There was a hierarchy amongst the wealthy, and the Qiao family and the Yu family were not of the same class.
The Yu family had only been established for a few decades. They were involved in the manufacturing sector, and almost every household had to use the goods they produced.
The Qiao family, on the other hand, was different. In the late Qing dynasty, the Qiao family's ancestors had left their hometown and gone abroad to develop. Up until World War II, the legal systems of all countries had been imperfect. The Qiao family had established the largest mafia organization in Chinatown and then had been working in both legal and illegal activities. They even dabbled in the military industry. The Qiao family did not have a prominent reputation among the ordinary citizens, but they were far more powerful than the Yu family.