Chapter 363

Xu Nuo accompanied Shi Dadan all the way to his residence before turning back.

Shi Dadan also lived in the cotton mill's staff dormitory, though only in a single room. It was just a standard small room of about 10 square meters, with very simple furniture, nothing that could be called a home appliance, and no private bathroom. At first glance, it didn't even look as good as Xu Nuo's room.

However, Shi Dadan clearly didn't care about this. As long as he could have carbs at every meal, he could sleep under a bridge, let alone having a single room to live in now; what was there to be dissatisfied about?

After returning to his room, Shi Dadan's first priority was to wash his lunchbox, then wash his face, change his clothes (into another set of work uniforms), and sit cross-legged on the bed to read his elementary school textbook.

Shi Dadan barely managed to read a few pages by the sunset before falling into a drowsy state, his eyelids beginning to fight each other. With almost no hesitation, Shi Dadan turned on the radio, turned the volume to the minimum, lay down, closed his eyes, and went to sleep.

In less than a minute, the sound of snoring began.

Qin Huai:... Impressive.

There's no criticizing this; this is truly impressive. It's also Shi Dadan's good fortune that during his first life's tribulation, he ran into Xu Nuo, a reincarnated spirit creature, who helped arrange work and provided him with food and drink.

Otherwise, with this brother's relaxed state, entering the city would be out of the question; if he wanted to be himself, he could only be a wild man in the mountains. If he lived long enough, he might even be discovered by local villagers and reporters decades later and filmed for a few episodes of *Approaching Science*.

Shi Dadan, with his excellent sleep quality, slept almost until dawn. Qin Huai's range of activity this time was very small; he just stayed in Shi Dadan's room watching him sleep all night, even counting how many times he turned over.

After waking up, Shi Dadan first washed and hung out the dirty clothes he had changed out of yesterday, then packed his lunchbox into his satchel and happily went to work.

Shi Dadan left home very early. Although there was no clock in his room to check the time, Qin Huai estimated he left before 7:00. The textile mill's dormitory and residential areas were not far from the factory, taking at most 20 minutes to walk there. Shi Dadan leaving for work at this time was definitely arriving early.

Qin Huai followed behind Shi Dadan, watching him walk into the textile mill early, familiar with the path. The security guard on duty at the gate was also accustomed to him coming to work so early. Shi Dadan didn't go to the motorcade but headed straight for the canteen warehouse; he even had the key to the canteen warehouse.

Qin Huai watched Shi Dadan open the warehouse door and take a bucket and a ladle.

Qin Huai:???

Then Qin Huai watched Shi Dadan carry the bucket straight to the water tank, draw water, and then carry a full bucket of water to the nearby vegetable plot, starting to diligently water and farm.

At this moment, Qin Huai had to sigh and say, it really was a perfect professional match.

As a child who grew up farming at the Sanmalu Children's Welfare Academy, Qin Huai could judge with his very seasoned experience that Shi Dadan didn't know how to farm at all.

The water was basically poured randomly, a little here and a little there, entirely based on his mood, and weeding was also very casual. But Qin Huai had to admit that all the vegetables in the plots Shi Dadan watered grew exceptionally well, each one trying its absolute best to grow, full of vitality.

The Dang Kang's auspicious beast buff was indeed a bit too much of a cheat.

While Shi Dadan was watering, the canteen staff arrived for work one after another. By the time he finished the work in the fields, the fragrance of breakfast was already wafting from the canteen. Shi Dadan finished the farm work just in time and went into the canteen to get his meal with his small satchel on his back.

A light breakfast: two meal tickets for two portions of food, extremely thick bean and grain porridge and corn buns, plus two large vegetable buns gifted by the canteen master.

Qin Huai watched Shi Dadan finish his breakfast like a whirlwind, wash his lunchbox clean, and then happily go to work with his satchel on his back.

Xu Nuo was right; Shi Dadan was very cautious when driving. Even if there were no pedestrians on the road, Shi Dadan's driving speed was not fast, and before setting off, he would indeed carefully check the vehicle, verify the destination and cargo list, and listen to all directions and watch all sides while driving, almost carving the word "cautious" into his bones.

It was no wonder the motorcade captain took a liking to Shi Dadan.

Today, Shi Dadan was helping the meat processing plant deliver goods to the production team. Qin Huai overheard a bit before setting off; it seemed the meat processing plant didn't have enough drivers and came to the textile mill to borrow someone. This situation seemed quite common.

The delivery route was also simple: first drive to the meat processing plant to load the goods, then go to the production team, and return empty. Shi Dadan didn't delay on the road, set off early, and didn't stay at the production team for lunch, instead just stuffing a few white flour steamed buns in his pocket and returning, leaving himself plenty of time to catch crabs.

Friends with experience in catching crabs know that unless the creatures are truly overflowing from the river, under normal circumstances, you have to fish for them like fishing, or use a crab basket.

The Dang Kang clearly didn't belong to normal circumstances, and a Dang Kang that hadn't failed its tribulation and was in its complete form belonged even less.

Shi Dadan brought two bamboo baskets; he had found these in the canteen warehouse that morning, picking out the two largest ones.

Then Qin Huai saw him find a relatively remote stream with clear water where you couldn't see crabs with the naked eye, and carry the two bamboo baskets to the side of the stream.

Placing the bamboo baskets in the stream, Shi Dadan returned to the truck to sit and wait, eating his steamed buns while waiting.

Qin Huai wanted to go to the stream to see, but the distance wasn't enough to see, so he could only stand by the truck and wait for Shi Dadan to finish his buns.

After finishing his buns, Shi Dadan didn't move, probably thinking the sunlight was nice enough for a nap, so he leaned back against the seat and dozed off comfortably.

Qin Huai:...

Not like this, brother, is this how you catch crabs? Just throwing the bamboo baskets into the water without putting any bait or anything inside, is this reasonable?

Half an hour later, Shi Dadan proved to Qin Huai with actual actions that it was very reasonable.

Waking up from his short nap, Shi Dadan stretched comfortably, walked leisurely off the truck, and headed toward the stream. Qin Huai had long been impatient and rushed to the front in one stride, only to be stunned at a single glance.

The two bamboo baskets that were empty half an hour ago were now stuffed full of fish, shrimp, and crabs.

Qin Huai:???

Damn, suddenly I really want to go sea fishing with Shi Dadan. Qin Huai suddenly understood why Shi Dadan liked sea fishing so much, going out to sea to fish every few days.

If he were Shi Dadan, he would also find it hard not to like sea fishing. What kind of god-like experience is this? A darling of nature indeed.

Shi Dadan fished out the two bamboo baskets and picked and chose as if it were a common occurrence.

No fish, no shrimp, no crabs that were too small, and no crabs that didn't look fat and beautiful. Even during the process of him pulling up the baskets, the fish, shrimp, and crabs inside didn't run away, letting him pick and choose, so well-behaved it was simply outrageous.

At this moment, Qin Huai finally understood why Shi Dadan told Xu Nuo yesterday that his predecessor said there was only one tribulation, so he had to cherish the opportunity to eat more good food in the human world.

According to the concepts of the Sentient Dao and Heartless Dao summarized by Chen Huihong, a Dang Kang, an auspicious beast that is relatively not very smart and also doesn't like to think, is clearly very suitable for walking the Heartless Dao.

As long as I don't enter the world, everything is easy to talk about. I never thought about being human, nor have I ever integrated into humanity, so the tribulation will naturally be very simple.

And for many ordinary and weak spirit creatures, the most severe survival problem is not a problem for the Dang Kang. With such a buff, the possibility of starving to death simply doesn't exist. As long as you want to and aren't picky about the quality of food, burrowing into deep mountains and old forests, living for ten or twenty years and passing the tribulation is simply easy.

According to this tribulation logic, Shi Dadan's tribulation is indeed considered difficult.

He could have followed his predecessors and walked the Heartless Dao, coming to the human world for a stroll like most plant spirit creatures and successfully passing the tribulation. But he was very lucky, and also very unlucky, to have met Xu Nuo, who was also a spirit creature. Xu Nuo brought him into the human world, yet he didn't completely integrate.

Luo Jun was indeed not wrong; the difficulty of a spirit creature's tribulation is relative. Shi Dadan's tribulation seems not very high in difficulty, but for a Dang Kang, this difficulty is already quite high.

Shi Dadan picked and chose, finally selecting half a basket of fat, beautiful crabs, put the bamboo baskets on the truck, and returned.

After returning to the motorcade, Shi Dadan rarely did something not very honest, using the excuse that the meat processing plant was looking for him to sign a receipt to slip away early, and then openly carried the bamboo baskets and ran toward Xu Nuo's house.

Running wildly all the way, like a wild boar charging.

When he ran to the downstairs of Xu Nuo's house, he was seen by several middle-aged women chatting while washing clothes. The women were also accustomed to this scene, signaled to each other with their eyes, and then complained:

"Look, Xu Nuo is tricking the fool for things again."

Qin Huai:...

Fine, in a sense, Xu Nuo really is a victim of public opinion.

When Shi Dadan arrived at Xu Nuo's house, Xu Nuo was kneading dough. Seeing Shi Dadan come, he asked: "Off work so early today?"

Shi Dadan gave a silly laugh: "Found an excuse to slip away, Brother Liu didn't notice."

Qin Huai:... Brother Liu noticed, he just couldn't be bothered to expose him.

Xu Nuo didn't speak, pointing to the kitchen: "Perfect, I've minced the meat once, help me mince it again. Mince it however you want, just use force, mince it into meat paste, the finer the better."

When it comes to mincing meat, sometimes you can achieve miracles with great force.

Shi Dadan nodded, indicating he understood, walked into the kitchen, and started mincing the meat, using extra force, making the cutting board thud loudly. Qin Huai was afraid Shi Dadan would shatter Xu Nuo's cutting board today.

With such great force, it's a pity not to go make hand-beaten beef balls.

Qin Huai didn't enter the kitchen, staying in the living room to watch Xu Nuo knead the dough.

In all fairness, Xu Nuo's dough-kneading technique was really not bad. Qin Huai even felt Xu Nuo's technique was better than his own, a standard, mature, white-case master with many years of rich experience.

His dough-kneading movements were very beautiful.

Qin Huai watched from the side, somewhat mesmerized, even wanting to learn, and as he watched Xu Nuo knead the dough, his own hands couldn't help but move along.

In all fairness, Xu Nuo was not the highest-level dim sum master Qin Huai had seen in his memories; both Master Jing and Jiang Chengde's levels were much better than Xu Nuo's. But Xu Nuo might be the dim sum master closest to Qin Huai's level, and slightly higher than him. Qin Huai could completely understand Xu Nuo's steps and ideas, which was why he watched most seriously and mesmerized.

"Xu Nuo, do you really want to go to the state-run restaurant to be a chef that much?" Shi Dadan was probably bored from mincing meat and started chatting.

"Generally want to." Xu Nuo said, "This is actually just an excuse. Mainly, I don't want to listen to my dad and study to continue taking the college entrance exam, nor do I want to work in the textile mill. If I go to the state-run restaurant to be a chef, I usually make dim sum and dishes more often, and I can also practice my skills and consolidate them. In the human world now, learning a skill is very important, just like you learning to drive and me making dim sum; having a skill means you won't starve to death."

"Then what do you want to do? Do business? Or open a restaurant? I heard that some people have started secretly opening restaurants now, why don't you secretly open one too?"

Xu Nuo thought seriously: "Probably not, I don't know what I want to do either, no clue. And I feel that in this life, I probably won't pass the tribulation. To tell you the truth, I'm actually not lying to you, nor do I feel ashamed not to tell you what my obsession is; it's that sometimes I really can't figure out what my obsession is."

"I don't know if I hate my own powerlessness, or if I'm unwilling to let go. You know about our auspicious beasts' tribulation; either you pass it very easily, or once you fail, you need a suitable opportunity, and I don't know where my opportunity is."

Such a high-difficulty question clearly exceeded the Dang Kang's knowledge range. Shi Dadan minced the meat filling hard for a long time, thought for a long time, and couldn't think of how to answer, having no clue at all, and possibly not even understanding much.

"I don't know, but you are so much smarter than me, you will definitely pass the tribulation!"

Facing Shi Dadan's brainless trust, Xu Nuo could only smile and continue kneading the dough.

After Xu Nuo finished kneading the dough, he walked into the kitchen and stood by Shi Dadan, watching him mince meat for a while. After confirming that Shi Dadan's "miracles with great force" were no problem, he started processing the crabs, which meant extracting fresh crab roe.

The technique was very seasoned and mature; one look and you knew he had rich experience in extracting crab roe.

Then came the seasoning.

The movements were swift, with no hesitation when adding seasonings, and the control of the amount was also very precise; you could see he was confident.

After Xu Nuo finished processing the crab roe, he let Shi Dadan stop, mixed the crab roe and pork together, added two eggs, and seasoned and stirred again.

Basically, at this step, the production of the meat filling was completed, and it only needed to roll the wrappers and wrap the buns.

Then Xu Nuo did a move Qin Huai didn't expect: he lit the coal stove and started the pot to heat oil.

Qin Huai:?

Does the filling for pork and crab roe buns also need to be stir-fried or boiled?

Qin Huai watched Xu Nuo stir-fry the filling.

He didn't look like he was stir-frying filling for dim sum; he looked more like he was stir-frying a dish, cooking a dish called "stir-fried pork with crab roe."

Even at the end, Xu Nuo added a starch slurry to this dish.

Very fragrant.

It was the fragrance from stir-frying.

Shi Dadan stood by and swallowed, asking somewhat foolishly: "Xu Nuo, is this still bun filling? Why do I feel this is even more fragrant than the stir-fried meat in the canteen!"

"The filling of the bun I ate in Hangcheng was made with this approach. You can't treat this bun filling as filling; you have to treat it as a dish, and then wrap it into the bun."

Shi Dadan clearly didn't understand.

Xu Nuo was also used to Shi Dadan not understanding, and changed to a way of explaining that Shi Dadan could understand: "This is like you wanting to be a driver in the motorcade; you can't just learn to drive. After learning to drive, you must know how to repair the car, because if the car breaks down on the road and you don't know how to repair it, you can't deliver the goods."

"But in reality, a driver can just know how to drive, provided the car is of good quality and doesn't need repairs. Your motorcade doesn't have this condition, so if you want to drive, you must know how to repair the car."

"This bun is the same. If you treat it as an ordinary bun, it can only be an ordinary bun. It's precisely because its filling is like a dish, like stir-fried meat, that it tastes extraordinary in the end."

Shi Dadan still didn't understand.

Xu Nuo continued to explain: "When you are driving, do you think about what to do if the car breaks down on the road and can't be repaired?"

Shi Dadan shook his head: "I must learn to repair the car before setting off, and I check before setting off."

Xu Nuo nodded: "This bun is the same. You must first have the level to wrap stir-fried meat into the bun filling before you can make it. Its idea is different from ordinary buns, so you can't use normal ideas to make it."

"Normal people making this bun must be thinking about how to use red-case techniques to make white-case dim sum, thinking about how to fuse, how to grasp the balance. This idea is not wrong, but if you keep thinking this way, you easily get into a dead end."

"Fusion is certainly no problem, but the premise must be that the dim sum master making the bun has high enough skills."

"In my opinion, the most unconventional part of this bun is that the chef is clearly showing off his skills. He is telling you my red-case level is not bad, and my white-case level is even higher; I made a good dish into bun filling, wrapped it in a bun, and still made a delicious bun. Impressive, right?"

"Then in the end, should we fuse, or not fuse?" Shi Dadan was even more confused.

"Both are fine." Xu Nuo said, "In my opinion, it's like this."

"If the chef's red-case level and white-case level are both very high, then fusion is certainly better. But if the chef is just a simple white-case dim sum master and the red-case level is not that high, he shouldn't think so much."

"Because this bun is right no matter how you make it; it's just an unconventional bun."

"I've made dim sum for so many years, this is the first time I've eaten such an unconventional bun. It has a feeling of 'I just wrapped a good dish into the bun filling, what can you do to me?' It's just delicious, it's just a bun, it's just unique, unconventional."

"Just like Yuan Mei said crab roe powder cannot be eaten with shark fin, but crab roe powder with shark fin is a famous dish; some good dishes are just unreasonable."

"Who is Yuan Mei? Is he from our factory?" Shi Dadan asked.

Xu Nuo: "... Not important, actually I have an idea."

"What idea?"

"When I was in Hangcheng, I heard that the dim sum master who made this bun likes to sell recipes, and I want to spend a high price to buy this recipe."

"And then give this recipe to Master Jing."

"This bun was originally supposed to use sea cucumber and crab roe as filling, but I don't have that level, I can only make ordinary crab roe and pork buns according to this idea. But I really like this dim sum, I think if it were Master Jing, he would definitely be able to make it."

"Even improve it."

"I think Master Jing would be very happy when he sees this dim sum recipe."

Shi Dadan listened for a long time and grasped a key point no one expected: "Xu Nuo, you are so amazing!"

"You haven't spent money to buy this bun recipe yet, but you understand this bun so well."

Xu Nuo:...

Xu Nuo looked away somewhat guiltily, saying in a low voice: "Actually, I wanted to spend money to buy it, but the exclusive rights were too expensive and I didn't bring enough money, so I spent 160 yuan to have that dim sum master explain it to me."

"He saw I was young and felt I wasn't a serious chef either, and that I definitely wouldn't learn it just by him explaining, so he agreed."

Shi Dadan:???

"You spent 160 yuan just to listen to a few words, how much does it cost to buy that recipe?"

"1000, but I feel I can bargain."

Shi Dadan gasped.

"Too expensive, I'm still hesitating. So I thought while hesitating, I'd first use the idea of that recipe to make pork and crab roe filling, to see if it's worth spending 1000 yuan to buy the recipe."

Hearing Xu Nuo say this, the look in Shi Dadan's eyes as he looked at the stir-fried filling in the pot changed instantly. He felt this was no longer ordinary stir-fried meat with crab roe; this was 1000-yuan stir-fried meat with crab roe.

Shi Dadan swallowed.

He pointed at the pot and said: "I want to taste it first."

Xu Nuo handed Shi Dadan a spoon. Shi Dadan scooped a full spoonful and put it into his mouth, eating it in one bite, nodding affirmatively while chewing.

"Delicious!"

"Stir-fried meat, delicious!"

Xu Nuo: "What stir-fried meat is delicious, this is bun filling!"

"It will definitely be delicious when it's wrapped into a bun!"

Qin Huai left the memory.

(End of chapter)