The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Chen Lu's current situation is quite worrying.

Chen Pingsheng still took him to Shenzhen, where they stayed in a small three-bedroom, two-living room, two-bathroom apartment.

The house wasn't big, but it was still quite nice.

Given Chen Lu's easygoing personality, even if you took him to a small mountain village to farm for two months, he wouldn't change much when he came back.

The reason is simple: he knows his family is wealthy, so the hardship is only short-term, and the long-term enjoyment is long-term.

Shenzhen is also the place where the largest number of migrant workers from southern provinces gather.

It's much smaller than Shanghai, but the housing prices are about the same.

Su Xiaoxi is a year older than Chen Lu. She used to be a very innocent and lively girl, but she has become less and less talkative in recent years.

Her mother, Su's mother, has now returned to her old ways and become someone's mistress.

The apartment next door is where Su Xiaoxi and her daughter live.

To be honest, the mother and daughter are living a really miserable life now. Su's mother has put a lot of effort into Su Xiaoxi.

In the end, however, he was driven out of Shanghai by Michelle Song.

It's perfectly normal for his wife to kick him out, because Su's mother's intentions are as clear as day.

She was determined to raise her daughter to be a couple with her son.

This is simply wishful thinking.

In a fit of anger, Song Yanxi kicked her out of Shanghai.

After settling in Shenzhen, Su's mother, with her youthful and beautiful appearance, found a job at a luxury goods store.

Soon he hitched a ride with a man in his forties, almost fifty, who was driving a Mercedes.

They rented her an apartment and promised to give her 10,000 yuan every month as pocket money.

After thinking about it, Su's mother agreed and then quit her job.

She still focused solely on raising her daughter.

But things didn't go as planned, and one day his wife suddenly came looking for him.

After seeing her mother at her most disheveled, Su Xiaoxi's eyes gradually lost their light.

She has now forgotten that she was once born into a wealthy family and had a friend like Chen Lu, who is rich.

The mother and daughter could only live such a undignified life in Shenzhen.

I can no longer afford expensive luxury goods or wear beautiful princess dresses.

After Chen Lu moved in here, Chen Pingsheng forbade him from using his mobile phone and made him go downstairs to buy breakfast every day.

You also have to go to the market yourself to haggle over prices when buying vegetables.

As time went by, even if Chen Pingsheng didn't tell him, he still met his best friend from back then.

Su Xiaoxi.

Chen Lu used to be very timid. His biggest impression of Su Xiaoxi was that she would stand in front of him and protect him.

Shout it out loud: You're not allowed to bully him, he's under my protection.

Time flies, and years pass by.

Even after so many years, Chen Lu still remembers Su Xiaoxi as his best friend.

He only started to like games after she left Shanghai.

The two met in the elevator. Su Xiaoxi, whose eyes had lost their light, was no longer the proud and confident little girl.

She's just a pretty but somewhat disheveled little girl.

Chen Lu was very happy, "Xiao Xi!"

Su Xiaoxi looked at him expressionlessly, saying nothing, only asking, "Which floor are you on?"

"I'm on the ninth floor!"

Su Xiaoxi stopped pressing the button, and after a long while, she pressed the button for the eighth floor.

"You live on the eighth floor, so can we hang out together again?"

"No." Su Xiaoxi said coldly, and the elevator arrived quickly.

Chen Lu wanted to go down with her, but Su Xiaoxi stopped him.

Chen Pingsheng was waiting for him upstairs. When Chen Lu returned, he happily said to him, "Dad, guess who I saw?"

"Who?"

"Xiao Xi!"

"Oh...and then?"

"She lives on the eighth floor! Dad, does that mean I can visit her every day from now on?"

Chen Pingsheng was like an idle father, spending his days watering flowers and tending to the grass. Hearing his son's words, he didn't show much expression, simply replying, "Whatever."

Chen Lu wanted to go find Su Xiaoxi immediately.

He discovered that there was no home on the eighth floor; he had knocked on every single door.

He asked his father, Chen Pingsheng, who simply told him that they would meet again if they were destined to.

Su Xiaoxi, on the other hand, didn't tell her mother that Chen Lu had arrived.

She actually hated that Su's mother was using her to curry favor with Chen Lu's family.

She's just too young to make that decision.

Moreover, she didn't know why Chen Lu would live next to her, even though the rent here wasn't cheap.

But she always heard her mother say, "What a pity, what a pity."

The Chen family grew increasingly powerful and wealthy.

If it weren't for your damn father's impending divorce, you would definitely be the one with the best chance of becoming a daughter-in-law of the Chen family when you grow up.

That damned man is so short-sighted; he didn't even see this step.

Even if he wanted to visit the Chen family now, he probably wouldn't be qualified at all.

The Chen family... is indeed becoming more and more powerful.

Even though she was only eleven years old, she could deeply feel the pervasive nobility and grandeur of the Chen family.

Tengde Times, a company with a market value of over 700 billion yuan in Pengcheng, belongs to their family.

There are also milk tea shops, coffee shops, mobile phone shops, supermarkets, etc. everywhere downstairs.

Their family continued to thrive as always.

Why would someone like that live next door?

Su Xiaoxi couldn't figure it out, and she was too lazy to think about it.

If she told her mother that she had met Chen Lu, Chen Lu would really want to play with her.

Her mother's first reaction would probably be to jump up excitedly.

Then she went to find that man now, hoping he would get close to Chen Lu at all costs.

All of this was something she neither wanted nor liked to see.

Days pass by in the blink of an eye.

Chen Lu couldn't find Su Xiaoxi, and spent the rest of his days at home in a daze.

However, the frequent arguing noises coming from next door eventually disturbed him.

He disliked living in such a noisy environment, and even more so, he disliked his neighbors constantly arguing.

Chen Lu knocked on the door forcefully.

The person who opened the door was none other than Su Xiaoxi, who had just been slapped across the face.

She didn't cry, but her hair was slightly disheveled as she was about to close the door.

The old man inside not only beat her mother, but also her.

If business is bad, they'll fight; if they've been drinking, they'll fight too.

Mistresses, aren't they meant to be humiliated?

If you want to ask for money without doing anything, you have to be beaten and scolded by men all the time.

Su Xiaoxi didn't want to see Chen Lu at this time, and she didn't want to show him her most vulnerable side.

The two met under these extremely awkward circumstances.

Chen Lu knocked on the door again and shouted loudly, "Xiao Xi, Xiao Xi!"

When the door opened, it was Su's mother who came to greet them.

She quickly composed herself, then forced a smile. "Xiao Lu, what brings you here?"

"My dad and I live next door."

"Your dad's here too?"

Su's mother immediately perked up, and in an instant she understood everything; heaven had still given her a glimmer of hope.

The man's ghostly screams inside annoyed her, and she made some decisions.

He's just an old man.

"I can just find someone else after I leave you. This guy in front of me is the only hope for my family's rise."

(End of this chapter)