Chapter 347

That night, Qin Huai had a rare dream where he spent the whole night cutting radishes again.

He dreamed that the Earth was ruled by a group of alien rabbits, and all humans were captured to cut radishes. These rabbits had particularly high demands: they either wanted radish slices as thin as cicada wings that could transmit light, or they wanted a large quantity of shredded radish with consistent thickness.

If the radishes weren't cut well, one would be dragged out and eaten. To save his life, Qin Huai cut radishes day and night in his dream. Because his technique wasn't good enough to cut radish slices as thin as cicada wings that could transmit light, he could only cut large quantities of shredded radish.

Qin Huai cut until he hated it so much he gritted his teeth, very envious of those highly skilled radish-cutting workers who could cut qualified radish slices. But no matter how he practiced, he just couldn't cut qualified radish slices; the harder he tried, the more miserable he felt, and the harder he tried, the more helpless he became.

Cutting until the end, Qin Huai faced the mountain of shredded radish, looked up to the sky, and let out a roar:

"I want to cut radish slices as thin as cicada wings that can transmit light!"

And then Qin Huai woke up.

At the moment he woke up, Qin Huai felt that the shout in his dream was still ringing in his ears, lingering, and he was completely dazed.

Qin Huai reached for his phone on the bedside table and glanced at the time.

11:42!

Damn it, it's almost noon.

On the first day of returning to Master Cao's house for advanced training, he overslept and slept until 11:42 AM. This behavior, if not "deserving of death," was at least "apologizing with death."

It was too outrageous; Qin Huai didn't expect such a presumptuous thing to happen to him. Even if he did go to bed a bit late last night, he shouldn't have slept until past 11 today.

Qin Huai got up at light speed, changed his clothes, and rushed out of the room. Back when he was in high school and overslept because he didn't hear his alarm, waking up with only 10 minutes left before class, in a life-and-death race where he pedaled his bicycle so fast it almost sparked, Qin Huai's speed had never been this fast.

While rushing out of the room, Qin Huai didn't forget to tidy his hair so it didn't look like a "bird's nest" from just waking up.

Zhang Chu and Cao Guixiang were both in the living room; hearing movement in the room, they knew Qin Huai was awake and poked their heads out together. Before Qin Huai could run to the living room and start apologizing, Cao Guixiang said with a smile:

"Xiao Qin, no need to rush. We're eating late today. Last night, Grandpa Zhang and I both went to bed late and didn't wake up until 10 this morning; we just finished breakfast."

"It's not even 12 o'clock yet, and I haven't even cooked the dishes. See if you want to eat some breakfast like us to pad your stomach, and skip lunch and afternoon snacks to eat dinner directly, or wait until two or three o'clock for us to eat lunch together?"

"The high-quality stock is already simmered, and the ingredients are all prepped; it'll be fast once we actually start cooking."

"At noon, I'll make one big dish and stir-fry two small dishes for you to eat casually, and we'll have a big meal in the evening. Yunyun and Qingqing won't come until the evening; they still have to go to school during the day."

Zhang Chu was still holding a bowl with an unfinished Four-Joy Tangyuan in it and echoed: "Right, Xiao Qin, see how you want to eat. Your Grandma Cao and I can't eat much more; this tangyuan is too filling. I just ate two extra buns, and I've been eating this bowl of tangyuan since 11 o'clock and still haven't finished it."

Cao Guixiang gave Zhang Chu a sharp look: "Thinking you're still a teenager, eating so many carbs early in the morning? Don't look at how old you are. 'Just ate two extra buns'—you clearly ate a fermented rice bun, two San-Ding buns, and then wanted to eat Four-Joy Tangyuan. I told you not to eat it, not to eat it; I could have just left the two I couldn't finish for you, but you insisted on eating, causing me to not finish my bowl either."

Zhang Chu felt aggrieved: "But Guixiang, if you're going to leave leftovers, leave the hundred-fruit filling and sesame sugar filling ones for me; I don't really like those two fillings either."

Qin Huai:...

Since neither of them likes them, why not just cook the meat filling and red bean paste filling ones when boiling? The tangyuan he wrapped this time had four fillings wrapped in four shapes, very easy to distinguish.

Or perhaps Master Cao has the basic obsessive-compulsive disorder of a chef, where every serving of Four-Joy Tangyuan must have 4 flavors boiled at once.

Just as Qin Huai showed a confused expression, he realized his focus was wrong. He rushed out to apologize immediately, not to change the topic to why Four-Joy Tangyuan must be boiled in four flavors at once because of Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu's words.

"Master Cao, Grandpa Zhang, I'm really sorry. I didn't expect myself to oversleep until this hour today. Last night was too late, and I forgot to set an alarm. I don't know what the situation is, maybe..." Qin Huai immediately started apologizing, his expression sincere and his language earnest.

Cao Guixiang waved her hand dismissively: "It's very normal. Practicing knife skills until so late last night, I'd be worried if you didn't sleep until this hour."

"Right, right." Zhang Chu echoed, "When I was young and went out to work with my master, sometimes the employer needed things urgently and we had to rush the work. We'd work until the middle of the night by kerosene lamp, and the next day we'd sleep until the sun was high; sometimes we'd even sleep until sunset. It's normal."

"Xiao Qin, are you going to eat later or eat some breakfast to pad your stomach? If you're eating breakfast, I'll go boil some tangyuan for you." Zhang Chu asked.

"Just eat something casual to pad it; no need to trouble Master Cao to specifically make me lunch. It's just right to save my appetite for the evening." Since Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu had already said this much, Qin Huai could only take the cue and stop mentioning the apology.

Zhang Chu put down his bowl and went to the kitchen to boil Four-Joy Tangyuan for Qin Huai, while Qin Huai went to the bathroom to wash up and then eat breakfast.

Qin Huai ate the A-grade Four-Joy Tangyuan without much taste, his heart still regretting why he woke up so late today—it was too presumptuous—while also savoring the absurd and bizarre dream from the night before, as well as the absurd and bizarre vegetable cutting from yesterday.

He was completely absent-minded while eating breakfast, not even noticing when Cao Guixiang walked to his side.

"Don't be absent-minded while eating. Tangyuan is made of glutinous rice; it's easy to choke if you're not focused." Cao Guixiang reminded him softly.

Qin Huai hurriedly chewed and swallowed the tangyuan in his mouth, then said embarrassedly: "Sorry, Master Cao, I won't do it again."

"Apologizing again. The first sentence you said this morning was 'sorry,' and now you're saying 'sorry' again. Xiao Qin, why do I feel like you've become distant from us this time you came back? Are there so many things worth apologizing for?"

Qin Huai hurriedly explained: "I'm not, I just..."

"Just what? Feeling that you're 'soft-mouthed from eating others' food and short-handed from taking others' things'? You're eating and taking, and you feel very embarrassed in front of me, your Master Cao, and Grandpa Zhang."

"Or do you feel that your knife skills are progressing very slowly, and you're sorry for the online classes I give you every day? Or perhaps you feel that I've suddenly become very enthusiastic during this period, and you don't know what I'm thinking, giving you secret recipes one moment and teaching you thickening the next, and you can't figure out what I want to do."

"I..." Qin Huai opened his mouth, not knowing what else he could say. Cao Guixiang had summarized it very accurately, so he could only nod, "A bit of all of them."

"I just feel that Master Cao, you and I are not related, and you are really too good to me, making me not know how to..."

If Zheng Da's initiative was because he wanted to take Qin Huai as an apprentice, and Huang Shengli's enthusiasm was because of the connection with Zheng Da and Huang Shengli's own personality, then Cao Guixiang was truly a bit too proactive and enthusiastic.

So proactive that in a system-novel, it would be hard not to suspect that she also had a system and was currently issuing system tasks to increase Qin Huai's favorability.

"So you got up early and made two whole big boxes of pastries to bring over, covering our family's breakfast for half a month." Cao Guixiang joked and waved her hand, "Don't have psychological burdens, and don't have those messy thoughts like 'Master Cao is so good to me, if I don't learn it, if I don't learn fast, I'll be sorry to Master Cao'."

Qin Huai nodded, eating tangyuan. "I, your Master Cao, am not completely selfless. I actually quite want to take you as an apprentice."

Qin Huai almost choked to death on the tangyuan.

"Don't get excited, I only 'quite' want to." Cao Guixiang said, "The day you told me you felt you had a talent for thickening, after I saw your thickening, I admit I was really tempted."

"Last night, when you practiced knife skills and maintained that state for so long, I was even more tempted."

"But this morning, when I ate the Four-Joy Tangyuan you made, I thought about it carefully and found that there was no need for this."

"Your Four-Joy Tangyuan is delicious; you are a pure pastry chef, and I am a pure savory chef. And I feel you are a bit like me; we are both talented but our ambitions don't lie here."

"When I was a chef, I only worked until I was in my 30s. I felt that I had earned enough money and could use the remaining time to accompany my children, so I retired and went home. Even if the boss offered a higher price, promised to buy me a house, give me shops, and give me shares, I didn't continue being a chef."

"I think you might be better than me, at least you can work until you're about 50."

"If I take you as an apprentice, I will have expectations for you. I will look forward to you achieving higher accomplishments in this industry, I will hope you put all your time and energy into the work of a chef, I might hope you become a top chef, hope you become a pure chef, hope you reach the peak in this industry, hope you shine and radiate heat, just like every parent who hopes their child can get first place in the grade and hopes for their child to become a dragon."

"But this is unfair to you."

"Because your ambitions might not lie here, and I cannot impose these things on you just because of my own delight in discovering talent."

"Just like when I insisted on giving up my job at the state-run restaurant to go to the countryside for Old Zhang, my master and senior fellow apprentices actually didn't understand. Everyone persuaded me for a long time; they felt that if I stayed in Beiping and stayed at the state-run restaurant, I would definitely become an outstanding female chef, and even become the best female chef in the country, but I insisted on going, and in the end, they respected my choice."

"I know you definitely wouldn't want to apprentice, and it's even more impossible for you to give up pastry to switch to savory cooking, nor is it possible for you to ignore pastry to focus on practicing savory cooking. So I feel I should respect your choice just like my master and senior fellow apprentices respected mine back then, even if you actually don't need to make these choices at all."

Cao Guixiang saw Qin Huai's somewhat dazed expression and burst into laughter: "Do you think your Master Cao is particularly strange, suddenly babbling so much to you? It could be 'playing hard to get' or 'retreating to advance.' The purpose of saying these words is to make you take the initiative to propose apprenticing to me, so it's not me proposing it, but you wanting to apprentice."

Qin Huai:...

Cao Guixiang had said all the words, both black and white; what could he say?

At this moment, Qin Huai felt that his master-level lying wasn't quite enough; the skill level needed to be raised further. He actually had moments where he was at a loss for words.

"No, no, I didn't mean that." Qin Huai could only say this.

"I said these words as a setup, so that what I'm about to do won't seem so outrageous."

Cao Guixiang took out her phone and sent a file to Qin Huai.

A very simple and unadorned plain-text file, not even a table, because she didn't know how to make tables.

Qin Huai clicked on the file and opened his eyes wide after seeing the first line of text clearly.

This is... Tan Weian's "treasure bag" equivalent.

It's all recipes.

All kinds of cold dishes, hot dishes, drinks, and pastries. Qin Huai saw some he recognized, such as Braised Shark Fin, Clear Soup Official Bird's Nest, and Abalone with Oyster Sauce. There were also many he didn't recognize, such as Braised Vegetarian with Tremella, Clear Soup Willow Leaf Bird's Nest, and Three-Shredded Shark Fin.

There were big dishes that looked expensive at a glance, and also home-style dishes eaten daily; even the recipes for Tomato Scrambled Eggs and Garlic Water Spinach were inside.

"Many of the recipes in the front are our Tan family recipes. If I just give you the recipes, you probably won't know how to make them, but these are all very good formulas. You don't need to learn them all; you can learn many cooking techniques from these formulas, especially the technique of simmering stock. I remember you also need high-quality stock for making pastries."

"Many of the recipes in the back are my insights from cooking over these years. Actually, the cooking difficulty of home-style dishes is no lower than these top-tier big dishes. These big dishes just have expensive ingredients and are cumbersome; many use gorgeous ingredients to pile up rich flavors. But often, simple home-style dishes are the best way to test a chef's level. Many cooking techniques need to be practiced from these home-style dishes."

"You cannot pass on the Tan family recipes in the front. These are not my recipes; these are recipes left behind by my master, my master's master, and even earlier predecessors who painstakingly studied them generation after generation. These recipes are not mine; I just happened to learn them."

"But you can teach the recipes and some techniques I summarized in the back to others, whether it's the staff in your canteen or friends you have a good relationship with, such as Xiao Tan, Xiao Zheng, and Xiao Zang. Chefs need to communicate with each other, but often you can't wait for others to take the initiative; you have to take the initiative to start it first so others can feel your sincerity."

"I know, according to what's written in TV dramas and everyone's traditional understanding, these seemingly top-secret things should be written on letter paper or in private little notebooks and sealed. But based on my years of experience as a chef, these paper things are very easy to damage; it's not as reliable as just writing them into a document and sending it to you for you to save on the cloud."

"How about it? The setup I just gave you was okay, right? Do you feel that the document Master Cao sent you isn't that outrageous now?" Cao Guixiang said with a smile.

Qin Huai didn't know what to say for a moment.

This was a "treasure bag" more valuable than Tan Weian's, but Tan Weian's treasure bag was a family heirloom passed down by his grandfather. His treasure bag had fallen from the sky, actively given to him by Master Cao, whom he had only known for a few months.

Qin Huai could only show a helpless smile that was somewhat between a fake smile and a bitter smile. His lips moved, and he couldn't organize his language for a moment. He stared at the document for a long time before slowly saying:

"Master Cao, I really want to apprentice to you as my master now."

Cao Guixiang shook her head: "Absolutely not. I don't want to become the kind of master I hate most, forcing an apprentice to do things they don't want to do."

"However," Cao Guixiang paused, "you can call me Master without apprenticing."

"There are many kinds of apprentices, and there can be many kinds of masters; a master in name is also a master."

"Alright, Master!" Qin Huai said loudly, "Master, I don't know why, but I really want to learn thickening now!"

"Normal. I know you really want to learn, but don't think about it yet. Your top priority now is to cut another 200 jin of radishes to consolidate the state you were in last night."

"The radishes are in the kitchen, and Grandpa Zhang has already washed them for you. You can go cut them after you finish eating."

"Alright, Master!"

(End of chapter)