Chapter 404: Home Field Advantage

With the strong support of Zheng Da, Qin Huai completed the handover of his work tasks at Huang Ji very smoothly and boarded the high-speed train to Hangzhou on May 19th.

Boss Su was very thoughtful when booking the tickets, specifically buying seats for Qin Huai and Tan Weian in the same row, with Gu Li and Su Gan sitting behind them, while the other Does Zhi Wei Ju apprentices were not even in the same carriage.

The high-speed train from Gusu to Hangcheng only takes one hour. If Qin Huai wanted to, he could even head straight to the Does Zhi Wei Ju back kitchen to work like a horse immediately after landing, to experience the advanced "involution" culture of Does Zhi Wei Ju.

However, Boss Su had also said that the involution at Does Zhi Wei Ju only applied to apprentices and not to master chefs. Qin Huai was already a master chef, so it wasn't his turn to involute; he only needed to stand with his hands behind his back and watch others involute.

On the high-speed train, Qin Huai silently took out five takeout boxes from Huang Ji from his backpack. Each box was filled with dim sum, and thanks to the gradually rising temperature, these dim sum were even still warm.

There were no fancy, complex dim sum that looked expensive and out of place in the takeout boxes; all five boxes were filled with simple, unadorned breakfast-style dim sum that Qin Huai loved to eat.

They were stuffed into Qin Huai's hands by Zheng Da before he boarded the train.

Because this wasn't Qin Huai's first time coming to Huang Ji nor his first time leaving, he had specifically told Huang Shengli before leaving that there was no need for a send-off. He wasn't leaving alone, and with so many people from Does Zhi Wei Ju, each with a large suitcase, it would take several taxis, so there was really no need for that kind of send-off.

Huang Shengli said he understood; young people nowadays were all like this and didn't like that sentimental parting stuff. Although Master Huang was no longer young, his mindset was very young, and he would absolutely not make young people feel awkward, nor would he do any "surprise" waiting at the station.

The facts were indeed so; Huang Shengli didn't do that, but Zheng Da did.

Boss Su booked the high-speed train for Qin Huai departing at 9:16 AM. Qin Huai himself had very severe travel anxiety and usually had to arrive at the high-speed railway station about an hour early to wait, preferring to arrive early rather than be late, so as not to miss the train.

Therefore, Qin Huai arrived at the high-speed railway station at 8:00 AM.

And then he saw Zheng Da, who had been waiting for a long time, at the station entrance.

When Qin Huai saw Zheng Da, Zheng Da was wearing a plaid-striped shirt that looked very loose and gave the impression of being a street stall item bought for 39 yuan, but in reality, it was a new ugly shirt from Balenciaga.

Paired with Versace jeans that didn't match the shirt at all and felt a bit small, and YSL leather shoes that didn't match the whole outfit and felt like he was about to walk a runway in the next second, it directly resulted in Zheng Da's standard outfit full of the scent of money not only failing to let people smell the fragrance of money, but instead making people feel like it was a cheap, pirated knock-off bought at a street stall by a middle-aged uncle who didn't know brands at all.

Of course, the reason people could have this feeling was mainly because Zheng Da was wearing this outfit while holding a white transparent plastic bag in his hand, and inside the plastic bag were five takeout boxes that could be seen at a glance to be breakfast items like xiaolongbao, shumai, and baozi.

Coupled with the fact that Zheng Da looked particularly exhausted and particularly sad, it gave people the feeling of a miserable middle-aged man who was selling breakfast at the train station but hadn't sold it and was worried about his livelihood.

After seeing Qin Huai, Zheng Da didn't say much, just sadly handed the takeout boxes to Qin Huai and gave a few simple instructions, telling Qin Huai to learn well at Does Zhi Wei Ju.

If he was bullied, don't endure it, just scold them directly. Among the master chefs at Does Zhi Wei Ju, except for Master Zhou, there was no need to take anyone else seriously. If he couldn't win an argument, it didn't matter; Zheng Da would go over personally to help Qin Huai argue.

Finally, Zheng Da didn't forget to remind Qin Huai to remember to eat breakfast. The dim sum in these five takeout boxes were made by Zheng Da specifically getting up early this morning for Qin Huai, and they were all breakfast items Qin Huai usually loved to eat.

Paper-skin shumai, soup-filled xiaolongbao, san ding bao, three-fresh steamed dumplings, and shrimp dumplings.

It could be said to be very thoughtful.

The only slightly inappropriate part was ignoring Qin Huai's appetite; Qin Huai was not Shi Dadan, and he couldn't eat so much heavy food for breakfast.

As for Shi Dadan, he was quite interested in going to Hangcheng to eat dim sum for a while, but not now.

Shi Dadan was a bit reluctant to leave the good dishes of Gusu, as he hadn't eaten his fill at Huang Ji yet. Although there were top-tier pastry restaurants like Does Zhi Wei Ju in Hangcheng, there were no famous high-end savory restaurants like Huang Ji, so it was slightly inferior in terms of savory dishes.

Plus, the short-term rental house Shi Dadan had in Gusu hadn't expired yet. In Shi Dadan's words, save where you should save and spend where you should spend; even if the money he spent on meals for a few days was enough to pay the rent, he couldn't waste this rent, and it wouldn't be too late to go to Hangcheng after his house expired.

At this time, some people might be curious: is Shi Dadan not planning to return to Guangdong Province at all?

Yes.

In Shi Dadan's words, the business in Guangdong Province didn't need him to worry too much. On the surface, he was doing seafood business, but in reality, what was truly profitable was aquaculture. Aquaculture was simply as easy as pie for him, and his presence or absence didn't affect it.

Plus, his two unlucky children's academic performance wasn't very good. As the children's academic performance declined, his wife's blood pressure was also rising. Coupled with the fact that both Shi Dadan and his wife felt that the children's allergy to books was likely inherited from him, Shi Dadan's appearance of coming to Shancheng to exchange feelings with Qin Huai and a group of spirit friends was actually running away.

He tentatively planned to run until the children's summer vacation before going back. As for the excuse for running away, Shi Dadan found a good one. The seafood business was unstable, and he planned to go to other cities to investigate whether there were better opportunities. As for what exactly to investigate and whether he could investigate anything...

That was all an unknown.

In Shi Dadan's words, if he didn't run now, once his wife got tired of beating the children, the next one to be beaten would be him.

The husband-and-wife relationship could be said to be very harmonious and friendly.

With Shi Dadan away, these breakfasts had to be finished by the four of them: Qin Huai, Tan Weian, Gu Li, and Su Gan.

Because Zheng Da played a "surprise" this time, Qin Huai didn't know in advance, so everyone had eaten breakfast before coming to the train station.

Qin Huai placed the takeout boxes on the small table and opened them one by one.

Very beautiful breakfast.

The soup-filled xiaolongbao were all small and exquisite, with standard shapes, and every fold was pinched particularly well, with thin skin, in a perfect semi-translucent state. Even without picking one up with chopsticks and taking a bite, one could imagine the feeling of this soup-filled xiaolongbao bursting with juice in the mouth.

Not to mention the paper-skin shumai, the dim sum was as its name suggested, the shumai skin was really like paper skin. The filling of the paper-skin shumai made by Zheng Da was glutinous rice mixed with diced meat and diced bamboo shoots, savory, very fresh, and every grain of glutinous rice was stained with the meat color of meat juice, sticky and mushy, it was an absolute masterpiece among masterpieces.

These two dim sum were currently Qin Huai's breakfast favorites.

Qin Huai didn't hesitate at all to pull these two boxes of dim sum in front of him, pointed to the remaining four boxes and asked Tan Weian: "Which one do you want to eat?"

Tan Weian thought for a while: "Shrimp dumplings."

The apprentices at Does Zhi Wei Ju knew that Qin Huai loved shrimp dumplings, but unfortunately, there was no one among this batch of apprentices who was particularly good at making shrimp dumplings. Even if Does Zhi Wei Ju sent another nameless apprentice who could make shrimp dumplings later, the shrimp dumplings made were very average.

And they definitely couldn't compare with Zheng Da's.

Qin Huai handed the remaining two boxes to Su Gan and Gu Li in front, and also stuffed them with two pairs of disposable chopsticks.

Zheng Da didn't know what he was thinking, five takeout boxes were equipped with five pairs of chopsticks, and those chopsticks could be seen at a glance to be disposable chopsticks swiped from Huang Ji.

Qin Huai picked up a paper-skin shumai and took a bite.

Mmm, satisfied.

Although this paper-skin shumai was a glutinous rice shumai, it tasted more like the flavor of fresh meat shumai, while also having the sticky characteristics of glutinous rice shumai. The meat juice had completely soaked into the glutinous rice, every bite of glutinous rice could taste the meat flavor, and the diced bamboo shoots mixed in it played the role of the finishing touch. ===== CHAPTER 405 =====