I should be so lucky.

I was in the room when Jung called out to me from the front door.

The person at the door could only speak chinese. She said that there was a hypermarket opening soon nearby and she wanted to do a survey. I agreed and answered her questions accordingly. After the survey she gave Jung and I a coupon each and told us it was a discount voucher. It's also some sort of lucky draw so we had to fill in details and tear open the coupon.

Jung got a "Terima Kasih" in hers and when I opened mine the girl looked over, started shaking my hand, congratulating me and speaking really loudly in a Mandrin I suddenly did not understand. Then she had me speak to her boss on the phone to double confirm it. She took out a newspaper clipping told me that this was part of her company's advertising strategy. The clipping had pictures of families who've won prizes. It's a chinese newspaper. I tried to read what I could but then I was told I won 1.5 million ringgit and she listed down all the things I've won including a Toyota Altis, a Waja and a whole lot of other stuff. Jung was so excited but I had my doubts. But I listened to her nevertheless. While she was talking I looked at the list. An Altis, a Waja, a Kancil, an Apple desktop, DVD player, a bunch of other things and cash prizes. These things don't even come close to half a million in total. I was tempted to call her bluff but decided to play along.

Her hands were shaking as she was jotting down their office address where I was supposed to go over and have my picture taken with whatever I've won. I continued to watch her charade and listened patiently waiting for the catch. And there it was, I was to pay a deposit of RM3000++ in order for me to claim my prizes on Monday. I told her I didn't have that kind of money. And she asked if I could withdraw it, I said no. She desperately wanted to know how much I had on me now and I said about a hundred ringgit. She said that a hundred ringgit would do for now and I could pay the rest later. I explained that that hundred was for a school book I needed to buy tomorrow and I can't use it. Her eyes opened wide and she said "But this is once in a lifetime, a book can buy another time!" I just smiled at her while she tried again, "How bout just 50?" I said I'm sorry but I can't pay her anything today, that I have to buy my book tomorrow. She countered and said I could get the money for the book tomorrow from my parents and I said no. Leo came out halfway with this really skeptical look on his face. "I'm humouring her" I told him.

She was going to go on but I stopped her and said thank you but the book I really need, as for these things it doesn't make much of a difference to me if I have them or not. I apologized for wasting her time and showed her to the door.

When the door closed Jung said "Hey she took the Carrefour discount vouchers back."