Qin Miao put away his phone, but Qimeng's words lingered in his mind.
After quietly turning on the recording function on his phone, Qin Miao handed the scratch card to the lady.
Seeing Qin Miao coming over, the lady said in surprise, "Didn't expect it, young man, you won on your first try with the scratch card."
Qin Miao just gave a shy smile.
Then, as she took the scratch card, the lady curiously asked, "Can you read it, young man? How much have you won?"
Qin Miao calmly said, "Not much, seven hundred and fifty thousand."
The lady froze for a moment, then asked in shock, "How much?"
"Seven hundred and fifty thousand," Qin Miao repeated.
The lady suddenly looked at the lottery ticket, her eyes almost popping out of her sockets.
Years of experience allowed the lady to instantly discern whether a scratch card is a winner and how much it has won.
So, she immediately saw the number indicating that he had won 750,000 yuan.
"Young man, your luck is incredible! You really won seven hundred and fifty thousand!"
"Want to give it another try while you're on a lucky streak? You might win again!"
However, Qin Miao did not agree, as he was there to receive the system's reward, not to buy lottery tickets.
"No need, please help me cash in the prize."
"Oh, alright."
"I'll need to go through the process first!"
Saying that, the shopkeeper began to carefully inspect the ticket.
Even though it was the ticket she had just handed to Qin Miao, and he had scratched it in front of her, 750,000 was not a small amount, so she dared not be negligent.
First, she checked the ticket's authenticity and validity date, and after confirming there were no issues, the shopkeeper didn't immediately give Qin Miao the money.
Instead, she carefully returned the ticket to Qin Miao.
Qin Miao was a bit puzzled, but before he could speak, the shopkeeper explained, "Our small shop can only cash prizes under 10,000 yuan; if it exceeds 10,000, you would need to go to our city's lottery center."
"But your prize exceeds 200,000 yuan, so the city lottery center can't cash it either; you'll need to go to the provincial lottery center."
"So you need to keep this ticket safe and take your ID card or household registration book to the provincial lottery center when you have time."
"By the way, the occasional income tax is quite high, so after taxes on this 750,000 yuan, you'll end up with only 600,000 in hand."
"Still, it's a windfall, so make sure you keep the ticket safe, understand?"
Qin Miao nodded dumbly, thinking that cashing in a prize would be easy—buy a ticket, then take the money and leave.
Little did he know that winning meant he would have to make a trip to the provincial capital.
But today, Qin Miao couldn't go to claim his prize. After thinking it over, he decided to head home.
The good news was, Qin Miao knew the system hadn't overpaid him because the scratch card read as winning 750,000, but paying out 600,000.
Qin Miao didn't plan to bother his mom; he would inform her when she returned from work, and then he could go claim it alone.
Qin Miao's mom ran a business, not making much money, but ensured they wouldn't go hungry, and she was very open-minded, never refusing Qin Miao's reasonable requests.
This was why, despite coming from an average family, his mom was willing to get him a reasonably priced computer, plus racing setup starting at least at 2,000.
Qin Miao was about to leave but remembered he still had 30,000 of system money he hadn't claimed.
He took out his phone and saw his balance left at 27.
After thinking about it, Qin Miao asked the shopkeeper, "Are there cheaper lottery tickets?"
The shopkeeper hesitated, wondering if the young man was getting addicted.
Gambling is detrimental; he might end up returning all his winnings of 60,000 back to the lottery company.
She didn't try to persuade him but took out some red scratch cards, saying, "These are 5 yuan each, do you want them?"
Qin Miao nodded, saying, "Give me five."
After scanning to pay, Qin Miao scratched all five tickets in front of the shopkeeper.
Then, in the shopkeeper's stunned gaze, four out of the five scratch cards won.
Among the four, three won 8,000 each, and one won 6,000 — totaling to 30,000.
And since the four scratch cards won separately, there was no need to go to the city's lottery center; they could be cashed right at the small shop.
For a moment, the shopkeeper felt like she was dreaming.
There wasn't much left to say; Qin Miao walked into the lottery shop with less than 50 yuan of expendable money, and when he left, he had 30,000 cash in his Alipay.
While the shopkeeper watched Qin Miao leave from the shop entrance with eyes as if seeing a monster,
what was up with this guy's luck? It seemed like he wasn't here to buy lottery tickets, but rather to collect money.
On his way home, Qin Miao suddenly felt that his system was quite useful. Despite his PTSD towards ten-draw gacha, his lovely system dad at home was different!
Most ten-draw gacha require money, but his system dad gives money for ten-draw!
Thinking this over, Qin Miao sent another message to Qimeng.
[NC desk mate, I just scratched some more cards.]
This time, Qimeng didn't reply with a message but called directly.
"Qin Miao, you didn't get scammed, did you?"
Again, Qimeng's words surprised Qin Miao; he thought she might ask how much he won, but instead, she was concerned about whether he got scammed.
That inexplicable feeling in Qin Miao's heart grew stronger, and the awkwardness he felt towards Qimeng began to dissipate.
"No way! I'm sharp as a monkey!"
"Good, as long as you weren't scammed. How much did you win this time?"
Qin Miao laughed and said, "Not much, 30,000."
Even with Qimeng's current mindset, knowing Qin Miao won almost 800,000 through scratch cards in under half an hour left her speechless.
Qimeng didn't think Qin Miao would joke about this; she knew him well enough to know he wouldn't go about teasing her this way.
Thus, Qimeng was sure Qin Miao really won a prize, and it was a significant one at that.
Now, Qimeng felt a headache as things exceeded her expectations.
"Is the butterfly effect this terrifying?" she muttered to herself.
"By the way, I need to go to Changsha tomorrow." Before Qimeng could dwell on it, Qin Miao spoke.
The puzzled Qimeng asked, "Going to Changsha for fun?"
"No, to collect money. The shop where I bought the scratch cards can't cash in the prize; I have to go to Changsha to get it, so I'm planning to go tomorrow." Saying this, Qin Miao hesitated for a moment before tentatively asking, "Do you… want to go together?"