# When I Started Valuing Money

Let me tell you when I began to truly cherish money.

There was an old man in my hometown who loved to tease and play with us kids when we were young. In my memory, he was always a clean-dressed ordinary old man who would joke around with us and give us candy.

As I grew up, whenever I faced setbacks in life, I would go back to my hometown for a while to relax and clear my mind. One time, sitting at the door of my hometown house to cool off, I overheard them talking about this old man.

It turned out that when he was young, he was in the coal business. Many people in the hometown followed him into the business back then. At his peak, he was the richest man in the entire city. A ruthless character indeed. Back in the day, when others brought a hundred men to smash up his mine, he directly threw detonators at the crowd and chased them down with an excavator. He was undoubtedly a big boss in both underworld and legitimate circles.

But right at his most glorious peak, he became addicted to gambling. He lost everything over the course of a few years gambling in Macau.

Relying on his former connections and reputation, he got all his children, nephews, nieces, and in-laws into government positions. People he had helped in the past paid him large insurance premiums, allowing him to live a comfortable retirement life in his later years. You could say he had a good outcome after all.

One day I ran into him at my hometown's doorway and chatted with him for a while. I asked him about his younger days. He said: "It's all in the past."

As he was leaving, he told me: "You must cherish your money. This is the only thing your uncle's experience can teach you."

Watching his bent silhouette fade away, I understood. From that day on, I cherished my money deeply.