Chapter 38: Debt-free and carefree

  After sending Zhou Hao and his mother back to the city, Zhao Yuqin originally wanted to invite them to have a meal at the Tianbin Hotel, but her brother suddenly called her to go home for a while, because she hadn't been back for more than half a month. Under helplessness, Zhao Yuqin had to bid farewell to Zhou Hao and his mother and drive away.

  Looking at the Mercedes-Benz car that was gradually moving away, Zhao Yuqin sighed and said: "Yuqin is really a noble person in our family, Xiao Hao, we must return those 800,000 yuan to them as soon as possible."

  Zhou Hao nodded and said: "By the way, Mom, how much money do we owe Zhou Lichang in total?"

  "Ah..." Yan Tong was taken aback for a moment, then laughed and scolded Zhou Hao, "How can you be so rude, that's your uncle."

  Zhou Hao curled his lip, he didn't acknowledge Zhou Lichang as his uncle at all. He still clearly remembered that in the previous life, when Yan Tong was suffering from liver cancer and Zhou Hao went to their house to borrow money, Zhou Lichang and Xu Yongwei had ridiculed him with cold smiles.

  Yan Tong said: "Adding up what we borrowed before, we owe your uncle more than 16,000 yuan in total."

  "Let's just give them 20,000 yuan back, so they won't say we owed them money for so long and didn't even pay a bit of interest." Zhou Hao said.

  "Uncle and them wouldn't say something like that." Yan Tong furrowed his brow.

  "He hummed and said, 'That's just the kind of people they are.'"

  Yan Tong knew that Zhou Hao was not on good terms with Zhou Li Chang and the others, but he didn't say anything. The two of them took advantage of the bank still being open to withdraw 25,000 yuan. Yan Tong handed the 5,000 yuan to Zhou Hao, "Take this money and buy whatever you like, but don't be too extravagant."

  "Mom, you're giving too much, aren't you?"

  Yan Tong shook his head, "This money was originally yours from winning the lottery, Mom just kept it for you. This money will still be used for your university tuition and marrying a wife in the future."

  "Right, mom, if dad comes back looking for money from you, don't give it to him under any circumstances. And whatever you do, don't tell him about us winning the lottery either, or he'll just take it all and gamble it away."

  Whenever Yan Tong mentions Zhou Hao's father, Zhou Liren, a hint of sadness appears on her face. She thinks to herself that she had entrusted the wrong person when she was young, but fortunately, she has a sensible son; otherwise, this life would have been hopeless. She nodded at Zhou Hao, "I understand."

  After leaving the bank, the mother and son took a car to Zhoujia Village. After knocking on the door of Zhou Lichang's independent villa for a long time, a very beautiful young woman opened the door. The woman was probably only eighteen or nineteen years old, with long hair and delicate facial features.

  Zhou Hao saw that her hair was slightly disheveled, with a thin layer of sweat on her forehead and nose, and there was still a hint of recklessness in her expression.

  But when she saw Zhou Hao and his mother, she hesitated for a moment, especially after seeing the handsome Zhou Hao. Her original impatience was suppressed, "Who are you looking for?"

  "Xiao Zhu, who's there?" A man's voice came from inside the house, sounding very impatient. Zhou Hao recognized it as Zhou Lichang's voice. He then walked over, wearing a set of pajamas and still panting slightly. Seeing that it was Zhou Hao and Yan Tong visiting, his expression became even more unpleasant, frowning and saying: "Is it you two?"

  "Great Uncle." Yan Tong called out to him.

  "Come in." Zhou Li Chang said and went back into the house, while the woman called Xiao Zhu also stepped aside to let Zhou Hao and the others enter.

  Zhou Lichang sat on the sofa in the living room, lit a cigarette and put it in his mouth. "What brings you to me? Don't tell me you're here to borrow money again? I heard from Yongwei that you borrowed 10,000 yuan just the other day."

  "We didn't come to borrow money." Zhou Hao couldn't stand the disdain on Zhou Li's face, "We came to pay back the money." He then took out a package wrapped in newspaper and opened it, revealing two stacks of unopened 100-yuan bills. "Here is 20,000 yuan, adding this to what we borrowed before, we've paid everything back, and the extra can be considered interest."

  Zhou Lichang was extremely surprised by Zhou Hao's action of returning the money, clearly not expecting them to pay back so quickly, and even giving him a few thousand yuan in interest for free. He picked up the two stacks of cash, checked that they were not counterfeit, and then asked Zhou Hao strangely: "How did you guys get the money so quickly? Didn't you say before that you couldn't even afford the tuition?"

  "We used the money to buy stocks and made some profit, so we returned it to you first," said Yan Tong.

  "Are you also speculating in stocks?" Zhou Li often raised an eyebrow, then burst out laughing. "This year's stock market is really good, it's booming. Hehe, Little Hao, it's been a long time since we last met, you've grown a lot taller!" After Zhou Hao and his mother returned the money, his attitude also changed. As for Zhou Hao's change, he didn't pay much attention to it, after all, it had already been more than half a year since he last saw Zhou Hao, and children grow fast anyway, so Zhou Li wasn't as surprised as someone who was familiar with Zhou Hao would be.

  "Xiao Zhu, aren't you going to pour tea for Xiao Hao and the others?" Zhou Lichang shouted.

  Zhou Hao glanced at the woman, "Who is she...?"

  Zhou Lichang chuckled and said, "That's the little nanny I invited back. Because Yongwei said that since the weather has started to get cold, she doesn't want to do chores like cooking and washing dishes anymore, so I specially invited a little nanny back."

  "By the way, where's Auntie and them?" Zhou Hao looked around and found that Xu Yongwei and her two children were nowhere to be seen.

  "She went to pick up Zhihao and Xinxin from school." Zhou Lichang said.

  "Here you are, have some tea." At this time, Little Zhu put two cups of hot tea on the tea table in front of Zhou Hao and his mother.

  Zhou Hao discovered that Xiao Zhu and Zhou Li were exchanging flirtatious glances, and combined with the previous signs, he sneered in his heart, these two must have an affair. But thinking about it also makes sense, Zhou Li's family is wealthy, Xiao Zhu is young and beautiful, the two are indeed able to take what they need from each other. However, Xu Yongwei is at a disadvantage, this little nanny not only took care of her household chores but also "took care" of her husband.

  "Xiao Hao, how much money did you guys make from stock trading?" Zhou Lichang asked with a smile.

  Zhou Hao and Yan Tong exchanged a glance, then Yan Tong spoke up: "We only made over a million."

  "Tens of millions?" Zhou Lichang asked: "How much money did you invest in it?"

  "Eight thousand." Zhou Hao said calmly.

  "This has increased by more than tenfold, hasn't it?" Zhou Lichang was extremely surprised. "Xiao Hao, which stock did you buy? Can you tell your uncle?" Seeing Zhou Hao's puzzled expression, he laughed twice and said, "Because I also bought a few stocks, investing nearly one million yuan, but so far I've only earned over a hundred thousand yuan."

  For ordinary people, earning over a million is already a lot, but looking at the current stock market, Zhou Lichang invested one million and could only earn over a million, which is much less compared to Zhou Hao's profit margin.

  However, for a selfish and greedy person like Zhou Lichang, Zhou Hao would not tell him which stock to buy. Moreover, Zhou Hao would not even tell him that the domestic stock market will plummet after December. With Zhou Lichang's insatiable nature, he would definitely take advantage of the situation and make more losses when the stock market plummets.

  "We just casually bought and now we've already gotten out." Zhou Hao said with a smile to Zhou Li, his heart secretly imagining what he would look like when he suffered heavy losses in the stock market.

  Upon hearing Zhou Hao's words, Zhou Lichang immediately understood that he didn't want to tell him anymore. Just as he was about to say a couple more sentences, he heard Zhou Hao say: "It's getting late too, we won't disturb you any further. Mom, let's head back." Then he and Yan Tong stood up and walked towards the door.

  Yan Tong nodded at Zhou Lichang, "Uncle, then we'll go first."

  After Zhou Hao and his mother left the door, Zhou Lichang finally came back to himself, heavily punching the sofa, "Damn bitch!" Seeing Xiao Zhu wiping the wine cabinet on the side, he got up again, "Xiao Zhu, come here!"

  Xiao Zhu naturally knew what would happen next and deliberately said in a soft voice: "It's coming."

  After leaving Zhou Lichang's independent villa, Yan Tong took a deep breath and said, "Finally paid off the money."

  "This is called being debt-free and feeling light."

  The mother and son took a ride back to their own building, where Zhou Hao saw a familiar figure standing there. It was surprisingly Xiāng Yuè. She had obviously been waiting for a long time, occasionally rubbing her sore legs.

  When Situ Jianying saw Zhou Hao, she exclaimed excitedly: "Zhou Hao!" Then she wanted to rush over, but seeing Yan Tong beside Zhou Hao, she knew that was Zhou Hao's mother, so she stopped in her tracks and bowed slightly to Yan Tong, saying politely: "Auntie, hello."

  "Are you Zhou Hao's classmate?" Yan Tong saw this lovely girl, especially when Situ Jianying showed great politeness in front of her, so he was also very delighted.

  "I'm his... friend." Situ Jianying sneaked a glance at Zhou Hao and said to Yan Tong, "I was in the same class as Wang Xijun at No. 2 Middle School. I came to find Zhou Hao to go out and play together."

  "Hehe, I see," Yan Tong smiled and said, "Then you can go relax, by the way, why don't we call Xi Jun and Zhong Cai over too?"

  "I just went up and looked for them, but there's no one in their house either."

  "Oh, I remembered, Shi Feng is taking you and the others to your maternal home today." Yan Tong said: "Then you two go ahead, Xiao Hao doesn't need to take care of me, I was just thinking of going to find some colleagues to have a meal with."

  Zhou Hao knew that Yan Tong was intentionally letting him go out and have some fun, and he didn't want to disappoint her kindness, so he said: "Then let's go." After speaking, he followed Si Tu Jianying and walked out together.

  "Auntie, goodbye." Siu Gim Ying smiled and bid farewell to Ngan Tong.

  "Goodbye, have fun!" Yan Tong waved goodbye to the two of them.

  As soon as the two of them walked out of the main street and were out of Yan Tong's sight, Si Tu Jian Ying immediately grabbed Zhou Hao's arm and stared at him with tears in her eyes, "Zhou Hao! Zhou Hao! Zhou Hao!"

  Zhou Hao smiled slightly, "What's wrong?" He also missed this obedient and infatuated girl very much.

  "You're so annoying, you came back and didn't even go find me." A layer of mist appeared in Situ Jianying's Danfeng eyes, "I was worried to death about you. This morning, if it wasn't for Dad not letting me, I would have gone to your school gate to pick you up together."