AGN -Chapter 429 Can You Call Me Master Too?

After the meal, both host and guests were thoroughly satisfied.

There had simply been too much pastry and dim sum. Even Shi Dadan, despite doing his best to clean up the leftovers, couldn’t finish everything. There were also still some uncooked pastries left in the kitchen. Under Master Zhou’s calm arrangements, An Youyou packed two portions of each remaining pastry and happily carried the boxes home.

The rest of the pastries were taken away by Qin Huai and Shi Dadan. Of course, some were also left for Zhao Cheng’an’s family. The dumplings Zhao Cheng’an had wrapped and the pumpkin cakes he had fried all stayed at his home.

When Zhao Cheng’an heard this arrangement, he nearly burst into tears.

“Xiao Qin, do you have time to take a walk outside with me? The environment in Old Third’s residential complex is pretty nice. It’s not too hot at this hour either, so a walk would be perfect.” While Shi Dadan was packing up the pastries, Master Zhou invited Qin Huai out for a stroll.

Qin Huai knew that the master chefs of Zhiwei Residence had a habit of walking by the lake. Originally, not every master chef had this habit, but after someone once chose the lakeside as the location for a fight, more and more chefs started going there for walks.

What if they happened to run into something exciting?

Hearing about it at work the next day was nowhere near as thrilling as witnessing the live version in person.

Qin Huai obediently nodded. “Of course I have time. I also ate too much, so walking to digest sounds good.”

Zhao Cheng’an: (—) Master, you’ve changed. Wasn’t I always the one walking with you before?

Qin Huai and Master Zhou went downstairs and began walking around the residential complex. It truly was just a walk.

Master Zhou walked in front without saying a word, while Qin Huai followed five to ten steps behind like a little attendant. The two silently wandered through Zhao Cheng’an’s neighborhood.

To be fair, Zhao Cheng’an’s complex was quite large, though the greenery wasn’t as lush as Yunzhong Community. Still, there were many birds chirping noisily in the trees, and it sounded rather pleasant.

The two of them completed an entire lap around the complex without exchanging a single word. Master Zhou walked extremely fast during his “stroll,” more like he was speed-walking than leisurely walking. By the end of the first lap, Qin Huai’s breathing had already become slightly hurried.

After finishing the first lap, they started a second.

Halfway through the second lap, Master Zhou suddenly stopped beside a flower bed without any warning. Qin Huai almost failed to stop in time and nearly walked past him. When Qin Huai looked over, he found Master Zhou staring at him with a somewhat complicated expression.

The flowers in the flower bed were blooming beautifully. The property management had carefully arranged flowers of different colors into decorative patterns. Three or five birds hopped around chirping, while seven or eight butterflies fluttered above the blossoms. It really was a perfect place to stop and rest for a moment.

But Master Zhou had no intention of sitting down.

He stood there upright and asked directly:

“Before dinner, what did Old Third say to you in the kitchen?”

See? It wasn’t just fathers who understood their children best. Masters understood their disciples too.

Qin Huai thought for a moment and carefully organized his words.

“He told me a bit about his thoughts and experiences when he became your disciple.”

Master Zhou was amused by Qin Huai’s concise phrasing and chuckled softly.

“Looks like Old Third thinks everything I’ve been doing lately is because I want to take you as my disciple. In his eyes, you’re already his junior brother.”

Qin Huai obediently remained silent.

Master Zhou gestured for him not to stand there and walked over to sit on a bench. Qin Huai followed and sat down too.

“I really do want to take you as my disciple. You should be able to tell that, Xiao Qin.”

Qin Huai nodded again and added:

“Not just you. Master Hua also wants to take me as a disciple, and so do Master Li, Master Wang, Master Zhao, and the others. I can more or less tell.”

“So you chose to play dumb?” Master Zhou asked.

Qin Huai could only imitate Shi Dadan’s honest smile, practically writing the words playing dumb all over his face.

“You were brought to Huang Ji by Zheng Da. Why didn’t Zheng Da take you as his disciple?” Master Zhou asked.

Qin Huai hadn’t expected such a sharp question. After pausing briefly, he chose to employ the art of careful wording.

“Master Zheng… has a very free-spirited personality. He also wouldn’t actively pursue things the way you masters would. I know he really wanted to take me as a disciple, and I’m very grateful that he was willing to teach me everything he knew. But… perhaps a master and disciple relationship also requires a certain kind of fate. Between Master Zheng and me, that kind of fate wasn’t there. And since he never took the initiative to say it outright, I suppose the matter remained an unspoken understanding between the two of us.”

Master Zhou gave a dismissive laugh, though not mockingly.

“Zheng Da has tremendous talent.”

“He could endure hardship when he was younger too. I’d heard of his master back then—Master Jing of the Suzhou State-Owned Restaurant. A legendary chef famous for being exceptionally skilled in both savory cuisine and pastry work. A true rarity. It’s just a pity he passed away too early.”

“When I was young and just learning cooking, I even told my father that if he himself hadn’t been a chef, forcing me to learn from him, I would’ve gone straight to Suzhou to become Master Jing’s disciple.”

“My skills were inherited through my family. When I first learned cooking from my father, I said exactly that.”

“Everyone knows I dislike Zheng Da very much. They think I dislike him because he abandoned being a chef and only cared about money. They think I believe he wasted his culinary skills and talent, turning himself into a businessman reeking of copper.”

“But that’s not the real reason.”

“I hate him because I envy him. I envy him for being accepted by Master Jing and personally taught for so many years, only to abandon cooking and go into business just a few years after Master Jing passed away.”

“I’ve also heard the reasons why he chose business. In my opinion, none of them are valid excuses.”

“He was simply protected too well by Master Jing. So what if he couldn’t become the head chef of a state-owned restaurant? It’s not like some outsider got the position—his senior brother Huang Shengli got it.”

“White-case pastry work has been in decline for so many years. If Xiao Su hadn’t managed Zhiwei Residence so successfully in recent years and built up its reputation, would there even still be any pastry-focused restaurants in the country famous enough for people to recognize by name?”

“Every master chef in Zhiwei Residence has suffered treatment more unfair than his. Every single one of us has endured grievances like that. Yet Zheng Da alone is so precious that he can’t endure even the slightest injustice. The moment he’s unhappy, he quits being a chef and jumps into business. After learning culinary skills for so many years, he just throws them away.”

“And yet Zheng Da is also incredibly lucky. Even under those circumstances, he still managed to have a son with extraordinary talent.”

“In our line of work, children inheriting their father’s profession is very common. But the prerequisite is that the child is actually capable of inheriting it. None of my three children have talent in this area, nor do they have any interest or ambition for it, and I don’t force them.”

“Don’t look at Xiao Tan acting lazy and not especially ambitious. His talent isn’t particularly outstanding either. But among all the younger generation in Zhiwei Residence, Xiao Tan is already considered an excellent example of successfully inheriting the family trade. His father couldn’t inherit the craft, but he did.”

“There are several old fellows in Zhiwei Residence who have already retired. Right now, all they hope for is for their sons or daughters to someday produce a talented grandchild like Xiao Tan who can inherit their skills.”

After saying all this, Master Zhou suddenly turned the conversation toward Qin Huai.

“Xiao Qin, do you know what made me change my opinion of Zheng Da?”

Qin Huai had been fully absorbed in the story and didn’t expect the topic to switch so suddenly. He decisively shook his head but still made a bold guess.

“I heard it was because Master Zheng reformed pastry formulas. Instead of mass-producing low-end pastries, he shifted toward making mid-to-low-end pastries with better quality standards, raising the quality level of the entire industry.”

“No.” Master Zhou shook his head. “That only counts as a side benefit.”

“Then what was it?” Qin Huai asked curiously.

In his opinion, the fact that Zheng Da had managed to reform industrialized pastries to achieve that level of flavor was already incredibly impressive. If such reform achievements were evaluated within the traditional pastry world, they would absolutely be considered grandmaster-level accomplishments.

“It was after you appeared on Zhiwei. I brought Old Third with me, both of us wearing masks, to Huang Ji for a meal of guo’er pastries. Then at five in the morning, we lined up outside Huang Ji to buy that day’s fresh pastries.”

“Huh?” Qin Huai was stunned.

“Zheng Da really did teach you everything he had,” Master Zhou said. “I’ve eaten your premium Three-Diced Bao and your fermented rice steamed buns. Zheng Da truly hid nothing from you and passed on all of his signature skills—especially the fermented rice buns. Your technique with those is even better than his son Zheng Siyuan’s.”

“Even though Zheng Da abandoned his craft and went into business over some trivial nonsense, and over the years never properly took on disciples, only passing his skills to his son… and I have no idea what that son is thinking either. Instead of coming to Zhiwei Residence or Huang Ji, he insists on opening a pastry shop at the entrance of some old neighborhood.”

“I originally thought Zheng Da would spend the rest of his life like this. I didn’t expect that he still retained a chef’s principles after all, that he hadn’t betrayed Master Jing’s teachings. In the end, he still chose the best seedling and passed his master’s craft on.”

Qin Huai: …

For a moment, Qin Huai had no idea how to explain things.

It was true that Zheng Da had taught him wholeheartedly and without reservation. But Master Zhou had misunderstood something—the Three-Diced Bao and the fermented rice buns were not taught by Master Zheng.

Would you believe me if I said those two pastries were taught by Master Jing himself?

I even have teaching videos that can be replayed endlessly.

Qin Huai chose silence.

“When I ate the pastries you made at Huang Ji, I became very curious what kind of talented seedling could make Zheng Da teach someone like that. Over the past few months, Xiao Tan kept telling me stories about you, which only made me more curious.”

“But honestly, I don’t trust Xiao Tan’s words very much. That kid has loved bragging and exaggerating since childhood. Whenever someone has more talent than him, he’ll do everything possible to praise them even more outrageously, so it sounds like the other person is impossibly amazing rather than himself being mediocre.”

“That’s why I became extremely eager for you to come to Zhiwei Residence. I even urged Xiao Su many times, asking whether he could find a way to bring you over earlier. By July or August, I was already too impatient to wait.”

Qin Huai: ?

“And then you arrived.” Master Zhou looked at Qin Huai, his eyes full of warmth. “Your talent, skill, temperament, and comprehension all exceeded my expectations.”

Hearing such praise spoken with genuine admiration from Master Zhou made Qin Huai feel a little embarrassed.

How should he put it? He had actually heard similar compliments all throughout his childhood, especially back at the orphanage. Director Qin was especially good at praising children, and whenever she praised Qin Huai, her words and tone were at least ten times more exaggerated than Master Zhou’s now.

But who was Master Zhou?

This was the true number one master of white-case pastry work. A genuine legend whose casual efforts alone could feed Shi Dadan to the point of surrender, the golden signboard of Zhiwei Residence, an SSR shining with golden light, and a renowned master of sarcastic remarks.

“The truth is, these past few days, I’ve been testing you.” Master Zhou’s voice became soft and slow, carrying a trace of hoarseness.

“I had you watch Old Third and the others making pastries because I wanted to see whether you could recognize the essential difference between excellent pastry chefs and true master chefs.”

“I had Old Third gossip with you because I wanted to see how focused you were on pastry-making. Whether trivial matters would distract you, and whether a relaxed and pleasant environment would make you slack off.”

“For the first few days, every afternoon I made egg tarts and had you stand beside me tasting them because I wanted to see whether you would become impatient or restless. Whether you’d think you came to Zhiwei Residence to exchange and learn finger techniques, not to study these strange and seemingly unimportant Western pastries.”

“I didn’t teach you personally and instead had Old Third teach you because I wanted to see whether you possessed the arrogance most geniuses have—the belief that because you’re exceptionally talented, everyone should like you, indulge you, and teach you wholeheartedly. I wanted to see whether you’d become dissatisfied because you thought I didn’t value you and was brushing you off.”

“As for the day I suddenly had you make egg tarts, then afterward refused to let you make any pastries at all—that was to test how much trust and obedience you had toward me. Taking in disciples isn’t hard. Taking in a good disciple is.”

“I may indeed be the so-called number one white-case chef, but with your talent and ability, I’m sure many people—including Xiao Tan—have already told you that one day you’ll become the next number one white-case chef.”

“Geniuses always have pride, especially since you’re no longer some ignorant apprentice. You’ve already been taught by famous masters, taught by Zheng Da, appeared on Zhiwei, possess your own signature pastries, and you’re not even lacking money.”

“Among disciples, you’re the type most masters least want to teach, because you’d definitely be difficult to teach. You’re the kind of disciple capable of questioning—even having the qualifications to question—a master’s teaching and abilities. Aside from someone as good-tempered as Huang Shengli, very few masters are willing to teach a thorn like that.”

Qin Huai asked, “Then… did I pass your test?”

“Perfectly,” Master Zhou replied. “These past few days, I’ve kept wondering how Zheng Da managed to resist begging you to become his disciple. That man’s self-control is unbelievable.”

Qin Huai: …At a time like this, there’s really no need to take sarcastic shots at Master Zheng.

As he spoke, Master Zhou sighed.

“If only you had come to Zhiwei Residence ten years earlier. Back then I wasn’t yet the number one white-case chef, but if you’d come at that time, I would’ve fought even Master He, who ranked first back then, just to steal away a treasure disciple like you.”

Qin Huai interjected slightly, “Then Master He now…”

“He made enough money and retired home to take care of his grandchildren. White-case chefs aren’t like red-case chefs. The famous ones are all old fellows.”

Master Zhou sighed again.

“What a pity. Why didn’t your uncle—or maybe it was your maternal uncle—think to at least give it a try back then? They could’ve sent you to Zhiwei Residence first and talked afterward.”

“Now, even though I really want to accept you as my fourth disciple, I can’t bring myself to do it. I’ve looked down on Zheng Da for decades. There’s no way I’d do something now that would make Zheng Da look down on me instead.”

“If Zheng Da can teach you everything without officially taking you as his disciple, then I, Zhou Guanghai, can do the same. I still possess that level of magnanimity and bearing.”

“Actually, my evaluation of you ended long ago. The reason I still had Old Third accompany you these past few days was mainly because I hadn’t figured out how to teach you yet.”

“I’ve taught talented people before. Old Third counts as talented. But someone talented to your extent—I’ve never taught before. After all, unlike Zheng Da, I don’t have such an excellent son.”

“Starting tomorrow, you don’t need to keep following Old Third around anymore. Come learn directly with me. I’ve already scolded Su Qian’s kid enough these past few days.”

“From tomorrow onward, Xiao Qin, you’ll learn finger techniques from the ground up with me. I’m going to make Zheng Da understand that disciples he can’t teach properly still need to be sent to me. When it comes to finger techniques, he’s inferior to me.”

“Oh right, I heard Xiao Tan mention that although you never officially became the disciple of that Master Cao from Guangdong Province, you still call her ‘Master.’”

“Can you call me Master too?”

Qin Huai didn’t hesitate in the slightest.

He raised a smile belonging uniquely to a disciple and answered brightly:

“Of course, Master.”

“As long as I’m learning skills from you, then you’re my master.”

Master Zhou smiled again and muttered inwardly that it was no wonder Zheng Da couldn’t resist teaching Qin Huai everything even without formally accepting him as a disciple.

What master could possibly resist a mouth like Xiao Qin’s?