Ch.58058 – Bloodline 1

# 058 – Blood Line # 1

“Meow. Meow.”

The white cat Baekseol was crying loudly.

She seemed to dislike being held in my arms and kept squirming.

I carried the cat up to the second floor, but perhaps because of the noisy cat, the housekeeper who had been dozing in the hallway opened her eyes wide and glared at me.

“You!”

Her face was extremely menacing and frightening.

Suddenly—she grabbed my arm with considerable strength.

“Didn’t I tell you not to go downstairs after 11 PM! Why don’t you ever listen to adults?”

Why do adults enjoy scolding children so much?

It’s not like they live such moral lives themselves.

“Ma’am. You said there was no cat downstairs. I found this cat on the first floor.”

“I don’t care about some fur-shedding cat. Now answer my questions honestly. If you don’t tell the truth, you’ll be in big trouble. Have you ever heard piano sounds on the first floor?”

I felt slightly intimidated by the woman’s stern questioning.

She was acting like a complete psychopath.

“Piano sounds? I haven’t heard any.”

“You’re not lying, are you? If you lie, it’ll hurt like swallowing a thousand needles.”

The woman glared at me.

It was as if she was trying to determine whether this kid was lying or not.

I was generally good at lying, but it was true that I hadn’t heard any piano sounds.

“But why are you asking about piano sounds?”

“You don’t need to know. Go upstairs and get some sleep. And keep that cat away from me. Achoo!”

The housekeeper seemed to have a cat allergy, as she nearly had a fit whenever the cat came near her.

Judging by her sneezing and runny nose, her symptoms appeared quite severe.

“Ma’am, I have something I’d like to ask too. Did someone named Ha Chaeyeon work here before you came? Do you know anything about this photo?”

Swiftly, I took out my Yeongji High entrance ceremony photo with my mother and showed it to the housekeeper.

For a brief moment, her hollow eyes, illuminated by the lantern, twisted in a strange way.

“I don’t know.”

“Ma’am, didn’t you say it would hurt like swallowing a thousand needles if you lie?”

After experiencing all sorts of lies these past few days, I’d become somewhat sensitive to detecting when people were lying. This woman is lying.

Adults were all liars to begin with.

I was already convinced that this mansion and my mother, Ha Chaeyeon, were connected somehow.

What could the relationship be?

Was my mother a “housekeeper” who had worked in this mansion?

But the timeline didn’t make sense.

According to Yu Dahui, the previous housekeeper had worked in this mansion for almost 10 years.

The next morning, after that exchange, I successfully handed the cat over to Yu Dahui.

“Meow.”

The white cat Baekseol started walking toward Yu Dahui, then suddenly changed direction and clung to Yang Juhui. Yang Juhui, of course, was disgusted.

“Hey! Go to your owner! Why are you coming to me?!”

The cat liked Yang Juhui, but Yang Juhui disliked the cat.

Self-hatred, perhaps?

“And I also found this. Dahui, this is a drawing you made, right?”

I handed Yu Dahui a page from a sketchbook.

It was a paper I had obtained while fighting the ghost of Adam Smith yesterday.

It was a paper with “Thank you, Housekeeper Ha Chaeyeon” written on it.

Yu Dahui was very happy to see the drawing.

“This looks like something I drew when I was seven! I loved drawing pictures like this when I was still at the facility! Where did you find it? I must have drawn this for the housekeeper!”

“Dahui, was the name of the housekeeper who worked in this mansion for 10 years Ha Chaeyeon?”

“Her name? I’m not sure about her name… I just called her ‘housekeeper’… But this is definitely the drawing I made for her as a Parents’ Day gift. Where did you find this?”

I had a sudden realization.

It might be just a guess, but my mother had worked in this mansion for 10 years.

Of course, 10 years ago, my mother was living with me in Seoul, not in Gaeryong City… but somehow, inexplicably, my mother must have existed in two places simultaneously.

Is that even possible?

It would be best to ask my mother directly, but since her memory had been spotty since her disappearance, I couldn’t expect much.

That left Dahui as my only option.

I turned to Dahui and said:

“Dahui, remember when I said I’d grant you one wish if you came with me to the school basement?”

In truth, I had already used that wish in the Nightmare Corridor.

I had used it to ask about Yu Dahui’s true identity.

But Yu Dahui had been eaten by a ghost and died then, so she wouldn’t remember that.

Therefore, my wish token had essentially been revived.

“There’s something I want to ask you today. Can you spare some time after school?”

“Hmm… Okay.”

We changed our clothes and finished breakfast.

Leaving behind the strange days spent in that bizarre mansion, we got in the car and headed to school.

Before the car departed, the terrifying ghost-like housekeeper came out to the gate to see us off.

The car window slowly rolled down, and the housekeeper handed us what looked like small pouches.

“I baked some cookies for you. Eat them. Don’t open them here—wait until you get to school. If you don’t, a scary ghost will appear.”

She hadn’t been seen all morning, and suddenly she’s baking cookies for us?

And what’s with the instruction not to open them until we get to school?

“What’s this? They’re ginger cookies. I can’t eat ginger…”

Yu Dahui complained slightly about the cookies.

I see. The housekeeper deliberately baked cookies that Yu Dahui disliked.

What an impressive woman.

Anyway, we arrived at school.

Bong Jiyeon was squealing excitedly from the morning.

“Dahui, breakfast was delicious and I had such a great time! Can I post the photos we took at your house on my Instagram and TikTok? Yes? You’ll let me? Dahui, I really love you!”

Bong Jiyeon seemed desperate to post her upper-class society experience on social media and show off to everyone.

Now she approached me and said:

“Hey, I wouldn’t mind joining that pirate crew thing of yours.”

So she wants to be part of our group?

Unlike adults who tell lots of lies, Bong Jiyeon’s intentions were transparent and obvious, which made her easier to deal with.

This level of transparency was actually quite endearing.

What should I do?

Yang Juhui was shaking her head vigorously from side to side, clearly disgusted.

I couldn’t help but ponder the situation.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Hey, you’re funny. What’s there to think about? I’m offering to hang out with you.”

That’s the problem with girls who know they’re pretty.

They think all boys will like them.

Of course, I did have a crush on Bong Jiyeon once, but it was very brief. It wouldn’t even amount to 1 percent of my entire life.

After a moment’s thought, I decided to delegate this decision to Jeongseok.

“Jeongseok, you’re my first mate, but from today, you’re also our pirate crew’s HR manager. Thoroughly test and verify Bong Jiyeon’s application. Don’t just accept her because she’s a friend.”

“Me?”

Jeongseok looked quite bewildered.

I leaned in and whispered to him:

“Hey, use this as an excuse to spend time together and get closer. You’re in charge now, so use it to your advantage. Bong Jiyeon won’t want to be rejected by Kwon Suho, so being friendly with us is her best option. Won’t she try to butter you up? We’ll accept her eventually, but don’t make it too easy.”

“Isn’t that a bit underhanded? I never would have thought of that. Ha Yeongwon, you’re really something. I respect you. You’re truly a bad guy. I’ll do my best.”

As always, Jeongseok had a talent for making compliments sound like insults.

But the respect and admiration in his eyes were genuine.

I’ve set a good example as a leader for my subordinate.

Jeongseok said:

“We’re planning to hike Mount Gaeryong this weekend. I’ll think about it until then.”

“Hey, Jeongseok, what’s there to think about?”

As the noisy Jeongseok and Bong Jiyeon walked away, Yang Juhui poked me in the side.

“Hey, are you serious? You’re going to let Bong Jiyeon join?”

“I don’t know. Jeongseok will make the call. But the more people on our side, the better, right? Didn’t you and Bong Jiyeon used to be close friends until middle school?”

I overheard the girls talking during yesterday’s life game, and apparently Bong Jiyeon and Yang Juhui were quite close in middle school.

Like me and Jeongseok now, they used to be inseparable.

Their relationship soured dramatically after Bong Jiyeon started dating Kwon Suho.

“You seemed to be having fun playing with her yesterday too.”

Yang Juhui was being subtly ostracized by the girls in Class D.

In my opinion, girls are creatures that wither and die like lonely hamsters if they can’t form groups.

Yang Juhui without a group was truly a pitiful friend, and even though they were in different classes, it wouldn’t be bad for her to be friends with other girls like Yu Dahui or Bong Jiyeon.

Of course, Yang Juhui clicked her tongue as if she didn’t like the idea and headed to the playground.

Looks like she’s going to run again.

“Dahui, come to the library after school then.”

“Okay.”

# # #

Class was still boring as usual.

To stay awake, I was doing all sorts of things to distract myself when I remembered the cookie pouch that the scary housekeeper had packed for us.

Thinking I might as well eat them, I opened the pouch and found what looked like a piece of paper inside.

“Come visit again, little one”

“Creepy.”

Has my mysterious charm seduced the terrifying housekeeper?

It gave me the chills, but the cookies surprisingly tasted good.

Ginger cookies.

They were totally old people’s taste, but strangely, they suited my palate well.

It felt like discovering a new preference I didn’t know I had.

Time passed quickly, and after school, I headed to the library as a library committee member and cleaned the floor or organized books.

Then I noticed a man with an unkempt beard in the library.

“Oh.”

“Oh, you’re Chaeyeon’s son, aren’t you? Yeongwon, was it?”

It was Kang Bada.

Self-proclaimed Professor Snape.

I felt slightly wary, thinking this person might be an experiencer of the “Nightmare Corridor” and possibly related to the Hero or the Watcher.

At the same time, he might be someone who could answer many of my questions.

“Sir, you wrote that Morse code, didn’t you?”

“Oh, you figured that out? Well, I guess that’s just the basics of basics. But did you understand what it meant? What do you think it means?”

“I’m not sure. Is it warning me to be careful of Teacher Kang Haneul?”

“Sky caution.”

This could mean to be careful of his sister, Kang Haneul, but…

Actually, I had shifted my interpretation to mean being cautious of the Cheon family that rules Gaeryong. The character for “sky” is “cheon” (天).

After visiting the Cheon mansion yesterday, there were honestly too many suspicious things. But I wasn’t reckless enough to bring that up immediately.

Soon, Kang Bada chuckled.

“I heard you went to the mansion yesterday and met the chairman. So how was it? Does that terrifying woman still tell you not to go downstairs after 11 PM?”

“…!?”

“You look surprised that I know. Of course I know. I’ve been there before too. It’s a mansion that looks like ghosts might pop out at any moment. Good material for novels.”