The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 44

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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 44

The impact had been so violent that each breath felt like a crack in her ribs. As Je-eon slowed the car slightly to accommodate Hee-seo’s whimpering pain, she couldn’t straighten her waist, and the collisions resumed from behind with relentless force.
Je-eon’s jaw hardened. He slammed the accelerator down, and his car shot dangerously along the winding asphalt road that cut through the mountain.
But as they navigated a bend and the speed dipped for just a moment, the red serpent’s long fangs didn’t miss the chance—they clamped down on the rear bumper and held fast.
Even with the rear caught, Je-eon pressed the accelerator harder. The tires spun and screamed, billowing smoke into the air.
“Hee-seo, stay with me! What do you need me to do? Just get us down the mountain, right?!”
Even with the fangs lodged in the bumper, Je-eon didn’t panic. He kept one hand on the wheel and used the other to press down on Hee-seo’s shoulder, keeping her from being thrown about as the car bucked and swayed.
‘Think. Hee-seo, you have to think.’
Even through the pain, Hee-seo fought to keep her mind sharp and clear.
She didn’t know how or why Je-eon had appeared here, but she wouldn’t accept becoming prey alongside him.
Biting her lip against the pain, Hee-seo leaned her head out the window. Je-eon reached for her clothes with a worried hand, but when she grasped his hand in return, he said nothing more.
‘To expend power like this on a mountain where a Mountain Deity dwells…….’
This was a mountain where even a Shaman with weak Won-ryeok couldn’t set foot at the mountain’s entrance—the Mountain Deity’s power was that formidable. What on earth could this creature be?
Hee-seo tore her eyes from the red mist that hung so close it seemed ready to swallow the car whole, and scanned their surroundings.
Though it felt as though they’d descended the asphalt road for a long distance, all she could see was thick vegetation and a valley stream flowing between the slopes.
‘The valley……!’
And then, not far ahead, Hee-seo recognized a familiar boulder. Beneath it, water flowing down from the mountain had gathered into a deep pool.
The water pooled here was suffused with divine essence—it was the same water used as Purified Holy Water at Baek Song Am. Hee-seo shouted decisively at Je-eon.
“Stop the car at that boulder!”
“What? What are you saying right now? Stop there? Have you lost your mind?!”
“You have to stop at the next curve! As far off the road as you can! Get us close to that rock!”
“Ha——!”
At Hee-seo’s insistence, Je-eon’s face went rigid.
That boulder she described sat right at the edge of a cliff. If he miscalculated the braking even slightly, they’d plummet straight down.
While Je-eon hesitated, another merciless impact shook the car—Bang!
“Je-eon, hurry! Turn the wheel!”
Hee-seo’s voice rose as she gripped the arm that held her, her words tumbling out urgently.
The moment she cried out, the red serpent’s eyes fixed on her through the rearview mirror with laser focus. Its fanged mouth hung wide, torn and dripping, as if it meant to swallow the entire car in one bite.
There was no time left to hesitate.
“Hee-seo, wait——!”
Hee-seo’s hands seized the wheel. Je-eon’s foot found the brake with desperation as she wrenched the car toward the cliff’s edge, but the serpent struck the car’s rear with brutal force. The vehicle, carrying Hee-seo and Je-eon, plunged vertically toward the pool below.
Splash!
The car struck the pool with a tremendous spray of water. Hee-seo, who had braced herself for the impact by gripping her safety belt, opened her eyes wide in shock.
Je-eon had half-thrown himself from the driver’s seat and was holding her, cradling her against him.
“What are you doing right now, Je-eon?”
Because Je-eon held her this way, it seemed he had absorbed the full force of the fall against his own back.
There was no time to study the pain twisting his face—water began pouring in through the open window.
At the same moment, Je-eon’s car sank deeper and deeper beneath the surface.
“Ugh……. Quickly, get out. Hee-seo, get out of the water now!”
Je-eon tried to open the passenger door, but the water pressure held it fast. Before he could finish speaking, the icy water flooded the entire cabin. There was no time to draw a breath and hold it.
Hee-seo shook her head at Je-eon as he tried desperately to push her toward the open window. Then she gestured silently with her lips, pointing upward toward the surface.
“……!”
The water had turned murky as the car struck bottom, but the red light rippling across the surface above was terrifyingly, impossibly vivid. Hee-seo held her breath, wrapped her arms around Je-eon, and pulled both their bodies deeper into the car.
Something swept across the surface above, and the water shuddered. Each time it did, the car trembled.
‘My breath—I can’t hold it.’
Water had rushed in so quickly through the open window that she’d barely managed to take a breath before needing to hold it.
One small mercy was that, as she’d anticipated, the red serpent didn’t follow them down into the depths. Yet holding her breath grew more and more agonizing.
To make matters worse, the longer she held her breath, the more the impact against her chest screamed with pain.
Her collapsing lungs expelled a desperate exhale—cough!—and water forced its way in through her nose and mouth. Hee-seo quickly pressed both hands to her lips to seal them.
Above her, the serpent still thrashed against the surface, making sharp hissing sounds—Shhh, shhh.
And as Hee-seo’s body began to convulse, no longer able to hold her breath,
“……uh, mmph.”
A long breath flowed in through their pressed lips. Hee-seo’s half-dimmed eyes stared at the face that had moved so close to hers.
Swaying in the current like a merman, the beautiful man was sharing his breath with her. The moment their gazes met, Hee-seo drank in his air with desperate hunger.
Her body grew cold and numb. Yet where their lips met, heat bloomed with an almost surreal intensity. Even through the turbid water, she could feel his gaze, sharp and clear. Breath mingled with breath. Warmth passed between them.
But her consciousness was already slipping away, dimmer and dimmer.

***

A tentative touch brushed near her shoulder, so careful it barely registered.
Hee-seo tried to lift her heavy eyelids but gave up almost at once. Her entire body ached as though she’d been beaten with a baseball bat.
‘Right—I almost did get hit with a baseball bat…….’
Fragmented scenes flashed through her mind.
Men swinging blunt weapons, the mountain path where she’d fled from them, and the phone call that had come through. The voice on the line had unmistakably been Je-eon’s.
‘And he appeared the moment the call ended.’
As though he’d been watching over her from somewhere all along—it was almost unbelievable. If not for him, she would have fallen victim to the red serpent.
‘……Just who is he?’
Bizarre from the very beginning, that man.
Hee-seo recalled how he’d wrapped himself around her as the car plummeted, and how his lips had been strangely warm even in the bone-chilling water.
The breath he’d exhaled seemed to linger still on her lips.
While Hee-seo turned memories over in her mind, the careful hand tending to her faltered. At the same moment, a wave of drowsiness swept over her—mingling with her awareness of Je-eon—leaving her helpless.
While she couldn’t move a single finger, the hesitant hand gently stroked her arm. To her uncertain senses it felt like a damp cloth, though she couldn’t be certain.
Was it Je-eon? Most likely, given that he’d plunged into the water after her. But hadn’t he been hurt too?
He’d surely struck the dashboard on her behalf; his body must have taken damage…….
“Hee-seo.”
And the voice that followed hardened her suspicion into certainty.
She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should let him see her so unguarded. Yet there was nothing for it. More than that, there was something almost soothing—an edge of urgency—in his voice that wasn’t unpleasant.
Hee-seo surrendered to sleep, cradled by that quiet murmur. A pleasant drowsiness softened her features.

After that, Hee-seo drifted in and out of consciousness several times.
Each time she opened her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. Even at a glance, the room was luxurious and strange. When she finally woke with her strength fully restored, it was approaching dawn.
With effort, she propped up her torso. Leaning against the headboard, Hee-seo surveyed her own body. Even without close inspection, the pain alone told her roughly how badly she was injured.
“Is it broken……?”
The most acute pain radiated from her right shin—where it had struck stone when she tumbled down the mountainside while fleeing from the red serpent. From the way it was bound with bandages and secured by a splint, it seemed the bone was cracked rather than flesh torn.
A low sigh escaped her, and immediately her ribs near her chest began to ache. She reached up beneath her loose t-shirt and felt an unfamiliar texture.
“……Now I understand what he was hesitating about.”
Tight bandaging, not undergarments, wrapped around her chest.

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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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