The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 532 Master of Dough Preparation

The dough was prepared on an ordinary morning.

If you want to be precise down to the minute, it's 5:19 AM.

At that time, Qin Huai had just finished his glutinous rice cake breakfast and began kneading the dough in a mundane and even somewhat numb way.

Anyone who plays games often knows that leveling up is a very tedious and boring process, especially when you're stuck on the experience bar.

The same goes for the online game Earth that Qin Huai plays. Glutinous rice cakes can make Qin Huai work harder to make pastries, but at the same time, they can make the already boring process of making pastries even more boring, and even a bit tedious.

In theory, making pastries requires thought, and Qin Huai, as an excellent pastry chef, deeply understands the importance of thinking. Making pastries without using your brain is destined to result in poor quality. Relying solely on muscle memory can guarantee a decent minimum, but it will also limit your maximum potential. If you want to improve and enhance yourself, you must think carefully and analyze thoroughly every time you make pastries, and ideally, you should also review the process.

The key to becoming a good pastry chef is to observe more, listen more, think more, and practice more.

But this is only in theory; in practice, it's very difficult. Thinking means a high degree of mental concentration, and making desserts is already physically demanding. If you also have to concentrate intensely, you can be exhausted by the end of the day.

The reason why Master Zhou only scolds Zhao Cheng'an when he's slacking off, but never when he's chatting, is because relaxation allows for better work performance.

Although Zhao Cheng'an sometimes relaxed a bit too much.

Qin Huai understands these principles, but putting them into practice is difficult, and some of them even contradict each other. For example, glutinous rice cakes can help Qin Huai make better desserts, but at the same time, they also make him less fond of making desserts.

Since Qin Huai started making glutinous rice cakes as the first thing she did every morning upon entering the kitchen, and eating them as the second thing, her life has become extremely dull.

He wasn't particularly concerned about whether Zhou Hu was a spirit or not, partly because of this tedium.

Making pastries is the first thing Qin Huai does when he opens his eyes, but his dough-making proficiency increases very slowly. Every day, he checks the game panel to see his proficiency level, and the days with virtually no progress are so boring that he can look back on them in a day. At first, Qin Huai would look forward to the slow pace of his daily progress, hoping it would increase faster, but later he became numb to it and didn't even want to look at the game panel anymore.

After eating glutinous rice cakes, Qin Huai immediately starts kneading dough, almost like a mechanical subconscious reaction. Sometimes before going to sleep, Qin Huai lies in bed, not playing on his phone or closing his eyes, staring at the ceiling with his eyes open, and feels like he has become a philosopher.

I started to ponder the absurd philosophical question of why male protagonists in system novels insist on grinding proficiency levels to level up.

Do male protagonists in system novels always have to level up to a very high level?

Does every task have to be completed so urgently?

Is this darn glutinous rice cake something I absolutely have to eat every day?

Could the amusement park, which is more than 30 kilometers away from Yunzhong Community, drive directly to the neighborhood next to Yunzhong Community? That way, Qin Huai could suddenly decide not to go to work on a morning when he usually gets up at 4 a.m., and instead go to sit at the entrance of the amusement park until 9 a.m. when it opens.

Those who frequently work know that this is a sign of being driven crazy by work.

I want to do everything except go to work, but I have to go to work anyway, so I can only work while simultaneously not wanting to go to work, and at the same time thinking about where I could be happy if I didn't have to go to work.

Qin Huai arranged many things for himself while leveling up.

He decided that after achieving the Master level in dough making, he would take Qin Luo to an amusement park for a day, then to the zoo for a day, and if Qin Luo's monthly exam results were good, he could even take her to the aquarium for a day.

He wanted to call Tan Weian for two hours to listen to all the gossip about Zhiweiju, and then call Dong Shi for three hours to listen to all the gossip about Huangji.

If Zhao Cheng'an hadn't managed to swindle money from his dear senior brother Xia Murui under the pretext of funeral planning during this period, Qin Huai would have wanted Zhao Cheng'an to tell Xia Murui that the two of them could go to Fenyuan in Beiping for a celebratory meal.

In the last few days of grinding for levels, Qin Huai even started to consider whether to announce the closure of Cloud Cafeteria for three days at the moment of reaching the Master level in dough making, giving all employees a three-day paid holiday and giving each person an amusement park ticket for team building at the amusement park.

Considering that crabs are about to be available, Qin Huai even considered making crab roe sauce at home for two days, turning himself into a crab roe flavored dish to show that he hadn't forgotten crab roe shumai and double crab buns.

Qin Huai has many random thoughts after reaching the master level in various aspects.

But when the dough really reached the master level, or more accurately, when Qin Huai realized that his dough seemed to have been upgraded, he had only one thought in his mind.

Ah, it's been upgraded! Looks like I won't have to eat glutinous rice cakes for breakfast tomorrow; I can have wontons instead.

There was no cheering, no relief, no tears of joy, and no singing or dancing; only the calm anticipation of eating wontons tomorrow morning.

How did Qin Huai realize that his dough had been upgraded?

This is a feeling.

Qin Huai remained as calm as before, even numbly kneading the dough. But as he kneaded, he suddenly felt something was different. It wasn't a difference in the way a feeling came over him; it was as if the dough under his hands could communicate with him.

To put it more abstractly, Qin Huai felt he understood dough better now.

He suddenly understood many principles of kneading dough. Some things that he had previously overlooked, were unaware of, and thought were normal suddenly changed.

It's like how humans can't see microorganisms with the naked eye, so we assume they don't exist because we can't see them. But suddenly someone hands you a microscope, points to the lens, and tells you, "See that moving thing? That's a microorganism."

At that moment, although you may not immediately understand all the knowledge about microorganisms from your nine years of compulsory education, you know that microorganisms exist in this world. You still don't understand many precise things, but suddenly you have the answers to many things about microorganisms that you didn't understand before.

Qinhuai is in this state.

There's a difference between a master dough maker and a master seasoner.

Seasoning relies heavily on the tongue, and Qin Huai, blessed with a naturally gifted tongue, possessed exceptional talent in this area. At the moment he reached the master level of seasoning, Qin Huai felt like a lucky, overpowered protagonist receiving both powerful techniques and profound insights; he instantly understood many things, experiencing a sense of sudden enlightenment and joy.

The master of dough preparation brought Qin Huai more bewilderment than anything else.

He learned about microorganisms, but hadn't even started reading the textbook. Instead of finding answers to many questions, he discovered many problems.

So now the question is, are there any textbooks for Qinhuai?

Have.

Those with good memories will probably remember that among all the recipes Qin Huai pulled out, there was one that Qin Huai couldn't understand.

Locust flower steamed buns.

Steamed buns are clearly the simplest type of pastry, perhaps even the simplest. They are the most common and the cheapest in breakfast shops. When I was in elementary school in Qinhuai, steamed buns at the Qin family's breakfast shop only cost three cents each, making them the epitome of good quality at a low price.

It was just a basic pastry, except that it had two extra characters in its name: locust flower. The maker was the grandmaster Jiang Chengde, and Qin Huai didn't even understand the video tutorial.

Moreover, it's the kind of incomprehension where you don't know why you can't understand it; you just can't understand it.

When Qin Huai watched Jiang Chengde's video tutorial on making locust flower steamed buns, she thought Jiang Chengde's movements were just very normal, but they were so smooth and fluid that she couldn't find any fault with them. Then, the dough underwent an incredible transformation—a perfect locust flower steamed bun was born. Sometimes, not understanding isn't the worst thing; the worst thing is not knowing exactly what you don't understand, because it seems like you understand nothing at all.

Therefore, after discovering that Qin Huai's dough-making skills were at a master level and deciding to eat wontons for breakfast the next morning, his second thought was to mentally review a tutorial video on making locust flower steamed buns.

Qin Huai rarely watches instructional videos on making locust flower steamed buns, but only rarely, not that he never watches them. People are stubborn; even if they don't understand something, they'll still watch it. Qin Huai just wanted to know why he couldn't even understand the instructional videos.

After watching so many videos, the instructional videos are etched into my mind.

After mentally reviewing the tutorial video, Qin Huai realized he should first check the game panel.

The Qinhuai River is just a point in the void.

Sure enough, the dough-making skills have just reached the master level.

Dough Leavening (Master Level): Your dough leavening skills have reached the level of a top-tier pastry chef. (0/1000000)

Master level is just the beginning; Qin Huai can only say that this game system has quite high requirements for top pastry chefs. However, compared to the filling master level next door, whose description says that their filling skills have surpassed 98% of the nation's excellent pastry chefs, the dough master level is still quite prestigious.

It's understandable when you think about it. Preparing fillings is essentially about seasoning. In the culinary industry, especially among those who can be considered excellent chefs, whether it's hot or cold dishes, they are basically all born with exceptional talent.

The primary prerequisite for these gifted individuals is having a good palate. Chefs with poor taste but superb skills are extremely rare. In families like Tan Weian's, where generations have been chefs and there are both skills and resources available, if the younger generation intends to inherit the family's skills, their palates must be cultivated from a young age.

Rice soaked in broth – eating something good is no joke.

The tongue is so important to a chef that having a good tongue basically means that the level of seasoning will not be too bad. Therefore, chefs generally have a high level of seasoning skills, and there are very few chefs whose seasoning is a weakness.

But dough rising is different. Although dough rising is the most important basic skill in pastry making, it is limited to pastry making. Moreover, the dough rising in the game system covers a wide range. In theory, this kind of basic skill can be mastered as much as possible, but how well it is mastered, and whether it needs to be mastered to a master level, depends on the individual chef's luck.

Qin Huai knew that according to the normal procedure, he should quickly make a pastry with a very high level of fermentation, and see if the pastry made by a master of fermentation would be like the one in "Cooking Master Boy", which shines with golden light when the steamer is lifted, followed by the background music of the Great Wall.

But that's the normal procedure, and Qin Huai doesn't really want to go through the normal procedure right now.

He wanted to study the video tutorial for locust flower steamed buns again. Qin Huai now felt that the video tutorial for locust flower steamed buns was no ordinary video tutorial. It might be an advanced textbook that the game system had prepared for him long ago, but he had not been able to understand it because of his lack of ability.

A dough-making tutorial from the grandmaster Jiang Chengde.

"Youyou." Qin Huai called out to An Youyou, and An Youyou quickly put down her work and ran to Qin Huai.

"Master Qin, is there something wrong with the minced meat I chopped?" An Youyou asked nervously.

"No, my stomach is a little upset, I feel a bit dizzy, and I think I bumped my knee and elbow. Sister Xi should be up in about ten minutes. Call her then and ask her to send out a notice to the guests that I won't be working this morning and will come back to work this afternoon."

"After Zhao Cheng'an arrives, stand next to him and keep an eye on him to prevent him from slacking off. He'll probably be a bit motivated today and will be working hard for at least half the morning. Keep an eye on him and encourage him to work hard for a while."

Although An Youyou didn't quite understand, she nodded to indicate that she had made a note of it, and at the same time showed a concerned expression: "Master Qin, do you have gastroenteritis? Should you go to the hospital to get it checked out?"

Qin Huai waved his hand: "I must be tired from the past few days. I'll go back and rest first. Thank you all for continuing to work."

"Everyone has worked very hard during this period. I'll give the store a three-day holiday when I have time. Everyone can take three days off, which will be paid leave."

As soon as Qin Huai said this, the helpers who were close enough to hear him could not help but jump for joy.

After saying that, Qin Huai went to the dressing room to change his clothes, and then went home and lay on the sofa to watch a video tutorial on making locust flower steamed buns.

Well, how to describe the effect...

It's quite remarkable that video tutorials that were previously incomprehensible are now understandable.

And it's the kind of understanding that gets better with each reading.

Previously, Qin Huai thought it was like this and that, and then it became a fragment. Now, in Qin Huai's view, there are actually many small details in the middle. These small details are actually quite obvious, but he was blind to them before.

Okay, it's not that I'm blind, I was just a noob before so I didn't understand it and didn't see it.

Qin Huai placed a bunch of bananas and a bag of cheese sticks on the coffee table as snacks, intending to eat them while watching video tutorials. However, he became so engrossed in watching that he watched the videos over and over again without eating a single banana.

Qin Huai inexplicably fell into a state of watching video tutorials without eating or sleeping, until he was interrupted by his phone ringing.

The phone call was from Zhao Cheng'an.

"Hey."

"Qin Huai, are you feeling unwell?"

"An Youyou said you have a stomachache, dizziness, and your elbows and knees are burning. What's wrong with you? Have you been poisoned?"

Qin Huai said calmly, "I've reached the master level in making dough."

Qin Huai was met with Zhao Cheng'an's silence, a silence that lasted for 30 seconds.

“I’ve discovered that there’s a difference between a master dough maker and a master filling maker. There are many things that I previously overlooked or couldn’t understand at all, but suddenly I understand them. Do you remember when I told you that I couldn’t understand Master Jiang Chengde’s video tutorial on locust flower steamed buns? Now I can understand it. Not only can I understand it, but I now realize just how amazing Master Jiang Chengde is.”

"The S-grade steamed buns are simply divine."

"I can't even imagine how steamed buns could be made more perfect than in the video tutorial. If it weren't for this video tutorial, I wouldn't have imagined that steamed buns could be made like this."

"Now I understand why you spent so long at Taifeng Restaurant, being around Chef Jiang and learning from him, but after recalling your first life's memories, your cooking skills not only didn't improve but you also picked up the bad habits from your first life."

"It's not your fault. With your skill level back then and now, you really can't understand Master Jiang's techniques."

"You need to practice until you can understand it before you can make rapid progress."

Zhao Cheng'an: ...

Zhao Cheng'an broke down.

"Qin Huai, you're not human!" Zhao Cheng'an cried out in anguish. "Why are your insults so awful now? They're even worse than before!"

"So what if you're a master at dough making? You wait, I'll surpass you once I reach master level!"

(End of this chapter)