Chapter 44: System Upgrade to Level 2!

Fate is sometimes an ineffably wondrous thing.

Some couples endure a decade-long marathon of love, only to be defeated by reality in the end. Ultimately, they each settle for a mundane partner to coast through an ordinary life.

Others fall in love at first sight, talking about marriage by their second meeting.

Couples who get married on a whim after knowing each other for less than a month are not necessarily unhappy either.

Jiang Tao’s elder brother, Jiang He, and sister-in-law, Zhang Xiaoyan, met through a blind date. They had a whirlwind marriage in less than a month. Having been married for over a decade with two sons, the couple leads a fairly blissful life.

It is hardly rare for people like the elderly landlord and Ma Dongmei to hit it off immediately upon meeting. When two people click, conversation flows effortlessly, one topic naturally leading to the next without any forced effort. But if they don't mesh, they could sit in silence all afternoon without finding a single thing to talk about.

Watching the two getting along so famously, Jiang Tao, the temporary matchmaker, felt he could retire with a sense of accomplishment.

Today's two tasks had been completed with surprising smoothness. The lottery ticket in the car was secured, and the landlord and Ma Dongmei had been successfully introduced.

Just as Jiang Tao was about to leave with He Qing, Lv Qian approached him, his lips turning purple from the cold yet stubbornly putting on a brave face.

"S-Small Jiang, you handled things like a true pro today! Brother won't treat you poorly!" Lv Qian said in a low voice, looking delighted, and gave him a thumbs-up.

"Right, that room in the southwest corner of the second floor, 209, just had its lease canceled today. Move into that place when you get back."

"Stay as long as you like, rent and utilities are completely free!"

Jiang Tao asked in surprise, "Uncle, are you serious?"

"Dead serious! I was even thinking about sending you a red envelope later! I love the girl you introduced to me, brother loves her to pieces."

Lv Qian asked with a chuckle, "By the way, Little Jiang, are you free tonight? If you are, come have dinner with us."

"Speaking of which, you're the matchmaker for Xiaomei and me!"

"No need, Uncle. I've already made dinner plans with some old acquaintances tonight."

Hearing Lv Qian refer to him as a matchmaker, Jiang Tao couldn't help but laugh despite himself. Yet, it wasn't inaccurate; in this whole affair, he had indeed played the role of a matchmaker.

"Alright then, we'll find another time, brother will treat you separately! Oh, and no more calling me uncle from now on. Call me Brother Lv!" Lv Qian reached out, patted Jiang Tao's shoulder, and corrected him with a smile.

"Haha, alright, I guess my seniority just went up."

Jiang Tao smiled. Whether he was called landlord uncle or Brother Lv, it was just a title.

Suddenly remembering something, Lv Qian asked, "Oh right, Little Jiang, do you still have that Nu'er Hong wine you treated me to last time?"

Hearing this, Jiang Tao's eyes lit up. "I do."

"Save 5 jars for me! I'll pay you right now!"

As he spoke, Lv Qian pulled out his phone, found Jiang Tao on WeChat, and transferred 100,000 yuan on the spot.

For elderly people in the countryside, 100,000 yuan is definitely an astronomical sum. Even if they scraped together every penny they had, very few could easily produce 100,000 yuan. But for old Beijing residents like Lv Qian, it was much easier. Spending 100,000 yuan to buy five jars of wine didn't even make him blink.

"You got it! I'll keep the wine set aside for you and deliver it to your place tonight!"

After exchanging pleasantries, Jiang Tao tapped the screen to accept the transfer. Another 100,000 yuan in the bag!

After chatting for a few more moments, Lv Qian happily scurried off to talk to Ma Dongmei and He Qing. Meanwhile, Jiang Tao caught the bus back to Xiaoshahe by himself.

When he got off at the Xiaoshahe Village stop, it was just past 9:00 AM, still very early.

Walking for ten minutes back to his rental room, Jiang Tao locked the door from the inside, lit a cigarette, and with a mental nudge, opened the interface of the Daily Intel System.

[Daily Intel System]
[Host]: Jiang Tao (30 years old)
[System Level]: Level 1 (Refreshes one piece of intel daily.)
[Today's Intel 01]:
While browsing your phone last night, you came across a second-hand Volkswagen Santana that Tian Zhipeng is trying to sell. Tucked inside the car manual within the glove compartment is a winning lottery ticket worth 68,996 yuan.
[Note]: This lottery ticket will pass its expiration date in two days and become invalid.
[Do you wish to spend 100,000 yuan to upgrade the system to Level 2? After upgrading, two pieces of intel will be refreshed daily.]

Looking at the azure virtual system interface, Jiang Tao quietly smoked his cigarette. Then, he chose to upgrade the system. The 100,000 yuan wine money the landlord had just transferred to him was just enough to cover the system upgrade fee.

[Deduction successful. System is upgrading, estimated to take 10 hours. Please wait...]

Seeing the system begin its upgrade, Jiang Tao let out a long sigh of relief. Spending 100,000 yuan in one go still stung a little! However, upgrading the system would grant him an extra piece of intel every day. The sooner this 100,000 yuan was spent, the greater the value it would generate! If he waited another month to upgrade, it would still cost 100,000 yuan, but he would miss out on 30 pieces of intel!

Thinking this, Jiang Tao's mind instantly cleared. Early investment brings early returns!

With the system upgrading, Jiang Tao had nothing pressing to do, so he went out for a stroll. Having been bound to the intel system for over ten days, he had gained a certain understanding of its rules. The intel provided by the system daily was related to his actions or experiences from the previous day. Going out for a walk not only relaxed the mind, but who knows what kind of fortuitous encounters or opportunities might await.

Walking leisurely down the main street of the urban village, the relaxed expression on Jiang Tao's face contrasted sharply with the hurried pedestrians rushing about.

Today he had already pocketed 100,000 yuan. With the mandarin orange profits to be split tonight, he would make another hundred thousand or so. Today's baseline income was guaranteed to be over 200,000 yuan!

Jiang Tao felt as though he were walking on air, ready to take flight at any moment.

Passing by a lottery shop, Jiang Tao paused for a dozen seconds. In the end, unable to resist the temptation of winning, he went inside and bought a 10-yuan lottery ticket.

As it happened, today was Sunday, the day of the Super Lotto draw. With the year coming to an end, whether it was due to the officials feeling stressed or something else, news of people winning big was breaking across various regions one after another. 6 yuan winning 15 million, 10 yuan winning over 30 million, and even hundreds of millions!

Jiang Tao didn't dare to dream of winning the first prize; he would be entirely content with the second prize! Whether ordinary people could win the first prize, he didn't know, but he could definitely win the second prize! After all, he currently had a winning second-tier lottery ticket in his pocket!

After buying the lottery ticket, Jiang Tao spent another 20 yuan on two 10-yuan scratch-offs. As for the result, it was a complete wash—all contributions to the welfare lottery cause.

Leaving the lottery shop, Jiang Tao randomly boarded a bus to expand his range of movement as much as possible. He had no idea if this would work, but doing something was certainly better than doing nothing at all.

He idled about until 6:00 PM when Liu志远 (Liu Zhiyuan) and the others finished packing up their stalls.

Gathering at the usual spot, the guys ate and drank their fill before returning to Jiang Tao's place to split the earnings. Today, missing Jiang Tao as their main powerhouse, the drop in sales was quite noticeable. The three of them together sold 156,800 yuan.

Taking his 71% share, Jiang Tao received 111,328 yuan. Liu Zhiyuan and Dan Yufei each got 21,952 yuan. Zhang Chao received his fixed salary of 2,000 yuan.

Once the money was divided, Jiang Tao took 3,000 yuan out of his own share to pay Liu Zhiyuan and the others their wages. Since he hadn't lifted a finger today, taking over 110,000 yuan in pure profit without distributing anything didn't feel right.

After paying the wages, Jiang Tao smiled and said, "By the way guys, I need to take another day off tomorrow."

"You've got it!"

"Hahaha, we're hoping Brother Jiang asks for leave every day!"

"We fully support Brother Jiang taking a few more days off!"

Hearing that Jiang Tao wanted to take another day off, the three of them raised both hands in approval and support! Regardless of whether Jiang Tao set up his stall or not, their individual workload wouldn't increase—it would remain the same. Yet they could earn an extra 1,000 yuan! Naturally, they were more than happy to oblige!