Chapter 89: A Fake is Always a Fake
"Qin Shu, what’s the status? Is Gu Zisheng actually Li Ergou?!"
Zhao Shuo shot to his feet, excited. If they could just confirm it, they could go to the Gu Family’s residence and arrest him openly!
The others also rose nervously, their eyes fixed on Qin Shu.
Qin Shu’s expression was grave, her brow furrowed. "Gu Zisheng’s fingerprints are a match."
"What!" The group’s expressions changed.
Lu Xingye stood up. "Chen Yongwei! Chen Yongwei is a dermatologist. Transplanting Gu Zisheng’s fingerprints onto Li Ergou wouldn’t be difficult for him."
No wonder Li Ergou had Zhou Zihang study medicine. What a brilliant scheme.
He looked at Qin Shu. "And the test between the deceased and Mrs. Gu?"
"The accuracy is greater than 99.99%!"
Zhou Tiancheng breathed a sigh of relief. "Then we can confirm the deceased is the real Gu Zisheng."
Just as Zhou Tiancheng finished speaking, he suddenly got a call from a colleague stationed by the lake. "Captain Zhou, Gu Zisheng is here!"
A smile touched Zhou Tiancheng’s lips. He hadn’t expected this Li Ergou to be unable to resist walking right into their trap. It seemed pulling the officers from the lakefront hadn’t been in vain.
"Move in! Arrest him! If he gets away, we might as well all quit!"
"Zhao Shuo, you go inform the Gu Family. Remember, keep it quiet. Don’t make a big scene."
Zhou Tiancheng gave Zhao Shuo and the others a few instructions before leading a team to the lake. He couldn’t trust them alone to handle a monster like Li Ergou.
"Captain Zhou, Gu Zisheng took off in his car! Have the teams at other intersections intercept him!" a colleague’s panicked voice crackled over the radio.
"Got it." Zhou Tiancheng took out his radio to contact the other units.
Lu Xingye went to the surveillance room, had them pull up the roadside cameras, and coordinated with the pursuing officers to set up a blockade.
Jiang Li watched the bustling crowd, sat down, and took a few sips of water. Thinking of the person she had met at the banquet, hatred flared in her eyes.
Wu Jianzhang, a very famous figure in the medical world.
Qiao Siyuan had drugged her before, and she had woken up in the research institute. After a series of torturous ordeals, her will was gradually broken, and she had to watch with her own eyes as Little Li faded away, bit by bit, right in front of her.
Jiang Li kept her head down, her nails digging deep into her palms as her emotions began to surge.
"Big Sister."
Little Li’s voice echoed in her mind, and she instantly snapped back to reality. Her tense body relaxed, returning to normal.
"It’s nothing."
A passing police officer paused. "Miss Jiang, what did you say?"
"Oh, it’s nothing. I was just texting my little brother," Jiang Li said, looking up and flashing him a smile.
The officer shivered. ’Why do I suddenly have a chill running down my spine?’
"Oh, okay. Well, I’ll get back to it. Miss Jiang, just call us if you need anything."
Silence fell around Jiang Li once more, and she seemed to relax completely. She picked up her phone and sent a message to Yu Huannian and Miao Anji back home, telling them she wouldn’t be back tonight.
She wanted to know what was really going on, too.
A flurry of urgent footsteps approached as Gu Huacheng and Liu Ting arrived in a hurry with their people.
"What in the world is going on? Who... who is my son?" Gu Huacheng demanded, grabbing Zhao Shuo.
On the way here, he couldn’t wrap his head around it. He had spent every day with his son, right under his own nose. How could he... how could he suddenly not be his son anymore?
But they had come to his door with a lab report. Even if he didn’t understand, he had to come and see what was happening.
"Mr. Gu, please don’t panic. This way, please."
Zhao Shuo led Gu Huacheng and Liu Ting to a seating area and laid out all the evidence.
Liu Ting’s gaze, however, fell on Jiang Li. "It’s you?"
Jiang Li stood up and greeted her. "Yes, it’s me, Mrs. Gu."
Gu Huacheng frowned at Jiang Li, but in the next second, Zhao Shuo redirected his attention.
"Mr. Gu, your son was replaced by an imposter a year ago. Your real son was brutally murdered one night, his body dumped in the lake..."
Zhao Shuo explained the whole story from beginning to end.
"Mr. Gu, did you really not notice anything was wrong?"
Gu Huacheng’s face was grim as he recalled the time they had spent together.
Liu Ting was already sobbing uncontrollably. "No wonder... no wonder I always felt so uneasy..."
’So my son was long gone.’
"So, are you saying that Zhou Zihang is my... my Zisheng?" Gu Huacheng’s face turned pale. "No wonder... no wonder I ran into Zhou Zihang twice before.
"He looked like he wanted to rush up to me, very agitated, and he even got into a few conflicts with Zisheng.
"I... at the time, I thought Zisheng had made a poor choice in friends, befriending an ungrateful wretch.
"I didn’t think much of it. Later, when Zisheng stopped hanging out with Zhou Zihang, I actually felt relieved..."
As Gu Huacheng spoke, he began to pound his chest. His son! His sweet, sensible son!
’If only I had listened, if only I had looked into it, would things be different?’
"Mr. Gu, you said Gu Zisheng was under your nose every day?"
Liu Ting shook her head, choking back sobs. "No. There was one vacation... Zisheng said he wanted to go on a trip with his classmates. That time, he was gone for two months. When he came back, he said he’d gotten a bad sunburn and kept wearing a mask...
"The company was having some issues at the time, so I didn’t tell you."
"Even if he had plastic surgery to look like Zisheng, how could our paternity test, his voice, his habits, and his food aversions all be exactly the same?"
Gu Huacheng voiced the question burning in his mind. A face could be changed, but what about a voice and habits?
Zhao Shuo presented the Wang Changfeng case file. "Because this wasn’t his first time.
"Every single second he spent with Gu Zisheng, he was studying and mimicking him, paving the way to replace the real Gu Zisheng flawlessly and as if it were the most natural thing in the world."
Gu Huacheng quickly picked it up and read it carefully. After finishing, his vision momentarily went black, and a painful tightness seized his chest.
"So, this... this person isn’t Zhou Zihang either, but Li Ergou. He started scheming so long ago."
"It’s all my fault! I raised Zisheng to be too good. If he had been a little more selfish, he wouldn’t have fallen for Li Ergou’s trap!" Liu Ting wailed, completely breaking down.
’If my son hadn’t been so kind-hearted, he wouldn’t have met such a cruel fate.’
With a trembling hand, Gu Huacheng instructed his assistant beside him, "Go... go assist the police. Bring... bring this Li Ergou back!"
Jiang Li watched the heartbroken pair, momentarily at a loss for words.
...
"Let me go! Why are you arresting people without cause!"
"Gu Zisheng" was brought back by Zhou Tiancheng and his team, his hands in cuffs.
The moment Gu Huacheng saw "Gu Zisheng," he stood up in a rage and slapped him across the face.
"My son was so good to you! He was afraid you’d go hungry, so he brought you meals! He paid your tuition! He supported you! It was Zisheng who asked us to help with your grandmother’s illness!"
"You heartless monster! We could have given you any amount of money! Why did you have to harm my son?! Why!"
Gu Huacheng grabbed Li Ergou by the collar, his eyes bloodshot as he interrogated him.
Seeing that he had vented some of his anger, Zhao Shuo stepped forward to intervene. "Mr. Gu, calm down. Please, calm down."
Li Ergou was still trying to bluff. "Dad, Mom, I’m your real son."
’The police don’t have proof. This is just their speculation. I can’t admit defeat until the very end!’
"Get out!" Gu Huacheng roared, slumping back into his chair, his face ashen.
"Li Ergou, Zhou Zihang has already confessed," Lu Xingye said, calling him by his real name.
Li Ergou’s face stiffened. He himself had almost forgotten his own name. Li Ergou—a name that reeked of filth.
"What Li Ergou? I’m not Li Ergou. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
"Dad! Mom! We just did a paternity test, have you forgotten?"
At this moment, Li Ergou was agitated, his former gentle, jade-like demeanor gone. He looked completely fractured.
"That’s because you used Gu Zisheng’s hair for the DNA test. Li Ergou, a fake is always a fake. You’re not Wang Changfeng, and you’re not Gu Zisheng.
"You’re just Li Ergou from Li Family Village!"