Chapter 93 - 92: Watching the Show and Transformation

Chapter 93: Chapter 92: Watching the Show and Transformation

The countryside was usually open and quiet for the most part. Sometimes, speaking just a little louder could carry a long way. The soundproofing of the windows in Chen Jingle’s house was actually decent, but it couldn’t withstand people talking loudly right downstairs.

From their conversation, it was clear they were talking about winning tonight’s lottery draw.

The lottery here referred to the illegal underground lottery. Locals often joked, "Jiangbei people are born with three ways out: one is to work in the Pearl River Delta, another is to join the KLF Group, and the last is to buy underground lottery tickets."

However, Chen Jingle had no interest in this. He was even disgusted by it. To put it bluntly, this kind of thing was just gambling.

Unfortunately, this stuff was extremely popular in the Lingnan area, especially among the elderly in rural villages, who were absolutely obsessed with it. To what extent?

The living expenses given by their children were mostly spent on buying these tickets, and they would even borrow money to buy more. Around the turn of the millennium, there were plenty of people whose families were ruined because of this.

Everyone dreamed of getting rich overnight, holding onto various so-called secret cheat sheets, constantly studying them over and over, only to ultimately throw their money down the drain. It was like they were possessed.

It wasn’t until recent years, after the authorities cracked down heavily on this industry multiple times, that it subsided a bit. However, it was still very popular among the folks in Lingnan, just shifted to more secretive underground spots.

Why was Chen Jingle so clear about this?

It was because his grandfather used to love buying these. He had argued with his grandmother over it countless times and even secretly racked up a lot of debt. The family only found out when debt collectors came knocking at the end of the year.

His second uncle was so furious he almost got into a physical fight with him. Now, his grandfather had restrained himself a bit, but he would still buy ten or twenty yuan’s worth every draw.

"Wouldn’t it be better to use this money to buy ribs, meat, and fish instead of throwing it down the drain?" Chen Jingle simply couldn’t understand. Since the old man wouldn’t listen no matter what was said, Chen Jingle couldn’t be bothered to say anything anymore. Let him do whatever he wanted. It wasn’t his money anyway.

...

For this kind of lottery, as soon as the results of each draw came out, someone would bring the news back from town, shouting the winning numbers all the way to notify everyone. To know who won in which village, one only had to check the numbers they bought.

The reason everyone was so lively tonight was that someone in the village had hit the jackpot for a certain number combination, reportedly totaling over eight thousand yuan. For farmers who broke their backs toiling in the fields all day, this was no small sum of money.

The winner was an old man in his seventies named Chen Xi. He was of the same generation as Chen Jingle’s grandfather, so Chen Jingle had to call him Great-Uncle. He was also a hardcore lottery addict who bought numbers every single draw.

Even though he looked like he had one foot in the grave, he still insisted on driving his mobility scooter to the market outside every day to study numbers with others. If he had put this much energy into studying, he would probably have gotten a diploma from a senior citizens’ university long ago.

Chen Jingle’s house was only about a hundred meters away from Chen Xi’s. Seeing everyone discussing so enthusiastically, he curiously opened his window a crack, wanting to hear more clearly. After all, everyone had a sense of curiosity.

As soon as he opened the window, he heard someone shouting:

"HAHAHA, I won! I won!

"Eight thousand yuan! I won eight thousand yuan! I have eight thousand yuan, and I’m going to the red-light district to find an eighteen-year-old! An eighteen-year-old!..."

It was Chen Xi’s voice.

Yikes. Didn’t this bear some resemblance to Fan Jin passing the imperial examination? Speaking of which, wasn’t Master Fan a Lingnan person too?

Chen Jingle, who had just opened the window, was momentarily stunned. "Did I hear that right? Is it really that outrageous?"

The other people at the scene were probably even more dumbfounded. He was an old man in his late seventies, and the first thing he thought of after winning a windfall was to go visit prostitutes?!

Was he kidding? And obsessing over eighteen-year-olds at that—it was just... so hard to keep a straight face!

This reminded Chen Jingle of a video he had scrolled past on the internet before. It was also about an old man with one foot in the grave who leaned on a cane and could barely walk, yet still wanted to go out and solicit services.

Yikes. He wasn’t even afraid of dying in the middle of it.

As for Chen Xi’s family, they had originally been happy about this windfall, but upon hearing the old man say this, they immediately lost it.

His wife was so furious she just started cursing him out.

"If you ask me, you should have died a long time ago! You’re just wasting the family’s food by living this long..."

Cursing wasn’t enough to satisfy her, so she directly lunged at him, scratching and clawing.

His two sons were also furious. It would have been one thing if he was just acting crazy at home, but he had done it in front of so many people. They had completely lost face this time.

Everyone had clearly come to congratulate him, but he had to turn it into such a farce. It was humiliating!

Now a perfectly good joyous occasion had suddenly turned into a family war... It was truly hard to comment on.

Seeing this, the others had no choice but to take the opportunity to quickly leave, though they were definitely sneering in their hearts.

"He’s in his seventies or eighties and still thinking about that kind of stuff. What an absolute dirty old man!"

"And what if they do give you an eighteen-year-old? Can you even get it up?"

...

The village was only so big. If anything happened, it would spread from one end of the village to the other in minutes, and could even spread across several surrounding villages!

Without a doubt, tomorrow and for a long time to come, everyone would definitely use this as an after-dinner joke.

Chen Jingle shook his head. "Sometimes I really feel like this world is so fucking crazy."

No wonder everyone said that most people only looked normal, but were actually either fools or lunatics. They just hadn’t acted up yet, leading others to mistakenly believe they were normal.

And yet, these fools and lunatics loved to have children, resulting in more and more fools and lunatics in the world.

However, after this whole commotion and watching the drama unfold, that muddled, somewhat surreal, sleepwalking-like feeling Chen Jingle had experienced this afternoon suddenly vanished.

How strange.

Given the situation, he couldn’t be bothered to listen to the noise outside anymore. He quickly closed the window and continued watching his travel vlogs.

Having enjoyed his fill of the gossip, he decided to let it go; his own matters were far more important.