Chapter 173
Chapter 173: Terrifying Parents—Childhood Shadows That Erased the Self
“Dad, please believe us. We’re your children. We’ll listen to you. Everything we do is for the White Wolf Clan to become a great clan of the Zhen Lin Empire—to stand above the Black Wolf Clan.”
“We… we want Jiang Tea Tea to return even more than you do. We want her to become your support, the clan’s support. We want her to stabilize our abilities, comb our mental power, and help raise our levels so we can be your support within support.”
Lang Yin Feng’s expression eased slightly. His voice slowed, but the authority in it didn’t soften. “Good. As long as you understand my intentions.”
“I had more than a dozen of you because I wanted you united—because I wanted you to become the White Wolf Clan’s pillars.”
“Jiang Tea Tea will be the key of keys for the White Wolf Clan to become a great clan of the Zhen Lin Empire. She still hasn’t called me Dad. She still hasn’t acknowledged me. Why? Because she doesn’t feel she belongs to me, or to this home.”
“In the next few days, whoever can work from home will work from home. Whoever can study from home will study from home. Other than that, every spare moment must be used to please Jiang Tea Tea.”
“She has a two-month summer vacation. Within those two months, you must make her willingly return to the clan, change her surname to Lang, and announce on StarNet that she is a Lang family child.”
The only mutant plant-type 3S-grade healer in the galaxy was their child. Once that announcement went up on StarNet, the Lang family would become a target everyone scrambled to flatter.
At that point, swallowing one Xiong family would be nothing. Ten, a hundred—families would come crawling, begging to become Lang family subsidiaries just to be swallowed.
The fourteen Lang family children answered quickly, eager and obedient. “Yes, Dad. We’ll definitely please Jiang Tea Tea. Tomorrow morning we’ll go bring her gifts—”
“No,” another hurried to correct himself. “Not tomorrow. Later—once we go upstairs, we’ll bring her gifts right away so she can feel our goodwill.”
“Dad, don’t worry. We’ll make sure Jiang Tea Tea feels family warmth in this house. The kind of bond no one can shake.”
Jiang Tea Tea watched in invisibility.
Even the oldest—the ones in their thirties or fifties—had bent spines and trembling legs. Their fear of Lang Yin Feng seeped out like cold sweat. It wasn’t simple obedience. It was terror carved into their bones.
Lang Yin Feng swept them with one final glance and walked out of the basement.
The four who’d been called out hadn’t even managed to breathe before their mom, Lang Luo Feng, arrived.
She carried a medical kit. Her eyes were full of concern, her expression anxious—every inch the mother worrying for her children. “You children were beaten again?”
“Look at these red, swollen faces. Is your medical spray not good enough? Come. Use mine.”
“And Old Ten, Old Four—Eleven, Twelve—why are you kneeling on the floor? The floor’s cold. Get up. Mom will check your knees. Mom will spray medical spray for you.”
Old Ten, Old Four, Eleven, and Twelve—still kneeling—rose with Lang Luo Feng’s help.
Each of them resisted her touch on instinct, but they didn’t dare pull away. They swallowed fear and disgust, forced smiles onto their mouths, and let their hands rest on hers as they used her support to stand.
Lang Luo Feng wiped their faces, sprayed medical spray, patted them, kissed them—chattering all the while, soothing like a blanket thrown over bruises.
“Old One. Old Ten Eight. Old Ten. Old Ten One… don’t blame your Dad. As White Wolf Clan chief, the White Wolf Clan is not only weaker than the Black Wolf Clan—we’re even weaker than the Yellow Hound Clan.”
“Your Dad is anxious. He wants us to become an empire great clan. He wants our business to spread across the entire empire. He wants to give you the best life. That’s why he’s so harsh.”
“And Tea Tea—your sister was taken away. Her gene spectrum was altered. That’s why we were separated for eighteen years. Now we’ve found her and brought her back. No matter what, you must treat her well. Yield to her. Spoil her. Love her.”
One by one, starting with Old One, the fourteen Lang family children answered like they’d been trained to. “Yes, Mom. We know. We’ll love her. We’ll spoil her.”
“Yes, Mom. We’ll listen to you and listen to Dad.”
“We’ll show her Dad and Mom love her—Dad and Mom had no choice—Dad and Mom missed her.”
“She’s our sister. Our family. We’ll treat her well, make her feel she belongs, and keep her here.”
Jiang Tea Tea straightened slowly, eyes turning cold as she watched Lang Luo Feng’s practiced hypocrisy.
Not one child dared resist. In their eyes and their bodies, fear was written plainly.
Lang Yin Feng beat them. Lang Luo Feng soothed them. One played the red face, one played the white face—one used the stick, one used the blanket.
Fine.
The Lang family was far more interesting than she’d expected. Even the lingering consciousness of the fake heiress couldn’t help pitying these siblings.
Lang Luo Feng listened to their answers, watched their “attitude,” and smiled with satisfaction. “Good. Good. Rest here. Wait until the swelling fades and your eyes stop looking red before you go out.”
“And remember—when you go out, bring gifts and visit Tea Tea. It doesn’t matter whether the gifts are expensive. What matters is sincerity. She needs to feel our family is harmonious and happy.”
Lang Xin Yi stepped forward. “Yes, Mom. I’ll bring the brothers and sisters over later.”
Lang Luo Feng nodded. “Good. Rest first. I’ll go check on your Dad. Your behavior at dinner was terrible. Your Dad must be furious.”
Lang Xin Yi bowed his head. “It was my fault.”
Satisfaction nearly overflowed from Lang Luo Feng’s eyes. She patted his arm as if comforting him, then turned with the medical kit and started to leave.
The fourteen Lang family children hadn’t even found a moment to breathe when she stopped after a few steps and turned back. “Xin Yi. Xin Wei. Xin Rui and Xin Ping came back, didn’t they?”
“Where are they?”
Lang Xin Yi kept his head lowered. “They came back this afternoon. They said their school demerit hadn’t been revoked yet, so they needed to draw better mecha designs, build better mechas, learn mecha maintenance, and earn merit to cancel it.”
“They came home to say hello. After a little over an hour, they left.”
“They said they found an excellent mecha designer and repair technician. They want to use these two vacation months to study hard.”
Lang Luo Feng’s eyes flicked with calculation. “Learn their study spirit, not their big mistakes and demerit. Understand?”
The fourteen answered obediently, “Understood, Mom.”
Only then did Lang Luo Feng leave for good.
She didn’t know that once the basement door shut, the minors—eleven or twelve, fifteen or sixteen—bit their lips, clung to each other, and cried silently.
Lang Xin Chong stared at Lang Xin Yi, regret twisting inside him. Why hadn’t he run away with Lang Xin Rui and Lang Xin Ping?
He hadn’t expected his big brother to speak up for them. They’d emptied their rooms of valuables and stolen hidden collectibles too. His big brother had clearly seen it—and pretended he hadn’t.
Jiang Tea Tea watched in silence.
Fourteen in this basement, spanning over twenty years in age. Lang Yin Feng and Lang Luo Feng truly could produce children.
Counting the fake heiress, they had seventeen.
But judging by today, the fake heiress had only lived three years of hardship.
These biological siblings had never lacked food or clothing. Yet mentally—psychologically—they’d been ground down into trembling obedience. In some ways, they had it worse than she ever did.
After about ten minutes, the basement group steadied themselves. They wiped their tears and used medicine to calm their red eyes.
Those who hadn’t cried had already lost most of the swelling. They stripped off their formal jackets, changed into casual clothes, and only then left the basement.
Before leaving, Jiang Tea Tea scattered listening devices and cameras—tiny as grains of sand—into the basement’s cracks and corners, then used Shrink the Earth to an Inch to return to her room.
She dampened her hair, changed into pajamas, and sat on the sofa. Over the shared channel, she spoke to the other seven. “Zhang Ting Zhou, I filled the whole building and the area within five kilometers with bugs. Check for any blind spots. After my bargain brothers and sisters come see me, I’ll go again.”
“Received, Sister Tea,” Zhang Ting Zhou replied. “I’m expanding the monitoring and surveillance grid. Give me about half an hour and I’ll report back.”
“Good,” Jiang Tea Tea said. “Yan Yu, your intel isn’t precise enough—especially on the details of Lang Yin Feng and Lang Luo Feng.”
Everything that happened in the basement wasn’t just known by Jiang Tea Tea. The other seven had watched it in real time too.
Yan Yu answered, “You’re right. My intel wasn’t detailed enough. Their twisted control issues go beyond anything I had. Who would’ve thought they wouldn’t hit the children themselves—but would make the children hit each other?”
Cheng Lin Yue added, “Exactly. Those children weren’t trained with simple obedience. They were trained through deep terror.”
“Even the eldest son and eldest daughter already have mates and cubs, and they still fear their parents this much. That means the training started when they were little—when they were still too young to understand anything properly.”
“Childhood shadows are the worst. They make fear a reflex. Trembling. Apologizing. Never resisting.”
“Sister Tea, I think there’s at least one hidden room in this house that our monitoring doesn’t cover.”
Jiang Tea Tea asked, “Lin Yue… you think the Lang family has special rooms used to train their children?”
“Yes,” Cheng Lin Yue said quietly. “A room so terrifying that every child in this family fears it. It’s darker than the basement we saw tonight.”
Sui Xuan Chu spoke decisively. “Cheng Xiao Ting, Yan Yu, Zhang Ting Zhou—expand the search range to the whole White Wolf Clan settlement.”
“Not just the mountain forest behind them. Underground. I suspect there’s a major underground project beneath the settlement. That might be the evidence we’re after.”