Tang and Fing City were roughly 500 km apart distance wise, but worlds apart socially and economically. Fing City was home to many of the country's elite business headquarters, and thus more wealthly families. Whereas Tang was considered to be a 2nd tier city full of corruption and backstabbing dishonest businessmen. They were about the same size in area and population, but Tang was always no more than second best. This bothered it's higher status families greatly. They were always looking for ways to gain prestige against the families of Fing City.
The Wang family of Tangu, (A sister city close to Tang), were holding their monthly meeting at the Villa Wang, home of the patriarch of the Wang family. Their main business dealt with pharmaceuticals and their development. Although in recent years the family had expanded into other minor areas of commerce, these had yet to show any real developement. Today's meeting mainly concerned the family's plans to expand their shipping and transportation side.
The Old Man called the meeting to order and said "We are here to discuss ways to increase our profit share and reduce costs. This is vital if we are to continue growing our business. Does anyone have any ideas?"
Old Man Wang's oldest son stood up and gazed around the room. After a moment he said "I have just heard that the oldest son of the Green family in Tang has met with an accident. Although this is a tragedy, it might give us an opportunity to take over the shipping company he ran. This would definitly give us more profit if we ran our own shipping company. Although we don't know exactly how big of an operation they run, we must act fast to try and muscle in, otherwise, every other family will try to take over as well." With that he sat down and glared at everyone else.
The Old Man was proud of the ruthlessness of his son's attitude just now. This was how a family got ahead! Kick your enemeies when they are down! He looked around and said "Who agrees with George? Will any of you stand with him and take on this project? Who has the guts to try and take this opportunity by working with George?"
The Wang family had it's headquarters in Tangu, a city several hundred kms away. Howerver, as one of the top 4 families in the country, they had a presence in almost every major city. The shipping business was centered in Tang because of it's proximity to the major businesses it dealt with. Also being close to the country's ports made for easy access to world trade as well. The Green shipping company had many of it's own rail cars, planes, lorries and ships. It was not as small as the Wang family thought. The total net worth of the Wang family was around $100 billion, whereas the worth of the Green family was 4 times that. The Wang family were indeed ambitious!
George's second brother Wayne decided that if he were to ever make a name for himself in the family, he would have to work with George and just hope George would give him credit for his hard work. Old Man Wang valued hard work and dilegence, but only if it produced results. George was known for always taking all the credit for progress, no matter who actually did the real work. As heir, there was little anyone could do against him in this regard.
Wayne then stood up and faced his father and announced "I will work along side George to help secure this project in the fastest time possible!"
Old Man Wang then said "Good, at least someone has the gumption to try! We will meet back here in one week for a progress report. Dismissed!"
After the meeting, George went up to his brother Wayne and said "Now listen up! I am in charge of this project and you will only do as I instruct you. You are not to make any move without clearing it with me first. Do you understand?"
Wayne replied "Of course. So how do you plan to proceed?"
To which George snapped "I'll tell you what you need to know when you need to know it!" Then he walked out of the conferrence room.
George had always been a very arragant man. He thought that all of the other family members were beneath him and would never give them any face in the family at all. He thought that since he was the oldest son and therefore the heir to the family fortune, no one else really mattered. Only his opinion was worth considering. This attitude had gotten him into trouble with his father on several occasions. But George always turned the tables by blaming someone else or backstabbing his brothers. All of this type of behavior was not uncommon among the families of Tang and Tangu.
Even now, George was planning how to get Wayne to do the majority of the work but to take all the credit for himself. His main goal with all family business was to consolidate all power and influence on himself. In the end, this would be his undoing.
Lois remained behind in the apartment in Sun Down Estates. To say the least, she was furious! How dare her daughter and son-in-law treat her this way! She had to think of a way to get even with them and regain control. But what could she do? She had no skills other than scheming to get her way all the time. Just what scheme could she use to wrest the family power back to herself? She had no desire to actually go out to work. That would just be too embarrassing in front of her friends. She needed control of all the money and property so she could hold it over Debbie and Rick. To make them bow to her every whim. But where to start? Just as she was thinking on these matters, she spotted a pair of Jade Candle Sticks on a shelf. They had been the wedding gift to Debbie from Old Wilson 5 years ago. Old Wilson had given a wedding gift to Lois as well, but the jade pieces were especially given to Debbie because they had belonged to Rick's Mother and Father from their own wedding. Debbie ha
Mr. Wu began to explain what was happening. As he was retelling the story, Lois butted in and said that it was all a misunderstanding. She confessed to the officer "I just wanted to sell a few things that I wasn't using anymore. This shop keeper is trying to make it look like I have stolen the Jade pieces! They actually belong to my daughter, so what's wrong with me selling them? I am the head of our household, so it's my right to do as I please!" The man looked at Lois as if she had mud on her face. "That's not how it works. Only the registered owner can facilitate a sale on such items." The Detective looked around the shop and spotted Debbie, and asked her if she was the rightful owner of the Jade Candle Sticks. "Do these items belong to you Madame?" Debbie brought out her ID card for the shop owner Mr. Wu to verify her identity. She then spoke to the Detective and said "Yes, they are mine. They were a wedding present 5 years ago from a dear family friend. And no, I do n
The next day was the weekend. Rick had been looking forward to it all week. As had Debbie. The couple always took out a little time on weekends to just hang out together and be free. This day however, was destined to be very special. They were going to look at new houses. On the way to breakfast, Old Wilson suddenly called Rick. He knew of their plans to look at houses today, so he wanted to give them both some input. Rick had just inherited a lot of properties, many residences and commerical buildings, as well as rental property and devolpments. Old Wilson felt compelled to point out this fact. It seemed a little strange for the couple to go look for a new property when Rick already owned so many. So Old Wilson had drawn up a list of the available empty properties that Rick and Debbie could choose from. Old Wilson met the couple and explained himself. Rick was touched that Old Wilson continued to watch over him in such a way. Looking at the list, the couple focused on 3 villas tha
The news that Ting Gap had been sold flew around town that very day. It was such a sensation that even the TV news had reported it. To keep their identity secret, Rick and Debbie had listed the property under a company name. One of Rick's new companies was called RBG Group. It was started by Rick's father to help hide his private assets from the Green family. It stood for Rick Byron Green Group. No one knew who the principal shareholder was behind the Group, so it was safe to use it to list the villa. This conglomorate of businesses was very diversified and covered most of the investments that Byron had made over the years. In fact, the development company that had built Silver Hill was under this group as well. After thanking Old Wilson for all of his help, Rick and Debbie returned to the old apartment to start packing their personal belongings in preparation of moving in to their new home. Lois had been out all morning doing her community service work. As she came into th
After Old Wilson left, some people came out of the villa in uniforms. There were 4 women in maid's outfits and 2 men in uniforms. They introduced themselves as the villa's servants. The 2 men were the bulter and the chef. The 4 women were the housemaids and houekeeper. Rick and Debbie were then informed that other servants at the villa included a Head Gardener, a Head Stable boy, and a general maintenance crew. They all lived on site. This shocked Debbie and Rick. They had no idea there would be so many people around all of the time. But the more Rick thought about this, it was a good thing that there would be a buffer between he and Debbie and the outside world. Maybe this way, they could maintain a distance from people finding out who they really were. The rest of the weekend was spent settling in to their new home. There was much to explore just on their own property. Their favorite hangout spot became the pool and it's poolhouse. The poolhouse came equipped with a large screen
Old Wilson took a sip of his drink and said "Now on to other matters. Young Master, you are now a man of great wealth not to mention status. You must find a way to become the man you are meant to be. I know that your father was very proud of how you married the love of your life, and even became a construction worker to help support your family. He was awed at how humble you became and did not act pretentious and aloof having come from such privileged beginnings. Although I never told him of your exact whereabouts, I did keep him up to date on the important matters of your life. You adapted to your circumstances well. But now it is time to adapt again. It is my sad duty to also inform you of what I suspect concerning your Green family. As you know, you have several uncles and aunts who would rob you blind if given the chance. I believe that they suspected that your father was building a fortune for you, and I have evidence that they have been searching in the last few days into all of
Lois was very unhappy. She did not like living alone. There was no one there to wait on her. No one to cook for her. And no one to get money off of. This would not do. She had to come up with a plan to force her daughter back into the house. Yes, there was food in the house, but if she wanted it, she would have to cook it! Lois felt that this was very demeaning. She had always had Rick to boss around and Debbie to supply her with money to spend and show off in front of her friends. This was just too unfair! Lois decided to call a few friends to come over and play cards. She asked them to bring a dish of something and make a party of it. Although she would not be cooking anything herself, that didn't mean that her friends couldn't! A perfect solution. All the neighbors at Sundown Estates live in such close proximity to each other, that they already knew that Debbie and Rick had moved out was no surprise. Word had gotten around to Lois's circle of friends, so they could figure out
The next day was their start of a new work week. Debbie made her way to the office driving the new Bentley. Luckily no one saw her drive up and park. As she entered the building, there were several small groups of coworkers standing around gossiping. So much had happened over the weekend. The main topic of conversation was about Ting Gap. It was sensational news all over town that someoone had moved into the luxury villa at Silver Hill. Speculation was high as to who had bought it. As Debbie passed people talking about this, she smiled inwardly. If they only knew! As she was reaching her office she was stopped by her Uncle James. He asked her to step into his office for a chat. This almost never happened, so Debbie was a little apprehensive. What could he possibly want to talk about with her? As she walked into Uncle James's office he said to her "Have you heard any rumors about our company? Has anyone asked you about our business dealing with RBG Group?" She replied "No si