Passion Raga Novel (Completed) - Chapter 1

1. in Seringe.

Even those who had never met him would nod, saying, ‘Ah, that one…’ when the youngest son of the Linga family was mentioned, a testament to his renown among those in the know. The Linga family was a recognized name in the business world. Especially in mainland China and the neighboring Southeast Asian countries, where the overseas Chinese influence was tightly woven into the fabric of society, there was hardly anyone involved in politics or business who hadn’t heard their name.

Ling Hwirung, the patriarch who held the family in his grasp, was already over seventy, yet he commanded the household with more vigor than his eldest son, who was nearing fifty. It was the common guess of the Linga family doctor and others that he would easily live past a hundred.

No one thought he was an old man who would die easily. From his youth until now, he had stopped at nothing to make the family bigger and stronger. He was a cold-blooded man, devoid of tears. There were more than a few who brazenly attacked him with knives in broad daylight, and many others who more formally sent assassins.

Despite surviving several brushes with death since his youth, the old man lived on, growing stronger and more ruthless with each escape. By the time he reached his fifties, no one dared to cross him anymore.

It was around that time that something no one could have imagined happened to this cold and wicked man, in whom no trace of humanity could be found.

It wasn’t long after his eldest son, on the cusp of thirty, had a son, making him a grandfather relatively early in life.

He had gone to a small mountain village on business and there, he was instantly captivated by a young girl not yet twenty. He brought her back with him on the spot and settled her in a separate annex. The fact that he kept people around the annex to watch her and prevent her from leaving until she conceived suggests she hadn’t come willingly.

It wasn’t unusual for Ling Hwirung to take a wife. Even if she was the seventh to enter his home, it wouldn’t have been strange for an eighth or ninth to follow. He was prone to capriciously taking wives only to grow tired of them and cast them aside just as quickly.

Even if that young girl was stunningly beautiful, enough to turn any man’s head, she wouldn’t be an exception. A man like Ling Hwirung had already encountered many women considered among the most beautiful in the vast land of China. His infatuation with their beauty would last at most a few days, after which he would typically grow cold and distant again. Women like peonies and common garden roses had already passed through his hands in countless numbers, and everyone expected that young girl to walk a similar path.

Therefore, when month after month, then year after year passed, and Ling Hwirung remained completely enamored with her, not even glancing at other women, everyone was astonished. No, they were already astonished. Every time that icy, emotionless man visited her daily, his face was flushed like a boy meeting his first love, brimming with an uncontrollable affection.

Everyone was amazed. How could such a cold, resolute man, who would cut off even his own parents if they disagreed with him, fall so completely and utterly for someone?

And so, when a son was born from that woman, everyone watched the situation with bated breath. Perhaps the most nervous were the eldest son, who already held a certain position in the Linga family, or his mother, Ling Hwirung’s first wife.

Sure enough, Ling Hwirung rejoiced immensely upon gaining his youngest son, who was even younger than his grandson, as if he had gained the entire world. He publicly declared that he loved the child so much it wouldn’t hurt to put him in his eyes, doting on him and always keeping him within sight when at home. Even his beloved eldest grandson couldn’t compare to his youngest son.

Perhaps if that woman had been bolder and more ambitious, the balance of power within the family might have shifted. Ling Hwirung showered her with such fervent affection that he seemed ready to grant her every wish.

However, she was as quiet and timid as her perpetually melancholic and anxious expression suggested. She feared any harm coming to herself or her son. Perhaps one could even call it wise. She knew that she could easily suffer at the hands of some of the more aggressive wives, and that no matter how much Ling Hwirung tried to protect her, once something happened, it would be too late.

Perhaps thanks to this, or because his grown sons found it ridiculous to compete with a mere infant, or perhaps because they still feared their tiger-like father even in his old age, the youngest son grew up without mishap, receiving immense adoration and being called ‘little master’ amidst the circulating anxieties.

Therefore, the youngest son of the Linga family was famous even before he was born. As he grew up, his fame, along with his father’s unwavering affection, showed no signs of diminishing. However, while people initially whispered behind his back and gave him disdainful looks for being the child of an old man who had lost his mind over a young concubine, as the son grew a little older, they began to add, ‘It’s understandable how much he dotes on him.’

The child, who grew up overflowing with his parents’ love, was truly a lovable child. His gentle and amiable personality, as much as his beautiful and charming face that perfectly resembled his mother’s, was more than enough to win people’s favor. He was even thoughtful and intelligent, so everyone would sigh and exclaim, ‘Even I would have no choice but to love such a beautiful child.’

He was the youngest son of the Linga family.

Yuri Gable had also heard rumors about this son, not in great detail, but only the circulating gossip. He was said to have a beautiful and refined appearance that perfectly resembled his mother, as well as excellent skills, evidenced by his top-tier academic performance at a young age, allowing him to enter UNHRDO. He was also described as a kind and polite young man.

However, the moment Yuri Gable saw the young man, about whom he had heard so many rumors, he thought:

“Mother’s side? No, he’s the spitting image of his father.”

Yuri had seen both the young man’s father and mother before. It was during Ling Hwirung’s sixtieth birthday. He hadn’t been invited to the celebration but had happened to be there on the day of the banquet. That was about ten years ago.

At that time, he had gone to see the eldest son of the house on business and was coincidentally drawn in, offered food, and then left. He had seen her from a distance then: the young woman, barely twenty, who had caught the eye of a man over fifty and entered his home in a flower palanquin. She was indeed beautiful enough for that. Even though she was already in her thirties at the time, her face was as youthful as a young maiden’s, and she exuded a lonely and pure melancholy, like a hydrangea wet with rain, captivating the hearts of those who saw her. And the sixty-year-old man sitting right beside her, even if she hadn’t been there, radiated such an overwhelming aura that one would immediately know, ‘This man is the master of this place.’ It was as if a house-sized tiger in human skin was sitting there.

“Indeed, only someone of this caliber could be called the master of this household,” Yuri recalled nodding to himself.

And now, the young man before his eyes was, no matter how he looked at him, the spitting image of his father. At least, that’s how it seemed to Yuri Gable.

He understood why people said he resembled his mother. If one carefully examined his facial features, his outstanding beauty was indeed inherited directly from her. However, unlike his mother, who had a poignant quality like a May hydrangea drenched in silent rain, her son was like a peony blooming profusely under the golden sun. Despite his lovely, charming face, he exuded a dangerously flamboyant aura.

It was because the ambiance of his father was perfectly contained within the features inherited from his mother. He was a flower, but unlike his mother’s flower, which held a delicate and timid nature, this son-flower contained the nature of his tiger-like father, who commanded heaven and earth. That was why. That’s why he immediately gave off a dangerous feeling.

No, he might genuinely be dangerous.

In the brief moment Yuri Gable met those jet-black eyes that had passed over him with apparent disinterest, he felt as though he had been pricked by a poison dart, and he flinched inwardly.

This was troublesome.

“He was only pretty when he was little…”

Yuri muttered to himself, almost unconsciously, and the man walking a few steps ahead, his companion, glanced back. Yuri quickly shook his head, gesturing that it was nothing, as the man gave him a look as if asking what he had said. The man then turned his attention forward again, as if whatever private mutterings were happening behind him weren’t important right now. Indeed, he probably didn’t have the presence of mind to care about anything else.

Yuri sighed. The flamboyant young man standing ahead, and this German man confronting him, were both dangerously human, if one could even call them that. Yuri almost didn’t want to use the word “human” for them.

Yet, somehow, this young man also gave off a subtly dangerous feeling, though he didn’t display it as openly as the other man.

Unfortunately, Yuri had a good intuition. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have earned Kyle’s trust so much while working in this industry.

In truth, he was lucky. His abilities weren’t bad, but he considered himself fortunate. Things generally worked out well for him. Even this time, with the demand to find the unprecedented genius who had hidden himself somewhere in the world, causing people to search everywhere for even a single strand of his hair.

That luck, in fact, stemmed from his excellent intuition, and that intuition was now telling him: this situation didn’t look good.

Indeed, anyone who knew the people present would say the same thing: it was a very bad situation.

It seemed the cause of this entire situation was the East Asian man standing awkwardly and uncomfortably between the two.

Jeong Taeui, the one and only younger brother of the genius Jeong Jaeui whom they were searching for, and the companion of the German man, Ilay Riegrow, whom it was best to avoid if one wished to prolong their life.

Before they came to this island, Yuri had been enjoying a relatively peaceful and secluded time.

As per the request, he had been meticulously searching the entire world for almost a year, chasing after the genius Jeong Jaeui, who had suddenly gone missing one day. During that time, he had wandered through all sorts of remote areas and had finally caught a clue, arriving at this island with a certain degree of certainty. Yuri, who always thought conservatively about work, certainly kept in mind the possibility that Jeong Jaeui might not be on this island, but he expected with more than half a chance that he was hiding here or was being hidden.

Now that the end of this job seemed to be in sight, Yuri was in a good mood. Although his expression was usually subtle, he had been enjoying a leisurely and comfortable feeling ever since he arrived on this island. It wasn’t just because the end of the job was in sight. This was an island, wasn’t it? An island. A land surrounded by a generous sea that one would pay to visit.

Once this job was over once Jeong Jaeui found out his contract with T&R would end. He had received documents for contract renewal a few days ago, and several other places, highly valuing Yuri Gable’s abilities, had also expressed interest in contracting with him.

He hadn’t yet decided whether to go to another place or renew his contract with T&R, but in any case, Yuri planned to relax on this island for at least a month after completing this job. The thought of days spent submerged in the sea, without the burden of work or any worries, made his heart pleasantly weary just thinking about it.

It was to this Yuri, along with the premonition that the job would soon end, that these two people arrived.

Ilay Riegrow, the employer’s brother, and Jeong Taeui, the target’s brother.

‘Nice to meet you. I’m Jeong Taeui.’

When he went to meet the two at Dar es Salaam airport, Yuri carefully observed the young man who extended his hand for a handshake, thinking, ‘So this is what that lucky man I heard rumors about looks like.’

It was a well-known fact among people in this industry that not long ago, the madman Rick had turned the T&R intelligence agency upside down trying to find someone, and he himself had raged like a tiger stung by a bee. Rumors circulated widely: ‘What on earth did that person do to make him so angry?’, ‘Who is that person who turned him upside down and then suddenly disappeared?’, ‘What will be that person’s fate?’

It was only recently that Yuri heard that the person had finally been found. In fact, that incident, though highly interesting, had nothing to do with Yuri’s mission or so he had thought so he hadn’t paid much attention to it. Yet, he couldn’t help but hear about it because of the message that the two protagonists of that rumor were coming together to Seringe.

‘Who did you say? Jeong Taeui? Jeong Jaeui’s brother? With Rick?… He’s coming in one piece, right?’

It was no wonder he asked James, who delivered the news. It was extremely unexpected that the person Rick had been searching for with such furious determination, turning the world upside down, was now perfectly fine. ‘Are Jeong Jaeui and his brother similar in their luck?’ He was amazed at how lucky he was to have crossed Rick and still be unharmed.

In any case, the two people who appeared at Dar es Salaam airport looked perfectly fine on the surface, and it was only a few days ago that Yuri brought them to Seringe.