Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle

Very soon, the news that Master Qin is going to be away on a business trip for three days spreads throughout Yunzhong Restaurant's circle of diners.

The diners' reaction is...

No reaction at all.

It's just three days, as long as it's not a few months gone, everyone can accept it. Life is so good now, in the morning there's a rich breakfast beyond the snacks made by Chen An, at noon you can treat Four Happiness glutinous rice as a main meal, and at night you can treat Crab Yellow noodles as a main meal. Throughout the morning, afternoon, and even dinner time, there are two or thirty types of snacks dropping randomly.

Even if you feel Crab Yellow noodles and Four Happiness glutinous rice are too expensive, there's no problem, affordable green bean cakes and radish cakes are the favorites of diners who don't have a wealthy wallet.

If you feel too tired and stressed at work, it doesn't matter, as long as your hand speed is fast enough and luck is good, you can grab a cup of dried tangerine peel tea. When your boss makes you revise the materials 17 times and still tells you the first version is the best, you can smile... well, not really smile, but at least begrudgingly accept it, while mentally slapping him 17 times with the 17 draft plans.

Even if Master Qin's snacks are hard to snag, there are still Little Zheng's flaky pastry, fermented rice with steamed buns, three meat buns, and fresh meat mooncakes—these four types of snacks are Zheng Siyuan's regulars.

Zheng Siyuan, unlike Qin Huai, feels uncomfortable making the same snacks for several days straight. He thoroughly enjoys the monotony of making the same snacks daily, even wanting to fix the exact times each day to make each snack.

Tan Wei'an has secretly complained to Qin Huai more than once that Zheng Siyuan definitely has OCD, at least in the matter of making snacks, his OCD is very severe.

The variety of snacks allows Yunzhong Restaurant guests to accept the reality of not eating Master Qin's snacks for a few days with maximum tolerance, uttering an "oh" upon hearing the sad news, then continuing to eat snacks.

Yes, that's the reaction of Yunzhong Restaurant's most loyal diner, Xu Tuqiang, aka Mr. Xu.

When Xu Tuqiang heard the news, he was eating sticky rice cake.

Xu Tuqiang was eating the last portion of sticky rice cake sold today by Yunzhong Restaurant, specially reserved for him by Qin Huai. It was a rare treat stove, eating it made his heart feel warm.

Touched by Xu Tuqiang's love and persistence for sticky rice cake, Qin Huai decided to temporarily add sticky rice cake to his regular snack lineup, making cakes every afternoon, selling them every morning.

Since the cake has to be made a day in advance, Qin Huai won't use all of them to make sticky rice cakes every day, some will be used for cake soup, sold when operating in the evening.

Recently, Qu Jing hasn't had night shifts, all of them are regular day shifts. She comes to Yunzhong Restaurant punctually for dinner every evening, taking the snacks Qin Huai reserves for her back home for breakfast the next morning.

"Xu Tuqiang, when did you get so close with Master Qin?" Grandpa Qian scrutinized Xu Tuqiang with doubtful eyes, filled with "didn't you break the agreement" vibes.

Xu Tuqiang chewed his cake with big bites, not speaking, since speaking at such times could lead to choking and needing hospital rescue.

Once the cake on the plate was finished, Xu Tuqiang drank two sips of tea, calming himself. Slowly, he said, "What do you mean by when I got so close with Master Qin? My relationship with Master Qin has always been good. Don't forget, Mr. Money, who first discovered Master Qin's skills, who brought you guys here for breakfast."

After finishing, Xu Tuqiang glanced resentfully at Uncle Wang, who was already standing at the back kitchen door, ready to eat inside the kitchen. "Don't get all sarcastic on me, have the guts to be sarcastic with Wang Laogen. Who has his luck, huh? We're all eating outside, he's eating inside."

With these words, attention immediately shifts: Grandpa Qian at table 9, Grandma Ding, and another unnamed old man all look with envy, jealousy, and hate at Wang Gen Sheng standing at the kitchen door, faces full of "wish I could take his place."

"Why is Wang Laogen's luck so good? He catches all good things: demolition, Gusu trips, special treats—what kind of fate is this?" Grandma Ding's face, formerly peace and love, was filled with jealousy, "Why does Master Qin pick him to taste Crab Yellow sauce? I'm good with Crab Yellow sauce too."

"We used to have a nursery teacher whose aunt's friend's neighbor sold Crab Yellow sauce."

Everyone: ...

Such a distant relationship shouldn't even be mentioned.

The crowd can only continue to look at Wang Gen Sheng with envy, jealousy, and hate, and incomprehension.

Actually, not only in the hall are many people gazing at him this way, even in the back kitchen there's someone gazing at him, and that person is Tan Wei'an.

Today's Crab Yellow sauce thickening is still handled by Zang Liang. Incidentally, Zang Liang mistakenly entered a food community focused on pastry, leaving him at a loss for what he should be doing, feeling uncomfortable not doing something, so he took over the low-presence meat chef tasks for the restaurant's morning and noon shifts—

Half of today's midday dishes in the restaurant were cooked by Zang Liang.

Diners who got dishes cooked by Zang Liang felt an inexplicable appetite surge today; normally they could eat just a pound, now they could eat four. Especially those dieters who need to limit their eating, wishing they could slap themselves while eating.

Cursing oneself for greediness, setting out to diet and you want to eat everything, but at the same time burying head and eating. One meal isn't enough, going back for seconds.