The luckiest man in China (me!) (中国最幸运的人)

After watching Derren Brown’s prediction of the Lotto numbers back home in England (our household still can’t work out how he did it!), lottery-fever has gripped…me. China does have a lottery (China Welfare Lottery) and its sales go towards funding social welfare projects (hence the name). As you probably (don’t) remember, I already (basically) won the jackpot on the English lottery (see Beating the Credit Crunch – Part 1 – The Spree), so I needed to find something which was a little more difficult to win than a ‘lottery’.

在英国的家里看完Derren Brown的乐透号码预测后（我的家庭始终不知道为什么他能做到！），彩票热就此笼罩着…我。中国确实也有彩票（中国福利彩票），而且卖了是为了对社会福利项目提供资金（因此得名）。正如你可能（不）记得的，我已经（基本）中过英国的彩票（见赶跑信贷危机阴霾-第1部分-狂欢），所以我需要找些比’彩票’更难中的东西。

There has never been a better invention in world history. A scratch card, given for free as part of your receipt in a restaurant or bar, which gives you the chance of winning cash money FOR FREE! Amazing? Yes. Innovative? Sure. Impossible to win? Damn right.

这是史无前例的最好的发明。刮刮卡，免费出现在你从餐厅或酒吧得到的发票上，也就是说它给你一个免费赢现金的机会！神奇吗？是的。创新吗？当然。不可能中？确实。

I have done in-depth, scientific research on this topic, and it turned out that nobody had ever won anything scratching these receipts. Some people knew somebody who’d met somebody who had a friend who’d won, but nobody could put the cold, hard evidence in my hand and say ‘Oli, I’m a winner!’.

关于这个主题，我做了深入的科学研究，事实证明，没有人通过刮发票中过奖。有些人说他们认识的朋友的朋友的谁曾经好像中过，可是我不介意别人泼我冷水，铁的事实在我的手中，说着’Oli，我赢了！’。

Fittingly, it was a Wednesday night (the one week anniversary of Derren Brown’s TV lottery stunt) when we sat down for hot-pot. There was a mood of excitement, a nervous calm before the storm of luck which was about to erupt on our table.

那是一个星期三的晚上（Derren Brown的电视彩票特技一周周年庆）我们在吃火锅的时候。有一种令人兴奋的心情，好运来临之前的宁静，好象马上就要爆发在这张桌子上了。

When I handed over the cash for the bill, there seemed to be a golden glow surrounding the palms of the waitress, like a Ryu fireball about to be fired across the room. It was time. Scratch, scratch…

就在我付现金的时候，似乎看到女服务员的手掌被金色光芒环绕着，就好像是个将要被发射穿过整个房间的火球。我想是时候了。我刮，我刮，我刮刮刮…

We were ecstatic, hugging and cheering…dancing a little…high-5ing…we had broken the curse and proved that nothing is impossible, and impossible is nothing.

我们欣喜若狂，互相拥抱，欢呼… 跳舞…击掌…我们已经打破了诅咒，证明没有什么是不可能的，以及没有什么是不可能的。

Now, where do we cash it in?!

现在，我们要去哪里兑现它呢？！