Chapter One: Seventy Million That Wasn't Mine

once smashed his father's memorial portrait. He did not celebrate. He sealed the ticket inside his document pouch and tucked it under his shirt. At dawn he requested leave, and at nine sharp he entered the municipal lottery center. The clerk scanned the ticket. Her smile arrived, then froze. “Mr. Lin, the ticket is genuine. It won first prize.” “Then let's do the paperwork.” “The registered claimant isn't you.” She turned her monitor. Beneath a green VERIFIED banner stood a name: GU CHANGQING. “Lottery tickets are bearer instruments,” Lin said. “Normally. This one was preregistered to a digital wallet before the draw, with a biometric signature. Gu Changqing, identification ending in zero-nine. The system describes you as a custodian.”