Chapter 2 Lucky Scratch Cards
The next day, Xu Nianyi, with even darker dark circles under her eyes, stepped into the office precisely at nine o'clock in the morning.
She put down her bag and the first thing she did was rush to the coffee machine and chug her first cup of coffee of the day.
At 10 o'clock, I picked up the internal phone and prepared to do the most unpleasant but unavoidable task—collecting payments.
"Manager Chen, hello, this is Xu Nianyi from the Administration Department. I'd like to follow up on a few payments that have reached your account, especially the 13,560 yuan for the scratch-off lottery tickets. Could you arrange payment today? I need to pick up the goods this afternoon." She tried to make her voice sound gentle but urgent.
The finance manager, Mr. Chen, gave the same platitude over the phone: "Funds are tight at the end of the year, and procedures must be followed according to the rules. There's no rush."
"Manager Chen, this is indeed an urgent matter, as it concerns the distribution of year-end bonuses for all employees. Director Wang and the general manager have both agreed." She invoked her superior's name, but her tone remained polite.
Manager Chen should also know what's important and what's urgent.
Around 11 o'clock, the progress bar in the OA system finally jumped to the "cashier" stage with great difficulty.
Xu Nian breathed a sigh of relief and immediately contacted the lottery shop owner, arranging to pick up the lottery ticket after the payment was successfully completed at 3 p.m.
At 3 o'clock, it was confirmed that the payment had been made.
At 4 o'clock, she returned to the company carrying a light cardboard box containing 678 "Happy Reunion" scratch cards.
"Director Wang, we've retrieved all the scratch-off tickets; there are 678 in total."
Director Wang was typing on the keyboard in front of the computer screen, not even looking up, and casually waved his hand. "Just put it there, thanks for your hard work."
Xu Nianyi looked at the cardboard box, a faint glimmer of hope still lingering in her heart.
She picked it up herself, so when distributing them, shouldn't she be allowed to carefully choose one that looks pleasing to the eye?
However, before the expectations could even take shape, they were ruthlessly shattered by reality.
The phone rang urgently from the administrative manager, Qin: "Nianyi, you're back just in time! The general manager just notified us that there's an important business reception at the club tonight. You and the cleaning lady need to get ready and arrange the seating for the banquet! I'm going to talk to the chef about the menu now, so hurry over!"
Xu Nianyi's heart sank suddenly.
If you eat again, you're definitely going to have to work overtime today.
The colleague who used to be in charge of club reception was laid off, and now she has to take over all these jobs!
This is also the main reason why Xu Nianyi has been working overtime frequently in the past few months.
Wiping away dust, setting up the tea ceremony, checking the tableware, verifying the beverage inventory, and being ready to respond to any unexpected requests from guests and superiors...
She was like a rapidly spinning top, darting through every corner.
These are all small things, but when piled up, they can exhaust a person's entire energy.
She must remain professional at all times and cannot afford to make the slightest mistake.
Before six o'clock, before the guests arrived, Xu Nianyi was about to take a break to do some work at her workstation. Just as she walked into the office area corridor, she ran into Fang Qihang, who was coming out of the tea room.
When Fang Qihang saw Xu Nianyi, he smiled and said, "Did you win any scratch cards? The finance department truly lives up to its reputation as the place where the Goddess of Wealth resides. Cashier Zhang Wenting had incredible luck and won five hundred yuan!"
Another colleague who was passing by chimed in, "Yeah, I'm so envious. It's probably the biggest prize in the whole company. Jiapeng even said in the company's DingTalk group that he could help redeem the prize for just two yuan for a delivery fee. Haha, that guy really has a business mind."
Xu Nianyi forced a smile, her heart filled with a sour envy.
Five hundred yuan is almost two days' wages for her.
“I haven’t shaved yet,” she said. “I’ll go back to my workstation and shave to absorb some good fortune.”
Back at her workstation, she immediately noticed a large red card lying alone on her desk.
It was just left there, as if someone had casually tossed it down.
The "hope" she had longed for and hoped to choose herself ultimately came into her hands in the most casual and unexpected way.
Other colleagues, hearing the commotion of her return, curiously gathered around.
"Nianyi, hurry up and scratch! Let's see how your luck is!"
"Yeah, we've all scraped it all, and the most we've won is twenty."
Under the watchful eyes of several people, Xu Nianyi picked up the thin card.
She carefully read the rules and scratched out the character "喜" (happiness) to win the corresponding prize below.
She took a deep breath, took a ruler from the pen holder, and carefully began to scrape off the coating.
The movements were slow and gentle, as if afraid of disturbing the good fortune that might be hidden beneath.
Scratching off the first layer revealed a clear "喜" (happiness) character!
"Wow! We won! We won!" a colleague exclaimed quietly.
Xu Nian's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly checked the amount—20 yuan.
Not bad. She steadied herself and continued shaving.
Another "joy" character!
"Double happiness!"
Looking at the amount again—it's 20 yuan again.
There were no more surprises in the remaining areas.
In the end, she won 40 yuan with this lottery ticket.
A few "Congratulations" and "Good luck!" rang out from around him, and then his colleagues dispersed.
40 yuan is hardly enough to cause a stir in an era where gifts often cost hundreds of yuan.
Xu Nianyi looked at the two "喜" (happiness) characters side by side on the card and the small "20" below them, feeling a mix of disappointment and relief.
Sure enough, the legend of getting rich overnight doesn't easily befall ordinary people like her.
Winning 40 yuan is already a pleasant surprise; every little bit helps, especially since this is practically free.
She even wondered: if she really won 800,000, how should she react in front of everyone?
She would likely become the focus of the entire company instantly, and the various complex gazes and thoughts would leave her feeling overwhelmed.
The current state, peaceful and uneventful, is best.
Without those unrealistic expectations, I felt more at ease.
She put the 40 yuan lottery winnings into her bag and began to tackle the backlog of work from the afternoon.
At 10 p.m., Xu Nianyi directed the aunt to clean up the mess on the table and take inventory of the items. She was exhausted both physically and mentally.
At 11 p.m., she sat on the night bus and began to plan her schedule for Saturday: she was about to go back to her hometown for the Spring Festival holiday, so she needed to pack her clothes and luggage in advance; there was a welfare lottery shop at the entrance of her community, so she would take some time to redeem the 40 yuan.
——————
The next day, Xu Nianyi woke up naturally very early. She was very angry because she always got up earlier on her days off than when she was going to work.
After stuffing all the laundry into the washing machine, she took the scratch-off lottery ticket that had won her 40 yuan and strolled into the lottery shop at the entrance of her residential complex.
The shop was deserted, and the owner was sitting behind the counter scrolling through short videos, chuckling to himself.
"Boss, I'd like to claim my prize." Xu Nian handed over the lottery ticket.
The boss took it and checked it.
"Hey, 40 yuan. Want cash or some scratch-off tickets?" He looked up, expertly promoting his product. "Usually, when people win, they just scratch more. They're on a winning streak, right? What if they win again?"
Looking at the boss's enthusiastic face, Xu Nianyi knew perfectly well that he wanted customers to keep scratching so he could get a commission.
She originally planned to exchange it for cash directly, but for some inexplicable reason, she changed her mind before she could even say it.
"Why is this 'Happy Encounter' lottery bigger than mine?" she asked, pointing to the lottery tickets displayed in the counter.
"You bought the 20 yuan one, this longer one is 30 yuan. The highest prize has increased from 800,000 to 1 million." The shopkeeper perked up, "The larger the amount, the more coating, the greater the chance!"
Xu Nianyi thought for a few seconds and said, "Then... exchange 10 yuan in cash, and exchange the other 30 yuan for a note."
She figured that even if the new ticket didn't win, she would only have won 10 yuan, so the loss wouldn't be significant.
She took the lottery ticket and money, then walked over to the small table next to it where lottery players could scratch their tickets and sat down.
On the table were several plastic scrapers with worn edges and a beer opener.
She picked up the beer bottle opener; the cool metallic touch helped her focus a little.
Still proceeding cautiously, starting with the first row.
The coating peels away little by little, revealing the pattern or numbers underneath.
There is no "喜" (joy/happiness) in the first row.
The second row, none.
There wasn't one in the third row either.
My initial anticipation gradually subsided, and I even felt a bit self-deprecating: See, it turned out just like that.
She mechanically swiped towards the fourth row, and when she reached the middle, a clear "囍" (double happiness) character suddenly appeared before her eyes!
Xu Nianyi's heart skipped a beat, her fingers trembled slightly, and she carefully scratched the area of money below the character "喜" (happiness).
The coating gradually faded away.
The first number revealed is "1".
Next is "0".
Then comes "0".
......
She held her breath, her eyes fixed intently, silently counting in her mind: "Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousand, hundred thousand."
When the last "0" was fully revealed, Xu Nianyi's mind went blank with a "buzz".
1000000
She blinked in disbelief, rubbed her eyes hard, and leaned closer to take a closer look.
Once, twice, three times, repeatedly checking the number of zeros in that string.
She even subconsciously looked for the decimal point, wondering if she had misread it and if it was actually "10000.00"?
There is no decimal point.
That is 1,000,000
Is it really one million?
She won a million dollars!!!
A tremendous, unreal ecstasy swept over her like a tsunami, as if all the blood in her body had rushed to her head, making her dizzy and her cheeks burning uncontrollably.
She gripped the beer bottle opener tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force.
She forced herself to calm down and silently scraped off the remaining rows of coating with a beer bottle opener.
That's all. There's only this one character, "喜" (happiness), followed by a string of numbers that could change her life.
She glanced furtively at the owner behind the counter.
The boss was still engrossed in a short video on his phone, laughing so hard his shoulders were shaking, completely unaware of the strange behavior on her side.
Xu Nianyi's heart was pounding in her chest, so fast it felt like it was about to explode.
Her mind raced: Should she tell the boss? His small shop certainly couldn't possibly pay out such a large bonus, could it?
And what if he gets greedy and tries to take the lottery for himself?
This kind of news isn't unprecedented.
She quickly stuffed the hot lottery ticket into the innermost zippered pocket of her down jacket.
Then, take a deep breath, try to make your expression look natural, even a little disappointed at not winning, stand up, and walk out of the store as if nothing happened.
Stepping out of the lottery shop, the midday sun was a bit too bright.
Xu Nianyi felt neither warmth nor cold.
She was in a state of extreme, dazed excitement mixed with immense anxiety.
Once she got home and locked the door, she dared to breathe heavily.
She took the lottery ticket out of her down jacket and checked it again under the light.
It's true.
She really won 1 million.
What should she do next? She rushed to her desk, opened her laptop, and her fingers trembled as she typed into the search engine: "How to claim a 1 million yuan prize from a scratch-off lottery ticket".
After reviewing each step, the process gradually becomes clear:
First, call the lottery center to schedule a prize claim;
Bring the original winning lottery ticket and your valid ID.
Apply for a bank card from a bank designated by the China Welfare Lottery Center;
After deducting 20% personal income tax, the bonus will be directly deposited into the individual's account.
Xu Nianyi dialed the phone number she found and called the lottery center.
After confirming her lottery information, the customer service representative arranged for her to claim her prize three days later.
The customer service representative reminded her to apply for a Class I card from Postal Savings Bank.
After hanging up the phone, Xu Nian put away the lottery ticket, grabbed her ID card, rushed out of the house, and headed straight for the nearest Postal Savings Bank branch.
The process of opening the bank card went smoothly. Holding the brand-new bank card that would one day hold a large sum of money, her palms were sweaty.
When she got home, she slumped into the sofa and stared blankly at the ceiling.
My brain was overwhelmed by an extreme sense of happiness and a tremendous sense of unreality, making it almost impossible to think normally.
Did I really win the lottery?
One million.
After deducting 20% tax, the net income is 800,000.
Eight hundred thousand.
What can you do with this money?
There's so much to say.
It's an amount she would need to save for ten years or even longer without eating or drinking, relying on her salary.
It's really rare, if you ask me.
In a city where housing prices often reach millions, it's not even enough for a down payment on a small apartment.
That wouldn't be enough for her to achieve financial freedom and live off the interest from then on.
Even that might not be enough to support her completely leaving the workplace, because eventually, one's resources will run out if one just sits around doing nothing.
So what should we do?
But she really wanted to quit her job. She was fed up with endless overtime, her boss's harsh criticism, the subtle competition among colleagues, and the humiliation of always being threatened with a bad economic environment.
Eight hundred thousand is enough for her to take a gap year, or even two, to rest properly, think about the future, or learn something she's always wanted to learn.
But then what? After resting enough, you still have to find a job again.
Will the blank space on my resume become a new obstacle?
Countless thoughts churned and collided in her mind, like a pot of boiling porridge.
She felt an unprecedented sense of confusion, even more disorienting than the exhaustion she felt before winning the lottery, when she could see the end from the beginning.
She stood up, walked to the window, and looked down at the bustling crowds and traffic below.
The world continued to operate at its original pace, and no one knew that in this ordinary residential building, an ordinary girl had just been hit by a million-fold odds.
This sudden stroke of luck was like a key, opening a door to unknown events for her.
She needs time, she needs to calm down, and she needs to think things through.
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