Chapter 79 The Helpful Neighbor Mr. Luo

Qin Huai’s daily soup-making practice continued all the way until September 1st.

It wasn’t that his broth had reached perfection by that day—rather, it was because September 1st was the day Qin Luo started school.

Qin Luo starting school was a big occasion.

The first day of high school enrollment—parents naturally had to accompany their children to school.

To celebrate Qin Luo’s admission to Shuanghai High School, Yunzhong Canteen would not operate breakfast on September 1st, and dessert sales were suspended. Qin Huai, Qin Congwen, and Zhao Rong all took the day off.

Chen Huihong hadn’t been able to find a pastry chef on par with Zheng Da or Zheng Siyuan, nor a suitable substitute.

However, after careful selection, she did hire someone for Qin Huai: a breakfast cook skilled in simple pastries like egg cakes and tiger-skin rolls, who also could make three types of vegetarian buns, six types of meat buns, and had some knowledge of shaomai, wontons, and soup dumplings. He had previously run his own breakfast shop but left due to high rent and ended up working for others.

Since they couldn’t find a pastry specialist, hiring a breakfast cook was still a good solution. Qin Congwen already had back problems, and after Qin Luo started school, Zhao Rong needed to supervise her studies and couldn’t sleep too early at night. Hiring a professional breakfast cook would significantly reduce Qin Congwen’s workload.

The new breakfast cook officially started on September 3rd.

Two additional highly cost-effective general staff members were also hired for the canteen, and they too began work on September 3rd.

As for who would ease Qin Huai’s workload…

Well, the children had started school, and parents like Grandma Ding—who used to rush to buy pastries for their grandchildren—were now less of a burden. So the burden fell on the diners instead.

Eat less.

Chef Qin has been busy practicing his heat control recently and doesn’t have much time to make pastries.

If you don’t mind, you can drink pork soup or beef soup instead. After all, once you miss this window, there won’t be any.

Because soon Qin Huai would start practicing duck soup and mutton soup, and by then, normal-tasting soup would be hard to come by.

Anyone who drinks soup often knows—duck soup and mutton soup can go very wrong when they fail.

At the entrance of Shuanghai High School, cars were lined up everywhere, bringing children to school on the first day.

“Four rings,” “steering wheel,” “blue-and-white blocks,” “animal logo,” “unknown brand”…
That was Qin Luo’s entire summary of the cars at the school gate.

She didn’t recognize any of them. In the past, her school was close to home, so she walked. The only vehicles she recognized were vans and taxis.

So she also didn’t recognize the Rolls-Royce logo she was sitting in today.

Of course, Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong didn’t recognize it either—after all, it wasn’t their car. It belonged to Luo Jun.

Luo Jun looked impatient, arms crossed, leaning back in the passenger seat as if he were being forced to show up for work, watching the Qin family outside the window as they gave Qin Luo instructions.

“Luo Luo, study hard at school and don’t argue with classmates. If someone bullies you, hit back—but don’t go too far and pin them to the ground,” Zhao Rong advised earnestly.

“I didn’t originally want you to attend such a good school, but since it’s free, we’ll let you go. I don’t expect much from you academically, but at least pass Chinese, okay?”

“You should also work harder in math,” Qin Huai added. “High school has monthly exams. I’m not sure if your school calls them that, so let’s treat it as a midterm. If you do well, I’ll make you round-dream sesame pancakes.”

“Luo Luo, your brother is right. Now that you’re in high school, you should be more mature. Don’t worry your brother too much—he’s been working hard making soup lately. Don’t worry though, your dad won’t place any demands on you. I’ll handle logistics—if you want handmade noodles, just tell me anytime!” Qin Congwen said proudly, thinking he was being a supportive father.

With her mother and brother playing the “strict” roles, he played the “lenient” one, believing this would highlight his image as a good dad.

Qin Luo’s lips trembled slightly, her eyes turning red.

Waaah—she not only had to study Chinese well, but also math.

And most importantly, on her first day of school, she didn’t even get to eat five-filling buns or three-filling buns.

During this time, her brother wouldn’t even let her drink his soups—only Brother Yang was allowed. Even if it didn’t taste good, she wasn’t allowed to have any.

Waaah, her life was so miserable.

Qin Luo sniffled, then walked into the school with heavy, sorrowful steps.

Zhao Rong and Qin Congwen quickly got into the car, while Qin Huai took the driver’s seat.

Nearby parents watching: …

This family is quite wealthy, but why are they so… strange?

“Mr. Luo, thank you. For letting us borrow the car on Luo Luo’s first day so Qin Huai could drive her to school,” Zhao Rong said gratefully once they were in the car.

“On the way,” Luo Jun replied briefly. “Xiao Zhang drives too slowly—better let Chef Qin drive.”

Driver Xiao Qin smiled, started the navigation, searched for the hospital where Qu Jing worked, and set off.

“Mom, I’ve put the medical checkup card in your bag. I asked Dr. Qu on WeChat—this card can be used directly, covering all checkup items. Later you accompany Dad for the checkup, and I’ll accompany Grandpa Luo to the rehab department. Let me know when you’re done,” Qin Huai said.

Zhao Rong replied immediately, “After dropping us off, you don’t need to worry about us. I checked—we can take the subway back. Your dad has many items to check; it may take a long time. We’ll head back ourselves.”

“Alright,” Qin Huai nodded.

In truth, the real reason Qin Huai had taken the day off from Yunzhong Canteen wasn’t Qin Luo’s school start—it was to accompany Luo Jun to the hospital for rehabilitation therapy.

More precisely, Luo Jun was making the trip to the hospital for rehab while also attending Qu Jing’s clinic, giving Qin Huai an opportunity to get closer to her and possibly trigger a side quest.

Ever since completing Luo Jun’s side quest, Qin Huai had been focusing on soup practice and hadn’t triggered any new side quests.

Meanwhile, the main quest progress had been increasing steadily. The requirement was to surpass 75% of restaurants in the area in reputation while keeping negative reviews below 2%.

This kind of long-term goal couldn’t be rushed—unless Qin Huai managed to recruit Huang Shengli, Zheng Da, and Zheng Siyuan to work at his canteen simultaneously for a few months.

When Zheng Da and Zheng Siyuan had previously “randomly dropped in,” the progress had increased significantly; after they returned to Suzhou, the progress dropped again. This showed that diners’ taste buds were very honest.

So Qin Huai actually wasn’t in a rush.

He had plenty to do: practicing soup, improving heat control, and keeping up with pastry staff recruitment.

Not to mention attending online classes with Huang Shengli recently and getting familiar with his disciples. Sometimes when Huang Shengli was busy, he would let his disciples supervise instead. His senior disciple was particularly talkative and would start chatting as soon as he was on camera, letting Qin Huai hear all sorts of gossip about people he didn’t even know.

If it weren’t for the fact that he could still see item levels when making fermented buns, Qin Huai might have almost forgotten he was the protagonist with a system.

While Qin Huai was forgetting, someone else was remembering.

Luo Jun was getting anxious.

Maybe that was just how the Bifang temperament was—impatient.

In Luo Jun’s view, Qin Huai clearly knew that Qu Jing was also a final-life spirit being, yet did nothing about it—no chatting, no visiting, no interaction, no triggering of side quests.

Instead, he spent his days mysteriously cooking soups that didn’t even taste good. The stock soup was somewhat drinkable, but the beef and pork soups were baffling.

He had also stopped making pastries in the afternoons, spending his days idle. A man who hadn’t watched TV dramas for half a month and instead read system novels every day, Luo Jun felt like grabbing Qin Huai by the collar and asking:

Why aren’t you like the proactive protagonists in novels? Don’t you also have a system? What are you even doing?

Finally, as August was about to end, Luo Jun could no longer hold back and stormed into Yunzhong Canteen to confront Qin Huai about acting like a proper protagonist.

Qin Huai had six points he wanted to make in response.

He really wanted to tell Luo Jun that, given how this system worked, any side quest would likely trigger his quest with Luo Jun first, and only after that would Qu Jing’s be triggered.

But seeing Luo Jun so anxious, Qin Huai also felt that occasionally visiting the hospital to increase Qu Jing’s favorability was a good idea for future tasks.

So, for Qin Huai’s mission and Qu Jing’s awakening, the helpful neighbor Mr. Luo decided to sacrifice himself and make a trip to the hospital.

Luo Jun’s legs weren’t in good condition. As he put it, his divine power was gradually fading and his body was aging—he truly had the body of an ordinary elderly human now, though he still had a stubborn heart.

He refused to use a wheelchair and insisted on walking.

And instead of going to the rehab department first, he insisted on visiting Qu Jing’s clinic first.

“Didn’t we agree to go to rehab first?” Qin Huai asked, feeling Luo Jun clearly needed rehab.

“You don’t understand,” Luo Jun said. “We go to the clinic first to waste time. Then Dr. Qu will definitely persuade me to go to rehab. I’ll refuse, she’ll continue persuading, and I’ll slightly give in—she’ll seize the opportunity.”

“Her clinic ends at 11. After it ends, you message her saying I’m uncooperative. She’ll come persuade me again. Then I reluctantly agree—by then it’s lunchtime, and she’ll likely stay and watch over me. That’s when you seize the opportunity to talk to her. You both came from the same children’s welfare home, right? You should have plenty in common.”

“Got it?”

Qin Huai looked at Luo Jun.

So practiced… and you still say you’re not causing trouble at a hospital?