Chapter 68 Our Family Likes to Do Charity Work

Words : 972 Updated : Sep 19th, 2025

``` Stay connected with empire "What a fierce reason, but I like it!" "This guy is really loaded." Even though only his eyes were showing, my intuition tells me he must be a handsome guy!" "You think his transfer gesture is handsome, right?" "Hahaha!" "Everyone, just show your QR codes for payment, I'm in a hurry," Zhang Menglong saw that the staff at the entrance were starting to arrange for the next group to enter. Upon hearing Zhang Menglong's words, everyone quickly took out their phones and stood in a row waiting for him to come forward. "Fine, a hundred thousand it is. It's better than nothing!" Although the person at the front of the line was somewhat unwilling, there was nothing he could do. The other party simply didn't care how much they spent; what mattered to them was whether they were happy or not. "Handsome guy, it's my turn," the sleazy-looking man at the front extended his phone towards Zhang Menglong. "It's okay, this spot is fine, no need to move forward," Zhang Menglong put away his phone, not intending to transfer any more money, "I just heard someone say that each group can enter 5 people at a time, so I only need to be in the first five. There's no need to spend money that serves no purpose." "You... are you playing me?" the sleazy man suddenly became a bit rageful. "Playing you?" Zhang Menglong was speechless, "Why would I play you? Who are you, anyway, to be worthy?" Getting scolded for no reason, Zhang Menglong also felt quite frustrated, as if he owed the guy money. Being willing to spend a certain amount of money was one thing, but needing to spend it was another. As long as the spending was worth it, Zhang Menglong wouldn't mind. After all, money was just a number to him. But if there was no difference whether the money was spent or not, why bother? "Ridiculous!" Zhang Menglong muttered, then walked into the art exhibition venue with Lu Yiyao, following the staff's directions. "I remember now, this person seems to be Zhang Menglong!" At that moment, someone in the queue finally recognized his identity. "Yes, my ancestors and elders have always liked to collect these things." Zhang Menglong looked up at the ceiling, reminiscing, "Take Picasso's artworks for instance, there's about forty thousand of them in existence, right?" "Probably around 37,000." Lu Yiyao gave a more precise figure. "Actually, the number is far beyond that," Zhang Menglong said, "He actually created over eighty thousand paintings in his lifetime, a third of which were produced in his last ten years." "That's impossible. According to what you're saying, where did the other forty thousand plus pieces go? Were they destroyed?" "They're piled up in my library!" Zhang Menglong rolled his eyes, "You have no idea how much space these things take up. And those paintings... they all look like gibberish, hey, don't look at me like that, I really don't understand his art..." "Over forty thousand..." Although she hadn't seen them with her own eyes, based on her knowledge of Zhang Menglong so far, what he said could very well be true. It is said that Picasso's paintings, up until now, fetched at least 1.5 million US Dollars each at auctions, and the priciest one, "The Women of Algiers," sold for a staggering 179 million US Dollars. The average value of Picasso's paintings exceeded ten million US Dollars each, so wouldn't those forty thousand plus paintings be worth several hundred billion US Dollars? Thinking of this figure, Lu Yiyao didn't know how to continue the conversation. "Your family couldn't only have Picasso's paintings, right?" Lu Yiyao asked as if possessed. "Of course not, we have works from Michelangelo, Paul Cézanne, Da Vinci, you name it. Maybe not as many, but we have them," Zhang Menglong continued. "Oh right, and Van Gogh's paintings. He wasn't famous during his lifetime, so one of my ancestors bought a lot of them at a low price, over 1,200 in total, which cost just a few hundred thousand US Dollars according to today's purchasing power. "A few hundred thousand for over 1,200 Van Gogh paintings?" Lu Yiyao's expression froze. That would be an increase of tens of millions of times in value now, wouldn't it? Now she understood why Zhang Menglong was so wealthy. For a family with such a long legacy, it would be difficult not to have money! "Right, in my bedroom there's also a plus version of Van Gogh's 'Starry Sky,' about five meters by three meters in size. My ancestor back then probably spent what would be 80 US Dollars today. Van Gogh was nearly starving to death. Actually, my ancestor didn't want his paintings, but he felt so sorry for the poor artist, he spent the money just to help him out." "So by that account, your ancestor was actually engaging in charity?" "Yes," Zhang Menglong sighed, "It's a family tradition. Our family likes doing charity. When travelling in Europe in the old times, they would often help some destitute musicians and painters. Those things, it would've been disrespectful to throw them away, so they had no choice but to stack them all up somewhere. Who knew they'd be so valuable now." "Are you even speaking human language?" Listening to Zhang Menglong's tone, she felt like he was making it seem as if he was very aggrieved. This wasn't charity, this was clearly an investment! And not just any investment, but one with ten thousand percent, or even a million percent return!

Chapter 68 Our Family Likes to Do Charity Work

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