In the presidential suite of a Hong Kong hotel, Yuan Yafei starts his morning with a glass of warm green tea, a pack of cigarettes and a long, thick Cuban cigar.
在香港一家酒店的总统套房里，袁亚非的早晨从一杯绿茶、一包香烟和一根又长又粗的古巴雪茄开始。
“You want?” the Chinese tycoon asks, breaking into English to offer a cigar before launching back into the story of how he ended up buying House of Fraser, the British department store chain that in better days also owned Harrods.
“You want?（来一根吗？）”在回顾自己是如何一步步走到收购了英国百货连锁公司House of Fraser之前，这位中国大亨先用英语问记者要不要来根雪茄。House of Fraser风光的时候旗下也曾拥有哈罗德百货公司(Harrods)。
Mr Yuan is chairman of Sanpower, a little-known Nanjing conglomerate that has snapped up 89 per cent of the UK chain in the biggest Chinese foreign retail deal in history.
袁亚非是三胞集团(Sanpower)的董事长，这家鲜为人知的南京企业集团刚刚迅速买入了House of Fraser 89%的股权，创下了迄今中国买家在零售业最大的一笔对外收购交易。
Sitting in front of an enormous Chinese screen painting, the chain-smoking entrepreneur says he first heard of House of Fraser five months ago when a banker told him that it was on the block. Despite having almost no international experience, he decided that House of Fraser’s long history and experience could help him expand his retail empire in China.
这位烟不离手的企业家坐在一扇巨大的中式画屏前，讲起自己第一次听说House of Fraser，是5个月前从一个银行家那儿听说它正在出售。虽然他几乎没有任何海外经验，但他认为House of Fraser悠久的历史和丰富的经验有助于扩展他在中国的零售帝国。
“When I was growing up, we always thought that England or Great Britain represented old-fashioned capitalism,” the 49-year-old Mr Yuan says through his interpreter. “Its culture was quite mysterious and fascinating to Chinese people, especially of my generation.”
49岁的袁亚非说：“在我们从小的教育里，英国是老牌的资本主义。所以英国文化在中国人眼里还是比较神秘，英国的东西都容易引起中国人的兴趣，或者我们这一代人的兴趣。”
Sanpower owns Nanjing Xinjiekou, one of the oldest department stores in China, but like other traditional retailers, it is facing headwinds from the slowdown in the Chinese economy and the rapid rise of ecommerce.
三胞集团旗下拥有中国老牌百货商场——南京新街口百货，但如其他传统零售商一样，它眼下正面临两股逆风，一是中国经济增长放缓，另一个便是电商的快速崛起。
“The department store business model hasn’t changed a bit,” says Mr Yuan. “But the world is changing, our customer is changing, the way they’re buying merchandise, the concept is changing, so we must change.”
“中国百货的模式并没有发生什么改变。”袁亚非说，“但世界在变，客户在变，他们购买商品的方式在变，观念在变，因此我们必须改变。”
Asked why House of Fraser can help his domestic business when very few Chinese have heard of the company, Mr Yuan says Sanpower can learn from the brand and the supply chain management experience it has built since 1849.
被问及为什么House of Fraser这样一家中国人鲜有听闻的公司，能对他的国内业务有所帮助时，袁亚非表示，三胞集团可以学习该公司自1849年建立起的品牌以及积累的供应链管理经验。
“One hundred and sixty-four years is a long time. It’s not that easy to build and sustain a brand for such a long time, just like a human being,” he says. “If you can live past 100 years . . . you’re doing something right.”
他说：“160年是一段很长的时间。一个企业能活160多年，不是那么容易的，就像一个人如果能活到一百岁……肯定有活到100岁的理由。”
Mr Yuan intends to open a flagship “Oriental Fraser” store in Nanjing next summer. His broader plan for 50 stores in China rests on the assumption that the shopping mall market is about to undergo a big transition. He says China is going to add 2,500 malls over the next three years, and he believes most will quickly go under.
袁亚非打算明年夏天在南京开设“东方Fraser”(Oriental Fraser)旗舰店。基于购物中心市场将经历重大转变这一假设，他的长远计划是在中国开设50家分店。他说未来3年中国将新增2500家购物中心，他相信其中大部分很快就会倒闭。
“They are all the same type of shopping mall and the Chinese market is not big enough to handle this number of the same kind of shopping facilities at the same time.”
“因为它们全都是同质化的竞争，而且中国的市场承受不了这么多线下的、都一样的东西。”
After clearing his throat and leaning over to spit into a waste paper basket – a common but waning habit in China – Mr Yuan uses a four-character Chinese idiom to explain how Sanpower will benefit from the upheaval.
他清了清喉咙，倾身将痰吐到废纸篓里，这个习惯在中国很常见，不过正逐渐消失。然后，袁亚非讲到三胞集团将如何从这场剧变中受益。他用了一个成语。
His first tactic will be lou jing xia shi, which translates as “dropping a stone on a man who has fallen down a well”, and means that Sanpower will pounce when some of the malls go bankrupt.
他的第一招将是“落井下石”，即三胞集团会在部分购物中心倒闭时迅速出击。
“Do you know jin shang tian hua?” he adds, using the English that he started learning three years ago – with the implication that House of Fraser will help him “gild the lily”, as the expression means.
“Do you know jin shang tian hua?（你知道锦上添花吗？）”3年前开始学英语的他用英语问道。他言下之意是，House of Fraser将帮他“锦上添花”。
Mr Yuan is confident he will succeed, saying half-jokingly that his feng shui master has given him a high score of 90 for the “Oriental Fraser” name.
袁亚非坚信自己会成功，他半开玩笑地说自己的风水大师给“东方Fraser”这一名字打出了90分的高分。
The Hurun Chinese rich list ranks Mr Yuan as the joint 92nd wealthiest person in China with estimated assets of $2bn. Asked if that is accurate, he says: “Definitely a bit more.” A little or a lot? “Should be a lot. But I’m not the most wealthy person in China. There are many people more wealthy than I am in China.”
在胡润中国富豪榜(Hurun Chinese rich list)上，袁亚非与人并列第92位，其资产据估计有20亿美元。当被问到这一数字是否精确时，他说：“肯定比这多吧。”那么是多一点还是多很多？他说：“应该多很多。但是我在中国不算最有钱的。中国还有很多人比我有钱。”
Mr Yuan says he started life as a “very typical commoner”. Born in Chongqing, his family moved around because his father was an engineer in the People’s Liberation Army. He attended primary school in a poor mountainous part of Hubei province, and later lived in Beijing and Hebei. When his father retired, the family moved to Nanjing.
袁亚非说，“我是一个很典型的、普通的中国人”。他出生于重庆，由于父亲是解放军的一名工程师，曾经四处搬家。他在湖北省的一个贫穷山区上小学，后来还在北京和河北生活过。父亲退休后，全家搬到南京。
After studying accounting at college, Mr Yuan entered the Nanjing government where he worked in the auditing department. He says he was later sent to become acting party chief of a village but after writing an essay on agricultural reform was promoted to become secretary to the top Communist party official in the district.
袁亚非在大学学习财会，毕业后进入南京当地政府的审计部门工作。他说他后来被派去担任一个村的代理村官，但在他写了一篇关于农业改革的文章后，被提拔成了区党委书记的秘书。
Like many Chinese entrepreneurs, his path changed because of Deng Xiaoping, the former leader who launched economic reforms after the death of Mao Zedong.
与许多中国企业家一样，他的人生轨迹因邓小平而改变。邓小平是中国前领导人，在毛泽东逝世后，启动了中国的经济改革。
“After Deng Xiaoping’s southern trip in 1992 . . . I realised I wanted to live my life in a different way,” he says. “I wanted to experience what I could achieve and therefore I quit my job in the government.”
“邓小平1992年南巡之后……我意识到我想去过另外一种生活，”他说，“去尝试一下自己能做什么，我就从机关辞职下海。”
With Rmb20,000 (worth $3,200 today) in savings and money borrowed from his parents, he considered various ideas. He ended up entering the computer business, building “DIY” machines assembled from components sourced in China.
算上积蓄和从父母那里借来的钱，他手头有2万元人民币（放在今天合3200美元）。他想了各种不同的点子，最后决定进入计算机行业，用从国内采购的零部件组装兼容机。
“I am very confident,” he says. “Compared to the business guys in those times, I am more diligent, I am smarter and I’m a better person and I am better educated.”
他说：“我很自信地认为，我一定比那个时候的生意人要勤奋，要聪明，要善良，要有文化。”
After making his first fortune, Mr Yuan bought an apartment in Nanjing’s International Trade Center but says his “biggest dream was to get the entire building”.
挣到第一桶金之后，袁亚非在南京国际贸易中心(International Trade Center)买了一套公寓，但表示“最大的梦想是买下整栋楼”。
He did exactly that, and later bought all the other buildings in the business district. Last year he purchased the International Finance Centre from Li Ka-shing, Asia’s richest man, and plans to use part of the property for his “Oriental Fraser” store.
而他确实做到了。后来还将那个商业区所有其他显赫物业一并买下。去年，他从亚洲首富李嘉诚(Li Ka-shing)手中买下国际金融中心(International Finance Centre)，并计划将该物业的一部分开辟为他的“东方Fraser”商场。
To illustrate the scope of his success, he arranges his lighter, some name cards, my iPhone and wallet on the table. Each represents one of the buildings in the business district.
他用他的打火机、几张名片以及记者的iPhone和钱包，在桌上演示他的成功。每一样东西都代表那个商业区的一幢大楼。
“All mine,” he says with a broad smile. Asked how he made so much money, Mr Yuan grins again and says: “It’s a secret . . . I made many mistakes in the past but I never made strategic mistakes.
“都是我的，”他得意地笑道。当被问到他是怎么赚到这么多钱时，他又咧开嘴笑了，说：“这是个秘密……我过去也犯过错，但从来没犯过战略性错误。
“The economy always has its cycle. I can always foresee the down slope and I get myself ready for the right time to come and then I can get what I want when it hits its lowest. I can always grab opportunities.”
“经济总有周期。我总能够在经济跌入谷底之前把事情准备好，然后等到谷底的时候，我正好能把它买回来。所以我经常能抓住这样的机会。”
Mr Yuan has little time for leisure but says he enjoys reading and good cuisine. His favourite drink is maotai, the fiery Chinese liquor, but he also drinks red wine. “I usually drink Lafite. Since I know nothing about wine, I just drink the most expensive stuff.”
袁亚非没什么闲暇时间，但称自己喜欢阅读和美食。他最钟爱的酒是茅台，但他也喝红酒。“但是红酒里，我通常喝拉菲，因为我不懂，所以我只喝最贵的。”
As he prepares to leave for the airport where one of his two aircraft is waiting, he jokingly asks that his personal life be spared – even though he has revealed nothing more than the existence of a son whom he will send to primary school in the UK next year – but gives the green light to write that he wants to send the boy to Eton.
在准备离开去机场时（他的两架私人飞机中的一架在那里等候），他开着玩笑请记者对他的私人生活手下留情——尽管对于私人生活，他只是透露自己有一个儿子，明年准备送到英国上小学。不过他同意记者写他想要送儿子去伊顿公学(Eton)。
When told that the school is top- notch educationally but has a tendency to produce slightly odd people, the tycoon lights up.
当记者告诉他，伊顿在教育方面是顶尖的，但是常常会培养出有点怪异的人时，这位商界大亨乐了。
“Good! Only strange people can succeed . . . I’m very strange,” he bellows. “If you think normal, you just do and think the same as everyone else, then how can you be successful?”
“太好了！只有怪人才能成功，我就很怪，”他大声说，“因为如果不奇怪，跟大家都一样，那你凭什么能成功呢？”