Millionaire shares the reason why he kept family wealth a secret from his son for 20 years

Most dads are just simple men who wish the best for their children. They want their children to see real life, to learn what it is to struggle and to achieve, and to teach them that hard work and persistence are the way to success. One Chinese multimillionaire also wanted all these things for his son. So, he kept a secret from him for years and years, he told Jiupai News, as per South China Morning Post. The secret was that their family was wealthier than this son could have ever imagined.

Multimillionaire father, Zhang Yudong, is the founder and president of the Hunan spicy gluten latiao brand “Mala Prince,” which produces 600 million yuan (US$83 million) worth of goods a year. He started this company around the same time his son Zhang Zilong was born. For the first 20 years of his son's life, he carefully concealed the real status of the family’s wealth.

Zhang Zilong, 24 told the outlet that his father didn’t want him to live like a spoiled fu’er dai, a Chinese term that implies “second-generation rich.”

Zhang Junior recalled that he grew up living in an “ordinary flat” in Pingjiang County, Hunan Province in central China. He was aware of his father’s business, he was often told that the company was running under debt. He attended a prominent Chinese secondary school without using any influence or reference from his father.

 After his graduation, the son’s dream was merely to find a stable job that could pay about 6,000 yuan (US$800) a month so he could support his family in relieving the debt. But destiny had other plans for him, something he could never have imagined. Soon after his graduation ceremony, his father told him that their family was very wealthy, and they moved to a newly built villa that cost 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million).

“When I graduated from university, I also thought about asking for a sum of money to start a pet store on my own, but after a comprehensive evaluation, I quickly dispelled this idea. [Now] Others call me the "Spicy Prince", which is an honor and a shackle. But since it's an objective fact, I'm trying to accept it.” Zhang Junior said in an interview with Jiupai Finance, as per LaiTimes.

And so, the amazed boy began working in the e-commerce department of his father’s business. However, the privileges he now receives haven’t changed his material life much. He said, “My material life has not changed much, and now my salary is almost more than 6,000 yuan,” adding, “I have changed from a part-time worker to an entrepreneur in my thinking."

"Because I have eaten spicy noodles in my family since I was a child, I have taken root and benefited from the spicy noodles industry, there is invisible pressure to push me to pay for the industry, and I want to do what my parents did not do - to bring spicy noodles to the world and let more people know about Chinese food.” The junior business magnate now serves as the Head of the Douyin (TikTok) department for Spicy Prince, according to DimsumDaily.