Chapter 255 – The Way Back
Maybe it’s in vain
Jung Sung-min doubted his ears.
So, without realizing it, he questioned himself.
“What…?”
The shocking words Lee Ha-young said calmly.
That Shin-ah Lee is still alive.
Jeong Seong-min looked at Lee Ha-young with a calm expression through his dilated pupils.
She said.
“I told you that I solved the brainwashing of my father and Seong-a because my mother was alive.”
“…”
The knife slipped out of Jeong Seong-min’s hand.
Ting-Ting-Tingrrr… The sound of a knife hitting the ground, echoing hollowly.
Jeong Seong-min and Lee Ha-young face each other.
Jeong Seong-min, who is about to cry at any moment, and Lee Ha-young, who has a calm expression.
However, Jung Sung-min’s expression reversed in an instant.
Her face was filled with anger, as if she couldn’t believe her words.
He said.
“But, you sure didn’t check…? My mother… I can see with my own eyes that Lee Shin-ah is dead…”
Lee Ha-young nodded her head.
Clearly, Jung Sung-min saw Lee Shin-ah’s body.
No matter what anyone said, the body was Lee Shin-ah.
However, it is often referred to as ‘sensible’.
It is impossible to distinguish whether it is yourself or someone else.
“Master. I’ve been preparing for this for a long time. From the moment the master decides the punishment to be given to mother.”
Lee Ha-young said that and moved her steps.
Her Jung Seong-min’s gaze followed her.
“When I heard about the master’s plan to abandon my mother, I couldn’t understand it. That’s the way Master can never be happy.”
Jung Sung-min has always been like that.
He was trying to shoulder everything and take responsibility for everything.
Clearly, that made him stronger and eventually made him the king of the underworld.
However, that was the look he had to show as a leader.
Presenting, advancing, leading, fighting, winning.
It was the ruler’s way of living a life of winning.
It was the way of a tyrant befitting the king of the underworld.
Because of this, the rest of the women he got as booty followed his way without saying anything.
All his judgments were true, all his commands were absolute.
Lee Hee-yeon and Baek Ha-yoon. And the identities of Ahn Ji-yeon and Elena were women conquered by him and helpers who supported him.
“So I thought. How can the owner be happy too? What is the ending where everyone can be happy?”
But.
But Lee Ha-young wasn’t.
She did not receive her love as her booty.
Lee Ha-young’s identity was that she loved Jung Sung-min as a lover who shared her gaze with him and as her companion who would grow her love together.
Because of this, he endlessly tried to regain that position, despaired, and eventually gave up that position.
Since she cannot approach him unless she becomes his slave, she takes Lee Hee-yeon’s advice and decides to give up the relationship of equal lovers and enter as one of his loot.
But relationships have inertia.
There is an irresistible gravity.
And that was her identity as a girlfriend.
“So I made it work. I couldn’t agree with Master’s method.”
Jeong Seong-min saw Lee Ha-young slowly wandering around her room.
Now his eyes were full of questions, anxiety and anger, but there was only one ray of hope. The hope that Lee Ha-young’s words may be true.
So he listened to her in silence.
“…That’s why I invited Kim Mi-jin myself. She pretended to follow her master’s plan, and created a puppet that would listen to me.”
Jeong Seong-min swallowed with a gulp.
So far, that’s what he was expecting.
The brainwashing of the family has been released.
If it wasn’t for Mijin Kim, she was a brainwashed robber who could never be solved.
“And the second thing I prepared was Kim Yeon-ju’s death.”
Death of Kim Yeon-ju.
At those words, Jeong Seong-min’s heart fluttered, but he soon regained his composure.
Lee Ha-young said that she planned to kill Kim Yeon-ju, but she did not say that she would kill Lee Shin-ah.
“Actually… I didn’t have anything to prepare for. I knew. What kind of ending will Kim Yeon-ju, who abandoned Lee Shin-ah’s name, face?”
Lee Ha-young knew that Lee Shin-ah would not last long.
This was evident in her intuition.
No matter how much suggestion and brainwashing, there were definitely things that didn’t change.
Because she herself did it.
Even if Mr. Choi severely damaged her mind, even if her savior controlled her with fear, her love for Jung Sung-min could not be changed.
“So I waited. She installed a camera in her mother’s house and monitored her every move… Even followed her when she went outside, watching all the time.”
So Lee Ha-young waited.
The day Shin-ah Lee makes her decision.
Still, she prepared thoroughly.
When Shin-Ah Lee ventures her death, she gets her double to take her place.
“And finally, my mother told me to hang her. My men, who lived next door to her, immediately went to stop it.”
Lee Ha-young said so and she showed the video on her phone.
Jeong Seong-min saw the sight of four men going into her Lee Sin-ah’s house and then rescuing her from her snoring.
However, the question was not yet unanswered.
“Then the corpse…?”
Dead body.
The most curious thing was the body.
Lee Ha-young raised the corner of her mouth and said.
“I told you earlier. I’ve been preparing for this for a long time. As for what happened to the body…”
The whole story of the body was like this.
Lee Ha-young needed Lee Shin-ah’s body to fake her death.
She did so she asked a broker to get the body of a woman who looked as close as she could to Shin-ah Lee.
After that, brokers started looking for a woman in her mid-40s with an incurable disease.
Through a broker in China.
Fortunately, in China, there were many dead people who sold their families’ bodies for money.
It was not difficult to find someone who looked like Lee Shin-ah among that huge population.
So, Lee Ha-young bought a special S-class corpse that resembled Lee Shin-ah, but had just died, for 700 million won, and then embalmed her as well.
Before rotting inside, all the internal organs were removed and special preservative treatment was done.
Lee Ha-young’s meticulousness did not end there.
She even had plastic surgery on her body’s face.
She remodeled her face so that it matched 99% of Lee Shin-ah’s face, so that anyone would think it was Lee Shin-ah.
On top of that, she set her feet on fire to burn her feet and paid attention to every detail.
Didn’t she even leave a clear mark on her neck, especially to leave the mark of her being hanged?
“The police investigation… Was it bribed?”
“Yes.”
One final step now.
To safely deceive the police who were dispatched after receiving a report.
However, Lee Ha-young had a police officer who bribed him.
Even as a class leader level person.
Besides, the other cops weren’t particularly suspicious.
The scene was the scene of a suicide by hanging.
With a will, there was no need to investigate further.
The case was closed as it was.
“Besides that, we have prepared all kinds of methods. For failure. But after all, there was nothing that could not be done with money.”
Lee Ha-young, who became the queen of the underworld both in name and reality.
She has engulfed all of her Mr. Choi and her savior rivals, and with her unique operating acumen, she is boosting her daily sales.
“Then… Where is Lee Shin-ah?”
Jung Sung-min’s eyes have completely returned to light.
However, Lee Ha-young’s answer was unexpected.
“I can’t tell you that.”
“…”
Jeong Seong-min’s dumbfounded expression.
He said with a devilish expression.
“Are you crazy? I’m not crazy. Lee Ha-Young. Why am I keeping you alive?”
“Kill him.”
“…”
“Kill it. It’s because I was prepared to die.”
Jung Sung-min quietly glared at Lee Ha-young.
Lee Ha-young also saw Jung Sung-min.
She said.
“If I meet my mother now, what will I do? Are you going to do the same thing again? Also, Master, are you going to shoulder everything alone and handle everything alone?”
Jeong Seong-min grabbed his throbbing forehead.
He said.
“I make the choice.”
“No! Master’s way was wrong!”
Lee Ha-young quickly moved her steps and approached Jung Sung-min.
She spoke at the same eye level as him.
“It hurts so much alone! I will never see you!”
Tears welled up, but Lee Ha-young’s eyes were intense.
The calm eyes of Jeong Seong-min watching this quietly.
Soon, tears welled up in Lee Ha-young’s eyes.
“No! Never, I can never let go you’re the only one who hurts You alone are trying to carry everything. You’re the only one unhappy never let go.”
Lee Ha-young’s heart, always wanted to be her girlfriend.
Her suppressed heart was exploding.
She said.
“It’s all… It’s over, Seongmin. Go back to her family Family is not about controlling and dominating. It’s something to share.”
Jeong Seong-min quietly listened to Lee Ha-young.
Every time I heard her words, it was as if my weak self, stuck deep inside, was wriggling.
“You did that to me. I told you to tell me if you have any difficulties. Even if the day is really hard, even if tomorrow is really bleak, it’s okay if we share it together. He said it could be nothing. It’s what your parents told you.”
The words Jung Sung-min once said to Lee Ha-young.
The words she heard from her parents, the words she conveyed as they were.
How to share pain with loved ones.
“You can be weak. It’s okay to be weak when you’re with your family.”
Lee Ha-young obviously did not know Jung Sung-min as an avenger and her ruler.
In fact, to her, the image of Jeong Seong-min, who trampled, destroyed, and subdued to win, was unfamiliar to her.
He was unfamiliar with being reborn as a ruler.
But he knew very well how to be happy as a lover and as a member of a family.
Understanding, caressing, caring for, and embracing was the way Jeong Seong-min felt happy.
That was how he lived as a person rather than a ruler.
“Done. Let’s go back Let’s go back to our families.”
The heart of Jeong Seong-min, who had been buried for revenge and to be heartless, wriggled.
As a result, Jung Sung-min’s expression began to collapse little by little.
Lee Ha-young’s words to return to the arms of her family touched his heart.
“Ha, but… If someone… Someone doesn’t punish…”
Rewards and punishments had to be clear to maintain the organization.
Jung Sung-min had to be harsh in order to survive.
For this reason, he gave certain rewards to those who achieved results and certain punishments to those who did wrong.
Jeong Seong-min thought that clearing karma was the most important thing to maintain his family community.
“So, who wishes? Who says it’s comforting to die? You stupid.”
However, he did not experience it.
When Lee Shin-ah died, everything was useless.
No one wanted Lee Shin-ah to be punished.
Lee Ha-young looked at him and said.
“My mother did not risk her life because your design failed. It’s because she has nowhere to go back to. So, you just have to embrace it. All I need to do is to become you, the one I know best, and the one I love the most. Seongmin.”
“…”
To get your family back… To get your happiness back…
Had to trample
It had to be harsh.
Hitting and smashing and breaking, I had to get drunk.
It had to be swallowed up and placed below.
I had to be the owner, and I had to step up.
You had to control it, you had to give it a goal.
Reward and punishment had to be made clear.
It was the only way to find happiness.
“It’s hard… It’s hard, so I can’t eat…”
But all that I built up in search of happiness,
To become the master
To become rulers,
Everything he had built to become a king finally began to crumble.
The great Jung Sung-min started sobbing in front of others.
He has finally begun to return to being a human being.
“It’s okay… It’s all over. Let’s go back to the family.”
Lee Ha-young embraced the human Jung Sung-min.
He comforted his heart that was buried deep in his heart.
Jeong Seong-min cried for a long time in Lee Ha-young’s arms.
