Chapter 9: The insect mother being educated by her parents.

“Knock knock knock.”

A knocking sound rang out.

Ella did not move. She leaned against the wall, her silver hair scattered over her shoulders. The hem of the black robe was wrinkled and piled messily around her ankles.

The tentacle had already recovered from the pain of being pinched earlier. It hung quietly behind her, the tip slightly curled.

“May I come in?”

Another knock sounded. This time it was different. It seemed like a genuine question, even overly respectful as it sought her opinion.

Hah. Hypocritical bastards.

She had already become a prisoner. What was the point of asking now?

“Get lost.”

Ella’s voice was ice-cold, like a stone taken from an ice cellar. When it hit the ground, it did not even produce an echo.

There was a brief silence outside the door.

“Uh… Then I’m coming in…”

As expected.

In the end, they still came in. Ella could not even be bothered to lift her eyelids. This kind of superficial politeness hiding actual forcefulness disgusted her even more than Butterfly Wing’s naked malice. At least Butterfly Wing did not pretend.

The door was pushed open. Footsteps moved from the doorway toward her at a leisurely pace. The sound of the soles stepping on the floor had a strange rhythmic quality, like someone strolling between bookshelves in a library.

Ella did not stand up to greet the visitor. She did not even raise her head.

Her gaze remained fixed on the tray in front of her. She had not touched the bread. It lay there untouched, its edges already somewhat dry and hard.

Thanks to the seeds and young livestock she had obtained from sea exploration, she had already developed a complete livestock industry in the insect nest. While others were still struggling at sea for a living, she had long since been able to enjoy meat and fish at every meal.

So something like bread — especially this poorly made bread — she had no intention of eating at all.

However, she had drunk all the milk.

High-quality protein. There was no reason not to drink it. If one looked carefully, there was even a faint trace of milk still left at the corner of her mouth, giving off a faint white sheen in the dim light.

“It has been a long time, Your Majesty.”

A voice came from in front of her. It was gentle, soft, and carried a unique scholarly air.

Ella finally raised her eyes.

The person who entered this time was a red-haired woman. The red was deep, like aged mahogany. In the poorly lit cabin, it almost blended into the shadows, only revealing a faint glimmer at the edges of the hair under certain angles.

She was wearing a scholarly dress full of intellectual charm — a deep black dress body with a white collar and cuffs that were tailored just right. She looked like the gentle big sister who would quietly organize bookshelves in an ancient library.

If the other party had been wearing glasses, Ella would have almost thought she had arrived at some library.

The color of the red-haired woman’s pupils was different from her hair. It was a fiery red.

But unlike Butterfly Wing’s scarlet, her red was warmer, like charcoal burning in a fireplace, carrying an illusion that made people lower their guard.

Saying “it has been a long time”…

She understood. They realized hard tactics didn’t work, so now they wanted to try soft ones.

Failures. Don’t bother. You bunch of insects have no right to stand in front of me.

“You must be feeling very uncomfortable like this.”

The red-haired woman’s gaze swept over Ella’s body, from the scabbed wound on her forehead, to the red marks left by the chains on her wrists, to the wrinkled black robe on her body. Then she showed a perfectly measured look of concern.

“How about this? Shall I take you to take a bath? Although this ship is not large, it still has all the necessary facilities.”

A bath?

The corners of Ella’s mouth curved up.

It was not a smile. It was a weapon.

“If you make that Butterfly Wing come and kowtow to me three times,” she deliberately dragged out the end of her sentence.

“Then I’ll go.”

The red-haired woman blinked, a trace of difficulty appearing on her face.

“Uh… Please don’t make things hard for me. Butterfly Wing is our leader. If I ask her to do that…”

She tilted her head, as if seriously considering the possibility.

“I won’t be in trouble, but she will definitely do something even more extreme than before.”

“Hah…”

Ella narrowed her eyes. Her gaze moved away from the red-haired woman’s face and fell back onto the empty milk cup in front of her.

“Then I’m not going.”

She shrank further into the corner, assuming a posture that clearly said “I’m done talking, you can get lost now.”

Seeing that Ella had no intention of paying her any attention, the red-haired woman did not show any displeasure. She simply smiled. That smile was very contagious, like a breeze blowing across book pages, producing a faint rustling sound.

“Let me introduce myself first.”

She squatted down in front of Ella, bringing her eyes level with Ella’s. Those red pupils were gentle and steady, without any aggression.

“I am Yiwen. The name you originally gave me was Yi Wen, the ‘Wen’ from mosquito. Later, you thought it sounded too unpleasant, so you changed ‘mosquito’ to ‘literary’, resulting in the current name — Yiwen.”

Yiwen.

The ‘Wen’ from mosquito.

Something in the depths of Ella’s memory stirred gently, like a dusty string on a zither being accidentally touched, producing a nearly inaudible hum.

But she quickly suppressed that hum.

“I don’t know you.”

Her voice remained ice-cold.

“Changing a name just because it doesn’t sound nice — I would never do something so meaningless. All swarm names should exist only for practicality.”

Yiwen looked at her. There was no disappointment in those red eyes, only gentleness. To Ella, it looked completely fake.

Then a thought surfaced in Ella’s mind.

You want to have a nice chat with me, huh?

Her gaze shifted to the tentacle behind her — that two-finger-thick tentacle with a slightly swollen tip covered in a semi-transparent membrane. Ella made it move slightly, as if controlling a finger.

A brilliant, cruel, and irresistible idea took shape in her mind.

“If you really want to chat with me properly,”

The corners of her mouth curved up into a sharp, malicious arc.

“How about this? Do you see this tentacle?”

She pointed at the tentacle behind her with her chin.

“Spread your legs and let this tentacle go inside. Then I’ll talk to you nicely.”

Heh.

Yes, that’s it.

Failure.

You want to pretend to be gentle? You want to pretend to be a big sister? Come on then. Keep pretending. I want to see how long you can keep it up.

She waited to see the smile shatter on Yiwen’s face.

Yiwen blinked.

Then she raised both hands to her chest, crossed her index and middle fingers, and made a clear “X” shape.

“No way~”

Her voice was still that gentle, patient tone, but it now carried a hint of strictness.

“Of course I know you want to inject DNA into our bodies through the tentacle.”

Her gaze fell on the tentacle, as if looking at a dangerous toy held by a disobedient child.

“Things like that are not allowed. Having children—”

Her face suddenly turned red.

The blush spread from the base of her neck all the way to the tips of her ears.

The earlobes visible between her red hair turned a deep pink. Even her breathing became slightly unnatural.

“—must be done with someone you like…”

Ella was stunned.

What the hell?!

And why the hell are you blushing while saying that?! What’s with that parent-lecturing-a-child tone!

Tch!

This bunch of failures is full of flaws! They need correction! Optimization!

“We originally didn’t plan to use force on you like this.”

Yiwen’s blush quickly faded. She returned to that gentle and stable expression, as if the brief moment of shyness had been nothing but Ella’s illusion.

“It’s just that you have already been eroded too deeply by the Insect Nest Will. In order not to lose you,”

Her voice grew softer.

“We had no choice but to take direct action.”

Ella’s pupils contracted slightly.

This sentence connected with the fragments she had heard from Zhuluo earlier, like two broken puzzle pieces forcibly pressed into the same slot. They did not fit perfectly, but the edges of the patterns matched.

“What do you mean?”

Her voice was lower than before. The sharp, aggressive edges were suppressed by something heavier.

“When exactly did you start planning this?!”

“Many years ago.”

Yiwen’s voice was calm and slow, like telling a bedtime story.

“At that time, you were still male. The moment we were born, you threw us into the sea, leaving us with only one command.”

She looked into Ella’s eyes and spoke word by word.

“Prevent the Insect Nest Will from completely assimilating you.”

The room fell silent.

It was so quiet that Ella could hear the sound of waves hitting the hull outside the cabin, the faint footsteps coming from some distant room, and the sound of her own heartbeat in her chest.

“How is that possible.”

Her voice squeezed out from the depths of her throat, dry and hoarse.

“Why would I ever do something like that?!”

“Let me add one more thing.”

Yiwen was not intimidated by her volume. She did not even blink.

“It seems the Insect Nest Will has tampered with a lot of your memories. In fact, the biggest flaw of us so-called failures is actually that”

She paused for a moment.

“We cannot connect to the insect nest network.”

Ella’s breathing hitched.

“And that is why we were able to resist you.”

Unable to connect to the insect nest network.

This meant they had never been under her control from the very beginning. It meant none of her orders would ever be executed by them. It meant they were… independent.

“Then! What about Butterfly Wing!”

Ella leaned forward. The phantom sound of rattling chains echoed in her mind. Although the chains were gone, the feeling of being bound still clung to her limbs like a ghost.

“How could she receive it?!”

“That’s why she is the failure closest to success.”

Yiwen tilted her head.

“I know you have many questions, but anyway,”

She stood up and extended a hand toward Ella.

The hand was fair and slender, with neatly trimmed nails, palm facing upward. It was an invitation.

“Take a bath first. Covered in blood and looking dirty isn’t good.”

Ella looked at that hand without making a decision.

Her gaze moved from the hand to Yiwen’s face, from Yiwen’s face to the doorway, and from the doorway to the sea outside the window, where nothing could be seen anymore.

Then the corners of her mouth curved up.

“Let Butterfly Wing wash me.”

She deliberately enunciated each word clearly.

Yiwen’s expression changed, gaining a cold edge.

“Disobedient children,”

Her voice was still gentle, but the gentleness had changed in flavor.

“Need to be taught a lesson.”

She moved.

Ella did not even see clearly how she moved. Yiwen’s movement was not like Zhuluo’s overwhelming force and speed. It was a more elegant and fluid way of moving.

A hand reached out.

Two fingers.

They precisely pinched the soft, nerve-rich earlobe of Ella’s ear.

“Aaahhh! Don’t pull my ear!”

Ella’s voice instantly rose by eight octaves. The sharp sound mixed with pain and humiliation that burst from her mouth felt foreign even to herself.

“Let go! You failure! Aaahhh!”

“Come with me to the bathroom.”

Yiwen’s voice remained that gentle, patient tone, but her hand did not loosen.

Those two fingers held Ella’s earlobe with just the right amount of force. It caused no real damage, but the feeling of being controlled was far more unbearable to Ella than any pain.

“Only obedient children get candy.”

She pulled Ella’s ear and walked toward the door.