The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 546 Order Confirmation
Having completed so many side quests related to spirits and monsters, Qin Huai is well aware that the core meaning of side quests for these unawakened spirits often differs from the written descriptions.

The mission details can only convey a limited perspective, while the thoughts of spirits are incredibly diverse.

Luo Jun is the kind of person who can ask questions directly without needing to read the text.

Qu Jing is an abstract thinker; just understanding the task details requires some time and maxing out her favorability.

Gong Liang is a man of strong emotions. Don't be fooled by what the task details say. No matter how difficult or demanding it seems, as long as you have the right emotions, you can complete it in no time.

An Youyou seems to want to eat potato dumplings, but she actually wants potato buns. It's a matter of chance and coincidence that would be very difficult to accomplish without a bit of luck and unexpected twists.

Qin Huai felt that Zhou Hu was different from all of the above; Zhou Hu belonged to the faction of keeping things hidden.

The real Zhou Hu is hard to uncover by simply trying to gain his favor; only through shared experiences with fellow patients can one truly understand his inner world.

Qinhuai also caught up with it.

Zhou Hu could hide his terrible mental state so well, let alone the details of the side quest. When Qin Huai first looked at the side quest, he felt the details seemed to say everything, but failed to mention the crucial point: what exactly needed to be done.

Now he seems to understand a little.

All I can say is that Master Zhou is a very conscientious master. Although he doesn't intend to return the money he swindled (at least in Zhou Hu's mind, it was money he swindled) due to his own financial problems, he plans to spend a little extra money to repay his old customers in a roundabout way.

Ok……

His mental state is indeed not very good.

It's an express order.

Qin Huai felt that Zhou Hu was more likely than Zhao Cheng'an to have a sudden change of heart one day and decide not to pay the mortgage, saying, "I don't want to live anymore, I want to leave this ugly world."

Qin Huai pondered for a moment, then mimicked Zhou Hu's earlier sales pitch, but without being overly eager, and asked, "Zhou, do you know about noodles?"

"Mianguo'er?" Zhou Hu's blank expression revealed that he knew nothing about this snack.

It's perfectly normal. Given Zhou Hu's job, residence, and financial situation, it would be strange if he knew about Mianguoer. Most of the diners at Yunzhong Canteen only learned that there was such an amazing snack in the world after Qin Huai started selling Mianguoer.

"It's a kind of dessert shaped like fruits, vegetables, or animals, mainly fruits. At first glance, it looks just like real fruits, and the taste is also the corresponding fruit flavor," Zhao Cheng'an interjected to explain. "It's a very difficult dessert to make, and only high-end restaurants with very skilled pastry chefs and a few pastry restaurants that specialize in selling desserts sell it."

Zhou Hu had a look of sudden realization, but he still didn't understand why Qin Huai had mentioned such high-end desserts to him.

“Our Yunzhong Canteen sold a batch of noodle gift boxes last year. Each gift box contains four noodle dumplings. I made the apple noodle dumplings, and the other three were made by another chef,” Qin Huai said slowly. “When I heard you, Planner Zhou, say that you wanted to buy some rare foods and fruits, noodle dumplings were the first thing that came to mind.”

Zhou Hu almost gasped, but he held back. His remaining rationality reminded him that Qin Huai was not only a fellow patient but also the person who had made the final payment on a large order.

There's still 50% of the final payment waiting for Qin Huai to settle, so we can't afford to offend him, even though Zhou Hu is only about to receive 25% of the initial 50% deposit.

"Little...Master Qin, this apple pastry...must be very expensive, right?" Zhou Hu tried to subtly remind Qin Huai that he was a poor man and couldn't possibly afford such a high-end item.

"It's quite expensive." Zhao Cheng'an seemed to understand Qin Huai's intentions and chimed in to help him.

Although mayfly is usually quite erratic and often gets distracted during tea parties, not knowing what everyone is talking about, Zhao Cheng'an can be very reliable and intelligent when he needs to be.

Zhou Hu wanted to refuse even more, but seeing that Qin Huai didn't seem to have grasped his implied meaning, he was about to speak up and make his tactful words less tactful when Qin Huai spoke first.

"That's right, Zhou, you might not be familiar with 'mian guo' (面果儿). 'Mian guo' is a general term for a large category. Each type of 'mian guo' is different and requires time to practice. At the moment, I'm only good at apple 'mian guo'."

"Practicing new dough balls requires a lot of time and effort, and it's difficult to guarantee quality control. Our Yunzhong Canteen has extremely high quality requirements for the snacks we sell. Dough balls that don't meet the quality control standards during the practice period will absolutely not be sold."

“I don’t know if Grandpa Xu has told you, but I usually make pastries in the morning and forenoon, and practice in the afternoon. The pastries I practice are all new products that will be launched soon. These new products will not be priced before they are mastered, and they will be sold randomly in the afternoon at a very discounted price. Grandpa Xu and the others are very supportive of my pastry business. They often wait in the afternoon to buy the pastries I practice, and they also help me write food reviews and give feedback.”

Zhou Hu said he had heard of it and nodded.

"But the pastries from before are different."

"The pastries I practiced before were mostly steamed buns, mantou, and tangyuan. I could just set a cost price and sell them in small batches without any problem. Even if the taste wasn't perfect, the customers wouldn't care."

"But 'mian guo'er' is different. 'Mian guo'er' is mainly about the shape, and the taste is not very amazing. Moreover, the taste of 'mian guo'er' often serves the shape. Only when the shape is well done can the taste be more amazing."

"The few types of dough balls I'm currently practicing don't have any major problems with taste; the only issues are with their shape."

"I don't know if you can understand what I'm saying, but what I'm trying to say is that the practice version of the pasta is not suitable for a special price."

Upon hearing Qin Huai's words, Zhou Hu immediately understood and echoed, "I think I get it now. Master Qin, you mean that the dough balls you're practicing now are flawed, but these flaws don't affect their edibility. Selling them at a special price will affect subsequent sales."

"Is that what you mean?"

Qin Huai nodded with a smile.

"I originally wanted to ask Sister Hong to buy the pasta I practiced making. Sister Hong and her brother own many property companies and large supermarkets. Giving these defective pasta to homeowners might not be appropriate, but they would be good as employee benefits or even as afternoon tea for employees."

“But I just heard from Planner Zhou that you want a batch of these pastries to come back to your old customers, and I think you might need them even more than Sister Hong.”

"I will definitely give you the lowest price I can afford, but the quantity will be limited. Noodle dumplings can normally be kept for a while without significantly affecting the taste; they're not a dessert meant to be eaten hot."

"I only have one request: you must not reveal to anyone that these are desserts I made."

After Qin Huai said that, Zhou Hu, who was originally determined to refuse, began to hesitate. He realized that Qin Huai was not trying to sell him something, but rather that he had a batch of high-quality, low-priced defective products and was going to sell them to him because of their good relationship, allowing him to take advantage of the situation.

Zhou Hu still had one last hesitation.

He didn't understand why Qin Huai wanted him to take this advantage. His relationship with Qin Huai was just that of a typical client and service provider; in fact, Qin Huai was the client. He, the service provider, should be serving the client and giving them gifts, but now the roles were completely reversed.

Zhou Hu certainly believed Qin Huai wasn't a bad person. He had heard a little about Qin Huai's wealth and thought that someone as rich as Qin Huai wouldn't stoop to cheating a poor guy like him. But Zhou Hu had been in business for several years and had seen all sorts of people, so instinctively he wanted to be wary.

Qin Huai understood Zhou Hu's hesitation. Qin Huai knew that if Zhou Hu was already hesitating about this, the side quest was practically a sure thing.

At this point, we cannot advance; we can only retreat.

Qin Huai smiled and stood up: "Planner Zhou, you can consider it. If you don't trust my cooking skills, Ouyang will bring you meals these days, and the food he brings will definitely be pastries made by me. If I have time to make some noodles in the afternoons these days, I will also send you a few samples so you can check the quality."

“I really feel sorry about the roller coaster incident yesterday. I was thinking about my own things and didn’t pay much attention to your condition. You were vomiting so much but still wanted to ride the roller coaster with me, and ended up vomiting all the way to the hospital.”

“I also want to make it up to you as much as I can. I originally wanted Ouyang to send you more delicious snacks, but you have gastroenteritis and need to eat a light diet and not overeat. I also don’t want you to eat too much in a short period of time. Your place is far from Yunzhong Community, and unless it’s for work, you can’t come to Yunzhong Canteen to eat snacks.”

"I promised you yesterday that I would arrange for Grandpa Xu to eat in the kitchen these few days. Once you are fully recovered and discharged from the hospital, you can come to our Yunzhong Canteen if you have the opportunity, and I will arrange for you to eat in the kitchen."

"I have some things to take care of, so I won't stay any longer and will be leaving now."

Seeing Qin Huai about to leave, Zhao Cheng'an quickly called out, "Qin Huai, what are we having for breakfast tomorrow? What time will Ouyang bring the food? I can't get up too early in the morning, could he bring it after 8 o'clock?"

Qin Huai: "...What are you thinking? The hospital makes rounds before 7 a.m., do you really want to sleep until 8 a.m.?"

Zhao Cheng'an, who has never been hospitalized: =()
After Qin Huai left, he sent a message to Zhao Cheng'an on WeChat, telling Zhao Cheng'an to cherish the opportunity to spend time with Zhou Hu in the same ward, chat more, and try to get more information out of him. After all, Zhao Cheng'an's mental state wasn't very good either, and soon Zhou Hu would discover that there were many fellow patients in the world.

Zhao Cheng'an replied to Qin Huai with a crying emoji, asking if he could be discharged from the hospital immediately because he didn't want to get up so early in the morning.

Qin Huai: Don't even think about it.
.
On the morning of the third day, Qin Huai made shepherd's purse wontons.

Chef Qin has completely forgotten about potato dumplings.

Ouyang and the others unanimously agreed that the wontons with pickled mustard greens and shepherd's purse tasted much better than the fresh meat wontons. The thoughtful Ouyang considered that Zhou Hu had been hospitalized for three days and should be able to eat more. He originally wanted to pack six bowls of wontons to take to the hospital in the morning, but Qin Huai stopped him.

Qin Huai was worried that if he packed up the six bowls of wontons and took them over, only one bowl would end up in Zhou Hu's stomach, and the remaining five bowls would be drunk by Zhao Cheng'an.

This morning, Zhang Guanghang messaged Qin Huai and Zhao Cheng'an, asking what was going on and why he was still messaging his master, Xia Murui, at 3 a.m. His messages were full of ulterior motives, not just financial gain, but also murder. Zhang Guanghang even subtly implied that if Xia Murui hadn't intervened, he would have already flown to Shanshi to confront Zhao Cheng'an.

Qin Huai immediately stated that he would definitely keep Zhao Cheng'an in check, ensuring he only sought money and did not harm anyone. He would also try to reduce Zhao Cheng'an's greed and prevent him from replenishing that dilapidated warehouse, as he had already swindled so much money from his senior brother and was still using the special offer express service.

On the morning of the fourth day, Qin Huai made beef patties.

These are ordinary beef patties with no special features; they're just regular beef filling, thick crusts, and savory beef patties that're fried until golden brown and crispy.

On the morning of the 5th day, Qin Huai made fresh pork soup dumplings, the kind full of soup. Shi Dadan ate 47 baskets in one go, breaking the record.

According to informant Zhao Cheng'an, Zhou Hu is now living in the hospital in such a way that the first thing he does every day is look forward to what he will eat.

Zhao Cheng'an chatted with Zhou Hu in the ward every day; in other words, he harassed Zhou Hu every day.

Zhao Cheng'an is a restless person. Keeping him in the ward every day is no different from putting him in prison.

Unfortunately, he couldn't escape because he needed IV fluids every day. Of course, he could escape if he really wanted to, but going back home meant he'd have to make snacks, so Zhao Cheng'an figured staying in jail was fine too.

According to Zhao Cheng'an, Zhou Hu had already calculated his Five Elements and Eight Characters, performed divination using the I Ching, and analyzed almost everything he could think of, including character analysis, in the hospital room.

When there was nothing left to calculate about Zhao Cheng'an himself, he started calculating about others. He calculated about Zhao Cheng'an's parents, Master Zhou, the master chefs and apprentices at Zhiweiju whose birth dates he knew, Qin Huai, Chen Huihong, Chen Huihui... he calculated about anyone he could.

Zhou Hu also calculated for Chen Huihui that the child would have no problem getting into a top junior high school and that his studies would go smoothly.

Qin Huai was a little confused when he learned that Zhao Cheng'an had Zhou Hu calculate his birth chart, and asked Zhao Cheng'an how he did it. He himself didn't know his exact birth date and time because Qin Huai had been abandoned in an orphanage.

Zhao Cheng'an said not to worry about it, there's always a way to figure out what you don't know, anyway, the two of them were getting so bored in the ward that they were practically growing mold.

If this boredom continued, Zhao Cheng'an was even considering calculating the fortunes of his family's dog (his parents' dog).

So on the afternoon of the fifth day, when Qin Huai asked Ouyang to deliver dinner to the two of them, he also brought some pasta.

They are apple pasta, orange pasta, banana pasta, and kiwi pasta.

The orange and banana noodles were ones Qin Huai had practiced at Zhiweiju restaurant, though the results weren't ideal. The kiwi noodles were something Qin Huai had recently come up with and wanted to try.

The idea was bold, and the result was even bolder.

According to Zhao Cheng'an, Zhou Hu was dumbfounded when he saw the four pasta fruits.

I asked Zhao Cheng'an several times if the other three kinds of pasta besides the apple pasta were really made by Qin Huai, and if that was correct.
Zhou Hu instantly understood why Qin Huai was willing to sell these pastries at cost price, and also understood why Qin Huai's only request was that he never reveal to anyone that he made these pastries.

Master Qin's illustrious reputation cannot be ruined by these few pastries.

That very evening, Zhou Hu received an order.

Qin Huai asked Zhou Hu how much he wanted, and Zhou Hu said he needed to organize his customers and send them gift boxes in order of how much they supported his fortune-telling side business.

When Qin Huai was confirming the order, he casually asked Zhou Hu about the results of his calculations. Zhao Cheng'an only said that he was so bored that he wanted to calculate even the dog at home, without telling Qin Huai what the specific calculations were.

Zhou Hu admitted with embarrassment that it might be because he didn't have the specific birth dates and times, or perhaps because he and Zhao Cheng'an were just bored in the hospital room and started doing random calculations. Even though he was always confident in his professional abilities, he found the results this time to be outrageous.

He calculated that Qin Huai's parents had a good relationship; one of them was still alive, while the other had passed away early.

Qin, a true orphan, orphaned at the age of 18, Huai: ...

That's a bit outrageous.

Thankfully, he didn't accept the money; otherwise, Master Zhou's reputation would have been ruined.

(End of this chapter)