1440 - Chapter 35

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 35
It was Yeon Su who picked up the thread of the conversation.
“They seem unaware of the Liquid Receiver’s human form or how to obtain it, but now that the term ‘Liquid Receiver’ itself has spread, it’s only a matter of time before other details leak out as well. So I believe we must find an alternative Liquid Cleansing method now, and ensure the family suffers no harm from malicious rumor. I speak thus, humbly.”
Neither In Eum nor Yeon Hyeong welcomed this. Yeon Hyeong especially—having just been forced to rein in his excitement over the Liquid Receiver—felt all the more frustrated.
Yet with his wife and mother present, and knowing gossip circulated among the shamans, his pride kept him from mounting any real defense. His hands trembled with barely suppressed rage before he finally added, late and bitter:
“And what of you? You perform Liquid Cleansing too, don’t you? Don’t stand there acting holier than thou.”
“Elder brother. That Liquid Receiver is an object—a thing. With mere contact, they took on the entire Reversed Curse I’d received. And within a day or two, they purified it completely. Isn’t that remarkable? You saw it yourself, didn’t you? How the Liquid Receiver’s skin healed entirely, all the way to the innermost layers.”
The last remark carried the implication that Yeon Hyeong had undressed the Liquid Receiver and touched them in intimate places. At this, his wife let out a small sniff through her nose and, unable to restrain herself further, rose and left.
Yeon Hyeong, mindful of his wife’s family fortune and their goodwill, soon grew restless, his eyes following her departure.
In Eum watched Yeon Su and reflected. In truth, over the several commissions they’d handled together, he’d never seen Yeon Su suffer any serious damage. So then—did the affliction truly flow entirely into the Liquid Receiver with only the slightest contact?
“So. What you mean to say is that we’ve been using the wrong method all this time?”
“I spoke only out of concern for the family’s wellbeing, offering such humble thoughts as I possess.”
Yeon Su answered with deference. In Eum rubbed his jaw, studying his first and second sons.
It was true—the eldest showed an excessive fixation on the Liquid Receiver. For In Eum, seeking them out was merely practical: when he’d taken too much affliction, he’d do Flesh Cleansing and taste a delicacy while he was at it. But the eldest, Yeon Hyeong, often sought them out even when he hadn’t taken on any affliction. In Eum knew this well.
Seeing his father’s pitying gaze, Yeon Hyeong seethed inwardly. His pride was wounded—was that Liquid Receiver truly such an extraordinary being that he kept seeking them out? The thought galled him.
And Baek Yeon Su, that bastard, transferred all the affliction with barely a touch, while he himself needed intercourse to purge it. The comparison made him look incompetent—and that stung far worse.
“……I won’t take the Liquid Receiver for personal use. But I will perform Liquid Cleansing! Father! What if I botch the Liquid Cleansing and suffer an Acute Curse? I am the firstborn of this house. I am the one who will carry on the family line!”
“Hmm……that’s not something I can forbid.”
“Exactly, yes? So all we need do is keep those servants’ mouths shut, and we continue as we have been…… The Liquid Cleansing, we do as we’ve always done. Isn’t that right?”
Even if he died doing so, he’d purge the affliction through men.
Watching In Eum’s subtle agreement, Yeon Su resolved never to entrust any curse-work to Yeon Hyeong or In Eum again. He could not give them an excuse to obtain men.
***
The next commission came swiftly. It was just the day after the heated discussion about the Liquid Receiver that a familiar client appeared—someone who visited the Baek household often with various commissions, both large and small.
Maximode. The holding company that sat at the very apex of South Korean fashion brands. Its chairman was Cha Ji Hee.
From her handbag—worth more than a foreign luxury car—she withdrew a handkerchief sold only to VIPs in limited edition, and tapped it repeatedly beneath her eyes, which bore no mark whatsoever.
Despite being in her late fifties, she appeared to be in her early forties, with a refined beauty so polished it seemed artificial—and there was something unsettling in her every gesture.
Cha Ji Hee examined Yeon Su, whom she was meeting for the first time, while feigning further tears.
The Baek family had always been well-built and handsome, but this Baek Yeon Su—a illegitimate son—had unusually delicate features. One could imagine what his mother must have looked like.
Filthy men. They all waggled their lower halves at the first new woman they see. Beneath the handkerchief, Cha Ji Hee’s lips twisted.
Yeon Su noticed her cold, shadowed gaze and deliberately ignored it, remaining motionless. After waiting a moment longer for her false weeping, In Eum finally greeted her himself.
“Madam Chairman. It’s been a while. We worried you might have had some trouble, given that you haven’t visited in so long.”
The implication being: Have you gone somewhere else instead of our shrine?
Cha Ji Hee understood perfectly but feigned obliviousness, laughing as she answered.
“If the Baek household had been in Seoul, I would have visited far more often. But I’m a businesswoman myself, and my schedule is……well, you understand.”
“Of course. I can’t imagine anyone as occupied as you, Madam Chairman.”
34
At In Eum’s deferential words, Cha Ji Hee exhaled a long sigh. Her delicate brows furrowed, her lips moved faintly, and she released her words like a lament.
“I’ve been very busy of late. In body and in spirit both.”
“Dear me. Has something unpleasant occurred?”
As In Eum asked with a concerned tone, Cha Ji Hee tapped her eyes with the handkerchief again. A soft sniffle escaped her before she began to explain her circumstances.
Cha Ji Hee’s husband, Gu Won Deuk, was a parasitic creature without a shred of ability. How such a man had managed to marry Cha Ji Hee—heiress to a major corporation—was a tale of their passionate love marriage, apparently.
Had they simply settled into a quiet, supportive domestic life, all would have been well. Instead, Gu Won Deuk had developed a sickness of ambition entirely beyond his station.
Worse, he lived off his wife’s fortune and connections while being insatiable for women—he couldn’t resist playing with even the most obvious and pathetic targets. To stop his futile business schemes, she’d given him a high-sounding position with no actual work, hoping to keep him busy. Instead, he’d taken it as a chance to harass female employees before finally leaving the company.
Each time Cha Ji Hee received reports of her husband’s outrages, she was caught between the desire to die and the desire to kill him—her stress was immeasurable.
Still, she’d managed to endure: hush money for sexual harassment complaints, mandatory resignations for the women he’d targeted, endless damage control. She loved Gu Won Deuk. If such obsession could be called love, then hers was indeed love.
But this time, the woman he’d set his sights on was not amenable to money or threats. She was a veteran journalist who primarily pursued scandals involving conglomerates and corporate corruption.
How Gu Won Deuk had become infatuated with her was incomprehensible. She had no idea where they’d met, or why he’d thrown his heart at her so completely.
Cha Ji Hee couldn’t—wouldn’t—understand his psychology. There she stood, so beautiful and refined, and yet he’d lost his heart to that wild, untamed woman instead.
The journalist had apparently allowed the meetings, thinking Gu Won Deuk might be a useful source. But she soon grew disgusted by his harassment and kept her distance. Yet her husband remained earnest—different from any of his previous targets.
Usually, when the other party filed a harassment complaint or rejected him with disgust, he’d back off. He had his pride, after all. But this time, even after the journalist threatened to expose him, he couldn’t let go.
He wept, calling it true love. He knelt before Cha Ji Hee, begging her for a divorce. He’d already proposed to the journalist. And yet that journalist treated him like nothing more than a rutting dog.
“……Did your husband tell you this himself?”
When In Eum asked, Cha Ji Hee gave a small, bitter laugh beneath the handkerchief.
“Of course not. I have someone watching him.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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