newbobooks Chapter 417 Grabbing Red Envelopes
Chapter 417 Grabbing Red Envelopes
...
The next morning, Lu Ran was woken up by his bladder.
Although she was very curious, Priscilla Chan did not wake them up early this morning.
Lu Ran opened his eyes. The strip of light on the ceiling was gone, replaced by a room full of light.
The curtains were still slightly ajar from last night, and sunlight streamed through them, casting a golden beam of light on the floor.
Lu Ran stretched, feeling completely relaxed from head to toe, his bones cracking a few times.
He felt completely refreshed, as if someone had cleansed him from the inside out, and every pore was breathing.
He lay in bed staring at the ceiling, a smile unconsciously creeping onto his face.
Last night's events replayed in my mind, every detail crystal clear.
He turned over, wanting to say something to Shen Yuege, only to find that the blanket next to him was wrapped even tighter than last night, covering him from head to toe, like a giant silkworm cocoon.
"Yuege?" He reached out and patted the blanket.
The blanket shifted, but no one was revealed.
"Are you awake? I saw the blanket move."
The blanket shifted again, this time more violently, as if in protest.
Lu Ran laughed and leaned over to pull back the blanket, but a hand reached out from under the blanket and slapped him squarely on the face.
The force wasn't too strong, which made Lu Ran like it even more.
"What are you doing?" Lu Ran covered his face where he had been slapped.
"Don't pull." Shen Yuege's voice came from under the covers, muffled, as if she were speaking from a deep cave.
"Aren't you bored being cooped up in there?"
"It's not boring."
"Why don't you come out for some fresh air?"
"don't want."
Lu Ran sighed, lay back on the bed, and stared at the ceiling.
He felt that his current mood was hard to describe in words, but it could be summed up in one word—awesome.
This kind of satisfaction is a thousand times, ten thousand times better than winning a game, finding money on the street, or leaving get off work ten minutes early.
He thought about it and felt that this might be a physiological reaction after the human reproductive instinct is satisfied.
Dopamine, oxytocin, endorphins—a whole host of happy chemicals are having a party in your brain.
Sometimes, Lu Ran marvels at the wonders of the human body.
He turned his head to look at the quilt next to him, and the more he looked, the more he wanted to laugh.
What is Shen Yuege like in public?
The diva is aloof and unapproachable.
And now? Curled up in a ball under the blanket, like a little chick afraid of being snatched away by an eagle.
This contrast is so interesting.
"Yuege," he called again.
The blanket remained untouched.
"You mentioned that New Year's gift last night—"
The blanket suddenly burst open.
Shen Yuege poked her head out from under the covers. Her hair was a mess, like a bird's nest, and there were marks on her face from the pillow. Her eyes were wide open, as if to say, "If you dare to say another word, you're dead."
Lu Ran raised his hands in surrender. Shen Yuege glared at him for a few seconds, then pulled the blanket back up, covering half of her face, leaving only her eyes showing.
Those eyes were red, not from crying, but from not sleeping well last night.
"You didn't sleep last night?" Lu Ran asked.
"I slept for a while."
"How long is 'a while'?"
"I don't remember. Anyway, I woke up several times after you fell asleep."
Lu Ran's heart skipped a beat when he heard this.
He reached out and brushed the stray hairs from Shen Yuege's forehead to the side.
Shen Yuege didn't flinch, she just looked at him with an indescribable look in her eyes.
"Does it still hurt?" Lu Ran asked.
Shen Yuege's ears turned red instantly.
She buried her face in the pillow, her voice muffled and almost inaudible: "Can you please not ask such questions?"
"I'm asking a serious question."
"Even serious questions won't work."
Lu Ran smiled, sat up from the bed, put on her clothes, and went to the bathroom.
He stood in front of the sink, looking at himself in the mirror.
The person in the mirror looked no different from yesterday, but Lu Ran felt that something was different.
It could be the look in your eyes, the curve of your lips, or an indescribable spirit.
Perhaps this is the transition from boy to man, especially when the other person is a beautiful and famous star like Shen Yuege.
Shen Yuege's current looks and popularity are in no way inferior to Liu Yifei from her previous life, so everyone here, including Yan Zu and Yu Yan, should be able to understand that feeling.
He brushed his teeth, washed his face, and tidied his hair in front of the mirror.
The person in the mirror looks to be in a great mood, so great it's almost annoying.
When Shen Yuege came out of the bathroom, she was already sitting up.
She was wearing a white long-sleeved nightgown, and her hair was still messy, but not as frizzy as before.
She leaned against the headboard, holding her phone and casually scrolling through something.
Lu Ran walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed: "What are you looking at?"
Shen Yuege turned her phone around to show him. The screen showed a screenshot of Weibo's trending topics. The top trending topic was "Spring Festival Gala," the second was "Happy New Year," and the third was "TUTU Red Envelope."
Shen Yuege also got up. With nothing to do, she scrolled through her phone and casually changed the subject to ease the awkwardness of last night.
Lu Ran didn't expose her. He also turned his gaze to Shen Yuege's phone and raised an eyebrow when he saw the words "TUTU Red Envelope".
He picked up his phone and clicked on it, only to find that the topic was full of screenshots of users sending out lucky red envelopes.
Someone distributed ten yuan into ten portions. The person who got the most got three yuan and eighty cents, and the person who got the least got three cents.
Someone commented, "My luck is so bad," and someone else replied, "What's so special about you getting three cents? I got one cent."
Another post that reached the top was from a user: "Last night I sent out 500 yuan in red envelopes on TUTU, divided into 50 portions, and the whole family spent the whole night grabbing them. My mom got 87 yuan and was as happy as a child. My dad got 4.2 yuan and was so angry that he said this stupid feature was toxic. My sister had the worst luck; she grabbed 12 red envelopes totaling less than 10 yuan, and she said she suspected that TUTU's red envelope algorithm was targeting her."
After reading these posts, Lu Ran's lips curled up in a smile.
During the Chinese New Year, posts sharing everyday family matters are actually the most touching.
He thought of the few lines he had written in his memo last night, and then he thought of the code package he had downloaded to the system.
It seems that the results are even better than he expected.
He scrolled down a few more times and saw an official data report from TUTU: "On New Year's Eve, the number of participants in TUTU's red envelope feature exceeded 20 million, and the total amount of red envelopes distributed exceeded 100 million yuan."
This number wouldn't have been anything in my previous life, but in this world, on the TUTU platform, without any large-scale promotion, it's already astonishing.
Lu Ran returned the phone to Shen Yuege, stood up, walked to the window, and drew back the curtains.
The sunlight streaming in through the window suddenly illuminated the entire room.
Downstairs in the residential area, several children were running around on the lawn, holding sparklers that hadn't been used up yet, the golden sparks clearly visible in the sunlight.
Shen Yuege got off the bed, walked barefoot to his side, and glanced outside as well.
The sunlight shone on her face, making her skin appear almost translucent white, and her eyes squinted slightly as she was not used to the bright light.
"The weather is nice today," she said.
"Um."
"I'll go downstairs in a bit to wish my parents a Happy New Year."
"it is good."
"And incidentally, I'll extort two large red envelopes from them."
"Walk."
Shen Yuege turned and went to the bathroom. Before closing the door, she glanced back at him and said something that made Lu Ran freeze in place: "Change your clothes. Don't wear that black windbreaker anymore, wear the one I bought you. That one looks good."
Lu Ran looked down at his windbreaker, then glanced at the wardrobe.
He felt that Shen Yuege spoke very naturally, as if she had been saying it for many years.
He rummaged through the closet and found the dress that Shen Yuege had mentioned.
It was a dark gray wool coat that Shen Yuege bought for him when she was in Chengdu. At the time, he thought it was too expensive and didn't want to buy it, so Shen Yuege paid for it herself.
He put on his coat and looked at himself in the mirror.
The person in the mirror was wearing a dark gray coat, and their hair had just been washed and blow-dried, making them look much more energetic.
He smiled at himself in the mirror and thought it did look better than wearing a windbreaker.
When Shen Yuege came out of the bathroom, she had already changed her clothes.
She was wearing a red sweater, her hair was tied in a low ponytail, and she had very light makeup on her face, which was barely noticeable unless you looked closely.
But she doesn't usually wear makeup at home.
Lu Ran glanced at her and said, "Are you wearing makeup today?"
Shen Yuege glared at him: "Can you please stop telling me everything?"
"I just wanted to double-check. I was afraid I'd misread it."
"You read that right. Stop talking."
The two of them went downstairs.
Priscilla Chan and Shen Zhiwei were already in the living room. Priscilla Chan was wearing a purplish-red cotton-padded jacket, and Shen Zhiwei was wearing a dark blue jacket. The two sat side by side on the sofa, with a fruit plate and tea set on the coffee table in front of them.
It seems that the two of them had been waiting for Lu Ran and his companion for quite some time.
Lu Ran and Shen Yuege walked up to them and said in unison, "Happy New Year, Mom and Dad."
Priscilla Chan smiled so hard her eyes narrowed into slits. She took out two red envelopes from her pocket and gave one to each of them.
Shen Zhiwei also took out two, and gave one to each of them.
Lu Ran held the two red envelopes, felt their thickness, and raised an eyebrow.
Priscilla Chan noticed his expression and said with a smile, "Stop pinching me, everyone inside got a big red envelope of ten thousand."
Upon hearing the amount, Lu Ran thanked them while quickly putting the red envelope into his pocket.
Not bad, not bad, 2 yuan today, enough to listen to music at a brothel... But I'm not that kind of person, I'd better hand it over to my wife.
Lu Ran turned around and handed two large red envelopes to Shen Yuege.
Shen Yuege accepted it without hesitation and put it in her bag.
Priscilla Chan glanced at Lu Ran, then at Shen Yuege, her gaze sweeping back and forth between the two of them several times, her smile growing ever wider.
She didn't say anything, but her expression made Shen Yuege feel uneasy, and she pulled Lu Ran towards the dining table.
Breakfast was set on the table.
The New Year's breakfast was quite lavish.
My father-in-law's food was already quite good, but now that it's Chinese New Year, it's even better.
Lu Ran and his companion had already made their plans; when they left in a few days, they would definitely take some with them.
The four of them sat down to eat breakfast.
Shen Zhiwei took a few bites, then suddenly put down his chopsticks, looked at Lu Ran and said, "Little Lu, that lucky draw red envelope thing you gave me was pretty interesting."
Lu Ran was taken aback: "Dad, you play too?"
"I was playing around. After I discovered this feature today, I sent a 100-yuan red envelope in the 'Loving Family' group, and all your aunts and uncles were having a blast grabbing it. After a while, they started sending their own too." Shen Zhiwei said with a smug smile, "Although I only sent 100, I ended up grabbing over 300. I made a killing."
Priscilla Chan chimed in from the side, "I didn't give out a single penny, but I snatched over 100 dollars, so it was a better deal."
Shen Zhiwei thought for a moment and nodded: "It's a good deal."
Lu Ran couldn't help but laugh as he watched his father-in-law and mother-in-law seriously calculating the accounts.
That's the charm of trying your luck to grab red envelopes.
Although the amount may not be large, this uncertainty and the joy of grabbing more or less are truly precious.
The sunlight outside the window grew brighter and brighter, shining on the porridge bowls and steamed bun plates on the dining table, giving each bowl a golden rim.
In the distance, sporadic firecrackers could be heard again. This time, they weren't the firecrackers used to open the door; they were children playing downstairs.
Lu Ran took a sip of porridge and glanced at Shen Yuege beside him.
Shen Yuege was drinking porridge when she felt his gaze. She turned her head to look at him, and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.
This New Year was great.
...
Next comes the New Year's greetings.
In fact, Shen Yuege doesn't have many relatives in Shanghai. The so-called New Year's greetings are mainly from Shen Zhiwei's old friends in Shanghai.
As a senior director in China, Shen Zhiwei has extensive connections in Shanghai.
Unlike Lu Ran and Shen Yuege, Shen Zhiwei mostly associates with very senior figures. Although they are mostly in semi-retirement now, they still wield considerable influence in the entertainment industry of China.
Since Shen Zhiwei plans to bring the two of them to pay New Year's visits, it means that he wants to formally introduce Shen Yuege and Lu Ran to people in the industry.
...