"Uncle, I came to you because I want to control my weight, and you’re giving me so much food?"

Jack Bolton patted the child's head. "It's not too much, eat up. If you don’t eat well with all this exercise, your body won’t be able to handle it. Don’t worry, I’ve calculated it—if you eat all of this, you still won’t get fat."

Without enough protein and vitamins, where does the body get the energy to build muscle? And without muscle, how can you recover your triple jumps?

Jack Bolton looked at his nephew, who was eating hard with his head down, and showed a kindly smile like a farmer watering his fields.

After that, Jack Bolton would come to pick up Chris Bolton to practice figure skating almost every other day. Chris Bolton's parents were happy to leave their son with the reliable old guy while they were busy.

The provincial team’s head coach, Samuel Scott, came to watch Chris Bolton's training once, and after that, he tacitly accepted the addition of this unofficial little team member.

After all, Jack Bolton never neglected his work, paid for the kid’s nutritious meals with his own meal card, and borrowing a bit of rink time was no big deal. If this could really help the men’s singles improve, Samuel Scott would even be willing to give Jack Bolton a raise.

When Chris Bolton had finally managed to recover all his double jumps and started practicing the 3S, his uncle asked him something after a training session.

"Yu, are you going to singing and dance classes these next couple of days?"

Chris Bolton thought for a moment. "After winter break starts, I’ll have more classes than usual, so I have classes both tomorrow and the day after. Vocal in the morning, ballet at seven in the evening."

There was no helping it—in families that want their kids to succeed, school-age children’s days are just that busy. Chris Bolton actually had it pretty good; he remembered some kids whose entire holidays were packed with extracurricular classes.

But because figure skating was so tough, with all the falls and bruises, vocal and ballet classes felt like a break to him.

Jack Bolton tried to negotiate with him. "Can you take a leave from those? Our national figure skating championships are about to start, and we’re short an ice page. Want to help out?"

Chapter 4: Dividends

At first, Chris Bolton didn’t want to go to the national championships in person—after all, you could just watch the competition on TV.

Isn’t it cold to go to the rink in the middle of winter? And they were in the Northeast!

But his uncle was just too good to him. Chris Bolton was mature for his age and knew full well what it meant that his uncle taught him to skate for free and even paid for his meals.

Not to mention, in his previous life, his uncle had raised him to adulthood; saying they were as close as father and son wasn’t an exaggeration. In this life, his uncle had taken care of him when he was injured, taught him figure skating, and helped him get visibly fitter. Now that his uncle needed an ice page, how could Chris Bolton say no?

So he agreed.

Then he told his parents about it.

Ian Foster was the kind of parent who took care of all the housework and worked hard to provide learning opportunities whenever the kids wanted to study something, but the authority to manage the kids was in Grace Bolton's hands.

At this moment, he looked at Grace Bolton. Grace Bolton looked at Chris Bolton, and instead of saying yes or no, she asked, "How’s your figure skating practice going lately?"

Chris Bolton was a bit puzzled, but answered honestly, "Pretty good, I’ve started working on the 3T again, making good progress. Uncle says if I keep it up, I’ll have abs soon."

At this, Chris Bolton laughed himself. Actually, as long as your body fat is low, you can see abs, and his problem was that he could eat a lot and tended to gain weight easily. Figure skating really was a great way to burn fat and shape up, so he thought it was worth continuing.

Seeing her son so happy with his training, Grace Bolton nodded and agreed to help him ask for leave from ballet and vocal classes.

Their dinner was cooked by the restaurant’s head chef, Ian Foster himself.

Their family had a habit of drinking soup before meals. This time, Ian Foster had made a delicious winter melon and clam soup—one sip and your whole stomach felt warm.

A plate of braised duck with green peppers had been simmering on the stove for a long time, making the meat tender, rich, and savory. The fat and flavorful sauce went perfectly with rice. The steamed bass had already been deboned for the kids’ convenience, and the blanched mustard greens were topped with abalone sauce, making them crisp and refreshing.

The two kids were so focused on eating they barely looked up, while Ian Foster chatted with Grace Bolton about this year’s business.

It was mainly Grace Bolton talking. Their restaurant had Ian Foster as head chef, while Grace Bolton managed the finances and personnel.

She put a piece of fish belly into her husband’s bowl. "The year’s almost over. Soon we’ll take a few days off. We’ve saved quite a bit this year. I was thinking of putting the money aside for the boys to buy a house in the future, but money just doesn’t go as far as it used to, and bank interest can’t keep up with inflation. Maybe we should buy something that holds its value?"

Ian Foster took a bite of rice and smiled at her. "Whatever you say."

Grace Bolton made the decision. "Alright, next year let’s expand the restaurant and rent the second floor too. Some customers have complained we don’t have enough private rooms. With the extra money, I’ll see about buying some gold."

As the ancients said, antiques in prosperous times, gold in troubled times. Gold is useful even in chaos. If there’s ever a disaster, gold prices are the first to rise. Buying gold is a safe bet.

Chris Bolton put some vegetables on his younger brother’s plate and glared at him to make sure he ate them, then chimed in.

"Buy Bitcoin! That thing really goes up."