The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 89

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

Chapter 89

“Whatever method works, you were snarling about how I just needed to dispose of Hee-seo. Now suddenly you’re worried your lifeline might die? If your wife drops dead first, like you said, I won’t have time to deal with someone like me.”
“What?”
“How dull. Tsk. Do you really think this household will stay intact if Hee-seo lives?”
“That’s nonsense! Speak plainly!”
It was incomprehensible. Choi Jin-uk seized So Myeong Seon-nyeo’s shoulder, his face flushed red. His rough grip hurt enough that So Myeong Seon-nyeo whined like a petulant child, raising her voice.
“Do I have to spell out every detail for you? Just do your part! Then I’ll find a way to speak to the Chairman about this!”
“Ha! You think I’d believe a woman like you? What, you want me to go check on Kim Je-eon and see what condition he’s in? Why? Has he gone mad stuck with Hee-seo? Is that what you’re planning to report to Chairman Kim? Is that why you’re suddenly acting friendly with me now?”
Choi Jin-uk and So Myeong Seon-nyeo’s first objective had been the same: to make Hee-seo disappear from Kim Je-eon’s side. Choi Jin-uk had hired someone to threaten Hee-seo in the mountains. But when that attempt failed, Choi Jin-uk had no choice but to join hands with So Myeong Seon-nyeo.
And Choi Jin-uk had offered his own wife as a sacrifice to the curse directed at Hee-seo—to bring her down in one stroke.
But unlike Seo Hyun-a’s illness deepening, Hee-seo remained unharmed. Both Choi Jin-uk and So Myeong Seon-nyeo had watched her walk freely through the garden with their own eyes.
From that moment on, they turned their backs on each other. Choi Jin-uk wanted Hee-seo disposed of immediately, but So Myeong Seon-nyeo prioritized becoming close to Kim Jong-hyeop.
Though it was natural for each to put their own interests first, Choi Jin-uk felt she had betrayed him. It was a thought possible only because he believed everything revolved around himself.
“You. Since Kim Jong-hyeop won’t even glance at you, now you’re clinging to me. Do you think I don’t see what you’re doing? That moment when Kim Je-eon woke up at your séance—it was just good timing, wasn’t it? The truth is, you never had the power to kill Hee-seo in the first place!”
Unable to contain his seething rage, danger flashed in Choi Jin-uk’s eyes. He shoved the woman violently against the wall and roared.
So Myeong Seon-nyeo’s small frame was driven backward by his sudden assault. At the same moment, the impact of hitting the wall forced a cry of pain from her lips—a sound like a child weeping.
“Ah, ow, it hurts!”
“Beside Kim Je-eon, watching what he does? Watched? And what am I supposed to do with that! What do you expect me to do watching that bastard stick to Hee-seo like it’s not disgusting!”
“It hurts, ow, ah! Ah! Let go, let go!”
So Myeong Seon-nyeo thrashed her arms wildly like a terrified child, shaking her head. But breaking free from the enraged Choi Jin-uk was not easy.
He vented his fury by hoisting So Myeong Seon-nyeo’s body and slamming her repeatedly against the wall with thuds and bangs, then hurling her hard to the floor.
“Aaaah!”
“Damn it, I never believed you from the start. These pathetic shamans, to hell with them all!”
After throwing So Myeong Seon-nyeo down, Choi Jin-uk lashed out at the walls and toppled the Standing Lamp, venting his rage.
So Myeong Seon-nyeo, crumpled on the floor and trembling violently, tried to crawl toward the Table to hide, shuffling away from him.
But Choi Jin-uk did not simply watch. He lifted the Table itself and raised it high above his head, as if about to hurl it at So Myeong Seon-nyeo.
So Myeong Seon-nyeo’s wrinkled face, unsuited for such terror, twisted in fear as she shrieked.
“No! We have to know who’s possessing Kim Je-eon’s body right now! That’s how we stay alive! That’s how we can get rid of Hee-seo!”
Remarkably, the voice that burst from So Myeong Seon-nyeo’s lips was that of a young boy. Yet it was not her voice that stopped Choi Jin-uk.
Crash! Bang!
Choi Jin-uk dropped the Table and yanked So Myeong Seon-nyeo to her feet. Murderous intent still gleamed in the man’s eyes, and tears instantly wet her face.
“What did you just say? What? What do you mean we need to find out?”
“A Possessing Soul in Kim Je-eon! No—we need to know who’s occupying that body right now! Whether it’s Kim Je-seon or Kim Je-eon—we need to know!”
“……What?”
What is this woman saying now?
Kim Je-seon was the name of someone already dead. And a Possessing Soul in Kim Je-eon?
At that moment, a flash of intuition struck Choi Jin-uk’s mind. Hearing the name Kim Je-seon was like seeing light break through a maze that had blocked him.
Unable to hide his shock, Choi Jin-uk murmured quietly.
“……So that’s why he kept that half-rate shaman nearby, why he kept Hee-seo close. Why Kim Jong-hyeop treated me that way—because he knew Hee-seo’s true nature and kept her there anyway.”
If Kim Je-seon’s ghost had taken possession of Kim Je-eon’s body, then keeping a shaman like Hee-seo close would be only natural.
No matter how cherished a grandson, if the dead grandson attached himself to his younger brother, he would surely have called a shaman.
Choi Jin-uk, who had not known the circumstances of Kim Je-eon’s birth, reached his own conclusion. Then he laughed hollowly, his strength draining away, and So Myeong Seon-nyeo collapsed where she stood, sobbing.
Though her strange weeping like a small child continued, Choi Jin-uk’s gaze toward her was utterly cold.
“Stop this performance. I’ll go to Kim Je-eon and find out, just as you said. We can talk more after that. Understood?”
If Hee-seo was placed there by Kim Jong-hyeop to drive away the ghost possessing Kim Je-eon, then he could simply dispose of the ghost first.
Now Choi Jin-uk understood why So Myeong Seon-nyeo had been lingering near Kim Je-eon. And why Kim Je-eon had shown her no opening either.
‘Then I can handle that myself.’
Until Seo Hyun-a died, legally speaking, he and Kim Je-eon were still bound by ties. Kim Je-eon would not shut him out the way he did So Myeong Seon-nyeo, which meant Choi Jin-uk had the advantage in probing the situation.
Choi Jin-uk smoothed his disheveled hair and left the house without so much as glancing at So Myeong Seon-nyeo.
Left alone, So Myeong Seon-nyeo curled her small body and swallowed her sobs.
“Hee-seo… Sob, sniff.”
A call no one would hear was all that remained.

***

Sniff, sniff…. An unpleasant, fishy odor tickled her nose. Waking from the foul stench, Hee-seo breathed out deeply.
An inexplicable hunger crept upward, as though she’d woken abruptly from deep sleep.
She needed to find this vile-smelling thing and kill it.
Hee-seo couldn’t resist the impulse. She descended from Je-eon’s small bed and walked—but not as she normally did. Her gait had become predatory, feline in its sinuous prowl.
That filthy dog stench……. Hee-seo muttered low under her breath.
Her parents had never passed a stray animal without stopping, so from childhood Hee-seo had been accustomed to dogs and cats. Yet now, why did this rank dog-reek repel her so thoroughly, fill her with such revulsion?
Before the question could even settle, she slipped out of the cramped bedroom. Beyond it lay a modest living room, and attached to that, a bathroom.
A space without a single window—meager quarters for a child to grow in, by any measure—yet it stirred nothing in her. For Hee-seo, only one thought mattered: erase that stench.
Hmmmm……. She drew in the odor drifting through the air, pivoting slowly. Then she stopped short, her eyes locking onto a single point—the closed bathroom door.
Without hesitation, Hee-seo crossed the distance in a few strides and slammed her fist against the door. Bang! It shuddered and swung open violently.
And at the same instant.
Woof, woof! A growl……. Grrrrr…… Woof!
The sound of an alert, bristling dog reached her ears. Hee-seo peered into the half-open bathroom with gleaming eyes.
So that’s where the dog stench came from. She murmured the words softly, but her voice carried something strange, something other. As if answering her tone, a massive dog filled the bathroom, hackles raised rigid, barking without mercy.
How had such a large dog hidden itself in a bathroom? Under normal circumstances, the impossibility would have struck her immediately. But Hee-seo’s mind held nothing but the dog’s offense against her.
Woof woof! Woof! Growwwwl, woof!
Yet Hee-seo’s gaze slipped past the dog entirely. In the next breath, it lunged forward with a snarl, baring its fangs in raw menace.

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