Is Self-Redemption Really That Hard? [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 16

When Lan Xu returned, her face still wore a smile, but Lu Wuqi could sense that something was off with her girlfriend’s mood.

After sending Lu’s mother back to the hotel room, Lu Wuqi took Lan Xu’s hand. “We don’t have classes tomorrow morning. Want to go to the nearby mall for a bit before heading back?”

“Sure! We can pick up some clothes for the new season,” Lan Xu agreed immediately, checking the route on her phone. “It’s less than two kilometers away. Shall we walk?”

“Sounds good,” Lu Wuqi replied, silently adding getting her driver’s license to her mental to-do list.

The traffic in the capital wasn’t terrible, but having her own car would definitely be more convenient than taking taxis. She could leave whenever she wanted and visit more places on a whim.

It was already late September, and the two of them had been in the capital for twenty days. Yet this was the first time Lu Wuqi and Lan Xu had gone shopping at an outside mall. Previously, they’d bought daily necessities from the university’s supermarket and stores.

The mall was near the university district, with air-conditioned interiors and a crowd of mostly young faces—mostly students.

Many same-sex couples, like Lu Wuqi and Lan Xu, held hands as they strolled through the mall. Groups of three or five laughed and chatted together, clearly friends out for a casual shopping trip.

“Lu Wuqi, what do you think of that jacket?” Lan Xu asked, pointing through the glass at a model wearing an orange coat.

“I think it looks good. Want to try it on?” Lu Wuqi veered into the store, holding Lan Xu’s hand.

The store staff greeted them warmly and quickly fetched two jackets of the same style and color in their respective sizes.

“What do you think?” Lan Xu asked, gazing at herself in the mirror. It seemed to be her first time wearing an orange jacket.

“It looks great. Makes your skin look even fairer,” Lu Wuqi said, stepping closer to adjust the collar of Lan Xu’s coat while admiring the reflection of the two of them wearing matching jackets.

She thought to herself: if they went out together in these, they could almost be considered a couple outfit.

Lan Xu didn’t say anything outright, but the way she pulled out her phone to take a mirror selfie showed just how pleased she was with the jacket.

“Excuse me, do you have this jacket in other colors?” Lan Xu asked, turning to the store clerk.

“Yes, we have green and blue. I’ll get them for you to try,” the clerk replied, bringing over four more jackets.

Lan Xu, about 1.65 meters tall with a standard figure, could pull off almost any style or color.

Lu Wuqi, on the other hand, was 1.75 meters tall and had to give up the overly delicate small-sized clothes, opting for more casual styles instead. Fortunately, the store didn’t have any ridiculously “delicate” items. The styles Lan Xu chose all came in sizes Lu Wuqi could wear perfectly.

After trying five or six outfits, Lan Xu picked her two favorites and asked the clerk, “If we buy four pieces together, can we get the 32% additional discount on top of the 20% off?”

The clerk grabbed a calculator. “Yes, normally it’s 20% off. With the extra 32% off on four pieces, the total comes to 765 yuan—less than 200 yuan per jacket on average.”

“Great, we’ll take these four. Please wrap them up,” Lan Xu said, mentally checking her savings before reaching for her phone to pay.

“You can scan mine,” Lu Wuqi said quickly, opening her payment QR code and holding Lan Xu’s hand. “Xuxu, do you know how much I’ve earned in the past two weeks?”

“How much? Over two thousand per week, so about four thousand altogether,” Lan Xu thought. Indeed, Lu Wuqi had more money than her.

She put her phone back in her bag. “Okay, you pay then.” She’d buy the shoes later, so she could cover that herself.

The joy of shopping soon drowned out the worries caused by her earlier phone call. With a cup of iced milk tea along the way, her mind was filled only with happiness.

“Lu Wuqi, want to try our luck?” As they were about to leave, Lan Xu noticed a bustling lottery booth and felt a spark of excitement.

A sudden windfall was unlikely, but what if it happened? Winning the jackpot would be amazing!

“Sure! Shall we each buy a ticket?” Lu Wuqi was curious about her own luck.

Without hesitation, they set their shopping bags aside, scanned their phones to pay twenty yuan, and each picked a ten-yuan scratch card.

Because the booth was crowded, they each received a small scratch-off card.

Lan Xu quickly scratched off the coating, carefully comparing the numbers with the winning numbers. Then she couldn’t help but shout, “Lu Wuqi, I won! Fifty yuan!” She hugged Lu Wuqi tightly in excitement.

After deducting the cost, she’d made a net gain of forty yuan. Not much, but it was free money! Scratched off in an instant!

“Congratulations! Let’s see how I do,” Lu Wuqi said, letting go of Lan Xu and scratching off her card.

“Huh? All the symbols are ‘Luck’?” Lu Wuqi blinked, surprised at her good fortune.

“Wow, that’s the jackpot! You’ve won all the prizes!” Lan Xu’s eyes widened. “Lu Wuqi, check—are these a hundred or a thousand each?”

“A thousand. Ten cards at a thousand each. That’s ten thousand yuan,” Lu Wuqi said, a small smile curling at the corner of her mouth.

She wasn’t thrilled about winning ten thousand yuan itself. The joy came from having a perfect excuse to spend money on Lan Xu without any reason needed.

“Wow, her luck is incredible!”

“Ah, I should have bought the same ‘Lucky Together’ card! Damn!”

“Is this the jackpot?”

Lan Xu’s excitement drew the attention of most people at the booth. They stopped scratching their own tickets and gathered to watch Lu Wuqi’s win.

The store owner was pleased too, grabbing a megaphone to announce the win, hoping to boost sales for the day.

Since lottery booth owners earn a percentage of sales and don’t pay out winnings themselves, he was more than happy to see a big prize awarded.

“Do you two want to claim your prizes directly or try again?” the owner asked with a smile.

Lan Xu hesitated. Luck was certainly on their side today—should they try once more?

“No, we’ll claim them directly,” Lu Wuqi replied calmly. Buying lottery tickets was just gambling on luck. Winning ten thousand once was already rare; winning twice in a row would be absurd.

“Right, we’ll claim them,” Lan Xu agreed. That small gain of forty yuan even covered their milk tea expenses—basically two drinks for free. Perfect!