "Since you can't think of anything, I'll just make whatever."

"Yesterday I made shrimp and crab, today I made chicken and pork, both are salty. Why not make something sweet tomorrow."

"How about making something with an auspicious meaning, Ding Sheng Gao?"

What else could Gong Liang say? He could only nod repeatedly.

Gong Liang ate two more buns and stopped. Jing Lixiang packed two in the lunchbox as usual, letting him pack them and take them back.

Gong Liang had just washed the lunchbox he brought yesterday, and now he was carrying it back again.

This time Gong Liang didn't go straight home, but returned the same way and went back to the silk weaving factory.

In the sales section, Section Chief Chen was rarely still in the office in the afternoon and hadn't gone out to run business.

Seeing Gong Liang return, Section Chief Chen was a little surprised.

"Xiao Gong, why are you back? Did you forget something?" Section Chief Chen asked with concern.

Gong Liang shook his head: "No, Section Chief, there is something I want to tell you."

Section Chief Chen glanced at the others in the office, signaling Gong Liang to go out and talk.

As soon as the two walked into the corridor, Gong Liang said: "Section Chief, I still want to go on the Jin Ling business trip next week."

Section Chief Chen was a little surprised and said: "The order in Jin Ling is basically a done deal that it won't be negotiated. We are completely accompanying the run this time. If you go, the travel expense reimbursement will be..."

Gong Liang interrupted Section Chief Chen's words: "I know the order of the first factory definitely won't be negotiated. They aren't interested in us. I want to negotiate the orders of small factories."

Gong Liang told the information he recorded in the notebook last night, and Section Chief Chen listened very carefully, nodding frequently.

Section Chief Chen was very supportive, but also poured a basin of cold water: "These orders have hope, but the quantity is too small, and negotiating them... is just a drop in the bucket."

"Accumulate small amounts into a large amount!" Gong Liang said affirmatively, "One or two is small, ten or twenty is a lot. Even if these small orders can't solve the inventory hoarded by the silk weaving factory, at least it can let Deputy Factory Director Li and the others see the ability of our sales section."

"Section Chief Chen, we don't have a quota for this year's trade fair, and I'm not reconciled." Gong Liang gritted his teeth and finally said his inner thoughts, "I'm not reconciled!"

"My dad is still counting on me to negotiate an order at the trade fair to get a bonus to save his life. There is still time now, and I know the quota is not fully determined, and the higher-ups are still hesitating. Didn't Deputy Factory Director Li say that if we can negotiate the order of the Jin Ling first factory, the quota can be brought back."

Section Chief Chen sighed deeply, thought for a long time, and finally made up his mind, gritting his teeth, looking like I'll risk it today.

"Fine, you go to Jin Ling next week."

"If the first factory's order can't be negotiated, the small factory's order will do. I don't expect you to negotiate twenty, as long as there are ten—no, eight, I will go and ask for it. Even if you stay in Jin Ling for a few more days, I will give you the funds, and if the money is not enough, I will advance it for you."

"As long as you can negotiate these orders, even if I lose this old face, I will go to Deputy Factory Director Li to make a scene. Old Li was promoted from our sales section; he knows your ability, and I know his ability."

"As long as you can negotiate these orders, even if he has to roll on the ground, he has to go to the higher-ups to get our silk weaving factory's quota back!"

Qin Huai left the memory.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 185 =====