Chapter 394

"Master Qin, that's wrong. The arc needs to be larger when rolling forward, but you can't press down on the dough, otherwise, it will deform when reverse-rolling."

"Master Zheng, you're also wrong. When rolling forward, you need to be flat in the front and roll in the back; your front isn't flat enough."

"Senior brother, you're right, but why do I still feel that your forward roll is a bit strange?"

The Four-Joy Roll research team had already shown a trend of "one dragging three." Gu Li, a master who wasn't very good at technique but had rich experience in making cloud patterns and extremely rich experience in failure, was dragging two pure novices and one semi-novice.

The two pure novices were naturally Qin Huai and Zheng Zheng Siyuan. As a "hexagonal warrior," Zheng Zheng Siyuan didn't know all pastries and all techniques. Like the things Zheng Da was very bad at—for example, the Four-Joy Roll, which he didn't usually make and only secretly made at home during the New Year—Zheng Zheng Siyuan didn't know how to make.

Not to mention Qin Huai; he basically didn't know any pastries that weren't in the "Pastry Encyclopedia."

As Master Tan's own grandson, although Tan Tan Weian hadn't practiced the Ruyi Roll due to technical problems back then, he had still learned some theoretical knowledge, and his foundation was better than Qin Huai's and Zheng Zheng Siyuan's.

But not by much.

Tan Tan Weian always did it right, but not completely right. There were always some places that made people feel strange and problematic, and at the same time, because Master Gu's ability was limited, he couldn't see where the problem was.

After a day of making Four-Joy Rolls, Tan Tan Weian was the most confused one.

For half an afternoon, the Four-Joy Roll research team made many Four-Joy Rolls with indescribable shapes, but the taste was indeed quite good. These Four-Joy Rolls naturally couldn't be sold; otherwise, when the real Four-Joy Rolls were made, it would be hard to explain to the customers what they had been selling before.

Since they couldn't be sold, they could only be consumed internally.

When Qin Huai got off work and went home, he packed three large boxes of Four-Joy Rolls and brought them back for Shi Dadan to eat.

Shi Dadan had come to Huang's to eat at his own expense for lunch and dinner today. Qin Huai had the waiter send some pastries to Shi Dadan as a special favor, but they didn't meet.

As for Wang Wang Gensheng, he hadn't left the house since he went back after his morning run. He had spent the whole day at home balancing the accounts. Shi Dadan had packed lunch and dinner for Wang Wang Gensheng after he finished eating.

Since Shi Dadan was eating in the lobby in the evening, Qin Huai couldn't give him special treatment and serve such ugly Four-Joy Rolls, lest other customers notice. He could only pack them and bring them home after work to treat him separately.

When Qin Huai entered, Shi Dadan was chatting with Gong Liang in the living room, and Wang Wang Gensheng was still sitting at the dining table balancing accounts on the computer. There was a fruit platter on the table with washed grapes, sliced apples, pears, and dragon fruit, all of which could be eaten directly.

Seeing Gong Liang at home, Qin Huai hurriedly greeted him with a smile: "Mr. Gong, you're here. On my way back, I was thinking of going to your place tonight to bring you some newly made pastries. The new pastries don't look very good, but they taste quite good."

"Regarding the Lotus Root Starch Balls, I have to tell you that I made some today, but the finished products were not very satisfactory, so I didn't bring them back for you or specifically call you over to taste them. The Lotus Root Starch Balls might not be made very well recently. If you have time and want to eat them, you can go to Huang's to eat some, or have your assistant come over to pack a portion; there's no need to go specifically for the Lotus Root Starch Balls."

"But don't worry, the progress of the Lotus Root Starch Balls will definitely not be too slow. Within a month, I will definitely be able to make Lotus Root Starch Balls that satisfy you and your wife."

After hearing Qin Huai's words, Gong Liang felt that he had already tasted the sweetness of the Lotus Root Starch Balls before even eating them. It was truly sweet to his heart, and tears of emotion were really about to flow from the corners of his eyes.

Gong Liang smiled and said: "Master Xiao Qin, you are just too humble. With your skills, how could there be unsatisfactory Lotus Root Starch Balls? Even the ones that aren't made well are top-notch in outside shops. But I actually have something to do tomorrow. How about this: tomorrow at noon, I'll have my assistant go to Huang's to pack some."

"I actually just arrived. Mingzhu was juicing fruit at home and cut some fruit by the way, so she asked me to bring it to you. I didn't expect Brother Shi to be here too. I thought Master Xiao Qin, you should be back soon, so I sat down and chatted with Brother Shi for a while."

Shi Dadan nodded happily: "Xiao Qin, what are you carrying in your hand?"

He didn't care about the pleasantries, only about the pastries.

Qin Huai placed the bag on the coffee table, untied it, and opened the three large packing boxes one by one, revealing the Four-Joy Rolls inside, which were squeezed out of shape and looked even uglier.

Before Qin Huai could speak, Gong Liang recognized what kind of pastry it was first.

"Four-Joy Rolls!"

It was a definite exclamation, not a question.

Qin Huai didn't expect that even though the Four-Joy Rolls were made like this and had been squeezed in the packing box for so long on the way, Gong Liang could still recognize them. He asked: "Mr. Gong, how did you recognize them?"

"This Four-Joy Roll is made... I'm almost embarrassed to call it a Four-Joy Roll." On the way back, Qin Huai had already calculated in his heart: if Wang Wang Gensheng asked him what this was, Qin Huai would tell him it was a flower roll with filling.

"Of course I can recognize it." Gong Liang stared at the Four-Joy Rolls, his face full of nostalgia and emotion, "I really haven't seen this pastry for many years. Before, when I said there were pastries I hadn't eaten for many years, those were all fake, all excuses; I had actually eaten them all. Only this one..."

"After Zheng Da went into business, I never saw this pastry again. I even specifically asked someone to go to Does Zhi Wei Ju to ask, but not a single chef at Does Zhi Wei Ju knew how to make Four-Joy Rolls."

"Later, I even entrusted people to look for them all over the country. There are a few old pastry shops outside the pass that sell ones with similar styles, also called Four-Joy Rolls, but the taste and shape are too different from the ones Master Jing made before."

Hearing Gong Liang say this, Wang Wang Gensheng, who was still balancing accounts, couldn't help but take off his glasses, save the spreadsheet, close the computer, and stand up to walk toward the dining table. He stared at the Four-Joy Rolls for a while and revealed a puzzled expression: "This is... Four-Joy Rolls?"

"Why do I remember that the Four-Joy Rolls Master Jing made didn't look like this?"

Only when Wang Wang Gensheng said this did Qin Huai realize that among the 4 people in the room today, the other three besides him had all eaten Master Jing's version of the Four-Joy Roll. Although Qin Huai knew Wang Wang Gensheng's experience very well, he would always involuntarily ignore him, forgetting that Old Man Wang had also eaten good things at the cotton mill back in the day.

While Wang Wang Gensheng and Gong Liang were sighing, Shi Dadan had already started eating. Perhaps the habit of playing support for the past two days hadn't changed, Shi Dadan involuntarily became a "gold-medal support," asking while eating: "What are Four-Joy Rolls? What did they look like before?"

"Are they also the pastries made by that Master Jing from the state-run restaurant you mentioned? They're quite delicious."

While speaking, Shi Dadan had already finished one Four-Joy Roll and started eating the second one. It could be seen that talking didn't affect his eating speed at all.

"Mr. Gong, how did you recognize that these are Four-Joy Rolls?" Qin Huai also had his own questions.

There were too many questions, and Gong Liang couldn't answer them one by one. He could only wrong Shi Dadan first: "Brother Shi, I'll tell you about the Four-Joy Rolls when I have time later."

Then Gong Liang said to Qin Huai: "Master Xiao Qin, these Four-Joy Rolls you made really don't look much like Four-Joy Rolls, but... they look very similar to the Four-Joy Rolls Zheng Da made at the very beginning."

"I remember that year, because of health reasons, Master Jing had to take early medical retirement. Zheng Da became the only full-time worker in the state-run restaurant who made pastries. All the pastries he made were met with bad reviews—fermented rice steamed buns, vegetable buns, meat buns, shumai, green rice balls—they were all far worse than Master Jing's."

"Sometimes I even disliked them; his performance was truly unstable."

"But these are nothing. Master Xiao Qin, you should know when the Four-Joy Rolls were sold, right?"

Qin Huai nodded: "I know, I basically know the story of the Four-Joy Rolls."

"The biggest pressure Zheng Da had at that time was what to do about the Four-Joy Rolls for the New Year. It was one thing to be scolded for making ordinary pastries, but if the Four-Joy Rolls were messed up, then really... the New Year would be messed up too."

"During that time, as soon as Zheng Da got off work and went home, he would secretly practice Four-Joy Rolls. The salary of a full-time worker at a state-run restaurant wasn't low, and basically, more than half a year of his salary was spent on the Four-Joy Rolls."

"Although the Four-Joy Rolls made that year weren't very good, they were even worse when he practiced secretly. It was basically this look, no mistake. I have a particularly deep impression. When I saw the Four-Joy Rolls he made for the first time, I was stunned and asked him why he suddenly wanted to make flower rolls with filling."

"And then?"

"Then Zheng Da said these were just flower rolls with filling. I ate them for a while, and it wasn't until he made them look somewhat decent that I realized what he made were actually Four-Joy Rolls."

Qin Huai:...

He suddenly wanted to understand why Zheng Da disliked making Four-Joy Rolls so much. At the same time that all his pastries were being fiercely scolded, the Four-Joy Rolls were scolded particularly severely; it was indeed an indelible psychological shadow.

Oh, poor Master Zheng.

Qin Huai said with a serious face: "Mr. Gong, how many do you want to take back for your wife to eat?"

"If she asks what this is, you just tell her it's a flower roll with meat filling."

(End of chapter)