Chapter 329.
Chief Editor Kim had been suffering from anxiety after watching the news report the day before. He worried that the two summoned by the prosecution would call out his name.
"No, it’ll be okay...” he mumbled as he fiddled with his cellphone. His connection to those two wasn’t very deep. In addition, it was fortunately relatively easy to cut the tail[1] when it came to them.
Even if that person was a mayor, he could be described as a freshman politician, and he was just a second-term congressman. He had only become a mayor due to bribes and his political party, rather than his own ability. If those two wanted to keep living on Korean soil, they wouldn’t open their mouths recklessly.
For now, it was best to stick to the congressmen and entrepreneurs involved in order to avoid the rain. Well, if he used the information sleeping in his computer, it would be easy to create some shelter to avoid this sudden shower. Not only that, but he could be safer than anyone else. The power of information was truly that great.
While Chief Editor Kim was comforting himself, someone suddenly barged through his office door. "Who is it?!" he exclaimed angrily. But he couldn’t do anything as men in black suits filled the room, and one man pushed something toward him.
"I’m Prosecutor Joo," said the man after displaying his civil servant ID, before putting it back in his inner pocket and taking out a document. "And this is a warrant. Let’s get to work."
As soon as Prosecutor Joo finished speaking, the men in sturdy black suits, who had been standing like folding screens behind him, began sweeping everything on Chief Editor Kim’s desk into a blue box.
When an investigator touched Chief Editor Kim’s computer, he shouted in surprise, "Wa, wait! Why!? Tell me why you’re doing this first!”
Prosecutor Joo looked at Chief Editor Kim with a rather strange gaze. "Would a person like Joo Pil have such a slow news network?" he retorted as he showed Chief Editor Kim a holographic picture, projected into the air by his latest-model cellphone.
Chief Editor Kim couldn’t help but freeze when he saw the picture. This was because the picture showed him naked, with naked women in both arms. When?!
"Oh, and you’ll have to go with us. Give me your hand,” Prosecutor Joo said.
The sight of Prosecutor Joo grabbing his hand and handcuffing him blurred in Chief Editor Kim’s eyes. The three rules Prosecutor Joo recited didn’t enter his ears properly.
The disgusted gazes of his subordinates, who were watching from outside the room, seemed to foretell his fate.
* * *
Now, the way out was blocked. That Joo Pil’s computer contained a large amount of information that could remove the trash’s backing. That information would be the guillotine used to kill that trash.
Now it was time to move on to the next step. Should I help the police, who were already suffering from the scandal?
* * *
Lieutenant Chun had felt like dying for a few days. The atmosphere was tense because a high-ranking police officer had made a mistake while having fun, but the upper management had only asked him to produce results that could change the atmosphere.
Lieutenant Chun’s misfortune was that he was working in a place run by a crazy bastard who thought with neither his head nor his heart, but rather the thing between his crotch.
To be exact, it was the misfortune of the entire police force. In the past, those who were on the streets had been gangster villains with weak superpowers, so one could just raid them at night and put them behind bars, but that wasn’t the case these days.
Thanks to that, their current target was an underground gambling house, ‘Greenhouse’, that was usually just referred to as the House.
However, he couldn’t catch the moles in hiding at an insane rate just because he had suddenly been told to catch them. So he was in a situation where he couldn’t even go home, and was just going around in circles.
"Ah, this sucks,” he complained.
"That’s right,” said the man next to him while stuffing red bean bread into his mouth. There were many more bags of red bean bread under his legs.
"Hey, don’t you get tired of stuffing your face with sweet red bean bread?" Lieutenant Chun asked.
"I’m tired of it,” the other man said.
"Then why are you stuffing your face with it?" Lieutenant Chun asked.
"This is a kind of magic spell. When I can’t go home and have to do undercover work like this, if I eat only red bean bread, things seem to go well,” the man explained.
Lieutenant Chun looked at his subordinate and thought he definitely had a screw loose. No matter how effective the ‘spell’ supposedly was, it was clear that he had to have severe mental issues to be eating only red bean bread like that.
Once, when Lieutenant Chun had looked at his subordinate’s notebook one time, he had seen a page filled with the words ‘sweet red bean bread’. Worried about his subordinate, Lieutenant Chun smacked him in the back of the head and snatched a piece of red bean bread, putting it in his mouth. Suddenly, a text message came in.
-Text received! Text received!
"What’s that cute notification?" his subordinate asked.
"Shut up. My daughter set it up,” Lieutenant Chun said as he checked the text he had received. Suddenly, his expression stiffened. He thought for a moment then told his subordinate, "Eat only red bean bread from now on."
"What?" his subordinate asked, confused.
Lieutenant Chun showed his cellphone’s screen to his subordinate. It contained several pictures of the House’s location, its operating hours, its operators, its main clients, and other corroborating evidence in detail.
"Who sent it to you?" his subordinate asked.
"I don’t know, but it’s worth checking out,” Lieutenant Chun said.
If the text was real, a special promotion might not be a dream.
* * *
-This is breaking news. At around 3 a.m. today, the police from ... police station succeeded in arresting a large-scale illegal gambling house.
-This is the ... station located in ...; it is estimated that the amount of cash seized as related evidence alone will exceed two billion won, and the estimated amount used for gambling exceeds billion won. The police decided to file a case with the prosecution for eleven people, including the owner of the gambling house, who was arrested at the scene.
-The computer found at the gambling house revealed evidence related to gambling, and the police said they would expand the investigation.
-The owner of the gambling house denies all the evidence contained in the computer and has repeated only the statement that this is unfair.
I turned off the TV and turned on the computer again. It was true that this was unfair for the owner of the gambling house, but it was none of my business. It wasn’t as if an innocent person had been the one to receive the sentence, and it was just that the sentence was a little longer than the one he would usually receive.
Now, it was time to be patient and move on to the last step.
* * *
Chairman Jang headed to a Japanese restaurant with Judge Jeong as promised. He was on trial due to the overseas gambling he had been engaging in, and the judge of the trial was Judge Jeong. Unluckily, the police had caught the house, which had a connection with the casino he had been to; the prosecution found out about the overseas gambling house and caught him.
Normally, it wouldn’t matter that he had gotten caught. However, due to the massive sex scandal that had shaken up political and business circles, it was highly likely that this gambling case would be given a prison sentence proportional to the sum of gambling money used to silence the previous case.
That was why he had come to meet the judge in charge. Chairman Jang had found out that the people who had been caught with him this time were sweating, going around to meet the judges and prosecutors who were in charge of their cases.
Upon arriving at the Japanese restaurant, Chairman Jang headed straight to the plum room, the meeting place he had agreed on with Judge Jeong. In the plum room, a table full of fresh sashimi and delicious side dishes welcomed him. He looked at the clock, seeing that there was still time before Judge Jeong would arrive. As he was going to make a request, he had to avoid arriving later than the person who would do the favor.
Chairman Jang waited anxiously for Judge Jeong. There was a possibility that Judge Jeong wouldn’t arrive, because meeting with a defendant who was currently on trial would undermine his integrity as a judge. However, the fact that he hadn’t received a call rejecting him yet meant Judge Jeong was still going to be there.
Right when Chairman Jang was growing nervous, Judge Jeong entered the plum room a little past the promised time. When he saw Judge Jeong’s face, he felt better. But at the same time, he felt disgusted by Judge Jeong, who had been late for the meeting. He could clearly see Judge Jeong’s intent to shake him down.
"Oh, Judge Jeong! How have you been?” Despite his inner thoughts, Chairman Jang got up and smiled brightly. No matter how disgusted he felt, it would be foolish to express it.
"Yes, Chairman Jang. Have you been well?" Judge Jeong also smiled and received a handshake from Chairman Jang. His smile could spark great anger deep down, but he laughed like a good-natured person.
"Haha. Thanks to you, I’ve been well. Okay, let’s sit down,” said Chairman Jang. The two sat down, talked, and ate.
When they were decently full, Chairman Jang smiled and began to bring up the subject at hand. "Here’s the thing about business. You bet money, right? But when you handle money, the stress that comes from it is no joke."
"Huh-huh, is that so?" Judge Jeong responded by glancing at the attache case next to Chairman Jang.
Chairman Jang saw Judge Jeong’s eyes move and inwardly sneered as he continued talking. "Yes, that’s right. So while I was taking a breather...” He trailed off. Judge Jeong would understand with just this much.
"Huh-huh, that’s possible,” Judge Jeong said.
Chairman Jang smiled and clapped his hands as if he had forgotten about something, saying, "Aigoo, I forgot about the gift for Judge Jeong. As I get older, I often forget."
In fact, if Judge Jeong hadn’t answered in the affirmative, the gift would have naturally been forgotten. Chairman Jang opened the attache case he had next to him and placed it on the empty space on the table. It was full of 50,000 won bills. He said, "It’s an advance payment."
Judge Jeong coughed dryly, seemingly flustered, but his greed-filled eyes couldn’t lie. Upon seeing his reaction, Chairman Jang closed the attache case and pulled it toward himself sneakily to feel out Judge Jeong’s thoughts. Then, Judge Jeong put on a wily smile as he grabbed the attache case to stop Chairman Jang.
"Hahahaha!"
"Huhuhuhuhu."
The pair’s eyes met and they laughed.
* * *
A man wearing a black hat that was pushed down over his head took a picture of Judge Jeong and Chairman Jang as they exited the Japanese restaurant.
The two came out while talking in a friendly manner as they headed to the underground parking lot. Judge Jeong got in his car and left first, and Chairman Jang saw him off. Then, he entered his own car and left the parking lot as well.
The man in the black hat continued to take pictures. When both of them left, he entered a nearby computer room, connected the camera to the computer, and transferred all the photos to it.
Suddenly, the computer screen turned black and began to move on its own. The photos were sent somewhere, and after a while, the notepad program opened by itself, with words appearing on it.
-Voice and video?
The man wearing a black hat was scared that the computer might have suddenly become haunted, but he mustered courage and typed a reply into the notepad. It was like this when he had received the request as well.
-I failed. The Japanese restaurant seemed to contain radio waves that interfere with electronic devices.
As soon as he wrote those words, two letters appeared on screen as a response.
-OK.
At that moment, he got a text message on his cellphone. It was from the bank, telling him that 20 million won had been deposited.
-I deposited the promised reward.
As soon as the message finished appearing, the computer turned off and started again. Afterward, it no longer moved on its own.
* * *
As expected, it wasn’t going to be easy. Publicly, Judge Jeong was a fair judge and a very cautious person, so this outcome wasn’t hard to believe..
The restaurant where Chairman Jang and Judge Jeong had met was surrounded by devices that shielded the inside from the outside, as it was sponsored by people in the political and business circles. As such, this failure was predictable.
Well, it didn’t matter. If it couldn’t be pierced from the outside, it just had to be pierced from the inside. A dagger in the back would usually be more shocking if a trusted person stuck it in.
My smile just then was twisted.
1. This figure of speech refers to the way lizards can detach their tails to escape capture.
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