Hearing her grandson say he was hungry, the old woman's heart nearly broke. She hurriedly brought the prepared dishes to the table. "Xiao Bao, eat quickly. Don't starve yourself. You're growing right now, so eat more and grow tall and strong."
"Look, Grandma made your favorite prawns. I lined up at the market since this morning..."
Her face beamed with happiness, and the wrinkles on her face nearly could have crushed a mosquito when she smiled. She pushed all the dishes in front of Xiao Bao and kept piling food into his bowl.
Xiao Bao shoveled a piece of chicken into his mouth. Looking at his grandmother chattering beside him, he hurriedly reached out and pushed her aged face away. "You're so annoying."
"..." Her lips twitched slightly. Her expression stiffened, and her cloudy eyes dimmed a little, but she quickly forced a smile back onto her face.
"Then Grandma won't talk. Grandma will peel the prawns for you." She sat beside Xiao Bao, using her mud-caked fingernails to pry open the prawn shells and carefully remove the heads.
"Okay." Xiao Bao answered, shoveled down two mouthfuls of rice, then took a handheld game console out of his pocket and began tapping away at it.
"Grandma, are they peeled yet? Hurry up." The buttons on his game console clicked loudly beneath his fingers. His eyes never left the screen, yet his mouth kept issuing orders.
Hearing her grandson complain, the old woman did not dare delay and hurriedly peeled the prawns for him.
Hiss.
A sudden stab of pain struck her. Bright red blood welled from her fingertip, where one of the prawn's sharp spines had pierced her skin.
Seeing the blood, she hurriedly put her finger in her mouth and used the traditional method—saliva to stop the bleeding.
"Grandma, you're stealing my prawns!" Xiao Bao suddenly shouted in the middle of his game. He had happened to catch sight of the old woman's movement.
His mother could not stand it any longer. She quickly shoved the old woman aside and soothed Xiao Bao.
Her hands moved deftly, and she effortlessly removed the prawn shells.
After peeling for a while, the woman seemed to grow hungry as well. "Mom, let's eat first."
Who would have thought that one sentence would earn her the old woman's furious glare? Forgetting even to suck on her injured finger, she snapped, "The men of the house aren't back yet. What are you eating for?"
The woman, having been harshly rebuked, flared with anger. She stood up, intending to take it out on her useless daughter, but after looking around, she could not find Su Jue anywhere.
"That little bitch, who knows where she ran off to die this time." She cursed loudly, venting every bit of resentment in her heart without restraint.
Standing outside the door, Su Jue looked at the moon in the sky as sorrow and despair steadily surged within him.
A man gradually approached from the distance. The father, who had worked overtime until seven or eight o'clock, had finally returned.
A Happy Family 3
"X-Xiao Lei." The man's face was weary. Seeing Su Jue standing outside, a trace of pity appeared in his expression. "Did your mother lock you out again?"
Su Jue shook his head and looked the middle-aged man over. His hair was slightly graying, and he wore an ill-fitting suit, though his tie was knotted neatly. Even with sweat covering his face from the heat, he merely hooked a finger beneath his collar, as if it were not a tie but a leash around his neck.
"She's gone too far. Come on, Dad will open the door for you. I need to have a proper word with them." Su Jue stepped aside and watched the man slowly fish out his keys.
His father seemed to notice Su Jue's gaze. He opened his mouth uneasily, but ultimately said nothing.
That did not look like someone capable of standing up for his daughter.
"I'm back."
The door opened. Prawn shells already littered the dining table. The man glanced at his wife, who was peeling prawns for Xiao Bao, then at his daughter following behind him.
In the end, he conveniently forgot everything. Without saying a word, he merely placed the shoulder bag he carried neatly onto a rack in the room.
Unfortunately, his silence did not mean the mother, who was full of pent-up anger, intended to let Su Jue off.
She gently patted Xiao Bao on the back, letting him eat by himself. Then she stood and strode quickly toward Su Jue.
Slap.
A resounding slap landed squarely across Su Jue's face.
He did not dodge.
This was everything the girl had suffered in this family. To understand her, he had to feel this pain.
He suddenly understood where the bruises on the girl's arms had come from. She had likely been abused by her mother.
"You little bitch, where the hell did you run off to just now?"
His face burned with pain, but Su Jue did not speak. He merely turned to look at the father who had claimed he would stand up for him.
Noticing the gaze on him, the father shrank back uneasily. But perhaps recalling what he had said earlier, he looked up and interrupted the woman's abuse.
"Honey, the child is still young. Don't hit her at the drop of a hat. If there's a problem, we can talk it out."
He stood as straight as he could, as though that was the only way he could summon the courage to speak to his wife as an equal.
The woman shot him a vicious glare, her voice not softening in the slightest. "This has nothing to do with you. Wait, what happened to your tie? That isn't how it looked when I tied it for you this morning. And your bag—I told you to put it on the third shelf. Why did you forget again?"
"It was just a little hot, so I loosened it a bit..." After one glare from his wife, the man who had just seemed so imposing immediately wilted. He looked around and realized that the old woman was not in the living room.
He shrank his neck. With his mother absent, the spineless man could only lower his head, avoid Su Jue's eyes, and retreat into the bedroom.
A grandmother who favored boys over girls, an overbearing and domineering mother, a cowardly father, and a reckless younger brother...
It was like a nightmare. After experiencing only half a day of the girl's life, Su Jue had already repeatedly felt the urge to give this family a "happy reunion."
Let alone the girl, who had lived in this home for over ten years.
He sensed that the girl's consciousness within the Theater of Domination had awakened. Yet after losing control of her body, she seemed more relaxed. Even if her consciousness could only remain confined within a puppet, it was still far better than living in reality.
A longing for self-destruction.
A longing to be dominated.
Without question, she was the perfect vessel for the Theater of Domination.
But Su Jue was not that monster filled with resentment and hatred. He had once been human, and even after becoming the Herrscher of a Thousand, he had retained his humanity.
Resentment could not solve anything. He had understood that long ago, when his relatives divided up his parents' inheritance in his previous life.
Yet just when Su Jue thought he had finally understood why the girl had committed suicide, he could still feel the fear of her family buried deep in her heart.
Seeing Su Jue remain unmoved even after being slapped, the woman grew even angrier.
As she raised her hand, preparing to strike again.
Su Jue grabbed her wrist tightly. The girl's strength was not great, but with the Herrscher of a Thousand supporting him, there was no way an ordinary woman could resist him.
Su Jue tightened his grip on her wrist, and she fell to the floor like a stray dog being yanked backward by its hind leg. His eyes were icy, mixed with the girl's hatred.
For a moment, the woman did not dare say a word. She could only point at Su Jue with a trembling finger and mutter.
"Worthless little thing..."
"Shut up!"
Slap—!
After fiercely returning that slap, the woman finally did not dare point at him again. Slumped on the floor, she instinctively scooted back two steps.
The living room fell deathly silent. Xiao Bao remained engrossed in his game console, seemingly not caring at all that his mother had been dragged to the floor by his sister.
To him, his sister, mother, and grandmother were all merely his servants. He never had to worry about anything. Someone would prepare delicious food for him, someone would take him to and from school every day, and he could play his game console to his heart's content after returning home. It was the kind of life every classmate envied.
Surprisingly, the old woman made no sound either. No one knew whether she had gone to the kitchen or the bathroom.
Only the bedroom door opened a crack, and the father poked half his head out, secretly watching everything happening in the living room.
When he noticed that it was his wife who had been hit this time, he hurriedly pushed open the door.
"Xiao Lei, how could you do this? How can you hit your own mother?" His words rang out forcefully, full of conviction, utterly unlike the weak man from before.
Unfortunately, Su Jue had no mood to pay him any attention. He had seen through the man completely. He was nothing more than a coward who bullied the weak and feared the strong. Before his wife's forcefulness, he was meek and submissive. When his daughter was bullied, he spoke grandly, as if he were some remarkable father. And whenever he was powerless, his first thought was to rely on his elderly mother.
Su Jue ignored him entirely. Once he confirmed that the woman would not dare cause trouble again anytime soon, he closed the door and returned to his own room.
After that, the woman's curses, shrieks, and crying soon filled the living room.
Like a madwoman who had lost all reason, she loudly condemned everything her daughter had done while relentlessly berating the man for his incompetence, saying he could not even protect his own wife.
Her wailing was loud, as though she deliberately wanted all the neighbors to hear her indignation.
Listening to it, Su Jue only felt irritated.
Twins
That irritation persisted until nightfall. The girl's body had grown weak after going an entire day without food. Su Jue had no choice but to lie down in his room for the time being.
If he had enough puppets now, he could have used the passageway constructed by the Theater of Domination within Imaginary Space to have another clone bring him something to eat.
Unfortunately, the Theater of Domination was still far from fully formed. The hive mind's enhancement of it was simply too weak. Its only advantage was that it could extend his life.
He had died from his own curse in his previous life, and after coming to this world, that curse had not disappeared either. Even becoming the Herrscher of a Thousand had merely improved his physical condition; it could not solve his lifespan problem.
The only fortunate thing was that increasing the number of puppets could extend his life. Aside from the puppet that served as his main body, the other two puppets and one Cat puppet had provided him with half a year of life, enough for him to make it to Sky City.
After confirming that nothing unexpected had happened on the side of his main body, he turned his attention back here.
Not until after midnight did the arguing in this house finally subside. Su Jue grew drowsy and gradually fell asleep.
Yet in the middle of the night, a faint rustling sounded through the dark air. Su Jue slowly opened his tightly shut eyes to slits, guessing that his mother had likely come to retaliate against him.
But after waiting for a long time, he did not hear the door open. The soft rustling continued, even drawing closer and closer.
The girl's consciousness inside the Theater of Domination suddenly became chaotic, carrying an indescribable terror. Su Jue roused himself and slowly summoned his power. The dim surroundings gradually became clear.
But when he saw who it was, nausea rose within him.
The girl's younger brother was secretly rummaging through her wardrobe, rubbing her clothes against his body.
It was as though a bolt of lightning had struck his heart. Su Jue finally understood that the girl's deepest fear did not come from her father's weakness or her mother's insults, but from her younger brother, who was growing older by the day.
Their rooms were separated by only a curtain. For an adolescent boy, that flimsy barrier could not restrain the desires growing within his heart. Especially not for a child with a twisted mind—there was no telling what he might do.
No wonder the girl dressed so conservatively even when she went to jump from the building. It was not because she did not care about beauty, but because she feared being looked at with filthy eyes by those around her.
The deepest malice came from the family at one's side.
The most desperate cries could only be made on an empty rooftop.
The fiercest hatred played out in the Theater of Domination.
Click.
The gears of the theater turned continuously. Time around them came to a complete standstill. Only atop the empty judge's seat did a stiff puppet hunch over.
Behind it, an emblem hidden deep within the mist flickered in and out of view. Like a beast ready to devour its prey, it stood prepared at any moment to drag the girl's puppet into the abyss.
If you lack the courage to resist, the Herrscher of a Thousand will grant you the courage of a thousand.
If you lack the strength to struggle, the Herrscher of a Thousand will share with you the strength of a thousand.
But the final choice still belongs to you.
Choose to fall into the abyss, and the black wolf will grant you the power of vengeance.
But afterward, you will become a puppet bound by strings. Your existence, your individuality, all will be under my control.
But Su Jue was neither a villain born of despair nor a god of the abyss. Compared to taking revenge through bloody, horrifying means, he preferred to resolve matters more gently.
So he gave the girl more choices.
If you choose the light of humanity, the white ram will take away your resentment.
You can still maintain your own existence. Your resentment and despair will become mindless puppets, staging plays in the Theater of Domination in your place.
Judgment begins!
Two days later.
Woman A, who lived in this neighborhood, was in an exceptionally foul mood. Leaning against an outdoor seat at a milk tea shop, she irritably knocked over the milk tea in her hand, then deliberately shoved the table. Even so, she could not pull her boyfriend's gaze back from the girl sitting some distance away.
Furious, she stomped hard on his foot. Only pain managed to reclaim her boyfriend's attention.
"Is she pretty?" Her tightly furrowed brow was filled with anger.
"Prett—ah, no. How could she be prettier than you?" His survival instincts finally kicked in as he realized what he was doing. He hurriedly withdrew his gaze and softly tried to coax his girlfriend.
Yet even while coaxing her, he still occasionally glanced toward the girl in the distance.
She's so beautiful.
·
"I thought you would choose destruction."
Before you continue