Chapter 253 Goldies Gambling Adventure 2 (1/2)

When Gao Peng returned to the mountain villa, the first thing he saw was a yellow bundle of feathers hurtling towards him. He was immediately flattened to the ground by an excited Goldie.

Gao Peng glared at the duck. ”Do you still want your dried fish?!”

Goldie nodded furiously. ”Yes!” it said excitedly.

Gao Peng got to his feet and brushed the dust off his pants, muttering irritably, ”Come with me.”

He then called Stripey over and got on its back. Along with Goldie, all three of them left the mountain villa. Ever since the match's results had been announced, Goldie had been in a constant state of excitement.

Ever since it had been a little duckling, Goldie had understood the fundamental fact of life that anything that was inside its bag belonged solely to it. By this logic, all the insects that could be found in the mountains didn't belong to it, as they could be eaten by other monsters at any time.

When they came to a halt outside the redemption center, Gao Peng said to Goldie, ”We won't be going in with you. The lottery ticket was bought with your familiar identification card. Only you can go in and redeem the prize.”

Goldie looked at Gao Peng curiously. ”Quack?”

”It's your prize. Go in and get it yourself. I'm not coming with you,” said Gao Peng, making it as simple as possible for the duck to understand.

...

Normally, people would wear masks over their faces, and sometimes even animal costumes, to hide their identities as they redeemed prizes in the redemption center.

Incidentally, Goldie, who was just as tall as an average human being and always put on its yellow coat when it went out, looked just like any other person who wanted to redeem their lottery tickets.

There weren't a lot of people in the redemption center at that moment.

A couple of workers rushed towards Goldie when they saw it enter the place.

”Good day. Are you here to redeem your prize?”

”Quack.”

”Sir, please speak up.”

”Quack.”

”…”

”Security, security!” One of the workers began calling for security.

Bang. Goldie slammed its lottery ticket on the counter, puffed up its chest, and glared down at the workers.

”Er...” Upon realizing that he had been about to make the greatest mistake of his career, the worker immediately bowed and apologized to Goldie.

”Sorry for the misunderstanding, sir. I'll need to see your identification card first, please,” said the worker politely.

After rummaging in its bag for a while, Goldie pulled out its identification card and pressed it into the worker's hand. The worker was caught off guard by how heavy the duck's wing felt. He took a closer look at the card. It read, ”First generation familiar identification card. Name: Adamantine Duck. Registration no.: 5811919.”

The worker was speechless.

Is this a prank? he thought. Why are you showing me an identification card for a familiar?

”I'm sorry, I need to see your identification card...”

”Quack!” said Goldie, impatiently waving a wing at him.

There was a moment of silence between the two of them. Soon, the worker realized that before him stood an actual duck, not a person wearing a costume.

After much fuss, Goldie was finally allowed to redeem the prize.

Familiars who gambled were rare, but not altogether nonexistent. Like humans, they too were prone to developing bad gambling habits.

”How did it go? Did you get the money?” asked Gao Peng while glancing at Goldie's bulging sling bag.

Goldie slapped its wing over its bag. ”Mine!”

”All right, I know it's yours,” said Gao Peng, patting Goldie's head. ”Besides, I'm earning way more than what you have right now. I don't need to steal from you.”

While giving Gao Peng a perfunctory quack, Goldie opened the bag and stared greedily at the stacks of money in it. It had never seen so much money in its life.

After dinner, Gao Peng sat on the sofa and watched a show on television to kill some time. Just then, Goldie clambered up on the sofa and began massaging Gao Peng's shoulders submissively with its wings.

”What is it, Goldie?”

”Gao Peng, you're the most handsome, featherless thing I've ever seen in my whole life,” said Goldie.

Gao Peng chuckled and patted Goldie's wings. ”Try to keep that to yourself. It'd be bad form to have you openly praise my good looks outside.”

Goldie continued massaging Gao Peng's shoulders. After a while, Goldie asked, ”Gao Peng, do you have any intel on the next match?”

”Of course I do. Wait, are you thinking about buying another lottery ticket?” asked Gao Peng, looking at the duck out of the corner of his eye.

Goldie nodded excitedly.

”Gambling's not good, you know,” said Gao Peng, shaking his head. ”I just let you place that bet for fun. You'd better not get yourself addicted to gambling.”

”No, of course not,” said Goldie firmly.

”All right then. Get some sleep. And don't start getting any funny ideas inside that head of yours,” said Gao Peng, gently patting Goldie's head. Just then, his phone rang. He answered it immediately.

”Hello... Yes, this is Gao Peng speaking.”