At six o’clock, the first batch of morning joggers coming to Yunzhong Restaurant for breakfast discovered that Master Xiao Zheng did not randomly appear anymore, and let out the first batch of wails.
At seven o’clock, the second batch of elderly from nearby communities coming to Yunzhong Restaurant for breakfast realized that Master Xiao Zheng was indeed not a canteen employee but just came to help exchange ideas and had left, letting out the second batch of wails.
At ten o’clock, a bunch of workers skipping work/sneakily hanging out/coming to buy snacks found out not only was Master Xiao Zheng gone, but Old Master Zheng was also gone, along with all the randomly appearing delicious Suzhou style pastries, causing the third batch of wails.
At 10:30, Chen Huihong sat in Yunzhong Restaurant, gravely making a phone call to her brother, asking why he hadn’t found a qualified pastry chef yet.
Chen Huihong’s Brother: ...
Sis, weren’t you the one who said there was no rush?
What could her brother do? He could only quickly call the HR manager, urging him to speed up the recruitment process, and at the same time, ask his sister for the address of Zheng Siyuan’s pastry shop in Gusu so that the assistant could go buy some pastries to bring back tomorrow.
"Don’t worry, Xiao Qin, I’ll have my brother speed up the search for a pastry chef, hoping to have some help for you by this month." Chen Huihong put down the phone, promised.
"It’s actually not that urgent. My mom has already arranged for a private high school in Guangdong Province and has been contacting the admissions office over there. By the end of the month, my mom will be taking Luoluo back there, so now the canteen not only needs to hire a new pastry chef but also extra kitchen helpers, and cleaning staff is easy to hire, but for kitchen staff, I believe we should choose carefully." Qin Huai explained.
Chen Huihong fully agreed with Qin Huai’s viewpoint, nodding continuously: "Of course, you just focus on making pastries, I’ll handle all these small matters, you just need to give the final approval."
"Is Huihui still at her uncle’s house?" Qin Huai started to show concern for Chen Huixi.
"Yes, she’s at her uncle’s house playing with the cat." Chen Huihong smiled and said, "I asked if she wanted to come to the canteen for lunch to eat the noodles you made, and she’s still hesitating, asking if she can have both Chicken Soup Noodles and locust flower buns."
"My brother just hears about locust flower buns and wants to eat. He’s too lazy to come, asking me to buy two bags for him. How can there be two bags? I told him to come and eat in a few days."
Qin Huai, understanding her implication, immediately said, "Recently, locust flower buns were in the trial stage, so the quantity wasn’t much, worried about unstable taste. This morning, I asked Sister Xi to order locust flower buns on the menu. In a few days, like fermented rice with steamed buns, they will be formally available, and not just two bags, even three, four, or five bags will be no problem."
"Sister Hong, just come over this afternoon, I was planning on making more today to practice, as long as you don’t mind they’re just practice buns."
"Your brother has been helping me with recruitment, helping Luoluo look into schools, I really didn’t know how to thank him."
"By the way, are you hungry now? I’ve already prepared handmade noodles, would you like to try my newly learned Chicken Soup Noodles?"
Of course, Chen Huihong didn’t refuse, nodding happily.
Qin Huai went into the kitchen to cook noodles.
It took only a few minutes to cook the noodles, and soon, a bowl of steaming hot noodles, with chicken soup as the base and green vegetables and shiitake mushrooms as toppings, was ready.
[Longevity Noodles C+ Level]
Not quite B-level, but C+ level is already very good. As an ordinary bowl of noodles, Qin Huai believed this bowl of noodles should be able to outshine 99% of machine-pressed noodles nearby.
As for the remaining 1%...
What if Zheng Da suddenly decided to open a noodle shop nearby?
Qin Huai personally brought out the noodles.
He wanted to watch Chen Huihong eat.
The product details of the Longevity Noodles included a warming tip, explicitly reminding Qin Huai to make Longevity Noodles for Chen Huihong for a surprise.
Since the warming tip said so, Qin Huai certainly wanted to see what the surprise was.
Just didn’t know if the C+ level Longevity Noodles were qualified, if they didn’t produce a surprise, Qin Huai decided to practice hard for a few days, aiming to reach B-level or B- level.
"Please try it, this Chicken Soup Noodles is still in the trial stage, if you find anything wrong, please feel free to tell me." Qin Huai directly sat down, seating himself opposite to Chen Huihong.
Chen Huihong picked up the chopsticks.
The elderly chatting nearby were no longer surprised by Qin Huai’s special treatment behavior.
Master Qin’s good relationship with Chen Huihong made it normal for him to prepare special dishes, plus, Chen Huihong was responsible for recruiting most of the staff for the canteen from outside. Eating a special bowl of noodles, not a big deal.
The real problem was that person named Ding, who took so many fermented rice with buns home every day, the elderly jokingly said their teeth could break for it.
"These noodles look very chewy." Chen Huihong admired, lifting them for a careful look, "How come it’s just one strand, isn’t this Longevity Noodles?"
"It’s a special method, a bowl contains only one strand, like Longevity Noodles, indicating good fortune." Qin Huai explained.
Hearing this explanation, Chen Huihong thought it made sense and didn’t think much, taking a bite.
Not the kind of ordinary spacing-out, but a freeze like a system crash, biting the noodles without breaking them, chopsticks holding the noodles suspended above the bowl. No lip movement, no nose movement, even her eyes didn’t blink. Only her gaze changed, from smiling to confused, then hollow, and finally clear once again.
Qin Huai was also slightly stunned, truly stunned, even a bit panicked, glancing around to see if any diners noticed Chen Huihong’s unusual behavior.
After about forty to fifty seconds, Chen Huihong moved.
Silently, she finished the entire bowl in one go, swallowing it like Longevity Noodles without biting through.
Then she quietly wiped her mouth, raised her eyes to look at Qin Huai with no discernible expression, her eyes showing three parts shock, two parts confusion, and five parts indescribable subtlety.
At this moment, Qin Huai felt the Chen Huihong sitting in front of him somewhat resembled the Chen Huihong in his dreams.
"I truly didn’t expect." Chen Huihong spoke.
"What?" Qin Huai didn’t understand.
Chen Huihong gave Qin Huai a deep glance, took a deep breath: "I didn’t expect that I could still awaken."
Seeing Qin Huai’s bewilderment, Chen Huihong smiled: "Let me think of a way to explain it to you.... I am Bai Gao."
Alright, Qin Huai felt no further explanation was needed.
Oh my goodness, the spiritual energy has revived, and the monsters from the Classic of Mountains and Seas are regaining memories of their past lives.
"I understand." Qin Huai said with a sincere expression, "But Sister Hong, should we really have such an non-human-like conversation in the main hall where everyone can hear? We ought to go to the second floor, there’s no one there."
"Sure." Chen Huihong stood up, walking up to the second floor with Qin Huai.
"I know you probably have some special way of knowing who I am, but how did you know?" Chen Huihong asked somewhat curiously.
"To be honest, I’ve had a system since I was young." Qin Huai admitted that it was time once again to be candid.
The last time he was so upfront was with Qin Luo when they were about to start kindergarten.
"My system has a game panel and also issues tasks. Completing tasks earns dreams, all about your dreams, I’ve seen many complex... stories of your past lives with Huihui in the dreams."
This time it was Chen Huihong who was dumbfounded. After contemplating for a while, she eventually uttered: "Wow."
"But now I know how to explain it to you."
"Have you ever read the Classic of Mountains and Seas?"
Qin Huai shook his head: "I’ve ordered it, it will arrive tomorrow."
"It’s indeed worth reading, you can understand it as the process where monsters from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, after reaching a certain level of cultivation, need to enter the world to go through tribulations."
Qin Huai nodded: "This, I understand. The novel Luoluo reads also has such plots."
"It’s more or less that concept - you can see it as entering one of the three thousand small worlds, or imagine running out from the depths of a wild forest, in any case, it’s about going through tribulations."
"Successfully completing the tribulation allows us to enter another level."
"Failing the tribulation results in entering reincarnation with the memories intact."
"So what counts as success, and what counts as failure?" Qin Huai was a bit curious.
"That depends on us." Chen Huihong replied, "Some spirits pass the tribulation, take a stroll in the human world, life filled with eating, drinking, and enjoyment, naturally and happily completing the tribulations."
"While some spirits undergo the tribulation, experience every aspect of the human world, suffer hardships and difficulties, ultimately entering reincarnation with regret and resentment."
"A heart filled with reluctance and obsession will lead to failure."
"Initially entering reincarnation, we still have memories, know what we are, aware that our goal is to resolve our inner reluctance and obsessions."
"After a few cycles, three to five at most, one or two at least, the memories fade. In the final life, we fully forget what we are, thinking we’re just ordinary people, at most feeling an untraceable sense of longing."
"If in the final life we still can’t remember who we are, can’t let go, can’t awaken, then we truly die."
Qin Huai understood, looking at Chen Huihong, "So... you are..."
"My last cycle." Chen Huihong nodded.
"Thank you for awakening me."