The upgrade of the dough happened on a completely unremarkable morning.
If you want to be precise to the minute, it was 5:19 in the morning.
At that ti, Qin Huai had just finished his glutinous rice cake breakfast and began to knead the dough in a way that was mundane, and even a bit numbing.
Those who often play gas know that the process of leveling up is quite dull and boring, especially when you're stuck at an experience plateau.
The Earth Online ga Qin Huai played was no different. Glutinous rice cake could make Qin Huai work harder on the snacks, but it also made the already boring snack-making even more tedious, even a bit tireso.
Theoretically, making snacks requires thought. Qin Huai, being an outstanding snack master, knows how important thinking is for making snacks. Making snacks without engaging your brain is destined for diocrity; you may rely purely on muscle mory to ensure a decent lower limit, but it will also limit the upper limit. To improve, to enhance oneself, requires serious thinking and analysis every ti you make snacks, and it would be best to review afterward.
Looking more, listening more, thinking more, practicing more are the keys to being a good snack master.
But that's just in theory; actually doing it is very difficult. Thinking ans being highly focused ntally, and making snacks is fundantally physical work. If you focus too much, you'll be exhausted by the end of the day.
That's why Master Zhou only scolds Zhao Cheng'an when he's slacking, but never when he's chatting; because being relaxed can lead to better work.
Although sotis Zhao Cheng'an takes that relaxation too far.
Qin Huai understands all these principles, but actually doing them is difficult, and so principles even contradict each other a bit. Like how glutinous rice cake can make Qin Huai better at making snacks, but it also makes him not really like making snacks.
Ever since Qin Huai adopted the routine of the first thing he does when he enters the kitchen each morning is to make glutinous rice cakes and the second is to eat them, life has beco incredibly monotonous.
He doesn't really care if Zhou Hu is a spirit, also due to this monotony.
From the mont he opens his eyes, it's making snacks. Yet the skill level in dough rose very slowly. Every day, when he checks the ga panel for skill improvent only to find that it's barely increased, life seems flat and predictable. Initially, Qin Huai looked forward to the slow progress accelerating a bit, but eventually, he beca numb to it, not even wanting to look at the ga panel anymore.
Imdiately after eating the glutinous rice cake, starting to knead dough has almost beco a chanical, subconscious reaction. Sotis, lying in bed before sleep, Qin Huai wouldn't play with his phone or close his eyes, just staring at the ceiling, feeling like a philosopher.
He began pondering the unreasonable philosophical question of why the male protagonist in a system web novel had to grind skill levels to upgrade.
Did the system novel protagonists have to reach a very high level?
Did every task have to be completed with such urgency?
Is that damn glutinous rice cake really necessary every day?
Could the amusent park 30 kiloters away from Yunzhong District move next door? That way, on a morning when he wakes up at 4 AM for work, Qin Huai could suddenly decide not to go to work, but to sit at the amusent park gate until it opens at 9 AM.
Those who frequently go to work know this is a sign of being worn-out from work.
Wanting to do anything except work, having to work nonetheless, so you can only work while simultaneously dreaming of not working, while pondering where else you might find happiness if you didn't have to work.
During his grinding period, Qin Huai arranged many things for himself.
He decided that after reaching Master Level of Dough, he would take Qin Luo to the amusent park for a day, and then to the zoo for a day, and if Qin Luo's monthly exam results were good, perhaps even to the aquarium for a day.
He planned to call Tan Wei'an for a two-hour talk to listen to juicy gossip about the Zhiwei Restaurant, followed by a three-hour call with Dong Shi to hear gossip about Huang Ji.
If Zhao Cheng'an hadn't conned money from his dear senior brother Xia Mubing under the pretense of funeral planning during that ti, Qin Huai also wanted Zhao Cheng'an to tell Xia Mubing that both of them should team up and go to the Fen Garden in Beiping for a al to celebrate.
As the last few days of grinding approached, Qin Huai even began considering if, at the mont he reached Master Level of Dough, he should announce Yunzhong Restaurant's shutdown for three days, giving all employees a three-day paid vacation with an amusent park ticket for team bonding.
Given that crabs were about to be in season, Qin Huai even thought about whether he should spend two days at ho making Crab Yellow Sauce, turning himself into a crab-yellow-flavored being to demonstrate he hadn't forgotten about Crab Dumplings and Double Crab Buns.
Qin Huai had a lot of wild fantasies for after reaching Master Level.
But when the dough actually reached Master Level, or more precisely when Qin Huai realized his dough apparently upgraded, he had only one thought.
Ah, leveled up, looks like tomorrow morning I don't have to eat glutinous rice cake, I can have wontons instead.
There was no cheering, no relief, no tears of joy, and certainly no singing and dancing, only a calm readiness for wontons the next morning.
How did Qin Huai realize his dough had leveled up?
It was a feeling.
Qin Huai, with the sa calm as before, could even say numbly, kneaded the dough. As he kneaded, suddenly it felt different. It wasn't the feeling of inspiration arriving, but rather as if the dough beneath his hands could communicate with him.
To put it abstractly, Qin Huai felt he understood the dough better.
Suddenly, he grasped many truths about kneading dough, things he had previously overlooked or hadn't realized. Everyday things suddenly felt different.
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