The Eternal Club
The time was already past 10 pm and Lu Li had just gotten off work and walked out of his office.
He looked up at the tiny bit of sky he could see in between the tall skyscrapers around him and as he saw that sight, he felt a lot more depressed than before.
Shanghai was a city that could make an ordinary person feel terribly small and insignificant, as if one was just merely an ant struggling to survive in a cosmopolitan city.
This city made one feel helpless and threw one into depths of despair.
When Lu Li first graduated from university, he had been full of hopes and dreams and because of that, he decided to remain in this huge international financial centre without thinking twice about it. He wanted to fulfill his grand dreams of becoming a trendsetter of his generation!
But…it was too bad…
After he started work however, he realized that he had to come to terms with the truth. That he had to accept the fact that he wasn’t the main character of this universe! That he was nothing but an ordinary human!
This city had attracted too many talented and brilliant people. Some were geniuses in their own right, while some hailed from rich and powerful families, making them winners in life from birth.
To such people, this city was like their playground.
But for the ordinary person on the street like him, this city could swallow them whole!
Lu Li was feeling rather frustrated today, so he didn’t run like usual towards the nearest train station to catch the last train back to the rented apartment he lived in, on the outskirts of the city like he normally did.
If one looked at his face, they would see that he had no expression on it at all. Or rather, he looked like someone who was completely numb to life as he walked along the pavement absentmindedly.
The thoughts in his mind were many and were too complicated…
He had graduated when he was 23 years old and had started work after that. Four years had already passed since then.
Over the last four years, he had seen one colleague after another start work with great excitement and anticipation, only to leave their companies in disappointment and depression before making their way home to their hometowns in regret.
It was painfully obvious that this was a city that swallowed up people’s dreams!
Lu Li himself was beginning to think about leaving too. Should he leave this city where his dreams had been born and subsequently killed?
Just earlier today, his parents had called him.
As usual, his mother, Yu Qin, was hurrying him to find a girlfriend so that he could settle down and start a family.
She also informed him that he didn’t need to worry about being able to afford a house. The two of them had withdrawn their pension, so together with their life savings, they had about $700,000 for Lu Li to use so that he could buy a house.
Lu Li himself had saved about $300,000 over the years he had been slogging away in this city, so he had about a million in total.
This amount was enough to pay the deposit for an apartment in Shanghai.
Of course, this was under the condition that the location of this apartment had to be pretty far from the city center.
Right now, the districts in the heart of the city like Huangpu, Luwan and Jin’an would cost him almost $130,000 per square meter.
Even outside of this area, the properties in Dongxin cost at least $70,000 per square meter.
You had to go way outside the city center to get land that averaged between $20,000 to $30,000 per square meter.
If you were happy with buying something smaller, a million was enough for the deposit.
When he thought about these things, his eyes glinted, and he clenched his fists subconsciously.
His parents were like everyone else – both of them had to work in order to support the family. Being able to cough up $700,000, meant that they had nothing else to their name. That money didn’t just include their pension. It probably included their retirement savings too.
“Do I really want to squeeze my family dry just so that I can become a citizen of this city and buy a house in this god-forsaken place?”
Lu Li began to ask himself such questions.
It was true that most residents who moved to Shanghai started off like this. In fact, it often took the accumulated wealth of at least two generations to exchange for an apartment in this city.
“After deducting my taxes, I’m left with about $16,000. If I throw in a housing loan on top of my current expenses…”
Lu Li made a quick mental calculation. The final result of that calculation flung him into despair.
This world was a very cruel place. Nobody could promise you good returns just because you worked hard.
“I don’t want to live like this,” said Lu Li resolutely after he spat angrily on the ground.
KABOOM! KABOOM!
All of a sudden, a flash of lightning cut through the sky, followed by the ominous sounds of repeating thunder.
A heavy rain came pouring down after that.
And raindrops as large as beans pelted down on Lu Li, drenching him almost immediately.
He quickly sought shelter next to the entrance of a shop by the side and from there, he watched the rain along with the frantic pedestrians running for cover.
The rain continued to pour down.
Just then, something strange happened to Lu Li without anyone noticing and without any prior warning.
A round clock face vaguely appeared in each of Lu Li’s eyes.
And the clock faces were moving at different speeds.
Tick…tock…tick…
Several incomprehensible pieces of information started to appear in his mind.
Several minutes later, Lu Li’s brain had downloaded and understood all the information he received and snapped out of his daze.
Those clock faces that reflected in his eyes earlier had also disappeared.
Lu Li was rather shocked by what just happened.
He lifted his head to look at the person next to him. It was a middle-aged man with a briefcase who had also chosen this spot to seek shelter from the rain.
Lu Li saw a few simple lines of information above this man’s head:
Lu Li gulped and turned to look at a young lady beside him, who seemed to be around his age.
In other words, did this mean that this fairly pleasant looking young lady was only going to live till she was 35?
Lu Li didn’t know what to think anymore.
He continued to look towards another person. And he saw an honest looking and slightly pudgy middle-aged man who stood some distance away from him.
As he saw that, Lu Li’s eyes instantly widened.
Chapter 1: 1
He looked up at the tiny bit of sky he could see in between the tall skyscrapers around him and as he saw that sight, he felt a lot more depressed than before.
Shanghai was a city that could make an ordinary person feel terribly small and insignificant, as if one was just merely an ant struggling to survive in a cosmopolitan city.
This city made one feel helpless and threw one into depths of despair.
When Lu Li first graduated from university, he had been full of hopes and dreams and because of that, he decided to remain in this huge international financial centre without thinking twice about it. He wanted to fulfill his grand dreams of becoming a trendsetter of his generation!
But…it was too bad…
After he started work however, he realized that he had to come to terms with the truth. That he had to accept the fact that he wasn’t the main character of this universe! That he was nothing but an ordinary human!
This city had attracted too many talented and brilliant people. Some were geniuses in their own right, while some hailed from rich and powerful families, making them winners in life from birth.
To such people, this city was like their playground.
But for the ordinary person on the street like him, this city could swallow them whole!
Lu Li was feeling rather frustrated today, so he didn’t run like usual towards the nearest train station to catch the last train back to the rented apartment he lived in, on the outskirts of the city like he normally did.
If one looked at his face, they would see that he had no expression on it at all. Or rather, he looked like someone who was completely numb to life as he walked along the pavement absentmindedly.
The thoughts in his mind were many and were too complicated…
He had graduated when he was 23 years old and had started work after that. Four years had already passed since then.
Over the last four years, he had seen one colleague after another start work with great excitement and anticipation, only to leave their companies in disappointment and depression before making their way home to their hometowns in regret.
It was painfully obvious that this was a city that swallowed up people’s dreams!
Lu Li himself was beginning to think about leaving too. Should he leave this city where his dreams had been born and subsequently killed?
Just earlier today, his parents had called him.
As usual, his mother, Yu Qin, was hurrying him to find a girlfriend so that he could settle down and start a family.
She also informed him that he didn’t need to worry about being able to afford a house. The two of them had withdrawn their pension, so together with their life savings, they had about $700,000 for Lu Li to use so that he could buy a house.
This amount was enough to pay the deposit for an apartment in Shanghai.
Of course, this was under the condition that the location of this apartment had to be pretty far from the city center.
Right now, the districts in the heart of the city like Huangpu, Luwan and Jin’an would cost him almost $130,000 per square meter.
Even outside of this area, the properties in Dongxin cost at least $70,000 per square meter.
You had to go way outside the city center to get land that averaged between $20,000 to $30,000 per square meter.
If you were happy with buying something smaller, a million was enough for the deposit.
When he thought about these things, his eyes glinted, and he clenched his fists subconsciously.
His parents were like everyone else – both of them had to work in order to support the family. Being able to cough up $700,000, meant that they had nothing else to their name. That money didn’t just include their pension. It probably included their retirement savings too.
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“Do I really want to live like that?”“Do I really want to squeeze my family dry just so that I can become a citizen of this city and buy a house in this god-forsaken place?”
Lu Li began to ask himself such questions.
It was true that most residents who moved to Shanghai started off like this. In fact, it often took the accumulated wealth of at least two generations to exchange for an apartment in this city.
“After deducting my taxes, I’m left with about $16,000. If I throw in a housing loan on top of my current expenses…”
Lu Li made a quick mental calculation. The final result of that calculation flung him into despair.
This world was a very cruel place. Nobody could promise you good returns just because you worked hard.
“I don’t want to live like this,” said Lu Li resolutely after he spat angrily on the ground.
KABOOM! KABOOM!
All of a sudden, a flash of lightning cut through the sky, followed by the ominous sounds of repeating thunder.
A heavy rain came pouring down after that.
He quickly sought shelter next to the entrance of a shop by the side and from there, he watched the rain along with the frantic pedestrians running for cover.
The rain continued to pour down.
Just then, something strange happened to Lu Li without anyone noticing and without any prior warning.
A round clock face vaguely appeared in each of Lu Li’s eyes.
And the clock faces were moving at different speeds.
Tick…tock…tick…
Several incomprehensible pieces of information started to appear in his mind.
Several minutes later, Lu Li’s brain had downloaded and understood all the information he received and snapped out of his daze.
Those clock faces that reflected in his eyes earlier had also disappeared.
Lu Li was rather shocked by what just happened.
He lifted his head to look at the person next to him. It was a middle-aged man with a briefcase who had also chosen this spot to seek shelter from the rain.
Lu Li saw a few simple lines of information above this man’s head:
Lu Li gulped and turned to look at a young lady beside him, who seemed to be around his age.
In other words, did this mean that this fairly pleasant looking young lady was only going to live till she was 35?
Lu Li didn’t know what to think anymore.
He continued to look towards another person. And he saw an honest looking and slightly pudgy middle-aged man who stood some distance away from him.
As he saw that, Lu Li’s eyes instantly widened.
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