Chapter 24
Saturday morning light filtered through the security grille, casting tiny specks of light on Li Ruiyuan's face. He rolled over, hugging Wu Ye's pillow, and heard Lin Lixin's exaggerated laughter coming from downstairs.
"Xuanxuan, come here quickly! This hairpin has your name on it!"
Li Xuan's crisp reply faded away, mixed with the clacking of slippers. Li Ruiyuan covered his head with a pillow and vaguely heard his mother humming as she hung clothes on the balcony.
The lottery machine at the entrance of the neighborhood convenience store flashed cheesy colored lights. Lin Lixin was stuffing a popsicle into her mouth when she suddenly pointed at the machine and said, "Xuanxuan, pick a number."
Li Xuan tiptoed and punched in a string of birthday numbers—her own, Li Ruiyuan's, and Wu Ye's. The convenience store owner dozed off as the machine gurgled out the lottery tickets.
As the live lottery broadcast played in the background, Lin Lixin was helping Li Xuan adjust the hem of her school uniform. As the numbers were read out on TV, the needle in her hand pricked her fingertip.
"...How much?" She muttered to herself, staring at the lottery ticket.
Li Xuan came over and counted the zeros: "Tens, hundreds, millions...two million?!"
The plastic stool fell to the ground with a clang. Lin Lixin spun around three times, clutching the lottery ticket, and suddenly covered Li Xuan's mouth: "Keep your voice down!"
The redemption center was well-air-conditioned. When the staff handed her the check, Lin Lixin's fingers were shaking so much she couldn't sign it. She turned and saw herself reflected in the glass door—wearing 17-yuan flip-flops and faded jeans with frayed knees.
"Sister..." Li Xuan reminded softly, "You are clumsy."
After leaving the bank, Lin Lixin's first stop was a cell phone store. She broke the SIM card out of her old phone and bought the latest model. Her second stop was the mahjong parlor at the corner of the alley. She slammed three thousand cash on the table and said, "Lao Wang, it's all cleared."
The mahjong parlor owner's eyes widened: "Ah Xin, did you rob a bank?"
"I won 5,000 yuan," she said without changing her expression.
The remaining money was deposited in a fixed-term bank account. On the bus home, Lin Lixin stared at the deposit message and counted the zeros repeatedly. Li Xuan asked curiously, "Sister, aren't you going to buy new clothes?"
"Silly girl." Lin Lixin pinched her cheek. "If others find out you're suddenly rich, you'll become the object of their envy. You won't even know how you died then. You'd better keep a low profile..."
But that night, she had a beautiful dream. In it, she was sitting in the VIP room of a Macau casino, waiters in silk cheongsams bringing champagne towers. A row of muscular male models stood in front of her, led by someone who looked like 19-year-old Lee Seo-yeon...
"I want this!" She waved her hands in her dream and knocked over the water glass on the bedside table.
The next morning, Lin Lixin still wore her old T-shirt to help the supermarket sort out goods.
"Sister Xin," Li Xuan peeked over the shelf, "Your smile is terrifying."
She didn't even look up: "Do your homework."
In the evening, a sun shower began. Lin Lixin stood at the supermarket entrance, watching the rainbow, her bankbook clutched in her hand. Her sparkling eyes were reflected in the motorcycle's rearview mirror—a reflection of a glamorous future that had yet to materialize.
At this moment, she just turned around, picked up a box of mineral water, and shouted to the warehouse:
"Li Ruiyuan, if you slack off again, your salary will be deducted!"
It was a rainy night, and the supermarket shutters were half-drawn. Lin Lixin squatted at the cash register, counting bills, her wet hair sticking to her forehead like seaweed. Li Ruiyuan was adding water to his instant noodles when he heard her suddenly say:
"Hey, I won the lottery."
The kettle was steaming, and he didn't even look up: "Second prize?"
"First prize." She pushed a bundle of banknotes tied with supermarket receipts over to her. "Two hundred thousand. Yours."
The edge of the instant noodle bucket slowly gave way. Li Ruiyuan stared at the bundle of money. On top was an old 2005 banknote, with scotch tape stuck to the missing corner.
"Hush money?" He finally looked up.
Lin Lixin clicked her lighter. "Brothers share happiness and hardship... You're a country bumpkin, haven't you heard that saying?"
The raindrops hit the tin roof like drumbeats. He pulled out the old banknote and held it up to the light. Chairman Mao's smile, reflected in the watermark, looked particularly compassionate.
"Does Wu Ye know?"
"You're the first one to tell me." She blew out a smoke ring. "Even Xuan doesn't know the exact amount."
He stuffed the money into the iron box of betel nuts, his movements as natural as if he was collecting payment: "It's enough to buy the shop in the Lama Temple."
"Tsk, I knew you were going to fill the bottomless pit of your little boyfriend."
Outside the rolling door, a drunk was singing Cantonese opera, his voice distorted as he sang "The Flower of the Imperial Concubine." Lin Lixin suddenly kicked the cash box: "Li Ruiyuan, are we finally able to live like human beings?"
The instant noodle soup gradually formed oil. He opened the disposable chopsticks:
"Um……"
"Don't you ask why you're given it to me?"
"Brothers share happiness and hardship..." He stirred the noodles. "You just said it yourself."
By the time the rain died down, the tin had been tucked away behind the microwave. Lin Lixin smirked at the photo of a male model on her phone screensaver, while Li Ruiyuan calculated the down payment on a piece of paper.
"Hey," she said suddenly, "I actually left half a million."
"I know." He didn't even look up. "You're always calling Tony Leung Chiu Wai in your dreams."
The blare of a delivery horn ripped through the silence in the early morning. Lin Lixin stretched lazily and pulled open the shutters. The morning sun cast her shadow on the floor littered with discarded lottery tickets. Amidst the discarded luck and greed, two hundred thousand yuan fermented silently behind the microwave.
The morning mist on the Pearl River has not yet dissipated, as hazy as all the hidden wealth.
…………
Li Ruiyuan was squatting at the supermarket entrance, chewing a pineapple bun, when the bank transfer notification chimed in, announcing a successful transfer. Then his phone vibrated wildly, and Wu Ye's caller ID danced across the screen like a frightened rabbit.
"Hello?" He deliberately mixed his voice with the sound of chewing.
The silence on the other end of the line was characteristic of Tsinghua University Library, followed by the young man's low voice: "Did you rob a bank?"
"Yeah." He licked the candy off his fingertips. "We just bombed the Zhujiang branch."
The rustling of pages in the background echoed. Wu Ye's breathing was felt like an electric current, like a feather tickling his eardrums: "Li Ruiyuan."
"Here I am."
"Ten thousand," the boy said, emphasizing each word, "Did you win the lottery?"
The morning light baked the asphalt road into a hazy heat. Li Ruiyuan looked at the faded sign of the lottery station across the street and remembered Lin Lixin's trembling fingers as she stuffed the money into the bag. He chuckled into the microphone:
"Mind your own business."
Five minutes after the call ended, three messages popped up on the phone:
Wu Ye: "Returned"
The screenshot shows that the 10,000 yuan transfer has been returned.
Wu Ye: "Don't mistreat yourself, keep it for yourself"
Li Ruiyuan held up his eyelids and took a look, then smiled lazily a few times.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
