The "Smiling Buns" incident caused Huang Rong considerable distress. At night, lying in bed, she was still thinking about how to improve her cooking skills so that she could learn as quickly as Lu Xi. Was she not as smart as Lu Xi by nature?

No, she would never give up easily and was determined to surpass that little brat Lu Xi and become her younger brother's role model older sister.

The next day, in the kitchen of DouDou Tavern, a slender figure was busy. She was wearing a headscarf and a white apron, and she scooped a large ladle of flour into a basin to knead the dough.

The key to whether steamed buns are delicious lies in how well the dough is kneaded.

The dough needs to be fermented with a special fermented rice paste, which is leftover from the last time I made steamed buns. It needs to be dissolved in water.

She first stirred the flour with chopsticks into clumps, then tried to knead it by hand. It felt a bit dry, and the clumps were hard to form into a ball. Without thinking, she poured in some water. Before she could knead it much, she realized she had added too much water, so she had to add more flour. But after a while, she felt there was too much flour, so she added more water. No, too much water, so she added more flour.

This process was repeated over and over again, adding water and flour. What started as a small lump eventually became too big to fit in the large basin, so an even larger basin had to be used.

Unfortunately, the flour jar was almost empty, and she couldn't add any more flour. Looking at the full bowl of muddy flour, she fell into deep thought.

Lu Xi was the first to enter, and she was truly startled by the scene before her.

"Sister Rongrong, are you alright?" He was very suspicious of Huang Rong's mental state. She couldn't have done something like this unless she had been traumatized.

Huang Rong was feeling very uneasy, but she forced herself to remain calm in front of Lu Xi, saying, "I'm fine, what could possibly happen to me?"

Lu Xi's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. She pointed at the basin, trembling and unable to speak. How could she be so carefree after all this?

“This won’t do; you need to add more flour.” Lu Xi went straight to the point, walked to the flour vat, and was suddenly stunned. He had checked the flour vat before closing the shop last night, and there was still a little bit left. How come it was almost empty now, and he couldn’t even scoop it out?

He turned around and looked at the huge bowl full of noodles, and then he understood.

So, Huang Rong mixed a whole pot of flour.

"Are you sure Anrong won't scold you if you do this?" Lu Xi asked cautiously, afraid of upsetting her.

Huang Rong was indeed angry, but she was angry at herself for not being able to do such a small thing well. It seemed so simple. Every time she saw An Rong kneading the dough, rolling it into a ball, and wrapping it into a beautiful little bun, she felt that she could do it too. Who knew that after the last time she opened her mouth to laugh, she would now have such a mountain to climb.

Looking at the mountain of dough, Huang Rong sighed and regretted that she shouldn't have acted out of spite and ruined so much flour so early in the morning.

"Sister Rongrong, this dough won't rise." A small lump of fermented soybean paste can probably ferment three or four pounds of flour. She used half a vat of flour this time, and the amount of fermented soybean paste didn't increase, so naturally the dough won't rise.

"I know." Who asked him to be so nosy? She was also troubled about what to do. "What do you suggest?"

Seeing her looking worried, Lu Xi didn't want to upset her further, so she could only tell the truth: "We need to find Brother Anrong."

Brother Anrong knows a lot; he'll definitely have a solution.

"No!" Huang Rong grabbed Lu Xi's arm and pleaded, "You can't tell him."

If Brother Anrong knew she had wasted half a vat of flour, he'd probably be furious. Even if he did tell him, he'd wait until things were resolved before doing so.

Seeing her insistence, Lu Xi had no choice but to stop. "You're scared now, but you can't hide it from me."

Just as Lu Xi finished speaking, An Rong came in from outside. Seeing Huang Rong there, he was about to praise her for getting up early when he saw the basin on the table, filled with a tall little mountain of food.

"What's going on? Are we not going to live like this?" An Rong quickly checked the flour jar, and sure enough, it was empty.

Huang Rong stammered and couldn't speak for a long time.

Seeing her like this, Lu Xi stepped forward to help her out of the predicament.

"Brother Anrong, Sister Rongrong wanted to try making steamed buns herself; she meant well." But her good intentions backfired.

An Rong helplessly rubbed his forehead, pretending to have a headache.

She meant well, but she was clearly taking revenge. She's not a skillful person, so why insist on doing things that are impossible?

"Rongrong, it's good that you want to study hard, but you can't be stubborn. You should discuss things with others."

An Rong spoke calmly and gently, without a hint of reproach, which made Huang Rong blush. An Rong was right; he saw right through her and realized that she was just putting on a brave face.

"Brother Anrong, I know I was wrong. What should we do now?" The implication was that someone had to clean up this mess.

Even though An Rong had a lot of complaints in his heart, he couldn't say anything to a girl. He could only swallow his anger and look at Rong Rong with a self-reproachful expression. He still had to comfort her.

"It's alright, I'll handle it." An Rong scooped out the last bit of flour from the flour bin and put it into the flour basin. It was clearly not enough; the flour was still too mushy.

He went out for a while, and Huang Rong stood aside waiting, like a child who had done something wrong.

"Is Brother Anrong very angry?" Huang Rong watched Lu Xi light a fire to cook porridge.

Lu Xi shook her head, meaning she didn't know.

Huang Rong said definitively, "He must be angry. Although he didn't say anything, the more he acted like that, the more frightening it became."

After An Rong's face was disfigured, although it had recovered to about 70-80%, faint scars were still visible. Perhaps not wanting people to see the scars, An Rong stopped smiling, because smiling would make the scars more noticeable.

"Lu Xi, can you talk to me? My mind is in a mess right now." Huang Rong was restless, throwing the potato in her hand again and again, until it turned into mashed potatoes in no time.

"Don't be so mean to the potato." Lu Xi felt sorry for the potato; it was innocent.

Huang Rong then noticed that the potatoes were already broken and rotten, but that didn't affect their edibility.

"I asked you to comfort me, and you come here to care about potatoes. In your heart, I'm not even as good as a potato." She seized the opportunity to vent her pent-up grievances on Lu Xi.

“Brother Anrong didn’t say anything to you, why are you making yourself so upset?” Lu Xi was tending the fire, watching the water in the pot. After a while, the water boiled. He scooped a spoonful of cornmeal, dissolved it in water, and added a little baking soda to make the porridge taste better.

Huang Rong watched his every move with composure and confidence, captivating her attention.

"Lu Xi, why don't you teach me how to cook?"

Huang Rong opened her eyes wide, her bright eyes sparkling.

Lu Xi's face flushed, and she quickly lowered her head, not daring to look at her.