Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle

Chapter 1214 581: An Unconventional Funeral 2

Chen Huihong reluctantly left the card table at Qin Huai's call to come and eat Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns.

The funeral home actually has a kitchen and usually sells simple main dishes like dumplings, wontons, stir-fried noodles, and fried rice, since the family keeping vigil needs to eat.

Normally, the kitchen is not rented out.

But the money from Qin Huai got through, and since Qin Huai himself is already a professional chef with full credentials, borrowing the kitchen to make some snacks wasn't an issue.

Even under simple conditions, Qin Huai's Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns still reached Level S-.

This is the advantage of stacking values; the basic values are there, and as long as there's no disaster, the snacks made won't be affected much. Even if there is a mishap, it won't be too severe.

At this time, those who came to the memorial hall to pay their respects to Luo Jun were all old acquaintances. For a while, even roasted lamb ribs were not attractive enough; everyone took a Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns, and even though they were already full, they took one and devoured a couple of bites before taking the rest home.

Chen Huihong ate the buns with sips of lemon tea, a combination that left people puzzled.

By the way, all this lemon tea was handmade, with Ouyang personally making it himself. According to him, this was the last contribution he could make to Luo Jun's funeral.

Ouyang had been working out well at the gym recently, and his strength had increased significantly, making the hand-muscling of lemon tea a breeze, his skills far exceeding Qin Luo's.

"Xiao Qin, when are Zhao Cheng'an and Cheng Gong coming?" Chen Huihong asked.

Qin Huai replied, "Cheng Gong booked the earliest morning flight for tomorrow, should be here before 11. Zhao Cheng'an said the morning flight was too early for him, so he bought a ticket for the 2 pm flight and should catch dinner."

Chen Huihong nodded, "Jingjing asked the hospital for 7 days off. The procedure usually doesn't approve such a long leave, but didn't Luo Jun deposit a lot of money at their hospital? Well, it's not really depositing a lot, more like paying a lot but not consuming."

"The hospital is pretty flexible, allowing Jingjing to come for 7 days to help under the guise of condolence and assistance, counting as a business trip. If everything goes smoothly, Jingjing can stay here and play mahjong with us for 7 days."

"Her mahjong skills really need some practice; going out for mahjong is basically handing money."

Qin Huai: …Is there such a possibility that Qu Jing could have originally avoided playing mahjong.

Chen Huihong took another bite of bun, "Do you feel better now?"

"Much better," Qin Huai said.

Qin Huai actually did feel better.

In the morning, especially during the time Luo Jun had just passed away, Qin Huai seemed bewildered and distracted. The sadness was evident, but more prominent was a drifting feeling of not knowing what he should be doing, not aware of what was happening—a peculiar soul-drifting state of bewilderment.

In fact, even by noon, Qin Huai believed Luo Jun was still alive, as long as he hadn't seen Luo Jun's corpse, Luo Jun was alive and still lying on the lazy sofa at home watching TV.

As the first heir to Luo Jun's estate, Qin Huai barely helped during his funeral.

Though Chen Huihong appeared to be unreliable playing mahjong all day, she was in fact the most swift and efficient in acting. She immediately contacted Zhou Hu to liaise with the funeral home, nailed down the entire funeral process, toured the funeral home, tried every dish, tasted every drink before going inside the room to play mahjong.

Gong Liang was pretty reliable too, directly taking charge of planning, and one would think he was Zhou Hu's boss.

Shi Dadan didn't know how he could help, so he helped with making phone calls when Chen Huihong was short a mahjong player.

Qu Jing was pretty much the same.

Even Zhang Shumei helped by cutting lots of fruits, called her son and daughter-in-law to come along to make calls and serve plates, wanting Luo Jun's final annual bonus to her to be more valuable.

If conditions allowed, Zhang Shumei would have called her nephew from out of town to help.

During this process, Qin Huai did nothing but listen to Lawyer Chen explain the rough amount of inheritance he would inherit, scratched two scratch tickets without winning anything, and then just blankly spaced out.

It wasn't until Zhao Cheng'an called after work, asking if Luo Jun's funeral had started, if he was busy; upon hearing about scratch tickets at the funeral, he asked if he could secretly scratch a couple of books, but only then did Qin Huai snap out of it.

To be exact, Qin Huai came to accept the fact that Luo Jun had passed away, and everyone was preparing for his funeral.

Then Qin Huai started to think about what he could do.

Apart from being good at making snacks, Qin Huai was just an ordinary guy. His grades were average; despite Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong enrolling him in so many extracurricular classes and hiring tutors, Qin Huai barely got into college.

His emotional intelligence is fair, his eloquence seems decent, and lies are at master level, yet none of these skills could be utilized now. In front of a scammer, Qin Huai was just like a rookie.

He had no overall planning or vision, as he figured.

After thinking it over, Qin Huai believed he had no particular trait other than being good at making snacks. Although it seemed like this skill wouldn't come in handy during Luo Jun's funeral, who said it couldn't?

So Qin Huai borrowed the kitchen and started making snacks.

Honestly, making snacks truly helps to calm the mood.

He wants to make more after making some.

"Sister Hong, is there any snack you'd like to eat now?" Qin Huai asked.

Chen Huihong gave Qin Huai a glance that seemed to say you're really not well, and jested, "It's already past 9 pm, and you're asking me what snack I want to eat."

"I want to eat beef pie."

Holding a tray in one hand and a Fermented Rice with Steamed Bun in the other, Li Liang standing quietly beside them swallowed hard.

Li Liang initially planned to leave after the buffet, as a small business-run 24-hour convenience store owner, he only had one employee. The boss and employee worked 12-hour shifts taking turns; Li Liang still wanted to be home by 11, finish freshening up by 12, and work normally the next day.

Now…

Li Liang felt that Mr. Luo's funeral deserved more time, otherwise, it wouldn't show his sincerity, skipping work would be fine!

The convenience store could close for a day; the main point was to attend Mr. Luo's funeral. Mr. Luo, being such a great person, had such a lively and well-organized funeral; staying longer was simply reasonable.

Li Liang took a bite of Fermented Rice with Steamed Bun and gathered courage to step closer to Qin Huai, softly asking, "M.. Master Qin, will you… will you make yam cake later?"

Yes, Li Liang, who barely had a name before, loved yam cake just like Zhao Cheng'an did.

Qin Huai knew Li Liang; when resting, he liked to go to the convenience store for hotdogs, and knew this boss had once had a short-lived habit of wearing masks to Yunzhong Restaurant to grab snacks—it didn't last long, and after about a month, the mask was gone.

"I can make it." Qin Huai nodded, "Boss Li, you arrived quite early; what did Mr. Luo write on your card?"

Li Liang thought for a moment and smiled: "Some words of concern and encouragement for me."

Qin Huai: ? Luo Jun's dying words were so kind?

Indeed, one cannot judge a book by its cover.

Qin Huai thought Luo Jun wrote so many cards just to scold those vendors he hadn't yet criticized enough before, thinking they surely wouldn't retort back as he was already dead.

"Boss Li, are you going to the village tomorrow to watch the show?" Qin Huai asked again.

Li Liang originally meant not to go, but now—

"Yes, of course, I'll go! Master Qin, are you going to the village tomorrow?"

Qin Huai shook his head, "I probably won't go tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'll stay here and make snacks for a day, then go to the village the day after."

"I heard there will be different programs each day; Boss Li, if you have time, could you record tomorrow's program and send it to me via WeChat?"

"Do I have your WeChat? If not, let's add each other."

Li Liang was nearly moved to the point of tears.

He felt making the decision to urge the other three convenience store owners to carpool to the funeral home today might have been the best decision he made all year.

Li Liang felt like he was on the verge of soaring up to become part of the influential circles.

"Master Qin, please rest assured, my… my hands are particularly stable when recording, and my phone is newly replaced with very high resolution!"

Xu Tuqiang, silently witnessing all this from a corner, felt his teeth grinding.

"My phone is recently changed too, why won't Master Qin let me record?" Xu Tuqiang posed a soul-searching question.

Grandma Ding looked rather speechless at Xu Tuqiang, silently took a bite of bun, then after chewing and swallowing spoke, "Old Xu, are you alright?"

"Master Qin has been hazy all day today, recovering just a bit now, and you've been endlessly worrying before, rambling about what it'll be like if Master Qin stays like this forever. Now, you start fussing about Xiao Li?"

"Even Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns can't seal your mouth."

"At this rate, I'll take your Dried Tangerine Peel Tea."

"Can you handle it?"

"If not, I'll pack it to take home. Don't be lazy; go help Xiao Zhou once you finish the bun."