The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 539 Master Zhou

"It wouldn't be a bad idea to have Grandpa Xu sit in the kitchen for a meal. I'll just find a reason to say that Grandpa Xu's food review is excellent and I hope he can sit in the kitchen and give me his on-the-spot feedback."

Qin Huai didn't mind helping Zhou Hu with this small favor, fulfilling Xu Tuqiang's strange wish. In fact, given the relationship between Qin Huai and Xu Tuqiang, if Xu Tuqiang really asked to eat in the kitchen once, Qin Huai would definitely agree.

However, Grandpa Xu had his own insistence; he wanted to be like Wang Gensheng, who inexplicably ended up eating in the kitchen.

After all, Zhou Hu is most likely the 11th spirit in the encyclopedia.

"but."

Just as Zhou Hu was about to express his gratitude, Qin Huai suddenly changed the subject, making Zhou Hu's heart skip a beat.

“I still want to know why,” Qin Huai said. “Planner Zhou, you only sell a talisman for 500, so why are you willing to spend 5000 to let Grandpa Xu sit in the kitchen and eat?”

If Zhou Hu really is a spirit, Qin Huai thinks this might be the key to uncovering Zhou Hu's related missions.

Zhou Hu blurted out, "Master Qin, you really intend to take it?"

Qin Huai: ?
Dude, you're a Pixiu! Didn't Gong Liang suspect you were a fox? Are you foxes really that stingy? You're even more of a freeloader than Zhao Cheng'an.

"Zhou, you're not planning to give it to me?"

Zhou Hu: ...

Seeing Zhou Hu's disappointed expression, as if he had suffered a huge loss, Qin Huai smiled and said, "However, if Planner Zhou is willing to answer my questions, I don't mind doing it for free."

Zhou Hu was tempted.

Qin Huai could also tell that Zhou Hu was interested.

If Qin Huai previously believed Gong Liang's guess that Zhou Hu had an 80% chance of being a spirit, that probability has now risen to 90%.

They can do strange things, their minds are not normal, they seem normal but also abnormal, they are very eccentric.

"The specific reason..." Zhou Hu lowered his voice, "is a bit complicated to explain. I wonder if it would be convenient for Master Qin to find a quiet place..."

"Of course." Qin Huai gave Shi Dadan a look, telling him that he needed to explore the new side quests first, and that they could play first.

Shi Dadan, understanding the implied meaning from the music, relayed the news to everyone. Chen Huihong had originally planned to wait for Qin Huai to go to the amusement park together. For Chen Huihong, this was actually a team-building activity for her loving family at the amusement park, and everyone needed to be together for it to be considered a team-building event.

Seeing that Qin Huai had gone to recruit new group members, Chen Huihong excitedly pushed Luo Jun's wheelchair toward the carousel, leaving Luo Jun behind, who was practically furious and cursing.

"Chen Huihong, are you sick? If you want to ride the carousel, go ride it yourself, don't drag me into it!"

"Oh, Luo Jun, I know you love riding the carousel. Last time you only rode the carousel."

"That's because that's the only game I can play!"

"Since we're already here, we definitely have to have some fun. Don't worry, I'll talk to the staff, and they'll definitely save the pumpkin carriage for you!"

"I won't ride in a pumpkin carriage!!!"

Chen Huihong pushed Luo Jun away into the distance, and Qin Huai explained in a friendly manner: "Mr. Luo is just that kind of person. I heard that the funeral hall plan that you submitted to Mr. Luo, Zhou, has not been approved yet. Actually, you can find his favorite embroiderer and try to persuade him. Maybe it will have a miraculous effect."

Zhou Hu suddenly realized.

"Let's go, Zhou, I know there's a dessert shop in the amusement park that's not doing well. Let's go there and sit down to chat; no one will bother us."

Zhou Hu: ?
Qin Huai led Zhou Hu to the dessert shop where he had last seen Shi Dadan's memories. Fortunately, the dessert shop had not closed down and business was still very slow.

Of course, the prices on the menu didn't go down either; the shaved ice still costs an astonishing 58 yuan a serving.

Qin Huai ordered two servings of shaved ice, found a secluded corner to sit down, and pretended to be all ears.

Zhou Hu cleared his throat and began to recount the whole story and his emotional journey.

Well, Qin Huai heard a completely new version of Master Zhou's story.

According to the version of the story that Gong Liang heard, Zhou Hu's family background was not clean, with three generations involved in tomb raiding and his father imprisoned, disqualifying him from taking the civil service exam. However, he was still considered a fortune teller trusted by his clients.

After all, with a family tradition of fortune-telling and proven track record, the Zhou family has been in Shanshi for many years and has a very large and stable customer base. There are quite a few customers like Xu Tuqiang who have unwavering faith in Zhou Hu's fortune-telling abilities.

The client trusts the fortune teller a lot.

But the fortune teller himself didn't believe it.

The first thing Zhou Hu said to Qin Huai was—

"Master Qin, please don't believe in feng shui or fortune telling, it's all fake. If you're interested in this and want to try it out, spend 50 to 100 yuan to listen to a fortune teller make up some stories and say some nice things, just for fun. Don't buy those talismans, Bagua mirrors, pagodas, or other consecrated items. It's okay to look at feng shui, but don't spend a lot of money to have someone come to your home to set up a feng shui arrangement."

"I've studied feng shui and divination for over a decade, from childhood to university, but I've never believed in this stuff."

Qin Huai was completely dumbfounded.

In Zhou Hu's narration, Qin Huai heard a completely new version of the fortune teller's story.

Because of his family's tradition of learning, and because Zhou Hu's father had a severe psychological trauma from the death of Zhou Hu's grandfather due to tomb raiding, he did not intend to teach Zhou Hu the family's secrets of tomb raiding. At the same time, he did not want the family's skills to be completely lost. Therefore, Zhou Hu can be said to have learned feng shui and divination from a young age.

I'll also learn a little about geomancy and burial site location.

Zhou Hu was a smart child from a young age, and his grades were excellent. Otherwise, Zhou Hu's father would not have thought that his son had a chance of getting into a good university, and would have encouraged Zhou Hu to apply for the funeral service major with high scores, hoping that he would succeed.

Because he was a smart child, Zhou Hu knew from a young age that his family's money came from somewhat illegitimate sources.

Although Zhou Hu's father was fond of drinking, gambling, and womanizing, and quickly squandered all the family's money, causing Zhou Hu to be continuously impoverished during his childhood, Zhou Hu always felt that the family's money was not enough for his father's extravagant spending.

Zhou Hu felt that his family shouldn't be impoverished; they should be heavily in debt. However, the debt collectors never took over their dilapidated house, so the clever Zhou Hu keenly realized that his father had other, unexplained sources of income.

At that time, tomb raiding novels and TV series were not popular. Zhou Hu had no idea what tomb raiding was. He simply thought that his father was doing some fraud while telling fortunes.

Therefore, although Zhou Hu had been practicing fortune telling since elementary school, he was very resistant to it, believing it to be a form of fraud.

He felt his father was heartless, cheating neighbors out of money to fund his own extravagant lifestyle. Therefore, Zhou Hu was constantly in a state of contradiction while studying Feng Shui and Bagua. On one hand, he was very talented, learning quickly and often receiving praise from his father; on the other hand, he was resistant to it, yet he genuinely excelled at it.

Zhou Hu originally intended to outwardly comply but inwardly defy the rules, learning the skills but refusing to apply them. He would study, but resolutely refuse to become a feng shui fortune teller. He would work honestly, follow the right path, earn money uprightly, and live an honest life.

As a result, his father was imprisoned.

While in prison, all of his family's property was confiscated, and he even owed a large fine. Zhou Hu was impoverished as a child, and by the time he went to university, he was heavily in debt. When he first graduated from university, Zhou Hu even considered committing some crime and going to jail for a few years, at least his life would be more stable and he would have food to eat every day.

Then, at this time, Zhou Hu's cooking skills brought him food.

As mentioned earlier, the Zhou family has a very stable clientele, having accumulated a large number of fortune-telling clients since Zhou Hu's great-grandfather's generation. Although clients don't need fortune-telling every day, there are always clients with related needs.

Construction begins, land is moved, birth dates are matched, marriage is predicted, career is predicted, academic progress is predicted... The money isn't much, but even a small amount is still money, and it can at least give Zhou Hu some food to eat.

With the trust of his long-term clients, Zhou Hu weathered the most difficult times and even successfully built a business – funeral planning.

Zhou Hu originally planned to quit his criminal activities after he got a legitimate job, and he did indeed quit for a year and a half.

Then he bought a house.

Funeral planning income is not low, but it's also unstable. Big clients like Luo Jun, with their deep pockets, are rare finds. The industry has been quite competitive in the last two years, and the client base for funeral planners is even more unstable than that of fortune tellers.

Under immense pressure from his mortgage, Zhou Hu had no choice but to bow to reality and return to the business world, taking on small side jobs to earn money when he was short of cash and unable to pay his mortgage.

This is why Zhou Hu only accepts old clients; he really doesn't want to develop new clients because he feels guilty.

"So you felt guilty, yet you sold over a dozen of those lucky charms that cost 500 yuan each?" Qin Huai asked this profound question after hearing Zhou Hu's story, while also taking a bite of shaved ice.

Zhou Hu confessed: "I didn't want to either, but at the beginning of this year, the company's business was really bad. We only received three orders in one month, and none of them were big orders."

“Although my company is not large, with only 5 employees, it still costs a lot of money to pay salaries each month. That month, the income was so low that we couldn’t even pay the mortgage, let alone pay our employees’ salaries.”

"Mortgage payments for school district housing are just too expensive!"

“Master Qin, I swear, I stopped selling them that month once I had enough to pay off my mortgage. I really rarely sell talismans, at most I sell some good luck talismans or peace talismans. I wouldn’t have sold a good luck talisman for 500 yuan that time if I wasn’t short of money. I usually sell peace talismans for 100 yuan each when I’m short of money.”

“My job is inherently sales-oriented, and I understand the psychology of clients like Mr. Xu Tuqiang very well. Often, when they seek fortune telling, they don’t want a result, but rather psychological comfort. They want us to say what they want to hear to reinforce their beliefs. The same applies to feng shui.”

"Many times when I visit people's homes to look at the feng shui and change the layout, it's just to make their homes look brighter and more spacious."

"But I didn't expect Mr. Xu Tuqiang to actually believe it!"

“His current state is really dangerous. I have advised many clients who were almost cheated out of tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan by other fortune tellers. Mr. Xu Tuqiang fits all the characteristics of these clients, and he is the richest.”

“If he can’t buy a lucky charm from me, he’ll definitely go to other fortune tellers to buy it eventually, and then it might cost more than tens of thousands of yuan per charm.”

"This is the last thing I want to see, and it's why I don't want to do this side job. I feel guilty about it. But I have no other choice but to use other means to do my best to meet their needs at the lowest possible price, so that they don't get deeper and deeper into being deceived."

Qin Huai was moved by Zhou Hu's sincere words. Although Zhou Hu occasionally cheated people out of money, he sounded really sincere and was a sincere swindler.

"So, Master Zhou, what other outrageous requests have you fulfilled before?" Qin Huairen sat up straight, and even his address became more respectful.

Zhou Hu: ?
Master Qin's focus is really strange.

Zhou Hu thought for a moment: "That's too many."

“A child’s grades suddenly dropped and he wanted to pray to the Wenchang Pagoda. I waited outside his child’s school for half a month and found out that his child was secretly going to the convenience store to rent a mobile phone to play after school. I reported the convenience store, and the child’s grades recovered after he stopped playing with the mobile phone.”

“Some people who want to win back their ex insist on buying peach blossom charms. I secretly went through all of his ex's social media accounts and found out from the clues that his ex had been operating on multiple fronts and had been cheating for a long time. I gathered the evidence and sent it to him anonymously using a secondary account, which made him realize his mistake and give up on winning her back.”

"Of course, there are many things I can't do. For those I can't do, I can only talk to them more, comfort them more, and persuade them more. Over time, I can usually persuade them to get better."

"If it weren't for the 30-year mortgage, I really wouldn't want to do this fortune-telling side job."

Qin Huai was tempted. Where could one find a fortune teller with such a high cost-performance ratio? No wonder Xu Tuqiang and others had such faith in Zhou Hu's professional abilities.

Master Zhou has made so many sacrifices behind the scenes; it hasn't been easy for him!

Qin Huai now believes there's a 99% chance Zhou Hu is a spirit or monster; a normal person couldn't do something like that.

Qin Huai looked at Zhou Hu with sincere eyes and asked in a casual tone, "Master Zhou, what is your wish?"

"Huh?" Zhou Hu was dumbfounded.

"It's just about whether there are any regrets or wishes, it's just a casual chat."

Zhou Hu: ? Are we talking about this in the chat?

Seeing that Zhou Hu remained silent for a long time, Qin Huai decided to continue the conversation from Xu Tuqiang's point of view. He didn't expect to get anything out of him directly; he was just saying it casually. When it comes to finding game quests, you have to cast a wide net, just in case.

It's just something I said casually. At worst, people will think I'm crazy. Qin Huai is used to it.

Moreover, given the current relationship between Qin Huai and Zhou Hu, even if Zhou Hu thinks Qin Huai is crazy, Zhou Hu still has to contact Qin Huai, because Qin Huai still needs to settle the final payment for Luo Jun's business.

Of all things under the heavens and earth, the final payment is the biggest.

"I'll leave Uncle Xu's matter to..."

Before he could finish speaking in Qinhuai dialect, a game notification suddenly rang in his mind.

"Ding! Congratulations, player, you have discovered a new side quest, [Zhou Hu's Wish]. Please check it in the game panel."

Qin Huai: !
Fox, you're so honest, you just give me the answer when I ask.

Master Zhou truly lives up to his reputation as a master swindler, a highly respected fraudster. Not only is he devoted to his clients, but he's also incredibly generous with side quests, readily available whenever asked.

"Master Zhou," Qin Huailian's tone became increasingly solicitous, "do you have any other wishes?"

Zhou Hu: ? ? ?
He felt that Master Qin's problem wasn't that he couldn't grasp the key points, but rather that he had some kind of mental issue.

Are all wealthy people who can inherit huge sums of money like this?
(End of this chapter)