Ch.129Red Snake 9

The Back Alley of Suwon Station.

That place was notorious for its poor security even in the past.

It was filled with illegal residents and foreigners.

Even the Association’s security forces were reluctant to investigate there.

In such a place, hunters dressed in black suits appeared.

Jeoksa and her veteran organization members.

With her suit jacket draped over her shoulder, Jeoksa carelessly flicked away her cigarette ash.

She wiggled her finger.

Following that movement, Ilshim’s hunters simultaneously vanished in an instant.

And soon after, screams from multiple people began to echo throughout Korea’s worst slum.

Using those sounds as a prelude, Jeoksa also leisurely stepped deep into the back alley.

Then suddenly, she stopped in front of a butcher shop.

Red Chinese characters boldly displayed.

Though she couldn’t understand their meaning, the pink neon and raw meat visible through the glass.

Looking at that, she could immediately tell it was a butcher shop.

Jeoksa indifferently opened the door of that savage-looking store.

A door left open as if it didn’t matter who entered.

Upon going inside, a subtle grassy smell stimulated her nostrils.

She follows that smell deep into the darkness.

Eventually, Jeoksa and her subordinates…

discovered employees gambling on the second floor of the butcher shop.

Those playing cards under dim lighting frowned at the suddenly brightened corridor.

“Who are you guys?”

The butcher shop owner with slicked-back hair and a scar on his forehead tilted his head.

He, who had been the king of Suwon, looked down on Ilshim who had entered his territory as if they were funeral service employees.

“Boram Funeral Services?”

At his joke, the guys playing cards with him also snickered.

Every time his chest heaved, the silver dagger he was holding gleamed.

Jeoksa gave no response.

Feeling quite embarrassed, he glared at her with his slit eyes and looked her up and down.

“So which organization are you from?”

“Ilshim.”

“What, did you name your organization the same because your dream is to be like Ilshim?”

He shrugged as if Ilshim would never come to such a back alley.

“Well… at least you look good enough.”

He put down his dagger and casually draped his arm over the sofa.

Then he looked at Jeoksa’s chest with arrogant eyes.

“To be the chairman’s seed receptacle.”

Hearing those words, Sangmun’s eyebrows twitched.

His face, still in his late twenties, was wrinkled like someone in their forties.

Insulting both his sister figure and the chairman.

He deserved to be killed on the spot.

“It’s okay, Sangmun.”

Jeoksa stopped the man who was about to step forward.

She looked down at the thugs with her arms folded stiffly.

“I don’t particularly like friction. So I’ll get straight to the point. Those pills you use.”

“Who gave them to you?”

At her firm question, Suwon’s gang members looked at Jeoksa with disgruntled expressions.

They neither feared nor found her red eyes suspicious.

They just swallowed deeply while looking at her suggestive figure tightly wrapped in her suit.

“If I tell you, will you spend a hot day with us?”

Their leader smiled lewdly.

At that smile, Sangmun and the subordinates’ faces completely distorted.

But…

Jeoksa was smiling as generously as him.

And she made a counter-proposal to them.

“Sure, I’ll play with you.”

“But only if you can touch even the edge of my clothes.”

Jeoksa snapped her fingers.

A clear friction sound echoed throughout the butcher shop.

That sound…

was the sound of releasing the dog leashes that her subordinates had been firmly holding.

The men who had taken the drug all rose at once.

And they stretched out their large hands to grab Jeoksa.

However, their hands couldn’t reach her.

Instead, all their faces were slammed into the dirty butcher shop floor.

Because Sangmun and the subordinates had skillfully twisted all their wrists.

They subdued the men simultaneously as if they had received high-level training.

“What is this…”

They had clearly taken the pills.

Their stats had increased by more than 10.

But they couldn’t even match the toes of Ilshim’s veterans.

Of course, not even the edge of Jeoksa’s clothes.

“Sorry, but no human can touch my body.”

Jeoksa put a cigarette in her mouth and bent her knee.

Then she personally burned the butt she had been smoking onto the forehead of the subdued man.

“Maybe a fox could.”

“—!”

The man howled like a beast from the pain.

Jeoksa looked down at him with a satisfied expression, like a queen.

“Now, will you tell us?”

“…”

The man turned his gaze away from Jeoksa’s question.

His gaze was directed at his subordinates who had all been subdued.

“—!”

He started shouting loudly in Chinese.

At that sight, Jeoksa’s thick eyebrows furrowed.

“What’s he saying?”

“He’s telling them not to say anything, Sister.”

To her question, Sangmun, who was standing beside her, answered in an intellectual voice.

“How do you know Cantonese…”

“Oh, our Sangmun is also a former Chinese ranker. His nickname was… Vanguard, was it?”

“I’m embarrassed, Sister… It’s a disgraceful name from a time when I was wandering.”

Sangmun cleared his throat and made an embarrassed expression.

In contrast, the thug who heard the word “Vanguard” had a shocked expression.

“Are… are you the Vanguard of Guangzhou?”

“You know me?”

“Of course I do!”

Only then did the man start adding respectful endings to his answers.

Now understanding the situation, he knelt down and bowed his head.

“Wow, Sangmun, you really were a big shot in the continent, huh?”

“I told you, Sister. The earnings were better when I was in China.”

Sangmun proudly adjusted his collar.

Jeoksa friendly poked his side with her elbow.

“Then why didn’t you stay there for life? Why did you come here?”

“Aren’t you the savior of my life, Sister? If I had stayed there, I would have died someday.”

The two exchanged casual conversation in the tense atmosphere.

Seeing this, the Suwon thug who had been confident until now began to tremble with fear.

To think that the real “Ilshim” had come looking for him…

He seemed to deeply regret flirting with their executive.

“I’ll, I’ll tell you anything… please just spare my life…”

“You should have believed us from the start. Then you wouldn’t have a hole in your forehead.”

Jeoksa poked the man’s dented forehead with her finger.

He shed a tear, seemingly in excruciating pain.

“We, we don’t know exactly who the supplier is either…”

“Yeah, everyone says that.”

Jeoksa took out an awl, saying she expected as much.

She had already stabbed more than ten people with this awl today.

“Every time, I poked their entire body with this. That’s how I found out and came here.”

Jeoksa carelessly threw the awl on the floor.

The thug blankly stared down at the sharp blade covered in black blood.

“I don’t know who the supplier is, but I have an appointment to meet them soon!”

“An appointment? When is it?”

Jeoksa slowly sat down on their leather sofa.

She elegantly crossed her legs and tapped her cigarette into the ashtray held by Sangmun.

“Two days later in Ansan…”

She half-closed her eyes and looked at the refrigerator attached to the wall.

Inside were popular Chinese iced tea drinks.

“…”

Jeoksa didn’t say anything after hearing the word “Ansan.”

She was just waiting for his new proposal.

The desperate proposal he would make to save his life.

The thug, who had spent his life on the edge of death, quickly noticed her intention.

He clenched both hands and shouted toward Jeoksa.

“I’ll guide you. To the meeting place with the suppliers…!”

“Of course you will.”

However, Jeoksa wasn’t satisfied with just that proposal.

She just stared at him intently with her thinly opened red eyes.

The thug, now beginning to feel fear from that gaze.

He immediately bowed his head and swore.

“I, I will never tell the suppliers about what happened today…!”

“Yes, you would know well. What happens to those who betray Ilshim in this business.”

His bowed head trembled.

He soon felt relieved that he was going to live.

But…

He still had one final trial left.

A dark shadow was cast over his bowed head.

That shadow was Sangmun’s large hand.

“Phone.”

“What…?”

“Give me your phone.”

The thug handed his phone to Sangmun in a daze.

But Sangmun, after receiving the phone, immediately struck the man’s head with a fierce expression.

“The pattern, you bastard. The pattern.”

The man screamed and grabbed his struck crown.

Then he immediately began to unlock the pattern with trembling hands.

He was shaking so much that he got it wrong 5 times in the process.

“But why this…”

The man mumbled like a kind and diligent head of household.

Then Sangmun searched through his contacts…

“Wife, 010 – xxxx – xxxx. Daughter 010…”

He began to expose his family’s numbers right in front of him.

With each number recited, it felt like an awl was being stabbed into the man’s chest.

“Track all these locations.”

Sangmun handed all the copied numbers to his subordinate.

At that sight, the thug’s pupils began to dance wildly.

“Ah, don’t worry too much. It’s a kind of collateral.”

Jeoksa wiggled her cigarette-holding finger.

Then one of her subordinates took out an iced tea drink from the refrigerator.

“If we meet the supplier without any problems, I’ll delete them right away.”

Jeoksa spoke in a gentle voice and then drank the beverage.

The sweet peach fragrance filled her entire mouth.

“Of course. Of course! I’ll make sure there are absolutely no issues when you meet them…”

“…”

Jeoksa didn’t respond to his words.

She just stared at the ingredient list of the drink she had consumed.

“It’s delicious.”

“What, what…?”

While he was desperately trying to save his life, Ilshim’s female executive was just looking at the ingredients of the drink.

Soon she looked down at him expressionlessly.

“Is this famous in Guangdong?”

“Yes, yes… it’s very popular.”

“Do children like it too?”

“Yes… my daughter drinks it often…”

Jeoksa’s red eyes stared at the brown sugar-colored drink.

As if suddenly reminded of the iced tea Anna had given to Siho.

“She drank it so deliciously when she gave it to her…”

Soon she got up from the sofa.

And before leaving, she gave the thug a weighty task.

“Pack all of those.”

“What…?”

The thug made a confused expression, receiving an order he hadn’t expected.

But Ilshim’s executive disliked repeating herself.

She left silently, leaving only her subordinates in front of the thug.

“Can’t you understand? Pack all of them!”

The subordinates began to kick the subdued men.

They pleaded in pain and kept muttering that they understood.

“Next week, Tuesday…”

On the way home.

Holding a bag full of iced tea, Jeoksa leisurely walked down the apartment corridor.

Her mind was complicated.

Perhaps due to fatigue, her body staggered throughout the walk.

The cell organization forces threatening Ilshim.

And the plots Park Shinae was setting up.

They aren’t individually strong.

But their numbers swarm like ants.

If they unite, they will grow into one massive force.

And eventually, they will threaten our Ilshim.

She stopped abruptly in front of the apartment entrance.

She suddenly thought of a certain woman who would be inside.

If Ilshim falters like that…

Siho will be in danger too.

The iced tea bag she had been holding tightly felt heavy.

She tapped her aching shoulder.

“—.”

She unlocked the door.

As the door gradually opened, the smell of a delicious dinner wafted through the gap.

Soon, the sound of someone running from the kitchen was heard.

At that cheerful sound, a smile naturally bloomed on her face that had been bitter.

Eventually, a small girl with fox ears perked up appeared.

Wearing an apron, she welcomed Jeoksa with a bright smile.

“You’re back?”

She asked, holding a ladle she had brought while running quickly.

Jeoksa just stared down at her blankly, as if entranced.

“Why are you staring like that? Just come in…”

Before she could finish her sentence.

Jeoksa weakly fell into Siho’s arms.

And she murmured like a child seeking comfort.

“Work was hard…”

At that sight, Siho was momentarily taken aback.

But soon she smiled and hugged the returning Jeoksa tightly.

“You worked hard today too.”

The fox patted her back.

With each pat, the iced tea bag Jeoksa had brought fluttered.