We agreed not to date, so why are you crying now that I've become the richest man?

First stop.

Old town area, Changsheng Lottery Station.

The shop was filled with smoke and a huge trend chart hung on the wall.

Several shirtless middle-aged men, cigarettes in hand, were pointing and commenting on the odds newspaper.

"Listen to me, South Africa is playing Mexico in the opening match. With the host nation advantage, South Africa is a sure thing!"

"You know nothing! France has an amazing squad, just bet on France!"

"Isn't Brazil better? Don't you understand the value of a five-star Brazilian football club?"

Ye Chen pulled down the brim of his hat and walked to the counter.

The fat boss was leisurely munching on sunflower seeds when he glanced at him sideways.

"What should I buy?"

Ye Chen handed over a pre-written form: "Sports score betting."

"On the 16th, Spain vs. Switzerland, 0-1."

"On the 17th, France vs. Mexico, 0-2."

"Two in a row, bet two hundred yuan."

The chubby boss took the order, scanned it, and burst out laughing.

"Young man, you haven't been watching football for very long, have you?"

Upon hearing this, several men nearby gathered around to watch the spectacle.

Someone saw the list and burst out laughing on the spot.

"You're betting on Spain to lose 0-1 to Switzerland? Isn't that a freebie?"

"Are they just throwing money away? The Spanish national team is in such good form right now, they could easily crush Switzerland! They'd win by at least two goals!"

The other guy also shook his head.

"No matter how badly the French team plays, can they really get thrashed by Mexico? If this bet wins, I'll chew up the newspaper right here and now!"

A burst of laughter erupted in the store.

The way these people looked at Ye Chen was as if they had the words "foolish and rich" welded onto his forehead.

The portly boss, holding the ticket slip, confirmed it with a smile.

"Young man, are you really going to play? A two-leg parlay means if you miss just one, the whole thing is for nothing."

Ye Chen raised his eyelids slightly, his tone calm and steady.

"beat."

The portly boss asked again, "Two hundred?"

"Um."

Ye Chen slapped two red bills on the counter: "Issue the tickets."

The fat boss saw that he was stubborn and didn't bother to persuade him.

Since it's a business that's practically giving away money, why not take advantage of it?

The machine quickly dispensed the lottery tickets.

Ye Chen took it, glanced at it, confirmed it was correct, folded it, and stuffed it into his bag.

There were still people nagging and complaining behind me.

"Young people, they always have to pay a little 'stupidity tax'."

"This isn't buying lottery tickets, it's practically donating to the sports lottery center."

Ye Chen didn't even turn his head, but pulled his hat down low and walked out of the lottery station.

How can a sparrow know the ambition of a swan? Once the score is out in a few days, these guys will probably regret not betting against him.

He was thinking to himself that he needed to hurry up and raid the other sites.

Just as I reached the street corner, I bumped into two girls.

One of them was Lin Wanqing.

She had clearly taken great care of herself today.

A fitted white T-shirt perfectly accentuated her slender waist and budding full bust, exuding youthful energy.

She paired it with skinny jeans, which accentuated her amazingly rounded waist-to-hip ratio.

Those long, straight legs are practically walking hormones on the street, turning heads wherever they go.

"Ye Chen?"

Lin Wanqing's beautiful eyes lit up.

But when she saw Ye Chen just coming out of the lottery station, stuffing ticket stubs into his pocket, her delicate eyebrows instantly furrowed into a knot.

"You... why are you buying lottery tickets?"

Lin Wanqing's tone carried a sense of condescending disappointment.

Ye Chen stuffed the lottery ticket into his pocket, a sunny and cheerful smile spreading across his face, and joked:

"Just buy two tickets and try your luck. If you win, you'll save yourself forty years of wasted time."

Lin Wanqing took a deep breath and resumed her lecturing "it's for your own good" attitude:

"Ye Chen, can you be more realistic? Stop trying to take shortcuts. You're about to go to university; you should be making meaningful plans instead of wasting your time on these scams."

Ye Chen was so tired of hearing it that he interrupted the spellcasting with a smile:

"Lin, it's just for fun, there's no need to elevate it to the level of life planning. I have something to do, I'll be leaving now."

Lin Wanqing felt a pang in her heart at the distant "Classmate Lin," and bit her lower lip to stop him:

"Ye Chen! Do you have to talk to me like that? Even if I reject you, we're still classmates. I just don't want to watch you fall into depravity!"

Ye Chen found it amusing to look at her self-satisfied expression.

He waved his hand, leaving behind a dashing silhouette:

"You're overthinking it. I don't have time to waste. Bye."

After shaking off Lin Wanqing, Ye Chen didn't waste another second.

For the next few hours, Ye Chen relied entirely on public transportation and walking to travel through every corner of the county town.

He never stayed at a lottery station for more than three minutes.

Pay.

Get your ticket.

Leave.

It was so clean and efficient, like running a program.

The betting combinations are also different.

There are single-match high-odds scores, win-draw-lose upset parlays, and half-time/full-time betting options.

Germany 0:1 Serbia.

England 1-1 USA.

Spain 0:1 Switzerland.

France 0:2 Mexico.

He disassembled and reassembled all the matches from his past life that had ridiculously high odds and results that made a bunch of old fans question their existence.

The four thousand five hundred dollars was divided into twenty-two portions.

They dispersed into twenty-two different sports lottery shops.

This is not gambling.

This is called reading the archive.

Six o'clock in the afternoon.

Ye Chen walked out of the last lottery station.

The cash in my pocket was gone, leaving only a stack of colorful lottery tickets.

He found a roadside stall, ordered a bowl of cold noodles, and a bottle of iced soda.

The moment the hat was taken off, a summer breeze blew across my forehead.

Very comfortable.

Twenty-two lottery tickets.

If the competition results follow the pattern I remember, then 4,500 yuan will become a rather outrageous figure.

Ye Chen did a quick mental calculation.

Conservative return: around 1.5 million.

Back when the price of houses in their small county was only two or three thousand yuan per square meter, this amount of money was enough to buy several houses and then sit back and collect rent.

of course.

Ye Chen had no intention of giving up.

One and a half million sounds like a lot, but in the future, it's just a ticket to the game of capital.

The real big fish is yet to come.

After finishing his cold noodles, he threw the empty soda bottle into the trash can and boarded the bus home.

Along the way, the street scenes outside the car window receded into the distance.

Old shops, roadside barbecue stalls, students riding bicycles home from school, and crooked little GG stickers pasted on utility poles.

This is a small county town in 2010.

I pushed open the door to my home.

Sports news is playing on TV.

Ye Jianguo sat on the sofa, watching intently.

He looked up when he heard the door open.

"Chenchen, you're back?"

"Um."

Ye Chen changed his shoes and entered the room.

Ye Jianguo casually asked, "Have you enrolled in driving school yet?"

"It's been reported."

Ye Chen's tone was very steady.

"I'll go for a medical check-up in a few days, and then they'll be able to arrange for me to get on the bus."

He had prepared this explanation long ago.