The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 448 Daily Enlightenment

July arrived in the blink of an eye.

Since returning to Guangdong Province, Shi Dadan has become very active in the "We Are a Loving Family" group chat, asking everyone what they're having for dinner every day at mealtimes. He only feels relieved after discovering that everyone else, like him, can only afford ordinary meals.

Enraged, Luo Jun would lash out in the group chat every day, no longer typing, but sending voice messages to curse Shi Dadan. Shi Dadan remained unmoved and didn't respond. Instead, he would patiently advise Luo Jun to eat more regularly, instead of eating breakfast at 10 or 11 in the morning, lunch at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and dinner at 9 or 10 in the evening, and sometimes even having a late-night snack.

While Gastrodia elata and pigeon soup is good, it shouldn't be drunk every day. Your body can't handle such a nourishing soup every morning. Besides, this soup isn't made with the same ingredients as the Qinhuai River soup, so it doesn't have any special "buffs."

It's best to eat less of Zheng Siyuan's pastries and fresh meat mooncakes; the former is bad for your teeth, and the latter is something Shi Dadan can't find in Guangdong Province.

Shi Dadan will be taking his two unlucky kids on a month-long trip abroad in mid-July. Then, at the end of August, he'll be taking his wife on a shopping trip overseas. They won't be back in Shanshi until late September at the earliest, when they'll be able to meet up with everyone for a tea party.

Shi Dadan really wanted all the spirits to gather together and have a lively meal. Therefore, he felt that since Luo Jun's death was imminent, he could not live as recklessly as he did when he did not know when he would die. He should take care of his health and try to live for two more months.

He needs to live until at least September, otherwise it will be difficult for him to arrange his time.

Chen Gong found Shi Dadan's suggestion very constructive. He also found it difficult to find the time before September, and he encouraged Luo Jun to live a more regular life and try to live until September.

Luo Jun's reply was: When Kang and Wen are stingrays, I **@%**＆/#!

Of course, Qin Huai didn't participate much in the lively, nonsensical exchanges in the group. While everyone was sniping each other in the mid-lane, Qin Huai was at work frantically grinding for skill points. Occasionally, during his breaks, if a major showdown happened, Qin Huai wouldn't participate; he would just watch the excitement. For him, nothing was more important than grinding for skill points right now.

At the same time, this level of proficiency is quite difficult to achieve.

Qin Huai wanted to upgrade another skill to master level, but there's a big difference between wanting and doing.

With Qin Huai haphazardly grinding for proficiency, all of his proficiency levels increased to varying degrees, relatively evenly, and the increase was quite impressive.

Unfortunately, the increase in proficiency from advanced to master level is very slow.

Qin Huai had no hope for Huo Hou. If Huo Hou wanted to surpass finger techniques and dough preparation to reach master level first, Qin Huai would have to run away on the spot, thinking that pastry making was hopeless and how could he improve his skills by working with a bunch of pastry chefs. Then he'd simply buy a train ticket and head straight to Suzhou to join Huang Ji, declaring that he wanted to become a hot-dish chef.

If that's the case, everyone will think Qin Huai has lost his mind, that his condition has become so severe that it's affecting his normal life, and that he needs to see a doctor for interventional treatment.

Between dough making and finger techniques, dough making is undoubtedly the closest to leveling up. However, there is a bottleneck in improving proficiency in this skill; the closer you get to leveling up, the slower it becomes. Qin Huai's dough making experience points were steadily increasing until they reached 9, rising rapidly without stopping.

In Qinhuai, as long as you make dim sum, except for rice cakes and rice noodle rolls which are completely unrelated to the system's definition of leavened dough, you can become proficient in making most dim sum.

For Qin Huai, who relentlessly grinded proficiency indiscriminately, grinding proficiency in hair and facial features was as easy as breathing.

However, after reaching a dough-making proficiency level of 94000, my breathing rate decreased, and I even had some difficulty breathing, feeling like I was suffocating.

Qin Huai tried to increase the difficulty of making the dough. Under normal circumstances, the snacks he made most often in a day were basic snacks such as white flour steamed buns, fermented rice steamed buns, shumai, baozi, and sesame seed cakes. Among them, fermented rice steamed buns had the highest requirements for dough fermentation.

After realizing he was struggling to improve his skill level, Qin Huai started deliberately making some of the more demanding desserts the other party required, such as three-ingredient buns, five-ingredient buns, double crab buns, and even "Guo'er" (a type of steamed bun). He would make the first half of the "Guo'er" and leave the coloring part entirely to Tan Weian and Zhao Cheng'an. Zhao Cheng'an was so frustrated by Qin Huai's poor taste that he started to question his life choices, wondering if Qin Huai really needed to read a couple more books on aesthetics.

Bro, don't tell people you're like me in the future, I can't handle it.

The results were unsatisfactory.

Making these desserts is relatively difficult overall, and the requirements from the other party are also very high. It will slightly increase the efficiency of improving proficiency, but the corresponding time cost will increase a lot.

Making regular dim sum will increase your dough-making proficiency. Regular dim sum is plentiful and filling, while high-difficulty dim sum is made in smaller quantities. If you're only focusing on improving a specific proficiency level, such as when Qin Huai was frantically improving her filling proficiency with crab roe shumai, making smaller quantities of premium dim sum is undoubtedly a good choice.

But now Qin Huai has to grind for everything, and making these high-difficulty desserts will seriously slow down the progress of other skill proficiency.

If I brush it like before, the dough will stagnate again.

This situation left Qin Huai momentarily at a loss as to how to improve his proficiency. He wasn't particularly eager for the Master level in dough preparation, because he didn't currently have a strong need for it.

As the owner of the game system, Qin Huai would still consider the tasks when leveling up his skill proficiency.

Of course, if it's a master-level finger technique, Qin Huai is very willing to focus on grinding with a single skill.

This situation put Qin Huai in a dilemma. He wanted to quickly acquire another master-level skill to see what level he could achieve with the support of two master-level skills. At the same time, he knew very well that using this mindset to grind proficiency would only be counterproductive, and he didn't actually need master-level skills that much. What he needed to do now was to focus on grinding as before, without worrying too much about proficiency; he just needed to be himself.

But truth is truth, and reality is reality.

Which gamer can resist looking at their stats panel? Which gamer can find that one of their stats is about to upgrade and not pay close attention to it, wanting it to upgrade as soon as possible?

Which decent player could withstand such a test?

You're using this to test game players?

"Sigh." After kneading the dough for this batch of fermented rice buns, Qin Huai let out a deep sigh.

"What's wrong? I feel like you've been sighing for the past two days. What happened? Is it that the pastries aren't going well? Wait, your pastries are quite good. We at Zhiweiju haven't seen a situation like this for many years, with a large number of customers lining up at the window to buy steamed buns every morning around 6 o'clock."

"We at Zhiweiju haven't sold steamed buns like this for many years."

"Is Tan Weian spreading gossip about you again? You're planning to open a community canteen in this neighborhood and establish yourself as king. You're currently trying to win over the ordinary apprentices at our Zhiweiju restaurant, sending your capable henchman An Youyou to conquer and recruit followers. Are you about to unify all the apprentices? Is there a new version of the gossip?"

"That's not right. I just heard the new version yesterday. It says that An Youyou is now highly respected among the ordinary apprentices. Although her skills are not very good, her prestige has reached its peak. Now many apprentices are no longer focused on practicing their tea-making skills. Instead, they are starting to figure out how to become An Youyou's closest colleague. That way, when you go to instruct An Youyou every morning, you can also give your juniors a few pointers."

"It's only noon now. Even if there's a new version today, Tan Weian won't be able to release it until the afternoon."

"Did something happen to Lao Shi? His wife finally came to her senses and realized that the children's schooling couldn't be forced. She said it wasn't the children's fault but his, and in a fit of anger, she forbade him from eating snacks. He messaged you for help, wanting to rent another refrigerated truck so we can make snacks and transport them over."

"Hey, is your sister about to start her vacation? Or is she already on vacation? Did her exam results come out? Oh, if that's the case, then your sigh is understandable."

Qin Huai: ... "No, the version of me starting my own business has become so outlandish?" For the first time, Qin Huai was overwhelmed by the sheer number of things to complain about and didn't know where to begin. He could only pick the one he thought was the most absurd to ask.

"It's alright." Zhao Cheng'an leisurely pressed pastries with a mold. "It's not that strange. After all, you go to An Youyou's place every morning to give her pointers, and you mentor a large number of apprentices at once. Now An Youyou is a celebrity at our Zhiweiju. Everyone is saying that she is actually your apprentice. You brought her over and placed her among the apprentices to temper her will."

"It's only natural to want to improve. I heard that she doesn't even need to brew tea herself anymore; someone will brew it for her whenever she wants to drink tea."

Qin Huai: ...He only wanted to help An Youyou become the leader, but he didn't expect An Youyou to be so successful as the leader.

"I bumped into Master Hua this morning. He was muttering all morning about how people from the same place could have such different talents, and how Qin could have fallen for An."

"How did you manage to bump into Master Hua hanging around An Youyou's place this morning?"

Zhao Cheng'an chuckled: "Because I went there to hang out too."

"You can't blame me, buddy. I was just too curious. The version of Tan Weian's story was so convincing that I almost believed An Youyou was actually your apprentice."

Qin Huai said with a serious face: "I'm not afraid to tell you the truth, An Youyou is not my apprentice. The reason I pay so much attention to her is because she is not human. I have a main quest for her."

Zhao Cheng'an laughed heartily: "Qin Huai, your game system is getting more and more outrageous. Side quests and main quests are one thing, but now you're bringing up inhumanity? What, has spiritual energy revived? In your quest, am I human or not? We're on pretty good terms, aren't we?"

"Neither are you."

Zhao Cheng'an laughed wildly for over a minute until his stomach ached before asking, "I'm not going to talk about this nonsense anymore. Why are you sighing?"

Qin Huai recounted all his recent concerns, including the difficult choice he faced regarding increasing his proficiency level.

Zhao Cheng'an didn't quite understand and asked, "We can understand what you mean by 'grinding proficiency,' but I've never really understood this ranking system. What's the definition of 'Master'?"

"My filling preparation is masterful," Qin Huai explained succinctly.

Everyone here is a highly professional pastry chef. Everyone knows that Qin Huai's skill in preparing fillings is unparalleled among her peers. This is the best proof that Qin Huai has exceptional talent and a tongue that everyone envies.

"So you want to get your dough-making skills to the same level as your filling skills this month?" Zhao Cheng'an asked.

"Yes." Qin Huai looked troubled. "My dough-making skills improved quite quickly before. I thought I would definitely reach the master level by the end of July, but at this rate, I don't know when that will be."

Zhao Cheng'an was numb; he didn't want to joke anymore, and he didn't even want to laugh.

"Sometimes I really want to compete with a super genius like you."

"You say you've mastered the art of dough making, but your filling skills are better than mine while your dough making skills are worse. To put it bluntly, you just want to surpass me in every aspect."

"How come I'm just a minor boss on your system novel's male protagonist's path to leveling up, and you want to surpass me and trample me under your feet at the drop of a hat?"

Qin Huai thought for a moment and said earnestly, "Don't think like that. You're not exactly a mini-boss."

"Based on the numerical allocation, one must at least be at Jia Yi's level to be considered a mini-boss."

Zhao Cheng'an: ...Damn it, I was just trying to be nice and ask how you were feeling, and you actually hurt me like this.

Sometimes, an ordinary genius like me really wants to compete with a super genius like you.

The conversation ended with Zhao Cheng'an expressing his grief and indignation, which also clarified Qin Huai's thoughts considerably.

Zhao Cheng'an's words enlightened Qin Huai. He was struggling with whether or not to reach the master level in dough making in the shortest time, but he overlooked the significance of the master level.

Reaching the Master level means that Qin Huai's strength has officially surpassed Zhao Cheng'an's.

Zhao Cheng'an and Qin Huai are currently evenly matched, or perhaps Zhao Cheng'an is slightly better than Qin Huai. Each of them has their own strengths.

When Qin Huai first came to Zhiweiju, Zhao Cheng'an's skill level was definitely higher than his. But after Qin Huai watched Jiang Chengde's video tutorial and raised the level of his fermented rice buns to A-, their skills became truly evenly matched.

If Qin Huai were to accidentally upgrade and surpass...

That really treated Zhao Cheng'an like a mini-boss, not like a human being.

Although he was indeed not human.

Qin Huai has already made rapid progress. It's wishful thinking to expect to progress too quickly. You can't get fat in one bite. The fact that the more you practice making dough, the slower it gets means that it will become more and more difficult later on.

Instead of getting bogged down in this one point, it's better to spread your efforts evenly and grind through all the different skill levels.

Anyway, they'll surpass Zhao Cheng'an sooner or later, so there's no need to focus solely on surpassing him.

After figuring all this out, Qin Huai felt his inner turmoil disappear and instantly felt enlightened.

"Zhao Cheng'an, thank you." Qin Huai expressed his heartfelt gratitude.

Zhao Cheng'an: ...?
We didn't exchange a single word for 40 minutes, and you're thanking me? What are you thanking me for?
Thank you for not chatting with me for 40 minutes; it didn't affect your progress in grinding proficiency.

It's still you...

Zhao Cheng'an glanced at Qin Huai with a look of horror, completely empathizing with Tan Weian at that moment.

Seriously? Dude, you've figured it out again?

What have you realized? Are there really so many things to realize in a lifetime?
Could you share some of what you've learned with me? I have 88 paintings at home that are completely useless. Could you give me the one you bought?

(End of this chapter)