Chapter 1350: Chen Huixi Side Story (Part 2)

On Cheng Gong's side, the rough plan was already set; the detailed work naturally had to be done by Chen Huihong and Qin Huai.

Chen Huihong was in charge of rounding people up, getting all of Huihui's relatives and friends on board, calling the parents of every classmate Huihui was close with one by one to persuade them to rest assured and let her take their kids to Beiping for a few days.

The classmates that Huihui was close with had all known her for at least three years, and the parents all knew each other and were familiar as well. Plus, it happened to be the break right after the high school entrance exam. With Chen Huihong's repeated assurances, all the parents agreed without worry.

Qin Huai, on his side, was responsible for finalizing the menu.

This was a very crucial job.

Taifeng Building had already opened and was wildly popular (in fact, it had become famous on opening day), Head Chef Jiang Feng had made it to sixth place on the Chef Record, and the occasionally "randomly dropped" Head Chef Jiang Weiming was ranked second on the Chef Record. You could say their dishes were hard to come by.

As for how Qin Huai knew this…

Last year he'd gone to Beiping once to see Zheng Siyuan, snuck over to eat at Taifeng Building, and couldn't even get a table. In the end he had no choice but to ask Cheng Gong to help book one.

Jiang Feng's current level was of course not quite up to Jiang Chengde's in his prime, but definitely among the top in the country. Still, Qin Huai felt that sixth place on the Chef Record was a bit inflated, with a certain amount of Xu Cheng's personal bias mixed in (among the top ten chefs on the list, Xu Cheng ate Jiang Feng's cooking the most). At least last year, Jiang Feng's level wasn't on par with the former Xia Mubing.

Zhao Cheng'an had also quietly gone to eat at Taifeng Building a few times, and on WeChat he sighed to Qin Huai that if only Xia Mubing had passed away a few years later. Now Jiang Feng's skills and Taifeng Building's business were both far better than when it first opened; if Xia Mubing could've lived a few more years and eaten a few more meals there, that would have been something.

It wasn't an exaggeration to say that if they wanted to give this lifetime's Chen Huixi a perfect, regret‑free fifteenth birthday, Taifeng Building as the venue mattered a lot, and the dishes mattered just as much.

Qin Huai could recreate Jiang Chengde's old Chicken Soup Noodles, but with Jiang Feng's current skills there was no way to fully recreate Taifeng Building's original dishes. Even though in her previous life Huihui had never tasted a single proper dish from Taifeng Building before she died, this was a one‑shot chance, and all Qin Huai could do was strive for the best.

Qin Huai spent an entire day just studying the menu, and ordered nothing but Taifeng Building's old signature dishes.

Of course he had to order blockbusters like Phoenix Egg and Jiang's Ginseng Soup. He'd wanted to order Golden Jade Cabbage but Taifeng Building no longer served it. Taking into account the dishes Jiang Feng was good at, Qin Huai added Oyster Sauce Lettuce, Glutinous Rice Stuffed Duck, Hibiscus Chicken Slices, Clear Soup Willow‑Leaf Swallow's Nest, Red‑Braised Pork, Two‑Color Prawns, and Century Egg and Lean Pork Congee.

You could put it this way: just by looking at this pre‑order, Jiang Feng would know the person who ordered was an old hand at eating. Knowing his temperament, Qin Huai believed Jiang Feng would definitely not be careless when cooking these dishes.

Of course, the highlight of Huihui's birthday had to be the Longevity Noodles.

For this bowl of Longevity Noodles, Qin Huai didn't make snacks at all during his last two days in Shan City; he spent every day practicing stock‑making. Worried that there might still be flaws in how he was making the stock that he hadn't noticed yet, he video‑called Zheng Siyuan or Huang Shengli while working on it, to the point that Huang Shengli thought Qin Huai felt he had already gone as far as he could in pastry and, seeing no more room for improvement, wanted to move over to meat cooking.

Huang Shengli even dropped a small hint, saying that although his lower back was still bad and the old ailment hadn't healed, and Huang Ji Restaurant had already been "acquired" and turned by Qin Huai into Qin's Steamed Bun Shop featuring pastries, his skills were still sharp and he could take on one more Closed-door Disciple to teach carefully.

It so happened that business at Qin's Steamed Bun Shop in Gusu was so‑so, and the head chefs Li Hua and Pei Xing still had a lot of room to improve; they very much needed Qin Huai to come give on‑site guidance.

If Qin Huai didn't want to go to Gusu, Master Huang said he could brave motion sickness from both car and plane to come stay in Shan City for a while.

Master Huang said he was still young, not yet sixty, and his body could handle it.

Qin Huai hurriedly explained that Master Huang had misunderstood; he was just trying to sharpen his stock‑making skills these two days. Master Huang should stay home and enjoy his later years in peace, living the happy retired life of scolding his son and looking after his grandson.

Zheng Siyuan, on the other hand, didn't think like Huang Shengli that Qin Huai wanted to move into meat cooking. Zheng Siyuan simply felt that Qin Huai was having another episode. After all, it wasn't the first day that Qin Huai's brain was "not quite right"; in recent years his condition had been relatively stable and somewhat improved, but having a flare‑up now and then was perfectly normal.

All Zheng Siyuan cared about was when Qin Huai was coming to Beiping, how many days he'd stay, and, besides eating at Taifeng Building to celebrate Huihui's birthday, whether he wanted to come have a few meals at Babaozhai too. Tong Dayan wouldn't mind making him some special dishes.

They just had to watch out for Lin Guangzhao a bit.

In Zheng Siyuan's view, Boss Ling was great in every way except that he loved poaching people. This bad habit had eased up a bit in the past few years, but three or four years ago, when Lin Guangzhao poached Tong Dayan—who had already resigned and jumped ship—back to Babaozhai, sending its already booming business even higher, Boss Ling started feeling like he was "on a roll" again.

Zheng Siyuan was afraid Lin Guangzhao would have a relapse on the spot the moment he saw Qin Huai and try to poach him.

After all, when Huang Ji went under back then, Lin Guangzhao had made a special trip to Gusu to poach people; the first person he wanted was Qin Huai, and only then did he find out that Qin Huai was the Boss who'd bought Huang Ji.

This wasn't the only time Lin Guangzhao had tried to poach someone only to find out the target was actually the boss on the other side.

Now that business at Qin's Steamed Bun Shop was mediocre, and Lin Guangzhao didn't know that Qin Huai was actually running a community cafeteria in Shan City, there was a high chance he'd swing that little poaching hoe of his again under the "I'm back in form" buff.

"Qin Huai, when are you coming to Beiping? Has Luoluo come back to the country yet? How many days are you planning to stay in Beiping? Do you want me to ask Dong Shi and Dong Li out so we can all meet up for a meal?" Zheng Siyuan asked.

Qin Huai was skimming the scum off a pot of chicken stock and said casually, "Luoluo probably won't be able to come back this year either. I told her from the start not to go study abroad in Germany, but she wouldn't listen and insisted on going. At first my mom felt overseas wasn't safe and didn't want her going abroad at all. I don't know which classmate got in her head, making her think that studying in Germany and coming back would be super impressive. In the end, after all these years, she hasn't even finished her undergrad. I'm afraid if she studies one more year, this kid's going to have 'high school graduate' on her resume."

Zheng Siyuan: …

"But it's not all bad. My mom was always afraid she'd grow up into a spoiled, wasteful rich second‑generation. The fact that she's stuck it out abroad all these years without getting a diploma and still hasn't dropped out has actually put my mom a lot more at ease these past two years," Qin Huai went on. "Meeting up for a meal… sure, any time after Huihui's birthday is fine. I just don't know if Dong Shi and Dong Li can get the same day off. Business at Taifeng Building is so good right now, and the two of them are both wok station chefs—it's not easy for them to take leave, right?"

"But I'll have to see how things are first. I don't know how things will be on Huihui's actual birthday. If it doesn't go very well, I probably won't be in the mood to hang out and eat with you guys." As he spoke, Qin Huai let out a heavy, worried sigh.

Zheng Siyuan ignored the parts of Qin Huai's speech that didn't make sense as usual, and said, "We'll see when the time comes, then. What time is your flight? I'll pick you up at the airport."

"No need to go to all that trouble."

"I've run into a bit of a problem with my Green Bean Cake lately. Your hotel is right next to my place. I'll take you to the hotel, and you can come over to my house and help me figure out what's going wrong."

"That works. Do you have a stock pot at home? If you do, I won't mail mine over."

"I do."

"Lend it to me then. On Huihui's birthday, I want to make her Chicken Soup Noodles."

"Alright."

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