The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 482 Bottleneck
Qin Huai really wanted to work hard, but his abilities were limited. He couldn't cheat by using a background emulator to modify the values ​​and max it out. It was like leveling up a spirit's favorability; it had to be done slowly.

Qin Huai is currently working on both proficiency and favorability, which can be considered a two-pronged approach in a sense.

Surprisingly, it worked quite well.

At first, when An Youyou spent the mornings watching Qin Huai and Zhao Cheng'an make desserts, no one paid much attention. After all, An Youyou was an employee Qin Huai had specifically brought from the Yunzhong Cafeteria, and she came so early every morning to help Qin Huai prepare the ingredients. It was normal for Qin Huai to occasionally give his employee one-on-one guidance when he had free time.

On the third day of the special cooking service, many people at Zhiweiju felt that something was wrong.

On the fifth day of the private tutoring program, Tan Weian couldn't help but run over and ask Qin Huai if he wanted to take An Youyou as his apprentice. This model was so much like a master teaching his apprentice.

On the sixth day of the private kitchen service, Chef Zhou would occasionally take a break from his morning meetings with Boss Su to check on Qin Huai. Every time he glanced at Qin Huai, he would also glance at An Youyou, clearly not understanding what Qin Huai saw in An Youyou. Would he get up early just because he cared about her?

The attention from everyone undoubtedly put a lot of pressure on An Youyou. Even though An Youyou was brought here by Qin Huai through connections, she would inevitably become someone that everyone envied. There were even rumors that Qin Huai wanted to take An Youyou as his apprentice because he appreciated her excellent quality of getting up early.

After all, no matter how hard-working dim sum chefs are, very few can stick to going to work at the restaurant at 3 p.m.

As a result, some apprentices secretly started to get up early, moving their start time from 7 a.m. to 6 a.m. and then to 5 a.m.

The reason they didn't arrive at 4 o'clock earlier was because Qin Huai sensed something was wrong and specifically talked to Boss Su, who then stopped this unhealthy trend.

The apprentices at Zhiweiju are already incredibly skilled at brewing tea, so there's no need to add that to their work schedules. Dim sum chefs don't need to get up early either; they work the afternoon shift. Working 18 hours a day would be a recipe for disaster.

Amidst the unseen undercurrents, An Youyou maintained a positive mindset despite being a three-legged toad.

No matter what others say, no matter what others think, no matter how outrageous Tan Weian's new version of gossip is, she doesn't care.

All she wanted to do was to pass Qin Huai's test, become the successor of the Cloud Canteen, reach the pinnacle of her life, and live in the big house she had always dreamed of.

On August 10, Qin Huai and Zhao Cheng'an enjoyed their first day off since returning from Beiping.

Qin Huai actually didn't want to rest.

His progress in leveling up his proficiency has been very slow lately.

It's not bad; all the stats have improved. Because Qin Huai has been making steamed buns and dumplings at a high intensity every day, his dough-making proficiency finally broke through the 9 mark yesterday, bringing him one step closer to becoming a master.

Qin Huai could clearly feel that his skill in making dough had been slowing down recently, getting slower day by day.

It's not the kind of slow progress where you're stuck at a certain level. Most of the time, it's extremely difficult to gain proficiency in the last 100 points. It can be so difficult that you might only gain one or two points after a whole day of intensive practice. In the last 10 points, you might even find yourself practicing all day and not gaining any at all.

The same applies to dough-making proficiency. Qin Huai is currently more than 9000 points away from leveling up, and his proficiency is not increasing. This means that the basic pastries Qin Huai makes are too basic and have too low a difficulty level, so there will be limited improvement no matter how much he practices.

Basic skills are very important for chefs specializing in white-flour dishes, but they can't just practice the basics. Jiang Chengde's scores are almost maxed out, to the point of overflowing. It's impossible that he achieved this by practicing making white-flour steamed buns every day.

Anyway, according to Zhao Cheng'an, Jiang Chengde's skills in making pastries were not bad, even though he knew only a limited variety of pastries (he was good at northern pastries but knew very little about southern pastries) because his wife, Qin Wan, was from the Qin family, who owned the famous Qin Ji Pastry Shop outside the Great Wall.

This is evident from the S-level recipe Qin Huai pulled out: locust flower steamed buns. Even now, Qin Huai doesn't quite understand the techniques used in making locust flower steamed buns. The difficulty is too high, and there's no explanation yet. Even with video tutorials, it's like watching a secret recipe.

The reason a recipe is a secret is because it's incomprehensible without someone teaching it; even if you were given the recipe, you still wouldn't understand it.

Qin Huai knew very well that simply practicing making white steamed buns wouldn't be enough to reach a master level in dough preparation. He'd had his fill of making breakfast, and it was time to create some more advanced pastries to show the guests at Zhiweiju the true skills of Chef Qin.

In the past few months, Qin Huai has been working on breakfast at Zhiweiju to the point that customers feel they have a professional breakfast chef. Some regular customers even speculate that Zhiweiju is about to transform its business. The title of "Number One Restaurant for Pastry Dishes" is no longer enough for Zhiweiju. Now, Zhiweiju has decided to focus on both pastry dishes and breakfast, aiming not only to become the number one restaurant for pastry dishes but also the number one breakfast shop in the country.

Bai'an Restaurant transformed into a breakfast shop, becoming the first restaurant to undergo such a reverse transformation.

When Boss Su first heard the rumor, he was furious and immediately interrogated Tan Weian. After the interrogation, he was even more shocked to find that the rumor was not spread by Tan Weian. He suspected that a competitor was trying to sabotage him.

However, Master Zhou thought the rumor was quite interesting. After studying assembly line pastry recipes for over half a month, he realized that compared to Zheng Da, he was practically a complete novice in this entirely new field. To this day, Master Zhou still can't understand how Zheng Da was able to produce low- to mid-range pastries, and even mid-range pastries, using an assembly line.

Chef Zhou has recently been advising Boss Su against trying to get rich overnight. Dim sum production is too difficult; let's focus on breakfast instead. Steamed buns would be a good option. Look, Qin Huai made a name for himself among Zhiweiju's diners with steamed buns, didn't he?

Master Qin, who made a name for himself with white flour steamed buns, is now contemplating how to abandon the white flour steamed buns that have been with him for months.

“Three-ingredient buns… No, although the requirements for three-ingredient buns are also very high, the focus is more on the seasoning and the heat control when cooking the filling.”

"Steamed buns with fermented rice wine... I've been making too many steamed buns lately, so I don't really feel like making any more."

"It's almost crab season, so how about making double crab buns? But I'm not very good at making double crab buns, and the focus of double crab buns isn't on the dough at all."

"The dream-fulfilling sesame seed cake? The key point isn't the dough rising, and I don't really want to make it."

"Hand-kneading dough... Hmm, that feels a bit off-topic."

Qin Huai sat at the dining table, eating a banana and muttering to himself, lost in thought.

"My experience from living eight lifetimes tells me that if someone repeatedly raises an idea and then denies it, it means they already have a predetermined answer in their mind but are unwilling to face it. It's just about improving your skills in making dough, why are you acting like you're going to challenge Master Jiang to a duel?" Zhao Cheng'an sat opposite Qin Huai and mercilessly complained, while also eating a lot of bananas from Qin Huai's house.

Qin Huai did not refute, because Zhao Cheng'an was right. That's the advantage of being reincarnated many times: you meet more people, and your brain and emotional intelligence are all honed.

"Actually, I do have a great option, but... it's a bit too extreme compared to white flour steamed buns." Qin Huai was still conflicted. "Apple noodles."

"Guo'er?" Zhao Cheng'an didn't quite hear. "Your pastry that was on the cover of 'Taste of China'? But you can't make that pastry by yourself, can you? You need Master Huang Shengli to help you, because only he knows how to flip the wok." "Flipping the wok is a specialty of Master Jiang's family. Xia Murui doesn't know how to do it. Otherwise, I could have borrowed Zhang Guanghang to stir-fry the filling for you."

Qin Huai: ...It's a bit too extravagant to borrow a handsome guy who's 1.92 meters tall and of mixed Chinese and French descent all the way from Beiping just to make stuffing. Why not just borrow him and have him be the spokesperson for Yunzhong Canteen? Take a promotional photo, make it into a poster, and put it at the store entrance. That would attract 500 more customers.

“That’s a fruit, I’m talking about the regular apple noodle fruit, the one I made at Babaozhai before,” Qin Huai explained. “Actually, I’ve been thinking about what kind of pastry focuses on the dough, is difficult to make, and has a rich and comprehensive requirement for the dough, and I only thought of the noodle fruit.”

After hearing Qin Huai's words, Zhao Cheng'an thought about it carefully and nodded in agreement.

"It seems so. The core of dough balls is their shape, and the dough has to be firm to shape them. But at the same time, they also have requirements for taste and texture. If you want to pursue a good texture, the dough can't be too firm, so you can't make them into purely decorative snacks. From the perspective of dough, dough balls should be one of the most difficult types of pastries to make."

"Can your finger technique make other kinds of dough balls? I remember Tan Weian saying that you only know how to make apple dough balls. Making only one kind of dough ball won't help you improve your skills, and you'll easily get tired of it. With your current finger technique, you'd have a hard time even making some nice-looking flower-shaped steamed buns. Dough balls are much more demanding than flower-shaped steamed buns. It's not just about kneading the dough and your finger technique; you also need to have an eye for aesthetics. The filling also has requirements. If you don't have a ready-made recipe and try to make them all by yourself, you'll really risk your life."

"Don't you think this is ridiculous? Logically speaking, making dough balls should be a skill you can master at everything, but you only know how to make apple dough balls and nothing else, and you don't even like apples. According to your taste, you should be best at making banana dough balls!" Zhao Cheng'an complained, taking a bite of a banana.

“Eat less. You’ve already eaten four. I think you should be the one who’s good at banana noodles,” Qin Huai retorted. “I’ve thought about the question you just mentioned, which is why I’m hesitant.”

"What are you hesitating about?" Zhao Cheng'an's face seemed to say, "How can you hesitate as my friend, Ephemeral? The word 'hesitation' doesn't exist in our dictionary." "It's okay if you're not good at it. You can learn!"

Do you know what my master is best at?

"Boat point!"

Do you know what "mian guo'er" is?

"A mini version of Boat Point's youth."

"When it comes to developing recipes for mass-produced pastries, my master may not be as good as Master Zheng, but when it comes to recipes for boat-shaped pastries, I dare say that no pastry chef in the whole country has more or more complete recipes than my master. Many of the more difficult recipes for dough balls were created by my master. You can learn whatever you want."

"If you don't make the most of these last 10 days to learn some new recipes, there won't be anything left to learn when you get back to the Cloud Cafeteria!"

"My master has been scolding me for 20 days. I'm begging you, please spend the last 10 days with me. Go learn how to make noodles and get scolded with me!"

Qin Huai: ...

"You've been working so hard lately. Even though Master Zhou scolds you every day, I believe he's still comforted inside," Qin Huai comforted him. "Otherwise, he wouldn't have agreed to let you take a month's leave to go to the Yunzhong Canteen for an exchange."

Zhao Cheng'an stared at Qin Huai: "Are you sure that's an exchange? Tan Weian told me that Yunzhong Cafeteria opens at 7 a.m. every day, and you and Zheng Siyuan have to work on your pastry research until 4 or 5 p.m. Zheng Siyuan is still stuck at Yunzhong Cafeteria and hasn't gone back yet. His own pastry shop is closed!"

Qin Huai said with a serious face: "How can we believe Tan Weian's nonsense? His stories are getting more and more outrageous lately. What do you mean Zheng Siyuan is still stuck in the Cloud Cafeteria and hasn't gone back? To be precise, it should be that Zheng Siyuan is still in the Cloud Cafeteria and can't bear to go back. He's just there to level up."

"Think about it, why does Zheng Siyuan go to the Cloud Cafeteria so often since he started going there? Of course, it's because it's useful."

"The reason why so many apprentices from Zhiweiju sign up to go to Yunzhong Canteen for exchanges is because it's useful."

“You’ve gone too far and can’t get back on track. Master Zhou may scold you, but he’s actually very worried. When you went to apply to Master Zhou yesterday, he came to see me and told me to keep an eye on you at the Cloud Cafeteria so you don’t slack off or become lazy.”

“Master Zhou knows you have a problem, but he doesn’t know what happened to you in Beiping, how you developed such a serious problem after just one trip back, and how you haven’t been able to get better for so long.”

“This time, it’s the Cloud Cafeteria that’s your real chance to achieve enlightenment, make a name for yourself, create new glories, and regain your reputation. I know you must have asked Master Xia how to improve this aspect, but no matter how superb Master Xia’s cooking skills are, he has never had this problem before. But it’s different at the Cloud Cafeteria. Although Sister Hong and Qu Jing did not experience eight lifetimes, they only woke up in their last lifetime.”

“They must have both been in situations like yours, and they got along very well. These things can’t be explained clearly over WeChat, video calls, or phone calls. Let’s go to Luo Jun’s house for a tea party and talk it out there. Maybe the problem will be solved right away.”

"At that time, you can integrate the essence you learned in your first life—not the essence of stealing, but just a little bit of it—and you'll become a representative figure of a genius who, after years of silence following his fall from grace, accumulated knowledge and experience, went astray, returned to the right path, and finally attained the Great Dao."

"Isn't this kind of plot much more enjoyable than those third-rate wish-fulfillment novels written by Tan Wei'an?"

Zhao Cheng'an: !

"So don't be afraid of the number of customers at Yunzhong Canteen. It's only slightly more than Zhiweiju."

Zhao Cheng'an: ?

"The working hours are a little earlier than Zhiweiju."

Zhao Cheng'an: ? ?
"The workload might be slightly more than what you would have at Zhiweiju."

Zhao Cheng'an: ? ? ?

"In theory, as long as you don't get lost in the praise from the elderly like Zheng Siyuan, and you stay rational, you can also have a very relaxed work life."

"I believe you can do it, you are a mayfly."

"Why hasn't Tan Weian come yet? Did he get off work so late today? There are still so many dragon fruits and kiwis in the fridge waiting for him to eat, they'll go bad if we don't eat them soon. Oh no, I have to send him a message to urge him. Ugh, where's my phone?"

Zhao Cheng'an skillfully handed the phone back to Qin Huai: "The first thing I do every time I come to your house is to take your phone. It's a habit."

“I saw Tan Weian put his phone in his pants pocket a couple of days ago. I almost couldn’t resist taking it, but luckily I held back. There are surveillance cameras in the kitchen of Zhiweiju.”

Qin Huai: "...We also have it at our Cloud Cafeteria!"

(End of this chapter)