Free Web NovelChapter 541: Chapter 487: I Treated You as a Good Colleague, but You Poached Right in Front of Me!
In the spacious and bright classroom of the kindergarten class (2).
A group of kindergarten children were divided into three groups by Cai Jingxian, ten in each group, gathered around a "giant dining table" formed by small tables pieced together. On each group’s table was a large tray, with strings of enticing hawthorns neatly arranged, ready to be transformed.
Cai Jingxian, Zheng Yujia, and Wu Meijuan, the three teachers, wearing various aprons like guardians, stood beside a large iron pot, attentively assisting the children with the spatula, jointly concocting the essential syrup for making candied hawthorns.
As the heat increased...
The sugar in the pot slowly melted, gradually boiling, with the golden syrup shining even brighter under the warm light, emitting a tantalizing sweet aroma.
Cai Jingxian, full of smiles, said to the eagerly awaiting children around her, "Look, the color of the syrup is getting deeper, and the fragrance is getting stronger!"
Hearing this, the children widened their curious eyes, craning their necks to peer into the pot, wanting to witness this magical change firsthand.
"Look, there are so many bubbles in the pot, it’s like they’re having a joyful party, with each bubble dancing merrily!"
"Yes, yes, and every bubble is golden, it’s like... um, like the sunshine sprinkled by the sun, so shiny!"
"I think they look more like magical little fairies, busy casting wonderful spells in the pot to dress the hawthorn strings in sweet magical coats!"
"Look, those bubbles seem to be getting smaller! Does that mean the syrup is almost ready? Can we start making the delicious candied hawthorns now?"
"..."
The children’s imagination was like an unbridled horse, vividly depicting the scene before them, filling the classroom with laughter.
"Yes, children, the syrup is almost done..."
Cai Jingxian’s lips curled into a gentle smile as she reminded them, "You need to watch carefully because next is the magical moment when the teacher dresses the hawthorns in shiny sugar coats!"
Saying this, she carefully dipped the hawthorn string into the golden syrup, slowly rotating it, hoping each hawthorn could be evenly coated with the tempting sugar layer.
However.
As expected, the unexpected happened.
Because the syrup had cooled a bit, becoming thicker than expected, when Cai Jingxian attempted to lift the candied hawthorn, the syrup stuck to the side of the pot like glue, leaving only a bare skewer and a few lone hawthorns behind.
Zheng Yujia didn’t fare much better.
She tried to evenly pour the syrup over the skewered hawthorns, but for some unknown reason, the syrup turned unusually sticky the moment it touched the air, quickly solidifying. Instead of forming a tempting sugar coat, it stuck to the pot side and the hawthorns, making the surface look uneven.
Even Wu Meijuan, the best cook, wasn’t spared from this "candied hawthorn disaster."
Although all her hawthorns were coated with a layer of sugar, the sugar coat looked odd, thick and uneven, like an ill-fitting outfit for the hawthorns.
Well~
Typical "knowing in the head, but not in the hands" problem...
This is a total flop for everyone...
This is really awkward...
Then.
The air in the classroom suddenly froze.
Faced with this scene, the children’s eyes, once sparkling with anticipation, gradually lost their shine, and their mouths, once curved upwards, slowly turned downwards.
"Oh, why do the candied hawthorns the teacher made look different from the ones I buy outside? Is it because they weren’t made well?"
"Yeah, how did it turn out this way? I thought we’d see beautiful candied hawthorns!"
"Um... is this considered a failure?"
"Oh dear, how can we sell these candied hawthorns if they look like this? No one would want to buy them, right? What should we do?"
"Yeah, unattractive candied hawthorns surely won’t sell... We can only... only have our parents buy them..."
"Yeah... if we can’t make them right, that’s the only way..."
"..."
Each group of children gathered around their teachers, looking at the supposed-to-be-sweet candied hawthorns turned into a mess, murmuring helplessly.
Listening to the children’s words, Cai Jingxian and the other teachers didn’t know whether to be comforted by their wisdom and thoughtfulness or to feel sorry for their parents’ wallets and stomachs...
After a moment of helplessness...
Cai Jingxian revealed an awkward yet polite smile and said, "Haha, it seems our candied hawthorns want to wear special ’armor’ today!"
The children’s little eyebrows still slightly furrowed, replied with a smile that looked even harder than crying.
"Children, failure is nothing to fear." She continued gently, "What’s important is what we learn from it. We can try different methods until we find the secret to success..."
Zheng Yujia agreed, "Yes! We can think of some ways together, see if we can salvage these candied hawthorns, or we can start over from scratch."
But the next second...
She tasted the syrup in the pot, and a bitter flavor swept over her: "The syrup is a bit bitter now, it seems we can’t use it anymore, we’ll have to throw it out and start anew..."
"It’s not the re-cooking that worries me, it’s the fear that the final result still won’t be ideal..." Wu Meijuan said worriedly.
"So what do you suggest we do?"
