Chapter 1

It’s late. Fang Yan is heating some water; he finds himself unable to focus on the advertising package he is working on open on his laptop, and has instead been turning to look at his electric kettle every few seconds.

The temperature is jumping rapidly. 27, 56… Finally, it boils. Beep, beep, beep!

Before the kettle can even shut itself down, Fang Yan has already walked over, and pulled the plug himself. He returns with the kettle of boiling water to his computer desk, and pours the steaming water into the instant noodle cup he already prepared with the condiments.

The sour and attractive smell of pickled vegetables rises right out.

The greasiness is making him salivate.

The fried noodle cake has an alluring scent.

The heavenly mix of delectable goodness only costs ¥4.5 ^[1] !

Fang Yan puts his copy of ‘How to Become a Masterful Advertising Guru’ onto the cup. They say one should let it stew for 3 minutes, but he cannot wait any longer after a minute or so. He only had a bamboo steamer ^[2] -ful of soup dumplings this morning. After that was a noon meeting speaking with clients, and an afternoon when he hurried home to make his package. It’s already 9 in the evening, and he is finally able to prepare some life-saving sustenance for himself as he awaits his clients’ response.

‘Slurp~’

‘Slurp slurp~~’

While he is enjoying his noodles, there is already a notification. With noodles still hanging out of his mouth, Fang Yan looks at the computer——

Client: ‘I want a striking kind of black! What kind of black is this? Black with a red, blue, white, purple and yellow tint is visually striking to you?’

Fang Yan can’t even enjoy his noodles in peace anymore, and starts typing to respond in a timely manner, ‘much apologies, mister, we will immediately correct it. Can you specify exactly what kind of colour you would like your black to look like?’

Client: ‘How should I know! Just make it look vibrant!’

Fang Yan “…”

Fucking hell!

I ain’t cut out for this shit!

The hell kind of client is this?!

His eyes are going damned colourblind.

Fang Yan’s teeth is grinding, but he does not let his rage get to him. He still has instalments for his car, for his house; he still has his hobbies. Yes, ha, haha~

‘Understood, sir, yes, sir.’

Client: ‘Can you really do it? If not just tell me so I can find someone else, and let’s stop wasting each other’s time, ok?’

Fang Yan: ‘Of course. We will immediately get to work.’

Fang Yan replies with zero spine. Honestly, it’s not like it is by choice if someone has to earn money grovelling on the ground instead of standing tall and proud. After closing the chat window, Fang Yan sighs in relief, then starts flipping through his cup noodle stopper——‘How to Become a Masterful Advertising Guru.’

He wants to see if it might teach how one can create a vibrant kind of black.

Though as soon as he opens it, the lottery ticket he bought earlier falls right out. Oh, right, today is the date, isn’t it? Still, he makes sure to finish his advertising package work before searching for the result.

Fang Yan is more awake than he has been all this time. As the old saying goes, one cannot become rich without some lucky breaks. Who wouldn’t dream of getting lucky?

Too bad Fang Yan has zero skills for things like stealing the battery off electric cars. He’d probably end up caught dead.

Porch pirate? The law says three boxes and he’d get himself handed the platinum free meal package ^[3] . That sure is not a good trade.

With no talent to his name, all he can do is what he studied for. Do advertising campaigns, and make a little bit of money for himself. Also, buying lottery tickets and pray for a miracle.

Sigh… Life is difficult.

He knows, deep down, he won’t really win anyway. The odds are against him. It’d be lucky if he won 5 dollars ^[4] and got the purchase price back. The next prize up, 10 dollars ^[5] , and he can buy a whole pack of instant noodles for tomorrow night.

He starts going through the numbers, “oh, 1? That’s a match. 16, another match. 27, mm? I also have 27! Hehe… Holy! Holy shit!” Fang Yan shoots up like a rocket, his hands are shaking.

His heart is racing rapidly.

Still in disbelief, Fang Yan looks up the numbers and goes through them all five more times, afraid his eyes were playing tricks on him, or he might just be dreaming. Every single time, he concludes, he won jackpot! The jackpot!

His house, his car, all the loans can be cleared! He’d have enough left to even open a little store and be his own boss! Oh goodness, oh god. What kind of luck is this to fall upon an orphan? He will soon be the actual owner of his own house. He won’t have to worry about dying in a freak accident while still repaying his loan, and never owning his house at all even in death.

Fang Yan is terribly excited. Though he slowly starts to calm down after a dozen minutes. He looks up how exactly one cashes in the ticket online. After committing to heart how he should wear a mask and put on a deliveryman disguise when he goes to the centre, his client sends him a message.

Client: ‘You truly are the worst advertising company I have ever had the displeasure of working with. Do you even understand what I mean by a vibrant black?’

Fang Yan is out of ideas, too. Furrowing his brows, he replies, ‘We apologise. Perhaps it would be best, then, if you took your business to other advertisers.’ Maybe he seriously cannot comprehend the concept of black being vibrant.

Client: ‘What the hell? You did a trash job, and can’t even take the criticism? You can’t even do a simple advertising package, and you actually dream of charging money for this shit? Eat shit and die!’

Fang Yan takes a deep breath, then his fingers dance——

‘F**k you motherfucker! I’m not doing your shitty adverts anymore! Bugger off!’

Then he blocks the client on his WeChat and phone number.

Damn it, that client is seriously too much.