I have few friends, but many childhood sweethearts.

Chapter 2.2. The Troubles of Making Money

"Get away! You smell like a dog."

Xu Qingfan kicked away the three stray dogs that surrounded him with disgust and followed his father back to the home where he had lived for more than 20 years.

The layout of the compound is somewhat like a school building, with more than a dozen families living on each floor. Crowding is inevitable, but it has a more lively atmosphere than high-rise buildings made of reinforced concrete.

A retractable iron gate, retro small square tiles—this small 50-square-meter room holds all of Xu Qingfan's childhood memories.

Because everyone in the neighborhood knows each other, the residents of Lianhua Courtyard are used to not locking their doors during the day. Even if they need to go out briefly, they only pull up the outermost iron gate.

"Hello Uncle Li, hello Aunt Zhao."

Along the way, Xu Qingfan greeted each of his neighbors, all of whom had watched him grow up and lived in the same compound for so many years. They had hardly ever encountered any of his ridiculous or troublesome situations.

When I passed by Xia Xiaoxiao's house, she was already watching the Cantonese version of Digimon with the electric fan blowing on her.

Speaking of which, it was Xu Qingfan who got her hooked on this anime.

Last week, Xu Qingfan finally found an anime he was interested in on TV, but his father snatched the remote and switched to the news broadcast that Xu Qingfan watches every day, claiming it was to broaden his horizons.

Xu Qingfan thought it would only be thirty minutes, so he decided to wait. But as soon as the news ended, a voice from next door saying, "Having a son is not necessarily a blessing," drew Xu's mother over.

The remote control was passed from one hand to the other between the two parents.

Based on the principle that watching something elsewhere is just as good as watching it elsewhere, Xu Qingfan decisively ran to Xia Xiaoxiao's house, forcibly snatched her remote control, and started watching Digimon.

Xia Xiaoxiao cried and made a fuss, but unfortunately, parents always tend to favor visiting children, so she could only reluctantly accompany Xu Qingfan to watch Digimon.

Although the anime was very good, Xu Qingfan had to apologize for taking her remote control! Xia Xiaoxiao thought so, and from that day on, she never gave Xu Qingfan a kind look again.

"mom!"

"Come and get that for me." Mom's voice came from the kitchen.

Xu Qingfan was already used to his mother's riddle-like behavior. He walked to the kitchen door and asked, "What are you getting?"

"Hey, go get the mop and mop this up," Mom said, pointing to a puddle of water on the floor.

"Oh."

After the family of three finished their dinner at the small dining table, they hurriedly went about their business.

Mr. Xu joined the army in his early years and served as a driver for several years before returning to his hometown to work as a driver in a factory.

A few years later, they were caught in a wave of layoffs, and both of Xu's parents lost their jobs. They had no choice but to respond to the national call for flexible employment.

With his severance pay, Xu's father bought a motorcycle to pick up passengers, while Xu's mother had a small cart custom-made to sell sweet soup and snails.

The family lived their lives in this way, neither good nor bad.

Blessings are unparalleled, and misfortunes do not come singly.

After living an honest and law-abiding life for a few years, Mr. Xu encountered a passenger who accidentally put his foot into the wheel of a motorcycle while he was carrying passengers illegally. Since it was already illegal to carry passengers, and it happened to be during a period when motorcycles were completely banned, not only did he have to pay a large sum of money to the injured party, but his motorcycle was also confiscated, and Mr. Xu was detained for more than half a month.

Later, it was Xia Xiaoxiao's family who gave the Xu family a helping hand, allowing them to finally escape this quagmire.

Therefore, the relationship between the two families is closer than that of relatives, and they are both very happy to strengthen their ties through marriage.

Several years were still to come before that accident.

"The path to redemption lies within this," Xu Qingfan thought, looking at the team analysis booklet in his hand.

Because it was the first time the national team had qualified for the World Cup, that year's World Cup was very popular. Xu Qingfan often listened to customers chatting while delivering food for his mother.

Xu Qingfan can't remember many things, but things like biased refereeing and Koreans are still vivid in his memory because he heard about them so many times.

In 2002, the sports lottery introduced many different games, including the usual betting on wins and losses and scores, as well as the simplest and most straightforward round of 16 and round of 8 and round of 4 predictions.

The Round of 16 is a competition of 16 matches: 8 in the Round of 16, 4 in the Quarterfinals, 2 in the Semifinals, and 2 in the Finals. Predict the winners, losers, and draws. If you guess all the matches correctly, you will win the first prize. Two dollars can win you two million.

However, anyone who has studied a little high school math knows how low the probability is: 1/3 to the power of 16. A long string of zeros after the decimal point can completely dampen your enthusiasm.

The quarterfinals prediction is much simpler; you have to find the teams that will make it to the quarterfinals out of 32 teams. However, with a series of restrictions, the odds of winning are still ridiculously low.

Xu Qingfan remembers that the total amount bet that year was over 100 million yuan, but no one in the country won the lottery. Of course, he wouldn't win even if he did it again, since he didn't remember anything except a stick.

Xu Qingfan also remembers that the final was Samba vs. Debon.

But he really couldn't remember who came in third.

Xu Qingfan's goal was to reach the top four. Although he didn't remember the third place, based on the available information, he used the process of elimination to narrow down his target from 28 to 7.

Why 28 instead of 29? Clearly, he ruled out the Chinese national football team immediately.

In fact, Xu Qingfan's elimination method was quite simple. First, he eliminated a group of teams based on the top two teams advancing from the group. Second, he didn't think there were any dark horses in the semifinals that year, so the third-place team could only be from the first or second tier teams. After some deliberation, he finally finalized this invaluable list.

Back then, Chen Daozai won 37 million with 20 dollars. It's no problem for me, Xu Qingfan, to win 2 million with 100 dollars!

Ever since he learned that this year was 02, Xu Qingfan has been stealing ten yuan from his mother every day without fail. Counting today, it has been ten days, no more and no less, exactly one hundred yuan.

Neither of Xu's parents had the habit of keeping daily accounts. They would lock the money they earned each day in the closet in their room and save it in the bank once they had accumulated enough for a month. This made it convenient for Xu Qingfan to raise his start-up capital.

You could buy lottery tickets yourself. In the early 2000s, the rules and regulations in small counties were very lax. There was no shortage of parents who instructed their children to buy cigarettes and lottery tickets. If they were lucky, they could even get a dime or 50 cents for running the errand.

But if you actually win the lottery, no matter how happy your parents are, you'll inevitably get a beating.

If a six-year-old dares to steal money from home to buy lottery tickets, will he dare to sell the house and gamble it away when he grows up?
Xu Qingfan could already imagine what his parents would say when they tried to suppress their smirk and hit him with a clothes hanger.

"Ah, if I don't go to hell, who will!" A long sigh echoed from inside the room.

(End of this chapter)