The summer evening sky bled into shades of orange and red. In the living room, the air conditioner hummed at a cool 26 degrees Celsius. Liu Chen sat on her floral-patterned sofa, watching an Olympic preparatory interview on television. The volunteers in the capital expressed their readiness to welcome athletes and tourists from around the globe.
From her mother’s bedroom, the rhythmic beeping of a calculator occasionally punctuated the quiet, as her mother tallied inventory and reconciled finances for the day.
Shifting her weight, Liu Chen leaned her upper body back against the sofa’s cushioning. She kicked off her slippers, tucked her legs beneath her, and let out a sigh of pure contentment.
Resolving the guarantor issue had felt incredibly liberating! It was as if a heavy stone that had been weighing on her back had suddenly been lifted, leaving her breathing freely.
Glancing towards her mother’s closed door, and seeing no immediate sign of her emerging, Liu Chen whispered, “System, lucky draw!”
“Notification: You may also initiate a lucky draw by silently reciting the command. Host currently possesses 58 draw tickets. Would you like to initiate a ten-pull? A ten-pull slightly increases the probability of drawing a grand prize.”
Ten-pull? Liu Chen knew about that. Although she hadn't had time to play games in her previous life, she was aware that a ten-pull could boost the odds of winning better prizes.
Recalling the system's words, Liu Chen silently thought: Initiate a ten-pull!
Unlike before, a miniature roulette wheel appeared before her eyes. The center displayed the number 58, but… the white segment representing one hundred cash seemed unchanged?
Did this lottery system take her for a fool? Just shrinking the roulette wheel proportionally and calling it an increased chance of winning?
Liu Chen grumbled internally as she watched the spinning wheel.
This time, the pointer was surprisingly lucky and landed on the pink segment.
“Acquired one Primary Slimming Pill. Note: Consuming this pill will result in a weight loss of one jin.”
A pill materialized before Liu Chen. The roulette wheel immediately began to spin again.
“Acquired one hundred cash.” A hundred-yuan bill flew before Liu Chen, hovered for two seconds, then obediently drifted to the lower right corner of her vision.
“Acquired one hundred cash.”
…
In the end, there were nine hundred yuan in the lower right corner of her vision.
The number in the center of the roulette wheel now read 48.
Continuing with a ten-pull.
The roulette wheel spun.
“Acquired one Primary Slimming Pill. Note: Consuming this pill will result in a weight loss of one jin.”
“Acquired one hundred cash.”
“Acquired one hundred cash.”
“…”
Another nine hundred yuan was accumulated.
Liu Chen felt she was beginning to understand the purpose of the ten-pull. Was it one guaranteed good item for every ten prizes?
It seemed it would be most cost-effective to save up ten draw tickets before initiating draws in the future.
“Continue with a ten-pull.”
In total, she obtained five Primary Slimming Pills and four thousand five hundred yuan in cash. Liu Chen did not use the remaining eight draw tickets, as she felt it was most advantageous to draw them all at once when she had ten.
The five slimming pills were easy to hide; she could simply place them in the calcium tablet bottle by her bedside. However, where should she put the four thousand five hundred yuan? Keeping it at home risked discovery by Liu Fang someday. But based on the probability she had observed, one hundred yuan in cash seemed more like a guaranteed prize for the draw tickets. Carrying it around daily would be impractical, wouldn’t it?
At this moment, the system chimed in again, asking, “Would you like to temporarily store the prizes?”
“Yes! Store all of them!”
Following this, Liu Chen’s gaze lingered on the Primary Slimming Pills for a moment. She then got off the sofa and dragged out the weighing scale from beneath it.
55kg.
“Hmm, it’s alright, isn’t it?”
Perhaps the system considered her slightly overweight? Thinking about it, Liu Chen surreptitiously peeked at her mother’s door, which remained shut. She took two Primary Slimming Pills from the system. They looked a bit like white chocolate beans, but felt cool in her palm.
She swallowed them in one go. Before Liu Chen could even reach for the water glass on the coffee table, she felt the two pills dissolve as they went down her throat. Tasting carefully, there was a faint peach flavor on her tongue.
They tasted… a little good…
After finishing, Liu Chen stepped onto the electronic scale again.
54kg.
She stepped off, then back on.
54kg.
Closing her eyes, she felt her body for any discomfort. She then looked at the remaining three slimming pills and took them out, swallowing them all at once.
Stepping on the scale.
52.5kg.
The previous loss of two jin hadn't been very noticeable, but with this five-jin weight reduction, Liu Chen could clearly feel that her legs seemed to have slimmed down.
Giddy with delight, she went to the full-length mirror. The girl reflected in the mirror had long, dark hair and wore a pink pajama set. Beneath the pajama pants, her legs were shapely.
“Hehe, I didn’t realize I was so cute when I was young~~”
Indulging in a moment of vanity, Liu Chen took out her phone and snapped a few photos in front of the mirror. After taking the pictures, she opened her QQ app.
As soon as she logged into QQ, a barrage of messages popped up in the chat window. A quick scan revealed questions about her summer homework, some unfamiliar avatars asking if she wanted to go shopping, and then the familiar little pink pig avatar.
Mi Zhuzhu, her best friend. She had been sent abroad to study after graduating from high school. Before leaving, she had cried her eyes out while holding Liu Chen’s hand, then secretly slipped three thousand yuan into her bag. Later, she found love with a university classmate, and the couple was living a blissful life abroad, returning to China for visits from time to time. The last time Liu Chen had seen her, her belly was round, eagerly awaiting the birth of a mixed-race baby.
Clicking on their chat window, she saw messages sent half an hour ago.
“Holy shit, that illegitimate daughter is putting on a show in the class group again. I’m really impressed by your dad.”
Raising an eyebrow, Liu Chen opened the constantly refreshing class group chat. It turned out the class monitor was going to the capital next month to watch the Olympic Games, which had stirred up the previously dormant classmates.
“Damn, Old Monitor, I heard the Olympic tickets are super expensive and hard to get. You’re something else!”
“Monitor, remember to take plenty of photos and post them in the group!”
“What a coincidence, I’m going next month too. My mom wants to buy clothes in Beijing, so she’s taking me along to watch the swimming competition.”
“Hu Qian is still Hu Qian. Your mom is so fashionable, going all the way to Beijing to buy clothes. So envious~”
Seeing Hu Qian’s words, Liu Chen’s expression turned grim. Her mind flashed back to the summer after her first year of high school in her previous life. She was handing out flyers in a fluffy mascot costume outside a bookstore when she saw Hu Qian stepping out of a brand-new Mercedes.
The door was opened for her by Hu Xingfa, the very man who had claimed he couldn’t afford her tuition because he dared not get involved with creditors – the man she had called Dad for over ten years.
Hu Qian, dressed in a linen dress, a jade pendant around her neck, carrying a small purse, and wearing sandals, smiled and greeted her classmates waiting by the bookstore entrance. Her smile was exceptionally gentle.
Watching this scene, Liu Chen felt a tightness in her chest, as if she couldn’t breathe within the mascot costume.
As Hu Qian approached, she nonchalantly said to her classmates, “Because I didn’t perform well, I didn’t get into a top-tier university. Dad is going to comfort me and take me to buy a house when I turn eighteen next month, with the property title in my name. Today, I’m just looking at books on interior design.”
A group of graduating high school students let out a chorus of shouts, calling her a boss and a tycoon.
Thinking of this, Liu Chen’s gaze returned to her Nokia phone. Just like in her previous life, her classmates were all praising Hu Qian’s parents for being so kind.
In her past life, she still held a sliver of hope for that scruffy man and had believed his lies, failing to expose Hu Qian’s mother as a mistress and Hu Qian as an illegitimate child who had been legitimized.
She wouldn't be so foolish this time. Didn’t she not want others to know she was the daughter of a mistress? Then she would let everyone know the truth!
With this thought, Liu Chen smiled slightly and tagged Hu Qian in the group.
“Since Dad isn’t short of money, remember to ask him to transfer my child support on time.”