Chapter 110: The Cycling Circle

Chapter 110: Chapter 110: The Cycling Circle

At the lottery shop, a banner hung above the entrance: "Congratulations to our customer XXX for scratching a million-yuan grand prize."

Perhaps thanks to this buff, business in the small shop was booming.

Several veteran lottery players smoked as they stared thoughtfully at the trend charts on the wall, occasionally jotting down notes whenever an idea struck them.

A few young men and women had bought a small stack of scratch-off tickets. They were scraping away with coins, cheering from time to time.

"I won! I won!"

"Another twenty!"

The owner was a skinny middle-aged man with blue-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, looking incredibly shrewd. Whenever a customer came to claim a prize, he would offer a few auspicious words of congratulations. For those on a losing streak, he would gently advise, "Your luck isn’t great today. Don’t buy anymore." Even though most customers wouldn’t listen, they formed a deep impression of the boss who actually tried to talk them out of spending money. Naturally, they would return to support his business next time. Relying purely on this "retreat to advance" tactic, the owner had built up an excellent reputation and a loyal customer base.

Su Yunzhou hadn’t supported this "charity cause" in a long time. But this time, he was bound to send the lottery players into a fresh wave of madness.

"Boss, give me a ticket with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7."

"???"

The owner was taken aback. He looked at the neatly dressed young man in front of him. "Handsome, did you misspeak? Are you sure you want this combination?"

"Yes! Exactly those numbers!"

"How many times do you want to multiply the bet?"

"Just once."

"Uh... alright..."

WHIRR.

The owner skillfully operated the machine, and a ticket spat out. Su Yunzhou scanned the QR code to pay.

DING. "Alipay has received two yuan!"

The owner handed the ticket over.

After taking it, Su Yunzhou turned and walked outside. The system’s notification chimed in his mind.

[Detected that the host has purchased a lottery ticket according to the rules.]

[The Guaranteed Lottery Win Scroll has taken effect.]

[This set of numbers is guaranteed to win.]

The veteran players studying the charts nearby revealed disdainful smiles. Observing how others placed their bets and gathering intelligence was a crucial part of the process here—did you really think they were just sitting around studying data?

One of the players blew out a puff of white smoke. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7? If that combination actually wins, that would be the mother of all absurdities..."

"Hahaha!" Another chuckled. "If those numbers are drawn, I bet every lottery player in the country will march to the prize center to protest!"

A girl scratching tickets nearby teased, "Bro, didn’t you just say you wanted to buy a unique combination? I think this one is plenty unique!"

"Uh..." the boy replied. "That combination is a bit *too* unique! I’ll pass!"

Unfortunately, Su Yunzhou didn’t hear their conversation, or he definitely would have dropped a classic line: "Others laugh at my madness, but I laugh at their blindness." Then, he would have thrown his head back in laughter and strode out the door.

Sitting in the driver’s seat, Su Yunzhou was in no rush to leave. Instead, he snapped a picture of the ticket and sent it to Xia Wanqing’s chat window.

A moment later, a message came back. It was a "wait and see" emoji.

Su Yunzhou didn’t reply. Instead, he clicked to accept the group invitation to the "Celestial Paradise Cycling Team Elite Group" in his chat log. After joining, he locked his phone and drove off in style.

Meanwhile, in a cycling club named Peak.

The club manager and group owner, Yu Xiao, stared at his phone with a deeply displeased expression. He swiftly tapped on the avatar for "A Leaf-like Boat." The user’s profile was set to show only the last three days of posts, and there was absolutely nothing posted in that timeframe.

He grumbled inwardly, "Who is this guy? Why did my Goddess Xia drag him into the group?"

After a moment of thought, he sent out a group announcement.

[Welcome ’A Leaf-like Boat’ to the Celestial Paradise Cycling Team. As per the group rules, drop a small red packet to liven things up.]

The group members instantly sprang to life.

I Am a Rider: [Let’s get hyped up!]

Flying Boy: [Is the newbie a babe or a handsome dude?]

[Wow, I just noticed Goddess Xia pulled them in. It must be a pretty sister.]

All wishes come true: [Sister! Just send a small red packet as a token!]

Many others in the group chimed in, and in no time, they had asked all the questions Yu Xiao wanted answers to. No matter which one the newcomer answered, it would be vital intel for him. Later, he could use his authority as the group owner to add the newcomer as a friend and scour their Friends Circle. He thought, "I’m such a genius. I absolutely must find out what kind of relationship this guy has with my Goddess Xia."

While waiting at a red light, Su Yunzhou finally picked up his constantly buzzing phone. After glancing through the group messages, he typed out a response.

[Hello everyone! I’m the newbie!]

As soon as it was sent, the chat erupted again.

Su Yunzhou quickly opened the red packet interface. He inputted the quantity as 30 and prepared to type 200 for the total amount.

HONK HONK HONK.

The light had just turned green, and the cars behind him were already honking impatiently. He hastily punched in his payment password, dropped his phone, and stepped on the gas to drive off.

Upon seeing the red packet appear, Yu Xiao, who had been glaring at the chat, silently counted down five seconds. He tapped. Opened. And then froze. He thought, "Holy shit. Is he really this generous?"

He had grabbed 338 yuan. Ten seconds later, the red packet was completely snatched up, and he was the "Luckiest King."

Looking at the amounts on the page, the luckier ones had gotten over a hundred, the less fortunate grabbed a few dozen, and the most tragically unlucky person had snatched a miserable eighteen cents.

The group chat instantly blew up.

[@A Leaf-like Boat, thanks for the huge red packet, Boss!]

[Thanks for the red packet, Boss!]

[From now on, all newbie red packets must follow this big shot’s standard.]

Amidst this uniform wave of praise, a slightly out-of-place message suddenly popped up.

[I call bullshit! With a red packet this huge, why did I only get eighteen cents?!]

[@Little Handsome, you’re amazing, bro!]

[@Little Handsome, truly a legend!]

Instantly, the group started a copy-paste chain. Annoyed by the messages, Little Handsome continued typing.

[I seriously suspect the group owner’s ’Luckiest King’ has a bug. Unless he sends out another red packet to prove his innocence.]

[Group Owner, please send a red packet to prove your innocence.]

Another round of copy-pasting began. Reading the chat, Yu Xiao smiled helplessly and typed.

[You just have bad luck! How is that my fault?!]

Little Handsome: [Group Owner, please send a red packet to prove your innocence.]

I Am a Rider: [Group Owner, please...]

Seeing that they were about to spam the chat again, Yu Xiao begrudgingly opened the red packet interface. After pondering for a moment, he sent out a massive red packet totaling 400 yuan split into 50 portions. He counted down five seconds again before tapping to open it.

He snatched back exactly 2 yuan.

He thought, "Sigh! I just took a hard loss of sixty yuan."

Once he proved his innocence, Yu Xiao intentionally steered the conversation back, launching a new wave of questions at the generous newcomer.

Several minutes later, Su Yunzhou looked at the hundreds of unread messages and finally realized he had accidentally pressed an extra zero. He thought, "Uh... it’s all that damn car’s fault. They made my hand slip, turning two hundred yuan into two thousand. Good thing I made six thousand six hundred from that meal today. Whatever. I’ll just treat it as a flex."

Faced with the group’s endless probing, he typed:

[No need to guess! Male, straight, driving right now, chat later.]

When this message was sent, the chat fell silent for a moment before several people spoke up again. Most of the replies were from women.

Lulu: [Stay safe~]

All wishes come true: [Thanks for the red packet, drive carefully!]

Cycling Zhang Meili: [Handsome, don’t play on your phone while driving.]

Amidst the majority of polite well-wishes, there was once again a wildly out-of-place message.

Little Handsome: [Bro, driving, huh? What kind of ride? Just curious!]

Instantly, the tone of the group went off the rails again.

[Curious +1]

[I bet it’s an automatic! That’s why the boss has free hands to send red packets!]

[Not necessarily! A manual transmission can free up your hands too.]

Meanwhile, Su Yunzhou, who was legitimately just driving his car down the road, received a call from his Old Iron, Lin Shouqing. The latter first excitedly shared his "battle results" from the previous night, and then followed up with a baffling question.

It left Su Yunzhou momentarily stunned, completely at a loss for words.