The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 563 The Gift of the Three-Legged Golden Toad

Qin Huai readily accepted Lin Juan's invitation and they quickly arranged a time to have dinner at Lin Juan's house the following evening.

Qin Huai would arrive a few hours early to prepare some snacks. Since Lin Juan needed to prepare the ingredients in advance, Qin Huai also added Lin Juan on WeChat. Lin Juan felt embarrassed, since she was the one who invited Qin Huai over, but why was Qin Huai cooking for her? At the same time, she was also very happy.

The desserts made by chefs featured on the "Taste of China" column are not something you can easily find.

Since Lin Juan had arrived, Qin Huai and the other two naturally couldn't stay long and planned to exchange a few pleasantries before leaving, but Lin Qi was not happy about it.

Lin Qi had finally met his reincarnated boss, and before he could even exchange a few words with him, how could he let the conversation end because of a woman hired by his boss who was suspected of swindling him out of his gold bars? If An Youyou hadn't just warned Lin Qi not to run away from the nursing home and not to speak rudely to the strangers who came to visit him, Lin Qi would have already given Lin Juan the cold shoulder.

Lin Qi could only look at An Youyou with a pitiful expression, signaling to her boss not to leave, while angrily refusing to look at Lin Juan or eat the buns she brought.

If Qin Huai hadn't suggested playing mahjong in the activity room, who knows how this situation would have turned out.

Lin Qi, an ordinary old man who has spent most of his life farming in the village, is quite skilled at mahjong.

Shi Dadan, a man who is well-off and spends his free time fishing at sea, is also quite good at mahjong and knows how to play the mahjong style popular in Shanghai.

As a full-time housewife, Lin Juan's mahjong skills are beyond question.

Qin Huai doesn't know how to play mahjong.

An Youyou knows a little mahjong, but not much, barely enough to get by. She was brutally defeated by three experienced players. With Lin Juan letting her win, Shi Dadan letting her win, and Lin Qi frantically trying to feed An Youyou cards, An Youyou lost everything. If Qin Huai hadn't promised to reimburse her for mahjong wins and losses, An Youyou would have lost half a month's salary.

The mahjong table is a great place to chat. In such a wonderful environment, everyone will naturally speak freely and share some interesting gossip.

Lin Juan was already unsuspecting of the three of them, and thought that An Youyou was really the granddaughter of Lin Qi's old friend. She was happy to tell the three of them about her grandfather's affairs over the years, and as she talked, she even talked about her own family.

As Lin Juan mentioned in her self-introduction, her husband Jiang Yong is the editor-in-chief of "Zhiwei" magazine. He has a good salary, but his work is quite busy and he often has to work overtime.

She is a full-time housewife. The couple has a son named Jiang Xiaoran who is studying computer science at a university in Shanghai. Because of his busy studies, he doesn't have time to leave the campus. So even though he is studying locally, he can only visit Lin Qi at the nursing home during the winter break.

Lin Juan is Lin Qi's granddaughter. Her father, Lin Da, just retired last year, and her aunt, Lin Er, has two sons. Although the Lin family received compensation for their land expropriation, they are not wealthy; they are just an ordinary family. Lin Juan has a lot of free time, so she visits the nursing home most often.

When Qin Huai listened to Lin Juan's introduction of the Lin family, he really wanted to suggest that the Lin family have a family gathering the next day, where everyone could eat the snacks he made. After all, their fraud ring had only just swindled his grandfather out of three gold bars. However, Qin Huai couldn't find an excuse at the moment, so he could only let Lin Juan's family eat first.

The exhilarating mahjong game lasted until lunchtime, leaving An Youyou looking pale and sickly. When the game ended, Lin Qi comforted An Youyou, saying it was his fault for not feeding her the right tiles.

Lin Qi immediately declared that from today onwards he would definitely practice his card-feeding skills diligently and play mahjong for more than 4 hours every day, so that he would not lose when An Youyou came next time.

An Youyou figured there wouldn't be a next time. If she came to Qinhuai again, they might not reimburse her for the mahjong expenses. She wasn't successful enough to afford such expensive mahjong games.

As they were leaving, Qin Huai tentatively asked Lin Juan if she felt that Lin Qi treated the three of them particularly well.

Lin Juan chuckled and said that of course she could sense it, saying that An Youyou's grandmother and grandfather must have had a very good relationship back then. Her grandfather had become very confused in the past two years, sometimes lucid and sometimes not. She guessed that An Youyou and her grandmother looked so alike that Lin Qi had confused the two of them.

To be honest, Lin Juan guessed the truth to some extent.

After leaving the nursing home, Qin Huai and his group returned to the hotel and went about their own business.

Shi Dadan went to find good restaurants nearby, Qin Huai negotiated with the hotel to ask if he could borrow the kitchen to make breakfast in the morning, and An Youyou studied the route map and whether there was surveillance, preparing to go to the village tonight to dig up the gold bars.

Yes, the three-legged toad is indeed very proactive in this matter.

Qin Huai asked An Youyou whether she planned to take the bus and then a shared bike, or take a taxi. An Youyou said she didn't need to, as she knew Shanghai very well. She had measured almost the entire city on foot when she was begging for food, so this distance was nothing to her.

As a result, An Youyou set off at 8 p.m. and didn't return until 5 a.m. She was disheveled and panting, looking more like she had been robbed than a thief.

Qin Huai was already awake at this hour, not to make breakfast, but simply because he couldn't sleep and woke up naturally. Yesterday, Qin Huai negotiated with the hotel for two hours, but perhaps because of Qin Huai's status and spending power, the hotel declined his request to use the kitchen to make breakfast, citing their inability to guarantee kitchen safety.

However, if Qin Huai wants to process semi-finished products simply, such as steamed buns or mantou, he can hand them over to the hotel kitchen, and the kitchen staff will do it for him.

Qin Huai thought this was a good idea, since he was going to Lin Juan's house to make some pastries anyway. Making extra semi-finished products to take on the trip would make it easier to complete Shi Dadan's thousand-day breakfast task.

Even if he could just boil a soft-boiled egg for Shi Dadan, it would be considered completing the task. However, Qin Huai's professional ethics and his feelings for Shi Dadan did not allow him to make breakfast so carelessly every morning.

Let's turn our attention back to gold bars.

Despite her disheveled state, as if she had just been robbed, An Youyou fulfilled her mission by bringing back three precious gold bars.

Three heavy, large yellow croakers.

Even though Qin Huai had more than 2000 million yuan in his bank account, he had never seen the three gold bars with his own eyes.

Well, it was smaller than he had imagined.

Qin Huai initially thought the large yellow croaker would be enormous, but upon seeing the actual fish, he found it to be quite small, just a metal strip. It wasn't shiny and even looked somewhat dull, probably because it had been buried in the ground for a long time.

An Youyou rubbed her hands excitedly: "Boss, am I about to strike it rich?"

Qin Huai calmly analyzed: "These three gold bars probably can't even buy a bedroom in the house you live in now, so it doesn't count as getting rich. You'll only be considered rich when Luo Jun convinces Chen Huihong to transfer that house to you."

The toad was disappointed.

"Ah, I should have just picked up Mr. Luo as my underling back then." An Youyou was a little disappointed.

Qin Huai: ...You really dare to dream, Three-Legged Golden Toad. So you're the most daring monster in that group.

An Youyou pushed the three gold bars in front of Qin Huai and said, "Here, boss, this is my gift."

"It's a pity that Xiaoqi couldn't find his bank card, otherwise the gift could have been combined with the money in his bank card. I know the rules and procedures, I'll give it all to you, I won't keep anything for myself, and I think Xiaoqi is actually doing quite well."

“I quietly asked the staff at the nursing home yesterday, and I found out that my monthly salary isn’t enough for Xiaoqi to live there for a month. He’s living much better than me.”

“He doesn’t need me to support him. He can’t even find his bank card, so I don’t expect him to support me. I was originally thinking that if he could learn how to transfer money, it would be nice if he could transfer some money to me every now and then. But looking at his current state, it’s good enough if he can even remember how to use a mobile phone.”

"Boss, I checked online, and people with Xiao Qi's condition usually don't live more than a few years. Do you think Dr. Qu can conquer Alzheimer's disease within 5 years, develop a special drug to cure Xiao Qi, and teach him how to transfer money using his mobile phone so he can transfer money to me regularly in the future?"

Qin Huai was unsure whether to criticize An Youyou's words first or accept the three gold bars.

Qu Jing probably never imagined that her biggest task after waking up would be to overcome Alzheimer's disease and become the protagonist of a medical subgenre of a top student novel.

Qin Huai thought for a moment, and finally asked the question he most wanted to ask: "You're not keeping any of these three gold bars, you're giving them all to me?"

Qin Huai had considered that An Youyou might give him the gold bars as a gift, but he didn't expect her to give them all to him. He thought that An Youyou would at least keep one for herself.

That way, when Uncle Hat comes to arrest him, there will be someone to go to jail with him. Now it's all over, Qin Huai is the mastermind, so he'll be the only one going to jail.

“No,” An Youyou said. “Xiao Qi has Alzheimer’s. If I spend his gold bars, I’ll easily be arrested as a fraudster. I don’t want to go to jail.”

"Then give me the gold bars, and I won't get arrested?!"

“Boss, you can return the gold bars to Xiaoqi,” An Youyou said.

"So Lin Qi gave you gold bars, you dug them up and brought them back as a gift to me, and I returned the gold bars to Lin Qi. In this complicated transaction, no one gained anything and no one lost anything, yet you completed your gift, is that right?" Qin Huai looked at An Youyou.

An Youyou chuckled.

"Boss, you know me. I really don't have any money to give you as a gift. You pay my salary every month."

Qin Huai: ...

Fine.

Qin Huai hadn't expected An Youyou to give him anything in return; he had originally just wanted An Youyou to donate 2000 yuan to the Sanmalu Children's Welfare Institute as a formality. Now, An Youyou didn't even need to donate 2000 yuan.

As expected of a three-legged golden toad, it's even more audacious than a mythical creature.

Qin Huai carefully put away the gold bars: "I went to Lin Juan's house this afternoon to give her the gold bars. I told her that Mr. Lin was confused and insisted that you go dig for gold bars and take pictures. You symbolically dug a little, and we didn't expect there to be any. We were too embarrassed to accept them, so we simply returned the gold bars to their rightful owner."

"Is this a valid point?"

An Youyou said somewhat embarrassedly, "Boss, there's no need to mention me. If you say that, Lin Juan will have to treat me to dinner, which is not good."

Qinhuai: 6
At 3 PM, Qin Huai, carrying the gold bars, arrived at the residential complex where Lin Juan lived, following the location sent by Lin Juan. It was an older complex in the city center, supposedly a school district property. The houses were a bit old, but the location was excellent.

Lin Juan waited for Qin Huai at the entrance of the residential compound.

"Master Qin." Lin Juan greeted Qin Huai from afar, her smile tinged with a hint of embarrassment. "My husband, Lao Jiang, called me earlier and said that when he asked his boss for leave, the boss heard that it was Master Qin who was coming to our house to make pastries, and he also wanted to meet you."

"After all, he's Lao Jiang's boss, so he can't very well refuse. You see..."

Jiang Yong was the editor-in-chief of "Zhiwei" magazine, and his superior was naturally Xu Cheng.

Qin Huai hadn't seen Xu Cheng since the birthday party in City A. This was understandable, though. As a renowned gourmet, Xu Cheng was constantly busy eating his way around the world; many chefs were lucky to see him once every few years, let alone every few days.

Qin Huai didn't know that Xu Cheng was in Shanghai. Xu Cheng rarely posted on WeChat Moments, and when he did, it was usually about the dishes he had recently tried that he found particularly insightful.

The last time Xu Cheng posted on WeChat Moments was three months ago, with the location pinned to the other side of the ocean. Qin Huai thought Xu Cheng wasn't even in China.

"Is this Mr. Xu? It's an honor for Mr. Xu to come and have some of my snacks. When will he be arriving?"

"She should be with my husband, they arrived around 4 pm," Lin Juan said.

Qin Huai nodded: "Sister Juan, is anyone still at your house? I have something I want to tell you."

Lin Juan shook her head: "No one. I originally wanted to ask my son to come home for dinner tonight, but he said he has classes at school tonight and it's inconvenient for him to come back since the school is too far from home."

"Master Qin, is what you're talking about... related to my grandfather?"

Qin Huai smiled and nodded, saying no more, indicating that he would talk to Lin Juan when they got home.

Lin Juan led Qin Huai home.

Lin Juan's home is an old building without an elevator. The house is small and simply decorated, with a lot of clutter and storage boxes. However, it is organized despite the mess, and the house is very clean and full of life.

Lin Juan got slippers for Qin Huai.

“We have a lot of stuff at home and the space is small, so it might look a bit messy, Mr. Qin, please don’t mind. I was just discussing with my husband a few days ago whether we should ask a carpenter to come over and see if we can build a row of cabinets to store our things.”

“My kitchen is also quite small. I bought all the ingredients you mentioned this morning at the market.”

While Lin Juan was speaking, Qin Huai took out three gold bars wrapped in cloth from his pocket.

The pockets on the pants Qin Huai is wearing today are quite large; they can hold a lot. In Qin Luo's unit of measurement, one pocket can fit two jianbing guozi (Chinese savory crepes).

Lin Juan was stunned.

It seemed as if Qin Huai pulled a cloth bag out of his pocket, and inside were three gold bars.

No, they are three metal rods.

No, that's not right. They are three metal bars that look a lot like gold bars.

No, that's not right. It seems to be just three gold bars.

But isn't this a bit illogical? Why would anyone put gold bars in something like this?

“This was dug out by An Youyou last night from under a tree near the old house in your village. Mr. Lin specifically instructed An Youyou to dig it out.”

Qin Huai's words caused Lin Juan's CPU to overheat.

Lin Juan: "...Huh?"

"If law enforcement finds us through the surveillance footage, please step forward and explain the situation to us."

"what?"

"Mr. Lin did not run away from the nursing home and return to the village because of his serious illness. Of course, it is possible that his illness was serious, but his main purpose was to go back and check if the buried gold bars were still there."

"This matter might be a bit complicated, let me explain it to you."

"But there's one thing, Sister Juan, you have to believe us: we're really not professional scammers."

"If Mr. Lin recovers in the future and occasionally makes large transfers, please trust us."

"what???"

(End of this chapter)