The Eternal Club 8: The Rong Family
Lu Li walked down the crowded streets.
He simply couldn’t stop smiling.
The first transaction had gone way better than he had expected.
Now, he had purchased one year’s worth of time.
He then walked into a fairly hipster looking café in his white shirt, black dress pants, a pair of gold rimmed glasses on his nose and that document folder in his hands.
“Hello, could I get a cup of cappuccino as well as a lemon cheese tart to go along with it? Thank you,” the tall and slim Lu Li said warmly to the young lady behind the cash register with a confident smile on his face.
After he had paid for his coffee, he sat down at a table near a window.
He opened the folder to look at the contract that had just been signed.
The reference number started from 1,000,001 because he didn’t want anybody to be able to guess that he had only just started out. He was also hoping to make himself seem more mysterious.
The contract was only one page long, so it didn’t take him long to finish looking through it.
He shut the folder again and started thinking about what he should do next.
“My first step was to purchase time from someone. So, my next step would naturally be to sell time to someone else…But who should I sell to? What sort of person would be a good choice?”
Lu Li began to rub his thumb and index finger together subconsciously.
Time was the most precious commodity in this world, so a merchant with time as his prime goods definitely had the upper hand in this economy.
But he also had to select a buyer carefully so that this transaction could pave the way for the future to come.
“Sir, here’s your cappuccino and lemon cheese tart,” said a waitress gently in a maid uniform as she put Lu Li’s order onto his table.
Lu Li nodded slightly and watched as the waitress then walked away. He fixed his gaze on her fair ankles, then slowly shifted his gaze upwards before calmly looking away again.
Lu Li tore open a sachet of fine white sugar and poured two thirds of it into his cappuccino. Then he picked up the stirrer and gently stirred his coffee.
After that, he took his phone out and began to search online for the wealthiest and most powerful families living in Shanghai.
Countless results instantly appeared before him after he hit the search button.
“These are the 7 richest districts in Shanghai! This is where the top tycoons live!”
“How many millionaires and billionaires does Shanghai have? Who are they?”
“The top 4 super-rich families of Shanghai today!”
“This year’s Shanghai tycoon ranking!”
Lu Li scanned through the search results and clicked some of the links to check out its contents.
Every tycoon listed was someone famous and they were big shots whom Lu Li could only dream of becoming or even meeting for the matter, in the past.
These people seemed to be seated on a throne in the sky above the city, wielding their power over the people as some of the wealthiest tycoons of the country.
Before today, Lu Li would have been filled with envy and admiration when he looked at these tycoons.
At the same time, his heart would have also been filled with much indignation, because he knew that no matter how hard he worked, there was no way he could become as rich and powerful as these people.
But now, everything had changed.
A handsome smile spread across his face as he continued to look through the search results he had gotten.
Just then, he noticed the mention of a particular family which made him take a closer look.
His expression grew serious as he started looking into this family in greater detail.
This family was the Rong family of Shanghai.
There wasn’t a single person in Shanghai who hadn’t heard of this family before.
The Rong family was no nouveau riche family. Their clan had existed for hundreds of years now.
One article described the family this way:
The Rong family is one of the richest families of the country. They started off as commoners, but they have used their businesses to enrich the country, defend the country and bring honor to the country, leaving a glorious legacy both locally and internationally.
According to economics professor, Gao Bude, “The Rong family has contributed tremendously to our economy over three generations.
The business that was first started by the Rong brothers became a forerunner for all local enterprises thereafter.
After the War of Liberation, Rong Yiren supported the new government’s three major reforms, which positively impacted the development of the economy. After the country’s economic reform and process of opening up, the third generation of the Rong family, led by Rong Hejian, contributed greatly to both the economy as well as the development of local businesses.”
At their peak of power, the head of the Rong family even became a political leader of the country.
While the Rong family is no longer as prestigious as it used to be, it is still a force to be reckoned with. Few of its members are still living in China. Most have chosen to live in other places, namely the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong and so on.
Lu Li felt a little sad that a family with such a legacy had turned out the way the article had described.
He continued scrolling down and saw a list of the family members from the first generation all the way to its current fifth generation.
When he looked through the members of the second generation, which was also the generation where the head of the family had once been part of the government, he froze for a second.
One member of the family from this generation was actually still alive!