Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Chapter 23: The Special Effect of the Undercover Rolled Pancake Has Appeared!...

Seeing the new random task, Chen Ran was momentarily stunned.

She had previously asked the system for an S-level recipe to practice flipping pancakes. What did the system say then?

Wasn’t it to remind her not to bite off more than she could chew by bringing up the previous task?

And what exactly is the true heart of a pastry chef? Isn’t it the system that gave her this rolled pancake recipe?

Damn!

Chen Ran deliberately ignored the black translucent system panel in front of her and looked up at Chen Tingwei opposite her.

“Hello, teacher. My name is Chen Ran. How should I address you?”

Chen Tingwei saw the young girl’s confident yet humble demeanor, and his desire to take an apprentice grew stronger.

“Oh, look at this old man of mine. My surname is Chen. Just call me Teacher Chen,” Chen Tingwei stepped aside and stood next to the food cart. “You focus on your business. You go ahead. I’ll watch your pancake rolling technique.”

He waited for Chen Ran to roll the dough but saw that she seemed a little nervous, holding the dough but hesitating to move.

“Be bold! I just saw the pancake you made; it’s much better than what I could do when I was young!”

Chen Tingwei observed Chen Ran from the side. Seeing her beautiful, square shoulders, he felt even more satisfied.

These arms! Perfect for pastry making! Full of strength!

“Teacher Chen, it’s nothing. I’m just stretching my back,” she said.

Her hands weren’t still because of nervousness, but because she couldn’t see the cutting board.

The previously translucent task panel had now become opaque!

Chen Tingwei praised Chen Ran’s dough: “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a student save flour so well... If fate allows us to be master and apprentice, my master’s house has a dim sum workshop — the kind with a shop in front and factory in back. You can be the manager there...”

Chen Ran protested to the system in her mind, “Wait, wasn’t it you who reminded me not to bite off more than I can chew?”

The system panel split into two layers!

On the opaque black random task panel, the rolled pancake task popped up again, and the completion score behind it shimmered as it was cut in half—from 10,000 to 5,000.

Cut in half!

Chen Ran felt somewhat satisfied.

The system was usually very aloof; being forced to this point was probably its limit.

Knowing when to stop.

She took advantage of raising her hand to wipe sweat, quickly accepted the task, and closed the panel.

While kneading dough, she politely declined the sudden offer from Professor Chen.

“Teacher Chen, I probably can’t be your apprentice. I already have a master.”

Chen Tingwei looked disappointed but not too surprised.

He could tell at a glance that this young girl was talented. Others might not see it. It was just a pity that such a good apprentice was out running a food cart.Chen Tingwei grew even friendlier: “Let’s add each other on WeChat. Even if the master-apprentice bond isn’t strong enough now, we can still exchange skills in the future. I think you, young lady, might catch up to me sooner than you expect, haha.”

The professor opposite him, who looked quite respected, had already said this much—what else could Chen Ran say? She quickly took off her gloves and added the professor on WeChat.

She noted him as “Pastry Chef Professor Chen” and said shyly, “Professor Chen, I have so many people waiting here… what do you think?”

“You focus on your work… forget it, I’ll help too!”

Chen Tingwei’s hands itched to work.

At his status, it was rare for him to cook personally. Even when he did, he seldom made these ordinary pancakes.

The last time he cooked personally was at a cultural restoration event, recreating Tang Dynasty desserts like Dian Yulu Tuan and Mi Fu Su Nai Hua.

Chen Tingwei stepped onto the food cart from the side, put on disposable gloves, took the dough from Chen Ran, and pressed it twice with his right hand.

He was a bit surprised inside.

This dough was softer than he had imagined!

Everyone knows that the softer the dough, the harder it is to work with. Some veteran dumpling shops, after decades, would choose to use a dough with a ratio of one jin flour to nine taels water—a soft dough that keeps the pancake from hardening or drying out even after a day.

But such dough is usually stirred up with chopsticks into a rough ball, quickly wrapped around the filling, then pressed by hand into a pancake shape in the pan.

These pancakes taste good but usually don’t look very nice. Very soft dough isn’t easy to roll out; it can only be pulled by hand.

But Chen Ran’s dough… was clearly made for rolling!

Chen Tingwei glanced again at Chen Ran, raised his left hand, picked up the dough and gently put it down. After thinking a moment, he sprinkled more flour, then carefully rolled it out with a rolling pin.

He effortlessly rolled out a pancake, then helped Chen Ran place it into the pan with the rolling pin. Though calm on the outside, inside he quietly rejoiced.

Fortunately, over the years, despite teaching duties, he hadn’t abandoned practical skills. Otherwise, today he would have embarrassed himself at this small stall!

Thinking this, he decided to inquire later about which great master had trained such a prodigious apprentice.

Chen Tingwei stepped back a pace: “Young person, very impressive.”

Chen Ran gave Chen Tingwei a smile and continued rolling out pancakes. It wasn’t that she disrespected the professor—she was simply too busy.

College students seemed to generate endless customers; they kept coming non-stop!

Xiao Li bent down to roughly count the dough pieces, then told Qingjiao Ge, “Thanks for your hard work, young man. Please tell those in line at the back they can’t queue anymore—there’s not that much dough left.”

He also casually handed Qingjiao Ge a pack of enoki mushrooms as a small reward.

Chen Tingwei left quietly at some point, which Chen Ran didn’t pay much attention to.

After all, her techniques had all been taught by the system’s recipes. Though officially it was the host and system, in her heart she truly regarded the system as her master.

More so than Chen Yuncong at the beginning, the system was like a real master.

“So tiring,” finally closing the stall, Xiao Li felt like his waist was about to break, “This is almost as exhausting as being on duty all day.”

Chen Ran also felt very tired, but she hadn’t realized how tough police duty could be.

“Is being on duty usually this tiring?”

Xiao Li laughed: “Physically, running the stall is exhausting, since you’re bent over all day rolling pancakes and collecting money. But the worry during police duty—that’s a different kind of exhaustion.”He tidied up the things on the food cart and stopped Chen Ran, who was about to get off to sweep the floor: “You sit for a bit, I’ll clean up. If Wang sees you working, won’t he scold me?”

Although Chen Ran had only been here a few days, no one in the station didn’t like this young girl!

She was good-looking, not delicate, capable of working, and on top of that, had superb cooking skills.

She had also helped their station a lot!

“We deserve to be tired. No one else can roll out the pancakes except you. For the rest, how could we let you help?”

Chen Ran watched Xiao Li busily sweeping food scraps around the cart and recalled what she had seen in the station these days.

She lived and ate at the police station, and when she returned from stall duty during the day, she often saw police officers going on calls.

Mediating disputes, finding people or objects, even residents calling because a snake had entered their home.

The tall and burly Wang Changhai answered a call from the command center and rushed over, his calves nearly cramping in fright, but he still calmly used a broom and dustpan to shove the snake into a burlap sack.

After returning to the station, Deputy Director Wang’s face was frighteningly pale. As soon as he entered, he sat down and drank two big cups of tea by the door.

Before coming to the station, Chen Ran had imagined police life to be exciting and thrilling—outsmarting criminals every day, tense and stimulating.

But actual police life was mundane, trivial, and sometimes a little frustrating.

Chen Ran and Xiao Li returned to the station and happened to run into a case.

An old man delivered by residents seemed to have dementia; he would open his mouth to curse and even hit. Chen Ran, watching nearby, was cursed at once. Director Gao was slapped on the face, even having his glasses knocked askew, but still patiently and carefully questioned the man.

At the same time, he reassured her: “Ranran, don’t be angry with him. This old man is confused! Shihan, take Ranran to buy two cups of milk tea—I’ll pay!”

Director Gao’s little fund lost twenty yuan.

Chen Ran asked Liu Shihan and learned that this old man wasn’t the first time to get lost and be brought to the station.

“Does this really fall under the police?”

After months of roaming the streets, Liu Shihan’s skin had tanned to a wheat color.

“Of course it’s the police’s job,” she said, taking a sip of milk tea, smiling with a single dimple on her face: “If you have problems, find the police!”

She patted Chen Ran: “The station already retrieved the equipment. Want to go see? Thanks to you, tomorrow we’ll have Xiao Li deliver the pork knuckle and install surveillance on it. Then we won’t worry about the kid getting into trouble.”

The police surveillance equipment looked small and inconspicuous, and Chen Ran’s eyes widened sharply.

The pinhole camera was about the size of her fingertip!

Director Gao watched Xiao Li fiddling with the equipment and warned the two girls: “Some of the hidden cameras outside are almost up to our technical level now. If you really need to stay somewhere, stay at a big hotel. Don’t be stingy about those few bucks—this money can’t be saved!”

Xiao Li added: “Tomorrow I’ll teach Ranran how to check. I have a homemade detector at home; I’ll bring it over for her tomorrow.”

The next day, when Xiao Li delivered the pork knuckle and tiger-skin green peppers, he took the opportunity to install the surveillance.

On the way back, Xiao Li quickly entered undercover mode, rolling pancakes while complaining to Chen Ran: “So many peppers for one pork knuckle. Asking him for seventy isn’t too much, right? That old guy said the knuckle was small and only gave forty!”

Including the deposit, it was only sixty yuan in total.

Chen Ran glanced toward the steel shed with the snake inside. With the surveillance installed, her tension eased a bit.

From now on, she just had to keep an eye out to see if anyone came to deliver things to the snake shed.“No problem, don’t worry, just focus on making the pancakes. We’ll watch over the rest.”

Undercover stakeout missions sound exciting but are actually quite boring. Chen Ran and Xiao Li teamed up and worked at this pancake cart for three days straight.

However, for Xiao Li, this mission wasn’t boring—just exhausting.

There were way too many customers!

Business these two days was even better than yesterday. Besides college students, many workers were attracted to line up. But unlike the idle college students, workers only queued around noon and evening.

Chen Ran’s mission progress steadily increased.

Xiao Li watched Chen Ran. He was so tired just collecting money and rolling pancakes that he didn’t want to talk.

But Chen Ran? She seemed to actually enjoy making the pancakes!

He couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you tired?”

Of course she was tired. Without the little jar of ointment Ms. Wang gave her, Chen Ran probably wouldn’t have been able to even lift her arm today.

But that was only physical fatigue.

The familiarity with skills gained from such an S-level recipe was unparalleled.

A pure white dough pancake dropped into the oil pan, slowly colored by heat and oil, changing from snowy white to golden yellow. The color, aroma, and texture were all gradually transforming.

Look at the color, feel the texture, smell the aroma.

Besides that, there was something she couldn’t clearly explain.

To pursue efficiency, commercial electric griddles have very strong heat; the fastest pancakes take only a few tens of seconds from going into the pan to coming out.

Mastering the heat during such a process was no easier than stir-frying major dishes.

Chen Ran began to feel that the system’s tasks and recipes probably had an internal logic.

One spatula scoop later, a perfect pancake came out!

The spatula sliced through the air; the pancake’s exterior was golden, while inside it was soft yet elastic.

Chen Ran heard the system’s ding.

After making pancakes for so many days, the flavor special effect was finally unlocked! Chen Ran was a little excited.

Before opening the system panel, she even guessed in advance: Was it related to law-abiding behavior? Or would criminals who ate it turn themselves in?

Neither.

Chen Ran looked at this flavor special effect, a bit surprised but also somewhat expected.

[Every pancake made involves the hardworking police officers from Qiaotoulu Police Station.]

[Their wish for everyone’s safety is infused into it.]

[Flavor Special Effect: Eating this pancake makes the eater feel safe, clearing all shadows in their heart.]

[Special Effect Limit: Pancakes made within 48 hours have this effect, limited to three times per year.]

They only hope… you stay safe.That's all.