"Boss Huang, it's getting late. I should take my leave now. Let's keep in touch by phone!"

Ma Deqiang finished his hot water, then waved to Old Qin: "Elder Qin, let's go!"

"Alright..." Old Qin put down his teacup and responded cheerfully.

Huang Tao got up to see them off: "Take care, you two..."

"Boss Huang, no need to see us out, please stay."

Ma Deqiang smiled and gestured to Huang Tao to stay put, then walked out towards the restaurant door, hands behind his back, looking energetic.

The next second, he heard a child's voice: "Goodbye, Mr. Qin, goodbye, Mr. Ma..."

Ma Deqiang: "........................"

He looked at the starry sky, suddenly feeling a bit lost.

He knew he looked old, but it was the first time he realized he looked old enough to be called grandpa by a kid.

At that moment, he felt complicated inside.

From the bottom of his heart, he didn't want to accept that title.

But when he turned and met those clear, lake-like eyes, watching her angelic, pure smile, waving at them obediently.

He sighed and let it go.

This child, despite her poor eyesight, was truly impeccable in her manners and actions.

She's a polite, good kid.

"Hey! Alright, Elder Qin understands..."

Old Qin nodded and smiled at Xuanxuan, then turned to the 45-year-old Ma Deqiang beside him: "?????"

But when his eyes landed on Ma Deqiang's grayish hair, Old Qin understood.

Ah!

This is a misunderstanding caused by gray hair!

Old Qin felt no waves in his heart; he even wanted to laugh a little.

Keeping a straight face, Old Qin politely asked: "Manager Ma, would you like to come over to my place for a while?"

"No, no, I won't disturb your rest. I'll visit another day to catch up with you," Ma Deqiang, now coming back to his senses, waved off.

"Alright then, see you another day..."

The two parted ways, each going home to their families...

After they left, Xuanxuan ran with her little legs to Huang Tao, grabbed his hand, and asked, "Daddy, when does the food festival you're attending start?"

The little one had her own little calculations, and of course, her father understood.

He smiled and patted Xuanxuan's little head: "Hmm, November 11th."

"Can I go with you, Daddy?" She looked up with expectant eyes, shaking his hand coquettishly.

He squatted down, touching Xuanxuan's cheek, and said: "You can! But the condition is... it has to be when you're on vacation from school..."

Hearing this, the little one's just pouting lips drooped down again.

She puckered her lips a bit discontentedly.

"But Daddy can check which day it is and see if it's a rest day." He brushed his finger gently on her little nose, took out his phone, and showed it to her with a wave.

The little girl's face instantly went from cloudy to sunny, her bright eyes curving into crescent moons, giving him a sweet smile and urging: "Yay yay... Daddy, check the calendar on your phone, see if it's a vacation day?"

"Alright... Daddy will check..." He swiped the phone screen and started flipping through the calendar with her.

Whoa!

What a coincidence.

It turns out November 11 is a Saturday~

If the little one knew, she'd be overjoyed!

Xuanxuan, seeing that her father wasn't responding, anxiously grabbed his arm and eagerly asked: "Daddy, is it a holiday... Daddy, say something, Daddy, tell Xuanxuan..."

"Mm, it's just right, it's Saturday. You can go for two days!"

"Yay..."

Xuanxuan was as happy as a little oriole jubilantly chirping through the forest, hooked her arms around Daddy's neck, and gave him a smack of a kiss.

Then she giggled and ran to tell her grandpa and grandma the good news: "Grandpa, Grandma, I can go to the food festival with Daddy, and stay for two days~"

The old couple nodded with smiles, feeling joy and pride that their son was invited to participate in this year's food festival.

Thinking about the festival being on a weekend, they planned to come and help out.

"Really! That's wonderful..."

"Yes, indeed~"

The little one jumped around merrily, like an elf dancing.

Then she ran to the kitchen and happily announced: "Uncle Haozi, Aunt Suqin, Sister Yuhan, Sister Qiumo, I can go to the food festival with Daddy..."

Huang Tao couldn't help but chuckle.

This little one, eager to let the whole world know!

Upon hearing the news, Xu Hao and the others were both surprised and delighted.

The surprise was that the business bureau's manager came to invite the boss to this year's food festival.

The food festival has always invited five-star hotels and well-known restaurants in past years.

And small eateries are usually not included!

So Delicious being invited this time undoubtedly broke the usual pattern!

The joy was that being part of the food festival was a great opportunity to expand Delicious Restaurant's popularity, which would boost their business even further.

Xu Hao and the others were full of anticipation, rushing to congratulate Huang Tao.

Xu Hao and Ding Suqin both passionately promised to work hard, and cheerfully ensure that Delicious Restaurant will shine at the food festival...

"Great, it will require your efforts at the time."

Huang Tao smiled, considering that participating in the food festival would indeed require a lot of preparation both in terms of mind and manpower.

Probably need to hire some temporary workers to help by then!

Thinking there's still some time, I'll have to plan carefully to avoid panicking and becoming a laughing stock.

"No need to be so polite, boss. It's not hard, not hard at all..."

"Haozi, Suqin, if you guys are done tidying up, you can head back first..."

After saying that, Huang Tao turned to Lin Yuhan and instructed, "Yuhan, get ready, I'll teach you how to make crab stir-fried cake in a bit."

"Alright, Boss Huang, I'll get ready..." Lin Yuhan took the apron that Ding Suqin handed over, and while putting it on, she headed to the kitchen.

Xu Hao looked tenderly at Shen Qiumo beside him, smiling, "Qiumo, I'll walk you back to school..."

"Sure!" Shen Qiumo smiled gently.

The two of them said "See you tomorrow" to Huang Tao and the others, then walked out of the store.

Behind them came Xuanxuan's childish voice saying, "Haozi Uncle, Qiumo Sister, bye-bye, see you tomorrow."

Xu Hao sighed helplessly in his heart.

Calling her sister and me uncle, this hierarchy is a bit messed up...

But what else can you do?

You can only forgive little cutie Xuanxuan...

Meanwhile, Lin Yuhan was flipping through a small notebook.

This notebook recorded her afternoon of observing Huang Tao making crab stir-fried cake.

It detailed how many grams of sugar, how much soy sauce and other seasonings to use, the temperature the oil should be when frying, and how long to stir-fry, etc.

Almost everything was quantified.

That's all Huang Tao could think of doing; she's a cooking novice, and teaching her something complicated, she wouldn't get it, right.

So he could only try to quantify everything, so Lin Yuhan could get a straightforward sense of it.

Now, with renewed understanding, she closed the notebook, ready to start the hands-on experience.

She put a clawing blue crab in the sink, moving on to the step she was dreading the most: processing it.

She put on rubber gloves, grabbing a brush in one hand and swiftly pinched the crab's belly button, rinsing it under the running water until it was clean.

She placed the cleaned crab on the cutting board.

Picking up the kitchen knife, she swung it a few times but hesitated to cut down.

"You must cooperate with me... so I can give you a swift cut, letting you die quickly..."

She raised the kitchen knife, talking to the crab.

"Hmm, hold the knife firmly, don't raise it so high..." Huang Tao stood at the door with arms crossed, slightly leaning towards the threshold.

This posture clearly showed he was afraid of being hit by accident...

"Alright, Boss Huang..."

Lin Yuhan took a glance, aimed the kitchen knife at the crab on the cutting board, and with a sigh of sorrow, suddenly chopped down hard.

The crab was instantly split in two.

She then chopped the crab into smaller pieces.

But with its strong vitality, the crab's limbs still twitched even when it was in fragments.

She turned to Huang Tao for help, "Boss, these crab legs are still dancing around, they look like they're in pain, what do I do?"

"Cook them thoroughly, and they won't be in pain anymore." Huang Tao calmly replied.

"Alright!"

She began working.

Marinated the crab pieces with salt and white wine.

Then started slicing rice cake strips.

Though a bit slow, the thickness was fairly even.

Passable!

"Before frying, the crab must be coated with cornstarch. During frying, the starch locks in the crab's nutrients and freshness, so the meat needs to be coated with starch, but not too thick, just evenly. Yes, exactly like that, alright, alright, that's fine..." Huang Tao assisted, pointing out her shortcomings.

With all preparations finished,

Lin Yuhan followed Huang Tao's instructions, pouring oil into the pot, and when it was six/seven parts heated, she put the coated crab pieces in to fry.

When they turned red, she added the crab pincers and shells to the pot to fry.

"That's enough, now you can add the sliced rice cake to continue frying..."

Lin Yuhan quickly poured the rice cake strips into the oil to fry along.

When the starch on the crab turned golden brown, Lin Yuhan still stirred with a spoon.

Huang Tao quickly said, "That's enough, that's enough, scoop it out first."

Lin Yuhan also quickly scooped out the crab pieces first.

Then used soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, and ginger to simmer in the pot, forming a sauce.

Once the sauce was ready, she poured the fried crab and rice cake back into the pot to stir-fry over high heat.

"After putting the crab and rice cake in the pot, start stir-frying quickly, make sure to stir-fry quickly and evenly, this way the sauce will thicken well, it can't exceed the time, or it definitely won't work."

Even though Huang Tao gave directions beside her.

The stir-fried crab cake still ended up a bit overdone after being served.

Lin Yuhan looked crestfallen, "It really was just a few seconds too long, and it's already overdone. It looks like I haven't fully mastered it yet..."

"Don't be discouraged, doing this well the first time is already very good. I believe it'll get better and better each day." Huang Tao encouraged.

"Thank you, I'll keep working hard."

"It's getting late, you should head back early to rest! On your way back, be careful." Huang Tao reminded.

"Okay, Boss Huang, I'll tidy up the kitchen and then head back..."

With that, she swiftly began cleaning the kitchenware.

Seeing this, Huang Tao didn't say anything more and let her be.

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