Chapter 45: You Call This Herbal Tea? (Seeking Monthly Tickets!)

Assistant Xiao Qin, feeling a bit confused, decided to end his slacking and go to the cafeteria to take a look, and by the way, inquire about the situation. He didn't believe a quest about wanting to drink herbal tea would pop up for no reason.

Before going to the cafeteria, Qin Huai first went to the convenience store outside the residential complex to buy a grilled sausage. Seeing the convenience store owner's strange expression, Qin Huai even asked with concern if his stomach was uncomfortable. After the owner denied it repeatedly and firmly stated that he was in perfect health and would absolutely not take leave or close the shop, he left while gnawing on the sausage.

In the cafeteria, both chefs had already gone to the second floor to find a cool place to lie down and rest. Huang Xi was looking at her phone, while An Youyou and two waiters were spreading out the menu cards on the table to wipe them.

Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong were not there, presumably having gone back to sleep. Qin Luo was holding a phone she had begged from somewhere, happily camping in the bushes in the canyon.

"Where did you get the phone?" Qin Huai floated behind Qin Luo silently, startling her so much that she threw the phone directly.

"Brother, why are you scaring people on purpose? I was camping for someone in the bushes!" Qin Luo hurriedly picked up the phone, complaining without looking up. "So many people asked if you were sick this morning because you weren't here. Dad was afraid that everyone wouldn't be used to not having dim sum at noon, so he wrapped a lot of extra buns."

"I spent the whole morning mixing filling and wrapped at least 600 buns! My hands are about to break. Mom said I worked hard today and rewarded me with unlimited phone time this afternoon. Don't bother me; if you talk to me, I'll get distracted playing games!" Although Qin Luo's hands were about to break, she insisted on using them to play on the phone, a spirit that was truly moving.

Qin Huai:......

Is this why you don't sleep at noon and are so sleepy that you're yawning tears?

"If you're really sleepy, go back to sleep quickly. If Mom finds out you're not sleeping to play games, she'll definitely beat you tomorrow." Qin Huai left behind a thoughtful warning and went to Table 3 to find Huang Xi.

Huang Xi had put down her phone the moment she saw Qin Huai enter the shop, and stood up directly when she saw him walking towards her.

"Sister Xi, sit down." Qin Huai waved his hand. "I just wanted to ask, do we have Gynostemma in our shop's warehouse?"

"Gynostemma?" Huang Xi was stunned for a moment, then shook her head hesitantly. "There shouldn't be. I'll go check the inventory list now. Is this needed for tomorrow's dim sum?"

"No rush." Qin Huai said. "It's been hot these past two days, I plan to make some herbal tea."

Qin Huai thought about it and felt that just making simple tangerine peel tea seemed insincere, so he decided to increase the difficulty.

"When you take inventory in a moment, check if there's honeysuckle, Hangzhou white chrysanthemum, hyacinth bean flower, egg flower, kapok flower, fresh tuckahoe, Job's tears, coix seed, wolfberry, Huai chrysanthemum, tuckahoe, gardenia, gorgon fruit, and licorice. You can prepare more." Qin Huai indicated that boiling herbal tea was good; you boil a big pot at once, which was much easier than making dim sum.

Huang Xi was dizzy from this long string of names and blurted out without thinking: "Assistant Xiao Qin, did you read the messages in the group order group?"

"What group order group?" Qin Huai asked.

He always just took a look at the order list every morning to confirm if he needed to make an extra batch of Five-Treasure Buns and Three-Treasure Buns; he hadn't even joined the group.

Huang Xi handed her phone to Qin Huai.

Qin Huai spent seven or eight minutes scanning through the 999+ messages in the group.

Case solved.

This mysterious Luo Jun must be in the group.

Let him see who the members of this group were!

Qin Huai looked closely; Group 1 was full with 500 people.

Group 2 had 227 people.

A mere 727 people, excluding the shop's employees, there were only 719. Trying to find Luo Jun among these people was simply—

Finding a needle in a haystack.

Qin Huai began to think about the possibility of having customers order with their real names.

"Do we have any regular customers named Luo Jun in our cafeteria?" After thinking for a while, Qin Huai chose to ask the store manager directly.

Huang Xi was even more confused, thinking that Assistant Xiao Qin hadn't been quite normal these past two days, so it was quite normal for him to be abnormal today. She thought for a moment and said: "In my memory... it seems not."

"Then you pay attention and observe these few days." After Qin Huai finished speaking, he went to the table next to him, sat down, and started searching for tangerine peel tea recipes.

What if there were more wonderful and rich recipes online?

Huang Xi was now completely confused. As a store manager of a community cafeteria, how was she supposed to observe the names of the customers eating?

By staring at their work badges?

But many customers didn't hang their work badges on the outside; they stuffed them into their pockets. Qin Huai was looking at a recipe with such a rich variety of ingredients that it didn't look like tangerine peel tea at all. Qin Luo's game had ended, and she ran to Qin Huai's side, bouncing with her phone.

"Brother, are you going to sell Five-Flower Tea and Seven-Herb Dampness-Removing Tea?" Qin Luo knew what herbal tea Qin Huai was going to make just by hearing the names he reported. "When the time comes, will you boil the herbal tea or will Mom boil it? You must not let Mom boil the Five-Flower Tea; she doesn't put any sugar in it when she boils it, it's disgusting!"

"Could it be that the Seven-Herb Dampness-Removing Tea Mom boils isn't disgusting?" Qin Huai asked a soul-searching question.

Qin Luo: "...... It's really too disgusting when Mom boils that without sugar; she puts in at least a little bit."

If Five-Flower Tea was a well-known herbal tea for clearing heat, detoxifying, and relieving summer dampness, then Seven-Herb Dampness-Removing Tea was Zhao Rong's original creation—or more accurately, the original creation of her village.

Dampness-removing tea didn't have a fixed recipe; it belonged to the kind that every family knew how to make, and every family made it differently. Because Qin Huai's family's Seven-Herb Dampness-Removing Tea had 7 types of ingredients, it took this name, and because Zhao Rong boiled it so poorly that the neighbors didn't buy it, it had always had poor sales at the Qin's Breakfast Shop.

Yes, Qin Huai's family's breakfast shop would also engage in side businesses and sell some herbal tea.

Although it didn't taste good, Zhao Rong had insisted for many years that "bitter medicine is good for the illness," and the worse the herbal tea tasted, the more effective it was. Every once in a while, she would boil a pot to let Qin Huai and Qin Luo feel their mother's love.

Qin Huai was still looking at recipes, but Qin Luo didn't continue playing games; instead, she looked at Qin Huai with a silly grin.

"If you have something to say, say it." Qin Huai closed an unreliable recipe.

"Brother, since you're going to make herbal tea, make some today too."

Qin Huai:......

"You want to drink..."

"You know."

An Youyou, who was wiping menu cards, spoke up at an inappropriate time: "Assistant Xiao Qin, are you going to boil herbal tea? Can I have a cup? I've never drunk herbal tea."

"Of course." Qin Huai nodded and counted the heads in the shop. "Everyone who wants to drink can have some."

20 minutes later, everyone in the shop was drinking the—

Hand-shaken lemon tea that Qin Huai had made himself!

Qin Luo took a big gulp, holding the ice cubes in her mouth, and sighed vaguely: "Finally found a time when Mom and Dad aren't here and you're willing to make lemon tea. Sure enough, you still have to drink lemon tea in the summer!"

Huang Xi:......

Although she wasn't from Guangdong and didn't know much about herbal tea, what was hand-shaken lemon tea...

Forget it, the hand-shaken lemon tea made by the boss was quite delicious, much better than the milk tea shop in the mall that specialized in lemon tea.

"Sister Xi, tell the supplier to send more lemons tomorrow." Qin Huai said while drinking lemon tea.

If he couldn't find the mysterious Luo Jun tomorrow, and the sales of Five-Flower Tea, Tangerine Peel Tea, and Seven-Herb Dampness-Removing Tea were poor, at least he would have hand-shaken lemon tea to fall back on.

As for who would shake it if it sold a lot...

Qin Huai glanced at Qin Luo.

Although his Luo Luo had been poor at her studies since she was young, was bad at kneading dough, bad at mixing filling, and not very good at wrapping buns, she had one advantage that was obvious to all and beyond doubt.

The child had had a big appetite and great strength since she was young!

She was really strong.

It was time to let Qin Luo shine in her own lane.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 46 =====