Daily Intelligence System: Financial Independence

"Tomorrow afternoon I still have to make another trip over to Wofosi."

After refreshing today’s four pieces of intel and finishing a cigarette, Jiang Tao finally turned back to the bedroom and set a 7 a.m. alarm on his phone.

Tomorrow morning he still had to go play "hero saves the beauty" over at Qiu Lizhen’s place.

Naturally he couldn’t sleep in like before and wake up whenever.

Nothing more happened that night.

The next morning.

When Jiang Tao woke up, his mom and Xu Li were carrying breakfast to the table.

His dad was sitting on the sofa, holding a book titled "Restaurant Operations and Management in One Volume," recharging himself.

"Second son, Lili said you hit the trending list again yesterday, said you’re really good at playing that whatever golf?"

Seeing his son come out of the room, Jiang Wen put down the book in his hands and looked at his son with a face full of delight.

Jiang Tao grinned and said, "So-so, just messing around, they were just too trash."

"My son is getting more and more impressive, almost a big star now! There were over a hundred thousand people in the livestream yesterday, that’s insane!"

"Son, the biggest influencer in our Ping County only has just over 500,000 followers, and your follower count is more than ten times his!"

"You really make your mom and dad proud! You’re so promising!"

"Yesterday in our village’s WeChat group, everyone was posting screenshots of your livestream and all praising you."

After putting down the bowl of breakfast she was carrying, Tian Xiaomei looked at her son with a big smile, her face full of shared glory.

All the things that had happened since the New Year, Tian Xiaomei felt like she’d been dreaming.

Every night before going to sleep, she would repeatedly confirm with Jiang Wen whether she was dreaming.

She was afraid that one day she’d wake up and be back to that old life of poverty and hard labor.

"Haha, really? I didn’t see it. I find it annoying, I muted the group messages a long time ago."

Jiang Tao chatted with a grin as he sat down at the dining table.

Xu Li turned sideways and sat next to Jiang Tao, looked at him and said with a smile:

"Honey, last night Brother Xingguo sent a few hundred yuan worth of red envelopes in the group,

said that since our village produced a big star like you, we should all share in the fun."

"Yeah? Then we really made Brother Xingguo spend money."

Hearing Xu Li’s words, Jiang Tao was slightly stunned.

Very quickly he figured out that Jiang Xingguo was using this chance to cozy up to him.

Although Jiang Xingguo was just a tiny village director in their village, he still had a certain prestige there.

The villagers were the ones who usually took the initiative to cozy up to him.

Xu Li reached her hand out toward Jiang Tao and said with a smile:

"Since Brother Xingguo sent some, we can’t just sit back and do nothing.

Dad, Mom, Third Brother and I all sent a few as well, each of us spent 1,000 yuan, remember to reimburse us today."

"Hahaha, sure, sure, I’ll reimburse you for this, I’ll send you a red envelope in a bit."

While they were on the topic of the hometown WeChat group, Jiang Tao switched gears and said:

"Oh right, Lili, Mom, Dad, I have to go back to our hometown on a business trip this afternoon, to meet a client. I should be back in at most a day or two."

"Mm, then be careful on the road."

Xu Li nodded obediently and didn’t ask what kind of client, or what he was going to do.

"You also need to watch what you eat when you’re by yourself, don’t skip one meal and then stuff yourself the next, that’s bad for your stomach."

"Go, go, work comes first."

His mom and dad didn’t say much more, they just reminded Jiang Tao to drive safely and remember to eat on time.

In parents’ eyes, even when their kids are seventy or eighty, they’re still kids.

...

While the Jiang family was having a warm breakfast together.

Having stayed up all night, eyes shot through with blood, Liu Qiang had already been sitting for over an hour in a breakfast shop opposite Qiu Lizhen’s lottery store.

He’d arrived at the breakfast shop at 6 a.m.

He ordered two baskets of buns and a bowl of tofu pudding, and then just sat there for over an hour.

The breakfast shop owner and his wife saw Liu Qiang’s dark expression and heard him muttering "hit, hit" under his breath like he was possessed.

They didn’t dare go up to provoke him, in case they caused any unnecessary trouble.

Anyway, the shop wasn’t that busy, there were plenty of empty seats.

"It really hit, it actually really hit, how could I have sold that ticket!"

"Heaven gave me a chance and I still blew it!"

"A single second prize is more than 200,000, that ticket of mine must’ve won over a million at least!"

"A million! That’s a million!"

"With that money I could’ve retired early and just enjoyed a retired life!"

"That money was supposed to be mine, I can’t just let it go like this, I absolutely can’t."

"Maybe this stroke of luck already used up all my luck for the next few decades."

"Even just as compensation, that guy should at least compensate me half, right? Without me, he wouldn’t have won a cent."

"No, half is still too little, only a bit over 500,000! That ticket winning is all thanks to me, I should at least get seventy percent!"

"Right, seventy percent is my bottom line, I can at most give him thirty percent!"

"Spend just over 10,000 to win over 300,000, he should be satisfied."

"You can’t be too greedy as a person!"

Liu Qiang muttered to himself as he stared at the winning numbers on his phone screen.

Although the ticket he’d bought had already been sold to Jiang Tao and they’d signed a transfer agreement, Liu Qiang had continued to follow the results.

Honestly, when the draw was happening last night, he’d been praying it wouldn’t win, absolutely wouldn’t win!

After all, he’d already sold that ticket to Jiang Tao.

The less Jiang Tao won, the more it would prove how wise his decision to sell that ticket had been, and the more balanced he’d feel.

The opposite was also true: the more Jiang Tao won, the more unbalanced he felt.

When he saw that the ticket he’d sold had actually hit multiple second prizes, plus multiple third and fourth prizes.

Liu Qiang was dumbfounded on the spot.

Last night, he refreshed the winning result page on his phone thousands of times, hoping he’d read it wrong.

But every time, the result was the same.

The ticket he’d sold at a low price had really won.

And it wasn’t just some small prize, it was a big prize totaling over a million!

It’s not hard to imagine how much Liu Qiang’s mentality had blown up.

If it had been someone who understood reason, no matter how blown up their mentality was, they could only helplessly accept this result.

The agreement was black and white on paper, the money had already been paid.

That lottery ticket no longer had a single cent to do with him.

But obviously, Liu Qiang was not someone who understood reason.

He glanced at the time on his phone: it was already 7:48 a.m.

Liu Qiang paid for his breakfast, then turned and went into the small supermarket next door, where he bought a fruit knife and slipped it into his pocket.

7:58 a.m.

Wearing a yellow Bohemian-style dress and an LV bag slung over her right shoulder, Qiu Lizhen appeared on time at the entrance of the lottery shop.

Even though she held a dozen-odd apartments under her name and had savings of twenty to thirty million.

Even though she’d already achieved financial freedom in a top-tier city like Beijing.

Qiu Lizhen still treated running her lottery shop with the same serious, responsible attitude as always.

Some people like tasting all kinds of food; some like traveling all over the place; some like music; some like running.

Qiu Lizhen’s hobbies were different from most people’s.

Influenced by her father since childhood, she had a special fondness for the numbers in lottery tickets.

The fact that she had the wealth she did now was also inextricably linked to the lottery.

More than thirty years ago, her father had just been an ordinary small worker at a state-owned enterprise in Beijing.

A single lottery purchase completely changed the fate of their family.

Using just 2 yuan, Qiu Lizhen’s father precisely hit a jackpot of over 5 million, taking home 4.21 million after tax!

In today’s Beijing, a bit over 4 million is nothing, not even enough to get in the door of the truly rich.

But more than thirty years ago in Beijing, 4 million was already a huge sum of money.

Unlike those other winners who, after getting a huge payout, immediately started living it up and blindly upgrading their lifestyle only to end up with nothing.

After getting this large sum, Qiu Lizhen’s dad kept living the same way as before.

He didn’t even quit his state-owned enterprise job that only paid just over 600 yuan a month, and kept working at the factory until he retired.

Back then the housing price in Chaoyang District was only a bit over 3,000 yuan per square meter, and there were no purchase restrictions.

Qiu Lizhen’s father made a smart decision that allowed their family to move up a social class: buy property!

With a bit over 4 million, he bought a dozen-odd apartments.

Over the decades since, the properties that had cost a bit over 4 million back then were now valued at over a hundred million.

Aside from selling a few during the housing-price peak years to cash out several tens of millions.

She was still holding eleven apartments in her hands.

Nowadays, Qiu Lizhen could earn over a million a year lying down just by collecting rent.

She naturally didn’t need to rely on the lottery shop to make money; it was just a little hobby of hers.