Chapter 275

"Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan are out of the pot again. Bowls, are there any more bowls? There are no bowls left in the kitchen."

"Bring two more for serving the Joy Tangyuan."

"Old San's wife, tell your daughter and son to wash the bowls faster, we're waiting to use them!"

"Did Luo Luo, don't just stand there, stop listening to gossip. Go to your Ninth Great-Uncle's house at the end of the village and ask if they have any bowls left. If they do, take them all, and tell them to come over for dinner tonight."

"Did Luo Luo's eldest uncle, you're not in a hurry to leave, are you? If not, go to the kitchen and help out. We're short of people. Is there anyone who can cut vegetables? You don't need to be a professional meat mincer; just being able to use a knife to chop nuts and candied fruit is fine. And bring a few people with strength to chop firewood. You all can? Good, get into the kitchen quickly!"

"I remember there was a girl a couple of days ago who was quite good at tending the fire, right? She even helped Huaihuai tend the fire in the kitchen. Why didn't she come today? Did she not come back for the New Year? She did? She's staying at home and didn't come over? Calling her over now would be too much trouble. It's not trouble? If it's not trouble, call her over quickly. We're short of people, really short of people."

Grandma Qin, who was only holding a small notebook to count the New Year's goods brought by various distant relatives on the first day of the Lunar New Year, had already become a foreman by the second day, shouting at the top of her lungs to grab real relatives to work.

It wasn't that she didn't trust the unknown relatives, but real relatives were easier to use, reliable, and there was no situation where they would slack off or steal food after working for a while.

If they were caught on the spot, how would they be able to come over for pastries next year?

Qin Huai's eldest uncle was stunned.

As Qin Huai's proper biological eldest uncle, he certainly had a name. The eldest uncle's name was Zhao Zhao Siqiang, and in terms of age, he was two years older than Grandma Qin. The naming convention in the Zhao family followed the generation, and all of Qin Huai's uncles and aunts were named Zhao Si-x, with the exception of Zhao Rong.

It is said that this was because Zhao Rong was a posthumous child, and the family was dirt poor when she was born, so it wasn't certain whether they would raise this youngest daughter, and thus they didn't even give her a name. Later, when they decided to raise her and give her a name, it was very casual, and they just casually picked the character "Rong."

Of course, this was Zhao Rong's version.

Eldest Uncle Zhao Zhao Siqiang absolutely did not acknowledge this. In Zhao Zhao Siqiang's words, their Zhao family valued the youngest daughter; how hard it would be to name a girl with the character "Si" in her name, so it was better to just take the character "Rong," which sounded better.

That's right, for so many years, their Zhao family had been doting on their little sister, so during the New Year, they couldn't bear to have her whole family go over to pay their respects, and they would always take the initiative to go to the little sister's house.

Don't look at the fact that Zhao Zhao Siqiang is already seventy, with gray hair, walking with a cane, and four generations under one roof; they would set up several tables just for the New Year's Eve dinner at home.

But his love for his little sister had remained unchanged for so many years! Every New Year, he, as the eldest brother, would bring his own bowls and chopsticks to his little sister's house in person, leading the sons, daughters, grandsons, and granddaughters who had successfully competed that year to pay their respects.

The one who was proficient at tending the fire that Grandma Qin just mentioned was Zhao Zhao Siqiang's third granddaughter, who hadn't been able to compete successfully this year, but that didn't matter; Zhao Zhao Siqiang's village and the Qin family village were in the same county, so he could just have his daughter and son-in-law drive the third granddaughter over.

Her parents could also take advantage of their daughter's light and come over to eat some Joy Tangyuan.

Before entering the kitchen, Zhao Zhao Siqiang said, "I also have two daughters-in-law who are particularly good at washing bowls; they wash them clean and fast."

"Call them over, call them all over!" Grandma Qin indicated that they were short of people today, and anyone with skills should come.

Zhao Zhao Siqiang happily went to recruit people.

Compared to the chaos outside the kitchen, the inside of the kitchen was very orderly.

Once you entered the kitchen, you were all Qin Huai's soldiers.

After the practical experience of the first day of the Lunar New Year, Qin Huai discovered that he had underestimated the villagers, and he had also underestimated himself.

The number of distant relatives in their family was far from as small as it had appeared in previous years; as long as they wanted to, those in the same town, same township, same county, and same city could all be distant relatives.

In fact, the distant relatives hadn't been as enthusiastic in previous years as they were this year. It wasn't that Qin Huai's skills hadn't been good in previous years; although the game system hadn't been activated at that time, Qin Huai's pastry level was already famous throughout the ten miles and eight villages.

Three-Ding Bao, Five-Ding Bao, and Four-Joy Dumplings were all signature dishes that Qin Huai used to hold the stage during the New Year. Such good pastries were usually only eaten by close relatives; ordinary relatives would just eat meat buns, and those with even more distant relationships couldn't even eat meat buns and could only eat vegetable buns.

It could be said that everyone knew Qin Huai's skills were good at that time, but they couldn't eat anything truly good.

Coming to pay their respects on the first day of the Lunar New Year was mainly because Qin Huai's house was lively and had many people. Since they were idle on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Qin Huai's house could be said to be the gathering place for all the gossip in the Qin family village. Where else would they go to pay their respects?

It was better to bring two jin of apples to Qin Huai's house to pay their respects, listen to gossip, and if they were lucky, they might even get a couple of buns.

It could be said that although Qin Huai's house was crowded and lively in previous years, and sometimes there would be situations where they didn't have enough bowls and had to borrow them from other people's houses, it wouldn't be as exaggerated as this year.

This year, those in the know knew that so many people were coming to Qin Huai's house to pay their respects, but those who didn't know might think this was a brand-new fraud and crime den, using various means such as distributing free eggs, rice, flour, and grain oil to lure villagers from ten miles and eight villages to come and listen to lectures.

On the afternoon of the first day, the police officers were dispatched. Plainclothes officers came to understand the situation, and after eating a bowl of Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan, they understood instantly. They went home and brought back two bags of dried goods as a New Year's gift, and ended up taking a small bag of Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan.

Then this plainclothes officer became a distant relative of the Qin family, because he lived nearby in the next village, and his daughter was still washing bowls at Qin Huai's neighbor's house.

The charm of Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan was not on the same level as ordinary vegetable buns or meat buns.

Coming to the Qin family to pay respects during the New Year and eating a delicious meat bun, people would only exclaim, "Damn, this meat bun is really delicious; if only I could have another one."

But if you came to the Qin family to pay respects during the New Year and ate a bowl of Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan...

Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn!

It's the New Year!

However, this joy of the New Year could probably only be felt by those outside the kitchen.

The children were running around happily, their pockets filled with pocket money that looked like a lot and seemed like it could never be spent, and pockets full of candy. As long as they didn't make a fuss about playing with mobile phones or tablets, adults wouldn't easily scold children during the New Year.

The children were happy, the adults were excited, and everyone was either holding a bowl eating Joy Tangyuan or walking around chatting and listening to gossip. In order to appear as if they weren't purely there to eat, they would do whatever work they saw.

With so many people coming and going in the Qin family courtyard, it was hard to even see fallen candy wrappers on the ground. The broom was right by the wall, and whoever saw it would sweep it up, so the courtyard could be kept as clean as new.

This was the work that could be seen; there were even more hidden tasks that couldn't be seen.

Not enough bowls? Go home and get bowls.

Not enough people to wash bowls? Actively sign up to wash bowls.

Too many people coming and not enough hot water for tea? The small kitchen had stoves for boiling hot water; feel free to enter.

As for the large kitchen, not everyone could enter; you had to have some connections to get in.

Zhao Zhao Siqiang was undoubtedly the one with connections.

As Qin Huai's biological eldest uncle, Zhao Zhao Siqiang had been very good to this nephew even before Qin Huai had shown his outstanding pastry talent to his relatives. Zhao Zhao Siqiang had one thing he said to outsiders that was not wrong: he really doted on his little sister.

After Zhao Rong got married and had no children for many years, she adopted a boy from an orphanage. To prevent people from gossiping about his sister, Zhao Zhao Siqiang would always give Qin Huai the thickest red envelope every year. In an environment where red envelopes for children were 5 or 10 yuan, Zhao Zhao Siqiang made a decision that went against his ancestors—

Giving Qin Huai a 200 yuan red envelope.

Qin Luo was the same.

It was precisely because of these years of deep friendship that Zhao Zhao Siqiang was able to stand out in the annual New Year's visits and line up with Qin Huai's third uncle, Zhao Sizhuang, to pay his respects on the second day and eat first.

He could even come back to take some after eating, and keep eating.

By the way, Qin Huai's third uncle was the one who had taken the initiative to suggest that he had connections when Qin Huai was in high school and could send Qin Huai to Does Zhi Wei Ju to be an apprentice. Although the third uncle didn't have much ability and liked to brag, his intentions were there.

Zhao Zhao Siqiang was stunned the moment he stepped into the large kitchen.

The inside of the kitchen and the outside of the kitchen were simply two different worlds.

It wasn't that the kitchen was filled with white mist, as if it were a fairyland, that made it two worlds, but that the overall feeling was completely different.

The kitchen was not quiet, nor was it lively. Zhao Zhao Siqiang felt that he hadn't walked into a rural kitchen, but had mistakenly entered the back kitchen of a large hotel.

Everyone here was conscientiously completing their own work; everyone was orderly, coordinated well, and revolved around only one person. That person was his good nephew, Master Qin!

Qin Huai was making red bean paste filling.

The red bean paste filling and sesame sugar filling he had sent from Gusu were almost used up. Originally, Qin Huai had planned to use them for 3-5 days, but these fillings barely lasted two days before they couldn't hold on anymore.

The fellow villagers were really too enthusiastic!

And building proficiency was really happy.

At first, Qin Huai was still worried that the helpers weren't professional enough, weren't skilled enough, and that the lack of coordination would affect his proficiency in building Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan. Now, Qin Huai discovered that he had been overthinking it.

In terms of technology, the fellow villagers were definitely not as good as the people in Huang Ji's back kitchen, and in terms of coordination, they were not as good as professional chefs, but the fellow villagers had a heart that wanted to be a helper!

Most importantly, there were many people.

Professional talents like Aunt Wang were rare, but there were simply too many people who could tend the fire, chop firewood, mince meat filling, and cook.

And the biggest feature of Old Master Qin's kitchen was that it was big enough.

It could fit a lot of people.

Huang Ji's back kitchen was built to maintain the normal operation of the restaurant. It was divided into many areas, and there were also many professional chefs, so the part actually allocated to the pastry section wasn't particularly large.

The Qin family's kitchen was comparable in area to Huang Ji's back kitchen, and it was only responsible for the pastry section. As long as they wanted to stuff people in, stuffing twenty or thirty helpers in absolutely wasn't a problem.

If it were last year's New Year, Qin Huai might not have been able to command so many helpers whose skills weren't up to par and whose coordination was also a problem; the more people there were, the more chaotic it would be, and the more help would become a hindrance.

But this year, Qin Huai had returned from further studies.

As a professional master chef, every time a newcomer entered the kitchen, Master Qin knew what work to arrange for this newcomer.

While boiling the red bean paste filling, Qin Huai looked up and found that his eldest uncle had come, and he was overjoyed.

"Eldest Uncle, you've come at just the right time. There are many people now, and the processing of many ingredients can't keep up. Did you bring a notebook? If not, find my grandma and ask her to give you one."

"When the new batch of Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan is wrapped in a while, you can help count them on the side and calculate how many bowls are needed. Let the people washing the bowls control the time of washing and delivering the bowls well; don't mess it up. It was chaotic just now; a little girl tripped when delivering the bowls and broke them all."

Zhao Zhao Siqiang had been in charge of counting farm tools in the production team in his early years, so he was very professional at this.

Hearing Qin Huai say this, Zhao Zhao Siqiang instantly regained the feeling of his youth and said immediately, "Huaihuai, don't worry, leave this kind of thing to your eldest uncle; there will absolutely not be any more situations where they are delivered wrong, delivered chaotically, or bowls are broken."

"Eldest Uncle, has Chengcheng come?" Qin Huai asked again.

Chengcheng was the one who was particularly good at tending the fire.

"Just set off, still on the way."

"When Chengcheng comes, let me know. Originally, there was someone tending the fire; Sister He's fire was quite good yesterday. But didn't it get chaotic just now and the bowls broke? Sister He heard the bowls break and was in a hurry, and when she went out to look, she tripped and injured her leg. She's gone to the clinic to get it bandaged now."

"He Cheng, help me remember to save ten bags of Joy Tangyuan for Sister He later. When I have time in the evening, I'll make some Three-Ding Bao and Four-Joy Dumplings, and then you and Did Luo Luo can help me deliver them," Qin Huai said.

He Cheng's small notebook was already full of things, and hearing Qin Huai say this, he hurriedly wrote it down again. After finishing, he couldn't help but ask the person next to him in confusion:

"Why was Sister He so anxious when she heard the bowls broke?"

The aunt next to him responded in a low voice: "Of course she'd be anxious; the ones that broke were her family's bowls."

Zhao Zhao Siqiang instantly realized the importance of his work and went out to find Grandma Qin for a notebook.

Qin Huai continued to boil the red bean paste filling.

Seeing that Qin Huai had started working, the old branch secretary took a sip of tea unhurriedly and sat on the chair to continue speaking:

"Where was I just now?"

"The educated youth returning to the city; many educated youth with connections have returned to the city. Carpenter Zhang and his wife didn't find any connections and have been staying in the village," He Cheng answered quickly.

"Oh right, actually, this Xiao Zhang is indeed quite good. His carpentry skills are good, and his wife's cooking skills are even better; it's a pity for them to stay in our rural place. At that time, he and his wife couldn't return to the city, and the young couple wasn't in a hurry, but it made the branch secretary and village head of their production team anxious."

"They were asking around and pulling strings everywhere. Later, I had a nephew working in the county's timber mill, and I heard from him that the county's timber mill wanted to recruit experienced carpenters. I told this news to the captain of Xiao Zhang's production team, and then Xiao Zhang went to participate in the recruitment and was selected, and only then did the whole family move to Qu County."

"Why do I say Xiao Zhang is a good person? Actually, I just helped ask about the recruitment, and I didn't put in much effort; the main ones busy running around were the captain and branch secretary of their production team."

"But every year during the New Year, Xiao Zhang will bring his son to my house specifically to pay his respects. He comes every year on the sixth day, and he has already called me this year; he'll arrive before 11:00 AM on the sixth day."

"By the way, Huaihuai, on the morning of the sixth day I..."

"I have something to do and can't come," Qin Huai said with a smile. "It's fine if you can't come for half a day."

The old branch secretary didn't come to the Qin family to work full-time either. Although the old branch secretary was professionally matched and had been a butcher when he was young, he was old after all and not as good as young people; he would get tired after mincing meat for a while.

He mainly played a guiding role.

And telling gossip.

In terms of gossip reserves, no one in the entire Qin family village could compare to the old branch secretary.

He was not only proficient in the gossip within the Qin family village, but also proficient in the gossip of several nearby villages, and even had some involvement in the gossip of the township and county. The most important thing was that he was eloquent, and when he told stories, he would tell them in a leisurely way, with clear causes and consequences, unlike some people who would talk nonsense when telling gossip, and you would have to extract key information when listening to gossip.

The old branch secretary came to the Qin family at 7:00 AM on the second day, minced meat for 10 minutes in total, and spent the rest of the time telling gossip.

He had made Qin Luo unemployed, and she could only chop firewood outside.

Qin Huai loved to listen.

"It's not this." The old branch secretary waved his hand. "It's like this, didn't I just say it? Carpenter Zhang's level is amazing, and his wife Xiao Cao's cooking is even more amazing. Every year during the New Year, when his wife comes back to pay her respects, she will go to their village head's house to cook a meal, and the taste, slurp."

"I only managed to eat it once, and the second time they wouldn't let me in."

"When Carpenter Zhang called me to pay his respects this year, I happened to be eating the Four-Joy Joy Tangyuan you sent me, and I couldn't help but brag to him a few times."

"The key is that I also guaranteed to him that I would definitely let him eat it when he comes."

"This year, not only is he coming, but his son, daughter-in-law, and his grandson and granddaughter are all coming."

"I don't know if Xiao Cao is coming; she shows off her skills every time she goes to the countryside, either at their village head's house or the branch secretary's house."

"I only have two bags of Joy Tangyuan a day, and it's not enough for my own family, look at this..."

Qin Huai:...

Old branch secretary, you really have a way.

"Bring them all over together," Qin Huai said. "Actually, I probably know who the Carpenter Zhang you just mentioned is; before my dad opened the breakfast shop, he even bought molds from Carpenter Zhang."

"It's just that my dad lost contact information a long time ago. Actually, I also wanted to ask Carpenter Zhang to help me make a set of molds."

"Eat, the Joy Tangyuan are all-you-can-eat, and I'll make some other pastries then."

(End of chapter)