When Xia Xiaolan arrived with little You, it was already past eight-twenty, just minutes before the official opening.

The host repeated the lottery rules several times. Xia Xiaolan thought this host was quite good at energizing the crowd and controlling the atmosphere.

This type of lottery could be used to make money.

Until the turn of the millennium, such events were common throughout the country.

Did it matter if anyone won the car?

With scratch cards costing just a few yuan each, participating citizens got carried away, thinking they had nothing to lose for just a few yuan – what if they won?

You Li, having listened to the introduction, quietly asked Xia Xiaolan:

“Manager Xia, will anyone win?”

Xia Xiaolan glanced at her, “What do you think?”

This was why she called You Li a smart person.

Looking at the crowd getting excited over this lottery, caught up in the moment, they weren’t seeing things as clearly as this young girl You Li.

After thinking for a while, You Li boldly shared her thoughts:

“If this wasn’t a shopping plaza lottery, and they put a price on each ticket, people would still buy them – 2 yuan, or 3 yuan, 5 yuan… Even if all these prizes added up to 100,000 yuan, selling 20,000 tickets at 5 yuan each would ensure they wouldn’t lose money.”

Xia Xiaolan nodded encouragingly, “Continue. Just breaking even isn’t the goal of people running lotteries.”

Of course not – what’s the point of just breaking even?

Isn’t the purpose of such a business to make money?

You Li calculated mentally – two motorcycles wouldn’t cost more than 10,000 yuan, replacing the third prize with something else would cost a few thousand, and several thousand bags of laundry detergent wouldn’t cost much either.

The only truly valuable prize was the car!

As long as nobody won the car, they couldn’t lose money.

How to ensure nobody won the car… Maybe not print any “first prize” tickets? Or print them but never sell those tickets? No, no, no – they could simply have an accomplice take the “first prize” ticket beforehand. With the drawing happening on the spot, seeing someone win the first-prize car would only make other ticket buyers think they just weren’t lucky enough!

Young, You shared her analysis, feeling quite conflicted.

If one were willing to be a bit unscrupulous, there were many ways to make money!

But if she hadn’t followed Manager Xia, she would never have thought of these things.

“You’re the clever one – having such an easy way to make money, yet you’re teaching others to use it for advertising and promotion instead.”

“You mean schemes to cheat people out of their money?”

Xia Xiaolan shook her head, “Such scams don’t last long – you have to keep moving to new locations, and it requires several people working together. After splitting the proceeds from one lottery event, each person doesn’t get much. With the same effort, you could make so much more money through legitimate means!”

Modern scammers were still using such crude methods.

To Xia Xiaolan, running scams for meager earnings while constantly worrying wasn’t worth it.

Just like how she had avoided smuggling back then – the risks outweighed the rewards!

Of course, as time went on, scammers’ methods evolved with the times. Lottery scams became low-class; the slightly more sophisticated ones ran pyramid schemes, and the most advanced ones operated investment platforms… Well, with high interest and high returns, one didn’t need to think too hard about how these platforms would pay out their promised returns.

Or perhaps everyone understood but let greed take over, all pretending together, hoping to exit early and pass the burden to others, like a game of hot potato.

When the platforms eventually collapsed, people couldn’t recover their principal or interest. The masterminds behind the platforms would flee with the money, and those who were caught might enable some victims to recover part of their investment.

At this point, crowds would cry and wail, demanding severe punishment from the state, asking for justice, and even requesting state compensation.

What could the state do?

The state was innocent in all this.

When people made money, they never contributed to the national treasury, but when they got scammed, they wanted the state to cover their losses.

These things, Xia Xiaolan couldn’t possibly explain to You Li.

However, now that she had introduced this promotional technique, even You Li could spot the potential issues. Perhaps some “clever people” would see the business opportunity and start their scams… but Xia Xiaolan couldn’t take responsibility for all potential scammers.

The advertising technique itself was good, and she wasn’t making false promises. If others used it to scam people, Du Zhaohui wasn’t selling lottery tickets, so there was no fraud involved.

The car would genuinely be won – Du Zhaohui could certainly afford to give away a car worth several tens of thousands.

However, the timing of the win needed to be arranged. If someone won the “first prize” early in the morning, without the car as a draw, later customers would lose interest.

The initial plan was to have it won after 5 PM.

This could be controlled through the distribution of lottery tickets.

You Li watched as the crowd’s emotions were completely stirred up, finding it scary. Manager Xia wasn’t deceiving people, but what if they encountered real scammers?

How could these people distinguish between real and fake?

You Li expressed her concerns, and Xia Xiaolan chuckled:

“Ninety-nine percent of windfalls that fall from the sky are poisoned. Even I can’t guarantee I won’t be scammed. To reduce the chance of being scammed, you don’t need to be particularly clever – just having less desire to get something for nothing will help you avoid over 80% of scams.”

Sophisticated scams could be blamed on a lack of experience or intelligence.

Most scams were crude and simple, yet people still fell for them. This was purely due to greed and wanting something for nothing. Scammers succeeded repeatedly by exploiting this psychology.

As Xia Xiaolan and You Li talked, time ticked by. More and more people gathered outside the plaza, waiting for the official opening.

At 8:30, the host shouted:

“Let’s all congratulate Zhenggrong Plaza Electronics Market on its grand opening! Please line up to enter. We have 15,000 lottery tickets, 15,000 tickets – they won’t run out quickly. Everyone can take their time choosing desired products. Don’t rush, don’t push, let’s avoid any trampling incidents…”

Oh my, earlier they complained the host wasn’t clear enough, now they complained he talked too much.

Those waiting here all wanted to get in quickly.

The doors opened.

A crowd surged in. Only the first floor was open, but it was spacious and clean!

All products were displayed in glass cabinets with clearly marked retail prices.

Of course, these were retail prices.

For bulk purchases, the stall owners would certainly offer discounts. Each shop had different low prices – it all depended on how people negotiated.

Several hundred customers entered, energizing the stall owners.

Xia Xiaolan wasn’t in a hurry to go in. She was checking her watch and watching to see if more customers would arrive.

Du Zhaohui had been looking for her. Earlier, in front of the stall merchants, he had acted like a king surveying his domain. Now, seeing Xia Xiaolan, his eyes lit up and he walked very quickly, like a running dog.

“I thought you weren’t coming today! Ah, seeing you here puts my mind at ease. I was worried about today’s sales!”