Chapter 251: A Less-Than-Wonderful Holiday

As soon as Qin Luo arrived home, she switched into "eat-eat-eat" mode.

Considering Qin Luo had already eaten two airline meals on the plane and could be considered to have had a proper meal, Qin Huai felt it was fine to let his younger sister snack a bit to fill the gaps, so he didn't cook her instant noodles.

As for how Qin Huai's home came to have instant noodles...

They were bought by Ouyang previously. A whole series of flavors—Old Altar Pickled Cabbage, Braised Beef, Tomato Egg, Rattan Pepper Beef, Tonkotsu Ramen, Old Hen Soup, Sour Soup Beef, Shin Ramyun, Fire Noodles, and more—were all available. The brands and varieties were more complete than what was sold at the convenience store at the entrance of many residential complexes.

When Ouyang played on his phone in the dead of night, he loved to eat some instant noodles.

Qin Huai went to the kitchen to cook tangyuan for Qin Luo.

The tangyuan had been shoved onto Qin Huai by Zheng Da and Zheng Siyuan—they were mixed-fruit filling tangyuan with peanuts, melon seeds, almonds, and walnuts.

At first, when Zheng Siyuan was packing tangyuan for Gong Baozhu, he had packed a bag for Qin Huai on the side, telling Qin Huai to cook them for Qin Luo. When Zheng Da saw this, he felt that peanuts and melon seeds shouldn't lose out, so he immediately packed a bag for Qin Huai, taking the opportunity to clear out the refrigerator.

Qin Huai had accepted them out of habit, but on the drive back, he realized in hindsight that this father-son duo might have done it on purpose; they simply wanted to clear out their refrigerator.

Zheng Da didn't have that many loyal customers willing to come over every day to taste-test tangyuan. The tangyuan he and Zheng Siyuan practiced making at home every day could only be consumed internally, to the point that Zheng Siqin and Zheng Siyuan's mother had developed a bit of tangyuan PTSD.

Now that someone had voluntarily come to help digest the tangyuan, the father-son duo naturally had to pack them up and clear out their entire stock.

Gong Baozhu was quite happy, feeling that Zheng Siyuan and Zheng Da were truly good people. She had only said she loved eating tangyuan, and they had packed two huge bags for her—the super-sized kind.

With tangyuan boiling in the pot and fresh meat mooncakes heating in the oven, Qin Huai kept a constant eye on the heat for the tangyuan while poking his head out of the kitchen to urge Qin Luo not to let herself go and eat too much.

Even if Qin Luo had an iron stomach, eating too much and too many mixed things would still lead to acute gastroenteritis; it wasn't as if such things hadn't happened before.

Qin Luo was already sitting on the sofa happily watching TV.

On the coffee table sat a plate of shortbread, a fruit platter, a plate of spicy strips, an opened bag of cheese sticks, three bags of potato chips in different flavors, a bag of onion rings, a bag of rice crackers, a bag of butter popcorn, two chocolate sticks, a bag of beef jerky, a bag of pork jerky, and a pile of various small cookies.

Qin Luo was eating the spicy strips with equal enthusiasm, spicy strips in her left hand and shortbread in her right. She had peeled an orange from the fruit platter without using a knife, using only her teeth to peel the skin, demonstrating Qin Luo's strength.

Half a bag of cheese sticks had already disappeared, the bags of potato chips and onion rings were all open, one chocolate stick was intact, and the other had only half left.

Those who knew would know Qin Luo had eaten two boxed meals on the plane; those who didn't would think the child hadn't eaten for two days.

Qin Luo happily twisted open a bottle of sugar-free cola.

"It's so late, eat fewer snacks. You aren't allowed to open any more of the rest. Use a clip to seal the puffed foods in a moment. There are still tangyuan and fresh meat mooncakes to eat," Qin Huai said loudly.

Qin Luo didn't know what tangyuan were. She jumped off the sofa and trotted to the kitchen door, asking, "Brother, what are tangyuan? Are they delicious? Sweet or savory? Is there meat?"

"The plus version of tangyuan," Qin Huai said concisely. "I only cooked two for you, mixed-fruit filling, sweet."

"No meat," Qin Luo said, somewhat disappointed.

"I'll make meat-filled ones for you tomorrow. Go check how much longer the oven needs; I only heated one fresh meat mooncake for you too."

Qin Luo happily went to check the oven.

Two minutes later, Qin Huai served the tangyuan to Qin Luo, who was sitting at the dining table gnawing on the fresh meat mooncake.

Looking at the tangyuan, which were definitely the tangyuan plus version, Qin Luo was very curious. She put down the half-eaten fresh meat mooncake, picked up a spoon, scooped one up, and took a bite.

Qin Huai hadn't followed the 3-minute-50-second rule to let these tangyuan cool down, letting them sit for only a minute or so. Clearly, the 3-minute-50-second rule didn't apply to Qin Luo; she didn't do a tap dance but instead happily chewed, chewed, chewed.

Qin Luo actually loved eating glutinous rice products; she was the one who said glutinous rice had a peculiar, delicate fragrance.

Although Qin Huai had just said the tangyuan he cooked were mixed-fruit filling, Qin Luo believed that since her brother had cooked two for her, they must be different flavors.

The first one Qin Luo ate was peanut and melon seed; she took one bite and put it back in the bowl, letting the filling spill out and turn the tangyuan soup into mixed-fruit soup, then scooped up the second one and took a bite.

Chew, chew, chew.

"Brother, this one is delicious!" Qin Luo said, pleasantly surprised. "This one is super delicious, it's almond!"

"Can I eat this tomorrow morning? I want to eat six, no, eight of them in the morning!"

For a moment, Qin Huai felt a bit fortunate that Qin Luo wasn't saying this while sitting at the entrance of the Huang Ji back kitchen.

Otherwise, if Zheng Siyuan heard this, he would immediately crown Qin Luo as the person who understood mixed-fruit filling best in the whole world and provide an unlimited supply of shortbread and fresh meat mooncakes.

Qin Huai watched Qin Luo finish the tangyuan and shortbread, watched her put away the snacks, urged her to sleep early, and warned her not to mess around with the smart furniture, especially not to control the lights turning on and off, otherwise it would be easy to just go back to her room to sleep after midnight.

Qin Luo watched Qin Huai enter his room, and the little person in her heart cheered: Great, Mom and Dad aren't here, and Brother is going to sleep early again; no one will supervise how late I play on my phone at night anymore!

Then Qin Luo took the unfinished cola into her room to play on her phone.

At 1:30 AM, Ouyang sent a message to Qin Luo.

Ouyang: Did Luo Luo, are you busy? Help me boost my lucky draw to get a head count.

Did Luo Luo: Brother Yang, where's the link?

Ouyang: You really aren't asleep. Your brother asked me to supervise you tonight to see if you were staying up late playing on your phone. Caught once, one less meat dish for lunch tomorrow.

Qin Luo: (=°Д°=)

Qin Luo was so scared she put down her phone on the spot and fell asleep immediately.

Because she had slept during the day, Qin Huai woke up normally the next day even though he had gone to sleep relatively late the night before.

When Qin Huai got up, Qin Luo hadn't woken up yet. Qin Huai glanced at the chat screenshot Ouyang had sent last night and knew his sister had once again witnessed the sinister nature of the human heart. He very satisfiedly replied to Ouyang with a "well done" sticker.

After a simple wash, Qin Huai went straight to Huang Ji to work. On the way, he sent a message to Chen Huihong, telling her not to forget to bring Huihui to Huang Ji for breakfast at 9 o'clock.

He specifically emphasized that she just needed to take a look at his place; if Qin Luo hadn't woken up, there was no need to call her—call her after she finished eating and came back.

Based on Qin Huai's understanding of Qin Luo, as long as she knew she wouldn't have breakfast if she didn't get up before 9 o'clock, even if it were raining knives, Qin Luo would arrive at Huang Ji before 9 o'clock.

The tactic of repeatedly knocking on a child's door every morning to urge them to get up was already outdated; letting the child develop the habit of eating breakfast on time was the best method.

Back when the Qin family was still running a breakfast shop, what time Qin Luo got up every day depended on what dim sum Qin Huai was making the next day. If it were ordinary baozi, Qin Luo would get up after 7 o'clock; if it were four-joy dumplings, Qin Luo would get up earlier than Qin Huai, appearing at the breakfast shop at 5 o'clock sharp to help their parents.

Today's breakfast at Huang Ji was the normal configuration: Zheng Siyuan's crepe wontons and bubble wontons, Qin Huai's longevity noodles, and dim sum from the 6 chefs at Zhi Wei Ju.

Everyone at Huang Ji was already accustomed to this breakfast configuration. Walking into the kitchen in the morning and smelling the familiar fragrance of food, they knew a beautiful day had already begun.

Not to mention that everyone had taken a full day off yesterday; everyone was high-spirited and full of vitality, making the beautiful day seem even more beautiful.

At 9:10, Chen Huihong brought Huihui to Huang Ji.

Seeing that Qin Luo hadn't woken up, Qin Huai immediately took a photo of the breakfast and sent it to Qin Luo.

This was Chen Huihong's first time squatting at the entrance of Huang Ji to eat breakfast, and she was fiercely shocked by the richness of the Huang Ji staff meal.

Two kinds of wontons, delicious hand-pulled noodles, ruyi rolls, soup-filled xiaolongbao, four-joy tangyuan, fresh meat shumai, char siu bao, white sugar sponge cake, and plum blossom sponge cake.

Although quite a few of these dim sum items were just there to make up the numbers, and apart from the four-joy tangyuan made by Tan Weian which were worth eating, the others were very mediocre—at the level of normal breakfast dim sum—but the variety was sufficient, and it was enough to bluff people.

After seeing this dazzling array of dim sum, Chen Huihong suddenly understood why Gong Liang would show off that he could squat at the back kitchen door of Huang Ji to eat breakfast.

It was really worth showing off!

The gold content of the back kitchen door at Huang Ji was truly very high. Chen Huihong and Chen Huihui were dazzled by the rich breakfast. Chen Huihong almost didn't hesitate at all, immediately put on her headphones, and started a group video call in the 【Love Each Other Family】 group.

The only one who connected to the video was Luo Jun.

Luo Jun's recent schedule was very regular; even if the Cloud Canteen didn't have the breakfast he wanted to eat, he could still have breakfast around 9 o'clock.

Luo Jun thought Chen Huihong had some urgent matter by starting a video call early in the morning. As soon as it connected, he discovered that what came into view was a variety of breakfasts. Among them were a few he was particularly familiar with—Qin Huai's longevity noodles and Zheng Siyuan's wontons, which he had been longing for but couldn't eat.

Before Chen Huihong could speak, Luo Jun started at 0 frames.

"Chen Huihong, are you sick?"

Usually, she showed off lunch, dinner, or late-night snacks; now she was showing off breakfast too—was she not letting people live?

In the kitchen, Zheng Siyuan finished tidying up the culinary station and started his daily work, chatting with Qin Huai on the side.

"Does Did Luo Luo still like the tangyuan?" Zheng Siyuan asked.

"She likes them, she likes them especially, especially the almond ones," Qin Huai said honestly. "However, based on my understanding of Did Luo Luo, she should like the meat-filled ones even more."

Zheng Siyuan expressed understanding; Qin Luo was like that—meat-filled dim sum was always her top priority.

"Is Did Luo Luo coming over for dinner tonight? If she is, I'll make some meat-filled tangyuan for her this afternoon."

"Probably," Qin Huai said. "I plan to stop making only mixed-fruit filling tangyuan starting today and make other fillings as well. I'm afraid that if I only practice one type of filling, the others will become rusty."

Gong Liang's task had already been completed, and Qin Huai didn't intend to stop practicing task dim sum and switch to practicing the next one as he had before.

According to his past habits, he would definitely have started practicing double-crab buns immediately; Uncle Wang had even brought him the recipe, so it would be a bit unfair to Uncle Wang's assist if he didn't practice.

But Qin Huai didn't do that.

Because he could tell from the recipe that the difficulty of the double-crab buns was very high.

The difficulty of making seasonal double-crab buns in the season when crab roe was plump might be reduced, but using crab roe paste to make them, and still wanting to make double-crab buns that were not inferior to fresh crab roe, the difficulty definitely wouldn't be low.

Double-crab buns used crab roe and sea cucumber as filling. The overall idea was somewhat similar to crab roe shumai; both were dim sum made by retaining the original flavor of the ingredients and removing fishiness and enhancing freshness without using too many extra ingredients and condiments.

Both were dim sum with the difficulty of seasoning the filling pulled to the max.

Looking at the ingredients alone, mixing crab roe and sea cucumber together, and still having to remove fishiness and enhance freshness, one knew how high the difficulty of this dim sum was.

One had to know that in the *Suiyuan Shidan*, the introduction to the ingredient sea cucumber was that it was a tasteless thing, sandy and fishy.

Qin Huai had self-knowledge. Before practicing crab roe shumai, he didn't understand the ingredient crab, so he spent a lot of time familiarizing himself with the ingredients.

Similarly, Qin Huai actually didn't know much about sea cucumber. He had used sea cucumber very few times when making dim sum before—that is, he used it more when making five-ingredient buns, but in the five-ingredient buns, sea cucumber was an absolute supporting role, mainly serving to nourish.

Not understanding the ingredients, and with the difficulty of seasoning being extremely great, Qin Huai felt that with his current level, he might not be able to make double-crab buns even with bitter practice.

Qin Huai felt that he might have to wait until his seasoning level rose to the master level before he could start trying to learn how to make them.

Wang Gensheng's state was very good, and the side quest wasn't urgent, but there was one side quest that was actually already imminent.

Chen Gong's side quest.

His side quest was to let Han Guishan shine brilliantly at the birthday banquet of his son, Han Youxin.

To put it bluntly, it was to have Qin Huai show off properly at the birthday banquet, making some dim sum that could make the guests' bodies shake, letting Han Guishan show off his face fiercely.

Han Guishan was a very good Party A.

He offered a high price, paid readily, and didn't point fingers.

Originally, Han Guishan was supposed to come to Gusu in person to taste Qin Huai's craftsmanship to determine the dim sum for the birthday banquet. But with work busy as the New Year approached, Han Guishan, as a self-made domineering president, couldn't be like the domineering presidents in novels who talked about love all day and ignored everything else, and he couldn't find time to come to Gusu.

Qin Huai also didn't have time to go to City A, where Han Guishan was.

Originally, this matter was stuck like this, but wasn't Xu Cheng a friend of Han Guishan? Han Guishan didn't have time to come over to eat, so Xu Cheng had already finished eating for him.

Xu Cheng originally wanted to simply test Qin Huai's depth, but ended up almost getting stuck in Gusu. With Xu Cheng's endorsement and the fame bonus of the *Zhi Wei* New Year's major issue, Han Guishan directly paid 60% of the money to Qin Huai without tasting the dim sum, letting Qin Huai look at what to make, making whatever he was good at.

It didn't matter if he couldn't make fruit; Han Guishan knew why Qin Huai couldn't make fruit, and also knew that he probably couldn't invite Huang Shengli.

Facing such a generous and reasonable Party A dad, Qin Huai was very moved and decided to go all out double.

Originally, he should have gone all out to complete the side quest; now, for Party A, he had to go all out once more, so it was double.

It was a birthday banquet, so he had to make some dim sum with good meanings.

Four-joy tangyuan were very good; the name sounded good, the meaning was auspicious, and when the meaning behind the mixed-fruit filling was explained, the auspiciousness was pulled to the max. It was guaranteed that no dish on the whole table could compare to the meaning of the four-joy tangyuan.

Once Qin Huai looked at Gong Liang's memory, touched the recipe for four-joy tangyuan, and added some buffs.

Qin Huai didn't even dare to imagine how awesome this dim sum would be at the birthday banquet.

It would definitely let Han Guishan shine brilliantly!

While kneading dough, Qin Huai planned the time and daily frequency for making four-joy tangyuan in his heart, looked up at the clock on the wall, and found it was already 10 o'clock.

Thinking that Qin Luo and he were together, that he, the brother, was working, and Qin Luo, the sister, was studying, he felt warm in his heart and had more energy to work.

Qin Huai felt warm in his heart, but Qin Luo's heart was cold.

Originally, eating tangyuan she cooked herself in the morning was nothing; she could eat as much as she wanted, and the tangyuan were quite delicious.

If Qin Luo hadn't seen the photo Qin Huai sent her, the tangyuan would have been even more delicious.

As a result, Qin Luo hadn't finished regretting her behavior of staying up late playing on her phone at night, leading to her not being able to get up the next day and missing the rich breakfast, when the first tutor arrived at the door.

Neat, ear-length short hair, shrewd and capable silver metal-framed glasses, a slightly thin and angular face, corners of the eyes with a few wrinkles, thin lips that were habitually slightly pursed, and the sharp, iconic gaze of a dean of students.

When Qin Luo saw this tutor, she sat up straight immediately, not even daring to breathe loudly.

"Student Qin Luo, right? My surname is Chen; you can just call me Teacher Chen. Starting today, I will provide you with math tutoring from 10:00 to 12:00 on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday mornings."

"I have already looked at your school's textbooks and your monthly exam papers and midterm exam papers for this semester. Your grades are not very ideal, but don't be discouraged. I believe that after the tutoring and hard work during this winter vacation, your math grades will definitely have significant progress."

"This is a test paper I specifically prepared for you. Let's do the test paper today first."

"It is now 10:02. One hour, let's begin."

The little person in Qin Luo's heart was wailing.

This vacation was not beautiful at all.

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(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 252 =====