HPDBC Chapter 414 Lucky Draw Red Envelopes
Chapter 414 Lucky Draw Red Envelopes
After playing for an hour, Shen Yuege ate at three different restaurants all by herself.
Lu Ran has now truly witnessed the power of the newbie protection period.
Shen Yuege's card-playing movements are still slow and sluggish. When arranging the cards, she still puts them in a crooked and messy way, and the cards she plays are often baffling.
But she always manages to win, and she always wins with some really strange and unusual hands.
Lu Ran lost the most.
He likes to calculate when playing cards, but no matter how much he calculates, he can't out-calculate Shen Yuege's random moves.
Shen Zhiwei is right. If you sit at a table with someone who has just learned to play cards, no matter how well you calculate, it's useless because she doesn't even know what she's going to play. How can you calculate it?
Priscilla Chan lost quite a bit, but she accepted her defeat wholeheartedly.
The way she looked at Shen Yuege playing cards was like looking at a child who had just learned to walk—a mixture of worry and relief.
What worried me was whether she would make a mistake, but I was relieved that she didn't make many mistakes.
Shen Zhiwei lost the fewest, not because he played well, but because he was dozing off most of the time.
When it was his turn to play a card, Priscilla Chan nudged him. He groggily picked up a card and played it, then dozed off again for a while.
With this kind of playing style, they didn't lose by much, which Lu Ran found very illogical.
Around 11:30, the area downstairs started to get lively.
The entire neighborhood was bustling with activity as people walked out. Footsteps, voices, laughter, and children's screams mingled together, pouring out from every unit door of every building, creating a cacophony of sounds.
Priscilla Chan glanced at the time and said, "It's about time, you can go now. The fireworks are in the bag in the entryway, don't take the wrong ones. The big firework shell is what your dad bought, the small sparklers are for you."
Shen Yuege stood up from the chair, rubbed her numb buttocks, and stretched her shoulders.
She played mahjong for an hour without changing her posture, as if she were nailed to the chair.
Lu Ran felt that she was more focused when playing cards than when she was working.
The two changed their shoes, put on their coats, and took the fireworks downstairs.
Lu Ran carried three bags. The bag Shen Yue was carrying contained sparklers and a few small gadgets.
I ran into my upstairs neighbors in the elevator. It was a family of three. The child was holding a long "golden cudgel" firework and waving it around in the elevator. His mother glared at him, and he quieted down.
As soon as I stepped out of the building, a blast of cold air hit me.
The air in Shanghai on New Year's Eve was filled with a faint smell of sulfur, as people had already started setting off fireworks.
Lu Ran took a deep breath and coughed twice, choking on it.
Shen Yuege pulled her scarf up, covering her nose and mouth, leaving only her eyes visible.
A number of people were already standing on the lawn in the residential area.
Most of the people were young people and families with children, gathered in twos and threes, holding all kinds of fireworks.
A few daring ones had already set up fireworks shells in the open space in the middle of the lawn, with the fuses twisted, just waiting for midnight.
Lu Ran and Shen Yuege found a relatively quiet spot and put the bag on the ground.
Lu Ran took out the large firework shell, placed it on the ground, and checked the fuse.
Shen Yuege squatted down beside her, taking out sparklers one by one and sticking them into the soil at the edge of the lawn. She stuck more than a dozen of them in, neatly arranged, like a row of tiny soldiers.
"Why did you arrange them so neatly? They'll be a mess when they catch fire," Lu Ran said.
"It looks better when they're neatly arranged. Mind your own business."
Lu Ran smiled and didn't say anything more.
He took his phone out of his pocket, glanced at the time, and saw it was 11:50.
Ten minutes left.
More and more people are coming downstairs.
The lawn was full of people, and even the steps by the roadside were occupied.
Some people were taking selfies, some were video calling, holding their phones high and shouting at the camera, "Mom, look, we're waiting for fireworks!"
The children weaved through the crowd, holding small sparklers in their hands, and started screaming excitedly even before they were lit.
Lu Ran opened the work group, which was full of messages.
Old Wang posted a photo of his family's New Year's Eve dinner, a table full of dishes, with the caption, "My mom made this, you're all envious, aren't you?"
Xiao Yang posted a selfie, wearing a red hoodie, making a peace sign, with the caption "Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and great fortune."
Zhou Mingzhe didn't post a selfie, but instead posted a picture of his son squatting on the ground setting off fireworks, with only one word in the caption—"Dad".
Lu Ran rolled his eyes. His subordinates really knew how to post on social media.
Lu Ran scrolled up and saw a message from Zhao Yiming in the tech department's duty group: "Servers are all normal, 3.1 million concurrent players in Infinite Firepower mode, 50,000 more than yesterday. Don't these guys eat their New Year's Eve dinner?" Someone replied: "They ate. They ate in front of their computers with bowls in hand." Another person said: "In the last game I queued up, my teammate said, 'Wait for me for three minutes, I'm going to eat some dumplings,' and then he actually went AFK for three minutes. When he came back, he got five kills in a row, and the other team cursed him, saying he must have gotten cheat codes from eating dumplings."
Lu Ran looked at these messages and a smile crept onto his face.
He thought for a moment, then typed a message in the group chat: "Thank you to all the colleagues on duty tonight. In addition to the promised ten times your salary, I'll give each of you a 10,000 yuan red envelope. It will arrive on the first day back to work after the New Year." After sending it, he added: "Those not on duty will also receive 1,000 yuan each. Happy New Year."
The group was silent for two seconds, then it exploded.
Zhao Yiming posted a panda head emoji with the caption, "Boss, are you drunk?"
Old Wang sent a string of exclamation marks, then said, "Mr. Lu, if your account has been hacked, just blink."
Xiao Yang sent a crying emoji and said, "Why am I not on duty today?"
Zhou Mingzhe remained the calmest, simply sending a "Received" message. However, after seeing him send the message in the group chat, Lu Ran sent him a private message: "Why are you being so generous today?"
Lu Ran replied, "It's Chinese New Year."
Zhou Mingzhe sent an ellipsis and then said, "Who exactly are you? Get out of Lu Ran's body right now."
Lu Ran did not reply to this message.
He put his phone away, squatted down to check the fuse of the firework shell, made sure there was no problem, patted the dirt off his hands and stood up.
At this moment, the crowd downstairs began to stir, because someone had started a countdown.
It wasn't just one person shouting; it was hundreds of people shouting together.
"ten!"
"Nine!"
"eight!"
Lu Ran took out a lighter from his pocket, squatted down next to the firework shell, and pressed his thumb on the lighter's roller.
Shen Yuege stood behind him, covering her ears with her hands, her eyes wide open, staring at the thin fuse.
"seven!"
"six!"
"five!"
Lu Ran flicked the lighter's roller, and a flame shot out.
He brought the flame close to the fuse, and the fuse hissed and ignited, emitting tiny sparks and the smell of gunpowder.
"Four!"
"three!"
"two!"
Lu Ran stood up, turned around, and pulled Shen Yuege back two steps.
The fuse hissed and burned, and sparks climbed along the thin thread, like a tiny firefly flying upwards in the darkness.
"one!"
"Happy New Year!"
boom.
The first firework shot into the night sky with a long tail, exploding against the dark backdrop in the shape of a golden chrysanthemum.
The petals spread outwards, trailing tiny flames that illuminated most of the sky.
A gasp rippled through the crowd below, everyone tilting their heads back, their eyes sparkling in the light of the fireworks.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Fireworks burst open one after another in the night sky.
Red, yellow, blue, green, purple...
Some exploded and turned into tiny stars, hanging in the night sky and slowly fading away.
Some exploded and turned into willow branches, hanging down from the highest point, like someone hanging a glowing willow tree upside down in the sky.
Some exploded with a crackling sound, like someone setting off a string of firecrackers in the clouds.
Shen Yuege looked up at the sky, the light of the fireworks flashing on her face.
She stopped covering her ears, put her hands down in the pockets of her down jacket, and looked very relaxed.
Lu Ran stood next to her, glanced at the sky, and then glanced at her.
Shen Yuege felt his gaze and turned her head to look at him: "Why are you looking at me? Look at the fireworks."
Fireworks happen every year. But you're not here with me every year.
Shen Yuege paused for a moment, then turned her face back to continue watching the fireworks.
Lu Ran noticed that the skin above her mask had a faint pinkish tinge, and he couldn't tell if it was from the cold or something else.
More and more fireworks were set off around them, becoming increasingly dense.
Fireworks in the neighborhood, in the neighboring neighborhood, and several streets away were all lit at the same time, illuminating the entire night sky of Shanghai as if it were daytime.
The booming of fireworks, the crackling of firecrackers, the screams of children, and the laughter of adults all blended together, weaving a noisy and lively symphony.
Lu Ran squatted down and lit the sparklers stuck on the edge of the lawn one by one.
The sparklers sprayed out golden sparks, hissing and drawing arcs of light in the darkness.
Shen Yuege also squatted down, took out a "small spinning top" from the bag, placed it on the ground, and lit the fuse.
The little spinning top started spinning in circles on the ground, getting faster and faster, spitting out sparks of red, yellow, blue and green, like a crazy, colorful turtle.
Shen Yuege was so engrossed in watching that she didn't even notice the sparks almost hitting the sleeve of her down jacket. Lu Ran reached out and pulled her back before she came to her senses.
The two of them set off most of the fireworks in the bag, saving the rest for tomorrow.
Lu Ran stood up and stretched his legs, which had gone numb from squatting, and took out his phone to check the work group chat.
The group chat has already received hundreds of messages, all from employees sending New Year's greetings.
Zhao Yiming posted a selfie of himself squatting next to a server rack, making a peace sign, with the caption "Celebrating the New Year with my babies."
Xiao Yang posted a picture of her cat, who was wearing a red hat and looked very unhappy.
Lu Ran sent a red envelope in the group chat with the message "Happy New Year".
He didn't set up the "luck-based" feature because TUTU doesn't have it, and neither does WeChat.
Everyone gets the same amount, one hundred yuan each.
But after the red envelopes were sent out, the people in the group realized something was wrong—Lu Ran had sent more than one red envelope; he had sent ten in a row, each containing 100 yuan. Ten red envelopes in ten seconds, and 1,000 yuan was gone just like that.
Shen Yuege leaned closer for a look and said, "Did you take the wrong medicine today?"
"I'm happy. When I'm happy, I want to spend money."
"You weren't like this when you were happy."
Lu Ran blushed at her words, put his phone away, and stopped sending the message.
As he watched the fireworks fill the sky, he suddenly remembered something.
He took out his phone, opened the notes app, and typed a line: "Create a lucky draw feature for red envelopes. Users send a red envelope with a set total amount and number of envelopes, and the winners distribute the prizes randomly. This can increase user interaction, boost card-linking rates, and pave the way for mobile payments."
He stared at the line for a few seconds, feeling it wasn't comprehensive enough, and added, "Corporate red envelopes can also be done; the brand pays for the red envelopes, and users can claim coupons after grabbing them. The traffic generation effect should be quite good."
Then he exited the memo app, his consciousness sank into the system's light screen, and typed a few words in the search bar—"Lucky Draw Red Envelope".
...