AGN -Chapter 425 Workplace Guide

After finishing the meal, Shi Dadan and Zhao Cheng’an had even added each other on WeChat. On the way back with Qin Huai, Shi Dadan scrolled through all of Zhao Cheng’an’s Moments posts from the past three months and liked them one by one. His social etiquette game was absolutely maxed out.

Five minutes after arriving home, Qin Huai received a call from An Youyou.

On the phone, An Youyou spoke in an extremely cautious and respectful tone, repeatedly expressing her gratitude toward Yunzhong Cafeteria and thanking the company for giving her such a valuable opportunity for further training.

Then, after two or three minutes of fake polite small talk, she carefully asked about business-trip allowances, transportation subsidies, meal reimbursements, and whether there were mandatory overtime requirements—like the legendary twelve-hour workdays of Zhiwei Ju apprentices.

It was obvious she was being very cautious and took this exchange seriously.

After learning that the workload was intense but the salary was equally generous, An Youyou happily asked whether she could delay her departure by a few days, since she needed time to sublet her current apartment in Shanshi.

Qin Huai readily agreed and told her to settle everything over there before coming to Hangzhou.

Considering that An Youyou had never traveled for work before, Qin Huai also gave her some extra advice, explaining a few tips about business trips and getting along with new coworkers. An Youyou treated every word like treasure and recorded everything carefully, just short of making an actual audio recording.

After hanging up, Qin Huai noticed Shi Dadan staring at him with a complicated expression.

“What’s wrong?” Qin Huai asked with concern. “Did you eat too many dumplings tonight and upset your stomach? Want me to go to the hospital with you?”

“No.” Shi Dadan’s expression remained unchanged. “Even though I only properly worked a job during my first life, I feel like the advice you just gave might not really apply to a three-legged golden toad.”

“Xiao Qin… have you actually never worked a normal job before?”

Qin Huai was about to deny it instinctively and say how could he possibly not have worked before—he had been helping since childhood—

…Wait.

It suddenly dawned on him that he really hadn’t properly worked a normal job.

Right after graduating from university, Qin Huai had returned to help at the Qin Family Breakfast Shop. He was more young master than the actual young master. “Chef Xiao Qin” was famous throughout the entire Sanma Road neighborhood; everyone knew his name.

A few years after inheriting the family business, he inherited an even bigger one and became his own boss.

If he had to count any period as “working,” it would probably be the exchange program at Huang Ji. But even there, he had been treated like a master chef from the start. Even Wang Jun, Huang Shengli’s direct disciple, had personally been assigned to assist him.

As for his current time at Zhiwei Ju, there was even less need to mention it. Every master chef there received the best treatment possible. It was worlds apart from an ordinary office job.

The more Qin Huai thought about it, the more alarmed he became.

Crap.

This was completely outside his area of expertise.

He genuinely had never worked a normal job before.

“So a lot of what I told An Youyou just now was wrong?” Qin Huai asked humbly for advice.

Shi Dadan wasn’t entirely sure either.

“Hard to say. I’m not exactly good at working either. But I can help An Youyou write a list of things to pay attention to when dealing with coworkers. Then you can tell her you specially prepared it for her. It should be useful.”

“I saw that girl a few times in the Yunzhong Cafeteria kitchen before. She’s a bit slow and absent-minded—she learns whatever people teach her. Aside from money-related matters, she’s not very capable at anything else.”

“But all three-legged golden toads are like that. An Youyou is already considered very smart.”

“I once knew a three-legged golden toad that successfully passed its tribulation. During the tribulation, it begged for food for thirty years. Then a famine came, it starved to death because it couldn’t get food anymore… and that somehow counted as successfully passing the tribulation.”

Qin Huai: “…?”

So among the three-legged golden toads, was there some kind of cultivation handbook called The Beggar’s Manual, teaching every pre-tribulation toad how to beg for food?

It was just that An Youyou had loftier ambitions than the others.

Most toads only begged for their own meals, while An Youyou liked picking up little followers, so she failed her tribulation.

Qin Huai appreciated Shi Dadan’s good intentions, but…

“Old Shi, are you sure the workplace advice you write will actually be useful?”

It wasn’t that Qin Huai didn’t trust him. It was just that, judging from Shi Dadan’s own stories and the reputation Qin Huai had seen in his memories…

Shi Dadan seemed even worse at holding a job than he was.

“It should work, probably,” Shi Dadan said. “I’ll just list all the things I did during my first life while working and write them down as prohibited behavior. At the very least it’ll serve as a warning.”

Since the workplace guide for An Youyou was rather urgent, Shi Dadan worked on it overnight. He didn’t even go out searching for food the next afternoon. Finally, before dinner time, he finished the document and sent it to Qin Huai.

Qin Huai glanced at the file.

On average, there was a typo every twenty characters.

He couldn’t tell whether the speech-to-text recognition was terrible or Shi Dadan was simply bad at typing. Qin Huai leaned toward the latter, because Shi Dadan almost never typed on WeChat and only sent voice messages.

His claim that he was allergic to reading was absolutely not an exaggeration.

Qin Huai even suspected he wasn’t just allergic to books—he might be allergic to written characters altogether.

Dangkang were indeed sincere creatures, just terribly forgetful.

If Qin Huai didn’t think of something and bring it up himself, Shi Dadan would never remember to mention it. For example, he had once traveled across numerous countries—something an ordinary person would definitely brag endlessly about—but Shi Dadan considered it unimportant and never mentioned a single word.

“So anyway, Su Qian’s egg tarts still turned out pretty terrible today, which made Master Zhou extremely irritable. Tan Wei’an’s Four Happiness Flower Rolls were all appearance and no substance again, and while chatting lazily with Zhao Cheng’an, he got caught red-handed by Master Zhou.”

“That directly led to Xiao Tan having to stay three extra hours for additional practice and missing dinner with us. Xiao Zhao also got held back for slacking off and stayed behind to get scolded.”

Same dumpling shop.

Same table.

The same fourteen plates of dumplings with different fillings and three dishes of pickled vegetables.

Qin Huai and Shi Dadan sat across from each other eating dinner while chatting about the day’s events at Zhiwei Ju.

“Zhao Cheng’an probably wasn’t kept behind because of slacking off,” Qin Huai explained. “Master Zhou is actually pretty tolerant when teaching. For Zhao Cheng’an, chatting while making pastries doesn’t even count as slacking. If you stop him from talking, it actually affects his pastry-making.”

“I feel like the real reason he got scolded was because he let me try making Auspicious Cloud Pattern Pastry today and Master Zhou found out.”

“So how did your Auspicious Cloud Pattern Pastry turn out?” Shi Dadan’s attention instantly shifted from Tan Wei’an to the pastries.

“I think it was pretty good.” Qin Huai twitched the corner of his mouth. “And I don’t think that’s just me overestimating myself.”

“I used to think laminated pastries were all pretty difficult, including flaky pastries in general, so I never really liked making them and didn’t practice much.”

“But after actually trying today, I realized they weren’t as hard as I imagined. Honestly, I think I did even better than when I made egg tarts the other day.”

“And also, Zhao Cheng’an made dumplings for you while slacking off today, right? I’d never seen him make dumpling filling before, but today I suddenly noticed he has a small habit that’s very similar to mine.”

“What habit?” Shi Dadan asked.

“When we make meat dumpling fillings, we both like mixing and seasoning the other ingredients first, then adding the meat and seasoning everything again afterward.”

Shi Dadan didn’t really understand.

“Does that make it taste better? Like how certain fish have to live in cold water, and cold-water fish have more tender meat?”

“Probably no real difference. It’s actually more troublesome.”

“I developed the habit because when I was little in the children’s welfare home, Director Qin usually had everyone make cabbage dumplings with just a little minced meat mixed in. We rarely got to eat proper meat dumplings.”

“Real meat dumplings were basically only available during holidays or New Year celebrations.”

“My dumpling filling tasted good, so starting from second grade in elementary school, I became the one responsible for seasoning the dumpling fillings at the orphanage.”

“At the time, I thought meat was really expensive, so I was terrified of oversalting and ruining the filling. That’s why I’d season the cheap ingredients like cabbage or radish first.”

“I’d let the director taste it first to make sure the flavor was right before adding the meat and seasoning it again.”

“Looking back now, it really was unnecessary. But back then, it felt safer.”

“Director Qin couldn’t cook at all, so she thought it was some kind of secret technique of mine and never stopped me. Eventually it became a habit. Whenever I make dumpling filling, I still do it this way—even for Four Happiness Dumplings.”

“Then why does Zhao Cheng’an do it the same way?” Shi Dadan asked.

“I asked him today. He said that when he first became Master Zhou’s disciple, he loved inventing things and trying unconventional ideas. He thought he was some heaven-sent genius who’d create pastry techniques nobody before him had ever discovered.”

“This filling method was one of his invented techniques.”

“At first he thought this extra seasoning step would definitely make the filling more delicious. Later he discovered it didn’t.”

“But the other techniques he invented all made the pastries worse, while this one at least didn’t have any negative effect, so he kept doing it.”

“And now it’s become a habit he can’t change.”

Shi Dadan: “……”

Shi Dadan neither understood nor respected this logic and could only silently eat another couple of dumplings.

“Oh right,” Qin Huai added, “Zhao Cheng’an couldn’t come today because he’s still getting scolded and can’t use his phone. He asked me to tell you that over the next couple of days he’ll make several more kinds of dumpling fillings so you can see which ones you like.”

“In four days he’ll have a day off. I’ll have to see whether Master Zhou is free—if Master Zhou isn’t busy, I’ll probably take the day off too. Right now my main job is basically watching Zhao Cheng’an make pastries.”

“On the day off, he’ll cook for the two of us at his house. The main dish will be dumplings, and the side dishes will be pastries he’s especially good at.”

“Old Shi, if there are any pastries you particularly like, send him a message now. He’ll make them at home then.”

“Sounds good,” Shi Dadan said cheerfully. “I’ll make a list and send it to him when I get back.”

“I’ll also bring some fruit when we visit. What kind of fruit does Xiao Zhao like? If nothing else, I’ll just buy one of those giant fruit baskets with everything in it.”

Qin Huai: “……”

The two of them really were equally terrible at giving gifts.

Shi Dadan had specifically written in An Youyou’s workplace guide that when giving gifts to leaders or coworkers, you shouldn’t just bring fruit—especially not two apples and call it a day.

Yet when it came to himself in practice, his solution was still just:

Bring a giant fruit basket.

As expected of you, Dangkang.