It only took Qin Huai a second to accept Granny Qin's suggestion, admitting that Grandpa and Grandma are indeed forward-thinking. Otherwise, he would almost have worked himself to death in the Qin Family Village kitchen during the New Year.

Seeing that her grandson had dismissed the frightening idea of being exhausted to death during the New Year, Granny Qin eagerly began introducing the talents on the list to Qin Huai.

The small list was the crystallization of wisdom from Granny Qin, who lost her bid to become the women's director by just three votes. You could say that if conditions allowed, even the town's pork sellers would want to apply for the meat chopping assistant job. The only person with connections on this list was the village chief's granddaughter, who could only apply for the job of tending the fire, which was smoky and relatively less demanding in terms of skill.

Compared to the helper list for the New Year, Qin Huai was actually more concerned about the room situation.

"Grandma, the bed in the room I asked you and Grandpa to prepare has a cotton quilt, right? Mr. Xu is old, not like Luoluo and me. We can just sleep with a thin quilt at night. Luoluo often complains about the room being stuffy and too warm, so she wants to sleep with the window open, but Mr. Xu can't do that." Qin Huai said.

Among the people coming to Qin Huai's house for New Year, Mr. Xu was definitely the key guest to protect. He was not only old but also the only person, besides Zhou Hu, that Qin Huai cared the most about.

Speaking of Zhou Hu, Qin Huai had been making snacks at the orphanage during the day and sharing a room with Zhou Hu at night to improve their rapport.

Whether the rapport improved, Qin Huai didn't know, but his sleep quality definitely did.

Zhou Hu, for some unknown reason, wanted to charge Qin Huai 15 yuan to tell his fortune. Qin Huai certainly didn't mind the 15 yuan and transferred it to Zhou Hu before lights out on the second night, asking Zhou Hu to predict his romantic prospects.

Then Zhou Hu predicted that Qin Huai had no romantic prospects.

Yes, no romance, just pure loneliness.

Zhou Hu first asked Qin Huai to toss a copper coin for a Zhou Yi prediction to see how things would be in the coming years. After finding that the prospects were very unsatisfactory, he looked at his face, read his palm, asked Qin Huai to report numbers, write characters, and finally told Qin Huai to do nothing but sit there while he calculated silently.

The result was Qin Huai was lonely.

Qin Huai was almost tempted to ask Zhou Hu if he had unintentionally offended him while handling Luo Jun's funeral affairs, perhaps miscalculating the final payment and paying less. Zhou Hu wasn't trying to earn that 15 yuan; he just wanted to use the opportunity to insult him.

What kind of nonsense was this fortune-telling?

Hard work, inability to keep money, and loneliness — Qin Huai even suspected that when Zhou Hu said his social relations were good, it was just setting the stage for what followed. Skilled con artists know you can't insult someone from start to finish; you have to lay the groundwork before taking a roundabout way to criticize them.

Qin Huai particularly wanted to ask Zhou Hu, "Do you know who I am? I am the protagonist of a system novel. Have you ever seen a protagonist who is hardworking, unable to retain money, lonely, but still has good social relations?"

What good is it for the protagonist to have good social relations if he has no partner or money? What kind of protagonist is that?

Of course, this was just Qin Huai's mental grumbling. He believed Zhou Hu didn't intend to insult him and must have genuinely gotten this result. After this fortune-telling, Zhou Hu became even more puzzled, explaining a long string of fortune-telling techniques and theories to Qin Huai that were like gobbledygook to him, until he fell asleep. The next day, Zhou Hu awkwardly asked Qin Huai if he could transfer another 15 yuan so he could give it another go.

Qin Huai chose to refuse.

It wasn't because Qin Huai was afraid Zhou Hu would come up with another ridiculous result, but rather because he wanted to see if refusing would trigger a side quest, preferably one so simple that just agreeing to Zhou Hu reading his fortune would complete it.

Although no task had surfaced yet, Zhou Hu was indeed eager to tell Qin Huai's fortune again.

Sometimes Qin Huai noticed Zhou Hu looking at him with an expression that seemed to say, "Please, give me 15 yuan so I can read your fortune. If that's too much, I'll settle for 10 yuan."

Qin Huai figured that Zhou Hu would likely look for a chance to approach him again tonight, and when he did, he would go along with it. If Zhou Hu's fortune-telling improved, he'd praise Master Zhou for his exceptional skills, saying the previous inaccuracy was due to an unexpected lack of feeling. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

If Zhou Hu's results were still outrageous, he'd comfort Zhou Hu, proudly promoting anti-superstition, affirming Zhou Hu's professional abilities while suggesting that there must have been some mistake, but assuredly not Zhou Hu's fault.

Earnestly foster rapport.

No matter the outcome, rapport could be built.

Qin Huai had his script all planned out.

Granny Qin hadn't noticed her dear grandson was mentally adrift. She confidently said, "Of course, the beds are all made up. There's a layer of cotton quilt under the sheets, and the one on top is newly made this year. We made sure to sun it thoroughly over several days in this nice weather so it's warm and cozy."

"Your grandma knows that old folks fear the cold. Do you youngsters know this stuff better than us old folks? Your grandpa specially prepared the south-facing room to ensure sunlight warms the bed every morning. Plus, your grandpa's even spread the word to guarantee Mr. Xu will have endless chess to play starting tomorrow."

The version that Qin Huai and Granny Qin shared was that Mr. Xu was highly supportive of Yunzhong Restaurant and Huang Ji's business, painting Mr. Xu as a standard client. Otherwise, it would be hard to explain why he would have such an elderly friend.