Chapter 94 A Slightly Opportunistic Method

The wealthy Luo Jun quietly finished a round of the game.

A crushing defeat.

It seemed that even with money, one couldn’t truly do whatever they wanted.

Luo Jun silently exited the game and noticed that everyone had finished eating.

“Weren’t the buns still unfinished? Go make buns,” he said.

When the biggest donor spoke, everyone naturally got moving. Aside from the gatekeeper who needed to watch the children and prevent them from running out, the older children and staff were mobilized to the kitchen to make buns.

Seeing so many people making buns, Chen Huihong felt she should take on the important task of kneading dough—but was forcibly stopped by Qin Huai.

Director Qu was somewhat capable at kneading dough, so it was better for her to handle it.

Director Qu was clearly quite talkative.

“Chef Xiao Qin, how long have you known Jingjing?” she asked.

“About a month,” Qin Huai replied.

Director Qu became even more enthusiastic. “Only a month and you’ve become so close. How did you two meet?”

“Mr. Luo is Doctor Qu’s patient, and also my customer. Sister Hong is Doctor Qu’s sponsor, and also my friend. It’s roughly this kind of relationship. Sometimes Doctor Qu comes to my shop to buy pastries, and I often accompany Mr. Luo to the hospital for rehabilitation. Doctor Qu is often there as well. After chatting for a long time, we naturally became familiar.”

Director Qu didn’t fully understand—but that was fine. She extracted the key information.

“Oh, so you’re Mr. Luo’s grandson.”

Qin Huai: ?

How did that conclusion come about?
How did he suddenly become Luo Jun’s grandson?

“No,” Qin Huai firmly clarified. “I’m Mr. Luo’s… distant relative, and also Sister Hong’s distant relative.”

He felt it was better to keep the “distant relative” label. He didn’t want to explain why he had to accompany Luo Jun to rehabilitation sessions at the hospital.

Director Qu seemed to understand again.

“Our Jingjing doesn’t have many friends. She told me yesterday that a friend would come today to volunteer, and I was really happy,” Director Qu said cheerfully. “Jingjing has been quiet and reserved since childhood. When other kids were noisy and crying, she was so quiet it was almost like she wasn’t alive. Back then, our caregiver Aunt Zhang hadn’t retired yet, and she was so scared she would check on her several times a day just to make sure she was still alive.”

Qin Huai felt that Director Qu’s way of speaking was quite unique. The reason the welfare home hadn’t received many donations over the years might have something to do with this.

“If a child was abandoned at a young age without a name, they would all take my surname. Seeing how quiet Jingjing was, I named her Jing. Looking back, that was probably the wrong name—it should have been ‘Náo’ (noisy),” she continued.

“Jingjing has spent all these years focusing on studying and doesn’t make friends. At first I thought she would naturally make friends after starting work, but she ended up being closer to her patients than to her colleagues. And her patients are mostly elderly. She only interacts with older people and doesn’t have friends her age—I was even worried she might turn into one of those psychopath killers from TV dramas.”

Qin Huai: …

Director Qu, every sentence you say is hard to respond to.

“Fortunately, she has friends her age like Xiao Qin, so I feel relieved,” Director Qu said with satisfaction.

After struggling to extract useful information from her rambling, Qin Huai asked, “So Doctor Qu considers me her friend?”

“Yes. Jingjing told me this morning that her friend was coming to help with volunteer work,” Director Qu replied.

Qin Huai nodded. That meant in Qu Jing’s mind, he was already considered a friend.

However, that friendship wasn’t “weighty” enough—or rather, the combination of friendship plus pastries wasn’t strong enough to motivate her to make a special trip for them.

Qin Huai looked at Director Qu.

Director Qu: ?

“Director Qu,” Qin Huai suddenly had an opportunistic idea, “are you close with Doctor Qu?”

“Jingjing is like my daughter,” Director Qu said proudly.

“Then may I ask you for a favor?”

“What is it?” she asked.

“I have a friend who lives in the same neighborhood as me and often eats at my community cafeteria.”

“He met Doctor Qu during a previous outreach event and developed a good impression of her. But Doctor Qu seems a bit distant with strangers and takes time to warm up. He hasn’t had a chance or excuse to talk to her.”

“Coincidentally, Doctor Qu occasionally comes to my cafeteria to buy pastries. So he stays there waiting for her, hoping to chat with her.”

“But she doesn’t come often, so there’s been no progress.”

“Then what should he do?” Director Qu asked anxiously. “Why are young men nowadays so passive? When I was young, if a guy liked a girl, he would just confess directly. How would the girl know otherwise?”

“Director Qu, please lower your voice.”

“Oh, oh.” Director Qu not only lowered her voice but also bent down slightly, like someone exchanging secret signals.

“So we need to create opportunities. Could you help persuade Doctor Qu to come to my cafeteria more often to buy pastries—preferably every day? Just tell her my business isn’t doing well and ask her to support me as a friend, so I can earn a bit more.”

Director Qu: …

She didn’t quite understand—but chose to respect it.

After a moment of hesitation, she said, “Alright, I’ll talk to Jingjing.”

“Tell her to buy more. Xiao Qin, you should help facilitate this too,” she added.

“Don’t worry!” Qin Huai replied sincerely.

“Sorry, Ou Yang,” he thought to himself. “In an emergency, this is necessary. Director Qu doesn’t know the details anyway—you’ll just have to play a temporary role.”

During a break from kneading dough, Qin Huai took out his phone and sent a message to Ou Yang:

Qin Huai: What pastries do you want tomorrow?
Ou Yang: ?
Ou Yang: Anything is fine?
Ou Yang: Luo Luo, did you take your brother’s phone?

Qin Huai: Luo Luo is at home doing homework. How could she have my phone? I’m volunteering at the welfare home with Sister Hong.

Ou Yang: ! I want crab shell pastries, four-happiness dumplings, baked buns, white jade cake, mung bean ice cake, elm bark buns, locust blossom buns, and three bags of fermented rice buns!

Qin Huai (holding the phone): …

Can you even finish that many buns?

Ou Yang: I’ll take one bag back for my mom. I’ll definitely manage to swipe that massage shop card I couldn’t last time!

Qin Huai: Alright, I’ll make them all—and I’ll add a “Dream-fulfilling Baked Bun” as a bonus.

Ou Yang: !!!

Lying on the sofa at home scrolling short videos, Ou Yang felt like he had somehow crossed into a parallel world.

Could it be that in another world, his parents adopted Qin Huai during their trip to Guangdong Province?

Nice!

Based on Ou Yang’s menu, Qin Huai messaged Chen An to prepare the ingredients in advance for the next morning.

Chen An replied almost instantly, saying no problem.

For the rest of the afternoon, Qin Huai focused on kneading dough and preparing fillings. With everyone’s efforts, they made enough buns for two weeks of the welfare home’s supply.

The children were very reluctant to see him leave. A little boy with a slight limp even tugged at Qin Huai’s clothes and asked when “Bun Brother” would come again.

Qin Huai really wanted to say his surname was Qin.

But it didn’t matter—he was used to it. He knew that after a few more visits, all the children would think his surname was Bun.

If he made dumplings a few times, he would probably be called Dumpling.

The return trip was driven by Qin Huai.

No one trusted Chen Huihong to drive again, fearing she might take the wrong route.

When they were about ten minutes away from Yunzhong Community, a game notification sounded in Qin Huai’s mind:

“Ding. Congratulations to the player for completing the side quest [Qu Jing’s Troubles]. Reward obtained: [Qu Jing’s Approval], [A Segment of Luo Jun’s Memory].”

Having completed many quests before, Qin Huai calmly said, “I have good news and bad news. Mr. Luo, which would you like to hear first?”

Sitting in the front passenger seat, Luo Jun replied, “The bad news.”

“Then let’s start with the good news—the side quest has been completed.”

Luo Jun immediately turned to look at Qin Huai. “You talked to Qu Jing for just a bit and already became friends?”

His implication was clear: Kid, were you slacking off earlier instead of seriously talking?

“No,” Qin Huai said. “I used a slightly opportunistic method—I convinced Director Qu to ask Doctor Qu to come to my cafeteria every day. But I still think I need to continue building rapport; it’ll help with future tasks.”

There were definitely more side quests to uncover on Qu Jing.

“See? I told you Xiao Qin is good at scheming!” Chen Huihong said happily.

Qin Huai: …

“What’s the bad news?” Luo Jun asked. “Did you trigger my side quest but can’t complete it?”

“No,” Qin Huai said. “The bad news is that the reward for this quest is one of your memories.”

Luo Jun: ???

“Since I know nothing about you so far, could you roughly estimate what that first memory might be? Could you give me some context?”

“When we get back, I’ll go to your place and view the memory directly.”

Luo Jun: …

For some reason, he felt a surge of irritation again.

This time, he didn’t just feel like burning Qin Huai—he even felt like burning himself along with him.

Tired. Destroy it all. Reincarnate.