Ji Feifei's departure was not the end of the Ji family's nightmare but the onset of it. Ji Huifen spent about a week going through the facts of the past and concluded that the gray-eyed boy from his memories was indeed Xia Hanchen. As for how he ended up in the Xia family, he, Xiehan and Wen Lin guessed that he must have been adopted. Perhaps the Xia family had also collaborated with the Guan family in the past, and they took him in after the demise of his grandfather and the disappearance of his family?

This was merely a speculation, but it made a lot of sense when they thought about the events that surfaced later.

At first, the three of them were worried that Xia Hanchen would make Ji Feifei's biological parents seek trouble with them but they had been, thankfully, wrong.

____

It had been two weeks since Ji Feifei left the picture. Luna had spent this time tracking down the young man who had tainted her name. As expected, it was not easy to find him since he had the protection of Xia Hanchen. When she finally did, it was only because she had decided to be ruthless and kidnapped the young man's mother.

"Please don't do anything to my mother!" The man pleaded over the phone when Luna gave him a call.

"Then make your way here right away. Don't you even think about calling anyone else—I will track your movements." Luna threatened, and the young man knew better than to brush it off. Luna was an excellent programmer and it was highly possible for her to have hacked into his phone already.

"Where?" He asked with a shaky voice as she had yet to give him an address.

"I will send you a location. Ten minutes. One second later and you will pick up your momma's remains." Luna hung up and tossed her phone aside to look at the frightened middle-aged woman that she had kidnapped.

She had brought her to a hotel room and not blindfolded her—only having tied her up—letting her know that she was not in some repulsive blood-filled place.

What she didn't know was that from the rumors that the woman had heard, kidnappers only let one know where they were if they were going to kill them. After all, the location would be a major lead to the kidnappers' identity if the victims could remember it.

She looked up at Luna with a mixture of hatred and disgust.

Luna had room service bring in some food and placed it in front of the pale, middle aged woman. "Auntie, have some food."

The woman glanced at the food in front of her and her veins protruded in anger, she had no intention to eat it.

"Come on, I'm not planning on starving you. You must be hungry after working all day." Luna coaxed, keeping some distance in case the woman became aggressive.

The woman's eyes glared at her like they could burn holes through Luna's stomach. "As a mother-to-be yourself, how could you do this to someone else?! All I want is to work and provide for my children, yet you rich people are doing everything in your power to make that difficult for me!"

"Trust me, I do not wish to make the life of anyone difficult." Luna sat on the comfortable couch and picked up the glass of milk that had been brought to her along with the woman's dinner. She took a small sip from it gently. "If your son did not decide to ruin my life, do you think I would have resorted to doing this?"

"You liar! My son would never destroy anyone's life!" The woman pulled at the ropes around her hands and wanted to give Luna a slap for trying to speak ill of her darling son.

Her actions and words earned a scoff from Luna. "Obviously, no one can commit a crime until they do it. Have you not read or heard of the news? Or do you really think that the software your baby darling claims to have been stolen from him was really his?" She knew the woman would not say anything kind in response so she chuckled and added on her own, "No it wasn't. That was my and my friend's blood, sweat and tears."

Before the woman could talk, she added, "No one understands how difficult it is for two young women to survive on their own without their families. Sometimes, their families don't support their dreams and aspirations so the young girls have no choice but to plunge into the cruel business world in the hopes of finding something that would place a slice of bread on their tables."

She sighed after bringing up Cheng Yu's experience. "Do you know, my friend once fainted because she worked continuously for two days without a wink of sleep nor a grain of food. It was all because we were trying to complete the game and release it at the right time—fame in this line of work doesn't last that long, after all.

Yet, after all these weeks of hard work, all it took was a few pictures and a statement from a young man I met recently, for all our hard work to go sliding down the drain."

"Are you telling the truth?" After hearing what Luna had said, the middle-aged woman was perplexed. She had once been a young woman herself—and she had also been once abandoned by her family and left to fend for herself. She knew how difficult it was. If it was really as Luna had stated…

Luna took in a deep breath after successfully guilt-tripping the woman. "Would anyone lie about their life?"

"Sure, I can go back to my family if everything I worked for is taken away from me—but she has nowhere to go. What will become of her?"

Knowing that she had managed to calm the woman down and get her thinking, she suggested with an innocent smile, "Aunty, I could untie you. But can you promise not to hurt me?"

"I would never hurt an unborn baby." The woman looked aside, finally realizing the absurdity of it all. How could a pregnant woman risk it all to kidnap someone else? It seemed like this young woman's words were true. She really had no choice. She was doing it for her friend.

For some reason, she felt her heart soften even though she knew that a kidnapper should never be trusted.

Luna untied her, knowing that the woman would not try to hurt her. She had made sure of it. "Auntie, could you eat your food now? It's awful to see you starve—It makes me feel as though my own mother were starving."

As though she was under a spell, the woman scared down all the food on her plate, and it made her question her son even more. This young woman was so kind. Was she really capable of stealing?

She didn't want to believe that her son was in the wrong, but what if that was the case?

"I believe that Luo Chen did not do it out of his own will. When we met, I had the impression that he was an honest young man who would not want to deliberately harm anyone. He must have been forced." Luna said to further emotionally blackmail his mother.

She smiled and bought time, telling random little tales until the young man arrived.

As soon as he walked in through the door, the first thing to greet him was a slap from his mother. "Punk! What did you do?"

"Mother, what are you talking about?"

The woman seemed to think of something. "Tell me about the money you received three weeks ago. Did you really get it from a company who offered to work with you, or did you get bribed to do something wrong?"

"Mother, what do you mean?" The young man named Luo Chen looked slightly guilty like he was trying to hide something.

When his mother saw this, she slapped him even harder. "Speak! Who was it?

Luo Chen, I have worked hard all these years trying to educate you, yet you repay me by doing something so shameless? Did all my teachings go down the drain?"

Luna tapped the woman—who looked disappointed—on her shoulder. "Aunty, please don't be too fierce with him. Let's talk it out."

Since the young woman had spoken, Luo Chen's mother moved aside to let her son in.

Luna sat down at the table in a position that would have the mother and son duo sit opposite her, so Luo Chen was facing the door of the site's bedroom.

She secretly tapped her phone screen and waited for about three seconds until Luo Chen calmed down. She then asked, "Did I really steal your work? Tell the truth."

"No." The young man blurted, then placed a hand over his mouth. Why did he just blurt out the truth? When he saw his mother, he was planning to worm his way out of the mess. Why did it feel like there was a strange force that came over him and forced him to tell the truth?

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