Pushing open the shop door, even though it was still early, there were still two or three customers inside, sitting and studying the tickets.
Lu Chen casually walked up to the counter. There were all kinds of scratch-off cards on it.
“I’ll buy two scratch-off cards to try first. Boss!”
Lu Chen saw no one at the counter and called out.
“Coming!”
A response came from the back room.
The door was pushed open, and out walked a girl around Lu Chen’s age. She looked very capable and sharp.
The moment they saw each other, both of them froze for a second.
“Lu Chen?”
“Deng Jiajia? What are you doing here?”
Deng Jiajia closed the door behind her and smiled. “I should be asking you that. What are you doing here?”
She pointed behind her as she spoke. “This is my family’s shop.”
“Your family’s shop.”
Lu Chen was quite surprised.
This girl in front of him was also his classmate, but she had transferred from Jiangdu No. 3 Middle School to another school two years ago.
He never expected to run into her here today, and even more so, he never expected to buy lottery tickets at his old classmate’s place.
“You’re buying lottery tickets first thing in the morning?”
“Yeah, give me two scratch-off cards. How much?”
“Which kind?”
“Any kind is fine. Just the ones with the highest prize.”
Deng Jiajia pulled out two scratch-off cards. “Here you go. Highest prize is 100,000. Twenty yuan each.”
Lu Chen said, “Only 100,000? That’s so little?”
Deng Jiajia chuckled. “Old classmate, you’ve got a big mouth. You think 100,000 is too little?”
Lu Chen grinned. “Alright, fine. 100,000 it is. I’ll try it first.”
Deng Jiajia laughed. “Listen to you, acting like you’ve already won. If you actually win, I’ll refund you the money for these scratch-off cards. My treat.”
Lu Chen waved his hand. “No, no, no. I’ll pay for these myself.”
After paying, he took the scratch-off cards and immediately leaned over the table, using a coin to start scratching.
The rules for this card were very simple. If you could get three of the character “Fa” (which means prosperity/wealth) on a single card, you would win the 100,000 yuan prize.
If you got two “Fa” characters, the prize was 50,000 yuan.
If you only got one, then the amount of money written under that “Fa” character was what you won.
Deng Jiajia watched Lu Chen scratch the card.
“So? Got any characters?”
He had scratched two-thirds of the card.
Still no sign of the “Fa” character.
Lu Chen clicked his tongue. “That’s strange. I shouldn’t have zero, should I?”
Deng Jiajia laughed. “It’s normal to have none. If every card had one, the company would have gone bankrupt long ago.”
“Don’t worry, there’s still one last character to scratch!”
Lu Chen took a deep breath and slowly scratched open the last square.
As the strokes of the character began to show,
Deng Jiajia’s relaxed body suddenly became tense.
“Hey, this last one… it actually kind of looks like it!”
Lu Chen’s heart was also racing.
He continued scratching slowly.
When the character was half-revealed,
Deng Jiajia gasped. “It looks like it! It really looks like it!”
The other customers in the shop heard the commotion and couldn’t help but gather around.
With a firm scratch, Lu Chen removed the last of the covering, revealing the character.
“Holy crap, it really is ‘Fa’!”
“You won, you won! One thousand yuan!”
“Lu Chen, you’re something else! You were right, you won on the very first card!”
Deng Jiajia and the customers were all pretty excited.
Lu Chen, on the other hand, was a little disappointed.
“Only a thousand yuan.”
“A thousand yuan isn’t enough?” Deng Jiajia said with a playful scold.
“Yeah, turning twenty into a thousand, kid, you’re already pretty lucky.”
Lu Chen took a deep breath and picked up the other card. “I hope this one steps it up.”
Deng Jiajia said, “You already won on one, and you still want to win another? Old classmate, if you can really hit a double, I’ll have my dad hang a banner for you.”
Lu Chen said, “You said it.”
Deng Jiajia patted her chest. “I said it.”
“Alright! Then I’ll give it a try!”
Lu Chen picked up his coin and started scratching again.
As soon as he scratched open the first square,
A bright and clear “Fa” character immediately came into view.
The corresponding prize amount: 5,000 yuan.
“Holy shit!!!”
“He won again!!!”
“It’s ‘Fa’ on the very first one! Little brother, your luck is way too insane!”
The surrounding customers were all stunned.
Even Deng Jiajia’s eyes widened.
“That’s incredible? No way, could it be…”
Only then did the crowd realize what was happening. They all looked at Lu Chen in unison.
“A wealth god’s blessing?”
Lu Chen made a “shhh” gesture, signaling for them to keep quiet for now.
The people around cooperated and closed their mouths, continuing to watch.
By the time he was halfway through scratching the second card, another “Fa” character appeared.
“He won again!”
“Another ‘Fa’!”
“Holy crap, 50,000 yuan is in the bag!”
“Stay calm, young man! One more ‘Fa’ and that’s 100,000!”
The people around said excitedly.
Lu Chen shouted, “Bring on the ‘Fa’!”
The few people behind him also shouted in unison, “Bring on the ‘Fa’!”
When the rest of the covering was completely scratched off,
Everyone looked closely.
And then went, “Ahhh!”
“Still a bit unlucky.”
“Yeah.”
The third “Fa” character hadn’t appeared.
“Still, it’s pretty good. 50,000 yuan.”
“Yeah, second prize is nothing to sneeze at. Your luck is insane.”
“Handsome, did you get blessed by a wealth god? Which temple, which wealth god is this effective?”
The surrounding customers couldn’t help but ask.
Lu Chen raised a hand to block their enthusiasm and smiled. “Everyone, let me buy two more. If I can really get three ‘Fa’ characters, I’ll tell you where to pray. If I can’t, then it means fate is against it.”
“Okay, no problem.”
“Jiajia, quickly get your old classmate two more cards.”
Deng Jiajia said “Oh,” and took two more scratch-off cards from the counter. She said with emotion, “Lu Chen, which god did you pray to? How is it this effective?!”
It wasn’t unusual for their shop to have wins of a few thousand, or even ten or twenty thousand.
But a second prize? That was a first.
And the key was, this person was her former classmate.
Lu Chen just smiled in response.
If he actually told these people he prayed to Lord Jun Cai, he really wondered what kind of faces they would make.
Taking the scratch-off cards, Lu Chen was just about to start scratching again.
Suddenly, he twitched involuntarily, as if he had inexplicably lost something.
“This is… my financial luck is draining away.”
Lu Chen had an intuitive realization.
Although Lord Jun Cai said he would bless him with two days of financial luck,
this kind of luck wasn’t actually calculated by time, but rather by the “amount” of luck itself.
Yesterday he got fifteen thousand, and now he had fifty-one thousand.
Lu Chen had already gained over sixty thousand from the blessing.
It seemed quite a bit of his financial luck had already been consumed.
“Oh well, keep going, strike while the iron is hot!”
Lu Chen started scratching the third card.
Everyone watched with wide eyes.
As the covering was slowly scratched away,
“He won again, another ‘Fa’ appeared!”
“Holy crap, two ‘Fa’s again!”
“There’s hope, there’s real hope for three ‘Fa’s this time!”
“Handsome, you’re way too fierce! Another guaranteed second prize!”
Seeing Lu Chen win three times in a row, so powerfully,
The customers behind him were getting hyped up just watching.
There were three covered squares left.
Lu Chen took a deep breath. “Hold on, everyone, don’t make a sound!”
Everyone immediately covered their mouths and watched with wide eyes.
Lu Chen scratched the first one. Nothing!
He scratched the second one. Still nothing.
“Oh no, this is bad. There’s only one left.”
“Come on, you’ve got to come through this time!”
At this moment, time seemed to slow down, and the air became stagnant.
Lu Chen closed his eyes. “Sink or swim, it all comes down to this one!”
He scratched it open with force.
“YOU WON!!!!!!”
“THREE ‘FA’S!!!!!!”
But the first thing to respond to him was the hysterical, excited screams of the few older guys behind him!
Lu Chen’s eyes snapped open.
In the last square, the “Fa” character stood tall and proud!
“Oh my god! It’s really the grand prize! The grand prize has appeared!”
Deng Jiajia felt her head buzz.
Their shop had actually produced a grand prize for the first time ever!
“Young brother, your Wealth God is way too powerful! Can you tell us where to pray now?”
“Yeah, share it quickly! Which temple?”
Lu Chen gave an OK sign. “Don’t worry, don’t worry. I’ll definitely tell you. But please let me finish scratching this last card.”
With 150,000 yuan in hand, Lu Chen’s mood was much more relaxed than before.
After all, this amount of money was definitely a pretty hefty windfall for him!
