Chapter 612
Reminiscing about the Past
Chapter 612 Reminiscing about the Past
After Chen Huihong finished speaking, she rolled up her sleeves, looking ready to get down to business.
"Xiao Qin, what are Jingjing and I doing now? We're doing volunteer work at the welfare home. I haven't done volunteer work in many years. The last time I did volunteer work was at Jingjing's welfare home."
Considering Chen Huihong's cooking skills and her incredible destructive and creative abilities in the kitchen, Qin Huai cautiously chose to have Chen Huihong wash the vegetables and Qu Jing chop them.
Qin Huai only planned to make soy sauce noodles and fermented rice buns for breakfast, but in the morning, she would make steamed buns as usual. Things were different at the orphanage now. When Qin Huai was a child, due to insufficient funds, everyone rarely ate meat throughout the year. The Lunar New Year was the time to eat meat, and the steamed buns had to be meat-filled. If there was cabbage mixed in with the meat buns, it meant the orphanage was indeed short of money that year, and Director Qin would have to go to the countryside to get dozens of kilograms of free cabbage to make up the difference.
Things are different now. Even when the welfare home didn't receive such a large donation, there was no situation where we couldn't eat meat a few times a year. During the Lunar New Year, we also paid attention to a balanced diet of meat and vegetables.
Qin Huai arranged for the children at the welfare home to have snacks including three-ingredient buns, five-ingredient buns, vegetable buns, mushroom buns, animal-shaped red bean buns, four-happiness glutinous rice balls, and yam cakes.
The newly discovered red silk cakes were not prepared because the orphanage did not have an oven.
As for why Qin Huai makes so many steamed buns...
That's because Qin Huai is Bao Bao's older brother at the Sanmalu Children's Welfare Home, and naturally, Bao Bao's older brother has to make steamed buns. Besides, many children at the welfare home have physical and intellectual disabilities, and a large portion of them need to be fed; steamed buns are easier to feed.
Although Four Happiness Tangyuan are delicious, they are not suitable for children as they are easy to choke on.
Qin Huai continued kneading the dough.
As Qin Huai began making hand-kneaded noodles, the others gradually got up. An Youyou was the first to arrive, and it was clear that she didn't want to work the moment she stepped into the kitchen. Even the Three-Legged Toad was on holiday; why would she want to work?
But the boss is working, so how can the employees be idle? Besides, An Youyou was paid wages during her time in Qiu County, just without commission.
Most importantly, Qin Huai desperately needs An Youyou to help him today. Looking at the entire orphanage, An Youyou is the person with the best knife skills and the best meat-cutting ability.
An Youyou started chopping the meat.
Not long after An Youyou entered the kitchen, Factory Director Xu arrived. Winters in Guangdong are quite warm, except for the slightly chilly mornings before dawn. Factory Director Xu wasn't wearing a cotton-padded coat, but rather a drab gray jacket. When he strolled into the kitchen with a cheerful smile, he looked very much like a simple, elderly man left behind in the countryside.
Seeing that the eldest son had already started working, Factory Director Xu also wanted to do some work within his ability, but Qin Huai stopped him on the spot. Just kidding, Factory Director Xu was probably the oldest person in this nursing home. Don't let Qin Huai's hearing fool you; he's actually not that old, and compared to Factory Director Xu, he'd be considered a robust young man.
Qin Huai found a small stool and asked Factory Director Xu to sit in the kitchen and watch. Factory Director Xu did not refuse and sat there with a smile, watching Qin Huai knead noodles.
The others came together.
Wang Gensheng, Chen Gong, Zhou Hu (who seemed a bit out of the loop), and Dean Qin.
When Qin Huai saw Director Qin, his first thought was that although the orphanage had become wealthy, Qin's mother had also grown old.
Taking care of children is a demanding job. Director Qin has spent her entire life taking care of children in the welfare home. She is the mother of so many children and worries more than the average mother. When Qin Huai left Qiu County for Shan City, Director Qin only had a few scattered gray hairs on her head. At that time, Director Qin would pluck out the gray hairs. Now they are very obvious. If she plucked out every single gray hair, she would be bald.
Everyone worked diligently, including Zhou Hu, who was still unconscious and unaware of the situation. Only Dean Qin received the same treatment as Factory Director Xu; Qin Huai brought her a stool to sit on and watch.
As soon as Dean Qin sat down, he smiled and said to Director Xu, "Huaihuai has been like this since he was little. He doesn't let me go into the kitchen to work. At first, I thought it was because the child felt sorry for me and wanted me to do more work. Later, I found out that he thought my cooking was too bad and was afraid that I would cook a couple of dishes if I felt like it."
Grandpa Qin said in a loud voice, "You can't blame Huaihuai for this. Your cooking is really bad. I can't even eat it. You put salt in like it's free. People who don't know better would think our welfare home has made a fortune." Director Qin retorted irritably, "You cook well. You can use a lot of oil without ruining the food. You can cook a plate of vegetables with a whole pot of oil."
Director Xu sat in his chair, listening in a daze, his face saying, "Your welfare home has grown so wildly, and the children have thrived to this day."
Dean Qin noticed Director Xu's expression and quickly explained, "We were talking about many years ago, when Huaihuai was still in elementary school. Back then, the orphanage wasn't here; it was in the city. Huaihuai's family's breakfast shop was right across from our orphanage. Huaihuai's dad would start steaming buns at 4 a.m. every morning, and the steam would rise several meters high. At that time, the orphanage didn't have much money, and we rarely ate white flour buns. We mostly ate cornmeal or mixed grain flour."
"Many children in the welfare home aspire to work and earn money so they can eat meat buns at Huaihuai's family's breakfast shop."
Factory Director Xu nodded: "It seems that Xiao Qin's father is quite skilled. No wonder Xiao Qin is so good at making pastries; it turns out it's a family tradition."
Everyone who knows Qin Congwen's craftsmanship: ...
Everyone remained silent. How could a family-run breakfast shop not be considered a family business?
Only Zhou Hu asked Chen Gong with some curiosity, "Is it Master Qin's cooking that's better, or his dad's? I don't think I ever saw his dad when I was at the Cloud Cafeteria."
Chen Gong thought for a moment and said, "Old Qin's cooking is more affordable and filling."
Zhou Hu: ?
Director Qin continued to share with great enthusiasm. In her opinion, Qin Congwen's cooking skills were indeed quite good, at least compared to hers: "At the beginning, our orphanage had a cook. The salary was not high, and the work was plentiful and varied. In addition to cooking, he also had to clean and occasionally help take care of the children. That was basically how it was at that time. The orphanage was short-staffed, and everyone had to do all kinds of work."
"Later, the chef got into trouble and went to jail. It happened suddenly, and the higher-ups couldn't send anyone right away. Besides, the treatment at our welfare home is really bad, so no one wanted to come. We had to make do with cooking ourselves."
"Their skills aren't very good."
"We can only guarantee that the food is cooked."
"If the food hadn't been so terrible, we wouldn't have put Huaihuai in charge of all the meals at the orphanage. How old was Huaihuai back then? The orphanage had earthen stoves, and he was barely taller than the stove. We started by saying we'd give it a try. Later…"
Grandpa Qin answered quickly: "Later, Huaihuai made the first batch of vegetable buns. Xiaohong, I remember that's her name. At that time, she was called Qin Hong. After being adopted, she changed her name to Hong Fei. A couple of years ago, she even donated a batch of crayons and building blocks to our welfare home. She was such a quiet little girl, but she cried while eating the vegetable buns. She cried and asked me if the welfare home was going to close down and kick them all out to beg for food. She asked why the food she ate before was so bad, but today's buns were so delicious. Was this her last meal before she was executed?"
Dean Qin: ...
Dean Qin could only change the subject: "Back then, Huaihuai was rather withdrawn, and many people said he was mentally challenged. We have a lot of children in our orphanage, but only a few staff members, so it's difficult to take care of them all. At first, I was worried that Huaihuai might be bullied by the other children, isolated, or not played with. He doesn't usually play with other people either."
“After that incident, there was no need to worry at all. Let alone isolating him or not playing with him, even if he wanted to cry, he would have to check if Huaihuai was nearby first, so as not to disturb him with his crying and upset him. If he didn’t go into the kitchen to make buns tomorrow, no one would have anything to eat.”
Qin Huai: ...Mother Qin, how did you come to call my glorious deeds of showing off my skills at the Sanmalu Children's Welfare Institute back then, which shocked the entire institute and made me a bully?
Factory Director Xu listened with great interest: "Young Master Qin has been so capable since he was a child."
"This child has been different from other children since he was little. Old Xu, you don't know, Huaihuai drew..."
"Aunt Qin," Qin Huai quickly interrupted Dean Qin, "the soy sauce noodles are ready. Please have some noodles to tide you over!"
The transition chapter, Kavenka, is powerful, but also very important.
I'll start with a short update, and I'll finish the rest tomorrow during the day, followed by a normal update in the evening.
(End of this chapter)