The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 342 Expectations
That night, Qin Huai cut radishes in his dream again after a long time.

He dreamed that the earth was ruled by a group of alien rabbits, and all humans were captured to cut radishes. These rabbits had many requirements, either cutting radish slices as thin as cicada wings and transparent, or cutting large quantities of radish shreds of uniform thickness.

If the radish was not cut well, it would be dragged out and eaten. In order to save his life, Qin Huai cut radishes day and night in his dream. Due to his poor skills, he could not cut radish slices as thin as cicada wings that could let light through, so he could only cut large radish shreds.

Qin Huai was so angry that his teeth were broken. He envied those skilled radish cutters who could cut qualified radish slices. But no matter how hard he practiced, he just couldn't cut qualified radish slices. The harder he tried, the more sad he felt, and the more helpless he felt.

At the end, Qin Huai looked up to the sky and howled in anger as he faced the mountain of shredded radish:

"I want to cut the radish slices into thin slices that are light-transparent!"

Then Qin Huai woke up.

The moment he woke up, Qin Huai felt that the shouting in his dream was still ringing in his ears, making him confused.

Qin Huai reached for the phone on the bedside table and glanced at the time.

11:42!
Shit, it’s almost noon.

On the first day of his return to Master Cao's home to learn his craft, he overslept until 1:11 a.m. This behavior is not a crime worthy of death, but it is also a death penalty.

This is too outrageous. Qin Huai didn't expect such a presumptuous thing to happen to him. Even if he did go to bed late last night, he shouldn't have woken up until 11 o'clock today.

Qin Huai got up at the speed of light, changed his clothes and rushed out of the room. When he was in high school, he didn't hear the alarm clock and overslept. When he woke up, there were only 10 minutes left before class. It was a life-and-death race. When the bicycle was about to spark, Qin Huai's speed was not so fast.

Qin Huai did not forget to tidy up his hair as he rushed out of the room, making his hair look less like a mess after just waking up.

Zhang Chu and Cao Guixiang were both in the living room. When they heard the noise in the room, they knew Qin Huai had woken up. They both stuck their heads out. Before Qin Huai could run to the living room to apologize, Cao Guixiang smiled and said:
"Don't worry, Xiao Qin. We'll eat later today. Your Grandpa Zhang and I both slept late last night. We didn't wake up until 10 this morning and just finished breakfast."

"It's not even 12 o'clock yet, and I haven't even cooked the dishes yet. Do you want to have breakfast like us, skip lunch and afternoon and go straight to dinner, or wait until two or three o'clock so we can have lunch together?"

"The stock is already prepared, the ingredients are already prepared, and it's really quick to make."

"I'll make a main dish and two side dishes for you to eat at noon, and then we'll have a big dinner in the evening. Yunyun and Qingqing won't be here until the evening, and they still have to go to school during the day."

Zhang Chu was still holding a bowl with an unfinished Four Happiness Glutinous Rice Ball in it, and he agreed, "Yes, Xiao Qin, look at how you eat. Your grandmother Cao and I can't eat much more, and your glutinous rice ball is too filling, so I ate two more buns. I haven't finished this bowl of glutinous rice balls since 11 o'clock."

Cao Guixiang rolled her eyes at Zhang Chu in annoyance, "You think you are a teenager, eating so many staple foods so early in the morning? You don't even look at your age, and you only ate two extra buns. You clearly ate a fermented glutinous rice steamed bun, two three-diced buns, and then wanted to eat four-happiness dumplings. I told you not to eat, and if you can't finish my bowl, I can leave two for you. But you insisted on eating, and I didn't finish my bowl either."

Zhang Chu said aggrievedly: "But Guixiang, if you want some leftovers, please give me the ones with fruit filling and sesame candy filling. I don't really like those two fillings."

Qin Huai:......

Since he doesn't like them, why not just cook the ones with meat filling and red bean paste filling? This time he made the dumplings with four kinds of fillings in four different shapes, which are easy to distinguish.

Perhaps Master Cao has the basic obsessive-compulsive disorder of a chef, and he must cook four flavors for each serving of four-happiness dumplings.

As soon as Qin Huai showed a puzzled expression, he realized that he had missed the point. He rushed out to apologize immediately, instead of letting Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu's words change the topic to why the Four Happiness Dumplings had to have four flavors cooked at once.

"Master Cao, Grandpa Zhang is really sorry. I didn't expect that I would oversleep and wake up at this time today. It was too late last night and I forgot to set the alarm. I don't know what happened. It might be..." Qin Huai immediately began to apologize with a sincere expression and honest words.

Cao Guixiang waved her hand and interrupted nonchalantly: "It's normal. You practiced sword skills until so late last night. If you didn't wake up at this time, I would be afraid that you wouldn't have enough energy to keep up."

"Yes, yes." Zhang Chu agreed, "When I was young, I went out to work with my master. Sometimes the boss needed something and we had to rush to complete the work. We worked with kerosene lamps until midnight. The next day, let alone sleeping until noon, sometimes we had to sleep until sunset. It was normal."

"Xiao Qin, do you want to eat later or have some breakfast? If you want breakfast, I'll make you some dumplings." Zhang Chu asked.

"Just eat something to fill your stomach. No need to trouble Master Cao to make lunch for me. This will save some space for dinner." Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu had both said this, so Qin Huai could only take over the conversation and not mention the apology anymore.

Zhang Chu put down his bowl and went to the kitchen to cook four-happiness dumplings for Qin Huai, while Qin Huai went to the bathroom to wash up and then have breakfast.

Qinhuai's A-grade Four-happiness Tangyuan tasted bland. While eating, I was regretting why I got up so late today. It was so presumptuous. At the same time, I was recalling the absurd and bizarre dream I had in the evening, and the absurd and bizarre vegetable cutting yesterday.

He was so distracted while eating breakfast that he didn't even notice when Cao Guixiang walked up to him.

"Don't daydream while eating. Tangyuan is made of glutinous rice. It's easy to choke if you don't concentrate." Cao Guixiang reminded softly.

Qin Huai quickly chewed the glutinous rice ball in his mouth and swallowed it, then said embarrassedly: "I'm sorry, Master Cao, I won't do it again in the future."

"Apologize again. The first thing you said this morning was "I'm sorry" and now you're saying "I'm sorry" again. Xiao Qin, why do I feel like you've become more distant with us this time when you came back? Are there so many things worth apologizing for?"

Qin Huai quickly explained: "I'm not, I just..."

"Just what? You feel that you are too soft-hearted to take things from others. You are so embarrassed in front of your master Cao and me, Grandpa Zhang, for taking things from others."

"Or maybe you feel that your knife skills are not improving very slowly, and you feel sorry for the online lessons I give you every day. Or maybe you feel that you and I have suddenly become very enthusiastic recently, and you don't know what I am thinking. I give you a secret recipe one moment and teach you how to thicken starch the next, and you can't figure out what I want to do for a while."

"I..." Qin Huai opened his mouth, not knowing what else to say. Cao Guixiang had already summarized it very accurately, so he could only nod and say, "All of them."

"I just feel that Master Cao and I have no relationship at all, but you are so kind to me that I don't know what to do..."

If we say that Zheng Da took the initiative because he wanted to take Qin Huai as his apprentice, and Huang Shengli was enthusiastic because of the relationship with Zheng Da and because Huang Shengli himself was a person of this character, then Cao Guixiang was really too proactive and enthusiastic.

It is so proactive that in a system-based novel, it is hard not to wonder if she also has a system that is issuing system tasks to increase Qin Huai's favorability.

"So you got up early, made two large boxes of snacks and brought them here to provide breakfast for our family for half a month." Cao Guixiang joked and waved her hand, "Don't feel any psychological burden, and don't think that Master Cao is very good to you and you will be sorry for Master Cao if you don't learn it or don't learn it quickly."

Qin Huai nodded and ate the dumplings. "Master Cao, I am not completely selfless. I actually want to take you as my apprentice."

Qin Huai almost choked to death on the glutinous rice balls.

"Don't get excited. I just really want to do it." Cao Guixiang said, "You told me the other day that you think you have a talent for thickening. After I saw you do it, I admit that I was really moved."

"You maintained your sword skills for such a long time last night, which made me even more excited."

"But this morning when I was eating the four-happiness dumplings you made, I thought about it carefully and realized that it was not necessary."

"Your Four-happiness Glutinous Rice Balls are delicious. You are a pure white-casserole dim sum chef, while I am a pure red-casserole chef. And I think you and I are a bit similar. We are both very talented but not ambitious."

"I worked as a chef until I was in my 30s. I thought I had earned enough money and could spend the rest of my time with my children, so I retired and went home. Even if my boss offered me a higher price and promised to buy me a house, a shop, or shares, I would not continue to be a chef."

"I think you might be better than me. You can at least work until you are about 50."

"If I accept you as my apprentice, I will have expectations for you. I will expect you to achieve greater success in this industry. I will hope that you will focus all your time and energy on your job as a chef. I may hope that you will become a top chef, a pure chef, and reach the top of this industry. I hope that you will shine, just like every parent who hopes that their child will get the first place in the grade and become successful."

"But that's not fair to you."

"Because you may not be interested in this. I cannot force these things on you just because I am happy with my opinion."

"Just like when I was determined to give up my job at the state-owned restaurant and go to the countryside for Lao Zhang, my master and fellow students didn't understand. They persuaded me for a long time. They thought that if I stayed in Beijing and the state-owned restaurant, I would definitely become an excellent female chef, or even the best female chef in the country. But I insisted on going, and in the end they respected my choice."

"I know you definitely don't want to become my disciple, and you're even less likely to give up the white case and switch to the red case, nor are you going to ignore the white case and focus on the red case. So I think I should respect your choice just like my master and my senior brother respected my choice back then, even if you don't actually have to make these choices."

Seeing Qin Huai's dazed expression, Cao Guixiang burst out laughing, "Do you think I, your Master Cao, am weird? I'm saying so much to you all of a sudden. Maybe I'm playing hard to get and retreating to advance. The purpose of saying these things is to make you take the initiative to ask to be my disciple. In this way, it's not me who takes the initiative but you who wants to be my disciple."

Qin Huai:......

Cao Guixiang said all the words, black and white. What did he say?
At this moment, Qin Huai felt that his master-level lies were not enough, and his skill level needed to be improved. He even ran out of words.

"No, no, that's not what I meant." This was all Qin Huai could say.

"I'm just laying the groundwork for what I'm about to do, so it won't seem so outrageous."

Cao Guixiang took out her cell phone and sent a file to Qin Huai.

A very plain text-only document, without even a table because she didn't know how to make a table.

Qin Huai opened the file and opened his eyes wide after seeing the first line of words clearly.

This is... the same treasure bag as Tan Weian.

It’s all recipes.

There were all kinds of cold dishes, hot dishes, drinks, and snacks. Qin Huai saw some that he recognized, such as braised shark's fin, bird's nest in clear soup, and abalone with oyster sauce. There were also many that he didn't recognize, such as white fungus stewed with vegetables, willow leaf bird's nest in clear soup, and shark's fin with three shreds.

There are dishes that look very expensive at first glance, as well as daily home-cooked side dishes, even recipes for scrambled eggs with tomatoes and stir-fried water spinach with garlic.

"Many of the recipes in the front are our Tan family dishes. If I just give you the recipes, you probably won't be able to make them, but these are all very good recipes. You don't have to learn them. You can learn a lot of cooking skills from these recipes, especially the skills of making soup. I remember that you also need soup stock to make dim sum."

"Many of the recipes below are the result of my cooking experience over the years. In fact, the difficulty of cooking home-cooked dishes is no less than that of these top-notch dishes. These dishes are just expensive and complicated to make, and many of them are made with fancy ingredients to create a rich flavor. But many times, simple home-cooked dishes are the best way to test a chef's level, and many cooking skills need to be practiced from these home-cooked dishes."

"You can't pass on the recipes for the Tan family dishes above. These are not my recipes. These are the recipes that my master, my master's grandfather, and even earlier predecessors have painstakingly studied and left behind from generation to generation. These recipes are not mine, I just happened to learn them."

"But you can teach the recipes and techniques I summarized to others, whether they are your cafeteria staff or your close friends, such as Xiao Tan, Xiao Zheng, and Xiao Zang. Chefs need to communicate with each other, but many times you can't wait for others to take the initiative. You have to take the initiative first so that others can feel your sincerity."

"I know that according to what is written in the TV series and everyone's traditional understanding, this kind of seemingly top-secret information should be written on a piece of letter paper or sealed in a private notebook. But based on my many years of experience as a chef, these paper materials are easily damaged. It would be better to write it down as a document and send it to you. It would be more reliable for you to store it in a cloud disk."

"How about it, Master Cao, what I just laid out is good, right? Do you think the document Master Cao sent you is not that outrageous now?" Cao Guixiang said with a smile.

Qin Huai didn't know what to say for a moment.

This is a more valuable treasure bag than Tan Weian's, but Tan Weian's treasure bag is a family heirloom, passed down to him by his grandfather. His treasure bag fell from the sky, and was given to him by Master Cao, who had only known him for a few months.

Qin Huai could only smile helplessly, a smile that was a little bit between a fake smile and a wry smile. His lips moved, but he couldn't form any words for a moment. He stared at the document for a long time before slowly saying:

"Master Cao, I really want to take you as my master now."

Cao Guixiang shook her head: "Please don't do that. I don't want to become the master I hate the most, the one who forces his apprentice to do things he doesn't want to do."

"However." Cao Guixiang paused, "You don't have to become my disciple, you can just call me Master."

"There are many kinds of apprentices, and there are many kinds of masters. A verbal master is also a master."

"Okay, Master." Qin Huai said loudly, "Master, I don't know why, but I really want to learn how to thicken the sauce now!"

"That's normal. I know you really want to learn, but don't think about it yet. Your most urgent task right now is to cut another 200 kilograms of radishes to consolidate your condition from last night."

"The radishes are in the kitchen, and your Grandpa Zhang has already washed them for you. You can start cutting them when you're done."

"Okay Master!"

(End of this chapter)