The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 556 White Sugar Cake

When Qin Huai left his memory, he was still somewhat dazed.

Well... An Youyou's memories actually meet all the criteria for a bad ending. Whether it's the era, her identity, her economic situation, or her cognition, she is the worst one, even worse than Zhao Cheng'an in some ways.

Although Zhao Cheng'an was a well-known fool, he had a stable job and a skill. He even worked as a pastry chef in the wealthy Li family, where his unique sugar-adding technique made him a favorite of the Li family matriarch.

In that particular era, Zhao Cheng'an held a fairly high social status.

But An Youyou is different. Even though she has 13 younger brothers, and she has surpassed 99.99% of beggars by living in a house with bluestone bricks and tiles, and enjoying a happy life of drinking millet porridge every morning and having pork knuckle to eat during the New Year, she is still a beggar.

Her work and the era she lived in were destined to be dangerous.

Qin Huai was already prepared to see An Youyou's tragic death in his memories. He had even thought of many ways she would die, such as being blown up by a bomb, shot by a gangster, killed in a fight, retaliated against by a wealthy family, or being double-crossed when exchanging pounds... These were all high-end ways to die. More common ways to die were eating spoiled food, getting diarrhea and dehydration, or starving to death because they couldn't get food.

As a result, An Youyou didn't get any.

Qin Huai's intuition told him that the memory he had just seen was An Youyou's last memory, because he had probably figured out why An Youyou failed to transcend the tribulation, and the reason was somewhat absurd.

An Youyou's belief collapsed.

As a three-legged golden toad, An Youyou firmly believes that begging is the best job in the world, and the most suitable for transcending tribulation. Begging, recruiting followers, becoming a mountain king, and happily being a local tyrant are the mission and necessary procedures for every three-legged golden toad, and the capital to boast to their followers after successfully transcending tribulation.

However, An Youyou's process was a complete failure.

She was very successful at begging and even gained 13 followers, but they were all short-lived and she frequently had to leave. Times had changed; two fists could fight four hands but couldn't stop a bullet. The old ways of being a mountain king were no longer viable, and begging every day left her with nothing to brag about.

The three-legged golden toad had already tried so hard, but her few followers betrayed their vow to beg for food and secretly looked for jobs behind her back. In the end, the three-legged golden toad bowed to reality, gave up begging, and went to Jinling to work properly.

The harsh realities of life forced the three-legged toad, who only wanted to lie by the muddy pond, smear mud on itself, and sunbathe with its belly exposed, into becoming a working-class person. An Youyou's failure to transcend her tribulation became entirely understandable.

Qin Huai just couldn't quite figure out what her specific obsession was.

I don't know if he wants to build a career, recruit more followers, and continue being the boss, or if he wants to find the best job in the world. It feels like he wants both, but both are quite difficult.

To be honest, the three-legged toad is quite ambitious and has a strong sense of career.

and……

Qin Huai inexplicably felt that the scene he saw at the end was very heartwarming.

Although not all of An Youyou's 13 underlings survived due to the times and their own abilities, every one of them who stayed with her until the end was loyal and kept saying, "Boss, even if we have to work, we'll send you all our wages so you can continue to be the boss."

Jiang Weiguo had previously said he was saving money for other purposes, but all his wages over the years had been donated to the begging gang to help An Youyou support her younger brother. Even though he thought his boss had some mental issues, he still cared for him, advised him to work hard, and helped him buy a boat ticket.

An Youyou, on the other hand, possessed the indifference characteristic of spirits before their tribulation failed. She was indifferent to the things around her, indifferent to the lives lost, even if it was her underlings who died. To her, it was just a matter of picking up new ones as long as she could remain the leader.

But while she was cold, she was actually learning how to be a person. She took good care of her surviving underlings. She would have them supervise Chen Sao's meals and help Chen Sao collect her wages. When they ate braised pork knuckle during the New Year, for every pork knuckle she ate, one of her underlings would lick a plate clean.

Qin Huai felt that if An Youyou's worldview hadn't collapsed and she hadn't been forced by life's circumstances, she might have successfully overcome her tribulation and gone back to boast about her unique but special tribulation experience.

Qin Huai spent a long time sorting out the plot in his mind. After he finished, he looked up and found that everyone was staring at him. He smiled at everyone embarrassedly, reached out and opened the game panel, intending to see what recipes he had obtained before telling everyone what he had just seen.

An Youyou's illustration section has suddenly changed.

Name: An Youyou
Species: Three-legged toad

Memory: 3/3
Dishes: Vegetable and meat buns, potato buns, white sugar cake (click to view details)

Gifts: None
Looking at the three dishes in An Youyou's dish catalog, Qin Huai fell silent.

Poor three-legged toad, it hasn't eaten anything good at all. What kind of recipes did it pull out? Steamed buns, steamed buns, and white sugar cakes, so simple and unpretentious. Although Qin Huai didn't see the grade of the white sugar cakes, judging from the appearance he remembered, the grade was probably not high.

Even more pitiable.

Although Chen Huihong started as a beggar, she lived a life of luxury in Beiping for several years. Qu Jing, in a sense, also had no worries about food and drink and had even eaten B-grade glutinous rice cakes.

Only An Youyou...

awful.

Even spirits need to rely on the economy to overcome tribulations.

Click on "White Sugar Cake" in Qinhuai to view the recipe details.

[White Sugar Cake - Grade D]

Creator: Zhang Yi
Recipe Details: This is a product of Zhang Family White Sugar Cake Shop's cost-cutting practices due to the times and budget constraints. Zhang Yi, the inheritor of the century-old Zhang Family White Sugar Cake Shop, deeply regrets his cost-cutting actions, but making money isn't shameful, so he continues to cut corners even more, hoping his regular customers won't notice. For An Youyou, however, this white sugar cake is the last dessert she ate during her time as the boss. Although it wasn't particularly delicious, far inferior to braised pork knuckle, braised pork belly, and the buns made by her younger brother Jiang Weiguo, it was the taste of her boss. Afterwards, An Youyou worked diligently as an accountant in Jinling, hoping to return to Shanghai and continue being the boss. Every day, she would savor this taste, because it was the taste of her boss. This dish can inspire ambition within 12 hours of consumption; individual effects may vary.

Friendly reminder: If An Youyou gets to eat a piece of this white sugar cake, there might be an extra surprise!

Number of times you can make it per day: (0/888)

Qin Huai: ...

An Youyou's obsession with her boss was beyond his imagination.

Since the white sugar cake was only grade D, Qin Huai was very confident that he could perfectly replicate it. After all, the white sugar cake itself was not a difficult dessert; it was just a very ordinary homemade snack.

Therefore, Qin Huai wasn't in a hurry to look at the recipe details; he could check them later or tomorrow. An Youyou had already finished get off work by now, and waking up today or tomorrow wouldn't make a difference. As An Youyou's good boss, Qin Huai felt it was best not to spoil the Three-Legged Golden Toad's precious time off work.

Qin Huai looked up at the crowd.

Chen Huihong had already served the melon seeds, and while cracking them open, she looked at Qin Huai with expectant eyes, ready to hear the story.

Qin Huai: ...

Qin Huai cleared his throat and began by recounting what he had seen and remembered, then his guesses, and finally the recipe he had found.

Everyone was stunned to hear that An Youyou hadn't died a tragic death, hadn't been betrayed by her underlings, and that none of the typical gangster or business novel plots had unfolded. Instead, she had been forced by circumstances to leave her position as a gang leader and go to Jinling to work as an accountant, a quiet and honest laborer. Luo Jun was stunned too.

Luo Jun actually knew the three-legged toad quite well, and he was the only one among these spirits who had some connection with An Youyou. The bluestone brick house where the Chen family lived was a gift from him.

"You mean the Three-Legged Golden Toad finally gave up begging and became an accountant in Jinling?" Luo Jun's voice was filled with disbelief and a sense of déjà vu. After speaking, he glanced at Chen Gong, his eyes clearly saying, "Is it because you, Wen Yaoyu, were still in Shanghai back then? Even though you didn't meet the Three-Legged Golden Toad, your working-class aura influenced her, even messing up her brain."

Chen Gong: ...

"Actually, being an accountant is pretty good, it's stable." Wen Yaoyu, who loves working all her life, speaks out for those who want to work.

Qin Huai quickly replied, "I'm not entirely sure either, because I didn't see An Youyou board the ship. But according to the description in the menu, An Youyou was probably working in Jinling to earn money, hoping to save enough to return to Shanghai and become a boss, but she didn't succeed."

"We'll have to ask An Youyou about the specifics after she wakes up tomorrow. Right now, I mainly want to ask everyone. Tomorrow, I'll make white sugar cake as soon as I get to the Cloud Cafeteria, and let An Youyou eat it first when she arrives. Youyou comes very early every day, and it's safe since there's no one else in the cafeteria at that time."

"Let's have another tea party at Mr. Luo's house tomorrow afternoon. I'll leave work early and find an excuse to have Youyou come over to help. We can all listen and ask questions together."

"I actually have quite a few questions I want to ask her."

Luo Jun narrowed his eyes slightly, seizing on the key phrase: "What do you want to ask her?"

Qin Huai couldn't quite put his finger on it. After organizing his thoughts for a moment, he hesitated before speaking, "I always feel... that An Youyou is a bit special."

"Special?" Shi Dadan asked, taking a break from eating a banana.

Qin Huai quickly explained, "I didn't mean that An Youyou is different from all of you. Of course, Lao Shi, you are also special. You are the only one who woke up when I met you. You confessed before I even had a chance to test you."

Shi Dadan silently ate his banana without saying a word.

“An Youyou’s specialness is not her memories, nor her species. I mainly feel that… I don’t know how to put it, but I just feel that she is very special.”

"Because every memory she has is something she has pieced together from the main storyline."

Qin Huai's thoughts became clearer as he spoke: "Looking at her memories alone, you can't really see much. In terms of excitement, it may not be as good as Mr. Luo's, Qu Jing's, or Sister Hong's. It's even a bit joyful. The ending is a little heartwarming. It's not like she failed her tribulation but rather like she succeeded."

"But I just feel that there should be some special points in her memory that she doesn't have. Although this game system is a bit like an unfinished product, the main quests and side quests appear inexplicably without any logic. Now the main quests have been completely cut off and I don't know why, but I feel that each quest is not issued for no reason."

"There must be a reason for this. There's also a reason why An Youyou's memories are all extracted from the main quest."

"That's...that's it."

After Qin Huai finished speaking, he looked at everyone and wanted to hear their opinions.

Chen Huihong continued happily munching on sunflower seeds, offering no comment.

Shi Dadan remained silent, still eating his banana.

Chen Gong was typing on his phone, looking serious, seemingly replying to work-related messages.

Gong Liang was sending a voice message to his daughter, Gong Baozhu, telling her that he was going back soon and if there was any fruit she wanted to eat.

Qu Jing was also sending messages with a worried expression, feeling like she was about to go to the hospital to work overtime at any moment.

Finally, Luo Jun spoke up: "If you have any questions, just ask. You have a mouth to speak."

"Don't bother coming to my house for a tea party tomorrow. What do you think my house is? A bunch of people flock to my house every day. Do you think I don't want to watch TV? Ask them yourself, and let them know in the group chat once you've found out."

“Or we can set a time to hold a welcome party for Youyou,” Chen Huihong said. “Youyou has had a tough life. In her first life, she was a beggar and didn’t eat anything good. In this life, her family is not well-off either. She works such long hours every day and her salary is so low.”

"If you ask me, let's not hold the welcome party at Luo Jun's house. Let's find a good restaurant and treat Youyou to a nice meal."

“Sister Hong, I think this is a great idea.” Qu Jing raised both hands in support.

Luo Jun was furious: "Chen Huihong, what do you mean? What do you mean by 'find a good restaurant and have a nice meal'? Haven't you eaten and taken food from my house enough? What's wrong with my food? You're even eating my sunflower seeds! Stop eating them!"

Chen Huihong cracked sunflower seeds even faster and said with a smile, "Oh, Mr. Luo, don't be angry. I'll let you pay for the restaurant later."

"Chen Huihong, what do you mean? If you don't want to pay, just say so. Do you expect me to thank you for making me pay?"

"You're welcome. Remember to order the steamed egg with black truffle. My Huihui loves it. I'll pack some to take back for her."

Qu Jing suggested, "Sister Hong, why don't you bring Huihui over?"

Chen Huihong waved her hand: "Oh dear, that's not good. Huihui is young, but she can understand our conversation. If she accidentally lets something slip, it will be hard to explain."

"Gong Liang, Chen Gong, what kind of dishes do you two like to eat? I'll make a reservation at the restaurant."

"I'm fine with anything, as long as it's not too spicy," Chen Gong said.

"I've been craving stronger flavors lately," Gong Liang said with a smile.

Luo Jun was even angrier: "What do you mean? You're all discussing this one by one, did I agree to it?!"

"One doesn't want it too spicy, and the other has to be very flavorful, right? Okay, Jingjing, is there anything you particularly want to eat?"

"Chen Huihong, are you just going to treat what I'm saying as if I'm talking nonsense and pretend you didn't hear me?"

"Hey, Xiao Qin, do you know what Youyou like? It's okay if you don't, since Youyou will be awake tomorrow anyway. When you're chatting tomorrow, remember to ask her if there's any particular dish she wants to eat so I can make a reservation at the restaurant."

"Okay, Sister Hong, I'll definitely ask tomorrow." Qin Huai nodded quickly.

Luo Jun: ...

(╯‵ ′)╯︵┻━┻

(End of this chapter)