"Dudu dudu..." Zhang Menglong tried to dial his parents' cell phone numbers, but instead, he was greeted by a busy tone. At that moment, the first emotion that surged in Zhang Menglong's heart was actually panic.
For over twenty years, he had grown up almost entirely under the care of his parents, and it wasn't until he went to college that he began to spread his own wings a little. Although he was now nearing graduation, he was fundamentally still just a student.
He immediately rushed to the living room where the rice cooker was still keeping warm, containing two eggs and a bowl of porridge, and beside it was a small note.
"Son, you must take good care of yourself while Mom and Dad are away. Don't worry about us. At ten o'clock in the morning, Housekeeper Hong will come to see you, and you just need to follow his arrangements."
The note contained those simple lines, and Zhang Menglong immediately let out a sigh of relief. As long as nothing was wrong with his parents, he was reassured.
Having not really eaten much the previous night, Zhang Menglong wolfed down a bit of food as a makeshift breakfast. At that moment, the doorbell of his house rang.
Zhang Menglong glanced at the time, the hands on the clock had just reached ten o'clock sharp. Peering through the peephole, he saw not only Butler Hong in the hallway, but also two other people; one of whom he recognized very well—it was his dad's friend, Hong Yuqin.
Zhang Menglong generally referred to Hong Yuqin as Uncle Hong, who would visit their home almost every few weeks, making him a regular guest at their place.
The other was a girl who appeared to be about his age. Her facial features bore a resemblance to both Hong Yuqin and Butler Hong, which suggested she was probably Uncle Hong's daughter, but Zhang Menglong had never seen her before.
"Damn, Uncle Hong and Butler Hong both have the surname Hong, could they be from the same family?" Zhang Menglong felt as if he had been part of a play since he was very young.
In his memory, Hong Yuqin was just a sailor who went to sea day after day, just like his father, Zhang Xiaoyun. When at home, they either ate meals together or chatted, just like ordinary friends.
But seeing Butler Hong riding in a "low-tier" Rolls-Royce with a chauffeur, Zhang Menglong found it tough to reconcile these images.
"Click!" After drifting off for a while, Zhang Menglong still opened the door.
"Meng... Young Master, it's been a while!" On seeing Zhang Menglong, Hong Yuqin showed a smiling face, but the address he was so used to calling out had now turned into the respectfully uttered title, "Young Master."
"Uncle Hong, so you really have been acting alongside my dad for twenty years," Zhang Menglong said with a wry smile.
"Young Master, this was all your father's idea. Please don't blame Yuqin," Butler Hong said, "In our family, each generation has one person who serves as a dedicated assistant to your family, helping with all matters. Yuqin is your father's assistant. To keep you from learning about all this too soon, he has always pretended to be a friend of Mr. Zhang."
"So that's how it is," Zhang Menglong had guessed as much, "Then Uncle Hong's real identity..."
"Publicly, I'm merely the chairman of Huaxia's Tenghui Group," Hong Yuqin said.
"What? The chairman of Tenghui Group? That Tenghui Group that started in real estate?" Zhang Menglong exclaimed.
"Yes, that Tenghui Group."
"My goodness!" Zhang Menglong's eyes twitched slightly; he had applied for the management trainee positions at Tenghui Group.
Tenghui Group was one of Huaxia's largest enterprises, starting with real estate. It was said that in the international real estate circles, Tenghui Group was a leading enterprise. Even experts didn't know how Tenghui managed to compete for land from local businesses in those countries.
Later on, Tenghui Group began to diversify, whether it be in software, gaming, smart home, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, or other industries, their presence was everywhere.
An annual salary of 500,000 yuan for a bachelor's degree holder, just this alone drove countless undergraduates mad. Getting into this company was even harder than the national college entrance examination, which is like trying to cross a single-log bridge with an army of thousands.
Unsurprisingly, Zhang Menglong was eliminated in the very first round of resume screening, and as one of the rejected applicants, each even received a consolation prize of 500 yuan, a testament to the company's wealth.
When preparing for the interview, he saw the name of the chairman and thought it was just a coincidence of name. However, he had never expected that Uncle Hong, who always complained about high housing prices and his wife's extravagant spending at his home, was actually the chairman of this conglomerate!
The most terrifying thing was that this chairman was actually just his father's personal assistant.
"Cough, cough, cough!" The mental shock was no less than that of a tsunami.
"Wait, what do you mean 'publicly'?" Zhang Menglong suddenly noticed these words.
"Oh, this identity is just a cover. Our Hong Family has served your family for over a thousand years. Under the cover of the Zhang Family, we've actually become the wealthiest family in Huaxia and even the whole of Asia."
"Cough, cough, cough!" Zhang Menglong had just swallowed half of his porridge when he coughed it back out. Just their family butler had become the richest man in Asia, didn't that mean their family must be at least the wealthiest in the world to start with?
"Because Mr. Zhang didn't want us to break some worldly conventions, only a very few people know of our existence. However, for convenience in doing certain things, we needed an identity that was almost appropriate, that's about it."
"An almost appropriate identity..." Zhang Menglong's face was already twisting into a grotesque shape. It was the first time he had heard that the chairman of a world-class group was just an almost appropriate identity.
Suddenly, Zhang Menglong thought of a joke he had made a few days before, "Uncle Hong, I have a question, could you manage to acquire Wangyi Group if I wanted you to?"
"How much of it does young master want to acquire? The current market value of Wangyi Group is about 500 billion Huaxia currency. If you want to acquire about 20%, it would only take one day. However, if you want to acquire the whole thing, it might take a bit longer, about five to seven days!"
"Does young master want to acquire Wangyi? If you need it, I can start arranging now and by the end of this holiday, at most one week, I could have it all acquired for you," said Hong Yuqin with utmost seriousness.
"No need, no need, I was just asking casually!" Zhang Menglong's mood was undoubtedly turbulent.
A company with a market value of 500 billion, a major corporation countless graduates were breaking their heads over to get into, and he could actually acquire full stock in just a few days with a single word; wasn't that just too fantastical?
"Achoo!" Far away, over a thousand kilometers distant in the chairman's office of Wangyi headquarters, a middle-aged man suddenly sneezed. This was none other than Mr. Ding Sanshi, the chairman of Wangyi.
"Strange, why have I been feeling unsettled recently? Could it be those games have made the players criticize me again?"
...
"Right, why are you here today..." It was only now that Zhang Menglong remembered to ask for their purpose in coming.
"Oh, we received a notification from Mr. Zhang; he must have gone to that place along with your grandfather and the other elders!" Uncle Hong said.
Having served the Zhang Family for a lifetime, he had some understanding of the affairs of the Zhang Family. He only knew that every once in a while, a generation of the Zhang Family would go to a mysterious place. As for where, he didn't know, nor did he inquire.
"Mr. Zhang entrusted you to our care, which is also our Hong Family's duty and mission. However, Yuqin is getting on in years and doesn't have the strength for many things anymore. I'm worried he won't be able to take good care of you, so I thought of having Yi Yi become your full-time personal assistant."
"Yi Yi!" Uncle Hong glanced at the girl beside him, "This is my granddaughter, Hong Yi. From now on, if you have any issues with life or other matters, you can ask her for help."
"Hello, Mr. Zhang, from today on, you can entrust any task to me," said the girl called Hong Yi, bowing deeply in front of Zhang Menglong.
At that moment, Zhang Menglong began to really observe this girl called Hong Yi. She was about 165 centimeters tall, with fair skin and long, slender legs. Her jet-black hair was tied into a high ponytail at the back of her head. She was a standard beauty, but it was hard to associate her with a personal assistant.
"Young master, although Yi Yi is young, her capability in handling matters is even beyond Yuqin," said Uncle Hong, "She just obtained dual doctorate degrees in finance and clinical medicine this year. To serve you better, she has been learning national languages from a young age and should be able to help you in many ways.
"A prodigious young lady!" joked Zhang Menglong. "Uncle Hong, are you sure you're comfortable leaving your beautiful granddaughter with me?"
Unexpectedly, Uncle Hong bowed to him and said, "If young master approves of her, it would be a blessing for Yi Yi and our Hong Family!"
"This..." Zhang Menglong was choked up by this statement, "Uncle Hong, even an Emperor wouldn't have this kind of treatment, right?"
"Emperor?" Uncle Hong laughed and shook his head, "If your ancestors wanted to be emperors, none of those emperors would have had anything to do. Even in the most prosperous dynasties, a word from your family's elders could overturn the entire empire!"
Zhang Menglong admitted that when he heard that, he was scared stiff...