Yan Yifei wasn’t angry despite being ruthlessly mocked again. If Gan Lan hadn’t held his hand and taught him, he probably would have exploded with rage by now, only finding relief by pinning these mockers to the ground and beating them up.
But things were different now. He actually had to thank them for their mockery, which had softened Gan Lan’s heart and led to their first intimate contact. It felt as if he and Gan Lan had held hands, and for an entire minute, no less.
Yan Yifei held yet another failed bun in his palm, looking at Gan Lan with a pitiful expression.
Gan Lan was speechless. She wanted to ruthlessly reject this clumsy man and tell him to just sit quietly on the sidelines and watch. However, his pitiful look softened her heart once again. "Even when he’s just pretending to be pitiful, he looks so good. It’s way too unfair," she thought.
She once again took the clumsy Yan Yifei’s hands in hers and patiently taught him another time. Meanwhile, she silently vowed in her heart, "This is the last time. Next time, I will definitely reject him ruthlessly. I won’t be fooled by his pitiful act again!"
The clumsy man couldn’t help but let the corners of his mouth curl up. Being a kitchen disaster was actually pretty nice. Gan Lan had incredibly nimble hands, quickly finishing the bun. As for what she was saying, Yan Yifei didn’t hear a word. His entire attention was focused on the hands covering his own.
Wu Mingyu said indignantly, "Gan Lan, don’t be fooled by his face! You have no idea how much food he’s conned out of teachers and parents using that face. He’s incredibly shameless!
"My own mother was fooled by this thick-skinned guy quite a few times. She even snatched snacks right out of my hands, claiming we had more at home and she’d give them to me later. Just like that, she heartlessly handed my snacks over to the person we all thought was a little girl back then. Even after his true gender was revealed, his mom-fans only multiplied. I mean, I, Wu Mingyu, am very handsome too, okay!"
"Exactly!" Lu Ziyu strongly agreed, as he was also one of the victims. Not only had he been fooled, but even his dad had been deceived by Yan Yifei’s adorable face. It was a tragic history he didn’t want to recall at all.
"You guys just keep bringing up this same old thing over and over. Gan Lan must be sick of hearing it, so tell us something new!" Wen Ningyue chimed in. Although she was listening with great interest, she wanted to uncover more of Boss Yan’s unknown secrets.
"Alright, I’ll try my best not to get fooled next time," Gan Lan said, releasing Yan Yifei’s hands. She thought that the boss’s hands felt rather nice. Surprisingly, they were softer and more delicate than her own, even though he trained every day. Compared to his, she felt her own hands were much too rough.
Yan Yifei was speechless. He had tried his best to pretend he couldn’t hear their gossip, so why were they being so relentless? "A person really shouldn’t be too outstanding," he mused. Looking at the finished bun resting in his palm, a sense of loss washed over him. He wished Gan Lan could have taught him for a little longer.
He deliberately set aside the two buns he and Gan Lan had made together. He was going to treasure these two carefully.
"I’ll go steam a batch first. Keep up the good work, everyone, and Boss Yan, you need to work hard and improve too. I’m leaving the task of making buns to all of you." Before leaving, Gan Lan called Rong Liqun over and personally taught him how to make the dough skins for the spring rolls and soup dumplings.
The dough for the spring rolls was already prepared. Since it was essentially the same as dumpling wrappers, it didn’t require yeast for fermentation.
She showed him how to roll out small dough portions into round wrappers. After oiling the cutting board, she brushed an even layer of cooking oil onto each wrapper. She stacked the oiled wrappers, rolled them out into a thin sheet, and then placed them in a steamer for about ten minutes. As for the soup dumpling wrappers, they needed to be rolled out so the centers were thick and the edges were thin.
After demonstrating, Gan Lan handed the task over to Rong Liqun and went to prepare the filling for the crab roe soup dumplings.
She felt like they were short on hands. Gulu had run off to who knows where; she hadn’t seen him all day. It seemed it was time to let her friends learn some culinary skills. Aside from the clumsy Yan Yifei, everyone else showed great potential. How had she never noticed this before?
The process for making crab roe soup dumplings and regular soup dumplings was actually quite similar, with only the fillings differing. Both used pork skin aspic for the savory broth.
After heating the wok, she poured in a generous amount of lard—an essential ingredient. Next, she added scallions, ginger, and garlic, stir-frying them until fragrant. She then tossed in the freshly shelled crab roe and crab meat, stir-frying until any fishiness dissipated, and plated it for later use.
She added an appropriate amount of salt, cornstarch, white pepper, and minced scallions and ginger to the minced pork, mixing it thoroughly. Then, she diced the chilled, solid pork skin aspic.
She folded the diced aspic, crab roe, and crab meat into the minced pork, stirring vigorously until it became cohesive and springy. Halfway through, she added an appropriate amount of chicken broth and blended it evenly. The dough skins for the crab roe soup dumplings also didn’t require yeast for leavening.
During this process, Gan Lan called Lu Ziyu over to roll out the wrappers for the crab roe soup dumplings. After guiding him through it a few times, he got the hang of it and was doing an excellent job.
She then had Wen Ningyue and the senior assistant, Brother Li, come over to fold the crab roe soup dumplings. She demonstrated the technique several times before Brother Li finally learned it. Senior Wen was a bit slower to catch on, which was understandable since she had never done this before. Although her dumplings looked a little ugly, it wasn’t a big deal; doing this well after just a few tries was already very impressive.
Gan Lan was swamped. She sliced pork, onions, and carrots into thin strips, then chopped freshly washed chives into segments.
She heated oil in a pan. Once it was hot, she tossed in minced garlic and shredded onions, sautéing them until fragrant. She added a dollop of chili paste, frying it until the red oil seeped out, and then added the pork strips. Once the meat browned, she threw in shredded carrots, mung bean sprouts, salt, and chicken bouillon, stir-frying everything over high heat. Finally, she tossed in the chive segments, cooked them until soft, and plated the mixture.
She laid out a steamed spring roll wrapper on a plate, added a generous helping of the three-shred filling, and rolled it up. The three-shred spring roll was complete.
Yan Yifei, who was the least busy, finally received an assignment from Gan Lan: rolling the spring rolls. Surely he couldn’t mess this up.
Everyone else had their own tasks, while Yan Yifei sat in his chair, questioning his purpose in life after ruining who knows how many buns. Even Gao Haiyang, who had been watching him like a joke, now looked at him with sympathy. Yan Yifei would rather be mocked—what was with the pity?
Seeing Yan Yifei decently rolling the spring rolls, Gan Lan finally felt somewhat relieved. She had been genuinely worried that his clumsy hands would fail at this too. What if he completely shut himself away in despair?
Rolling spring rolls wasn’t difficult for Yan Yifei, but the aroma of the three-shred filling wafting through the paper-thin skins was absolute torture.
"Do you want to try one first?" Gan Lan asked. Seeing Boss Yan staring intently at the spring rolls while his hands were busy rolling them, she guessed he must be craving one. Using her gloved left hand, she picked up a spring roll she had just finished and offered it to his lips.
Yan Yifei looked up, his eyes crinkling in a soft smile. He opened his mouth and, right from Gan Lan’s hand, took a large bite of the spring roll. A sweet feeling filled both his mouth and his heart.
"Gan Lan is truly so considerate. I’m so lucky to like her," he thought. Even though he had been despised and mocked all day, he had gotten to hold hands with Gan Lan, and now it had escalated to her hand-feeding him! "Isn’t this progressing a bit too fast and getting too intimate?"
After feeding Yan Yifei, Gan Lan continued her feeding campaign. Wen Ningyue, Wu Mingyu, and the rest of the gang all took turns being hand-fed by her.
Yan Yifei was speechless. "What a player! I thought I was the only one getting this special treatment!" he thought indignantly.