Chapter 102

Chapter 102

After Zhou Heting and his wife were both imprisoned, Zhou Taichuan, as Zhou Heting's son, took charge of the remaining assets of the Zhou family—converting those assets into cash to compensate the victims who had been killed or severely harmed by Zhou Heting.

This decision was met with opposition from everyone in the Zhou family, including the elderly patriarch.

They unanimously believed that Zhou Taichuan had gone mad. How could anyone waste billions, bankrupting themselves to compensate victims?

After all, Zhou Heting had killed so many people, and no amount of compensation could save him from death. Given that, why bother with such a futile effort?

Wouldn’t it be better to spend that money on their own family? The elderly patriarch even promised Zhou Taichuan that they could split the family's assets equally—half for the patriarch and half for Zhou Taichuan.

"I'm old, I need to think about my retirement."

Given the criminal evidence currently held by the police, even if Zhou Heting wasn’t sentenced to death, he would likely spend the rest of his life in prison. The elderly patriarch, being advanced in age, had to consider his own future.

As for Zhou Taichuan... in the patriarch's view, this young man had traveled thousands of miles to Xin Hai to fight for the family's assets. How could he possibly be willing to give Zhou Heting's wealth to the victims?

He must be using this as an excuse to force the Zhou family to make concessions.

But Zhou Taichuan remained resolute.

As a son, he couldn’t stand by and watch Zhou Heting die while still bearing a tarnished reputation. Therefore, he wanted to compensate the victims, partly to help Zhou Heting seek a reduced sentence—given the crimes Zhou Heting had committed over the years, if he could gain the victims' forgiveness, he might even secure a suspended death sentence. Even if the victims and their families refused to forgive, he still wanted to seek peace of mind for Zhou Heting.

Even if it meant losing all their wealth, he wanted to secure a legacy for Zhou Heting.

So that after Zhou Heting's death, he wouldn’t be cursed by thousands.

He couldn’t even rest in peace.

This was the only thing he, as a son, could do for his father—a final act of care.

When the news reached the hospital, Zhou Heting, who had already been detained by the police but was granted medical parole due to a stroke, couldn’t withstand the shock. He spat out a mouthful of blood, staining his chest, and then, unsurprisingly, suffered another stroke.

This time, however, Zhou Heting's luck seemed to have run out—the doctors tried to save him for three hours but failed.

Zhou Heting had been literally angered to death.

The elderly patriarch, having lost his son in his twilight years, couldn’t accept it and immediately suffered a heart attack.

The medical staff, who had just come out of the operating room, barely had time to catch their breath before they rushed the patriarch back into surgery.

Zhou Heting's body was left forgotten at the entrance of the operating room. The rest of the Zhou family gathered around his corpse, wailing and pointing fingers at Zhou Taichuan, accusing him of being unfilial for angering his own father to death.

This scene was secretly filmed and posted online.

Soon, rumors spread across major social platforms that the Zhou family, in their greed to monopolize Zhou Heting's assets, had forbidden Zhou Taichuan from compensating the victims.

The Zhou family was quickly bombarded with outrage from netizens, trending on social media.

The hashtag #ZhouHetingDiesFromStrokeFinallyFacesJustice also climbed the trending list overnight. If Zhou Taichuan hadn’t spent money to suppress it, Zhou Heting's corpse would have barely cooled before being cursed back to life by countless netizens.

"This Zhou Taichuan is really ruthless."

At the Ye family's residence, Chu Hengyi sat on the sofa, fiddling with his phone, occasionally checking various social media apps and reading the obituary news, secretly marveling: "Zhou Heting was his father, right? Why did he want to anger Zhou Heting to death?"

—Indeed, anyone with eyes could see that Zhou Taichuan's actions were aimed at angering Zhou Heting to death. But many people couldn’t understand why Zhou Taichuan would do such a thing.

"Could this be Dad's doing again?" Chu Hengyi was almost left with psychological scars by Chairman Ye.

Ye Mingzhao shook his head. Given Chairman Ye's personality, once he decided to send Zhou Heting to prison, he wouldn’t go out of his way to do anything more.

"So this is Zhou Taichuan’s doing?" Chu Hengyi blinked and called his contact, Dagger, to investigate what exactly happened between Zhou Taichuan and Zhou Heting.

Seeing Chu Hengyi’s insatiable curiosity, Ye Mingzhao shook his head helplessly. However, he was indeed curious about Zhou Taichuan's motives, but he didn't plan to wait for Dagger's report. Instead, he directly asked Ye Linyuan during dinner.

"Zhou Taichuan's mother died at the hands of Zhou Heting."

Chairman Ye held a white porcelain bowl, speaking impassively, as if Zhou Taichuan’s tragic childhood was less compelling than the sweet and sour pork ribs before him.

But this revelation still made the Ye family’s hearts skip a beat.

As Chairman Ye recounted the story, the Ye family finally learned about the history between Zhou Heting and Zhou Taichuan’s mother.

Zhou Taichuan’s mother, a college student, had been abducted by human traffickers on her way to school twenty-seven years ago.

That human trafficker was Chu Jianye, the same man Hua Rui later hired to abduct Chu Hengyi.

Over twenty years ago, Chu Jianye, posing as a migrant worker, moved from one construction site to another. Zhou Heting, then a small-time contractor, stumbled upon Chu Jianye’s secret.

At the time, Zhou Heting was competing with another contractor for a subcontract on a real estate project developed by the Ye family business. Zhou Heting, new to the industry and lacking experience or advantage, disguised himself and enlisted Chu Jianye to kidnap his competitor’s young daughter, who had just started elementary school.

The competitor was shattered, pouring all his energy into fighting human trafficking and searching for his daughter, leaving him no capacity to compete with Zhou Heting.

Zhou Heting successfully won the subcontract from the Ye family business. Thanks to his impressive work, he gradually became one of the Ye family business’s go-to engineering teams. But Zhou Heting wasn’t content; he wanted to rise even higher. The obvious shortcut was to forge a connection with Ye Linyuan, the head of the Ye family business at the time.

Hearing this, everyone gasped, shocked that Zhou Heting had known Chu Jianye and used him to eliminate a rival. The Ye family wasn’t his first victim; Zhou Heting, this ruthless villain, had been pulling such stunts for years.

Madam Ye suddenly realized: "So back then, Hua Rui—"

"Exactly," Chairman Ye nodded. He had only recently uncovered this.

No wonder Hua Rui, a sheltered wealthy woman with no ties to the underworld, could so easily resort to hiring human traffickers to abduct children as a vile way to retaliate against the Ye family.

"At that time, Hua Rui's father committed suicide by jumping off a building. At his funeral, Hua Rui vowed to avenge her father. When Zhou Heting learned of this, he arranged for Hua Rui to get Chu Jianye's contact information."

Blinded by hatred, Hua Rui was solely focused on revenge against Ye Linyuan, oblivious to Zhou Heting lurking in the shadows, ready to exploit the situation.

Ye Mingzhao thoughtfully glanced at Chu Hengyi.

No wonder Chu Jianye and his gang of traffickers met such a swift end. He originally thought their deaths were due to double-crossing and offending their crazy employer, Hua Rui. Now it seems they were silenced by Zhou Heting.

Zhou Heting didn’t just kill Chu Jianye and his gang; he also silenced the abducted victims who hadn’t yet been sold, ensuring no leaks.

The only exception was Zhou Taichuan's mother. She was too beautiful, not just in appearance but also in demeanor.

Zhou Heting couldn't resist and secretly hid Zhou Taichuan's mother.

But after the Ye family lost their child, the search efforts were too intense. Fearing exposure, Zhou Heting quietly sent Zhou Taichuan's mother abroad.

A year later, Zhou Taichuan was born in the U.S. However, Zhou Taichuan's mother, having endured too many despairing experiences, suffered severe mental trauma and passed away a few years later.

"That old bastard!" Ye Mingxi seethed. "He died too easily. He should’ve been torn to shreds and his ashes scattered to the wind!"

No one had expected this old villain to be so cunning and cruel. Just to climb up by leveraging Ye Linyuan's connections, he orchestrated such a horrifying and malicious plan.

It turns out he was the one who guided all these tragedies!

Chu Hengyi's chest heaved rapidly, his mind blank.

He looked at Ye Mingzhao with a dazed gaze. Though he had long accepted his tumultuous past, the sudden realization that his suffering stemmed merely from the greed of a malicious man—

Such a ridiculous and tragic reason, even less justified than Hua Rui's vengeance.

Chu Hengyi felt breathless, his mouth bitter. How could there be such a malicious person in the world, willing to ruin another's life just for their own gain?

Ye Mingzhao reached out and grasped Chu Hengyi's right hand, his feelings even more complicated than Chu Hengyi's.

In the original story that suddenly came to his mind, the reborn Chu Hengyi had conspired with Zhou Heting to ruin the Ye family.

This tragic figure, toyed with by Zhou Heting across two lives, betrayed the kin who trusted and felt indebted to him, handing over the Ye family's fortune to the one who had caused his lifelong misery. Until the story's final moment, he was still a puppet to his tormentors.

—What kind of absurd fantasy novel was this!

It was a complete nightmare!

At this moment, Ye Mingzhao was profoundly grateful for the miracle he had encountered at the beginning of the story. He had ultimately avoided the tragic fate of the Ye family, ensuring all the villains got their due.

"It's all in the past," Ye Mingzhao took a deep breath and calmly patted the back of Chu Hengyi's hand. "Don't worry, those villains can't hurt you anymore."

Chu Hengyi clenched Ye Mingzhao's hand tightly, cold sweat breaking out all over his body. His knuckles turned white from the force.

Ye Mingzhao winced in pain but did not pull away. Instead, he gripped Chu Hengyi's hand firmly in return, soothing him in a gentle voice, "Zhou Heting is dead. He can never manipulate you again."

Chu Hengyi's gaze fell on their intertwined hands. He suddenly let go, only to grasp Ye Mingzhao's hand again in an instant.

This time, however, Chu Hengyi tried to control his strength, careful not to hurt Ye Mingzhao but also unwilling to let go. His palm pressed tightly against Ye Mingzhao's, feeling the warmth of Ye Mingzhao's body continuously flowing into him, as if some kind of strength was being transmitted into his own body.

It gave him the courage to breathe again.

Yes, he had Ye Mingzhao.

From now on, he would never be afraid again.