AGN -Chapter 445 The First One to Break Through Can’t Possibly Be a Lie, Right?

In the end, Master Hua still failed to get the guidance he wanted from Qin Huai.

Although Qin Huai made a batch of hand-rolled noodles that afternoon, there really wasn’t anything he needed to ask Master Hua about. It wasn’t that Qin Huai looked down on Master Hua’s skills—it was precisely because Master Hua was too skilled.

Qin Huai himself hadn’t done much research on noodles. Whether it was pulled noodles or hand-rolled noodles, he merely knew how to make them. The reason everyone thought his noodles were exceptionally good was mainly because his dough-making skills were excellent. And both noodle-pulling and hand-rolling were ultimately just techniques. Right now, Qin Huai wasn’t focusing on practicing techniques at all, so there was nothing for him to consult Master Hua about.

Master Hua could only leave disappointed.

Qin Huai happily continued grinding proficiency while secretly taking some time to observe Zhao Cheng’an.

Zhao Cheng’an was still making Four Happiness Flower Rolls.

After chatting with Master Zhou earlier, Qin Huai briefly reflected on himself and realized he had become a little too obsessed with grinding proficiency lately, to the point that he had neglected the person closest to him—

Zhao Cheng’an at the neighboring workstation, the mayfly who still hadn’t awakened.

Qin Huai suddenly realized that because he was busy grinding proficiency, he himself had never taken a break. For some reason, Zhao Cheng’an also hadn’t rested either. Normally, Zhao Cheng’an treated his four monthly vacation days like treasure—he wished he could use them all at once for a long holiday, and if possible, he would take them right at the beginning of the month without delay.

Once he used up his leave at the start of the month, he could still shamelessly beg for a few extra days off later in the middle or end of the month.

After all, Zhao Cheng’an wasn’t short on money. As for salary deductions? Deduct away.

“Zhao Cheng’an,” Qin Huai said, looking at Zhao Cheng’an, who seemed spiritually detached after making so many flower rolls. “Have you already used up this month’s leave?”

“Nope. I only took one day off,” Zhao Cheng’an replied weakly.

“Then why aren’t you taking leave?”

Zhao Cheng’an looked up at Qin Huai with the tragic resentment of “you damn overachieving neighbor kid, how could you possibly understand the heart of an ordinary genius like me,” and mournfully said:

“Isn’t it because of you?”

Qin Huai: ?

“Originally, the two of us had it great—chatting, making pastries, slacking off together. Perfect teamwork. Tan Wei’an even told me that while you can become super hardworking when you want to, you’re usually pretty laid-back. I thought I’d finally found a work buddy, but then…”

Zhao Cheng’an tilted his head upward slightly so the tears wouldn’t slide from the corners of his eyes.

“Wasn’t it supposed to be that you only go all-out when there’s a pastry you really want to make? Why are you grinding even when there’s nothing special to make now?”

“Bro, when you start grinding, there’s no respect for the laws of nature!”

“I want to rest, but you’re over there making pastries beside me every single day. How can I take leave? If I do, what will my master think of me? What will my senior brother and senior sister think of me? How will Tan Wei’an gossip about me behind my back? Am I still supposed to survive in Zhiweiju after that?”

Qin Huai: …

Was it really that serious?

“But just now, Master Zhou told me he feels like you’re already about to collapse,” Qin Huai said, deciding to relay Master Zhou’s thoughts. “He’s planning to let the two of us attend the exchange conference in Beiping next month. He’s even going to book us a table at Fen Garden and give us an extra day off so we can stay and have fun for a day.”

The half-dead Zhao Cheng’an instantly revived.

His eyes burst with eerie light as he exclaimed excitedly:

“What?! Master agreed to let me attend the Beiping exchange conference, book me a table at the branch restaurant, and let me stay an extra day to play?!”

“Us,” Qin Huai corrected him.

“That’s amazing!”

Zhao Cheng’an clenched both fists excitedly.

“There’s actually such a good thing?! You should’ve said so earlier! I’m going to ask Boss Su for leave right now—I’m not coming to work tomorrow!”

After saying that, Zhao Cheng’an ran off immediately, not even caring about the half-finished flower rolls.

Qin Huai: …?

When Zhao Cheng’an returned after successfully getting leave approved, his entire body radiated the joy of victory. Not only was he practically striding with wind beneath his feet, but his whole demeanor had transformed from lifeless exhaustion into festive excitement.

Qin Huai looked at him and said with absolute certainty:

“The reason you gave earlier for not taking leave—that was made up, wasn’t it?”

Zhao Cheng’an grinned.

“You caught me.”

“Actually, lately I’ve been pestering my master nonstop, trying to get him to let me go abroad for half a month, but he absolutely refused. Then I thought: since I still have three vacation days left this month, if I don’t use them this month or next month, I can save up seven days. Then if I keep pestering him and get another eight days approved, I could finally travel abroad for half a month.”

“The plan sounded great, but it’s way too hard in practice. I’ve never worked continuously for this long before. I’m honestly going a little crazy from working.”

“But when you told me just now that we could go to Beiping next month, I figured maybe I don’t absolutely need to go abroad first. I should just take a break already. If I keep working like this, I’m seriously not going to make it.”

Qin Huai thought silently:

Mayfly… truly worthy of being you.

Whether in his first life or this one, Zhao Cheng’an’s approach toward work was equally bizarre and impossible for ordinary people to comprehend.

Then Qin Huai had another thought. Zhao Cheng’an going to Beiping for the exchange conference could, in a sense, count as “returning home.” In his first life, he must have spent a very long time there.

“Brother Cheng’an, do you go to Beiping often?” Qin Huai immediately switched back to calling him “Brother Cheng’an.”

“Only once,” Zhao Cheng’an replied while continuing to roll flower rolls. “I stayed there for a week and visited every tourist attraction. Originally, I wanted to book a table at Fen Garden, but it was my first time there, and I forgot reservations had to be made in advance. By then I was running out of leave, so I had to come back first.”

“Doesn’t Fen Garden allow extra tables if you pay more?” Qin Huai asked. As far as he knew, Han Guishan had managed to eat there for an entire month that way—no tricks involved, just pure money.

The look Zhao Cheng’an gave Qin Huai instantly turned into: There’s no way to explain this to rich people like you.

After a pause, he finally said: “Do you know how much it costs to add a table there?”

“No idea. I just heard the dishes become double price or something.”

“Not only do the dish prices double, there’s also a minimum spending requirement. A single table has to spend at least 50,000 yuan!”

“If I could afford meals costing 50,000 yuan a table, would I still be working as a chef at Zhiweiju? I’d already be doing whatever I wanted—traveling around the world with a backpack, making pastries wherever I go. Xu Cheng talks about eating across the globe? Me making pastries across the globe would be the real skill!”

Qin Huai roughly calculated it in his head.

Minimum 50,000 yuan per table. Eating there every day for a month meant 1.5 million yuan spent just on meals.

Yeah. He definitely needed to maintain a good relationship with Boss Han. The man truly knew how to spend money on food.

“So after failing to eat at Fen Garden last time, you never thought of making another reservation in advance and going back to Beiping someday?” Qin Huai asked again.

“I did think about it,” Zhao Cheng’an said. “But my master won’t approve leave. I only get one half-month vacation a year, so of course I use it for going abroad. There’s no extra time left specifically for Beiping. If my master were willing to give me just two more vacation days, I’d definitely go to Beiping for a meal. But the problem is—I don’t have leave.”

“At first I thought Master wouldn’t let me attend this exchange conference either. Oh right, didn’t you just say you’re going with me too? If you go, are you representing Zhiweiju or your Yunzhong Cafeteria?”

Qin Huai: So you really weren’t listening to anything I said earlier. Your entire focus was just on getting to play in Beiping next month.

“If I go, obviously I’ll represent Zhiweiju,” Qin Huai said. “Yunzhong Cafeteria wasn’t even invited. How could I represent them?”

“Oh, true.” Zhao Cheng’an suddenly understood. “Then Qin Huai, have you ever been to Beiping?”

“No.” Qin Huai shook his head. “I actually haven’t traveled much. Before university, I stayed in Guangdong Province the whole time. And after starting university, I always had to go home during holidays to help with the breakfast business, so I never really had time to travel.”

“I think the only time I ever traveled was when I accompanied my little sister to Magic City to see the Oriental Pearl Tower. That year, she did pretty well on her final exams, so my parents rewarded her with a trip.”

“But after that, the kid never scored well on finals again, so she never got to travel anymore.”

“That’s kind of a pity. Staying in front of a kitchen counter making pastries every day is so boring. You should learn from me and take some time every year to go out and have fun. If you don’t want to go abroad, traveling domestically is fine too. Besides, you’re not short on money. Tan Wei’an told me—you’re seriously rich. Your car’s even a double-R. Is running a community cafeteria really that profitable?”

“When the day comes that I don’t want to work at Zhiweiju anymore, I’m going to open a community cafeteria too.”

Qin Huai: …

No, seriously, Tan Wei’an, what exactly have you been telling people at Zhiweiju?

Why are there still versions of the rumors he hasn’t even heard yet?

Zhao Cheng’an kept rambling on:

“I don’t think our neighborhood even has a community cafeteria. I wonder if I could open one. Maybe I’ll ask my dad to help me scout out a location sometime and reserve it in advance, just in case.”

“I just wonder whether there’ll be any art exhibitions in Beiping when we go next month. Those paintings I bought last time turned out pretty useless. I stared at them for days at home and still couldn’t figure out what was so special about them. They just take up space. Qin Huai, do you still want paintings? If you do, come pick a few from my place. My room seriously can’t fit any more. I don’t dare move them to my parents’ house either, otherwise they’ll definitely think I’ve gone crazy buying so many paintings at once, and next time they won’t give me any money.”

Qin Huai could tell that Zhao Cheng’an had basically gone stir-crazy from working nonstop and making pastries every day without rest lately. Now that he was back to normal, had tomorrow off, and could finally relax, he was starting to let himself go a little.

Qin Huai decided to forcibly change the subject.

“Brother Cheng’an, when you went to Beiping before, did you ever visit Taifeng Tower?” Qin Huai asked.

“Taifeng Tower?” Zhao Cheng’an looked completely confused, clearly having no idea what it was. “Is it some famous restaurant in Beiping? Never heard of it. Or is it a private kitchen restaurant? But the most famous private restaurant in Beiping is Fen Garden. I haven’t heard of any other especially amazing ones.”

“It’s an old-established restaurant, but it probably closed many years ago. I heard a friend mention it before, so I thought maybe you knew about it,” Qin Huai explained.

“Oh, then I don’t know.” Zhao Cheng’an didn’t seem particularly interested.

“Then Brother Cheng’an, do you know the process and things to watch out for at the exchange conference?” Qin Huai asked again.

“I don’t know that either.”

Qin Huai: ?

“I’ve never attended one before,” Zhao Cheng’an said. “Zhiweiju is a white-dough restaurant. The red-kitchen exchange conferences never bring us along. And if there were a white-dough exchange conference, it would definitely be hosted by Zhiweiju, with other restaurants sending people to us—not the other way around.”

“Occasionally there are mixed conferences too, but those are usually regional ones held in places like Suzhou, Hangzhou, or Huai’an. For that kind of event, it’s basically always the bosses attending, not the chefs. So how would I know the conference process?”

“All I know is that at our Zhiweiju exchange conferences, every master chef makes a signature pastry to show off a little. Everyone eats, drinks, exchanges experience, chats, gossips, maybe takes a stroll by the lake or something, and then it ends.”

“As for how Baobao Zhai runs theirs, I honestly have no clue. Plus, Baobao Zhai changed owners in the last couple of years. I heard the new boss has been going crazy with marketing campaigns and promotional events. The profits are supposedly great, but their reputation’s gotten a bit shaky.”

“I heard Boss Su say that this kind of strategy definitely brings huge short-term results and profits, but it’s bad for long-term development. Old-established restaurants like ours ultimately rely on reputation. Once your reputation is damaged, it’s very hard to recover.”

“If I weren’t looking forward to the vacation, I wouldn’t bother attending some Baobao Zhai exchange conference at all.”

Qin Huai indicated that he understood and stopped talking, otherwise the conversation would probably continue endlessly if he followed Zhao Cheng’an’s train of thought.

Although Qin Huai liked gossiping with people while making pastries, timing still mattered. Right now was a critical period for grinding proficiency, so it was better not to chat too much if possible.

Too much conversation made it easy to lose focus and slowed progress.

After all, Qin Huai’s proficiency levels were looking extremely promising now.

“Hey, Qin Huai, how’s your proficiency grinding going now?” Zhao Cheng’an suddenly asked, starting a new topic.

Hearing that, Qin Huai casually tapped open the game panel to check his proficiency values.

Player Name: Qin Huai

Unlocked Illustrated Entries: 10/12

Skills:

Dough Fermentation (Advanced): Your dough fermentation skills have surpassed 96% of pastry chefs nationwide. (79,631 / 100,000)

Filling Preparation (Master): Your filling preparation skills have surpassed 98% of outstanding pastry chefs nationwide. (118,127 / 1,000,000)

Finger Techniques (Advanced): You can finally make pastries that are somewhat presentable. (39,517 / 100,000)

Fried Dough Techniques (Intermediate): Your youtiao are pretty good. (4,437 / 10,000)

Knife Skills (Intermediate): More effort is needed. (2,171 / 10,000)

Heat Control (Advanced): As a white-dough chef, you now truly understand heat control. (12,511 / 100,000)

Food Tasting (Advanced): Fine, you’re pretty good at eating. (Cannot Level Up)

Management (Intermediate): You’re decent at business and won’t lose money. (3,621 / 10,000)

Lies (Master): You really are the type who speaks human language to humans and ghost language to ghosts, huh! (567,111 / 1,000,000)

It could be said that under Qin Huai’s proficiency grinding, the growth of his Finger Techniques, Filling Preparation, and Dough Fermentation proficiencies had all become extremely obvious.

Previously, Qin Huai still needed to carefully choose what pastries to make based on cost-performance efficiency to maximize proficiency gains.

But now, he no longer needed to think about that at all.

No matter what pastry he made, his proficiency increased quickly.

Perhaps this was the benefit of true enlightenment. After clearly understanding his goals and direction, Qin Huai realized that whatever he made was useful and rewarding.

He could make guo’er pastries.

He could make plain white steamed buns.

As long as he wanted to, anything could grind proficiency.

Even Lies proficiency could be grinded.

Of course, at this moment, Qin Huai felt he had to say one honest thing:

He really wasn’t trying that hard to grind Lies proficiency.

How could someone as honest as him—someone who told everyone everything openly—possibly enjoy lying?

There had to be something wrong with the proficiency system’s judgment.

A sincere and talented white-dough chef like him—

Surely the first skill to break through Master rank couldn’t possibly be Lies, right?

Right?

…What do you think, Filling Preparation?