Basket of Water

The two walked into the lottery center. Lin Yumo picked five random bets, while Guo Yuan recited the string of numbers the narrator had just mentioned.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just pick them randomly? Why go through the trouble of choosing numbers?" Lin Yumo asked as she paid.

"Rather than leave everything to fate, I might as well try for myself. What if I win?"

"Keep dreaming!" Lin Yumo rolled her eyes and slapped Guo Yuan's ticket against his chest.

"Then why are you buying one?" Guo Yuan asked as he caught the ticket.

"I just feel like something I'd been worrying about all day turned out well today. It felt worth celebrating, so I came to buy a lottery ticket and try my luck," Lin Yumo explained.

Guo Yuan smiled without saying anything. His purpose was different from Lin Yumo's—he was here to take home five million!

"Come over to my place for dinner tonight!" Guo Yuan invited Lin Yumo.

How could winning the jackpot not have an audience?

"Sure!"

Lin Yumo had a lot of faith in Guo Yuan's cooking. That bowl of red date millet porridge he had made when she was on her period was something she still missed dearly!

By evening, Guo Yuan had bought some groceries on Meituan and prepared one meat dish, two vegetable dishes, and a cold appetizer platter. Then he went next door to call Lin Yumo over.

Lin Yumo arrived at Guo Yuan's place carrying a bottle of red wine.

"I've noticed you really like drinking," Guo Yuan said after glancing at the wine.

"What can dispel sorrow but Dukang?"

"All I know is, 'Drawing a blade to cut the water only makes it flow faster; raising a cup to drown sorrow only makes sorrow worse.'"

"That only proves you're still young."

The two clearly had different views on alcohol, and neither could convince the other. Guo Yuan could not be bothered to argue with Lin Yumo any longer, so he switched on the television and tuned it to the lottery draw channel.

"You really expect to win?" Lin Yumo asked after taking a sip of red wine.

"There's no harm in watching."

A few minutes later, the notary's voice came from the television. "Under the on-site supervision of this notary and the staff of this office, the lottery equipment for Shuang Se Qiu Draw No. 102 of 2022 has been confirmed to be functioning normally, and the drawing process has complied with the prescribed procedures and rules. The numbers drawn for this issue are..."

Hearing that, Guo Yuan reached into his pants pocket and pulled out the ticket he had bought earlier.

Seeing this, Lin Yumo snatched the ticket from him and walked over to the television. "Let me see whether you can actually win."

With that, Lin Yumo began checking the numbers. Just then, two balls had been drawn.

"09, 10. Wow! Not bad—you got the first two numbers right," Lin Yumo said with a smile.

But very soon, she could no longer smile.

Because three more balls appeared on the screen. The further she checked, the stranger her expression became.

She looked at the numbers on the ticket, then at the television, her eyes gradually widening.

"12! 18! 29! Oh my god! The fifth one is 29! It hit! It hit again! Five numbers matched!" Lin Yumo cried out uncontrollably.

Guo Yuan smiled faintly. So what if she was a wealthy woman? Before someone as overpowered as him, a wealthy woman was nothing special.

It was time to let the wealthy woman experience the shock of someone overpowered.

With that thought, Guo Yuan shifted his butt on the chair and unconsciously straightened his back, ready to welcome the wealthy woman's next cheer.

And with this money, he could acquire Xun Haoran's company, develop his own smart engine, and become China's Jobs.

Perhaps in a few years, money will be nothing more than a number to me? Life truly is lonely at the top! Guo Yuan thought to himself.

However, just as Guo Yuan was preparing to say sayonara to poverty, Lin Yumo's cheers and screams never came. A sense of foreboding rose in him, and he quickly turned to look at her.

Lin Yumo's expression was rather strange at the moment.

"Pfft—hahahaha!" Lin Yumo burst out laughing the next second.

She laughed because she felt stupid. How could anyone possibly win the lottery?

She had actually thought just now that Guo Yuan was about to win first prize.

Seeing Lin Yumo laughing so hard she was bent over, Guo Yuan hurried over, took the ticket, and compared it against the seven numbers on the television one by one.

"Fuck! This... this fucking..."

Guo Yuan stared blankly at the numbers. The first five had indeed matched, but the final two were completely different.

Guo Yuan clearly remembered that the sixth and seventh numbers given by the narrator had been 31 and 12.

Why had the jackpot numbers become 32 and 14?

This was not scientific!

"No, no, not winning is what's scientific. I was just indulging in wishful thinking. How could the Director possibly let you win?"

Thinking that, Guo Yuan sighed and casually tossed the ticket into the trash can.

"Hey! Wait! What are you throwing it away for? Matching five red balls should be fourth prize—two hundred yuan!

Two hundred yuan isn't a small amount either. At least you made your money back. Later, when you drink with your friends, you can brag about how you almost brushed shoulders with five million."

Guo Yuan's mouth twitched, but he said nothing. Why did he feel like Lin Yumo was not comforting him at all, but mocking him instead?

After his dream of getting rich overnight shattered, Guo Yuan stopped messing around. He had made up his mind to honestly wait for his royalties and sales dividends to come in. If it really came down to it, he would ask Lin Yumo to lend him some money.

Two more days passed before Guo Yuan received a call from Xun Haoran.

Over the phone, Xun Haoran said that after a month of effort, they still had not cracked Unreal Engine's core algorithm. Their company had already declared bankruptcy and was now looking for lawyers to inventory its assets, hoping to recover as much of the losses as possible.

After learning the news, Guo Yuan bought a ticket for a flight to Hangcheng that same evening.

A little after nine that night, Guo Yuan hurriedly boarded the plane for Hangcheng.

The protagonist was about to acquire a company and begin his own career.