Had a video call with my wife and child for over an hour.
The whole family was very excited because of the lottery win.
After ending the video call, Jiang Tao started preparing tonight’s dinner.
He’s living in Beijing by himself, so he doesn’t care much about his everyday needs, getting by with whatever he can.
Cooked a pack of instant noodles in an electric pot and made a poached egg.
After the noodles were ready, he poured them into a retro-style yellow enamel bowl he often used.
Then took off the pancake he kept warm on the radiator.
Added some Lao Gan Ma sauce.
Simple and easy, the dinner was ready. Let’s go!
With soup and water, after a full meal, Jiang Tao went to the communal sink outside to wash the pot and clean the dishes.
After being full and cleaning up, Jiang Tao went back inside, lay in bed, and started listening to an audiobook.
Jiang Tao rarely goes out unless necessary.
After work, the routine is to have a video call with his wife and child, then eat dinner.
After dinner, he stays home to listen to books, read novels, and browse short videos.
Besides that, he has no other hobbies, very much a homebody.
Near midnight while listening to the audiobook, Jiang Tao had a thought and opened the Daily Intelligence System to have a look.
[Time left until the next intelligence refresh: 00:06:51!]
Saw that the next piece of information would refresh in over 6 minutes.
Jiang Tao couldn’t focus on the novel in his ear; his mind started guessing what the next piece of information might be.
Would it be another jackpot notice like the first one?
Or perhaps give him the winning numbers for a first prize in the lottery!
Staring intently at the countdown on the virtual panel, he watched for over 6 minutes.
When the countdown hit six zeros, the new information finally popped up!
[Today’s Intelligence]: This afternoon, as you pass by the village square in Xiaoshanhe Urban Village, you received intelligence—
Inside the first trash can on the west side of the village square, within the lining of a light green women’s down jacket,
there is a Longines Mini Détourage women’s watch valued at 13,300 yuan!
Seeing the latest intelligence refresh, once again related to a trash can, Jiang Tao couldn’t help but have mixed feelings.
This system must have a thing for trash cans!
However, when he saw the intelligence mention a watch valued at over 10,000 yuan, Jiang Tao’s heartbeat quickened!
"Better go check now! The longer you wait, the more likely someone else will snatch it up!"
With that thought, Jiang Tao immediately started putting on his clothes and hat.
He put on a long military coat full of stains, wore a Lei Feng hat, put on cotton gloves, and grabbed a flashlight.
Fully geared up, Jiang Tao pushed the door open, went down the stairs, and exited the building.
Whoosh, whoosh~
Snowflakes danced in the air.
The snow in Beijing fell from evening until now, past midnight, accumulating about six or seven centimeters on the ground.
His steel-toed work boots crunched in the snow, leaving a trail of footprints.
Jiang Tao trudged through the snow for more than 8 minutes and finally arrived at the Xiaoshanhe Village Community Activity Square on the west side of the village.
His eyes immediately locked onto the four trash cans on the west side of the square.
Jiang Tao strode forward, and a few stray cats scavenging for food in the trash cans meowed and jumped away.
"The first trash can, is it the first from the left or the first from the right?"
"Oh well, I’ll start with the right one!"
With just a few trash cans here and no one around, Jiang Tao didn’t need to rush.
Putting on a pair of work gloves, Jiang Tao started rummaging through the trash can on the right.
From top to bottom, this trash can was full of all kinds of miscellaneous trash, old clothes, broken cans, bricks, and tiles...
Finished searching but didn’t find the light green women’s down jacket mentioned in the intelligence.
"Next one!"
After failing to find anything in the first trash can, Jiang Tao wasn’t discouraged, moving on to the next one.
He dug through the top with express mail boxes, broken plastic bags, and a pile of leaves.
"Got it!"
After moving a black delivery packaging bag, the flashlight’s beam revealed a hint of green!
Soon, Jiang Tao pulled out a light green women’s short down jacket from the trash can.
This should be the women’s down jacket mentioned in the intelligence!
But...
Jiang Tao rummaged through both outer pockets and an inner pocket of the down jacket but still couldn’t find the women’s watch mentioned in the intelligence!
This result made Jiang Tao sweat bullets on his forehead!
"It shouldn’t be wrong. The intelligence system shouldn’t be mistaken!"
Jiang Tao thought, opening the intelligence system again to read today’s intelligence word by word.
This time, Jiang Tao noticed that the intelligence mentioned the watch was inside the lining of the down jacket!
"The lining of the down jacket?"
This time Jiang Tao didn’t just empty the pockets; he started exploring along the hem of the down jacket with his hands.
Feeling around, he did find something!
There was an inconspicuous foreign object at the left hem of the down jacket!
"This should be the women’s watch!"
Thinking about the value of this watch, Jiang Tao’s excitement surged again!
That’s over 10,000 yuan!
Whose profligate woman threw this away!
Fortunately, his own woman wasn’t so wasteful!
Jiang Tao checked all three pockets again, finding no holes, his big hand couldn’t reach in.
And he didn’t have any tool handy.
So he just stuffed the down jacket inside his military coat, deciding to bring it home first!
By the time he retraced his steps back to the rental house, it was already past half-past midnight.
Usually, Jiang Tao would be having a rendezvous with the daughter of Zhou Gong at this hour.
But today, he was feeling energetic, not sleepy at all!
Entering the door, he took off the military coat, took out the green women’s down jacket, and found a pair of scissors from a drawer.
Snip, snip, snip...
Jiang Tao, without saying a word, directly cut open the lining of the down jacket near the foreign object.
With a reach, he pulled out a small square watch face with a red alligator leather strap, looking dainty and exquisite.
This watch looked brand new, almost like it was just bought!
And, Jiang Tao saw that the hands on the watch face were moving normally.
The time displayed matched that on Jiang Tao’s phone!
This indicates the watch was intact and working perfectly!
Flipping the watch over to check the back, the model number L5.200 was written on it.
Having lived for thirty years, Jiang Tao knew nothing about watches except drawing them on his wrist with a ballpoint pen as a child.
But...
The intelligence system said it’s valued at 13,300, so it must be right!
"Judging by the condition, it should be more than 98% new. If I put it up on Xianyu, how much should it go for..."
"Let’s see if there’s a similar one on Bilibili to refer to the price!"
When it came to areas he wasn’t familiar with, Jiang Tao didn’t pretend to know and cross-checked multiple times.
Opening Bilibili, he searched for several videos, and Jiang Tao got a rough idea about the price of the watch he found today.
The retail price of this Mini Longines Détourage women’s watch is 13,300.
Although this series is a relatively classic one, the brand’s value retention isn’t great.
Therefore, selling second-hand usually means offering a 30% or even 40% discount!
"60% of 13,300 is 7,980..."
Jiang Tao calculated the price on his phone calculator and was totally fine with it!
Finding 8,000 yuan for free, what more can you ask!
Since he didn’t buy it, he didn’t feel much need to dwell on it.
Jiang Tao immediately snapped several photos of the watch.
Logged into his Xianyu account and listed it for sale at 8,000 yuan!
After listing it, Jiang Tao glanced at his phone, noticing it was already half-past one!
"Geez, it’s so late! Sleep, sleep, gotta sleep now!"
He filled the washbasin with hot water for a quick wash before heading to bed, turning on the electric blanket to fall asleep!
He was asleep in less than ten minutes after hitting the pillow.