Chapter 275: Chapter 275: Five-Spice Cake

According to Fu Chao’s plan, they would probably spend most of the last few days of filming in this small food factory.

The factory manager and Master Xu Jin had both tried to talk them out of it.

However, no one, not even Nan Zhi, had any objections.

The factory manager and Master Xu Jin figured, why not just... give it a try?

And so, this hastily arranged sales livestream came to be.

The food factory only provided the venue.

Everything else, even the set decorations, had been brought over from the mountains. They had just been used in Nan Zhi’s cooking class yesterday and were now being put to use again.

Fu Chao and the others handled everything themselves, from planning the rundown to setting up the backdrop. All of this was filmed as behind-the-scenes footage, which the production team would probably include in a special episode of the show later.

Because it was a last-minute plan, the scene that greeted the audience when they opened the livestream was a total mess.

The audience was a little confused:

[Did I hear that right? A sales livestream?]

[What the heck? Why is a kids’ show doing this now? Is the ultimate fate of everything a sales livestream?]

[I’m out, I’m out. I came here for a cooking class, not to spend money!]

[Hey, that’s not right. Weren’t people just clamoring for the show to do a sales livestream a couple of days ago? Why the sudden change of heart?]

[Exactly! Stop finding fault already. I believe that if Nan Zhi is involved, it’s guaranteed to be high-quality!]

[It’s probably the buckwheat crisps they ate yesterday, right? If it’s that, I’m actually interested. I might buy some to try.]

[Is Nan Zhi making them herself? If she is, I’m buying out their entire stock!]

[Probably not. Nan Zhi said this is a food factory.]

[This is actually a good thing. Last time, we heard Master Xu Jin talk about the factory’s struggles. What Nan Zhi and the others are doing is basically a form of charity, right?]

[Helping them out is temporary. The food tasting good is what really matters. I’ll buy some products to support them out of goodwill, but I’m not optimistic about the future of this livestream.]

...

From dissatisfaction to rationality, and then to doubt.

The audience’s emotions were on a roller coaster, constantly rising and falling.

However, they soon had no time to think about anything else.

Because Nan Zhi had started her sales livestream, and surprisingly, she was taking an incredibly original approach: making the products live on camera.

She was the teacher, and the kids were her students.

Looked at that way, it could also be considered a parent-child activity.

The kids definitely couldn’t make them on their own, so Fu Chao, Qi Pei’er, and Xie Yu had to join in too.

The food factory also assigned Xiao Qi and others to monitor the real-time sales data.

One of the few young salespeople at the factory lowered his voice and said to Xiao Qi:

"The comments don’t look good. It seems like people don’t like this."

Xiao Qi, however, was much calmer:

"Don’t worry. Just wait for Teacher Nan to show her skills. Things will definitely be different in a bit!"

The young salesperson nodded in agreement:

"Then I’ll post the purchase links later. Let’s watch Teacher Nan first!"

Nan Zhi, who held everyone’s high hopes, had already led the kids to wash their hands.

Nan Yi, in particular, held his hands up high:

"Mommy, look!"

Nan Zhi didn’t just give a cursory glance; she inspected them carefully, not even missing the gaps under his fingernails:

"Mm, very clean."

Nan Yi pursed his lips in satisfaction.

Who would’ve thought the other three kids would see this and follow his example.

Xie An’an was the first to present her fair little hands. "Auntie Zhizhi, look at me!"

Xie Yu, who was helping his daughter wipe the water from her hands, suddenly found her hand snatched away...

Wherever there was excitement, there was Qing Xi. "Me too! Super clean!"

Fu Chao: "...You haven’t even finished washing them!"

Qi Zhang followed the trend in a daze. "What about me? Auntie Zhizhi, can you look?"

Qi Pei’er: "Your auntie can look too!"

Faced with the kids all clamoring for her attention, Nan Zhi patiently soothed them and looked at each one in turn.

"Yes, they’re all great. But it would be even better if Xiao Xi rinsed off the soap suds."

Qing Xi, who was usually very impatient with his uncle, was exceptionally well-behaved in front of Nan Zhi, nodding his head like he was pounding garlic.

Nan Yi glanced at the three little sycophants beside him and huffed.

Although he was annoyed, he didn’t get angry and throw a tantrum like before.

Day by day, he was growing more confident.

Nan Zhi smiled faintly.

Moreover, she didn’t forget the audience behind the camera, reminding them not to forget to wash their hands and clean up properly, just as if she were talking to children.

The audience, who were suddenly being treated like little kids: ...

You know, this is actually pretty interesting!

Next, Nan Zhi mentioned several new products from the food factory, many of which were traditional pastries she had personally recreated from ancient recipes.

To give the customers a better understanding of the entire production process, Nan Zhi decided to just demonstrate it from start to finish.

While she was at it, she would also teach the children how to make the pastry together.

While preparing the ingredients, Nan Zhi casually mentioned:

"Western pastries are generally made with a wheat flour base. Techniques like thorough mixing and timely fermentation result in a soft, dense texture with a strong, milky aroma. Chinese pastries, on the other hand, typically use glutinous rice flour and regular rice flour. They can be either fermented or unfermented and are steamed over water. This generally results in a firmer, slightly coarser texture. We have to acknowledge this objective difference."

[That doesn’t sit right with me.]

[How can she say that? Our Chinese pastries are the best!]

[Nan Zhi isn’t completely dismissing Chinese pastries. She’s just pointing out a difference in texture!]

[Yeah, some people like soft textures, but I love the texture of Chinese pastries!]

[Don’t jump to conclusions. Let’s hear what Nan Zhi says next...]

...

But then, Nan Zhi immediately dropped a bombshell:

"So I’ve improved the recipe to give it a softer, more delicate texture."

[??? Improved the recipe?]

[How does she make something so amazing sound so easy?]

[Don’t tell me she just changed a tiny detail and is calling it her own original creation?]

[Isn’t that what some of these ’innovative’ dishes do nowadays? They change the plating, call it original, and add a zero to the price...]

[I don’t think Nan Zhi would do that. She has no need for such pretentiousness.]

...

The first pastry Nan Zhi taught was called Five-Spice Cake.

It was a pastry first recorded in the Southern Song Dynasty’s *Zhongkui Lu*, and its recipe could still be found in major cookbooks during the Qing Dynasty, making it a truly classic pastry.

Many recipes have been lost to the river of time, but the recipe for this Five-Spice Cake has been well-preserved for several hundred years with almost no changes. This is inextricably linked to its health benefits.

According to Nan Zhi, true to its name, the main ingredients in Five-Spice Cake are five aromatic Chinese medicinal herbs: Gordon Euryale seed, ginseng, atractylodes rhizome, poria, and amomum fruit.

These are ground into a powder, mixed in proportion, and then combined with glutinous rice flour and regular rice flour. The sweetness is adjusted with a syrup made from dissolved white sugar. The mixture is then formed into a cake batter and finally steamed.

Just by looking at the process, you could tell that a Five-Spice Cake made with five types of medicinal powders wouldn’t have a good texture, and its flavor wouldn’t be the sweet fragrance that children love.

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