Chapter 340: So What If It's a Bit Melodramatic

Yu Dazhang suspected he was hearing things.

It wasn't strange for a criminal investigator to have hallucinations.

Excessive pressure, overusing the brain—these factors could all lead to taut nerves and produce hallucinations.

Besides, he'd been staking out the past few days, then took part in an interrogation, and after arriving at the hotel couldn't help analyzing the case.

You could say he hadn't had a single moment to himself.

There was another important reason he suspected he was hearing things…

Seeing Qu Tuotuo was an only daughter!

Where would an only daughter get a brother?

She'd said it very clearly just now, "My brother came home."

Note—not an older cousin, a paternal cousin, that kind of relative separated by a layer.

For Seeing Qu Tuotuo to call someone "brother" directly, it had to be a real family member.

Yu Dazhang didn't think she could make a verbal mistake, which was why he figured it was his own problem.

"I said it wasn't convenient for me to talk earlier, my brother came home."

Seeing Qu Tuotuo repeated what she'd just said.

Not a hallucination… Yu Dazhang froze for a beat, then asked:

"Your dad's illegitimate son showed up to claim kinship?"

Apart from that, he couldn't think of any other explanation.

He'd read Seeing Qu Tuotuo's file back then, and he even remembered the contents of the Qu family household register.

Absolutely no mistake—she was definitely an only daughter.

Besides, the two of them had been together this long; if she had a brother, she'd have said so long ago—there was no need to hide it at all.

"What?" Seeing Qu Tuotuo said, displeased:

"What kind of person do you take my dad for? He's not my real brother, no blood relation—he's my family's adopted son, just back from abroad."

An adopted son… Yu Dazhang suddenly understood.

At the same time, he made a judgment in his heart: this adopted son wasn't all that close to the Qu family, otherwise he wouldn't have only learned of this person now.

He'd met Qu Wannian many times, and not once had the old man mentioned this adopted son.

Which showed that person wasn't all that important in Old Qu's heart either.

"It's perfectly normal for him to come home—why do you seem a little afraid of him?" Yu Dazhang asked curiously.

He'd truly never seen Seeing Qu Tuotuo afraid of anyone, but this time he could clearly sense she was somewhat wary of that adopted son.

"It's not fear, it's disgust." Seeing Qu Tuotuo said, a little helplessly:

"He's the kind of person who's slick and good at putting on a front, plus he's very narcissistic. He's been obedient since he was little, and he's very good at reading people."

"But those little schemes of his can't be hidden—my dad saw right through him long ago, so he sent him abroad a long time ago."

That's perfectly normal… Yu Dazhang didn't hear anything off about it.

No matter how you slice it, he's still an adopted son. Even if others treat him well, living under someone else's roof inevitably brings a sense of dependence.

Choosing to disguise oneself, to protect oneself—that's simply human instinct.

But this kind of instinct, in Qu Wannian's eyes, meant the boy could never be tamed.

Old Qu had served in the military, shouldered a rifle, then spent years clawing his way through the business world—he'd seen every kind of person there was.

If he couldn't see through human nature, he'd have been eaten alive long ago.

Sending the adopted son abroad could be considered killing two birds with one stone.

One: out of sight, out of mind.

Two: giving the adopted son a bright future.

In Yu Dazhang's view, Qu Wannian had already done more than his duty.

"He comes home, and you get this tense—what for?"

Yu Dazhang didn't take it seriously either, feeling Seeing Qu Tuotuo's reaction was a bit over the top:

"If you don't like him, just keep your distance. Worst case, move out and hide somewhere—you're not without a place to stay."

Out of sight, out of mind; if you can't get along, just don't interact.

He didn't see anything worth agonizing over.

"Ugh, why can't you understand?" Seeing Qu Tuotuo's tone carried a hint of annoyance, but more than that, helplessness:

"He has those kinds of feelings toward me—seems like since we were little, he started having that kind of idea."

"I always feel like he sees me as his private property, even convinced that I belong to him."

"He came back this time for sure because he found out about the thing between us."

Those kinds of feelings? Yu Dazhang froze slightly, then frowned.

Aren't they siblings?

Fine, no blood relation.

Even without blood ties, they grew up together as siblings—how did other feelings develop?!

Something seemed off.

Logically speaking, two people who live together every day and address each other as brother and sister could basically never develop into a couple.

Because the earliest relationship was already set, they'd always interacted as siblings, and in their subconscious they'd long ago accepted this mode of getting along.

That was exactly how Seeing Qu Tuotuo was—in her eyes, the other person was her brother, nothing else.

But if the other party was forcibly trying to change that relationship, then it meant…

He wanted everything the Qu family had!

As long as he takes down Seeing Qu Tuotuo, the Qu family will sooner or later be his.

Yu Dazhang was used to hypothesizing first whenever he ran into a problem.

He wouldn't let pass any inference that fit the logic.

Judging by the current situation, this possibility was the greatest, and Qu Wannian must have seen through it long ago.

Then sending the adopted son abroad back then was killing three birds with one stone, making the adopted son give up that impractical notion.

"Damn, that's shameless!"

After Yu Dazhang caught on, he couldn't help cursing:

"An older brother lusts after his own sister—what kind of ungrateful wretch did your father take in back then!"

"Exactly, so gross." Seeing Qu Tuotuo chimed in, but then shifted her tone:

"But he was originally adopted by my mom, so it doesn't have much to do with my dad."

Did they ever do a paternity test… Yu Dazhang felt a bit worried for Qu Wannian.

The relationships in her family were really complicated.

That reminded Yu Dazhang of the Zhang Yan case from back then.

It was precisely because Zhou Zizhe developed feelings he shouldn't have that the tragedy finally unfolded.

But Zhang Yan and Zhou Zizhe were neighbors, a layer shallower compared to Seeing Qu Tuotuo and her family.

"You'd better hide away somewhere." Yu Dazhang suggested:

"From what you're saying, he's a man with deep schemes—better to stay far away from him."

He was afraid that person would, like Zhou Zizhe, turn love into hatred and play dirty against Seeing Qu Tuotuo.

"That won't do." Seeing Qu Tuotuo lowered her voice:

"I'm afraid he'll pour sweet talk into my mom's ears, so I have to stay home and keep watch, trying to minimize his contact with my mom."

What a soap opera… Yu Dazhang could empathize with Seeing Qu Tuotuo's situation.

Whether it was her own birth mother or that brother, she couldn't fall out with either, so she could only struggle to cope.

Regarding this, he also noticed one unusual point.

Since that adopted son was someone good at disguise, why didn't he bother to keep up the act this time?

Or rather, what gave him the nerve to challenge Qu Wannian?

On his own side, dating Seeing Qu Tuotuo had Qu Wannian's approval.

So for him to come back and declare his feelings meant going against Old Qu—even if his wings had hardened, he'd still need real strength to back it up.

"Did your brother make his fortune abroad?" Yu Dazhang could only make that kind of judgment.

"How did you know?" Seeing Qu Tuotuo said in surprise:

"Not only did he make his fortune, he also set up a company back in the country. According to him, foreign financial groups are very optimistic about his company's business prospects, and they're all scrambling to invest in his projects now."

That fit… Yu Dazhang felt this was the logical conclusion.

With a stronger backbone, he no longer needed to read Qu Wannian's expressions.

(End of chapter)