Chapter 7: Dim Sum

As soon as it hit 5:30 PM, An Songyu immediately headed to the staff cafeteria with the other front desk staff in the first wave.

Thanks to the convenience of her location, Yu Yingying, who had arrived a step earlier, had been keeping her eyes on the cafeteria entrance.

The moment she saw An Songyu’s figure appear, she hurriedly stood up and waved.

An Songyu had also been looking around as soon as she entered the cafeteria.

Seeing her good friend, she immediately waved back in response.

A colleague beside her said with extra envy

"That’s so nice, did your friend bring some pastries over again?"

An Songyu pursed her lips and smiled, not answering directly.

Xianquan Hotel prioritized service, and the kitchen department was initially divided only into the hot kitchen and the cold/pastry kitchen.

As it developed to the present day, the Western-style pastries within the pastry kitchen had gained significant momentum.

However, under the rich morning tea culture of the entire South Province, no matter how strong this new force of Western pastries was, it could still only be considered one of many branches of the pastry kitchen.

Yu Yingying and An Songyu were college classmates and even lived in the same dormitory.

It was just that she had come to the South Province from another province for her studies.

During the internship season before graduation this year, her family had already arranged a hotel for her in her hometown.

But compared to being an assistant to a Western pastry chef at the Xianquan Hotel versus being a front desk receptionist at a hotel back home, she chose to come here with her good friend without hesitation.

After all, the reason she had this internship opportunity in the first place was because An Songyu had specifically gone to fight for it for her after seeing the job posting upon entering the hotel.

And as a college student majoring in hotel management, Yu Yingying knew even better that after missing this opportunity, she would likely never have such a close-up chance to come into contact with Western pastries again.

This thing that she loved from the bottom of her heart...

After An Songyu queued up for her meal, she told her colleague and quickly walked over to sit opposite her friend.

Yu Yingying, who was gripping her chopsticks tightly and staring greedily at the lunchbox containing the pastries, unable to tear her eyes away, opened the box before An Songyu had even fully sat down.

Inside the box was a whole container of salted cream box cake.

The three layers of cake and snow-white cream exuded the unique aroma of Western pastries.

It was topped with a generous layer of fruit and moisture-proof powdered sugar.

At a single glance, it was as if the delicious taste from An Songyu’s memories had been awakened.

Yes, even after more than twenty years, seeing this pastry again, she could instantly recall the delicious taste in her memory.

Without needing her friend to invite her, An Songyu picked up her fork and shoveled a large piece into her mouth.

The exquisite texture of the fruit combined with the cake and cream instantly immersed An Songyu.

It wasn't until the entire box of salted cream cake had been eaten clean by the two of them that they couldn't help but smile at each other.

"Does the cake base seem extra fluffy today?" An Songyu asked while savoring the aftertaste, slowly starting on her main meal.

"Right? Ah Yu, your palate has become sharp!" Yu Yingying stared at her friend with wide eyes, looking quite disbelieving.

An Songyu smiled with a mix of hesitation and embarrassment.

She had forgotten that even though she had returned to her own body, she didn't even remember what she was like twenty years ago.

Fortunately, Yu Yingying was just making a casual remark.

She was more interested in the evaluation her friend had just made

"Ah Yu, today's cake base is chiffon; the last few times it was sponge cake."

"Chiffon cake is fluffier, while sponge cake is more elastic."

"But I love both of them so much!"

"However, Ah Yu, do you know who made the pastry we ate today?"

An Songyu was slightly stunned. She subconsciously looked at her friend, who was full of pride.

She couldn't help but feel a stir in her heart. "Could it be... you made it?"

Could it be that her friend’s path as a pastry chef started right now?

Thinking this, An Songyu narrowed her eyes slightly, looking at her friend who was nodding directly at her.

In the past, after completing the three-month internship, An Songyu and Yu Yingying had returned to school to finish their pre-graduation requirements.

But after they received their diplomas, they realized that there were no hotels at home for them to manage.

Having chosen this hotel management major, the lucky ones after graduation could enter the lower levels of hotel management and slowly, step by step, truly put what they had learned into practice.

But more of them were like they were now.

Starting from the bottom of the hotel, even after working hard for twenty years, they were only small managers capable of managing the lower levels of a hotel.

It wasn't that it had nothing to do with what they had studied, but it was certainly difficult for them to put their knowledge to use.

So later, many of An Songyu’s classmates changed careers.

Or they used the hotel as a platform to look for other opportunities.

And the life of Yu Yingying before her was even more colorful.

After the internship at Xianquan Hotel ended, Yu Yingying, who loved Western pastries, did indeed say goodbye to them for a while.

But when she returned to her hometown, she could only start from the bottom of hotel management.

And for five full years, after experiencing marriage and childbirth, with no changes in her career, she didn't hesitate to start her own business once handmade Western pastries began to flourish at the time.

Twenty years later, although her career hadn't developed very satisfactorily—and even the traditional pastry skills she had learned with such difficulty were no longer outstanding under the pressure of large chain cake shops—regardless of how she saw herself, or how An Songyu saw her, she was not a failure.

An Songyu’s thoughts drifted.

Yu Yingying was still enthusiastically talking about the skills she had learned that morning, as well as the situations of the other two people in their dormitory, other people at school, and so on.

In short, in just one lunch, An Songyu had a clearer concept of her interpersonal relationships at school and in the workplace twenty years ago.

After they finished their lunch, seeing that there was still some time left, they didn't rush to leave.

"Xiao Yu, is the hotel very busy today?" Yu Yingying asked, thinking about how they had been chatting just now. "I saw you just eating the whole time, looking like you didn't even want to talk."

An Songyu subconsciously wanted to shake her head.

But thinking about the work she had been busy with this afternoon, she couldn't help but nod.

The flow of people in the hotel today wasn't just busy; it could even be called cold.

The second day of the second lunar month in the South Province, while not a major festival, was still celebrated in many places.

But even with twenty years of future work experience, An Songyu still needed to familiarize herself with the specific details of her current job, the operating systems of old-fashioned computers, and so on as quickly as possible.

Sometimes, the work experience she brought from the future was too advanced, or the convenient office methods she was used to using caused great trouble for her current familiarization.

So, for this half of the day, An Songyu could be said to have had almost no free time.

Yu Yingying nodded in understanding.

She had been working in the pastry room.

For a festival like this, with a Chinese restaurant, a Western restaurant, a morning tea hall, and even a pastry shop and various entertainment areas, it would indeed only be busier!

Seeing that their lunch break was over, the two of them hurriedly tidied up their trays and headed straight back to their workstations.