“Look at the Shen family next door. Look at how that man acts as a father. If you could be even half as tough as he is, I’d burn incense and thank the heavens!”
Slap!
Fang Guoqiang’s eyes turned red with anger. Looking at his rebellious son before him, he didn’t hesitate. He raised his hand and slapped him hard across the face.
“Ah! Shaoliang!”
Zhao Lijuan cried out sharply, rushing over with a heartbroken expression to cover her son’s swollen, reddened cheek.
Just moments ago, Zhou Shaoquan had reacted quickly and grabbed Zhou Shaoliang, who had been standing beside him in a daze. As a result, Fang Guoqiang’s slap landed squarely on Zhou Shaoliang.
The man had put all his anger into that slap. The moment it landed, Zhou Shaoliang’s face immediately swelled.
Zhou Shaoliang didn’t blame Fang Guoqiang. Instead, he glared furiously at Zhou Shaoquan.
“Zhou Shaoquan, what do you mean by this? Don’t push me too far!”
“How am I pushing you too far? Dad always says you love your younger siblings and act like a proper older brother. Since you’re such a great older brother, can’t you take a slap for your younger brother? Or maybe you’re not actually that kind of person, and Dad simply misjudged you?”
“You—you’re going too far!”
Zhou Shaoliang was already furious because of Qiao Wei. Now that Zhou Shaoquan deliberately provoked him, whatever reason he had left completely disappeared.
His eyes reddened as he raised his fist and swung it toward Zhou Shaoquan’s strong, angular face.
Zhou Shaoquan’s palms had been itching for a long time.
He lowered his head to dodge the punch, then grabbed Zhou Shaoliang’s wrist with his other hand and slammed it hard onto the coffee table.
The sharp edge of the glass cut into Zhou Shaoliang’s skin, and blood immediately flowed between his fingers.
“Shaoliang!”
Zhao Lijuan screamed.
Zhou Shaoliang cried out in pain. His face flushed red as he kicked Zhou Shaoquan in the lower leg, breaking free and scrambling to his feet. He immediately swung his fist toward Zhou Shaoquan’s face again.
Zhou Shaoquan sneered.
He drove his knee hard into Zhou Shaoliang’s ribs.
A dull thud rang out, making everyone’s teeth ache just hearing it.
Taking advantage of the opening, Zhou Shaoquan punched him hard in the chin.
“OW!”
Zhou Shaoliang clutched his chest with one hand and his chin with the other, howling in pain.
“Shaoliang, are you alright? Does it hurt?”
Zhao Lijuan hurried over, helping her son up from the floor while asking anxiously.
Zhou Shaoquan stood up from beside the coffee table and stared intently at his own fist.
A faint, delighted smile appeared in his eyes.
Sure enough, this time really was different.
In his previous lives, even when he fought back, Zhou Shaoliang could always overpower him and beat him mercilessly, leaving him completely helpless.
For the first time, Zhou Shaoquan felt genuinely confident about this life.
Zhao Lijuan could no longer keep up her pretense. Her eyes reddened as she immediately complained to Fang Guoqiang.
“Guoqiang, look! Just look at what he’s doing! How can he bully the two of us like this?”
Zhou Shaoquan scoffed.
Back when Zhou Shaoliang used to beat him, she had always smiled and said that the brothers were merely playing around.
What now?
When the knife cuts your own flesh, you finally know it hurts!
Fang Guoqiang was trembling with anger as well. By now, simply seeing this rebellious son made him extremely irritated. If it weren’t for—
His face turned livid as he roared,
“Zhou Shaoquan, the moment you come home, all you know how to do is cause trouble! Why didn’t you just die out there?”
“If anyone’s going to die, it’ll be you first! And what’s wrong with your eyes, old man? Are you blind? Your heart is so biased it’s practically under your armpit! Can’t you see who threw the first punch? And when you trace everything back to the beginning, this whole mess started because of you!”
Zhou Shanshan was also hovering around Zhou Shaoliang. She looked at Zhou Shaoquan accusingly.
“Shaoquan, you’re really going too far. If you hadn’t said all those outrageous things, Dad wouldn’t have gotten angry enough to hit you. How can you blame Dad for this?”
“Outrageous things? Or did I simply hit a nerve, Zhao Shanshan?”
Zhou Shanshan froze when she heard him call her by her original name.
Then she heard his voice continue.
“Look at the three of you. The clothes you’re wearing, the house you’re living in, and all the jewelry filling your room—which one of those things doesn’t belong to the Zhou family?”
“You pick up the bowl and eat from it, then put it down and curse your mother, is that it?”
“Why don’t you show some backbone? Give up all these things first, and then come back and condemn me!”
“You! Zhou Shaoquan, how could you—”
Before Fang Guoqiang could finish, Zhou Shaoquan cut him off.
“How could I what? Don’t forget, Grandpa Sun is still alive. This Zhou family isn’t entirely yours to control yet!”
“And don’t forget what you promised when my grandfather died.”
Fang Guoqiang’s entire body stiffened.
At home, he dared to curse and berate Zhou Shaoquan. But in front of outsiders, he had no choice but to put on a show of loving father and filial son.
Because before Zhou Shichang died, he had entrusted half of his assets to Sun Qiaowu for safekeeping.
Among those assets were numerous gold and silver valuables that could not be publicly disclosed, as well as property deeds, land deeds, antiques, calligraphy, and paintings.
Thinking of this, a sinister look gradually appeared in Fang Guoqiang’s eyes.
One more month.
He only needed to wait another month.
Zhou Shaoquan would turn eighteen in one month.
The old man had made an agreement with Sun Qiaowu that once Zhou Shaoquan turned eighteen, all those assets would be handed over to him.
Once Zhou Shaoquan received those assets, his life would be over.
And when that happened, wouldn’t all those things belong to him?
The entire Zhou family would belong to him as well.
Fang Guoqiang took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
Zhou Shaoliang was still groaning in pain, while Zhao Lijuan and Zhou Shanshan watched him with worried expressions. The old man was so furious that his chest heaved up and down, but he didn’t dare say another word.
Having thoroughly enjoyed arguing with them, Zhou Shaoquan couldn’t be bothered to look at them anymore. He leisurely headed upstairs to his room.
……
Li Yumei worked at a quilt factory. She had finally gotten off work early today, but she was so anxious that she didn’t dare go home.
At noon, she had given her mother one hundred yuan. Her husband, Qian Ziqiang, hadn’t said anything at the time, but after she left, he had immediately turned cold toward her. He hadn’t even taken her to the factory as he normally would. She had to take a bus and then walk for quite a while to get there herself.
Because she had only taken half a day off and had arrived so late in the afternoon, her supervisor happened to catch her when she got to the factory and even reprimanded her.
Normally, it took her just over half an hour to get home, but today she deliberately dragged it out for more than an hour.
By the time she arrived home, it was already past six, and the sky was almost dark.
As soon as she reached the doorway, she heard her mother-in-law’s shrill voice.
“Qian Ziqiang, you useless coward! That slut Li Yumei had better watch out. When she comes home today, I’ll beat her half to death!”
“One hundred yuan! One hundred whole yuan! Do you think money just falls from the sky? If your Aunt Wu hadn’t gone to her sister’s house to look after the children today, I wouldn’t even have known that she actually gave her family one hundred yuan just like that!”
“Today I’ve finally seen the truth. Everyone keeps saying her younger brother is so capable. So what if her brother is capable? Have we benefited from him even a little? Zhiyong is still carrying sacks at the docks as a temporary laborer! She said she could get him a permanent position and find him an easier job. Well, look at him! It’s been almost a year. Have you seen even the slightest progress?”
As she spoke, Qian’s mother angrily twisted Qian Ziqiang’s ear.
“A wife is only good for kneading dough after she’s been beaten down! Look around—whose husband is as useless as you? If you don’t beat her until she’s afraid of you and completely submits, you’ll spend the rest of your life letting her walk all over you!”
“Just wait. Before long, she’ll be treating your head like a toilet—taking a dump and peeing right on you!”
The moment Li Yumei stepped through the door, she saw her husband being dragged by the ear by his mother, not daring to say a single word.