Chapter 232

Qin Huai stood in the toilet stall, unable to speak for a long time.

This was the longest memory he had ever seen. In the memory, he saw the entire process of Qu Jing meeting Hunter Qu, four years of warm times, the ruthless teasing of fate, and the final parting of life and death.

Only after finishing Qu Jing's first lifetime did Qin Huai deeply understand why Chen Huihong would say there was no standard answer for passing a tribulation. Every spirit creature didn't know what they would encounter before the tribulation, and no spirit creature could clearly state what the standard for a successful tribulation was.

Chen Huihong failed her tribulation because of selfishness and indifference. She liked the vanity and bustle of the human world and didn't want to expose herself, wanting to play for a few more years. Between saving Hui Niang's life and indifferently watching her die, she chose the latter. When she realized all this, when she felt regret, the tribulation failed.

Chen Huihui failed her tribulation because of her own kindness and inability to accept the evil in the world. As a kind Luan bird, she bore too much of the world's evil; she couldn't restrain her own hatred, injustice, and unwillingness, and failed the tribulation in resentment.

Luo Jun failed his tribulation due to his arrogance. As a powerful Bifang, he could ignore the laws and rules of the world and act recklessly. This arrogance and pride made him treat the tribulation as a game; he didn't even know his lover was dead, and failed the tribulation in remorse.

Qu Jing was different from them. Qu Jing's failure in the tribulation stemmed from the fact that she had received too much love. From the moment Qu Jing was picked up by Hunter Qu, everything she received was kindness.

Hunter Qu treated her as a treasure, the village head and his wife treated her like their own child, the doctor only felt pity and heartache when facing her difficult and complicated illness, the cart driver would hand her the black-flour steamed buns he couldn't bear to eat, and her peers would see her living a miserable life and subsidize her with some supplies. The school teacher valued her and insisted she go to town for middle school, and the children in the village wouldn't bully her because she didn't grow up. Even Gou Dan would swear and pat his chest, promising that if anyone bullied Qu Jing when they went to town for middle school, he would definitely help Qu Jing fight back.

Qu Jing was a child wrapped in love, so she couldn't accept forgetting, couldn't accept parting.

She pretended to be mute when Hunter Qu first picked her up, and after confirming the other party had no malice, she asked directly if he would eat her.

She also carved her flesh for medicine when Hunter Qu forgot her, just to keep the family affection she wanted.

Love is the thing that is most impossible to let go of.

Qin Huai recalled Qu Jing's memory slightly and only felt that Qu Jing's tribulation was the hardest to solve.

Arrogance can be corrected, selfishness can become enthusiasm, resentment can be resolved by love, but what can love itself be resolved with?

Qin Huai thought, if he were Qu Jing, perhaps he would also be like her, knowing he would fail but still willing to accept it.

Qin Huai clicked on the game panel; Qu Jing's illustrated handbook had been updated.

Name: Qu Jing

Species: Quju

Status: Awakening

Dream: 1/1

Recipe: Rice Cake Soup, Jiang Mi Rice Cake (Click to view details)

Gift: None

Qin Huai clicked on the recipe.

【Rice Cake Soup, E-grade】

Creator: Qu Shan

Dish Details: A hunter who was not good at cooking, after learning to make rice cakes, because the rice cakes he made were always too hard to eat, he was forced to boil the rice cakes into soup to make rice cake soup. For Qu Jing, the rice cakes made by Qu Shan were not delicious; they were neither fragrant nor sweet, nor soft and glutinous. But it was precisely this kind of inappropriate ingredient combined with poor cooking skills that made this un-delicious rice cake soup the taste that Qu Jing could never forget in her life; it was the taste of her grandfather's love for her. After consuming this dish, there is a certain probability that the diner will recall the warm times spent with their relatives; the higher the dish grade, the greater the probability.

(Warm reminder: Letting Qu Jing consume this dish might achieve unexpected results.)

Number of times can be made per day: (0/555)

【Jiang Mi Rice Cake, A-grade】

Creator:?

Dish Details: A kind-hearted spirit creature met a Quju undergoing her first tribulation. Seeing that the other party was living a truly miserable life, they decided to give a gift of kindness to let the other party eat something good. After eating the Jiang Mi Rice Cake, Qu Jing deeply felt that having a skill could help one live better, and she secretly practiced making rice cakes, but to no avail, so she had to give up and turn to studying hard. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the type of glutinous rice used to make the rice cakes didn't match, the grade of the Jiang Mi Rice Cake would have been even higher. After consuming this dish, it will stimulate the diner's fighting spirit to forge ahead, making their study/work/slacking efficiency higher.

Number of times can be made per day: (0/120)

Qin Huai:...

After reading the dish details, Qin Huai had a lot of questions, the most pressing of which was definitely—

What is "?"?

And there are spirit creatures named "?"?

Game system, you are too perfunctory.

Typing "unknown" would be more acceptable than typing a "?".

However, the spirit creature from the Qin Family Pastry Shop that Qu Jing met had high enough skills. Being able to make an A-grade Jiang Mi Rice Cake using glutinous rice that wasn't suitable for making Jiang Mi Rice Cakes, their skills could walk sideways anywhere.

No wonder the Qin Family Pastry Shop could open a national chain, even opening in the provincial capital where Qu Jing lived.

Qin Huai couldn't make an A-grade Jiang Mi Rice Cake right now.

He had a very clear understanding of his own strength; he couldn't make any pure white-case pastries reach A-grade.

The skill level hadn't been leveled up.

However, there was definitely no problem with the E-grade Rice Cake Soup. The only obstacle to making rice cake soup was that the grade of this rice cake soup was really too low—E-grade, even lower than Liu Tao's Gastrodia and Pigeon Stew. Qin Huai might not be able to lower it for a while.

The warm reminder had already made it clear: give Qu Jing a bowl of authentic rice cake soup, and Qu Jing would wake up.

Since he wanted to replicate it, he naturally had to perfectly replicate everything from the grade to the taste.

If it says E-grade, it must be E-grade; he absolutely couldn't let it rise to E+ grade.

When it came to making pastries, Qin Huai was an absolute man of action. Anyway, he was still in the toilet stall and no one could break in directly, so Qin Huai simply stood in the stall and watched the video tutorial for rice cake soup.

The teaching content was very simple, and the process was also very familiar.

The video tutorial chose the process of Qu Shan making rice cake soup during a certain New Year as the teaching content. There was no need to learn anything; it was all problems.

The strength when stirring was wrong, the heat when steaming was wrong, the time was wrong, the number of times stirred was wrong, the viscous state was wrong, and the steamed rice cake was also very wrong.

The E-grade rating didn't wrong the rice cake at all.

Qin Huai watched very seriously. He knew that every problem here might be the essence; if he did the parts that should be wrong correctly during the production process, the rice cake soup might be ruined.

It concerned Qu Jing's awakening, so he absolutely couldn't be careless.

To prevent not remembering after watching it once, Qin Huai watched it again.

As for why he didn't watch it a third time, Qin Huai was afraid that if he watched it three times, he would really remember it.

Qin Huai returned to the kitchen with his head full of the wrong theoretical steps for making rice cake soup. Because he kept remembering things he was about to forget, Qin Huai's expression was very serious.

The serious expression even scared the chefs at Zhi Wei Ju a little.

"Master... Master Qin, should your noodles be boiled now?" a Zhi Wei Ju chef asked.

Qin Huai had been delayed in the toilet and hadn't returned, and no one had boiled his noodles, fearing that if they were boiled too early, they would become mushy and not taste good.

"Okay." Qin Huai nodded, his mind full of how the rice cakes should be done wrong later, "Yu... Yu Yang, please help me get some glutinous rice. I want round glutinous rice, not long glutinous rice."

"Okay, Master Qin." Yu Yang hurriedly went to run the errand.

Hearing that Qin Huai wanted round glutinous rice, Zheng Siyuan, who had finished his noodles and was preparing to get off work and go home, became interested and asked: "Are you going to make glutinous rice shumai?"

"You want to make new pastries again?"

Zheng Siyuan had a look on his face that said Qin Huai changed his mind too quickly; he had just learned that the crab buns couldn't be made now and already had a new favorite.

Qin Huai shook his head: "I want to make rice cakes."

Zheng Siyuan:?

Using round glutinous rice to make rice cakes—what kind of new method was this?

Zheng Siyuan decided not to get off work yet and watched from the side for a while.

Tan Weian was also very surprised to hear that Qin Huai wanted to use round glutinous rice to make rice cakes, so he ran over to watch aggressively.

Under everyone's watch, Qin Huai began.

Wash the glutinous rice and soak it in cold water.

Eh, he only soaked it for 20 minutes. Will the glutinous rice be soaked through in this time?

This must be a new method; Master Qin has his own clever ideas!

Drain the water and steam over high heat.

Eh, this heat seems a bit wrong.

Hmm, this must be Master Qin's clever idea!

When Qin Huai only steamed the glutinous rice for 45 minutes, which normally would take an hour, everyone began to feel that there might be a problem with Qin Huai's steps.

Pour boiling water and stir.

Zheng Siyuan frowned.

This technique, this stiff stirring, this awkward movement...

Who are you? I don't care who you are, get off Qin Huai quickly!

Zheng Siyuan closed his eyes in pain.

Every movement Qin Huai made next made Zheng Siyuan want to close his eyes in pain; he was afraid that if he watched two more times, he would remember it.

Too bad!

Even the worst apprentice at Zhi Wei Ju wouldn't make rice cakes this badly!

This was simply like a pure novice who didn't know how to cook, accidentally getting a recipe. Drawing a tiger with a cat as a model, clumsy and full of mistakes, making rice cakes full of problems.

What exactly happened to Qin Huai?

Did he have a stomachache, get knocked out while in the toilet, and knock his brain out of order?

Finally, Qin Huai finished the terrible steps and covered the rice cakes with a damp cloth.

Tan Weian didn't dare to watch anymore; he was afraid of contaminating his database.

Zheng Siyuan looked at the rice cakes covered by the damp cloth, which one look told him wouldn't be delicious and would definitely be very hard, and asked sincerely: "Did someone offend you just now?"

Even if Ouyang had accidentally done something wrong, he didn't deserve this.

Just eat some fruit-filled tangyuan; the rice cakes were innocent.

"No." Qin Huai smiled, "I just feel that making the same pastry for the past two days is too monotonous. I want to use a completely innovative method to make a terrible rice cake to relieve some pressure and relax my mood. Don't worry, the rice cakes won't be wasted; someone will eat them."

Zheng Siyuan was relieved.

So it was because the pressure was too high.

Normal; Zheng Siyuan indicated that he also liked to make pastries when he was under a lot of pressure.

It's just that his way of relieving pressure was different from Qin Huai's. Qin Huai made good pastries terrible, while he extended the time it took to make pastries.

"If you feel stressed, tell us anytime. My dad can still work." Zheng Siyuan comforted him, "If it really doesn't work, I'll let my dad come over to work at night too."

Qin Huai:...

That's 6.

(End of chapter)