Chapter 56: From Extreme Joy to Despair, Xu Li Really Lost Her Lottery Ticket!

When Jiang Tao returned to his rented room in Xiaosha River carrying a box of Moutai and a box of tea leaves, it was already half-past one in the morning.

Although he had no idea of the monetary value of these two items, System Big Brother certainly did.

According to the intelligence system's database:

The tea leaves were worth around 30,000 yuan.

A case of Flying Moutai was worth 17,000 yuan!

Today was already the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, leaving just one week until the Chinese New Year.

Jiang Tao decided to keep the case of Moutai.

A case of Moutai contained precisely six bottles; he would give two bottles each to his father and his father-in-law for the New Year, and keep two for himself.

By now, the family's external debts had been completely paid off.

The savings held by him and Xu Li combined already exceeded 500,000 yuan.

With the New Year upon them, indulging a little by drinking two bottles of Moutai was nothing extravagant.

According to the customs of Jiang Tao's hometown, people always presented cigarettes and liquor to their fathers and fathers-in-law during the Spring Festival.

Every year, he used to give a carton of Liqun cigarettes worth a little over 100 yuan and a case of liquor costing around 400 yuan.

Every time, his mother would complain that it was too expensive, telling him to buy cheaper options the following year—even loose liquor would do, as long as the gesture was made.

At his father-in-law's house, however, the scenario was entirely opposite.

Every year, he inevitably had to endure a few subtle snubs from his mother-in-law and sister-in-law, accompanied by meaningful glances meant for him to ponder.

Xu Li's female cousins, who were far inferior to her in both figure and appearance, had all managed to marry quite well.

During every festive season, those cousins-in-law would present his father-in-law with luxury items like Zhonghua cigarettes and Moutai.

It was a fierce game of one-upmanship, each trying to outdo the last.

Jiang Tao simply lacked the energy to compete in this game.

Both he and Xu Li felt it was completely unnecessary to align themselves with those cousins-in-law just for the sake of saving face.

How much did those people earn in a month, and how much did he earn?

To force a heavy burden onto the lives of his family of three just to be looked upon with higher regard by those people—

That truly would be suffering just to maintain a facade.

Although Jiang Tao had recently earned a considerable amount of money thanks to the intelligence system, he remained his old self without becoming arrogant or inflated.

He had never thought about crushing those brothers-in-law during the New Year or slapping them in the face in public.

At thirty years old, he had long since lost the spirited vigor of youth that believed "one should never bully a young man in poverty."

This year would be just like previous years: business as usual.

At most, he would slightly upgrade the tier of cigarettes and liquor.

He would buy his father and father-in-law each a case of liquor slightly better than last year's; a thousand yuan or so would be more than enough.

If it were too expensive, his father would be too thrifty to drink it, thereby defeating the entire purpose of gifting it.

Jiang Tao was 100% certain that his father would definitely not bear to drink these two bottles of Moutai and would instead keep them as a precious collection.

He would only be willing to take them out when the family encountered a major joyous occasion—

For instance, his youngest sister's grand wedding, or his eldest grandson's wedding, or his youngest granddaughter's marriage.

As for his father-in-law, it didn't matter as much; every third day of the Lunar New Year when Jiang Tao visited, the older man would treat him with the Moutai Jiang Tao himself had bought.

Having been married to Xu Li for over seven years, Jiang Tao had actually consumed quite a bit of his father-in-law's Moutai in return.

Giving back two bottles to his father-in-law this year was only fitting.

As for the cigarettes, they could also be upgraded to Zhonghua.

In recent years, everyone kept saying that money was getting harder and harder to earn.

Yet whenever the New Year arrived, even in the countryside, the number of people gifting and smoking Zhonghua cigarettes increased noticeably.

A carton of Zhonghua cost around 600 yuan, an expense Jiang Tao could now entirely afford.

As for the box of tea leaves evaluated by the system at over 30,000 yuan, Jiang Tao had no intention of keeping it.

Tea leaves in this price range were far too extravagant for someone like him who rarely drank tea.

Tea leaves costing a little over 300 yuan per jin were already considered exceptionally good tea to him.

"I won't go out to pull any transport jobs tomorrow; I'll find a place to offload these tea leaves."

Jiang Tao squatted down and pushed the case of Moutai and the tea leaves under the bed.

He used the water in his thermos flask to briefly wash up before climbing back onto the bed, ready to sleep.

"Why do I always feel like I've forgotten something..."

Lying back in bed, Jiang Tao stared blankly at the ceiling panels overhead, yet he felt a persistent nagging sensation that something had slipped his mind.

"Right! The lottery ticket I had Xu Li buy yesterday was drawn tonight—why didn't she call me with the good news?"

A sudden realization struck Jiang Tao.

Yesterday, he had instructed Xu Li to buy the exact same lottery numbers as Sun Na; that particular draw should have taken place last night.

At this thought, Jiang Tao flipped out of bed and sat down by the table.

First, he opened his WeChat chat window with Xu Li and copied the numbers from the photo of the 100-yuan lottery ticket she had sent him onto a piece of paper.

Next, he opened the built-in browser on his phone to check the draw results from the previous night.

"Red balls 2, 4, 11, 12, 23, 25, blue ball 6..."

Comparing the query results on his phone with the numbers he had copied onto the paper, Jiang Tao checked them line by line.

First bet: not a single red ball matched, blue ball missed, prize money: 0.

Second bet: one red ball matched, blue ball missed, prize money: 0.

Third bet: three red balls matched, blue ball missed, prize money still 0.

Fourth bet: two red balls matched, blue ball missed, prize money still 0.

The final bet: five red balls matched, blue ball missed, prize money: 3,000!

"Didn't it win?! Why didn't my silly wife call me with the good news?"

"Could it be that... she lost the ticket?"

"Bah, bah, bah, what kind of nonsense am I babbling with my crow mouth?"

"Even though my silly wife can be a bit dorky sometimes, she's actually quite reliable."

"She shouldn't make such a low-level mistake!"

Though he insisted in his thoughts that Xu Li wouldn't make such a low-level error, Jiang Tao felt a growing sense of unease in his heart.

Following the normal trajectory of events, Xu Li would definitely have called him the moment she won to share the good news, but she hadn't.

That was somewhat abnormal.

As for the probability of losing a lottery ticket...

Just two days prior, Jiang Tao had accidentally picked up a discarded lottery ticket belonging to someone else and cashed it out for around 70,000 yuan.

"Let's hope I'm just overthinking it. Whatever, time to sleep."

"I'll just wait for Xu Li to call me; I won't go and pester her about it."

Harboring a lingering trace of doubt, Jiang Tao crawled back into bed to sleep.

...

In Jiangjia Village, at Jiang Tao's home.

"Where is it? Exactly where did it go..."

"That's 30,000 yuan right there, wuwuwu."

"How could anyone mess up such a huge thing!"

"Not here, not here, still not here..."

The large bed where Xu Li and Jiang Tao slept was currently piled high with clothes.

Xu Li was frantically searching through the pockets one by one for the lottery ticket she had bought yesterday.

Just as Jiang Tao had suspected, Xu Li had genuinely lost the lottery ticket!!

Although she hadn't worn a single piece of this pile of clothes during the daytime today, she hadn't spared any of them.

What if it happened to be inside one?

In her panic, Xu Li had long since abandoned all logical reasoning.

Anyway, she had already searched everywhere that could possibly be searched.

Her home had been ransacked by her own hands more thoroughly than if a burglar had broken in.

That lottery ticket had indeed won!

During the draw last night, Sun Na had even called Xu Li to share both her joy and her deep regret!

Had she listened to Xu Li back then, Sun Na could have made an extra 27,000 yuan!

It was clearly her own original ticket selection; she had only won 3,000 yuan, whereas her best friend had copied her numbers and won 30,000.

Furthermore, her best friend had originally urged her to place a 10-multiplier bet as well, but she hadn't listened.

Just like that, having brushed shoulders with a massive jackpot win, Sun Na was utterly devastated!

However, having been close friends for over a decade, Sun Na wouldn't create a rift between them over something like this.

She had merely playfully demanded that Xu Li treat her to a lavish dinner, to which Xu Li had readily agreed.

Yet... extreme joy often gives birth to sorrow.

Xu Li had practically torn apart the pockets of her down jacket without finding the lottery ticket she bought during the day.

Then she had started rummaging frantically through every cabinet and box in the house.

In the dead of night, she even called her mother to ask if she had accidentally dropped it at her parents' place.

After tossing the place upside down until one or two in the morning without finding the ticket, Xu Li slumped onto the floor with a look of utter despair.

Lottery tickets were special bearer instruments sold anonymously.

Once lost, they were lost for good; there was no such thing as a reissuance.

The mere thought that she had lost 30,000 yuan brought Xu Li to tears, and she wailed out loud.

To their small family, 30,000 yuan was undoubtedly a colossal sum of money!

In all her years growing up, she had never lost this much money before!