In this world, some people were happily dating, while naturally, others were suffering miserably.
And when one person's misfortune dragged more people into misfortune, the two kinds of misery compounded into a suffocating pain.
Inside a villa on a vast private estate, the likes of which were rarely seen even among worldly tycoons, Chen Motong trembled as she watched her father—the stern, samurai-like middle-aged man standing in the center of the hall—beat one of her brothers until he was covered in blood. Her siblings stood packed together in a circle around them, coldly watching this tragic spectacle unfold.
The unfortunate brother, drenched in blood, still twitched in vigorous agony. Beside him, a hulking, bloodthirsty hound stared hungrily, waiting only for Father Chen's command to pounce on the poor man, clawing, tearing, and biting him.
Judging by the people gathered, it looked like a family meeting. Yet the scene had been forcefully turned into a grim and merciless public torture, staining the very concept of family with a bloody hue it should never have possessed.
In truth, Chen Motong could no longer tell which of her brothers that nearly lifeless man was.
She had fifty-four siblings in all. And aside from a few twins and triplets among them, most did not share the same mother.
But that did not mean her father was some amorous playboy. On the contrary, in her eyes, he was an especially heartless and cruel man.
Father Chen took pride in his dragon bloodline. Through the family businesses, he invested in numerous medical institutions, using them to find impoverished women willing to become surrogates and artificially inseminate them, spreading his bloodline.
As for the children they bore, they naturally had nothing to do with those surrogate mothers afterward. He simply took the children away. Those of mediocre aptitude were handed over to nurseries funded by the family, while only those with outstanding bloodlines were personally educated by him.
In this way, he could cultivate heirs with the finest bloodlines and greatest talents, allowing them to carry the family business forward.
This was the Chen Family, a family run according to a corporate model. Every child was this man's employee. Most were low-level employees, while a select few—Chen Motong and her fifty-four siblings—were elite employees with a chance to receive management rights over the family's assets.
And since they were employees, there was naturally a strict system of rewards, punishments, promotions, and demotions.
Every so often, Father Chen would make time to visit these elite children—on weekends or during long holidays—and personally inspect their report cards during their school years, rewarding those who excelled. This system continued until they were formally assigned various family duties.
As for the man who had been beaten half to death, he was being punished for poor performance.
Chen Motong's siblings were each responsible for different affairs, and she did not know why that man had been punished.
She had only vaguely heard Father Chen mention things like "the goods were intercepted" and "they got hold of evidence against us" while beating and berating him.
As far as Chen Motong knew, even if the family's illegal dealings were discovered by the relevant authorities, there were plenty of ways to deal with the trouble.
But this time, Father Chen had flown into an unprecedented rage. That meant that, in his eyes, this was trouble that could only be resolved at a tremendous cost. A cost great enough to ruin his mood so thoroughly that he revealed this undignified side of himself before all his children.
So they encountered a force even Father fears? One they can't handle? Chen Motong's eyes flickered, and in the next instant, a thought that was practically rebellious sprang into her mind—
It would be nice if this family could disappear forever.
Ever since her mother's death, and since learning of Father Chen's methods of running the family, she had felt no attachment to this home whatsoever.
But Chen Motong quickly crushed that thought. Father Chen's methods had become an invisible ruling force, deeply controlling every one of her siblings within this family. He wove a web of power, using every reward and punishment to pour his invisible will into the depths of his children's minds.
Chen Motong had tried before, but everyone else seemed to be tugged by invisible threads, falling into the web and sinking ever deeper beneath its silk. Now, even when these siblings saw one of their own about to be beaten to death, they would not feel sorrow or shed tears. Instead, they secretly hoped one more would die, leaving one less person to divide the inheritance.
Whenever she spent time with these siblings, she felt as though an invisible, sorrowful wall separated them, growing thicker with age—
"Motong," her father said at last, having finished dealing with the mess in the hall. Leisurely wiping the few drops of blood from his face, he smiled at her with precisely the right amount of kindness and generosity. But considering that blood had just belonged to his own child, the smile was perhaps better described as bloody and terrifying.
"Although many children in this family have deeply disappointed and pained me, you alone, Motong—my finest daughter—have never disappointed me. And you never will, right?"
Disgusting!
"My name is Nono, not Motong!" Chen Motong snapped like an enraged lioness. She had long since grown sick of this man's expression. As a child, she had once been bewitched by the warm illusion he cultivated, but her mother's death had torn everything open into a bloody gash, making her understand that the underlying logic of this family was to devour people.
From that day onward, she had drawn a clear line between herself and this family, naming herself Nono.
"Fine, fine, Nono."
The man did not get angry. Instead, he looked helpless, as though he saw not a lioness before him, but merely a kitten with its fur standing on end.
He indulged Chen Motong's rebellious behavior. That was how he thought: as long as Chen Motong remained the most outstanding among all the children, he would give her the most special affection. Although Chen Motong had no Word Spirit, she learned everything faster than her siblings. That alone made her worthy of his "investment," and Chen Motong's exclusive favor from Father Chen set the jealousy of her siblings ablaze.
"Nono, do you know the Gattuso Family?"
"Huh?" A confused look flashed across Chen Motong's face. Confined to the estate, she did not understand why her father had suddenly mentioned that surname.
"The Gattuso Family, the rising stars of the Secret Party. A Mixed-Blood Family from Italy, and one of the holders of the seven Board of Directors Seats at Cassell College, the Secret Party's headquarters." Father Chen first draped the term in his mouth with a glittering aura of power—
"At the same time, Caesar Gattuso, son of Pompey Gattuso, the current head of the Gattuso Family, has reached an appropriate age for an engagement. Nono, the Chen Family's situation is far from encouraging. We need the Gattuso Family's powerful support."
The confusion on Chen Motong's face gradually vanished, and understanding dawned in her heart... This man wanted to marry her into the Gattuso Family for an alliance!?
The man continued speaking gently, but his tone was icy and brooked no dispute. "Motong, my most beloved daughter, the family needs you."
Despair rose like a silent dark tide, quietly drowning Chen Motong's heart.
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