The Rogue, Genius, Chaebol's Daughter is a Baby Master Detective! - Chapter 32

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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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A hooligan, a genius, and a chaebol’s daughter—together, they are baby detectives!
Episode 32
Lee Hyun-woo shook with silent laughter, his shoulders trembling.
“A rotten apple, she says. A rotten apple.”
Unable to contain himself any longer, he clutched his belly and broke into genuine laughter.
“Hah! Look at our girl’s creative vocabulary. She must take after me, right?”
“Be quiet.”
Kang Tae-jun slapped the documents closed. His gaze drifted toward Haru’s Detective Notebook. When he saw the last line, his expression darkened considerably.
“Giving up on being heir? Have you forgotten the special training you did with your father?”
Haru set down her Magnifying Glass and answered with a serious face.
“Haru likes fun things. Just flipping papers isn’t fun.”
“…If you want to become an admirable person, you have to endure boring things too.”
“Do you endure boring things even though they’re not fun?”
Kang Tae-jun froze. When was the last time he’d considered whether something was fun?
“Well. You can’t spend your whole life doing only what’s fun.”
“But Haru wants to do only fun things…”
Lee Hyun-woo began applauding theatrically from the side.
“That’s my daughter, all right. Life’s too short not to do what you love.”
Kang Tae-jun turned to Haru with a firmer expression.
“Haru, if there’s something you truly want, you have to learn to endure hardship for it.”
Haru fidgeted with her fingers before speaking.
“Haru knows. You have to not eat the marshmallow and save it so you can eat more marshmallows later.”
“Yes. Exactly that.”
Lee Hyun-woo let out a dry chuckle.
“If life worked out just by enduring, everyone would be happy. But it doesn’t work that way, Haru. You might not get your marshmallow at all. Someone might steal it. Or you might die without ever getting to eat it. There’s nothing wrong with eating it while it’s right in front of you.”
Sparks seemed to crackle between the two men.
Kang Tae-jun’s voice turned cold.
“Come with me.”
He manipulated his phone, then turned to Haru, who stood vacant-eyed.
“Haru, Secretary Park will come get you. Go home with her.”
“But… Haru hasn’t finished the investigation yet…”
Kang Tae-jun’s eyes grew stern.
“Yes. I understand.”
“I’ll take you home after we finish talking.”
“How could I trust you? Come on.”
Lee Hyun-woo scratched the side of his head at Kang Tae-jun’s look, then pushed down his Heart-shaped Sunglasses and followed after him.
***
The two men entered a small office adjacent to the CEO’s Office. Kang Tae-jun leaned against the desk with his arms crossed.
“Inconsistent parents confuse children. Telling her to eat the marshmallow right now? What does it mean that I told her to endure?”
“You’re acting like you’ve become her father just because you’ve been taking care of Haru for a little while.”
Lee Hyun-woo thrust his hands into his pockets and smirked. Kang Tae-jun’s eyes turned glacial.
“Nothing’s decided yet. If I become her father, I’ll raise her consistently my own way—no confusion. So don’t worry about it.”
His tone was light, but Kang Tae-jun caught how Lee Hyun-woo’s voice had dropped when he said “if I become her father.” Kang Tae-jun’s own voice grew heavy.
“Your way is wrong.”
“You’re making some pretty definitive statements. You don’t know anything about raising children yourself.”
“At least I don’t take children along with me thoughtlessly.”
Kang Tae-jun stared directly at Lee Hyun-woo.
“I doubt I’d trust you with Haru for a month.”
Lee Hyun-woo’s eyes turned feral.
“Why are you the one questioning that? It was Jang-mi who called us all here. This isn’t your place to doubt, is it?”
A tense silence fell between them. Kang Tae-jun’s jaw tightened as he thought.
What was Jang-mi thinking? That woman always struck him from behind when he least expected it, always outside his calculations. From start to finish, he was always the one being pulled along.
When he’d gotten word that the child was being left in their care, he’d been genuinely happy. Until two other men showed up.
If he could possess Jang-mi entirely, nothing else mattered. If he became the perfect father, he’d earn the right to stand beside her. That much, at least.
And yet the child was something he’d taken on with that very heart.
“I put up with the month you spent with her. You put up with this too.”
Lee Hyun-woo laughed carelessly.
“Should we head back? There’s not going to be a conclusion anyway. That engineering guy was analyzing the kid with some data or something… No one here is sane, anyway.”
Kang Tae-jun narrowed the space between his brows. Lee Hyun-woo was right—the process was taking longer than expected.
The two men turned back toward the CEO’s Office.
“Why are you following me?”
“If you haven’t left yet, I figured I’d give you a ride.”
Lee Hyun-woo shrugged and opened the door to the CEO’s Office.
The empty room held only a pallid secretary, who stood wringing his hands nervously. Kang Tae-jun’s face hardened at once.
“Where’s Haru?”
“That’s the thing—when I arrived, there was already no one here. I thought perhaps she’d gone to play hide-and-seek, so I looked around, but she’s not in the hallway or the break room either.”
Kang Tae-jun’s gaze suddenly shifted to the desk. He picked up a sheet of paper and furrowed his brow.
“What is this?”
Between dense lines of text sat some sort of incomprehensible drawing.
Behind him, Lee Hyun-woo craned his neck forward for a look.
“Is that a pile of crap?”
There were circles stacked upon circles, with arrows drawn between them. Beside it, clumsy handwriting had been scrawled.
Super great.
“Super great?”
He could parse complex contracts in three seconds using Speed Reading alone. Yet this made absolutely no sense to him.
Lee Hyun-woo tapped Kang Tae-jun’s shoulder.
“Haha, Haru left you a little present.”
‘She must have just been doodling.’
Kang Tae-jun set the paper down. Something else mattered right now. He turned to the secretary. “Security footage.”
“Sir?”
“Pull up the CCTV for every floor.”

***
Once the two men had left on friendly terms, Haru quietly slid a piece of paper toward herself.
‘He won’t have the faintest idea what that means!’
With her lips pursed in concentration, Haru picked up her fountain pen and began scribbling something furiously on the page. Then, satisfied with her work, she set the pen down with a pleased smile and neatly returned the paper to its original spot.
She sat on the sofa swinging her legs, but the secretary never came back.
Haru quietly opened her Detective Notebook.
Text unfurled through the air in a shimmering display.
[The Dark-Haired Man]
Insufficient character information. Unlock the character through investigation.
[Investigation Progress 8/10]
Ugh! She’d completed the special training and the job investigation both, and it still wasn’t enough!
Besides, the man wanted to send her home before she’d even finished investigating him.
‘Wait—this is my chance!’
Haru cracked open the door and peered down the hallway. It was empty.
‘Detective Haru, commencing infiltration!’
Haru snapped her Heart-shaped Sunglasses onto her face. Today was the day she’d finally crack the dark-haired man’s file!
Haru crawled across the polished marble floor on her hands and knees and reached the Elevator. She stood up with a wince and wiped the sweat from her brow.
“Phew. Perfect.”
Inside the Elevator, Haru pressed a random floor button.
Ding.
The doors slid open to reveal a sprawling Office full of people. There were so many! Haru hugged the wall nearby and peeked out just enough to see.
Just then,
“The CEO’s coming down.”
At someone’s words, the entire Office’s atmosphere shifted strangely. An employee who’d been holding a coffee cup and chatting hurried back to his desk. People standing in the hallway scattered in all directions.
Tap-tap, tap.
The sound of keyboards grew louder. Haru’s eyes went wide.
“They all ran away.”
The hallway that had been bustling moments before emptied in an instant.
Haru rubbed her chin with a solemn expression.
‘The dark-haired man…’
She’d known he had no friends, but this was something else entirely.
‘Is he an outcast at his own company?’
Then, from a nearby desk, she heard two employees whispering.
“Did you hear the rumors? The CEO’s supposed to be dating someone.”
Thump-thump!
The CEO was the dark-haired man’s job title. And Haru knew what dating meant too. There were kids in her beginner class who held hands tightly while walking around together after all!
‘The man is in a Romance! This is huge information!’
Haru’s ears perked up as she pressed herself close to a pillar.
“Oh, come on. Who’d believe that?”
“I’m serious. Last Friday he didn’t even come to the office—took the whole day off.”
“Said he was sick or something….”
Haru tilted her head, puzzled.
‘Last Friday was my trip day. That’s when he was investigating the Zoo acquisition!’
“No, it’s suspicious. People say he’s been glued to his phone lately, and the moment a call comes in he just drops whatever meeting he’s in and bolts. Isn’t that what people do when they’re dating?”
“What if… he actually has a fiancée after all?”

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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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