Fang Bai returned home and told his mother to find trustworthy relatives to help with prize redemption for the seventh to first prizes.
There were over 12,000 prizes from the seventh to first tiers, requiring four or five people to help.
At this point, it was necessary to ask relatives for help, as trustworthy personnel couldn't be found on short notice, and regular employees still had to guard the electronics store.
The eighth and ninth prizes each numbered one million, so hiring some temporary workers would suffice.
As for the grand prize, Fang Bai would personally verify the lottery ticket.
Fang Bai explained everything to his parents, especially regarding the procurement and payment for prizes.
After explaining clearly, Fang Bai went to find Da Ge Zi Wang Dakai. Fortunately, he hadn't started driving lessons yet and was talking with his family in the living room, about to prepare lunch.
The family was very happy to see Fang Bai arrive on his motorcycle. Da Kai's mother enthusiastically poured Fang Bai a cup of hot tea.
Fang Bai placed the fruit he bought on the tea table and greeted Wang Bing, who was sitting on the sofa: "Uncle, how does your leg feel now?"
Wang Bing chuckled: "Haha, much better. Walking slowly is no problem now, thank you for your concern."
"That's good, but you still need to be careful. Uncle, I want Da Kai to go on a business trip with me to the North. It will take a few days to procure some things. Time is a bit tight; we need to leave at noon today to catch a flight."
"Oh, alright." Wang Bing was a bit curious but didn't ask further. He told his son, "When you're far away, listen to Boss Fang. Hurry back to your room and pack your things."
"Boss, where are we going?" Wang Dakai scratched his head, looking bewildered.
Fang Bai smiled faintly, patting his shoulder: "I'm carrying a lot of cash, so I'll tell you the details on the way. Hurry up and pack your luggage. The weather is cold, so just bring one change of clothes. Remember to bring your ID; we're flying, so you can't bring too much luggage."
Not telling Wang Dakai's parents where they were going to procure the lottery tickets meant fewer people knew, and fewer troubles.
Wang Dakai said "Oh" and quickly ran back to his bedroom. He was quite excited; he had a chance to fly, and it was his first time.
Fang Bai chatted with Wang Dakai's mother, telling her that Xinghai Shopping Mall in Oubei was holding a lottery event and hiring temporary workers. If she wanted to work, she could go with his signed business card for his employees.
After speaking, Fang Bai took out one of his business cards, signed his name with a pen, and handed it to Wang Dakai's mother.
"Uncle, when your leg gets better, if you want to work for me, I'll arrange a job for you."
"Okay, no problem. It's always so embarrassing to keep letting you help. If Da Kai does anything wrong, just scold him directly."
"We're good friends, so I won't scold him, but criticism certainly won't be scarce, haha." Fang Bai laughed loudly, "Da Kai is quite careful in his work. I trust him, which is why I'm taking him on this long trip."
A few minutes later, Wang Dakai had his backpack ready.
Fang Bai put on his safety helmet and started the motorcycle. Wang Dakai also put on his helmet and sat on the back seat. The two quickly departed.
Wang Dakai's mother watched her son leave, then asked her husband: "They left in such a hurry, where are they going? He didn't explain."
Wang Bing was silent for a moment, then said: "Boss Fang is a man who does great things. It's better for us ordinary people not to know some things; knowing them won't do us any good.
Didn't you hear him say they're going north, and flying? It might even be the Capital. He's carrying a lot of cash, so he's probably procuring very important goods. We'd better not be curious and ask around."
"Hmm, it's also a fortunate thing for our son to have met Boss Fang."
...
Ahead on the road was a relatively steep uphill section. Fang Bai accelerated uphill. The weather was still a bit cold, so he didn't dare to go too fast.
"Da Kai, how much do you weigh? Around two hundred catties, right? It's a bit strenuous going uphill."
"About that, hehe, Boss, are we really flying?"
"Yes, if you're as heavy as you are, over two hundred catties, you'll need a blood test for blood pressure." Fang Bai tried to scare him.
"Oh my goodness, is that true or false? Boss, you're talking nonsense, aren't you? I hate blood tests the most, don't scare me."
"Haha, you'll find out when we get there."
Fang Bai continued to accelerate, driving towards his home.
Upon arriving home, it was almost noon. They took their luggage, stuffed the cash into their backpacks, and Fang Bai and Wang Dakai took a taxi to Longwan Airport to buy tickets. They brought some food to eat on the way, like bread and steamed buns, as airports back then might not have sold food.
Longwan Airport began operations last September. Its investment structure was different from other city airports; Longwan Airport was primarily funded by private capital, making it the first privately-owned airport in the country, to be handed over to state operation a few years later.
Locals said that Wen City was like an abandoned child, with its local development mainly relying on private capital, such as the Airport Avenue being funded by Boss Wang.
But there was nothing that could be done; the country was poor in those days.
In this era, Wen City's private sector had money, but Wen City wasn't well-planned, which was a bit regrettable.
Back to the point, currently, Wen City has opened air routes to several major domestic cities, but there aren't many flights. Coincidentally, there was a flight to Jin City at 3 PM, which Fang Bai had already had someone inquire about.
Fang Bai was going to Jin City, and his destination was the Jin City Offset Printing Factory.
There were only four manufacturers in China capable of printing anti-counterfeit lottery tickets, distributed in four cities: the Capital, Yue City, Jin City, and Leijiazhuang.
All four places were far from Wen City. Fang Bai felt that choosing any of them would be the same, and the Jin City Offset Printing Factory was in his impression, mainly because there was a direct flight from Wen City to Jin City.
Fang Bai's father couldn't find a manufacturer that could print anti-counterfeit lottery tickets, so Fang Bai had no choice but to go to this factory that he remembered.
If it were just an ordinary printing factory, the anti-counterfeiting technology would be too poor, and printing tens of millions of lottery tickets would take too long.
Before departing, he consulted 127 Paging Station to find the phone number, then contacted the factory. Fang Bai offered a large sum, and the factory said they could print it and asked him to come in person to choose the design version.
Currently, the Jin City Offset Printing Factory had very few orders, poor benefit, and difficulty providing benefits to its employees.
Just after the new year, where would they get orders?
A private enterprise boss wanted to print lottery tickets and offered a lot of money, so of course, they agreed. As for what he was doing, that was none of their business.
Can someone selling a kitchen knife stop someone from killing?
So, it had nothing to do with them.
If Fang Bai had chosen the Capital Offset Printing Factory, the situation might have been different. They relied on the Capital and had quite a few orders, and might not even accept orders from private enterprises.
Jin City's location was rather awkward, and its efficiency was quite poor. It must be said that Fang Bai found the right manufacturer.
Before Fang Bai left, he told his father that the promotional work at home should proceed as planned. If he couldn't make it back, then they would announce a delay in the newspaper.
An hour later,
The two arrived at the airport, bought tickets, went through security, waited, and soon boarded the plane.
Wang Dakai was like a curious baby the whole way, extremely excited. Fang Bai reminded him a few times before he managed to suppress his emotions, but he was still somewhat excited inside.
For him, it was his first time flying.
"Boss, it's your first time flying too, right? Why aren't you excited at all? You're too calm."
"You need to learn to have a mind like still water, understand?" Fang Bai glared at him. He had flown many times in his previous life and was tired of it.
However, the first time he flew, he was still very unsettled, especially the anxiety during takeoff and the excitement of seeing the cotton-like clouds when reaching the stratosphere.
Later, after flying many times, he would just buckle his seatbelt, put on noise-canceling earbuds, and close his eyes to sleep as soon as he got on the plane.
Now there were no noise-canceling earbuds, so he just had to listen to the noise the whole way.
"Oh, impressive." Wang Dakai was truly admiring.
A moment later, the plane took off.
As the plane ascended higher and higher, Wang Dakai was very excited.
Not just him, most passengers on the plane had never flown before and were equally excited.
A passenger in the same row, seeing Wang Dakai's unworldly expression in the middle seat, couldn't help but chuckle softly, then calmly picked up a newspaper and pretended to read, as if he were a well-traveled, experienced big boss who flew frequently.
But no matter what, in this era, those who could afford to fly were indeed wealthy people, and the ticket prices were not much different from later generations.
Fang Bai bought a window seat and looked out at the scenery on the ground.
From a high altitude, the entire Wen City was visible.
There were no tall buildings, and Longwan District was just being developed. The large-scale land reclamation project by the sea hadn't started yet; the real reclamation wouldn't begin until 2012, and it was later restricted.
If land reclamation had started ten years earlier, Wen City's development would definitely have been much better than in his previous life.
The local government definitely wouldn't have expected that the development speed would be too fast, severely limited by land.
Of course, wetland destruction is ecological destruction. Either this problem is directly ignored, or it is solved, or another path is found.
As a local, Fang Bai still hoped that Wen City would develop better and better.
Turning his thoughts back, Fang Bai squinted and quickly fell asleep. These days, he was truly too tired.
More than two hours later, the plane landed in Jin City.
Fang Bai and Wang Dakai left the airport, transferred, and arrived near the offset printing factory, finding a nearby hotel to stay at along the way.
After the two had dinner and returned to their hotel room, Fang Bai solemnly told Wang Dakai what they were going to do. There were too many people and too many gossips on the way, so he hadn't had a chance to tell him.
Wang Dakai then learned that they were going to hold a lottery event, and that his family had already invested several million yuan, which shocked him like a clay and wood sculpture, his eyes wide open, and it took him a while to recover.
And their mission this time was very important; if they didn't do it well, the losses would be very heavy.
Once Wang Dakai knew the specifics, he put away his carefree expression and approached everything with utmost seriousness.
The next morning, Fang Bai and Wang Dakai left the hotel and arrived at the offset printing factory.