One day in August 1958, Du Yuesheng was already dying under the torment of asthma, and in the last stage of his life, he called his proud protégé Lu Jingshi back, explained to him how he would take care of his future affairs, and then took out his remaining money and distributed it to his wife and children.
After everything was done, Du Yuesheng finally took out the key to the safe, asked his family to open the safe, took out a thick stack of IOUs, and ordered the IOUs to be burned in front of everyone. After the IOU is burned, does anyone pay it back?
Du Yuesheng's legendary life
Du Yuesheng was born poor, and when he was four years old, his parents had died, and after the young Du Yuesheng grew up a little, at the age of 14, he went to Shanghai alone and began to wander the beach life, in that era when wealth was all over the street, but poor people did not have the ability to pick up wealth, Du Yuesheng, who had just come to Shanghai Beach, could say that life was very miserable.
In order to adapt to the new life, he went to work in a fruit shop, after his hard work, with the help of Huang Yongxiang, he gave some fruit that was a little broken to Du Yuesheng, who peeled off the fruit skin himself and sold it, gradually getting some income, having a relatively stable life, and thus getting the nickname "Laiyang Pear".
In those years of hard work, Du Yuesheng suffered from the cold eyes of others, but he always insisted on doing all kinds of hard work to maintain his life, but even so, Du Yuesheng was still a little confused in Shanghai Beach, and finally could only worship chen Shichang as an "old man" and become one of them.
At that time, Shanghai Beach was basically in the monopoly of these gangsters, Du Yuesheng relied on the stepping stone after joining the Green Gang, and gradually had the opportunity to get to know Lin Guisheng, the wife of Jin Rong, and later Lin Guisheng felt that Du Yuesheng was honest, so he arranged it to take care of himself.
Du Yuesheng took care of Lin Guisheng is very attentive, Lin Guisheng has repeatedly used various methods including money, love and righteousness to test Du Yuesheng, Du Yuesheng has not been eliminated because of this, in a smoke and soil loss incident, Du Yuesheng took the initiative to stand up to help Jin Rong find the tobacco soil, got Lin Guisheng's appreciation, and highly recommended to Jin Jinrong.
After following Jin Rong, Du Yuesheng got more exercise, gradually mixed up, followed Jin Rong to open a variety of entertainment clubs and Sanxin company, made a lot of money, with Jin Jin Rong and Lu Xiaojia robbing women and fighting, Jin Jin Rong was arrested by Lu Yongxiang After the incident fermented, Jin Rong's status gradually decreased, when Du Yuesheng tried to rescue Jin Rong, his status on Shanghai Beach soared rapidly, and finally surpassed Jin Rong and became a veritable "earth emperor" on Shanghai Beach.
At the peak, Du Yuesheng spent money like dirt, not only traveled high-profile, often took the car with the license plate number "77777", and chased women also had a hand, in order to pursue Meng Xiaodong, Du Yuesheng spent money like flowing water, all kinds of antique paintings, Du Yuesheng's eyes did not blink, he bought it for Meng Xiaodong, and finally captured his heart.
In addition, Du Yuesheng adhered to the concept of "wealth scattered and people gathering", in his own glory, helped many people, lent out a lot of money, these loans have left IOUs, but unfortunately later times have passed, history has changed, such as Du Yuesheng people can only become the old Jiang's "urine pot", at this time Du Yuesheng, is no longer from the former Du Yuesheng, with the same glorious history of Zhang Xiaolin, Golden Rong, have sunset on the West Mountain, Du Yuesheng compared to them, slightly better, but also not as good as before.
Because Du Yuesheng had developed the habit of spending money like dirt in the past, his money was in his own profligacy, and when he was dying in 1951, he actually only had about 110,000 US dollars left, which was really insignificant compared to his huge wealth in the past.
Du Yuesheng burned the IOU
Although there was little property left, at the time of Du Yuesheng's deathbed, some things still needed to be made clear, so Du Yuesheng called back his proud protégé Lu Jingshi and explained his aftermath to him, putting forward three requirements: the first was to wear a long coat when he was buried, the second was to have a good coffin, and the third was to be buried in Takahashi, his birthplace.
Lu Jingshi agreed to Du Yuesheng's last request one by one, and after his death, he spent 7500 Hong Kong dollars to buy a good coffin for his burial, but unfortunately, due to the special historical reasons at that time, Du Yuesheng could not be buried in Shanghai, which Lu Jingshi was also powerless.
Just when Du Yuesheng was dying, after saying three requests, he took out his remaining $110,000 property and distributed it to his family, including $10,000 each for his wife and son, $6,000 for his daughter who did not marry out, and $4,000 for each person who married out.
These money seems to be very small, but in the environment at that time, in fact, it was still enough to support a person's normal life for a long time, but Du Yuesheng's family has always been accustomed to a life of spending money, and suddenly only has such a little money in hand, of course, it will be a little unaccustomed.
Just when everyone was a little disappointed, Du Yuesheng took out the key to the safe and opened the safe that had never been opened in front of his family, at this moment, his wife and children thought that there were many rare treasures in the safe, but when they took out a stack of notes, everyone was slightly disappointed, when they saw that the notes were written on the amount of arrears, less than 5,000 US dollars, more than 500 gold bars, everyone was a little excited.
Unfortunately, this excitement lasted for a short time, because Du Yuesheng immediately ordered all the IOUs to be burned together, and the family did not understand why Du Yuesheng wanted to do this, Du Yuesheng only said lightly: "Most of the owners in these IOUs are already uncertain of life and death, and keeping the IOUs will not necessarily be repaid, and it may also lead you to develop the habit of eating and doing lazy, and even fall into danger of life because of debt."
Perhaps at that time, Du Yuesheng's family could not understand what Du Yuesheng's words meant, but Du Yuesheng had already ordered the IOU to be burned, and even if the family wanted to do something again, it was useless, but from the later family ending, Du Yuesheng's move was indeed far-sighted.
After Du Yuesheng burned the IOU, did someone take the initiative to pay back the money?
In fact, after Du Yuesheng burned the IOU, soon this explosive news spread, those who owed him money, some breathed a long sigh of relief, finally can rest assured, some are very admired by Du Yuesheng's move, but under the real circumstances, the effect of Du Yuesheng's move is limited to this, as for the initiative to repay money, it is impossible, there is no information record that someone has paid back.
In fact, this kind of ending Du Yuesheng has long expected, his life, experienced too many ups and downs, from nothing to become the "earth emperor" of Shanghai Beach, and from the waist to the setbacks, the evening scene of the door can be a sparrow, Du Yuesheng's understanding and understanding of human nature, has long exceeded the reach of ordinary people.
He was able to develop rapidly, relying on the accurate grasp of human greed, those loaned out of the money, many times is a way to break the wealth and eliminate the disaster, Du Yuesheng understands, as long as it is lent out, there will certainly be no possibility of return, this point in the later Du Yuesheng late Qing desolation, in fact, has been proved, at that time he was a promen, how many people are willing to visit him at a glance, let alone pay back the money?
However, Du Yuesheng did not care about these things, because whether it was from the historical background at that time or from the inferior nature of human nature, Du Yuesheng understood that his borrowing of money was the inevitable result of the specific circumstances at that time, and as for whether there was anyone to repay the money, he did not hold out hope and understood that it was impossible.
As for the fact that he finally burned the IOU, what is more important is not for the sake of the so-called affection, but for the sake of his children, according to some records, du Yuesheng's total amount of IOUs is as high as more than one hundred million, which is definitely a huge amount of money, if you keep these IOUs, the children will definitely have hope, thinking that as long as they want to return some debts, it is enough to support living expenses, so as to give up the struggle and live on the IOUs all day long.
If someone will pay back the money, maybe the situation is better, but Du Yuesheng understands that these people will not pay back, when they are alive, there is still no one to pay back, and after their death, it is even more impossible, if their children take the IOU to ask for debts, they will not be able to get the money, and they may lose their lives, which is the most uneconomical for Du Yuesheng.
Du Yuesheng's legendary experience in life has made him see the true face of wealth, it is indeed very good to have it, but too much infatuation may bring disaster to himself, in the glory of the time he treated wealth so much, at the time of death, it is still the same attitude, it is his foresight to look down on everything, help his children to recognize the reality, and later each of them in different work to create value, but also live a more decent life, did not live up to Du Yuesheng's good intentions.
epilogue
Wealth is a double-edged sword, especially borrowing money, once lent out, in many cases it is necessary to consider the possible risks, in the current social background is still so, in the era of the chaotic Shanghai Beach, not to mention, Du Yuesheng is through his life's experience summary, see all this clearly, on the verge of death, will make the move to burn the IOU, if there is no such relief, the impact of those IOUs on his descendants, how big, completely immeasurable!
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