Chapter 225: Mission accomplished (Bonus chapter for the alliance leader reward from Guo Qiuqiu)

Qin Huai made the rice cake again in front of Gu Li.

From stirring to steaming in the pot, he didn't say a word the entire time. He didn't directly tell Gu Li how long the rice cake should be stirred or how long it should be steamed based on its state; he just let him feel it for himself.

By the time Tan Weian returned after changing his clothes, Qin Huai's rice cake had already entered its second round of stirring.

Tan Weian arrived just in time, because Huang Shengli had wandered back from outside. Seeing that Qin Huai had the leisure to make rice cakes and was in such good spirits, he figured that stir-frying a few plates of meat to practice heat control would surely yield twice the result with half the effort.

Thus, Qin Huai went to the stove to stir-fry meat, and Tan Weian took over Qin Huai's task of stirring the rice cake.

Regarding this, Tan Weian expressed:...

With Tan Weian's assistance, the second batch of rice cakes did not fail. If one had to pick a flaw, it was that Tan Weian's strength was not as great as Ouyang's, so it took longer, and the resulting rice cake was not as good as Ouyang's.

Sometimes, great strength really can create miracles.

Zheng Siyuan was affirmative about the rice cake Ouyang stirred.

Business at Huang Ji in the evening remained booming.

The main hall was packed, and every private room was full. Midway through, Qin Huai got tired of making Guo'er and went to look out the small window of the warehouse for a while. He discovered that the customers in the main hall were eating at an unprecedented speed.

They were eating with an attitude of self-sacrifice for the benefit of others.

It was as if every two minutes they spent chatting, three minutes they spent dawdling, four minutes they spent daydreaming, or five minutes they spent editing photos would result in one more heartbroken diner outside, braving the cold wind, who wouldn't get to eat.

Even the waiters' walking speed had increased; they were all race-walking through Huang Ji while carrying dishes.

Of course, the speed at which Huang Ji served dishes was also very fast.

Basically, after the Guo'er were served and the customers had gnawed through most of them, the remaining dishes would be brought to the table one after another, and then the customers would start devouring the food as if taking revenge.

After eating, they would slump in their chairs and let out a long burp, then without hesitation or delay, they would quickly shout for the waiter to settle the bill.

A waiter would lead the customers to the cashier to pay, while the waiters specifically responsible for clearing tables would swarm in with carts. At the same time, the entrance would start calling numbers, and the excited customers would rush into Huang Ji, eager to help the waiters clear the tables.

The tacit understanding, speed, and efficiency made Qin Huai feel that Foreman Cao hadn't just pumped the waiters full of adrenaline and secretly opened a training class over the past two days, but had also secretly trained the customers outside.

If this continued, the only thing left would be for customers to hold their receipts and line up at the pickup window to get their food.

Hey, Huang Ji Canteen!

Qin Huai was shocked by his own wild imagination.

Just like yesterday, Qin Huai finished brushing the last batch of Guo'er and got off work an hour ahead of his colleagues.

"Xiao Qin, are you tired?" Huang Shengli asked with concern.

He was genuinely afraid that Qin Huai would get tired.

Over the past two days, Huang Shengli hadn't just been concerned about whether Qin Huai was tired; he was also concerned about whether the stove chefs like Huang Jia and Qi Tian were tired. The thing Huang Shengli said most often in the back kitchen was: "Are you tired? If you're tired, take a rest; there's no rush with the dishes."

"Master Huang, I'm really fine," Qin Huai said. "Making Guo'er is much easier than making steamed buns and flower rolls usually. It's not just not tiring; it's a bit monotonous, and I always want to do something else or practice heat control to adjust."

Huang Shengli laughed heartily: "It seems our Master Qin is still dissatisfied with his own heat control and wants to practice more diligently, so that one day you can take the fillings back and make them yourself."

Qin Huai smiled along: "I'd like to, but I don't know what year or month it will be before I can practice my heat control to your level."

Hearing Qin Huai say this, Huang Shengli felt a bit embarrassed: "It's also my fault. You came to Huang Ji for an exchange specifically to practice heat control, but now it's turned into helping Huang Ji make snacks, and you have no time to practice heat control. Otherwise, with your talent, if you had practiced heat control intensively for a few months, you wouldn't be at your current level."

"It's that I can't stay idle. Zheng Siyuan even complains that I'm fickle with snacks. I like one as soon as I see it, and once I like one, I want to learn it. I want to learn every snack, so naturally, I have no time to practice heat control."

"Wanting to learn is a good thing. Being eager to learn—how many masters pray for an apprentice who is eager to learn?" Huang Shengli affirmed Qin Huai's fickleness. "It's just that your Master Zheng is too lazy. These past two days, he disappears as soon as noon passes. I remember his rice cake making is also decent; if he stayed in the kitchen in the afternoon, he could also guide you a bit."

"He's been lazy for so many years and is used to it. Tomorrow I have to add some burden to him and let him do more."

Qin Huai:...

Zheng Da, I'm sorry.

For the sake of Huang Ji's business, I can only let you suffer a bit first.

"Since you feel the current work intensity is okay, Xiao Qin, how about we set aside an hour in the afternoon from now on to practice heat control? An hour isn't long, but with learning and consolidation, there will always be improvement," Huang Shengli proposed.

"I have to go to the hospital tomorrow, so let's start practicing the day after tomorrow."

"That's fine. Thank you for your hard work, Master Huang." Qin Huai naturally had no objections. Currently, the most efficient way for him to practice heat control was to follow Huang Shengli in stir-frying meat; using the normal way of making snacks to brush heat control experience was very slow.

"Then it's settled. Xiao Qin, you should hurry back and rest too; you still have to work tomorrow."

Qin Huai carried the snacks packed for Ouyang and left work to go home.

The snacks were the practice works of several chefs from Does Zhi Wei Ju. Hearing that Qin Huai wanted to pack them to take back for his roommate to eat as a late-night snack, the several Does Zhi Wei Ju chefs were so excited they wished they could make another batch on the spot.

Whether the roommate ate them or not wasn't important; if Qin Huai felt hungry on the way back and decided to eat a couple of bites, and happened to offer some suggestions, wouldn't they have profited?

Gu Li had managed to get on-site teaching even after making the rice cake like that in the afternoon.

Although the rice cake Qin Huai made was also just average.

But that wasn't important. Everyone knew Master Qin had the ability; the rice cake being average was a problem with the rice cake. People always have their own strengths, as long as Master Qin was willing to teach.

When Qin Huai returned home, Ouyang was playing with the robot vacuum.

Cleaning the whole house, then spot cleaning, then sweeping and mopping, then setting it to level three, then level one—he was having a blast.

The frequency of his command adjustments was so high that if the robot vacuum could talk, it would have already started cursing.

"I brought you snacks," Qin Huai said, placing the snacks on the dining table. "Eat if you want."

"Remember what I said? Starting tomorrow, you can go to Huang Ji in the morning and afternoon to get snacks. Remember to use the back door in the morning. If you can provide feedback, do so; if you really can't, then don't say anything."

"Foster father!" Ouyang was so moved he was about to cry. "I won't say anything more. Once my hand-smashed lemon tea shop opens, as long as the shop is open for a day, you'll have hand-smashed lemon tea to drink for a day!"

Qin Huai: "... That's not impossible, just give me the basic version. I'm a person who loves to drink simple things."

That night, Qin Huai dreamed that Ouyang's hand-smashed lemon tea shop opened, and Ouyang enthusiastically invited Qin Huai to taste the new products. All kinds of hand-smashed lemon tea were lined up in two large rows.

There were West Lake fish in vinegar flavor, spicy hot pot flavor, Northeast frozen pear flavor, strawberry cheese peach, and banana kiwi pudding.

There was even a seven-flavor dampness-clearing tea flavor.

They were lined up waiting for Qin Huai to drink them.

It scared Qin Huai awake directly.

Looking at the time, it was 8 o'clock.

Qin Huai, who had lingering fears about this dream, didn't even make breakfast. After washing up, he went to Huang Ji to work, and incidentally ate some wontons made by Zheng Siyuan.

Zheng Siyuan had been making crepe wontons and bubble wontons for several months, and now these wontons were truly delicious. They were so delicious that if he set up a stall at the entrance of an elementary school, he could easily defeat the old lady who had been setting up a stall there for 20 years, making the old lady curse in her heart, "Damn young man stealing my business," while secretly going to his stall to eat wontons.

"Mmm." Qin Huai held the wontons, making a sound of praise, and incidentally ate another bite of the freshly fried Ruyi roll. "Eating wontons in the morning is truly too suitable."

Zheng Siyuan glanced at Qin Huai silently and didn't speak.

Qin Huai read Zheng Siyuan's gaze instantly: "I'll come earlier tomorrow morning and make chicken noodle soup."

"No need," Zheng Siyuan said blandly. "Making it at noon is the same. Master Uncle said that working for too long is bad for the body, and working for too long while having to get up early is even worse for the body."

"Then I'll make it tomorrow noon," Qin Huai said, following the advice.

"Master Qin." Gu Li walked to Qin Huai's side and, very rarely, took the initiative to speak. "Could you please help me look at these two pieces of rice cake?" Gu Li had come early, and he was the one who had uncovered the damp cloths for both pieces of rice cake. Now, the two pieces of rice cake were sitting on his cooking station.

The difference in quality was visible to the naked eye.

The one that failed was obviously too hard.

It was to the extent that if one were to secretly take it out to sell, the customers who ate it would secretly curse the boss for selling them overnight rice cakes.

As for whether overnight rice cakes are hard.

That's not important; "overnight" is just an adjective.

"Now that you see the finished product, do you know where your problem was yesterday?" Qin Huai asked.

Gu Li didn't speak, looking very nervous.

Qin Huai chuckled: "I'm not testing you; I just want to tell you that sometimes failing when making snacks isn't a bad thing."

"I didn't have a master to guide me before, so I didn't know what problems I had in my process. But when you see the finished snack, wherever you think it's not good, that's where the problem is."

"If you can't correct it the first time, then make it a few more times."

"If you don't know where to start changing, then keep trying."

"When I told you to practice a lot, I didn't mean mechanical, repetitive practice without changing anything. It means when a problem arises, you practice a lot by trying and modifying specifically for that problem."

"It's good to ask someone, of course, but if there's no one to ask, you can ponder it yourself. Do you remember me telling you that your basic skills are very solid? That's a very good advantage. Solid basic skills mean you won't go wrong in the general direction, and you have plenty of room for trial and error; you can completely try boldly."

"I know you haven't made much rice cake, and rice cake isn't your specialty, so you don't need to try rice cake, but you can use this method to change the Ruyi rolls."

"I've been eating your Ruyi rolls for many days. Although you try your best to modify the problems I point out every time, the changes aren't bold enough; they are very conservative. You seem afraid that if you change it, you'll ruin it, so you don't dare to change."

"The current rice cake is a very good example. Although it looks terrible and is full of problems, it has a lot of room for improvement. I think when you make Ruyi rolls, you might as well be a bit bolder. At worst, it will end up like this rice cake situation, right? By magnifying the small problems, won't you see where the problem is?"

"Do you understand?" Qin Huai looked at Gu Li.

Gu Li nodded earnestly: "I understand, thank you Master Qin."

Another successful teaching session; Qin Huai gave himself a big thumbs up in his heart.

It's great. Once he finishes his advanced training at Huang Ji and goes back, he will definitely be able to show An Youyou, Chen An, Pei Xing, and Li Hua his superb teaching skills.

Qin Huai happily continued eating breakfast.

After finishing breakfast, it wasn't time for work yet. Qin Huai thought about it and decided to relax first by wrapping the glutinous rice cakes. The rice cake Gu Li made couldn't be wasted either; this rice cake only failed, leading to a hard texture, it wasn't inedible.

Upholding the spirit of saving food, it would be excellent to let Huang Anyao and Ouyang eat it.

However, considering that Gu Li might need some positive feedback now, Qin Huai went to the changing room to get his phone and send a message to Qu Jing, asking if she was willing to try the failed version of the glutinous rice cake.

Qu Jing had a high tolerance for glutinous rice snacks, especially rice cakes.

She could even give a good review to the puffed Four-Joy Tangyuan, so surely she could do the same for cheap glutinous rice cakes.

Letting Huang Anyao and Ouyang give good reviews would look like they were paid shills. But Qu Jing's good review could at least count as a genuine one.

Qu Jing replied in seconds, indicating that it was fine; she was very happy to try rice cakes with different textures.

Qin Huai prepared glutinous rice cakes with 1.5 times the sugar for Qu Jing and asked Huang Anyao to bring them to Qu Jing at noon.

In order not to delay the normal evening business, Huang Shengli had already set off for the hospital after stir-frying the last batch of fillings, and Huang Anyao was carrying four full large bags of takeout boxes.

Guo'er, Ding Sheng cakes, glutinous rice cakes, sweet fermented rice steamed buns, San Ding Bao, and fresh meat mooncakes were all packed to the brim. They were determined to give the doctors in the rehabilitation department a big surprise this noon; they knew the overtime they worked today wasn't in vain.

At the same time, they regretted eating too much at noon.

"Brother Jia, how many bowls of chicken noodle soup are you eating?"

Huang Shengli and Huang Anyao had gone to the hospital, and the number of people eating the special meal at noon had dropped by two. Qin Huai felt there was no need to wait until tomorrow noon to make chicken noodle soup; he could make it today at noon.

Who said that staff meals can only be stir-fried dishes? Snacks can also be a special meal.

"Two bowls," Huang Jia said very honestly. "Today's high-quality broth was hung by Master."

Qin Huai felt that two bowls was a very correct choice; he was also going to eat two bowls.

"I'll have two bowls too," Zheng Siyuan said.

Dong Shi stretched his neck from the side to watch the three of them plotting loudly. For the first time, he hated himself for not practicing hard and striving for excellence over the years, for not becoming the most handsome guy among Master's many direct disciples, for not achieving the perfect counterattack as a closed-door disciple, for not becoming a stove chef, and thus not being able to have Qin Huai cook a special meal for him the moment he arrived at Huang Ji, join this group, and eat two bowls of chicken noodle soup today.

Regret!

Dong Shi shed tears of regret in his heart.

"Dong Shi, are you eating?" Qin Huai turned his head and asked.

Dong Shi: "! Eating, I'll eat liang... just 1 bowl!"

Dong Shi indicated that starting today, he would definitely work harder to inquire about gossip, specifically inquiring about what Qin Huai liked.

"Did you bring your phone?" Qin Huai asked.

"I brought it, it's in my pocket."

"Send a message to ask if Mr. Gong is nearby, if he's eating chicken noodle soup, and if so, how many bowls. I'll make them all together now."

"Okay!"

Tan Weian shed tears of envy in the corner.

"Tan Weian, how many bowls are you eating?" Qin Huai continued to ask.

Tan Weian:! There's a portion for me too!

Master Qin has me in his heart!

So this is what it feels like to have a special meal cooked for you? Master, I have attained enlightenment!

"1 bowl, I'll eat 1 bowl too!" Tan Weian said excitedly.

Qin Huai started rubbing the noodles.

Just as he was rubbing them, the game notification sound suddenly rang in Qin Huai's mind.

"Ding, congratulations on completing the side quest 【The Taste of Memory 2】, and obtaining the quest reward 【A Dream Segment of Qu Jing】."

Qin Huai:!

The most abstract quest in this side quest line was actually completed!

What did Qu Jing just eat?

Overly hard glutinous rice cake?

If you had said earlier that you liked failed ones, Qin Huai would have said he was the best at failing; he hadn't dared to let Qu Jing eat the rice cakes that failed before.

If conditions hadn't prevented it, Qin Huai would have liked to use the excuse of going to the bathroom to rush into the bathroom and watch the dream right now.

This was Qu Jing's only dream segment.

If nothing unexpected happened, once Qin Huai finished watching this dream segment, Qu Jing would be able to wake up.

By then, the tea party at Luo Jun's house would gain a spirit creature, and Qu Jing would no longer have to eat the fruit that Chen Huihong swiped for her; she could go directly to Luo Jun's house and eat openly.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 226 =====