"Are these two pieces of information related to the river stones?"
After analyzing the two pieces of information that had just come up, Jiang Tao picked up the two river stones on the table and examined them closely.
Was it a coincidence, or was it the luck brought by the river stones?
Jiang Tao couldn't be sure for the moment.
But no matter what it was, as long as it was beneficial to him, it was a good thing.
Carefully placing the two river stones under his pillow, Jiang Tao slipped into bed with an excited heart.
As soon as he closed his eyes, his mind was filled with images of the black Mercedes GLS he had seen yesterday during the day.
It was just too damn cool!
It took a while, but Jiang Tao finally fell asleep.
He slept straight through until 8 a.m.
After getting up, he boiled a pot of hot water, grabbed a washbasin, and went to the communal bathroom on the second floor to wash his hair.
After washing his hair, he changed into a clean, decent set of clothes.
Since he might win a big prize today, he figured he'd probably have to take photos for publicity or something.
His appearance needed a bit of attention.
After washing up, changing clothes, and shaving, he looked in the mirror, gave himself a "You're one handsome dude," and headed downstairs.
"Little Jiang! Little Jiang! Don't go yet, don't go yet."
As soon as Jiang Tao reached the bottom of the stairs, he was stopped by Old Lü, his landlord, who was walking his bird downstairs.
"Old Lü, you're looking radiant lately, full of energy!"
Jiang Tao paused, chuckling as he teased Lü Qian.
From the looks of it, Lü Qian's relationship with Ma Dongmei must be going pretty well. The man seemed seven or eight years younger all of a sudden.
"Hahaha, you little punk~"
Lü Qian playfully punched Jiang Tao's arm, laughing with pure delight.
"Got something on your mind, Old Lü?"
Jiang Tao was eager to get to the lottery and didn't want to linger with Old Lü.
Lü Qian, assuming Jiang Tao was in a hurry to go drive and haul goods, didn't waste words and got straight to the point:
"You still got any of that Daughter's Red wine? Get me five more jars."
Jiang Tao's eyes lit up as he said, "I've got some, but only four jars left."
Though Jiang Tao enjoyed a drink now and then, he couldn't bring himself to drink the Daughter's Red, which cost 20,000 yuan per jar.
Even with a few hundred thousand in savings now, a 20,000-yuan jar of wine was still too extravagant for him.
If he could turn it into cash, he'd rather do that.
"Fine, four it is. Hurry up and get them for me," Lü Qian said, waving his hand to urge Jiang Tao to fetch the wine, acting like 80,000 yuan was no big deal.
"Alright! Just wait a sec, I'll grab them for you!"
With that, Jiang Tao turned and headed back upstairs.
Selling four jars of Daughter's Red first thing in the morning brought in 80,000 yuan.
Jiang Tao's mood became even brighter and sunnier.
To Lü Qian, 80,000 yuan might be trivial—just the cost of four jars of good wine.
But for Jiang Tao, it was equivalent to what he used to earn slaving away for a whole year at the Hongxing second-hand furniture wholesale market!
Soon, Jiang Tao returned with the last four authentic jars of Daughter's Red from upstairs.
Of the ten jars he had unearthed, Jiang Tao had opened one to check the quality.
The remaining nine had all been bought by Lü Qian.
Lü Qian didn't haggle with Jiang Tao and directly transferred 80,000 yuan to him via WeChat.
With this 80,000, Jiang Tao's savings climbed back above 500,000 yuan.
After completing the transaction, Jiang Tao grabbed a simple breakfast in the urban village and drove his Audi A6 straight to Wanxiang Plaza.
He arrived early today, and there were still plenty of empty spots in the underground parking lot.
After parking, he took the elevator straight to the first floor.
It was just past 9 a.m., and many of the mall's shops had just opened, with not many customers yet.
Seeing that the Lao Feng Xiang gold store on the first floor was open, Jiang Tao walked right in.
"Good morning, sir. How can I assist you?"
As soon as Jiang Tao entered, a female sales associate in a black women's suit, with delicate makeup, greeted him with a smile.
The saleswomen in the gold store were generally above average in figure and appearance, with sweet smiles.
"Do you have investment gold bars here?"
Jiang Tao's gaze briefly swept over the saleswoman before getting straight to business without much preamble.
In the past, Jiang Tao had only seen online videos of aunties mobbing gold stores to buy gold like crazy.
Today, he was starting to understand the aunties and was becoming one himself!
Investment gold bars were a real moneymaker!
"Yes, sir! Please follow me!"
Hearing that Jiang Tao was interested in investment gold bars, the saleswoman's smile grew even brighter.
She led him to a small reception room nearby.
The saleswoman gave a detailed explanation of the appreciation rate, value retention rate, and other details about their store's investment gold bars.
As one of the giants in the gold and jewelry industry with 176 years of history, Lao Feng Xiang's reputation was naturally impeccable.
Buying investment gold bars from Lao Feng Xiang wasn't much different from buying them from a bank.
Jiang Tao's main goal in coming to Lao Feng Xiang today was to participate in the Mercedes lottery.
Plus, with solid intelligence backing him up, he knew this deal was a sure bet, so he had no reservations.
Today was January 25, 2025, on the Gregorian calendar, and the 26th day of the 12th lunar month.
The gold price at Lao Feng Xiang today was 836 yuan per gram.
Investment gold bars came with an additional 11 yuan per gram processing fee.
So, a 100g investment gold bar cost 84,700 yuan.
According to the saleswoman, there would also be a 2–5 yuan handling fee when selling back.
Between buying and selling, they could earn over ten yuan per gram just from processing and handling fees.
It was truly a business with guaranteed profits.
Jiang Tao silently did the math. Based on today's gold price of 836 yuan per gram, with a 5% monthly return, the price would be around 877 yuan a month later.
That meant a profit of about 41 yuan per gram.
Even accounting for the maximum 16 yuan in fees, he could still make about 25 yuan per gram.
For a 100g investment gold bar held for a month, he could earn 2,500 yuan.
That was a lot less than the profit he had calculated last night.
It was his first time investing in gold, and he hadn't realized the fees were so high.
Still, aside from this investment channel, he didn't have any other surefire investment options at the moment.
Plus, to participate in the big lottery, he ended up spending 338,800 yuan on four investment gold bars.
He also spent 27,580 yuan on a 30g gold bracelet, totaling 366,380 yuan!
The four gold bars were for investment and the lottery.
The gold bracelet was a little surprise Jiang Tao prepared for Xu Li.
After buying the gold, he still had over 100,000 yuan left, which was enough for emergencies.
According to the mall's event rules, every 100,000 yuan spent earned one premium lottery chance.
Every 10,000 yuan spent earned one regular lottery chance.
With his 360,000+ yuan purchase, Jiang Tao earned a total of nine lottery chances.
Three premium lottery chances and six regular ones.
By around 10 a.m., the saleswoman, thrilled to have closed a deal worth over 300,000 yuan so early in the day, happily escorted him out of the gold store.
By this time, the mall was starting to get busier.
Jiang Tao took his purchase receipt and headed toward the two mall staff members managing the premium lottery.
He noticed that, compared to yesterday, the lottery area now had a festive-looking small stage.
On the stage was a female host in a red dress, with fair skin and a great figure, holding a microphone.
As he got closer and saw the host's face clearly, Jiang Tao was surprised.
Wasn't that his beautiful hometown girl, He Jing?