Chapter 501
Moreover, just now, Shen Haoting had disposed of Xu Tianlin, the first son of the first family of Chujiang, without even blinking an eye.
He had treated the eldest son of the Xu family in such a way, and they, who were even more than ants, would probably not even be overly considerate, and would just let that youth, by the way, finish off a few of them.
At the thought of this, those few people couldn't help but shiver. They had come here for the sake of a few stinking dollars.
But now that they hadn't gotten the money, they had to lose their lives, so it was really more than worth it.
This was no longer a loss, it was a joke.
These people were so scared that they trembled, and then they knelt down one after another, kowtowing and begging for mercy, "Mr. Shen, don't be angry, Mr. Shen, spare our lives, we will leave here now. Promise never to appear again, just treat us like a fart, please let us go ......"
These few people said while kowtowing as if they were pounding garlic.
However, Shen Haoting did not even look at them. He said to the youth, "Throw them out, they will only dirty the place if they die here!"
As soon as they heard Shen Haoting's words, those few people were instantly pardoned and hurriedly kowtowed to thank him for his kindness, then one by one, they ran away with their tails between their legs.
A crisis of this magnitude had been lifted by the appearance of his own father? Jiang Hao simply felt some emotion from the bottom of his heart.
Although what made him feel a little uncomfortable was that his father had got rid of Xu Tianlin without even blinking an eye.
However, Jiang Hao was able to think about it and understand that although his father was a bit cruel in doing so, it was the right thing to do.
At this time, Jiang Hao had long since lost his past indecisiveness. He knew very well that this was a world where the weak are strong and the strong eat the strong.
If it were himself, the other side would probably only hit harder.
Thinking about it in this way, even though Jiang Hao felt a little uncomfortable, he was ultimately relieved.
Jiang Hao looked up at his father, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth, and hurriedly said, "Dad. Why have you come back?"
Shen Haoting laughed harshly, "What, aren't you welcome dad? Hey, it's really unexpected, you are so tall, you are so much taller than I imagined."
As Shen Haoting said that, he gestured his hand on the top of Jiang Hao's head, his gaze was full of love.
Seeing Jiang Hao, Shen Haoting felt an indescribable excitement in his heart, and the corners of his eyes were even slightly moist.
He patted Jiang Hao's shoulder heavily and said emotionally, "Son, for so many years, dad has made you suffer."
Jiang Hao was also touched and a sourness arose in his heart, but hurriedly shook his head and said, "Dad, I'm not bitter, I know that back then you chose to leave me and mum because you had no choice, right?"
In fact, that was what Jiang Hao had always told himself in his heart, in this way. He was able to try to accept his father whom he hadn't seen for over twenty years.
Shen Haoting sighed and said, "Good boy, you can understand papa, papa is really happy from the bottom of his heart, hey, in fact, for so many years, there are too many things that papa cannot help himself, but don't worry, this time papa chose to come back, just want to make up for it all completely."
Shen Haoting's eyes seemed to glow with light as he smiled and said, "Son, all these years of being at the mercy of my father have actually been for this day, and I am finally waiting for that day. As soon as that day comes, you, me and everyone else will be free. From now on, you and I, and your mother, will never be separated again."
Jiang Hao's heart warmed up when he heard these words.
He had fantasised countless times that he and his parents, could be together forever, living happily together as a family.
Even if his father, who was the richest overseas Chinese, was not the head of the Shen family. He was just an ordinary man, and even then, a happy family living together would be a great comfort to Jiang Hao.
It was just that fate could not be changed, his father was not destined to be an ordinary man, and he was not destined to be the child of an ordinary man.
But what made Jiang Hao feel quite relieved was that no matter how hard things had been for him in the past, now he had finally come to the end of his suffering.
And since his father had already said so. I guess it wouldn't be long before the family could really live together again.
Just thinking about that kind of life now, Jiang Hao was so excited that his body was covered in goose bumps, so excited that the corners of his eyes were slightly moist.
Shen Haoting was obviously excited too, as he hugged Jiang Hao and the father-son duo kept talking for a long time.
Naturally, Ye Yunjie was also very sensible, and seeing how close and warm Jiang Hao and Shen Haoting were, she hurriedly also walked out of the office, taking the door with her, while instructing her men to hurry up and prepare something to eat.
She knew very well that Shen Haoting's journey back from Europe was bound to be bumpy, so she hurriedly asked Qiao San to make preparations and prepare to arrange for Shen Haoting to move in later.
In the office, after seeing his son, Shen Haoting seemed to have swept away all the sleepiness and fatigue from the seven to eight hours on the road. It was as if he had an inexhaustible amount of energy.
The two talked about Jiang Hao from the time he was very young until the time he started university.
And after listening to Jiang Hao's account of his heartache for so many years, Shen Haoting fell silent.
With a hint of self-blame on his face, he said lightly, "It's all my fault. I'm the one who didn't do my duty as a father should, hey, I've really made you and your mother suffer."
Shen Haoting suddenly looked up at Jiang Hao and asked, "Is your mother's health okay? Aigoo. Your mother is the strongest and most resilient woman I've ever seen in my life, I'm too sorry for her in this life ...... this life ......"
Shen Haoting once he recalled Jiang Hao's mother. The voice can't help but have a tremble.
To know, when married into the Shen family, Jiang Hao's mother is how determined, and how strong, to survive the many difficulties.
And then she left, leaving the mother and son to struggle to get by, and that was for more than ten years.
Thinking back to the past, Jiang Hao also sighed, shook his head slightly and said, "My mother's health is not very good, the first few years because of overwork, she has not been in good health, and also has lung disease ......"
Shen Haoting smiled, his gaze had more tenderness, and hurriedly said, "Son, don't worry, I'll send someone to bring your mother over later, then dad will invite the best doctors in the world to treat your mother, don't worry, everything will be fine, our family, in the future, will be very happy and joyful."
Jiang Hao looked at his father's hopeful gaze and also smiled slightly, he couldn't help but feel some bitterness in his heart, his own mother had suffered for so many years, she should indeed have come to the end of her suffering.
Chapter 502
"Dad, then I'll have Sister Ye send someone now." Jiang Hao seemed a little impatient, "Just in time, I haven't seen mum for a long time too!"
Jiang Hao said and was about to move, but he was stopped by Shen Haoting.
Shen Haoting shook his hand slightly and said, "No, son. I can't do it now, wait a bit longer, dad has some things to do these days, when we're busy with these days, we'll go and pick up your mum personally, how about that?"
Jiang Hao was a little disappointed, but still nodded, "Alright then, Dad. I'll do as you say."
Shen Haoting smiled gratefully at his words.
"Dad ......," Jiang Hao asked immediately afterwards, "Can I ask you a question?"
Shen Haoting smiled and nodded as he said, "Hey. If you have a question, just ask it, as long as dad knows, I'll tell you everything."
Jiang Hao looked a bit restrained and hesitated for a moment before asking, "Dad, I want to know why you left me and mum back then?"
"Actually, Sister Ye already told me some of it yesterday, but ......" Jiang Hao hesitated for a moment before continuing, "But I want to know everything, to know why you chose to leave back then, to know our Shen family's secrets, and want to know what you have been planning for so many years!"
Jiang Hao asked all the questions in his heart in a single stream, he looked at Shen Haoting with a serious face, he had actually wanted to know the answers to these things for a long time, he just never had the chance in the past.
But today the opportunity had come, his own father was here, he must know all the answers.
And to these questions from Jiang Hao. Shen Haoting did not seem to be surprised, as if everything was expected of him.
However, he still curbed his smile and his face gradually became heavy.
He looked at Jiang Hao, sighed and said silently, "This ...... is actually a very long story, and as it sounds, it seems to be a bit sensational, but, it is indeed all true."
As Shen Haoting spoke, he got up and began to pace from side to side in the room.
He then said, "In fact, to say all this, we have to start from the beginning."
Shen Haoting let out a long sigh, seemingly recalling something, before speaking slowly.
"Son, do you know, how many generations have passed through our Shen family line?" Shen Haoting suddenly spoke up and asked Jiang Hao.
Jiang Hao shook his head, and Shen Haoting stretched out his finger and gestured out an "eight". He smiled and said, "Our Shen family has been passed down to my father's generation for eighty generations, eighty generations, a whole fourteen hundred years! The Shen family now has over forty thousand descendants on the family tree alone."
"That long?" Jiang Hao was a little surprised when he heard his father's words and said, "Could it be that all these forty thousand people are all above one genealogy? In general, after a few generations, at most a dozen, wouldn't all families have split up into different families? How could the Shen family ......"
Shen Haoting nodded and said, "Indeed, this is exactly what makes the Shen family different, and do you know. Why the Shen Family has gone through so many years of inheritance without ever splitting off from the family tree?"
Jiang Hao shook his head as Shen Haoting continued, "It has to do with a great secret of the Shen family. And not allowing the family to split is an iron law that has been passed down from the Shen family's ancestors. So even now it may seem that the Shen family has gone sky high. Different families of all sizes have formed, but in reality, between each family, there is a connection and a bond, and this bond is called the clan family!"
About the Zong family, Jiang Hao had once heard Ye Yunjie tell himself about it, and he remembered that his father was a Zong family in the Shen family line.
Jiang Hao was frozen in contemplation. Shen Haoting continued to speak again to tell the story.
"From the first generation of ancestors in the Shen lineage, the first-born son of each generation automatically inherits the status of patriarch, while the other descendants are called sub-families. I believe Xiao Ye has told you before that our family is actually the status of the clan, which means that the Shen family has been passed down for over a thousand years, and our lineage. It has always been a direct lineage to this day."
"In the clan family, the person who is in charge of everything in the clan is called the clan master. This patriarch is not only the patriarch of the entire Shen clan, but actually also the patriarch of all the descendants of the Shen clan's bloodline, as I have just told you, although after a thousand years of inheritance, the relationship between the various clans of the Shen clan has become much more indifferent, in reality, among each clan, there will be a patriarch, and this patriarch oversees all things of his or her clan, and more importantly, this patriarch, to take orders directly from the patriarch."
"In that case, I think you will be able to understand, right? Although the various clans of the Shen family's descendants are strangely estranged from each other, in reality controlling each clan is still the Shen family's clan family. Moreover, the ancestors of the Shen Family had a clear clan rule that if any descendant clan rebelled against the clan, the other clans needed to discuss it together!"
After hearing Shen Haoting's words. Jiang Hao nodded silently, obviously he found his father's words somewhat unbelievable.
After all, what year was it that this kind of hierarchical establishment of clans still existed? And it seemed that the various sub-families had to obey the clan family, and if they didn't. They could also unite with other sub-families to crush that one?
How was this different from a feudal monarchy?
Shen Haoting seemed to see what was on Jiang Hao's mind and could not help but give a bitter laugh as he continued, "Do you think that this kind of family hierarchy is set up. Needs clan rules are too perhaps feudal? Oh actually it can't be helped, although it seems extremely unfair to the various sub-clans, but in reality this system is designed precisely to protect all the clans of the entire Shen family! Because only by doing so could the power of the entire Shen Family's descendants be integrated, and only then could the ultimate secret of the Shen Family be better protected. And only if the ultimate secrets of the Shen Family continue to exist will the Shen Family, as a family, be able to continue to live on."
Shen Haoting paused, and finally, with an increased tone, said, "Because the Shen Family, it exists to protect that secret, and because of this ultimate secret, the prosperity of the Shen Family is guaranteed!"
"The ultimate secret?" Jiang Hao couldn't help but stare at him, his face full of capital curiosity, "What ultimate secret?"
Shen Haoting smiled and shook his head, "You don't need to know that right now, but don't worry, it won't take long for you to find out, all you need to know is that it's an incomparably powerful existence, one that can bring about a bloody storm as soon as it's made public! And it is precisely because of its existence that my clan lineage has been able to force the Shen family's sub-clans to not dare to act rashly during these thousand years!"
Shen Haoting sighed and silently added, "But things always have accidents!"
Chapter 503
"An accident? What kind of accident?" Jiang Hao immediately perked up and asked curiously.
Shen Haoting pondered for a moment before he slowly said, "The matter began decades ago, at that time, the overseas Shen family, the one I'm in now. At that time, the overseas Shen family, which is the one I belong to now, already had a certain amount of influence overseas. But at that time, the actual controllers of the Overseas Shen Family had the delusion that they wanted to take the Overseas Shen Family's strength to another level, so they hit on the idea of the ultimate secret that our Shen Family had been guarding for generations."
"What did they want? To take the thing for themselves so that they can use it to enhance their own strength?" Jiang Hao asked.
Shen Haoting nodded, "Pretty much, that's what they're trying to do. But their means are a bit more euphemistic, after all, even though the Overseas Shen Family is very powerful, they still have to take into account the feelings of the other thirty-five sub-families of the Shen Family. And there are still the Shen family's family rules deterring them, if they take things by force, then the final result will inevitably be that both sides will lose, and the Shen family will perhaps fall from this point on, after all, if the huge Shen family is not able to twist together, then in the eyes of other families who are eyeing us, we are a piece of fat meat!"
"So first they excused themselves by saying that they had encountered a difficult problem that needed to be solved and that they wanted to borrow something, and that as soon as the problem was solved, the item would be returned in full." Shen Haoting said, "The patriarch of the Shen family at that time was your grandfather, and your grandfather naturally saw the intentions of the overseas Shen family, so he flatly refused their request and warned them in no uncertain terms. The stuff would never leave the clan's house, and the Shen family's rules would never be broken."
"And what happened afterwards?" Jiang Hao hurriedly asked again, "Did they still have a thief's heart?"
Shen Haoting nodded, "That's natural. In fact, after the Overseas Shen Family started to gradually become rich, their ambitions grew bigger and bigger, and in the process of their rise to power, they even slaughtered sub-families that were one level higher than their bloodline status. However, at this time, the overseas Shen family had already become a major player, and the entire Shen family had to rely on the support of the overseas Shen family in many aspects, such as funding and resources, so they only made a symbolic condemnation of the incident, and did not take any concrete action. However, this in turn fuelled the arrogance of the overseas Shen family, who became more and more arrogant. Until finally, that thing happened that shook the thirty-six Shen families."
"What was it?" Jiang Hao asked with immense curiosity.
Shen Haoting sighed, and a hint of pity actually passed over his face as he slowly said, "It's just that, in fact, you still have an uncle."
Shen Haoting looked at Jiang Hao, and a hint of hatred suddenly rose in his gaze.
Jiang Hao also clearly sensed that something was wrong with Shen Haoting, as if his own father had erupted with a powerful aura from within, directly pressing himself a little.
"I have an uncle?" Jiang Hao asked with difficulty, "And where is he?"
"He's dead!" Shen Haoting said through clenched teeth, "And it was the overseas Shen family that did it!"
"What?" Jiang Hao couldn't help but be surprised beyond belief when he heard this, "Aren't we the Zong family? Could it be that they've even dared to strike at the Zong family? Dad. Didn't you just say that there was a rule in the Shen Family's family rules that if someone rebelled against the clan family. The entire Shen family will be executed together?"
Shen Haoting sighed in frustration and shook his head helplessly, "Yes, the family rules were indeed like that, and they were enforced perfectly for the past thousand years, until the rise of the Shen Family overseas. It seems that this family rule has gradually become a mere ornament."
Shen Haoting seemed to be caught up in memories as he continued, "Your uncle and I were twins and grew up very close ...... back in the day, the ultimate secret of the Shen family was something that needed to be guarded all year round, and because I was the firstborn son. This task should have fallen to me, but it was that time, because I had something to do, so I could only let your uncle watch over it for me, and it was on this occasion that something happened, and in the end your uncle died, and it was for me."
"And only later did we learn that it was actually someone from the Shen family overseas who killed your uncle." Shen Haoting continued, "In fact, the previous family head of the Overseas Shen Family, although ambitious, still had his senses. He still had scruples about the thirty-six Shen families. But his son, who is now the de facto head of the Overseas Shen Family, Shen Ao Tian. He was the mastermind behind the plot to kill your uncle. And led the execution. And what makes it even more scandalous is that his aim, in fact, is to forcibly take away that ultimate secret!"
"That's too much. Then the only thing my grandfather has to do is to take the anger of the Shen family overseas? This kind of usurpation, even if it's a fish out of water, we still have to fight him!" Jiang Hao suddenly asked.
Shen Haoting sighed heavily, his gaze ice-cold, and said, "This kind of thing that challenges the bottom line, of course our Zong family won't take it lying down, whether they killed your uncle or tried to snatch that ultimate secret, it's an unforgivable thing. That's why your grandfather first summoned all the thirty-six families of the Shen Clan and prepared to crusade against the overseas Shen Clan as a whole."
Things seemed to finally be nearing the climactic part, and Jiang Hao listened with rapt attention, not losing focus in the slightest.
"What happened afterwards?" Jiang Hao asked.
"Later ...... later the thirty-six families' meaning was clear, they supported our clan family in upholding the Shen family's clan rules that have been passed down since ancient times." Shen Haoting sighed and said rather helplessly, "But in the end, when it came to the showdown with the overseas Shen Clan, most of these people turned against us!"
"What?" Jiang Hao was shocked, "Most of them turned against us? Why? Why would they do that? Aren't they pushing the Shen family to the brink of extinction by doing this?"
Shen Haoting shook his head, his fist clenched tightly, and slammed it on the marble coffee table from before, and instantly? the thick coffee table was shattered into a pile of pieces.
"Perhaps, they all these traitors have some considerations of their own!" Shen Haoting gritted his teeth and said, "They have the same rhetoric as Shen Ao Tian, they think that the Zong family has given them too much oppression over these thousand years, so they also want to take this opportunity to re-establish an order, and we, the Zong family, are the victims of their new order now."
Shen Haoting suddenly sneered and said coldly, "It's all bullsh*t, they are only doing it for their own selfish interests, what they buried was the entire Shen family, and it was because of their ignorance that in the end, five of the thirty-six families of the Shen clan were directly slaughtered, and our Zong family, in the end, was outnumbered and defeated."
"Didn't you want to know about your grandfather? In fact, eighteen years ago, in that internal battle of the Shen family in Ping Yang Valley, your grandfather had already died in battle with the other ninety or so mouths of the Shen family."
Shen Haoting looked at Jiang Hao: "Son, now the entire Shen clan family is actually just you and I, father and son, left!"