AGN -Chapter 171 Dreaming Is Still Faster

Finally managing to make proper crab roe siu mai, Qin Huai immediately decided to press his advantage and made another batch.

The new batch of siu mai turned out just as normal.

Qin Huai was so moved he felt like he might cry.

To share this joy, he immediately took out his phone, switched to a food photography filter, snapped a picture of the delicious-looking crab roe siu mai, and sent the original image to Qin Luo.

Calculating the time, Qin Luo still had about half an hour left before school ended.

Based on Qin Huai’s understanding of Qin Luo, she would take out her phone the moment she walked out of school—she might even not wait until she got on the bus home.

As expected, half an hour later, Qin Luo replied with a long string of crying emojis.

Luo Luo: “Wuwuwuwu, bro, you’re back, right? I knew you treat me the best. You made salted egg yolk siu mai, right? Okay okay, I’ll take the bus back now to eat!”

Luo Luo: “Bro, wait for me, don’t let Brother Yang eat them all!”

Luo Luo: “Bro, are you still there? Are the siu mai in the steamer? They won’t have gone cold, right? Bro, I want 12 siu mai. Dad’s siu mai are too bad. I haven’t had siu mai in a long time [crying loudly]”

Luo Luo: “Bro, did you go back to sleep? Reply to me, bro. Are the siu mai still there?”

Luo Luo: “BRO! I just called mom and she said you haven’t come back. Bro, where are you?!!!”

Through the phone screen, Qin Huai could almost hear Qin Luo’s heart-wrenching voice.

Already finished with his massage, Qin Huai sat in the bone-setting clinic eating a fruit platter while calmly replying.

Qin Huai: “It’s crab roe siu mai. I made them today.”

Qin Huai: “I didn’t go back. I’m in Gusu. When your semester ends, if you do well on your final exams, I’ll take you to Gusu during winter break. You can sit at the entrance of the kitchen at Huang Ji Restaurant and eat.”

Sitting on the bus, holding her phone and feeling deeply sad, Qin Luo: QAQ

Ever since starting high school, Qin Luo had barely eaten any pastries—only swallowed a belly full of “promises.” Pop quizzes, midterms, finals, monthly exams—they were all empty promises. Of course, Qin Luo didn’t disappoint Qin Huai’s “promises” either—she basically never did well.

Only this month’s monthly exam was somewhat decent—not in the bottom ten—but Qin Huai wasn’t in Shanshi this month, and Qin Luo couldn’t go to Gusu either, so the promise had to be saved for later.

Feeling miserable, Qin Luo began scrolling through her Moments feed while internally criticizing her brother for constantly making empty promises.

She was getting completely full just from “eating promises.”

Qin Huai: [Image] [Image] [Image] [Image]

Qin Huai sent a few pictures of the welcoming banquet and employee meals.

Qin Huai: “Come to Gusu during the break. I’ll find you some tutors to help you study properly. Not only will there be pastries, but also these dishes.”

Qin Huai: “I’ll share half of my staff meals with you.”

Luo Luo: “!!! Bro, love you muah muah ()”

Having overeaten on promises, Qin Luo declared: she loved eating the promises her brother made the most!

The Qin family really loved their staple food!

After finishing his “promise meal,” Qin Huai continued eating the fruit platter for a while. He felt the tangerines in today’s platter were quite good, so he asked the staff for two to take home.

After Qin Huai left, the staff took a photo of the leftover fruit platter, recording how much of each fruit had been eaten.

The next day, Qin Huai continued practicing the filling for crab roe siu mai.

Huang Shengli did not hold back, and Zheng Da was defeated once again.

However, Zheng Da didn’t seem as discouraged this time. It seemed yesterday’s teaching made him realize that the teaching certification videos he had been watching were not as effective as he had imagined.

Qin Huai noticed Zheng Da had switched to a different teaching video.

Previously, the videos featured a female instructor. Now it was a male instructor, and the content had shifted from expression techniques to how to interact with students.

Qin Huai very much wanted to tell Zheng Da: Teacher Zheng, you really don’t need to make things hard for yourself. With that clumsy way of speaking, teaching probably isn’t your strength. Everyone has their own teaching style—some rely on speaking, others on doing.

Over the years, Zheng Siyuan had also learned this way, which showed that Zheng Da’s method wasn’t entirely ineffective. It mainly depended on the students’ own understanding.

Qin Huai felt his own comprehension was decent—he didn’t necessarily need a teacher who could speak well.

Moreover, when it came to speaking, Zheng Da would never be able to outtalk Huang Shengli.

Qin Huai wanted to advise him.

But seeing Zheng Da engrossed in the videos, Qin Huai opened his mouth—and then decided against it.

If Teacher Zheng was happy, that was enough. He was the teacher, and he must have his own reasoning.

Thus, two to three days of steady foundational practice passed. On the fourth day, Huang Shengli felt it was time for Zheng Da to take the lead. During their argument, he casually lost to Zheng Da and stepped back into a supporting role.

While Zheng Da and Huang Shengli were casually bickering, Qin Huai noticed that Gong Liang wasn’t present today.

Gong Liang had come in the morning for breakfast, but by lunchtime he was nowhere to be seen. There were no orders for Room 888, and even as Huang Shengli and Zheng Da were finishing their “argument,” Gong Liang hadn’t appeared sitting in his ergonomic chair at the kitchen entrance—very unusual.

Could it be that the boss had work to attend to?

So touching—Gong Liang was finally working!

Just as Zheng Da began reciting his opening lines from his memo, Qin Huai snapped out of his thoughts and started paying attention to the lesson.

Teacher Zheng had spent four full days preparing his lesson plan. Whether useful or not, Qin Huai decided to listen carefully.

……

“Little Qin chef, we just received a new batch of tangerines. I noticed you especially like them, so please take this bag home.”

As Qin Huai finished his usual fruit platter at the bone-setting clinic and stood up to leave after a sip of tea, the deputy manager came out holding a bag of tangerines.

The bright orange fruits, occasionally streaked with green, varied in size and shape, not particularly uniform in appearance—but such imperfect-looking tangerines were often the tastiest.

Qin Huai accepted them naturally and asked, “Your boss… I mean, Mr. Gong—did he go on a business trip and isn’t in Gusu today?”

Qin Huai hadn’t seen Gong Liang at the kitchen entrance in the afternoon, and even after work he had checked with the front desk—there were no evening bookings for Gong Liang.

That was rare. Gong Liang usually treated Huang Ji like his cafeteria. If a regular didn’t come to eat, it usually meant he was away.

The deputy manager found the question difficult to answer: “I’m not sure. We rarely see Mr. Gong throughout the year.”

Qin Huai didn’t expect an answer and simply planned to check in with Gong Liang via WeChat later.

Today’s crab roe siu mai test run went smoothly again, with no major difference in quality compared to previous days. Qin Huai knew his crab roe siu mai learning had already entered the right track and was steadily improving.

The lack of difference meant the improvement wasn’t significant enough yet.

Once he completed all the foundational training for crab roe siu mai, Huang Shengli could hand over teaching duties entirely to Zheng Da.

At that stage, Qin Huai would focus on repetition.

Practice makes perfect.

Qin Huai set himself a timeline of one week. He believed that within a week at most, he could completely shed his “crab man” identity and find a chef at Huang Ji who specialized in handling shrimp and crab to assist him.

By then, he wouldn’t be able to leisurely make crab roe siu mai like now—spending an entire afternoon making just two batches and slowly tasting them.

Those good days would soon be gone.

When learning pastry moves into the stage requiring massive repetition, quality becomes less important. What matters instead is quantity, like a production line.

Qin Huai would need to make batch after batch continuously, timing each step precisely, eliminating all idle gaps between processes.

Hopefully, the people at Huang Ji wouldn’t get sick of eating crab roe siu mai.

Eating A- or S-grade siu mai for a month straight is enjoyment. Eating C-grade siu mai for a month straight… might become torture.

Qin Huai intended to push himself to upgrade his C-grade siu mai to at least B-grade within a month—B- would already be acceptable.

That way, after a month of C-grade siu mai, everyone could enjoy half a month of B-grade siu mai.

Yes, Qin Huai planned to grind crab roe siu mai for a month and a half. How far he could go would depend on when crabs went out of season.

Crab roe siu mai depends heavily on quality crab roe—it is a seasonal dish.

Once Qin Huai realized this, he suspected that Gong Liang’s past limitation of eating crab roe siu mai for only one month might have been because crabs went out of season afterward, leaving no roe to make the dish.

Now it was mid-November, when crabs were at their fattest. By the end of December, crabs would be completely out of season, and Qin Huai would have to say goodbye to crab roe siu mai.

Time was running out.

If he couldn’t complete Gong Liang’s task before crabs went out of season, he would have to wait another year, until crabs came back in September next year.

Qin Huai was even a little grateful that he wasn’t a procrastinator. Before truly understanding shrimp and crab ingredients, he hadn’t realized crabs were seasonal. His family rarely ate crabs—when they did, it was mostly seafood.

If he had delayed asking Zheng Da to teach him crab roe siu mai until December, the time left to learn would have been extremely limited, likely pushing the task to the following year.

Ordinary crab roe siu mai definitely couldn’t satisfy Gong Liang’s palate.

From his interactions with Gong Liang, Qin Huai had observed that although Gong Liang wasn’t very expressive, he was extremely picky about food and not accommodating—he only ate what he liked.

Moreover, Gong Liang did not have the “filter” most people have toward food—the kind of mental filter chefs add to dishes.

Take Qin Luo as an example. Qin Luo was very good at adding a filter to food. For her, anything Qin Huai made—especially dishes made specifically for her—was delicious.

This “delicious” wasn’t literal; it was more of a self-suggestion. Even if the dish was only average (C- or D-grade), Qin Luo would mentally upgrade it.

Ou Yang could do this too. When tasting soups for Qin Huai, he often hyped himself up successfully.

Chen Huihong and Luo Jun had some degree of this as well, being more forgiving because of their relationship with Qin Huai.

The regulars at Yun Zhong Cafeteria were even more so—every cup of Seven-Flavor Dampness-Removing Tea sold was proof of their affection for Little Qin Chef.

But Qin Huai felt Gong Liang was unlikely to do this. Gong Liang might rarely be accommodating toward chefs.

This didn’t mean he was incapable of being accommodating—it depended on the situation. For potential talents like Qin Huai’s crab roe siu mai or braised pigeon with angelica, he could be flexible. But he wouldn’t “self-filter.”

For dishes that represented good memories—like fermented rice buns or whole braised pig head—he would not be forgiving.

Even though Huang Jia’s braised pig head was quite good compared to many similar dishes, Gong Liang still considered it insufficient.

Similarly, Zheng Siyuan’s fermented rice buns were stable at C-grade, occasionally reaching B-, but Gong Liang still deemed them not good enough.

In Gong Liang’s view, if something could be done better but wasn’t, then it simply wasn’t acceptable.

Therefore, Qin Huai understood clearly: to satisfy Gong Liang, he had to surpass Zheng Da’s level.

And what level was Zheng Da’s crab roe siu mai?

Qin Huai estimated it to be A-grade.

And Qin Huai himself couldn’t make A-grade pastries—not a single one. He was very clear about that.

The inability to reach A-grade seemed purely due to insufficient numerical stats. While his dough fermentation and filling skills were both advanced, and his seasoning skill was the highest among all his abilities, A-grade still required more.

In a sense, crab roe siu mai might be the best pastry he could ever make.

Qin Huai suspected that advanced skills couldn’t produce A-grade dishes—at least mastery-level skills would be required.

During this period, he had been focusing on improving his filling skill, which had surged rapidly, now at (7666 / 100000).

He hadn’t even reached one-tenth progress.

Thinking of this, Qin Huai let out a deep sigh.

Difficult.

No matter how he looked at it, completing Gong Liang’s side quest within this year seemed impossible.

As expected, the system never gave simple tasks. This seemingly straightforward task might actually be the hardest.

Qin Huai began to consider whether it was more likely to grind over 93,000 filling experience points within a month and a half, or to raise Gong Liang’s favorability to the same level as Qin Luo’s—so that Gong Liang would unconditionally trust his food and automatically enhance its quality in his mind.

He thought about this the whole way.

When he reached the entrance of his apartment building, Qin Huai concluded that dreaming was more suitable for him.

In dreams, anything is possible.

At the building entrance, he noticed the door was wide open today, with a small truck parked outside. Inside were large boxes that looked like refrigerators or televisions—someone seemed to be moving in.

Huh, someone actually moved into this neighborhood?

Qin Huai was a bit surprised.

He had been living here for some time and was familiar with the area. This was an ordinary old residential community—not expensive, not a school district, and with average property management. Most residents were elderly, many living with grandchildren. To many, such an environment meant noise and hassle, so young people generally avoided moving in.

There were no office buildings or commercial centers nearby, and it wasn’t close to a subway station. There were bus stops, but not many people took buses these days.

If not for Huang Ji being located across from this neighborhood, property prices here would likely be even lower.

It was rare for new residents to move into such an old community.

Qin Huai walked toward his home.

Then he realized the new resident seemed to be his neighbor.

The apartment next door had long been unoccupied.

The door was wide open, with movers going in and out arranging furniture. Qin Huai peeked inside—it was somewhat messy, with cardboard boxes and plastic packaging scattered on the floor. All the furniture was brand new.

A huge television, solid wood tables and chairs, elegant screens, and fine porcelain.

A wealthy person.

“Remember, there are still a few items downstairs. Anyone free, go check. Xiao Wang, I’ll leave this side to you for now. I need to go home and persuade my wife to move in with me. When I return, the house should be ready for occupancy, alright?”

“Got it, Mr. Gong. Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”

Mr. Gong?

Qin Huai stood at the doorway and peeked inside, just as he ran into Gong Liang coming out.

They locked eyes.

Both knew what the other was thinking.

They simultaneously put on polite, fake smiles.

“Little Qin Chef, you’re off work? Hard work today. What a coincidence—I thought coming to Huang Ji every day was too far and inconvenient, so I bought a place near here. I didn’t expect it to be right next to yours.”

Gong Liang spoke with surprise, as if this really was a chance encounter.

Qin Huai silently thought: You’ve already arranged my housekeeper, changing fruits and snacks daily, yet you still act like you don’t know where I live—truly a top-tier salesman.

“Quite the coincidence. Mr. Gong, moving here won’t affect your work, right?” Qin Huai asked with concern.

“No, no. To be honest, my company isn’t far from here. Living here is more comfortable and relaxed. When I was young, I lived around this area. Over there—unfortunately that area has already been demolished. Otherwise, I would’ve moved back there.”

“Since you’re home from work, go get some rest. I’ll have them keep the noise down so it won’t disturb your sleep.”

“By the way, what are we having for breakfast tomorrow?” Gong Liang asked.

“Crab roe siu mai,” Qin Huai replied. “I plan to make them every morning from now on to practice.”

“Oh right, Mr. Gong, I wonder if you’ll have time in the afternoons over the next month or so. If you do, I’d like to ask you to come to the shop often to taste and evaluate my crab roe siu mai.”

“I believe you are very professional when it comes to eating crab roe siu mai.”

These words clearly hit Gong Liang right in the heart.

“If you’re busy, that’s fine too. If you don’t mind, I can bring some back after work. Since you’ve moved next door, it’s convenient for tasting.”

Gong Liang felt that buying this apartment on short notice was absolutely the right decision.

Among everyone at Huang Ji, there was no one more willing to provide him with special tastings than Qin Huai.

“What’s there to mind? Having food is already great—I’m just here waiting to eat. Rest assured, I’m absolutely professional when it comes to eating crab roe siu mai!” Gong Liang patted his chest in assurance.

He would have his assistant urgently buy all past issues of Zhi Wei and study them thoroughly.

Qin Huai watched Gong Liang leave.

Qin Huai knew he couldn’t grind out over 90,000 filling experience points within a month and a half, nor could he raise Gong Liang’s favorability to Qin Luo’s level. He could only use his usual method—letting Gong Liang participate in tastings.

Tastings would allow Gong Liang to experience his effort and progress.

He hoped Gong Liang would lower his standards slightly after seeing how hard he was trying.

Please.

Qin Huai savored the taste of the crab roe siu mai made by Zheng Da, then opened the door and went home.

Forget it—dreaming is still faster.

In dreams, anything is possible.

Tonight, he would dream and complete this side quest in his dream.