“The ticket…” Chen Junnan stared at the problem book in the other’s hand and hesitated for a long time. “Does Old Qi have any connection with this ‘ticket’?”
“Yes,” the Serpent nodded, then amended after a second, “Possibly.”
“Alright then…” Chen Junnan nodded after hearing this. “In that case, I’ll reluctantly help you out this once.”
The Serpent fixed his gaze on Chen Junnan and said, “Watch your tone. What do you mean ‘reluctantly help me’?”
“Didn’t you ask me for a favor?” Chen Junnan retorted. “Now I’ve agreed, haven’t I? I’ll tell Old Qi as soon as we get out.”
“Not quite…” The Serpent shook his head. “I was the one who helped you store the ‘characters’ first, and then you agreed to help me find Qi Xia. This isn’t me begging you—it’s mutual benefit, right?”
“Store ‘characters’?” Chen Junnan blinked. “Did that happen? I don’t remember.”
“Fine.” The Serpent nodded, then pointed at Jin Yuanxun. “Then there’s no need to compete. I hereby declare the winner of this round is—”
“Bro, bro, bro!” Chen Junnan quickly stepped forward to grab the Serpent’s arm. “I was just messing with you! You’re so quick to take things seriously.”
Jin Yuanxun had been watching Chen Junnan and the Serpent talk for a while and finally couldn’t hold back any longer.
“Bro, are you two done with your private conversation?” he asked.
“…?” The Serpent paused, then pointed at Chen Junnan and said to Jin Yuanxun, “Kid, you can learn Chinese from anyone—just not him.”
“Huh? Why?” Jin Yuanxun asked.
The Serpent shook his head. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you ended up speaking Sichuan dialect, Shanxi dialect, or even Cantonese. But I’d be terrified if you picked up his foul mouth.”
After saying this, the Serpent took his seat and gestured to the two chairs in front of him, signaling for the two of them to sit as well.
Then, under their slightly nervous yet expectant gazes, the Serpent flipped the notebook straight to the last few pages.
“Snake Bro!” Chen Junnan reached out to stop him. “You can’t do that!”
“Why not?”
“I took a quick glance at your book earlier—the further back the questions get, the more abstract they become. How about starting from the first page?”
“There are only three questions—who cares?” The Serpent lowered his head and looked at the problem on the page. “Let me make this clear… Once the game ends, the loser must accept defeat. If you keep causing trouble, ‘Xuanwu’ will have to step in and deal with you.”
“This young master knows his limits.”
The Serpent cleared his throat. “Listen carefully.”
The two of them sat up straight, as if they were back in a classroom.
“A restaurant owner, aiming to improve service quality and customer satisfaction, set up a feedback notebook on the wall, encouraging all customers to write down any issues—from interior decor to food taste. Soon, the owner received a flood of opinions and addressed each one: dim lighting was brightened, overly salty dishes were adjusted. But instead of improving, the restaurant’s business declined from packed to nearly empty, until it was forced to shut down. Why?”
Chen Junnan turned to Jin Yuanxun and asked, “Got it?”
“Yeah, got it,” Jin Yuanxun replied.
“Good, answer then.”
“Why? Oh?” Jin Yuanxun said. “You’re the older brother—you go first.”
Chen Junnan blinked, realizing Jin Yuanxun wasn’t so easily fooled, then turned to the Serpent and said, “Fine, I’ll answer first. I won’t bully the kid.”
“Good,” the Serpent nodded.
Chen Junnan stroked his chin, feeling that this kind of question wasn’t his forte. He suspected Qi Xia would’ve already solved it by now, but he couldn’t piece together an answer.
A restaurant that prioritized customer experience so much ended up failing?
Forget this one—even in his memory, many places conducted customer surveys and feedback… Why didn’t they go under?
Chen Junnan figured the key to this problem wasn’t about valuing customer feedback—that was probably a red herring. The issue lay with the restaurant itself.
“I think it was sabotaged,” Chen Junnan said.
“Hmm…?” The Serpent raised an eyebrow. “Elaborate.”
“You said it was packed, so it must’ve drawn envy.” Chen Junnan explained. “In this world, competitors are always enemies. I suspect rival restaurants ganged up on it—the feedback might’ve been fake, planted by competitors to mislead the owner. But the owner took it at face value, made all the wrong adjustments, and doomed the business.”
“Sabotage by rivals…?” The Serpent pondered. “That does make some sense.”
“Some sense? This is the absolute truth!” Chen Junnan declared. “Just declare the winner already—who gets custody of the kid?”
“…?”
“Who gets the ‘characters’?” Chen Junnan corrected.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions…” The Serpent turned to Jin Yuanxun. “At the very least, we need both answers before deciding. So, hold your horses—let’s hear the other contestant’s answer.”
Jin Yuanxun cleared his throat. Chen Junnan expected him to fumble, but the kid smirked and said:
“Ya, bro, stuck already?”
“Who’s stuck? You got an answer?” Chen Junnan shot back.
“My family used to run a barbecue joint.”
“Objection!” Chen Junnan immediately raised his hand toward the Serpent. “Teacher, this guy’s cheating his ass off!”
“How is this cheating?” Jin Yuanxun protested. “Bro, don’t just throw accusations—how was I supposed to know we’d be answering questions back when my parents ran the place? Huh?”
“Fine, fine, go ahead.” Chen Junnan waved dismissively. “Let’s see if that brain of yours is any good.”
“Ya, I really do know,” Jin Yuanxun said. “The problem was… he didn’t filter the feedback. He blindly catered to every single opinion, and that’s wrong.”
“Oh?” The Serpent raised an eyebrow again. “Go on.”
“Because only a small fraction of people actually complain,” Jin Yuanxun explained. “By trying to please that small group, the owner ended up alienating the majority. That’s why fewer and fewer people came.”
“Tsk…” Both the Serpent and Chen Junnan fell into thought.
The Serpent glanced at Chen Junnan. “I’m a snake—’tsk’ is natural for me. Why are you ‘tsk’-ing?”
“Never mind the ‘tsk’-ing—I’m not convinced he’s right,” Chen Junnan argued. “Think carefully! Isn’t your riddle supposed to be a logic puzzle? This kid’s answer sounds like business strategy—does that even count?”
The Serpent lowered his head in thought before saying, “Honestly… this isn’t just about business. It reminds me of a famous theory. It seems this young man has the correct answer.”
“Famous theory…?” Chen Junnan’s ears perked up at those words. “How did this turn into a theory?”
“If it connects to a theory, it means the answer is infinitely close to the truth,” the Serpent said, lifting his head. “Round one goes to this young man, Jin.”
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