Chapter 164 Secret

Han Zhong wanted to say that he didn't mean that, that he didn't think he was old, he just felt a little jealous that he and Zhou Yannan could talk on the phone all night, but he couldn't say it out loud because it seemed too petty, especially when compared with Yan Zhong, he seemed even more petty and vulgar.

However, he had said that Zhou Yannan was an old man in his seventies, and now he couldn't really say that 265 was young, so he came up with another explanation, "But your body is new and young, a real 25-year-old."

Jiang Wu glanced at him, said nothing, went back to his room and called Zhou Yannan.

No one answered the phone for a long time, so he called several more times before the call was picked up. A hoarse voice came from the other end, very familiar, but not Zhou Yannan.

"Zhou Changming?"

"Yeah." After hearing Jiang Wu's voice, the person on the other end said without waiting for him to speak, "He's busy. Do you have anything to talk to him about?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to thank him." Jiang Wu heard the deep fatigue in his tone and asked, "You sound very tired."

"Well, something happened at the company recently, so I'm a little busy."

"How is your father's illness?"

"That's it."

Jiang Wu was not a person who was good at small talk, so he hung up after saying a few words. However, he inexplicably felt that something was about to happen.

On the other side, after Zhou Changming hung up the phone, he looked at himself in the mirror in front of the sink. His eyes were dark and his face was haggard. His hair, which was usually carefully groomed, lay flat in front of his forehead, and the collar of his shirt, which was usually straight and ironed, was also wrinkled. He hadn't looked so shabby in many years.

The last time was because he had a quarrel with Zhou Gaozhen and left the Zhou family to set up his own business. Because Zhou Gaozhen had made a statement, no one dared to help him, and some even made things difficult for him openly or secretly. Even his former good friends just patted him on the shoulder and advised him to go back and be submissive, just for the sake of the Zhou family's huge industry.

Of course he did not give in. When financial investment banking didn't work out, he went into the entertainment industry. He didn't believe that he would have to live like a dog if he left the Zhou family. Not only did he want to live like a human, he also wanted to show Zhou Gaozhen that he could live a decent life even without his vicious methods.

But this time it didn't work, because Zhou Yannan was sick, very sick, and there was nothing he could do.

"...multiple organ failure, especially heart and cardiovascular failure, due to his advanced age."

When the doctor wearing black-framed glasses said this, he couldn't help but glance at the man lying on the bed behind him. He was tall and thin, with a thin layer of muscle covering his body. Although his face was a little sickly and pale, it was completely the face of a young man in his twenties. It was hard to imagine that the real age of such a man was the same as his grandfather.

However, compared to this eerily young skin, the organs and blood vessels inside the body are quite consistent with the actual age.

"In addition, we found more than a dozen malignant tumors in his body, all of which were in the late stages. The patient's pain in the later stages would be more severe...his family should have brought him here for treatment earlier."

“…”

"Mr. Zhou?"

"...I understand. Thank you."

Zhou Changming seemed to have just come to his senses. He replied blankly, and then asked, "If the treatment is effective, how long can he live at most?"

The doctor was used to such inquiries, but because the person on the bed looked too young, like a college student who had just graduated, he sighed and said tactfully, "Mr. Zhou, it's a miracle that he can live to this day given his physical condition."

"...I understand. Thank you, doctor."

"You are welcome."

As the door of the ward was closed, the room became quiet again. Zhou Changming turned around and walked to the bedside, looking at Zhou Yannan who was lying quietly on the bed. His thin, sleepy eyes were lightly closed, like the arc of a crescent moon, and just like Zhou Yannan himself, there was a sense of coldness and indifference.

When he first met Zhou Yannan, he was deceived by those seemingly ruthless and cold sleepy eyes. He always felt that this man was just as the Zhou family said, a natural born Taoist priest. He didn't seem to care about his family at all. He kept to himself and no one could talk to him, and he never paid attention to anyone. Anyway, he was the one with the highest status in the family, and no one dared to say anything to him.

He didn't want to talk to him and wanted to avoid him whenever he passed by, but Zhou Gaozhen insisted on dragging him to kowtow and say auspicious words. Zhou Changming was very reluctant, he didn't want Zhou Yannan's red envelope at all, but Zhou Gaozhen threatened him with his newly bought foal, so he had to kowtow and say "Happy New Year, Third Uncle, I wish you good fortune as vast as the East Sea and longevity as great as the Southern Mountains".

He remembered that Zhou Yannan's expression was very strange when he said that. He didn't know whether to laugh or not, as if he was mocking him but also showing pity. He thought that the other party looked down on him and was about to leave, but he was touched on the head. He replied perfunctorily, "You've grown quite fast."

He was a little confused at the time, but later he learned that the year he was born, Zhou Yannan, who had not been home for many years, suddenly came back to the Zhou family and held him in his arms. Although he unknowingly spit out milk all over him, the other party did not abandon him, but returned him to his mother with disgust.

But later Zhou Yannan stayed in Linhai. In Zhou Changming's memory, Zhou Yannan did not live with them, but lived alone in the last room of the house. He seldom came out. Occasionally he was seen basking in the sun, and his face became paler and paler.

Every time Zhou Changming saw him, he felt that his face turned a little paler, but every time he saw Zhou Changming, he had an indifferent look on his face, and looked at him coldly with a pair of sleepy eyes, which made him dare not talk to him at all. However, he could not resist his curiosity and often secretly climbed on the wall to peek at the other party basking in the sun in the yard.

Later, when he was eight years old, a fire suddenly broke out in the mourning hall in the backyard of the Zhou family. Zhou Changming had not seen Zhou Yannan running out for a long time. Thinking that the other party was so lazy, he must be sleeping unconscious, so he ran into the blazing backyard regardless of everyone's obstruction, but not only did he not find anyone, he was trapped in the fire.

Just as he was crying in fear and despair, the burning door was kicked open from the outside, and Zhou Yannan walked in slowly with his hands in his pockets, as if he was taking a stroll. The raging flames surrounded him but did not even burn his clothes. This weird scene frightened the young Zhou Changming so much that he forgot to cry.

He didn't react until Zhou Yannan reached out and lifted him out, then he suddenly threw himself into Zhou Yannan's arms, clung to him with his hands and feet, and cried in front of everyone. He thought Zhou Yannan would throw him out in disgust, but he touched his head as he did before, but the touch was less perfunctory and more serious.

At that time, he didn't know what Zhou Yannan's movements meant, nor did he know what he was doing. He just got used to talking to him every day, especially after his mother passed away. He went almost every day. Zhou Yannan still looked indifferent, but would ask him how he was doing in school, whether he had friends, and how he played with the Han child.

Gradually, he discovered that this man seemed to have not changed his appearance over the years. Everyone around him was getting older, but he remained the same as he had seen him back then, without even a single gray hair.

Like a monster, he heard someone in the Zhou family secretly talking about this.

Until he was fifteen years old, he sneaked into the mourning hall without Zhou Yannan's consent and saw a room full of memorial tablets. Zhou Yannan was standing in the front with his hand stretched out. There was a deep bloody wound on his wrist. The blood dripped onto the memorial tablet in the front and quickly disappeared, as if it had been swallowed by something strange.

Zhou Yannan's face became paler as the blood dripped, like a piece of paper that could be torn at any time.