After a brief bout of feeling down, Qin Huai turned back into Brother Bao Bao, the children's favorite at the orphanage, diving into the intense, exciting, and complex dumpling-making process, where he could chat and gossip while working.

Seeing Qin Huai return to normal, Mr. Xu, who had been quietly observing him, finally breathed a sigh of relief and, by the afternoon, had discussed the donation plan with Director Qin.

Mr. Xu did not donate a specific amount of money; instead, he covered the surgery and subsequent treatment costs for a child in the orphanage suffering from a cleft lip.

If conditions had permitted, Director Qin would have organized the children at the orphanage on the spot to draw a thank-you picture for Mr. Xu, the latest philanthropist on the scene.

That night, Qin Huai and Qin Luo stayed at the orphanage. Qin Congwen brought them fresh clothes in the evening, also bringing some snacks for Qin Luo. Qin Luo generously kept a few bags of chips she liked and shared the rest with the kids at the orphanage, becoming the snack sister.

The volunteer rooms at the orphanage are all double rooms.

Qin Huai quietly requested from Director Qin, and through some backdoor arrangements, Director Qin placed Qin Huai and Zhou Hu in the same room.

Those with good memories might remember that the reason everyone gathered in Qiu County for this New Year, making both the orphanage and Qin Family Village lively this small New Year and for some time to come, was because of Zhou Hu.

Qin Huai needed a legitimate reason to get close to Zhou Hu and uncover tasks from him.

This New Year was theoretically supposed to be centered around Zhou Hu, but this theoretical protagonist was practically non-existent during this time, hardly even mentioned, purely a background character.

This was a disrespect to Master Zhou, as Zhou Hu, apart from his main job of funeral planning, also had a side business of feng shui, fortune-telling, and divination. According to Qin Huai, after Luo Jun's funeral ended and he paid Zhou Hu the final payment, Zhou Hu's funeral planning company shut down, and Zhou Hu did nothing with his main business.

He put his all into rewarding his loyal old customers; not only did he give 100 of them gift boxes of dumplings, but he also spent a fortune ordering over 300 New Year gifts (snacks, fruits, etc.), sending them to all his side business's old customers on his WeChat list. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

This directly led to many old customers thinking Zhou Hu was short of money, hinting they should get some fortunes read and perhaps buy some talismans as well.

It just so happened Zhou Hu's timing for sending New Year gifts was close to the Spring Festival, the time of year when his side business shone brightly, gathering both new and old customers. This caused Zhou Hu, who originally wanted to quit, to see his business flourish more than ever.

In their line of work, the rule is that there is always a charge for fortune-telling, no matter what. Although Zhou Hu fundamentally does not believe in what he predicts, he learned it so well that, even if he doesn't believe, he harbors a bit of faith. Not wanting to con his loyal customers, he reduced the divination fee from 50 yuan per reading to 15 yuan.

His intent was certainly good, but things did not go as expected.

The old customers, who initially only intended to get one reading, upon hearing about the significant price cut, went for three. Career, love, family, friendship, marriage, children, health... they got everything possible read. Guests who couldn't think of what to ask, considering 15 yuan for a reading was such a bargain, even asked about their pets like cats and dogs, or even chickens, ducks, and geese raised in the countryside.

Others queried about stock funds and if they would win the lottery the next day.

Using the 15-yuan reading to forecast a 10-yuan scratch-off win, all one can say is Zhou Hu's old customers are quite unfathomable.

This booming business before the New Year directly resulted in Master Zhou, who originally intended to stop... earning even more.

Although the work volume increased, so did the cash flow. Moreover, since Zhou Hu did not hold a regular job this year, he had more free time than in previous years and could fortune-tell full-time.

According to Chen Huihong's analysis, Zhou Hu likely agreed to come to Qiu County early to avoid his old customers. After all, if Zhou Hu stayed a few more days in Shan City, fortune-telling wouldn't just be a side job—it would be full-time.

These bits of information were shared by Chen Huihong sitting beside Qin Huai in the afternoon while making dumplings. She didn't make many dumplings but shared a lot of gossip.

Very useful and crucial.

Qin Huai had to admit, he had grown distant from Zhou Hu recently.

This was unavoidable; if there is no intersection or no way to meet regularly, even the best of friends will drift apart. Not to mention that Qin Huai and Zhou Hu were not really friends to begin with; they were essentially just a client and service provider relationship.

If no effort was made to establish some form of connection, they wouldn't even maintain a basic 'like' interaction on social media—Zhou Hu almost never posts on social media when he's not working.

Now, Qin Huai knew about Zhou Hu's recent situation and managed, through some backdoor arrangement, to share a room with Zhou Hu at night. He felt it was a precious opportunity to reconnect with Zhou Hu and hopefully uncover the next side task from him.

Among all the discovered spirits, Zhou Hu was the only one left unawakened. There's still one slot left in the pictorial book. Discovering a new spirit requires an opportunity, but since the opportunity hasn't come yet, Qin Huai could only focus on existing task targets.

The lights-out time at the orphanage is very early, at 9 PM.

And since the sound insulation between rooms in the orphanage isn't great and the staff needs to wake up early each day, children sleep by 9 PM, and adults are in bed by 10 PM. There are no nighttime activities; playing on phones or watching short videos in bed can't have any sound on.