After returning ho, Qin Huai secretly practiced thickening for two hours.
Yes, secretly practiced.
Qin Huai never expected that one day he would beco the kind of diligent overachiever he loathed during his student days, quietly leveling up and astonishing everyone.
Not only did Qin Huai secretly practice, but he also did so while attending an online class.
Because he forgot to take the wooden phone stand Zhang Chu made ho, Qin Huai used a cheap stand he snagged online for 3.9 yuan, placing it on a high cabinet so that Cao Guixiang could clearly see the pot from a bird’s-eye view.
The good thing was the view was excellent, but the downside was the phone was too far from Qin Huai, making it hard for him to communicate promptly with Cao Guixiang; sotis when she spoke softly, he couldn’t hear her.
During his first attempt at thickening, Qin Huai tried to chat with Cao Guixiang while thickening, as he did while practicing knife skills. After several difficult exchanges, he gave up and switched to single-player mode; he cooked while Cao Guixiang watched.
Qin Huai felt he had a real knack for thickening.
How to put it, although thickening isn’t difficult, he thought it was just a bit too easy.
Many dishes could be thickened, not just Crab Yellow Sauce.
As there were so yams that Chen Huihong had stored and hadn’t taken away yet, the first dish Qin Huai thickened was stir-fried yam. Adding a thickening agent to stir-fried yam doesn’t require advanced skills; just the most basic technique will do.
Cao Guixiang chewed on an apple while staring at the phone.
At first, she just watched absentmindedly.
Having taught Qin Huai through online classes for so long, Cao Guixiang sowhat understood Qin Huai’s impulsive nature.
When Qin Huai made snacks, he had a penchant for trying sothing new every day—this habit during at cooking practice didn’t surprise Cao Guixiang. In fact, Cao Guixiang chatted with Qin Huai during video lessons every day, not just to train his concentration but mainly to make practicing knife skills less tedious.
Cao Guixiang had never taught an apprentice, but she’s looked after her grandson and granddaughter. Her thod of teaching Qin Huai knife skills was the sa as babysitting her grandchildren—coaxing children.
Coax them into learning, give praise at the right ti, offer rewards when necessary, and occasionally conduct surprise checks; usually, there were decent results.
Seeing Qin Huai showing interest in thickening and even claiming to have a knack for it, Cao Guixiang was already preparing words of encouragent in her mind.
But when Qin Huai’s first plate of stir-fried yam was served, those words just wouldn’t co out.
Cao Guixiang even forgot to bite her apple, staring intently at the phone, unwilling to blink.
If Qin Huai had looked up at the phone cara, he would have noticed the usually smiling and joking Master Cao wearing an expression of stunned disbelief he had never seen before.
Another plate of stir-fried yam was served.
Looking at the plate of stir-fried yam, Qin Huai felt that while it wasn’t cooked exceptionally well, and the fire control was average, the thickening was quite good—it really completed the dish.
Qin Huai held up the plate to the cara so that Cao Guixiang could see more clearly: "Master Cao, I won’t stir-fry more yam, doing too much would be a waste."
"Can you take a look at my thickening on this stir-fried yam to see if there’s a problem?" Qin Huai asked loudly.
Cao Guixiang, hearing Qin Huai speak, reflexively took a bite of her apple. After a few seconds, she mumbled loudly, "It’s pretty good."
"Xiao Qin, where did you learn this thickening from?"
"From you, of course," Qin Huai initially wanted to tilt his head up, but speaking with his head up at the phone felt too awkward, so he opened the fridge to get the Crab Yellow Sauce, "Wasn’t I always watching when you cooked? I learned to thicken just like you."
Cao Guixiang fell silent again.
Seeing her silence, Qin Huai glanced at the phone, "Is there sothing wrong?"
"This afternoon, when I was thickening, they said my technique was fine, and the timing was good. But the basic skills had so issues—I’m good at pouring the sauce, but the subsequent stirring and frying are lacking. Does this count as a problem with basic skills?" Qin Huai asked.
Cao Guixiang said, "That’s normal, you’re just not proficient yet, all beginners have similar issues."
"As for the rest... it’s quite...quite good."
"Now I’ll make the Crab Yellow Sauce, you can watch the process and see if there are any steps that can be improved."
"However, recently I haven’t been the one making the Crab Yellow Sauce; it’s been Zheng Siyuan. Plus, my fire control isn’t great, so many steps might be wrong. Just get a general idea, mainly focus on the two tis of thickening."
"Okay." Cao Guixiang nodded. Whether Qin Huai could see her gesture or not, she squinted, moving the phone away to see more clearly, but to no avail, so she called for her husband.
"Old Zhang! Old man, where are my reading glasses?"
Zhang Chu quickly ran from the woodworking room, fetched Cao Guixiang’s reading glasses from the TV cabinet, took a glance at the phone, noticed the new teaching angle, and casually asked:
"Why are you attending an online class this late at night?"
"Shh, keep your voice down, don’t disturb Xiao Qin." Cao Guixiang gestured for silence.
Zhang Chu chuckled, lowering his voice, "Don’t you usually chat to distract Xiao Qin on purpose? Why are you worried about disturbing him today?"
Cao Guixiang also lowered her voice, "Today’s different."
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