Zheng Da spoke, feeling it was truly destiny, and sat up straight, showing concern for Qin Huai’s other situations: "Xiao Qin, are you dating anyone?"
Qin Huai shook his head: "No."
Zheng Da clicked his tongue: "Why are all you youngsters nowadays? My son is the same. But you’re still young, no rush. My son, about to turn 30, still shows no interest in finding a partner, it really worries me."
Qin Huai comforted him: "Master Zheng, you don’t need to worry too much. Finding a partner is something that should happen naturally. Finding the right one is the most important thing, there’s no rushing it."
Zheng Da felt relieved immediately, moved as he said: "Why still call me Master Zheng, it feels so distant. Just call me Uncle Zheng!"
Just then, the locust flower buns in the steamer were ready to come out.
Qin Huai had already noticed.
[Locust Flower Bun C-grade]
Maybe because he was talking while making them, causing some distraction, this batch of locust flower buns didn’t even make a C-grade, but directly dropped to C-.
Qin Huai lifted the steamer lid, while in a cloud of rising steam, Qin Luo frantically wiped the lens to ensure Zheng Da could see the locust flower buns clearly.
"They really look not so great," Zheng Da sighed, puzzled, "It shouldn’t be, Xiao Qin, your skills are quite good, the buns you make shouldn’t look ."
"This has been puzzling me all along," Qin Huai said, "According to the recipe and its description, the successful version of locust flower buns should be quite amazing."
"The surface should be smooth like fine grain buns, without any holes, slightly sweet flavor with a hint of locust flower honey, a soft texture, and due to the added buckwheat flour, there’s a bit of buckwheat chewiness in the bite."
"And the buns should be elastic at the same time."
"But the ones I made fall quite short of this."
Zheng Da fell silent for a rare moment.
"Xiao Qin, the locust flower buns you’re talking about, Uncle Zheng will be honest with you, I’ve only heard of them, never seen them. But I believe they exist, however, just looking at the steps you did earlier, to be honest, there’s nothing majorly wrong with them."
"How about this, if you don’t mind, send me the exact location, and I’ll come over tomorrow."
"Looking on the phone just doesn’t cut it, I’ll come onsite to see if I can find a solution."
Hearing Zheng Da express his desire to come over personally, Qin Huai was genuinely surprised. Although they had just had a pleasant conversation, it was, after all, only their first day meeting, introduced by a mutual acquaintance.
When you think about it, Qin Huai and Zheng Da’s relationship isn’t even as close as the office workers who come to Yunzhong Restaurant daily to grab buns.
Just because he couldn’t find a solution through a video, Zheng Da decided to make a special trip, his enthusiasm was not less than Chen Huihong’s!
"Isn’t it too much trouble for you?" Qin Huai blurted out.
"Not at all," Zheng Da waved his hand, "Anyway, I have nothing to do, unlike my son Siyuan who has a pastry shop and makes and sells snacks every day. I barely need to manage my factory, just check the accounts periodically."
"It’s been a long time since I’ve encountered something so interesting, Xiao Qin, send me the address, I’ll be there tomorrow."
"I just want to taste what exactly went wrong with your locust flower buns."
The video call ended.
Qin Luo put down the phone, shook his arm that was already sore and numb, and asked: "Bro, is Uncle Zheng really coming tomorrow?"
With dozens of boxes of snacks out, even Qin Luo started calling him Uncle Zheng.
"Probably," Qin Huai wasn’t very sure either. Perhaps, as Zheng Da said, he has money, free time, and interest, so making a special trip wasn’t a strange thing.
There are plenty of rich and leisurely elderly people in Yunzhong District, like Luo Jun, whose hobby is ordering takeout with his real name just to leave bad reviews, which is simply incomprehensible.
To Qin Huai’s surprise, not only did Zheng Da actually come the next day, but he also came quite early.
At 10 in the morning, it was one of the quietest times of the day at Yunzhong Restaurant.
At this time, the Three Meat Buns, Five Fillings Bun, and Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns had already sold out, Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong finished work and went back for a lunch break, and Qin Huai’s snacks were still in the making. The meat chefs had just started their shifts, preparing ingredients, and the waitstaff could still idle and chat for a while.
In the cafeteria, apart from a few bored, idle elderly people sitting in the first-floor lobby chatting while waiting for snacks to come out, there were convenience store owners wearing masks in the summer heat, snooping to see what today’s random dropped snack would be.
Today Qin Huai was making Honey Three Slices, Dingsheng Cake, Jujube and Yam Cake, fried dough stick, and Purple Rice Cake.
Regulars who often come to buy snacks all know that fried dough stick is a classic filler snack.
There’s no helping it, today Qin Huai had to make Four Happiness Dumplings for Qin Luo, so he had to be lazy and make fried dough stick as a filler.
Among all the snacks that Qin Huai could make, Four Happiness Dumplings were considered among the most complex ones.
The patrons waiting for snacks on the first floor had no idea that their beloved Master Qin was secretly preparing a special dish in the kitchen for his sister.
The Four Happiness Dumplings had already begun steaming.
Qin Luo munched on fried dough stick, squatting by the steamer waiting, thinking that not only did he not have to make hand-beaten lemon tea today, he also got a special dish to eat, almost making him laugh out loud.
At this moment, a slightly chubby middle-aged man, exuding an air of wealth, pushed open the door and walked in.
"Excuse me, is Qin Huai, Master Qin, here?" the man asked.
Xu Tuqiang, who was chatting by the door, glanced at the middle-aged man.
A Versace jacket, a Valentino shirt, GIVENCHY pants, Lang Danze shoes, LV socks, Balenciaga sunglasses, not a single item on him matched.
Xu Tuqiang looked at his own GIVENCHY suit and felt that he had lost.
"Master Qin is in the kitchen, do you have business with him?" Xu Tuqiang asked, just as Qin Huai quickly walked out of the kitchen.
"Uncle Zheng, you’re here so early, why didn’t you give me a heads up on WeChat?" Qin Huai said with a smile.
Zheng Da laughed heartily, "Snack chefs are busiest in the mornings. Asking you to come greet me would only delay things. But your place is pretty big, on the video yesterday, I thought it was just a big kitchen. It’s much better than my son’s pastry shop."
"This is a cafeteria, Brother Zheng’s is a dedicated pastry shop, it’s different."
"Yesterday, I shared my son Siyuan’s WeChat with you, did you add him?"
"I did," Qin Huai replied.
"Come on, let’s go to the kitchen... Do you need to change clothes to enter your kitchen? Get me a set, let me check out these locust flower buns and see what’s going on." Zheng Da finished speaking and started looking for the changing room.
Qin Huai went to find clothes for Zheng Da, saying: "Uncle Zheng, we might not be able to make them now, I haven’t finished the snacks in hand yet."
"No problem, I’ll help you!" Zheng Da confidently declared, "What snacks today?"
"Honey Three Slices, Dingsheng Cake, Jujube and Yam Cake, fried dough stick, and Purple Rice Cake, the fried dough stick is already done."
Xiao Qin has quite a variety of skills.
He hadn’t made Honey Three Slices in years, if he messed it up, wouldn’t it ruin his reputation?
"You have all sorts of ingredients in the kitchen, right?" Zheng Da asked.
"Yes," Qin Huai nodded.
"Great, Uncle Zheng will make you some of my specialties, let you taste Uncle Zheng’s skills!"
"Not to brag, my fresh meat mooncakes, flaky pastries, Dingsheng Cakes, Cloud Cakes, flower cakes, Eight Treasure Cakes, Crispy Cookies, lard phoenix cakes, they are all Gusu’s specialties! Back when I worked at a State owned Restaurant, they were so sought after you’d have to wait in long lines to buy them!" Zheng Da boasted loudly.
"Come on, let me show you a thing or two!"
Zheng Da took the clothes Qin Huai handed him and went to the changing room to change.
The old man sitting next to Xu Tuqiang stared at Zheng Da’s figure entering the changing room, a bit confused, tilted his head, and asked Xu Tuqiang: "Old Xu, what’s going on here? Who is this man? A friend of Wang Laogen from Gusu?"
Xu Tuqiang wasn’t sure either, thought for a moment, and said: "A while back, Wang Laogen was acting all mysterious, saying he wanted to find some master from Gusu, maybe Wang Laogen brought him in."
"Could he be a new dessert chef the cafeteria hired? Isn’t Master Qin looking for new staff? Maybe he’s here for an interview."
Someone else exclaimed: "So rich and still here for an interview?"
"Who knows? Even though Wang Laogen is rich, he’s still stingy."