Daily Intelligence System: Financial Independence

Chapter 664: Chapter 316: Where’s My Million-Dollar Prize???

As business kept growing.

By now, the number of employees at Jiang’s Food Factory had gone from just "a couple of cats" at the start to over twenty people.

And these twenty-plus people were all relatives from Old Jiang Family back in Jiang Family Manor, brought in by Jiang Wen at Jiang Tao’s request.

They got room and board covered, plus full social insurance and housing fund in Beijing, and after deductions they still took home about five thousand.

For ordinary workers in a big city like Beijing, the pay at Jiang’s Food Factory wasn’t anything special.

But for the villagers coming from Jiang Family Manor, it was a very hard‑to‑come‑by good job.

Most of the folks from the village were Jiang Tao’s uncles, aunts, and other relatives who were related to their family in one way or another.

Among that whole bunch, they couldn’t even scrape together a single high school graduate.

They’d spent most of their lives working, and most of those years were spent struggling at the very bottom of society.

Odd jobs on construction sites, workers in sweatshop factories, kitchen helpers in restaurants, cleaners...

No education, no skills, doing nothing but hard, exhausting, dirty work that didn’t pay much.

The work at Jiang’s Food Factory was easy, clean, and paid better.

Everyone felt genuinely grateful toward this young boss, Jiang Tao,

and they treasured this rare good job, throwing themselves into the work.

Even when Jiang Tao and Jiang Wen weren’t at the factory, nobody slacked off or tried to play tricks.

The boss had gone all the way to the village to bring them out, fed them, housed them, and paid them such high wages.

If they still didn’t work properly, their conscience wouldn’t let them sleep!

Jiang Wen and Jiang Tao treated people with sincerity, and everyone responded with sincerity.

The father and son had now become local celebrities in Jiang Family Manor, with their reputation in the village rising higher and higher.

Back in the village, people came by Jiang Wen’s home every day, and everyone treated him with great politeness.

At the factory, everyone was full of respect and affection for him as well.

Jiang Wen really hadn’t expected that, at his age, he’d be able to bask in such glory thanks to his son.

Breakfast ended as they ate and chatted in a cheerful atmosphere.

Excited, Jiang Wen and Tian Xiaomei headed out to meet with the agent to discuss the store rental.

If nothing unexpected happened, they’d be able to sign for that storefront today.

After Jiang Tao had his fill, he slowly went downstairs and met up with Jia Guolin, who’d been waiting there for a while.

"Good morning, boss."

Seeing Jiang Tao come down, Jia Guolin greeted him respectfully.

He truly liked and respected this boss, who was both kind and extremely generous.

Jiang Tao really didn’t treat his driver like an outsider.

Jia Guolin had only been following Jiang Tao for a few days, and he hadn’t even gotten his first month’s salary yet.

Just in terms of meal allowances, drink money, and tips, Jiang Tao had already given him several thousand!

Jia Guolin’s wife said his luck had turned, that he’d finally met his benefactor.

"Morning. Old Jia, did you get everything?"

Jiang Tao didn’t waste words with him and went straight to business.

Although a million wasn’t a huge sum to him anymore, it was still a decent chunk of income and would pad his little nest egg.

Jia Guolin reported honestly:

"Got everything, boss. In total it’s three packs plus about a dozen loose ones.

Just like you instructed, I bought up the lot.

All together it cost 3,120, and the rest..."

"Keep the rest as your meal money for now. When it’s gone, come to me again."

With a casual wave, Jiang Tao simply gave him the remaining thousand‑plus, nearly two thousand.

"Thank you, boss! Everything’s in the car."

Jia Guolin nodded gratefully, his eyes full of appreciation as he looked at Jiang Tao.

"You’ve worked hard."

Jiang Tao said with a smile, then opened the rear door of the G‑Class and got in.

Sure enough.

On the back seat lay a thick stack of scratch‑offs printed with the slogan "So Close, So Beautiful, Weekend in Hebei."

Hebei’s slogan had really gone viral.

"Boss, where are we headed?"

Buckling his seat belt after getting in, Jia Guolin asked about Jiang Tao’s schedule.

"Let’s go to the Longze branch of ICBC first."

Jiang Tao casually gave the order, then impatiently started searching through the pile of scratch‑offs for that special ticket with the big prize.

He first flipped through all the loose tickets, but none of them were glowing.

Then he opened the three unopened packs and checked them one by one, but still came up empty.

"What’s going on? How come none of them?"

Jiang Tao frowned slightly, puzzled about where things had gone wrong.

"Old Jia, are you sure you bought every scratch‑off of this type in the shop?"

Putting down the tickets in his hand, Jiang Tao looked to the front at Jia Guolin, who was driving, and asked.

"Yes, boss, I bought up all the remaining ones."

Hearing Jiang Tao’s question, Jia Guolin’s heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly got nervous.

He quickly replayed in his mind the whole process of buying the lottery tickets,

wondering if he’d made some mistake and failed to carry out the boss’s instructions properly.

"That’s strange..."

Though Jiang Tao hadn’t known Jia Guolin long, he trusted his character,

and knew he wouldn’t try to fudge things over something like this.

Besides, he had no idea there was a ticket in there that could win a million‑plus prize.

There was no way he could have precisely fished out that one winning ticket from this whole stack!

Jiang Tao had Brother Tongzi’s tip; he didn’t.

So Jiang Tao was more inclined to think that something had gone wrong during the purchase, rather than suspecting anything about Jia Guolin himself.

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Tao asked: