Making Money

The three of them clearly had their own little schemes.

Their expressions had already betrayed them, especially since Jiang Ran had started smiling just now.

The three of them narrowed their eyes, looking at each other, and finally, with unspoken understanding, they all said in unison:

"Lottery!" "Lottery!" "Lottery!"

A burst of laughter followed.

"As expected, great minds think alike."

Qin Feng chuckled:

"Based on my understanding of you two, I knew you'd both been thinking about this for a while."

"Weren't you?"

"Of course I was. I wanted to do this during my first test."

Jiang Ran spread his hands:

"It's normal to have this idea. We need to keep our feet on the ground before we gaze at the stars. Let me see... Perfect, today is the Double Color Ball drawing day."

Double Color Ball is one of the most common lotteries.

A total of 6+1 numbers are drawn. Guessing all of them correctly wins the first prize of 5 million. Guessing the first 6 numbers correctly wins the second prize, with a fluctuating bonus, usually around 200,000.

The lottery is drawn every two days. On the drawing day, the drawing is broadcast live on television at 9:15 PM.

"Quite lucky."

Jiang Ran opened his laptop and found the live drawing broadcast:

"We'll wait for about ten minutes. After the winning numbers are announced, we'll send a spacetime message to our past selves."

"It doesn't matter if this message is sent to three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, or even a few hours ago, we'll still have time to buy the lottery tickets."

It had to be said, the lottery plan was indeed exciting.

The atmosphere in the activity room was extremely cheerful.

About ten minutes later, the winning numbers were announced. Jiang Ran wrote them down on a piece of white paper and handed it to Qin Feng.

"What for?" the other person asked, confused.

"This time, you send the text message."

Jiang Ran said:

"Let's switch it up, see if you'll retain [All-Time Memory] this time."

"No can do... I have to operate this."

Qin Feng pointed at the positron cannon:

"I just adjusted the beam intensity to one-fifth of what it was before, trying to see if I can send the text message to yesterday."

"There are still some detailed operations that you two wouldn't be able to handle, and I wouldn't be comfortable letting you do it."

"Makes sense."

Jiang Ran turned around and handed the white paper to Cheng Mengxue:

"Then you send the text message. Use your own phone and send the lottery numbers to my phone."

Cheng Mengxue nodded:

"Should we remind our past selves not to buy the first prize? That would be too conspicuous."

"Heh, our past selves aren't idiots."

Jiang Ran was very confident:

"Our past selves are still us, our intelligence is still online."

"It's definitely more appropriate to buy the second prize. I just checked, and for every Double Color Ball drawing, there are hundreds of people nationwide who win the second prize. It's easy to blend in."

The deployment was complete, and the three took their positions.

Cheng Mengxue held her phone, standing close to the transformer distribution box.

"You don't have to stand so close..."

Jiang Ran reminded her:

"It won't be fun if there's a short circuit."

Qin Feng was still in charge of the positron cannon, while Jiang Ran sat on the windowsill, counting down.

"5! 4! 3! 2! 1!"

His gaze was fixed on Cheng Mengxue's finger...

"0!"

The positron cannon roared! Cheng Mengxue pressed the send button--

Buzz!

Buzz!

Buzz!

The familiar dizziness, the world turned upside down.

Jiang Ran felt like he was falling from a windowsill, like being stuffed into a washing machine, the whole world spinning.

[Worldline change detected!]

It seemed that no matter who sent the text message, or whose phone was used, as long as the prerequisites were met, the spacetime message could be sent successfully.

Sender, recipient, phone, message content... none of that mattered.

Only the positron cannon and the transformer distribution box were necessary.

Roughly speaking, there were many transformer distribution boxes of the same specification in the school, so they might be substitutable.

However, the positron cannon was the [only] one.

It was a coincidental product cobbled together with an unknown principle; no one could replicate a second one.

Two seconds later.

The dizziness disappeared.

Gravity and the feeling of the ground returned.

He opened his eyes.

And found...

He wasn't on the windowsill, the window wasn't even open; he wasn't falling from the windowsill, but standing in the middle of the activity room.

Having experienced waking up in the hospital last time, Jiang Ran was now used to such changes in location.

This was completely reasonable under the theory of Worldline Jump.

Since the spacetime butterfly effect caused history to change, his life trajectory would naturally change as well.

Unless it was an extremely coincidental situation, it would be difficult to remain in the same spot after a worldline change.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to buy a massive amount of Rhine Cats!"

Cheng Mengxue's voice was excited as she scattered flowers in the activity room:

"I can't spend it all~ I can't spend it all!"

Looking at the situation...

"Won the lottery?"

Jiang Ran asked, feigning ignorance:

"How much did you win!"

He was mainly curious about this.

"A full 1.3 million!"

The three of them sat down first, helping Jiang Ran synchronize his memories, that is, the events that happened from yesterday to today after the worldline change.

"I received the text message yesterday afternoon."

Cheng Mengxue pointed to Jiang Ran's phone:

"This time, your phone received it, and I was the sender."

"Very good."

Jiang Ran nodded.

Qin Feng truly lived up to his genius reputation, guessing correctly on the first try--

[Adjusting the positron cannon's beam condenser intensity can indeed control the time node of spacetime message transmission!]

This time, reducing it to one-fifth of the initial value turned three days ago into yesterday.

Conversely...

As long as the condenser intensity was increased, messages could be sent further into the past... a month ago, a year ago, even ten years ago.

It could be said that this was definitely the biggest gain from this experiment.

As for the second gain, it was as expected:

[All-time memory is indeed unique to oneself, regardless of who sends the text message.]

This time, Cheng Mengxue personally sent the message, but Jiang Ran still experienced the dizziness as expected; and Cheng Mengxue still had no memory of before the worldline change, while Jiang Ran's memory remained clear as always.

"Oh right, right."

Jiang Ran immediately took out his own phone.

He needed to confirm how many text messages he had received this time.

"Still just one."

He clicked his tongue.

He couldn't quite describe how he felt.

He both looked forward to receiving another mysterious text message and dreaded it at the same time.

It was a contradictory feeling.

But at least, from the current situation... not receiving any more actually made him feel a bit more at ease.

Cheng Mengxue told Jiang Ran about the lottery situation.

After receiving the text message yesterday afternoon, the three of them immediately met up and decided they absolutely couldn't aim for the first prize; it was too conspicuous, too attention-grabbing. Their target was directly set on the second prize.

They each went to different lottery shops and bought many tickets. Most of the numbers were chosen randomly, doing their best to create the illusion of a "chance win."

Just over ten minutes ago, the winning numbers were announced, and sure enough, they matched the numbers in the spacetime message perfectly.

So, they had won five second prizes in the Double Color Ball lottery, totaling 1.3 million in prize money!

"We're rich..."

Qin Feng looked at the few lottery tickets in his hand:

"We're millionaires now."

"This, this is too easy..."

After cheering, Cheng Mengxue, having calmed down, felt a bit guilty:

"Seriously, is anything going to happen? We... uh, this is legal, right?"

Jiang Ran smiled:

"What exists is reasonable; this is the gift of physics."

"Shouldn't it be the gift of the Film Club, those seniors who pieced together the positron cannon?" Cheng Mengxue corrected him.

"That's true too."

Jiang Ran nodded:

"So, to repay them, let's continue the Film Club, so their spirits can see..."

"Hey, hey, hey, the seniors just graduated, they didn't die!"

The next day.

Outside the Donghai Welfare Lottery Center.

The three of them stood on the sidewalk, watching the busy traffic in front of them...

Lost.

After cashing out, each of their bank accounts had tens of thousands more.

Oh god.

How were they supposed to spend this?

Normally, they lived on 2,000 yuan a month, their pockets cleaner than their faces. When had they ever seen so much money?

For a moment, they couldn't find a direction for splurging.

"Uh..."

Jiang Ran scratched his head:

"How about we go back to school for class first?"

"Mm-hmm." X2

The other two followed.

After taking a few steps, Jiang Ran suggested again:

"After class, we can use the spacetime message to get some more money?"

"Mm-hmm!!" X2