Chapter 38 A Small Mishap

For a moment, the first-floor hall was filled with indignation. Everyone began criticizing Grandma Ding for her lack of martial ethics.

We all only give fruits to Luoluo—how come you directly gave something to Master Xiao Qin?!

And you actually succeeded!

Isn’t that breaking the rules of the game?!

At once, everyone started shouting things like:

“I have a niece…”
“My daughter’s colleague’s hometown is…”
“My son works at a flour company!”

Grandma Ding ignored all these obviously fabricated claims. She happily ate her jujube cake, thinking about how the locust blossom honey mantou for her youngest grandson was settled, and how to handle the mung bean cakes for her eldest grandson.

Ah… difficult.

Qin Huai changed his clothes and entered the kitchen.

When he entered, the two chefs busy with high-heat stir-frying in the back kitchen were somewhat surprised, thinking the boss had come to inspect whether they were slacking off. Instantly, both of them went all out, vigorously tossing their woks, almost wanting to show their biceps to Qin Huai to prove their skill in high-heat cooking.

But Qin Huai didn’t even look at them. He went straight to the cabinets in the back to get flour and look for fermented wine lees.

He didn’t find any.

“Yuxi,” Qin Huai poked his head out and asked, “do we still have wine lees for dough fermentation?”

Yuxi didn’t know what wine lees for dough fermentation were, so she brought everything remotely related—even two pots of rice wine and two basins of fermented rice.

Seeing that there was fermented rice in the shop, Qin Huai was delighted.

To make fermented wine mantou, one could use yeast starter, wine lees, or homemade fermented rice. These were all similar, each with its own advantages, and could even produce mantou of different colors.

For example, mantou made using yellow wine lees would turn red.

In the video tutorial, Qin Wan used homemade fermented rice. She crushed the fermented rice, blending the grains and liquid into a paste, then mixed the fermented rice juice with warm water to control temperature when kneading the dough.

Now Qin Huai had a more advanced tool— a juicer, saving both time and effort.

While extracting juice, Qin Huai considered the approximate temperature. To avoid mishaps like when making buckwheat mantou, he prepared multiple batches of dough, using warm water at different temperatures to control variables.

He also added a small amount of sugar while kneading.

Recalling the tutorial step by step, Qin Huai proceeded slowly. Unknowingly, his movements became as slow and gentle as Qin Wan’s in the video.

Qin Luo, who had just cycled on a shared bike delivering food for a week and earned some pocket money, originally planned to reward herself with a hearty “Crazy Thursday” dinner: “?”

She was crouching at the kitchen entrance, holding a piece of fried chicken, puzzled: “Wasn’t my brother making buckwheat mantou? Why is he suddenly making fermented rice mantou?”

Ou Yang, who had just arrived after work to eat, crouched beside Qin Luo, equally confused: “Luoluo, didn’t you say your brother’s fermented rice mantou wasn’t tasty? This looks pretty good though.”

Although Ou Yang had only seen the dough-kneading stage, he already felt it would taste good.

Joking aside, Qin Huai kneaded the dough with such seriousness, his movements so gentle that if you didn’t know better, you’d think he was giving the dough a spa treatment.

With that kind of attitude, how could the mantou turn out bad?

Impossible!

Ou Yang decided to stay at the doorway and be the first to taste it!

And he would eat four!

He wasn’t having dinner tonight!

He glanced at the fried chicken in Qin Luo’s hand and felt confident he would win tonight.

Inside the kitchen, Qin Huai didn’t know two people were crouching outside, nor did he know that Yuxi, finding their behavior too strange and disruptive to business, had invited them to Table 9 and given each of them a cup of plain water.

He only felt that fermented rice mantou was not as easy as it seemed.

Even though he tried his best to imitate Qin Wan, carefully controlling temperature and monitoring the dough during fermentation, the final result still didn’t match the quality of the video.

When he placed the mantou into the steamer, Qin Huai let out a deep sigh.

As expected, the first attempt always involves some failure.

And this time was different from before.

Previously, his failures came from blindly improvising based on recipes—failure was expected, even natural.

But this time, there was a video tutorial—clear, detailed, and without any hidden tricks. Aside from not being guided step-by-step in person, there was nothing to criticize, yet he still failed.

“Indeed,” Qin Huai muttered, “family heirloom techniques really are different from the Complete Guide to Pastries.”

At Table 9, the two people drinking plain water stared at Qin Huai.

“What is my brother saying? Add… jelly? Pastries aren’t the same? Does he want to eat jelly?” Qin Luo read his lips, eyes wide.

Ou Yang: “…”

What nonsense is that? He clearly said “indeed.” Something about wearing boots at home and sticking on warm patches being different.

What is he even talking about?

When the first batch of fermented rice mantou came out, evening service at Yunzhong Cafeteria was almost over.

Yuxi was checking warehouse inventory, Zhao Rong was directing staff to clean the hall, Qin Luo was assigned to help wash pots in the kitchen, and even Ou Yang wasn’t idle—since he was there, he was told to take out the trash.

As a result, Ou Yang missed the moment the mantou came out of the steamer.

When the lid was lifted, a sweet, wine-like aroma filled the kitchen.

It was the fragrance of rice wine, though slightly lighter, mixed with the aroma of wheat—an exceptionally unique and rare food scent.

“Wow!” Qin Luo, while washing pots, exclaimed loudly, afraid Qin Huai wouldn’t hear her, “Brother, today’s fermented rice mantou smells amazing!”

Qin Huai didn’t respond—he was looking at the mantou’s stats.

[Fermented Wine Mantou — B- Rank]

The minus sign clearly marked his failure.

A failure—but not a complete one.

Qin Huai picked up a mantou, broke it open, and smelled it.

A sweet fragrance with a faint wine aroma.

When grouped together in the steamer, the wine scent was stronger, but individually, it smelled very natural.

He squeezed it.

Pressed down, it bounced back slightly.

Good elasticity—not comparable to the dream version that could spring back like a flattened cake, but much better than his previous attempts.

Not bad. Qin Huai gave this failure a score of 90.

Although it was a failure, the result was good.

He took a bite.

A subtle sweetness.

Not only from starch and sugar, but also the inherent sweetness of the fermented rice. The wine flavor was lighter than the sweetness and didn’t overpower it—it felt more like a supporting note. In his previous attempts, the wine flavor had always felt off, making the mantou neither here nor there.

This time, he finally tasted the true beauty of fermented rice mantou.

Qin Huai ate bite after bite.

He felt this was one of the best mantou he had ever made in his life.

Yet it was still considered a failure—a substandard B- rank.

What would a properly graded B-rank mantou taste like?

And if B-rank was already like this, what about the S-rank locust blossom mantou?

For the first time, Qin Huai felt an immense passion and interest in pastry-making.

Indeed, getting off work at 12 p.m. might be too early.

Waking up at 4 a.m. was already his limit—earlier than that was impossible.

So maybe…

He should delay leaving work by one hour and get off at 1 p.m. instead.

“Brother! Brother!” Qin Luo, diligently still washing pots and too embarrassed to come eat, shouted at the top of her lungs, “Is it good? Is it good?!”

Brother, don’t just eat by yourself! Look at me! Answer me!

I really want to eat!

Brother, talk to me! Stop eating, brother! The more delicious you look eating, the more I want some!

I still have three pots left to wash!

Brother!!!