Shen Qiong was quite conflicted. He had two options in mind, and the second Talent Skill was very appealing.
Potential was about development and would take a long time to show results, while a Talent Skill could produce results right away.
He considered that it would probably be a very long time before his next level-up. If he wanted to gain popularity quickly, a Talent Skill seemed better suited to him right now.
Congratulations on successfully unlocking all commonly known Talent Skills in society.
Compared with Life Skills, Shen Qiong cared more about Talent Skills. He impatiently tapped "People nearby" and randomly opened someone's profile.
Han Qiaotong (within 100 meters) had a profile picture of a bespectacled career woman in her mid-to-late twenties.
As expected, a whole bunch of new skills had unlocked in the profile, all of them Talent Skills, such as singing, acting, dancing, magic, crosstalk, calligraphy, guitar, piano, painting, acrobatics...
"These are all the real deal!" Shen Qiong exclaimed excitedly.
Any one of these talents could lead to an entire industry. There were just so many possibilities, and Shen Qiong was absolutely thrilled!
Unlocking Talent Skills was like opening up a whole new world.
While Shen Qiong was still absorbed in exploring the new features, his name and story continued to spread online.
In the WeChat group chat for Lu Caishuang's college classmates,
"An incredible reversal! Shen Qiong's been completely vindicated, and his Weibo followers have climbed to fifteen thousand." Zhu Zhengzhi, Shen Qiong's roommate, had been keeping a close eye on his news and shouted in the group chat.
The group, which had been silent until then, immediately sprang to life.
"I saw it too. It's more incredible than a novel. I'm a Shen Qiong fan now, too," someone joked.
"What happened? What incredible reversal?" a classmate who was out of the loop asked.
Zhu Zhengzhi shared Master Shen's Weibo account. "You should all follow him. Shen Qiong's a big deal now. I heard it was already hard to book an appointment with him before; now it'll probably be even harder."
"Damn, I never knew he was that impressive! What a loss! I should've gotten on good terms with him sooner."
Lu Caishuang sent a voice message with a laugh. "After I get married, I'll ask him to read my child's fortune. I wonder if he'll give me a discount since we're classmates."
Zhu Zhengzhi replied without hesitation, "No chance. He doesn't do discounts."
Complaints immediately flooded in below. "Seriously? We were classmates for four years. He could at least give us ten percent off!"
"Yeah! Shen Qiong can't be that heartless!"
"Hard to say. He's Master Shen now. I bet he's surrounded by rich people every day," Jiang Lekang said.
Zhu Zhengzhi replied, "Lekang, you seem to have a bias against Shen Qiong. Before things were cleared up last time, you were badmouthing him, too."
"What do you mean, I was badmouthing him? Everyone was saying that at the time, okay?" Jiang Lekang typed, clearly displeased.
"Anyway, the public can see the truth for themselves. I'll leave it at that," Zhu Zhengzhi replied.
"I think you're only defending him because you were roommates. You even said yourself he wouldn't give us a discount. It's obvious he doesn't care about friendship. Am I wrong?" Jiang Lekang retorted.
Lying on his bed, Zhu Zhengzhi sneered. He'd known what kind of person Jiang Lekang was for a long time, and couldn't be bothered to argue with him. He typed out a message, sent it, then went out for a late-night snack.
"I said he wouldn't give us a discount because you can pay him whatever you want for a fortune reading."
Everyone was stunned!
Even the class monitor, who usually lurked silently, popped up and said, "I've been following Shen Qiong's Weibo lately, too. It's true. Shen Qiong only reads fortunes for people fate brings his way, so it's hard to book an appointment with him. And he never names a price for a reading; he lets the client decide how much to pay."
Then the class monitor took a screenshot of the words "Words offered to those fate brings, tips at your discretion" on Master Shen's Weibo and posted it in the group.
Jiang Lekang's face darkened, and he was suddenly so embarrassed that he could only clutch his phone, unsure what to say.
"Now that's the bearing of a master—tips at your discretion." One classmate sent an emoji giving a thumbs-up.
"Not bad! If that's really how it works, we won't get any special deals. And there probably won't be any shortcuts to booking an appointment, either." Xu Hongchang had always stayed neutral, so he could get along with anyone.
"Ask Boss Zhu. He definitely knows."
But they waited for ages and Zhu Zhengzhi never showed up. Lu Caishuang joked, "Does that mean now's the perfect time for me to book? By the time my child's born, I might have gotten an appointment."
"Haha, you can try. He's got over ten thousand followers. Even if he sees them one after another, it'll take ages."
In a hillside villa in Fuzhou, a young man in his early twenties climbed out of his private swimming pool. A butler immediately handed him a towel to dry off.
"Young master, the weather's getting colder. You should swim less at night, so you don't catch a chill," the butler advised with a smile.
Yao Hongguang rubbed his nose and realized he might actually have caught a cold. He nodded and headed into the house.
His villa had every amenity imaginable. It had not only a private swimming pool, but also a gym, a study, and even a private KTV room. It was the height of luxury.
A rich young man like him would normally be surrounded by women. Yao Hongguang knew plenty of models and internet celebrities, but he wasn't particularly interested in women. He was the sort of man who wouldn't even bother going to a hotel room if a girl had already booked one.
Yao Hongguang had a hobby: reading novels. Every month, he spent a hundred or two hundred thousand on tips for novels. His username on Dian Niang was "Searching a Thousand Times in the Crowd."
Whenever readers spotted "Searching a Thousand Times in the Crowd" in a novel's comment section, he was bound to be in the top three on the tipping leaderboard. He was a bona fide tycoon.
Today, all the novels he liked had only updated two chapters, and Yao Hongguang was unhappy. He planned to tip the authors to hurry them along—a common tactic among wealthy readers, though only the richest could afford to be so extravagant.
Just then, he noticed someone had tagged him, with the words "Master Shen" added afterward.
Yao Hongguang had some impression of this Master Shen. He remembered encountering him in Grave Robbery Notes, where the man had said he read fortunes for people and joked about charging him five hundred thousand for a reading. Yao Hongguang had just laughed it off.
Having money didn't mean you could just give it away. Yao Hongguang guessed some bored reader was using Master Shen to tease him.
"Big spender, you ran into that Master Shen in Uncle San's book last time. He's been making quite a splash lately. His Weibo followers are up to over ten thousand."
The novels still hadn't updated, so Yao Hongguang logged onto Weibo and searched for Master Shen's account to kill some time.
He started browsing and soon got completely absorbed, just as he would when reading a novel.
From Shen Qiong's search for an assistant to the arrest of the shop owner who bought stolen goods, Yao Hongguang realized Shen Qiong really did seem to have some skills.
He continued reading about the "Teacher Yuan incident." It took him a full two hours to piece together what had happened. He exclaimed, "That comeback was brutal! First he stayed silent and didn't come out to explain. Then he dropped a video out of nowhere and left countless netizens stunned. That takedown was so satisfying."
"Not bad. That was textbook," Yao Hongguang said with a smile.
He pulled out his phone and called his personal assistant. "Book me a flight to Lingxi City..."
"No rush. Morning would be best."
"I'm going to negotiate a deal. Let's see if I can make five million out of it!" Yao Hongguang said with a laugh.
"No need to tell my dad. It's not a big amount; I can decide for myself."
After hanging up, Yao Hongguang gazed at his computer with a broad smile. He clearly remembered the promise the other man had made.
Five hundred thousand for a fortune reading. If it was wrong, he'd pay back ten times as much!
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