Chapter 116: [Taste of Memory 2]

Taking advantage of the break, Qin Huai hid in a corner and clicked on the game panel to check the task.

Side Quest:

2. 【Taste of Memory 2】: The moment Qu Jing bit into the pastry that Qin Luo had specially left for her, a familiar feeling suddenly welled up in her heart. It seemed that many years ago, in a vague memory she had long forgotten, there was also someone who would specially save her favorite pastries for her. It's a pity that Qu Jing doesn't know who that person is, nor does she remember what the pastry looked like or what it tasted like, but this feeling of being regarded as a treasure has always remained in her heart. Please help Qu Jing recall the taste of memory and let her truly wake up.

Task Reward: 【A segment of Qu Jing's dream】 (Choice: Yes/No)

Such a direct task.

Qin Huai scrolled down directly to check the illustrated guide and found, as expected, a new guide had been unlocked.

Name: Qu Jing

Species: Unknown

Status: Completely amnesiac

Dream: 0/1

Recipe: None

Gift: None

There is actually only one memory!

Qin Huai was a bit surprised; one must know that Chen Huihong and Luo Jun both had three memories. And according to Qin Huai's analysis of side quests and dreams, the two are complementary.

Chen Huihui's dream-love steamed bun, the locust flower steamed bun, is a recipe in Chen Huihong's memory, and the Chen Pi tea in Luo Jun's first side quest is also a recipe in his own memory.

Analyzing according to this logic, the game's approach to completing tasks should be to find a way to first obtain the task target's memory, and after watching the memory, use the recipes and scenes that appeared in the memory to assist in completing the task.

And the reason Qin Huai was able to overtake on a bend and complete Luo Jun's side quest was entirely because he was "cheating," communicating with Luo Jun face-to-face, being honest with each other, and asking when he didn't understand.

This way of asking the task target directly how the task should be completed is also considered very niche in the game.

But Qu Jing's task obviously cannot be completed according to this logic.

She only has one memory, and she has to complete her side quest first to obtain this memory.

Qin Huai still can't overtake on a bend and ask directly, because Qu Jing is in a state of complete amnesia. Whether she believes Qin Huai's claim that she is a spirit from the Classic of Mountains and Seas is one thing, but even if Qu Jing believes it, she has no way to tell Qin Huai what the taste in her memory is.

She is in a state of complete amnesia now.

Not to mention the abstract degree of this side quest...

Qin Huai felt he should apologize to Chen Huihui and Luo Jun's side quests; the hardest things to deal with in this world are not children and the elderly, but women.

There are so many types of Chinese pastries; even Zheng Siyuan wouldn't dare guarantee he knows them all. Without any hints, just saying it's the "taste of memory," how can such an abstract task be completed???

At least Luo Jun's "taste of memory" had clearly indicated it was a low-profile version of a fruit-shaped pastry, giving a direction for struggle.

Even if Qin Huai could boldly guess that the pastry of Qu Jing's memory taste should be the flavor she loves, rice cake types and soft, glutinous, and sweet ones, there are countless pastries that fit these two types.

By the time Qin Huai learns them all and makes them for Qu Jing one by one, Luo Jun will probably be reincarnated.

Qin Huai, who had been pondering the direction all morning without figuring it out, could only use the excuse that Luo Jun had a backache today and wanted to eat Flower Steamed Buns, so he went to deliver them himself, incidentally inviting Chen Huihong via WeChat to go to Luo Jun's house to discuss in detail.

When Qin Huai arrived at Luo Jun's house, Chen Huihong was already eating the shortbread Luo Jun had asked Zhang Shumei to buy in the morning.

Zhang Shumei had been sent away again. Qin Huai glanced at the pastries on the dining table; the variety was very rich.

Shortbread, cold fresh meat mooncakes and Crab Shell Yellows, victory cakes that one could tell were bought yesterday and not finished, Cloud-Slice cakes, Pine Flower cakes, sesame shortbread and pine nut jujube paste cakes that were likely bought three days ago (these three pastries hadn't been made in the last two days), as well as two bags of melon seeds and peanuts squeezed into the corner by the pastries, and a fruit platter cut and arranged by Zhang Shumei before she left.

With this lineup, they were holding a tea party.

Qin Huai placed the Flower Steamed Buns specially brought for Luo Jun on the table. There were 4 Flower Steamed Buns in the bag, three flowers and one fish, all at the level of a kindergarten child's crayon drawing—ugly-cute, good-looking, brightly colored, and delicious.

Zheng Siyuan taught Qin Huai to make Flower Steamed Buns to train Qin Huai's finger technique, but at the same time, Zheng Siyuan also knew that the pastry Qin Huai really wanted to practice was the fruit-shaped pastry, so he was also teaching Qin Huai to mix different ingredients into the dough to color it.

For example, the yellow Doraemon Qin Luo wanted to eat; if she didn't want to eat the cornmeal version, she could also eat the pumpkin-flavored one. As long as the recipe is appropriate, the sweet pumpkin mixed into the dough can also taste like another kind of sweetness.

After eating pumpkin-flavored Doraemon for two days, Qin Luo said she was tired of it and wanted to eat black ones.

Black is usually colored with cocoa powder, and Qin Luo loves everything chocolate-flavored.

These past few days, Zheng Siyuan had been watching Qin Huai mold black Doraemons with an unbearable look, lamenting that he was sorry to his grandmaster while lamenting that he was sorry to Doraemon.

The 4 Flower Steamed Buns Qin Huai brought today were 4 flavors.

Pumpkin flavor, chocolate flavor, raspberry flavor, and sweet potato flavor.

Luo Jun took the black chocolate fish out of the bag with great disdain and asked: "With just this technique, you also want to make fruit-shaped pastries?"

"Technique is all practiced. Didn't my apple-shaped pastry turn out very well? It's a pity that your side quest doesn't require apple-shaped pastries, otherwise the task would have been completed long ago." Qin Huai looked around the dining room and living room and didn't see the painting by Bing Bingzi, so he asked: "Where is the painting?"

Bing Bingzi's order had long been completed. 100,000 yuan for 10 paintings, including scenes of Seeing Liu Tao singing, Seeing Liu Tao removing makeup after singing, Seeing Liu Tao waiting at the hotel entrance, Seeing Liu Tao eating chestnut cake, Seeing Liu Tao watching a movie, Seeing Liu Tao clutching a lunch box and wanting to cry, Seeing Liu Tao being at a loss...

Qin Huai had told Bing Bingzi almost every scene he could think of that was worth painting. To make her paint more like it, he even told the backstory, analyzed the character's psychological state, and expounded on the character's basic background.

Bing Bingzi thought Qin Huai was obsessed with reading novels.

She asked Qin Huai if he could send her the link to the original novel so she could read it and better guess the artistic conception.

"In the collection room," Luo Jun said. "If you want to see it, go to the collection room yourself. I still think it doesn't look like it. Did you not explain it clearly?"

Qin Huai cried injustice: "It really already looks very much like it, at least nine-tenths like what I saw in my memory!"

Luo Jun didn't speak, took a bite of a Flower Steamed Bun: "It doesn't taste as good as fruit-shaped pastries. If you want to see it, go quickly; don't delay business. Chen Huihong, if you want to eat, eat quickly too. Are you short of this bit of money? You come to my house to eat mine every day; go to your brother's house to get some."

"The ones my brother buys aren't as complete as the ones you buy," Chen Huihong said.

Qin Huai went to the collection room to see the painting.

This was Qin Huai's first time entering the collection room.

Last time during the consolation visit, Ouyang and the others took a look, and when Qin Huai wanted to see it, he was stopped by Luo Jun. Every time he came to Luo Jun's house later, it was to discuss business, and he hadn't entered the room.

As soon as he entered the collection room, Qin Huai became autistic. Having money is really different; the collection room is bigger than his bedroom.

The area is very large, but it looks very crowded, with many shelves, and the shelves are all butterfly specimens. A rough look shows there are at least hundreds of them.

There are butterflies of all colors, big or small, colorful, enough to open a butterfly exhibition.

Ten paintings are framed and hung on the wall, sandwiched between butterfly specimens. By the window, there is also an easel with an unfinished butterfly.

One can tell that Luo Jun really likes butterflies.

Qin Huai has no research or involvement in butterflies and doesn't know the species. He only feels that the butterflies in the collection room seem to be of different species, of all colors, even black ones, but there are no common yellow ones.

"Are you done yet? Chen Huihong has finished eating, let's talk business!"

"Coming," Qin Huai silently closed the door of the collection room.

Chen Huihong had indeed finished the pastries and started eating the fruit platter.

Qin Huai told the two about the side quest accidentally triggered in the morning, emphasizing that Qu Jing only had one memory.

"Qu Jing's side quest is really a bit too difficult," Qin Huai said. "Can we try a opportunistic method again, directly telling Qu Jing about the spirits of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and let her try hard to think?"

"No," the two said in unison.

Chen Huihong didn't even eat the fruit platter, and said with a serious face: "Even if you say it, she won't believe it."

"People in the mist cannot see through the mist. The essence of transcending tribulation is a process of self-rescue. Theoretically speaking, every spirit's tribulation must rely on herself. External intervention will only make her tribulation harder and harder. Your system situation, Xiao Qin, belongs to a very rare extreme case."

"Look at Luo Jun, you'll know. He is now a typical person in the mist. He knows very well that his tribulation failed, and he also knows why his tribulation failed, but he would rather waste time here waiting to die than break his own inner demons, and he doesn't even want to tell us why he failed."

Luo Jun:?

"Taking a step back, even if you tell Yunzhong Xiaoqu and she believes it, this belongs to serious cheating behavior, which will reduce the probability of her successful tribulation from 1% to 1/10000."

"Ah?" Qin Huai was shocked. "Is the success rate so low?"

Chen Huihong nodded: "Actually, I said the 1% probability was high. If a spirit hasn't successfully transcended tribulation by the last life, it means the inner demon is already deeply rooted, and there is basically no possibility of success."

"Heaven will drop the last straw, but it is highly likely that it cannot be seen."

"It's not that simple to help a spirit who is bound to die to change its fate against heaven. Like me, a plant spirit, I don't even have the conditions. If a You Bifang like Luo Jun is willing to sacrifice all his divine power, he might be able to help a peer successfully transcend tribulation, but this means his own dissipation. Who would be stupid enough to help a peer successfully transcend tribulation at this cost?"

"Unless you meet a very small number of spirits with very special abilities, but this kind of spirit is even rarer than You Bifang, and they may not be willing to help."

"I explained so much to you just to tell you that tribulation failure is a common occurrence, and success is a miracle. Even if you don't complete Yunzhong Xiaoqu's task, it doesn't matter; don't have psychological burdens. Look at Luo Jun, his mentality is very good."

Luo Jun:...?

"Chen Huihong, I've tolerated you for a long time," Luo Jun said through gritted teeth. "Can you speak? If you can't speak, shut up."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 117 =====