Thanks to the future emails, her bank balance was poised to break the one-million mark soon.
Just then, Shirley Lowell threw her arms around Wendy Lynch. "We’re rich! Wendy, hasn’t our luck been incredibly good lately?
"Not long ago we won the lottery, and now we won a gold bar!
"No, wait! It must be that our luck gets better when we’re together!
"Think about it. We bought those lottery tickets together, and today we won the gold bar because we arrived early together."
Listening to Shirley’s earnest analysis, Wendy could only suppress her amusement and casually agree.
Bidding farewell to the still-excited Shirley, Wendy took a taxi back to her dorm. She quickly packed her luggage and boarded the intercity express train back home.
The train pulled smoothly into the station. Her holiday trip home was much more seamless than expected. Dragging her suitcase, Wendy walked briskly back to her familiar residential building. She took out her keys and unlocked the door.
It was 3:30 in the afternoon. Barring any surprises, her parents would still be working at the factory. She set down her luggage, turned on the living room lights, and sent a WhatsApp message to her mother: "Mom, I’m home. When are you getting back?"
The moment the message was sent, a voice note from her mother, Lana Miller, popped up. Wendy tapped to play it.
"Wendy, there’s a batch of goods at the factory that we need to rush out today.
"Your dad and I probably won’t be home until after seven.
"If you’re hungry, just whip up something for yourself. There’s no need to wait for us."
Her mother’s voice carried a hint of exhaustion, backed by the noisy roar of machinery. Wendy sighed softly and replied with a simple "Okay."
After a moment of thought, she grabbed her keys and phone, heading straight for the Freshippo supermarket near her home. Pushing a shopping cart, Wendy made a beeline for the seafood section. The water tanks were filled with a dazzling array of live seafood, including many rare items scarcely seen in regular markets. Black gold abalone, Corvalia lobsters, geoducks as thick as a person’s arm...
In the past, even if Wendy visited this store, she could only feast her eyes. The quality of seafood at Freshippo was undeniably fantastic, and the variety was comprehensive, but the prices were significantly higher than those at a standard wet market.
Things were different now. With over seven hundred thousand yuan in her bank account, buying some delicious food to treat herself and her parents was not an issue at all.
Wendy’s gaze swept back and forth over the assorted seafood several times. Finally, her eyes landed on a Corvalia red lobster that weighed a good three to four pounds. She pointed at the crustacean and told the attendant, "Hello, I’ll take this one."
"Alright, miss. Let me weigh it for you first," the attendant replied, swiftly scooping up the lobster and placing it on the scale. "Miss, this Corvalia lobster comes out to eighteen hundred grams, which is almost four pounds. The total is eighteen hundred and sixty-four yuan.
"Do you want it prepped here or packed to take home?"
In the past, even during the New Year, Wendy wouldn’t have been willing to buy such an expensive lobster. But now, a two-thousand-yuan purchase was nothing to her.
"Please prep it for me."
The attendant swiftly passed the lobster to the back kitchen. In just a few minutes, the once-lively lobster was transformed into neatly arranged chunks of meat.
After securing the lobster, Wendy bought a leopard coral grouper weighing over a pound, followed by a premium cut of marbled beef. Then, she picked up a few other assorted ingredients.
Spending money, especially on her family, no longer evoked the past feelings of financial strain and penny-pinching. Instead, a profound sense of confidence and security welled up in her heart. It felt incredible to just buy whatever she wanted!
Back home, Wendy estimated what time her parents would return. Prepping the lobster, steaming the grouper, pan-frying the marbled beef... all the culinary skills Wendy had previously learned from scrolling through short food videos were put to perfect use in this moment.
Just as the final dish was placed on the table, the sound of a key turning came from the door. Gordon Lynch and Lana Miller dragged their exhausted bodies into the house. The moment they stepped inside, both of them immediately caught the mouth-watering aroma of food wafting through the air. They exchanged a glance, a sudden wave of warmth filling their hearts. It seemed their daughter had cooked dinner ahead of time to wait for them.
Lana chuckled and said, "Didn’t I tell you we’d be back late? You should have just found something to eat yourself!"
Wendy smiled and shook her head. "I rarely come home. I definitely want to eat with you two."
The couple walked briskly into the dining room. When they saw the lavish spread on the table, they both gasped.
"Did... did you make all this?" Gordon’s eyes widened in sheer disbelief.
Cheese-baked lobster, steamed grouper, pan-fried marbled beef, along with three delicate, home-style stir-fries. This feast was even more extravagant than a New Year’s dinner.
After a brief moment of surprise, Lana immediately began to "scold" her.
"You child, coming home is enough. Why did you go out of your way to buy so much nice food?
"This lobster, this fish, this beef... how much did all this cost!
"Your dad and I could have just thrown some noodles together to make do. It’s not easy for you to make money on your own out there."
Lana’s nagging was filled with poorly concealed heartache for her daughter’s wallet.
Smiling, Wendy gently pushed her parents into their seats at the dining table. "Dad, Mom, just eat and don’t worry about it!"
She pulled up a saved photo of the gold bar from her phone gallery and proudly presented it to them. "TA-DA! Look at this!"
"Is this... a gold bar?" Gordon leaned in to take a closer look, his face full of confusion as he carefully examined the phone screen.
"Yes! I had amazing luck at my company’s annual luncheon today and won the grand prize—a full one-hundred-gram gold bar!
"I immediately sold it and got over eighty thousand yuan!" Wendy’s voice carried an irrepressible pride.
"Eigh... eighty thousand?!" Mr. and Mrs. Lynch were completely stunned.
After all, working at the factory, their base salary was only a little over four thousand yuan a month. Even factoring in overtime and various benefits, they maxed out at six thousand a month. Eighty thousand yuan was more than what they made in an entire year.
Disbelief was written all over Lana’s face. "My goodness, Wendy, how are your company’s benefits so good? Even the prizes are gold bars, and a one-hundred-gram one at that?"
The couple had worked in factories their whole lives and attended their fair share of annual parties. Yet, the biggest prize they had ever won was a two-hundred-yuan cash reward.
Gordon, who was usually a man of few words, now had a face full of deep gratification. He gently patted his daughter’s shoulder. "Good! Good! My daughter has made something of herself!
"See, studying really does pay off!" The heartfelt pride practically overflowed from his expression.
Being ordinary working-class folks, they naturally understood that you could easily tell if a company was good just by looking at its benefits. Seeing their daughter so successful, Mr. and Mrs. Lynch finally stopped fretting over the fortune Wendy had spent on the lavish spread of food.
The atmosphere at the dinner table was more joyous and harmonious than ever before. Her parents’ chopsticks hardly stopped moving as they ate, simultaneously praising their daughter’s cooking skills and her professional success.
"This Corvalia lobster really is much tastier than Stellamar lobsters!
"This beef is delicious too. It melts right in your mouth!"
Watching how happy they were, Wendy felt sweeter than if she had eaten honey. During their casual chat, Wendy asked, "By the way, Dad, Mom, do you have any plans for the National Day holiday?
"If not, I’ll take you two out to have some fun."