No one knows how Mr. Zhang became the richest man in the city. In any case, in this prefecture-level city with a population of 2.8 million, almost all young people know of Mr. Zhang's existence. He owns the largest vegetable distribution center in the area, the large shopping mall in the city center, and a large building materials market.
Some say his father's generation carried guns, while others say he became rich overnight by finding a godfather. However, one thing is certain: Mr. Zhang was already very wealthy in the 1990s. For young people living in this era, trying to figure out what happened in the 1990s is nothing short of a fantasy.
In recent years, Mr. Zhang seems to have had a rough time. He sold his shopping mall and his building materials market. Some people say that his good luck has run out, while others say that someone like him shouldn't have money.
Many people in the city have a good relationship with Mr. Zhang. Their assessment of him is that he is just incredibly lucky.
Those who are close to him usually call him Lao Zhang, while those who are particularly close to him call him Da Tou (Big Head).
Da Tou started from a vegetable market and gradually built his business. In 2006, he had saved up some money and just in time for the renovation and upgrading of the old urban area in the city center. The original large supermarket was to be demolished and a modern shopping mall was to be built.
Over the years, Da Tou has been particularly fond of collecting rent from the vegetable market. It's a highly profitable and risk-free business. In addition, with the rapid economic development in recent years, the small vegetable market has expanded six or seven times, becoming not only a distribution center for fruits and vegetables in the city but also radiating to several surrounding cities.
One of the main reasons the market has grown so large is that Da Tou is honest and simple-minded and doesn't like to take advantage of others. Over time, vendors of all sizes have gathered here.
The shopping mall in the city center was a big business. Da Tou had inspected it several times, fearing that some leader's relative might be interested. He also made many inquiries in private. Only after hearing that no one was interfering did he feel at ease to take it on.
This job isn't exactly lucrative; the funding has to be in place all at once, the construction company has to be designated, and it's stipulated that the building can't exceed five stories, and there are also civil defense requirements for the basement.
Simply put, the money for building the shopping mall had to be paid in full upfront, and it was uncertain whether it would be profitable later. This meant that the owner was honest and simple, didn't understand all the complicated details, and approached the work with a down-to-earth attitude: if someone worked for me for a day, I would pay them for that day.
If it were Lu Feng, he would never do such a thing!
After the mall opened, it was packed with tenants. Some people suggested that if the mall was divided into sections and sold, not only could the investment be recovered, but a large profit could also be made. Da Tou rejected this suggestion, arguing that business was not necessarily stable and what if things went badly tomorrow? Wouldn't people lose money?
Adhering to this philosophy, the mall's popularity has continued for more than a decade.
Around 2013, the real estate market continued to rise, and the building materials industry was also booming. Da Tou attended some dinner parties in the city, during which someone said that the local area was backward, and that it was too troublesome to buy furniture or decoration materials. In contrast, people in big cities could buy everything in one stop.
Some suggested that the municipal government should make a plan to gather all the building materials sellers together to form a centralized industry, while others suggested building a supermarket and moving all these small businesses inside.
These words sparked Da Tou's interest. If he could collect rent, then there was something he could do. After conducting thorough research throughout the city, he began to invest. After learning more about the business, he chose to join Red Star Macalline and officially opened for business in 2014.
That same year, Da Tou became the city's richest man with a net worth of 3 billion yuan, reaching the pinnacle of his life. Many people in the city advised him to go into real estate, and even former vice presidents of several of the top real estate companies in the country came to him.
Unfortunately, Da Tou was too conservative, so much so that his son was angry, feeling a sense of frustration at his son's lack of ambition and envy of his good fortune.
Da Tou has two children. His eldest son was born in 1993. He got married on the day of Lichun (the beginning of spring) in 1993 and had a son on the day of Dongzhi (the winter solstice), so he named his eldest son Dongzhi. He had a daughter in 1998, and they did not have any more children after that due to the one-child policy.
Zhang Dongzhi was a good student and scored high enough in the college entrance examination to get into a top-tier university. Da Tou thought that he should just study at a university in China, since things would be chaotic abroad and they wouldn't have many friends there. However, 2011 was the peak season for studying abroad, and many families around them sent their children overseas.
In addition, when Lu Feng returned to pay respects to his ancestors during the Qingming Festival that year, he mentioned that Duo Duo was at Harvard, so Da Tou agreed to let him go. After looking through a number of universities, he finally chose the University of Melbourne.
After going abroad, Zhang Dongzhi saw a different world. Because of his circle, he was constantly talking about globalization and international perspective. He used to think that his father's business was big, but now he realized that his father was just a nouveau riche who did the most stable business and collected rent.
During this period, Zhang Dongzhi also met Lu Feng once. Lu Feng offered him a few words of encouragement and gave him a $100,000 red envelope as a greeting gift.
In 2015, Zhang Dongzhi graduated with a bachelor's degree but did not plan to pursue a master's degree. Instead, he planned to return home to start a business. Before returning, he had communicated with Datou on the phone. Zhang Dongzhi looked down on Datou's business model. According to Datou, his father was doing business in the Qing Dynasty.
He also compared Da Tou and Lu Feng, both of whom rose to prominence in the 1990s, but the gap between them was enormous.
With this belief and sense of superiority, the first thing Zhang Dongzhi did upon returning to China was to empty his family's savings and take 70 million yuan to Beijing. He set his sights on the food delivery market, where Meituan, Ele.me, and Baidu Waimai were currently locked in fierce competition, but there were still many niche apps participating.
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