The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 50

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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 50

After Je Eon came to live in the house, Su Yeon’s chronic illness worsened steadily. And after Su Yeon’s death, the sickness passed to Je Seon.
When Je Eon encountered his older brother Je Seon for the first time in ages, he was reminded of Su Yeon’s final moments. Je Eon, who had already learned death firsthand, sensed instinctively that Je Seon would not last long.
Je Seon’s lips trembled as though he were trying to say something. But his voice was far too weak.
Je Eon strained to listen, watching Kim Jong Hyup’s frightened expression from the corner of his eye. Je Seon whispered in a sound so faint it seemed ready to vanish.
−Je Eon, now, even… run, away.
−What?
The words were so quiet they were nearly incomprehensible. Je Eon was leaning his head closer to hear.
Je Seon’s eyes flashed open in a convulsion, and he let out a scream. It was a shriek that felt as though it would tear the ears apart.
−Run! Run! Run! Run!!!
Je Seon thrashed about, twisting his body. Only then did Je Eon realize that his older brother’s hands and feet were bound tightly to the bed.
Startled, Je Eon jumped back in terror, and in that instant someone pressed down on his shoulders. Then came the sound—thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. A dull, rhythmic pounding.
Je Eon’s body too was bound, and he was forced to lie beside Je Seon. Consumed by fear, the young Je Eon listened to his brother’s screams.
He understood that what Kim Jong Hyup had once told him was now happening here, but he was too young to control his terror.
Yet in that moment, when his eyes met those of a woman dressed in pure white Martial Robes, Je Eon felt an indescribable sense of relief.
It was an impossible relief to feel in the instant his life might be stolen away. And the woman’s words that followed were Je Eon’s last memory.

‘Je Seon.’
Je Eon pressed his chest lightly while burying his head in Hee Seo’s palm.
From that day forward, Je Seon had coexisted within Je Eon’s body. Or rather, Parasitism was the more accurate term. Coexistence or Parasitism—neither was what Kim Jong Hyup had desired.
He had wanted his own grandson to possess Je Eon’s body entirely. He had wanted Je Seon to cast out Je Eon and live again in a healthy form.
And as Kim Jong Hyup requested of the sorceress, for several years after ‘that day,’ Je Eon showed no trace of consciousness—as though he had vanished forever.
But at some point, Je Eon awakened from deep slumber.
The awakening from that long sleep was very brief, and he felt no sense of reality. Yet afterward, remarkably, the frequency and duration of Je Eon surfacing grew steadily more frequent.
Each time he woke, Je Eon found himself grown older. Until then, waking itself had seemed more like a dream.
Moreover, Je Eon was no longer a Viper’s Offspring. People loved him and cherished him, and no one pointed fingers at him anymore. Even Kim Jong Hyup regarded him with affection.
For this reason, Je Eon’s act of playing Je Seon was a choice made for survival.
And so Je Eon’s days of performing as Je Seon continued. Then, after their father Jae Seob died suddenly, Je Seon vanished completely beneath the surface.
Contrary to his expectation that sleep would drag him back into darkness where he would open his eyes again, Je Eon did not sink back into that void—not after a week, not after a month, not after a year. Instead, Je Seon’s presence simply faded.
‘Brother.’
And it was Kim Jong Hyup who recognized this fact first.
The grandfather knew Je Seon had vanished, with no evidence to prove it. And the person Kim Jong Hyup had arranged for this was none other than Hee Seo.
‘Perhaps even my falling in love with this woman was part of the chairman’s plan. Don’t you think so?’
He had not foreseen falling in love with her. He had merely been curious about Hee Seo as a woman. And the more he learned of her, the more helplessly he was drawn toward her. Loving Hee Seo was as irresistible to Je Eon as fate itself.
And now she too was wavering before him. Though perhaps not with equal weight, she had unmistakably allowed Je Eon to cross the line.
Perhaps it would have been better if Hee Seo had been the kind of woman who crumbled easily under a moment’s desire.
‘Brother, I…’
There was only one reason Je Eon had survived until now.
To atone for Su Yeon’s death. For Je Seon, who would surface again from sleep.
That was why Je Eon had been born, and it was the reason he had endured all this time.
But this woman. Hee Seo’s presence made Je Eon realize that his heart was changing.
‘What if I don’t willingly return this place to him?’
Then I would become a Viper’s Offspring in the end, wouldn’t I, brother?
Je Eon’s lips twisted, and a low laugh escaped him.
A beast who had forsaken Heavenly Bonds—the very thing he had so desperately denied.
Could he not escape his fate after all?
As Je Eon continued laughing in suppressed sobs, he suddenly let out a gasp of agony. A sharp pain, as though needles were piercing his skull, overwhelmed him. His vision blurred from the sudden anguish, and he could barely breathe.
Je Eon quickly threw himself beneath the bed. He could not show Hee Seo such a state and frighten her.
With a body that would barely obey him, Je Eon crawled to the bathroom and locked the door with trembling hands.
“Ugh, ugh…! Ah!”
It was a pain he had never experienced before. Without thinking, Je Eon slammed his head against the bathroom wall.
He thought that if his skull would simply shatter, it might bring relief. Yet even as flesh tore and blood flowed, the agony did not ease at all.
Clinging to the edge of the bathtub to barely endure, his entire body was soon drenched in cold sweat. His lip was bitten through—blood pooled metallic in his mouth, but he had no strength left to swallow.
Time seemed to crawl. Unable to bear the pain any longer, as his consciousness began to slip away, someone called his name.
Bang!
With that familiar voice as his last thought, Je Eon collapsed onto the bathroom floor and lost consciousness.

***

When Hee Seo’s eyes opened, Je Eon already had her cradled in his arms. She grabbed at her lower belly in panic.
“Ah, ah—wait, wait… ah, stop, wait.”
She’d always been confident in her stamina, but when had she fallen asleep? And since when…?
Her mind was tangled, a complete mess.
“Ah, ah—! Ugh, ah, it hurts, it hurts, please—”
Even after holding him all night, the sensation that returned now was agonizing. Her voice, so unlike her, wavered with tears. For some reason, the rough motions had chased away sleep entirely.
The man pinned her arms behind her back to keep her from escaping. Each time he tightened his grip, a searing pain shot through her. Hee Seo thrashed and tried to push him away.
The night with Je Eon before she’d fallen asleep had been fevered, but nothing like this—nothing so violent. Now he was pinning her down as though he were someone else entirely.
Then, in a flash, Hee Seo felt as though she’d swallowed ice. Her blood ran cold.
Je Eon had never handled her so roughly, not once. Which meant the person clinging to her right now was…
The very thought made her heart drop, and her whole body went numb with dread.
“Stop it, Je Eon!”
Hee Seo screamed as though possessed. In that instant, the man pressing down on her went completely still.
That alone was enough. She knew who the man suffocating her body was. A feeling beyond words washed over her, and she gripped the sheets.
Hee Seo turned her head and glared at him with reddened eyes. The expressionless face was still Kim Je Eon’s, but he was not the man who had shared body and soul with her until now.
Her lips trembled finely. It was difficult to name this feeling.
But one thing was certain.
“What you just did to me—I’ll make sure you pay for it, understand?”
“…Why?”
Je Eon asked back, his face blank. As though he had no idea what wrong he’d committed.
Hee Seo couldn’t contain her rage. She swung her fist. Thwack! It wasn’t a blow with full force, but her clenched fist struck Je Eon’s face squarely.
“Get away from me right now!”
Where had he gone? She couldn’t understand why he—the one who’d been with her only moments ago—had vanished at this crucial moment.
But as Hee Seo had said, she could protect herself without him. She shoved Je Eon away and put distance between them. If he came any closer, she was ready to kick him off.

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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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