The rain came down with the force of a whip, lashing straight against the glass.
Su Cui looked out the window and wailed, "Oh no, I forgot to close the window before I left today. My clothes are definitely soaked!"
Next time she forgot to close the window before going out, she would wash her own socks ten times!
This was no joke. Su Cuihua's feet sweat a lot, and the smell was especially lethal—anyone who washed them knew!
Before, when Su Cuihua was paralyzed at home, she never wore shoes, and Su Baixue cleaned diligently, so Su Cui hadn't noticed this at all when she first transmigrated into the book world.
She wore slippers at home.
Because of the hot weather, she also wore sandals when going out.
Her feet were ventilated all day, so there was no smell. But then she became a cleaner, and A City High School issued several pairs of non-breathable shoes. The first day she wore them, Su Cui came home and was nearly knocked out by the stench of her own feet.
Now, the first thing Su Cui did when she got home was not to change shoes, but to grab her slippers, go to the bathroom, fill a basin with water and vinegar, soak her feet, rinse until there was no smell, wash her stinky socks, and only then come out to change into slippers.
She even went to the hospital specifically for the foot odor, leaving the doctor marveling at her extraordinarily healthy body, almost begging her to share her secrets for elderly health.
Her body was perfectly fine—how could she reveal the secret of her foot odor!
After picking up Su Baixue from school, the two braved the rain to the bus stop, their shoes leaking water and soaking their feet, making Su Cui even more dejected.
...
On the rare weekend.
Su Baixue was holed up in her room studying, while Su Cui went to the market to buy groceries.
She wanted to buy some pork bones to nourish Su Baixue.
Passing a newsstand, Su Cui saw a small magazine with big characters about treating foot odor. She picked it up and skimmed through, but the content mostly pointed out that elderly foot odor could be a sign of illness, recommending patients to certain hospitals.
These ads were useless for her, since she had already been to the hospital, done all the tests, and was extremely healthy.
"Sigh," Su Cui sighed.
The newsstand owner saw her put the magazine down and said, "Auntie, want to try a lottery? We're running a promotion—buy a small magazine and get a scratch card for free. Only five yuan. If you win, you double your money!"
"These things are never accurate," Su Cui said, showing the cold indifference of a frugal old lady.
"This is the Qian Group. You know the Qian Group, right? The Four Great Groups—Zhao, Qian, Sun, Li—they control the global economy! Their businesses cover urban renewal, finance, real estate, information services, security..." The owner was chatty.
Su Cui was not.
She coldly pulled her basket, ready to leave.
Hearing the words "control the global economy," Su Cui felt a twinge in her cheek.
Sure enough, in a book world, the conglomerates were set up so simply.
If she ever accidentally transmigrated into a sci-fi space world, she'd probably find many groups controlling the economy of the universe, planets, or the Milky Way... No, she couldn't think about it—she wanted to laugh, and her cheek really hurt!
Zhao, Qian, Sun, Li—next she'd have Zhou, Wu, Zheng, Wang...
"Hey, don't go! This is a welfare lottery ticket issued by the Qian Group for Mid-Autumn Festival. Several people won this morning!" The owner grew anxious, but Su Cui had already walked away with small, brisk steps, head held high.
A magazine promotion with welfare lottery tickets, plus ads for foot odor treatments?
If such a group controls the economy, no wonder there are so many creeps and scumbags!
Next time she ran into a high- or mid-level scumbag from the Qian Group, she'd remind herself to throw Su Cuihua's stinky socks in their face!
She went to the market, bought some good pork bones, a few pieces of meat, some tomatoes, greens, ginger, and garlic, and returned home fully loaded.
Carrying her basket, she walked home contentedly.
Suddenly, a youth in a floral shirt ahead of her dropped something that looked red, like a bill. The youth didn't notice and kept walking at a steady pace.
"Young man!" Su Cui called out, bending over to pick up what he dropped.
She picked it up and looked—it wasn't money.
It was a scratch card, still unscratched.
"Hey, young man, you dropped your scratch card!" Su Cui hurried after him.
The youth in the floral shirt was looking at the foot odor page in a magazine. He turned around at the sound, startled to see Su Cui approaching, quickly closed the magazine, and waved his hands repeatedly, "I don't want it, I don't want it!"
After refusing, he lowered his head and walked away quickly.
Still unscratched?
And he didn't want it?
"It's still worth five yuan. What if he won? No point letting the Qian Group's money go to waste."
Su Cui looked at the scratch card in her hand. Since the youth didn't want it, she'd give it a try. She scraped her thumbnail against the coating layer...
A golden light flashed.
Before Su Cui could be startled by the golden light on her thumb, she saw that under the coating, it clearly read that she had won—first prize!
Su Cui: "..."
So happy.
The newsstand owner was sitting with his legs crossed, reading a newspaper report on the Qian Group. The pedestrian street on the Puyun section of the Yangtze River, which the Zhao Group invested 60 billion yuan in five years ago, was almost complete. There had been investment promotions everywhere for years. The Qian Group's recent focus was on medical care, and several well-regarded private hospitals had opened in A City.