Chapter 206

Hearing Qin Huai's words, Gu Li's hands paused, seemingly hesitating, and then quickly followed suit.

There was a little bit of progress, but not much.

Qin Huai didn't continue to speak and continued to mix the filling.

The addition of the 6 people from Does Zhi Wei Ju greatly relieved the huge work pressure brought to Huang Ji by the explosion of orders. Huang Huang Shengli no longer just managed without cooking, but also dared to pick orders to cook some good dishes to give the customers who came from afar a little surprise.

Zheng Da even gave up being a model worker and returned to his old self, slacking off whenever he could, and his work efficiency dropped rapidly. It was as if the Zheng Da who had been busy running around, tired to death, and dedicated his life to the cause for the past two days was just everyone's hallucination.

Seeing Zheng Da return to his previous state, many people at Huang Ji breathed a sigh of relief.

Normal, finally normal!

1 o'clock, the most intense time for lining up at Huang Ji.

It wasn't that the lining-up speed was fast at this time, but that by this time, those at the back of the line might not be able to buy anything.

The explosive customer traffic caused Huang Ji to briefly increase its business hours; of course, it was only a brief increase, changing the business hours to 11:00 AM to 1:20 PM.

Once 1:20 PM arrived, the back kitchen would no longer take orders. The savory-dish chefs would finish cooking the remaining dishes, the pastry-dish chefs would finish work and start cleaning up, and they would be completely off work once the last batch of pastries in the steamer baskets was finished.

The explosion during the first Zhiwei visit taught Huang Huang Shengli a truth: blindly increasing business hours could not satisfy the requirements of all customers.

Because business was exploding, increasing business hours to receive more customers and squeezing the chefs, making everyone in the kitchen tired of work, was an extremely extreme act of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Chefs' energy was limited. Customers came by reputation and lined up for such a long time but didn't eat the taste they expected, which was a disrespect to the customers.

Huang Huang Shengli wasn't a business genius and couldn't think of a perfect solution. All he could do was strictly control the restaurant's business hours while ensuring the quality of the dishes, and never delay.

Foreman Cao, as Huang Ji's foreman, strictly followed this rule. Basically, starting from 12:30 PM, Foreman Cao would start calculating how many people the remaining pastries could roughly serve, even including the speed of pastry production in the kitchen, to persuade customers who obviously couldn't buy pastries to leave.

Once 1 o'clock arrived, Foreman Cao would lead several waiters to start distributing number plates, limiting the number to 100-120, and persuading customers who didn't get a number plate to leave.

Due to Foreman Cao's cautious calculations, there would usually be a small amount of pastries left over. Customers who didn't get a number plate, especially those who were only one or two spots away, would insist on lining up, strictly supervising, and looking forward to picking up leftovers.

As for what exactly they were supervising...

Supervising whether the customer who got the last number plate would take the opportunity to buy everything and buy more than the limit. Once this situation occurred, the supervisors would jump out to carry out justice. This happened just the day before yesterday, and Foreman Cao spent five minutes breaking up the fight.

In a certain sense, the current scene of lining up at the entrance of Huang Ji was also a major feature. Many retired residents living nearby who didn't line up to buy pastries would also crowd on the side to watch the fun, just wanting to see if there was any righteous execution that turned into a mess.

If it weren't for the cold weather, which made the food cool down quickly when carried out to watch the fun, Foreman Cao suspected that many grandpas and grandmas would directly carry their rice bowls and eat while watching at the entrance of Huang Ji.

By the way, Foreman Cao was also a child of a state-owned enterprise who grew up near Huang Ji, and he had also eaten meals at the entrance of a state-run restaurant when he was a child.

Sometimes when Foreman Cao stood at the entrance, he would have visions of himself many years ago carrying his rice, standing on the opposite street corner enviously watching the crowd lining up to buy steamed buns, and thinking that the state-run restaurant at that time was still the undisputed No. 1 in Gusu, he would feel full of fighting spirit.

Even breaking up fights was done with special vigor.

"It's the last number 115; those who haven't received a number plate, don't line up, especially those handsome guys at the back. I told you when you came that you definitely wouldn't be able to buy any, don't line up, come back tomorrow." Foreman Cao said loudly with great vigor.

Qu Jing, who had just locked her bike, felt inexplicably guilty.

Ever since the last dinner at Huang Ji, Qu Jing hadn't been back. When Qu Jing came that day, she saw Qin Huai, and when she left, Xu Cheng had already entered the back kitchen, so she didn't meet him, only taking away the special treatment Qin Huai had prepared for her—

6 cups of dried tangerine peel tea, 10 fermented rice steamed buns, 10 three-diced buns, 2 jin of glutinous rice cakes, half a jin of mung bean cakes, 1 jin of lard rice cakes, 1 jin of date paste yam cakes, and 5 jin of fresh meat mooncakes.

Qu Jing distributed the fresh meat mooncakes and the extra dried tangerine peel tea as soon as she returned to the department, and took the remaining pastries home to eat for a few days.

From that day on, Qu Jing's big name spread in the Gusu branch, and several doctors from departments who liked to go to Huang Ji for dinner basically all knew Qu Jing. Director Liu of the Neurology Department would straighten his back when getting food in the canteen, and he didn't call Qu Jing "Little Qu" anymore, directly calling her "Jingjing."

Qu Jing felt that she hadn't even started trying to get along with her colleagues and release goodwill, but the colleagues' goodwill rushed towards her like a tide, almost drowning her.

Qu Jing didn't know what Xu Cheng was, nor did she understand what "Zhiwei" was, but when Qu Jing was eating in the canteen, she heard people from the Orthopedics Department say that business at Huang Ji had been ridiculously good these past few days, and those who worked properly couldn't eat at all.

The doctor from the Orthopedics Department had just pedaled a bike from the subway station to the entrance of Huang Ji the day before yesterday, saw the crowd lining up, and turned around to pedal back without even asking. The group of people was hungry all noon, and when they went to the canteen, there was only some clear soup and light water left that even dogs wouldn't eat, making the group of muscular men almost shed tears in the canteen.

Yesterday noon, Director Liu nervously found Qu Jing and told Qu Jing that today was his daughter's birthday, and he had originally promised to take his daughter to Huang Ji for lunch, but looking at the current situation, they definitely wouldn't be able to eat.

At most, they could carry their food and smell the scent at the entrance of Huang Ji.

Director Liu knew that Qu Jing knew Qin Huai and wanted to ask Qu Jing to go through the back door to buy some pastries. The quantity wasn't much, just two three-diced buns and two fermented rice steamed buns; the child couldn't eat more than that anyway.

The child just wanted to eat some buns and steamed buns for her birthday. Such a simple yet difficult wish, Director Liu, as a mother, naturally had to try her best to fulfill it.

Qu Jing felt that Director Liu was a pretty good person and had taken good care of her during this period. Except for always trying to ask her out for bike rides in the suburbs on her days off, which was a bit annoying, everything else was pretty good, so she agreed to help ask.

And so today's scene happened.

When Qu Jing was eating special treatment at the Yunzhong Canteen, she had never seen this scene. During the few days when the Yunzhong Canteen had a long line to buy three-diced buns, Qu Jing had already arrived in Gusu. Hearing others say a hundred times that business at Huang Ji had exploded these past two days was not as shocking as coming to see it in person.

Qu Jing was deeply shocked.

She was even a bit embarrassed to take the special treatment.

Qu Jing glanced at the third tree to the right of the trash can at the entrance of Huang Ji, where there was a man wearing a peaked cap, holding a large black plastic bag in his hand.

This was the transaction location she had agreed upon with Qin Huai.

Qu Jing hesitated a bit.

When she was locking her bike, she seemed to vaguely hear the crowd lining up carrying out righteous execution, and the reason for the righteous execution seemed to be that someone tried to buy 20 three-diced buns.

Just as Qu Jing was hesitating, the man in the peaked cap walked towards her on tiptoe, lowered the brim of his hat, and asked in a low voice: "Dr. Qu?"

"Mr. Huang?" Qu Jing responded.

"Yes, I'm Huang Huang Anyao, this is the pastry Qin Huai asked me to give you. You only asked for two fermented rice steamed buns and two three-diced buns, which is a bit little. We made more pastries in the back kitchen today, so he gave you a bit more." Huang Huang Anyao stuffed the bag into Qu Jing's hand and pressed the brim of his hat again, "Qin Huai asked when you are off; he plans to make glutinous rice cakes in a couple of days and asked you to come over and get them when you have time."

"I'm off the day after tomorrow." Qu Jing said, "Mr. Huang, you don't need to go to the trouble of passing messages; I can talk to Qin Huai about this on WeChat."

"I know, I just wanted to find an excuse to change the subject, because I have something I want to consult you about next." Huang Huang Anyao said.

Qu Jing:?

"I heard that although the rehabilitation department of your hospital charges high fees, the curative effect is particularly good. Is it reliable? Especially rehabilitation therapy for the waist. An expert was just poached from another province last month. Is that true?" Huang Huang Anyao asked.

Qu Jing subconsciously glanced at Huang Huang Anyao's waist and said: "The curative effect of our hospital's rehabilitation department is indeed quite good. As for the expert... I came from the Shanshi side for learning and exchange, and I'm not very clear about the situation of the branch here in Gusu. I can go back and help you inquire about it."

"That's great!" Huang Huang Anyao took out his phone, "Please, Dr. Qu. If you find out any specific situation, tell Qin Huai and let Qin Huai tell me. Thank you."

Qu Jing had already automatically switched to the mode of a doctor treating a patient's family member, took out her phone, and clicked on WeChat: "No need to be so troublesome, let's just add each other on WeChat." "Is it convenient to ask the patient's age here? What is the specific situation? Is it a waist injury or strain? How many years of medical history? Have you received surgery or related treatment before? I have a form for related questions here. I'll send it to you after I find it when I go back. You fill it out according to the content on the form. As for the specific situation of the expert, I will help you ask our director. It's best if you..."

Huang Huang Anyao was already completely stunned. He felt that in the next second, Qu Jing would give him a form, ask him to go to the payment office to pay, and then go for an examination according to the items on the form.

Huang Huang Anyao watched Qu Jing pedal her bike away, and when he turned his head, he saw another person he hadn't expected.

"Gong... Uncle Gong? Didn't you post on your Moments this morning that you were eating fried dough rings in Beiping?!"

At the same time, in the Huang Ji back kitchen, Qin Huai, who should have entered the final sprint stage, mixing filling at life-and-death speed, kneading the dough for fermented rice steamed buns that had finished secondary fermentation, mixing filling, and occasionally trying to join in the work of watching the heat for the three-diced buns, had basically become idle.

There was no way, the helpers were just too professional.

Qin Huai was already drinking tea and had started to look around like Huang Huang Shengli, inspecting everyone's work.

It didn't matter if he didn't look, but once he looked...

Qin Huai discovered that Gu Li's level was really not very good.

Although Gu Li wasn't a helper for Qin Huai, Gu Li's cooking station was close to Qin Huai, so Qin Huai could see his movements as soon as he looked up, and could see countless problems as soon as he looked.

None of them were principled problems.

First of all, Qin Huai had to affirm that Gu Li's basic skills were very solid.

Secondly, he probably only had solid basic skills.

Whether it was savory dishes or pastry dishes, solid basic skills were a necessary foundation. Just like when Qin Huai learned to make crab roe shumai, the first thing he had to learn wasn't mixing filling, but understanding the ingredients. Without a solid foundation, it was like a high-rise building without a good foundation, collapsing if there was any accident.

But you couldn't just have a foundation.

When Qin Huai saw Gu Li helping Zheng Zheng Siyuan, he really wanted to ask him, aren't you Master Tan's closed-door disciple? Why do you only work on the foundation and not learn anything else?

This kneading of dough had no technique, it was all foundation.

Qin Huai looked at Tan Tan Weian, looked at Gu Li, and felt that the gap in skill between these two fellow apprentices was indeed quite large.

Tan Tan Weian didn't look much older than Gu Li, but his skills were clearly a big cut above Gu Li's. Gu Li, this famous disciple of a famous master, only had skills slightly better than the other 4 nameless helpers, simply a replica of Wang Jun.

"You're still kneading this dough too heavily." Qin Huai couldn't help but speak again, "You're not kneading dough for fresh meat mooncakes, are you? I feel that your technique for kneading dough now is not quite the same as before, but the difference isn't much."

"What are you going to make?"

"Ruyi rolls." Gu Li said honestly.

Qin Huai:?

What are Ruyi rolls?

"What type of pastry is it?"

"Fried."

This touched a bit on Qin Huai's knowledge blind spot. Qin Huai didn't make many fried pastries. The most he fried at home before was meat balls, and they were all concentrated before the New Year.

"What kind of texture are you pursuing?" Qin Huai continued to ask.

"The outer skin is golden and crispy, and the meat inside is full of juice and soft."

Qin Huai understood a little bit.

"Then you can't knead dough like this. According to your force, the dough will be very soft when kneaded. If you wrap meat in it and put it in the oil pan to fry, it's impossible to achieve the effect you just said if you can't control the thickness." Qin Huai said, "Your kneading of dough is too rigid, too basic. Do you understand what I mean?"

Gu Li nodded: "Master also said this about me before, saying that I don't know how to be flexible when making pastries, and I always make the same mistakes over and over again."

"You can't say you don't know how to be flexible." As a person with great self-awareness, Qin Huai knew very well that in many cases, if a chef repeatedly makes mistakes on the same problem and refuses to change despite repeated teaching, unless there is a problem with their attitude, they are just purely bad.

"There are techniques to kneading dough. If you make a pastry often, you'll have a feeling for it. If you feel something is wrong, it means it's wrong, and you have to change it."

Gu Li was a bit confused.

Qin Huai also knew that his behavior of running to point fingers at other people's work stations after finishing his own work was very annoying, but he just couldn't help it.

Most chefs just practice more if they are bad, and practice to death if they can't do it. All problems stem from insufficient strength.

But Qin Huai felt that Gu Li was different. His level wasn't as bad as the pastries he made; he was just purely too rigid and didn't know how to be flexible. He could have improved by just turning a corner, but he just wouldn't turn that corner.

Did no one in his Does Zhi Wei Ju tell him this?

"Your hands always suddenly pause when you knead dough." Qin Huai said, "I've been watching you all morning. You naturally pause at the steps where problems clearly occur, which shows that you know very well that this step has a problem, but you don't know how to change it."

"In this case, I suggest you boldly try and make mistakes, try whatever you want, rely on your own feelings, and once you find the feeling, it means the problem is solved."

Huang Huang Shengli watched from afar and smiled at Zheng Da, who had long since started slacking off: "It's also talking about feelings, but I think Xiao Qin explains it much more clearly than you."

Zheng Da:......

Gu Li nodded, didn't speak, and indicated with action that he would accept Qin Huai's suggestion.

Qin Huai was rarely fond of teaching others, and the other party was so cooperative. Just as he was about to happily go find Dong Shi to listen to some gossip, the game prompt sound suddenly rang in his mind.

"Ding, congratulations on discovering a new side quest 【Gong Liang's Desire】, please check it on the task panel."

Eh, 【Gong Liang's Desire】, wasn't Gong Liang still eating fried dough rings in Beiping this morning? What is he desiring in Beiping?

Eating better fried dough rings?

Qin Huai doesn't know how to make this breakfast.

In the next second, Gong Liang's loud voice came from the kitchen door: "Master Xiao Qin, guess what good things I brought you back from Beiping?"

"A good kitchen knife! Crafted by a famous master, it cost me 6 figures! You'll definitely find it handy to use!"

Qin Huai:......

Thank you, I appreciate your intention, but can you change it to something else? Even a rolling pin would be fine.

If Qin Huai remembered correctly, when he looked at the game panel last time, his proficiency in knife skills was only 179.

His knife skills, using a 6-figure kitchen knife, were indeed a bit unfair to the kitchen knife.

(End of chapter)