The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 604 So Many People! (Bonus Chapter for the Alliance Leader's Donation to Little Fish's Elegant Demeanor!)
Qin Huai happily spent five days in Suzhou and another five days in Shanghai before returning to the city.

Staying in Shanghai for 5 days was An Youyou's strong request. As a fair leader, she insisted on making sure that each subordinate was looked after for 5 days, treating everyone equally.

As for why we didn't go to Z city to see Jiang Weiguo for 5 days...

An Youyou said that Jiang Weiguo didn't recognize her as his boss, and that Z City was too far away to bother looking. Taking 10 days off was her limit; another 5 days and her boss would be bankrupt next month.

Although Qin Huai paid An Youyou for these business trips, it was only her regular salary, without any commission or extra income from food delivery. The apartment An Youyou was currently living in had already been transferred to her by Chen Huihong, and she spent half of her salary each month just on property management fees and utilities. If she weren't in such dire circumstances, she would be willing to beg for food after get off work.

An Youyou even made a very philosophical remark, saying that good houses are really not something everyone can afford, and the property management fees are too expensive!
Of course, Qin Luo went back alone on January 3rd.

Qin Luo herself was reluctant to return to Shanshi alone. She tried to express her desire to stay in Gusu by crying and pretending to be reluctant to part with her brother, but Qin Huai ignored her and sent her onto the plane.

During this period, Zheng Da came to Huangji to work hard for two days, but then felt that it was not suitable to work hard at Huangji during the New Year's Day holiday - the business was too good and he was almost exhausted. In the end, he made up an excuse that he had to hold a meeting to discuss the New Year's orders and left.

Zheng Siyuan never came to Huang's shop; he stayed at his pastry shop selling pastries.

Qin Huai went to Zheng Siyuan's pastry shop and found that, as expected, there are hidden masters among ordinary people, and even the best wine needs a good location.

Zheng Siyuan's pastry shop is even more unremarkable than Yunzhong Canteen. It sells very ordinary pastries at very low prices, and it's located at the entrance of a residential area without even a sign. It doesn't go on any online platforms or offer delivery services. If you don't know Zheng Siyuan and Zheng Da, you would have no chance of finding such a shop unless you live nearby.

It really lacks class.

Qin Huai felt that most of Zheng Siyuan's customers simply thought that the pastries at this pastry shop were cheap and delicious, but they didn't really appreciate Zheng Siyuan's culinary skills.

After all, most customers don't actually have many opportunities to come into contact with high-end pastries, and people's definition of whether food is high-end usually comes from its price.

This is similar to the Qin family's breakfast shop. After Qin Huai took over Yunzhong Canteen in Shanshi, the basic stats improved by leaps and bounds, and the quality of the breakfast he made also improved by leaps and bounds. However, this cannot change the fact that when Qin Huai was selling breakfast at the Qin family's breakfast shop, the steamed buns and mantou he made were all top-notch.

Qin Family Breakfast Shop was indeed very successful and famous in Qiu County, but this was because Qiu County was just a small county, and the reputation of Qin Family Breakfast Shop could not possibly spread to other counties or cities. Customers did not think that the breakfast chefs at this shop were particularly skilled, comparable to those at high-end pastry shops or even the pastry chefs of big restaurants, since in Qin Family Breakfast Shop, the buns made by Qin Huai and Qin Congwen were priced the same.

People will only think that Master Qin's skills are better than Master Qin's, and when buying steamed buns, they will try their best to buy those made by Master Qin.

Qin Huai chatted with Zheng Siyuan at Zheng Siyuan's pastry shop.

Zheng Siyuan still held the old view: he'd rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond. Unless he could work in a high-end restaurant and be highly valued by the boss, and the restaurant would accept that pastry chefs would overshadow hot pot chefs and strongly promote pastry chefs, making him the absolute head chef, he would rather open his own pastry shop at the entrance of his residential area.

At the same time, Zheng Siyuan also tried the red silk cake made by Qin Huai.

While acknowledging that Qin Huai's skills had improved significantly, Zheng Siyuan did not accept Qin Huai's approach to practicing pastry making. In Zheng Siyuan's view, to become a top-notch pastry chef, one only needs to have one or two exceptional pastries to be truly outstanding, and perfecting one or two pastries to the extreme is certainly a correct path.

He knew he was a genius, but he also knew very well that he wasn't that genius. He wasn't good at everything; he could only practice a single skill to the limit without any weaknesses.

When Zheng Siyuan first met Qin Huai and witnessed his amazing talent and incomprehensible way of making pastries, he also wavered and wondered if he should practice more and broaden his skills.

After a period of confused experimentation, and even after seriously practicing the big flipping technique for a while, Zheng Siyuan realized that Qin Huai's method was not suitable for him.

He has his own path to walk.

This made Qin Huai sigh with the same thought as Master Zhou: how could Zheng Da have given birth to a son like Zheng Siyuan?

Qin Huai had heard Chef Zhou mention similar sentiments several times when he was at Zhiweiju. Qin Huai knew that Chef Zhou disliked Zheng Da; while acknowledging Zheng Da's talent and culinary skills, he also disliked Zheng Da's disloyalty to the art of cooking.

On this point, Master Zhou and Zheng Da have always disliked each other. Qin Huai had also heard some gossip from Zhao Cheng'an from years ago. Master Zhou's temper isn't very good now; he likes to be sarcastic and sarcastic. In his younger days, Master Zhou's temper was even worse. If he wasn't sarcastic and sarcastic, he would just start cursing and give people a hard time.

Master Zhou disliked Zheng Da as much as he liked Zheng Siyuan.

Zhao Cheng'an and Zheng Siyuan had never met before they met Qin Huai. Most of the chefs at Zhiweiju had never met Zheng Siyuan either, because Zheng Siyuan always stayed in Suzhou and never participated in any culinary exchange activities.

But Zheng Siyuan is very famous at Zhiweiju.

Everyone envies Zheng Da for having such a good son.

Having such a talented son who can inherit his father's mantle, carry on the craft, and even surpass his father is a great honor.

Zhao Cheng'an secretly complained to Qin Huai that he felt most of the chefs at Zhiweiju disliked Zheng Da because they were jealous that Zheng Da had such a good son as Zheng Siyuan.

This guy's not even a chef anymore, yet his own son inherited his skills. Isn't that infuriating? Many of the head chefs at Zhiweiju must be grinding their teeth in frustration behind his back.

After understanding Zheng Siyuan's current mindset and state of mind, Qin Huai felt that there would only be more Zhiweiju master chefs silently gritting their teeth in the future.

Qin Huai also frequently shared the latest information and gossip with Zhao Cheng'an. Zhao Cheng'an immediately said that Zheng Siyuan might have found his culinary direction and was determined to do so. This information must not be spread to Zhiweiju, otherwise he really wouldn't be able to make a living.

Since Zhao Cheng'an woke up and remembered his bad habits from his first life, and after half a year of hard work to correct them, but after making no progress for half a year, Master Zhou inexplicably felt that his little apprentice was actually a promising talent.

Before Su Qian officially became Master Zhou's last disciple, Zhao Cheng'an was the junior apprentice.

Although Master Zhou still doesn't understand why Zhao Cheng'an suddenly developed so many bad habits, in the process of Zhao Cheng'an correcting his bad habits, Master Zhou saw Zhao Cheng'an's shining points, his persistence and love for cooking, and that his lazy apprentice could actually work hard, but he just needed to suppress it.

Then Zhao Cheng'an received a one-month apprenticeship card, as if he had returned to the time when he first became an apprentice and learned cooking skills.

Zhao Cheng'an was so exhausted that he didn't even have the energy to replenish his inventory. He also didn't really try to scam money from Xia Murui. It was mostly Xia Murui who, at the beginning and middle of the month, thought that Zhao Cheng'an probably didn't have the money to replenish his inventory, so she took the initiative to transfer money to him.

When An Youyou first learned that Xia Murui would actually take the initiative to send money to Zhao Cheng'an, she was so envious that she almost cried, lamenting why her little brother didn't have such initiative.

All things considered, the person who has had the worst time during this period is actually Zhao Cheng'an.

But Zhao Cheng'an wasn't in such a bad situation, because Master Zhou was his own master who had watched him grow up since he was a child. He knew that his little apprentice not only had to bear the pressure, but also had to give him a break.

So, after Zhao Cheng'an told Qin Huai on WeChat every day that he was suffering terribly at work and wished he could hang himself in the kitchen of Zhiweiju, spending an entire month in a state of constant crying and wailing, he brought Qin Huai some good news.

Master Zhou made a special exception and gave him a full 15 days of annual leave.

Zhao Cheng'an insisted on joining in the festive atmosphere of spending the New Year at Qin Huai's house. This year, he would make a decision that would go against his ancestors' wishes: he would not go home to celebrate the New Year with his parents. Instead, he would stay at Qin Huai's house for 7 days, and then go to Xia Murui's house in Beiping for another 7 days, using one day in between for commuting.

Considering that Xia Murui would always prepare a feast comparable to New Year's Eve dinner for him whenever he went to Beiping, but Qin Huai would not, Zhao Cheng'an decided to have New Year's Eve dinner at Qin Huai's house.

Zhao Cheng'an shared this good news in the "We Are a Loving Family" group chat.

The day after Zhao Cheng'an shared this news, Chen Gong stated in the group chat that he had already consulted with General Manager Han and was entitled to seven days of annual leave for the Spring Festival. Since he doesn't usually spend the Spring Festival with his family, this year he could go to Qin Huai's house with everyone for the holiday.

Realizing that everyone was going to Qin Family Village for the Spring Festival this year, Qin Huai subconsciously opened the game panel to check Luo Jun's status and found that Luo Jun was still being reincarnated.

Although it was a bit outrageous, Qin Huai inexplicably felt that everyone was isolating Luo Jun.

When he was alive, he didn't celebrate the New Year with Luo Jun, but now that Luo Jun is dead, everyone is gathered together in joy.

Qin Huai originally planned to tell his family before the New Year that so many people would be going back to celebrate the New Year together, but considering that there are more and more people now, Qin Huai felt that he couldn't wait until before the New Year.

He made a direct phone call to his dear grandfather, Mr. Qin.

"Hey, Grandpa, how many spare rooms are available for our guests?"

"Still three rooms. What's wrong, Huaihuai? You have a girlfriend now? Is she coming back with you for Chinese New Year this year? Don't worry, Grandpa and Grandma will definitely clean up the biggest and best-lit room for you! The little girl is shy and doesn't want to share a room with you, right? Grandpa understands."

"No, Grandpa, it's because some of my friends want to come to our village for the Chinese New Year this year. There will be quite a few of them, so you might have to borrow a few empty rooms from other villagers since they'll be staying for a while."

Grandpa Qin was a little disappointed, but he understood: "No problem, Grandpa knows that you young people nowadays value privacy. I'll find someone..."

"It's not all young people."

"The oldest one is even older than you."

"The youngest has just come of age."

"There are both men and women. I'll send you their information via WeChat later, and you can help make arrangements."

Old Master Qin: ?

(End of this chapter)