AGN -Chapter 399 Dead Hands, Hurry and Roll!

After Zheng Da finally finished crying, the Sishi Rolls had cooled slightly, but it wasn’t a big issue—they were still very tasty.

Zheng Da, who had emotionally broken down and cried his fill, went through a complicated psychological journey: wanting to die, desperately wanting to die, wanting to jump off a building immediately—but then realizing that Huang Ji was only a two-story building and jumping might not even break his legs; wanting to eat Sishi Rolls to choke himself to death, but finding that extremely difficult; wanting to overeat himself to death, but also lacking the talent for that. After thinking it over, he decided not to die for now. Faced with the cruel reality, and after a complex inner struggle of “if all else fails, just pretend nothing happened,” he ultimately chose to forget everything.

“Little Qin, look, this is how you make Sishi Rolls. It’s not very difficult. I haven’t made them in years, so I’m a bit rusty—some of the cloud patterns might not look perfect. Your ham recipe is quite good, so just use yours.”

“Did you see the whole process just now? Any parts you don’t understand? If so, feel free to ask anytime. Do you want me to demonstrate a few more times?”

Looking at Zheng Da, who was performing “amnesia” so convincingly that he was almost on the verge of banging his head against a wall to complete the act, Qin Huai couldn’t help but sigh inwardly: who said Chef Zheng had poor mental resilience and was fragile?

This mental strength was absolutely top-tier.

Since Zheng Da wanted to pretend to have amnesia, Qin Huai naturally played along. He nodded repeatedly and said in a very sincere voice:

“Really? That’s great, Chef Zheng! We all want to see your demonstration a few more times!”

Hearing the respectful “Chef Zheng,” Zheng Da felt a warm glow in his heart. Without any hesitation, he rolled up his sleeves and started kneading dough.

He was full of fighting spirit and enthusiasm.

At the kitchen doorway, Gong Liang saw from afar that Zheng Da seemed to be working again. He quickly swallowed the Sishi Roll in his mouth, stuffed the half-eaten piece into a takeaway box on the small table, pulled out his phone, and made a call.

“Hello, honey, are you home? Oh, you’re shopping with Baozhu? Perfect—come to Huang Ji right now. Zheng Da has gone crazy again. I think he’s going to make Sishi Rolls all day. Bring the largest takeaway boxes we have at home.”

After saying that, Gong Liang hung up, picked up the remaining half Sishi Roll, and waved at Dong Shi.

Dong Shi walked over in confusion.

“Mr. Gong, what is it? You really can’t go into the kitchen anymore. It’s almost business hours. Even if you change into work clothes, you still can’t go in.”

Gong Liang showed a kind, elder-like smile.

“Of course I know Huang Ji’s rules. Outsiders can’t enter the kitchen. Everything is about hygiene and food safety. I’m a shareholder of Huang Ji—I understand all that. Do I look like someone who would be unreasonable?”

Dong Shi: “…?”

“I just wanted to ask—was that Sishi Roll enough for everyone?”

Dong Shi: “Huh?”

Gong Liang pointed at the takeaway box.

“If it’s not enough, I still have more. Young people have big appetites, and chefs do heavy physical labor. Eat more to fill up—otherwise it’ll be too busy at mealtime.”

Confused, Dong Shi carried two takeaway boxes back to the kitchen and distributed the Sishi Rolls to everyone, not even missing Zang Liang.

When handing one to Zang Liang, Dong Shi couldn’t help but complain:

“Mr. Gong usually gives very generous bonuses, but this is the first time I’ve seen him distribute food. What is going on today? Uncle Zheng suddenly cried for no reason—I couldn’t even get an explanation from Master. Now Mr. Gong is handing out snacks… Am I dreaming?”

Zang Liang, completely absorbed in cooking, barely looked at the roll, took a bite, and said while chewing:

“What’s so strange? Isn’t Chef Zheng making something new? Freshly steamed rolls are definitely better than cold ones!”

“These are pretty good, actually. Is Qin Huai’s group researching this kind of roll lately? Why did he suddenly start making rolls?”

At that moment, Zang Liang finally remembered Qin Huai.

Dong Shi: “……”

He had been hearing Tan Wei’an complain that ever since Zang Liang came to Huang Ji, he had become obsessed with savory dishes and lived entirely in his own world.

He thought Tan Wei’an was exaggerating.

Now…

Dong Shi was shocked.

“You don’t even know what Qin Huai is doing? Yesterday Gu Li was teaching him cloud patterns—you didn’t know?”

Zang Liang was even more shocked:

“Holy crap, Gu Li teaching Qin Huai cloud patterns?! How did I miss something that important?! Ahh, what a loss!”

Regret filled him completely. Without hesitation, he put down his knife.

“Dong Shi, help me finish the rest of the cutting. I need to go take a look.”

And just like that, Zang Liang rushed over to Qin Huai’s side to observe Zheng Da making Sishi Rolls.

Zheng Da’s second demonstration was not much better than the first—his “forward roll” was perfect, but the “reverse roll” still had many issues. Gu Li continued his dutiful commentary, not missing a single flaw.

And surprisingly, Gu Li’s feedback was quite accurate.

This time, Zheng Da deliberately slowed down his movements, unlike before when he rushed and missed details.

With Gu Li’s commentary, it became a near-perfect teaching scene.

Qin Huai could even make lotus starch balls while watching Zheng Da. Making those mainly depended on feel, and Gu Li’s explanations helped him focus on key points—learning while working at the same time.

The only problem was that this “classroom” looked extremely strange.

Zheng Da now effectively had five students:

One multitasking student making lotus starch balls while listening.

One overly responsible yet distracted student who was both teaching and learning.

One attentive student with some foundation, but constantly drifting off and eating nonstop.

One red-stove chef who didn’t understand anything but insisted on watching.

And finally, his own son—the most normal of them all—listening quietly and seriously, but somehow making Zheng Da the most uncomfortable.

Zheng Da had always felt his son was rebellious.

After learning his craft, his son had become even more defiant.

When told to work in a pastry shop, he opened a small shop at the neighborhood entrance instead.

When told to get married, he refused or rejected every match.

When taught new techniques, he always had objections—either criticizing Zheng Da’s skills or pointing out inefficiencies.

In Zheng Da’s memory, his son had gone from obedient to a troublemaker who constantly challenged him.

So today, after seeing so many obvious issues in his technique, Zheng Siyuan saying nothing at all actually felt… unusual.

So unusual that Zheng Da finally asked:

“What do you think of my Sishi Rolls?”

Qin Huai immediately responded enthusiastically:

“Extremely excellent! Chef Zheng, your skills are beyond doubt!”

“Very good! Very good!” Tan Wei’an echoed randomly.

“Tasty, tasty!” Zang Liang said, unable to understand anything but judging purely from flavor.

“Chef Zheng, your level of skill—even in our Zhiweiju—would still rank among the very top few,” Gu Li said very objectively.

Only Zheng Siyuan hadn’t spoken yet. Zheng Da stared straight at him.

Zheng Siyuan: …?

Is my dad… shocked into madness?

With a blank expression, Zheng Siyuan said, “It’s pretty good.”

Zheng Da: 〣(Δ)〣

Zheng Da: This is bad—my son has gone crazy!

After the second batch of Sishi Rolls came out of the steamer, everyone finally got to eat them at their best—fresh and piping hot.

Even though Gu Li had already told Qin Huai yesterday while laying the foundation that, in many cases, for pastries like Sishi Rolls, appearance and taste are not directly related.

The cloud-pattern design is mainly decorative. At its core, Sishi Roll is just a kind of flower roll—the cloud pattern is what elevates it into something “imperial” and high-end. Just like many dishes built from expensive ingredients aren’t necessarily delicious. In that era, when nobles pursued extreme luxury and uniqueness, many “good-looking dishes” didn’t necessarily taste good.

With Qin Huai’s current skill, even if he made a plain flower roll, it would still be tasty—possibly indistinguishable in flavor from a Sishi Roll.

His filling skills were already at a master level, capable of handling 99.99% of pastries.

But after tasting the freshly steamed Sishi Rolls, Qin Huai deeply felt that Zheng Da’s version was indeed better than what he had made yesterday.

Not only because Zheng Da’s cooking skills were originally above his, but more importantly, because of the successful cloud-pattern technique.

Qin Huai discovered that the cloud pattern in Sishi Rolls might not be purely decorative—it seemed to subtly enhance the flavor as well, even if the effect wasn’t dramatic or obvious.

But it definitely helped.

He even thought of the “Ruyi Roll.” Its difficulty was higher than the Sishi Roll, but its appearance wasn’t as visually striking. If its cloud pattern only existed for aesthetics, then achieving greater difficulty for a less attractive result would seem like completely missing the point.

The Ruyi Roll was Chef Tan’s signature dish in his lifetime—even his exclusive signature dish. It was reconstructed from ancient recipes, and after Chef Tan passed away, it was lost. No second person could make it.

Its value didn’t need to be questioned—it far surpassed Sishi Rolls.

For Sishi Rolls, Gong Liang could still find lower-quality substitutes in the northern regions, but for Ruyi Rolls, there weren’t even inferior versions.

So for such a dish—with difficulty, history, reputation, and proven prestige—was its cloud pattern really only for appearance?

Thinking this, Qin Huai couldn’t help but glance at Gu Li.

He wanted to talk to Gu Li about it, but not now—he had other thoughts.

Right now, he just wanted to punch the Sishi Roll in his hand.

This is too hard!

Yesterday’s Sishi Rolls could be said to be a complete failure in cloud-pattern technique. Because Gu Li’s level was limited, he could only provide theoretical guidance, not practical technique.

So although Qin Huai seemed to be doing forward and reverse rolls, in reality he was just blindly imitating—he didn’t even understand where the difficulty lay.

But now, under Zheng Da’s guidance, he finally understood.

And he also realized why Zheng Da always paused before failing in the reverse roll.

Because he did the same thing.

In fact, Qin Huai was even worse—he also paused during the forward roll.

If forward rolling had a difficulty rating of 5, then reverse rolling was 10. Qin Huai’s current level was only 3–4. In other words, his forward roll had small problems, his reverse roll had big problems—and together, it became a huge problem.

Sometimes while rolling, he even wanted to get angry at himself and slap his own hand:

“Why are you so useless? Roll properly already!”

He even remembered the game system’s earlier evaluation of his technique:

“You completely neglect pastry shaping.”

Back then, Qin Huai had dismissed finger technique as unimportant, since all he really used it for was making buns—just making the pleats look good was enough.

Later, he made apple pastries successfully on the first try like a cheat code. Although other pastries were a mess, it didn’t matter, because he never made them—he only made apple ones.

So ever since he got the system, he had never encountered problems with finger technique.

Until now.

Only now did he realize that rolling Sishi Rolls—both forward and reverse—actually required precise finger control for cloud patterns.

Finger technique wasn’t just about decoration—it could also determine taste. The system classifying it as a basic skill made sense, because it really was a fundamental ability for chefs.

And Qin Huai… had completely neglected pastry shaping.

He looked at Zheng Siyuan—his forward roll was quite decent.

He looked at Tan Wei’an—as expected of Chef Tan’s grandson, he had solid fundamentals. His forward roll was good, and his reverse roll seemed okay too, though the final result was still lacking.

Then he looked at Gu Li.

Gu Li had spent years practicing cloud patterns for a reason—his reverse roll wasn’t great, but his forward roll was even better than Tan Wei’an’s.

Then he looked down at his own roll.

Damn it—he really wanted to punch this Sishi Roll, and slap his own hand too.

At this moment, Qin Huai suddenly felt a strange sense of empathy with Tan Wei’an.

So this is what it feels like to be the weakest in the group.

Qin Huai looked up, avoiding the offensive Sishi Roll, almost feeling like he might cry.

In fact, Zheng Da couldn’t really be blamed for failing Sishi Rolls back then.

This thing was just too difficult.