Huge Jackpot

The day after returning to Boston.

Huang Xiuyuan brought a large pile of chemical reagents to the chemistry building and sauntered into a makeshift lab, where he casually performed a few experiments.

As he worked, he occasionally stopped to look up news online and think about what to do next.

Since he was in the USA, many things were inconvenient. He had to return to China as soon as possible.

But there were still plenty of opportunities abroad. If he seized them, he could quickly build up his initial capital, accelerate his rise, and save at least five to ten years.

Given his family's circumstances, Huang Xiuyuan could get at most 500,000 to one million yuan in startup funds. If he also took out some money to pay for his grandmother's treatment, there might be even less.

So he had to make it on his own. Buying Powerball tickets was one option, but it wasn't the only one.

After a morning of experiments, he ate lunch in the school cafeteria and returned to his dorm.

At half past one in the afternoon, his phone alarm went off.

The effects of the brain suppressant had worn off. He took a dose from the refrigerator, injected it, then reset his alarm to remind him when it was time for the next injection.

On his laptop, he had secretly captured more than two hundred zombie computers. They weren't all in the USA; some were in Europe and Asia, too.

Now Huang Xiuyuan was trying to break into servers. He had a clear target: companies that weren't in the internet business, but whose operations were closely tied to the internet.

The company he'd bought his chemical reagents from was one example. These companies had online operations, but weren't particularly knowledgeable about the internet.

Their servers were often relatively easy to break into.

During the Fuxi Project, Huang Xiuyuan had often relied on the internet to learn about the outside world because of the program's semi-closed management. He had also joined forces with the Honker Union several times. Combined with his Hyperthymestic abilities, his hacking skills were among the best.

The internet in 2008 was a little different from the internet decades later, but much of the knowledge carried over.

Using more than a dozen small programs and viruses he'd written, along with those zombie computers, he managed to capture four companies' servers over the course of the afternoon.

Unlike other hackers, after breaking in, Huang Xiuyuan did more than gather useful information. He also fixed the companies' system vulnerabilities to keep other hackers from breaking in.

Most companies managed their servers reactively: they only responded after a hacker had already gotten in.

Huang Xiuyuan's approach, on the other hand, was symbiotic.

His custom firewall and antivirus software were hidden in the server systems, along with a small program that borrowed the servers' computing power.

By the twenty-sixth, the zombie computers and servers he secretly controlled had grown into a sizable network. He could even pool their resources to attack the internet infrastructure of a small country.

At ten that night, he took out his Powerball ticket and opened the live drawing on his laptop. The drawing for this round of Powerball was about to begin.

The white balls started rolling. Soon, the first one popped out: 21.

The next numbers were 09... 42... 02... 33. All five white balls had been drawn.

The red ball began to roll in the other machine.

12!

The red ball landed on 12.

The numbers in the third line of Huang Xiuyuan's ticket were 02-09-21-33-42-12.

All six numbers matched. He'd won the Powerball jackpot, taking home a staggering 230 million US dollars.

The tension in his chest eased all at once.

The live broadcast hadn't ended yet. It showed the number of winners, and the jackpot line displayed two winners.

That meant splitting the 230 million between them. But that wasn't the end of it: the amount was pretax, and 25% had to be deducted for federal taxes.

He'd bought the ticket in Connecticut, so he also had to pay state tax of 6% and income tax of 6.7%, as required by state law.

That came to 37.7% in taxes altogether. 2.3 divided by 2 was 1.15, and multiplied by 62.3%, the amount he'd take home came to roughly 71.64 million.

He put the ticket in his wallet, planning to claim the prize the next day.

Once he'd calmed down, Huang Xiuyuan went back to tinkering with his laptop. He didn't seem particularly excited about the more than seventy million in prize money.

It was a one-time windfall. The butterfly effect would make future winning numbers unrecognizable, so the chances of getting rich by buying more lottery tickets were slim.

Huang Xiuyuan's plan was simple: grab a pile of money and run.

The night passed. After several days of snow, the sun finally came out.

He picked up the car he'd reserved and drove straight to Hartford. Nearly two hours later, bundled up in a thick down jacket, he stepped into the lottery shop.

A few minutes later, the shop's clerk exclaimed, "Oh my God! You've struck it rich, buddy! Congratulations on winning first prize!"

A few intern reporters who'd come by to try their luck immediately perked up.

"Sir, I'm David from the Daily Mail. Would you be willing to give us an interview?"

"Hello, sir..."

Huang Xiuyuan quickly replied, "I'd be happy to give an interview, but how about we wait until I've collected the prize, okay?"

"Hahaha, no problem."

"Okay."

The reporters raised their cameras and snapped several pictures. Some opened their laptops to email their headquarters, while others hurriedly made phone calls.

Huang Xiuyuan worked with the clerk, Carter, to complete the paperwork. Carter reminded him, "Bruce, do you want to take the money in a lump sum or in installments? You'll have a lot deducted in taxes if you take it all at once. Installments can reduce the taxes a little."

"Thanks for the advice. I'll still take it all at once." Huang Xiuyuan smiled outwardly, but inwardly he scoffed.

Only a fool would believe that. The US dollar kept losing value. Taking the money in installments just meant sitting around and watching it depreciate.

"All right!" Carter looked disappointed, but he moved quickly, and soon 71.85 million had been deposited into Huang Xiuyuan's personal account.

The prize was a little more than he'd expected. The 230 million was an approximate figure, with some additional digits left out.

When the three intern reporters saw that Huang Xiuyuan had collected the prize, they gathered around him. He didn't mind too much. Winning the lottery was different in the USA than it was back home.

Besides, he needed the media to give him a little exposure and spare him some unnecessary trouble.

Each reporter asked two or three questions, then Huang Xiuyuan drove back to Boston.

The next step was a round of media coverage. Online and offline, lottery players were green with envy.

Back at Harvard University, Huang Xiuyuan applied to graduate. Then, through the internet, he found several professional agencies to set up offshore accounts and companies in Xiangjiang, the Isle of Man, the Cayman Islands, and Bermuda.

Once he'd taken care of all that, he found Lu Xuedong, who was working on an experiment.

"Xuedong, I'm here to make good on my promise."

Lu Xuedong scratched the back of his head, looking a little uncertain. "Xiuyuan, you didn't ask your family for money, did you?"

"Take a look at this." He handed him a copy of the Boston Evening News.

Lu Xuedong flipped through the paper, completely confused. Then his eyes widened. He hurriedly rubbed them and asked, stumbling over his words, "You won the lottery?"

"Just got lucky." Huang Xiuyuan shrugged, then patted him on the shoulder and joked, "You'll be working for me for the next ten years."

Having recovered from the shock, Lu Xuedong gave him a rare smile. "No problem, Boss Huang."