The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 64

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

64

The mere thought of the snake sent cold sweat trickling down his spine. The creature’s gaze was fixed unmistakably on the basement where Hee-seo was.
It was only then that Kim Je-eon recalled how Hee-seo had collapsed after seeing something near the entrance hall where he’d been standing.
If what she’d seen was truly this sinister snake, he couldn’t expose her to danger any longer.

—Leave this estate. Right now. Otherwise, I can’t help you anymore.

The day Kim Jong-hyup had banished her from his estate, Hee-seo had vanished without a word.
And since leaving, she hadn’t called him or sought him out. That fact was simultaneously reassuring and devastatingly painful.
Base possessiveness, a hunger to be loved, foolish jealousy, and longing for her—emotions he’d thought would die with him—tangled together and tormented him every night.
Kim Je-eon loved Hee-seo.
For the first time in his life, he had fallen in love with a woman he considered merely a ghost.
The reason was simple, and the feeling was heavy beyond measure.
‘I meant what I said about helping you. That, at least, was sincere.’
Veins rose and fell visibly beneath his hands gripping the steering wheel.
The reason he’d lived until now had been rewritten by a single woman named Hee-seo. He knew someone would condemn him for it, but he harbored no regret for his choice.
It was only when the phone rang—before he could answer it—that he’d made up his mind to leave the car and walk.

***

Rumors began to circulate that Kim Jong-hyup had fallen gravely ill.
No one knew exactly what was happening within the estate, shrouded as it was in layers of secrecy. But the fact that Kim Jong-hyup and his successor Kim Je-eon had confined themselves indoors, showing no sign of leaving, was enough to suggest this was no ordinary matter.
“Is that really true?”
“Pardon? What is?”
“That. I heard the Chairman came down with Ghost Illness and can’t even recognize people anymore…….”
“Goodness, what nonsense! If you’re going to spread such rumors, you shouldn’t come here anymore, Mr. Park.”
Park, who supplied ingredients to the estate, asked quietly, but the employee waved him off dismissively and glanced around as though worried someone might overhear.
At this oversensitive response, Park let out a dry chuckle and shook his head.
“Everyone in the neighborhood knew this whole family was afflicted with Ghost Illness. The shamans used to visit all the time, didn’t they? You’ve known that since you were a kid. Now you want to keep quiet? You think people don’t notice? And listen here—are you going to keep calling me ‘Mr. Park’ when you could call me Uncle like I’ve told you? Where are your manners?”
“It’s not that. I mean, it’s just… Uncle, please. You really can’t go around telling people strange things. The Chairman isn’t like that at all.”
The estate of the Kim Jong-hyup household, so vast it was called a castle, was managed by those bound to the Jo family by blood. Even that wasn’t enough—most of those who supplied goods to the estate were their relatives as well.
Park was Jo Jae-un’s distant cousin through marriage. Since before Jo Jae-un’s young son had taken over the estate’s supplies, Park had been one of those who’d glimpsed the goings-on within these walls from over the shoulder.
“Listen, I know what happens in this house better than you do. At any rate, watch yourself. Don’t get tangled up in inauspiciousness. Whatever you see or hear, pretend you don’t know a thing.”
“Uncle, that’s not it…….”
Jo Jae-un’s son replied with a weaker voice than before.
It was impossible to deny outright. The events of the past few months were not easily dismissed. There was a real victim, no matter how much they tried to hide it.
“How’s Jo Hee-gyeong doing these days? After the accident in Dubai—or was it Morocco? Is she doing all right?”
“Dubai, Uncle. Jo Hee-gyeong’s fine. I think she just wanted to rest for a while.”
“You see? She was touched by inauspiciousness, just like I said. The bloodline of this house—you shouldn’t get mixed up with them. Hmph. Really, you need to be careful. The rumors are troubling, and the atmosphere doesn’t feel right.”
“The Chairman is doing well, I’m telling you.”
The man continued to refute Park’s words, trying to shake off the lingering unease.
Since Jo Hee-gyeong had kept quiet about her accident, few knew the details of what she’d endured. But perhaps because of that very silence, the family’s anxiety only continued to grow.
Could it be that the Kim Jong-hyup household was truly plagued by Ghost Illness?
Those closest to Kim Jong-hyup and Kim Je-eon were clearly hiding something. And they would not speak easily, not even to their own children.
“Stop talking nonsense and just bring out the supplies.”
“Ah? The groceries. Didn’t someone take those down earlier?”
“Take them down?”
“Yeah. I hurt my back a few days ago, so I hired someone to carry the heavy things.”
“Uncle! You know better than anyone—we can’t have outsiders inside the estate……!”
At Park’s offhand manner, the young man’s face hardened. Yet Park simply replied with unruffled ease.
“Listen, as long as you and I keep our mouths shut, there’s nothing to worry about. And don’t fret—I met this person at church, and they’re not suspicious at all.”
“That’s not something you can know for sure. Things are so tense here lately, and Uncle, you really…….”
“Wait a minute. I brought a lot today. Come now, stop making a fuss. If you go chasing after him looking all worked up, it’ll only draw more attention.”
The man’s eyes flickered anxiously around the storage room as beads of sweat formed on his brow.
He knew that if he rushed in after the outsider as Park suggested, it would only look more suspicious. Yet uneasily, the person who’d carried in the supplies still hadn’t returned, even after considerable time had passed.

***

“Uncle.”
“Huh?”
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
Hee-seo clambered out of the Laundry Box, disheveled and dusty. Go Yeom turned away, biting back a laugh at how completely she’d changed since going in.
“No, no. How was I supposed to know someone would suddenly pop out of there? It was just instinct—didn’t want to get caught, so I acted without thinking.”
This man opened his mouth only to lie.
Hee-seo suppressed her annoyance and gathered her tousled hair, binding it into a single knot. Without so much as a backward glance, she turned to leave, and Go Yeom scrambled after her.
“I really didn’t expect someone to appear like that, I’m telling you. But isn’t it better than getting discovered?”
“Sure. How lovely. Still, next time maybe give me some warning before you shove me down the stairs? I nearly ended up cracking your skull without meaning to.”
“Why do you make your jokes sound so terrifying?”
“A menacing threat is better than a threatening joke.”
“That… is it?”
Go Yeom paused to think, then shook his head slowly. Either way, whatever Hee-seo did frightened him.
In the meantime, Hee-seo had moved far ahead, so Go Yeom hurried to catch up with her.
Despite Go Yeom’s objections, Hee-seo had slipped into Kim Jong-hyup’s Estate. She needed to find the connection between Hae-jeong’s disappearance and the mine.
“It seems to fit, doesn’t it?”
“There’s something unusual about it.”
Hee-seo and Go Yeom had deceived Park, who delivered foodstuffs to the Estate, sneaking inside. They made their way to the low ridge at the very back of Kim Jong-hyup and Kim Je-eon’s Estate grounds.
The two of them stood at the base of the ridge and felt out the energy around them.
Perhaps because they’d timed their arrival for dusk. A sinister energy greeted them. The path they’d come by was as clean and manicured as a park, yet the ridge lay untouched, as though human hands had never reached it.
Hee-seo began walking along the ridge. Rather than simply climbing, she meant to first read the mountain’s essence.
“Do you sense anything unusual here?”
“No. Still, there’s definitely something in this mountain. It’s more sealed off than those houses. Nothing visible, nothing audible. As if…”
“As if something were deliberately blocking it?”
“Yes. As if something were deliberately hidden.”
What Go Yeom sensed matched what Hee-seo sensed. Hee-seo gripped the Sam-bul-seon and quickened her pace.
Yet after circling the ridge, they found neither a path up nor anything remarkable.
“We’ll have to climb.”
The sun had fully set, and lights now burned in the Estate below. Hee-seo deliberately turned her back to Kim Je-eon’s Estate and fixed her gaze on the mountain.

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