Finally managed to endure until the end of work.
Lu Li attended another two-hour training.
By the time he left the company, it was already 7 p.m.
Well, overtime came with a working meal, so he saved on meal expenses.
Took the bus back to the neighborhood.
Lu Li looked around and discovered a lottery shop open at the street corner not far from the neighborhood.
Without thinking, he walked directly toward the lottery shop.
Entered the lottery shop.
This was a very small sports lottery shop.
There wasn't a single customer inside.
Perhaps because the business wasn't good, even the TV playing "11 Choices 5" was turned off.
Lu Li walked over to the cashier.
Before he could speak.
The bald-headed owner in his fifties looked up and asked, "What lottery do you want to buy?"
Lu Li looked at the scratch-off tickets in the plastic box, and asked, "Can I choose the scratch-off tickets?"
"Normally they're in sequence, otherwise it's hard to account for them."
The owner said frankly.
Lu Li was a bit disappointed, "Forget it, I'll check out other lottery shops."
"Hey!" The owner quickly stopped him, "I'll let you choose, don't leave."
In the past two years, lotteries have been widely criticized online, and sales have plummeted.
This shop's location wasn't great, and hadn't had any business all day. Now that a customer finally came, how could he let them leave?
Lu Li then pointed to the 20-yuan "Fortune's Arrival" and said, "Take it out and let me choose."
"Alright."
The owner opened the plastic box and took out the "Fortune's Arrival" that had only sold one ticket.
Lu Li quickly glanced at the rules and roughly understood how to win with this lottery.
If there's a "luck" character under the scratched area, you win that amount.
If a "reverse blessing" appears, you win five times the amount.
And if a gold ingot symbol appears, you win the twenty amounts indicated in the scratched area.
It's a relatively simple play.
Lu Li didn't care about its simplicity, what mattered to him was if he could see through the coating.
He pretended to stare at a ticket and was excited to discover that his gaze actually penetrated the anti-counterfeiting coating!
Got it!
He really could see through it!
Lu Li couldn't be more excited and quickly began to carefully select.
The first ticket didn't have any symbols.
The second ticket won only twenty yuan, considered a breakeven prize.
He chose unhurriedly and unfazed.
Soon, he scanned through nineteen scratch-off tickets.
Lu Li found somewhat speechlessly that this six-hundred-yuan booklet of scratch-offs could only return about two hundred sixty to seventy yuan.
There were basically no big prizes in it.
There were only two tickets with notable amounts.
Lu Li thought for a moment and picked out these two tickets, "Just these two."
The owner said, "Forty."
Lu Li paid via scan, "Here you go."
The owner, "Got it."
Just as those words were finished, a bank notification arrived.
Lu Li glanced and saw only seven yuan left.
Normally, with so little money left, he would definitely sigh.
But since he could see through the scratch-off coatings, he wasn't worried about not making money tonight.
Lu Li borrowed a one-yuan coin from the owner and stood at the counter to start scratching.
With a few swipes, he scratched off one ticket.
Lu Li pretended not to understand and pointed at the scratched area, "Owner, did I win this?"
The owner looked down, "Wow, young man, you're quite lucky; you won fifty."
With that, he put the lottery ticket away and took fifty yuan from the cash register.
Lu Li didn't put the money away and continued to scratch the next one.
The owner didn't pay much attention, continued playing with his phone after paying.
Shortly after, Lu Li deliberately let out a cheerful sound, "Oh, looks like I won again!"
"Ah?" The owner quickly looked up, surprised, "You won again? Your luck is quite good, let me see how much."
He took the lottery ticket and found a "reverse blessing" symbol under a twenty amount.
The owner smiled, "You really won, this time it's a hundred. Young man, you're so lucky today, why not buy two more?"
Earning a hundred and ten yuan in just a couple of minutes, how could he not continue playing?
Lu Li was definitely looking to earn some extra cash tonight.
He said without hesitation, "Sure, but 'Fortune's Arrival' is too simple, not that interesting; show me something else."
Indeed, the booklet of "Fortune's Arrival" didn't have many prizes left.
The rest were either nothing or just twenty-yuan prizes, so buying more was pointless.
The owner, wanting to boost sales, naturally recommended the expensive ones to Lu Li, "Here, 'Turning Stone to Gold' is the star of our sports lottery scratch-offs, many people have won big with this one."
"Let me see."
Lu Li took the whole book of "Turning Stone to Gold," just opened, not a single one sold. The play is almost identical to "Fortune's Arrival," just with slightly different symbols: a coin symbol wins the amount below, a "soft currency" symbol wins five times the amount, and a gold brick symbol wins all the prizes in the area.
He carefully picked out from them.
And indeed, this "Turning Stone to Gold" was like the owner said; the winning probability seemed much higher than "Fortune's Arrival."
Lu Li picked out five tickets, "Exactly one hundred yuan, right?"
The owner hadn't given the hundred yuan yet, and upon hearing Lu Li's query, he smiled and nodded, "Yes, exactly one hundred."
Lu Li casually tucked the fifty yuan into his pocket and started scratching again.
The first one didn't win.
Well, he did it on purpose.
After all, winning continuously might raise suspicion.
The shop owner saw that he didn't win this time, and bowed his head to play on his phone again.
Lu Li didn't pay any attention to him either, and simply scratched off all the remaining four lottery tickets. Then he took the three winning ones and said, "Boss, I'd like to redeem these."
"Won again?" The shop owner looked up with a surprised expression, "How many tickets did you win?"
Lu Li said with a grin, "This time my luck wasn't as good as before, only three scratch-offs won, but the amount is still decent."
The shop owner glanced at the tickets and immediately laughed, "Young man, your luck really is something, one ticket is one hundred, another fifty, and one is five hundred; altogether the three tickets won six hundred and fifty."
Lu Li laughed heartily, "I guess my luck tonight is indeed very good."
The shop owner put away the tickets while asking, "Do you want to keep playing?"
This shop owner doesn't seem to like transferring funds digitally, he always redeems prizes with cash.
Lu Li had no mind to think of anything else; having discovered such a scheme to make money, how could he think of anything else?
He said, "Let's get a few more to play with."
As he received the five hundred and fifty, Lu Li also purchased five more twenty-face-value "Value Cash" tickets.
This time, Lu Li became even more cautious.
Three of the tickets had no prize.
The other two both won one hundred each.
The shop owner kept complimenting his good luck.
Lu Li just sat there playing continuously, always selecting scratch-offs.
Time passed by the minute and second.
Soon, half an hour had passed.
Almost all of the tickets in the plastic box had been picked over.
During this time, Lu Li always stayed cautious, generally picking four or five tickets, only one or two would win a prize, but the actual winning amount would certainly be more than the cost invested.
Lottery tickets really are something not so worth playing.
Anyway, Lu Li up till now hadn't hit any big prizes.
The most he got at one time was a thousand.
Even with his millimeter-through-vision eyes, the most he won was a thousand.
For those without see-through eyes, they might lose everything playing.
Of course, Lu Li still made quite a bit from continues scratching up to now.
As for exactly how much he gained, he was too busy scratching off the tickets to calculate it just yet.
Now there were only one or two kinds of tickets left unplayed in the plastic box.
Lu Li felt it was about time to stop.
He casually pointed at a five-yuan "Hearts Aligned" scratch-off and said, "Let me see this one."
The shop owner saw that he kept winning and wondered if Lu Li had some high-tech device to see through.
But Lu Li wasn't winning every ticket, and since it was done right in front of him, cheating seemed unlikely.
The shop owner simply didn't overthink it, taking out the "Hearts Aligned" from the plastic box, "This is five yuan per ticket."
Lu Li said, "Alright."
This time, he wasn't planning to win.
After all the winnings just now, it might raise some suspicion.
So, he planned to "return" dozens of yuan to the lottery shop, trying to pick scratch-offs with no prize.
With that in mind, Lu Li began selecting.
Finding winning ones is a bit time-consuming.
As for the non-prize ones, that was more straightforward.
He quickly picked seven or eight tickets.
Just as he was ready to pick two more to make it ten in total.
Suddenly, Lu Li saw one ticket showing a grand prize of five thousand yuan!
His breath caught instantly; he'd won quite a bit tonight already, though he hadn't calculated the exact amount, he was sure it didn't add up to five thousand yuan.
Now seeing a ticket that could win five thousand in front of him, how could Lu Li resist?
Without hesitation, he picked that scratch-off, then chose another non-prize one, and started scratching.
One ticket lost.
Three tickets lost.
In a row, he scratched off nine tickets and didn't win.
The shop owner finally breathed a sigh of relief, giving half-genuine encouragement, "Losing so many in a row must be accumulating luck; you never know, buy a few more and you might hit a big prize."
Mmm, he was trying to coax Lu Li to spend more on scratch-offs to boost sales.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the shop owner finished speaking, Lu Li scratched off the last ticket and looked up with a smile, "As you wished, the last ticket actually won a big prize."
"Huh?" The shop owner was stunned and quickly asked, "How much did you win?"
Lu Li handed over the ticket, "It should be five thousand."
The shop owner quickly took the scratch-off and checked, finding the symbol of a love arrow next to the five-thousand-yuan amount in the top-left position of the first row, indicating the prize amount beneath!
He looked up, both amused and frustrated, "Your luck tonight is unbelievable, winning quite a few before, and the last one hit five thousand, that luck… is truly something else."
Since winnings under ten thousand can be claimed at the lottery store, the shop owner quickly gave him the five thousand yuan.
Lu Li, holding his final five thousand winnings, swaggered out of the lottery shop, not bothering to continue playing.
Sure, not drawing attention is part of it.
On the other hand, not knowing if this lottery shop had more scratch-off stock, anyway, none of those in the plastic box held a big prize.
Continuing would at best break even, definitely not profitable anymore.
...
Returning to the rented room.
Lu Li was visibly excited.
He pulled out all the money from his pocket.
"Let's see exactly how much I made."
His cost was only forty yuan, practically negligible.
Lu Li carefully counted.
One red bill…
Five red bills…
Fifteen red bills…
After a little time spending, he finally finished counting.
"I hit it big! I hit it big!"
Lu Li silently rejoiced, "Subtracting the cost, I actually made eight thousand four hundred thirty-five yuan tonight!"
Making over eight thousand in one evening, more than his salary even after promotion!