Chapter 41 Shangshan Ruoshui (1/2)

There was never a moment of quiet in this busy city of Shanghai, so was it an extremely fast-paced city. Qin Sheng was still trying to adapt to its pace. To excel in this city, a person would need to put in 200% of effort even if he was naturally talented. This was because there were just too many outstanding talents gathered here. They were mostly very brilliant people from good family backgrounds who were also exceptionally hardworking. How would you stand against them if you did not put in your best and more?

This day, Qin Sheng did not drive the car when he left the house. He was preparing to leave Thomson Gold Resort. He would all the more not stay in Shimao Riviera Garden. It would be awkward for him to do so with his current status. Perhaps if he were to ask, Han Bing would bestow him with the luxurious apartment worth over 10 million dollars, without any hesitation. However, Qin Sheng would definitely not accept such a gift. He believed that a real man should use his own hands to attain what he wanted. Apart from the sense of achievement which came with his own hardwork, more importantly he could take in all the sweetness, sourness, bitterness, spicyness and the different emotions in the process.

Qin Sheng had already contacted the manager of Shangshan Ruoshui, who was a 40 over years old middle-aged man. Jiang Xianbang had vaguely described this man to him. He was once a vice president of one of the government sectors, which meant he was going to have a bright future for sure. However for some unknown reasons, he left the government sector to set up his own business. Unfortunately, luck was not on his side and soon, he lost all his wealth to his business. Subsequently, he met Jiang Xianbang, who thought he was an exceptional talent not to be missed. Jiang Xianbang took the initiative to help him by putting him in charge of Shangshan Ruoshui, a branch of business Jiang Xianbang had painstakingly started. Over the years, the business flourished and so became Jiang Xianbang's valued resource.

Shangshan Ruoshui was situated on Sinan Road, on a famous person's old address. It was housed in a bangalow with a garden stretching four acres. It was far more extensive than Jiang Xianbang's own villa. Having rented this place for 20 years, Jiang Xianbang had designed this private club to look like a museum, decorating it with many exquisite art pieces.

Although there were numerous clubs in Shanghai, first class clubs such as Yongfuhui and Shangshan Ruoshuo were few. Shangshan Ruoshui was a private, low key club, whose threshold for membership was exceptionally high. Only the crazy rich and prestigeous people could become its members. People such as celebrities and upstarts were being outright rejected. Jiang Xianbang was the overall person in charge, but he had assigned a committee made up of six top-notch members, to vote for the decision on which members to stay. This was done annually so each member who had been a member for at least a year had the right to nominate. Apart from old timers, the rest of the members were treated unilaterally. No one was more superior than the other.

Qin Sheng had time in his hand, therefore he took a public bus to travel there. He had good time management skills which allowed him to arrive exactly on time. From trivial things like this, one could tell how some people would become successful. These were people who were able to make great things happen out of things others neglected.

The subway in Shanghai was absolutely bustling. It had the best coverage compared to the rest of the cities in China. However, Qin Sheng still preferred to take the public bus and especially the buses at dawn. Travelling on the bus early in the allowed him to enjoy the beautiful scenes of the city in quietness.

As expected, Qin Sheng was stopped by the security guards when he arrived at the gates of Shangshan Ruoshui. The guards asked who he was looking for and Qin Sheng smiled when he said he was looking for Shangshan Ruoshui's general manager, Qu Lancheng. On hearing this, one security guard smiled and said, ”You must be Mr Qin. Manager Xu had instructed us to bring you inside. Manager Yuan is waiting for you.”

As Qin Sheng was led onto a shaded path, he realized that Shangshan Ruoshui was enclosed by green and grey brick walls and therefore there was no way anyone from outside could look in and see what was happening inside. Its gates would only be opened to let in guests. Other times, they were always tightly shut.

After entering the gates, there was a walkway paved with green stones slabs, which led them straight to a 4-storey building in the center of the garden. This walkway was merely 10 meters long, but it was lined by six pairs of stone statues on both sides. These stone statues were said to have come from the mausoleum of different emperors. This was so Jiang Xianbang.

There was a water feature with rockery at the end of the small path. Inscribed on the largest stone sitting in the middle of of the path were four chinese characters ”Shang Shan Liu Shui”. These characters were in cursive writings which were difficult to decifer. Luckily, Qin Sheng had some knowledge of chinese calligraphy. Even so, he did not know which famous calligrapher wrote these inscriptions.

Qin Sheng was not in a hurry to enter the building. He took his time to look around the place and realized that the entire place was surrounded by greenry. Some of the tree were even towering trees that dotted the sparse carpark.

After going aroud for two rounds, Qin Sheng did not even bump into a single soul. Perhaps it was because it was still 8am in the morning and the employees had not arrived for work yet.

A moment later, Qin Sheng finally slowly strolled into the small building. The style of interior design was not far from Jiang Xianbang's villa, which was to be expected. The only difference was that over here, everything was more exquisite and delicate. Apparently, every single ornament seemed to have gone through the careful consideration of a fengshui master. Many of the decorative ornaments were displayed in glass cases.

”You must be Brother Qin,” a man in suit ran up to Qin Sheng and greeted him politely as Qin Sheng was studying a ceramic piece with green patterns on it.

Qin Sheng smiled and answered, ”Indeed I'm Qin Sheng.”

”Hi, Brother Qin. I am Yuan Hua, the deputy manager for security. Manager Xu had already instructed me to bring you around to see Shangshan Ruoshui. He had something to attend to this morning and will only be here around 10am,” said Yuan Hua, who was a retired special unit soldier.

Qin Sheng frowned slight and asked, ”Around 10am?”

Feeling apologetic, Yuan Hua said, ”He's going to the airport to pick up an important guest because there will be a salon in the afternoon in the club. This guest is coming all the way from Hong Kong to attend the salon.”

Qin Sheng finally understood the situation after Yuan Hua explained to him. He smiled and said, ”I see, no problem.”

”This way please,” Yuan Hua bowed slightly as he showed Qin Sheng the way.

Finally Qin Sheng could size up Yuan Hua at this moment. He had a thick, strong palm covered with scabs at the back. He had an angular face and fierce eyes. Qin Sheng made an educated guess that he must know some martial arts, so it was no wonder he was in charge of security. After all, Shangshan Ruoshui was not a place for common people. Not only was it an exclusive club and that it treated its guests with the highest respect, the antique pieces and collectibles here were truly alluring.

Yuan Hua brought Qin Sheng around the entire Shangshan Ruoshui and this was when Qin Sheng realized that there two levels of basement in this building. Basement one was where the office and the kitchen were, while basement two was garage and security area. Qin Sheng could almost guess what was kept inside the security area.

The ground level was where the reception area and exhibition area were while the three levels up from there were rooms of various shapes and sizes. The top level was exclusively for the six top notch members.

After Qin Sheng took a total of an hour to go around Shangshan Ruoshui, Yuan Hua made arrangement for him to take a rest in one of the rooms and prepared some refreshments for him. Yuan Hua also said that he was free to roam around and he would inform Qin Sheng once Manager Xu arrived.

The interior of this particular room in chinese style. All the furniture were made of rosewood and there was even an expensive looking guzheng by the window. There seemed to be a story behind every piece of antique in the room.

Qin Sheng sat down and looked out of the window silently, being deep in thoughts.