Chapter 288: Master Xiao Qin will return like lightning

On March 8th, Qin Huai boarded a plane to Shancheng, carrying bags and luggage.

The 6 cutting boards and 3 sets of molds that Zhang Chu had made for him were all sent via mail, shipped out early in the morning.

To make it easier for Qin Huai to video call Cao Guixiang for online lessons while chopping, Zhang Chu used scrap materials to make him a wooden phone stand. He painted it and carved flowers on it, and there was even a small "Qin" character on the back of the stand.

Qin Huai didn't know how Zhang Chu managed it, but the phone stand was quite flexible; its only drawback was that it was a bit heavy. However, the weight was actually an advantage, as it wasn't easily knocked over by external forces.

Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu saw Qin Huai off at the airport.

"Master Cao, I'm going through security. I'll send you a message to let you know I'm safe once I land. Don't freeze the Four-Joy Tangyuan in the refrigerator for too long; after more than a week, the flavor will be far worse than before. The same goes for the Four-Joy Dumplings; they taste best when eaten fresh." Qin Huai waved goodbye to Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu.

Ever since he moved into Cao Guixiang's house to learn his craft, Qin Huai had basically never woken up early, but this morning, he had specifically gotten up early—at 4 o'clock—to spend the morning wrapping Four-Joy Tangyuan and Four-Joy Dumplings, making a sumptuous breakfast for Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu.

"Don't worry, they won't last long. With the appetites of Zhiyun and Qingqing, they'll finish them all in two or three days. The Four-Joy Tangyuan we brought home from your place on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year were finished by Zhiyun and Qingqing in one sitting." Cao Guixiang waved with a smile, "Don't practice chopping when you get home today; get some good rest."

"I know, Master Cao." Qin Huai waved again and went through security to board.

This time on the plane, Qin Huai didn't encounter Chen Gong in the seat next to him—there wasn't even anyone in the seat next to him.

It was clear that the airline's business wasn't very prosperous today.

With no one around, Qin Huai let himself go, opening the game panel to watch video tutorials. Among the video tutorials in the game panel, there were some Qin Huai had watched many times, and others he had basically never watched at all.

He had watched the video tutorials for things like Guo'er, Four-Joy Tangyuan, and San Ding Bao until he was sick of them.

Of course, there were some he didn't dare to watch, such as Rice Cake Soup; he could only watch it once, as he would remember it after two viewings.

But there were some recipes Qin Huai truly hadn't watched much, only occasionally once or twice, and he still couldn't make them after watching.

For example, Jiang Mi Rice Cakes and Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Buns.

To say something that would apologize to the Jiang Mi Rice Cakes and Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Buns, Qin Huai had watched the video for Stir-fried Cabbage with Pork more times than those two recipes. Sometimes, when Qin Huai didn't know what to do before bed, he would click on the Stir-fried Cabbage with Pork video tutorial and watch it once.

The video tutorial for Stir-fried Cabbage with Pork was very short, just a few minutes, but it was packed with solid information, and the key was that Qin Huai could actually understand it. When he didn't have the physical time to grind his heat control proficiency, he could only watch the video tutorial to grind his heat control proficiency in cyberspace.

As for the Jiang Mi Rice Cakes and Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Buns, they didn't belong to the tutorials to watch before bed. The latter was too difficult, and he couldn't do it even after watching; Qin Huai's finger techniques were only at the intermediate level, and he felt that even master-level finger techniques might not be able to make an S-rank Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Bun. If he wanted to look at some art, he could click on it to take a look.

As for the Jiang Mi Rice Cakes, it was purely because he hadn't gotten around to making them yet.

When Qin Huai was grinding Qu Jing's favorability, he had also practiced Jiang Mi Rice Cakes diligently for a period of time. Later, after going to Huang Ji for exchanges, he made them very rarely; occasionally, when sending snacks or rice cakes to Qu Jing, Zheng Siyuan would make them on his behalf (Zheng Siyuan made rice cakes better than Qin Huai).

The buff for Jiang Mi Rice Cakes only took effect at the A-rank, and Qin Huai was very clear about his own strength; he simply couldn't make A-rank Jiang Mi Rice Cakes, so he simply hadn't even watched the video tutorial much.

Sigh, it was he who had neglected the Jiang Mi Rice Cakes.

Qin Huai felt very guilty and decided to watch it a few more times on the plane.

And then, once he started watching, he couldn't stop.

This movement, this technique, this control of the steaming heat, this...

A master, definitely a master.

Eh, which chef made this Jiang Mi Rice Cake again?

Qin Huai glanced at the recipe,?.

Oh, that spirit he met by chance.

Really didn't expect that there would be such a culinary master among the spirits; sure enough, the masters are among the people.

Throughout the entire flight, Qin Huai was watching video tutorials, enjoying it so much that he didn't even eat the airplane meal. When he got off the plane, Qin Huai was still savoring the method for Jiang Mi Rice Cakes in the video tutorial, feeling his hands itch and wanting to make them.

Qin Huai decided that he would lie down for a day when he got home today and make Jiang Mi Rice Cakes tomorrow afternoon. He had been making Four-Joy Tangyuan for so long that he had dealt with glutinous rice quite a bit; Qin Huai was confident he could make B+ rank Jiang Mi Rice Cakes!

What, you ask why he wasn't confident he could make A-rank ones?

Because he really wasn't confident.

"Qin Huai! Old Qin! Godfather! Dad!"

At the airport entrance, Seeing Ouyang excitedly rushed toward Qin Huai; as the distance closed, the forms of address became increasingly intimate.

Qin Huai: "...... I've discovered that you really are becoming more and more shameless."

Being able to shout the latter two forms of address in public, Seeing Ouyang was increasingly showing the makings of a treacherous merchant, with a thick enough skin.

"Help me! Didn't you say at the beginning that you'd be back in two days? It's been over a week, and your brother here almost died!" Seeing Ouyang cried out with tears and snot, all thunder and no rain, his voice full of sobbing, but there wasn't a single tear in his eyes.

"What's the situation? Didn't your grandfather already get discharged from the hospital? I see you're not missing any arms or legs, your dad didn't beat you half to death, and didn't your uncle and aunt not blame you? You're the man who sent his whole family to the hospital on New Year's Eve." Qin Huai laughed.

"They didn't beat me half to death, but buddy, I'm already about to be poor to death." Seeing Ouyang looked stubbornly at the sky, because only then would his tears not fall, "I even borrowed Sister Hong's car to pick you up this time, and I don't even have money for gas."

"By the way, Sister Hong asked me to tell you to meet at Mr. Luo's house at 4 PM; she has something to ask you."

Qin Huai understood in a second: tea party.

After holding online tea parties for several months, they could finally hold an offline one. This fruit only tasted sweet when eaten at Luo Jun's house; the fruit Luo Jun specifically mailed to Qin Family Village always felt like it lacked a bit of flavor to Qin Huai.

Qin Huai followed Seeing Ouyang toward the parking lot, asking as he walked: "Your being poor to death shouldn't have anything to do with me, right? Isn't your poverty because you quit your job at the neighborhood committee and have no salary, and your parents stopped your card and won't give you extra pocket money?"

"That's right, buddy is now counting on the opening of the hand-beaten lemon tea shop to get some blood back. My dad said that if the shop doesn't open, he won't give me a single cent."

"Then how much money did he give you for the opening?"

"A 200,000 loss fund."

Qin Huai:...... Sometimes I really want to fight you rich second generations.

For a moment, Qin Huai suddenly didn't want to give Seeing Ouyang the fruit tea recipe that Cao Guixiang had written for him.

"Are the staff for your hand-beaten lemon tea shop ready?" Qin Huai asked.

"Ready, one full-time worker, 4 college students, enough to use."

"I have a question, do you mind taking the high-end route?" Qin Huai asked.

Seeing Ouyang:?

Hand-beaten lemon tea can also take a high-end route?

The two walked to Chen Huihong's Bentley, put in the luggage, and got in the car. Seeing Ouyang set the navigation route before asking not very understandingly: "Why take the high-end route?"

"It's like this, haven't I been learning my craft these past few days? The master teaching me heard you were opening a hand-beaten lemon tea shop and was very enthusiastic, giving me a few fruit tea recipes she researched herself. I've looked at the recipes; they are very simple and easy to get started with, but the cost is very high, and the requirements for the quality of sugar, tea, fruit, and fruit juice are all very high; you absolutely cannot pass off inferior goods as superior ones."

"Methods like mixing two spoons of cheap saccharin and shaving off the rotten parts of rotten fruit to make fruit juice absolutely cannot be used for this recipe."

"According to this recipe, the cost of each cup of fruit tea is about 8 to 15 yuan." "If you want to sell it, you might have to sell it for over 30 yuan a cup, and the portion can't be particularly large either."

"Forget it, I can't explain it clearly to you like this. Your shop should already be renovated, the instruments and everything are there, and you should have bought some materials. Later, I'll go to Mr. Luo's house to swipe some fruit, and I'll make you two cups according to the recipe to taste, and you'll know."

For the sake of Seeing Ouyang's hand-beaten lemon tea career, the first thing Qin Huai did after entering the Yunzhong residential area wasn't to take his luggage home, but to let Seeing Ouyang help him put away his luggage while he headed straight to Luo Jun's house to swipe fruit according to the recipe Cao Guixiang wrote.

Cao Guixiang specifically noted on the recipe that if you can use fresh fruit, don't use fruit juice; the most important thing about her fruit tea is the freshness of the materials.

Under Luo Jun's eye-rolling, Qin Huai returned fully loaded with two large bags of fruit.

The moment Qin Huai closed the door and left, Luo Jun, who had been sitting on the sofa watching TV the whole time without moving his butt, shouted at the top of his lungs: "Xiao Zhang, count the fruit Qin Huai just picked, and buy two boxes of each!"

Qin Huai carried the two large bags of fruit and headed straight to Seeing Ouyang's hand-beaten lemon tea shop.

It could only be said that Seeing Ouyang's investigation in Gusu some time ago wasn't without value; he had learned the essence of decorating a hand-beaten lemon tea shop—painting the storefront green.

It would have been even better if this green wasn't emerald green but dark green; I don't know what Seeing Ouyang was thinking, but the storefront was a bit too brightly green.

Seeing Ouyang's hand-beaten lemon tea shop was right across from the Yunzhong Canteen, named "Xiao Ou Hand-beaten Lemon Tea," a very plain and unadorned shop name.

The shop wasn't big, and Qin Huai vaguely remembered that this shop used to be a coffee shop, selling cheap coffee, with coffee ranging from 9.9 to 29.9 yuan. Chen Huihong had complained to Qin Huai that the 9.9 yuan coffee in this coffee shop was just made by diluting a coffee concentrate that cost less than two yuan on Taobao, an absolutely black-hearted merchant, and told Qin Huai to avoid the minefield and never buy it.

By the way, Luo Jun had also left a bad review for this coffee shop's takeout, and it was said that he cursed very filthily; that bad review alone had over 700 likes, all from other merchants.

Merchants who had been cursed by Luo Jun loved to do one thing: like the bad reviews Luo Jun left for other merchants.

Qin Huai couldn't understand; Luo Jun was already 92, his daily routine wasn't normal, so why did he need to drink coffee, and 9.9 yuan coffee at that?

It could only be said that ordering all kinds of takeout and then leaving bad reviews was Old Man Luo's hobby.

There were no staff in the hand-beaten lemon tea shop; Seeing Ouyang didn't want to pay extra wages before opening, so after the basic training was done, Seeing Ouyang let the employees wait for notice at home/school.

It was clear that Seeing Ouyang was very cautious this time in starting a business to avoid losing money.

Qin Huai roughly looked over the renovation and found that it was okay. The shop wasn't big to begin with, and besides the operation counter, there were only two small tables and four chairs in the shop.

At first glance, the operation counter was very clean, and the instruments and everything were in full view; it was a very normal milk tea shop configuration.

Seeing Ouyang was already prepared.

Cao Guixiang wrote 4 fruit tea recipes for Qin Huai, named according to the raw materials: Strawberry Fruit Tea, Blueberry Fruit Tea, Mango Fruit Tea, and Coconut Beverage.

Among them, the main raw materials for the Coconut Beverage were coconut milk and a famous brand of coconut juice; according to Cao Guixiang, it was because Zhang Zhiyun loved drinking this brand of coconut juice for a period of time, and Cao Guixiang, in order to let her grandson drink better, figured out this Coconut Beverage.

Seeing Ouyang looked at the recipe and was stunned, pointing at the Coconut Beverage recipe and asking: "This... really... can be sold?"

How did he feel like it was just diluting one drink with another?

"Don't worry about it, just make it." Qin Huai said calmly, starting to make the Strawberry Fruit Tea.

Fresh strawberries mashed, added with ice and beaten into a smoothie, added with sugar, added with water, and then poured into a certain famous brand of green tea.

As for Seeing Ouyang, he was diluting this with that, diluting that with this.

Making the Coconut Beverage gave him the feeling of playing house and cooking when he was a child.

Seeing Ouyang carefully studied the recipe Cao Guixiang gave again and found that except for the Mango Fruit Tea, which was very normal and truly used good materials, requiring fresh fruit pulp, fresh fruit juice, good quality sugar, and tea water brewed from specified varieties of tea leaves, the other three recipes were not very normal.

They were all diluting this with that, diluting that with this.

It didn't look like a recipe written by a culinary master; it looked like a recipe written by a beverage expert who was proficient in drinking beverages.

"Qin Huai, is this recipe really a recipe?" Seeing Ouyang was confused.

Seeing Ouyang felt that if these fruit tea recipes were good recipes, then his innovative recipes for hand-beaten lemon tea were also very good.

The raw materials were also very rich, and it was also diluting this with that; the most critical thing was that he also had hand-beaten lemon!

"Don't worry about it, just make it." Qin Huai said without raising his head, "Just tell me if the cost is high or not."

Fresh fruit pulp added with all kinds of expensive drinks and diluted wildly, how could the cost be low?

When Qin Huai and Seeing Ouyang were making fruit tea, the shop door was wide open. Sitting by the window of the Yunzhong Canteen, looking at the street outside, Xu Tuqiang, who was holding his phone and hesitating whether to send a message to Qin Huai, looked at the opposite side very sadly.

Why hasn't Master Xiao Qin returned yet?

Didn't he say he would return after the New Year? It's already March, where is he?

He didn't go to Gusu either, which made their Gusu house-buying group what to do.

Xu Tuqiang looked at the opposite side sadly, feeling that he might have had a hallucination from sadness; how did he feel that in Seeing Ouyang's hand-beaten lemon tea shop that hadn't opened yet, the young man in the operation counter looked like Master Xiao Qin.

Wait, Master Xiao Qin!

Xu Tuqiang looked around calmly and found that no one cared about him, so he stood up silently, muttering in a low voice: "Where are my cigarettes?"

He left with superb acting skills.

In the hand-beaten lemon tea shop, the three types of premium fruit tea had already been diluted.

Seeing Ouyang held the Coconut Beverage, preparing to drink, but before drinking, he had to ask what this thing was called.

Before Seeing Ouyang could open his mouth, Xu Tuqiang flashed into the shop.

"Master Xiao Qin!" Xu Tuqiang's pleasantly surprised voice pierced the sky, "You're back, why didn't you say anything in the group? I've written a lot of eating experiences for the Four-Joy Tangyuan, just waiting for you to come back to give them to you!"

"Old Man Xu, good afternoon." Qin Huai smiled and handed the Strawberry Fruit Tea in his hand to Xu Tuqiang, "Just got off the plane; Seeing Ouyang's hand-beaten lemon tea shop is opening tomorrow, so I came over to help him test the recipe."

"You should also help taste it."

Xu Tuqiang took the iced Strawberry Fruit Tea and, in this season in early March when one still had to wear a cotton-padded jacket, drank a large mouthful very decisively.

"Good... eh, it's really good." Xu Tuqiang was shocked; he was prepared to praise it mindlessly to support the scene, but he didn't need to praise it mindlessly; it was truly good.

Xu Tuqiang smacked his lips, temporarily took back the praise words he had practiced during the entire New Year, and took another small mouthful: "Xiao Ou, not bad, you learned real skills in Gusu."

Seeing Ouyang:?

Old Man Xu, are you acting or is this real? You're acting quite real.

Seeing Ouyang took a mouthful of the Coconut Beverage.

"Holy crap."

"Am I going to get rich?!"

Five minutes later, the news that Master Xiao Qin had returned like lightning and was currently in Seeing Ouyang's Xiao Ou Hand-beaten Lemon Tea shop testing new products with Seeing Ouyang, welcoming new and old customers to come and taste, spread throughout the circle of diners in the Yunzhong Canteen.

The office workers were all stirred up, feeling that life finally had hope.

Luo Jun, who saw the news of Qin Huai's return:?

You surnamed Qin, are you still coming to my house at 4 PM for the tea party?

You're not coming after swiping the fruit, right? That fruit platter Zhang Shumei cut wasn't cut in vain.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 289 =====