9: Trying to trick me?

"Boss, I still have a few left. Let me finish scratching them, and then I'll redeem them all at once."

"Sure, go ahead and scratch them."

Seeing Ye Su place that scratch-off lottery ticket at the very bottom, the boss sensibly walked away.

The regular customer originally wanted to keep watching the excitement, but after Ye Su turned around and glared at him, he had no choice but to reluctantly return to his seat.

Once no one was around, Ye Su finally scratched off the remaining five tickets, and it turned out he scratched out another hundred-yuan prize ticket.

"Boss, time to redeem."

"Alright." After checking the four scratch-off lottery tickets, the boss said nonchalantly, "It's 8,170 yuan in total. There's no personal income tax on prizes under 10,000, so I'll just transfer it to you via WeChat or Alipay."

As he spoke, the boss was about to take the four scratch-off lottery tickets.

But Ye Su frowned and suddenly reached out to grab the four scratch-off lottery tickets: "Boss, I think scratch-off lottery tickets have to be redeemed through the system, right? Why are you talking about transferring money to me directly via phone?"

Stopped by Ye Su, the boss's expression was clearly somewhat unnatural: "Redeeming prizes requires going through the procedure. I was afraid you'd find it troublesome, so I was just going to transfer it to you directly."

"It's fine, let's just use the system."

Ye Su read novels often, so he knew some common knowledge.

For some people, unredeemed lottery tickets and scratch-off lottery tickets like these were very useful.

Especially for those large-amount lottery tickets over 10,000, redeeming them at the Lottery Center yourself would incur a 20% personal income tax, so plenty of people were willing to buy them back at face value or even at a premium.

This 8,000-yuan scratch-off lottery ticket in Ye Su's hand didn't even need to have personal income tax deducted, so it could at least be used as a 10,000-yuan lottery ticket.

Saying he was afraid it would be troublesome—the boss was clearly thinking he didn't know anything and wanted to take the opportunity to keep this scratch-off lottery ticket and resell it later.

If the boss were honest in his business and added a bit of money for him, Ye Su would have sold the scratch-off lottery ticket anyway. After all, this behavior was skirting the rules, and no one would care about such a small amount of money.

But the boss's behavior clearly showed he was treating him like a sucker, and Ye Su didn't want to suffer this loss in silence.

"If this one can't be redeemed, then just help me redeem those three. I'll try another store for this one."

Upon hearing this, the boss's expression gradually became awkward; it was obvious he realized Ye Su knew what tricks he was playing.

"Brother."

At this moment, another customer entered the store. The boss didn't dare to make a scene, fearing that others would find out and affect his business, so he could only lower his voice and lay his cards on the table with Ye Su.

"How about this? I'll buy all your scratch-off lottery tickets for 9,000 yuan. How about that?"

"9,000 yuan... That works."

The boss definitely wanted to make a profit, and Ye Su felt this price was fair enough, so he agreed.

Seeing Ye Su nod, a smile finally appeared on the boss's face.

When he ran this lottery station, he only got a commission of 0.16 yuan for a two-yuan lottery ticket, and for various other scratch-off lottery tickets, the sales commission was only ten percent.

This single transaction today was basically equivalent to a week's income for the store.

Seeing Ye Su take out his payment code, the boss efficiently scanned and transferred the 9,000 yuan:

"Brother, if you scratch out prizes like this elsewhere in the future, you can bring them to me. We can negotiate the price."

"No problem."

After saying that, Ye Su left the lottery station amidst the envious gazes of the customers nearby.

The boss didn't take Ye Su's reply to heart and began to cancel the few small-amount scratch-off lottery tickets.

Scratching out 8,000 yuan once was already a stroke of great luck; how could he possibly scratch out another one?

...

"Deducting the 300 yuan for buying the scratch-off lottery tickets, this deal netted a profit of 8,700, which is 700 more than what the system said. Sweet."

It had only been eight days since he activated the system, yet he had already earned nearly 15,000 through it. Who knows how much higher this was than the monthly income of many laborers!

When there's good news, it's only natural to share it.

Ye Su picked up his phone, opened the WeChat [Loving Family (5)] group, and with a wave of his hand, sent out a 1,000-yuan red packet divided into five parts.

After sending it, Ye Su clicked on one himself: "98.32 yuan? Are you kidding me!"

[Brother: Yo, what's the occasion today? The young master is actually taking the initiative to send red packets.]

[Brother claimed your red packet]

[Brother: ???]

[Brother: Why are you suddenly sending such a big red packet?]

Then, his older brother Ye Xin posted a screenshot of the red packet in the group, which showed that he had grabbed 352.87.

With this, the family group chat blew up.

It would have been one thing if the family's financial situation were still good.

In the current situation, it was normal for his family to be worried about Ye Su sending a 1,000-yuan red packet.

[Sister: What's going on? Did you find money?]

[Mom: What's going on?]

Before things got serious, Ye Su sent the transfer record from the lottery station to the group.

[It's the weekend today. I went out for a stroll this morning and had a sudden whim when I passed by a lottery station, so I went in and bought a scratch-off lottery ticket. It turned out I scratched out 9,000 yuan.]

[Sister: Holy crap, a 9,000-yuan scratch-off lottery ticket? What does it look like? Send me a photo to see?]

[Sister claimed your red packet]

[The winning scratch-off lottery ticket was definitely taken by the boss. Where am I supposed to take a photo for you?]

Confirming that Ye Su was lucky enough to win 9,000 yuan, his second Sister Ye Ruo immediately opened the red packet.

Only Ye Jianguo and Su Wan did not touch the red packet.

[Mom: It's rare to have such good luck. You should keep this money for yourself. Don't starve yourself at school. Why are you sending us red packets?]

[Dad: Your mom is right. Also, these things aren't exactly the proper path, after all. Don't get addicted to these things just because you won once, you hear me?]

[I know. I just thought of it when I passed by the lottery station, so I bought one to play for fun.]

[Mom: It seems [The Lord's blessing] is what allowed you to win.]

[Brother: Here we go again. If there really were [The Lord's blessing], why don't I see him blessing my Tmall store with explosive orders?]

[Mom: Don't talk nonsense!]

Ye Su's hometown was Guying City, a place where people [Worship the Lord] on the first and fifteenth of every lunar month. The older generation had long been accustomed to linking [Luck] with [The Lord].

Even when Ye Su passed his driving test (Subject Three) on the first try, Su Wan said it was because [Worshiping the Lord] worked.

By Ye Su's generation, fewer people believed in these things, so it naturally led to such scenes of conflict between the old and new ways in the family from time to time.

[Alright, just treat it as [The Lord's blessing]. It's rare to win a prize, so you guys should just accept the red packets. It's not much money anyway.]

[Sister: Exactly. It's rare to see some money come back, why are you still being polite with him? If you don't want it, you can send it to me after claiming it.]

Interrupted by the two siblings, Ye Su and Ye Ruo, the argument between Su Wan and Ye Xin also ceased.

In the end, under the persuasion of the two siblings, Ye Jianguo and Su Wan finally opened the red packets sent by Ye Su.

With the news of Ye Su winning the prize, the family group chat became lively for a rare moment.

Looking at the happy family atmosphere in the group, Ye Su also secretly vowed that he must help his family pay off their debts as soon as possible, so that the family could always be this harmonious and happy.

"I still need to find an opportunity to ask my older brother and older Sister how much money the family still owes..."