"Brother Tang Lin, this cake shop is so beautiful, even better than I imagined. The overall layout and decoration are just perfect; there’s nothing that needs changing," Jiang Mianmian sincerely praised.
"Mianmian, you got that right. Your Brother Tang Lin really put a lot of effort into decorating this cake shop. He dragged us all over the place, got me all tanned and I even lost a few pounds because of it," Cheng An took the opportunity to boast.
Jiang Mianmian couldn’t hold back her laughter, "Haha, I was wondering why you looked much more robust than the last time we met... You haven’t gotten that tanned, and you’re still as handsome as ever."
"Hey, that’s because I have good genes," Cheng An, complimented, immediately changed his sulked expression and said proudly with his head held high.
"Cheng An, you have the nerve to say that, with your taste I can hardly trust you. I actually wanted to go with Yu Cheng, but you just had to shamelessly tag along," Tang Lin hit back unabashedly.
"Unappreciative, that’s what you are. Wasn’t it because I was afraid Boss Yu wouldn’t have the time? How could I stand by and watch you go it alone as your good brother?" Cheng An said as he went over and slung his arm around Tang Lin’s shoulders, speaking cheekily.
Tang Lin pushed Cheng An away with a look of disgust, "Stay away from me."
Jiang Mianmian watched Cheng An’s antics, laughing so hard she couldn’t straighten her back. Cheng An was really hilarious.
"Heartless and ungrateful guy. Mianmian, don’t follow their example, you hear?" Cheng An sidled up to Jiang Mianmian chattering away.
Tang Lin walked over and pushed Cheng An away, "Go on, go play over there, don’t interrupt me from discussing serious matters."
Cheng An pouted and reluctantly walked around the cake shop with his hands behind his back.
Tang Lin put his hand on Jiang Mianmian’s shoulder and led her to the cake shop’s preparation area, pointing at the materials inside, "Mianmian, look, we have eggs, flour, white sugar, milk—I’ve prepared all these. What else do you need? Just say it. Our shop is very close to the department store and the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, whatever is missing, we can have them go buy it."
"Hmm, Brother Tang Lin, these ingredients are enough. I’ll first teach them how to make the most basic cake. Once they have mastered that, it will be easy to make fruit cake or chocolate cake later," Jiang Mianmian explained.
"Alright, you take the lead on this." As the specialist in cake-making, Jiang Mianmian knew her craft, and Tang Lin didn’t interfere too much, directly handing over authority to her.
"Zhao Yu, Han Jing, come over here, I’ll teach you how to make cakes," Jiang Mianmian said to the two.
"Boss, you can call us Little Zhao and Little Han, no need for ’Brother,’" the two young men said, somewhat flattered.
They heard Jiang Mianmian calling those others ’Brother’, and they certainly didn’t dare to put themselves on the same level, letting the boss call them that.
Jiang Mianmian glanced at Yu Cheng, who nodded, "Mianmian, you are the boss, it’s indeed not fitting to call your own employees ’Brother’. You should listen to them."
"Hmm, okay," Jiang Mianmian nodded in agreement.
Jiang Mianmian reviewed the items in the preparation area and found that Tang Lin had everything well prepared, not only the various materials but even a small kitchen scale for her use.
Born to be a businessman!
As Jiang Mianmian worked, she discussed important details, including the ratios of sugar, milk, eggs, and flour.
The two apprentices watched and listened intently, carefully taking notes in their notebooks.