Under normal circumstances, when Qin Huai visits the orphanage, most of his time is spent making snacks.

Chatting is the side dish, snacks are the main course, just like Qin Huai's unremarkable daily life. What else would a snack master do if not make snacks? Just gossip all day?

Even if he's the protagonist of a system novel, he still has to make snacks. The tasks given by the gaming system are all related to snacks, so the system novel protagonist must focus on his job.

Right now, Qin Huai seems a bit like he's neglecting his duties.

After looking at two paintings in Director Qin's office, which he himself didn't even remember and hadn't seen in years, he fell into a very strange state of mind.

He wanted to tell Director Qin, "Mrs. Qin, you're overthinking. Even though most of our orphanage kids are like this, I'm different. I'm the system novel protagonist, the renowned Master Qin, the human friend of spirits, the savior of high school classmates who had to carry two large foam boxes of buns to class every day."

"I'm a standard bright and cheerful big boy, how could I be lonely and have no friends?"

Qin Huai felt he could give many examples, like how some kids would get bullied at the orphanage, but he never would. If he wanted, he could eat all the candies from the other kids' pockets on New Year's at the orphanage.

When he was in elementary school, he got along well with his classmates. Everyone knew he was from the orphanage and took good care of him; the teachers took good care of him too, and the class leader often gave him lollipops.

Although Qin Huai doesn't remember what his elementary school class leader was called or what they looked like.

Qin Huai wanted to say that he had even better social skills in middle school. By high school, there wasn't a student of the same grade who didn't know him. In college, he also got along well with his classmates and actively participated in clubs; otherwise, he wouldn't have met Ouyang.

The reason he never brought friends to the orphanage was because...

Because...

Because...

Qin Huai had a hard time coming up with an answer.

Qin Huai suddenly realized that maybe he really had glamorized his past memories, and it seemed he really didn't have any friends from childhood to adulthood. The person closest to him was his sister (Qin Luo), and second was his brother (He Cheng).

The true art of a master of lies is that they deceive themselves eventually.

During lunchtime, Qin Huai felt he couldn't eat.

Not feeling like eating, Qin Huai dragged Qin Luo, who could eat, to a small room to review everything.

Today's lunch at the orphanage was buns with various fillings, stir-fried cabbage in vinegar, stir-fried shredded radish, and stir-fried red cabbage. Qin Luo wasn't very hungry after eating a sea bowl of noodles at around 10 a.m., so she grabbed a couple of buns and went to chat with Qin Huai in a small room.

There are many vacant small rooms in the orphanage; some are for volunteers, and others were for the kids who lived there. Now that there are fewer kids, the rooms are empty and haven't been turned into storage spaces yet.

Qin Huai randomly picked a small room for volunteers, dragged in two small stools—one for himself and one for Qin Luo—and the siblings sat facing each other.

As soon as Qin Luo sat down, she started eating a bun, took a bite, and realized she had mistakenly picked a vegetable bun. She immediately showed a painful expression.

Qin Huai didn't care about his sister's expression and questioned himself: "Luoluo, do you think I'm a lonely, introverted person since I was young?"

Qin Luo answered through her bites of the veggie bun, not missing a beat: "Brother, I didn't know you when you were young, how would I know what you were like back then?"

"Did I really have no friends in middle school?"

"Brother, you were in middle school when I was still crawling on the floor. How could I remember things from back then?"

"I always thought I didn't keep in touch with past classmates because during holidays I didn't have time to hang out as I was busy selling buns at home, waking up early, and couldn't play along."

"It's not that early, brother. You usually didn't wake up until 5 a.m., which is just an hour earlier than me. I always got up at 6 a.m., and if I got up late, I'd miss the first batch of buns you made."

"I thought I had pretty good social skills in high school."

"Brother, I also think you were really popular in high school. Every summer and winter vacation, many of your high school classmates came to our shop to buy buns, and they'd bring me snacks! Just like... just like Mr. Xu and the others. Even when you went to college, they'd still come to our breakfast shop. Do you remember?"

Qin Huai shook his head: "I don't remember, I mostly made the buns, rarely sold them. It was usually you and mom selling them."

Qin Luo looked like she had an epiphany: "Yes, they'd come to buy buns, but you didn't have time for them. There was even a girl who liked you back then; she'd come every morning to bring you drinks, buy buns at 7 a.m., and wait until 8 or 9 for you to take a break to give you the drink and chat with you. Brother, you didn't really respond and even insisted on paying her back for the drinks. Mom would scold you behind your back for being dense."

Qin Huai: ?

Qin Huai was shocked: "That happened?"

"Yes, I remember that girl was the class representative for Chinese in your high school. Later, she got into a relationship... She once came to our breakfast shop with her boyfriend, who was from elsewhere, I think her college classmate. After trying the buns once, he fell in love with them and came every day. One day she didn't come, but her boyfriend did. I remember it all, brother. You had no clue?"

Qin Huai shook his head: "No idea."

Not only did he not know, but Qin Huai also didn't feel like admitting that he couldn't even remember what the Chinese class representative in high school was called.