Although Qin Huai’s sticky rice cake is just average.
But that’s not important, everyone knows Master Qin has the skills, if the sticky rice cake is just average, it’s a problem with the cake, everyone has their strengths, as long as Master Qin is willing to teach, it’s fine.
When Qin Huai got home, Ouyang was playing with the robotic sweeper.
Full house cleaning, local cleaning, sweeping and mopping, switching speeds from three to one, having a great time.
The instructions were adjusted so frequently, if the robotic sweeper could talk, it’d already be cursing.
"I brought you some snacks." Qin Huai placed the snacks on the dining table, "Eat if you want."
"Do you remember what I said? Starting tomorrow, you can go to Huang Ji to get snacks in the morning and afternoon, remember to go through the back door in the morning. Give feedback if you can, if not, you don’t need to."
"Godfather!" Ouyang was so moved he was about to cry, "No more words, when my handcrafted lemon tea shop opens, as long as it stays open even for a day, there’ll be a handcrafted lemon tea for you all day!"
Qin Huai: "...I mean that would be fine, just give me the basic flavor, I just like simple drinks."
That night, Qin Huai dreamed about Ouyang’s handcrafted lemon tea shop opening, and Ouyang enthusiastically invited Qin Huai to try the new flavors, displaying two rows of various handcrafted lemon teas.
Flavors like West Lake vinegar fish, spicy hot pot, frozen pear from Northeast, strawberry cheese Taotao, banana kiwi pudding.
There was even a Seven Spice Dampness Removing Tea flavor.
They were all lined up waiting for Qin Huai to taste.
It startled Qin Huai awake.
He checked the time, 8:00.
Still a bit shaken by the dream, Qin Huai skipped making breakfast, washed up, and went to work at Huang Ji, grabbing some wontons made by Zheng Siyuan along the way.
Zheng Siyuan had been making Zhou Sha Wonton and Paopao Dumpling for several months, and now these wontons were actually delicious. Delicious enough to set up a stall at the primary school gate and easily beat the old lady who’s been selling there for 20 years, making her curse under her breath, "Darn youngsters stealing my business," while secretly going to his stall to eat wontons.
"Mmm." Qin Huai made a sound of appreciation as he held the wontons and took another bite of the freshly fried Ruyi Roll, "Wontons for breakfast are really perfect."
Zheng Siyuan glanced at Qin Huai silently, saying nothing.
Qin Huai quickly understood Zheng Siyuan’s expression: "I’ll come early tomorrow morning to make Chicken Soup Noodles."
"No need." Zheng Siyuan said blandly, "Making them at noon is the same, Uncle says working long hours is bad for health, working long hours and getting up early is even worse."
"Then let’s make them at noon tomorrow." Qin Huai readily agreed.
"Master Qin." Guli walked up to Qin Huai, very rarely taking the initiative to speak, "Could you please help me take a look at these two pieces of sticky rice cake?"
Guli arrived early, he unwrapped the wet cloth on both sticky rice cakes, and now the two pieces were placed on his cooking station.
The difference in quality was visible to the naked eye.
The failed one was obviously too hard.
It was the kind you’d quietly take out to sell, and customers who ate it would secretly curse the boss for selling them overnight sticky rice cake.
As for whether the overnight sticky rice cake was hard or not.
Not important, "overnight" is just a descriptor.
"Now that you’ve seen the finished product, do you know where your mistake was yesterday?" Qin Huai asked.
Guli said nothing, looking very nervous.
Qin Huai chuckled lightly, "I’m not testing you, I just want to tell you that sometimes when things go wrong with snacks, it’s not necessarily a bad thing."
"I didn’t have a master guiding me back then, didn’t know what was wrong during my process. But when you see the finished product and feel something’s off, that’s where the problem is."
"If you can’t fix it the first time, then make it a few more times."
"If you don’t know where to start, just keep experimenting."
"When I told you to practice a lot, I didn’t mean mechanically doing the same thing without any changes. It’s about experimenting based on issues and modifying them for practice."
"Having someone to ask is of course great, but if not, you can ponder it yourself. Remember I told you your foundational skills are solid? That’s a great advantage, solid fundamentals mean you won’t make big directional mistakes, you have plenty of room to try and fail, so you can experiment boldly."
"I know you haven’t made many sticky rice cakes, and that’s not your specialization, so you don’t have to experiment with that, but you can apply this method to improve your Ruyi Rolls."
"I’ve eaten your Ruyi Rolls for many days, and though you’ve been trying hard to address the issues I pointed out each time, the changes aren’t bold enough, very conservative. It seems like you’re afraid of messing them up, so you don’t dare to alter them."
"The current sticky rice cake is a great example, it may look terrible with all its problems, but it has a lot of room for improvement. I think when making Ruyi Rolls, you could be bolder as well, at worst, it’ll end up sticky rice cake, magnify small issues, and you’ll see where the problem is."
"Got it?" Qin Huai looked at Guli.
Guli nodded earnestly, "Got it, thank you, Master Qin."
Another successful teaching moment, Qin Huai silently gave himself a big thumbs-up.
Awesome, when he finishes his advanced studies at Huang Ji, he can definitely showcase his excellent teaching skills to An Youyou, Chen An, Pei Xing, and Li Hua.
Qin Huai happily continued to enjoy breakfast.
After finishing breakfast, with some time before work, Qin Huai decided to relax and wrap the sticky rice cake. Guli’s sticky rice cake shouldn’t go to waste; it was just a failed attempt that made it a bit hard, still edible.
In the spirit of not wasting food, giving it to Huang An Yao and Ouyang was also perfect.
However, considering that Guli might need some positive feedback now, Qin Huai went to the locker room, picked up his phone, and messaged Qu Jing to ask if she would be willing to try the failed version of the sticky rice cake.