Qin Huai stood in the toilet cubicle, speechless for a long time.
This was the longest memory he had ever seen. In it, he witnessed the entire process of Qu Jing meeting Qu the Hunter, four years of warm times, the merciless tricks of fate, and their final life and death parting.
It was only after he finished watching Qu Jing’s first life that Qin Huai deeply understood why Chen Huihong said there was no standard answer for passing the trial. Every spirit doesn’t know what they will encounter before the trial, nor can any spirit clearly define the standard for success.
Chen Huihong failed her trial because of selfishness and indifference. She enjoyed the worldly glamor and bustle, didn’t want to expose her intention of staying longer, and chose the latter between saving Hui Niang’s life and watching her die indifferently. When she realized everything and regretted it, her trial failed.
Chen Huixi failed her trial due to her goodness and inability to accept the world’s evils. As a kind Luan bird, she bore too much of the world’s evil. She couldn’t restrain her hate, injustice, and unwillingness, and failed the trial in resentment.
Luo Jun failed his trial due to his arrogance. As a powerful Bi Fang, he could ignore the world’s rules and do as he pleased. This arrogance and pride led him to treat the trial as a game, not knowing even that his lover had died, and failed in remorse.
Qu Jing was different from them. Qu Jing failed her trial because she received too much love. From the moment Qu the Hunter picked her up, all she received was goodwill.
Qu the Hunter cherished her like a treasure, the village chief and his wife treated her like family, the doctor could only express regret and pity for her ailments, the carriage driver would give her his cherished black steamed bun, peers helped her with resources seeing her struggle. School teachers valued her and urged her to attend junior high in town, village children didn’t bully her for her small stature, even Gou Dan would promise solemnly that if anyone bullied Qu Jing in junior high, he’d surely help her fight back.
Qu Jing was a child enveloped in love, so she couldn’t accept forgetting, couldn’t accept farewells.
When Qu the Hunter first picked her up, she pretended to be mute, and when sure he had no ill intent, directly asked if he would eat her.
She also, when Qu the Hunter forgot her, cut flesh for medicine just to hold onto the family ties she wanted.
Love is the hardest thing to let go of.
Thinking about Qu Jing’s memories a bit, Qin Huai felt that Qu Jing’s trial was the hardest to solve.
Arrogance can be corrected, selfishness can become passion, resentment can be dissolved by love, but what can dissolve love itself?
Qin Huai thought, if he were Qu Jing, perhaps he too would knowingly embrace failure with joy.
Qin Huai opened the game panel, Qu Jing’s profile was updated.
Recipe: Rice Cake Soup, Glutinous Rice Cake (Click to view details)
Qin Huai clicked on the recipe.
[Rice Cake Soup E-level]
Dish Details: A hunter not skilled in cooking, after learning to make rice cakes, found them too hard and chewy, so he had to make them into soup. For Qu Jing, Qu Shan’s rice cake wasn’t tasty, not sweet or soft. Yet, this unsuitable ingredient paired with poor cooking skills resulted in an unforgettable taste, a taste of grandfather’s love. Consuming the dish may help the eater recall warm times with family, with a higher probability at higher dish levels.
(Warm tip: Letting Qu Jing have this dish might yield expected results.)
Production times per day: (0/555)
[Glutinous Rice Cake A-level]
Dish Details: A kind spirit encountered a Yujiao facing their first trial and, seeing their struggle, decided to gift them something good. After eating the Glutinous Rice Cake, Qu Jing deeply felt that having a skill could help in life, she once secretly practiced making rice cakes but failed, forcing her to focus on studying. Actually, if not for the unsuitable variety of glutinous rice, the cake’s level would be higher. Eating this dish inspires diligence in learning, work, or idling more efficiently.
Production times per day: (0/120)
After reading the dish details, Qin Huai had many questions, the foremost being—
Is there a spirit named "?"?
Game system, you are so perfunctory.
Even writing "unknown" with two characters would be more acceptable than a single "?".
But the spirit from Qin’s Steamed Bun Shop that Qu Jing met has high skills. They managed to make an A-level Glutinous Rice Cake with unsuitable glutinous rice, a skill that stands out anywhere.
No wonder Qin’s Steamed Bun Shop became a national chain, even reaching the provincial city where Qu Jing lives.
An A-level Glutinous Rice Cake, Qin Huai can’t make one now.
He’s very aware of his capabilities; he can’t achieve A-level in any authentic pastry snacks.
The skill level hasn’t been upgraded sufficiently.
But making an E-level Rice Cake Soup won’t be a problem, the only potential hurdle is that the level is too low, E-level, even lower than Liu Tao’s Gastrodia stewed pigeon, Qin Huai might struggle to downgrade momentarily.
The warm tip clearly indicated, a bowl of authentic Rice Cake Soup can wake Qu Jing.
If it’s to be recreated, it must be perfect from level to taste.
Saying E-level means E-level, it absolutely can’t be allowed to improve to E+ level.
In pastry making, Qin Huai is a decisive person. Since he’s still in the toilet cubicle, no one can walk in suddenly, so Qin Huai simply watched the Rice Cake Soup video tutorial in the cubicle.
The instructional content was simple, and the process was very familiar.
The video tutorial selected a particular year’s New Year when Qu Shan made Rice Cake Soup as the teaching content, with nothing to learn, only full of problems.
Wrong force while stirring, incorrect fire control during steaming, wrong timing, incorrect stirring frequency, incorrect consistency, the steamed rice cake was also off.
The E-level rating didn’t wrong the rice cake.
Qin Huai watched very attentively.
He knew that every problem might be crucial, if he accidentally corrected any mistakes during production, the Rice Cake Soup might be ruined.
It concerned Qu Jing’s awakening, there was no room for error.
To prevent forgetting after one watch, Qin Huai watched it again.
As to why he didn’t watch it a third time, Qin Huai feared he might truly memorize it after three views.
With a head full of mistaken steps for making Rice Cake Soup, Qin Huai returned to the kitchen. With his mind preoccupied with things about to be forgotten, Qin Huai’s expression was very serious.
The serious expression even startled the chef at Zhiwei Restaurant.
"Qin... Master Qin, do you want your noodles cooked now?" asked a chef from Zhiwei Restaurant.
Qin Huai hadn’t returned for a long time, and his noodles were left uncooked, fearing if cooked early it would be ruined.
"Fine." Qin Huai nodded, completely absorbed in how the rice cake should be wrongly done later. "Yu... Yu Yang, please fetch me some glutinous rice, round not long glutinous rice."
"Alright Master Qin." Yu Yang hurried off to run the errand.
Hearing Qin Huai ask for round glutinous rice, Zheng Siyuan, who had just finished his noodles and was about to leave, became interested and asked, "Are you making glutinous rice shumai?"
"You’re planning to make new snacks?"
Zheng Siyuan had a look change of heart was too quick, just finding out the Double Crab Bun couldn’t be made, there was a new fascination.
Qin Huai shook his head: "I’m making rice cake."
Using round glutinous rice to make rice cake, what new method is this?
Zheng Siyuan decided not to leave, choosing to stay and watch for a bit.
Tan Wei’an, upon hearing Qin Huai would use round glutinous rice to make rice cake, was also very astonished and joined in to watch strongly.
Under everyone’s gaze, Qin Huai began.
Glutinous rice washed, soaked in cold water.
Hey, only soaked for 20 minutes, wouldn’t this time not be enough to soak the glutinous rice thoroughly?
This must be a new method, Master Qin surely had his own clever ideas!
Drained, steamed on high heat.
Hey, seems this fire control might be slightly off.
Hmm, this must be Master Qin’s clever design!
When Qin Huai steamed the usually one-hour glutinous rice for only 45 minutes, people began to think Qin Huai’s steps might have some issues.
Poured with boiling water to stir.
Zheng Siyuan frowned deeply.
This technique, this stiff mixing, this awkward action...
Who are you? Whoever you are, get off Qin Huai!
Zheng Siyuan closed his eyes in pain.
Next, every action of Qin Huai’s made Zheng Siyuan want to close his eyes in pain, afraid watching a bit more might make him remember it.
The worst apprentice at Zhiwei wouldn’t make a rice cake this lousy!
This was like a new cook who wasn’t good at cooking, accidentally made a recipe. Clumsy and full of mistakes, riddled with problems making rice cake.
What was wrong with Qin Huai?
Did he get hit in the head with some bludgeon while using the toilet, breaking his brain?
Finally, Qin Huai finished the terrible steps, covering the rice cake with a damp cloth.
Tan Wei’an couldn’t bear to look anymore, fearing it would pollute the database.
Zheng Siyuan looked at the rice cake covered with a damp cloth, visibly unappetizing and definitely tough, wholeheartedly asked, "Did anyone offend you just now?"
Even if Ouyang accidentally did something wrong, he didn’t deserve this.
A mixed fruit filling glutinous rice ball would suffice, the rice cake was innocent.
"No one." Qin Huai smiled, "I just feel that making the same snack these days is too monotonous, wanted to relieve some stress and relax by doing a completely creative flop of rice cake. Don’t worry, it won’t be wasted, it will be eaten."
Zheng Siyuan was reassured.
So, it was stress relief.
Normal, Zheng Siyuan admitted he also liked making snacks when stressed.
Only his way of stress relief differed from Qin Huai’s; while Qin Huai made good snacks into flops, he extended the time of making snacks.
"If you feel stressed, you can talk to us anytime, my dad can help." Zheng Siyuan comforted, "If it gets too much, let my dad come over and work nights too."