23
The Honest Person
On the second morning, Jiang Qi surprisingly woke up early.
After getting up, Jiang Qi noticed there was still no movement from Huang Fugui’s room. Guessing he had probably stayed up late playing with his phone again, Jiang Qi didn’t wake him. Instead, he left ten yuan on the dining table for Huang Fugui to buy breakfast and went to the parcel locker at the entrance of the residential compound to pick up a delivery.
The package contained a bedding set. While heading downstairs, Jiang Qi opened the system panel to check.
After a night of development, both fame and satisfaction had increased to varying degrees.
Fame had risen from 9 to 41, while satisfaction had gone from 3 to 8.
The additional 5 points of satisfaction undoubtedly came from Zhou Yuan and her group. That none of the six middle school students were satisfied was within Jiang Qi’s expectations. From their conversation when they left yesterday, he could tell that having no complaints was already good enough—they only came out laughing and joking because they were young and easy to fool.
Jiang Qi had already learned firsthand from his previously closed shop just how easily students could be duped.
He was satisfied with this increase, estimating that fame would reach 100 in a few days. However, satisfaction was harder to grind—each point required a different satisfied customer, and the same customer couldn’t contribute repeatedly. It would take 100 distinct satisfied customers to reach the goal.
With the current customer flow, it would be impossible to even get 100 customers without spending a little on promotion.
While mentally calculating how many flyers to print and where to distribute them, Jiang Qi carried the package back.
On the way, he passed by a steamed bun shop. The meat buns bought by high school students smelled quite appetizing, so he bought a few and ate them as he walked. Before reaching his building entrance, he ran into Jiang Xiaohong, who had come to deliver dumplings.
Seeing Jiang Xiaohong in her bright red dress, carrying a large metal basin filled with dumplings, Jiang Qi inwardly groaned.
He hadn’t expected Jiang Xiaohong to deliver dumplings again so soon.
He could use the excuse of a university teacher temporarily staying for a few days to explain Old John’s presence, but how could he explain Huang Fugui?
Maybe say he was a newly hired employee who hadn’t found a rental yet and was staying temporarily for a couple of days?
That might work.
Jiang Xiaohong was pleasantly surprised—and somewhat relieved—to see Jiang Qi. “Little Qi, you’re up so early today!”
Jiang Qi put on the earnest smile expected by elders and said, “Well, the shop has been busy lately. The day before yesterday, I hired a new employee from out of town who’s still looking for a place to rent. With so much going on, I get tired and go to bed early, so I wake up early too.”
Of course, Jiang Qi’s claim of going to bed early was exaggerated—he usually didn’t get home until after midnight these days, which hardly counted as early by elders’ standards.
Jiang Xiaohong beamed at his words. As they walked into the building, she said, “That’s more like it! When the shop is busy and you have things to do, your routine becomes regular. You kids stay up all night and sleep in—it’s all because you have nothing to do. If you had as many tasks as I do the moment you open your eyes, there’s no way you’d sleep until noon.”
Jiang Qi nodded in agreement, all the while thinking about how to introduce Huang Fugui as they climbed the stairs.
Then Jiang Xiaohong took the initiative to mention: “That new employee you hired is currently renting a place, you should help them out too. Young people these days have it tough. Since your sister’s shops always close down within a few months, you ought to remind them to start looking for their next job in advance.”
As they approached the door, Jiang Qi quickly interjected: “He’s not young.”
“What do you mean not young?” Jiang Xiaohong didn’t quite grasp it.
Then the door opened.
Huang Fugui had probably heard Jiang Qi’s voice from inside and proactively opened the door.
Jiang Xiaohong was stunned.
Jiang Qi hurriedly introduced them.
Upon learning that Jiang Xiaohong was Jiang Qi’s aunt, Huang Fugui immediately became much more enthusiastic, promptly taking the basin from her hands and ushering her inside—a stark contrast to his mere smile when first meeting Liu Lan.
After spending two days with Huang Fugui, Jiang Qi was starting to figure him out.
While Huang Fugui had high adaptability to new things—cutting his hair without hesitation, using a phone skillfully, and even teaching himself to stay up late—he was fundamentally still an ancient man at heart. His memories weren’t complete, and he recalled his wife having worked as a maid in a wealthy household. Jiang Qi sensed that Huang Fugui now saw himself as a servant.
Jiang Qi provided him with food, shelter, and covered all living expenses. Since Huang Fugui was Jiang Qi’s Card and currently working for free with only occasional pocket money, this essentially mirrored the ancient practice of indentured servitude.
This also explained why Huang Fugui was far more enthusiastic upon first meeting Jiang Xiaohong compared to Liu Lan.
As Jiang Qi pondered how to shift Huang Fugui’s mindset toward becoming a purely unpaid laborer, Huang Fugui had already struck up a conversation with Jiang Xiaohong.
Huang Fugui’s two nights of staying up late on his phone weren’t entirely wasted—at least he had fabricated a highly detailed personal background.
He claimed his wife was working in another city, unable to return home all year. In earlier years, he too was too busy with work to care for his son, earning just enough for basic sustenance, and felt deeply remorseful about it. Fortunately, his son was diligent and performed well academically, and his greatest wish in life was for his son to get into a good university. Now that his son was in the critical high school years, their troupe had suddenly gone bankrupt, leaving the family short on funds and forcing him to seek work.
Jiang Xiaohong, who also had a son in high school, had experienced poverty and once worked dawn to dusk earning little while barely seeing her family, deeply empathized. Her eyes grew moist.
By the time Jiang Qi realized what was happening, Huang Fugui had even fabricated which county he was from.
Jiang Qi pulled out his phone to check—the county was quite far from Xun City, and there had indeed been a troupe there that went bankrupt, though it wasn’t at the beginning of this year but six years prior.
Huang Fugui’s phone time hadn’t been wasted after all!
As Jiang Qi hesitated whether to interrupt the conversation, Huang Fugui shifted topics and began praising Jiang Qi.
The previous tales of hardship served to highlight Jiang Qi’s virtuous nature.
“Boss Jiang is such a good person. I’m not well-educated and lack work experience. After all those years in the troupe, all I can do is perform a bit. I only learned how to search for jobs online recently.”
“I’ve sent out quite a few resumes, but they either looked down on my low education level or thought I was too old at over forty. I didn’t really expect to get hired as a Murder Mystery Game Master either—I saw online that this industry is mostly for young people. I originally just wanted to give it a try, but I never thought Boss Jiang wouldn’t look down on me at all. Not only was he willing to hire me, but he also helped me find affordable housing. Seeing that I was short on money, he even advanced my salary so I could buy necessities and pay rent. If this were in ancient times, Boss Jiang would definitely be considered a benevolent local gentry.” Huang Fugui spoke with utmost sincerity.
Jiang Xiaohong nodded approvingly, looking quite pleased.
Jiang Qi was completely stunned and said sheepishly, “It’s not as exaggerated as Uncle Huang makes it sound.”
He genuinely felt embarrassed.
Jiang Xiaohong took Jiang Qi’s words as mere modesty. She pulled Huang Fugui aside to share some comforting words, reassuring him not to worry, before dragging Jiang Qi into the room.
As soon as the door closed, Jiang Qi knew his aunt wanted to have a private chat with him.
“Xiao Qi.” After hearing Huang Fugui’s lengthy praise today, Jiang Xiaohong looked at Jiang Qi with entirely different eyes, her face full of pride as if the child she’d watched grow up had finally matured.
Jiang Xiaohong paused, condensing a thousand words into one sentence: “This time, I must have a serious talk with your sister!”
Jiang Qi: ???
Ms. Jiang Bing truly had a calamity falling from the sky.
“She needs to change her irresponsible nature. She opened a store herself, but when it couldn’t survive, instead of facing reality, she dumped it on you. Now you have to spend your own money to keep it running. Auntie knows you’ve always been sensible, obedient, and helpful since childhood, but you should help others within your means. Your sister’s Murder Mystery Game Store is probably about to go bankrupt, right? How many months of rent are left? You don’t even have an income—where did you get the money to pay your employees?”
Jiang Qi: …
This time, it really wasn’t like that. You might not believe it, Auntie, but just yesterday alone, we earned 1,388 yuan.
“You must be broke now, right? Here, let Auntie give you some pocket money. Later, I’ll call your dad and your sister. How can you lose money while helping someone? This time, I must give her a piece of my mind!”
Then Jiang Xiaohong transferred 2,000 yuan to Jiang Qi.
Jiang Qi: !!!
Jiang Qi thought Ms. Jiang Bing might as well carry this blame for a while longer. If necessary, he could share 500 with her.
Jiang Xiaohong went on to advise Jiang Qi with things like: one shouldn’t be too honest in life, and even less so in business—no merchant isn’t cunning; Huang Fugui might be an honest man, but not everyone is; in the future, don’t be so open-hearted with everyone or bring just anyone home.
After lecturing Jiang Qi for about ten minutes, Jiang Xiaohong glanced at her phone and saw it was already 7:40. If she didn’t hurry to the market, she wouldn’t get the freshest meat.
“Oh, and half of the dumplings I brought today are garlic-filled. Teacher Yue likes garlic-filled dumplings, right? I made them especially for him. Xiao Qi, remember to take them to Teacher Yue later.” With this final reminder, Jiang Xiaohong left.
Before going out, she didn’t forget to say goodbye to Huang Fugui.
After Jiang Xiaohong left, Jiang Qi looked at the 2,000 yuan balance in his WeChat, thinking that even without an ID card, Huang Fugui could support himself as a con artist.
“So? Did your aunt notice anything unusual?” Huang Fugui asked.
“Not at all.” Jiang Qi looked at Huang Fugui with pure amazement. “Uncle Huang, I never knew you were so skilled at sweet-talking people.”
Even better than himself.
Over the years, Jiang Qi had managed to maintain the image of an honest child in the eyes of his elders, thanks not only to Jiang Bing’s deeply ingrained reputation as an unreliable troublemaker who often dragged his younger brother into trouble, but also to Jiang Qi’s remarkable talent for spinning convincing lies.
Now, however, he had finally met his match.
Huang Fugui gave a simple, honest smile. “Can’t be helped. I’ve been a peddler for so many years—even if I don’t remember much of it, the skills are still there. No merchant is completely honest, after all. Being quick with words is just the basics.”
Looking at Huang Fugui’s guileless smile, Jiang Qi felt he still had much to learn.
(End of Chapter)