Chapter 57

A week later, Zheng Da extended the hotel stay for another week.

Two weeks later, Zheng Siyuan felt it was time for his father to consider buying an apartment nearby; staying in a hotel every day was really troublesome.

If Qin Huai hadn't repeatedly emphasized to Chen Huihong that Zheng Da and Zheng Siyuan were really not the new snack chefs for the Yunzhong Canteen and that the recruitment couldn't stop, Chen Huihong would have already called her brother to have him withdraw the recruitment notice.

In the kitchen, Zheng Da and Zheng Siyuan were still baffled by the locust flower steamed buns that had just been steamed; outside the kitchen, Qin Huai had already started slacking off.

It wouldn't be accurate to say he was slacking off, because Qin Huai did have legitimate business here.

The date for the neighborhood committee to visit Luo Jun had been set: the day after tomorrow.

It was said that because Dr. Qu had been away on a business trip for a while, without Dr. Qu and Chen Huihong leading the team at the front, the colleagues from the neighborhood committee found it difficult to face direct communication with Luo Jun, causing the visit to be delayed again and again.

Other lonely elderly people had already been visited, and the official account articles had already been written; as for the visit to Luo Jun, everyone was still building up their psychological preparation.

"The day after tomorrow at 10:00 AM, Sister Hong asked me to tell you. Qin Huai, you'd better prepare yourself mentally. Bring a bit more freshly made baozi, snacks, steamed buns, herbal tea, and buy some nice fruit. Our neighborhood committee's Old Luo is a photographer. He's responsible for taking pictures; remember to pose a little when handing things over to make it look good for the photos." Seeing Ouyang instructed.

Qin Huai nodded, not really paying much attention.

If Seeing Ouyang hadn't come to find him today, he would have almost forgotten that he actually had a side quest.

If making buckwheat steamed buns a while ago was like falling into a demonic obsession, then making locust flower steamed buns during this period was like the demonic arts not being practiced smoothly, and he was about to betray the demonic sect.

Qin Huai glanced at Zheng Da and Zheng Siyuan in the kitchen.

Hmm, these two were still in the stage of being obsessed.

One locust flower steamed bun drove three snack chefs crazy; one could only say that an S-grade steamed bun is truly extraordinary.

"Got it, I'll prepare a bit more." Qin Huai said. "There's one thing I want to ask you about."

Seeing Ouyang made a gesture of listening intently.

"Sister Hong suddenly found my mother a few days ago and recommended many private high schools to Did Luo Luo, some in Guangdong Province, and some here."

"Ah, isn't Did Luo Luo's household registration in Guangdong? Can she attend high school here?" Seeing Ouyang's focus instantly went astray.

"International school, the most expensive one has a tuition fee of 600,000 a year. Without considering the tuition fee, she can definitely attend." Qin Huai said.

Seeing Ouyang gasped.

Qin Huai:...

You rich second-generation, why are you pretending to be poor? Your shop's annual revenue is enough for Did Luo Luo to attend high school for 10 years; she could study until 10th grade.

"How did Sister Hong know my mother was worrying about Did Luo Luo's high school? Did you tell her?" Qin Huai asked.

"I don't know!" Seeing Ouyang looked innocent. "I didn't even know about this. I see Did Luo Luo happy every day and eating quite a bit; I thought she did well in the high school entrance exam."

"So, has your aunt chosen? Is Did Luo Luo going back to her hometown for high school, or is she attending an international school here?"

"She's definitely going back." Qin Huai said. "My mother thinks the tuition for private schools is expensive, not to mention international schools. The tuition for one year at an international school is enough for Did Luo Luo to attend tutoring classes until she vomits blood."

"And when my mother was young, she watched 'Meteor Garden' too much. She always feels that even if the canteen's monthly income is okay now, if she and my father grit their teeth and take out their savings to send Did Luo Luo to an international school, children from ordinary families like ours will definitely be bullied there. Did Luo Luo is strong, and if she resists and fights three people at once, she'll have to pay money if she injures or cripples others."

"Of course, the most critical thing is that after attending an international high school, she'll have to go abroad, and going abroad costs even more money. You know my parents' temperaments; they always feel that the canteen was left to me by my biological parents, and this is my property, so the money for Did Luo Luo's education should come from them."

Seeing Ouyang grasped the point again: "The summer vacation is ending in more than half a month; won't Did Luo Luo have to go back when school starts?"

"Not only Did Luo Luo has to go back, but my mother also has to go back then. I've already told Sister Hong to help me post a recruitment notice to hire a few more general workers."

"I'm not talking to you anymore; I'm going to make steamed buns." Qin Huai stood up and walked toward the kitchen.

Seeing Ouyang was still immersed in the sadness that his meal companion was about to start school, and after being sad for a while, he decided to order two cups of hand-shaken lemon tea.

Soon there won't be any left to drink, sigh.

In the kitchen, Zheng Siyuan and Zheng Da had already started a new round of making locust flower steamed buns.

After washing his hands, Qin Huai returned to the cooking station and scooped out two spoonfuls of honey from the honey jar. Looking at the honey jar that was about to hit the bottom, Qin Huai felt it was time to contact Grandma Ding and ask her to have her in-laws get a few more jars of honey. The quality of this locust flower honey is really good.

Qin Huai dissolved the honey with warm water.

During this period, the three of them had studied everything they could, and Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan had even thoroughly studied the principles of honey fermentation.

Honey itself does not have the ability to ferment because it lacks the chemical substances required for yeast. However, honey miraculously contains some microorganisms, which can grow and reproduce in honey and ferment under suitable conditions.

More interestingly, these microorganisms use the starch in the dough to grow and reproduce, thereby preventing the dough from fermenting. Therefore, the difficulty of using honey to ferment dough is very high; besides requiring extremely strict temperature and humidity, it also requires controlling the amount of honey used.

If the temperature is low, the dough won't ferment; if the temperature is high, the dough will over-ferment. If the fermentation time is short, the dough will be dry and hard; if the fermentation time is too long, it will occasionally give you a surprise.

In a sense, honey fermentation is even harder to deal with than fulfilling the client's request for "colorful black" or "shimmering white."

But one thing is certain: under such harsh conditions, combined with specific ingredients and methods, honey fermentation can produce very delicious pastries.

Locust flower steamed buns are one of them.

In the two weeks of doubting life, it's not that Zheng Da hadn't doubted the feasibility of honey fermentation. He had changed the dough, used pure white flour, corn flour, and sorghum flour to make locust flower steamed buns, and each one tasted much worse than the locust flower steamed buns made from the recipe Qin Huai provided.

This made Zheng Da and Zheng Siyuan firmly believe that the recipe Qin Huai provided was indeed a secret family recipe.

The locust flower steamed buns they made weren't good, not because of the locust flower steamed buns, but because of themselves.

Qin Huai stirred the honey water, his thoughts gradually drifting.

Honey fermentation is truly a high-maintenance young lady.

This won't work, that won't work, and even if there's no problem at all, it still won't work.

Where on earth is this damn problem?

Qin Huai looked at the honey; it couldn't be that the quality of the locust flower honey Grandma Ding sent was too good, causing it to fail, right?

The flour has to be gray flour mixed with buckwheat flour; maybe the honey also needs to be inferior honey mixed with good honey.

Qin Huai was amused by his own thoughts.

What problem could honey possibly...

Wait, why couldn't there be a problem with the honey?

The relatives of Grandma Ding's in-laws are specialized in selling honey. Their honey is mature, on the market, and a product that has passed quality testing.

This honey all has to be heated to 60°C to melt.

Qin Huai was stunned.

That's right, why hadn't he thought of that?

The honey has been processed!

If he wants to completely restore the production process of locust flower steamed buns, he needs to restore the raw materials of the locust flower steamed buns as much as possible. How could it be possible to buy processed honey in Jiang Chengde's era?

The locust flower honey Jiang Chengde used must have been naturally mature and purely natural.

It wouldn't look this pretty, and it wouldn't be filtered this cleanly.

Qin Huai hurriedly took out his phone.

"Hello, Grandma Ding, this is Xiao Qin, yes, the Xiao Qin from the Yunzhong Canteen."

"Yes, yes, yes, I specifically remembered your phone number last time, saying that I might need to buy more locust flower honey later."

"Yes, I want to buy locust flower honey. I want to ask if you can buy purely natural, unprocessed wild locust flower honey there. It doesn't have to be wild, but it must be purely natural and unprocessed."

"You'll help me ask your in-laws, right? Thank you so much, sorry to trouble you, I need it a bit urgently."

"You'll give me an answer tonight, right? If you have it, try to get it to me the day after tomorrow. That's great, thank you, thank you so much!"

"You didn't buy fermented rice steamed buns this morning, and you want to eat steamed buns at home tonight. No problem, come over in two hours; the fermented rice steamed buns will be out of the pot in two hours."

"You're welcome, you're welcome, I'm the one who should thank you!"

(End of chapter)