Chapter 331: Involution

When Qin Huai arrived at the canteen early, he was surprised to find that their canteen's two pastry chefs had already arrived for a long time.

The dough was kneaded, the filling was chopped, and even two pots of tea had been brewed. Seeing Qin Huai arrive, Pei Xing held the dough, and Li Hua held the filling, surrounding him together, opening their inquisitive eyes, eager to get pointers from Master Qin.

After Qin Huai gave pointers one by one, he walked to the cooking station and was surprised to find that besides the cutting board, kitchen utensils, condiments, ingredients, and the phone stand he used every day, there were also two fruit platters on the cooking station.

One fruit platter had a large quantity, and one fruit platter was exquisite.

Every fruit in the large-quantity fruit platter was big and plump, and its quality was on par with the fruit from Luo Jun's house.

In the exquisite fruit platter, all the fruits that could be cut were cut into small pieces, and the fruits that could be shaped were specially cut into shapes. Apple bunnies, sunflower oranges—placed in a KTV, they were all premium fruit platters, the kind that had to sell for at least 298 per portion.

Qin Huai gave Pei Xing and Li Hua a somewhat strange look.

What was wrong with his two pastry chefs today?

Just now, Qin Huai felt that the atmosphere between the two was wrong. These days, Pei Xing had been biting his teeth, and Qin Huai had seen him fighting wits and courage with Li Hua, An Youyou, and the air.

Qin Huai felt that this was entirely due to personality. Pei Xing just had this personality: bad at cooking but loves to play, competitive but can't compete, likes to compare but can't involute, so he could only bite his teeth silently every day, thinking that everyone couldn't see it, but in fact, everyone could see it.

Compared to Pei Xing's relatively jumpy personality, Li Hua was much more steady. He rarely cared, always involuting silently, involuting the other party to death. On this point, Qin Huai felt that Li Hua was more like a chef from Does Zhi Wei Ju than Pei Xing.

The relationship between the two had always been good.

Pei Xing loved to compare and wanted to win, but he could never win. Li Hua loved to involute and could involute, and he could always win.

Plus, the two often had to help Qin Huai with some chores and needed cooperation, so they communicated a lot. As colleagues, there was no conflict between them, and they got along harmoniously.

But today, well...

Qin Huai reached out and took a cherry from the large-quantity fruit platter, glanced at it calmly, and sure enough, he saw the joy on Pei Xing's face.

Immediately after, Qin Huai took a bite of an apple bunny from the exquisite fruit platter, looked at Li Hua nonchalantly, and sure enough, he also saw the unique pride and victory of a king of involution in his eyes as he pretended to be calm.

These two are... competing?

Qin Huai moved the fruit platters to the side. He didn't like eating fruit early in the morning. Usually, he ate fruit in the afternoon or evening when he went to Luo Jun's house for a tea party, where the fruit was complete.

"Is anyone relatively free today? Do you have time to help me prepare the ingredients for the Four Happiness Tangyuan? I'm only responsible for seasoning, and the remaining steps might need to trouble you. This morning I want to focus on practicing cold-dressed sea cucumber." Qin Huai said so, but his eyes were looking at both of them at the same time.

Pei Xing was good at kneading dough, and Li Hua was proficient in knife skills. If one of these two was missing, Qin Huai couldn't completely act as a hands-off boss and entrust all the chores of the Four Happiness Tangyuan.

"I, I have time!"

The two said in unison, looked at each other, and both saw the determination to win and involute the other party to death in the other's eyes.

"Master Qin, I really have time! I just happened to be unable to sleep and came early today, and the preliminary preparation work has long been finished!"

The two said in unison again.

Qin Huai couldn't help but exclaim in his heart that those from Does Zhi Wei Ju were really different. They could even do such a long script without a single word of difference, and the tone, expression, and pauses were almost exactly the same.

Professional, really professional.

Qin Huai showed the smile of a master chef: "Then today, I'll trouble you."

Although he didn't understand why Pei Xing and Li Hua suddenly started involuting, Qin Huai was quite adaptable; it was a habit he had developed when he was at Huang Ji before.

Leaving the chores to others, Qin Huai could seriously research sea cucumber.

Yesterday's cold-dressed sea cucumber wasn't very satisfactory. Cao Guixiang also said that the recipe for cold-dressed sea cucumber she gave Qin Huai was a secret recipe, and the difficulty was higher than ordinary cold-dressed sea cucumber. Qin Huai planned to make ordinary cold-dressed sea cucumber with a recipe that could be found online today to see how the ordinary difficulty was.

And then Qin Huai understood why a secret recipe was a secret recipe.

Although the secret recipe was difficult, it was delicious.

"So, am I not going to have to... eat these every day in the future?" Ouyang looked at the cold-dressed sea cucumber that filled a table and felt deep worry about his future. Sea cucumber... counts as a tonic, right?

Eating like this... can he still lose weight?

"Of course not." Qin Huai waved his hand to indicate how could he harm his brother like this. Drinking some duck soup, beef soup, and eating some unpalatable Four Happiness Tangyuan was enough. "I mainly called you over today to help me taste the flavor."

"Do you think it's not very good?" Qin Huai asked.

Ouyang nodded sincerely, pointing to the cold-dressed sea cucumber in front of him: "It's all mustard and soy sauce flavor, and it tastes a bit fishy."

"But it can't be said that it's not very good." Ouyang smacked his lips, "It's mainly because I don't like eating mustard, and it's normal for sea cucumber to have a bit of a fishy smell. My mom has this taste when she makes sea cucumber porridge, yours is still okay."

Qin Huai:...

Alright, he finally knew why Ouyang's taste was so tolerant; Ouyang's mother had made an indelible contribution.

Ouyang said it wasn't very good, which showed it was really not very good.

Qin Huai cleared all the cold-dressed sea cucumber on the table and made new ones. Sure enough, making ordinary cold-dressed sea cucumber couldn't practice sea cucumber processing skills; he still had to make the cold-dressed sea cucumber with the recipe Cao Guixiang gave.

Seeing that there was nothing for him to do, Ouyang got up and was about to return to the Xiao Ou Hand-Pounded Lemon Tea shop to continue making fruit tea, but before he had walked two steps, he was blocked by Xu Tuqiang who suddenly popped out.

As a well-known resident of Yunzhong Community, Ouyang naturally recognized the other party. Seeing the other party block him, he thought he wanted to go through the back door to buy fruit tea first, so without waiting for Xu Tuqiang to speak, he said directly:

"Grandpa Xu, our Xiao Ou Hand-Pounded Lemon Tea shop has very strict rules and regulations. Under normal circumstances, cutting in line is not allowed. But we are all in the same community, and we have known each other for so many years. When I was in the neighborhood committee before, you also supported the neighborhood committee's work quite a bit. How about this, what do you want to drink? I'll make it for you on an expedited basis. Are you in a hurry to see your daughter?"

Xu Tuqiang:?

When did he say he wanted to cut in line to buy milk tea?

"Mango No. 1 and Coconut No. 1." Xu Tuqiang cut in line first, then said the main point, "Xiao Ou, Grandpa Xu wants to ask you about something."

"Wang Laogen, ah no, Grandpa Wang, has he been eating crab roe noodles with you often recently?" Xu Tuqiang looked at Ouyang with burning eyes.

Ouyang didn't understand why Xu Tuqiang asked this, and nodded very naturally: "Yeah, Grandpa Wang has been eating crab roe noodles with us for the past two nights."

"Why?!" Xu Tuqiang's voice was full of incomprehension and jealousy, "Does he understand crab roe noodles? How did he get to eat at the same table as you guys?!"

Ouyang told the truth: "Grandpa Wang really understands quite a bit."

"I heard Qin Huai say that when Grandpa Wang was young, he ate a particularly awesome bun called double-crab bun. The version he ate has already been lost, no one knows how to make it, and Grandpa Wang ate the out-of-print version. Only he knows what that bun tastes like."

"So Qin Huai is actually making crab roe noodles specifically for Grandpa Wang now. Once Grandpa Wang eats it and nods that it's that flavor of crab roe sauce and there's no problem, Qin Huai will continue to make it."

Xu Tuqiang gasped.

Xu Tuqiang was first shocked, then jealous, very jealous, extremely jealous, then twisted, then put away the twist, put away the jealousy, gradually calmed down, fell into deep thought, and finally his eyes lit up.

Xu Tuqiang looked at Ouyang: "Xiao Ou, you just said it was double-crab bun, right?"

"Since it's double, besides crab, what else is there?"

Xu Tuqiang guessed that double-crab bun needed two ingredients just by the name.

"Seems like sea cucumber. Qin Huai has been researching sea cucumber these past few days, and he just called me over to taste cold-dressed sea cucumber."

"Sea cucumber, huh." Xu Tuqiang muttered, "I know."

Ouyang:...

Is it his hallucination? Why does he feel that Grandpa Xu wants to involute Grandpa Wang to death.

The competition between grandpas is really too intense.

Too sleepy, update a short chapter first, the rest will be made up tomorrow during the day.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 332 =====