Daily Intelligence: Forced to Save the Beautiful President at the Beginning

9: Chapter 9: The live stream about buying scratch-off lottery tickets exploded.The Jiangcheng Road lottery station was across from the RT-Mart supermarket. The green sign with white lettering was half-tilted, and a ”Scratch-off Winning Report” was pasted on the glass door. The ”500,000” on the red paper had faded from the sun. Before even entering, a noisy commotion could be heard inside, as if someone was arguing.

Zhang Fan pushed the door open, and the smell of tobacco mixed with paper wafted toward him.

The room wasn’t large, and there weren’t many people, but the noise was chaotic.

Looking closely, a phone stand was set up against the wall. A burly man was holding a Scratch-off and talking incessantly to the camera. Beside him, two young men were busy—one holding a fill light and the other squatting on the ground tearing tickets—clearly running a livestream.

”Happy New Year.” It was already the twenty-eighth day of the first lunar month. Although only two days remained until the end of the first month, Great Xia people held the belief that ”it’s still New Year as long as the first month hasn’t ended.” Zhang Fan smiled and cupped his hands toward the people in the room. ”A belated Happy New Year to everyone.”

The young man holding the fill light froze for a moment, then waved his hand. ”Happy New Year! Happy New Year!”

The burly streamer also turned his head, a smile still on his face. He nodded at him, his hands never stopping as he continued to speak to the camera, ”Look, family, if this one doesn’t win either, we’re really losing big today...”

Zhang Fan’s gaze swept around the counter. The red and green Scratch-offs were piled like small mountains, but he didn’t see any ”Chinese New Year” themed ones.

He knocked on the counter and shouted to the owner, who was handing tickets to the streamer, ”Boss, get me a set of the ’Chinese New Year’ series Scratch-offs. I’ll pick a few myself.”

The boss paused, turned around, and said with a hint of apology, ”They’re gone.”

”Huh?” Zhang Fan was stunned and leaned in half a step. ”The new ones? The green ones with ’Chinese New Year’ printed on them? They’re all sold out?”

”Exactly.” The boss pointed at the burly man who was livestreaming. ”This gentleman bought them all.”

Only then did Zhang Fan take a close look at the streamer—nearly 1.9 meters tall, standing there like a small mountain. He estimated him to be around 250 pounds, yet he had a round, babyish face with big, bright eyes and two dimples when he smiled. The contrast was so great that one couldn’t help but look twice.

”You don’t know Brother Cannon?” the young man holding the fill light interjected, his tone tinged with pride. ”He has nearly ten million followers on TikTok. If you haven’t followed him yet, please do.”

Hearing the commotion, Brother Cannon turned his head while holding a Scratch-off, his baby face beaming with a smile. ”Today’s challenge is 10,000 yuan worth of Scratch-offs to see how much we can make back.”

He pointed to the table, which was half-covered in scratched-off duds. ”’Chinese New Year’ is a new release, five yuan per ticket, with a top prize of only 50,000. Usually, no one buys them, so I bought them all just for the novelty.”

Zhang Fan looked at the stack of unscratched ”Chinese New Year” tickets at the corner of the table, feeling a bit stifled.

He had heard that the winning rate for this series was mediocre. He hadn’t expected to run into someone buying them all today, and it just so happened to be the ones with the system-specified ending number 33...

He sighed and muttered under his breath, ”Seems I don’t have the luck for this fortune.”

Brother Cannon was complaining to the camera about ”scratching all afternoon and only winning two hundred.” Hearing this, he chuckled. ”Brother, you want to buy ’Chinese New Year’ too? I have a dozen or so left. If you don’t mind the small amount, I can transfer them to you?”

Zhang Fan’s eyes lit up. Just as he was about to nod and say ”thanks,” the bullet comments on Brother Cannon’s phone screen suddenly exploded—

[Holy crap, this handsome guy looks amazing in a suit! Brother Cannon, don’t scam him!]

[Move, move! I want to see the whole guy! The cut of those suit pants is perfect!]

[Licking the screen! I want his WeChat! I’ll gift Brother Cannon 10 Carnivals in exchange!]

[Don’t start a bidding war! 20 Carnivals! Just for a shot of his face!]

The dense stream of bullet comments rolled by even faster than Brother Cannon scratched tickets. Some shouted ”don’t give him the lottery tickets,” some urged ”ask for his number,” and some even took screenshots of Zhang Fan and posted them in the comments section, which instantly grew by hundreds of replies.

Zhang Fan was dazed by the spectacle and subconsciously took half a step back, moving away from Brother Cannon’s livestream camera.

He had never been stared at by so many people in his life, especially in a livestream room; he felt uncomfortable all over.

Brother Cannon slapped his thigh in amusement as he watched the bullet comments. He moved his phone closer to Zhang Fan. ”Brother, your popularity is something else! I’ve been streaming for nearly half an hour, and it hasn’t been as lively as the half-minute you were on screen.”

He pushed the remaining Chinese New Year Scratch-offs on the table forward. ”Seriously, do you want these dozen or so? Just for those Carnivals people gifted because of you, I’ll give these to you for free.”

Someone in the livestream immediately commented, [Don’t give them to him! He’s dressed so well, he definitely isn’t short of this little bit of money!]

But even more people were shouting, [Give them to him! Give them to him! Watching a handsome guy scratch tickets is much more interesting than watching Brother Cannon!]

Even someone directly started gifting, and the animated special effect of a ”Carnival” floated across the screen.

Zhang Fan glanced at the stack of ”Chinese New Year” tickets; the one with the ending number 33 was definitely mixed in there. He gritted his teeth and pulled his wallet from his backpack. ”Alright, I’ll pay you for them.”

He didn’t want to owe any favors, and even more, he was afraid this ”good luck” might fly away.

As soon as he said this, the livestream went even crazier. Some started betting on ”how much this handsome guy could win,” while others were trying to identify the brand of his suit, saying ”it looks custom-made, he must be a rich second-generation heir experiencing life.”

Zhang Fan had no time to look at the bullet comments. His eyes were fixed on the stack of lottery tickets, with only one thought in his mind: get them quickly and scratch out that 50,000.

When he unzipped his backpack, half a stack of cash slid out from the compartment with a rustle—all 100-yuan bills. It was the 15,000 yuan he had gotten from pawning the necklace that morning. After paying 2,400 yuan in rent, there was still 12,600 yuan left, which he hadn’t had time to deposit in the bank.

He pulled out a bill and handed it to Brother Cannon, rubbing the edge of the banknote with his fingertips. ”Just as you said, I’ll take the remaining ’Chinese New Year’ tickets.”

Brother Cannon glanced at the Scratch-offs on the table, about fourteen of them. ”Five yuan each, so 70 in total...”

Before he could finish, Zhang Fan slapped 100 yuan on the table. ”Brother Cannon, I’ll pick another 6 ’Good Luck Streak’ tickets from your pile to make it an even 100. It’ll save us the trouble.”

The bullet comments in the livestream exploded again—

[He actually paid? This handsome guy is quite straightforward!]

[Did anyone notice the handsome guy’s bag is full of red bills! That thickness must be at least tens of thousands, right?]

[Who carries that much cash nowadays? Is it New Year’s red envelope money?]

[It’s not gambling winnings, is it? Otherwise, who would carry that much cash? Can someone report this!]

Brother Cannon looked at Zhang Fan’s money, stunned for a moment, then laughed. ”No, man, I told you, I can just give them to you. I’m not short of 100 yuan.”

”That won’t do.” Zhang Fan pointed to the ”Good Luck Streak” nearby, his tone quite firm. ”If I take them for free and end up winning, it’ll be hard to explain. Aren’t there enough lawsuits over lottery tickets these days? I don’t want to invite that trouble.”

Just a few days ago, he had come across a news story about two childhood friends who bought a lottery ticket together, won, and ended up at the Police Station over the split, ruining a friendship of decades.