His good relationship with Ouyang was only during their college years and after he moved to Shan City; in those two years after Qin Huai graduated from university and went back to Qiu County to sell breakfast, he and Ouyang barely had any contact, they were just at the level of liking each other's posts in their Monts.
If Qin Huai hadn't inherited the estate and gone to Shan City, and if Ouyang hadn't happened to live in Yunzhong District so the two of them crossed paths again, maybe a few years later they wouldn't even be "like-each-other's-posts" acquaintances.
Qin Huai suddenly realized that he'd never had friends growing up. He'd always thought he was popular because he made good breakfast, and his classmates all loved eating the breakfast from Qin Family Breakfast Shop and counted on him to bring it every day.
His real friends, in the true sense, were actually this bunch of spirits led by Chen Huihong.
It sounded a bit ridiculous, but from his teenage years till now, the one who'd always stayed by his side, playing the role of childhood buddy, best friend, and companion, had always been Qin Luo.
All these years, Qin Huai had never felt he was particularly withdrawn or friendless, because he had a little sister.
Is this the fate of a system-novel male lead?
While Qin Huai was still in shock, Uncle Qin began muttering to himself, "You kid, when we first held you, you weren't affectionate at all, only close to a few people and wouldn't let anyone else touch you. From a young age you didn't like playing with the other kids in the orphanage, you'd farm all by yourself. When you went to school you didn't make any friends either, and every ti soone wanted to adopt you, you'd cry and throw a tantrum, and sotis you were weird and silly like a fool. If it weren't for your dad's Breakfast Shop being right across from our orphanage, watching you grow up and knowing exactly what you're like, your Mrs. Qin and I really couldn't think of a single family who'd adopt you."
"I wasn't as bad as you're making it sound, was I?" Qin Huai weakly protested.
"You don't know how hard you were to take care of when you were little. Aside from your Mrs. Qin, there was only one young guy who used to co to the orphanage to volunteer; anyone else who touched you would make you cry, and you'd cry even if you were left alone. When your Mrs. Qin was feeding other kids, she still had to hold you in her arms, otherwise your crying would've deafened everyone. My hearing loss now is from you bawling as a kid."
Qin Huai: …Uncle Qin, all these things you're saying right now, you can't say them after Chen Huihong and the others wake up.
"Your Mrs. Qin has basically spent her whole life taking care of kids at the orphanage. Back then we all thought you were the hardest kid to look after, but later, after Huaihuai, you grew up, we realized you were actually the easiest."
"Obedient, sensible, and sharp-eyed."
"Conditions at the orphanage are poor. To put it harshly, even for able-bodied kids, if no one sponsors them, it's very hard for them to make it to university from the orphanage. Families with good conditions all want to adopt kids who are young enough not to rember things, which is understandable. Kids who rember know they aren't their adoptive parents' biological children, and adoptive parents are afraid they won't bond properly."
"Back then your Mrs. Qin worried so much she couldn't sleep at night. She wanted to find you a good family so you could leave the orphanage and have a better environnt, a better future. But she was also afraid she wouldn't find a truly good family and would be fooled by those who just pretend to be nice, who'd adopt you only to make you drop out after middle school to work and earn money."
"That's not sothing that's never happened before."
"Actually, the reason your mom and dad adopted you back then was because your Mrs. Qin went to beg them in person. She investigated every family in the county that we knew well and trusted, and in the end decided your parents were good people, the most suitable, and that you'd suit them too. At the ti, your Mrs. Qin had it all planned out: if your parents weren't willing to adopt you, she'd still have you build a good relationship with them, so that if you didn't get into university after graduating high school, you could go straight to work at their Breakfast Shop selling stead buns."
Qin Huai hadn't expected that Director Qin actually had a plan B back then.
For a mont Qin Huai didn't know what to say. He silently kneaded the dough for a while, then looked at Uncle Qin, who was still squinting as he washed the vegetables, and asked, "Uncle Qin, how co I never knew any of this before?"
"What's the point of telling you? There's plenty you don't know. When you first started primary school, a classmate's parent heard from who knows where that you were a fool and went to the school to make a fuss, saying you had to be transferred out of the class, that they didn't want their kid in the sa class as so fool from the orphanage. Your Mrs. Qin even went to the school and got into a fight with that parent."
A jumble of emotions churned in Qin Huai's chest.
He'd always thought he was pretty smart, but just a mont ago, he felt like a Yuanmou ape-man who'd never developed intelligence and had only just beco sentient.
"Then why are you suddenly telling all this now?"
"Because Huaihuai is all grown up now," Uncle Qin said with a squinty smile. "He's grown up, gone to school, changed environnts, and even made all kinds of friends who genuinely care about him."
"Yesterday your Mrs. Qin had such a great ti chatting with your friends."
Qin Huai could only blankly keep kneading the dough.
He had just finished kneading the dough for the Fernted Rice with Stead Buns and was planning to seamlessly switch to hand-rolling noodles during the dough's ferntation, when he heard so voices from outside the kitchen.
The voices were low, so he couldn't make out what they were saying at first, but as they got closer, he could hear them clearly.
"Jingjing, are you using the wrong shampoo? I feel like your hair wasn't this damaged before. How did you go to sleep and wake up with your hair all exploded like this? I bought a batch of conditioner in a group-buy last year and still have several boxes at ho. I'll give you two bottles when we get back."
"Sister Hong, I don't think it's damaged hair, I just literally didn't brush it. There's no comb in my room."
"If you didn't have a comb, why didn't you tell ? I've got one in my bag, I'll give you one when we go back later."
"The kids are still sleeping, I didn't dare talk too much over there. I grew up in an orphanage too; I know these old buildings have terrible soundproofing. Even a heavy footstep can be heard in the rooms. It wouldn't be good to wake the kids this early."
Walking in front were Chen Huihong and Qu Jing, whose hair was puffed up because she hadn't brushed it.
Not only had Qu Jing not brushed her hair, she also hadn't slept well. She looked a bit haggard, her face pale, and with the kitchen lights not being very bright, the light falling on her already fair face made her look completely bloodless, which gave Qin Huai a brief illusion of seeing Qu Jing before she successfully completed her Crossing Tribulation.
"Sister Hong, didn't you guys say in the group that you'd co on the twenty-ninth? Why are you here so early, and you didn't even give a heads-up." Qin Huai smiled as he spoke, with no hint of bla.
"Hey, this wasn't my idea. I ca early on official business. Rember how Luo Jun donated a few sums of money to the orphanage last year and the year before? Before he died, he specifically told to co to the orphanage before the New Year and help him check the books, see if the money he donated has been misused. I went to check the accounts at the orphanage where Jingjing stayed too. Right, Jingjing?"
Qu Jing cooperatively nodded.
Qin Huai believed that Chen Huihong wasn't making things up, because this really was Luo Jun's style. Even if he was already in the underworld lining up to be reincarnated, the money he'd donated before couldn't be misappropriated.
"I originally planned to co early by myself and head to your hotown after checking the books. But then Jingjing's departnt head heard she was taking annual leave this year to go out of town and thought she had sothing going on, so they specially rearranged things to give her several extra days off. So I brought Jingjing along."
"When Cheng Gong heard, he wanted to co early too, wanted to see what the orphanage you stayed in as a child was like."
"When Old Wang saw Cheng Gong ntion it in the group, he wanted to co have a look too. Gong Liang doesn't have ti to co. Xiao Zhao actually wanted to co, but his annual leave hasn't started yet. Old Shi… I asked him, and he said he was going out to sea to fish today and couldn't make it."
"Originally Old Wang and Youyou were going to go to Shanghai to pick up Mr. Xu and bring him over, but since Old Wang wanted to co early, he asked Mr. Xu about it. Mr. Xu was willing to co earlier, and if Mr. Xu was willing, of course Youyou was too. Well, she actually wasn't that willing; she wanted to work a couple more days at Yunzhong Restaurant to make a bit more money, but she didn't want to be the last one to arrive."
"So the day before yesterday we specially transferred through Shanghai, stayed there one night, and picked up Mr. Xu on the way."
"And since everyone was already coming… we found an excuse to call Zhou Hu over early too."
Qin Huai: ??? How many of you actually ca? Why is even Mr. Xu here???
Is Sanmalu Children's Welfare Institute really such a hot must-see check-in spot?
Were Director Qin and Uncle Qin really that tight-lipped yesterday? What exactly did you guys talk about during that entire afternoon and evening?
For so reason, Qin Huai suddenly felt that even though Luo Jun was already in line in the underworld waiting to be reincarnated, he had in fact taken part in this team-building trip; the one who truly didn't participate this ti was actually Zhao Cheng'an, who couldn't get ti off at Taste.
His head full of question marks, Qin Huai still managed to grab the key piece of information from that string of words Chen Huihong had just rattled off.
"You said in the group? How co I never saw anything in the group about Cheng Gong coming early? Sister Hong, do you guys have another group?"
Chen Huihong froze for a mont, then nodded. "Of course. I've got a little group-buy chat with Cheng Gong and Gong Liang."
"They've got wide channels, and the group-buy prices they get are lower than mine."
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