The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 91

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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 90

Thanks to that, she was able to see what the dog had been standing guard over.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Grandpa.”
Bruised wrists and a scabbed-over lip. A thin face and shadowed eyes.
The moment her eyes met the child’s, Hee-seo knew exactly who he was.
‘Oh. This is…’
This is Kim Je-eon’s past.
The realization made every scene slam into reality at once, as if she had only now woken from a long nightmare.
‘Damn it.’
“I won’t go up there anymore. I promise. I won’t let anyone see me. Just this once… just this once, please let me off! Please don’t take Huin-dungi! I’ll never go outside again!”
Despite the pleading voice, the young Je-eon didn’t cry. Instead, he offered every bargain he could think of, desperately trying to protect something. Seeing that earnest figure, Hee-seo wanted to reassure the little boy.
But the Hwagyeong would not bend to what she wanted.
“Grandpa, please!”
Growl, woof! Woof!
Hee-seo gripped the huge dog firmly by the scruff with one hand and swung something with the other. She had no idea when she’d picked it up, but what she struck the dog with was a solid walking stick.
But the big shaggy dog didn’t come along easily, even after being beaten. Hee-seo’s anger grew, and before she knew it, she had laid a hand on young Je-eon.
‘No! No, no!’
“Ah, ugh!”
Woof! Woof, awooo…
The dog, which had made no sound of pain even when beaten, went wild at the sight of Je-eon being hit.
In the end, Hee-seo could not hold back her anger and struck the dog’s head hard with the stick.
Thwack! With the sound of something cracking, the dog collapsed to the floor and twitched convulsively. The young Je-eon looked up at Hee-seo, his face drained of color.
‘No… I didn’t do this, Kim Je-eon. I didn’t do this. It wasn’t me.’
Its fluffy yellow fur matted red with blood, the dog struggled to crawl toward Je-eon.
Just watching it was agonizing. Hee-seo wanted to shut her eyes, to strike herself with the hand holding the stick and wake from this dream.
Facing Je-eon, who glared at her as if he meant to kill her, was excruciating in a way she could hardly bear.
“You didn’t, really?”
Yet Je-eon asked as though he had read her thoughts. It was a voice cold and sunken, nothing like the pleading tone from moments ago.
And that voice was, as if…
“You really didn’t do it, did you? You wanted to get rid of this dog, didn’t you? You thought the same thing I did, didn’t you?”
It was Lee Hee-seo’s own voice.
“…What?”
“You are me, and I am you. I feel what you feel, and you feel what I feel. We are one.”
“What kind of nonsense is that… Me? With whom, and what?”
It was utterly incomprehensible.
Just moments ago, the young Kim Je-eon had been calling her Grandpa. So this had to be a vision of Kim Jong-hyeop and Kim Je-eon, yet why was Je-eon now speaking in her voice?
Thud, clatter… The walking stick slipped from Hee-seo’s hand and rolled across the floor.
Hee-seo stared blankly at Je-eon’s face. The clothes of the boy cradling the dying dog were soaked red with blood. Just as she began to step back, trying to flee from what she had done…
The moment her eyes met the mirror on the wall, Hee-seo realized who was speaking with Je-eon’s voice.
And a scream she couldn’t bring herself to let out filled her chest.
“Ah… ah, no.”
How could this be? No. This isn’t the Hwagyeong or anything like it. This is a dream, this is a dream!
‘This can’t be!!’

“…No! No, I said no!!”
With a shout that was nearly a scream, Hee-seo jolted upright. Then she frantically groped at her face.
Unlike what her eyes had seen, the feel of her face was normal, except for being drenched in cold sweat.
“What on earth… what is this.”
Hee-seo breathed raggedly and rubbed her face over and over. Not satisfied, she scrubbed at her eyes and pounded her chest, cursing her racing heart.
Only after a long while did the shock finally settle.
‘What was that… Was that a hoseonang?’
What Hee-seo had seen in the mirror was not herself. That figure could never be taken for a human.
Two eyes mixed with yellow and black, a face sprouting animal fur, long fangs, and ears grown round and upright.
The first scene seemed to be Je-eon’s memory, but what followed were scenes she could not understand at all. And even now that she had come to her senses, it was no different.
‘When did I get here…?’
Her last memory should have been falling asleep in Je-eon’s bed, yet she opened her eyes in Je-eon’s backyard. Having chased Hae-jeong all the way here not long ago, she could be sure of it.
Hee-seo looked around and realized she was still in her loose sleepwear. The only small mercy was that the stick she’d been swinging at the dog was nowhere to be seen.
She shook out her hands again and again, trying to wipe away the vivid sensation that had lingered at the tip of the stick.
‘This is maddening. Is this a dream too?’
Hee-seo stood there, dumbstruck, thinking. She’d woken from one dream only to find herself in another.
Considering the dog, and Je-eon, and herself in the shape of a beast, this was less a Hwagyeong and more a nightmare. Hee-seo clawed at her hair and stamped her feet in anguish.
“Hoseonang, or whatever you’re called, if you’re showing me this garbage as some kind of Hwagyeong, I’ll just sell you off to a zoo…”
I don’t know if any zoo would take something like you, but either way, I’m sick of this kind of rotten Hwagyeong.
No, to be precise, it’s Je-eon being treated that way that makes my stomach churn. But I can’t exactly throw a punch at Kim Jong-hyeop right now. Hoseonang is the only one I can take it out on.
And seeing a Hwagyeong like this is unheard of. Other people just hear, read, or watch them, but this feels like I’ve stepped right into the situation myself. Even now, it’s the same.
Hee-seo walked barefoot across the lawn, feeling the grass tickle between her toes. What a Hwagyeong this is, so real. Could Monk A-seon be seeing things like this too? If so, I can understand why she always ends up bedridden after a Hwagyeong.
“And why are you showing me this, anyway? This is the place I’ve been before. Are you trying to tell me where Hae-jeong is?”
Not a single stray cat was in sight, let alone a Hoseonang, but Hee-seo asked through gritted teeth. Even so, she kept touching her own face now and then, afraid it might turn into a beast’s again.
“So where am I supposed to go from here? What am I supposed to do?”
But unlike the dream that had been drawn in by the smell of dog, there was no signal of any kind this time.
Hee-seo glanced around irritably and shouted “Hey!” over and over, but she only looked like a madwoman yelling at empty air.
Unable to find an answer, Hee-seo huffed and headed for the back door.
If Hoseonang wouldn’t respond, she intended to go back and search the place where she’d seen Hae-jeong. Even if this was a dream, she couldn’t just sit around waiting to wake up.
“So you’re not going to help me, is that it? Fine. Got it. You turn me into an animal abuser and then ignore me like this? Next time I see you, you’d better watch out.”
Hee-seo talked to herself deliberately. Without that, Je-eon’s wounded face kept flickering before her eyes, and she couldn’t make herself move.
Without realizing it, she bit her lip again and again, trying to put his past out of her mind for a moment. Either way, if she was still inside this Hwagyeong, she wanted to find something that might help.
‘…That psycho old man.’
Despite her resolve, Hee-seo couldn’t keep her anger in check. The small picture frame hanging on the wall kept coming back to her, with Je-eon and the dog in it.
Kim Jong-hyeop had killed, right in front of Je-eon, the only creature that must have been his one support while he lived hidden underground. Kim Jong-hyeop’s cruelty made her insides seethe on their own.
“With that kind of heart, treating a child, a dog, like that, no wonder the family turned out the way it did. Lunatic. I swear I won’t let this go.”
Thud, thud, thud. Unable to kick Kim Jong-hyeop, her feet only trampled the innocent grass path.

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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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