Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle
Chapter 48 - 44: A Chain Reaction Caused by Fishing

Chapter 48: Chapter 44: A Chain Reaction Caused by Fishing

Qin Huai went home, happily drank beverages, watched TV, and played on his phone, while also playing music via the speaker, multitasking his leisure time to the max, and before he knew it, time had flown by.

By the time Qin Huai snapped back from his leisure ocean, it was almost time to get off work.

In the morning, those who managed to grab Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns during breakfast and came joyfully for lunch found that all the snacks had been sold out in the morning. For the office workers who wanted any kind of snack, they were left with only the 1.5 yuan meat buns, feeling as if the sky had fallen.

Qin Huai thought, since he was already slacking, why not go all the way and take a break. He also sent a message to Chen Huihong, asking about the progress in recruiting new snack chefs.

As Yunzhong Restaurant’s business boomed, Qin Huai increasingly realized that relying solely on himself as the only snack chef wouldn’t be enough to sustain the business. The snacks should have pricing and variety akin to the morning breakfasts, with his snacks having a high-price, low-quantity model, while the other chefs’ snacks would follow a budget-friendly, high-volume, and diverse model.

Habits can be nurtured, especially with food-related habits.

Yunzhong Restaurant has now cultivated quite a few loyal customers, mostly local office workers.

Those who enjoy being fashionably late and order food deliveries relish the service of having meals brought directly to their workstations. Others who prefer eating on their way to the office reward themselves with a Five Fillings Bun if they have the money, or at least the sight of one if they don’t.

According to Miss Zhou, an employee who wishes to remain anonymous from a media company, since the opening of Yunzhong Restaurant, many convenience stores on the first floor of office buildings have seen their breakfast sales plummet, especially those selling convenience store hand-grab pancakes, egg-filled pancakes, bread rolls, or meat buns. Master Qin is gradually becoming the public enemy of convenience store owners.

According to Mr. Li, who claims to remain anonymous from a gaming company, although Master Qin has become the convenience store owners’ enemy, many store owners secretly support their rival by buying buns from Yunzhong Restaurant.

Mr. Li demanded an unnamed accusation against Boss Zhang of the convenience store with the blue sign downstairs: it’s simply outrageous. When he went to buy cigarettes, Boss Zhang was eating a Five Fillings Bun, filling the store with its fragrance, making him hungry enough to spend a hefty 5 yuan on a roasted sausage; such a sinister and malicious marketing ploy!

The unnamed Boss Zhang from the blue sign convenience store said: although Master Qin is something else, the buns they sell are really quite good.

Delicious, love to eat, really enjoy them.

And the Crab Shell Cake, Green Bean Cake, pea cake, Kidney Bean Roll, Crab Cake, walnut cake sold in the morning...

All are very tasty.

Running your own store is great; you can skip work and show up just when the snacks come out to buy them, haha.

But today, Boss Zhang isn’t laughing.

Because today, Master Qin actually skipped work!

Skipped work!

How outrageous, skipping work when selling breakfast and making snacks? How could any worker skip work nowadays? Obviously, it’s us bosses who should be skipping... What do you mean Master Qin is the boss?

Even more outrageous, how can the boss skip work? It’s just us trashy bosses who skip work, Master Qin as a quality boss should not be skipping work?!

A sorrowful Boss Zhang, wearing a mask, lurking around, humbly asked: "Is Master Qin busy this morning, will he come in the afternoon?"

The waiter politely replied: "We’re not sure about that, Master Qin has his own schedule and plans, maybe he’s busy today with other things. You might want to see if there’s any other snacks you like, we still have meat buns, vegetable buns, and tea eggs."

Boss Zhang: ?

Boss Zhang sadly bought the meat buns, vegetable buns, and tea eggs back to his convenience store, and upon entering, seeing his store’s meat buns, vegetable buns, and tea eggs, could only look up to the sky and wail.

Zhang Shengcai, oh Zhang Shengcai, are you nuts? You’ve funded your enemy to the point of muscle memory; you want to buy everything you see?

Enraged, Boss Zhang went to the warehouse to organize goods, opened the [Yunzhong Restaurant Deliver Meals to Workstation Group 1], and furiously spoke: Is Master Qin feeling unwell today?

Manager-Huang Xi: Yes, Master Qin wasn’t feeling well today, so he went home early to rest.

Guangyao Building 26th Floor (can’t afford Five Fillings Bun version): What?! Is Master Qin okay? Is it heatstroke? Drink more cold tea!

Lantian, Building A 7th Floor 0.0: What?! Master Qin has heatstroke? I know a particularly good cold tea place; I’ll order some takeout for Master Qin!

Lantian, Sky Building B 9th Floor looking to pool order: You can’t mean that yellow sign cold tea shop on the pedestrian street, can you? It’s so terrible it’s infuriating!

Guangyao Building 11th Floor successfully pooled order: Agreed! It’s not even as good as Yunzhong Restaurant’s green bean soup!!!

In the courtyard, Building C 22nd Floor pooling: Isn’t Master Qin from Guangdong Province? He should be good with cold tea, right? Can your cafeteria introduce new cold teas?

Lantian, Sky Building B 9th Floor looking to pool order: New ones, new ones, new ones!

...

Courtyard, Building C 11th Floor one less for pooling: What?! Master Qin wants to introduce new cold tea?! Fantastic!!!

At the same time, Qin Huai, who was reviewing the resumes of a few snack chefs sent by Chen Huihong, suddenly heard a game notification sound in his mind.

"Ding, congratulations on discovering a new side quest. Please check the task panel for details."

Qin Huai: ?

You can even find side quests by slacking off?

Looks like I need to slack off more in the future.

Qin Huai opened the task panel, and under [Chen Huixi’s Wish], sure enough, there was an added side quest.

2. [Luo Jun’s Wish]: As a lover of cold tea, Luo Jun’s biggest grievance is with the cold tea shop on the pedestrian street opposite Lantian Building with a yellow sign, Lin Ji Hundred Year Cool Shop. This damn unscrupulous store not only charges exorbitant prices, with a takeaway fee of up to 4 yuan per cup, but its so-called signature Dried Tangerine Peel Tea is absolutely disgusting. They even complained about his sincere criticism, accusing him of being a competitor. Please complete Luo Jun’s wish to let him drink a Dried Tangerine Peel Tea to his liking.

Task Rewards: [Luo Jun’s Approval], Unknown (Choose: Yes/No)

Qin Huai: ...

So... who is Luo Jun?

Qin Huai searched through the regular customers of Yunzhong Restaurant he remembered, but no one was named Luo Jun.

How does this game system issue tasks to people he’s not even familiar with?

He doesn’t know Luo Jun!

If he doesn’t know them, how is he supposed to complete the task?

Qin Huai admitted he knew how to make Dried Tangerine Peel Tea, not only him, but Zhao Rong and Qin Congwen also could. This thing has almost no technical difficulty; the usual way is to put Gynostemma pentaphyllum and Dried Tangerine Peel into a cup and brew with hot water. For unusual methods, he’d have to look up recipes online.

But he didn’t know the person who issued the task; what should he do?

Is he supposed to brew a few large pots of Dried Tangerine Peel Tea in the cafeteria every day and keep giving them out until Luo Jun has had enough?

Moreover, from just the task description, Qin Huai felt that Luo Jun’s wish was not to drink delicious Dried Tangerine Peel Tea, but to beat up the owner of Lin’s Cold Tea Shop.

Qin Huai sat cross-legged on the sofa, staring at the side quest and pondering deeply.

Why are all the game’s side quests so abstract?

Chen Huixi’s dream bun, even Chen Huixi herself doesn’t know what it’s like.

Luo Jun wants to drink Dried Tangerine Peel Tea, and he doesn’t know who Luo Jun is.

Troublesome.