Chapter 146 Zhou Family

In the backyard of an old courtyard house in the western suburbs, Zhou Yannan leaned against a column under the porch with his hands in his trouser pockets, staring at the empty swallow's nest on the rafters of the eaves above his head with sleepy eyes. The hair tied together at the back of his head looked even more messy.

"Since he is not a member of the Zhou family, how can he enter the Zhou family?"

"He was the one who kicked the man out of the house back then. All these years it was our Qi Hang who came to see him. Now he's sick and regrets it. He wants to find his biological son back? What does he mean?"

"It's natural for an old man to miss his children. Even if Changming wants to come back to visit us, we, as the elders, won't stop him, but this will must not be changed..."

"We'll have to wait until my dad wakes up for this..."

A noise came from the corner at the end of the corridor behind them, approaching from far away. A group of people were walking towards this side while arguing. The moment they turned the corner of the corridor, they saw a figure standing under the eaves in front of them, and all the quarrels stopped abruptly.

All of these elegantly dressed men and women were worth hundreds of millions, genuine upper class people living on the sea. However, at this moment, they looked at the sloppy figure in front of them with embarrassment and helplessness.

Until a young woman in her early twenties came forward with pursed lips and called out, "Third Uncle."

Zhou Yannan didn't even change his posture, he just tilted his head and glanced at them without saying a word. The group of people looked at each other, and finally greeted each other one by one.

"Third uncle."

"Third Uncle."

"Third uncle."

"Third uncle."

“…”

Zhou Yannan waited until they had called out to each of them before he looked at the young woman who had spoken first, "Come to see your dad?"

"Um."

Zhou Changyi nodded. She was originally studying abroad, but upon hearing the news that Zhou Gaozhen was seriously ill, she rushed back immediately. As soon as she arrived at Zhou's house, she was surrounded by her uncles and aunts, who kept quarreling all the way.

She was still worried about her father and had no intention of paying attention to their quarrel, but unexpectedly she saw someone who surprised her.

When Zhou Yannan left home, she was only in junior high school. He looked like this then, in his twenties. Now, ten years have passed, and he still looks like this, and even looks about the same age as her grandniece. However, it is said that his actual age is over seventy years old. This cannot be explained by the phrase "he does not look old".

She recalled the strange expressions on her face when she overheard adults talking about this uncle when she was a child, and she felt even more fearful of the oldest elder in the Zhou family.

"Uncle, my dad...is he okay?"

"It's okay, I'm not dead." Zhou Yannan replied casually.

Zhou Changyi pursed his lips, mustered up the courage to ask, "Can I go in and see him now?"

As soon as she said this, the elders behind her immediately perked up. Zhou Gaozhen had fallen ill three days ago, but when they rushed to Zhou's house, he had already returned. He also refused to let them in to visit him in the name of treating Zhou Gaozhen, which made people suspect that he was plotting against his will.

Now that Zhou Changyi, the first heir, is back, he has no reason to stop anyone, right?

But to their surprise, Zhou Yannan still said calmly, "No."

"Why?" Zhou Changyi was stunned, then he thought of something and asked, "Then when can I go in to visit?"

"Wait until your brother comes back."

"…My brother?"

Zhou Changyi was confused. Her brother? Which brother? Zhou Changming? Wasn't he kicked out of the Zhou family? So what her aunt said was true, and Zhou Changming was really coming back?

She suddenly felt a little uneasy and asked with a forced smile, "He probably doesn't want to come back, right?"

Zhou Yannan glanced at her indifferently and said nothing. He turned his head and continued to stare at the bird's nest on the eaves, looking as if he was too lazy to pay attention to them.

The smile on Zhou Changyi's face froze behind her. This man didn't say anything, but the look just now made her feel like he had seen through her thoughts. Shame instantly enveloped her whole body, and her face and ears turned red.

The elders behind her were not surprised to see her like this. After all, Zhou Gaozhen had completely trained Zhou Changming as the only heir. Who would have known that ten years ago, the kid suddenly went crazy and had a fight with Zhou Gaozhen. He also severed ties with the Zhou family in front of the entire upper class of Linhai, and declared that no matter how successful he became in the future, he would never have a penny from the Zhou family.

Although Zhou Changyi is only three years younger than her brother, she has basically never interfered in the group's affairs, nor has she been trained in the business direction. She has always been spoiled like a little princess. Last year, it was heard that she found a foreigner as her boyfriend and had a quarrel with Zhou Gaozhen for a while because of this. She is just a little girl who knows nothing.

Qi Hang, who was at the end of the crowd, was very curious when he saw this scene. He had heard of this third uncle when he was a child, but had never seen him. It is said that because the Zhou family's ancestors were Taoist priests and made their fortune, each generation would choose one person from an early age to be sent to a Taoist temple to be a Taoist priest to protect the Zhou family's continued prosperity. However, the chosen people would often not live past fifty because of their ability to spy on the secrets of heaven.

To be honest, he really thought this was nonsense, but the successive leaders of the Zhou family believed in it, so the tradition continued.

In his mother's generation, it should have been Zhou Changming's father Zhou Gaozhen who was sent to the Taoist temple, but an accident occurred. The man in front of him, Zhou Yannan, was his grandfather's younger brother.

This man who should have died at the age of fifty lived to be over seventy years old, and even saved Zhou Gaozhen's eldest son Zhou Changming from being sent to become a Taoist priest. This allowed Zhou Gaozhen to rest assured with only two children, Zhou Changming and Zhou Changyi, and concentrate on training Zhou Changming as the heir of the Zhou family.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Changming suddenly went crazy and wanted to sever ties with the Zhou family, which gave him and his mother an opportunity.

In addition, before he actually met Zhou Yannan today, he always felt that the person in charge of the Zhou family was too superstitious. It was a different era, but he still believed in ghosts and gods. The Zhou family was prosperous entirely because they were good at business, and the person in charge had a sharp eye and decisive means. What did it have to do with whether there were Taoist priests in the family?

As for the fact that every Taoist priest has a short life, it is simply because the medical conditions were not well developed in the past, and some diseases could not be diagnosed or cured. It is not because they shortened their lives by spying on the secrets of heaven. Now that medical conditions are well developed, can't they live to over seventy years old?

But at this moment, looking at the handsome young man in front of him who was no more than twenty-five or twenty-six years old, he began to doubt for the first time whether the secrets he heard when he was a child were true. Otherwise, how could someone in his seventies still have a face of a man in his twenties?

Except for his pale face, how else does he look any healthier than a young man in his twenties?

He was sighing in his heart when his mother finally couldn't hold back any more. She was the first to break the silence and said to the man in the corridor, "Third Uncle, I respect you as an elder, but you didn't allow me to see my brother. You also stopped Changyi, a daughter, from seeing her father. Isn't that a bit inhumane?"

Zhou Yannan didn't even bother to turn his head this time, and said directly, "What can you do if it's unkind?"

A hint of anger appeared on Zhou Gaoqi's delicately made-up face. "I'm fighting for my niece to meet her father today. Are you still going to attack me?"

When Zhou Changyi heard that he was mentioned, he hurried forward to persuade him, but was stopped by Zhou Gaoqi, "Changming is your great-nephew, so isn't Changyi your great-niece? How can you, a cultivator, favor boys over girls?"

Zhou Yannan was too lazy to watch her performance, so he took out a talisman from his trouser pocket with his eyelids drooping and threw it directly at the door behind him. The talisman was obviously just a piece of yellow paper, but it flew straight to the door and stuck neatly on it, making a "sizzling" sound, and from time to time, a few flashes of lightning would burst out and linger on it, which was very scary.

"This is a thunder talisman. If anyone thinks they can be struck by thunder, go ahead and enter."

“…”

The Zhou family members didn't dare to move forward when seeing this bizarre method. Zhou Gaoqi even took his son and hid behind the crowd, for fear that the lightning on the talisman would suddenly go off and strike them.

The others were even more frightened and retreated with frowns on their faces.

This was the scene Zhou Changming saw when he rushed over. He was not as ignorant and naive as Zhou Changyi. He could guess what these people wanted to do without asking too many questions. He immediately asked Zhou Changyi to take them all away. Zhou Changyi was also afraid of conflict, so he took them away.

Zhou Changming watched them leave before looking at Zhou Yannan. He found that his face was a little paler than usual, but with an abnormal flush, and his eyelids were almost drooping. He couldn't help but feel nervous, "Are you okay?"

"...Not very good." Zhou Yannan looked at him weakly, then slowly said, "Catch me."

As soon as he finished speaking, before he could react, Zhou Yannan suddenly fell towards him.

Zhou Changming's pupils shrank, and he hurriedly stepped forward to catch the man and held him in his arms. When he looked down again, the tall and strong man in his arms had lost consciousness. He was so scared that his breathing was shaking.

"Old... Old man, wake up! Zhou Yannan? Zhou Yannan! Don't scare me, Zhou Yannan! Damn! If you dare to pretend to be dead to scare me, you're done!"

"Someone! Call a doctor! Quick!"