April 1st, Qingming Festival.
"Ding." Lin Xiang's phone, tucked inside his pocket, rings with a WeChat message.
Lin Xiang pulls out his phone, unlocks it with his fingerprint, and finds a message from his dorm roommate Li Qiang. It's a link for a one-cent sale on Pinxixi. There's also another message underneath:
"Boss, help me out. I can nab a whole crate of instant noodles for one cent. I'm just two boosts short. It's an emergency!"
Ranked third in the dormitory in terms of seniority, Lin Xiang is referred to as ‘boss’ by Li Qiang. Clearly, the message wasn't only sent to him, it was probably mass sent.
"Damn, what a pathetic guy, still playing with Pinxixi's one-cent auctions! Can humans actually enjoy one-cent auctions? It’s an endless pit!"
After glancing at the Pinxixi link, Lin Xiang is on the verge of closing WeChat. But his finger slips, and he accidentally clicks on the Pinxixi sale link.
Damn!
Lin Xiang cries out in surprise, frantically tries to hit the back button several times, but unexpectedly, his phone screen suddenly goes dark. It seems to have frozen. Lin Xiang taps on the screen numerous times but there's no response.
"Damn, Pinxixi is a trap, a single link can freeze the screen!" Lin Xiang couldn't help cursing quietly, yet he knew this wasn't Pinxixi's fault. His outdated, 4-year-old Xiaomi 6 was to blame. Its performance outdated long ago.
However, he had truly made use of his Xiaomi 6 over four years. Despite the occasional blackouts, Lin Xiang reckons it could go for another three to five years. He planned to buy a Xiaomi 10 when the Xiaomi 15 is released.
He continues pressing the power button. After roughly ten seconds, the Xiaomi 6 vibrates lightly and the screen lights up again. It takes almost five minutes for the phone to fully reboot.
"Crap, why did it take so long to reboot this time? It used to be faster!" Lin Xiang murmurs. He swipes across the screen a few times, toggling between interfaces.
After toggling a few times, he notices an unfamiliar app installed on one of the screens of his phone—Pinxixi!
There were three small characters below the Pinxixi icon—Divine Purchase Edition.
"A rip-off of Pinduoduo?"
The thought involuntarily flashed across Lin Xiang's mind. He moved his finger to the app icon, held it down with the intent to uninstall this rascally application he just installed.
To his surprise, the moment his finger touched the icon, the application opened up instantly, displaying an interface identical to those commonly seen on shopping apps. However, before Lin Xiang could take in the entire shopping interface, a new notification popped up:
"BMW X5, for only 0.01 Yuan, limited time offer with free home delivery. 11 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds until the offer ends."
A countdown timer that was ticking down by the second followed this.
"What the hell, a BMW X5 for 0.01 Yuan, is this some kind of joke!" He thought. "Even the lowest model of the X5 would cost at least seven or eight hundred thousand, let alone buying one for a penny! Is that possible?"
Lin Xiang swore, looking for the small 'X' to close the notification, but to no avail!
Upon realizing there was no close button, Lin Xiang muttered under his breath, preparing to go back with the return button. Surprisingly, after several presses, his phone displayed no reaction, still stuck on the purchase interface, even force returning to the main menu wasn't possible!
Lin Xiang even thought his mobile had frozen. He desperately pressed the power button, wanting to force it to shut down, but he found that even forcing a shutdown was impossible!
"Blasted software, blasted phone!"
Lin Xiang grumbled for a bit, randomly tapping on the screen out of frustration; to his surprise, the phone reacted and popped up another dialog box:
"Congratulations, you've successfully purchased a top-range BMW X5. Please complete your payment within 30 seconds. 30, 29, 28..."
The dialog box was accompanied by a dynamic firework explosion background for emphasis.
"Darn it!" He exclaimed, "What the heck is going on!"
Lin Xiang was completely stumped for a moment, staring blankly at the screen for a while. Only when the countdown had reached twenty-one seconds did he snap back to reality, his heart pounding in his chest, and his finger, which was touching the screen of his phone, trembled continuously.
A BMW X5, for only a penny? And he had won the bid?
Could he have made a mistake?
Damn it, even if it's just a model, I’ll take it!
Lin Xiang thought excitedly, using his trembling hand to click the pay button, then entered his name and telephone number.
There wasn’t enough time to fill in the address, but fortunately, there was a location button above. Lin Xiang directly clicked it, regardless of where it was located, then directly clicked pay.
Seeing the four characters "Payment Successful", Lin Xiang finally breathed a sigh of relief. But then, he couldn't help feeling a little ridiculous and even pitiful.
It was just a knockoff version of Pinduoduo, just a model of a BMW X5, and something that could be grabbed for a penny might not even be a model. It could very likely just be the words "BMW X5", but he had been so nervous during the payment that his hand trembled!
Such a lack of mental fortitude wouldn’t do. What if one day he won five million, wouldn’t he be dead from excitement?
With a self-mocking remark, Lin Xiang opened his order details and found surprisingly that there was indeed a purchase record. The delivery address was a BMW 4S shop at 27 Zhongshan Road in Dongfu!
Seeing the location, Lin Xiang couldn’t help but be slightly surprised again.
The order looked quite legitimate, but the problem was if what he received was indeed a model, or even just a piece of paper with "BMW X5" written on it, he would be laughed to death by the people at his fourth son's shop!
Hmm, should he pick up the goods when they are delivered?
After pressing the back button several times, the interface smoothly returned to the software’s homepage.
However, before Lin Xiang could take a clear look at the shopping column on the homepage, a dialogue box popped up again on the software:
"Aston Martin ONE-78, a globally limited edition supercar, available for purchase at 0.01 yuan with shipping included. The countdown to the end of the deal: 01:59:59."
Lin Xiang paused slightly, then couldn't help but curse: Damn, not again!
He pressed the back button a few times, yet his phone did not respond. Feeling helpless, Lin Xiang clicked on the dialogue box that popped up, and finally, his phone started to respond:
"Unfortunately, your purchase was unsuccessful. Do you want to try again?"
There were two buttons under the dialogue box: "Yes" and "No". However, the "No" button was greyed out, so it couldn't be used.
With no other option, Lin Xiang had to press the "Yes" button.
Another dialogue box popped up on his phone:
"Unfortunately, your purchase was unsuccessful. Do you want to try again?"
Lin Xiang pressed "Yes" again, and the same pop-up appeared once more, eliciting a sigh before pressing "Yes" yet again.
After about five or six attempts, finally, a pop-up accompanied by a firework exploding background appeared:
"Congratulations, your purchase was successful! You got Aston Martin ONE-78, a globally limited edition supercar. Please complete the payment within twenty seconds. 20, 19…" Damn!
Lin Xiang was slightly taken aback but promptly clicked on the payment button.
What the heck, it's just one cent. If lost, it wouldn't break the bank, would it? Am I the kind of person who worries over a single cent?
What I'm short of is millions, tens of millions!