Chapter 5: Four-Joy Dumplings

Four-joy dumplings, a famous imperial dish in the Manchu-Han Imperial Feast, and a presence that ranks among the best in the 108 dumpling varieties of the dumpling banquet.

It was the snack that Qin Luo found most unforgettable and would remember for the rest of her life.

After all, getting beaten three times for a meal of dumplings could be considered quite explosive in the Qin family.

Friends who have watched "Chuuka Ichiban!" must remember the Golden Ratio Shumai that Xie the Steel Staff made when he came to kick the gym in episode 23.

At that time, Qin Luo was still in kindergarten. There was a TV station that played the "Chuuka Ichiban!" animation every day at 6 PM, and Qin Luo squatted in front of the TV every day with a bowl, rain or shine.

Then she took a fancy to the Golden Ratio Shumai.

In the worldview of Qin Luo, who was illiterate at the time, Xie the Steel Staff made shumai, and my dad also made shumai.

So my dad = Xie the Steel Staff.

So my dad can make Golden Ratio Shumai.

Then Qin Luo pointed at the TV and shouted that she wanted to eat Golden Ratio Shumai. Not only did she shout, but she also went to kindergarten to brag, saying her dad could make Golden Ratio Shumai. It caused her kindergarten classmates to go back and question their own dads why they couldn't even make Golden Ratio Shumai, leading the kindergarten teacher to come to the door to find the parents and ask what was going on with the Qin family.

First, her brother had a system, then her dad was Xie the Steel Staff—could the Qin family get any better?

As a result, Qin Luo received her first beating.

Originally, this matter would have ended here, but Qin Huai felt guilty. In his view, such a small matter didn't deserve a beating, and the main reason for Qin Luo's beating was that she had a prior record.

Out of compensation for his sister, Qin Huai went home and flipped through the "Snack Encyclopedia" he bought from a classmate for one yuan at the elementary school flea market.

He flipped to the four-joy dumplings.

The peripheral product of the Golden Ratio Shumai.

Following the recipe in the "Snack Encyclopedia," Qin Huai tried making it.

It tasted terrible.

The combination of ingredients was simply not something a human palate could accept.

It even made Qin Luo cry.

It wasn't that it tasted so bad she cried, but mainly because her fantasy was shattered, and she found that her idol, Xie the Steel Staff, actually cooked very poorly, so she cried in sadness.

The sad Qin Luo found her cousin He Cheng, who was also a fan of Xie the Steel Staff, and shared her heart-wrenching experience of her idol's collapse. The two were sad and heartbroken together, hiding in a corner of the park and quietly emo-ing. The family thought the children had been kidnapped by human traffickers and were so anxious they almost called the police. After finding them, it was another beating.

Seeing Qin Luo get beaten twice for a bite of dumplings, Qin Huai learned from the pain and decided to figure out the recipe himself. After dozens of failures, he finally made a Golden Ratio... ah no, four-joy dumpling that was both delicious and good-looking, but completely inconsistent with the original work.

Although the fan work was inconsistent with the real thing, Qin Luo didn't care.

Because although her dad wasn't Xie the Steel Staff, her brother was!

Her brother might really not have a system, but her brother must be Xie the Steel Staff!

Qin Luo, who felt she could do it again, went to kindergarten to brag again, and then was reported to her parents by the teacher.

Originally, Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong didn't want to beat their daughter again for such a thing, but thinking that since they were already there, and they had already beaten her twice, beating her one more time wouldn't hurt.

Thus, Qin Luo received her third beating.

Since then, four-joy dumplings became the Qin family's reserved snack.

They must eat it during festivals, and they must eat it during gatherings of relatives and friends. Every time everyone gathered together to eat dumplings happily, the elders would tease Qin Luo, asking her if her brother was really Xie the Steel Staff.

To this, Qin Luo expressed: Delicious, love to eat.

Although the third beating was a bit of a loss, if it weren't for the first two beatings, where would the result of her brother's painstaking research come from?

She was seeking benefits for her family!

In order to motivate Qin Huai to make delicious four-joy dumplings, it was nothing for her, this sister, to get beaten three times. Isn't it just a beating? She was tough, could take a beating, and would dare to do it next time!

It was precisely because of this that every time Qin Huai made four-joy dumplings, Qin Luo was the one who was most active in helping.

In the kitchen, Qin Huai and his father Qin Congwen were mincing meat. One had a loud voice and the other had a fast rhythm. For a time, the dull sound of kitchen knives chopping on the cutting board in the kitchen followed one after another, very rhythmic, jumping like musical notes on piano keys.

Qin Luo was earnestly washing vegetables, and Zhao Rong was making egg skins. The family was performing their duties in the kitchen, orderly.

After preparing the minced meat, Qin Huai started kneading the dough.

Kneading dough has three "cleans": clean dough, clean basin, clean hands. Qin Huai had mastered this kneading technique on his own when he was in the orphanage as a child. Qin Congwen often sighed that just by looking at Qin Huai's kneading movements, one could tell he was born to eat this bowl of rice. Most people knead dough just to knead dough, but Qin Huai not only kneaded dough, but he also kneaded it cleanly and neatly, kneading it beautifully. The final product looked like a work of art, just like a beloved apprentice carefully cultivated by a master for many years; it didn't look like a wild path at all.

In previous years, Qin Congwen would help knead the dough, letting the neighbors buy the surprise of opening a blind box when buying buns. As Qin Huai graduated from university and returned home to sell breakfast full-time, this most important big job in the breakfast shop was gradually handed over to Qin Huai entirely.

Qin Congwen had suffered a waist injury, and as he got older, his waist got worse and worse. He still had to help when it was time to help.

"Dad, cut the shiitake mushrooms, and also the carrots. Remember to cut them into small cubes." Qin Huai pointed to the shiitake mushrooms that had already been soaked in the basin.

Qin Luo's knife skills—cutting spinach stalks was already the limit; carrot cubes... she still had to save her left hand to hold the bowl when eating.

According to the recipe in the "Snack Encyclopedia," the four pockets of the four-joy dumplings must contain four types of fillings with distinct colors.

Doing this doesn't necessarily taste good, but it must look good. Steaming it and taking a picture to post on social media could get rows of likes.

In fact, doing this really doesn't taste good.

After Qin Huai's first trial made Qin Luo cry, he decisively gave up the good-looking approach and chose to mix all the fillings together to make a delicious filling of pork, shiitake mushrooms, and carrot cubes that met the public's taste.

As for the restoration of the styling, Qin Huai chose to spread another layer of pure decorative ingredients on the filling, which played a role in the styling.

Facts proved that this was indeed a good method. The traditional dumpling filling paired with four-color decorations consisting of shiitake mushroom cubes, ham cubes, spinach stalks, and egg skins—the good-looking styling, bright colors, juicy filling, and chewy dumpling skin, plus Qin Luo's "cow chewing peony" eating method—Qin Luo didn't even notice that the four-color pockets of the four-joy dumplings actually contained the same filling the first time she ate them.

She once thought that Qin Huai really painstakingly used four types of fillings to restore the Golden Ratio Shumai from the animation for her, and she was moved to tears, giving all her saved pocket money to Qin Huai as a hard-work fee.

It wasn't in vain that Qin Huai carefully selected four decorative ingredients that could be eaten with different textures and tastes when paired with the filling.

The fresh four-joy dumplings were wrapped and placed in the freezer of the refrigerator, and could be stored for up to 7 days without changing the taste. In order to save trouble, Qin Huai usually wrapped enough for 5-7 days at a time, taking them as he ate. This time was no exception; wrapping more and letting Chen Huihong take them back for breakfast was also good. Homemade snacks were most suitable as gifts for human relations; they weren't expensive, but they had heart.

After being busy for most of the afternoon and preparing all the skins and fillings, the Qin family gathered around the dining table to wrap buns, dumplings, and wontons.

Zhao Rong's movements in wrapping wontons were fast, almost without looking, as skilled as a factory worker with twenty years of work experience, one per second.

"Huaihuai." Zhao Rong started.

"Your dad and I discussed it at noon today. Your house here is already ready to move in, and you've also confirmed that you'll stay here in the future. It's a waste to keep the shop at home closed; Pork King even messaged me this morning asking if I secretly went to another meat stall to buy meat. Luo Luo actually wants to go back to play with her classmates too. Why don't we go back tomorrow? If you have anything, call us over."

Hearing Zhao Rong say this, Qin Luo, who was happily wrapping wontons, opened her eyes in disbelief, her face full of: Mom, when did I say I wanted to go back to play with my classmates?

I love it here so much, okay!

"Yeah, yeah." Qin Congwen echoed, "Your mom and I can't stay idle; we don't feel at ease if we haven't worked for several days."

"And your house only has two rooms; it's not good for us all to stay here."

Qin Luo was anxious and wanted to speak, but Qin Huai threw her a look, signaling her not to be anxious first.

He knew that Zhao Rong and Qin Congwen were doing this so as not to cause him trouble.

They say love is always feeling indebted, and this pair of parents, Zhao Rong and Qin Congwen, must be the batch of parents in the world who most easily feel indebted.

Qin Huai was already quite old when he was adopted, so it was impossible for him not to remember things. Not only did he and the Qin family know he was adopted, but even the neighbors near the Qin family knew.

As the saying goes, it's hard to keep two bowls of water level; parents will inevitably favor one of their biological children, let alone an adopted one.

Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong had been very careful in dealing with the two children. If one bought new clothes, the other had to buy them too; pocket money had to be the same, red envelope money had to be the same, and even the tutoring classes and tutoring books couldn't be biased. When Qin Huai helped in the shop on weekdays, Qin Luo also had to help in the shop. When Qin Huai was in high school, he had to attend four tutoring classes a week, and Qin Luo, who had just entered elementary school, also had to attend four. If the courses weren't enough, interest classes would make up for it—Olympiad math, reading, English, Go—Qin Luo learned until she complained bitterly, almost hugging her parents' thighs and crying while shouting, "I beg you to favor my brother!"

Qin Huai's academic performance was average, but his talent in pastries was obvious to anyone with a sense of taste. Since he was a child, he had been the officially designated successor of the Qin family breakfast shop recognized by everyone.

At that time, many people advised Qin Congwen and his wife, "You have a shop, and your son has the craft, and his studies are average. Why not find a connection to send your son to a powerful snack shop to learn the craft? It's not worse than reading."

But Qin Congwen was afraid that if he did this, Qin Huai would be unhappy, feeling that he favored his biological daughter, letting the adopted son go out to learn the craft and suffer while the biological daughter stayed at home to read and enjoy happiness. Coupled with the concept of "all things are inferior, only reading is high" that had been engraved in their DNA for many years, Qin Congwen signed Qin Huai up for a pile of tutoring classes and forcibly tutored him into a first-tier university.

Now, after Qin Huai inherited the estate and returned, Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong probably started feeling indebted again.

Qin Huai could guess seven or eight out of ten what they were thinking in their hearts. It was nothing more than feeling that Qin Huai's biological parents were so wealthy, and even after the family fell, they left an eight-figure inheritance for Qin Huai to inherit. Qin Huai really suffered by following them, his foster parents. If they felt slightly indebted, they would feel that they, the foster parents, were like foster parents who saw wealth and greed, taking their biological daughter to try to occupy the foster son's property, and the warm family comedy instantly turned into a bloody tearing-apart drama.

Coupled with the fact that there really weren't enough rooms, no matter who lived in the living room or moved out, it wasn't very good. After thinking about it, the couple came up with the idea of packing Qin Luo and taking her home to continue working hard to make money, which was understandable.

They thought a lot, but Qin Huai knew how to defeat them with one blow.

"Dad, Mom." Qin Huai put down the rolling pin in his hand, revealing a somewhat hurt expression. "I just inherited the community cafeteria and have no experience. Now there is a shortage of manpower. Are you really not staying to help me?"

Zhao Rong and Qin Congwen:...

Qin Luo instantly got Qin Huai's meaning and said loudly: "That's right, Dad and Mom, you guys are too much. Brother was still worrying this morning about what to do if the cafeteria opening doesn't go smoothly, and you guys actually want to be hands-off shopkeepers and leave, handing such a big mess to Brother to deal with alone. I disagree first; I must stay to help Brother and clean up his cafeteria!"

When it comes to making things out of nothing, fabricating, making groundless accusations, and finally passing the buck and putting on hats, Qin Luo is a professional.

Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong were beaten by the siblings' combination punch and didn't know how to answer. A trace of guilt actually arose in their hearts.

"Then... we'll stay... for a while?"

Qin Luo slapped the table, stood up, and stood firm, almost raising her right fist to swear: "Stay for two months! I want to clean for Brother until the last day of the holiday!"

Qin Huai:...

Very good, I hope you clean up the flour on the table after you finish wrapping the wontons.

Swear if you want to swear, why slap the table? Do you know that flour was slapped out of the bowl?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 6 =====