Isn’t it strange? Wasn’t he the genius everyone praised?
Even though Qin Huai isn’t conceited, he didn’t think he was such a genius a few months ago. At this moment, he can’t help but ask himself conceitedly.
Why are knife skills so hard?
Dong Shi, you lied to me!
Qin Huai vaguely remembers asking Dong Shi if knife skills were hard to learn, and Dong Shi said:
Knife skills? They’re easy to start with; you just need to practice diligently. At the beginning, you think you’re really good, slicing randomly and mastering everything. Radish slices become translucent, and you can easily cut fancy cucumbers.
But once you progress, you realize that even translucent radish slices have different levels. The ninth level is easy to cut, the third is difficult, and the first is as hard as climbing the sky.
The fancy cucumber cuts that look high-level are actually something ordinary people can manage with practice. The flashy cuts aren’t hard; it’s the seemingly dull meat shreds, cubes, strips, and minced meat that are tough.
Qin Huai looked at the radish shreds, slices, and cubes he had cut.
Then looked at the sample that Cao Guixiang had initially demonstrated for him.
Dong Shi, you lied to me!
The ninth level of radish slices is also very difficult to cut!
Qin Huai kept cutting radishes until 10 PM.
It wasn’t because he’d finished cutting radishes, but Cao Guixiang thought Qin Huai should rest.
Qin Huai was past the age where he could stay up late and still be energetic. Plus, after selling breakfast and working in pastry for so many years, he had developed a good routine and was less able to stay up late than others.
After a quick wash-up, Qin Huai almost immediately fell asleep.
In his dream, Qin Huai was a rabbit farmer, and every day he had to cut radishes to make feed.
Those rabbits were particularly picky; some wanted radish slices, some wanted radish shreds, and some wanted radish cubes. If the cuts weren’t good, they wouldn’t eat them; if they weren’t pretty, they wouldn’t eat them; if they weren’t uniform, they wouldn’t eat them.
In the dream, Qin Huai was nearly cutting radishes nonstop, almost to the point of sleepwalking to the kitchen to cut radishes, if the situation allowed.
Possibly because the dream of cutting radishes was too terrifying, Qin Huai didn’t wake up early the next day; he slept until 8 in the morning.
Cao Guixiang didn’t call him either.
Yesterday, Zhang Chu stood at the kitchen door watching Qin Huai cut radishes all day, feeling sorry for Qin Huai, and mentioned during breakfast, "Xiao Qin must have been worn out yesterday."
"That’s normal." Cao Guixiang, calmly drinking soy milk, said, "Back when I was an apprentice, I didn’t have a single day without exhaustion. I remember going to Yonghe Inn every day before dawn to chop vegetables, and I wouldn’t get home until eight or nine at night."
"Back then, there were no street lights in Beiping City, and my home was far from Yonghe Inn. My parents weren’t willing to come pick me up so late, so my senior and second senior brothers took turns walking me home at night because they were worried."
"Xiao Qin’s conditions are much better than mine were back then. He’s been a pastry chef for years and farmed when he was young, so he’s got a strong foundation. I had to train mainly to build strength, since women generally have less strength than men. My second senior brother could hang a sandbag for an hour, and I had to hang it for two; he tossed sand for an hour, and I had to toss it for two."
"Back then, my arms would get swollen during the day from practice, I’d apply hot towels before bed, and resume training the next day."
"I don’t know how my senior brother trained his basic skills when he was young, but both my second senior brother and I cried during practice. We cried quietly, fearing we’d disturb our master and end up being abandoned."
After hearing Cao Guixiang’s story, Zhang Chu recalled his own tough days apprenticing as a carpenter: "Yes, back then it was tough helping the master, prying wood, and my arms would get swollen. I had no strength left, yet I had to keep going; my senior would pity me, but the master would scold him for trying to do my work."
"That’s how you get trained; even opera singers in troupes who practiced till they coughed blood had to keep going as long as their voices weren’t damaged."
Reflecting on the past, Zhang Chu changed his tone, noticing Cao Guixiang had finished her soy milk and was still smacking her lips, evidently wanting more. He quickly poured the remaining bit from the pot for her, then continued:
"But, why do I feel Xiao Qin is practicing strangely?"
Cao Guixiang resumed drinking her soy milk: "What do you mean by strangely?"
"It’s just... it doesn’t seem right. Isn’t Xiao Qin quite gifted? He makes those big soup dumplings taste amazing, and he’s not an inexperienced newcomer in the kitchen either. Initially, he could cut well, but as time went on, it seemed like he’d forgotten how to hold the knife."
"Could it be that your overwhelming presence scared Xiao Qin so much that he forgot how to wield a knife?"
Cao Guixiang glared at Zhang Chu irritably: "What nonsense are you talking? Xiao Qin’s status yesterday was actually correct."
"If Xiao Qin was a blank slate, of course, the faster he learns, the better. But Xiao Qin isn’t a blank slate; not only is he not a blank slate, he’s already a very mature and even excellent pastry chef. He knows too many things, too much variety, without anyone systematically teaching him."
"Going from 0 to 100 is easy, but once someone learns the wrong way of going from 0 to 100, asking them to forget everything and go from 100 back to 0 is anything but simple."
"What Xiao Qin needs to do now is forget all his previous wrong ways of holding the knife and exerting force, and start learning anew. This process is much harder than a regular beginner starting from zero."
"But this is what he must learn. On my first day of academic training, my master told me every initial small problem or bad habit, if ignored and not corrected, would eventually become the worms hollowing out a big tree. Xiao Qin, despite having many bad habits now, has poor knife skills with plenty of room for improvement, so he can still be corrected from the ground up."
"If he were already an experienced meat Chef, correcting these habits would be tougher. Unless one day he realizes his minor issues have caused major cooking failures, like Wenchang chicken can’t be pieced together, or Three Course Duck won’t fit, then he might resolve to correct himself through pain and reflection."
"I don’t expect Xiao Qin to establish a great foundation these days; I just hope to wipe him clean as a blank slate and let him start learning from zero."
"With a good mentor to guide him on the right path, I believe with his talent, using correct methods, even self-learning, he will surpass ordinary people."
After hearing this, Zhang Chu slowly uttered, "Gui Xiang, do you really not want to take him as your apprentice?"
Cao Guixiang shook her head: "He doesn’t need me as his master; he can have many teachers, and I just need to be one of them."
"Since the days of young intellectuals being sent to the countryside, I’ve been destined not to pursue the culinary path. That’s not where my ambitions lie, so I won’t hold back a promising talent like Xiao Qin."
The dialogue between Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu ended when Qin Huai got up and opened the door.
Feeling apologetic for getting up late on his first day learning at Cao Guixiang’s home, Qin Huai kept apologizing after waking.
Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu exchanged a smile, reassuring Qin Huai not to worry; they were confident he wouldn’t wake up early the next day either.
Then Cao Guixiang smiled and urged Qin Huai to quickly eat his breakfast, as there were even more radishes to cut today.
After quickly finishing breakfast, Qin Huai opened the kitchen door and saw the kitchen filled with radishes.
Not only were they piled on the vegetable rack, but also on the floor, and the top of the fridge was full of cleaned radishes too.
"There are two more boxes of radishes in the storage room." Zhang Chu happily reminded, "Gui Xiang says although you cut slowly yesterday, your speed should pick up today. With more time today, these should be enough to cut."
"But I’ll go buy more. I’ve already talked to Mr. Li from the market, making sure to have at least 300 pounds of radishes every day!"
"At wholesale price!"
"Um... can I ask what happens to the radishes I cut every day?" Qin Huai asked weakly.
"There’s a pig farm in our City, and I’ve been buying pork there for years, knowing the farm boss." Cao Guixiang explained, "I’ve arranged with the pig farm boss to pick up the radishes every evening."
"So don’t worry, Xiao Qin; the radishes won’t go to waste. If 300 pounds aren’t enough for cutting, then there’ll be 400, or 500 pounds."
"Radishes are cheap."