Chapter 211 I have no intention of letting this go!

Demanding to check the ledgers for the ancestral hall's construction from over a decade ago was merely a pretext!

Among the evidence Zhou Cheng had just finished skimming through, Zhou Yuanwen's Family had many criminal records.

They started with the funds Zhou Yuanbo provided for the construction of the ancestral hall as their starting point.

He and his sons set up several construction teams, taking charge of the ancestral hall's construction and the procurement of various raw Materials like bricks and stones.

After making a fortune through the ancestral hall, they founded a construction company. Riding the wave of the real estate boom, they continued to grow in the county-level city where Zhou Family Village was located.

At its peak, their assets reached a full 500 million.

Now, however, because the real estate market had declined and his sons were incompetent, they had squandered the Family business.

They even still owed unpaid wages to many migrant workers in the construction teams! It could be said that their Family was breaking the law at every turn.

At the same time!

For all these years, the various projects Zhou Yuanbo funded to support Zhou Family Village—building roads, installing streetlights, constructing schools, and so on—had all been managed by Zhou Yuanwen's Family.

During those times, Zhou Yuanbo was always in Shanghai. He would simply wire money and allocate funds to Zhou Yuanwen and the others without ever questioning domestic affairs.

Consequently, there were many issues; Zhou Yuanwen's Family had been skimming money as intermediaries! Embezzling public funds!

This was a classic case of occupational embezzlement!

Zhou Cheng's words caused an uproar! Zhou Yuanwen's Family, in particular, felt a sudden surge of panic when they heard him questioning the ancestral hall's construction and demanding an audit.

Meanwhile, the surrounding villagers began to discuss the matter heatedly upon hearing this.

"I support the audit. Back then, Yuanbo's Family alone contributed 50 million, and every household donated 50 yuan! That was no small sum back then!"

"I support it too. I've long felt that the expenses back then were too high, but since we only donated 50 yuan, I didn't pay much attention to it."

"Uncle Yuanbo's Family's 50 million, plus the contributions from all the Zhous in the town and branches from other towns—we must find out today exactly how all that money was spent!"

"Where is the Clan Chief? Please ask Granduncle Daoming to come out and speak!"

"This is Yuanbo's youngest son, Zhou Cheng, right? He's certainly handsome and overbearing. If you ask me, both Granduncle Daoming and Yuanbo are too gentle; we need a young man like Zhou Cheng!"

"Heh! You have the nerve to talk about removing Zhou Cheng from the genealogy? Zhou Yuanwen, you still haven't paid me my wages!"

"You promised me back then that if I worked for you, I'd get paid, but the wages have been delayed year after year!"

"..."

The scene became a cacophony of voices, showing that everyone had long been dissatisfied with Zhou Yuanwen.

Listening to the voices of the crowd, Zhou Yuanwen felt a faint throbbing in his head!

He hadn't expected to provoke such a formidable opponent this time!

Due to the real estate slump, his Family's construction company had long been unable to make ends meet and was buried in debt.

Seeing how generous Zhou Yuanbo was upon his return, greed took root in his heart, and he wanted to swindle another large sum from him.

Of course, he hadn't initially planned to swindle 50 million; he intended to propose a large figure first, negotiate with Zhou Yuanbo, and settle for 10 million or maybe 8 million.

Instead, Zhou Yuanbo's son, who had almost never returned to Zhou Family Village, stepped forward and flipped the table without even trying to negotiate!

Seriously, are young people nowadays all this ruthless?

"All of you, shut up! Has our Family ever mistreated you over all these years?"

"Zhou Yuanbo basically never comes back. If it weren't for our Family keeping things running, would you even be able to hold your heads high?"

Hearing the villagers' comments, Zhou Yuanwen's sons shouted back at them, showing extreme arrogance!

Zhou Yuanwen glared at Zhou Cheng and gritted his teeth. "Regarding the construction of the ancestral hall, my conscience is clear. If you want to audit it, you can do so anytime!"

As he spoke, Zhou Yuanwen steadied his nerves. It had been over ten years, so he was confident that Zhou Cheng wouldn't be able to find anything.

Many of the Materials suppliers from that time had already gone bankrupt, and those bills were long gone, making it extremely difficult to gather evidence!

After saying this, his composure became even more stable.

He then looked at Zhou Cheng and said snarlingly:

"Regarding the construction of the ancestral hall and the various public facilities in the village, your Family did spend a lot of money, but do I not deserve any credit?"

"Without me putting in the effort here at home, do you think your Family could have built the ancestral hall just by providing the money?"

"Furthermore, like I said before, how poor was your Family originally? If it weren't for the ancestors' blessing allowing your father to meet the Young Miss of the Chen Family, would your Family be where it is today? It's your Family that hogged the entire Family's Luck!"

"So what's wrong with contributing a bit more money for the sake of the entire Family? It's not like your Family lacks money!"

Zhou Yuanwen spoke with righteous conviction.

This worldview truly ground Zhou Cheng's brain into the dirt!

His tone even hid a disdain for Zhou Yuanbo, viewing him as nothing more than a pretty boy who relied on ancestral blessings and a woman to make his fortune.

Regarding this, Zhou Cheng didn't have much of an opinion, as Zhou Yuanbo indeed lacked the ability to start a business and build a fortune.

But his Family's wealth was built by his mother's hard work; what did it have to do with them?

Now that the Zhou Family was under his control, spending the Zhou Family's money was spending his!

And hogging the entire Family's Luck? Damn, then why didn't your Family take it?

Speaking of which, it wasn't just in this world; in his past life, Zhou Cheng had heard a certain streamer named Lan mention it during a broadcast.

He said he had a poor relationship with his relatives. When they saw him get rich, instead of treating his Family better, they claimed his Family had stolen the Family's Luck for wealth.

As expected, the material for this world was drawn from reality!

"Zhou Yuanwen, what do you mean by that!"

Zhou Yuanbo looked at Zhou Yuanwen with a grim expression!

Zhou Yuanwen was a few years older than him, and they had been playmates as children. However, Zhou Yuanwen's Family situation was better back then, and with more Family members, he often bullied Zhou Yuanbo.

Even when Zhou Yuanbo was in school, Zhou Yuanwen would mock him for being a nerd and look down on him.

He hadn't expected that even now, Zhou Yuanwen would still have this same attitude!

"I don't mean anything. It was your son who first offended his superior and insulted me," Zhou Yuanwen replied directly, throwing caution to the wind!

These words made Zhou Yuanbo's blood boil!

At this moment, several elderly men walked over.

"Forget it, forget it. We're all Family. Let's just sit down and have a good talk. Why make such a scene and let the younger generation laugh at us?"

The speaker was an elder of the Dao generation.

He still held some prestige within the Family, but Zhou Cheng had no intention of letting it go!

Once he got back, he would materialize the evidence and then call the police to arrest them tomorrow!

If it weren't for the fact that this was their first meeting and it wouldn't be appropriate to produce evidence of their illegal activities right away, Zhou Cheng would have wanted to call the police on the spot and have them all arrested!