Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle
Chapter 133 - 114: The Taste of Memory 2

Chapter 133: Chapter 114: The Taste of Memory 2

During a break, Qin Huai snuck into a corner to check the game panel for tasks.

Side Quest:

2. [Taste of Memory 2]: Qu Jing, at the moment she bit into the dumpling that Qin Luo had specially left for her, suddenly had a familiar feeling welled up in her heart. It seemed that many years ago, in a blurry memory long forgotten, there was also someone who would specially leave her favorite snacks to enjoy. Unfortunately, Qu Jing cannot remember who that person was, nor what the snack looked like or tasted. But this feeling of being treated as precious has always stayed in her heart. Players are requested to help Qu Jing recall the taste of that memory and awaken her truly.

Quest Reward: [A Fragment of Qu Jing’s Dream] (Choice: Yes/No)

Such a direct quest.

Qin Huai directly scrolled down to check the gallery and, sure enough, unlocked a new entry.

Name: Qu Jing

Species: Unknown

Status: Completely amnesiac

Dream: 0/1

Recipe: None

Gift: None

Only one memory!

Qin Huai was a bit astonished, considering that Chen Huihong and Luo Jun each had three memories. And according to Qin Huai’s analysis of side tasks and dreams, these two are mutually supportive.

Chen Huixi’s dream delicacy of locust flower buns matches Chen Huihong’s memory recipe, while Luo Jun’s first side quest related to Dried Tangerine Peel Tea also corresponds to his own memory recipe.

Using this logic, the approach to completing tasks in this game should be to find the task target’s memory first, and then after viewing it, use the dishes and scenes from the memory to help complete the task.

Qin Huai was able to shortcutly complete Luo Jun’s side quest entirely because he had an advantage - direct communication with Luo Jun, being honest, and asking when in doubt.

This method of directly asking the task target how to complete the task is quite niche in a game setting.

But Qu Jing’s quest clearly cannot be completed using this logic.

She only has one memory, and it’s necessary to complete her side quest in order to obtain this memory.

Qin Huai can’t just shortcutly ask, because Qu Jing is currently in a completely amnesiac state. It doesn’t matter whether she believes Qin Huai saying she’s a spirit from the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Even if she believes, she wouldn’t be able to tell Qin Huai what the taste from her memory is.

She is currently in a completely amnesiac state.

Not to mention the abstract level of this side task...

Qin Huai felt that he should apologize to Chen Huixi and Luo Jun for their side quests, as the toughest nut to crack in this world isn’t children or the elderly, but women.

With so many types of Chinese snacks, even Zheng Siyuan wouldn’t dare to guarantee he’d know them all. Without any hints, just saying it’s the taste of memory, how do you complete such an abstract task???

At least Luo Jun’s taste of memory clearly indicated it was a low-end version of dumplings, giving a goal.

Even if Qin Huai boldly guessed that the snack taste in Qu Jing’s memory should be a flavor she loved, something like rice cake and soft sweet kinds, there are still countless snacks that fit these two types.

By the time Qin Huai learns them all to make for Qu Jing, Luo Jun would probably be reincarnating.

After pondering all morning without finding a direction, Qin Huai could only finish lunch and excuse that Luo Jun’s back was uncomfortable today and wanted some flower-shaped steamed buns, delivering them himself and meanwhile arranging a meeting with Chen Huihong via WeChat to discuss at Luo Jun’s house.

When Qin Huai arrived at Luo Jun’s house, Chen Huihong was already munching on some flaky pastry bought by Luo Jun this morning from Zhang Shumei.

Zhang Shumei had been sent off again. Qin Huai glanced at the snacks on the dining table; they were quite plentiful.

Flaky pastry, cold fresh meat mooncake and Crab Shell Cake, clearly yesterday’s uneaten Dingsheng Cake, Cloud Cake, Songhua Cake, most likely three-day-old sesame brittle, Pine Nut Date Paste Cake, and Eight Treasure Cake (none of these three snacks were made in recent days), plus two bags of seeds and peanuts squished in a corner by the pastries, and a fruit platter cut and arranged by Zhang Shumei before leaving.

This lineup could kick off a tea party.

Qin Huai placed the flower-shaped steamed buns specially brought for Luo Jun on the table; the bag contained only four pieces, three flowers, one fish, all at kindergarten crayon drawing level, ugly-cute, pleasing, colorful and tasty.

Zheng Siyuan taught Qin Huai to make the flower buns to train Qin Huai’s finger skills, while simultaneously knowing Qin Huai truly wanted to master making dumplings, so he was also teaching Qin Huai to mix different ingredients into the dough for coloring.

For instance, if Qin Luo desired a yellow Doraemon, she could opt against the cornmeal version and choose pumpkin-flavored instead, as a properly formulated sweet pumpkin mixed into the dough could also yield another kind of sweetness.

Qin Luo, after two days of pumpkin-flavored Doraemon, declared she was tired of them and wanted a black one.

Black is usually colored with cocoa powder; Qin Luo loves anything chocolate flavored.

These past few days, Zheng Siyuan has been casting unbearable glances at Qin Huai molding black Doraemon, lamenting apologies to both his master and Doraemon.

The four flower-shaped buns Qin Huai brought today come in four flavors.

Pumpkin, chocolate, raspberry, and sweet potato.

Luo Jun disdainfully picked out the black chocolate fish from the bag, asking, "With these skills, you want to make dumplings?"

"Skills are honed. Didn’t I make the apple dumplings well? It’s just a pity your side quest doesn’t call for apple dumplings, or the task would have been completed long ago."

Qin Huai looked around the dining and living rooms, not seeing Bingbingzi’s painting, and asked: "Where’s the painting?"

Bingbingzi’s commission was long since completed — 100,000 Yuan for 10 paintings, featuring scenes like Liu Tao singing in opera, removing makeup after performing, waiting at the hotel entrance, eating chestnut cake, watching movies, clutching a lunch box, wanting to cry, and looking bewildered...

Qin Huai described almost all plausible scenes worth painting to Bingbingzi, providing backstories to make the characters more vivid.

Bingbingzi thought Qin Huai was engrossed in novels.

She asked if Qin Huai could share the link to the original novel so she could read it and better capture its essence.

"In the collection room," said Luo Jun. "If you want to see them, go to the collection room. I think the paintings don’t quite resemble; did you not explain clearly?"

Qin Huai cried his grievances: "They really do resemble closely, at least nine-tenths of what’s in my memory!"

Luo Jun remained silent, taking a bite of a flower-shaped bun: "Not as tasty as dumplings. If you want to see, do it quickly, don’t procrastinate. Chen Huihong, if you want to eat, hurry up. You aren’t short of money anyway. Always raiding my place; why don’t you go grab from your brother’s?"

"My brother doesn’t buy as complete as you do," said Chen Huihong.

Qin Huai headed to the collection room to view the paintings.

It’s Qin Huai’s first time entering the collection room.

Last time during a visit, Ouyang and others glanced in; when Qin Huai wanted a look, Luo Jun stopped him. In subsequent visits to Luo Jun’s house, it was always for business, never entering the room.

Upon entering the collection room, Qin Huai was stricken with envy — having money makes things different; the collection room was larger than his bedroom.

The space was vast yet appeared crowded with many shelves, each filled with butterfly specimens, numbering well over a hundred upon a rough estimate.

There were butterflies of all sorts, in varying sizes and vibrant colors, enough to host a butterfly exhibition.

Ten paintings adorned the wall, nestled among the butterfly specimens, with an easel by the window holding an incomplete butterfly piece.

It was apparent Luo Jun genuinely loved butterflies.

Qin Huai had never researched or explored butterflies, not recognizing their types, only feeling that the butterflies in the collection room seemed of varied species, one of every color, even black, but notably lacking the common yellow.

"Are you done yet? Chen Huihong has finished eating. Let’s talk!"

"Coming." Qin Huai quietly closed the collection room door.

Indeed, Chen Huihong had finished the snacks and was now eating from the fruit platter.

Qin Huai relayed the unexpectedly triggered side mission from the morning and discussed it with the two, emphasizing that Qu Jing only had one memory.

"Qu Jing’s side mission is indeed a bit too difficult," Qin Huai said. "Can we try a workaround method, directly telling Qu Jing about the spirits from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and see if she can think of anything?"

"No," the two said in unison.

Chen Huihong even stopped eating the fruit platter, stern-faced. "Even if you say it, she wouldn’t believe it."

"A person trapped in a fog cannot see through the mist. The essence of a tribulation is a self-rescue process. Theoretically, each spirit must rely on themselves to overcome it, and external interference would only make the tribulation harder, Xiao Qin, your situation in the system is a very rare extreme case."

"Just look at Luo Jun. He is the quintessential example of being caught in a fog. He’s clear about his failure in the tribulation and why he failed, yet he prefers dragging it out here over confronting it head-on, and he won’t even tell us why he failed."

Luo Jun: ?

"Even hypothetically, if you told Xiao Qu and she believed it, that would be a grave cheating act, reducing the chance of her successful tribulation from 1% to 1/10000."

"Huh?" Qin Huai was shocked, "Is the success rate really that low?"

Chen Huihong nodded: "Actually, saying 1% is already generous. If a spirit fails at their final incarnation, it signifies the Heart Demon has become deeply ingrained, making success virtually impossible."

"Fate might toss a last straw, yet unlikely to be seen."

"Helping a doomed spirit defy fate is no simple task, especially for a Plant Spirit like me lacking the conditions. If someone like Luo Jun, a Bi fang, willingly sacrificed all his Divine Power, helping a fellow spirit succeed the tribulation might be feasible, but that would entail his own dissipation, and who would foolishly trade such a price to aid another?"

"Unless they encounter a very rare and exceptionally powerful spirit, yet even these spirits are scarcer than Bi fang and may not wish to help."

"I’m explaining all this to indicate that failing tribulations is common; success is the miracle. Whether or not you complete Xiao Qu’s task is immaterial. Don’t burden yourself psychologically. Look at Luo Jun; his mindset is exemplary."

Luo Jun: ...?

"Chen Huihong, I’ve tolerated you long enough," Luo Jun said through gritted teeth. "Do you know when not to speak? If not, keep quiet."