AGN -Chapter 353 The Wish of Dangkang

After Luo Jun appeared as a living example, Qin Huai naturally believed it to some extent.

Qin Huai placed the chopped preserved fruits onto a plate, continued cutting nuts, and asked while working: “Since Mr. Shi is a Dangkang and has already successfully transcended his tribulation, in a sense his past ‘black history’ has become part of his journey. So what else would he need to hide from me? Or rather, what is something that even after a successful tribulation, he still cannot bring himself to say?”

“A lot of things,” Chen Huihong said. She originally just wanted to watch the drama unfold, but couldn’t help interrupting as she listened.

“Successfully transcending a tribulation and feeling ashamed are not mutually exclusive. Xiao Qin, if you could see my memories and asked what happened in my past life, I definitely wouldn’t tell you I was a ‘crazy young lady’ in Beiping who scammed food and drinks.”

“I also wouldn’t tell you the exact cause of Huiniang’s death, and I definitely wouldn’t tell you that I actually noticed something was wrong with Huiniang the night before. Especially I would never tell you that just minutes before she died, I hesitated about whether to save her because I was afraid of exposing my identity as a spirit.”

“Even after a successful tribulation, these things are still embarrassing to say, right? Luo Jun?”

“Hey, if Xiao Qin couldn’t see your memories, what wouldn’t you tell him?”

Luo Jun: “……”

Luo Jun turned his head and rolled his eyes at Chen Huihong, then turned back sharply, not even wanting to glance at her out of the corner of his eye. After more than ten seconds of silence, he squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth.

“Hmph. I wouldn’t say a single word.”

Chen Huihong’s story was mixed with her black history, while Luo Jun’s was black history mixed with a story.

Seeing their reactions, Qu Jing felt a little confused and suddenly realized she didn’t seem to fit in very well. She weakly said: “But I don’t think I have anything I can’t say.”

“If Qin Huai asks me, I would definitely tell everything honestly.”

Luo Jun: “……”

Chen Huihong could only patiently comfort her: “You’re different. Of course you can say everything. You little birds can say whatever you want.”

Just as the topic was about to drift off course, Qin Huai quickly pulled it back: “So even if Mr. Shi hid part of the truth, it wasn’t out of malice. He simply doesn’t want to talk about it, or feels it’s embarrassing black history.”

Luo Jun looked satisfied at the interruption. His expression softened slightly, and he nodded.

“Probably. Dangkang isn’t like the lie beast—he’s not good at lying. And with their personality and intelligence, they don’t even bother lying. As auspicious beasts, they don’t need deception to survive.”

Even though Gong Liang wasn’t there—or even awake—Luo Jun still didn’t forget to subtly insult him.

Qin Huai began to wonder if he should find a reason to take away the bowl of spicy hotpot-style rice cake in front of Luo Jun. With something like that sitting there, he was worried Luo Jun might get so emotional mid-conversation that he’d accidentally kill himself by licking his lips.

“So what is a Dangkang’s typical personality like?” Qin Huai asked.

He had already noticed that although each spirit beast was an individual, their personalities often reflected their species. For example: fire birds were hot-tempered, small birds were cute, plant spirits were strange, three-legged toads loved lying around and money (An Youyou being a mutation), Xiezhi represented justice, and the lie beast lied constantly.

From their species, one could roughly infer their baseline personalities.

“Exactly what you already understand,” Luo Jun said.

“Dangkang is the most auspicious among auspicious beasts. Their tribulation is either very easy or extremely difficult. They’re non-competitive, not very bright, and aside from liking staple foods, they don’t have many special interests.”

“Like Shi Dadan said, they have passive buffs for agriculture and livestock. Wherever they appear, crops flourish. Even weeds grow more vigorously than in other places. In theory, they’re perfect for farming—but most Dangkang are too lazy to do that, even too lazy to trade with others.”

“The diligent ones might raise animals their neighbors like and occasionally trade with them. Creatures like Pixiu or the lie beast love living near Dangkang because trading with them always guarantees profit. Even three-legged toads sometimes like them for the same reason.”

Qin Huai: “……”

Sounds like an auspicious beast really lives a worry-free life.

“So why is a Dangkang’s tribulation sometimes extremely hard and sometimes extremely easy? And Mr. Shi’s case—is it hard or easy?”

“Hard,” Luo Jun replied immediately.

“Dangkang’s personality is actually very suitable for tribulation, similar to plant spirits. A while ago, Huihong and I discussed this. Many plant spirits who are burned to death by humans end up accidentally succeeding in their tribulation—because they never truly entered the human world.”

“They never integrated, never tried to become human, so their tribulation is simple. It sounds like cheating, but not every spirit can do it.”

“To truly undergo tribulation, one must enter the mortal world. Being able to not integrate at all, not become attached, not develop emotions—that itself is a skill. Chen Huihong lacks it. She thinks she didn’t integrate, but in reality she failed her tribulation long ago and didn’t even realize it. Fool among fools.”

Then he snorted at her again.

“Only slightly better than me. What right do you have to criticize me?”

Qin Huai: “……”

Maybe he really should take that bowl away.

“Plant spirits benefit from poor education systems, so they have natural advantages. Dangkang, on the other hand, have personality-based advantages.”

“Even if Shi Dadan worked in the human world, he could still avoid truly entering society. Dangkang don’t like thinking and aren’t very smart. Learning to be human is too troublesome. Most of them simply don’t want to.”

“It’s just his bad luck that he was born in a time of cultural education. If he had been a few hundred years earlier—no, even just the same year as me—standing on a remote road on his first day in the human world, he would’ve seen at least two bandit killings or robberies. After seeing enough, he wouldn’t fail his tribulation over something like this.”

It sounded like Shi Dadan suffered from being too civilized.

Qin Huai continued cutting nuts. Even though he had already cut a lot, he kept going. If he didn’t prepare enough ingredients, he’d have to start cooking syrup and filling, and the noise would make Luo Jun raise his voice again. The louder things got, the more irritable he became.

He still hadn’t figured out how to discreetly remove the bowl in front of Luo Jun. If things escalated, he might get scolded again.

“Since Dangkang has already succeeded in tribulation, doesn’t that mean the system got a free entry in your illustrated handbook?” Luo Jun even had the leisure to care about Qin Huai’s game system.

“For now it seems like it, but it’s fine. It’s not exactly a wasted slot. Success is still a good thing. Mr. Shi is also a good person—warm, honest. In the future, Yunzhong cafeteria might even source seafood from him.”

Dangkang farms produce high-quality seafood.

“At the moment, his illustrated entry shows 0/0 memories. With no memories, there are no recipes, and the blessing is also none. I guess there’s no reward. I didn’t help him awaken, so according to the system, I shouldn’t receive anything.”

“And I haven’t triggered any side quests about him yet. Maybe there just aren’t any.”

Just as he finished speaking—

A system notification sounded in Qin Huai’s mind.

“Ding. You have discovered a new side quest. Please check your game interface.”

Qin Huai: ?

Game system, what’s wrong with you? Are you deliberately opposing your player?

Well done—can you give me two more side quests while you’re at it?

Qin Huai put down his knife and opened the game panel.

Side Quest:

. 【The Wish of Dangkang】

As a Dangkang, Shi Dadan’s life has actually had very few troubles. If there is one, it is likely the unresolved question of how his lifelong friend Xu Nuo died, and whether the culprit was ever brought to justice. Over the years, Shi Dadan has always wanted to uncover the truth, but he fears that doing so might affect his state of mind and cause his hard-earned successful tribulation to collapse. Out of hesitation and weakness, he has taken no action.

Please help Shi Dadan find the truth and fulfill the wish of the Dangkang.

Reward: [Dangkang’s Blessing], [A randomly gifted recipe from Dangkang]

Qin Huai: !

Game system, you really say what you want and deliver instantly. Is your quest generation voice-activated?

Luo Jun and the others remained silent. From Qin Huai’s empty-pointing gesture, they already understood—he had triggered a side quest and was reading its details.

After reading the task details, Qin Huai didn’t immediately read them out. Instead, he tentatively asked the air:

“I think Dangkang still has another side quest.”

“Or maybe even a main quest?”

“If not, Wang Gensheng’s side quest would work too.”

“Gong Liang should have one at least, right? His side quests haven’t been updated in a long time.”

“If that doesn’t work, anything is fine—side quests, main quests, hidden quests. Games usually have hidden quests anyway.”

The three of them: “……”

Qu Jing was completely stunned and asked Chen Huihong uncertainly: “Sis Hong, when did Qin Huai’s system get customer service? Is he negotiating with customer service right now?”

Chen Huihong: “……For system-novel matters, we spirits from Shan Hai Jing should stay out of it.”

With no response from the system, Qin Huai resigned himself and read out the newly triggered side quest to everyone. After hearing it, Chen Huihong nodded repeatedly, saying it perfectly fit Dangkang’s personality.

Curious, but timid—and also lazy.

“However, I actually still have a question,” Qin Huai said.

After finishing the discussion about the side quest, his ingredient prep was completely done. Unable to stall any longer, he turned on the range hood and prepared to cook sugar syrup.

Before lighting the fire, he quickly “teleported” and took away the three bowls of rice cake soup from the table without saying a word—on the grounds of being diligent and tidy.

Luo Jun and Chen Huihong hadn’t touched theirs, while Qu Jing had nearly finished hers. The little bird was honest to a fault—if she wanted to taste it, she really just tasted it, but she ended up finishing the whole bowl.

Qin Huai began melting the sugar.

“You all keep saying that auspicious beasts’ tribulations are either very easy or very difficult. For Dangkang, which I think is on the difficult side, you say it’s still considered difficult. But for creatures like the Wenyao fish, which I think are even harder, you say they’re fine. Do different auspicious beasts actually have different difficulty standards?”

This question directly touched Qu Jing and Chen Huihong’s blind spots.

The two of them looked toward Luo Jun in unison—he was the only fierce beast present and had the most authority on the matter.

Luo Jun didn’t answer directly, instead asking: “What do you think is easy, and what is hard?”

“Qu Jing’s tribulation looks difficult, but the solution was always by her side.”

“Chen Huihong’s tribulation looks ordinary, but she stumbled all the way to her final life without understanding anything. If it weren’t for meeting you, I wouldn’t even know how she was supposed to succeed.”

“I won’t even talk about mine.”

“You think Chen Gong’s tribulation is difficult because you’re thinking from a human perspective. From a spirit’s perspective, I don’t think anyone would find his tribulation that hard.”

“You think Dangkang’s is easy, but he still has things he refuses to tell you.”

“In the end, all spirit tribulations come down to one thing—they can’t overcome the barrier in their own heart. Whether it’s the path of emotion or the path of detachment, how many truly make it to the end?”

The roar of the exhaust hood drowned out most of Luo Jun’s voice—and also Qin Huai’s unconscious reply: “So Luo Jun, you were the one who saw the recommendation from Sister Hong and started cursing in the group chat…”

Unfortunately, Bi Fang had excellent hearing.

Luo Jun took a deep breath, then roared even louder: “Qin Huai, are you sick too?!”

“You’re always lurking in chats, never doing real work, the most active when it comes to video calls, but only reply when you’re @mentioned—being the group admin makes you great, huh?!”

“The ingredients for the Chenpi tea are right on the cooking counter—are you blind?! You’ve been in the kitchen for an hour and didn’t see them?! All you do is chop, chop, chop—didn’t your knife skills level up? The more you level up, the slower you get—are you deliberately slacking off in my kitchen?!”

“Finish this ridiculous thing and go boil the Chenpi tea!”

Qin Huai obediently replied: “Okay, Mr. Luo.”

While Qin Huai was busy with the syrup, Chen Huihong and Qu Jing squeezed in more conversation about the spicy hotpot rice cake. By the time Qin Huai finished the fruit-and-nut filling, they had already moved on to discussing what to eat for breakfast the next morning.

During Qin Huai’s absence from Yunzhong Cafeteria, the employees of Zhiwei House had not stopped their “overwork competition.” Instead, without Qin Huai there to remind them to slow down, they only became more competitive.

Breakfast, which used to start at Qin Huai’s meal time, was now ready by around 6:30 a.m., greatly expanding the variety available.

Qu Jing came to eat at Yunzhong Cafeteria every day and had recently become fond of the rice noodles made by an unnamed apprentice.

Chen Huihong felt Su Qian’s craftsmanship was better. Without Qin Huai around, Su Qian no longer had to force himself to make unfamiliar dishes like “three-dice buns,” and instead focused on his specialty—laminated pastries—almost working Chef Pei Xing to exhaustion.

If not for the fact that Pei Xing’s pastries were discounted after 7 p.m., his lotus crisps might have gone completely unsold.

Su Qian basically didn’t do breakfast; his pastries usually started selling at around 10 a.m.

Chen Huihong had both time and proximity, so every day at 10 sharp she would slip into the cafeteria for pastries—her life was extremely comfortable.

As the conversation went on, even Luo Jun joined the group chat.

He first acknowledged Su Qian’s laminated pastry skills, then criticized his pastries for being too dry. Without Chenpi tea recently, they were simply impossible to eat.

In the kitchen, Qin Huai silently preparing fillings: “……”

Got it, got it—the Chenpi tea is already simmering.

Bi Fang, just keep yelling. Compared to sarcasm, this kind of blunt scolding is much more acceptable.