Chapter 58: Mom Only Wants You to Be Happy

The devastating strike against the Xiao Family of Modu unfolded silently, like a precision surgical blade, driven by Lin Wei and Tang Rou's efficient operations. Hidden currents first surged in the financial markets; the stock prices of multiple publicly traded companies controlled by the Xiao Family began to plummet abnormally, without warning, while their critical financing channels mysteriously dried up. Simultaneously, long-buried rumors about the Xiao Family's past involvement in gray industries and close ties with certain disgraced officials began to circulate quietly within specific circles.

The storm was brewing in silence.

Yet the architect of all this, Qin Feng, was now deep beneath the estate, inside a specially modified music room whose walls were lined with sound-absorbing and energy-monitoring equipment.

The room contained nothing else but a single ancient-looking seven-stringed qin placed at its center, seemingly not crafted by modern methods. Gu Qingcheng had retrieved it from her family's collection, based on subtle hints in the musical score, believing it might be closer to the instrument of the score's original era and thus better suited to trigger true "resonance."

Gu Qingcheng and Su Wenqian stood before the monitoring equipment, their expressions tense and focused. Lin Xuan lurked in the shadows near the entrance, like the most loyal guardian, ensuring the entire process remained undisturbed.

Qin Feng stood motionless before the qin, eyes closed and mind still. He did not glance at the special fingering techniques and rhythmic requirements deciphered by Gu Qingcheng and laid open beside him—those details had, the moment he acquired God-Level Music Mastery, been etched into his soul like instinct.

He was feeling—the profound, ancient, yet coldly mechanical "essence" embedded within the score. This was more than music; it resembled an encrypted startup protocol, a protocol for establishing connection with some distant entity.

He adjusted his breathing, slowly gathering his Spirit. Since acquiring the system, his Spirit had been subtly strengthening, though he had never deliberately used or measured it. Now, he could clearly "internally perceive" a vast nebula slowly rotating within his Consciousness Deep, brimming with indescribable power.

He raised his hand, his slender fingers gently resting upon the cold strings of the qin.

Without warning, the first note leapt forth.

It was not a mere physical vibration detectable by ordinary ears. As his fingers plucked, an invisible ripple of energy erupted outward from Qin Feng! The energy-monitoring instruments in the music room instantly went wild, their needles swinging violently, alarms screeching, and the energy-intensity curves on the screens spiking past their preset safety thresholds!

Gu Qingcheng and Su Wenqian both paled.

Meanwhile, the music flowed forth—an ancient, obscure melody, sometimes whispering like the stars, sometimes surging like the Deep Sea, sometimes bearing a metallic chill. This music defied all modern musical theory; each note struck precisely at the nodes of space and rule.

Qin Feng was utterly immersed. He felt his Spirit being steadily drawn out, shaped, and fused with every note, transformed into a unique authentication signal, traveling along some mysterious channel toward the Deep Sea coordinate indicated by the score.

…

At the very moment Qin Feng attempted to establish contact with "Guan Zhou," in a multi-hundred-million-dollar luxury riverside mansion along the Huangpu River in Modu, Xiao Yufeng, the Xiao Family's eldest daughter, was screaming into her phone.

"I don't care! Lingyun said that Qin Feng is just some ignorant upstart! He dared to humiliate him—that's a humiliation to our whole circle! I'm going to teach him a lesson! Let him know who owns Modu!" Xiao Yufeng stomped her foot, shouting at her father, Xiao Mingyuan, the current CEO of the Xiao Group.

On the other end of the line, Xiao Mingyuan's voice carried exhaustion and a faint trace of concern: "Yufeng, don't act foolishly! That Qin Feng isn't ordinary—Ye Lingyun himself was humiliated by him. Why should we be the first to stick our necks out? I've already instructed our people to loosen our stance on Yun Duan International. Stay out of it!"

"Dad! How can you say that! Lingyun will look down on me!" Xiao Yufeng's eyes turned red with rage. "I don't care—I'm helping Lingyun get revenge! If you won't help me, I'll go to Grandpa!"

Before her father could reply, she slammed the phone down, collapsed onto the expensive leather sofa, and burst into bitter sobs.

At that moment, a gentle voice spoke beside her: "Yufeng, what's wrong? Who made my little girl so upset?"

A middle-aged woman, elegant and dignified, stepped forward—Zhao Wanqing, Xiao Yufeng's mother. She gently stroked her daughter's hair, her eyes brimming with affection.

"Mom!" Xiao Yufeng flung herself into her mother's arms, sobbing as she exaggerated how Ye Lingyun had been humiliated by Qin Feng, how she wanted to retaliate, and how her father refused to help.

"... Who does that Qin Feng think he is, to make Lingyun suffer? I'll make him regret it!" Xiao Yufeng snarled.

Zhao Wanqing listened to her daughter's tears, her brow slightly furrowed. She had recently heard whispers about Qin Feng—knew he was an extremely mysterious and immensely powerful figure, one even her husband and father-in-law feared. But seeing her daughter, tear-streaked and heartbroken over "love," her heart softened.

In her entire life, her greatest achievement and only solace was this daughter. If her daughter was happy, she would do anything.

"There, there, don't cry," Zhao Wanqing softly patted her daughter's back. "Your father has his concerns—business matters are complicated."

Xiao Yufeng lifted her head, eyes wet with tears: "Mom… won't you help me either?"

Zhao Wanqing looked into her daughter's pleading eyes, sighed, then pulled her close, her voice tender yet resolute:

"Foolish child, how could I not help you?"

"Do whatever you want. If the sky falls, I'll hold it up for you."

"Those business matters, those concerns—they don't matter."

She gently wiped the tears from her daughter's face, her gaze soft enough to drip water:

"Mom only wants you to be happy."

With her mother's unconditional support, Xiao Yufeng's tears turned to laughter, a gleam of cunning and ruthlessness flashing in her eyes. With Mom stepping in, Grandpa would listen to her—she could mobilize the entire Xiao Family's resources!

She did not see the flicker of dread in her mother's eyes as she lowered her head—the dread of unknown risks, and the absolute resolve to sacrifice everything for her daughter.

And neither of them knew that the further action they were enabling and encouraging against Qin Feng would bring down a catastrophic thunderbolt upon the already crumbling Xiao Family.

The fate of the Xiao Family of Modu may have quietly reached its end in that one indulgent phrase: "Mom only wants you to be happy."