"Young Master, your father has sent me to bring you home," said the second butler, Richard, standing at the entrance of the Royal Academy with a modest yet luxurious Benz parked nearby. He looked at the approaching Young Master, drenched in sweat from his sportswear, his face full of smiles. Ever since the master and mistress, Jane, divorced two years ago, the mistress left alone for Canada, devoting herself to Buddhism. It had been tough on Richard, who had always followed the mistress. Fortunately, this young master, who had been close to him since childhood, was considerate.
"Richard, does father need me for something?" Ethan Hunt did not avoid the crowd at the school gate and directly took off his sweat-soaked sports shirt. Thirteen-year-old Ethan, standing at a height of one meter and seventy centimeters, usually appeared thin but his bare upper body could still show the raised abs. He took the towel handed over by Richard, wiped himself, and put on a T-shirt before asking.
"Well, sir has arranged for you to go to Abingdon School in England. Everything has been prepared on that side, just waiting for you, young master," Richard opened the car door, holding the door with one hand and protecting the door frame with the other, serving Ethan to get in the car, then walked around and sat in the co-drivers seat.
The car started slowly, and the Royal Academy became farther and farther away. Richard looked back, seeing Ethan sitting in the back seat, his head half-reclined, his expression unclear. Through the car window, a girl in white was looking towards this side from the entrance of the academy. Richard wanted to remind Ethan, but seeing him seem to be in a daze, he swallowed the words that were about to come out.
Ever since the young master had a fall when he was seven years old, his personality changed a lot. He became smarter but did not like to talk much. He also lost the mischievous spirit he had when he was young. After the master and mistress divorced, he became even more silent.
Thinking of the mistress, Richard sighed with regret. The mistress was smart all her life, a hero among women, but in the end, she ended up leaving home and practicing Buddhism alone. As the butler beside the mistress, Richard was too clear about the real reason for the master and mistresss divorce. How could a husband and wife be? It was still because of the word "power"? The mistress led the Empire Group for ten years, and the scale of the group increased by 45 times. Even the group building at 36 McDonald Road on the hillside built a few years ago was not named after the Empire Group, but called Court Luxe Building, which was named after the mistresss English name, Jane.
After controlling the important position for many years, it finally caused dissatisfaction among the Hunt family and other shareholders. In the end, the board of directors drove the madam out of the board of directors with the excuse of "arrogant, impulsive, and willful power struggle", and deprived her of the position of chairman of the board of directors. If there were no tricks of the master, Richard would not believe it.
After leaving her position, the madam had a big quarrel with the master, and the two divorced. The madam was disheartened and left home alone, devoting herself to Buddhism. This is the grievance of the aristocratic family, and the master and wife turned against each other, Richard sighed lightly, but it was hard on the young master.
Looking back, the car passed through the tunnel, and in the dark cabin, the young masters eyes were deep and far-reaching.
"Samuel, the master ordered to go through the main gate!"
The deep-water bay is halfway up the mountain, and the main building of the Hunt family is in sight. The driver Samuel was about to turn a corner to go to the back door of the house, but he was stopped by Richard. The driver was stunned and immediately turned the car towards the main gate, and he couldnt help but smile back at Ethan and said congratulations.
Samuel was also a family member of the Hunt family. He knew the rules of the Hunt family.
The patriarch of the Hunt family, John Hunt, was born in troubled times. Although he only graduated from elementary school, he was self-taught and talented, advocating scholarship and paying attention to etiquette. The main gate of the Hunt family is usually closed, and only when the identity of the visiting guests is honored, or for those who have made great contributions to the family, can they drive in. Now it seems that only the old master, the master, and the eldest young master who just became an adult can enter and exit through the main gate. The rest of the ladies and young masters, and the three uncles of the Hunt family, can only enter and exit through the side door not far from the main gate. As for the eldest young master, he is the successor of the family trained by the master himself.
Unexpectedly today, the young master can also enter and exit through the main gate. Samuel, who has been responsible for picking up the young master since he started primary school, is sincerely happy for the young master.
Ethan sat in the back seat, and in the twinkling of an eye, his expression was invisible.
The car passed through the flower bed and the waterscape, and stopped in front of a European-style main building. An old man standing on the steps was nearly ten years older than Richard.
This main building is the residence of the patriarch of the Hunt family, John Hunt. Behind it is the separate courtyard of the old master of the Hunt family, next to it is the villa of brother Robert Hunt, and as for Ethan and a few sisters residences, well, it takes about ten minutes to walk here.
"Good butler Thomas!" Ethan waited for the car to stop steadily, and didnt wait for Richard to come over to open the door, he got out of the car directly, nodded to the head butler.
"Youth Master has grown taller. The master is waiting for you in the study!" Thomass stern face showed a bit of a smile, and then turned to look at Richard who followed Ethan, "Richard, you have taken good care of the young master over the years. Not bad!"
Richard lowered his head, "The young master is sensible, and doesnt need us to worry."
Ethan followed Thomas, walked up the narrow steps, and went straight to the study.
The door was ajar, and this door, Ethan had only entered once in thirteen years, and today is the second time. Three years ago, in order to save his parents marriage, and also for the secret in his own heart, with the help of Richard, he collected a lot of information about the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, including the stock market Far East Exchange, the gold and silver stock exchange, the Kowloon Stock Exchange, and the Asian Stock Exchange, etc. for two years. The trend analysis of blue-chip stocks, combined with the Hong Kong governments policies and current affairs, made a small booklet "1973 Hong Kong Stock Analysis" and submitted it to his father.
The next day, John Hunt talked with him in this study for more than two hours. There is no doubt that John Hunt did not believe that this very insightful stock market operation manual was made by his own child who was just ten years old. His intuition told him that this was a bait thrown out by the childs mother, who wanted to re-enter the core layer of the Li family and the Empire Group. A week later, John Hunt divorced Jane. Although Ethan did not run away from home, his communication with his father became even less, and he became even more silent.
Pushing open the slightly open door, there are eight bookshelves two meters and five tall in the study, filled with various books; the walls around the study are pasted with three pieces of calligraphy, which are "first fast then slow", "first voice then people", and "slowly plan a good strategy". Ethan knew that these three sentences were the motto of his father, and they were also his style of life and work.
In 1957, when John Hunt was just 30 years old and took the position of the head of the family, the Empire Group was still a gold exchange company. At that time, the demand for real estate in Hong Kong surged, and he used fund leverage to take over fourteen plots of land on the island. At that time, public opinion was in an uproar, all criticizing him as "snake swallowing an elephant", and many competitors were waiting to see a joke, waiting for John Hunts construction funds to be short, and then to take advantage of the situation. What made peoples glasses break was that John Hunt came up with a clever move again, pioneering the sale of "flower buds" (equivalent to the current pre-sale of houses) to collect a sum of construction funds, and secondly, he joined forces with Standard Chartered Bank to provide mortgages for Hong Kong people to buy houses, and extracted funds from the bank to build houses, which laid the foundation for the current status of one of the top five real estate groups in Hong Kong Island. How many media called him "as fast as the wind, as fierce as fire, as slow as the forest, and as still as the mountain" "thunder fire".
Near the study, there is a large board table, and behind the board table stands a middle-aged man with some gray temples, splashing ink and writing. On one side of the board table, there are piles of thick paper rolls and documents.
"Dad, you called for me?"
"Come back." John Hunt looked up and looked at the handsome face, his mind was a bit dizzy, that face was very similar to his ex-wife, but it had more heroic spirit. "Wait until I finish writing these words, lets talk."
When John Hunt wrote again, he couldnt find the charm just now, and the brushwork was scattered. He put down the pen and walked to the sofa in front of the board table and sat down.
"Sit down" looking at his sons indifferent face, for a while, John Hunt, who was in the storm in the business, didnt know how to start. He got up and took out an envelope from his briefcase and handed it to Ethan. "This is for you."
Ethan opened the envelope, and a Standard Chartered Bank VIP card and a few pieces of white paper came out.
"In the past two years, the profits of the Empire Group in the stock market, I have taken out one-fifth, 28 million Hong Kong dollars." Looking at his son, who didnt seem to be surprised at all, John Hunt was a bit disappointed, "This is what you deserve."
Ethan weighed the card in his hand. Today, he can walk through the main gate, which is estimated to be related to this card.
"Those few pieces of paper are the share dividends that belong to you, and the agreement signed by the lawyer. Two percent of the annual profit of the Empire Group will be paid to this card on time."
Ethan took out the few pieces of paper and glanced through them roughly, clearly stating that the annual two percent share dividend will be paid as a bonus. It is not a share but a dividend, which is a common practice for Hong Kong and Macau wealthy families to give bonuses to their relatives. The root and most direct reason for the familys grievances and brothers quarrels is only two, one is the control of the family business, and the other is that the family heads red envelope is much higher than that of the side branch. Ethan knew that the red envelopes of the Hunt family were determined by the old master and his father: after the old master retired from the position of the head of the family, the fixed red envelope was only 5%, and he could make a will to distribute to his own children and grandchildren; the eldest uncle died early, and his three sons and two daughters had a total of 15% of the red envelope, and the second uncle and the third uncle each had 10% of the red envelope; 30% of the red envelope accumulated as the familys venture capital, which was managed by the head of the family; the red envelope of the fathers side was also 10%; the remaining 20% was the family heads red envelope.
Yes, whoever is the head of the family can monopolize this 20% of the red envelope and can also control the 30% of the venture capital red envelope of the family. This is the deepest and most direct reason for the grievances and brothers quarrels in Hong Kong and Macau wealthy families.
The red envelopes of his own children in the future, unless there is a special reward, must also be deducted from this 2%. After two or three generations of reproduction, if all the children are dandies, the red envelope that can be distributed to them can only be considered as a drop in the bucket. In order to encourage the side branches to start their own businesses, the head of the family can provide a sum of venture capital to the side branches according to the dividend they enjoy, in order to redeem the share of the red envelope of the side branches. However, if the business fails, they will be empty-handed. This is the sorrow of the side branches of the wealthy family.
"But what about my eldest brother and three sisters?" Ethan didnt care much about the position of the head of the family, but after getting this agreement, he understood that his father had made up his mind, but he still felt a bit uncomfortable.
"Your three sisters, each one percent," John Hunt seemed to be weighing his words and seemed to be speaking casually, "Your brothers red envelope has also been allocated this time, a bit higher than yours. In addition, he has been in the Empire Group for three years, and I think he has been trained enough, and I am ready to let him serve as the deputy general manager of the real estate branch of the group."
The traditional core business of the Empire Group is real estate. This move by the father has clearly told the Hunt family and the industry and the outside world that his brother Robert is his partner and also the next generation of the head of the Hunt family.
Brother Robert Hunt has been following the old master since he was a child, studying the Four Books and Five Classics. When he grew up, he read a lot of books. His father found Professor Yu Yingshi, the vice president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, to study Confucianism, and then went to Harvard to study business administration. He is elegant, clean, and has a sincere and respectful manner. He once had a girlfriend in school, but because his father stopped it, there was no follow-up. He treats people with sincerity and respect, and has a strong flavor of a scholar and a businessman.
"Father, I understand," Ethans tone was as calm as still water, "I will go to England in a few days. By the way, father, I want two people from you."
"Who do you want? Ask your Uncle Richard," John Hunt put down the big stone in his heart, and his speech seemed to be more cheerful.
"Richard and Samuel."
"Young Master," looking at Ethan coming out of the study and nodding to himself before leaving, Richard felt a bit distressed in his heart. After all, he was eliminated before he grew up, which was too cruel. Looking back, the master John Hunt also stood at the door, looking at his sons figure in the distance, some were lost in thought.
"Master, this..."
Richard couldnt help but say something and was interrupted.
"Ah Zhong, where is Ah Jie good?"
"The eldest young master treats people with sincerity and is stable."
"And Ah Chen?"
"I have had little contact with the young master, and I heard Ah Ren say that he is extremely intelligent."
"Li Shimin said that it is better to have a son like a wolf than a son like a sheep, but that is the imperial family. As the head of the Hunt family, stability is enough. Ah Chen has a lot of ideas, but he is too addicted to gambling. If he is the head of the family, it is not a blessing for the family."
John Hunt returned to the study, sat in front of the board table, was stunned for a moment, opened the drawer, took out a booklet, and it was the booklet that Ethan brought when he was ten years old.
The handwriting written with a ballpoint pen has ten thousand words. After the incident, John Hunt investigated it, and it was indeed unrelated to his ex-wife. His younger son is undoubtedly a wise man, but when he was a child, he dared to intervene in the stock market, and he was too addicted to gambling.
Over the years, although John Hunt didnt ask much, he never relaxed his observation of his younger son. He was deep-minded, wise, diligent, and studious. Coupled with his calm performance today, John Hunt was very sure that this son was a wolf. Since it is a wolf, then he will roar thousands of miles and cross the world by himself, and there is a place for him in the world.
Seeing his younger son, John Hunt seemed to see his own childhood. He was also called a wise man (prodigy) when he was a child. At the age of 6, he was arranged by his father to go to the familys shop to learn business. Before long, he became his fathers right-hand man, and he was very clever and resourceful, with excellent mental arithmetic skills. At the age of 12, he had mastered the core technology and knowledge of looking at gold, melting gold, and melting gold, and quickly became the head of Tianbao Rong Jin Shop, becoming a well-known prodigy and gold talent in Shunde. At the age of 20, he went to Hong Kong alone and opened up a career for the Hunt family. At that time, he was ruthless, hardworking, tolerant, and only then did he have todays situation.
But now, the career of the Hunt family has a fixed foundation, and it really cant afford any trouble. Now, if he takes out the approach of starting a business, the Empire Group will be in danger.
Kicking his son out of the familys painstaking efforts, maybe he will understand in ten or twenty years. John Hunt put the booklet back into the drawer and sighed, "When my father gave me 1000 yuan back then, he also kicked me to Hong Kong like this!"