Flowers Are Bait Novel - Chapter 150

“Damn it, this is Hwaidom…!”

Yiyeon’s eardrums were ringing, as if she had been hit hard on the back of the head. The words pierced her like a knife, but her dulled mind couldn’t properly grasp the fact.

How could this be Hwaidom?

The Hwaidom she had seen at the opening ceremony was a paradise on earth. Moreover, as a tree doctor who had personally participated in the bidding, she could confidently assert that Hwaidom was the largest botanical garden in Korea.

But how could such a prison be Hwaidom? Yiyeon’s hands trembled as she pressed her face close to the wall.

“Senior, I, I need to get out of here.”

Her fear-filled eyes wavered in the darkness.

“What time, no, what day is it? Did you happen to see a boy besides me?”

“Just calm down for now, I don’t know anything else, but you haven’t been here for even half a day!”

Where in the world was Gyubaek…? Yiyeon’s face turned dark with worry. She remembered seeing Hwaido in the distance and smiling at the child. But after that, it was a blank.

She couldn’t even guess when or how she had lost consciousness, or the circumstances before and after. As she delved into the void, she felt endlessly helpless, so Yiyeon slapped her plaster-like face. This was no time to be lost in thought.

“What do you mean this is Hwaidom?”

Then, from beyond the cold wall, he burst into maniacal laughter, “Haha, hahahaha.”

“Yiyeon, did you think Hwaidom was just a botanical garden?”

“What do you mean…”

His voice, trembling with excitement, echoed like a cave.

“Hwaidom, plastered with all sorts of expensive trees, called a ‘garden of fantasy’ and ‘beautiful,’ was nothing but a deception! The real purpose of the higher-ups is here, underground Hwaidom. They lied on a grand scale just to hide this place!”

Her mind reeled as if everything she knew had been overturned in an instant. Yiyeon suddenly recalled Yoon Jooha, who had been confined without seeing the light of day beneath the stylish Kwon family mansion. The difference between above ground and underground was just a sheet of cement. Why was she overlapping in this situation? A cold sweat suddenly beaded on her spine. Even amidst that, Hwang Joyoon continued to press her.

“Do you know what’s happening underground in Hwaidom?”

“…What do you mean, ‘happening’?”

Unlike her weak voice, Yiyeon’s mind was racing faster than ever.

If it concerned Hwaidom, Kwon Giseok couldn’t possibly not know. He was the largest investor here and the CEO of Sooguk Pharmaceutical. And Summer, a new paradigm hallucinogen supposedly extracted from rare plants.

The pieces that hadn’t fit together at the opening ceremony were scattered on the floor again. As Yiyeon furrowed her brow in thought, a panting voice suddenly came through.

“Have you heard of Summer?”

At that moment, her brain felt like a fuse burning, and a hypothesis struck her like lightning. Yiyeon coughed out several breaths. Finally, all the information began to fall into place.

“Damn it, do you know how that drug is made?”

It was the same principle as how they hid the drug field in Hwaido. If this place was Summer’s, Sooguk Pharmaceutical’s illegal laboratory—

Perhaps Hwaidom’s true purpose was a secret cultivation site for that rare plant, the extract of Summer. As she neared the answer, Hwang Joyoon couldn’t control his rage and pounded on the wall. And he uttered words that far surpassed Yiyeon’s thoughts.

“They’re using us as fertilizer!”

“…!”

“Damn it, do you know what that rare plant Jo Gyeongcheon discovered feeds on?”

Hwang Joyoon, highly agitated, cried and laughed like a madman.

“Heh heh, but how are you going to get out of here? I’ve been tortured here for months…! How do you plan to get out of here? This is hell!”

—The media is already prepared. Pressure will come from outside.

Blood stained the floor in the shape of shoe soles with every step Kwon Chaewoo took. He walked around the mansion, which had become like a deserted house in half a day, listening to his second brother’s voice.

All the servants had been sent away, and only the hitmen hired by Kwon Giseok remained. Kwon Chaewoo quickly subdued his opponents who rushed him simultaneously, staining his hands with blood once more.

Every time he stabbed a vital point, blood splattered mercilessly onto his unblemished, smooth cheek, and Kwon Chaewoo grabbed the staggering man, wiped his own bloodied face on the man’s clothes, and discarded him.

He continued walking with a face stripped of humanity. The corridor instantly reeked of blood.

—Chaewoo, but you really… No.

Kwon Yijoon stopped talking and lit a Zippo lighter, presumably putting a cigarette in his mouth.

—Hoo… That’s enough. You deal with that bastard yourself.

He knew what he had been about to ask. He wanted to know if he would really deal with his own flesh and blood. But Kwon Chaewoo showed no reaction, his face as cold as ice. He simply moved his legs unhurriedly towards his final target.

The target’s location, revealed by the hound, was ironically in the basement where Yoon Jooha had been confined. His intention was quite clear. Kwon Giseok was waiting for him.

—Anyway, our parents were made that way by that son of a bitch. It was only after Yoon Jooha was captured that our parents became incapacitated overnight. Is this really a coincidence?

Kwon Chaewoo felt no emotion at Kwon Yijoon’s bitter words.

His biological mother was barely surviving on injections due to a nervous breakdown, and his biological father had been bedridden for years. Thus, the Kwon family’s power naturally transferred to the eldest son, and everything began to revolve around Kwon Giseok.

Kwon Yijoon had long suspected that the timing of Yoon Jooha’s confinement coincided with this point.

—…Kwon Giseok was a perfect eldest son who never once rebelled against his parents in his life. He was an obnoxious bastard who did everything his parents asked for one hundred percent. But it was after Yoon Jooha was captured. He started raising his voice more often in front of his parents, and he didn’t let anyone lay a hand on that woman.

Kwon Chaewoo stepped on the hollow-sounding iron stairs, thud, thud, as he descended into the basement.

—The eldest son, who used to obey like a puppet, suddenly changed overnight. Of course, our parents tried to get rid of Yoon Jooha quickly, but Kwon Giseok found out.

“…”

—But the youngest brother, I don’t know. If Kwon Giseok really changed ‘overnight’. Even I, who saw it right next to him, can’t guess when his eyes started to go crazy like that.

Kwon Chaewoo felt suffocated as he entered the cramped space without a single window. However, in that shabby place, with only a small dressing table and a bed, Kwon Giseok had taken off his glasses and was relaxed.

An old but pretty ivory dressing table. On it, bottles of alcohol and glasses were scattered haphazardly. And white powder.

Kwon Chaewoo’s gaze sharply scanned everything. Kwon Giseok, still impeccably dressed, fiddled with his cufflinks and acknowledged him.

“You’re late.”

He had taken Summer, yet he never uttered nonsense. Kwon Chaewoo felt a strange sense of unease and tightened his eyes, which twitched convulsively.

“All I need is your thumbprint on the inheritance documents.”

He muttered coldly, then immediately pressed Kwon Giseok’s hand onto the dressing table with a knife and poured out the alcohol.

The pungent smell of alcohol filled the air. Kwon Giseok merely slowly raised the corners of his mouth without resisting.

“Chaewoo, you shouldn’t waste time.”

“I heard everything you said to Yiyeon.”

Kwon Chaewoo, his eyes already bloodshot, pulled out another dagger from his waist. He held Kwon Giseok’s thumb and the blade together, as if about to peel an apple. It was precarious, as if the joint with the fingerprint would be severed immediately.

“…How, damn it, do you starve someone to death.”

“…!”

At that, Kwon Giseok’s eyebrows twitched.

His rotten, festering vengeance, anger, self-reproach, and murderous intent all converged in the knife he held. Kwon Chaewoo, with his unsightly, bloodshot eyes, finally began to force the blade in. Crunch, crunch, his bones grated, but Kwon Chaewoo was as persistent as a seasoned butcher.

How, how could he, how, damn it, like that. Kwon Chaewoo vented his rage but never stopped his work. When Kwon Giseok reflexively tried to pull away, he completely crushed his drug-addled body and continued.

“Yiyeon, I, I put a bug on her work uniform.”

Every time Kwon Chaewoo distorted his face and sliced off flesh, the blood-soaked dressing table shook.

“Ugh…!”

Red veins stood out in several lines on Kwon Giseok’s forehead. Blood oozed from the corner of his mouth as he bit his tongue, enduring the pain.

“I deliberately chose a dull blade for you.”

“Ugh, ugh…!”

During the few days he was immobile due to the gunshot wound, Kwon Chaewoo spent his time checking Yiyeon’s every move through the mansion’s CCTV, and in the process, he accidentally overheard their conversation.

It was precisely when he had finally broken through a long slump and gripped his cello.

Kwon Giseok’s terrible words all flowed in. At the moment he was dusting off the cello for her. His knees buckled again, and his head felt as if it was plunged into a pit.

But he gritted his teeth, got up, and staggered towards her. With his mother, who had perhaps waited for his cello music every day, wrapped around his wrist, and guilt tied to his ankle. He couldn’t bring himself to lift his head, and in a self-punishing state, he thought of a song to dedicate to Yiyeon. He had pushed her so hard, saying ignorance was also a sin, but all those arrows were now aimed at himself.

It was the most painful performance of his life.

“You won’t die peacefully, Kwon Giseok.”

Kwon Chaewoo, his breathing somewhat ragged, casually dropped his thumb into the wine glass. Kwon Giseok, even as his finger was severed without anesthesia, was so intoxicated by the visions Summer showed him that he only chuckled. At that, Kwon Chaewoo grabbed him by the collar and punched him until he was a bloody mess. The small cell soon became a chaotic mess.

“Heh… No matter what you do, you won’t meet Yoon Jooha.”

“What?”

Kwon Chaewoo scrunched his nose violently, then regained his expressionless face.

“Do you think I’d send you to where Yoon Jooha is?”

What Kwon Giseok obsessed over was only Kwon Chaewoo’s pain, not his death. Even if it meant death, Kwon Giseok would not allow them to meet again. They should never meet again.

“Teacher, it’s my turn now, isn’t it? Now…”

It was the moment Kwon Chaewoo paused, taken aback by the unfamiliar way Kwon Giseok spoke.

“The way you’ve lived will ultimately harm that woman.”

“…”

“You, the hound, the Kwon family, will kill that woman. You will lose everything again.”

It was unclear whether he was talking to himself or not. “That woman” could mean Yoon Jooha, or—

Kwon Chaewoo, with a hardened expression, stared into the opponent’s completely dilated pupils.

“Chaewoo, I won.”

“…!”

Kwon Chaewoo suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck, pressed his in-ear monitor, and gave an order. “Open the tank.” He no longer had the patience to listen to his nonsense.

If there was karma for starving someone to death, then he should suffer the same fate, being starved and driven mad by those very things. If Kwon Giseok had the will to live, he would escape; otherwise, he wouldn’t even move his limbs.

It was the end of a man who had lived at the highest position, possessing the most, but ultimately was left with only an empty shell. Power, honor, and greed meant nothing to Kwon Giseok. He simply couldn’t let go of his jealousy, which was already formless and crushed like his finger. It was ugly, but equally desperate.

Just as Kwon Chaewoo turned his back, Kwon Yijoon’s horrified voice was heard.

—Chaewoo…!

No, Kwon Chaewoo instinctively thought so at that short shout. No, no.

—The hounds I assigned to your sister-in-law, damn it, they’re all out of contact…!

Behind him, Kwon Giseok’s maniacal laughter continued to echo.

Teacher, I told you, didn’t I? I like Chaewoo too. What’s the difference between us…? I told you I’d show you how similar we are.