"Thirty thousand."
Jiang Tao's fingers fiddled with a row of mahjong tiles for a while.
Casually, he picked up a Three Dots tile and tossed it into the center of the table.
"…"
Xu Li, seeing the tile he played, held her forehead in exasperation.
In mahjong, the Three and Seven tiles are known as "Gold Three, Silver Seven," highly valuable tiles.
This is because they can combine with any other numbered tiles to form sequences or pairs.
Anyone with even a basic understanding of mahjong would rarely discard these tiles so easily.
Jiang Tao, however, was recklessly throwing out Three, Five, and Eight Dots today, completely ignoring standard strategy.
"Oh no! Sorry, Jiang Tao, I've won again!"
Jiang Tao's mother-in-law, Du Yongmei, who was sitting to his right, pushed her tiles forward, her face beaming with a radiant smile.
In just two hours this morning, between self-drawing and winning off others' discards, she had already won over thirty hands.
Her luck today was even better than Jiang Tao and Xu Li, who were wearing their "River Stone" charms!
"Mom's on fire today! Hubby, pay up quick~"
Seeing her mom's cheerful demeanor, Xu Li felt happy too.
Pregnant women need to stay in good spirits—it's better for the baby in the womb!
Though it wasn't confirmed yet whether her mom was actually pregnant.
For now, Xu Li was treating her as if she were.
"Man, Mom's luck is unreal! It's so much pressure sitting to her left!"
Jiang Tao didn't hold back either. With a cheerful grin, he promptly took a 100-yuan bill from his stack and placed it in front of his mother-in-law.
This morning alone, he had already let her win over twenty times, practically a walking ATM.
On the surface, it looked like his luck was terrible.
In reality, it was the result of him deliberately throwing the game.
With the River Stone, a major cheat item that boosted his "luck" attribute, he was unstoppable.
He had gotten heavenly starting hands several times but quietly dismantled them without a word.
His goal this morning wasn't to play mahjong or win money—it was to be the mood-maker.
His main objective was to keep his mother-in-law happy.
Losing a few thousand yuan? For the current Jiang Tao, that was pocket change.
*Clatter, clatter, clatter~*
After one round, the four players swiftly pushed their tiles, restacked them, and started a new game.
They played until past 11 a.m.
Of the four players, three were winners, with Jiang Tao as the sole loser.
At 100 yuan per win, this walking ATM had lost over 6,000 yuan in a single morning.
His mother-in-law was the biggest winner, raking in over 3,000 yuan.
Xu Li and Xu Sha, the two sisters, each won a little over 1,000 yuan.
By the end, Du Yongmei even felt a bit embarrassed about winning off Jiang Tao's discards.
"No more, no more! My luck's too bad today. If we keep playing, you ladies are gonna clean me out."
At 11 a.m., Jiang Tao, the biggest loser, suggested ending the game.
"Haha, Hubby, is it really bad luck, or is your skill just not up to par?"
"It's definitely bad luck! My skills are top-notch."
"…"
Xu Sha looked at her stubborn brother-in-law and shook her head, thinking, *His skill at giving away points is definitely top-notch!*
In one morning, he single-handedly handed points to all three players.
He was the textbook definition of a walking ATM.
"Haha, it's about time to start preparing lunch."
"Jiang Tao, you resting at home for a bit, or coming with us to the supermarket?"
Du Yongmei, the biggest winner, naturally had no objections. Her gaze toward Jiang Tao grew kinder and kinder.
"I'll stay home and wait for you guys."
"Oh, by the way, Mom, I really like this dice. Could you give it to me?"
"I'll buy you a better mahjong set another day."
Jiang Tao, who had been throwing points all morning, had been biding his time.
Only now did he reveal his true intention, aiming for the mahjong dice.
He picked up the dice from the table, which glowed with a faint golden light in his vision, and made his request.
"Take it if you want it! No need to talk about 'giving' between us. I've got plenty of spares!"
Having won over 3,000 yuan this morning, Du Yongmei was in high spirits and didn't care about a single dice.
She could buy two of them for a yuan on Pinduoduo.
"Then I'll take it. Thanks, Mom."
Jiang Tao casually tossed the dice in his hand a few times, his face also beaming with a bright smile.
To people like his mother-in-law, who didn't have access to a system, this was just an ordinary dice, nothing special.
In their hands, it was merely a tool for entertainment and rolling numbers.
But for Jiang Tao, it was a special item comparable to a protagonist's golden finger in a web novel, carrying immense significance!
Xu Li and Xu Sha didn't think there was anything odd about Jiang Tao asking their mom for a dice.
Such a trivial matter didn't even cross their minds.
"Look at you being all polite. Stay home, have a smoke, check your phone. We're going to the supermarket to buy groceries, and we'll make dumplings for you when we're back."
As Du Yongmei spoke, she started tidying up the mahjong tiles on the table, with Xu Li and Xu Sha pitching in to help.
Soon, the three women finished cleaning up the mahjong set and headed out to the supermarket, chatting and laughing.
*Click~*
The door closed, leaving Jiang Tao alone in the house.
Only then did Jiang Tao shift his gaze back to the dice in his hand.
[No other observers detected around the host. Would you like to bind the special item and activate its random attribute?]
Seeing the system prompt, Jiang Tao instinctively felt a twinge in his thumb.
"Not pricking you this time. Let's switch it up."
Jiang Tao skillfully popped open the back of his phone, took out the SIM ejector pin, pricked his index finger, and squeezed out a drop of blood.
Then, he dipped the dice into the blood droplet.
In Jiang Tao's vision, a faint reddish mist enveloped the entire dice.
[Binding successful! Activating random attribute, please wait…]
[Attribute activated. Please refresh the interface!]
After seeing the system prompt, Jiang Tao refreshed the interface.
[Item Name]: Monopoly Dice!
[Attribute]: Random Income Multiplier!
[Effect]: The host can roll the dice once per day, randomly multiplying business income (excluding system intelligence)!
"Randomly multiply daily business income!"
Seeing the system's explanation of the [Monopoly Dice], Jiang Tao's breathing quickened with excitement!
Random income multiplier!
The effect of this Monopoly Dice was absolutely game-breaking!
[Your business income today is 18,600 yuan. Would you like to roll the Monopoly Dice now?]
"No!"
Despite his excitement, Jiang Tao didn't rashly use his one daily roll.
It was only midday.
The 18,600 yuan in business income came from funds he had invested in based on system intelligence and half a day's earnings from Jiang's Eight Treasures Pickles.
To maximize profits, he would naturally wait until the end of the business day to roll for the multiplier.
"This Monopoly Dice is seriously powerful!"
"The only slight downside is that the random multiplier doesn't apply to income from special items like the Wealth-Toad or the BAIC EU5."
"Looks like I'll need to put more effort into my business ventures and build up my own enterprises."
After interpreting the system's explanation of the [Monopoly Dice], Jiang Tao's passion for investing and making money was instantly ignited.
With this [Monopoly Dice], it was like adding a layer of insurance to his entrepreneurial endeavors.
It was a massive buff!
Even if he adopted a low-profit, high-volume strategy to boost business income, he could still multiply his profits with this [Monopoly Dice].
Even if luck was abysmal and he rolled a 1, it would still double his profits by 100%.
If luck was on his side and he rolled a 6, that would mean a whopping 600% profit!
With a game-changing tool like the [Monopoly Dice] that could multiply profits, Jiang Tao's entrepreneurial challenges would be drastically simplified, practically switching to easy mode!
"Mom and Dad have pretty much mastered the barbecue sauce recipe."
"Next step is to find a suitable storefront and set them up with a barbecue restaurant to test the waters."
"I'll fully fund this barbecue restaurant. The profits should qualify for the random multiplier, right?"
Jiang Tao walked to the balcony, cracked open the window, and lit a cigarette from his pocket.
While puffing away, he contemplated his future investment and development plans.
The two flagship products of Jiang's Food Factory—Jiang's Eight Treasures Pickles and the Delicious Barbecue Sauce—needed more aggressive promotion.
He also needed to invest more effort in the sales team, hiring a few more salespeople to drum up business.
Additionally, Xu Sha's online livestreaming channel needed to be set up and launched as soon as possible.
The higher the income from Jiang's Food Factory, the greater the profits Jiang Tao could gain from the random multiplier!
The [Monopoly Dice] was practically a cheat code for rapidly accumulating wealth!
About an hour later, Xu Li and the other two women returned, carrying bags of groceries, including fresh produce and some ready-made food.
After putting the groceries down, Xu Li and her mother-in-law headed to the kitchen to start preparing dough and chopping fillings.
Not long after, the father-in-law, who had gone fishing, returned with a carp weighing over two pounds.
As an avid angler, the father-in-law was quite skilled at preparing fish.
After cleaning the fish, he filleted it and made a fragrant pot of pickled vegetable fish.
Today's lunch was lavish and nutritious, featuring fish, shrimp, beef, and a black-bone chicken.
"Mom, try this~"
"And this, and this~"
Xu Li kept piling food onto her mom's plate, as if worried she wouldn't eat enough.
"Look at that, my eldest daughter really knows how to take care of her mom!"
Du Yongmei, enjoying her daughter's attentive service, beamed with happiness, her heart filled with warmth.
Her favoritism toward her eldest daughter over the years felt entirely justified.
"Hubby, have some shrimp."
Xu Li said as she placed a peeled shrimp on Jiang Tao's plate.
Seeing the young couple's affectionate display, Xu Wencheng and Du Yongmei felt deeply comforted.
The meal passed in a joyful atmosphere.
After lunch, the father-in-law didn't stay long before grabbing his fishing gear and heading out again.
Xu Li drove her mom and sister to the Vientiane Mall for some shopping.
With nothing else to do, Jiang Tao went home for a nap.
*Ring ring ring—*
At 3 p.m., Jiang Tao was woken by his phone ringing.
He picked it up and saw it was a call from the manager of the repair department at the Mercedes-Benz dealership.
"Hello."
"Uh-huh, it's fixed? Have someone deliver it to me. The address is…"
The caller informed him that his Mercedes-Benz GLS, which had been sent for repairs, was ready.
Too lazy to pick it up himself, Jiang Tao asked the dealership to deliver it to his apartment complex.
After a brief chat, he hung up, rubbed his eyes, and got out of bed.
He went to the bathroom to wash his face, feeling much more awake.
After freshening up, he sat in the living room for about half an hour before getting a call from an employee at the dealership responsible for delivering the car.
The car was already downstairs.
Jiang Tao grabbed two packs of Golden Leaf cigarettes from the drawer, stuffed them in his pocket, and headed downstairs to retrieve the car.
As he stepped out of the building, he saw a young man in a black suit and white shirt standing next to a black Mercedes-Benz GLS.
The young man noticed Jiang Tao coming out of the building.
Their eyes met, and both showed a hint of surprise.
"Jiang… Jiang Tao!"
"Goat? It's you! I thought your voice sounded familiar on the phone!"
Jiang Tao took a few steps toward Shan Yang, sizing up his old college classmate.
Shan Yang, nicknamed "Goat," was a Beijing native who returned to the city after graduation.
They had kept in touch for the first three or four years after college.
But as everyone got married and focused on their own families, their contact gradually faded.
The class group chat, once buzzing with 999+ messages in a single night, now barely saw a few messages a month.
"Old Jiang, man, you've really made it big—now a proud Mercedes-Benz owner!"
Shan Yang noticed Jiang Tao's designer clothes and his status as a Mercedes owner, instantly gaining a newfound respect for his old classmate.
For graduates of their second-tier college, few had much competitive edge in the real world.
In the seven or eight years since graduation, as far as Shan Yang knew, Jiang Tao was the only one driving a Mercedes!
"Haha, I can't compare to a Beijing 'second-gen demolisher' like you! Did you change your number?"
"You changed yours too."
"Haha, let's add each other again. In a massive city like Beijing, running into each other like this is fate."
"Absolutely, you're a fancy Mercedes owner now. I'll have to butter you up!"
"Cut the nonsense. I'm just an outsider. I should be the one buttering up a second-gen like you."
"What second-gen? The houses belong to my parents. I've only got the one I live in—nothing else."
The two chatted casually, exchanging and adding each other's new phone numbers.
Shan Yang suddenly said, "Oh, Jiang Tao, I saw you post a few running videos on Moments. You're into running now?"
Jiang Tao grinned. "Yeah, hitting middle age, you know? Gotta soak some goji berries in my thermos and jog to stay fit."
"Exactly! I do eight kilometers every morning. Running's benefits are unreal—only those who stick with it get it."
Shan Yang smiled and asked, "I'm part of a running group. Wanna join? It's full of running enthusiasts."
"We share running tips in the group, track our workouts, and motivate each other."
"Plus, our group has partnerships with some sports brands, so you can get decent discounts on gear and supplies."
"Sounds good! Pull me in."
Jiang Tao, who planned to focus more on running, was happy to connect with fellow runners.
"Got it! I'll add you now."
Shan Yang took out his phone, found Jiang Tao's WeChat, and added him to a running group called "Hongfu Garden Running Club."
"Huh, Hongfu Garden Running Club? You live in Hongfu Garden?"
Jiang Tao was surprised when he saw the group name.
Hongfu Garden was right next to Baigezhuang New Village, where he lived.
The two neighborhoods were less than a kilometer apart, separated only by the vegetable market his parents often visited.
"Yup, that's why I'm inviting you to our running group!"
"We have weekly group runs on weekends. You should join in, feel the vibe, and meet some new friends."
"There are even some marathon runners in the group who've broken three hours. You can ask them about any running or injury questions."
"Cool, I'll definitely join when I get the chance."
Jiang Tao nodded with a smile, then activated his [Talent Scout] title to check Shan Yang's profile.
[Name]: Shan Yang.
[Talent]: Internet Savvy.
[Career Path]: Livestream Operations (5 stars), Auto Repair Technician (2.5 stars).