This is Jason Ford's roommate, Paul Reed, who is also Hongjie’s underling. He’s mainly responsible for valet parking and often gets tips, so his income is a bit higher than the double-degree underlings, and he’s also a big spender.

Jason Ford really doesn’t like this guy—not because he’s jealous of his higher income, but because both times he lost money, Paul Reed was a suspect.

So, when faced with his question, he just replied weakly, “I spent half the day planting fields.”

“Damn,” Paul Reed was dissatisfied. Zhengyang is a grand provincial capital, almost sub-provincial level—where in the city would you find land to farm? “I’m just showing some concern for you. Would it kill you not to be so snarky?”

Jason Ford looked at him for a while, then nodded slightly and spoke sincerely, “No lie, I really did go ‘plant grass’…”

Chapter 3: A Stroke of Luck, the Biggest One

At eight in the evening, it was dinnertime for the people of Zhengyang.

Jason Ford walked out of the dormitory building, went into a small alley, and arrived at a hole-in-the-wall eatery—a place he often frequented.

The cost of living in Zhengyang isn’t low, but even in first-tier cities, there are still very affordable little restaurants hidden deep in the alleys.

Usually, Jason Ford would have a big bowl of fried noodles, a plate of cold tofu, and a chicken leg—enough to fill him up. Honestly, that’s already quite a lot of food.

However, today he ordered three big bowls of fried noodles, two vegetarian dishes, and five chicken legs. Later, he even splurged on a plate of spicy beef and tripe, and only then did his stomach feel less empty.

Finally, he ordered two large bowls of noodle soup—this is called “sealing the cracks”—and only then did he feel somewhat full and bloated.

After paying with WeChat QR code, he left with his belly sticking out, completely unconcerned about the restaurant owner’s surprised look.

But as soon as he stepped out of the restaurant, Jason Ford was stunned. “Huh? WeChat Pay… I can’t enter the space?”

It seemed that the most urgent thing was to figure out what benefits this stroke of luck could bring him.

Of course, first he needed to understand how the stroke of luck happened—was it the phone that changed, or himself?

Sitting under a bright streetlamp, he carefully examined his phone, then looked at his left hand. He was left-handed, and when he got shocked, the phone was clutched in his left hand.

His left palm was slightly swollen—he didn’t know if it was from being struck by lightning or from “planting grass” too often.

But on the surface, there really wasn’t much abnormal to see.

When he turned his wrist, he was surprised to find a faint, pale blue mark near the back of his wrist. “What the—my stone ring is gone?”

Three years ago, during his university internship, he and his roommates had gone to Bingzhou for a few days. In the mountains east of Bingzhou, there was a secluded valley. A group of young, energetic college students went in to explore.

There was a ruined pagoda forest in the valley, said to be over a thousand years old. It was here that Jason Ford picked up a bluish stone ring.

The stone ring was flat and round, with an outer diameter of just over two centimeters and an inner diameter of about three millimeters. It felt cool to the touch and was quite heavy—almost as dense as iron.

The ring didn’t look like much, but it had one advantage: it stayed cool even in summer.

Jason Ford had picked it up just to fiddle with, not caring if he lost it. But when he brought it back to Jiangxia University, he found that in the sweltering heat of Jiangxia, this thing made him feel very comfortable.

The slight coolness was probably just a psychological effect, but since Jason Ford hated the heat, he thought it was great. He threaded it onto a red string and wore it on his wrist, never taking it off, even when showering.

Now, the stone ring had mysteriously disappeared, along with the red string. Combined with the pale blue mark on his wrist, Jason Ford had reason to believe that after being struck by lightning, the ring had undergone some… well, some kind of change.

What exactly that was, he couldn’t explain, but he figured the ring had fused into his body after being struck by lightning.

This explanation was pretty unscientific, but hey, a stroke of luck… the biggest one!

If you could explain it scientifically, would it still be called a stroke of luck?

After figuring out the cause, Jason Ford decisively gave up on investigating the source—he figured there was no way he’d find another stone ring like that in the short term.

Better to first figure out what this stroke of luck had brought him. Hopefully, it wasn’t just “planting grass.”

First, he needed to find a place with no people and no surveillance cameras, to try and experience that magical feeling again.

He wasn’t sure whether, when he entered QQ Farm, it was just his consciousness that went in, or his physical body as well.

In a city covered with surveillance, if a living person suddenly disappeared on camera, it could cause a lot of unnecessary trouble.

Jason Ford didn’t like trouble, and he definitely didn’t want his stroke of luck to be snatched away by someone else.

Such a place wasn’t hard to find—for example… the restroom at Hongjie Club.

That afternoon’s thunderstorm had blown out the transformer outside Hongjie Club. Fortunately, the club had its own generator, and there were still plenty of guests coming to work out in the evening. The generator was rumbling away.