Do childhood friends from the countryside really count as childhood friends?
Actually, Zhou Wang himself didn’t have an answer.
After all, they were just a few playmates brought together by specific times and environments.
Most of the faces were blurry now; Zhou Wang could only remember a boy and a girl.
He remembered the boy because later on, the boy got involved with some bad things and was sent away, which became a significant memory for Zhou Wang.
Zhou Wang’s parents were relieved at the time, thankful that Zhou Wang hadn’t kept playing with him, and also grateful they had taken Zhou Wang to Jing City, away from the small "quagmire" that was Lu County...
As for the girl, she was this "Linlin."
Zhou Wang didn’t even know her full name, only remembered she was a cute little sister with big eyes, about two or three years younger than him.
But when Zhou Wang thought back now, he realized that his visits to her house weren’t because he found her fun, but because of "Sister Xiao Yu" that his aunt mentioned.
The naïve boy didn’t realize it, but the allure of a mature and gentle woman in her twenties always had an unconscious attraction for him.
If everything had a light and dark side, then in Zhou Wang’s adolescence, the "light" was represented by Sister Qingkui, always holding a stack of books and striding briskly, while the "dark" was Sister Xiao Yu by the river, washing clothes and smiling brightly with a glance.
Light and dark together formed the complete yearning of a young man towards women during his coming of age.
As for making Linlin cry from a kiss, Zhou Wang really hadn’t done it on purpose...
At that time, the TV seemed to be showing "My Fair Princess," and for some reason, in some scene, the two kids playing "role-play" turned into Erkang and Ziwei...
To be precise, Linlin wasn’t kissed to tears but bitten to tears.
But the strange thing was, Sister Xiao Yu didn’t hit him; instead, she blamed her own daughter...
"Ahem, Auntie, let’s not talk about these old stories."
Zhou Wang awkwardly stopped his aunt, who wanted to dive deeper, "I’m just curious, how’s their family doing now?"
His aunt also lived in Zhao Village and was well-versed in these matters. She began with a typical sigh, saying, "What’s there to say, just a widowed mother and orphan, Linlin didn’t finish school, and your Sister Xiao Yu found that man..."
After hearing his aunt talk for a while, Zhou Wang somewhat understood.
Tragedy still stemmed from an involuntary marriage.
Sister Xiao Yu got married at sixteen. Although such things weren’t common in the countryside, they weren’t unheard of either. Many of the older generation orchestrated these matters without any concept of legal age, getting things done first and holding a banquet as the ceremony...
Unfortunately, the man she married wasn’t a great catch; he wasted away in the city. According to his aunt, he had already been incarcerated three times and was currently in some unknown place for reformation...
As they chatted about family matters, around eleven or twelve, the aunts, who had very regular routines, couldn’t hold on and left one after another.
Yet the card table was still bustling with excitement, enveloped in smoke, and from the looks of it, seemed like it would go on all night...
At this point, Zhao Guihua wouldn’t bother with Old Zhou, going to sleep on her own, while Zhou Wang sat fiddling with his phone, replying to some overlooked messages like he was reviewing petitions, before heading up to the second floor to sleep.
Just as he was barely falling asleep amidst the buzzing of mosquitoes, Zhou Wang was woken up by the phone ringing.
Seeing who was calling, he irritably picked up the phone.
"Qianqian, if it’s nothing important, I’ll have you taken out and executed!"
"I’m sorry, Boss, I originally planned to report to you tomorrow, but I thought it was too important, so I should tell you right away..."
On the other end came Xu Wenqian’s sweet yet timid voice.
"Is there really something major?" Zhou Wang asked in surprise.
"Boss, the lottery ticket you bought really won!"
Talking about this, Xu Wenqian’s voice couldn’t help but carry some excitement.
"Oh?"
Zhou Wang was taken aback and then sat up in bed, "Wasn’t the lottery draw at 9:30..."
Those tickets Zhou Wang bought on a whim were for tonight’s draw. Since there was no news from Xu Wenqian around nine or ten, Zhou Wang assumed he hadn’t won, not expecting her to call him now.
"Sorry, Boss, I was held up earlier. I just got time to check the results..."
Xu Wenqian apologized.
"It’s fine... By the way, is everything alright at home?"
Zhou Wang remembered that Xu Wenqian should be in her hometown Yi County these days, so he asked.
"It’s okay."
Xu Wenqian hesitated for a moment, then realized the absurdity and laughed, "Boss, aren’t you interested in how much you’ve won? Why are we on to small talk..."
"Money’s not important, you’re important."
Zhou Wang replied offhandedly.
"..."
Xu Wenqian fell silent for a moment.
"Hey, Qianqian, are you still there?"
Zhou Wang waited a while and asked, perplexed.
"I’m... fine."
Xu Wenqian’s voice came back, slightly hoarse, but soon she laughed softly and said, "Boss, you hit the second prize. You were just one number away!"
"Second prize?"
Zhou Wang wasn’t disappointed upon hearing it wasn’t the first prize since he already knew luck mostly dealt "little fortunes." He curiously asked, "How much is it?"
"A single ticket is more than 110,000, but since you played additional numbers, it’s actually more than 190,000, and you bought it 99 times, so the total prize should be around 19 million..."