Chapter 65 The Classic of Mountains and Seas

At six o’clock, the first batch of early-morning jogging seniors who came to eat breakfast at Yunzhong Cafeteria discovered that the “random drop” of Little Zheng was no longer available, and let out the first round of wails.

At seven o’clock, the second batch of elderly residents from nearby neighborhoods came for breakfast. Upon realizing that Little Zheng was not actually a staff member of the cafeteria—but had only come to exchange techniques and help temporarily before leaving—they let out the second round of wails.

At ten o’clock, a group of diners who had skipped work, slacked off, or deliberately waited around to buy pastries discovered that not only was Little Zheng gone, but Old Zheng was gone as well—and all the randomly appearing delicious Su-style pastries had vanished too. They let out the third round of wails.

At 10:30, Chen Huihong sat in Yunzhong Cafeteria and solemnly called her younger brother, asking why he still hadn’t managed to recruit a qualified pastry chef after all this time.

Chen Huihong’s younger brother: …

Sis, didn’t you say it wasn’t urgent?

He had no choice but to quickly call the HR manager and urge him to step up recruitment. At the same time, he asked his sister for the address of Zheng Siyuan’s pastry shop in Suzhou, so that his assistant could go there the next day to purchase a batch of pastries to bring back.

“Xiao Qin, don’t worry. I’ve told my brother to hurry up with recruiting pastry chefs. We’ll try to find you some help this month,” Chen Huihong said after putting down her phone.

“In fact, it’s not that urgent,” Qin Huai replied. “My mom has already arranged for a private high school in Guangdong Province and is in contact with their admissions office. By the end of the month, she’ll be taking Luo Luo back. So now, not only do we need to hire a new pastry chef, but also additional kitchen assistants and cleaning staff. The easier hires are the odd jobs, but for kitchen staff, I think we should be more careful in selecting them.”

Chen Huihong strongly agreed with Qin Huai and nodded repeatedly. “Of course. Don’t worry, Xiao Qin. Just focus on making pastries—leave these small matters to me. You only need to do the final review.”

“Is Huihui still at her uncle’s house?” Qin Huai asked, turning his attention to Chen Huihui.

“Yes, she’s over there playing with the cat,” Chen Huihong smiled. “I asked her whether she wanted to come eat noodles at the cafeteria at noon. She’s still hesitating, asking if she can have both chicken soup noodles and locust flower buns.”

“My brother heard about the locust flower buns and wanted some too, but he’s too lazy to come himself. He even asked me to bring two bags back for him. But I told him to come by himself in a couple of days.”

Qin Huai immediately understood her implication and said, “The locust flower buns were only in the trial production stage recently, so the quantities were small to ensure stable quality. This morning, I already asked Sister Xi to finalize the menu listing for them. In a couple of days, they’ll be officially launched just like the fermented rice buns. Not to mention two bags—even three, four, or five bags will be fine.”

“Sister Hong, you can come by this afternoon to pick them up. I was planning to make more anyway to practice. As long as you don’t mind that these are still practice batches.”

“Also, your brother has been helping me with recruitment and helping Luo Luo look into schools. I still haven’t figured out how to properly thank him.”

“Oh right—are you hungry now? I’ve already prepared handmade noodles. Would you like to try the chicken soup noodles I just learned?”

Chen Huihong naturally didn’t refuse and nodded with a smile.

Qin Huai went into the kitchen to cook the noodles.

It only took a few minutes. Soon, a steaming bowl of noodles—chicken broth as the base, topped with green vegetables and shiitake mushrooms—was ready.

[Longevity Noodles (C+ Rank)

Not yet at B rank, but C+ was already quite good. As an ordinary bowl of noodles, Qin Huai believed it could easily outperform 99% of nearby machine-made noodles.

As for the remaining 1%…

What if Zheng Da suddenly decided to open a noodle shop nearby?

Qin Huai personally brought the noodles out.

He wanted to watch Chen Huihong eat.

At the end of the dish description for longevity noodles, there was a warm reminder specifically telling him to let Chen Huihong eat it—something surprising might happen.

Since the reminder said so, Qin Huai naturally wanted to see what the surprise was.

He just wasn’t sure whether a C+ rank would qualify as “good enough.” If C+ didn’t trigger anything, he planned to practice harder over the next few days to reach B or B- rank.

“Please try it. This chicken soup noodles is also in the trial stage. If you notice anything, feel free to tell me,” Qin Huai said as he sat down directly across from her.

Chen Huihong picked up her chopsticks.

Several elderly men nearby chatting casually had long grown used to Qin Huai occasionally making special meals. They weren’t surprised at all.

After all, Xiao Qin and Chen Huihong had a good relationship. Making an occasional special dish was normal. Besides, Chen Huihong was the one responsible for recruiting staff outside the cafeteria. Eating a private bowl of noodles wasn’t something to be jealous of.

The one truly deserving criticism was that guy surnamed Ding, who always took large quantities of fermented rice buns home. The old men said they were practically grinding their teeth in frustration.

“This noodle looks very chewy,” Chen Huihong remarked. She lifted a strand and examined it closely. “Why does it look like there’s only one strand? Isn’t this supposed to be longevity noodles?”

“This is a special method. A single strand in a bowl—symbolically representing longevity is fine,” Qin Huai explained.

Hearing that, Chen Huihong thought it made sense and didn’t question it further. She took a bite.

Then she froze.

Not the usual kind of pause—but like the system had completely crashed. She bit down on the noodle without breaking it, chopsticks holding it mid-air above the bowl. Her lips didn’t move, her nose didn’t move, and she didn’t even blink. Only her eyes changed—shifting from smiling, to confused, to empty, and then back to clarity.

Qin Huai froze too—but he was genuinely startled. He even nervously glanced around to see if any diners had noticed Chen Huihong’s abnormal behavior.

After about forty to fifty seconds, Chen Huihong finally moved.

Silently, she finished the entire bowl in one continuous motion, just like eating longevity noodles without breaking the strand.

Then she calmly wiped her mouth and looked at Qin Huai. Her expression was neutral, but her eyes carried three parts shock, two parts confusion, and five parts something indescribably subtle.

At that moment, Qin Huai felt that the Chen Huihong sitting before him resembled the one from the dream.

“I really didn’t expect this,” Chen Huihong said.

“Expect what?” Qin Huai didn’t understand.

She looked at him deeply again, took a breath, and said, “I didn’t expect that I would still be able to awaken.”

Qin Huai: ?

Seeing his confusion, Chen Huihong smiled. “Let me think how to explain this… I am Bai.”

Alright. Qin Huai felt no further explanation was needed.

Mom, spiritual energy has revived—the monsters from the Classic of Mountains and Seas have regained their past memories.

“I know,” Qin Huai said sincerely. “But Sister Hong, should we really have such… non-human conversations in a public dining hall like this? Maybe we should go upstairs? The second floor is empty.”

“Sure,” Chen Huihong replied, standing up and walking upstairs with him.

“I suppose you have some special way of knowing who I am. But how did you find out?” she asked curiously.

“To be honest, I’ve had a system since I was young,” Qin Huai said. “It’s time to be completely honest again.”

The last time he had been this honest was with Qin Luo when she was in kindergarten.

Chen Huihong: ?

“My system has a game interface and issues tasks. Completing tasks unlocks dreams—all of which are your dreams. Through them, I’ve seen many complex… stories from your past life with Huihui.”

Chen Huihong: ??

Now it was her turn to be confused. After thinking for a long while, she finally said, “Wow.”

“System…”

“But this makes it easier for me to explain,” she continued.

“Have you read the Classic of Mountains and Seas?”

Qin Huai shook his head. “I’ve already ordered it. It’ll arrive tomorrow.”

“It’s worth reading. You can think of beings like us from the Classic of Mountains and Seas as needing to enter the world to undergo trials once we reach a certain level of cultivation.”

Qin Huai nodded. “I understand that. That kind of plot appears in novels Luo Luo reads.”

“More or less,” Chen Huihong said. “You can think of it as entering thousands of small worlds, or as leaving deep mountains and forests to experience the world—either way, it’s a trial.”

“If the trial succeeds, one ascends to another level.”

“If it fails, one is reincarnated again with memories.”

“So what counts as success or failure?” Qin Huai asked curiously.

“It depends on ourselves,” Chen Huihong replied. “Some spirits come to the human world, enjoy food, drink, and the pleasures of life naturally and happily—and thus complete their trials successfully.”

“Others go through all kinds of human experiences, suffering hardships and trials, and in the end can only enter reincarnation with regret and unwillingness.”

“Unresolved attachments and lingering obsessions lead to failure.”

“At first, when entering reincarnation, we still retain our memories. We know what we are and understand our purpose—to resolve those attachments and obsessions.”

“After several reincarnations—maybe three to five times, or even just one or two—the memories begin to fade. By the final life, we forget who we are entirely and live as ordinary humans, only feeling a faint sense of loss deep inside.”

“If in that final life we still fail to remember who we are, still cannot let go, and never awaken… then that is true death.”

Qin Huai understood. Looking at her, he asked, “So… you are…”

“The final life,” Chen Huihong nodded.

“Thank you—for helping me awaken.”