Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 338: How Can You Believe in This Kind of Superstition?
The two of them were chatting when someone knocked on the door.
"Te-Teacher Zhang, I'm sorry I'm two minutes late. My shoelace broke while I'm on the way here."
Pei Qian subconsciously glanced at the time. It was just past 4:00 p.m.
The college offices often arranged for students to be on duty, mainly to help counselors and other teachers run errands and do small tasks within their ability.
This student was probably the one helping out in Zhang Wei's office.
Zhang Wei didn't mind at all, as if he had already expected this: "It's fine. If you run into special circumstances next time, don't panic. Being a few minutes late is okay, what matters most is staying safe."
Pei Qian turned to look. A tall girl wearing a thick winter school uniform walked in from outside. She looked to be just under 1.7 meters tall. She was wearing a pair of faded jeans and sneakers, one of which had a broken shoelace.
Many universities don't have uniforms, and Handong University was no exception.
The uniform she was wearing was clearly from her high school days. It was already close to December, winter had set in, and many people had started wearing light down jackets. The warmth provided by this uniform was, frankly, quite worrying.
Her hands and cheeks were indeed flushed red from the cold, but judging by her expression, she seemed to be used to it.
"Oh, perfect timing. Yishu, this is the senior who put 500 yuan into your meal card."
The girl looked flustered and quickly bowed slightly. "Thank you, Senior!"
While Pei Qian was saying "No need, no need," he looked at Zhang Wei in confusion.
Zhang Wei introduced her, "She's a freshman in our department, Tang Yishu. She's also part of your sponsorship program. Hey, hey, hey—no watering the plants, no watering the plants…"
Tang Yishu had picked up the watering can beside her, intending to water the plants, but Zhang Wei stopped her.
She looked a little at a loss, twisting her fingers as she asked, "Then… Teacher Zhang, is there anything else you need help with…?"
Zhang Wei handed her a document from the desk. "Run an errand for me. Take these to get stamped. Be careful on the way."
Tang Yishu nodded, took the documents, glanced at them, then left with her head lowered.
Pei Qian was a bit puzzled. "Why did you emphasize safety so much?"
Zhang Wei smiled helplessly. "Didn't you hear what she said? Her shoelace broke on the way here. Who knows what kind of trouble she might run into while running errands."
Pei Qian: "?"
Zhang Wei continued, "The first day she came on duty, she watered a pot of pothos on my desk. For some reason, the leaves turned yellow the very next day. I went through a lot of trouble—adding nutrient soil, putting it in the sun—before it finally survived."
"I don't know what's going on with this kid. All sorts of inexplicable things keep happening to her. Tripping over a rock while walking, having her laundry blown away by strong wind, those kinds of things are everyday occurrences for her."
"The most outrageous thing was a class dinner once. She called the restaurant to make a reservation, and we all clearly heard the server say they had booked it for our group. When we got there, the server said they'd forgotten about it. The restaurant did give us a fruit platter as compensation, but after that, we never dared let her handle things like that again."
"But she's very conscientious in her work, and she studies hard."
"Her family conditions aren't very good, so I arranged for her to be on duty here so she could earn a bit of money. Still, I don't dare let her do too much. Even when I have her run errands, I worry she'll trip or bump into something."
Pei Qian looked shocked. "There's really someone like that?"
Zhang Wei nodded. "Yes. Some classmates even joke about her and gave her the nickname 'Tang Yi-Shu'—lie down and lose. It does sound a bit harsh, but from a purely scientific standpoint, it really is hard to explain all this…"
Pei Qian said righteously, "Teacher Zhang, we're all highly educated people here. How can we believe in this kind of superstition!"
"Ahem. If you don't mind, I could consider offering her a part-time job."
Zhang Wei looked pleasantly surprised. "Really? That would be great! Honestly, she doesn't earn much working here. I've tried to slip her some money in private, but she absolutely refuses to take it."
"It would be great if you have a suitable part-time job for her. Don't worry, she's just a bit unlucky. Whether it's academics or character, she's absolutely one of the most reliable among our department's freshmen."
Pei Qian wasn't interested in any of the latter parts, except for one thing in particular: luck.
While the two were talking, Tang Yishu came back, holding the documents with the official stamp.
For some reason, there was a red bump on her forehead.
Zhang Wei took the documents. "What happened to your forehead?"
Tang Yishu said a little embarrassedly, "I—I was running a bit too fast and accidentally ran into a glass door…"
"Teacher Zhang, don't worry, the door is fine. I'm fine too."
Zhang Wei didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "What's that you're holding?"
Tang Yishu was still carrying a paper bag. She held it out with both hands and handed it to Pei Qian. "Senior, this is for you. Thank you."
Pei Qian took it in confusion and looked inside, discovering that it was a scarf.
It was a solid color, but it was obvious at a glance that it was hand-knitted, it's very different from the scarves sold in shopping malls.
Pei Qian lowered his head and looked at his own high-neck sweater, the thick down jacket he was wearing open because the office was too warm, and then thought about the business car waiting for him at the west gate of the campus.
Then he looked again at Tang Yishu, who was still wearing a thick school uniform and yet had cheeks red from the cold…
Pei Qian said sincerely, "I think you need this scarf more than I do…"
Tang Yishu hurriedly waved her hands. "No, no, no, Senior, please keep it. I—I'll knit another one in a couple of days."
Zhang Wei smiled. "Just take it, Pei Qian. That's just how she is, she doesn't like owing people favors."
"Yishu, from now on you won't need to come here to be on duty anymore. Your senior will find you a part-time job, and you'll be able to earn more income."
"Ah?" Tang Yishu's big eyes were filled with confusion.
"What are you standing there for? Go on, listen to your senior and let him arrange work for you. You won't need to come here on duty anymore." Zhang Wei waved his hand and went back to his work.
Just like that, Tang Yishu was inexplicably "sold" by her counselor. With no other choice, she quietly followed behind Pei Qian and left the department office building.
As he walked, Pei Qian thought about what kind of job he should arrange for Tang Yishu.
In theory, he was just bringing her back to the company as a kind of bad-luck totem, but on the surface, he still had to give her something to do. He couldn't exactly have her sit around doing nothing at the company every day, right?
So what kind of job should it be?
Pei Qian was deep in thought when suddenly his foot slipped, and he nearly face-planted onto the ground.
Tang Yishu reacted quickly and grabbed Pei Qian, sparing him the fate of falling flat on his face.
Pei Qian was still a bit shaken. "Thanks."
Tang Yishu's face flushed red. "No need to thank me. I—I'm used to it. Sorry, Senior."
Pei Qian lowered his head and realized that at some point his right shoelace had come undone. While walking, his left foot had stepped on the right shoelace, which was why he had nearly tripped.
Pei Qian fell into silence.
Could there really be such a thing as this kind of mysticism?
Someone who was born unlucky and whose bad luck could even spread outward and affect the people around them?
After helping Pei Qian steady himself, Tang Yishu quietly stepped to the side and very consciously kept more than a meter of distance from him, probably afraid that he might be affected by her again.
Pei Qian wasn't angry at all. On the contrary, he was very happy.
"Come, come, follow me."
The two of them headed toward the west gate of the school.
Outside the west gate were many small shops, one of which sold scratch-off lottery tickets, the kind that cost ten or twenty yuan each, with multiple prize areas you could scratch open.
Pei Qian brought Tang Yishu to this shop, pulled out two hundred yuan without another word, and said, "Boss, ten tickets."
After getting the scratch-offs, Pei Qian looked at Tang Yishu, who was standing somewhat awkwardly at the entrance of the shop, and fell into a brief moment of contemplation.
After some thought, Pei Qian decided not to hand the scratch-off tickets to Tang Yishu right away, but to scratch them himself first.
Whether luck was good or bad, you needed a point of comparison.
Seeing that Pei Qian was about to start scratching, Tang Yishu instinctively stepped back, keeping more than two meters of distance from him.
Pei Qian didn't say anything and lowered his head to scratch.
Five yuan.
Ten yuan.
Fifty yuan.
The more Pei Qian scratched, the darker his expression became.
As expected, I really am a lucky bastard!
Out of 200 yuan worth of scratch-offs, he actually scratched out more than 300 yuan, he really made a profit!
Pei Qian had long felt that there was something wrong with his luck. Otherwise, how could it be so hard for him to lose money?
He directly handed the tickets to the shop owner. "Exchange all of this for scratch-offs."
For single tickets with prizes under 5,000 yuan, you could redeem them directly at the sales outlet. If it was over 5,000, you'd have to go to the lottery distribution center.
Pei Qian converted all the winnings back into scratch-offs, then waved Tang Yishu over.
"You scratch."
Tang Yishu shook her head vigorously. "No, Senior, I… I can't. My luck is really bad."
Pei Qian shoved the scratch-offs straight into her hands. "It's fine. Listen to me, just scratch."
Tang Yishu pouted. "Senior, th-this is more than three hundred yuan…"
But under Pei Qian's gaze, she could only unwillingly start scratching them at the counter.
Pei Qian watched intently from the side.
One ticket, two tickets, three tickets…
From the moment Tang Yishu started, the winning rate plummeted in a straight line. It was common for several tickets in a row to yield absolutely nothing.
Every few tickets, Tang Yishu would stop and look at Pei Qian, her eyes shimmering with tears.
Pei Qian responded with a "go on" gesture, signaling her to continue.
By the time half of them were scratched, there were only a handful of winning tickets, and each was worth just ten yuan. It could only be described as a bloodbath.
"All right, stop," Pei Qian said.
Tang Yishu stopped immediately, as if granted amnesty.
Pei Qian took the remaining scratch-offs. Just as Tang Yishu was about to retreat another three meters away from him, Pei Qian stopped her.
"You stay right here."
Pei Qian lowered his head and continued scratching.
This time, after scratching seven or eight in a row, not a single one was a winner!
Tang Yishu unconsciously wanted to step back, but every time she made the slightest move, Pei Qian would glance at her, and she wouldn't dare move anymore.
Finally, all of the three-hundred-plus yuan worth of scratch-offs were scratched. Pei Qian counted the winning tickets—there was a total of 120 yuan, and more than half of that had been scratched after he took over again.
The drop in luck was practically visible to the naked eye!
After scratching such a large pile of tickets, Pei Qian was exhausted. He handed them to the shop owner and redeemed the prizes.
Tang Yishu stood off to the side, nervously twisting her fingers, looking extremely distressed.
Pei Qian hadn't believed in mysticism before, but now he did.
He spent 200 yuan and got back 120. Although 80 yuan went to support the welfare lottery cause, Pei Qian was overjoyed.
"Here, this is for you."
Pei Qian handed the remaining 120 yuan to Tang Yishu, but she pouted and shook her head.
"Still that stubborn, huh? Not willing to accept benefits from others for nothing."
With no other choice, Pei Qian put the money away and led Tang Yishu out of the convenience shop.
Five minutes after the two of them left, the shop owner gathered up a pile of losing scratch-offs, preparing to throw them away.
A Handong University student passed by, came in to buy a bottle of water, and happened to see the large pile of discarded scratch-offs on the counter.
"Scratch-offs?"
"This shit is just an IQ tax."
"And someone even bought this many…"
He muttered to himself, expressing his disdain.
However, after buying the water, he hesitated for a long while, then still pulled out twenty yuan and bought one.
The moment he scratched it open, his eyes went wide.
"Holy crap—ten million yuan!!"
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