The two chatted casually for a few moments before Lin Wanwan pretended to ask inadvertently:
“By the way, Sister Li, do you have a habit of buying lottery tickets?”
“Looking at your Moments, you’ve posted records of winning the lottery several times just this year alone.”
Upon hearing about the lottery, Liu Xiaoli, who still had a bit of sleepiness on her face, instantly acted as if injected with chicken blood:
“What! Are you interested too?”
“Let me tell you, my luck this year is seriously good!”
“Just this month alone, I’ve already won twice—once 500 yuan, and once 1,000 yuan!”
Lin Wanwan hurriedly pressed further:
“Then Sister Li, what lottery do you usually play?”
Liu Xiaoli took a sip of her latte before introducing:
“I used to play the Union Lotto, but I felt the chances of winning were way too low.”
“Starting this year, I only play the 36-Pick-7.”
“Although the prize money for this is much lower than the Union Lotto, the probability of winning is very high.”
“I usually buy 20 bets at a time; even if I win the lowest sixth prize, it’s still 200 yuan!”
“How about it?? Interested in playing together??”
After listening to Liu Xiaoli’s introduction, Lin Wanwan let out a complete sigh of relief.
She felt extremely fortunate that she hadn’t fallen into internal friction last night, opting instead to rush over and probe the main party’s stance.
Considering that she needed to gather information today, Lin Wanwan had not only scrolled through Liu Xiaoli’s Moments last night, but also looked into common domestic lottery types along the way.
The model of 36-Pick-7 was very simple.
From among 36 numbers, 7 regular numbers and 1 special number were randomly chosen.
The Special, First, and Second Prizes were floating prizes, while the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Prizes were fixed prizes.
Floating prize meant that the amount of prize money would fluctuate according to the prize pool and the number of winners.
The more people who won the same prize tier, the lower the prize money allocated to each hand.
Fixed prize, on the other hand, meant that the amount of prize money was fixed.
Even if 100 people won at the same time, it wouldn’t affect the amount of prize money.
Her memory was very good; she remembered clearly that the fixed prize money for the Third Prize happened to be exactly 1,000 yuan.
20 bets × 1,000 was precisely 20,000 yuan.
This directly matched up with the contents of the email!!
It was set!!
Lin Wanwan nodded repeatedly:
“Awesome, awesome!”
“Sister Li, what numbers did you buy for this issue?”
“With your luck being so good, buying along with you will definitely win a prize!”
“When I win a prize then, I’ll buy you dinner!”
Liu Xiaoli didn’t decline either, pulling out her phone very readily.
“No problem, I’ve been chasing this set of numbers for many issues!”
“I have a premonition it won’t take long before hitting the jackpot!!”
As she spoke, Liu Xiaoli sent over a purchase screenshot.
“The numbers on there are what I’ve bought recently. If you’re interested, you can follow along and buy them too!”
Lin Wanwan clicked open the WeChat chat box.
On it was a purchase receipt for 36-Pick-7.
The basic numbers were: 2, 7, 8, 15, 24, 28, 36
The special number was: 4
After chatting casually with Liu Xiaoli for a while longer, seeing that time was almost up, Lin Wanwan then hurriedly returned to her workstation.
Lin Wanwan opened the welfare lottery website and found the rules for 36-Pick-7.
Soon, her gaze locked onto the Third Prize.
Third Prize: The bet numbers match any 5 regular winning numbers plus the special winning number to win.
Looking at the screenshot on her phone, a very bold idea suddenly appeared in Lin Wanwan’s mind.
That was whether she could rely on this set of numbers to reverse-engineer the actual jackpot numbers.
One had to know that the Special Prize of 36-Pick-7 could directly take away 60% of the prize pool.
The prize pool for this issue had already accumulated to over 12 million yuan; 60% of the prize money was 7.1 million yuan.
Even after paying 20% in taxes, she could still net 5.7 million yuan.
However, once she suppressed her excited mood and pondered carefully, she realized how absurd this bold idea was.
According to the currently known conditions, the only winning number Lin Wanwan could be completely sure of was actually just the special number.
For the basic numbers, she only knew that 5 of them hit.
Which exact 5 numbers hit, however, was something she didn’t know.
Through this existing information, Lin Wanwan could only use combinations to perform an exhaustive enumeration.
After a few minutes of calculation, a number appeared on the A4 paper.
8,526.
She only needed to buy 8,526 bets of lottery tickets to guarantee winning the Special Prize.
8,000 bets of lottery tickets cost less than 20,000 yuan in total, which could easily bag over 5.7 million yuan in prize money.
This operation seemed enormously profitable.
However, thinking through it seriously revealed how absurd it was.
As someone who never bought lottery tickets, she would suddenly buy over 8,000 bets of lottery tickets all at once.
If she didn’t win, fine; once she hit the jackpot, this absurd behavior would definitely be placed on a high-priority watchlist.
Perhaps on the second day after winning, community workers would be coming to her door to offer warm condolences.
Furthermore, Lin Wanwan thought of another possibility.
That was even if she bought 8,000 bets at once, she might still fail to win the Special Prize.
From the previous two emails, it was clear that the future was not set in stone.
Her 8,000-plus bets of lottery tickets could very well cause the winning numbers to change.
After all, she had heard plenty of rumors like that.
Lin Wanwan took a deep breath, suppressing the restlessness in her heart.
Can’t rush! Must never be greedy!
With such a powerful golden finger, there would definitely be plenty of opportunities to make a fortune in the future; there was no need for her to be in a hurry for quick success.
What she needed to do right now was to stay low, develop quietly, and grow slowly, rather than losing her head in vanity the moment she gained power.
Lin Wanwan stared at the set of numbers on her phone, calculating rapidly in her heart.
Buying 8,000 bets was too conspicuous, but buying only 20 bets felt like a waste.
After all, this was a prize that was set in stone to win.
Gritizing her teeth, she ultimately decided on a middle-ground solution: 100 bets!
This quantity would neither arouse suspicion nor allow the prize money to multiply several fold; even after deducting tax, it would still leave 80,000.
Taking advantage of the one-and-a-half-hour lunch break, she grabbed her phone and ran toward the lottery station near the company.
15 minutes later, looking at the lottery tickets in her hand, Lin Wanwan exhaled a long breath of relief.
Very good! 80,000 yuan secured!
Now she only needed to wait for the lottery draw tomorrow night, and her small vault would increase by 80,000 yuan!
Thinking of this windfall, her mood was exceptionally joyful throughout the entire afternoon.
Work that originally looked extremely tedious became pleasant to the eye as well.
Returning home early, she cooked herself a bowl of noodles casually as usual.
Binge-watching dramas while eating dinner, the time unknowingly arrived at 12:00 midnight again.
Seeing the time in the bottom right corner of the computer screen turn into 00:00, Lin Wanwan briskly closed the TV drama.
Rubbing her hands together somewhat nervously, she then opened her email.
[Time Mailbox: You have a letter from September 17, 2025]
…
“Sister Li is truly my lucky star!”
“200 yuan turned into 80,000 yuan!”
“I’ve decided, from now on I’ll buy lottery tickets following Sister Li!”
…
After Lin Wanwan finished reading the email, the excitement in her heart slowly subsided.
Today’s luck wasn’t considered great; aside from the matter of winning the lottery, her future self didn’t mention any other matters.
Yet it was understandable; after all, that was a huge sum of 80,000 yuan, which almost rivaled a full year of her salary.
If she hadn’t known in advance, she would definitely be insanely excited as well.
Just as Lin Wanwan intended to close the email and prepare to wait for tomorrow night’s draw…
Out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly caught a line of complaint in the email.