Chapter 44: A Chain Reaction Triggered by Slacking Off

After returning home, Qin Huai happily drank beverages, watched TV, and played on his phone all at once. He didn't forget to blast music through his speakers, slacking off in four different ways simultaneously. In his joy, he lost track of time.

By the time Qin Huai snapped out of his sea of slacking, it was already almost time to get off work.

The office workers who had snatched up the fermented rice steamed buns in the morning and come back happily for lunch, only to find all the dim sum sold out by noon, felt like the sky had collapsed. If they wanted to eat anything related to dim sum, they could only settle for the 1.5-yuan meat buns.

Qin Huai decided that since he was already slacking, he might as well go all the way and take the day off. At the same time, he messaged Chen Huihong to ask about the recruitment progress for a new dim sum chef.

As the business at Cloud Cafeteria flourished, Qin Huai realized more and more that the dim sum business in the shop could not be sustained by himself as the only dim sum chef. Dim sum should be like the morning breakfast: divided by style and price. His own dim sum would follow a high-price, low-volume route, while the other chefs' dim sum would follow a budget-friendly, high-volume, and wide-variety route.

Habits can be cultivated, especially habits related to eating.

Cloud Cafeteria had now cultivated quite a few loyal customers, basically all office workers from nearby.

Those who liked to arrive just in time for work would group-order takeout and enjoy the service of having food delivered to their desks. Those who liked to eat while walking to work would reward themselves with a Five-Treasure Diced Baozi if they had money, or just reward themselves with a glance at a Five-Treasure Diced Baozi if they didn't.

According to a Ms. Zhou from a certain media company who wished to remain anonymous, because of the opening of Cloud Cafeteria, the breakfast sales at many convenience stores on the first floor of the office building had stalled. The breakfast sales of convenience stores selling hand-grabbed pancakes, egg-stuffed pancakes, scallion pancakes, and meat burgers had plummeted. Assistant Xiao Qin had vaguely become the public enemy of convenience store owners.

According to a Mr. Li from a certain gaming company who also wished to remain anonymous, although Assistant Xiao Qin had become the public enemy of convenience store owners, quite a few owners were secretly "aiding the enemy" by sneaking into Cloud Cafeteria to buy buns.

Mr. Li demanded to report—without using his real name—the owner of the convenience store with the blue sign downstairs: "It's simply too much! When I went to buy cigarettes, the owner was actually eating a Five-Treasure Diced Baozi. The fragrance filled the store, forcing me to spend a whopping 5 yuan on a grilled sausage out of hunger. What an insidious and vicious marketing tactic!"

Meanwhile, the owner of the convenience store with the blue sign, who wished to remain anonymous, stated: "Although Assistant Xiao Qin is a jerk, their buns are really quite good."

Delicious, loves to eat, likes to eat.

And the crab shell yellow, mung bean cake, pea cake, kidney bean roll, crab roe pastry, walnut pastry sold in the morning...

They were all very delicious.

Opening one's own shop is great; you can skip work and time your arrival to buy dim sum right when it comes out of the oven, hee hee.

Today, the owner stated he was not "hee hee-ing."

Because today, Assistant Xiao Qin had actually skipped work!

Skipped work!

It was too much. How could someone who sells breakfast and makes dim sum skip work? In this day and age, what kind of worker skips work? Clearly, it's us bosses who skip... Wait, you say Assistant Xiao Qin is the boss?

That's even more outrageous! How can a boss skip work? Only trash bosses like me skip work. How can a high-quality boss like Assistant Xiao Qin skip work?!

The sorrowful owner, wearing a mask and looking suspicious, asked humbly: "Assistant Xiao Qin had something to do this morning, but will he come in the afternoon?"

The waiter replied politely: "We aren't sure about that. Assistant Xiao Qin has his own arrangements and plans; perhaps he is busy with other matters today. Would you like to see if there are any other dim sum items you like? We still have meat buns, vegetable buns, and tea eggs."

The owner:?

The owner sorrowfully bought meat buns, vegetable buns, and tea eggs to take back to his convenience store. As soon as he entered, he saw his own meat buns, vegetable buns, and tea eggs, and he just wanted to howl at the sky.

Zhang Shengcai, oh Zhang Shengcai, are you sick? You've developed muscle memory for aiding the enemy. Why do you want to buy everything?

The owner went to the warehouse to organize stock in grief and opened 【Cloud Cafeteria Delivery to Desk Group 1】, posting angrily: "Is Assistant Xiao Qin feeling unwell today?" Store Manager Huang Xi: "Yes, Assistant Xiao Qin is not feeling very well today and has gone back early to rest."

26th Floor of Guangyao Building (Can't Afford Five-Treasure Diced Baozi Edition): "What?! Is Assistant Xiao Qin okay??? Is it a heat-induced cold? Drink more herbal tea!"

Blue Sky Building A, 7th Floor, 0.0: "What?! Assistant Xiao Qin has a heat-induced cold??? I know a herbal tea shop that is particularly good. I'll order a delivery for Assistant Xiao Qin!"

Blue Sky Building B, 9th Floor, Looking for Group Order: "You don't mean that yellow-sign herbal tea shop on the pedestrian street, do you? It's simply outrageously disgusting!"

Guangyao 11th Floor Group Order Success: "Agreed! It's not even as good as Cloud Cafeteria's mung bean soup!!!"

Central Court Building C, 22nd Floor Group Order: "Isn't Assistant Xiao Qin from Guangdong? He should know about herbal tea, right? Can your cafeteria launch new herbal teas?"

Blue Sky Building B, 9th Floor, Looking for Group Order: "Launch new ones! Launch new ones! Launch new ones!"

Central Building 11th Floor Group Order Missing One: "What?! Assistant Xiao Qin is going to launch new herbal teas?! Yay!!!"

At the same time, Qin Huai, who was looking at the resumes of several dim sum chefs sent by Chen Huihong, suddenly heard a game notification sound in his mind.

"Ding, congratulations on discovering a new side quest. Please check it on the quest panel."

Qin Huai:?

You can even trigger a side quest by slacking off?

It seems I should slack off more in the future.

Qin Huai opened the quest panel, and under 【Chen Huihui's Wish】, there was indeed an extra side quest.

2. 【Luo Jun's Wish】: As a herbal tea enthusiast, the herbal tea shop Luo Jun hates most in this life is the Lin's Century-Old Herbal Shop with the yellow sign on the pedestrian street opposite the Blue Sky Building. This damn black-hearted shop is not only expensive, charging a packing fee of up to 4 yuan per cup, but their signature tangerine peel tea is extremely disgusting. They even filed a complaint against his sincere negative review, slandering him as a competitor. Please fulfill Luo Jun's wish and let him drink tangerine peel tea that suits his taste.

Quest Reward: 【Luo Jun's Affirmation】, Unknown (Choice: Yes/No)

Qin Huai:......

So... who is Luo Jun?

Qin Huai searched his mind for the regular customers of Cloud Cafeteria whose names he remembered. There were those with the surname Luo, but none named Luo Jun.

How can this game system issue these quests even for people he isn't familiar with?

He didn't know Luo Jun!

If he didn't even know them, how could he complete the quest?

Qin Huai indicated that he knew how to make tangerine peel tea. Not only did he know, but Zhao Rong and Qin Congwen also knew. This thing had almost no technical content; the conventional method was to put Gynostemma and tangerine peel into a cup and brew it with boiling water. For the unconventional method, he would have to go online to research a recipe.

But he didn't know the person who issued the quest. What should he do?

Could it be that he should brew several large pots of tangerine peel tea in the cafeteria every day, giving it to anyone who came, until Luo Jun drank it?

Moreover, just looking at the quest description, Qin Huai felt that Luo Jun's wish wasn't to drink good tangerine peel tea, but to beat up the owner of Lin's Herbal Shop.

Qin Huai sat cross-legged on the sofa, staring at the side quest and falling into deep thought.

Why were the side quests in this game all so abstract?

Chen Huihui's dream bun—Chen Huihui herself didn't know what it looked like.

Luo Jun wanted to drink tangerine peel tea—he didn't know who Luo Jun was.

Difficult to handle.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 45 =====