"Yah! How can someone take another's identity and life? Unless you're talking about identical twins, doppelgangers, or some bloody fantasy stuff." Ru hit his back without holding back making Ji Syaoran fall. Seeing how he fell, she mumbled a soft, "Sorry about that. Sometimes, I lose my control over my strength."

Ji Syaoran tried rubbing his back but his arm couldn't reach and he had to bear with the pain as he said, "Can you be a bit gentle? And why are you so impatient? Let me complete first."

"It's not my fault," almost shouted Ru at his face but considering how his mother was sleeping in the room, she lowered her volume and continued, "You stop taking breaks. I love talking in riddles but right now, I have no interest in solving riddles. Come clean all at once." Taking a deep breath, she went on, "So tell me, was Ji Lie behind your family's complicated condition?"

Ji Syaoran looked at her and shook his head in negation, "Uncle Lie died even before our family broke."

"Then what happened?" she asked with a scowl on her face.

Ji Syaoran heaved a long sigh and started, "Don't interrupt now. Here it goes..."

Xiao Zhi'er had fallen sick right after giving birth to her third son. She spent most of her time in her room which had been equipped with world-class pieces of equipment. At most, people could say that those machines kept her breathing back then. Instead of getting better, her health was deteriorating at the speed one could see with the naked eye.

She had spent two years like a lifeless person and after that, finally, some hope was brought for her survival. Ji Yifeng left with his wife for abroad to get her treated at any cost.

But in their absence, a new storm had started in Ji Family. Yuan was only two when Xiao Zhiren's grandmother, Lady Jin Mi heard the news of Ji Lie's death. No matter what grandmother Ji loved her adopted son dearly and when she got the news that Ji Lie had left behind a wife and daughter, she couldn't help herself and brought the mother and daughter back home.

That daughter was none other than Ji Caihong while her mother's name was Ling Qiaolian. Grandmother Ji had instantly taken a liking to Ji Caihong just because she was a girl. She always wanted a daughter in the family and that's why she even adopted Ji Liu.

Later on, Ling Qiaolian's interaction with the boys of the house increased. She started caring for Yuan like a son and even treated Xiao Zhiren and Ji Syaoran like her own. Her gentle, kind and loving demeanor touched grandmother Ji very much. Seeing her effort to get accepted as a family member, Ling Qiaolian did anything and everything.

But who knew that her stay for one year would bring about so many changes. When Xiao Zhi'er finally came back after a long stay, her whole family had changed. What she had to face was a son who looked at her with caution in his eyes.

Seeing how Xiao Zhiren treated Ling Qiaolian and how Yuan had started calling her his mother, Xiao Zhi'er was broken all over again. The sons for whom she fought with death had gone far from her. The only one who stayed by her side was Ji Syaoran. Because at his younger age, Ji Syaoran was a bit autistic and his only interaction was with his own mother. He couldn't get close to anyone except for her.

Ji Yifeng stayed with his wife as always and consoled her. Xiao Zhi'er wasn't a quitter. She tried everything to get her kids back but wasn't very successful. One day, she found the reason behind that. She saw Ling Qiaolian adding something in her son's food. And when she got it tested, it turned out the food had traces of hypnotics.

"Can you even imagine how mom's world must have crumbled right there?" Ji Syaoran asked with tears in his eyes.

Ru was too engrossed in listening to this masterpiece that sounded right out of revenge plot drama. Even she was having trouble digesting it. She as an expert in medicines and hypnosis knew what it could do. Even adults would feel helpless before such things, much less a thirteen-year-old Xiao Zhiren. He was barely a teen. As for Yuan, he was already a blank sheet of paper at three. One could write anything and he would believe it.

"How did your mother became mentally unstable? What trauma brought her to this point?" Ru asked in an urging manner.

"Mom wanted to confront Ling Qiaolian but the same night, Ling Qiaolian tried to kidnap us, three brothers. She wanted to take us all away with her. But both Ji Family and Xiao Family were alerted because of mom's early discovery of those hypnotics," stated Ji Syaoran. "We still don't know who was helping that woman but she managed to board a ship. However, when mom saved us from the sea. She tried to escape on a helicopter and took Yuan and bro with her. During that long dark night, mom saw bro falling in the water and she fainted."

"And when she woke up, she assumed that Zhiren was dead. That's why her memory is so bad." Ru completed his words for him and he nodded. "What about Ji Caihong? Why didn't she take her?"

Ji Syaoran snorted, "That woman abandoned her own daughter. But when I found bro after four years, that's when I got to know what her intention was."

"She was trying to make the real son of Ji Family stand against his own blood. Watching the bloodbath done by close kin... Hmm... I thought we were out of imperial days." Ru really wanted to hit someone at this point. This plot was twisted as it could get. Or so she thought.

"Bro's memory was distorted completely when I met him. He treated me as a half-brother and assumed that dad had cheated on our mother. In bro's mind, Ling Qiaolian had become his mother."

"Because she used hypnosis to replace your mother's face with her own. And that's why Zhiren's affection for his own mother shifted towards her." Ru rubbed her forehead as she said, "I need time to get this in my head without the possibility of my mind exploding with such information."