AGN -Chapter 245 Mission Accomplished

Qin Huai, Huang Anyao, and Gong Baozhu were all efficiency-first types. The quality of their work might not always be perfect, but one thing was certain—they were fast.

If one ignored the tiny detail that two little river shrimp had fallen out of the plate of stir-fried shrimp, the pair could definitely be described as quick and capable.

When Qin Huai carried a large basin of Four Joy Tangyuan to the table, the meal was basically complete.

Basically—because Zheng Da’s intricately pinched palace lantern buns were still sitting in the steamer. He refused to bring them out yet. In his words, palace lantern buns were different from Four Joy Tangyuan. Tangyuan could be served alongside the rest of the dishes and eaten during the meal.

But the palace lantern buns had to make a grand entrance as the final dessert. They had to be eaten last. If they were brought out too early and left to cool, the texture would suffer. Better to let them stay warm in the steamer. He knew what he was doing.

Huang Shengli said Zheng Da was just being unnecessarily fussy.

Huang Anyao, however, didn’t care about such details. As long as there was food, he was happy. Not only did he help carry the dishes, but he also fetched bowls, ready to enthusiastically serve everyone some tangyuan.

But as soon as he picked up a bowl, he hesitated and turned to his father for help.

“Dad, how many tangyuan should each person get?”

Normally, Four Joy Tangyuan came four to a bowl. Zheng Da’s bowls were large enough to hold four comfortably, with room for some soup as well.

But Qin Huai’s tangyuan were anything but ordinary.

The huge basin held an assortment with no way to tell the fillings apart—they were mystery-box tangyuan.

Not to mention that these tangyuan were quite large, and the table was already packed with hearty home-cooked dishes. Four tangyuan alone would leave anyone with a smaller appetite already sixty to seventy percent full. Add a couple of bites of other dishes, and the meal would effectively be over.

Serving tangyuan, sometimes, was an art. Do it poorly, and you might offend someone.

Huang Anyao couldn’t even reliably buy fruit, let alone portion out tangyuan.

Huang Shengli calmly replied, “Just serve yourself. Why are you hoarding all the bowls in front of you like treasures? Hand them out first.”

Huang Anyao instantly understood and distributed the bowls.

Eight people sat around the small round table. Zheng Da and Zheng Siyuan sat together; Huang Anyao and Huang Shengli sat together; Gong Liang’s family of three sat together; Qin Huai sat between Zheng Siyuan and Gong Liang.

Looking at the scene, Gong Liang sighed.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve all gathered together for a meal like this.”

Gong Baozhu mercilessly exposed her father’s exaggeration.

“Oh, come on, Dad. Don’t we do this every New Year? The year Sister Siqin got married, we ate at our house. We didn’t have enough bowls—her husband didn’t even get one. My brother and I had to borrow bowls from the neighbors on New Year’s Day. The next day, rumors spread that our family had gone bankrupt and that we were out on the streets begging for food.”

Gong Liang: “…”

Without a word, Gong Liang stood up and served his daughter four tangyuan.

Gong Baozhu beamed. “Thanks, Dad! Tangyuan is my favorite!”

She was probably the only person at the table who didn’t eat Four Joy Tangyuan regularly. Living farther away had at least one advantage—it kept things fresh and exciting.

Qin Huai chose to start with the dishes.

The stir-fried river shrimp were wonderfully fresh. Quickly stir-fried with minimal seasoning, they showcased the shrimp’s natural sweetness. Qin Huai popped them into his mouth one after another, thoroughly enjoying himself.

Across from him, Huang Anyao focused entirely on the braised eel segments. Two tangyuan sat untouched in his bowl, while a small mountain of eel bones piled up beside it.

Zheng Siyuan ate more evenly, sampling every dish with a few bites. Then he went into the kitchen and returned with another bowl, filling it generously with steamed egg custard.

Qin Huai glanced over in surprise. When he had watched Huang Shengli make such an ordinary dish earlier, he had thought it odd. Even for home cooking, steamed egg custard seemed almost too simple—and in such a large quantity. Now he understood: someone at the table clearly loved it.

Everyone was happily eating the dishes.

Everyone, that is, except Gong Baozhu, who was devouring tangyuan at an impressive pace.

Her four mystery tangyuan contained: one pure meat filling, one peanut-and-melon-seed filling, one almond-and-walnut filling, and one almond-and-peanut filling. She ate them with obvious delight.

The first time Qin Huai had made Four Joy Tangyuan, Guo Mingzhu had mentioned that Gong Baozhu loved mixed-nut sweet fillings. The sweeter, the better.

Qin Huai suddenly felt that things were not going as expected.

Had he come here today just to eat?

Well… yes.

But he also had another mission.

If this continued, the Four Joy Tangyuan would practically become supporting actors at their own dinner. That simply wouldn’t do.

Qin Huai ate another shrimp.

Sigh. Huang Shengli’s cooking was just too good.

These home-style dishes were so perfectly, wonderfully home-style.

Quietly, Qin Huai finished the two tangyuan in his bowl—both meat-filled. Then he stood up and ladled himself two more.

As he served himself, he smiled and said, “Compared to Master Zheng, my skills are still far from adequate. If I’d known I wasn’t up to the task, I wouldn’t have taken it on. I’ve really put everyone through the trouble of eating my tangyuan today.”

Gong Baozhu’s eyes widened in astonishment.

“These tangyuan are still not good enough? They’re way better than the ones sold outside my elementary school!”

Then she turned to Zheng Da.

“Uncle Zheng, you made tangyuan a few days ago? Why didn’t you tell me? I love tangyuan!”

Zheng Da grinned so widely his mouth could hardly close. He hadn’t even started showing off yet, and already the opportunity had landed in his lap.

“You like tangyuan, Baozhu? Great! I’ve got plenty in the fridge. Later, Uncle Zheng will pack you two big bags—all made by me over the past couple of days.”

“Thank you, Uncle Zheng!”

“My dad’s giving you the peanut-and-melon-seed ones,” Zheng Siyuan added. “I also have some almond-and-walnut ones. I’ll pack you two bags of those as well.”

Gong Baozhu didn’t quite understand when Four Joy Tangyuan had suddenly gained these extra fillings, but as long as there was food, she was happy. She nodded enthusiastically.

Huang Anyao continued eating eel, head down and utterly focused.

Gong Liang had also been concentrating on the dishes, but Qin Huai’s words suddenly made him realize that he had been distracted by the delicious home cooking and had neglected Little Chef Qin.

How could he?

Qin Huai had worked so hard making these Four Joy Tangyuan for him, and now that they were right in front of him, he wasn’t properly appreciating them.

To prove that he still cared deeply about the tangyuan, Gong Liang immediately served himself six of them, filling an entire bowl.

He thought nothing of it while ladling them out. After all, he’d eaten plenty of these mystery tangyuan recently and had grown accustomed to them.

But once he had filled his bowl, Huang Shengli followed suit with a full bowl of his own.

Zheng Da saw this and instantly thought, Falling behind? Absolutely not.

He quickly served himself a bowl and another for Zheng Siyuan.

In the blink of an eye, more than half the basin was gone.

Guo Mingzhu hadn’t particularly wanted any more tangyuan, but seeing everyone else eating them, she joined in as well. She only took two, though.

She bit into the first one.

Almond and peanut filling.

“Oh! My first one is a mixed-nut filling,” she said with a smile, turning to Gong Liang. “Do you remember? The last time we all got together and ate Four Joy Tangyuan like this was on your birthday.”

“You were craving meat-filled ones, while Zheng Da wanted the mixed-nut kind. The two of you each ate three huge bowls. In the end, you got a bunch of nut-filled ones, and he got a bunch of meat-filled ones. Huang Shengli laughed so hard he nearly choked and had to be taken to the hospital.”

“So many years have passed in the blink of an eye. All of our children have grown up. Yet aside from Siqin, not one of them is married.”

As she said this, she looked meaningfully at Gong Baozhu.

Gong Baozhu: “…?”

Mom, are you really joining Uncle Zheng in pressuring me about marriage at a moment like this?

Big mistake. I should’ve told my brother to skip work and come eat with us.

Gong Liang simply smiled and said nothing. He picked up a tangyuan and took a bite.

It was meat-filled.

He froze.

He hadn’t been thinking much just now. But the moment he bit into that tangyuan, the instant his tongue touched the savory meat filling, something inside him seemed to awaken.

Memories. Bonds. Youth.

It was as if they had all been wrapped inside that tangyuan as well, rushing down his throat and spreading throughout his body.

In the end, they gathered in his mind as fragments of cherished memories.

Gong Liang felt that lately he had become a bit too sentimental. Was it because he had gotten to know Wang Gensheng? Why had he started reminiscing at the slightest provocation?

The moment Qin Huai saw Gong Liang pause, he knew there was an opportunity. He quickly leaned over to Zheng Siyuan and whispered something, asking him to relay a message to Zheng Da.

Zheng Siyuan turned to his father and said softly, “Dad, Qin Huai wants me to ask when the flower-pinched palace lantern buns are coming out. He’s already eaten two tangyuan and is almost full.”

Zheng Da froze.

Oh no. A tactical blunder.

He had been so focused on giving the palace lantern buns a grand finale entrance that he had forgotten everyone had limited stomach space.

Looking around the table—where everyone except Huang Anyao was busy eating tangyuan—he immediately realized how serious the situation was.

Tangyuan were deceptive. They felt light while eating, but in reality, they were extremely filling. One or two would disappear before you knew it, and suddenly you were full.

Zheng Da hurriedly called out, “There’s still one more dessert! I almost forgot. Let me go check on it!”

Huang Shengli: “?”

Zheng Da dashed into the kitchen. There was no time to plate them properly, so he simply carried the entire steamer out. Fortunately, the dining table was large enough; after shifting a few dishes around, he set the steamer in the center.

Then he lifted the lid.

In Zheng Da’s imagination, a brilliant white flash burst forth, followed by a golden ray of light shooting from the steamer, dazzling everyone so thoroughly they had to shield their eyes. Stirring, triumphant music filled the air—the unmistakable soundtrack of Cooking Master Boy, specifically “The Great Wall.”

At the same time, bold black text appeared beneath the steamer:

Flower-Pinched Palace Lantern Buns!

That, at least, was how Zheng Da imagined it.

After all, back in the day, Master Zheng had watched Cooking Master Boy too—along with his son and daughter.

In reality, the moment he lifted the lid, Huang Anyao and Gong Baozhu immediately let out synchronized gasps of amazement.

“Woooow!”

And they were loud about it.

The palace lantern buns absolutely deserved such admiration.

This was, by nature, a showpiece pastry. Its flavor had limited room for innovation, but its appearance—that was where artistry could truly flourish.

The general shape of a flower-pinched bun was relatively fixed, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be embellished.

If a chef had enough free time, enough patience, and—most importantly—enough desire to show off, the decorative patterns along the edges could become increasingly intricate. Even the candied fruit used as garnish could be carved before being added.

A palace lantern bun had to have eight decorative ridges—that part was immutable.

But along those ridges? Extra tiny patterns could absolutely be added. The ideal kind were those that looked ordinary from a distance but left people astonished upon closer inspection.

Zheng Da added all of them.

He had spent the entire morning meticulously refining these buns. Everything that could be added, he added. Any more, and they would no longer qualify as palace lantern buns.

As a result, what should have appeared simple at first glance and only revealed its complexity upon closer inspection instead looked impressively elaborate even from afar.

Huang Shengli was stunned.

He had spent the whole morning cooking and only knew that Zheng Da had been tinkering with the buns nearby. He had no idea just how far Zheng Da had taken things.

The look in Huang Shengli’s eyes practically said:

Are you preparing for the next Master Chef competition?
Are you practicing ornamental pastries and boat-shaped dim sum?
Did you really choose palace lantern buns as your training ground?

Zheng Da had elevated palace lantern buns to a level they had never aspired to reach.

Huang Shengli was astonished.

Gong Liang was transfixed.

Even Qin Huai was momentarily speechless.

After all, Qin Huai had seen the previous version of these buns.

This update was… substantial.

Substantial enough that he was actually worried Zheng Da might have overdone it and somehow sabotaged an otherwise foolproof plan.

What if Gong Liang didn’t even recognize them anymore?

Qin Huai quietly glanced at Gong Liang and saw that he was utterly frozen, as though he had just witnessed something unbelievable.

Zheng Da was extremely satisfied with everyone’s reactions.

Now this was the kind of response Master Zheng deserved.

With barely concealed pride, he said, “It’s been a long time since I last put this much effort into pastry presentation. Since everyone’s gathered here today, and it’s Qin Huai’s first time dining at my home, I thought I’d stretch my muscles a little. Come on, everyone—try my flower-pinched palace lantern buns and tell me how they are.”

“And don’t be afraid to eat them! Pastries that only look good are worthless. A truly great pastry must be both beautiful and delicious.”

His words finally snapped Gong Liang out of his daze.

“If this is just ‘stretching your muscles,’ then there aren’t many decent pastries left in the world. Zheng Da, you’ve really been hiding your skills all these years. Why haven’t you made something like this before? What, were you afraid I’d pester you to cook for me every day?”

Zheng Da nearly burst out laughing.

“Not at all, not at all. I just know too many things. It simply slipped my mind over the past few years.”

Zheng Siyuan: “…”

With an expression of utter disbelief, Zheng Siyuan picked up one of the buns and examined it carefully.

He had to admit—there was nothing technically wrong with it. Nothing at all. The design was flawless as well.

He took a bite.

The black sesame sugar filling was fragrant, sweet, and not cloying. Unlike the sweeter fillings used in Four Joy Tangyuan, this filling was toned down slightly to better complement the soft dough.

And the bun skin itself was excellent—soft, fluffy, and full of wheat aroma. Unlike many intricately shaped pastries, whose dough often became slightly firm to preserve the design, this bun retained the ideal texture of a truly delicious steamed bun.

That was the mark of a master pastry chef.

Too often, pastry chefs sacrificed taste in pursuit of appearance, creating desserts that were beautiful but disappointing to eat.

But Zheng Da’s palace lantern buns were unquestionably both beautiful and delicious.

As he ate, Zheng Siyuan grumbled, “Qin Huai, what exactly goes on in my dad’s head? If he’d always made pastries like this, he’d have become a true master of white-dough pastry ages ago. If he’d put even half this effort into his mixed-nut fillings, he wouldn’t still be making peanut-and-melon-seed filling.”

Qin Huai thought to himself: that’s different. Showing off once is effortless; showing off every day requires actual dedication.

He opened his mouth, about to make something up, when the familiar game notification rang in his mind.

“Ding! Congratulations, player, for completing the side quest: “Gong Liang’s Longing.””

“Rewards obtained:

A Memory of Gong Liang

Gong Liang’s Approval”

Qin Huai looked toward Gong Liang.

Gong Liang had already taken his first bite of the bun.

Judging by his expression, he looked close to tears.

Well, Mr. Gong was clearly a man of deep feeling.

Once moved, he left every opening wide open.