Chapter 43: A Foreign Devil Bodhisattva is Still a Bodhisattva!

"Ying-ying—"

The little fox sat squatting in front of the tea shop, filling the air with bewildered, melodic whimpers as it guided customers right inside.

The customers stopped by the little fox were utterly bewildered, and became even more dumbfounded when the little fox ushered them personally into the shop.

However, out of every ten people the little fox coaxed into the tea shop, about eight of them ended up making a purchase.

In his past life, An Sheng had made a living in sales, so his eye for spotting prospective customers was still quite sharp.

"Ying~"

Once the shop was packed to the brim, An Sheng scurried over to the shelves, calling out to the customers with soft whimpers while putting on a dazed expression, completely willing to let any customer kiss, cuddle, or lift him high up in the air.

The little fox's combination moves of attracting customers, retaining them, making sales, and providing after-sales service were all thoroughly covered.

Now all that was left was to strap a megaphone to the fox and send him outside the tea shop for oral marketing.

The owners of the neighboring tea shops all cast strange, complicated glances at the endlessly busy couple, Yu Zhenghong and his wife.

"Where on earth did they hire such a fortune-bringing blessed fox..."

"No, seriously, having Lord Blessed Fox work as manual labor—isn't Ah Hong afraid of getting struck by lightning? When the lightning eventually comes down, don't go crying that Mazu didn't protect him..."

The other tea shop owners stood in front of their doors, whispering and muttering among themselves.

Perhaps because there were too many people out front, it triggered a herd mentality and stirred up the public's love for gathering around to gawk at a spectacle.

An even larger crowd surged in front of Yu Xueqing's family tea shop. Most of the onlookers stood on tiptoe, stretching their necks, eager to see what on earth was going on inside Yu Xueqing's tea shop.

"Quick, Ah Qing! Never mind the people drinking tea inside, have the old man take good care of those guests, and hurry up and carry me over so I can use moral blackmail to drag all these customers into the shop and fleece them!"

Seeing the gathering crowd, An Sheng's eyes lit up as he quickly let out a soft whimper to Yu Xueqing.

"Oh, oh, oh, coming..."

Flustered and dizzy from busyness, Yu Xueqing heard her little fox calling out to her. She hurriedly stepped forward and picked up her gorgeous little fox.

Yu Xueqing carried the little fox outside. The fox still wore a dazed expression as it reached out its paws, hooking the onlookers gathered in front of the door and dragging prospective buyers into the shop one by one.

Yu Xueqing's words had truly proven prophetic.

Earlier, she had a hunch that since her parents were arguing, she and little An might not get any lunch at noon.

Although the process had turned out a bit differently, the end result of not getting any lunch remained exactly the same.

An Sheng had originally only thought that since Ah Qing had genuinely lost four yuan on her live stream yesterday, and since he had nothing better to do anyway, he might as well use his advantage in appearance to pull in some walk-in customers for Ah Qing's family's tea shop.

An Sheng had never expected that the bustling activity inside the shop, combined with the gossiping and discussions among the neighboring tea shop owners at the door, would unintentionally spark a herd mentality right there at the tea shop.

The customer flow inside the tea shop did not gradually disperse until one-thirty in the afternoon.

Originally, the tea shop only had Yu Xueqing, Yu Zhenghong, Chen Peipei, and the little fox.

But once the customers had all been served, the room was left with two middle-aged men with glazed eyes, lying slumped in chairs, gasping for breath like corpses.

"Ah Hong... I'll greet your ancestors." The exhausted middle-aged man looked at Yu Zhenghong and cursed unceremoniously.

He was the owner of the neighboring tea shop, and he had originally only come out to watch the fun.

Yet Yu Zhenghong had grabbed him directly, slapped a sales badge on his chest, and assigned him to help out in the tea set specialty zone.

For the entire morning—three solid hours—he hadn't managed to take a single sip of water while helping sell four sets of tea ware and three tea cups.

The other slumped man was also the owner of a neighboring tea shop, but he no longer had the strength to curse.

He was completely bloated from drinking too much tea. Even his fingers, hardened against high temperatures since childhood from brewing tea, were now as red as boiled giant prawns after three hours of high-intensity brewing and scalding tea cups.

Yu Zhenghong rolled his eyes and said, "Cut the chatter. After we take a break, order whatever you want at Qiangji Food Stall, and put it all on my tab."

After grumbling back, Yu Zhenghong walked with trembling legs, as if suffering from overwork, to the altar of the God of Wealth. He took out three sticks of incense, walked solemnly over to An Sheng, lit them, and bowed.

"Bless us, Lord Blessed Fox! I hope you'll continue to look after Ah Hong's business in the future and make it as thriving every day as it was today!"

"Bless us—"

Yu Zhenghong offered the incense with utmost solemnity. After Chen Peipei calculated the costs, the tea shop's profit for those three hours had reached a staggering four thousand yuan.

One had to know that the vast majority of what was sold in the tea shop was what people commonly called "ration tea"—tea meant for daily household consumption, usually priced between fifty and one hundred yuan, with the most expensive tea in the shop costing only around four hundred yuan.

With An Sheng around, the profit made in three hours had already matched the previous week's entire revenue.

"Hey! Dad, didn't you say that foreign devils' foreign bodhisattvas are all evil spirits and shouldn't be worshipped?"

Exhausted to the point of collapse, Yu Xueqing had to squat in the corner eating a newly bought popsicle to beat the heat because all the chairs in the tea shop were occupied.

Seeing her dad offering incense to little An, she couldn't help but speak up with a strange expression.

"Audacious! What evil spirits! Lord Blessed Fox is the orthodox auspicious omen of our Jiule City!"

Yu Zhenghong rolled his eyes dramatically and corrected his daughter's mistake with a solemn and pious expression:

"What era is this? How can a college student like you be so superstitious? Whether it's an auspicious omen or an evil spirit, could your old man who has been burning incense for forty years possibly get it wrong?"

"Our Lord Blessed Fox is miraculous; it's an auspicious omen!"

"A heavenly auspicious omen! What does a child like you know about evil spirits and auspicious omens?"

After lecturing his daughter not to be superstitious, Yu Zhenghong turned around and fawned over An Sheng as he offered a stick of incense, mumbling incantations under his breath in hopes of receiving divine protection.

[Lord Blessed Fox, please bless us so that the tea shop's business can rake in four thousand yuan in three hours every single day—Yu Zhenghong looks respectful on the outside, but deep down he's calculating whether Lord Blessed Fox is actually miraculous or not. I hope I didn't waste my high-end sandalwood incense; three sticks cost eight yuan.]

[Wish granted: Daily income of four thousand (Of course, if the villa could also be close to the sea, that would be even better).]

As Yu Zhenghong's wish refreshed, An Sheng straight up planted his little fox foot right onto the old man's face.

Well aren't you something, old man, coming to my face to farm your KPIs!

Making four thousand yuan in a single morning, and not even mentioning buying two Australian lobsters as offerings—I didn't even get to see a single Boston lobster before you came running over to make me work my tail off.

And you had the nerve to call me a foreign devil's bodhisattva! Fat chance of getting my protection!

If Ah Qing weren't in the room right now, I'd take a belt and whip you to a pulp!

An Sheng rolled his eyes, turned his head away, and completely ignored the utterly obsequious Yu Zhenghong.

"Don't be angry, Lord Blessed Fox! I'll immediately buy you two roast chickens to eat later! The kind that come with dancing!"

Yu Zhenghong didn't mind the fox kicking him at all as he shamelessly leaned in closer to smooth down the fox's fur.

As long as it worked its miracles, a foreign bodhisattva was still a bodhisattva.

As long as it blessed his entire family so they could eat well, forget about a foreign devil's bodhisattva—even a cybernetic flesh-and-blood bodhisattva—Yu Zhenghong would still dare to step forward with a solemn expression, light incense for it, and build a living shrine in his home for the bodhisattva to dwell in.

Of course, that was on the condition that the bodhisattva was truly miraculous; otherwise, Yu Zhenghong would brazenly pull out a QR code.

"Ying-ying-ying—"

An Sheng shoved Yu Zhenghong's hand away, burrowed into Yu Xueqing's arms, and waited to go have lunch.

"Ahem..."

Seeing Yu Zhenghong offering incense, the neighboring tea shop owner who had been press-gangched into manual labor rubbed his hands together like a fly, his face filled with anticipation.

Is it really that miraculous?

If it's truly miraculous, we should come and pay our respects too.

If it's not miraculous, we won't be coming here anymore in the future.