Chapter 75
Zhou Yu was intimidated by the look in Zhou Zili’s eyes. She unconsciously let go of Zhou Ming and even took another step back.
But after stepping back, she seemed to feel that such a reaction made her look too guilty. So she stopped, glared at Zhou Zili in anger, yet no longer dared to speak.
The next second, Zhou Ming swung his fist and charged forward. “Fuck, you actually dared to hit me? I’m going to fight you to the death!!!”
He looked like he was about to risk his life against Zhou Zili, but unfortunately, he had been too well protected by Zhou Zili ever since childhood. He lacked exercise, and his physical strength was poor.
Zhou Zili, on the other hand, had done plenty of exhausting manual labor while working part-time in the past. Later, after becoming a trainee, he underwent systematic training and exercise, so his physical condition was far beyond that of an ordinary person.
Faced with Zhou Ming’s chaotic, completely unstructured punches, Zhou Zili stopped him with a single move, then turned the situation around and pinned him to the ground, completely subduing him.
Unable to break free, Zhou Ming could only shout uselessly at the top of his lungs, “Zhou Zili! You owed us this from the very beginning!”
“I owed you?” Zhou Zili let out a cold laugh. “Zhou Ming, get one thing straight. From the very beginning, I never owed either of you anything.”
“You say that because of me, you lost your parents. But have you forgotten? I lost my parents too, just like you.”
“If you want to hold someone responsible, then you should go after the person who caused the accident, not come after me and pin the blame on someone who was just as much a victim as you were.”
“You are Father’s children, but so am I. The love he gave to you already included my share of it. So the idea that I stole your father’s love from you never existed in the first place.”
Zhou Zili said each word slowly and clearly, “For all these years, I have done my best to take care of you only because Auntie treated me very well, and I wanted to repay her. But that was never my responsibility. I was never obligated to take care of the two of you.”
“Now the two of you are already adults. Auntie took care of me for four years at most, while I’ve raised the two of you for nearly ten.”
“I think that repayment should be more than enough by now.”
At the side, Zhou Yu had already been scared stupid by the sudden explosion from Zhou Zili. She stood there without daring to move, her face full of fear and confusion.
Zhou Ming, who was pinned under Zhou Zili, was the same.
The Zhou Zili they had always known was gentle and soft-spoken. No matter how outrageous their requests were, he would coax them, indulge them, and let them feel that no matter what they did, he would never resist.
In their eyes, Zhou Zili had always been a meek little lamb with no temper. No matter how badly they treated him, he would not get angry, much less lose his temper at them.
Even before, when they badmouthed his mother right in front of him, Zhou Zili had only scolded them a little. To them, such mild rebukes did not even count as anger.
This was the first time the two of them had ever seen this side of Zhou Zili.
Zhou Ming opened his mouth, wanting to refute something, only to find that his mind had gone completely blank and no words would come out.
Zhou Zili released him, stood up, and patted off his hands as if something dirty had gotten on them.
“You’re adults now. I assume you’re capable of supporting yourselves,” Zhou Zili said expressionlessly, his tone colder than they had ever heard before. “Since you hate me so much, then I’ll give you exactly what you want.”
“From today onward, we owe each other nothing. We each live our own lives, and neither of us has anything more to do with the other.”
“As for Father and Auntie’s inheritance, I haven’t touched a single cent of it all these years.”
Zhou Ming muttered quietly, “Easy for you to say. Who knows whether you touched it or not…”
“The court conducted an inheritance audit. If you need it, I can give you a copy,” Zhou Zili shot him a cold glance. “I had originally intended to leave it all to the two of you, but now it seems there’s no need for that. I’ll take the portion that rightfully belongs to me.”
“Hmph. Even if you didn’t take it, we wouldn’t want it,” Zhou Ming sneered. “Don’t think we want to take advantage of you. From today on, we have nothing to do with each other anyway. Do you really think we can’t live without you?”
Zhou Zili ignored him.
“As for you,” he said, looking at Zhou Yu, his tone pausing slightly, “from the time you were diagnosed until now, for all these years, you’ve been hospitalized countless times every year. Your medication never stopped, your rehabilitation never stopped, and every single expense was paid by me.”
“I’ve never once discussed treatment costs with either of you. You probably never bothered to look into them yourselves, either.”
Zhou Zili’s gaze rested for a moment on Zhou Yu, who was pale and panicked, before shifting to Zhou Ming. “Since we have no relationship anymore, I will no longer cover her treatment costs for you.”
“Later, I’ll send you an itemized list of everything that’s been spent on her over the years. Don’t worry. I won’t ask for back payment on what’s already been paid,” Zhou Zili said softly. “But there are some things you should have known long ago.”
“Who are you trying to scare?” Zhou Ming rolled his eyes. “Did you think we didn’t know? Xiao Yu and I both have medical insurance. A lot of it gets reimbursed through the public system. Xiao Yu’s condition counts as a major illness, right? Then the serious illness coverage reimburses even more. We can afford the out-of-pocket portion ourselves.”
Zhou Zili shook his head but said nothing.
It was true that insurance could reimburse a significant amount of money, but that was only if the medications used fell within the covered range.
Some special drugs for rare diseases did not.
But Zhou Zili did not say this aloud. At this point, he no longer wanted to waste words on the siblings. Some things they would find out themselves sooner or later.
Zhou Ming touched his swollen face, grabbed Zhou Yu, and moved to leave. “What are you standing there for? Let’s go.”
Zhou Yu hurried after him.
But before Zhou Ming could open the door, Zhou Zili’s voice came again from behind him. “This still isn’t settled. Why are you in such a hurry to leave?”
“What else is there? Can you say it all at once?” Zhou Ming turned back impatiently.
“You forgot?” Zhou Zili said, stressing every word. “There’s still my mother’s bracelet.”
Zhou Ming’s expression stiffened. He forced himself to lift his chin and said, “Didn’t you just say everything before was settled?”
“What’s between us is settled, yes. But that bracelet belonged to my mother. It didn’t belong to me,” Zhou Zili said, his gaze terrifyingly cold. “If it wasn’t mine to begin with, then of course it still has to be accounted for.”
“If you want to account for it, then account for it.” Zhou Ming pulled out his phone. “It was only worth two hundred yuan, right? I’ll transfer it to you.”
“Fifty thousand,” Zhou Zili said. “That bracelet was worth fifty thousand.”
“Fifty thousand?!” Zhou Yu finally could not help blurting out, “For that broken bracelet? Are you robbing us?!”
Zhou Zili’s cold gaze swept over her. “I have an appraisal certificate. That was twenty years ago. If you convert that to the present day, it should be worth far more than that by now, shouldn’t it?”
The two immediately fell silent. After a while, Zhou Ming finally said, “Then what do you want to do? It’s already been sold. What, do you expect us to get it back now?”
“I’ll give you two options,” Zhou Zili said, his logic perfectly clear. “One: within three days, find my mother’s bracelet and return it to me intact.”
“Impossible,” Zhou Ming rejected the first option on the spot. “That thing was sold years ago. We don’t even remember which shop we sold it to. How could we possibly find it?”
Unexpectedly, Zhou Zili did not get angry at all. Instead, his voice turned frighteningly calm. “Then there’s only the second option.”
Zhou Yu asked, “What option?”
Zhou Zili did not answer. He pulled out his phone and pressed three numbers. “Hello, I’d like to report a theft. My belongings were stolen.”
Zhou Yu cried out, “You’re actually calling the police? Have you lost your mind?!”
Zhou Ming lunged forward, trying to snatch Zhou Zili’s phone away, but Zhou Zili dodged him easily.
“It’s a bracelet, worth fifty thousand. It was my mother’s keepsake,” Zhou Zili said to the person on the other end, calmly explaining the situation. “Please come quickly. There are two people involved, and they are currently attempting to attack me.”
After reporting the address and receiving the promise that officers would be dispatched immediately, he finally hung up.
“Why can’t I call the police?” Zhou Zili looked at Zhou Yu, only now answering the question she had shouted earlier. “An item worth fifty thousand is far above the threshold for filing a police report.”
“I gave you another option, but you made it very clear that you refused it. What else was I supposed to do?”
Since he had failed to stop Zhou Zili from calling the police, Zhou Ming’s face flushed red with anger. He gave a cold laugh. “You don’t have any proof we stole it. That was so many years ago. Even if the police investigate, they won’t be able to find any evidence.”
“No proof?” Zhou Zili pointed at his phone. “Sorry, but I recorded our entire conversation just now. The fact that you personally admitted it — does that count as evidence?”
