The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 484: Teaching from Zhao Cheng'an
Zhao Cheng'an set his sights on Qin Huai.

He quietly moved two steps toward Qin Huai, and when Qin Huai didn't react, he moved two more steps. Just as he was about to go further, Master Zhou scolded him.

"Third brother, what are you doing?" Master Zhou's face was full of expressions that said, "You've only been feeling better for a short while, but you're acting up again. You really deserve a beating."

Zhao Cheng'an chuckled: "I want to be closer to Qin Huai and soak up some of the festive atmosphere."

Master Zhou: ...?
Qin Huai, who fought with Orange Noodle Fruit and was almost killed by it: ?
Is Zhao Cheng'an alright? Did he have another brain problem again?
Qin Huai looked up at Zhao Cheng'an and saw that Zhao Cheng'an was already obediently making pastries, so he didn't say anything and continued to struggle with the orange pastry.

That day, Master Qin, who had only arrived at Zhiweiju at 8 a.m., left early at 4 p.m. and went home quietly, leaving behind a pile of ugly dough balls.

Zhao Cheng'an showed some improvement today; he would sometimes have a relapse and sometimes return to normal. Although the progress wasn't significant, it was still encouraging. Plus, Master Zhou was tired from scolding him all day, so he was allowed to leave work early. He and Qin Huai left at 4 pm to go to Qin Huai's house for fruit.

At 4:11, the two banana-eating duo sat facing each other at the dining table, staring at each other's bananas and the pasta on the table.

"So, you didn't just steal my phone today, but you also took the fruit I hadn't sold." Qin Huai looked at the ugly bananas and oranges on the table, speechless for a moment.

He left work early today because he had a challenging day, and although he wasn't physically tired, he was mentally exhausted. He was even disgusted by the ugliness of the dough he made, so he wanted to escape reality by leaving early. Little did he know that these ugly things would chase him all the way home.

Well, the dough balls Qin Huai made today each had their own unique way of being ugly, each one ugly in a very soulful way, completely different from his other textbook-style pastries.

The banana pastry was well-colored and the banana filling was very authentic, but the shape was problematic. Compared to the orange pastry, which also has a pastry wrapper around fruit, the banana pastry is obviously easier to make, since shaping banana flesh is not as difficult as shaping orange flesh. However, Qin Huai's shaping of the banana pastry was much worse than that of the orange pastry.

The final results were either ridiculously fat, like an overweight version of a banana drawn in an anime, or long, thin things that were hard to even call bananas. These were all serious failures. The one on the table was relatively successful; you could vaguely make out the shape of a banana, but you didn't even need to look closely. From a distance, something looked off, and up close, it was a disaster.

Looking at the banana noodles on the table, Qin Huai felt he had let down all the bananas he had eaten over the years. He was such a good young man of the new era who loved bananas, but he had turned the banana noodles into this mess. All those years of eating bananas had been a waste.

The banana pasta balls had serious problems with their shape, while the orange pasta balls had problems with both their shape and taste.

Master Zhou has a very good recipe for fruit fillings. He can season the fruit fillings to be exactly the same as real fruit. It's even better than the apple filling recipe that Zheng Siyuan gave to Qin Huai. It's a truly top-notch secret recipe.

But Master Zhou didn't give him the whole thing.

In Master Zhou's words, if Qin Huai wants to improve his skills in making mianguoer (a type of steamed bun), he can't become an expert overnight. While having the most complete recipe directly would certainly allow him to reach the top in one step, it would also deprive him of the joy of exploration and cause him to lose the most basic respect and willingness to explore for this type of dessert when he first tried making mianguoer.

Simply put, Master Zhou felt that Qin Huai would have to suffer a bit in this regard.

After all, given Qin Huai's talent, he wouldn't have many opportunities to suffer in the pastry industry.

Qin Huai agreed with Master Zhou's idea, but Master Zhou was unwilling to let Qin Huai suffer too much, so he gave Qin Huai the complete recipe for banana noodles, but only half of the recipe for orange noodles.

This teaching method was the result of careful consideration, a realization Qin Huai deeply understood during his struggle with the banana-shaped pastries that day. The banana-shaped pastries, seemingly simple in appearance, were actually quite difficult to make in ways that were completely unexpected.

While the shape may resemble the spirit, the banana dough ball should ultimately stand upright like a real banana. This shape is not a traditional dessert shape. Although the orange dough ball seems difficult to make, it is a round and standard dessert shape.

Being non-standard and non-traditional means it's difficult, because if it were simple, it would become a basic model.

I can give you the complete recipe for banana noodles, because even if Qin Huai got the complete recipe, he wouldn't be able to make them well in a short time with his current fingering skills. I can't give you the complete recipe for orange noodles, because although its shape seems very difficult, it only requires a high degree of precision; the real difficulty lies in the seasoning.

Master Zhou believed that with Qin Huai's amazing talent in seasoning, it might be difficult at first, but as long as he studied hard and found the tricks, and with Master Zhou giving Qin Huai some general guidance, the road ahead would be smooth. Qin Huai should be able to figure out a pretty good complete recipe soon.

Only when he handed over the complete work to Qin Huai would Qin Huai truly learn it, rather than just being able to do it.

The idea was good, and Qin Huai appreciated Master Zhou's good intentions, but Qin Huai felt that Master Zhou was overestimating him.

Qin Huai spent a day making pastry cakes and realized for the first time that being a pastry chef could also be a mentally demanding job.

Otherwise, how can you explain that he made pastries all day, yet his arms and back didn't ache, and he wasn't tired at all, only experiencing a headache? It was a dull, throbbing, tingling pain, the kind of pain that felt like someone had hit him on the head while he was resting.

The headache had eased somewhat by the time he got off work, but now, seeing the noodles on the table, Qin Huai felt not only a headache, but also a bit of a headache.

Qin Huai munched on a banana, his eyes fixed on Zhao Cheng'an, his face screaming, "If you don't give me a reasonable explanation today, I'll make sure you don't get any bananas at my house tomorrow."

Zhao Cheng'an said, "I also wanted to take your phone, but you're using it right now, how can I take it?"

Is this the important point???

“I know you’re getting angry just looking at these two dough balls, and you’re remembering the miserable scene of making them during the day. I understand that. I’ve been like this lately. Every night when my master keeps me behind to review my work and shows me the pastries I made, I want to destroy them on the spot.”

"Now you understand how hard I've been through these past few days, right?"

Qin Huai said expressionlessly, "I just glanced at it, and I gained 93 points in dough-making proficiency today."

Zhao Cheng'an: "...Damn, does that mean you have to reach the Master level in dough making before the 20th?"

"Not that fast." Qin Huai took another bite of banana. "The reason I couldn't improve my proficiency the other day was because the desserts I made were too simple. Today I improved by 93 points, which means my direction and approach are correct. I need to increase the difficulty so that I can improve my proficiency later. But that doesn't mean I won't get stuck at the critical point. I was stuck on proficiency for a long time when I reached the master level in seasoning. As for dough making... I think it would be a victory if I could reach the master level before National Day."

As Qin Huai spoke, jealousy was already evident in Zhao Cheng'an's eyes. Zhao Cheng'an said somewhat sourly, "If you can be promoted before National Day, won't your level completely surpass mine before National Day?"

"Look at what you're saying. Didn't you make progress today? What if you also master it before National Day? I told you, this trip to the Cloud Cafeteria is your chance." Qin Huai silently unleashed his masterful lie.

Hearing Qin Huai mention this, Zhao Cheng'an got angry: "This morning I thought my problem was cured, and I was about to achieve great success. Turns out it was a short circuit, a bad connection, intermittent. I have no idea what's going on. They say people have muscle memory, but could this be soul memory? This problem is ingrained in my bones."

Qin Huai: "...Master Zhou was right about one thing: you just haven't practiced enough. It's because you haven't practiced enough that you have time to overthink things. The other day you were making desserts every day and posting them on your WeChat Moments, you didn't have time to say these nonsense."

Qin Huai's words reminded Zhao Cheng'an that he hadn't posted on his WeChat Moments yet, so he quickly posted the eight crying emojis. After posting, Zhao Cheng'an remembered that he hadn't come to Qin Huai's place today to eat fruit or show off his thieving skills; he had serious business to attend to.

"None of that matters. I took these two pastries because I have something to say." When it came to business, Zhao Cheng'an's expression and demeanor became much more serious, and Qin Huai seemed to have returned to the time when he first met Zhao Cheng'an.

Back then, Zhao Cheng'an was a perfectly normal person, no different from any other human being. Now, he's not even human anymore.

Qin Huai adopted a posture of listening attentively.

Zhao Cheng'an cleared his throat and said, "I watched you make noodles all day today. Although you've improved your skills quite a bit, judging from your state and efficiency today, it must have been quite painful for you, right?"

"Do you feel that you are not bad at all, your hands are very dexterous, you know everything you should know, and you are aware of this, but when you start to work, you are still like a greenhorn, this is wrong and that is wrong, and you can't even explain the details of the finished product?"

"I felt like a beginner, suddenly I didn't know anything and could only imitate. But I couldn't imitate it well, so I was very anxious. But being anxious was useless, because I couldn't do the movements properly. So this anxiety could only be reflected in my expression and movements. The more I did it, the less skillful I became. To others, it looked like I was about to fight with the noodles."

Qin Huai was dumbfounded.

He didn't even respond to Zhao Cheng'an immediately. He just stared at him with a shocked look on his face, as if to say, "Who are you? Are you still a mayfly? How did you suddenly become a mature and steady master who can see through me at a glance? Are you so good at making dough?"
How come I've never heard you mention this before? If you had such amazing skills, you would have been bragging about it to the heavens by now.

Seeing that Qin Huai remained silent for a long time, Zhao Cheng'an grew impatient: "Speak up, why are you looking at me? Did I say something wrong?"

"That's...that's right, very accurate, as accurate as if you possessed me when I was making desserts. How did you figure that out? I don't think even Chef Zhou could have described it so specifically and accurately."

Zhao Cheng'an said smugly, "It's still the same old saying, even if you haven't eaten pork, you've seen pigs run, right? Back when I was an apprentice at Taifenglou, because Master Jiang only knew how to make northern pastries, and his second son Jiang Weijin was quite talented in pastry making, he specially asked a pastry chef from Jiangnan who ran a pastry shop in Beiping to teach Jiang Weijin how to make pastries."

"That is, Master Jing from the Suzhou State-run Restaurant. That Jiangnan pastry chef was previously an imperial chef, and he is a first-rate expert in making delicate pastries like 'mian guo' (a type of noodle).

"Back then, the teaching was conducted in Taifenglou. I was just watching the fun from the sidelines. That pastry chef was wary of others but not of me, because I was known as the fool in Taifenglou. I was just watching the fun."

"If you're talking about doing things, I'm not very good at it. But if you're talking about teaching and this kind of theoretical knowledge, I have ready-made templates here."

At this moment, Qin Huai truly realized the value of Zhao Cheng'an's first life memories. There are advantages to being a fool; a fool can freely watch the excitement and learn new skills without anyone interfering. Plus, Zhao Cheng'an was a lover of excitement in his first life, so how many wonderful things must he have seen with those eyes?

"So do you know how to solve my situation?" Qin Huai humbly asked the experienced Master Zhao for advice.

"Wait a minute, let me think." Zhao Cheng'an pondered for a moment, then picked up the cooled banana dough balls and examined them repeatedly. "Did you encounter a big problem with shaping the banana dough balls? If the dough is kneaded too hard, it will seriously affect the taste, making them only good to look at and not edible. If it is kneaded too soft, it will be difficult to hold the shape of a banana, and the steamed dough balls will not stand up on the table and will easily deform."

"This is causing you a lot of distress. You feel the problem lies in the surface, but you don't know what kind of surface meets the requirements."

Qin Huai nodded vigorously, indicating that Master Zhao was truly knowledgeable and had a wealth of theoretical knowledge.

“There’s definitely a problem with the dough, but have you ever considered that there might also be a problem with the cooking time?” Zhao Cheng’an said. “Mianguo’er is a very comprehensive snack. Its comprehensiveness lies in the fact that it requires a high level of skill from the chef in all aspects.”

"Kneading dough, controlling heat, preparing filling, finger technique, aesthetics, concepts, and creativity—only a true all-rounder can make beautiful dough balls. When you feel there's a problem when making dough balls but can't quite put your finger on it, it means the problem isn't one-sided but caused by many factors, which is why you can't analyze the cause right away."

"Look, this banana-shaped pasta..."

Master Zhao began his explanation.

The apprentice, Xiao Qin, suddenly understood and even developed the disrespectful idea that Master Zhao was more professional, better at guiding, and more knowledgeable about dough than Master Zhou.

Qin Huai felt that Zhao Cheng'an wasn't bragging; if he were to run a culinary training class, he would definitely have students all over the world.

It's a real shame that someone with his eloquence isn't a teacher.

Zhao Cheng'an talked on and on for more than half an hour, analyzing all the banana noodles and orange noodles for Qin Huai. Qin Huai listened and exclaimed that he had learned something, that he understood, and that he really understood this time!
Then Qin Huai went straight into the kitchen to start making noodles. If he didn't have the ingredients, he called Tan Weian and asked him to sneak out and deliver them.

Tan Weian was very proactive in delivering things during work hours. Qin Huai arrived as soon as he received a call, and when he did, Qin Huai was enthusiastically kneading dough in the kitchen.

Tan Weian was stunned. Finding cheese sticks in the refrigerator, she quickly ate a couple before asking, "Didn't Qin Huai get off work?"

“He’s back at work. He likes going to work.” Zhao Cheng’an said calmly, his calmness revealing a faint sense of death.

It may seem like a nonchalant response, but in reality, there's no other way.

"I heard that Qin Huai made noodles all day today, but the finished products weren't very good. Those noodles were all made by apprentices as practice and sold at a special price," Tan Weian gossiped enthusiastically.

Zhao Cheng'an pointed to the two dumplings on the table: "These are what Qin Huai made today."

Tan Weian clicked his tongue: "This is really ugly. Isn't Qin Huai good at making steamed buns? His apple steamed buns are pretty good. How come his other steamed buns are so ugly?"

Zhao Cheng'an didn't answer Tan Weian's question, but simply said, "Take a good look while you can, because you won't be able to see it tomorrow."

Tan Weian: ?

"There won't be anything this ugly to look at tomorrow."

Tan Weian: ? ?
Zhao Cheng'an watched Qin Huai kneading the dough with great enthusiasm and muttered to himself, "Couldn't you at least smear some of the spilled stuff on me?"

"Is it really not possible?"

(End of this chapter)