500 million yuan in prize money

Ethan Yuwen sank into his office chair, feeling utterly drained. The recent events had been bizarre enough, but today's encounter was even more surreal. He wondered if he should seek help from a psychiatrist—had he developed some sort of delusional disorder?

He knew that if he recounted his experiences to others, they would likely think he was crazy. Ethan stood up from his chair and began pacing the office, overwhelmed with anxiety and uncertainty about what to do next.

He quickly returned to his desk and grabbed his phone, searching on Baidu for information: "What does it mean when you experience auditory and visual hallucinations?" The search results were alarming:

Hallucinations can result from non-pathological factors, such as excessive stress from work or study, which can cause the central nervous system to become tense and lead to autonomic nervous system dysfunction. This may manifest as various symptoms, including hallucinations, restlessness, sweating, palpitations, and fatigue. It could also be a sign of schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder typically caused by genetic factors or neurotransmitter abnormalities. Schizophrenia leads to symptoms like hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking…

Searching further on schizophrenia: It is defined as a chronic mental disorder involving abnormalities in perception, emotion, and behavior. Patients often struggle to distinguish between reality and imagination, exhibiting slow responses, withdrawal, or extreme behavior, and in severe cases, difficulties in normal social interactions. In medical classification, it is considered a disorder rather than a disease…

After reviewing the information and assessing his own symptoms, Ethan rationally concluded that he was likely suffering from schizophrenia. He buried his face in his hands, elbows propped on the desk, and chuckled at the absurdity of diagnosing himself with schizophrenia. He then had an idea—if he wanted to prove that what he was experiencing was real and not an illusion, he needed to design a series of tests.

Ethan walked to the whiteboard in his office, erasing the previous notes. He picked up a marker and wrote: **1. Distinguishing Hallucinations from Reality**

He devised the following test: If Anna Noelle appeared again, he would ask her to perform tasks that could prove she had an impact on real-world objects rather than just being a figment of his imagination. The tasks had to be plausible but nearly impossible to replicate, with extremely low chances of occurring accidentally. He thought of the lottery: checking the odds of winning the jackpot in a double-color ball lottery was 1 in 17,721,088, or 0.0000056%. Although this probability was low, it had occurred in reality before, so he needed to reduce the odds further.

How could he reduce the 17,721,088 to 1 odds by another billion times? Ethan came up with a plan: he would go ice fishing at a reservoir to catch a glass bottle of cola, sealed with a note inside predicting the next lottery jackpot numbers.

Ethan filled the whiteboard with his elaborate plan and was quite satisfied with the near-madness of it. He crossed his arms, nodded approvingly, and took a selfie of himself with the whiteboard.

When he got home, Ethan prepared a simple meal, heated a small pot of white wine, and, after eating and drinking, waited for Anna to appear. As he waited, he fell asleep and entered a fantastical dream.

In a space surrounded by mirrors with no visible light sources, yet brightly lit, Ethan saw countless reflections of himself due to repeated reflections. He walked slowly in one direction, extending an arm to touch the edge of the space. After walking several dozen steps without finding the boundary, he increased his pace and eventually ran, still failing to find the edge.

Exhausted, he bent over, breathing heavily, when the dual-frequency female voice reappeared: "Hello, we meet again."

Ethan looked up to see the ethereal Sophia Yi standing before him, though she was absent from the mirror images around them. "Where am I? Why can't I see you in the mirrors?"

"You are in a four-dimensional space I created with my mind. Attempting to touch the boundary is futile because, for a three-dimensional being like you, there is no boundary here. As for not seeing me, it's because I'm just a two-dimensional projection on your retina."

"I suspect you don't exist at all. You might just be a figment of my imagination, and I could be suffering from schizophrenia—this could all be an illusion!" Ethan said, agitated.

"Ha! You're quite amusing, doubting yourself as a schizophrenic. True schizophrenics never question their own condition; they only question everything around them," Anna Noelle replied with a laugh.

"If you are real, then accept my test!" Ethan demanded.

"I am aware of the test you've designed. Proceed according to your plan. Just start as soon as you can," she said. With that, a bright flash of light enveloped the surroundings, turning everything into darkness.

Ethan woke up with a start, realizing it was already seven in the morning. He quickly cooked some noodles for breakfast, cleaned up the dishes from the previous night, and retrieved his fishing gear, which had been gathering dust for two years. He cleaned it off and drove to the reservoir outside the city.

Arriving at the reservoir around ten in the morning, Ethan saw that the ice was thick and covered with unmelted snow. Many people were there for ice fishing, some with professional setups including heated tents, while others had simple gear, chiseling holes in the ice with hammers.

Ethan trudged across the ice with his equipment when a middle-aged man in ice skates glided up to him. "Fishing?"

"Yes, do you need anything?" Ethan asked.

"I was just checking if you needed help drilling a hole. We have a machine for it—200 yuan per hole, 40 cm in diameter. With the ice this thick, averaging 40-50 cm, it would take quite a while by hand. See that guy over there? He's been drilling for almost two hours."

"Oh, I see. Please go ahead and drill."

"Alright, scan to pay." The man pulled out a printed QR code. Ethan paid, and the man signaled to two others who quickly set up the machine and drilled a large hole in under five minutes.

Ethan fumbled with his fishing rod, line, hook, and float, struggling for an hour just to get everything ready, sweating despite the cold. Once everything was set up, he realized he had forgotten bait. He slapped his forehead in realization: "I'm here to catch a bottle, not fish—what do I need bait for?" He couldn't help but laugh at himself.

He dropped the hook into the hole and stared at the float for over half an hour with no sign of activity. "Why isn't the bottle biting? Does it need bait, and what kind would it like?" Ethan wondered aloud.

After waiting a bit longer with no results, he decided to pull up the hook to borrow some bait from nearby fishermen. As he lifted the rod, he felt weight and, to his surprise, a glass cola bottle emerged from the water. The cap was sealed, and inside was a slip of paper.

Ethan quickly packed up his fishing gear and the bottle, realizing he had been waiting in the cold for over an hour. Almost frozen, he hurried back to his car and drove home.

When Ethan Yuwen returned home, he slammed the large bag of fishing gear onto the floor, eager to retrieve the cola bottle. He carefully examined the bottle's cap, which was still intact, just as it had been when it left the factory—no scratches or signs of tampering.

He grabbed a bottle opener and unscrewed the cap, pouring out the folded slip of paper inside. Taking a deep breath, Ethan unfolded the note with trembling hands. A series of numbers was clearly visible: Red numbers: 03 09 14 15 26 33; Blue number: 09.

Ethan checked his phone for the most recent draw date of the Double Color Ball lottery. It was indeed Tuesday, and the draw was scheduled for 9:15 PM that evening, with the sales deadline at 8:00 PM.

By 7:30 PM, Ethan had donned a seldom-worn parka and added a mask and sunglasses for extra anonymity. This was to prevent any unwanted attention if he won and to minimize the chance of encountering acquaintances before the sales deadline. As a scientist, he had always felt a certain disdain for those who placed all their hopes on winning the lottery, believing it to be an expectation of easy gain without effort.

At the lottery shop, Ethan hesitated at the door for a few minutes. The winter night had already fallen, and with it being dinner time, the streets were unusually empty. Gathering his courage, he took three deep breaths and stepped into the shop.

With only five minutes left before the sales deadline, the shop owner, sensing the shop's quietness, was preparing to close up. Ethan's appearance—hat, mask, and sunglasses—startled the shop owner. "What do you want? If it's a robbery, you're at the wrong place. I only have a few coins."

"Don't misunderstand, I'm here to buy lottery tickets," Ethan explained.

"You should have come earlier. If you were even a minute later, I'd have closed up. What's the number?" the shop owner said tersely.

Ethan provided the numbers, and the shop owner began typing away at the keyboard. "How many tickets do you want?"

"100 tickets."

"Each ticket can only have a maximum of 99 bets. How about splitting it into two tickets with 50 bets each?"

"That works."

"Alright, scan to pay. It's 200 yuan!"

Ethan scanned the payment QR code on his phone, and after the transaction, the shop owner handed over two tickets. Ethan glanced at the time on the tickets: 19:59:59.

He stuffed the tickets into his pocket and quickly left the shop. The shop owner watched him leave, muttering under his breath, "D*mn, what a weirdo. He really scared me just now."

Back at home, Ethan placed the two tickets on the coffee table and sat on the sofa, turning on the TV to wait for the draw. As he waited through the long stretch of time, his mind churned with thoughts: If he won, it might mean he wasn't suffering from schizophrenia. It could prove his sanity, but it might also be a more severe illusion—illusory lottery tickets and illusory winnings.

He picked up the tickets and sniffed them, noting the authentic smell of paper and ink. He shook them near his ear, the rustling sound was also very real. Letting them fall, one landed on the coffee table and the other on the floor, their descent appearing natural and real.

He turned his attention back to the cola bottle. It felt hard and cold in his hand, still very real. He held it up to the light; the way the light was refracted looked genuine. He put the bottle's mouth to his lips and blew gently, the low humming sound was also convincingly real.

Finding no flaws, Ethan began to think that everything might indeed be real. If he won 100 jackpot tickets, he'd have 500 million yuan in prize money, and even after taxes, it would still be 400 million. What would he do with 400 million? Could he handle such a sudden influx of wealth? Would it drive him mad or make him lose his sense of purpose?

And then there was Anna Noelle, who claimed to be from a six-dimensional space. If everything was indeed her creation, would he have to become her volunteer? If he refused, would she find a way to ensure the money didn't go to him?

Ethan's anxiety grew as he considered these possibilities. He even hoped he wouldn't win, so he wouldn't have to face so many complex issues.

When the clock struck 9:15 PM, the lottery draw was broadcast on TV as scheduled. As the red balls and one blue ball rolled out from the machine, everything was set. Ethan, drenched in sweat, collapsed on the sofa, fainting…

Sunlight streamed through the window the next morning, warming Ethan's face as he slowly woke up. He stretched his limbs and back, feeling more refreshed than he had in months. It was the best sleep he'd had in a long time, free from the entanglements of dreams, his body and mind thoroughly relaxed.

Ethan walked to the window, watching the busy figures of people heading to work or school below. He quickly washed his face, dressed, and prepared to go to the office. Just before leaving, he noticed the two lottery tickets scattered on the coffee table and floor. He picked them up, along with the cola bottle, and tossed them into the drawer beneath the coffee table before heading out.

As he walked to work, the warm sunlight bathed his face, and he felt an unprecedented sense of ease. Neighbors greeted him along the way. After a usual breakfast at the office cafeteria, he settled into his office, brewed a cup of hot tea, and began his routine work.

Nearly two months passed this way, and Ethan seemed to have forgotten the lottery tickets. Not that he had forgotten, but he had intentionally avoided thinking about it. During this period, he had been quite content. Anna Noelle had not appeared again, and there were no strange dreams. He slept soundly each night, and his physical and mental states were at their best.

One day, Gao Lan visited Ethan's office to discuss the upcoming New Year's activities and holiday arrangements. After finishing the work-related discussion, she shifted to her favorite topic: gossip. "Professor Yuwen, have you been in touch with my cousin recently?"

"A few times. We've attended several book club events together," Ethan replied casually.

"You should make the most of it, Professor Yuwen. A gem like my cousin is a rare find," Gao Lan teased.

"Alright, worry about your own matters. You're almost thirty—if you don't find a partner soon, you'll be an old maid," Ethan joked.

"Don't worry about me; I'm already seeing someone and we're in the evaluation stage. By the way, have you seen the news recently?"

"I have. Are you interested in discussing the Russia-Ukraine conflict or the Japanese nuclear wastewater issue?"

"My dear Professor Yuwen, don't you care about local news at all?"

"What local news could possibly interest you, the gossip expert?"

"Come on, Professor Yuwen, don't mock my academic background. Let me read you something." Gao Lan pulled out her phone and read aloud, "A local resident has won 100 jackpot tickets in the Double Color Ball lottery, with a total prize of 500 million yuan. As the prize claim deadline approaches, the winner has yet to come forward."

"You're saying this local news is significant?" Ethan feigned calmness.

"Yes, the shop where the 500 million lottery tickets were sold is on the street behind our office. So the winner must be nearby," Gao Lan said, her voice full of mystery.

"So what does that imply?"

"From what I know, there are three people in our office who buy tickets every draw. One is Old Sun, the security guard; if he won, he'd have left work immediately to claim his prize. Another is Master Liu from logistics; his son needs a house for his wedding, and if he won, he'd have bought a house right away. The third is Wang Jianguo from the Aerospace Engineering Institute; I heard his wife is waiting to see if he wins before deciding whether to proceed with their divorce. So, if anyone here could stay calm with 500 million, it would be you!" Gao Lan said, eyes fixed on Ethan.