Bingbingzi was very efficient; at 4:30 in the morning, she sent two drawings to Qin Huai. One was of Liu Tao singing on stage in opera costume, and the other was of Liu Tao in a purple cheongsam holding a lunch box.
The artwork wasn’t bad, capturing the basic essence, but maybe because there’s a difference between oral description and seeing in person, Bingbingzi’s Liu Tao only resembled three-tenths of what Qin Huai saw.
Qin Huai immediately sent a voice message to Bingbingzi, asking her to modify the eyes and eyebrows, emphasizing large and lively eyes with relatively ordinary features, and asked Bingbingzi to try to get the first official draft done by today.
Bingbingzi responded to Qin Huai with a string of silent ellipses.
Qin Huai thought her skills were pretty good and talented, so he transferred another 8000 as a deposit.
Bingbingzi: Received, boss, don’t worry, I’ll make sure to rush the first draft for you today!
Qin Huai went to work at the cafeteria with peace of mind.
Chen An was kneading dough when he saw Qin Huai arrive, greeted him warmly, and then asked what was wrong with his dough, wondering why it was so different from Qin Huai’s.
If it were two months ago, Qin Huai could only say here, here, there, and here, mainly based on a feeling. You know what I mean?
Now, after formal training, Qin Huai could accurately discuss the dough, water, hand pressure, techniques, and timing, and could write a whole thesis about it.
After a few minutes of guidance, Chen An felt enlightened, thinking he had definitely found the right job, and kneaded the dough with more passion and dedication.
Qin Huai also began kneading dough.
As he kneaded, he asked Zhao Rong to prepare the ingredients for the dried tangerine peel, white fungus, and lotus seed soup. Both the white fungus and lotus seeds need to be soaked in advance so that he could cook the soup right after finishing the first batch of breakfast.
"Mom, when Sister Xi comes later, let her know to remanufacture the dried tangerine peel tea sign and change the price to 15 yuan," Qin Huai said.
Zhao Rong paused in her scoop of goji berries, hesitantly probing, "Huaihuai, our dried tangerine peel tea... isn’t worth that price, right?"
In Zhao Rong’s view, although Qin Huai had somehow found a secret recipe recently, slightly improving the brewing method to make the tea taste better, it’s still just dried tangerine peel tea.
Adding brown sugar and salt doesn’t change the fact that it’s just dried tangerine peel with hot water.
Selling such a simple and straightforward drink for 15 yuan a cup seemed a bit too profitable.
Pure harvesting, it would ruin the reputation.
Zhao Rong felt that such a trend should not be started.
"Mom, you’re preparing the ingredients for dried tangerine peel tea right now," Qin Huai explained.
Under the astonished gazes of Chen An, Zhao Rong, and Qin Congwen, Qin Huai confirmed calmly with a nod, "That’s right, although its ingredients are somewhat complex and rich, looking a bit like dried tangerine peel, white fungus, and lotus seed soup, this is indeed dried tangerine peel tea."
The dried tangerine peel tea produced by Liu Tao only needed to be of Grade D to pass, and the buff was very practical, keeping people warm all day. Whether it’s physical warmth or mental warmth, it’s a very warming buff.
If it provided physical warmth all day, then dried tangerine peel tea would become an indispensable drink in the cafeteria during winter.
Moreover, the tea’s buff was effective for 1314 servings a day; with such a large quantity, cooking without a large pot would be a waste.
It had to be on the menu, and as a regular.
When the first batch of elderly morning joggers came to the cafeteria for breakfast, and the first batch of Three Meat Buns, Five Fillings Buns, and sticky rice cake came out of the pot, Qin Huai began brewing the dried tangerine peel tea.
The large pot might still be a bit humble; to be accurate, it was a large barrel.
Cooking such a large quantity at once requires different fire control compared to brewing in small pots with timing.
Using a stew pot to cook dried tangerine peel, white fungus, and lotus seed soup requires no technique, as long as you have hands.
But brewing such a large pot of soup requires certain fire control.
Qin Huai felt very fortunate that he had been practicing brewing large pots of soup diligently during this time.
The exam topic was right on target, everyone!
So this is what it feels like to nail an exam topic? It’s fantastic!
Qin Huai poured the ingredients into the large barrel one by one, added water, turned on the fire, boiled on high heat, stirred, switched to low heat, and covered the pot lid, executing each step smoothly.
Qin Huai felt that he had never been this smooth when cooking beef soup, pork soup, duck soup, or normal broth before.
This feeling is just... the feeling came!
That feeling of having divine assistance when making pastry snacks, everything being in control, without needing to worry this or that, just following the feeling and whatever comes out won’t be bad, that feeling was back!
Qin Huai hummed a little tune happily and continued kneading dough.
Feeling this good today, he should try to cook lamb soup this afternoon to challenge himself.
Hey, why am I feeling so good today?
Qin Huai paused his kneading, thought briefly, continued to finish kneading the dough, placed it on the counter to let it ferment slowly, and then went to check the game panel with his back turned to the pot.
Seeing Qin Huai suddenly start poking the air strangely, Chen An, ever observant of the boss’s movements, was puzzled and asked Qin Congwen, "Uncle Qin, what’s Master Qin doing...?"
"He’s imagining himself having a system, probably checking if there are any new side quests," Zhao Rong continued wrapping wontons as if nothing was unusual.
Zhao Rong explained, "When Luoluo was young, Huaihuai tricked her into believing he had a system, and she really believed it, causing quite a few embarrassing moments. Over the years, Huaihuai has often joked about it, teasing her every now and then. I guess it’s become a habit. With the pressure of running the cafeteria, Huaihuai often performs these little actions to relieve stress."
Chen An didn’t understand, and he was greatly amazed.
Such a niche way to relieve stress.
Such a beautiful mental state.
Such a magical family of the boss.
Chen An thought about it and decided it’s best not to try and understand things beyond his comprehension, and continued wrapping buns.
Meanwhile, Qin Huai was staring blankly at the game panel.
At this moment, his game panel was as follows:
Player Name: Qin Huai
Unlocked Entries: 3/12
Yeast (Intermediate): Your yeast skills have beaten 99% of breakfast shop chefs nationwide. (4127/10000)
Filling (Advanced level): Your filling skills have beaten 100% of breakfast shop chefs nationwide. (2112/100000)
Finger Skill (Basic): You don’t bother with dough shaping. (193/1000)
Oil Case (Intermediate): Your fried dough sticks are pretty good. (219/10000)
Knife Skills (Basic): Home level. (99/1000)
Fire Control (Intermediate): Barely passable. (11/10000)
Food Tasting (Advanced level): Well, you’re quite the foodie. (Un-upgradable)
Management (Intermediate): You’re decent at business, won’t lose money. (911/10000)
Lie (Master Level): You can tell people what they want to hear and ghosts what they want to hear, that’s you! (6112/1000000)
His fire control upgraded!
Oh my god, his pastry skills hadn’t upgraded, but his meat cooking skills did!
The soups over the past days weren’t made in vain, and drinking Ouyang’s soup wasn’t wasteful either!
But this game system is truly strict with meat cooking, with intermediate fire control barely passing, compared to intermediate yeast beating 99% of breakfast shop chefs.
Breakfast shop chefs’ reputations were compromised.
Qin Huai glanced at the dough Chen An was kneading.
Perhaps breakfast shop chefs in general aren’t great at kneading dough.
Qin Huai closed the game panel and continued kneading dough.
There’s a lot to do today.
Besides the usual breakfasts and snacks, there’s also the Crab Shell Cake, Four Happiness Dumplings, Baked Bun, White Jade Cream Cake, green bean ice cake, Elm Bark Steamed Buns, locust flower buns, and three bags of fermented rice buns promised to Ouyang yesterday.
These snacks, even if made in small quantities, couldn’t possibly be just for Ouyang, there would definitely be random drops.
With his fire control skill upgraded, Qin Huai felt it was time to take on the high-difficulty task of cooking lamb soup.
Ouyang starts work at 9 a.m.
He clocked out at 9:05, came to Yunzhong Restaurant to buy breakfast.
He came at the perfect time, naturally because Qin Huai knew his schedule well, timing it just right. When Ouyang walked into the cafeteria, the Crab Shell Cake had just come out of the oven.
The air was filled with the unique wheat fragrance brought by baking.
Ouyang took a deep breath, intoxicated, feeling it was such a wonderful day.
Oh my god, happiness arrived so suddenly. If only Qin Huai could have a few more spontaneous moments like yesterday afternoon, asking him what he would like to eat the next day.
Qin Huai had already prepared breakfast for Ouyang.
"Here, your breakfast, Four Happiness Dumplings with Crab Shell Cake, come pick up the dried tangerine peel tea in 15 minutes, also take a serving for Sister Hong."
Ouyang looked at the still steaming Four Happiness Dumplings, almost drooling, and asked, "What about lunch?"
"Elm Bark Steamed Buns, Baked Bun, and White Jade Cream Cake."
"The green bean ice cake is for the afternoon soup snack, take the locust flower buns and fermented rice buns home to enjoy slowly."
Ouyang felt that a happy life was just .
"What soup are we having this afternoon?" Ouyang casually asked.
"Something different today, lamb soup."
The happy life came to an abrupt end.
"Lamb... lamb soup?" Ouyang was so scared he stuttered.
It’s not that he didn’t believe in Qin Huai’s skills, it’s that he knew all too well what Qin Huai’s skills were.
Last time he could barely accept drinking soup in the duck circle, but drinking soup in the sheep pen was really hard to swallow, sir.
Ouyang understood, today’s snacks were the medical fee.
After much thinking, Ouyang gritted his teeth, "Drink!"
"My favorite thing to drink is lamb soup!"