Reaching the age of thirty, my income randomly doubled

Chapter 437 - 267 Birdcage

The next day.

Chen Pingsheng had to attend the grand opening ceremony of Tenghui Department Store in Xiangjiang.

With four big stores opening at the same time, it would be a lie to say it wasn’t bustling with activity.

This was also their family’s first real estate venture in Xiangjiang.

The total investment was around five hundred million, with four storefronts purchased for over thirty billion, indeed a lively affair.

Quite a few veteran stars volunteered to support him and promote the brand.

As for the spoiled brat, Chen An’an, after washing up, she still wanted to go play with Shen Youwei and Chubby Woman.

Dad’s business had too many branches; there was an opening here one day and another there the next, and if she went to each, her holidays wouldn’t be enough.

The National Day seven-day holiday had only three days left, and yet Chen An’an still took the little fart kid with her to play with Shen Youwei and Chubby Woman.

Chubby Woman didn’t start work until ten o’clock and had to keep going until midnight before coming home to sleep.

It could be said that she was also very tired.

Chen An’an came over and even wanted to go see for herself how those ordinary people lived in "cage homes".

She wanted to understand more about their lives. Chubby Woman found her idea quite bizarre.

The usual reaction from the wealthy when they encountered them was one of disdain, yet she actively sought them out.

It was unheard of.

Xiangjiang had many so-called "cage homes", with an extremely high density.

The majority of these cage homes housed four or five people in just a few square meters, while some used chicken wire to enclose the bed spaces, with one person living inside each.

It was basically like being trapped in a birdcage.

Chen An’an found it hard to imagine how they managed to live on in such living conditions.

In fact, it wasn’t really living anymore; it was just about staying alive.

Indeed, just staying alive.

These places had another name: coffin rooms. Lying inside, people were alive only in the sense that they still had some thoughts.

If it wasn’t for the high wages, who would willingly live in such conditions?

The suffocating feeling that hit her was almost unbearable.

Chubby Woman was quite popular around here, with many who knew her initiating greetings.

She responded with a smile to each one. It wasn’t just workers; young people were joining gangs too.

Dreaming of a future like Nan from Causeway Bay, they envisioned fighting their way to a Ferrari with the knives in their hands.

Many young people had this kind of thought. Their job was to valet cars at nightclubs or to keep watch at other entertainment venues.

Or if they were more audacious, they’d find a girlfriend and put her to work in a brothel to make money.

All sorts of things, too numerous to count.

The biggest dream for all who lived there was to move away one day.

Then, there were those who had lost hope, for whom living was just that – nothing more.

They had lost their souls.

Chubby Woman introduced Shen Youwei and the others to everyone, and when she saw an old gent, she even greeted him with a smile.

"That old gent’s son came to Xiangjiang in the earlier years, was quite the spectacle for a couple of years, they say he joined a powerful brother, always looked impressive when he went out. A few years ago, I heard he was hacked to death on the street; they couldn’t even find his bones."

Some things are just like that, helpless. Young people really shouldn’t get involved in the underworld; you never know when you might die.

After his death, that powerful brother didn’t even come to see the old gent once.

That’s rather cold-blooded.

To this day, Chubby Woman still has a deep impression of that old gent’s son; mainly because he was quite a positive person.

Polite, too.

A phrase he often said was, "With my worthless life, if I don’t fight for it, how can I take my dad to live in a big house?"

And then, it turned into a case of the white-haired sending off the black-haired.

Almost everyone living there knew the deep barriers of class.

To break through, even bloody injuries were considered light.

Take joining a gang, for instance; if you lived in a cage home, you had to stake your life to rise ranks.

If you came from a good background, you started as a lower leader.

Ironically enough.

Chen An’an toured the entire floor, and the little fart kid was nearly in tears.

She didn’t like this place at all; everything was in a mess.

And it was crowded.

The living conditions were suffocating, and the food was no better.

Many just set up a pot somewhere to cook, and unbelievably, they even placed dining tables on the squat toilets in the bathroom.

Even with all her mental preparation, Chen An’an couldn’t help feeling nauseous.

She couldn’t understand how a family could eat like this.

Didn’t eating in the bathroom gross them out?

Maybe this is the helplessness of adulthood!

"Chubby Woman, can they really stomach food like this?"

"What choice do they have but to get used to it? In Xiangjiang, where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold, eating out is just too expensive, so they make use of every little bit of space."

"I, I’m going to find Dad."

Chen An’an just couldn’t bear to look any longer. How could people live like this?

This wasn’t even a question of dignity; it was about having no soul left.

Too suffocating.

She really couldn’t imagine people eating over a toilet.

Furthermore, this kind of toilet was nothing like the ones in her home.

Any random bathroom in her house was two or three times bigger than the entire space this family lived in.

In one building of cage homes, there were at least thousands of people.

All cramped together, living life without any dignity.

Downstairs, two top-of-the-line Phantoms were parked, with four bodyguards cum drivers standing by.

After getting into the car, Chen An’an also called out to the Chubby Woman to join her.

She still wanted to do something. Deep down in her heart, she ultimately was a kind-hearted little girl.

This was the Chubby Woman’s first time sitting in a Rolls-Royce, the kind reserved for angels; to say she wasn’t nervous would be a lie.

She planted herself inside, barely daring to move.

This sort of car, even the umbrellas it came with were priced at one hundred thousand.

It wasn’t the kind of car meant for someone like her. The Phantom departed, heading towards the summit of Baijia Dao.

The environment there was spacious, with fantastic scenery, and heads could be raised to see the sunset in the west.

Looking down revealed Victoria Harbour and the endless expanse of the blue sea.

When the wind blew through, it didn’t carry the smell of cooking smoke or that chaotic, sweltering heat.

It was fresh and natural.

Naturally, the people living there were also the top echelons of society.

The Chubby Woman grew more and more nervous, this being her first time at the legendary villas on the mountaintop.

She didn’t know why the little girl insisted on inviting her over, only that this wasn’t a place for someone like her.

Chen Pingsheng had only attended the opening ceremony of Tenghui Department Store that morning and then accompanied a few big shots for lunch.

Among them were Guo Ziyi, the third-generation heir of the Guo Family, and Xiang Wu, the head of the Xiang Family.

The Xiang Family was eager to collaborate with him at Tengying Entertainment to jointly break into the Mainland entertainment market.

To be honest, the Xiang Family was only somewhat influential in the nineties.

They relied on their gang’s power to secure a certain share of the movie market.

After the handover in ’97, Hong Kong’s old gangs began to fade out slowly.

The Xiang Family, naturally, was not as great as before.

To put it bluntly, Xiang Wu was just a lackey in his presence; the Xiang Family had nothing to do with being wealthy and influential.

Compared to the Guo Family, one of the four great wealthy clans, they were hardly worth mentioning.

Guo Ziyi wouldn’t even bother with him.

Chen Pingsheng certainly had no intention of collaborating with him.

Alibaba had always wanted to buy into Tengying Entertainment, but he hadn’t sold him any shares, let alone to the Old Xiang Family.

Chen An’an returned home, parking her car in their family garage. They had two temperature-controlled pools, one indoors and one outdoors.

The garden lawn was vast enough to run around in freely.

To the Chubby Woman, this environment was astounding.

"Dad,"

Chen An’an scampered over to him, pulling the Chubby Woman along, "This is the Chubby Woman I told you about yesterday. I went over to their place again today.

"Dad, you have no idea, those people were actually eating their meals on squat toilets. I nearly threw up just looking at it."

Chen An’an’s description was not an exaggeration at all.

Chen Pingsheng smiled as he greeted the Chubby Woman, who had no clue how to respond to him.

She just stood there, her face stiff with an awkward smile.

"Dad, I want to help them?"

"How do you want to help?"

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Chen An’an scratched her head, unable to come up with a solid reason. She was still young, her intentions may have been good, but she couldn’t think of specific methods.

"Dad, I want them to have a nice environment to enjoy a good meal in."

"Is that so?"

To an average person, this would seem simple, but to those living in tiny, cage-like homes, it really was a luxury.

Chen Pingsheng looked at her seriously, "Have you ever considered that the people living over there at least have tens of thousands? If you want them to have a nice dining environment, you need to build a large restaurant with thousands of square meters.

"To open such a restaurant in Xiangjiang, the starting investment would be no less than fifty million. Given their frugal habits, they won’t go eat if a meal costs more than an average of twenty per person.

"Twenty is already far below market price, and if you want them to eat there long-term, the pricing can’t exceed fifteen."

"At this price of fifteen, to satisfy the eating and drinking expenses of tens of thousands of people, do you know how much money has to be put in each year?"

Chen An’an shook her head.

Her math was so bad; she couldn’t possibly have made sense of such complex calculations.

Chen Pingsheng said, "Not to mention the initial investment, just to run such a super restaurant, it would need at least fifty million in funds each year. Do you still want them to have a nice place to eat?"

Chen An’an thought it over seriously, then nodded, "Dad, am I being too wasteful?"

"No, I’m pretty relieved."

Chen Pingsheng stroked her head, "Dad can fulfill this kind wish of yours, but you need to understand, one day dad will grow old. When that day comes, many of our family’s affairs may fall on your shoulders. If you still want to continue to be charitable, then you’ll have to work hard to ensure our family business isn’t eliminated by the market."

Chen Pingsheng called his secretary, Xu Jing, instructing her to allocate one billion for this cause.

To build a super restaurant for the out-of-towners right outside the cage homes in Xiangjiang.

They are both foreigners in a strange land.

Perhaps this was the real reason his daughter wanted to help them.

One could say that being kind to one person comes from the heart.

But being kind to a group of people, that burns money.

Chen An’an’s idea was good, but it was something that couldn’t be realized without money.

The Chubby Woman beside her was already dumbfounded; she never imagined that a nine-year-old girl, simply from visiting once,

Could turn around and get her father to allocate a billion to improve everyone’s dining environment.

To open a super restaurant outside the cage homes and only charge fifteen per meal.

This kind of restaurant was basically running at a loss.

After all, even a dirty and disorderly fast-food joint in Xiangjiang wouldn’t charge less than thirty-five per meal.

Let alone opening a super restaurant and setting the price at just fifteen.

This wasn’t business; this was blatantly doing charity.

Fei Yangyang, a listed restaurant business, was under Chen Pingsheng’s holdings.

For him, opening a super restaurant was an easy task.

But the annual loss needed to be kept ideally below fifty million.

This act of goodness from the spoiled brat had to be paid for by her father after all.