Entering the courtyard, Li Shuoxing noticed two extra bamboo baskets in the corner of the courtyard, each written with a big 11.11 on it. They were obviously the complementary items for the Double Eleven red envelope rain.
Li Shuoxing tapped on one of the baskets, and the basket immediately stuck to his finger, moving along with it. By moving it beneath the falling red envelopes in time, he would be able to collect them into the basket.
At that moment, Su Mingqian also came to the courtyard.
Li Shuoxing immediately commanded, “Cub, I’m in charge of the top half and you’re in charge of the bottom half. I’ll catch the first wave of red envelopes and you’re in charge of catching the ones I don’t catch. Pay attention, the red envelope time is one minute in total.”
Su Mingqian had no questions. He held the basket flat with both hands, his head slightly raised, his little face tense, his eyes towards the sky, particularly serious and earnest!
So serious that Li Shuoxing wanted to poke his face, preferably poke out a dimple.
The two were in charge of their respective areas and worked together. Li Shuoxing effortlessly slid the basket to catch things, still having the time to look over at Su Mingqian and see the person who’d just been super serious now running with short legs with the basket in his arms. His hair was shaking along with his clothes, and there were dark marks on the back of his shirt, as if soaked with sweat.
But even so, he was meticulous and didn’t slow down at all.
So Li Shuoxing’s hand shook a bit, dropping several red envelopes.
This caused Su Mingqian’s to protest, “Ximu, be careful. The red envelopes are falling, concentrate.”
Li Shuoxing, who was wronged: “…”
Who’s to blame for my lack of concentration.
Excessive cuteness causes shaky hands!
The countdown ended and the red envelope rain stopped. Apart from some red envelopes that were really out of reach, they basically caught 90% of the amount in this one-minute countdown.
The two added up the results.
Su Mingqian: “110 red envelopes in total.”
Li Shuoxing pondered, “I’ll see the probability of something coming out of a red envelope.”
With that, he turned over the basket and soon saw a brief description of the event on the bottom of it.
[Red Envelope Rain]: Limit of 1 minute. After opening, there is a 10% probability of obtaining an item.
Calculating that, 110 red envelopes would yield about 11 prizes.
Li Shuoxing casually opened a red envelope.
A full discount coupon fell out.
[System: 80-50 purchase coupon for fresh produce quality pigeon]
A good start!
Li Shuoxing raised his eyebrows and felt that he was really lucky today, so he opened another one.
[System: 15 credit coupon for fresh produce quality pork]
Not bad, not bad.
So he opened a third red envelope.
[System: 200-50 red envelope coupon for all categories]
With a 10% probability, he opened three red envelopes in a row and none had failed.
Li Shuoxing was very happy. He felt as if his luck was changing.
At that moment, on the other side.
Su Mingqian was also opening red envelopes.
A lottery ticket fell out.
A 20 face value threshold-free coupon fell out.
A redemption coupon that could be redeemed directly for a pack of yoghurt fell out.
The two compared the prizes they’d gotten.
Li Shuoxing, who was originally satisfied with his haul, gradually became suspicious. “Although my coupons’ face value is larger than yours, and the rewards are indeed okay, I don’t know why… I always feel like mine are a showy facade <sup>1</sup> 面子光 [miàn zi guāng] means to be shiny and beautiful on the surface, a metaphor for looking bright and lacking substance. and yours are the real benefits?”
In any case, the opening still needed to be done.
The two continued on, settling the remaining red envelopes together.
In the final calculation, a total of 30 red envelopes had something come out.
Calculating the probability, 30/110*100=27.27%. Similar to collecting pumpkins, it was far higher than the 10% announced by the system.
Li Shuoxing was even more satisfied.
What satisfied him most was that in the process of opening red envelopes, he and Su Mingqian had gotten a total of three lottery tickets.
He felt like three shiny golden lottery items were in his hands.
After opening the red envelopes, they took a brief break. The focus of the Double Eleven event, the three major venues, finally opened.
Only hearing a firecracker-like explosion, a new road appeared right in front of the courtyard.
The road opened so abruptly that they were stunned.
Su Mingqian: “This road…”
Li Shuoxing came back to his senses. “It should be the way to the venues.”
Su Mingqian hesitated. “Are we going?”
Li Shuoxing: “Of course. Come on, let’s go and see what good things are in the first venue.”
After he said that, curious about the new map, he didn’t wait for the little person and directly tapped on the road, switching the scene into the new area first.
Su Mingqian was still standing in the same spot.
He listened to the other person’s voice. At the beginning of the sentence, the other’s voice was still in his ears; by the end of the sentence, that voice was like rising smoke, drifting away.
Let’s go ahead.
Su Mingqian thought in his mind.
He looked at the road in front of him. In his earliest days, what he wanted to see most was a way out, but now… now it hadn’t changed.
It was just that he’d been disappointed so many times that he couldn’t help hesitating.
Su Mingqian had finished hesitating.
He took a deep breath, pressed down the excitement in his heart, and walked forward as well.
Exiting the courtyard, he entered a beautiful street.
Tall buildings stood on both sides and the road in the middle was spacious. The trees to the left and right, though a bit craggy in midwinter, had straight trunks and vigorous roots; it was clear that they would wear brand new green clothes in the coming spring.
It was beautiful here.
Just like in the past, there was no one and no sound to be heard.
Su Mingqian was standing here.
He touched the cold of the wind in his breath.
As the oncoming cold wind filled his lungs, he couldn’t help shivering.
Then.
“Cub?”
The familiar voice rang in his ears again, this time carrying some doubt.
“Have you not arrived yet?”
“Right away.”
Before Su Mingqian could respond, his voice had given an answer of its own accord.
The slight chill enveloping his body suddenly disappeared.
Humans are social animals.
Su Mingqian thought.
I’m lucky to have met Ximu.
He thought again.
Ximu may have various problems, such as always calling me “cub”… but no one is perfect. I have to be tolerant.
Su Mingqian thought very seriously.
Then, when he finished walking down the street, he came to a wide clearing, with three large shopping malls stationed in a triangular <sup>2</sup> 品 arrangement, a small fountain bubbling in the middle, spacious roads on both sides, lush vegetation, and a forest of lamp posts tied up with advertisements for many different products, which at first glance looked like a row of fluttering flags.
“Cub, here.”
Li Shuoxing had observed the place a step ahead.
The three large shopping malls were the three major venues that would open today. The one on the left was fresh food and general merchandise, the one on the right was clothing and furniture, and as for the one at the front, it was probably the three question marks venue.
Now, the venue on the left was open. When they entered, they saw dense layers of shelves and a dazzling array of goods. If it weren’t for the fact that no one else was around, there’d be a shock of being in the real world shopping in a supermarket.
There were no discounts to buy necessities.
There were discounts to buy discounted items.
Li Shuoxing had a full discount coupon for pigeon and a credit coupon for quality pork on hand. He looked for these two things first.
Soon, the freezer appeared in front of them, with pigeons and pork inside.
[Quality Pigeon]: 39 contribution points / pigeon
Li Shuoxing compared the full 80-50 coupon he had on hand and began to calculate.
Two pigeons are 78, less than the full discount. Three pigeons are 117, 117-50=67. If I spend 67 contribution points to buy three pigeons, the price of each pigeon is 22.3, rounding to a half discount.
Seems like a pretty good deal…
Li Shuoxing hesitated, but still picked up three pigeons.
But he felt something wrong.
He then looked at the freezer next door. There was a discount on it.
Five jin <sup>3</sup> A jin is a Chinese mass measurement equivalent to 500 grams or around 1 pound. / set, 80% discount for one set.
[Quality Pork]: 9 contribution points / jin
[Ordinary Pork]: 4 contribution points / jin
Pork was a definite must. After all, only with meat did cooking taste good and sell for a decent price.
The only question was, how much to buy…
Li Shuoxing began to ponder.
I have a 15 contribution coupon for quality pork, so I can spend 3 contributions on two jin of quality pork, making full use of the discount!
But two jin seems too little.
If I buy five jin directly, the venue has its own 20% discount, so the two discounts can be stacked.
So—
“Shit, so how exactly should I buy to get a better deal?!”
Li Shuoxing felt as if his mind, which had become accustomed to writing stories, couldn’t handle this kind of calculation.
He shook his head in a trance and continued to calculate.
Five jin of quality pork at various discounts is 21 contribution points.
Five jin of ordinary pork at various discounts is 16 contribution points.
Quality pork is still a little more expensive than ordinary pork, but after all, it has a quality in front, so it’s still worth it… right?
Li Shuoxing took the pork once more.
He hesitated, feeling more wrong.
But pigeon and pork were just two small things. There were still mountains and seas of other goods around.
Li Shuoxing was soon distracted by other things.
An hour later, the two rejoined.
Su Mingqian was carrying a nearly full basket in his hand.
Li Shuoxing had two carts packed with all kinds of fresh produce and raw materials for production.
Su Mingqian: “…Did you buy a little too much?”
Li Shuoxing’s voice was also distressed, but he wasn’t distressed that he’d bought too much. Rather: “Cub, I’ve bought almost 533 worth of things. How much did you buy? If we get to 600 yuan, we can use another coupon.”
Su Mingqian: “0.”
Li Shuoxing: “Huh?”
Su Mingqian explained, “I just redeemed the things from the redemption coupons.”
Li Shuoxing: “Then let’s just get other random stuff to get to 600, so that it’ll be 450 with the discount, quite a bit better than the 433 after the current 533 discount.”
Su Mingqian was still a little hesitant. “You really didn’t buy too much?”
Li Shuoxing: “Of course not. These are all raw materials. In the future, whether it’s making goods or making food, they can be sold to make back the money.”
He spoke with utmost calm.
At that moment, a mysterious power covered his eyes, making him completely blind to the true value of the contribution points in the upper left corner of the screen.
Su Mingqian thought so too.
So he was with Li Shuoxing once again, looking for random things, gathering together some things, and stacking all sorts of offers such as the venue’s internal ones, red envelope gifts, and discounts that came with the Double 11 skin, finally settling at 450 contribution points.
The event had an automatic home delivery service, so the two of them walked out of the venue empty-handed after shopping.
Li Shuoxing started off excitedly discussing with Su Mingqian how to use the raw materials to make items to sell.
Three steps later.
Li Shuoxing took a glance at his contribution pool.
He was horrified.
“…Shit?!”
Su Mingqian was startled. “What’s wrong?”
“…N-nothing.” Li Shuoxing recovered from his shock.
He stared at the contribution points for three seconds.
Recalled exactly what he’d just done.
But… he had already bought them. Anyway, it was all raw materials, and the price was really affordable. When they were produced and sold to the system, it would recover all the health and make a lot of profit.
“Besides,” Li Shuoxing whispered to himself, “after buying all the necessary things, I won’t have any more money to waste. Anyway, I won’t put in any more money…”
Just as his voice fell.
The system suddenly dinged.
[System: You have triggered the hidden task [Carnival Victory].]
[System: You obtain the item: Love Credit Card × 1]
[Love Credit Card]: A beautiful and noble credit card with a credit limit of 18888 contribution points. Within the credit limit, you can swipe the card as many times as you like. The contribution points must be repaid within 15 days.
1
面子光 [miàn zi guāng] means to be shiny and beautiful on the surface, a metaphor for looking bright and lacking substance. 2
品 3
A jin is a Chinese mass measurement equivalent to 500 grams or around 1 pound.