January 16th, sunny, suitable for gatherings.
Qin Huai rarely got to sleep in, woke up at 9, and glanced at his phone to find it full of unread messages.
Zhao Rong’s message was the earliest, sent at around 4 o’clock, probably after she woke up and arrived at Yunzhong Restaurant.
As the business of Yunzhong Restaurant gradually stabilized, Zhao Rong and Qin Congwen didn’t have to wake up as early as before. Yunzhong Restaurant had professional breakfast chefs and helpers, so the boss’s parents no longer needed to get up early, work hard, and exhaust themselves.
Zhao Rong was asking about the tutoring teacher, covering everything from the teacher’s teaching experience, course classification, age, and gender to how much they charge per hour. The message was densely packed with words.
Qin Huai read it several times to figure out what was being asked and replied one by one.
The teacher, Gong Liang, had already been found, and they were all professional teachers. Considering that Qin Luo was a teenage high school girl, most of the teachers Gong Liang found were women, the kind that stood as disciplinarians in front of Qin Luo, making her too intimidated to slack off or loaf around.
After Zhao Rong’s message, there was one from Zheng Siyuan, sent at 7 o’clock, giving Qin Huai his home address but saying nothing else.
Then there was a message from Huang An Yao sent at 8 o’clock. The somewhat naive Young Master was pondering social etiquette and asked if he should bring some fruit when going to Zheng Da’s house for a meal.
Qin Huai replied to Huang An Yao’s message while brushing his teeth, telling him that if he genuinely wanted to buy something, he could, but along with bringing fruits, it would be good to also bring a couple of auspicious phrases.
Then Huang An Yao replied, saying he was already at Zheng Da’s house with his dad, being directed to do this and that by the elders, but apparently not doing very well.
Huang An Yao asked Qin Huai to bring him two pounds of cherries because he wanted to eat them.
Qin Huai replied with a "6," then went to the fridge to find a small box that Ouyang hadn’t finished, which looked like more than half a pound, and packed it in a bag.
The latest message was from Gong Liang, sent 7 minutes ago, asking if Qin Huai had set off yet, and if not, he could give him a ride.
Qin Huai replied that he hadn’t.
Gong Liang didn’t respond, but five seconds later, there was a knock on the door outside.
"Master Qin, how much longer until you set off? I need to tidy up some things and might need another five or six minutes, let me know when you’re ready."
Qin Huai hurried to open the door, seeing Gong Liang in casual cotton clothes, hands empty, looking neat and not at all like he was tidying up.
"Mr. Gong, I still need two or three minutes," Qin Huai said.
"Sure, once you’re ready, just come over, I’ll leave the door open for you," Gong Liang chuckled and called out to the house, "Baozhu, have you packed everything? Bring all the toys!"
"Okay, Dad, why did you buy so many toys? Isn’t Uncle Zheng’s family having a granddaughter? What do you need tank and car models for?"
"What do you know? The little girl might just like playing with these, it’s good to be prepared. Don’t have stereotypes about kids; remember when you cried for your mom to buy you a Gundam when you were studying, and when she didn’t, you took your brother’s."
Gong Baozhu’s black history record +1.
Qin Huai kept quiet, so at least Gong Baozhu, back in the house, would think he hadn’t heard the conversation. Leaving the door open, he walked straight to Ouyang’s room and knocked.
"Are you awake?" Qin Huai asked.
"Awake, awake," claimed Ouyang, who opened the door with messy bed hair and his phone still on a game screen. Qin Huai glanced into the room and saw that Ouyang had already packed his luggage.
"Luoluo is arriving tonight," Qin Huai reminded Ouyang not to forget about moving during the day.
"Got it, don’t worry about your buddy, see, I already packed my luggage last night, and I stuffed cheese sticks in this morning.’
"I’ll pack the bedding when the time comes. I bought a brand new pink bedding set that Luoluo will surely like. I’ll inform the cleaning lady when she arrives later, to make sure she puts it on for Luoluo."
"Don’t worry, I’ll leave so lightly that I won’t take a single cloud with me."
"But you took three packs of cheese sticks from the fridge," Qin Huai retorted mercilessly.
Ouyang let out a sheepish laugh.
"You can take what you like, but make sure to leave some of the cheese sticks we replenished today for Luoluo. She likes them too, save her two packs. And don’t forget the rice dumplings," Qin Huai reminded him.
"Will do, in the afternoon, I’ll buy Luoluo two bottles of sugar-free Coke from the convenience store on behalf of her Brother Yang."
Alright, the kid’s soon going to be buried in tutoring sessions; let her have some Coke if she wants.
Carrying the cherries, Qin Huai went next door to Gong Liang’s house and found the hallway in the living room full of toys with Gong Baozhu crouching and picking through them, muttering to herself.
"This rubber ducky... who bought this? It’s so ugly, all colorful, it quacks when you squeeze it, what kid likes green, blue, red, and purple ducks anyway?"
"What do you know? Kids just love bright colors," Guo Mingzhu threw her daughter a ’you don’t understand’ look and picked out a vibrantly colored plush centipede that a normal person can only glance at since a second look would cause an explosion, "This one’s good; Yiyi will definitely like it."
Yiyi is Zheng Da’s granddaughter, nicknamed Yiyi because she was born on the first day of the lunar new year.
Gong Baozhu and Guo Mingzhu picked through the pile of toys while Gong Liang pored over a pile of supplements.
Cubilose, walnuts, black sesame seeds, and various blood tonics and vitality supplements, Gong Liang selected items while mumbling to himself, just like his daughter: