Rena Qiao didn't even realize she was speaking again. Her attention was fully focused on Ye Zhizhou's words. She couldn't help but walk over to Yu Xue and hold her hand, asking, "Mom, what does he mean? Do you really not love Dad?"
Yu Xue didn't even glance at her. She continued to stare at Ye Zhizhou, her tone strange, "Indeed, he is Haonan's offspring, intelligent, powerful... But why did you have to be born from that slut Ye Wenshu? She was so filthy."
Ye Zhizhou observed her expression coldly for a moment and suddenly thought of a possibility. Rena Qiao might be mentally challenged, but her mother, Yu Xue, wasn't. Judging from the recent events, Rena Qiao seemed to rely heavily on her trust in her mother. What if, in the original plot, it wasn't Rena Qiao who took over the reins of the Ren family, but Yu Xue secretly...
In the original plot, the fate of the Ren family's main branch wasn't good, and neither was Ren Yunling's. However, there was no mention of what happened to Yu Xue. Moreover, when Rena Qiao needed to develop the Qualification Enhancement Solution later on, even though she was already the head of the Ren family, she inexplicably asked the male leads to help her establish a new research institute. And what about Qian Yuan's establishment of his own power? He was so grateful to the Ren family, but he left early without even staying for the ten years of salary he had received in advance.
This didn't make sense unless... the Ren family no longer had a research institute at that time.
In the later stages of the plot, the Ren family, which once held a prominent position in the Federation, disappeared from the scene, leaving only Rena Qiao. Qian Yuan also never mentioned the Ren family again, casually stating that he had donated to some orphanages in the name of the Ren family.
In the name of the Ren family... Could it be that the Ren family had become a mere shell, supported solely by Rena Qiao?
"Revenge," he looked at Yu Xue, seriously and meticulously assessing her, without changing his expression at all, and suddenly smiled. "You don't love Ren Yunling, and you don't love Rena Qiao. You hate them, and you hate the Ren family."
Yu Xue was stunned by his laughter, her expression momentarily unfocused.
"You're talking nonsense!" Rena Qiao finally stood up and retorted, no longer pretending to be pitiful. "My mom is so gentle with Dad and so good to me. How could she not love us? She's the honored second wife of the Ren family, so why would she hate the Ren family? Ye Zhizhou, you're just an orphan, jealous of all the happy families. Can't you stop being so dark-hearted? Come on, how much money do you want? I'll give you the money, just get out of here!"
Qian Yuan stared in disbelief, and Bai Xuyang raised an eyebrow.
"The Ren family's current prestige and honor are all thanks to my father's Stability Elixir," Ye Zhizhou continued, casually refuting her provocation, and then locked her voice again, looking at Ren Yunjie, whose expression had changed multiple times. He asked in a deep voice, "Mr. Ren, I'd like to know how my father, Ren Haonan, spent his decades in the Ren family."
Ren Yunjie's eyes flashed with a hidden panic as he struggled to maintain his previous composure. "Your father had an unfortunate accident shortly after the Stability Elixir was introduced to the market. He became completely paralyzed, and his intelligence regressed to that of a seven or eight-year-old. Despite the Ren family's careful care and efforts to treat him, he still couldn't hold on and passed away in June of last year."
"Accident, complete paralysis..." Ye Zhizhou sneered and withdrew all his previous friendliness, continuing to ask, "Where is my father buried?"
Ren Yunjie became increasingly uncomfortable with his attitude, hesitating before replying, "Because of your father's special status, he couldn't be buried in the family tomb, so..."
"So, to let Haonan return to freedom, his ashes were scattered at sea, without even buying him a piece of land!" Yu Xue suddenly spoke up, capturing everyone's attention. "Ren Yunjie, stop pretending. You're not innocent. Haonan never aspired to be the young master of the Ren family. He just wanted to repay the Ren family's kindness and leave to live a free life. But you, why did you and your family strip him of that small wish?"
Rena Qiao widened her eyes, looking at her mother in disbelief. Ren Yunling reached out angrily toward her, his eyes filled with resentment and pain.
Ye Zhizhou looked at her without saying a word.
"I met Haonan too late. At that time, I was already engaged to Ren Yunling and had been... with Rena Qiao." Yu Xue suddenly turned to Rena Qiao, gently touching her face with a chilling tone. "Just once, only once. How did I get pregnant? Why did you have to appear?"
Rena Qiao shook her head, her face turning pale, and tears were no longer tools of pretense but genuine expressions of emotion.
"Haonan wanted pure love, and I didn't deserve it." Yu Xue retracted her hand, her eyes becoming sinister. "But Ye Wenshu didn't deserve it either! A commoner from the slums, who knows what disgraceful work she did in the past? Haonan was too naive to be deceived by such a wretched woman!"
"Don't insult my mother!" Ye Zhizhou interrupted her performance and pointed at Ren Yunling. "To erase my father's memories of my mother, you incited Ren Yunling to push my father down the stairs and drugged him."
Yu Xue looked up at him, avoiding his gaze. Ren Yunling hesitated.
"Wasn't that accusation just now satisfying?" Ye Zhizhou suppressed his murderous intent and said, "I've been curious for a while. My father's amnesia, my amnesia from the car accident... How could Ren Yunling, a useless waste, possess something that can selectively erase human memories? But if it's you, I wouldn't be surprised at all. Before my mother arrived, you were my father's assistant, right? Let me guess, the memory-altering drug was probably created by my father as well. However, the Federation has regulations prohibiting the production and use of such drugs that manipulate and erase human memories, making them illegal. Knowing my father's character, he would definitely have destroyed the drug. But you, who were once my father's assistant, secretly hid the drug. Am I right?"
Yu Xue lowered her eyes and remained silent.
"I'll think about it. When you had already fallen in love with my father, why did you secretly hide this medicine against his wishes?" Ye Zhizhou leisurely walked among them, stopping in front of Ren Yunling. "Was it to erase the memories of everyone in the Ren family, to weave a colossal lie, and to break off your engagement with Ren Yunling? Ren Yunling, you are truly pitiful."
Ren Yunling's eyes were bloodshot, glaring at him with furious intensity.
He then turned to Yu Xue, carefully examining her expression, and continued, "But then you discovered you were pregnant, and you needed the status of the Ren family's second wife for the comfortable life it would bring you. You hesitated. You left the research institute, wanting to shake off the thoughts of the child you shouldn't have had. Then, my mother was recruited into the research institute and became my father's new assistant."
Yu Xue suddenly clenched her fists, gritting her teeth. "It was Ye Wenshu who stole my happiness, that wretch!"
Ye Zhizhou directly suppressed her voice with his psychic power, not giving her a chance to insult his mother any further.
"You've been accusing my mother all along, but what right do you have to do so?" He sat down on the sofa, his tone no longer as sharp, but rather tinged with indifference. "You did have feelings for my father, but you were more fond of the status and life that came with being the legitimate daughter-in-law of the Ren family. That's why you continued to sleep with Ren Yunling even after falling for my father, and even got pregnant with Rena Qiao. Stop deceiving yourself; your current suffering is entirely of your own making. It has nothing to do with anyone in the Ren family. You may indeed hate the Ren family, but you're just shifting your anger onto them due to your own misfortune. Don't wave the banner of seeking revenge for my father; you're not worthy of it."
Yu Xue looked at him with eyes full of malice.
Ye Zhizhou locked eyes with her and continued to strike, "Between money and love, you chose money, and then you slapped a label of deep affection onto yourself. But my mother was loyal to her love from start to finish. You're just a possessive lunatic, utterly undeserving to be compared to my mother."
"No!" Yu Xue's face turned completely pale, and she actually broke through his psychic restraint, letting out her voice. "Haonan doesn't love her! Haonan doesn't even remember her! It's that wretched woman who deceived Haonan! She deserves to die!"
Ye Zhizhou's expression turned cold. He increased his psychic power to silence her once again, sneering, "My mother indeed passed away, but she finally reunited with my father in the afterlife. Yu Xue, after you die, who will be waiting for you down there?"
Yu Xue's body shivered, and the stubborn gleam in her eyes was completely extinguished.
He no longer looked at her, taking out a few pills and tossing them in the air. He coldly surveyed the room's occupants, approached each member of the Ren family, fed them a pill, and then set up a formation around them.
"Boss, what are you doing?" Qian Yuan had been dumbfounded by the unfolding drama, and now, seeing him acting strangely in the living room, he couldn't help but feel nervous. He hurriedly advised, "Boss, you promised not to harm them. It's not worth it for this group of people. Let's go back..."
He inserted the last flag into the formation, sat back on the sofa, and said indifferently, "Don't worry, I don't intend to kill them; I just want to confirm some things." Suddenly, the mental cage dissipated completely. Before the Ren family members could rejoice, their consciousness was dragged into their past memories.
The anomalies within the formation could only be seen by the one who set it up. Bai Xuyang and Qian Yuan looked at the Ren family members, who suddenly stood up in the living room, pacing back and forth while murmuring to themselves, their expressions becoming bizarre.
"Boss, what's going on with them..."
"They're daydreaming," Ye Zhizhou replied briefly, then took out a feathered arrow and shot it over to block Bai Xuyang's hand reaching for the flag. "Don't touch it if you don't want your memories to be probed."
Bai Xuyang's eyes lit up as he pulled out the feathered arrow and examined it closely. He gave Ye Zhizhou a deep look.
"Don't have any ideas about me either, unless you want to become an imbecile."
A sharp mental force suddenly wafted over. Bai Xuyang keenly sensed his brain growing heavy and sounded the alarm in his mind. He quickly retracted his gaze. After a few seconds, the heaviness disappeared. He felt increasingly curious but wisely suppressed his urge to dissect and study certain aspects.
Fifteen minutes later, the Ren family members snapped out of their daze, looking at their family members who stood in the middle of the living room, thinking about everything they had just experienced, and were horrified.
Ye Zhizhou, after reviewing their memories, became even colder in demeanor. "Ren Yunjie, you caused the experimental accident, leaving my father paralyzed and living like a useless person for decades. Wei Juan, you mistreated my father, enjoying the wealth he brought to the Ren family while secretly abusing him, reducing his intelligence to that of a seven or eight-year-old child. Ren Yunling, you pushed my father down the stairs in an attempt to kill him, which failed, and later tried to kill me. Yu Xue, you encouraged Ren Yunling to harm my father, drugged him, forced my mother to leave, and sent someone to kill her. Later, you incited Ren Yunling to come after me, all while using your daughter to get close to various influential figures, hoping to take over the Ren family and destroy it. As for you, Ren Qiao, you're a greedy puppet with evil intentions but no skills. Not a single one of you is innocent."