Chapter 478: Gift

On the way home, Jiang Nian was in good spirits.

A pair of beautiful girls were certainly pleasing to the eye; they chatted among themselves, and he occasionally interjected with a few random remarks.

"Our class is so weird—always fighting every other day!" Xu Qianqian complained, "Night self-study was terrifying.."

"Yeah, they suddenly start arguing," Song Xiuyun chimed in, her face pale, "I was terrified at the time."

"Do they hit the kids?" Jiang Nian asked.

The two girls exchanged glances, then ignored him. They continued their previous topic, treating Jiang Nian as if he didn't exist.

But after too many instances, Xu Qianqian couldn't take it anymore.

"Can you stop acting crazy?"

Jiang Nian grinned and strolled away casually.

"Fine."

After a while, he started his antics again—suddenly darting ahead of the two girls, then walking beside them before accelerating abruptly.

Xu Qianqian: "

Song Xiuyun: "

"6

Boys rarely get bored—even playing by themselves can bring them joy. If all else fails, they can play Nide Niu Niu.

Just as he was about to repeat his old trick, Xu Qianqian grabbed him by the arm.

"Stop swerving!"

Encountering the Forbidden Zone Emperor, the Lord of Shadows perished here.

"Alright," Jiang Nian endured the humiliation.

Xu Qianqian was thoroughly annoyed by him, worried that if she let go, this dog would immediately dart back and forth again.

So she firmly gripped his arm.

From a passerby's perspective, this was a trio walking together.

After entering the alleyway, Jiang Nian grew serious, attempting to pull his arm free—but Xu Qianqian gripped tighter.

Grinning, still so fond of me.

"Hey, did I say yesterday that I got my driver's license?"

Yesterday, Zhao Qiuxue left Zhennan. Song Xiuyun was in low spirits, dragging the mood of the three on their way home down as well,

so he didn't say anything untimely.

Today was different—Song Xiuyun seemed to be in better spirits. Probably had called home already, gotten used to the new life.

After all, the only breadwinner remained in Zhennan.

How does good fortune knock?

No work means eating dust from the northwest; she picked up work again, yet inevitably couldn't balance childcare, forced into a half-measure.

After Zhao Qiuxue left, Jiang Nian grinned.

Directly happy 2.

What was that thing called again? "Sakura Apartment Whatever Administrator." Who cares about the administrator—no one was having more fun than him.

Except for those "Sunny Day Cleaning" things, which gave Jiang Nian a slight disadvantage.

"You got a driver's license?" Xu Qianqian was surprised; she'd been swamped yesterday, "Got it? Got it?"

"So what? You gonna drive while walking?"

Jiang Nian swallowed his anger, "Having a license doesn't mean I can't drift?"

Song Xiuyun smiled faintly and said one thing.

"Congratulations."

"Hey, can you drive?" Xu Qianqian suddenly realized something, "Perfect—help Xiuyun move stuff this weekend."

Jiang Nian nodded and agreed immediately.

"Sure, my dad's old Santana for commuting is idle. Sunday's free anyway—perfect chance to take it out for a spin."

Old Jiang's car was actually quite unremarkable,

rarely seen in daily life, always busy shuttling to and from work. He hadn't paid attention before he had no license, but now it was finally usable.

Boys don't care much about cars—just need manual transmission and air conditioning.

"You just got your license?" Song Xiuyun froze, glancing at Xu Qianqian, "That… isn't it too dangerous?"

"Hmm… yeah," Xu Qianqian nodded, warning, "Don't wreck your dad's car—he'll be heartbroken."

Jiang Nian glared at her, "Then drive your dad's."

"My dad never comes home—he's never there," Xu Qianqian rolled her eyes, "Find him, then drive however you like."

"You know what? I'll just ask." Jiang Nian pulled out his phone, pretending to dial Old Xu.

"Hey you!" Xu Qianqian slapped him, feigning anger, "I'm warning you—don't say anything stupid!"

Jiang Nian grinned and put his phone away.

"Just kidding."

Song Xiuyun stared, dumbfounded, her mind a complete mess.

Is this really safe?

Walking like this, the three had reached the building. Only then did Jiang Nian casually mention one thing to Xu Qianqian.

"I just remembered something."

Anyone who's watched a romantic movie knows: this "by the way" moment is always the real climax after the foreplay.

"What is it?" Xu Qianqian and Song Xiuyun both turned to him.

In the hallway.

Jiang Nian turned around and spat out two words.

"Scavenge."

Upon hearing this, Xu Qianqian couldn't help but blink sharply. Not to mention Song Xiyun, the girl whose chest was ten times fuller than her wallet.

All three were poor; Song's finances need no elaboration, and Jiang Nian... was also funded later.

Xu Qianqian had been the richest among the three in the previous cycle, but she didn't save much in daily spending—her savings didn't reach "rich little girl" levels.

In short, all three remained loyal to money.

"Is it illegal?"

"Of course not. If anyone's to be held accountable, it's those big companies," Jiang Nian said. "More accurately, it's wool."

Upon hearing this, Xu Qianqian's disgusted look instantly grew a little clearer.

"Huh?"

Creak.

Jiang Nian slipped into Xu Qianqian's home and casually closed the door behind him.

The living room light was on. The homecoming squad dropped their backpacks and gathered around the dining table, three heads pressed together.

"Look at this treasure hunt event—at this spot and this spot," Jiang Nian pointed to each location for the two girls.

"Draw a dress?" Xu Qianqian froze, unconsciously asking, "Hey, are the items listed up there real?"

"And... a phone?" Song Xiyun, who thought of it by day and dreamed of it by night, spotted the phone prize at once.

Jiang Nian:

"No, not those glaring gold items and that stuff."

"Can't you all see it?"

"Fine, I give up on you two," Jiang Nian rubbed his forehead, then said, "Let me first tell you what this is."

"Treasure hunt," Xu Qianqian said.

"Lottery," Song Xiyun added.

"Sort of—let me put it this way," Jiang Nian explained. "A three-thousand-yuan phone is split into four thousand shares for sale."

"Then four thousand people buy. The sum of the purchase times of the last hundred purchases is calculated to determine the winning number."

The two girls half-understood and stared at Jiang Nian together.

"Isn't that too complicated?" Xu Qianqian frowned. "Selling four thousand shares of a three-thousand-yuan item—can the profit really be that high?"

"Are we supposed to calculate that value?" Song Xiyun asked. "If it's only a hundred times, you definitely can't figure it out."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian spread his hands.

"I don't know either, because... that's not the point."

The two girls:

"Then what is the point?" Xu Qianqian asked.

"Too complicated," Song Xiyun muttered, her head aching—it sounded like a huge expense. "I don't think I can get my hands on this."

"To win big with little, how could it not be complicated?" Jiang Nian grinned. "Cough, cough—never mind, what I'm about to say is small bet on small."

"Huh?"

"Stop saying 'huh.' Come closer and listen carefully," Jiang Nian waved his hand, signaling Song Xiyun to lean in. "Don't miss it."

Song Xiyun didn't understand, but nodded anyway.

"Oh, okay."

The three pressed their heads together again, staring at the phone screen.

"Valuable items are hard to win—low probability," Jiang Nian said. "Our target is this: draw one hundred yuan in phone credit or some coin."

"Listen closely—it'll be divided into one hundred and thirty shares for the draw."

At this, he lowered his voice.

"What we do is, between the twentieth and thirtieth purchase, buy ten directly."

"The winning probability is very high."

As he finished speaking, Xu Qianqian and Song Xiyun fell silent.

"Is it reliable?"

Of course it was reliable—it was the enhanced version of "Good News," stacked with "Winning."

【Treasure Hunt Event: Buy ten times consecutively between the 20th and 30th purchase—winning probability reaches seventy percent.】

【One draw per day, valid for two weeks.】

This kind of event occurred one after another. Even if you joined one draw daily, after deducting costs, you could roughly earn eight hundred.

This applied only to this specific category among the many treasure hunt items, and only during these two weeks—the probability was valid.

Why it later became invalid? Probably because they changed the algorithm then.

Jiang Nian spent ten minutes explaining. After his final sentence, the two girls beside the table breathed more rapidly.

They trusted Jiang Nian, and the cost of this wasn't high.

"Then... try it?"

"We need to check the event—it's so late..." Jiang Nian opened his phone and glanced. "Hmm, there really is one."

The three exchanged glances, staring at each other.

Midnight.

After washing up, the three gathered again due to the draw time, squeezed together, and suddenly spoke.

"Did we win?"

It seems like...

The two girls looked up, their eyes sparkling, cheeks flushed. The joy of wool made the two girls burst into excitement.

They looked at each other, then back again.

"Yi!"

Jiang Nian estimated: the three of them were usually in school, and with the provincial exam next week, none of them could earn much money.

But the goal had been achieved.

Buying a dress or upgrading a phone was still possible.

He wasn't even bothered to earn this money—it was purely a small-scale side hustle. Compared to the provincial exam, this was less important.

Seeing it was already two in the morning, he slipped away directly.

The two girls had already bathed midway; they tidied up and turned off the lights to sleep. The room wasn't fully cleaned yet, so they still slept together.

In the pitch-black room, Xu Qianqian and Song Xiuyun lay on the bed. After tossing and turning for a long time, neither could fall asleep.

An estimated income of one or two thousand yuan over two weeks was a lot for a Gao Zhongsheng.

With more diligence, they might earn several thousand, but there was no need. The provincial exam was more important, and it didn't conflict with daily school routines.

"Xiuyun, what will you do after you get that money?"

"I..." Song Xiuyun stared at the pitch-black ceiling, then hesitated for a few seconds before saying, "I want to buy a phone, but..."

Xu Qianqian immediately understood Song Xiuyun's meaning—she feared Zhao Yi, far away, was short on money and wanted to ease her burden.

Light load.

"Qianqian, what about you?"

"I might buy a dress—I've been eyeing a cheap one lately." Xu Qianqian murmured, her voice growing quieter.

She slept on her side, gazing at the pitch-black room.

In her mind flashed the scene of Christmas Eve night, when she walked into her home and saw that tree in the living room—her heart filled with mixed emotions.

"Buy another New Year's gift."

She finished speaking but received no reply; when she turned her head, she found Song Xiuyun was already asleep.