Come and work with me

  A small alley beside the railway station in a coastal city.

  There is a large flow of people here, all travelers coming and going. In this small alley, there are many people doing small business, selling mineral water, fruit, fortune-telling, and many selling adult products, which are prepared for the men and women entering the row of small hotels inside the alley.

  The main road next to the train station does not allow stalls, so this small alley has become a paradise for vendors.

  Tang Zhendong sat idly in front of his fruit stand, watching the people hurry by. He neither hawked nor solicited customers, if you wanted to buy something, fine; otherwise, forget it.

  However, due to Tang Zhendong's bright red lips and white teeth, being clean and neat, although he didn't shout, there were always people who bypassed the vendors who actively solicited customers, running from afar to buy from Tang Zhendong's three-wheeled fruit cart. In their words, this young man is clean.

  Tang Zhendong's stall is in a poor location. As Ye Dashi, the fortune teller next to him, would say, it's a bad spot. That's because the stalls with good locations have paid off the city management and are fixed. When the city management comes, he pays two bucks, but when they don't come, he doesn't pay a cent. However, most vendors here are regulars and occupy the spots closest to the train station, so business is good. You have to push hard to get inside and find Tang Zhendong's stall, but generally, nobody else comes to set up shop in this spot. Why?

  There's a saying that goes: "Eat to get fat, walk to get thin." Who wouldn't want to buy everything at a nearby place and then head to the train station's waiting hall? There are chairs, air conditioning, and you can even eat while sitting down.

  So although Tang Zhendong's business was not very good, he could still make a living and wouldn't starve. Some people always liked to seek far and wide, so Tang Zhendong could earn around 40-50 yuan per day. After deducting the days when it rained or was windy and he couldn't set up his stall, he could still have over a thousand yuan left at the end of each month. Apart from renting a small house for 150 yuan per month in the suburbs, apart from food and drink, he could still save around 300-400 yuan per month.

  Not enough to eat one's fill, but not so hungry as to die.

  Next to Tang Zhendong, there was a fortune teller named Ye, who called himself Master Ye. According to him, he was the 51st generation successor of Mai Yishen, and could read facial features, analyze eight characters, examine yin and yang houses, and make direct judgments with an iron mouth, one divination worth a thousand gold.

  However, whether this Master Ye is good at divination or not, Tang Zhendong knows best. This self-proclaimed Master Ye, the divine calculator, is actually a thorough scammer.

  Tang Zhendong's stall was just next to Master Ye's, and during the intervals of selling fruits, the two would often chat for a few sentences. As Master Ye put it: "We're all doing business here, so we help each other out when we can." However, Tang Zhendong didn't really help Master Ye much, but sometimes his casual remarks would hit the nail on the head.

  On the contrary, Master Xiangfan was able to say one two three when he came to Tang Zhen Dong's guest.

  Fruit that looks good is called a "good sell", the ugly ones are called "sweet and deadly". The ones with worm eyes are called "green and pollution-free". In short, no matter what fruit it is, as long as it enters Leaf Master's mouth, it becomes one-of-a-kind delicious. As a result, although Tang Zhen Dong never hawks his wares when he sets up his stall, business has always been able to make ends meet.

  But Ye Dashi is different, he has fulfilled that saying: three years without opening, opening to eat for three years. Ye Dashi's boasting skills are really not covered. Although Ye Dashi has no business day after day, once there is a business coming in, Ye Dashi will either coax or scare people into taking out their money. And even spend all his family's property.

  Tang Zhendong didn't respond to Ye Dashi's business at all, not because he didn't understand the principle of reciprocity, but because he simply couldn't bluff. Tang Zhendong's specialty was his honest face, and wherever he sat, anyone who saw this young and clean guy would feel that the things he sold were definitely reliable.

  Tang Zhendong liked to chat with Ye Dashi when he had no business, actually Tang Zhendong was secretly learning from Ye Dashi's verbal skills. Before, Tang Zhendong didn't know how much the turnover of this small white cloth shop that wrote eight characters and read palms was, but after getting familiar with Ye Dashi, Ye Dashi also bragged to Tang Zhendong, saying that with just this small piece of cloth, his monthly turnover was at least 5,000 yuan, and in good months, it could reach 30,000 or even 40,000 yuan.

  The turnover is 30 million, and the net profit is also 30 million. Friends who have done business know what this means.

  Master Ye often joked with Tang Zhendong: "You're a big and capable guy, but you're just guarding this small fruit stand. What can you achieve?" Tang Zhendong would always smile and then ask back, "If I don't sell fruits, should I go fortune-telling with you?"

  Master Ye heard Tang Zhendong's words, he grinned and said, "Hehe, you can consider following me to calculate your fate. With your honest appearance, I guarantee that your monthly income will not be lower than mine. However, you must first become my apprentice for three years."

  Tang Zhendong was secretly delighted, but he didn't say a word.

  Tang Zhendong looks like a simple and honest person at first glance, but in fact, his mind is not as simple as it seems. For the pure scammer Ye Dashi, Tang Zhendong is indeed a true master with real skills, he is the legitimate heir of the Guiguzi school.

  When it comes to Guiguzi, we can't help but mention the founder of Guiguzi Men, Guiguzi himself, as well as his several famous disciples Zhang Yi, Su Qin, Sun Bin, Pang Juan, Mao Sui, and Xu Fu. Su Qin and Zhang Yi were famous horizontal and vertical house masters in the Warring States period, while Sun Bin and Pang Juan were outstanding military strategists. The idiom "Mao Sui recommends himself" doesn't need to be explained, it's about Mao Sui's story. As for Xu Fu, he was even more extraordinary, with a mouth that could bring dead people back to life and make living people die again, making people die and come back to life.

  Tang Zhendong is the successor of Xu Fu's lineage. However, due to the changes of the times, Xu Fu's lineage gradually declined. But can the successors of Guiguzi be ordinary people? If Xu Fu was just an ordinary fangshi, how could he have fooled Qin Shi Huang, a man of great talent and vision? Among the emperors of China, Qin Shi Huang ranks first in terms of his literary and military achievements, which are unmatched in history. Whether as a hostage in the state of Zhao or after returning to power in Qin and conquering the six states, unifying the eight directions, Qin Shi Huang faced more difficulties than any other ruler. However, his accomplishments made all rulers admire him.

  Such an invincible commander, a renowned monarch, and a powerful ruler, would he be an ordinary person? And Xu Fu repeatedly fooled Qin Shi Huang, fooling him around in circles. Was Xu Fu just a simple charlatan? Xu Fu was the most favored disciple of Guiguzi in his later years, and Guiguzi passed on all his knowledge to Xu Fu.

  Tang Zhendong often watched Old Ye fortune-telling when he had nothing to do. Old Ye's fortune-telling was nothing more than two points: one was observing words and appearances, and the other was seemingly true but actually false.

  Observing words and expressions was Old Ye's specialty. He would chat with people, saying things that sounded profound but didn't make much sense, while observing their facial expressions. For example, just now an auntie rushed past, and Old Ye called out to her, "Sister, even if you're in a hurry, you should walk slowly and watch the road!" The auntie was walking quickly, but when she heard Old Ye's words, she paused, turned around, and looked at Old Ye's fortune-telling stall. "How did you know I'm worried?"

  At that time, Tang Zhendong also glanced at him secretly, you can't hide the anxiety in your heart, it's all written on your face, anyone can see it.

  But Master Ye didn't respond to Old Lady's words, he just sighed and said "Ah!" This sigh from Old Ye made Tang Zhendong's heart skip a beat. Had Old Ye also seen that the old lady's husband wouldn't live much longer? He was a direct descendant of the Ghost Valley Sect, with skills that could shake heaven and earth, but lacked practical experience. How could this deceitful charlatan, Old Ye, see through the old lady's husband's impending doom just by looking at his face?

  But Lao Ye's next words made Tang Zhendong suddenly understand that Lao Ye was bluffing again.

  "Older sister, come sit here." Old Ye touched the small stool in front of him and let the old lady sit down.

  The old lady was anxious to death, but Old Ye was calm and unhurried, "Sister, the family member is seriously ill?"

  Lao Ye didn't speak up about the severity of Dama's family member's illness from the start because he hadn't taken a good look yet. There are many reasons for being anxious: family members falling ill, losing children in old age, financial loss, unfilial children and so on.

  But things have their own weight and urgency, the pain of losing a child in old age is definitely a hundred times heavier than now, which can almost completely crush a person. As for breaking wealth, it's not a big deal, it won't make the old lady dizzy. And as for unfilial children, that expression is a mixture of sadness and anger.

  Lao Ye was eliminating one possibility after another, thinking through each item. Otherwise, how could he speak so slowly and calmly, when his brain was actually racing at high speed?

  "Did you see it?" The old lady spoke quickly, seeming extremely anxious.

  Lao Ye nodded, "This illness is hard to cure."

  Tang Zhendong almost couldn't help but kick Lao Ye two feet, nonsense, if it's easy to treat, would they be so worried and frowning?

  "Master, please enlighten me." As soon as the old lady called out "master", a subtle curve appeared at the corner of Old Ye's mouth, indicating that he had taken the bait.

  Nowadays, people have a thick wall in their hearts towards so-called masters, because there are too many scammers and no one wants to be deceived. However, the actual situation of this society is: there are too many scammers, but not enough fools.

  The old lady who had been hooked, under Lao Ye's step-by-step verbal guidance, slowly extracted the situation of the patient at home, and even throughout the process, Lao Ye didn't dare to say who was sick in the old lady's family, because he wasn't sure, once he said it wrong, even if all the previous reasoning was correct, the person would turn around and leave.

  However, Old Ye indeed had this skill. Even if he didn't explicitly say it out loud, the old lady believed him anyway. In the end, the old lady spent 3,000 yuan to buy the so-called "miracle cure" from Old Ye and left happily.

  If it were Tang Zhendong, he wouldn't have taken the business at all, because he clearly saw that the old lady's husband palace was trapped, and it was an inevitable outcome of losing her spouse in old age. This is the way of heaven, not something that human power can stop.

  "Come on and join me?" Old Ye excitedly waved the three thousand yuan he had just received, winking at Tang Zhendong.