At noon, Xie Baolian had business at the municipal government compound, while Murong Yanran returned to work at the hotel. Li Haochen bought a lot of drinks and watermelons, along with meals delivered by the hotel, and brought them to the construction site.
In just a few short hours, the mountaintop had been flattened into a large, level area. Li Haochen was extremely satisfied, as were the construction workers. The meals Li Haochen brought were incredibly generous.
Li Haochen sat on the ground with the construction workers, chatting casually and talking about everything under the sun. He was completely unpretentious, which earned him their deep respect. Not to mention the good drinks, cigarettes, and delicious food. They had never encountered a boss who treated them like this before. It was already good enough that they weren't just bossed around.
People are made of flesh and blood. You can tell who is sincere and who is fake with just one interaction. Therefore, everyone felt a strong sense of goodwill towards Li Haochen.
After leaving the construction site and returning home, with nothing else to do, he picked up his textbooks again. Dropping out of school didn't mean stopping learning. He was a dedicated student to begin with, and he could get a passing grade in university courses if he just studied diligently. Once his leave of absence ended, he could directly take the exams and earn credits, which would prevent him from graduating a year later.
Li Haochen spent the entire afternoon engrossed in his studies until his stomach rumbled. He closed his books, stretched, and checked his phone. There were several missed calls. It turned out he had put his phone on silent because he was too focused on studying to notice.
He returned the calls and discovered that Murong Yanran and Xie Baolian had gone out for a fatty meal and wouldn't be back for dinner. Li Haochen had no choice but to entertain himself. Of course, he didn't forget the construction site; he called to ensure that the hotel had already sent the meals over before he felt relieved.
After eating, it was only seven in the evening, and they wouldn't be back anytime soon. With nothing else to do, he went out to the coast to enjoy the sea breeze. The seaside at night was very comfortable and charming. He walked along, savoring the peaceful night.
As he walked, he found himself in the downtown area. This seaside city was completely different from Zhoushan. The bustling and prosperous scene was on a much higher level. It was crowded with people, especially since it was the weekend. If a store was having a promotion or an event, you had to push your way through to get there.
Just then, Li Haochen found himself stuck at a stall selling dishcloths. The vendor was quite a character, giving away eggs with every purchase of dishcloths, and more eggs for more purchases. His shouts attracted a large crowd of mothers scrambling for the offer.
It happened quickly and ended just as fast. Each mother went home with several, or even a large bag, of eggs, their faces beaming as if they had struck it rich. Li Haochen walked up to take a look. Good heavens, you got one egg for every ten yuan of dishcloths purchased. He had just seen a mother carrying a large bag of eggs, which he estimated to be at least twenty. No wonder the vendor was smiling so hard his face was about to split. He had made a huge profit.
This reminded Li Haochen of a saying: it doesn't matter if the trick is old, as long as someone falls for it.
Wandering through the busy streets, Li Haochen truly learned a lot. He checked the time and was about to head back when he heard a very catchy advertising slogan from not too far away: "Gamble a bit, a bicycle becomes a motorcycle; scratch a bit, a motorcycle becomes an Alto. Come on over, don't miss out if you're passing by. Five yuan for a piece of junk motorcycle, ten yuan for an Alto."
Li Haochen was drawn to the catchy loud-speaker advertisement. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a welfare lottery scratch-off ticket station.
There were quite a few people standing around the station, for various reasons. Some bought one or two tickets to support public welfare, while others were purely trying their luck. Some were even addicted, scratching one after another until they ran out of money and left grumbling.
Li Haochen also walked up. Since he was here, he decided to buy a couple of tickets to support public welfare.
"Handsome guy, which kind do you want?"
"Let me take a look first."
Li Haochen carefully examined the various instant scratch-off tickets: Lucky Million, Lucky Ten Times, Century of Glory, and so on, with denominations of five, ten, and twenty yuan. The array of choices was dazzling and dizzying.
Finally, Li Haochen chose Lucky Million, Lucky Ten Times, and Century of Glory, buying three of each, costing him 150 yuan.
Although he approached it with the intention of supporting public welfare, he was still quite expectant as he scratched.
Li Haochen started with Lucky Ten Times. He scratched off the winning number in the bottom left corner, which was 18. Scratching downwards from the top, the first three rows offered no surprises. Unexpectedly, the fourth row revealed an 18, which made Li Haochen exclaim in excitement. He eagerly scratched off the prize amount that followed: "Tch, only twenty yuan. You got me all excited for nothing."
There’s no need to talk about the subsequent numbers. The first ticket settled at 20 yuan, which was already quite good, and he even made a profit of ten yuan. However, the next two tickets were a complete miss.
Century of Glory had a face value of 20 yuan, which was not cheap. The top right corner had two prize numbers, which seemed to increase the chances of winning. But don't believe it; anyone who believes this is a fool.
As expected, after scratching all three tickets, he didn't even get a single dollar back. Li Haochen didn't hold out much hope for the remaining three tickets. Winning ten yuan would be considered a stroke of luck.
He picked up the scratcher. This time, he didn't scratch the winning numbers first, saving the best for last to build anticipation. Li Haochen scratched off all the numbers and amounts on the three tickets in one go. As he prepared to scratch the winning numbers, he was indeed quite excited.
He slowly scratched from left to right, and from top to bottom. After scratching all three tickets, he would compare them one by one.
Li Haochen was looking quite intently, but his luck was not great. The first ticket was a complete miss. However, the second ticket brought a small surprise, winning 50 yuan. The third ticket looked a bit different after he glanced at it, but he had seen too many numbers before, and now his eyes were blurry, making the numbers seem to shimmer.
Before Li Haochen could put down the lottery ticket, the station owner's expression changed. He eagerly reached out to snatch the ticket from his hand.
Li Haochen instinctively clutched it tighter and looked at the owner, "What are you doing?"
The station owner's expression was shifty, his eyes fixated on the lottery ticket in Li Haochen's hand. "Uh, young man, it's... it's like this. We collect all the unsold scratch-off tickets for unified processing. Your ticket wasn't a winner, so I just wanted to..."
"Unsold lottery tickets for unified processing?" Li Haochen had never heard of such a thing and frowned in confusion. He pulled the ticket back.
Seeing that Li Haochen had taken the ticket back, the owner wanted to snatch it again but dared not. Although he knew the value of the ticket, he didn't dare to act rashly. If things escalated, he wouldn't get the money and his license would be revoked, possibly even landing him in jail. He could only pray that Li Haochen wouldn't re-examine the ticket, allowing him to make a big profit.
Unfortunately, Li Haochen did not grant his wish. The owner's strange behavior had already made him suspicious. He took the ticket, turned his back to the owner, and carefully checked it. "02, 52... 07, 23... Huh, 07?"
He looked at the winning numbers: "0... 07." Li Haochen was stunned, finding it hard to believe. "One million? Did I actually hit this?"