Chapter 425: Carbohydrate Feast

Qin Huai really racked his brains and never expected that a casual holiday gathering that was originally triggered by eating dumplings would evolve into this.

Master Zhou was sitting in the living room waiting for the final snacks to come out of the pot.

Zhao Cheng'an was hiding in the kitchen, fiddling with something, like a middle-aged man who didn't want to go home after work and just wanted to hide in the garage to smoke a cigarette.

An Youyou was trying hard to exert her workplace social skills, taking apart all the fruit in the fruit baskets brought by her and Shi Dadan, washing them, and cutting them into a fruit platter.

Incidentally, because An Youyou's knife skills were really not very good, the fruit platter she cut was a bit ugly, and she wasted a lot of scraps. An Youyou couldn't bear to waste them, so she ate while cutting. Qin Huai was watching from the side and was afraid she would be full from eating fruit first.

Shi Dadan was the most relaxed of all. He sat at the dining table chatting with Master Zhou, crazily praising Master Zhou's egg tarts, saying that he went to Zhi Wei Ju to queue up and snap them up every afternoon, trying hard to express the simple heart of an ordinary diner who wanted to eat more snacks to Master Zhou.

Although Master Zhou liked to be sarcastic usually, he was still very kind and warm to guests, especially guests who liked his snacks. Shi Dadan's simple language, coupled with his honest smile, made Master Zhou feel like he was bathed in a spring breeze. When chatting with Shi Dadan, his smile was so kind that it was almost catching up to when he was talking to Qin Huai.

As for Qin Huai, he and Zhao Cheng'an were huddled in the kitchen avoiding reality, incidentally inquiring about what exactly the situation was.

*Wasn't it just an ordinary gathering? How did it gather the "big boss" of Zhi Wei Ju? *

Qin Huai had reason to suspect that he had been set up by Zhao Cheng'an.

"I'm wronged! I'm truly more wronged than Dou E right now!" Facing Qin Huai's accusation, Zhao Cheng'an could only shout his grievances in a tone as thin as a mosquito's but high-pitched. "Before Master called me last night, I didn't know today would be like this either."

Qin Huai raised an eyebrow, incidentally examining the snacks in the kitchen that were visible to the naked eye.

They were already made and laid out, ready to be eaten at any time: peach blossom shortbread, lotus flower shortbread, date paste shortbread, peach blossom shortbread, Auspicious Cloud-Pattern Pastry, and egg yolk shortbread. Among these pastry-layering snacks, the highest difficulty was the lotus flower shortbread and peach blossom shortbread, mainly difficult because of the complex styling.

Master Zhou's pastry-layering snack styling was always maximized. Whether it was the lotus flower shortbread or the peach blossom shortbread, at first glance, they were layered, extremely vivid, lively, and three-dimensional—to the extent that they could be sold at a high price of 188 or even 288 for two pieces with casual plating.

And in this kitchen, because there were too many peach blossom shortbreads and lotus flower shortbreads, they could only be squeezed and stacked on the white porcelain plates in Zhao Cheng'an's home that had no patterns or styling.

Because the snacks in the kitchen weren't just pastry-layering ones.

Qin Huai also saw five plates of crab-shell yellow, two plates of small sesame-sprinkled baked buns that were charred yellow and fragrant, two plates of buns that were already steamed but whose filling couldn't be seen, and a plate of flour fruits—to be precise, it should be assorted fruits. This was one of Master Zhou's signature snacks at Zhi Wei Ju.

A small plate held six flour fruits of different shapes, each small, exquisite, and lifelike, and they weren't the basic models like apple flour fruits.

For example, the plate currently placed in the kitchen had two strings of grape flour fruits in the middle—one string of green grapes and one string of purple grapes. Not only were the grapes lifelike, but even the stems and grape leaves were very detailed, and the veins on the leaves were clearly visible.

Around the grapes was a circle of individual fruits: sliced watermelon, loquats, oranges, strawberries, and persimmons. From a distance, it really made people feel that this was a fruit platter; it's just that I don't know why the watermelon was a bit small.

This was the most expensive and high-end snack that ordinary and wealthy lucky diners could buy at Zhi Wei Ju when Master Zhou was in a very good mood and his luck was off the charts.

At the same time, it was also an appetizer that Master Zhou would serve when making boat snacks.

And in this kitchen, this plate of snacks could only barely manage not to be stacked together like other snacks because the plate was too small, and it could have a complete shape, placed in a relatively stable corner of the culinary table.

Qin Huai scanned the kitchen again carefully and saw the dumplings Zhao Cheng'an had wrapped and the fried frozen pumpkin cakes in the corner. On the shelf where vegetables were supposed to be placed, he saw sugar triangles and thousand-layer oil cakes. Even more, after opening the refrigerator, he saw mung bean cakes and butterfly cool rolls being refrigerated inside.

Qin Huai thought of what Master Zhou had just said: *Just made some snacks to practice. *

*Practice. *

Redefining "practice."

Qin Huai moved his gaze away from these dazzling snacks, resisted the urge to steal one, lowered his voice, and asked: "So what exactly is the situation? So many snacks couldn't possibly have been made in one day."

"I really don't know; I'm truly wronged!" Zhao Cheng'an just kept shouting his grievances. "Master stayed at my house last night. Of course, these snacks couldn't be made in one day; I've been helping Master as an assistant since last night."

"From 7 o'clock after work until 1 o'clock in the morning. Then got up at 6 o'clock this morning and kept working until now. Do you know how difficult these snacks are? Do you know how long the assorted fruit platter normally takes to make? Do you know why I didn't answer your call just now? Because I've been working, and I didn't dare to turn on the sound on my phone. If Master hadn't asked me what time you were arriving, I would have almost forgotten that I was supposed to treat you to a meal today; I thought we were having intensive training at home today." Zhao Cheng'an's tears were almost falling as he spoke. "Isn't today a holiday? Why do I feel even more tired than working usually?"

Hearing Zhao Cheng'an's tragic voice, Qin Huai suddenly couldn't bring himself to question him anymore. Putting it this way, Zhao Cheng'an was still quite miserable.

"So you really don't know the reason?" Qin Huai asked.

Hearing Qin Huai ask this, Zhao Cheng'an became a bit uncertain again. He glanced at the dumplings in the pot, thought about how much longer he could delay, hesitated, and said: "I can probably guess a little."

"It might be because both of us and An Youyou are off today, and Tan Tan Weian also wanted to be off, so Master guessed that we were probably going to do some activity."

"I'm telling you this quietly now; you must pretend you don't know anything when we go out later."

"Master actually has always wanted to show his true skills in front of you."

Qin Huai:?

"Really, don't you believe it." Zhao Cheng'an looked at the kitchen door cautiously. "How much Master likes you, I don't need to say. Anyone in Zhi Wei Ju with eyes can see it. To put it bluntly, Master just likes those who are talented and diligent, and ideally, those who have a bit of emotional intelligence to understand people's expressions and are better at talking."

"Don't you feel strange these past few days? Why Master likes you so much and named you to follow him to learn, but it seems he hasn't taught you anything and has been letting me lead you?"

Qin Huai nodded slightly: "I am a little strange, but I can also understand. Master Zhou has been very busy recently and doesn't have time to lead me. You leading me is more than enough, and I've also learned a lot. The only thing I don't quite understand is... I really don't know why Master Zhou has been keeping me from making snacks. I feel that it's nothing to just try making them a little, right?"

Seeing that Qin Huai had hit the nail on the head, Zhao Cheng'an covered his mouth, lowered his brows, and even bent his waist, in the posture of a spy meeting a contact, his voice so small that Qin Huai had to lean in to hear it.

"Because that's the only way to increase your sense of anticipation."

Qin Huai:?

"Sense of anticipation?"

"This is Master's old routine. Think about it: Master is the number one person in the white-case (pastry) world. If an ordinary person could be guided by Master, wouldn't they be very excited and expectant? The moment Master told you to follow him in the future, weren't you very excited, already imagining in your mind what you could learn from him, how he would guide you, whether you would be scolded, and whether it would be very hard?"

Qin Huai nodded in agreement.

"And at a time like this, my master happens not to guide you personally, but instead casually points to someone else for you to follow. He doesn't even let you handle the dim sum, only letting you watch from the sidelines, making you anxious. Are you feeling a bit fearful and anxious, starting to wonder if something went wrong on your end that made my master look down on you, so he isn't willing to guide you personally but sent me instead?"

Qin Huai shook his head: "That's not it; I just simply felt that Master Zhou has been quite busy recently." ===== CHAPTER 426 =====