Madam Yin was extremely astonished at Lian Gui's answer, "Can business really be conducted in such a manner? Without any actual skills and relying purely on imagination, one can make delicious pastries?"
Duke An paid no attention to his wife, asking Lian Gui instead, "How about the pastries made by Qi Ye herself, does she possess the skills?"
Lian Gui replied, "I've heard that her soups and such are passable, but when it comes to dough-based pastries, they're generally not that good, certainly much worse than those made by the kitchen maids. According to the folks at Anshun's Household, even Nanny Liu and Nanny Zhou from the Wangfu make better pastries than the Young Lady. However, the Young Lady seems to have the ability to improve whatever food she sees."