Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle

Chapter 1329: Shi Dadan’s Secret and the New Year’s Eve Dinner (End) (2)

The villagers enjoyed five days of snack feasts, and each household inexplicably had many relatives visiting them. Previously, it was always Qin Huai's family that had many distant relatives willing to drive hundreds of kilometers with large bags to come for New Year's greetings, and while sipping tea would enjoy some delicious snacks.

This year, clearly, Qin Huai's relatives were not enough.

The premise of distant relatives is being relatives, but many people flipped through their family tree from top to bottom, unable to find any relation to Qin Huai's family and had to search the connections of other villagers in Qin Family Village.

If conditions allowed, they would wish they could marry their dogs into Qin Family Village overnight.

Qin Huai was quite relieved that Mr. Qin and Granny Qin persuaded him to restrict the snack-eating crowd to Qin Family Village and the relatives who came for New Year's greetings.

How should I put it, the New Year's gifts received in these few days were already piling up at home, almost running out of space.

Qin Luo had received hundreds of red envelopes, which almost turned into a business of selling them. Every red envelope contained 5 yuan, 10 yuan, and Qin Luo laughed hard every day just counting money.

Qin Huai waited until the sixth day of the New Year but still did not receive any letter from Shi Dadan.

Lin Xiaohong had nothing left to say; she even shared how many marks her two unlucky children got in each subject at the end-of-term exams this year.

The main snack on the sixth day of the New Year was crab roe pork buns, Shi Dadan's favorite, and he consumed three trays of crab roe pork buns just at breakfast.

Qin Huai was growing impatient, suspecting that if he didn't bring it up, allowing Shi Dadan to write slowly, this letter might be written until next New Year.

Finally, during a lunch break, Qin Huai made an excuse that making snacks these days was tiring, went out for a walk, strolled into his own house, and caught Shi Dadan in the study room, with a pen in his mouth, overwhelmed by a blank sheet of paper.

Qin Huai: ...Brother, I know you're a bit allergic to books, but isn't it a bit much to not have written even the first word after six days?

"Old Shi, have you only… found two sheets of paper in these six days?" Qin Huai looked at Shi Dadan.

Shi Dadan didn't give a simple smile this time but an embarrassed one, lowering his head in shame: "I… I don't know where to start."

Qin Huai sighed, moved a small stool to sit beside Shi Dadan, and casually closed the door.

"Stop writing; I haven't seen you write much before. Don't put yourself through it; just tell me directly."

"I know that the volunteer with the bushy beard who often held me when I was in the orphanage was you. Did you find me back then?"

Shi Dadan nodded.

"I've been rummaging through memories these days, not entirely sure. Did you, when I was in elementary school, pretend to be a parent picking up kids at my school gate?"

Shi Dadan nodded again.

"Later, when I was adopted by my parents, did you come to the Qin Family Breakfast Shop to buy buns?"

Shi Dadan continued nodding.

Qin Huai understood, very well, Shi Dadan had passed through his world years ago.

"Did you discover through my name the realization of my final lifetime, and you avoided contact because you feared I'd fail Crossing Tribulation, but you were worried about my success, so you had to stay close?"

This time, Shi Dadan hesitated, nodding and shaking his head, saying: "I'm not sure if it's like that."

Qin Huai: ?

"Old Shi, just tell me, what else did you do? How did you find me?"

Qin Huai asked a precise question, giving Shi Dadan clarity about what to say. Although he had been trying to write a letter for days, he already had a general idea and draft in mind, speaking smoothly.

"When you were still Xu Nuo, you told me your first life name was Qin Huai. I didn't know if your next life would be the final one; I could only use Qin Huai's name and clumsy methods to search, trying everything for years without finding you."

"Unable to find you domestically, I searched abroad, encountering many spirits along the way, but never you."

"It was during a return to Qiu County one year that I heard my uncle say a healthy boy was abandoned at the orphanage entrance. Director Qin named the boy Qin Huai. The orphanage children all carried the surname Qin. Despite my uncertainty about this child being you, considering the timing of reincarnation, you shouldn't be just a child then. But what if, what if you died quickly?"

Qin Huai: ...

"So, I went to be a volunteer at the orphanage."

"The final lifetime spirit is really easy to recognize; even a fool like me spotted it instantly."

"Yet I wasn't certain the child was you; what if there was another spirit with the same name? My clumsy approach was to regularly volunteer at the orphanage, continually searching for other possible Qin Huai's."

"I waited till you enrolled in elementary school, showing talent for snack-making, making your first buns and bread so delicious, confirming I indeed found you."

"But what's the point in finding you? I don't understand why you failed Crossing Tribulation or your obsession. You're the final lifetime and remember nothing; you don't recall being a spirit nor me. I'm a fool who failed Crossing Tribulation and didn't awaken, unable to help. Helping you would only drastically reduce the already slim success chance of your Crossing Tribulation."

Qin Huai immediately caught the essence of Shi Dadan's confession and asked: "What do you mean by failing to awaken after Crossing Tribulation? Old Shi, when did you eventually awaken?"