Chapter 204: Time is Running Out for Zheng Da

At noon that day, Zheng Da almost exhausted himself to death in the Huang Ji back kitchen.

Qin Huai felt that he was just generally tired; although there were many guests queuing outside, the Huang Ji back kitchen wasn't like the Yunzhong canteen, Qin Huai stayed in the back kitchen and couldn't see, so there wasn't too much pressure.

And Head Waiter Cao was indeed very professional; in the case that Huang Ji didn't limit the purchase of dim sum, she could roughly calculate how many guests the remaining dim sum in the back kitchen could supply, and reasonably persuade the guests who were not afraid of death and stubbornly queuing to leave.

Of course, Huang Ji wasn't completely unlimited.

Gong Liang could sit at the door and shout for 50 fermented rice steamed buns last time because at that time there really weren't many guests at Huang Ji, and there weren't many queuing, so he buying hundreds of dim sum by himself didn't affect the grabbing of others.

Now in this situation, let alone buying 50 fermented rice steamed buns, even 25 fermented rice steamed buns, those weighing less than 200 pounds had to weigh it before opening their mouths.

That sentence the grandpa said to Xu Cheng—don't buy too much, otherwise you might get beaten—was definitely not a lie.

"Xiao Qin, how is it? Tired? Can you still persist in the afternoon?" Taking advantage of the time Qin Huai was holding a bowl to eat the staff meal, Huang Huang Shengli walked to Qin Huai's side and asked softly.

Most of the time, Huang Huang Shengli was in a smiling state in the back kitchen.

But this kind of smile was also divided into situations; many times, smiling was Huang Huang Shengli's subconscious reaction; as a gentle middle-aged man and the actual person in power in the Huang Ji back kitchen, Huang Huang Shengli needed to convey his encouragement to everyone through this expression.

Sometimes, this smile came from the heart, and then matched with a gentle voice, a straight back, a slightly bent neck, and hands placed behind his back, this kindness would be released even more obviously.

"Not tired." Qin Huai said truthfully.

Although the number of guests today was a bit beyond his imagination, from 9 o'clock there were people queuing outside waiting to buy dim sum, and many guests bought it and felt they bought too little and queued again, not only were fermented rice steamed buns and three-dice buns sold out in seconds, but even mung bean cakes were in short supply.

But Qin Huai really wasn't that tired.

Zheng Da bore too much for him.

Zheng Da wasn't an assistant; he was a Famous Chef Record 53rd place player who crushed Qin Huai in all aspects, including the tier of pastry dim sum he made.

The most critical thing was that he knew how to make fermented rice steamed buns.

Fermented rice steamed buns that could reach B-tier by just doing it casually, and could reach A-tier if done seriously.

Today Zheng Da was in the Huang Ji kitchen, making steamed buns until there was no light in his eyes. He didn't eat the staff meal, slipped away immediately after the noon business ended, and didn't compete for the teaching in the afternoon.

This afternoon was destined to be Huang Huang Shengli's savory dish teaching alone.

"Since you aren't tired, then we will practice heat control as usual this afternoon." Huang Huang Shengli said, "Just practice for two hours; Boss Xu tasted your mung bean cake at noon and felt the level was okay, he wants to try the breadth of your dim sum making and asked me to ask you if you have time this afternoon to make a few types of dim sum he hasn't eaten for him to taste."

"Of course I can." Qin Huai agreed in one mouthful.

If Xu Cheng felt the mung bean cake was qualified, then there were too many dim sum Qin Huai could make.

It wasn't Qin Huai bragging; if he took out *Complete Dim Sum*, flipped from page 7 to page 200, flipped to whichever page and made whichever page, they all had the level of mung bean cake.

Just for this one kind of pastry, mung bean cake, Qin Huai knew no less than 4 ways to make it.

After eating, Qin Huai rested for half an hour and started practicing heat control.

Qin Huai hadn't practiced heat control for a while; he had been dead-locked with crab roe shumai before, and he was still a bit unfamiliar when he touched the pot to stir-fry meat filling.

Huang Huang Shengli's back was really healed now; he didn't need to grab a disciple to demonstrate, and demonstrated from beginning to end by himself. He flipped the spoon however he wanted, and even demonstrated the big stir-fry flip, also telling Qin Huai not to have psychological pressure and to try it casually.

Qin Huai expressed what psychological pressure he could have; he didn't know how to do every kind of spoon flip Huang Huang Shengli demonstrated.

His practice of heat control was only graduated from stir-frying green vegetables.

Considering the staff meal for others at Huang Ji at night, Qin Huai didn't just stir-fry meat filling, but stir-fried everything.

Chili stir-fried meat, carrot slices stir-fried meat, small stir-fried meat, cauliflower stir-fried meat, celery stir-fried meat, potato shreds stir-fried meat, green vegetables stir-fried meat—whatever was there was stir-fried, mainly style-changing and mixing.

Stir-fried until Dong Shi's face turned green when he saw it from afar, pulling Dong Li and asking if Qin Huai was researching dark cuisine, how could he grab whatever vegetables he saw to stir-fry with meat.

If the staff meal tonight was these, it would be better to eat yesterday's boxed meal.

Qin Huai didn't know that his thoughtful variety brought huge psychological pressure to Dong Shi; he just simply felt that stir-frying meat with different flowers like this was quite good, both practicing heat control and practicing ingredient matching. The heat control required when stir-frying different vegetables with meat was different, and increasing variables could improve the efficiency of practicing heat control.

Better to brush experience points.

The most critical thing was that Huang Huang Shengli didn't raise any objections to this.

He watched Qin Huai stir-fry on the side; if there was any very obvious problem when stir-frying, he would remind him, and if the same problem appeared several times, Huang Huang Shengli would demonstrate it himself.

The teaching process was very relaxed and happy.

Qin Huai even felt a bit unfinished when he made dim sum for Xu Cheng after stir-frying 2 buckets of meat.

Considering that the staff meal for colleagues tonight might be a bit difficult, and Xu Cheng's normal appetite definitely wasn't big, and Seeing Ouyang's wallet, Qin Huai made a bit more when making dim sum, striving for everyone to be able to eat.

It could be said to be very thoughtful.

Huang Huang Shengli didn't stop him when Qin Huai stir-fried meat, but he reminded him a few words not to make too much and not to be exhausted when making dim sum.

After watching Qin Huai only make a reasonable normal amount of dim sum, Huang Huang Shengli made three dishes for Qin Huai and asked Qin Huai to pack them and take them back to eat with friends.

Qin Huai deeply felt that Seeing Ouyang really earned it.

Eating the small stove made by Huang Huang Shengli personally without spending a penny, it was indeed the treatment of squatting at the door to eat noodles in the morning.

Qin Huai carried the packed meals and pulled Seeing Ouyang to the bone-setting shop to eat.

When the two went to the bone-setting shop, the meals, rice, and fruit were so fragrant that the staff of the bone-setting shop could only silently close the door of the VIP room a bit tighter, so that the fragrance wouldn't overflow and make the guests in the next room cry with tears from the corners of their mouths and eyes.

Bone-setting was already very painful; since it had already brought physical attacks to the guests, don't add magic damage.

"Damn, this dish... I rely, this fish... my god, this eggplant..." Seeing Ouyang and Qin Huai were still holding his hand-beaten lemon tea to drink when they entered the bone-setting shop, but after he picked up his chopsticks and ate the first mouthful of food, the hand-beaten lemon tea was decisively abandoned by him.

"Can you say a slightly concrete adjective?" Qin Huai looked at Seeing Ouyang speechlessly.

The emotion was given very well, but not a single word was said.

"Mom!" Seeing Ouyang's emotion was still exerting force.

Qin Huai suddenly missed Huang Huang Anyao a bit.

This kind of person who aspired to be a food critic was still relatively good at talking. Not a single dish was eaten, but not a single word was missed.

"How many cups of hand-beaten lemon tea did you drink today?" Qin Huai interrupted the spell.

Seeing Ouyang was stunned, not expecting that there would be a role for hand-beaten lemon tea in this kind of occasion, first stuffed a big mouthful of food into his mouth, chewed a few times and swallowed, then stared at the dish and chatted with Qin Huai: "Not many, 7 cups."

Qin Huai:...?

No, you really came to Suzhou to investigate, right?

"How is the investigation result?" Qin Huai asked.

"Very average." Seeing Ouyang continued to eat and drink wolfishly without any promise, and in the gap of swallowing, he extracted time to chat with Qin Huai, "Bought milk tea shop's, also bought roadside stall's, either the lemon quality is not good, or the syrup quality is too poor, none of them are as good as our canteen's."

Qin Huai thought that was for sure; the Yunzhong canteen just sold some hand-beaten lemon tea by the way, and the reason for selling this drink was because he, the boss, loved to drink it.

The boss loved to

"I think I should open a hand-shaken lemon tea shop on the pedestrian street; it's bound to be a massive hit!" Seeing Ouyang was brimming with confidence. "Did you see the line for pastries at Huang Ji at noon today? I took a video; if you haven't seen it, I'll send it to you later."

"I was stunned when I arrived. It's a good thing you saved me a spot, even though I ended up sharing a table with someone else to eat."

"I reckon by the time my hand-shaken lemon tea shop opens on New Year's Day, having half the number of people in line as Huang Ji today will be about right."

"When that time comes, I'll have my mom take a video at the entrance and post it on her Moments to tell our relatives and friends that I, Seeing Ouyang, am back! That fish hotpot restaurant was just an accident; hand-shaken lemon tea is my true strength!"

"I've already thought it through. I'll only hire one pretty girl to handle orders, and for the rest, I'll find guys with plenty of strength to be in charge of shaking the lemon tea. The more strength you put into shaking it, the better it tastes."

"A lot of the lemon tea shops I bought from today were so perfunctory; they just mashed it a few times and handed it to me. They don't know how to make hand-shaken lemon tea at all." Qin Huai felt that what Seeing Ouyang said made sense.

Only one point was problematic.

"Have you ever thought about the fact that the biggest source of customers for your hand-shaken lemon tea near the Yunzhong Canteen is actually the office workers in the nearby office buildings?"

"On New Year's Day, which company would be insane enough to have everyone work overtime on New Year's Day?"

"If you open on New Year's Day, who is going to line up to buy your hand-shaken lemon tea?"

Seeing Ouyang: (д)

After finishing their meal and getting their bones set, Qin Huai and Seeing Ouyang didn't wander around the neighborhood and went straight back.

Qin Huai had worked all day and didn't want to move, while Seeing Ouyang had been drinking hand-shaken lemon tea all day and felt it was safer to stay home and guard the bathroom.

After the bone-setting, Seeing Ouyang felt the technician at the bone-setting shop had good skills and was very tempted to get a membership card. After asking about the price, he felt that mooching off his foster father's card was also quite good.

Years of living without money had fostered in Seeing Ouyang the good habit of mooching whenever he could.

The next day, after Qin Huai finished his longevity noodles, he went to work as usual, and Seeing Ouyang went out to wander around as usual, incidentally drinking hand-shaken lemon tea.

The number of people lining up to buy pastries only increased, never decreased.

The retired grandpas and grandmas living nearby felt that the competition for pastries yesterday was truly too intense, so they gritted their teeth and started lining up after 9 o'clock.

By the third day, the time for lining up had advanced to 9 o'clock.

By the fourth day, it was past 8 o'clock.

When Qin Huai went to Huang Ji on time on the fifth day to make the staff meal and discovered that there were already customers lining up at the entrance, he realized the situation had not developed according to his expectations.

He had still underestimated Xu Cheng's influence.

Before 8 o'clock, among the people in line, there were actually several foreign friends with blonde hair and blue eyes.

What is this situation? Relying on not having jet lag to get up early?

Qin Huai had originally thought that the influence of one of Xu Cheng's Weibo posts would last at most a few days, and that everyone would go crazy buying for two days like at the beginning, and then return to normal after discovering that there was something to sell every day.

As a result, not only did it not return to normal, but more and more out-of-town customers came by reputation, foreign customers even appeared, and the local customers also became abnormal.

Everyone seemed to have a tacit understanding, agreeing on three rules: each person's purchase of fermented rice steamed buns per visit should not exceed 12, and the number of three-diced buns should not exceed 6. Once someone tried to buy more, righteous people would jump out to carry out justice.

Foreman Cao hadn't been guarding the back kitchen door for the past two days, instead specifically guarding the main entrance to break up fights.

The output of the back kitchen was also increasing day by day.

In order not to let his future precious apprentice suffer and get tired, Zheng Da really went all out. He still didn't take the pastries seriously, and the fermented rice steamed buns he made were still at a B-grade level, but the quantity was shooting up.

He brought out the spirit he had as an apprentice in a state-run restaurant in his earlier years, transforming into a master of the assembly line, waking up every day to make pastries.

He would run away as soon as he got off work, not staying even a second longer, as if staying one second longer would mean the end of the day.

Under such astonishing customer traffic, the fact that Xu Cheng had yet to leave seemed less worthy of attention.

Yes, it had been 5 days, and Xu Cheng still hadn't left.

He came to Huang Ji to check in every day, once at noon and once in the evening, rain or shine, and he didn't book a table, just specifically ordered pastries.

At first, he bought three-diced buns and fermented rice steamed buns, but later he didn't even buy those, just designating Qin Huai to make pastries he hadn't eaten before.

If it weren't for the fact that Qin Huai was too busy to meet with Xu Cheng, he would have wanted to find time to chat with Xu Cheng and ask if he could reduce his space in the food reviews and increase Huang Huang Shengli's share.

Huang Huang Shengli's waist was basically healed, and he could operate normally, but Huang Huang Shengli didn't dare.

The recent customer traffic was a bit too exaggerated, and Huang Huang Shengli was afraid that if he went back to work normally, he wouldn't be able to hold back for a moment, causing his old waist to be overworked again.

Qin Huai glanced at the date.

Today was already December 28th.

There were 3 more days until December ended.

Seeing Xu Cheng wandering around Gusu so leisurely every day, stubbornly wanting to eat new pastries he hadn't eaten before, one knew that his manuscript must have already been finished.

If he was fast, "Zhiwei" might really be able to publish in early January.

What did this mean?

This meant that time was running out for Qin Huai and Zheng Da.

Starting yesterday, Huang Ji's menu no longer sold Zheng Zheng Siyuan's flaky pastries, and the quantity of fresh meat mooncakes had also decreased, because Zheng Zheng Siyuan had to help his father and Qin Huai.

Yes, Huang Ji was so short of people that even Zheng Zheng Siyuan had to be grabbed to help.

Wang Jun and the other helpers with formal training were indeed professional; they had all experienced Huang Ji's glorious period, had practiced, and had experience.

But they couldn't help the fact that they were all savory-dish chefs.

They weren't as useful as professional pastry-dish helpers.

On December 28th at 8:42 AM, Qin Huai carefully sized up Zheng Da, who was eating chicken soup noodles, thinking to himself whether he should talk to Zheng Da about letting him appropriately reduce his workload while he himself increased his own.

The workload added over the past few days had basically all been added to Zheng Da alone.

When there was work, Zheng Da really stepped up.

Although he didn't guarantee quality, he guaranteed quantity.

Moreover, his various skills were balanced and his level was high; even if he made a mistake and only produced pastries at a baseline level, the grade of the pastries was still very considerable.

Huang Huang Shengli even sighed that if Zheng Da had had this drive back in the day, he would have long since broken into the top 30 of the Master Chef List and created history in the pastry world.

Qin Huai wanted to tell Zheng Da that he could actually hold on.

Because Qin Huai felt that Zheng Da might be about to reach his limit.

Qin Huai could hold on now because Zheng Da was there; if Zheng Da ran away, Qin Huai really wouldn't be able to hold on.

By then, Qin Huai might have to discuss with Huang Huang Shengli whether Huang Ji should introduce a policy that went against the ancestors, such as limiting purchases or allocating pastries.

Zheng Da ate his noodles with an expressionless face, not drinking the soup, and placed the soup bowl on the shelf.

Qin Huai slowly approached, thinking about how to bring it up.

Then Zheng Da's phone rang, and he answered it, his voice of surprise almost piercing through the back kitchen:

"They've arrived, right? 6 of them came, and they've already gotten off the high-speed rail and are on their way."

"That's great! If they didn't come, I would have run to Hangcheng to snatch people!"

"We can only exchange for a month; people at Does Zhi Wei Ju are busy during the New Year and must go back. You surnamed Su, you really don't give me any face. Where isn't it busy during the New Year? I'm willing to teach everything I know, and yet it's only for one month."

"What, I don't know how to teach people?"

"You surnamed Su, don't go around slandering people. Don't think you're amazing just because you have many disciples. What's the use of having many disciples?"

"Go outside and ask around, did I teach Xiao Qin's crab roe shumai? Did I teach my son Zheng Zheng Siyuan? With my guidance, your Does Zhi Wei Ju chefs should be secretly happy, and yet you're still here being picky."

"Don't think I don't know, you must have disguised yourself and come to Huang Ji to eat crab roe shumai last month."

"Fine, fine, fine, I won't waste my breath on you. I'll let Huang Anyao go pick them up. I've already arranged the place to stay; it's right across from Huang Ji, which is convenient for work."

(End of chapter)