As soon as it hit 5:30 in the afternoon, An Songyu immediately headed to the staff cafeteria with the other front-desk colleagues in the first batch.
Taking advantage of her favorable position, Yu Yingying—who had arrived early—kept her eyes fixed on the cafeteria entrance.
The moment An Songyu appeared, she quickly stood up and waved her hand.
An Songyu had already been scanning the room when she entered, and upon spotting her friend, she waved back in response.
A coworker beside her said enviously,
“That’s great—your friend brought pastries again, didn’t she?”
An Songyu pressed her lips into a small smile and didn’t answer directly.
Xianquan Hotel emphasized service quality. In its early days, the kitchen had only been divided into the red counter and white counter.
As things developed to the present, Western pastries within the white-counter division had gained considerable momentum.
Still, under the deeply rooted morning tea culture throughout Nan Province, no matter how strong this new Western pastry trend was, it could only be considered one of many types within the white-counter category.
Yu Yingying and An Songyu were university classmates and had even shared the same dormitory.
The difference was that Yu Yingying had come to Nan Province from another province to attend school.
Before graduation, during the internship season, her family had already arranged a hotel position for her back in their hometown.
But when faced with the choice between being an assistant in Western pastry at Xianquan Hotel and working as a front-desk receptionist at a hotel in her hometown, she chose without hesitation to come here with her friend.
After all, her chance to intern here had only come about because, after An Songyu entered the hotel, she saw the recruitment notice and specially fought for this opportunity for her.
And as a hotel management major,
Yu Yingying understood even more clearly that if she missed this chance, she would probably never again get such close exposure to Western pastry.
Something she had loved from the bottom of her heart…
After An Songyu lined up and got her meal, she told her coworkers first, then quickly walked over to sit across from her friend.
Yu Yingying was gripping her chopsticks tightly, staring hungrily at the lunchbox holding the pastries, her eyes unable to move away.
Before An Songyu had even fully sat down, Yu Yingying eagerly opened the lunchbox.
Inside was a full box of salted cream box cake.
Three full layers of cake and snowy white cream exuded the distinctive fragrance of Western pastries.
The top was sprinkled with an abundant mix of fruit and powdered sugar to prevent moisture.
At a single glance, it felt as though it awakened a taste from An Songyu’s memories.
Yes—even seeing this pastry again after more than twenty years, she could instantly recall its flavor.
Without needing her friend to invite her, An Songyu picked up her fork and took a large bite.
The perfect combination of fruit, cake, and cream instantly immersed her.
By the time the entire box of salted cream cake had been completely devoured between the two of them, they couldn’t help but smile at each other.
“Today’s cake seems especially soft,” An Songyu said as she savored it, before slowly starting on her main cafeteria meal.
“Right? A-Yu, your palate’s gotten sharper!” Yu Yingying widened her eyes in disbelief.
An Songyu smiled, both hesitant and a little embarrassed.
She had forgotten—even after returning to her own body, what she had been like twenty years ago was something she herself barely remembered.
Fortunately, Yu Yingying only made a casual remark and quickly shifted her focus to discussing the evaluation itself.
“A-Yu, today’s cake base was chiffon. The last few times it was sponge cake.”
“Chiffon cake is softer, while sponge cake has more bounce.”
“But honestly, I really like both!”
“By the way, A-Yu, do you know who made the pastry we ate today?”
An Songyu paused slightly and instinctively looked at her friend’s proud expression.
Feeling a stir in her heart, she asked, “Don’t tell me… you made it?”
Could it be that her friend’s path as a pastry chef had already begun now?
As she thought this, An Songyu narrowed her eyes slightly, looking at her friend who was nodding vigorously.
In the past, after completing their three-month internship, An Songyu and Yu Yingying had returned to school to finish their graduation requirements.
But once they obtained their diplomas, they realized— neither of their families owned a hotel for them to manage.
Choosing hotel management as a major meant that, at best, after graduation, they could enter the lower levels of hotel management and slowly climb step by step, eventually putting what they had learned to use.
But more often than not, it turned out just like their current situation.
Starting from the lowest level of hotel work, striving for twenty years, and at most becoming a small manager overseeing the hotel’s grassroots operations.
It wasn’t that their education in hotel management was completely unrelated— but it was indeed difficult for them to fully apply what they had learned.
As a result, many of An Songyu’s classmates later changed careers.
Or they used the hotel as a platform to seek out other opportunities.
Yu Yingying’s life story, however, was even more remarkable.
After finishing her internship at Xianquan Hotel, Yu Yingying—despite her love for Western pastry—temporarily said goodbye to it.
Returning to her hometown, she could only start from the lowest level of hotel management.
After a full five years, having gone through marriage, childbirth, and no career advancement whatsoever, when handmade Western pastries began to flourish, she decisively started her own business.
Twenty years later, although her business development was not particularly smooth— and even the traditional pastry craftsmanship she had painstakingly learned had lost its edge under pressure from large chain cake shops— whether in her own eyes or in An Songyu’s, she could not be considered a failure.
An Songyu’s thoughts drifted.
Meanwhile, Yu Yingying was still animatedly talking about the techniques she had learned that morning, as well as updates on their dorm mates, people back at school, and other odds and ends.
In short, during this brief lunch break,
An Songyu gained a clearer understanding of her interpersonal relationships at school and at work twenty years earlier.
After both of them finished their meals and still had a bit of time left, they didn’t rush to leave.
“Songyu, was the hotel busy today?” Yu Yingying thought of how quiet her friend had been earlier and couldn’t help asking.
“You barely talked just now and seemed focused on eating.”
An Songyu instinctively wanted to shake her head.
But thinking about everything she had dealt with that afternoon, she ended up nodding.
The hotel’s foot traffic today wasn’t busy—one could even call it slow.
The second day of the second lunar month in Nan Province wasn’t a major festival, though some places did celebrate it.
Yet even with over twenty years of future work experience,
An Songyu still needed to quickly familiarize herself with the current job’s detailed procedures and the old-style computer operating systems.
In fact, sometimes her future-acquired experience was too advanced, or her accustomed use of more efficient office methods actually made adaptation more difficult.
So for this entire afternoon, An Songyu had barely had a moment to spare.
Yu Yingying nodded in understanding.
She herself worked in the pastry kitchen.
On days like this—when the Chinese restaurant, Western restaurant, morning tea hall, bakery, and even entertainment areas were all operating— things would only get busier.
Seeing that their lunch break was over, the two quickly cleared their trays and hurried back to their respective posts.
(End of this chapter)