9:20 PM.
“01, 03, 11…”
Holding her lottery ticket in trembling hands, Li Xi compared each number against the winning combination displayed on her phone screen. Her fingers shook so badly that she could barely keep hold of the device. When she reached the sixth number, she abruptly stopped, too afraid to look at the final blue ball.
Don’t panic. Calm down.
She tried desperately to steady her breathing.
Even if the last number didn’t match, she had already secured second prize. That was still an enormous amount of money. It would completely change her life.
After mentally preparing herself for a long while, she slowly moved her finger away and revealed the final number.
10
It matched perfectly.
Li Xi’s mind instantly went blank.
Her entire body went numb, and her heart hammered wildly against her chest, so violently that she felt dizzy and nauseated. She took several deep breaths in succession before finally managing to calm herself down.
She still couldn’t believe it.
She wasn’t related to the lottery bureau director or anything, so how could she possibly win first prize?
Earlier that day, her supervisor had scolded her so harshly that she nearly exploded from frustration. While passing by a lottery shop on her way home from work, she had impulsively spent two yuan on a ticket. At the time, she had jokingly thought, If I win the jackpot, I’ll quit my job and slap my resignation letter directly onto my boss’s desk.
Who would have thought the heavens would actually take her joke seriously?
This must be a dream.
Once she woke up, she would still be the same exhausted corporate slave, doing the workload of a CEO while earning less than a supermarket cashier.
Li Xi pulled the blanket over her head and forced herself to sleep.
Normally, she could fall asleep the moment her head touched the pillow. But tonight, she felt as if she had drunk several cups of strong coffee. Her eyes hurt from squeezing them shut, yet sleep remained impossibly far away.
“Ah… is this really happening?”
In her entire twenty-four years of life, the biggest prize she had ever won was a limited-edition game skin from a Weibo giveaway. Even then, she had immediately bragged that she already owned it, causing the excitement to vanish instantly.
Unable to resist, Li Xi unlocked her phone once more and carefully checked the numbers again.
Then again.
And again.
She repeated the process countless times throughout the night.
The next morning, she stared at her bloodshot reflection in the bathroom mirror and pinched her cheek hard.
“Ow!”
The sharp pain instantly confirmed reality.
She wasn’t dreaming.
Without hesitation, she grabbed her phone and called her supervisor.
“Hello, Old Liu? I’m taking a week off starting today.”
“What? The city inspection team is coming? So what? Are the rest of the department employees only there to collect salaries? Is the office going to collapse if I’m not there?”
Ignoring Old Liu’s furious shouting on the other end, Li Xi decisively hung up.
Several days later, standing on the winner’s stage while wrapped so tightly she resembled a desert traveler, Li Xi finally understood why lottery winners always disguised themselves so absurdly.
The nonstop clicking of cameras nearly blinded her.
To be extra safe, she pulled a pair of oversized sunglasses onto her face.
Her parents had passed away early, and she had been raised solely by her grandmother. Although she had no close relatives or friends, that didn’t mean people wouldn’t swarm toward her the moment they learned she had money.
Only after returning from the provincial capital to her tiny rented apartment in the county town did Li Xi finally feel grounded again.
At the designated bank, she had exchanged the ceremonial check for real money deposited directly into her account.
After taxes, the total prize came to twelve million yuan.
She had immediately donated two million yuan on the spot, leaving exactly ten million yuan in her account. Adding her original savings of one hundred and thirty thousand yuan, she had officially become wealthy overnight.
“The Great King ordered me to patrol the mountains, da-da-da-da…”
Her phone ringtone suddenly rang out cheerfully.
“Hello…” Li Xi answered sleepily.
“Where are you? Everyone at the office is running around in chaos, and you still haven’t shown up for work?”
“It’s only the fourth day of my leave. Didn’t I ask for a full week off?”
“Do you even want this job anymore? If you don’t want to work, then resign immediately! Stop wasting everyone’s time!”
There it was again.
The endless threats about firing her.
Li Xi had long since grown sick of it.
“You’re right. I don’t want the job anymore. Feel free to fire me.”
After saying that, she immediately hung up.
To hell with work.
To hell with corporate life.
From this day onward, Li Xi was a completely new woman. She was going to buy a house, purchase a luxury car, start her own business, marry a handsome rich man, and reach the pinnacle of life!
Well… starting a business might be a little unrealistic.
But buying property and a car was definitely possible.
The moment the thought crossed her mind, she grabbed the keys to her tiny electric scooter and headed straight toward a residential complex she had been eyeing for a very long time.
It was one of the few fully completed developments in their small county.
These days, too many people spend their entire life savings on pre-sale apartments, only to end up trapped with unfinished buildings and crushing mortgages. Even if completed properties were more expensive, they were still safer.
“Hello, miss. How may I help you?”
A tall and handsome sales consultant greeted her warmly.
“What floors are still available for the eighty-eight-square-meter units?”
Li Xi had already visited several times before. Housing prices in the county weren’t outrageously high, but because she wanted to save enough for a larger down payment and reduce her mortgage burden, she had always hesitated.
“The eighty-eight-square-meter layout is our best-selling unit,” the consultant replied with a professional smile. “At the moment, we only have the second, fourth, and eighteenth floors left.”
“…Since those are the only options, maybe I’ll check out Qingjiang Court next door instead. Their layouts look pretty good too.”
Seeing her turn to leave, the consultant panicked.
“Please wait! We still have other layouts available…”
“Ah! Move! Get out of the way!”
A shrill scream suddenly rang through the sales office.
Before Li Xi could react, something warm trickled down her forehead.
Her consciousness rapidly faded.
Her final thought before darkness consumed her was strangely calm.
As expected, ordinary people like me aren’t meant to survive the luck of winning first prize.
Chaos instantly erupted inside the sales center.
Employees rushed frantically to help carry Li Xi into the arriving ambulance.
Yet amid the panic, nobody noticed that the blood covering her left hand had mysteriously vanished.
The plain silver ring she always wore on her index finger gradually turned transparent before disappearing completely.
…
I’m dead.
Li Xi floated numbly in darkness.
The greatest tragedy in life was having money left to spend while your life had already ended.
What a waste.
She hadn’t even touched her ten million yuan yet.
A dense white mist surrounded her.
Through the fog, she could vaguely make out the corner of a bamboo pavilion.
Standing before it was a stone monument engraved with several flowing characters:
The Langhuan Realm.
Strangely enough, Li Xi could understand the ancient script perfectly despite never having seen it before.
She climbed the stone steps and repeatedly pushed against the bamboo door, but it refused to open.
Left with no other choice, she wandered through the surrounding mist in search of an exit.
No matter which direction she walked, however, she always circled back to the same place.
It seemed the only accessible area was this tiny clearing.
Just as boredom began creeping in, a sharp pain suddenly exploded in her head.
Wait.
Could dead people still feel pain?
“She’s awake! Doctor, hurry, she’s opening her eyes!”
A voice sounded beside her.
“The patient suffered a severe head injury, but fortunately no vital areas were damaged. It’s only a mild concussion.”
A doctor in a white coat examined Li Xi’s pupils before finally confirming she was no longer in danger.
“Miss Li, we sincerely apologize for this terrible accident.”
The manager from Xijiang Yue stood anxiously beside her hospital bed.
“Our company will take full responsibility for your treatment expenses during your hospitalization. Additionally, regarding the apartment you were interested in, we’re willing to offer you the best available floor and our maximum discount…”
Listening to the manager’s nonstop apologies, Li Xi could only nod mechanically.
First she won the lottery.
Then she survived getting smashed in the head by a crystal chandelier.
She really was blessed by fate.
At that moment, only one thought remained in her mind.
Thank goodness I’m still alive to spend my money.
Determined not to die before enjoying her fortune, Li Xi immediately opened her shopping apps and purchased every item she had previously placed in her cart but never dared to buy.
In only a few minutes, she spent tens of thousands of yuan.
The feeling of shopping without checking the price was indescribably satisfying.
A week later, after confirming there were no lingering issues, the doctor finally discharged her from the hospital.
The wound on her forehead had already formed a scab, and aside from the mild concussion, there seemed to be no lasting effects.
On top of that, she received sixty thousand yuan in compensation from the developers.
Not a bad deal.
Still, she completely abandoned any intention of buying property at Xijiang Yue.
That place was simply too unlucky.
Instead, she went next door to Qingjiang Court and purchased a spacious 142-square-meter apartment.
The layout faced north and south, the floor plan was perfectly square, and the lighting was excellent.
She paid in full with cash.
At 4,300 yuan per square meter, the final total, including taxes and fees, came to nearly 650,000 yuan.
Since nobody ever complained about owning too much property, Li Xi later traveled to the provincial capital and spent another three million yuan on a fully furnished luxury apartment.
By the time she returned to her rental apartment, mountains of online shopping packages had already begun piling up downstairs.
She borrowed a small cart from the courier station and hauled everything upstairs.
There was no woman alive who disliked opening packages.
This one contained a floral camisole that would pair perfectly with a cardigan during autumn.
That one held a double-sided cashmere coat, still painfully expensive even after a seventy percent discount, an item she had admired for months without daring to buy.
She had ordered so many things that she couldn’t even remember everything anymore, making each package feel like a mystery box.
“Oh?”
She pulled out a solid gold bracelet from a famous jewelry brand.
It weighed exactly 55.7 grams.
The heavy bracelet rested comfortably against her wrist, and the bright golden shine looked stunning against her pale skin.
Li Xi admired it happily for a while before suddenly freezing.
Her ring.
Where was her ring?
Had someone taken it while she was unconscious in the hospital?
That didn’t make sense. It was only an ordinary silver ring, hardly valuable enough for anyone to steal.
A wave of sadness washed over her.
That ring had belonged to her late grandmother.
Aside from the old house in her hometown, it was the only keepsake her grandmother had left behind.
Now that it was gone, even the dazzling gold bracelet seemed to lose its brilliance.
Sighing softly, Li Xi opened a food delivery app and ordered an extra-spicy Qianjiang chicken giblet set meal.
She didn’t feel like cooking.
Right now, she needed something spicy and a cold beer.
As for the doctor’s warning about maintaining a bland diet and avoiding alcohol?
She ignored it completely.
She would deal with the consequences later.
Li Xi normally handled alcohol fairly well, but after finishing just one bottle of beer, dizziness quickly overtook her.
Her eyelids grew heavy.
Then, through her blurred vision, the familiar white mist slowly emerged around her once more.
Wasn’t she just sitting at the table drinking beer?
What is happening now?