The hospital.
Xu De stood there staring blankly for a long while. Dong Dong, who was in his embrace, woke up. “Papa, Dong Dong doesn’t know how to beg for food yet but Dong Dong can learn.”
Looking at his son, a smile appeared on Xu De’s face. “You don’t need to learn anymore. From now on, you’ll study.”
Dong Dong laughed joyfully, “Dong Dong can study. Dong Dong knows how to write Chinese.”
Xu De resisted the urge to cry. It was just as Master Lin had said, he had to pull himself together. Whether it was for himself or for Dong Dong, he couldn’t sink any lower. After sending off his wife, he would have to start working and earning money to repay his debts and to raise Dong Dong into an adult.
Outside the hospital.
Fraud Tian faced the hospital, then looked over at Lin Fan. “Do you think he believes it?”
Elder Zhang said from the side, “I think he definitely believes it. But these two choices that Little Boss talked about, I think it should be four instead. In the end, won’t there be four fates? Little Boss, do you think fortune-telling can really tell the future?”
Lin Fan looked at the two of them, then smiled thinly. “Who knows?”
After going through this incident, he realized that the Encyclopedia didn’t only have one use. It had even more uses that he had never thought about before in the past.
Mainly, the Encyclopedia’s knowledge came at him too quickly. Each time he completed a task, new knowledge would come his way. This left Lin Fan with practically no time to reflect properly.
For example, the Jiangsu cuisine. If he thought about it normally, opening a shop and running a business would be a great option. However, he had taught two of the dishes to his good friend and managed to help him out greatly.
Fortune-telling could be used to judge one’s life. Without saying anything, just by looking at somebody, he could see very accurately into one’s past and future.
But if he interfered, he could change one’s fate.
Xu De and his son’s fates had initially been decided but Lin Fan described his fate through a multiple choice question to let him choose. No matter what he chose, those were fates he had chosen from. His own fates.
Several days passed just like that.
Fraud Tian went to the hospital occasionally to take a look. He took out twenty thousand from his own money and on top of Lin Fan’s twenty thousand, he had forty thousand. Xu De had never thought that someone would help him in this way. Of course, he wouldn’t accept it, but Fraud Tian didn’t take no for an answer.
Although the twenty thousand from Lin Fan wasn’t much, it was because he and Xu De were just strangers that were brought together by chance, so he didn’t want to give too much. Moreover, Lin Fan could tell that Xu De wasn’t a greedy person. Sometimes, when someone is going through tough times, it’s enough to just lend a hand.
What made Lin Fan surprised was that Fraud Tian actually took out money from his retirement funds.
At times, Fraud Tian was really quite stingy with his money, but sometimes, he was really generous. It wasn’t something that most people would do. On top of that, he went to the hospital diligently every day to visit. When Lin Fan asked him why he would do so much, even Fraud Tian couldn’t answer him. All he could say was five words: ‘I want to help them’.
In the end, Xu De made a photocopy of his identity card and wrote an IOU.
The deadline for the IOU was twenty years. The deadline for his debts was two years.
Xu De was short of money but he wasn’t greedy for money. This forty thousand was borrowed.
Fraud Tian didn’t have much to say in the end. He just silently accepted the IOU.
The previous day, Xu De’s wife had passed away. It wasn’t a very painful death. To Xu De, a large stone was finally lifted off his heart. From then on, he would devote all his heart and energy into Dong Dong.
…
Cloud Street.
The townsfolk were looking at the newly renovated shop and couldn’t help but compliment it.
“Little Boss, this shop decoration is beautiful. It’s a few levels above the old one.”
“A few levels? It’s galaxies apart! It’s like Heaven and Earth!”
“Now that the shop has been renovated, Little Boss can finally be at ease and make scallion pancakes for us.”
“We’re waiting, Little Boss.”
…
Lin Fan stood there, chatting with the townsfolk. He was very satisfied with the shop renovation. It had a modern feel to it. The walls had been made by sculpting wooden materials to create some contours.
“Alright, today is the opening of the new shop, I…” Lin Fan was looking at the townsfolk outside, preparing to give them a pleasant surprise when suddenly, a loud celebratory noise came from afar.
Two lion dance teams happily pranced their way over with Wang Ming Yang at the front.
“Today, the shop is opening. We have to have a proper celebration.” Wang Ming Yang was in a good mood.
Lin Fan really didn’t know what to say about this. Wang Ming Yang had brought his lion dancers here to make noise again. However, Lin Fan was in a joyous mood that day, so he waved his hand. “Today, there will be no limit for the scallion pancakes but each person will only have one serving. Thank you, everybody, for your support all this while!”
Silence.
The whole place went silent. Everyone was stunned. It was as if no one dared to believe it.
Not a single sound could be heard. How awkward.
Lin Fan looked at the crowd, “Are you guys too used to the limit? How about we pretend I didn’t say that?”
“Don’t…” the townsfolk cried out as they came to their senses.
Lin Fan smiled. “There should be some applause.”
At that moment, all the townsfolk recovered from their shock and started applauding thunderously. “Good, good! Little Boss is too great. Where’s the applause? Quick! Applaud!”
Lin Fan threw caution to the wind. It was a gift to the crowd. These lovable townsfolk had supported him for so long, he had to make them happy once in a while. Furthermore, he had noticed that some of the townsfolk really were quite tragic. Ever since he had started his business, some of them had never managed to get chosen even after queuing every single time. It really was tragic.
The townsfolk were exhilarated.
“God has opened his eyes! Little Boss is being so generous today!”
“I don’t know why but I suddenly feel like that guy who destroyed Little Boss’s shop isn’t that bad after all. If it wasn’t for him, this would never have happened.”
“I’m grateful, I’m grateful. I’ll remember this for life.”
“What are you all standing there for? Hurry up and make calls!”
“Hello, wife? Hurry down to Cloud Street’s Master Lin. We don’t need to draw numbers today. Everyone will get a piece. Hurry!”
“Dad, Mom. Little Boss isn’t limiting his scallion pancakes today. Everyone who comes will get a piece. Hurry!”
…
Insane. At that moment, all the townsfolk in Cloud Street went insane.
Some tourists came over there and didn’t know what was happening. They were all dumbfounded. They asked around, wondering what had happened.
They had been to quite a few well-known places and seen people queuing but this queue was a little too long, wasn’t it? It was so long that it was scary.
Wang Ming Yang was dumbfounded as well, “Hey bro, what about my lion dance team? Do they still dance?”
Lin Fan laughed, “Of course they dance! Why shouldn’t they? Everyone is so happy today, we gotta make some noise.”
The shop owners of Cloud Street were not going to carry on with their businesses. They closed their shops and joined the queue. It wasn’t that they had never wanted to eat the scallion pancakes before, but they never had the chance to. The chances of being chosen even if they queued were too small, they would rather just stick to running their businesses. But now that Little Boss had taken the limit off, it would be crazy for them not to queue.
At that moment, the queue had already gotten ridiculously long. There were definitely not enough ingredients. Lin Fan yelled, “There are definitely not enough ingredients. Whoever has stock, hurry up and send some over.”
“Don’t worry, Master Lin. I’ll get someone to send some over right now. I’ll get you any amount you want.”
“Elder Zhang is awesome! Next time I need flour, I’ll definitely buy from you.”
At that moment, at the Cloud Street connector.
A man dressed in a suit who looked like a political leader was patrolling. Reporters were around him, taking photos.
This leader was checking on the development of Shanghai City.
There were a number of bodyguards close to him, in case anything happened.
Of course, they were just there for a stroll. After all, Shanghai was relatively safe. What could possibly happen?