"Young man, you really shouldn't buy this."
The man in the athletic vest choosing bets nearby kindly advised him, "If you don't follow football, just casually buy a random lottery ticket for fun. In this lottery game, how could the buyers possibly outsmart the house?"
Lu Man smiled. "Thanks for the advice, Uncle. I watch football too, just wanted to try this combination."
The uncle in the vest was a veteran fan. "Let me break it down for you. What World Cup year doesn't have a dark horse? Look at that young man just now—if he really picked ten powerhouse teams and bought five thousand tickets, what if some underdog pulls an upset and makes it to the final four? His ten thousand bucks would go right down the drain."
"Ireland and Cameroon reached the quarterfinals in 1990, Bulgaria in 1994, and Croatia in the semifinals in 1998. Football upsets are completely normal."
"Yeah, yeah."
The veteran fan's expert speech drew agreement from the other onlookers.
"Not to mention the distant past, just look at the 2002 World Cup—both the US and Senegal made the quarterfinals."
"Senegal, I don't even know where it is on the map."
"South Korea and Turkey both made the final four that year. Who could have seen that coming?"
"South Korea doesn't count, do they even deserve it? Damn match-fixing scum, hope their whole family dies."
"Young man, take my advice. Pick France to win, and then follow up with the Netherlands, Ukraine, and Germany."
...
Passersby were kindly trying to help analyze, but Lu Man was definitely not going to listen to them.
Buying a few hundred more bets would guarantee a profit, but Lu Man didn't need to rely on the lottery to get rich; he just needed to solve his family's immediate crisis.
Winning a tens-of-millions jackpot with a few hundred system bets all at once would inevitably attract media attention and exposure, making it impossible to explain to his family.
Tens of millions—that was it. His rebirth advantage would allow him to accumulate substantial wealth in the future, and he could genuinely utter the famous quote from a certain wealthiest man: "I have no interest in money. I have never touched money."
These forty-nine bets were expected to yield two million after tax. At the thought of this, Lu Man glanced sideways at the poster where the old scoundrel Gu was making a donation to sports charities.
"Boss, please print my selected bets." Lu Man handed him a hundred-yuan bill.
Seeing that he was young, the store owner also offered a word of advice: "Young man, it's not easy for your parents to make money. Did you bring your ID? Are you of legal age?"
"Had my eighteenth birthday last month."
Lu Man's name came from the grain full solar term in summer. He was born on May 21, 1988, which happened to be Grain Full day.
So his family, including his impudent younger sister, all called him "Xiaoman".
Coincidentally, Lu Xiaoshuang was born on October 24, 1990—that's right, her name corresponded to the Frost's Descent solar term in autumn.
Lu Man pointed his finger at old scoundrel Gu's poster. "Boss, you know Chairman Gu of Pingyuan Group, right?"
"I know him, but he doesn't know me." The lottery shop owner looked at him with newfound respect. "What relation is he to you?"
Lu Man said with a straight face, "I'm his son-in-law."
"Hahaha!" The store owner took the money, assuming he was just joking. "I'll print your ticket for you. Young man, with your talent for bragging and stirring up trouble, you could go set up a stall at Baliwan for two days and easily earn this hundred back!"
Amused by him, Lu Man took the ticket, tucked the two million or so into his pocket, and walked out the door.
Even with two million secured, Lu Man still had a lingering trace of caution in his heart.
Having been reborn, he worried about what butterfly effect might occur.
A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon River in South America can stir up a tornado in Texas, USA, a week later.
According to this theory, if Lu Man sneezed right now, the tiny airflow would be swept up by a sudden gust of wind, merge into a larger southeast monsoon, then affect the Pacific ocean current winds, pass through Alaska and Canada, make landfall somewhere in Aquitaine, France, blow over to Germany, and finally cause a sudden weather change in Berlin that gave that jerk Marco Materazzi a severe cold so he couldn't play...
It sounded far-fetched, but the theoretical significance of the butterfly effect was to show that things in a chaotic system influence each other, and tiny changes lead to vastly different future trajectories.
These forty-nine football lottery tickets couldn't be relied upon one hundred percent to win.
He could treat it as a test of the butterfly effect to see whether future trends would change before and after his rebirth.
A truly foolproof way to make money still had to be earned with his own hands and feet.
When he returned home, Lu Weihua had gone to work his shift at the shop. The fragments of a few broken bowls and dishes lay scattered on the floor, making it look like they had quarreled even more fiercely after Lu Man left.
Lu Man found his mother, Liu Jing. "Mom, I want to discuss something with you. I'm going out of town for a few days."
He slid his phone screen in front of Liu Jing.
The screen displayed the campus BBS of Binhai Normal University, Apricot Altar Tide Sounds.
...
In the evening, at the Gu Family.
Gu Yan was also wearing a shirt and suit vest at home, his hair combed back into a neat, stylish middle-aged handsome look.
Walking down the split-level stairs, Wen Yi and their twin daughters were already dining.
The TV screen covering the entire wall was playing *My Own Swordsman*, and the voice of "Xiangyu serving you braised pork intestines" brought gentle chuckles from the mother and three daughters.
Gu Yan sat down beside Wen Yi and picked up the remote control to change the channel.
"Dad, don't change it." Gu Lingyi bit her spoon, her words muffled. "We all like watching this."
"A made-up show, what's so good about it?" Gu Yan scoffed dismissively.
After changing channels a few times, he landed on *Drawing Swords*.
"Watch this, a new war drama, it's really interesting."
Wen Yi could only shake her head at having such a careless husband. "Just let them watch for a while. The daughters are watching TV, and you still have the nerve to fight for the channel."
"The point is this new drama is really good. Look at them, fighting the little devils, digging underground tunnels, throwing over three thousand grenades—so thrilling."
Wen Yi was almost amused to the point of anger. Who recommends anti-Japanese military dramas to their wife and daughters?
"Can you ask what the two of them actually like to watch? This year's 2006 Year of the Dog Spring Festival Gala—the series finale of this *My Own Swordsman* clashed with the gala time. Lingyi and Jiashuo would rather skip the Spring Festival Gala and run over to our mother's house to finish watching the finale."
"I'm not talking about Lingyi." Gu Yan let out a huff through his nose. "Was Jiashuo there to watch TV? She went there to find that kid from Manager Lu's family, didn't she?"
Before Gu Yan made his fortune, he and Lu Man's father, Lu Weihua, used to do logistics work under the same fleet boss. Later, Lu Weihua was promoted to manager of the logistics department.
Gu Yan was sentimental and valued relationships; even now as a billionaire business tycoon, he still addressed his old buddy as "Manager Lu."
Gu Jiashuo sat gloomily, using a fork to poke and scratch at the vegetables on her plate.
"She's still a child, do you have to have such strong opinions about her?" Wen Yi scooped a few spoonfuls of vegetables onto his plate. "Eat quickly, you dawdle even coming down the stairs—you're the slowest in the whole family."
"I'm full." Gu Jiashuo abruptly stood up, too lazy to even spare Gu Yan a glance, and hurried upstairs.
Gu Yan tutted, "This child."
He turned to ask Wen Yi, "Lingyi is so well-behaved and attached to me, whatever I say she listens to. Both daughters were raised the exact same way, so why doesn't Jiashuo listen to me now that she's older..."