Eventually, Qin Huai successfully finished chopping all the radishes before 4 PM, leaving the kitchen to Cao Guixiang to cook.

Qin Huai watched from the side, taking the opportunity to rest.

Cao Guixiang considerately prepared a hot towel, lest Qin Huai's wrist and arm couldn't handle the heavy vegetable chopping for two consecutive days.

Cao Guixiang was planning to make a grand feast that evening.

Most of the dishes were ones Qin Huai had eaten before, like Steamed Chicken with Mushrooms, Braised Shark Fin, Braised Duck Liver, Two-Color Shrimp, Tan's Beef, Braised Pork with Pickled Vegetables, and Golden Soup with Bamboo Shoots. The ingredients for these dishes had mostly been prepared in advance. If it wasn't for the Luzon grouper arriving later than expected, Qin Huai could have enjoyed the feast last night. Many dishes had all possible preparations completed days in advance.

Only one dish started from scratch with the main ingredient, and it was also the only dish Qin Huai hadn't eaten before.

Stuffed Yellow Fish Soup.

Considering Qin Huai probably didn't know what Stuffed Yellow Fish Soup was, Cao Guixiang gave a simple introduction, similar to Huang An Yao's style, while cooking.

In one sentence: Stuffed Yellow Fish Soup is a famous dish in the Man Han Banquet, and also a standard Shandong cuisine dish.

Since it involves the Man Han Banquet, the ingredients used must be very luxurious. Cao Guixiang had mentioned to Qin Huai more than once that many famous dishes and good dishes aren't necessarily very difficult to make, but the treatment of the ingredients must be extremely complex and lavish.

Cao Guixiang knows how to make many top-notch famous dishes, but she rarely makes them on regular days. They are usually made as rewards during festivals or when Zhang Zhiyun and Chang Qingqing achieve outstanding exam results, for her grandchildren.

Cao Guixiang had to admit that these famous dishes are famous for a reason; they taste certainly not bad and have a high potential. It's not due to cost why she doesn't want to make them for her family; it's mainly because they are troublesome. Not to mention, just making the soup stock for these dishes requires starting several days in advance.

If the family could eat these grand dishes daily, the children wouldn't be satisfied, and Zhang Zhiyun and Chang Qingqing wouldn't be motivated to work hard for better food. When it comes to really rewarding the children, there would be nothing suitable to offer.

Cao Guixiang has her unique way of taking care of children.

Qin Huai agreed very much with Cao Guixiang's philosophy. Although he didn't have children, he had a younger sister. Over the years, Qin Huai applied the same policy to Qin Luo; good snacks can't be eaten every day—they must be controlled in quantity and quality.

With Qin Luo's personality, if she gets too much good stuff for too long, she would become picky, making it hard for her to strive for snacks.

Qin Huai watched as Cao Guixiang used chopsticks to remove the innards of the big yellow fish.

Stuffed Yellow Fish Soup requires a yellow fish weighing at least two and a half pounds. In theory, the bigger the yellow fish, the better. The main ingredient is yellow fish, with accessories like shark fin, ham, sea cucumber, abalone, shrimp, dried scallops, and large sea shrimp. This is the full version of Stuffed Yellow Fish Soup. To make a simpler version, you just pick a few from the accompaniments. Cao Guixiang, to give Qin Huai the best taste in one go, used Luzon grouper for the shark fin.

From the ingredients, it's clear that the primary focus of Stuffed Yellow Fish Soup is the freshness, a pure sea freshness.

After removing the innards, the entire fish needs to be deboned.

Back when at Huang Ji, most of the grand dishes made by Huang Shengli required deboning. Whether it was Braised Silver Carp Head, Braised Whole Pig's Head, or Three Course Duck, all tested the chef's deboning skills, essentially knife skills.

Back then, Huang Shengli didn't hide his cooking from Qin Huai, and of course, there was nothing to hide, as Qin Huai truly didn't understand at that time.

At that time, Qin Huai's Knife Skills were only Basic because the game's system had the lowest rating of Basic.

Now, Qin Huai's Knife Skills have greatly improved, rising to Intermediate after a flash of insight, but can he understand Cao Guixiang's deboning?

The answer is: not really.

For the apprentice Xiao Qin who was still striving to cut paper-thin radish slices like cicada's wings, trying to understand how Cao Guixiang completely deboned a big yellow fish was really too difficult.

Cao Guixiang didn't use any fancy movements like with thickening. Qin Huai felt she just used a small knife to insert it through the fish mouth into the belly, twisted it randomly a few times, stood the fish upright, and pulled it apart a couple of times. After hearing two clicks, the deboning was done.

It was plain and simple, yet like a magic trick.

Seeing Qin Huai's puzzled face, Cao Guixiang couldn't help but laugh as she explained: "From a certain perspective, these deboning techniques don't belong to Knife Skills; rather, they are a skill in themselves."

"The techniques and methods for deboning fish, whole chicken, whole duck, and pigeon are all different and require practice. The chef needs to be meticulous, acting lightly when necessary, with force when required, decisively without any hesitation."

"Of course, with your current Knife Skills level, you definitely couldn't practice these techniques. To practice them, you need a certain foundation in Knife Skills. Right now, you're just at the entry level, not having reached the required threshold."

Qin Huai: ...

Intermediate Knife Skills are just entry-level; truly the most fundamental of fundamentals. He'd better stick to slicing his radishes.

After handling the yellow fish, Cao Guixiang began the simple marination process. Qin Huai casually asked, "Master, how long does the fish need to marinate?"

"Not long, just two hours," said Cao Guixiang.

Qin Huai: "Aren't we starting dinner at 6:30 PM today?"

Qin Huai remembered that Cao Guixiang had mentioned the dining time was 6:30 PM. Any earlier and Zhang Zhiyun and Chang Qingqing, who hadn't finished school, couldn't catch up, and any later, these two growing kids would be hungry and gnawing at the kitchen door.

"That's right, but the yellow fish for Stuffed Yellow Fish Soup needs to marinate for two hours, and after that, it needs to air-dry for another 12 hours," said Cao Guixiang.

"Huh?" Qin Huai was bewildered.

Seeing Qin Huai's expression, Cao Guixiang couldn't help but laugh again: "Alright, I was just teasing. This yellow fish is for tomorrow. The one we're eating today, I prepared yesterday."

"That's how these grand meat dishes are; the more famous and exquisite they are, the more trouble it takes. Otherwise, I wouldn't be reluctant to make them. Spending over a dozen hours to make such a dish is hardly worth it compared to casually making braised pork and stir-frying some green veggies with rice."

"I'd love to eat like this every day if I could, but cooking like this every day, why would I have retired in the first place? I might as well have stayed in the restaurant to work some more years; who knows, the restaurant might end up being mine."

Qin Huai realized that Cao Guixiang truly enjoyed teasing kids, and his dear master was always treating him like one too.

"But master, it seems that every time I stay at your house, I eat very well," Qin Huai said softly, "it's always grand dishes and fine food, with many ingredients that Grandpa Zhang specifically orders from suppliers."

"Of course, Xiao Qin, when you're at home, you eat well. Do you know how much Yunyun and Qingqing like you? While you were away, they asked me more than once: 'When will Brother Qin Huai come back? Will he return to learn cutting vegetables? Will Brother Qin Huai make buns, dumplings, and tangyuan next time he comes back to learn cutting vegetables?'"

"Those two little foodies have found their chance. They didn't study seriously this semester, so their exam results weren't great and they couldn't eat good dishes. They were counting on your return every day."

"At dinner today, make sure not to reveal anything. Just say I only made this one grand meal."

"Absolutely!" Qin Huai promised. Deceiving kids was something he was good at.

"But..." Qin Huai wanted to ask more, as he took off the hot towel from his wrist, "Master, why make so many grand dishes?"

"It really looks very troublesome."

"Because I'm the master," Cao Guixiang smiled, "It's a common practice for a master to prove their skills to their apprentice, to show off a bit, to cook a table full of good dishes and lure the apprentice in."

"Not to mention, now that I've got you, I have to make the apprentice feel it wasn't for nothing."

"I'm a conscientious master. You didn't kowtow and serve tea to me, so I won't give you red envelopes during the holidays, but I must let the apprentice taste some good dishes."

Cao Guixiang blinked her eyes.

"Make sure not to slip up in front of Yunyun and Qingqing tonight. These two kids have had loud voices since they were little. When they cry, it's like an alarm clock. At my age, it hurts my ears to listen."

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