Chapter 486: The Vicious Qiutian Saburo
Chapter 486: Chapter 486: The Vicious Qiutian Saburo
With the New Year approaching, every household was busy preparing all sorts of festive food, and the Li family was no exception.
In recent days, everyone in the Li family, except for Li Yong’an who couldn’t make it back, had returned to Mr. Li’s home. Even Gu Xinsheng was going to celebrate the New Year with the Li family.
Seeing Su Qing being called into the study by Mr. Li, with Li Fenghuo and Gu Xinsheng following, Li Yongxin quietly asked Li Huan, "Why did Grandpa call Qingqing into the study? Did she run into some kind of trouble she can’t solve?"
Because of his studies, Li Yongxin lived at school and rarely took breaks, even for holidays. He had been busy at school right up until the New Year and had only returned home on break a few days ago.
Although Li Yongxin hadn’t spent much time with Su Qing, he was still very concerned about his recently found younger sister. He worried that she had encountered some unsolvable problem out in the world.
"I don’t know." Li Huan was completely in the dark as well, but she was the carefree type. "It’s fine. Qingqing is very capable. Even if there is something she can’t handle, she still has Grandpa and Dad, right? It’s not a big deal."
Meanwhile, in the study, Li Fenghuo said to Su Qing, "Qingqing, we’ve uncovered some information about Tian Qiu’s situation. It’s more or less what you guessed. This Tian Qiu did indeed assume someone else’s name. Moreover, someone in Hai City is definitely helping him pull the wool over everyone’s eyes."
"Oh!" Su Qing asked hurriedly, "What’s the situation?"
"As it turns out, the person this Qiutian Sanlang is impersonating was his own twin brother, born of the same parents," Li Fenghuo said.
"What!" Upon hearing this, Su Qing’s eyes went wide with astonishment. "His own twin brother? How could his sibling be living in Hai City? The Qiutian Clan would actually let one of their own bloodline go astray?"
Su Qing had always thought that a major clan like the Qiutian would place great importance on their bloodline.
"The whole story is quite dramatic," Li Fenghuo explained. "This Qiutian Sanlang is twenty-five years old. His twin brother, Qiutian Shirou, was kidnapped by a rival clan right after he was born. Originally, the rival clan wanted to take both brothers, but something unexpected happened, so they only managed to take Qiutian Shirou. After he was taken, for some unknown reason, Qiutian Shirou ended up in Hai City. Miraculously, the child was still alive and was found by a couple."
Su Qing pursed her lips. "This Qiutian Shirou was certainly lucky to be alive."
"Exactly," said Li Fenghuo. "And what’s more, the name was a complete coincidence. In Japanese, the surname ’Qiutian’ is written with two characters. The second character is ’Tian.’ As it happened, the couple who found him had the surname Tian. The child’s clothes were embroidered with the name ’Qiutian,’ so they mistakenly thought ’Tian’ was the surname and ’Qiu’ was the given name. They just started calling him Tian Qiu. And so, this Qiutian Shirou lived in Hai City as Tian Qiu for nearly twenty years."
"If Qiutian Sanlang had never gone to Hai City, Qiutian Shirou would probably still be living a good life with his adoptive parents there." Li Fenghuo continued, "Six years ago, the Qiutian Clan was coveting something in our Hua Country, so they sent Qiutian Sanlang to Hai City. Their original plan was to forge an identity for him. But, as luck would have it, Qiutian Sanlang ran into Tian Qiu. As twin brothers, they looked incredibly alike. Qiutian Sanlang knew he once had a twin who was kidnapped, so he immediately became suspicious of Tian Qiu’s identity. He conducted a secret investigation and finally confirmed that this Tian Qiu was, in fact, his long-lost twin brother, Qiutian Shirou."
"And then he killed his own brother to impersonate him?" Su Qing remarked. ’This Qiutian Sanlang is truly cold-blooded. Just what you’d expect from someone from Japan.’
"Not at first," Li Fenghuo said. "His original plan was to have Tian Qiu return to Japan while he took over Tian Qiu’s identity in Hai City. That way, he’d have a ready-made background. As for Tian Qiu’s adoptive parents, he planned to arrange an ’accident’ for them. That would make his identity in Hua Country completely legitimate."
Su Qing raised an eyebrow. "I take it Tian Qiu didn’t agree?"
"Correct. Qiutian Sanlang told Tian Qiu his plan directly," Li Fenghuo confirmed with a nod. "Tian Qiu was very close with his adoptive parents. Perhaps because of the good upbringing they gave him, he immediately cursed Qiutian Sanlang out after hearing the plan. He adamantly refused to switch identities and even planned to expose Qiutian Sanlang to stop him from succeeding."
"And then, Qiutian Sanlang struck the fatal blow." Su Qing narrowed her eyes. "He told me at the time that there was a huge fire at his home and that not only his parents, but also a neighbor, died in the blaze."
"Yes." Gu Xinsheng continued, "When Qiutian Sanlang saw that Tian Qiu wouldn’t agree and was going to expose him, he immediately orchestrated a fire that killed Tian Qiu’s family of three, as well as the next-door neighbor. That neighbor was close with the Tian family and was also a somewhat well-known traditional Chinese medicine doctor who had taught Tian Qiu some medical skills. All the neighbors knew about this. So, Qiutian Sanlang decided to kill the neighbor too, fearing he would expose his identity later, since the neighbor knew Tian Qiu so well."
"That bastard!" Su Qing couldn’t help but curse.
’Who knows how many innocent lives are on this Qiutian Sanlang’s hands.’
Su Qing thought for a moment, then asked, "So, have you found the person who was helping Qiutian Sanlang from behind the scenes?"
Mr. Li spoke up, "We found him. And we already have him under control in secret. We learned all this from him. He helped the Qiutian Clan with these matters, but he was afraid they’d get rid of him once he outlived his usefulness, so he saved evidence related to everything. It’s actually made our investigation much more convenient."
"Qiutian Sanlang doesn’t know yet, right?" Su Qing asked.
"He doesn’t. It was handled discreetly, so Qiutian Sanlang hasn’t noticed anything unusual yet." At this point, Gu Xinsheng paused, glanced at Su Qing, and added, "However, there is one thing that’s a bit strange."
Su Qing asked, "What is it?"
"Right now, Qiutian Sanlang is secretly investigating something. Based on what we’ve learned, it seems a shipment of antiques he was trying to transport to Japan was hijacked." Gu Xinsheng frowned. "And the person who hijacked the antiques didn’t just take the entire truckload; they may have also killed the people escorting the shipment."
"That’s right," Li Fenghuo added. "From what we currently understand, it was a very clean and efficient job. The person who took the antiques must have some special skills, because among the escorts was an Onmyoji from Japan, and a fairly powerful one at that."