Wang Hao and Zhang Lan have completely adapted to this imperial-like life.
The hands that were once calloused from working on the assembly line have now become delicate, and their only "labor" is wielding a whip or raising a wine glass.
A housewife who used to haggle over a few dollars' worth of coupons can now casually smash a priceless porcelain plate just to punish a female slave who is a little slow.
Their son, Wang Xiaobao, was also born in this manor.
This child, born in "heaven," has lived in a world completely different from his parents' past since the moment he opened his eyes.
He doesn't know what "equality" or "respect" is.
All he knew was that those creatures with pointed ears, short and stocky builds, or black hair and black eyes like himself but wearing collars around their necks, were moving toys, livestock that could be beaten and scolded at will.
As his family business prospered, Wang Hao began to feel that he didn't have enough manpower.
More importantly, his deep-seated traditional Chinese values began to take hold—he wanted to show off his current "achievements" to his parents.
He wanted to let his father, who had spent his whole life being subservient in the factory and suffering from the boss's bad temper, also experience what it was like to be a superior person.
He wanted his mother, who had spent her whole life saving every penny and worrying endlessly about daily necessities, to experience the life of a pampered master who never lifted a finger.
"Wife, shall we... bring Mom and Dad over?" One night, Wang Hao lazily suggested as he held Zhang Lan in bed, hooking his foot around Lina, the elven girl kneeling beside the bed to warm his feet.
Zhang Lan was using a small silver hairpin to fuss over Ella's meticulously manicured nails when she heard this. She didn't even lift her eyelids: "Take them over? They've already sold their house in the capital. Where will they live?"
"Stay here with us!" Wang Hao excitedly rolled over, almost kicking Lina over. "Our treehouse is so big, it can house not only Mom and Dad, but ten more people! Look, we now have land, slaves, and production; we're practically an independent kingdom! Isn't this what they call 'returning home in glory'?"
Zhang Lan thought about it and agreed that it made sense. Her own parents had passed away before the "Great Migration."
Although she wasn't particularly close to Wang Hao's parents, she hoped someone could share in or witness her current "success".
“Alright, then you can tell your parents. But let me make this clear first: once you arrive, I'll still be in charge of things at home. Especially when it comes to disciplining these female slaves, your mother can't interfere.” Zhang Lan glanced at Ella, her eyes carrying an undeniable air of authority.
"Of course! You're the lady of the house!" Wang Hao chuckled and readily agreed.
Through the Empire's quantum communication network that covered the new world, Wang Hao quickly contacted his parents, who were far away on the Empire's capital planet.
The moment the video call connected, Wang Hao's father, Wang Jianguo, and mother, Li Xiulan, were crammed into their less than 60-square-meter retirement apartment, eating the most ordinary meal.
When they saw the elven treehouse behind Wang Hao, which looked like a work of art, and the elven girl kneeling at his feet wearing only a thin veil in the background of the video, the old couple's eyes widened instantly.
"Son...son...where...where did you make your fortune?" Wang Jianguo had been an honest factory fitter all his life, and had never seen anything like this before.
"Dad! Mom! I've become a pioneer! I'm a plantation owner now!" Wang Hao proudly puffed out his chest. "Let me tell you, I now own ten square kilometers of land and have more than twenty slaves serving me! I'll show you!"
Wang Hao, holding the communicator, walked around the treehouse. The camera panned across the busy slaves, the luxurious furniture, and the vast fields and forests outside the window.
Wang Jianguo and Li Xiulan were stunned, their breaths nearly stopped.
"...These...these are all yours?" Li Xiulan stammered, pointing at the dwarf female slave who was wiping the floor in a fleeting moment on the screen.
"Yes! It's all my private property!" Wang Hao laughed loudly. "Dad, Mom, don't suffer in the capital! Come to me! I'll take care of you in your old age! I'll let you live like gods!"
“A life of bliss…” Wang Jiangao murmured to himself, a light he had never seen before bursting forth from his cloudy eyes.
He lived a cautious and timid life, always bowing and scraping before the workshop foreman. His biggest dream was simply to receive a larger pension and for his son to be successful.
And now, his son has become a "king"!
"Go! Let's go!" Wang Jianguo slammed his hand on the table, as if to release all the pent-up frustration of half a lifetime. "Our son has made something of himself! Why shouldn't we, as his parents, go and enjoy our retirement!"
And so, the two elderly people, who had lived their entire lives in the old era, boarded the spaceship bound for the new world, filled with boundless longing for a new life.
The arrival of Wang Jianguo and Li Xiulan brought about a subtle change in the atmosphere of Green Valley Manor.
When they first arrived, the two elderly people were indeed speechless with amazement at everything before them. Like Grandma Liu visiting the Grand View Garden, they found everything novel and fascinating.
Li Xiulan touched the silk sheets, her eyes welling with tears of emotion, repeatedly murmuring, "This life has been worth it, so worth it..."
Wang Jianguo, with his hands behind his back, patrolled his "territory," puffing out his withered chest even more whenever he saw a slave bowing and kneeling before him.
However, once the novelty wore off, the deep-rooted desire for control and the sense of "rules" among the older generation began to emerge.
They disapproved of Wang Hao and Zhang Lan's purely hedonistic "management" style.
“Xiao Hao, this isn’t right.” Wang Jianguo frowned, watching the several elven male slaves slowly trimming the garden. “These are slaves, livestock! Not hired masters! You need to make them fear you, let them know who the master is!”
Wang Hao dismissed it: "Dad, they're all wearing collars. They can't cause any trouble, no matter how scared they are. As long as they can work, that's enough."
"You don't know anything!" Wang Jianguo glared at him. "I've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice! You can't judge a book by its cover. Those who aren't of our kind will surely have different hearts! If you're lenient with them an inch today, they'll dare to climb all over you tomorrow!"
After saying that, Wang Jianguo walked up to the few elven male slaves, and without saying a word, he snatched the electromagnetic whip from the demon overseer next to him (whom Wang Hao later hired to intimidate the slaves) and lashed it hard across the back of one of the elves!
Snap!
The elven male slave screamed and fell to the ground, his back instantly torn open.
"Who told you to be so slow?!" Wang Jianguo roared in a tone of authority that even he himself found unfamiliar. "If you don't finish your work, nobody's going to eat today!"
The other elves turned pale with fright and immediately sped up their movements, becoming more than twice as efficient as before.
Wang Jianguo snorted with satisfaction, tossed the whip back to the overseer, and said to the dumbfounded Wang Hao, "See? This is the trick you have to deal with these things! You're still too green!"
Looking at his father's face, flushed with excitement, Wang Hao was speechless for a moment. He realized that his father, this honest and upright man who had lived his whole life, seemed to have a greater talent for adapting to the role of a "slave owner" than he did.
Li Xiulan, on the other hand, set her sights on the inner quarters of the house.
She especially disapproved of Zhang Lan's treatment of the female slaves, particularly the two elfin girls.
In her view, although Zhang Lan was also ordering them around, it was more of a show-off and jealous form of suppression among young women.
In Li Xiulan's eyes, these female slaves were not "people" at all, but "tools" that could talk, and tools should look like tools.
One afternoon, Zhang Lan made Ella kneel on the ground to polish her newly bought pair of leather boots. While enjoying the service, Zhang Lan chatted with Ella, asking her about the customs and culture of the Elf Kingdom, thus satisfying her curiosity and sense of superiority.
When Li Xiulan walked over and saw this scene, her face immediately darkened.
"Zhang Lan, come here for a moment."
"Mom, what's wrong?"
Li Xiulan pulled Zhang Lan aside and lowered her voice, saying, "How could you chat with a slave? Especially when he's kneeling and working for you!"
"I...I was just asking casually..." Zhang Lan said, somewhat puzzled.
"What do you mean 'just asking'!" Li Xiulan looked at him with exasperation. "Remember, you are the master, and she is the servant! Between master and servant, there can be no extra words except for orders! If you chat and laugh with her today, she will think you are easy to talk to and easy to fool! In the long run, she will not be afraid of you! How will you control her then?"
"And another thing!" Li Xiulan pointed at Ella, "Look at her, her hair is so neatly combed, her face is so clean, and although she's wearing slave clothes, the material is good. Is this how she works? She's clearly seducing men!"
As she spoke, Li Xiulan walked directly up to Ella, grabbed her long, smooth, flaxen hair, and pulled out a pair of scissors from her bosom.
"What...what are you going to do?" Ella looked up in horror.
"What are you doing? Teaching you what a slave's duty is!"
Click!
With a single snip of the scissors, the waterfall of long hair was instantly cut in half, scattering across the ground.
"Ah!" Ella let out a piercing scream. For elves, hair is a symbol of beauty and a part of their glory.
Ignoring everything else, Li Xiulan cut Ella's hair a few more times with her scissors, leaving it uneven and messy, like it had been chewed by a dog. Then, she grabbed a handful of mud from the nearby ground and smeared it fiercely on Ella's terrified yet beautiful face.
"That's right! A slave should act like a slave! Dirty and smelly, that way the master won't be annoyed!"
After doing all this, Li Xiulan clapped her hands and said to Zhang Lan, who was completely dumbfounded, "See? From now on, all the female slaves in the house will be treated according to this standard! They are not allowed to dress up, and they are not allowed to bathe too frequently! Let them know that they are the lowest of the low!"
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