"Ethan? Is that you... have you come home?"
A trembling, aged voice suddenly cut through the clamor of the grand hall.
Ethan shuddered violently and whipped his head around. There, dressed in a faded, tattered janitor's uniform and clutching a filthy wastebasket, stood a middle-aged woman.
She froze as their gazes locked.
In that heartbeat, Ethan's eyes turned a stinging red.
He lunged forward, his hands gripping his mother's frail, thin arms with desperate strength. "Mom! You... why are you here?"
"I'm the one who invited her, of course!" Sarah Su walked over, her arms crossed and her face twisted into a smirk of pure triumph.
Ethan's eyes bulged with rage as he glared at her through gritted teeth. "You bitch! Deceiving me was one thing, but why are you humiliating my mother?"
"Don't go pointing fingers at me," Sarah curled her lip, her eyes gleaming with malice. "If it weren't for my charity, your mother would probably be out on the streets selling herself by now!"
"You're not wrong," Jessie Xu chimed in from the side, hiding a snicker behind her hand as she looked Mrs. Ye up and down. "A woman her age... who knows? She might even be a top earner in the red-light district!"
The surrounding elite guests erupted into a wave of unrestrained, cruel laughter at the remark.
Just then, a woman draped in expensive silks stepped forward—Sarah's mother, Mrs. Su.
She shot a fierce glare at Ethan's mother and barked, "Who gave you permission to stop? Get back to work! If you neglect the guests, I'll make sure you regret it!"
Mrs. Ye trembled, her face a mask of primal fear.
She instinctively reached for the wastebasket to resume her labor, but Ethan's grip held her fast.
Ethan struggled to suppress the volcanic fury in his chest. "Mom, don't listen to them. We're leaving!"
"You can leave if you want," Mrs. Su sneered, "but don't expect a single cent of your wages. And you'll owe us a million dollars in liquidated damages for breach of contract!"
A million dollars was an astronomical sum for a common family. Hearing this, Mrs. Ye panicked.
She tried to pry Ethan's hand away, her voice frantic with desperation. "Ethan, go home first. Let Mom finish the work... I'll come back tonight and cook you something nice..."
Seeing Mrs. Ye's soul-deep subservience, a flash of sadistic pleasure crossed Sarah's eyes.
She grabbed a wine bottle from a nearby table and—SMASH—shattered it violently against the floor.
Glass shards sprayed everywhere.
Sarah pointed at the glittering fragments from her height of perceived superiority. "Old hag! If you don't want your sickly daughter to die in that hospital, you'd better pick up every single piece!"
Ethan's mind went blank at the mention of his sister.
He whipped around. "Mom, what happened to Elena?"
Mrs. Ye's lips quivered, tears streaming down her face, but she remained silent, too terrified to speak.
"So you really don't know?" Sarah's laughter grew more manic. "That sickly sister of yours is a total waste. She only gave me a bit of bone marrow, and yet she's been rotting in a hospital bed for three years!"
BOOM!
Ethan felt as if he had been plunged into a glacial abyss, followed instantly by a volcanic eruption of mountainous rage.
His fists clenched until his knuckles let out a terrifying crack.
He stood frozen in shock. Three years ago, his sister's bone marrow had been stolen by this venomous woman under false pretenses!
As Ethan shook with a rage so intense it threatened to consume him, Mrs. Ye—driven only by the need to protect her daughter—let out a heavy sigh and silently knelt to pick up the glass shards.
However, just as her hand reached out, Sarah lifted her high-heeled foot and slammed it down, grinding her heel into the back of Mrs. Ye's calloused hand!
"AAAAAAAGH!" Mrs. Ye let out a soul-piercing scream of agony.
That scream snapped the final thread of Ethan's sanity.
CRACK—!
Transforming into the Supreme Lord of the Dragon Temple, Ethan could no longer suppress the killing intent surging through his veins.
He delivered a backhanded slap with the force of a thunderclap, his palm smashing into Sarah's face with devastating power!