Chapter 109: System Brother Is Really Squeezing This Person Dry!
Ping County, Jindi Jiayuan Residential Area, Building 12, Room 1003.
The room was filled with smoke, resembling a fairyland.
Four men and two women were playing Zha Jinhua around a large coffee table in the living room.
The marble coffee table was covered with red hundred-yuan banknotes.
The sensory stimulation of playing Zha Jinhua with cash was far superior to using playing cards or game coins.
This property, purchased by Yan Ping as an investment, had been turned into a secret gambling den.
She would gather a group of card friends over to play every few days.
“I’ll match 5000 and raise you!”
Yan Ping threw a large stack of hundred-yuan banknotes onto the pile of money on the table, revealing her hole cards with a snap.
QKA straight flush!
This was the best hand Yan Ping had received all night.
In this round, she had continuously bet, wagering over 20,000 yuan.
“Hurry up and reveal, don’t dally. Even Yanzi, a woman, is more decisive than you.”
“Old Wang, are you going to take forever? Hurry up.”
“Hahahaha, I apologize, Yanzi. My luck seems to be good tonight too. I’m just a little bit bigger than you.”
A short, thin, balding middle-aged man sitting opposite Yan Ping said this as he threw his hand of cards onto the table.
“Damn! Triple 8s! Old Wang, you’ve really hit the jackpot tonight!”
“Son of a bitch, Old Wang is on a winning streak tonight!”
“Thank goodness I got out fast! When it’s a straight flush versus triple 8s, I’m nothing with my pair of Aces!”
“Bad luck! My mother-in-law always nags me about going to the hospital, the hospital. It must be their family’s bad luck affecting my finances!”
Yan Ping, having lost over 20,000 yuan, grumbled and blamed her mother-in-law for her losses.
“Let’s continue, let’s continue. Don’t dwell on temporary losses. Whoever laughs last is the winner.”
The man everyone called Old Wang, with a sweep of his hand, gathered the pile of cash in front of him and urged everyone to continue playing.
“Yanzi, your husband…”
“Don’t mention him. It’s better if he’s dead; at least the life insurance will pay out some money.”
“Haha, when your man kicks the bucket, let’s team up.”
“Get lost, you. Being with you is no different from living as a widow.”
“Old Wang, stop eyeing Yanzi. Her boyfriend is over 1.8 meters tall and handsome. You’re nowhere near that.”
As they chatted and laughed, the group started another round.
Suddenly, the room door was forcefully pushed open from the outside.
A group of police officers in uniform, carrying electric batons, rushed into the room.
“Everyone freeze!”
“Put your hands on your heads and squat down!!”
“Behave yourselves!!!”
Hearing the police’s angry shouts, Yan Ping and her group were stunned.
At this critical juncture, Yan Ping was still cursing in her heart.
It must be her husband’s family’s bad luck affecting her!
It was bad enough to lose money continuously tonight.
Now to be caught in the act, it was utterly disastrous!!!
Faced with the heavily armed and numerous police, none of the gamblers dared to resist, and they all obediently squatted on the ground.
Next came the photographing for evidence and seizure of gambling funds.
Finally, the entire group was taken away in handcuffs.
……
The morning of the fourth day of the Lunar New Year was still very cold.
Early in the morning, there were few vehicles and pedestrians on the street.
Tian Mingrong ate breakfast at home and, having nothing else to do, walked to her shop to open for business.
Although the Double Color Ball lottery did not draw during the Spring Festival.
There were still many customers who came to buy lottery tickets or scratch cards.
Just yesterday, she sold over 2,000 yuan worth of scratch cards in one day, earning over 140 yuan.
Add to that some miscellaneous customers buying printed tickets, and she could earn about two hundred yuan a day.
For a divorced woman over fifty years old.
She was content with this income.
Working in the shop every day, printing lottery tickets for customers, and watching short plays was a leisurely job.
The lottery shop had been open for a long time, accumulating a group of regular customers, and it was a job that could support her in her old age.
After all, there would never be a lack of people in this world who fantasized about becoming rich overnight.
They would come one after another, never-ending.
Retail investors would randomly buy two or three tickets to participate, these were just small fry.
Some veteran lottery players would buy hundreds or even thousands of tickets each draw.
These were the genuine suckers and the main source of income for the lottery shop.
Especially those who had luckily won big prizes were even more convinced that there were patterns to be found in lottery tickets.
Every draw, they would research hot numbers, cold numbers, front zones, back zones, odds, evens, and so on.
They were veritable Welfare Lottery experts.
They firmly believed that as long as their number selection skills were exceptionally high, they would definitely be able to win the first prize!
If a lottery shop had a compulsive old lottery player, it could generate an extra few hundred yuan in profit per month.
Tian Mingrong’s shop had a “Top Gifter.”
This “Top Gifter” had nearly twenty years of lottery buying experience and bought tickets every draw without fail.
Sometimes it was forty or fifty yuan, sometimes four or five hundred, or even a thousand.
This “Top Gifter” bought several thousand yuan worth of lottery tickets from Tian Mingrong each month.
Before the Spring Festival, for some reason, this “Top Gifter” came to Tian Mingrong’s shop and bought a super compound bet ticket worth nearly 20,000 yuan.
Perhaps it was divine inspiration, or perhaps he felt he was going to win a big prize?
However, the next day, after the “Top Gifter” sobered up, he regretted it.
In the following days, his regret grew with each passing day.
After the “Top Gifter” had the popular AI “DeepSeek” analyze his ticket, the winning probability dropped so low that even a dog would shake its head!
Thus, the “Top Gifter” completely broke down and lost all confidence.
He started asking Tian Mingrong to help him sell the ticket, even if it meant taking a loss!
Tian Mingrong verbally agreed, but she didn’t take the “Top Gifter’s” request seriously.
As if! In a small county town like Ping County, who would be foolish enough to spend 20,000 yuan on a lottery ticket?
Having one like you is already enough, and you want to find a second one?
Besides, lottery tickets are very personal items.
Everyone has a unique set of lucky numbers, combined with numbers related to their own and their family members’ birthdays.
Everyone believes they are the protagonist of this world.
Fate must have set a “hidden Easter egg” somewhere, closely related to their birth date, waiting for them to discover.
The ticket you chose, only you think it will win; others don’t think so.
You think you’re the protagonist of this world, but others think they are.
Now you regret it and want to find a sucker to take it off your hands? Go dream on!
You can only shed tears and wait for the draw for the ticket you bought yourself.
*Ring ring ring——*
As Tian Mingrong was about to sweep the floor after entering, her mobile phone rang from her down jacket pocket.
She took out her phone and saw the caller ID was “Top Gifter.”
Tian Mingrong immediately felt a headache coming on.
This guy called her ten times a day, asking about the lottery ticket, it was incredibly annoying!
“Hello Dapeng.”
After all, he was a regular customer at her shop. Despite her annoyance, Tian Mingrong’s tone immediately became warm the moment she answered the call.
“Sister Tian, how’s that ticket? Has anyone expressed interest in buying it? Even if the price is lower, say around 10,000 yuan, I can sell it.”
“Tell them the winning rate is guaranteed to be high. I have an urgent family matter and need money quickly, so I’m selling it cheap.”
A man’s voice came from the other end of the phone. Tian Mingrong completely dismissed it as nonsense, not taking it to heart.
You can fool others, young man, but don’t fool yourself!
With such a high winning rate, why don’t you keep it yourself!
“Dapeng, I’ve been asking around for you, but such a large sum ticket is beyond what most people can afford.”
As Tian Mingrong spoke, her gaze suddenly swept over and saw a very dark Mercedes-Benz parked in front of her shop.
The car door opened, and a handsome young man in his thirties, with an attractive appearance, got out.
Tian Mingrong recognized this person.
Yesterday, he had brought a beautiful woman who looked like a big star to her shop to buy a pack of scratch cards for 500 yuan.
And he had been quite lucky, winning over 700 yuan!
“Alright, alright, I’ll ask around more for you. Okay, someone is here, I’ll hang up now.”
As Tian Mingrong hung up the phone with the “Top Gifter,” Jiang Tao pushed the door open and entered the shop.
“Hello handsome, your luck was great yesterday. Do you want another book today? Maybe you can earn a few hundred more yuan!”
Tian Mingrong looked at Jiang Tao, smiled, and greeted him, adding some pleasantries.
“Are there whole books of scratch cards?”
Jiang Tao asked with a smile. He didn’t play with half-opened packs of scratch cards; the water was too deep.
It was said that if the owner found that fewer winning tickets had been sold from the front, they would scratch the rest themselves.
The probability of making money from these tickets was higher than losing money.
The owner would definitely not touch tickets that had previously won big prizes; these were bound to lose money.
Jiang Tao didn’t immediately ask Tian Mingrong about the lottery ticket.
He first entered the situation himself and waited for her to ask him.
A clever hunter always appears as prey.
“Yes, yes, yes! I’ll get them for you! See which ones you want!”
Tian Mingrong called out to Jiang Tao with a smile and turned to get a stack of scratch cards from behind the counter.
Jiang Tao then selected a book of scratch cards, each with a face value of 20 yuan.
A pack of these cost 1000 yuan.
Jiang Tao also wanted to test the “Heluo Stone” once more.
After scanning the code and completing the payment, Jiang Tao took a small scraper from Tian Mingrong and began scratching the tickets.
Out of 50 scratch cards, 28 were empty, and 22 were winning tickets.
Among these, 10 were 20-yuan tickets, resulting in no profit or loss.
There were 7 fifty-yuan tickets, 3 hundred-yuan tickets, 1 two-hundred-yuan ticket, and 1 five-hundred-yuan ticket.
In the end, the total winning amount was 1350 yuan, making a profit of 350 yuan for the pack!
“Handsome, your luck is great! You seemed to have earned nearly 300 yuan yesterday, and today you earned another 350!”
“Your luck is too good. It’s rare to see someone win so many prizes!”
As Tian Mingrong redeemed the prize for Jiang Tao, her face showed a look of surprise.
“Heh, my luck has been good these past two days.”
Jiang Tao calmly chatted with the elder sister while shouting in his heart:
Elder sister, hurry up! Stop with the preamble and get to the point!
“By the way, handsome, we have a regular customer who bought a compound bet lottery ticket before.”
“He’s currently short on funds, so he wants to sell it at a lower price. Are you interested?”
After redeeming Jiang Tao’s prize, Tian Mingrong felt the time was ripe and then mentioned the lottery ticket to him.
“Oh? What kind of compound bet? How much is it?”
Jiang Tao feigned composure and asked cooperatively.
Tian Mingrong said: “It’s a compound bet with 12 red balls and 5 blue balls, totaling 9240 bets, for a total of 18,480 yuan.”
“What? 18,480? Good heavens, nearly 20,000 yuan! That’s a big deal!”
Jiang Tao cooperatively put on a look of extreme surprise.
He had never heard of such a large amount for a lottery ticket in real life.
He often saw reports online about companies misappropriating hundreds of thousands or millions of public funds to buy lottery tickets.
“The amount is indeed not small. With your luck, are you interested?”
“Even if you don’t win the first prize, winning a few third prizes would let you break even.”
“If you win a second prize, you’ll earn even more.”
Tian Mingrong wasn’t trying to trick Jiang Tao into buying it; she was just asking normally.
What if he bought it and lost money, then blamed her?
Tian Mingrong wouldn’t do such a thankless task.
“Hahaha, Elder sister is joking with me. If it were guaranteed to win, why wouldn’t they keep it themselves?”
Jiang Tao shook his head with a smile, pretending to be indifferent, and engaged in some back-and-forth with Tian Mingrong.
“It’s okay, young man. Elder sister is just asking. If you don’t want to buy it, then don’t.”
Tian Mingrong didn’t force the issue, knowing that such things couldn’t be forced.
The ticket she had was likely unsellable.
“If it’s cheaper, how much cheaper can it be?”
Seeing that the negotiation had reached a certain point, Jiang Tao casually inquired.
“I wouldn’t dare say how much, but a few thousand yuan cheaper is possible! We can discuss this kind of thing.”
“If you’re interested, young man, I can call the ticket owner over, and you can discuss it in person.”
Tian Mingrong’s heart lit up when she saw Jiang Tao seemed interested in buying.
The “Top Gifter” had said that if she could help him sell the ticket, he would give Tian Mingrong a 500-yuan red envelope.
“Fine, call him over. We’ll discuss it in person.”
After saying this, Jiang Tao sat down on a round chair in the shop and took out a cigarette case from his pocket to light a cigarette.
“Okay, please wait a moment! I’ll call him over right away.”
While saying this, Tian Mingrong dialed the ticket owner’s number and asked him to come over quickly.
Before Jiang Tao finished his cigarette, a BYD Qin electric car pulled up to the entrance of the lottery shop.
The car door opened, and a somewhat plump middle-aged man in his forties got out.
The moment he saw the man, Jiang Tao felt he looked familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere not long ago.
Suddenly, he remembered.
This was the other buyer he had met at his uncle’s cattle farm yesterday when he went to buy cattle!
Well, it seemed the “System Brother” was targeting the same person for opportunities!
Without the intelligence provided by the “System Brother.”
The old bull, containing 1000 grams of natural calculus bovis, would likely have been bought by this gentleman.
As for who would ultimately get the ox gallstone, it was hard to say, but it definitely wouldn’t have been Jiang Tao.
The same applied to this lottery ticket; without the “System Brother’s” intelligence, Jiang Tao wouldn’t have come to buy it.
Furthermore, it likely wouldn’t have sold, and this gentleman would have had to wait for the draw himself.
In that case, the prize money of over 100,000 yuan would have gone to this gentleman.
Now, the ox gallstone was Jiang Tao’s, and the prize money would soon be Jiang Tao’s too!
In the span of two days, having intercepted this gentleman’s opportunities twice, Jiang Tao felt a little embarrassed!
“Dapeng, you’re here. This handsome young man is very interested in your lottery ticket.”
Seeing An Dapeng enter, Tian Mingrong smiled and introduced them to each other.
“Hello, handsome. My name is An Dapeng. Have we… have we met yesterday?”
An Dapeng also recognized Jiang Tao and looked at him with confusion, asking his question.
“Yes, I also went to the Tian Family Village cattle farm yesterday to buy a cow, and I saw you there.”
Seeing that An Dapeng recognized him, Jiang Tao decided to admit his identity.
“Nice to meet you, nice to meet you. It seems we really are fated! Brother, have a cigarette!”
An Dapeng quickly took out a cigarette and offered it to Jiang Tao, smiling warmly and trying to get closer.
After a brief chat, the two sat down beside a small glass coffee table woven from rattan and began to bargain over the lottery ticket.
Jiang Tao, armed with intelligence from the “System Brother,” had An Dapeng’s bottom line laid bare before him.
During price negotiations, with one party in the dark and the other in the know, Jiang Tao naturally had the advantage.
In the end, An Dapeng’s lottery ticket, valued at 18,480 yuan, was haggled down by Jiang Tao by 10,000 yuan, and he purchased it for 8,480 yuan.
Although An Dapeng’s heart ached, he still painfully sold the ticket.
Before today, An Dapeng told Tian Mingrong he had financial problems, but that was a pretense and an excuse.
However, it wasn’t anymore!
Last night, his wife was caught participating in group gambling.
The over 100,000 yuan in cash she brought was also confiscated as gambling funds and turned over to the national treasury.
He now not only had to raise money for his wife’s fine but also pay the mortgage on their house.
Therefore, even at a lower price, he could only sell it reluctantly.
Tian Mingrong assisted Jiang Tao in verifying the authenticity of the lottery ticket on the ticket printing machine.
Subsequently, Jiang Tao transferred 8,480 yuan to An Dapeng on the spot.
“This ticket is yours, my friend. I wish you the first prize!”
After receiving the transfer, An Dapeng handed the lottery ticket to Jiang Tao.
“Thanks, we’ll see about luck.”
Jiang Tao didn’t waste any more words with An Dapeng. After buying the ticket, he got up and left.
Watching Jiang Tao get into the Mercedes-Benz parked outside, An Dapeng’s eyes were filled with envy.
Jiang Tao returned home with the lottery ticket just past nine in the morning.
“Honey~ Where did you go? Xiaobing said she wants to go hiking. Are you going?”
As soon as Jiang Tao got home, Xu Li approached him, looking at him expectantly.
“My uncle is butchering a cow today, and I need to stay home and accompany him. You know, right?”
Jiang Tao winked at Xu Li, giving her a “you know” look.
“Oh, oh! Then honey, you stay home. We’ll go by ourselves. If anything good happens, report it promptly!”
Upon hearing about the cow butchering, Xu Li’s eyes lit up, and she replied to Jiang Tao with a “I understand” look!
Although she loved beef, she didn’t want to participate in the bloody scene of butchering.
“What are you two practicing with your ‘flirtatious gazes’?”
Jiang Bing, who was snacking on pistachios on the sofa, became a bit unhappy seeing her second brother and sister-in-law exchanging meaningful glances.
These days, if she wasn’t careful, she’d be force-fed dog food; it was too much!
