“One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand…”
Song Ying returned to the staff dormitory and opened her phone to count her bank balance again. She had twelve million yuan in her account!
Not twelve thousand, not one hundred twenty thousand—twelve million!
That was twelve times one million!
This was the money she’d won from buying a lottery ticket. She’d won fifteen million, and after taxes, she had twelve million in hand!
Song Ying felt a sense of unreality. She quietly pinched her thigh—it hurt, so she wasn’t dreaming. She really had twelve million!
Oh my god! Twelve million!
Five million she’d use to buy a house, one million for a car, and three million to keep in the bank and live off the interest…
Just as Song Ying was planning her beautiful future, Aunt Zhang, a coworker resting in the dormitory, asked her.
“Song Ying, are you really quitting?”
Song Ying turned off her phone and looked down from the top bunk. “Yeah, Aunt Zhang. I’m going back to my hometown.”
Aunt Zhang, who worked the pastry station, said, “The head chef is just like that. It’s not like you’ve only known him for a day—he just has a bad temper…”
Song Ying worked as a chef. After graduating from high school, she didn’t go to university. Instead, she went straight to culinary school to learn cooking. It wasn’t because she couldn’t get into college—her college entrance exam scores were actually decent, not that bad at all.
Liberal arts, over 430 points.
Not enough for a first-tier university, but definitely enough to get into a second-tier university.
However, she’d always been especially interested in cooking and culinary arts since she was young. Becoming a chef had been Song Ying’s childhood dream, so she went to culinary school to learn.
Perhaps because she’d been interested in cooking since childhood and had a natural talent for it, she learned incredibly fast. Over those three years, she studied Chinese cuisine, French cuisine, and desserts—not missing a single one, and she mastered them all.
After graduating, she applied for a chef position at a large hotel and worked there for four years. Her salary had gone from five thousand to eight thousand.
About half a month ago, she’d argued with the head chef over a work-related matter. Feeling upset, she’d passed by a lottery shop and casually bought a ticket.
Song Ying hadn’t expected to win at the time. She bought it and forgot about it. Who would’ve thought she’d end up winning, and a substantial amount at that?
Of course, Song Ying’s decision to quit and return to her hometown wasn’t because she’d won the lottery—she’d been thinking about this for half a month already.
She’d graduated from high school at sixteen, spent three years in culinary school, and worked for four years—seven years in total.
She’d been away from home for seven years. Although she’d gone back occasionally during that time, she’d spent most of it away, with very little time to be with her grandparents.
Her parents had died in a car accident when she was ten, and she’d been raised by her grandparents.
Song Ying thought that the old folks were getting up there in years—in their sixties now—and couldn’t always be without someone around. So she’d considered it and decided to quit and go home.
As for what work she’d do after returning—whether to open a small restaurant in the village or apply at a restaurant in the county town—Song Ying figured she’d discuss it with her grandparents once she got back.
The day she’d talked to her grandparents on the phone about arguing with the head chef and not wanting to work anymore, they’d been very supportive of her coming home.
Her grandfather had said, “We have over three hundred sheep. Even if you don’t work, we can still support you.”
Her grandmother had agreed, saying, “Our little convenience store makes a good amount of money too. You don’t need to put so much pressure on yourself.”
And now, the lottery ticket she’d bought had won—and a lot of money at that. Fifteen million!
A fortune falling from the sky—there was no way she couldn’t go back home now!
Earlier, when she had wanted to quit her job and go back home, there was no way she hadn’t felt pressure. She could stay at home for ten days or half a month, but she couldn’t just keep staying there forever.
She was already twenty-four—was she really going to let her grandparents support her? How embarrassing!
But now she had money, and she wasn’t afraid anymore. With money, she had no pressure, and she could do whatever she wanted!
“Aunt Zhang, it’s not because of the head chef. This is a decision I made after careful consideration. My grandparents are getting old, and they need someone around…” Song Ying explained.
Her father was an only child, and her mother had a younger brother. When she wasn’t at home, if anything came up in the family, her uncle or her second uncle’s son—her cousin—would handle it.
She couldn’t keep troubling them all the time.
Aunt Zhang nodded upon hearing this, showing understanding. “That’s true.”
“So when are you leaving?”
Song Ying said, “My flight is at one tomorrow afternoon.”
Aunt Zhang said, “Alright.”
Song Ying smiled. In the working world, having conflicts with colleagues and getting scolded by your boss was completely normal. She wasn’t a child anymore—there was no way she would just throw in the towel just because her boss had yelled at her a few times.
This was the result of careful consideration.
In the afternoon.
Song Ying went to the hotel where she worked to complete her resignation procedures.
“If you ever need anything work-related in the future, you can come to me.” Before she left, the head chef said to Song Ying.
Song Ying smiled. “Okay, boss. If I ever can’t find a job in the future, I’ll definitely come to you.”
What Aunt Zhang said was right—the head chef was a good person, just with a particularly explosive temper. But that was understandable. He was the only one managing the entire hotel kitchen, and anything that went wrong fell on him.
Moreover, most of the people in the kitchen were young male chefs. With that bunch, you had to yell at them hard, or else they wouldn’t listen.
When resigning, you couldn’t possibly take all your belongings with you on the day you left. It was always a matter of gradually moving things out starting from the day you announced your resignation.
Song Ying’s luggage was the same. Having lived there for four years, she had quite a lot of stuff—clothes, shoes, all sorts of things. She had already mailed them ahead to her hometown, and they had probably arrived at her house by now.
The next day, Song Ying carried just one twenty-inch suitcase, nice and easy.
Her hometown was in Horqin, Inner Mongolia, and her workplace was the capital.
By plane, the trip was only an hour and a half—just enough time for a nap.
Song Ying had planned to sleep on the plane, but she couldn’t. She was too excited. She wanted to look at the houses in their city.
She was going to buy a house. Even if she didn’t live in it, she could rent it out and make money!
Unfortunately, there was no internet on the plane.
But she had a rough idea of the housing prices in their city.
That was because she had previously wanted to save up to buy an apartment. She had already saved over a hundred thousand yuan.
Their hometown city, Horqin, was a fifth-tier city, and housing prices weren’t very expensive.
Two million yuan would be more than enough to buy a large flat.
An ordinary apartment building would cost around seven or eight hundred thousand.
Song Ying planned to buy one large flat and four ordinary apartments.
She wasn’t going to buy property in any other big city—there was no need. From now on, she would stay in her hometown, so she might as well buy a house there.
An hour and a half later, she arrived at the city’s airport.
The person picking her up was her cousin Narisu. That’s right—her mother was Mongolian, her father was Han, and she was of mixed heritage.
In her hometown, the villages in their area were a mix of Mongolian and Han residents.
“Hey, tall one, you’re not leaving again this time, are you?”
Song Ying said, “I’m not leaving, cousin.”
Narisu nodded. “That’s good too. You can find a job back home, either in our banner or in the city—close to home and convenient for visiting.”
Song Ying smiled. “That’s what I was thinking too, big brother. But I’ll need to rest for a few months before going out to work.”
“Alright, rest up, take some time to relax properly.” Narisu agreed.