AGN -Chapter 111 A Slight Slip-Up

In the afternoon, Qin Huai was surprised to find that Chen An had not left work.

Ou Yang had been slacking off all day—he had been sitting in the cafeteria since 2 p.m.

Chen Huihong and Chen Yingjun arrived early as well, picking a good seat by the window and bringing their own sunflower seeds and snacks. Chen Yingjun even brought two bags of spicy strips.

The afternoon tea chat group, led by Xu Tuqiang and Grandpa Cao, was also fully present. Grandma Ding even brought her husband along.

Grandpa Wang Gensheng and Chen Juan somehow went for an afternoon walk that ended up bringing them all the way from their own residential complex to Yunzhong Community, where they sat in the cafeteria and waited.

Of course, all of this wasn’t particularly unusual.

The most notable were Luo Jun and Qu Jing—both of whom came twice in one day. Luo Jun, who had finished his citrus peel tea at around 8 a.m., returned again at 3 p.m. Qu Jing, after unexpectedly running into Xiao Zheng in the morning and, because she was working the late shift, stayed until 10 a.m. waiting for the pastries to come out, left with a full haul, and then reappeared at 3 p.m., making Qin Huai suspect she might have taken the day off.

Not only did he suspect it—he asked.

“It was Mr. Luo who said his lower back wasn’t feeling well today. He suspected something went wrong during his last rehabilitation session, but he refused to let the rehab doctors visit him at home and specifically requested that I come take a look. That’s why the hospital sent me out for a consultation,” Qu Jing explained while standing at the window, slightly bent over and wearing a mask. From a distance, she looked very much like someone conducting a covert operation.

Qin Huai understood. Luo Jun had used his traditional specialty—“medical troublemaking.”

“Qin Huai, are you making grapes?” Qu Jing looked at the dough in Qin Huai’s hands and pointed at the ones in Zheng Siyuan’s hands. “Why do I feel like the grapes you’re making look different from Xiao Zheng’s… Are yours actually green grapes?”

Qin Huai: “……”

He could only say Qu Jing had a certain flair for language—but not much.

He already knew why the cafeteria was so crowded this afternoon.

It was definitely because of Qin Luo’s three posts on her social media yesterday.

During the summer vacation, Qin Luo had been a middle schooler who loved adding people on WeChat. Now she was a high schooler who still loved adding people on WeChat.

Her academic level had changed, but her enthusiasm had not.

During the summer, she had added almost all of the regular customers of the cafeteria on WeChat. Back then, many elderly customers—led by Grandma Ding—who bought buns for their grandchildren were trying to curry favor with Qin Luo by liking her posts, hoping Qin Huai would make buns their grandchildren liked.

At that time, Qin Luo posted photos of pastries every morning and noon. To outsiders, it looked like the official account of Yunzhong Cafeteria. Even her cousin in Quxian drooled two jin at the sight of them.

Now that school had started, she posted less frequently, but everyone still treated her posts like an official account.

Yesterday’s apple-shaped pastries had stunned everyone.

Ordinary people seeing such a post would think, “Wow, amazing.” But for the regular customers of Yunzhong Cafeteria led by Grandma Ding, their first reaction was: “How much is it? I have to buy one and try it.”

As the saying goes, it’s better to act than to be tempted—so today, everyone took action.

Originally, Zheng Siyuan had planned to make peach and red date pastries today, but under Qin Huai’s suggestion, he switched to grapes and dates.

It wasn’t that grapes tasted better than peaches—it was that grapes were easier to sell in volume.

Qin Huai knew very well that these pastries would eventually become random afternoon specials at the cafeteria. Right now, he was still in the learning phase, helping Zheng Siyuan as an assistant. Once his technique improved and his stats were no longer so rough, he would be able to start making them himself.

Luo Jun’s task had to be completed.

Qin Huai felt it was necessary for regular customers to first taste properly made pastries before trying his “random drops,” otherwise it might damage the reputation of the pastries in the future.

Zheng Siyuan, on the other hand, didn’t mind at all. The reason he opened a pastry shop near his neighborhood in Suzhou was simply because he enjoyed making and selling pastries. He enjoyed both the process of making them and the feedback from customers.

The regular customers here were very good at giving positive feedback. If it weren’t for his attachment to his old pastry shop customers, Zheng Siyuan might even have considered working here for a couple of years.

To improve together with Qin Huai.

As for Qu Jing, the only person in the cafeteria this afternoon who wasn’t there for the pastries, she chatted briefly with Qin Huai at the window. After confirming that Luo Jun was simply causing trouble and not actually having back issues, she returned to his table with peace of mind, leaving Qin Huai to continue battling the dough.

Yes—battling.

The Qin Huai of today was completely different from the Qin Huai of yesterday.

Yesterday, while making apple pastries, he had been divinely inspired, to the point that Zheng Siyuan almost started questioning his own life.

Today, the situation had completely reversed. In the morning, he had already slightly messed up while making red bean buns, and in the afternoon, while making grape pastries, he again couldn’t find yesterday’s feeling.

Grapes were small and round, seemingly the easiest to make.

But Zheng Siyuan said grape pastries were actually more difficult than apple ones. Just as no two leaves in the world are identical, a chef cannot make two identical grapes either.

During steaming, dough expands differently, so the final grapes will never be exactly the same. A chef must also avoid making them too uniform—ideally, they should vary in size and be arranged into a complete cluster of grapes.

For the first time, Qin Huai felt how difficult it was to knead dough.

For the first time, he realized that his ten fingers were not entirely under his brain’s control.

Brain: “Got it, right?”

Fingers: “Get lost!”

Failing occasionally was normal.

But failing again after success made it feel especially embarrassing.

Especially when that success had been photographed and posted by his own sister, praised endlessly with glowing comments and a “15-star rating.” Failing again now made it even more humiliating.

Qin Huai looked around at the very familiar faces in the cafeteria, then at the grape dough in his hands that he had tried hard on but still wasn’t very satisfactory, and sincerely asked Zheng Siyuan:

“Zheng, do you think it’s still in time to switch back to making apple pastries?”

Zheng Siyuan: “……It’s still in time.”

He silently glanced at the grape dough in his own hands and felt like he had also messed up a bit.

Unlike five-spice buns, which require complex cooking processes like stir-frying and stewing, the difficulty of pastry fillings lies in ingredient combinations.

The hardest part had already been solved in advance by Zheng Siyuan’s master, Master Jing. What Zheng Siyuan had to do was simply follow the formula.

In fact, most commercially sold pastries today use a uniform red date paste filling for convenience. Regardless of shape, what customers eat is essentially the same date filling.

Zheng Siyuan quickly prepared a batch of apple filling. Qin Huai returned to making apple pastries and regained yesterday’s feeling.

“Have you really never made this before?” Zheng Siyuan couldn’t help asking again.

“No, but I think what you said makes sense—apples are indeed the easiest pastries to make, much easier than grapes!”

Qin Huai felt that he should listen more to Zheng Siyuan in the future. These professionally trained pastry chefs really teach with expertise!

Zheng Siyuan: “……”

What I meant by apples being the easiest was easiest for me… I meant I’m more familiar with them… I didn’t mean pastries themselves are simple… when did apples become synonymous with easy? Wait, no, that’s not what I—

Zheng Siyuan decided it was better not to speak.

At 5 p.m., the apple and red date pastries came out of the steamer.

After consulting Zheng Siyuan, Qin Huai informed everyone that the pastries would be free that afternoon as a special appreciation event.

After all, those who saw Qin Luo’s posts were core customers of the cafeteria.

They still hadn’t decided on pricing yet.

Zheng Siyuan had never sold pastries before and had no idea what price to set.

As a major patron, Chen Yingjun received 11 date pastries and 4 apple ones.

His wife, Hu Yue, also came.

Looking at the pastries on the table, she asked in confusion, “Yingjun, didn’t you say Xiao Qin and Xiao Zheng were making other pastries today? Why are there apples?”

Chen Yingjun was already biting into an apple pastry, replying vaguely, “Leave the chefs’ business alone.”

“Just eat.”