Passion Novel - Volume 5 - Chapter 112

Jeong Taeui, recognizing that man as one of the surveillance agents who had been following him, suddenly had a thought and sharply turned his gaze to the blood-soaked man lying next to him. Now that he looked closely, it took some time to recognize him because his face was so terribly disfigured, but it was the same man who had followed him the day before yesterday. The one who had pulled out the spray.

“Oh…”

As Jeong Taeui muttered, Ilay calmly drank his tea and said,

“I was wondering who was staring at you so intensely. Where did you pick up this tail?”

“Didn’t you put him on me?”

In response to Jeong Taeui’s question, Ilay pointed to the man standing by the pillar instead of answering. Jeong Taeui looked suspiciously at the blood-soaked man.

“Then who is this guy?”

“Right, let’s ask that now. It won’t take long, we’ll just ask that and go up to the room.”

Ilay put down his teacup. And he calmly asked the man, who was lying as if unconscious,

“Who told this guy to follow you?”

There was no answer. Perhaps he truly had lost consciousness. Jeong Taeui muttered uneasily,

“Isn’t he unconscious? Surely he’s not dead—”

“He’s neither dead nor unconscious. It would be inconvenient if he passed out, so as soon as I broke his leg, I poured stimulants into him. The ingredients are a bit problematic, so it’s not commercially available, but the effect is quite good; he won’t be able to sleep for a while. …It’ll be hard during surgery. I didn’t think of that.”

Jeong Taeui stared blankly at Ilay, whose face instantly drained of color, as he muttered without batting an eye, He’ll have a hard time getting his broken bones set while fully conscious, what a pity, what should I do?

He couldn’t have failed to think of it. Indeed, the man, who seemed not to be unconscious, trembled and twitched his head, and Ilay chuckled indifferently.

Jeong Taeui bit his pale lips and fell silent. It wasn’t someone else’s problem.

Why did I incur the wrath of such a guy? Knowing he could flay a person alive, why did I do that? Jeong Taeui rubbed his arms, which were covered in goosebumps, and lamented inwardly. Meanwhile, Ilay clicked his tongue and lightly tapped the man’s shoulder.

“I asked who told this guy to follow you. No, to be precise, they probably told him to drag this guy back by any means necessary when he got the chance.”

“…”

“…Honestly. There are so many stupid people in the world.”

Ilay clicked his tongue, looking at the silent man for a moment. It was simultaneous with him finishing his sentence.

Amidst the subtly, unnaturally scattered sounds of commotion, the man’s horrific scream erupted. Faint screams followed two or three times among the flinching people. A few men, seemingly hotel staff, were approaching from a distance.

Without even glancing in that direction, Ilay used the hand that had broken and dangled the man’s arm to twist it in the opposite direction and then slapped his cheek a couple of times.

“Once. I’ll ask one more time. If there’s no answer this time, the hospital isn’t where you’re going. It’s the room. Let’s go into the room together, just the two of us, and have a slow talk. While we find out firsthand how many bones are in a human body, and what the internal organs look like. Hmm?”

The low voice, calm and whispering with a faint smile, reached Jeong Taeui’s ears.

Jeong Taeui bit and re-bit his lips, looking at the man with a complicated expression. Perhaps it was a mistake to bring up why he had been put under surveillance. If he had just said nothing, this might not have happened. But how was he supposed to know if it was this guy who put them on him or someone else?

But then again, if it wasn’t this guy, what busybody in the world would tell someone to just follow him around aimlessly?

“Hey, Ilay, is this perhaps catching the wrong person—”

Jeong Taeui interjected, thinking it would be a terrible sin if he mistakenly caught the wrong person due to some misunderstanding—of course, even without a misunderstanding, making someone look like this would surely incur divine punishment—but all he got back was a cold gaze filled with incredulous sneering.

Ilay didn’t answer Jeong Taeui’s words and lightly gripped the man’s chin. Even though he said “lightly,” Jeong Taeui, knowing the strength of that pale, beautiful hand, calmly averted his gaze from the man’s contorted face.

“Then I’ll ask again. Who told you to?”

Ilay asked in a low voice. His calm tone and expression, devoid of agitation, would have made him seem like any gentle young man if he weren’t holding that blood-soaked man in front of him. Many must have been fooled by that face, but certainly not this man. The man, looking at Ilay, who remained calm even in this situation, trembled his bluish lips. Perhaps his tongue was numb, and he couldn’t speak, rather than not wanting to.

The time Ilay waited for him was not long. Perhaps only a blink or two of an eye.

As he unhesitatingly stood up, a man in a neat uniform, seemingly the hotel manager, rushed over, a step too late. Four burly men followed behind him.

“Sir, I apologize, but just a moment—”

“By phone—”

However, Ilay cut the uniformed man off abruptly before he could finish speaking. The man, who had begun speaking politely but firmly, fell silent at Ilay’s words and tilted his head.

“You should have received a call. Has the order not been properly relayed yet? Then let me tell you. This is a ‘minor dispute between friends,’ so there’s no need to worry or be concerned at all. I just need a room to reconcile with my friend.”

Ilay paused for a moment and looked back at Jeong Taeui.

“You wouldn’t want the smell of blood in your room, would you?”

“Of course not.”

Jeong Taeui replied as soon as the words left his mouth. Knowing full well what would happen in that room, he had no desire whatsoever to offer his own room.

The uniformed man hesitated for a moment at Ilay’s composed demeanor, but then he raised his head. A faint wrinkle appeared between his eyebrows. It was the look of someone seeing a troublemaker causing a disturbance in the hotel.

“I apologize, but due to the hotel’s policy, it seems difficult to grant your request. Before that, the disturbance in a public place is—”

As the uniformed man spoke in a clear, textbook-like manner, the burly men who had followed him moved to Ilay’s sides and behind him. It was threatening enough, but of course, Ilay didn’t bat an eye. He merely frowned, as if annoyed.

“Taei. Do you have any spare gloves?”

Ilay suddenly asked. Hearing that, Jeong Taeui pressed his throbbing temples with his thumb.

“No… I’m not your adjutant anymore. Why would I carry spare gloves?”

It seemed this guy wasn’t going to stop at just one person today. Even now, the public security bureau was on the verge of arriving, and he wondered how many people he intended to take down.

Jeong Taeui felt the cold gazes of the uniformed man and others pouring down on him acutely, and he felt utterly wronged. He wanted to plead that he had no connection to this madman.

In the distance, the sound of sirens was getting closer. He couldn’t distinguish whether it was a police car or an ambulance.

A faint flush of color appeared on the blood-soaked man’s face, who was sprawled in front of Ilay. He seemed to think he had barely escaped. But his hope ended there.

As the uniformed man’s phone rang, the man’s hope shattered.

The uniformed man, who had answered the phone and said, “Yes, I’m in the lobby now. There’s been a slight disturbance. I’ll tidy it up and be right there,” paused for a moment, then looked at Ilay with a strange expression. His face, replying “Yes, yes” into the phone, gradually took on a distressed look. He anxiously waved his hand at the burly men approaching Ilay.

“Can’t I just go to my room first?”

Jeong Taeui muttered, knowing full well that he wouldn’t get a “yes” in return. He was already used to the sharp gazes from people when he was Ilay’s adjutant at UNHRDO, but the cold stares from ordinary people were particularly intense.

“It’ll be over quickly. It doesn’t take long to break every single bone. —Liu. If it’s the public security bureau, send them away, and if it’s an ambulance, tell them to wait. I’ll be back in a moment after going up.”

Ilay spoke as if to no one in particular. The person who replied was a man sitting on a sofa across the way. When Jeong Taeui looked in that direction, it was indeed one of the tails that had been attached to Jeong Taeui. The man replied briefly and turned to leave.

The uniformed man, with a disgusted expression, waved away the men around Ilay and muttered bitterly,

“Get them a room. …Then, sir, please take your time talking with your friend. And if possible, for the sake of our hotel’s image, please…”

However, contrary to his bitter voice and tone, his face wore a polite, commercial smile. That man was quite scary in his own way, Jeong Taeui thought, and patted his chest a few times, which suddenly felt constricted.

Ilay lightly nodded, taking the key handed to him by a hotel employee who had rushed over from the lobby, presumably after receiving Ilay’s call. Then he looked back at the man, who was pale and rigid with shock.

“Alright. Let’s go up for a moment and have a quiet talk, friend.”

Ilay smiled as he effortlessly grabbed the man’s collar and lifted him up. The man, dangling from Ilay’s hand, his broken leg dragging on the floor, trembled violently. His lips, hands, and feet gradually trembled more severely, until his entire body was shaking. The man, spitting blood from his mouth, which had only a few teeth left, gurgled like a dying animal.

“Ri—”

The man desperately mumbled something. Blood poured out every time he opened his mouth, making it difficult to understand. Ilay smiled awkwardly, then lightly—smack, with a sound of tearing flesh—slapped the man’s cheek.

“I can’t understand you.”

When Ilay said briefly, the man this time struggled with all his might to utter each word.

“Ling… elder… sir… he… said to bring… that man…”

“…?”

The man’s blood-soaked hand pointed at Jeong Taeui. Jeong Taeui instinctively took a step back and tilted his head as the blood-soaked hand reached out towards him.

“Me? Oh, right, it would be me, of course. Since you were following me. But who is that?”

Is he someone trying to track down my missing brother? Jeong Taeui asked in confusion, tilting his head repeatedly. Then he suddenly looked at Ilay.

Ilay was smiling. His lips were curved up ever so slightly. Jeong Taeui suddenly realized. Ilay might have known the answer even before the man spoke.

“Il—”

But before Jeong Taeui could even call Ilay’s name, Ilay muttered, “Indeed,” and slapped the man’s other cheek. Another burst of blood and screams erupted.

“You should have answered in time. It’s too late now… is what I was going to say, but I’m in a pretty good mood today. Plus, there’s someone here who’s desperate to go up to the room. —Tch. Take this guy away.”

Ilay shouted briefly without looking back. The man who had been standing by a pillar a little distance away, watching, approached. He then picked up the blood-soaked lump, which was now so disfigured that even his family would have difficulty recognizing him, bowed briefly, and turned to leave.

Amidst a subtle silence and a commotion a little further away, Ilay calmly—no, with a somewhat displeased expression—shook the blood from his hand. Then he suddenly looked at the hotel staff member in uniform, who was standing a few steps away with a flustered and troubled expression. As his thin, sharp gaze met him, the uniformed man flinched and straightened his posture.

Ilay leisurely approached him, then, standing directly in front of the uniformed man who was frozen like a frog before a snake, he pulled out the white handkerchief neatly folded and tucked into his breast pocket. The silk handkerchief, slowly tracing Ilay’s hand, quickly turned dark crimson.

“I guess I can cancel the room.”

Ilay smiled faintly and tucked the soiled handkerchief back into the man’s breast pocket. Turning away from the man, who was rigid with disgust, Ilay headed towards Jeong Taeui, who was standing frozen.

“Alright, I’ve roughly figured out what was bothering me, shall we go up?”

“…”

Jeong Taeui truly didn’t want to leave with this man side-by-side, solidifying the surrounding perception that “those two are acquainted,” but it was clear that leaving quickly was the better option.

Jeong Taeui nodded vaguely, then immediately turned and strode towards the elevator. On the way, he briefly made eye contact with the broker, who was a few tables away. The broker, staring blankly at Ilay, probably just then realized a little of his own good fortune.

You’re truly lucky. Look, he’s gone from your sight, and you’ll never have to meet him again. What about me? I don’t even know how long I’ll have to stay in this hotel.

Jeong Taeui deliberately walked a long way down the corridor leading to the new wing, far from the lobby, to reach the elevator. The numerous gazes that had followed him from behind had disappeared, but the smell of blood still seemed to cling to his nose.

“I wonder if there’s any need to go all the way around when I’ll be saying goodbye to that spot the moment I get on the elevator anyway.”

A leisurely voice was heard following a couple of steps behind Jeong Taeui. Standing in the empty elevator hall, Jeong Taeui pressed the button for the elevator, which was stopped on the thirteenth floor, and sighed as he turned around.

“Right. So—who was that?”

“That?”

“You said something about an elder.”

Jeong Taeui frowned and asked again.

This man couldn’t possibly not know. If he didn’t know, he wouldn’t have just let that man go. (No, even now, you couldn’t say he just let him go.)

He said “Elder Ling.” And what else did he say? That the young master of the Ling family told him to bring him.

He couldn’t say he understood perfectly. His mouth was mangled, and his blood-filled tongue didn’t articulate clearly. But that’s what Jeong Taeui heard.

But…

“I don’t know anyone like that.”

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue and tilted his head slightly. And Ilay stared blankly down at Jeong Taeui. Then he suddenly chuckled.

“The Ling family is well-known in the business world. The current head of the family is an old man named Ling Huolong, seventy years old, but even at that age, he’s still incredibly shrewd and known for being ruthless and greedy in all aspects. Haven’t you heard of him?”

“No.”

“Really? Then you probably don’t know that when he was almost fifty, he fell in love at first sight with a young girl not even twenty, practically abducted her, and cherished her as his seventh wife. It’s a very famous story.”

Jeong Taeui looked at Ilay with strange eyes, as he kept bringing up increasingly irrelevant stories. There was no way Jeong Taeui would know such a story, which belonged in a women’s magazine, especially one from over 20 years ago. Jeong Taeui briefly racked his brain trying to find a connection between this story and the fact that “Elder Ling” had told someone to capture him, then said suspiciously,

“I just hope you’re not going to tell me that his seventh wife and my brother are having an affair.”

Of course, that was absolutely impossible for Jeong Jaeui hyung. Although he was a genius beyond compare, he wasn’t someone who had the knack for charming women. Unless he set his mind to it, as far as Jeong Taeui knew, he had no interest in that area at all. And a married woman, no less. Moreover, a woman who, if he calculated, would be more than ten years his senior.

Jeong Taeui, who had joked about it and then briefly imagined it, quickly shook his head.

Ilay, who had been looking down at Jeong Taeui, burst out laughing, as if he hadn’t expected such a remark.

“Hahaha, Jeong Jaeui and that woman? Never. That woman pours all her affection into the son she bore. Ling Huolong’s youngest son, whom he publicly declared he loves more than his own eyes. Even that old man, who is so terribly harsh that even his own family secretly curses him, is utterly devoted to that mother and son. Why else would the youngest son be called ‘young master’ when there are so many older brothers, barely countable on two hands?”

“—”

Jeong Taeui stared blankly at Ilay. Suddenly, something clicked. A faint suspicion, gnawing and squirming in his mind, suddenly struck his chest.

“That, son…”

As Jeong Taeui blurted out, the elevator arrived and the doors opened. Receiving the light from inside the elevator as a backlight, Ilay looked at Jeong Taeui. His slightly narrowed eyes seemed to lick every corner of Jeong Taeui’s face.

“You seem to have forgotten his full name, haven’t you? That kid will cry. No, he’ll probably get angry.”

“Ling—Xinlu…”

Jeong Taeui muttered, dazed. No, it truly felt as if half his mind had left him.

—Besides, that guy has a very good lineage. He’s the son of a prominent, wealthy family in the Chinese business world, known by name alone.

—Indeed, his family itself is very greedy. But I never thought he’d try to get his hands on the Goddess of Fortune.

—He was originally the son of an old, rich family, so his family would set up a company or he’d figure things out on his own, so why worry about someone richer than me?

Brief words from his uncle, Ilay, and Moro mixed together and surfaced in his memory. Xinlu. Ling Xinlu. That lovely, adorable child. He had forgotten. He had forgotten. He had completely forgotten him since meeting this man again.

Jeong Taeui stared blankly at him. He was truly dumbfounded. How could he have forgotten? How could he have lived without ever thinking about that lovely child, completely forgetting him?

“—!”

Jeong Taeui turned around. And frantically began to retrace his steps.

He hadn’t seen him for a long time. They said Xinlu had left UNHRDO right after Jeong Taeui left the island. And naturally, contact was lost after that.

Would he resent him? He had left without a word. Was that why he resented him, and that’s why he told someone to bring him? If so, he only had to say one word. That Xinlu was looking for him, then Jeong Taeui would have obediently followed.

However, as Jeong Taeui hurried back to the lobby, a strong hand from behind grabbed him and stopped him. Jeong Taeui flinched, his steps halting at the fierce grip on his shoulder. He looked back anxiously to see Ilay holding him with an indifferent expression.

“That guy’s probably already gone to the hospital or somewhere, and even if he’s still there, he’s not in a state to take you to the Ling family.”

“Where is that?”

Jeong Taeui immediately asked back. But no answer came. Instead, only a cold gaze. After a slight pause, a slow voice came.

“Going?”

“…”

Jeong Taeui didn’t answer. And slowly, under that cold gaze, he recalled reality. The emotions that had momentarily overwhelmed his mind gradually subsided.

If he went. If he met Xinlu again. Would anything have changed? It didn’t seem likely. Xinlu would still be the Xinlu Jeong Taeui knew, and Jeong Taeui himself would be the same. So, ultimately, nothing would change.

But he felt like he had something to say. Something he hadn’t said yet, something left unsaid. What was it? Jeong Taeui thought, silently meeting Ilay’s gaze. Suddenly, he thought he heard Ilay click his tongue briefly.

“Honestly… He loses his mind the moment he hears a name. Jeong Taei. Let me tell you something. I guarantee you, if you go into that family, you’ll never come out. Not until you’re a corpse.”

The hand gripping Jeong Taeui’s shoulder seemed to loosen slightly, then those neat fingers slowly tapped his shoulder. As if coaxing a disobedient child.

“I can’t not meet him.”

He had to meet him once. And he had to say something. Staying in this ambiguous state like this wouldn’t do. Even if decades passed, human relationships were like that. If they weren’t concluded in some way, the situation would continue indefinitely.