The Regressed Chaebol Grandson Finds It Hard to Forgive - Chapter 131

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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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Episode 131. Free Will (6)

“Mom~ I’m home from school~”

A soft sliding sound.

A girl passed through the entryway and stepped into the spacious house, greeting cheerfully.

“Mom! What happened today? Can you believe Tae-ung said he’d take responsibility for me~! Haha! It’s so funny. But honestly, it didn’t feel bad.”

Jang Ji-yu chattered on even as she removed her shoes.

She stepped into an empty living room.

The housekeeper had already left for the day.

She finished the housework before Ji-yu returned from school and went home.

When Ji-yu came home, the house was always hers alone.

But today something felt different.

“……!!”

One thing she’d missed while acting normally.
The air—it was different.

And there was a man’s shoe sitting in the entryway.

Only now did it strike her.

“Who…….”

At Cheonghwa High School, Ji-yu had been more fond of Ha Tae-ung than anyone.
But realistically, she was still just a teenager.

The spacious house should have been empty.

Yet she could see the back of someone’s head sitting on the sofa.

“Sit down.”
“……!!”

Ji-yu was startled.
A presence that never stayed in this house.

A man who had abandoned his only daughter and left to start a new life with a second wife and child.

Ji-yu’s facial muscles trembled.

The unexpected appearance of someone she never wanted to face.

“I have something to say.”

At his words, Ji-yu clenched her teeth and moved toward the sofa.

The man came into view.

Her biological father—a man with a record of driving her mother to her death and committing violence against her as a child.

“What is it?” Ji-yu asked coldly.

Her voice was ice.

Shindo Group Chairman Jang Yong-guk turned to look at her.

His daughter’s eyes held no emotion.

Or rather, a raw, barely concealed rage burned in their depths.

“Sit.”

Though he hadn’t seen his daughter in ages, Jang Yong-guk only told her to sit again.

His gaze was no different from hers.

There had been a time when he believed he could give her everything.

A woman he’d loved—though she’d been a public entertainer, unable to satisfy him.

He’d believed it was love when he chose her.

He’d even married her despite his family’s fierce opposition.

But his family had been right.
The longer they lived together, the deeper his disappointment grew.

Ju Hee-yeon, once a free spirit beloved by the public, gradually lost her light.

Even her beautiful face, envied by countless women, changed after she gave birth.

Her personality was never docile either.

On the many days when business exhausted him and he came home hoping for warmth, his wife never welcomed him.

Worst of all, his mother disapproved of her.

She subjected the top vocalist to intensive training in cooking classes and upper-class etiquette.

At family gatherings, Ju Hee-yeon endured open humiliation.

With only a high school diploma, she watched the family women converse in English.

That very night.
Ju Hee-yeon ended her life, her mind drowning in alcohol.

She had a daughter she cherished like her own life, but couldn’t be stopped.

Her marriage had been hell—unbearably cruel.

After Ju Hee-yeon left, Jang Yong-guk lived as he pleased.

Less than a year later, he brought a new woman into the house.

He had a child with her.

His moody, rebellious daughter—now a teenager—he left behind in her mother’s house.

Father and daughter, yet with little affection between them.

“I hate it.”

Ji-yu answered curtly.

“Your nasty temperament—you got it from your mother. Tsk.”

Jang Yong-guk clicked his tongue.

“Shut up! Who are you to speak about my mother!!”

Ji-yu’s eyes flipped like a different person.

That filthy man—those words should never come from his mouth.

Mother.

“You ungrateful brat!”

Slash—

In a blink, Jang Yong-guk stood and struck Ji-yu across the face.

Thud.

He cared nothing that she was his daughter.

Jang Yong-guk’s hands flew without mercy.

“Ugh…….”

Ji-yu bit her lip, choking back the sobs that threatened to escape.

She would never show tears before this beast—never give him the satisfaction of seeing her defeated.

“If you’re my blood, don’t go around acting loose.”
“…….”
“You’re the spawn of a bastard cast out by the Ha family. Don’t even speak the name of that Outcast. This isn’t advice—it’s a warning.”
“……!!”

Someone had deliberately leaked this information.

‘Ju Mi-ju!’

Ji-yu’s mind immediately named the culprit.

The elites of South Korea’s corporate world were closer to one another than one might think.

“If I hear your name and that bastard’s in the same breath one more time…… you’ll be alone. And that bastard…….”

His silence finished the threat perfectly.

The brutal, dirty hands that the world knew nothing of.

“And wipe that look off your face! How dare you—” He spat.

Jang Yong-guk spat at the living room wall photo of Ji-yu and Ju Hee-yeon together.

It was hard to believe this was the chairman of one of South Korea’s top ten conglomerates.

Footsteps faded.

Jang Yong-guk said what he came to say and left the house without hesitation.

“…….”

Ten minutes passed in silence.

Ji-yu stirred.

She rose from her seat.
His spit hung suspended on the photo of her and her mother.

She stared at it with vacant eyes, emotionless.

And then.

“Mom, watch from heaven without missing anything…… I swear by my own hand, that beast…… I will…….”

* * *

What’s with this kid?

Han Deok-im was somewhat bewildered.
The prospective property buyer was a genuine high school student.

She recognized he was enrolled at Cheonghwa High School.

Han Deok-im’s own blood relative had graduated from Cheonghwa High School.

Still, it didn’t quite make sense.

No matter how wealthy a chaebol heir might be, you don’t entrust hundreds of billions to a high school student.

It would immediately draw media attention.
Those people don’t pay Gift Tax or Inheritance Tax as written.

Unless the kid was nouveau riche who’d struck it rich overnight…….

“Student, do you know who I am?” Han Deok-im asked.

A reasonably well-to-do child might.

“No. This is our first meeting.”
“Yet you know what I’m wrestling with?”
“Yes.”
“How?”

Han Deok-im asked again, taken aback by his audacity.

In all her years, she’d never met anyone so bold—not since accumulating her fortune.

Even major conglomerate chairmen treated her with deference.

“Do you need further explanation? It should be obvious.”
“Doesn’t seem like a joke…….”

The high schooler met her gaze directly and unflinching.

This wasn’t idle banter.

“Tae-ung is the youngest grandson of Chairman Ha Cheol-gon of the Ha Ryun Group.”

Kang Jun-woo cut in.

“Ha Cheol-gon? The youngest grandson of that Ha Cheol-gon? The one I know……!”

Han Deok-im caught herself mid-sentence, startled.

There were certain forbidden words never spoken in front of the Ha family.

“My father’s name uses the same character for Ha—the character meaning ‘child.'”

Ha Tae-ung explained his identity with courtesy.

“Mmm…….”

A long sigh escaped Han Deok-im’s lips.

She’d never imagined meeting the blood relative of Ha Cheol-gon’s expelled son.

‘…….’

She had deliberately avoided entanglement with Chairman Ha Cheol-gon and the Ha family.

Han Deok-im came south from Sinuiju during the Korean War.

Through twisted fate and arduous struggle, she’d built her fortune.

A real estate tycoon worth nearly ten trillion won.

She owned prime commercial buildings, parcels of valuable land—registered under corporate and personal names.

“……Yes. That unpleasant grandfather of yours—anyone would want to avoid him.”

Han Deok-im admitted frankly.

“What if your current assets grew to at least double—or more—within three years? Would you still be afraid?”
“What? Double? You mean……?”

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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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