Chapter 45: Good Luck Still Remains

A good night's sleep.

Chen Feng woke up after nine the next morning, as was his custom; back when he didn't have a job, he used to sleep until around this time.

Sun Xiaorui had gotten up at some unknown point, and the faint sound of the television from the living room downstairs could be heard.

It made Chen Feng lament inwardly: there are no fields that cannot be over-plowed, only oxen that can be worked to death.

After getting up and washing up, Chen Feng suddenly remembered the lottery.

He had been so busy and absorbed in his work last night that he had forgotten to claim his prize.

He took out his phone, searched online, and found the winning numbers for this Super Lotto draw.

Then, he took the lottery tickets out of his donkey-brand briefcase and sat on the edge of the bed, checking them one by one.

One ticket, two tickets... he checked over a dozen in a row, and not a single one was a winner. He only had forty tickets in total.

He kept checking, and finally, he found a winner—two fourth-tier prizes, totaling six thousand yuan.

Not only did he break even, but he had also made a small profit.

However, the next dozen or so tickets were all losers, not even worth five yuan each.

By the time he was down to the last three tickets, even with Chen Feng's relatively good temperament, he couldn't help but feel a slight sense of tension.

Winning a jackpot was secondary; his main concern was whether his good luck was still with him.

Winning six thousand yuan was considered good luck to others, but clearly not to Chen Feng.

Previously, a scratch-off ticket had practically flown into his hands, and a random purchase of a sheep-themed ticket had yielded a "Natural Sheep Treasure" worth over ten million yuan. That was what real luck looked like.

If he spent over two thousand yuan only to win six thousand, it would mean his good luck—or rather, his financial fortune—had run its course.

Even though he was nearing death, Chen Feng naturally did not want his good luck to vanish.

With a hint of nervousness, he took a deep breath before continuing to check the numbers.

Two more tickets in a row were losers. Holding the very last one, Chen Feng merely glanced at it and secretly breathed a sigh of relief, a smile involuntarily spreading across his face.

Because the very first line of this ticket was a winner, and it was a perfect match—a first-tier jackpot.

This luck!

As expected, his good luck—or at least his financial fortune—was still very much alive.

However, since it took all forty tickets to find the jackpot on the very last one, Chen Feng felt as if some unseen force was intentionally playing with him.

Still, since he had won the jackpot, being played with a little didn't matter.

The second line had nothing, but the third line was another winner, though one number was off—a second-tier prize.

The final two lines were another two fourth-tier prizes, totaling six thousand yuan.

This single ticket had five lines of numbers, and four of them were winners.

It should also be noted that this was a ticket with a 5x multiplier option, which meant that for the top three prize tiers, the winner would receive an additional 60% on top of the original prize amount per line.

For example, if a first-tier prize was originally 5 million, one could get an extra 3 million, totaling 8 million.

Chen Feng checked the prize amounts for this draw. The first and second-tier prizes for the Super Lotto were not fixed; they fluctuated. This draw's first-tier prize was ten million per line. Because Chen Feng had the multiplier, he got an extra 6 million, making it sixteen million per line. With five lines, that totaled 80 million.

The second-tier prize was over seventy thousand per line, which couldn't even compare to the first tier.

Doing a rough calculation, after personal income tax, Chen Feng could theoretically take home over sixty-four million yuan.

This truly was a god-tier lottery ticket!

Chen Feng was even worried that if he went to claim the prize, people might suspect it was a fake.

He calmly put the ticket away, placing it inside a waterproof vacuum-sealed plastic bag before sliding it into his jeans pocket.

His jeans pockets were quite deep, so it wouldn't fall out.

Chen Feng was in no rush to claim the prize; after all, he was someone who had seen large sums of money before.

He first went downstairs as if nothing had happened to eat the preserved egg and pork congee Sun Xiaorui had made for him, then accompanied her to watch two episodes of a soap opera. About two hours passed, and it was already noon.

Then, Sun Xiaorui went to the kitchen to cook.

Chen Feng sat on the sofa scrolling through his phone.

By the time Sun Xiaorui finished cooking, it was around 12:30 PM, and Chen Feng had to eat lunch.

Sun Xiaorui's cooking was excellent; her home-cooked dishes suited Chen Feng's palate perfectly.

If not for Chen Feng's strong willpower, he would likely have continued to gain weight very quickly.

He only ate one bowl of rice and stopped; since he had eaten breakfast less than three hours ago, he didn't want to eat too much and put on weight.

After the meal, Sun Xiaorui suggested going out for a stroll in the afternoon. Chen Feng wanted to go claim his prize, so he declined and told her to go out with her friends instead.

However, Chen Feng gave her a five-thousand-yuan red envelope to spend as she pleased.

Sun Xiaorui didn't stand on ceremony; she happily accepted, gave Chen Feng a fragrant kiss, and quickly got ready to head out.

Although Chen Feng was her benefactor, he did not restrict her personal freedom; basically, he wouldn't stop her if she wanted to go out.

Of course, the prerequisite was that she had to tidy up the house and serve her benefactor well.

In this regard, Sun Xiaorui was currently quite satisfactory to him.

Once she left, Chen Feng began preparing to claim his prize.

In the past, he had found those prize winners wearing various masks to hide their faces quite funny, but now he felt it was very necessary.

Even if not for himself, he had to consider his family; the principle of "not flaunting one's wealth" was very sound.

Especially for ordinary people, a sudden windfall would immediately attract the collective envy or even hostility of those in the same social stratum.

To name one thing, relatives and friends would come knocking one after another to borrow money—ten thousand, twenty thousand here and there. Would you lend it? If you started lending, it would surely never end. If you didn't, you would immediately be collectively hated by the relatives and friends around you, treated like an enemy, as if they wanted to kill you.

Therefore, although wearing a mask after winning a big prize was criticized for lacking transparency, it was actually very suited to the local reality.

Of course, if you were already worth hundreds of millions and your relatives and friends were all wealthy or influential, winning a few million or tens of millions might not cause such trouble.

However, people like that generally wouldn't buy lottery tickets.

So, first, he needed to get himself a mask?

Chen Feng searched online. Online shopping was convenient, but it would take at least a day or two to arrive. Buying one in a physical store nearby would be hard to find on short notice.

Thinking about how he would look wearing a Mickey Mouse mask, Chen Feng felt it would be too "low-class."

Forget it, he wouldn't wear a mask; it was too much trouble and didn't look good.

Chen Feng decided to wear a large face mask and sunglasses.

If he could still be recognized while dressed like that, then he would have nothing more to say.

He had masks and sunglasses at home, so he just put them on and headed out.

The drive to the prize center went smoothly, and he arrived in about twenty minutes.

The procedures were also very smooth. In the end, Chen Feng received over sixty-two million yuan. It was indeed slightly less than the theoretical amount, but since it was only a difference of a million or so, Chen Feng could more or less accept it.

Several people from charitable organizations asked him to donate, stating it could be used for tax deductions, but Chen Feng did not donate.

When taking photos, Chen Feng wore sunglasses, a large face mask, and a baseball cap. He was essentially fully armed, though he looked much more presentable than someone wearing a cartoon mask.

With another sixty million entering his account, Chen Feng remained very calm.

It wasn't that he had become indifferent to money, but in the face of life, money truly meant nothing. If he could, Chen Feng would be willing to spend his entire fortune to cure his terminal illness.

But that was clearly impossible.

So, while this money was great, it couldn't buy his life. What was there to be excited about?