The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 480 Not Completely Forgotten
Since he was going to teach her, Qin Huai planned to teach An Youyou something real.

But how do you teach the real stuff? What exactly is the real stuff?
Why don't we give An Youyou the complete guide to desserts, let her take it back and study it, and teach her whichever one she likes?
However, the Complete Dim Sum Recipe wasn't in Hangzhou. Qin Huai hadn't brought it with him this time; the book was still at his home in Shanshi. Although Tan Weian used gossip to portray the Complete Dim Sum Recipe at Zhiweiju as a martial arts manual on par with the Nine Yang Divine Skill, Qin Huai, who had read it countless times since childhood and practically worn it out, knew very well that it was just an ordinary cookbook he'd bought for a dollar at a flea market.

Having always been taught by others, Qin Huai, now teaching for the first time, suddenly realized how difficult it was to teach someone. At that moment, he even felt a bit of empathy for Zheng Da.

Although Zheng Da was not good with words, he at least knew what to teach and where to teach it, and his demonstration teaching was particularly good. Qin Huai looked up at An Youyou now and felt completely lost, not even knowing what to demonstrate teaching.

Qin Huai pretended that the resume was very impressive, and looked at it for more than ten minutes before slowly saying, "Youyou, write in your resume that you have been helping to knead dough in your family's breakfast shop since the fifth grade of elementary school, and that you would occasionally be in charge of making and steaming buns after graduating from junior high school."

An Youyou nodded: "The steamed buns in our shop are very cheap. If you buy a lot, they're only 40 cents each. There used to be a clothing factory in our town, and the factory owner would order steamed buns from our breakfast shop. My mom originally wanted me to work at that factory after I turned 18, but it went bankrupt before I even turned 18. I didn't want to work at that factory either. The factory owner was too greedy. In the morning, he only gave each person two steamed buns and one vegetarian bun. If you wanted eggs, you had to pay extra. I could sneak five or six meat buns from my shop in the morning."

Qin Huai: ...I can tell from his voice that this child has been good at stealing food since he was a child.

"How do you think your steamed buns are?" Qin Huai asked.

An Youyou thought about it seriously for a few minutes, and then answered uncertainly, "I used to think that my steamed buns were pretty good."

“I’m strong, so the dough I knead tastes good. I don’t need to prepare fillings for steamed buns. As long as the flour is good, the steamed buns will be fragrant. So when I first came to Shanshi, I wanted to find a shop that could make steamed buns. I don’t have a degree, but I have skills.”

"But when I got to the Cloud Canteen, I realized that making steamed buns isn't just about being strong, and kneading dough isn't something you can do well just by being strong. I asked Chef Chen at first, and he told me that being strong is the foundation, and only those who are strong and can endure hardship are qualified to be breakfast shop chefs. There are techniques to kneading dough, and I need to learn how to knead the dough to make it elastic, how to knead it to make it soft, and how to judge the state of the dough."

“I could understand a little of what Master Chen was saying, and he taught me a lot, but I couldn’t quite grasp it. Later, Master Pei and Master Li came. They told me that kneading dough requires skill, but more importantly, you need to learn how to exert force. You can’t just use brute force; that’s exhausting and doesn’t do much good, and it can easily strain your back. Master Pei taught me the kneading technique and how to use skillful force and where to exert force, but I basically couldn’t understand it.”

"However, Master Pei also praised me, saying that I have made significant progress, but I don't know where I have made progress."

Qin Huai told An Youyou that he was testing her, asking her to tell the truth to see if she had the courage. An Youyou did.

Qin Huai could tell that everything she said was the absolute truth, without a single exaggeration.

According to An Youyou, Qin Huai felt that she had some talent in making pastries. An Youyou was a typical case where her theoretical level couldn't keep up with her practical level, her vision wasn't broad enough, and she could do many things but didn't understand the underlying principles. In fact, she was actually making progress, but she had no idea where she was improving.

He was a typical self-taught apprentice without a master.

An Youyou's progress was entirely driven by the experience she gained from making basic breakfasts at a breakfast shop over a long period of time, and by the random guidance she received from Chen An, Pei Xing, and Li Hua at the Cloud Cafeteria. This kind of unbridled growth environment proved An Youyou's talent, and at the same time, it also showed the upper limit of her talent.

He has some talent, but not much.

Under normal circumstances, An Youyou might only ever reach Chen An's level in her entire life. Her skills would be slightly better than an average breakfast shop worker, but far inferior to a pastry chef. If she were willing to work hard, she could open her own breakfast shop, working tirelessly from dawn till dusk, building a loyal customer base, making small profits but selling large quantities, achieving a stable life, saving money to buy her own house in middle age, owning her own shop before retirement, and living a busy, peaceful, and fulfilling life.

If you don't want to live such a hard life, you can do what Chen An did and find a shop that is willing to pay a higher salary to hire a breakfast shop chef to work for someone else. Having a skill will always keep you from starving. You certainly won't earn as much as if you owned your own shop, but the advantage is that it's easier and you don't have to worry about the trivial matters of running a business.

Now An Youyou has plan c.

"I understand." Qin Huai nodded. "Being a pastry chef isn't right for you; being a breakfast chef is your true calling."

"You continue preparing the ingredients. After I finish the morning meeting, I'll come and guide you in making steamed buns. We'll start with steamed buns, then vegetarian buns, meat buns, shumai, xiaolongbao, and rice noodle rolls. If you do a good job with breakfast, you'll be just as good as a pastry chef. Just follow me step by step. You don't need to practice the basics too much; you'll learn quickly."

"Okay, Chef Qin." An Youyou nodded emphatically and continued preparing the ingredients. After chopping the meat for a while, she realized something. Wasn't Qin Huai going to groom her to be the heir to Yunzhong Restaurant? Why could a breakfast shop chef become the heir to Yunzhong Restaurant?

Isn't the signature dish of Yunzhong Canteen all kinds of snacks?
An Youyou thought about how packed the Cloud Cafeteria was that morning and felt like she understood something.

Breakfast is the foundation of the Cloud Canteen!
The elderly always love breakfast the most!
The saying "The early bird catches the worm" originally meant this.

No wonder Master Qin chose her as the successor of Yunzhong Restaurant, instead of Master Pei and Master Li. It turns out that the two of them weren't breakfast shop chefs, while An Youyou was the one Master Qin favored as a promising future breakfast shop chef.

An Youyou chopped the meat filling with even more force. Kneading dough might not be about using more force to make it better, but chopping meat filling is an exception. You can really achieve miracles by using a lot of force when chopping meat filling.

After An Youyou finished preparing the dishes, and the apprentices of Zhiweiju began to arrive at their posts one after another, Qin Huai told An Youyou to go back to the apprentices' area to do some apprentice work, learn how to brew tea, and strengthen her relationship with her younger brother. He would come over to train the breakfast shop chefs after he finished his morning meeting.

Qin Huai placed An Youyou's resume on a small stool next to the kitchen counter, waiting for Zhao Cheng'an to arrive so that Zhao Cheng'an could also take a look at it.

Previously, when Qin Huai started changing his work hours, from 9 am to 8 am, then to 7 am and even 6 am, Mr. Zhou tried hard to get up early to keep up with Qin Huai's pace. After Qin Huai changed his work hours to 5 am or even 4 am, Mr. Zhou gave up lying down and returned to his good routine of starting work at 8 am.

It's impossible to roll, absolutely impossible. Master Zhou is a typical pastry chef; he's even earlier than the breakfast shop chefs. He never got up this early, not even when he was an apprentice decades ago.

Seeing that Master Zhou didn't get up early, Zhao Cheng'an quickly returned to his lazy mode, starting work at 9 a.m. every day.

However, that was during working hours before going to Beiping. After waking up in Beiping, Zhao Cheng'an picked up the bad habit from his first life and posted eight crying emojis on his WeChat Moments every day. Even after posting them for seven days, he couldn't correct the bad habit and was forced to get up early to go to work and practice more.

Every day, I would rush to the cooking station 5 minutes before Chef Zhou entered Zhiweiju, pretending that I had been working hard for an hour making dim sum.

Qin Huai had reason to suspect that Zhao Cheng'an must have studied acting in one of his previous seven lives. After he woke up, his acting skills had improved a lot, and he began to cultivate himself as an actor from the very first minute of his workday.

Today was no different. As soon as Zhao Cheng'an arrived at his workstation, he started performing. He kneaded the dough with such concentration and dedication, his eyes were firm, and he worked diligently. Occasionally, he would rub his back, giving people the feeling that he was about to be elected as a model worker and go to the hospital.

"You've overdone it," Qin Huai muttered to himself. "Zhiweiju is full of machines. You've made it sound like you were acting out a scene from decades ago where you had to knead hundreds of pounds of dough every day and get so tired that your back ached."

Zhao Cheng'an quickly adjusted himself, eliminating these unnecessary small movements.

"Stop acting for now, take a look at this." Qin Huai handed An Youyou's resume to Zhao Cheng'an. Seeing that he could slack off, Zhao Cheng'an immediately stopped working, took the resume, and read it carefully for more than half an hour.

During this time, Master Zhou came over for a look. After Qin Huai explained the situation to Zhao Cheng'an, Master Zhou left without saying anything.

Chef Zhou has been very busy lately, with almost no free time in the mornings as he's been discussing pastry recipes with Boss Su. If it weren't for Zhao Cheng'an's persistent bad habits, Chef Zhou wouldn't even be in the kitchen in the mornings.

"The three-legged toad is quite optimistic," Zhao Cheng'an remarked after reading it.

"She is very optimistic, or more accurately, she doesn't suffer from internal conflict, is easily satisfied, and enjoys the present moment," Qin Huai agreed. "With this mindset, she could be very happy even in a welfare home."

Zhao Cheng'an glanced at Qin Huai: "According to you, you have a good attitude. Didn't you grow up in an orphanage when you were a child?"

“My situation is different. The director was a very kind person. And I was adopted later, so I didn’t stay in the orphanage all the time.”

Zhao Cheng'an flipped through the resume again and asked, "So what conclusion did you draw from this resume? You plan to give An Youyou a north-facing apartment in the Yunzhong Community with a beanbag chair, to really boost her favorability, and hopefully trigger a side quest?" Qin Huai: "...I plan to rent a north-facing apartment with a big sofa for her in the Yunzhong Community after I go back."

Zhao Cheng'an looked at him with a face that said, "Brother, you're too stingy. Aren't you already financially independent? With An Youyou's financial situation, she won't have much to give you after she wakes up. She'll most likely return the house you gave her. You're not even willing to give her anything for nothing."

Qin Huai explained in a low voice, "Do you know how much the price per square meter is in Yunzhong Community now? I am about to inherit Luo Jun's estate, not that I have already inherited his estate. And what reason would I have to give An Youyou an apartment? Company benefits? She may not have studied much, but she has read books and plays on her phone all the time."

"I was just saying," Zhao Cheng'an waved his hand. "Actually, ever since I joined the group, there's been a question I've wanted to ask, but I haven't dared to."

When exactly will Bi Fang die?

Qin Huai: ?
Do you have a grudge against Bi Fang?

When you were sleeping in the field, did Bifang, who was bored, breathe fire on the ground and burn you?

“Look, I just woke up and haven’t seen everyone yet. I’ve only met Lao Shi before. Everyone else is still young and has time, but Bi Fang seems to be running out of time. Judging from Sister Hong’s tone in the group, I feel like he’ll be dying in a couple of days.”

“I saw the chat history in the group. Are you guys planning to get together in Shanshi sometime? I have to go. And the time has to be set in advance. Once the time is set, I have to make up a reason. Can you help me ask my master to let me ask for two more days off?”

"I really can't take this anymore. Do you know how I've been doing this past week? I've been making pastries for more than 12 hours every day! I've never practiced making pastries like this in my entire life!"

"I just don't understand. In those novels, everyone's supposed to regain their past life memories and become a superhuman, reaching the pinnacle of life. I didn't even expect anything special from me, so how come I'm regaining seven lifetimes' worth of memories, and all I'm getting back are bad habits? What was I doing in my first life?"

"Why is it that Xia Murui and I were trained by the same master, yet he's such a good cook now, while I'm full of bad habits? Xia Murui is even worse. I talked to him about this the other day, and do you know what he said to me?"

“He said my habits were even worse back then than they are now, and I haven’t even remembered all my bad habits. What does he mean? I was clearly a very good cook back then, my pastries were very popular, and the old lady of the Li family loved my pastries the most!” Zhao Cheng’an roared in a low voice.

Qin Huai realized that after seven days, Zhao Cheng'an still hadn't forgiven his past self from seven lifetimes ago.

“We’ve gone off-topic.” Qin Huai pointed to the resume. “It would be good for you to practice more. Chen Sheng’s skills back then… definitely had a lot of problems, but they weren’t entirely without merits. At least I think he had a much better personal style back then than he does now, and he had his own ideas when making pastries.”

"Once you get rid of your bad habits and regain your personal style, won't that be a breakthrough and a great enlightenment? Then you can explain to Master Zhou that you went to Beiping to seek enlightenment but went astray and went astray. Now you've returned to the right path and your realm has improved. That would be a wonderful story."

Zhao Cheng'an: !

Zhao Cheng'an understood.

"Is this the level of a master liar?" Zhao Cheng'an exclaimed excitedly.

"...Let's get down to business." Qin Huai pointed to the resume again. "Besides noticing that An Youyou has a good attitude, what else did you see?"

“She must have learned to make pastries in her first life, someone must have taught her, but her skills were mediocre,” Zhao Chengan said.

Qin Huai was somewhat surprised: "How did you figure that out?"

“Because that’s how I am,” Zhao Cheng’an said smugly, indicating that he had the standard answer and she could just copy it. “Look at what she wrote here. She started helping out at her family’s breakfast shop when she was in the second grade of elementary school. At first, she washed and picked vegetables and did odd jobs. Then, when she was in the fifth grade of elementary school, her parents tried to teach her to knead dough so that she could fill in. She learned it right away.”

"Although An Youyou has been making steamed buns at the breakfast shop for many years, and she rarely makes vegetable buns or meat buns, her steamed buns are actually quite good, at least as good as her father's."

"What's wrong with that?" Qin Huai said he also remembered this part, but he thought it was normal.

Zhao Cheng'an: ...

"I really understand Tan Weian now."

"Do you think everyone is as talented as you and me, able to master kneading dough after just one try?"

"Making steamed buns and dumplings seems simple, but for beginners who have never tried it before, especially children, there is actually a learning curve. Not to mention that An Youyou doesn't come from a family of chefs, so she didn't learn from them from a young age. Her family just runs an ordinary breakfast shop, and her parents' skills are just so-so."

"Even if you're just making breakfast, theoretically you still need to learn from a master for several years first."

“If An Youyou’s situation were with other apprentices at Zhiweiju, and their parents paid a little more attention to or understood the industry better, they would have realized that she had great talent in this area and sent her to a large store to become an apprentice and learn the craft early on, instead of letting her help out in her own breakfast shop and delaying her progress.”

"To describe her entry into the field as a genius would be a bit of an exaggeration, but she is definitely very talented."

“But if she really is naturally gifted in this area, she should be like you, able to learn without a teacher and acquire her current skills just by reading the Complete Book of Pastries.”

"But she didn't. Her current skill level is enough to show that she's not talented; she simply hasn't completely forgotten what she learned in her first life, and most likely, she hasn't completely forgotten the skills she learned in her first life. This skill was very important to An Youyou at the time, so when she had the opportunity to access it, she displayed amazing talent."

Qin Huai was starting to understand.

He looked at Zhao Cheng'an thoughtfully.

Zhao Cheng'an: ?

Zhao Cheng'an suddenly had a bad feeling: "What kind of look is that?"

“What you just said makes a lot of sense. So I was thinking, when you first joined Zhiweiju, your skills were amazing and you were hailed by the master chefs as a once-in-a-century genius of pastry making. After displaying your talent for a few years, you gradually faded into obscurity. Could it be that it wasn't because you were lazy, but because you hadn't completely forgotten your skills back then?”

"It seems that waking up this time will greatly help your cooking skills. Because you've been relying on your old skills, now that you've remembered them all, once you get rid of these bad habits, you should really have a big breakthrough."

Zhao Cheng'an: ...

"Shut up!"

"Don't think I'm afraid of you just because you actually have a system."

"Watch out or I'll steal your phone so you won't be able to use it during your rest time!"

(End of this chapter)