AGN -Chapter 140 Arrival in Gusu

Early the next morning, Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan boarded a flight to Shanghai. After landing, they transferred to a high-speed train to Gusu. After a long journey, they finally arrived in Gusu by noon.

“I really admire you,” Qin Huai said. “The way you got the call from Uncle Zheng in the afternoon and managed to arrive at our cafeteria the next morning.”

Qin Huai, who rarely traveled far—his longest trips usually being the commute between home and university during his four years of college—deeply admired Zheng Siyuan’s incredible ability to act quickly.

“It’s nothing. You get used to it,” Zheng Siyuan said, glancing at his phone. “My dad said someone’s coming to pick us up.”

“Huh? We need someone to pick us up?” Qin Huai was confused.

“You’re new here. It’s more of a ceremonial pickup.”

Qin Huai: ?

An hour later, Qin Huai understood what “ceremonial pickup” meant.

The person who came to the high-speed rail station to pick them up was Dong Shi—an old acquaintance of Qin Huai, a true “internet friend.” During their video chats, Dong Shi had shared plenty of behind-the-scenes gossip from the restaurant.

The gossip Dong Shi had shared with Qin Huai over time included, but was not limited to:

• Huang Shengli’s son being very poor at managing the restaurant, with marketing plans that were a complete mess.
• Huang Shengli’s sixth disciple being dumped by his girlfriend because of hair loss and looking older—Dong Shi casually remarked that the kitchen fumes were indeed quite heavy, and the hair loss couldn’t be entirely blamed on him.
• A certain unnamed but widely known guest who had hosted their first, second, third, and fourth weddings at the restaurant—all with the same partner—leading people to suspect they were just using the restaurant’s wedding-exclusive dishes as an excuse to hold multiple weddings.
• Huang Shengli’s back problems weren’t just recent; since that guest’s second wedding, the restaurant had introduced some exclusive dishes only available for large banquets like weddings and longevity feasts, and only regular, long-time customers could reserve them.

These valuable pieces of gossip had greatly strengthened Qin Huai and Dong Shi’s online friendship.

At the same time, this also helped Dong Shi stand out and become the representative assigned to pick them up at the station.

Dong Shi’s main purpose in picking them up was to take Qin Huai to the apartment that Zheng Da had rented for him.

The apartment was located right across from Huangji Restaurant. It took only about six minutes to walk from the residential complex to the restaurant’s kitchen—extremely convenient for commuting. So convenient that Qin Huai almost wanted to ask Dong Shi whether Huangji Restaurant also served breakfast, and whether he needed to come at 4 a.m. every day to make Wu Ding Bao.

“This apartment was carefully selected by Uncle Zheng for you,” Dong Shi said, unable to stop talking. “Originally, he wanted to rent you a place in his own residential complex, but that’s too far from Huangji. Our restaurant’s prep time is long and we start early—you basically need to be at work by 9 a.m. If you came from Uncle Zheng’s place, you’d have to wake up at 8 every morning. That’s too early.”

Qin Huai, who woke up at 4 a.m. every day: ……

Zheng Siyuan, whose wake-up time had shifted from 6 a.m. to starting work at 6 a.m.: ……

“However, our restaurant does have its advantages. The lunch break is very long. The kitchen usually shuts down around 1 p.m., resumes at 4 p.m., and finishes work by 8 p.m.—no overtime at all. I remember you finish work at 4 p.m. every day, right? Since we don’t have pastry chefs in the evening, if you want to sleep early, you can leave at 4 p.m. too. Dinner starts at 4 p.m. here.”

Qin Huai: ……

So this is what randomly assigned chefs get treated like?

Zheng Siyuan… sorry, I’ve made you work like a laborer.

The apartment Zheng Da rented for Qin Huai was a fully furnished one-bedroom unit, clean and ready to move into. There was almost nothing to prepare—there were even brand-new, unopened toothbrushes and towels, making Qin Huai suspect it had previously been used as a short-term rental or homestay.

There wasn’t much to arrange. Qin Huai put down his luggage and went with Dong Shi to meet Huang Shengli across the street, while Zheng Siyuan dragged his luggage home to settle in.

For his first meeting with his online course teacher, Qin Huai brought a small gift—

Apple-shaped pastries he had made the night before.

Proper apple pastries, with the filling prepared with Zheng Siyuan’s help—clean, legitimate apple pastries.

Not the heretical meat-filled kind.

Qin Huai followed Dong Shi to Huangji Restaurant.

Huangji Restaurant was a long-established local brand. It started as a small eatery when Huang Shengli was young and grew into a full-scale restaurant. Because it had been around for many years and hadn’t been renovated much recently, it looked somewhat old from the outside. Viewed another way, however, it could be considered to have historical depth—though that depth was only about 20 years.

Qin Huai arrived a little after 1 p.m., still within lunch hours. There weren’t many customers; about half the tables in the dining hall were occupied. For a weekday, this level of occupancy wasn’t terrible, but it didn’t quite match the restaurant’s once-renowned reputation.

It seemed Dong Shi’s complaints were justified—Huang Shengli’s son indeed wasn’t good at management.

Dong Shi led Qin Huai to the entrance of the kitchen, pushed the door open, and shouted cheerfully:

“Master! Master! Qin Huai is here—I’ve brought him back! He even brought you a gift, come and take a look!”

“Stop shouting. There are customers eating outside,” Huang Shengli said as he slowly walked out of the kitchen.

This was Qin Huai’s first time seeing him in person.

Compared to his appearance on video, the real Huang Shengli was slightly darker and thinner.

Huang Shengli smiled warmly at Qin Huai. “Xiao Qin is here? No need to be so formal—you even brought a gift. Let me see what it is.”

Qin Huai handed over the gift box.

The box was from Chen Yingjun, reused from packaging for the pastries.

Huang Shengli opened the box and looked at the four apple pastries inside. He picked one up, felt its texture, and examined it closely before asking:

“You made these yourself?”

Qin Huai nodded. “Mostly. The filling was adjusted by Zheng Siyuan—I still can’t quite control the proportions.”

“My goodness,” Huang Shengli murmured softly. “So there really are people born knowing how to make pastries… didn’t even forget from the ‘Meng Po soup’.”

“Master, what did you say?” Dong Shi didn’t catch it.

“Nothing to do with you,” Huang Shengli ignored his closed-door disciple and kept his attention on Qin Huai, his smile deepening.

“You and Siyuan must have rushed over early this morning, right? Tired?”

“Not really, I’m fine,” Qin Huai replied honestly.

“Have you seen the apartment? Are you used to it?”

“It’s very good.”

“You’ve come from afar, so theoretically I should host a welcoming banquet for you. But my back isn’t cooperating—when I woke up this morning, the pain was severe. Let alone cooking, even sitting is uncomfortable.”

“Master Huang, you’re too polite. You’ve been teaching me via WeChat for so long—you’re like a half-teacher to me already. How could I trouble you to prepare a banquet?” Qin Huai said quickly.

“I’m relieved you don’t mind. Dong Shi, what are you waiting for? Bring Xiao Qin his work uniform.”

Qin Huai: ?

Dong Shi immediately produced a set of kitchen staff uniforms from a nearby cabinet as if by magic and handed it to Qin Huai.

“Master had this custom-made according to your size. Not sure if it fits.”

Qin Huai looked at the uniform and noticed embroidery on the chest—his name.

Qin Huai.

Very well—time to start work.

He hugged the uniform and asked very naturally, “Where is the changing room?”

“Since I’m new here and not sure what to do, I’ll start by making a few steamers of my specialty fermented wine mantou for everyone!”