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"Actually, this kid had it pretty rough too. His father died early, and his mother remarried with him in tow. His stepfather treated him badly, and his own mother didn't care about him either. When she stewed a chicken, she gave the drumsticks to the two children from her stepfather's family, but wouldn't even give him the chicken butt." Unable to get enough to eat at home, the child had no choice but to find a way outside. Before long, he picked up the habit of stealing.

Hearing the staff member's account, the onlooking crowd sighed sympathetically.

Huo Baichuan disagreed. "Whether his stepfather and biological mother treated him well has no necessary connection to him running away to become a thief. The children at Red Heart Orphanage don't have fathers or mothers either, but you don't see them out stealing."

"What do you know?" Little Third retorted furiously. "With my mother treating me like this, I might as well be an orphan!"

At those words, the onlookers immediately gave him strange looks.

Huo Baichuan smiled. "So if you became an orphan, you wouldn't steal anymore? Fine. You can come back to the orphanage with us later. I'll speak to the old director and see if they can take you in."

Little Third stared blankly at Huo Baichuan. "Who exactly are you? What do I have to do with you? What right do you have to meddle in my business?"

"Didn't you want to be an orphan? I'm someone who can help you." Looking at Little Third's hesitant expression, Huo Baichuan said solemnly, "Looks like your determination to become an orphan isn't all that strong. What, is the life of stealing really that appealing to you?"

As soon as Huo Baichuan said that, the onlookers' gazes at Little Third became meaningful.

"What nonsense are you talking about? Who wants to steal?" Little Third was so angry he stomped his feet. "Fine, I'll go! You think I'm afraid of you?"

"Wait!" The staff member was thoroughly confused, unable to understand how things had developed into this. He looked at Huo Baichuan suspiciously. "What is your relationship with Red Heart Orphanage?"

"I'm also an orphan from Red Heart Orphanage." Huo Baichuan pointed back at Tao Yan and introduced the persona he had crafted for them. "Both he and I were trafficked to Jiangzhou. You must have heard about the major trafficking case that Lianhua District Police Station cracked some time ago, the one that shocked the whole country, right? It was even reported on TV. Tao Yan, I, and several other disabled children were all victims. Since we still can't get in touch with our biological parents, the police station sent us to Red Heart Orphanage."

Wasn't it just a competition over who had it worse? Huo Baichuan was very confident that their current backstory was far more tragic than most people's. It would stir up even more sympathy from the crowd.

Sure enough, after hearing Huo Baichuan's words, the onlookers' expressions immediately changed. They began talking over one another. "You two were trafficked to Jiangzhou by those traffickers? I saw on the news that many of the victimized children were blinded, poisoned mute, and had their arms and legs broken before being thrown onto the streets to beg. A few days ago, I saw them while shopping downtown. They looked so pitiful that I even gave them fifty cents. Who knew I was helping evildoers?"

"The two of us were lucky. We woke up just as they were about to lay hands on us," Huo Baichuan said. "Maybe I learned a little self-defense at home. I immediately took those traffickers down. Then the two of us called the police, and that was when the officers arrived."

The onlookers sighed, patting their chests with lingering fear. "That really was dangerous."

"Tell me about it!" Huo Baichuan put on a frightened expression as well. "We were just that close to becoming disabled."

"So you can't remember where you live? You don't know how to contact your family either?"

"The two of us have amnesia," Huo Baichuan continued. "The doctor said we might have been frightened into it. Maybe it'll get better after some time, or maybe we'll never remember for the rest of our lives."

"But we aren't getting worked up over it. If we have to go to an orphanage, then we'll go to an orphanage. A real man has hands and feet—there's nowhere he can't earn a meal. At the very least, we won't do things like stealing and breaking the law." As Huo Baichuan said this, he deliberately glanced at Little Third and asked, "Don't you agree?"

Little Third: "..."

The onlookers once again praised Huo Baichuan and Tao Yan for being self-reliant. "Well done, young men! You've got ambition!"

Huo Baichuan waved a hand and said modestly, "It's what we should do. Not only do we need to support ourselves and earn our own meals, we also need to help everyone at the orphanage eat their fill and eat well. The police officers worked so hard to save us from that hellhole, so we have to live with dignity. We also have to become people who contribute to society."

Hearing this speech, the onlookers cheered loudly.

Behind him, Tao Yan wiped his face, unable to bear watching any longer.

Seeing how fired up the crowd was, Huo Baichuan felt the timing was about right and took the opportunity to say, "On our very first day at the orphanage, we were already thinking of ways to help it earn money. Did you know there'll be a free movie at People's Square in Lotus District tomorrow night? Red Heart Orphanage will be selling fried chicken—no, fried potatoes—at People's Square then. Three flavors of Tiger-Tooth Potatoes: sweet and sour, fragrant and spicy, and cumin. If you're interested and want to join the fun, come to People's Square tomorrow night. Tiger-Tooth Potatoes cost fifty cents a serving. Every serving you buy puts fifty cents more into the orphanage's account. The children at the orphanage will have one more dish on the table, one more piece of clothing in summer, one more padded jacket in winter, one more book in the reading room..."

"Every purchase you make is an act of kindness." Not wanting to eat potatoes for days on end, Huo Baichuan promoted them with great enthusiasm. "With fifty cents, you won't get ripped off, and you won't be fooled. But you can buy a serving of spicy, fragrant Tiger-Tooth Potatoes, and you can buy the children brighter smiles, better lives, and more beautiful futures!"

His words left the onlookers boiling with enthusiasm. After giving Red Heart Orphanage some free publicity, Huo Baichuan began advertising his own business, which had not even opened yet. "Actually, the reason we came to the computer market this time was to see whether we could do some business assembling computers. Do you know about custom-built computers? In fact, building one is more suitable than buying a prebuilt machine. First, it's cheaper. Second, the computer can be configured specifically according to your needs. As long as you find someone reliable, a custom-built computer is truly much better value than buying a prebuilt one..."