Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle

Chapter 1274 613: Friends

A few minutes later, everyone in the kitchen was eating steaming hot soy sauce noodles. After finishing his noodles, Uncle Qin went to help Director Qin, leaving only Qin Huai in the kitchen, with no other staff from the orphanage in sight.

Qin Huai knew that this was certainly specially instructed by Director Qin. In the two years since Qin Huai went to Shan City to open Yunzhong Restaurant, the orphanage had recruited many new staff members, and many old employees had retired, including the chef from earlier, who had just come last year.

These newcomers didn't know Qin Huai, and there were plenty of helpers in the kitchen, so Director Qin simply arranged for them to do other things.

Qin Huai only realized today, after hearing Uncle Qin say that they all thought he had a reclusive personality as a child, that all these years when he volunteered at the orphanage, he had been dealing with the elder staff who watched him grow up. It was just that there were more elder staff before, so Qin Huai didn't feel anything, but now with only Director Qin and Uncle Qin remaining, Qin Huai could sensibly feel——

Does Director Qin think he's shy around strangers?

Qin Huai always considered himself a sunny and cheerful big boy for so many years, never expecting that his persona at the orphanage turned out to be silent, withdrawn, socially anxious, and shy around strangers.

The whole morning and half of the morning, Qin Huai was in the kitchen making snacks.

During this time, Chen Huihong and a few others came and went, but only An Youyou persisted as a dedicated gold-medal employee with the spirit of working whenever the boss wasn't stopping, staying in the kitchen with Qin Huai until the last minute.

Director Qin was also busy all morning.

Chen Huihong's accounts were not actually completed, and Director Qin had to deal with the audit staff while trying to get them to donate as well. While maintaining those like Wang Gen Sheng, who had already donated, the focus was on Mr. Xu, who hadn't yet donated.

She also had to handle some trivial matters at the orphanage, send caring messages via WeChat to philanthropic individuals, asking if they had received the New Year gifts specially prepared by the children.

Occasionally, she also had to contact hospitals and special schools.

If Qin Huai and An Youyou making snacks in the kitchen was an 8 out of 10 on the busy scale, then Director Qin probably had it at a 12.

Director Qin was so busy that she didn't have time to go to the kitchen to help Qin Huai; normally, if she had the time, she would definitely help out in the kitchen, even if she couldn't do much, she wanted to use actions to tell Qin Huai that Mrs. Qin cared about him.

This was Director Qin's way of balancing things.

If in recent years Director Qin hadn't focused on how to start a short video account, she could've easily made daily vlogs, with a series called "The Daily Life of a High-Energy Children's Welfare Institute Director."

At 10:22 AM, Qin Luo woke up, Director Qin finished her work, and the preparation work for the buns with Qin Huai was also completed except for filling them.

The reason why Qin Huai had earned the title of Brother Bao Bao over the years in the orphanage wasn't just because the buns were easy to feed. Among similar breakfast items – buns, shumai, dumplings, and buns were all similar – Qin Huai became Brother Bao Bao rather than Brother Dumpling or Brother Mantou because Director Qin deliberately told him to make more buns.

Buns were suitable for the children at the orphanage to wrap together; it didn't matter how they turned out as long as they were edible. As for why not dumplings...

Dumplings needed to be boiled, and many kids couldn't wrap them, leading them to become a mixed stew when boiled, which was more troublesome to feed.

All things considered, buns became the optimal choice. And if everyone could share the workload, Qin Huai would have less to do, and Director Qin also didn't want Qin Huai to come to the orphanage every time and get stuck in the kitchen from morning till night. She wanted Qin Huai to have some idle time to have a chat and reminisce about the past happiness at the orphanage with him.

Once, Qin Huai really enjoyed this part of reminiscing about the past.

Director Qin, being a master in coaxing children, was great at storytelling. Even though the orphanage had moved away from the center, all the latest gossip from Qiu County was at her fingertips. While reminiscing, Director Qin would inevitably talk about some current affairs.

It was known to everyone that Qin Huai loved hearing a bit of gossip.

But today, Qin Huai didn't really enjoy this process of reminiscing. He was worried that today's reminiscing was just purely about the past, and as the protagonist of that past, he wouldn't even know about the things that happened back then.

If Director Qin actually talked about something astonishing or groundbreaking, with Chen Huihong's character, she would remember it for 10 years, and when Luo Jun reincarnated and came back, she'd vividly and exaggeratedly recount it to him.

While making snacks, Qin Huai kept pondering what way he could make Director Qin too busy to reminisce.

This problem was still unsolved by the time Qin Luo woke up.

An oblivious Qin Luo sat in the kitchen, aggressively inhaling soy sauce noodles; her bowl was specially made, filled with three eggs, two boiled eggs, and one fried egg. The bowl was a large soup bowl usually used at the orphanage, and when Qin Luo ate, her head was almost buried in the bowl, showing she had slept well.

If this child didn't sleep well, her appetite would also be poor.

Director Qin sat next to Qin Luo, smiling as she ate a small bowl of specially made soy sauce noodles, saying, "Luoluo's appetite has increased again. Well, she's in high school now, at the age where she can really eat."

"Mrs. Qin, I'm just getting started, you haven't seen Old Shi, his appetite is at least twice mine!" Qin Luo, while munching away, couldn't help but pull her mouth away briefly to praise Shi Dadan's appetite, her words full of admiration and sympathy for the strong.