Rich People Problems-Kwan 2017 (WWT)

Wu and her daughters developed a voracious appetite for haute couture and haute
jewelry. Whenever Irene appeared in public, she was always clad in the most ornately
festooned frocks and laden with so much jewelry that all the other socialites nicknamed
her “Christmas Tree” behind her back.
But all this was so long ago, Astrid thought as the tall steel gate embossed with the
ornate W seal began to slide to one side and she sped up the short driveway to the
Palladian-style house with a white columned portico covered in bougainvillea. The Wus
had receded into the background, especially after Charlie’s father passed away and a new
generation of brash billionaires burst onto the scene in the early 2000s, building even
more ostentatious pleasure domes and vying for visibility in the society pages. Only
Charlie’s mother remained in Singapore these days, reluctant to give up her house.
Astrid pulled up behind a gray Mercedes SUV already parked underneath the portico.
She saw Lincoln Tay, her distant cousin, emerge from the driver’s seat and walk around to
the trunk of the car. “Ah Tock! Fancy seeing you here,” Astrid said as she got out of her
car.
“What can I tell you? You’re always hanging around the rich and famous, and I just
work for them,” he joked. “Now Astrid, tell me why are you still driving that old Acura?
Does it even pass inspection anymore?”
“This is the most reliable car I’ve ever owned. I’m going to drive it until I’m forced to
scrap it.”
“Come on lah, you are so loaded, at the very least you should upgrade to the ILX. Or
maybe Charlie can buy Acura the company for you and have them design you a car from
scratch.”
“Ha-ha, very funny,” Astrid said. It occurred to her that every time she saw this distant
cousin, he would make some sort of reference to her money.
“Hey, come and see something very special,” Ah Tock said, as he opened the trunk of
the SUV. A large Igloo cooler was strapped to one side of the spacious rear, and Ah Tock
carefully lifted out a large plastic bag that had been inflated with oxygen. Inside was a
dragon-like fish about two feet in length.
“Oh, it’s an arowana,” Astrid said.
“Not just any arowana. This is Valentino, Mrs. Wu’s prized super red arowana. It was
worth at least $175,000 and now it will be worth $250,000, minimum.”
“Why’s that?”
“I just took Valentino to his plastic surgeon. He was beginning to develop a droopy eye,
so we gave him an eye lift. And he even got a very slight chin job. See how handsome he
looks now?”
“There’s a plastic surgeon for fish?” Astrid asked incredulously.
“The best in the world, right here in Singapore! He specializes in arowanas.” *1
Before Astrid could properly soak in this fabulous bit of trivia, the front door opened
and Irene Wu came running out. A round-faced woman in her early seventies, she was
dressed in a bright orange Moroccan-style tunic top embroidered with tiny mirrored glass