146. Eight on thirty nine
subway.
The forehead hit by the earthen pot started to throb and swell, and the right wrist still had no strength.
However, it was the smell that bothered Kwang-soo more than the pain in the forehead and wrist. Even though I raised the collar of my coat and pulled the zipper all the way up… The thick smell of kimchi stew and garlic was still rising from the inside of Kwang-soo’s coat.
-Uh-! Where the hell is this smell coming from?
-I know… . Sniff—! what does it smell like
-Well… It smells like rotting garlic and smells like kimchi… .
At the sound of people talking next to him, Kwang-soo eventually got up and had to move to a corner seat on one side of the subway.
The 40 minutes from Gangnam Station to Dunchon-dong Station where his house is located felt like an eternity to Kwang-soo. When the subway door opened at Dunchon-dong Station, Kwang-soo jumped out as if the door to heaven had been opened.
Kwang-soo, who came out of the subway station, hurried his steps. The desire to go home immediately, take off the clothes that vibrated with the smell of garlic and kimchi stew, and take a shower was like a chimney.
It was when Kwang-soo entered an alley with few people at a fast pace.
“Mr. Park Kwang-soo.”
Kwang-soo turned his head to look at the side of the sound, and a large man got out of the black car and continued.
“Let’s talk for a moment.”
Overwhelmed by the size and atmosphere of a man, Kwang-soo became a gentle sheep and opened his mouth with a polite tone.
“I’m sorry… who… Are you?”
“It doesn’t matter now.”
“Yes? I didn’t hear it very well.”
“It doesn’t matter who I am now.”
That was then.
Another man approached Kwang-soo and covered his nose and mouth with a white handkerchief in his hand.
As an unknown sweet smell penetrated his nostrils, Kwangsoo lost consciousness in his blurred consciousness.
When Kwang-soo regained consciousness, his body was tied tightly to the chair. Both hands tied behind the chair were throbbing because blood did not flow through them.
Kwang-soo looked around the room and noticed that he was imprisoned in a small room with no windows.
-Easy profit-!
The iron door on the right side of the room opened, and a thin man entered the room.
A large 007 bag was held in the man’s left hand and a 1.5-liter water bottle in his right hand.
He placed the bag and water bottle on the table in front of Kwang-soo, and turned his head to look at Kwang-soo. Squeezed by the cool energy emanating from his eyes, Kwangsoo quickly lowered his gaze.
“Aren’t you thirsty?”
Gwangsoo said, slowly looking into the man’s eyes.
“yes… .”
The man opened the cap of the water bottle and put it in Kwang-soo’s mouth, and Kwang-soo gulped down the water.
After a while, after drinking the water, Kwang-soo took a deep breath, and the man put the water bottle back into his mouth.
“It’s okay now… Eupeup… .”
Water rushed down Kwang-soo’s neck, and the cool-eyed man spoke in a dry voice.
“Drink it all. It’s easy to work when your organs are clean.”
After a while, the man took the empty water bottle out of Kwang-soo’s mouth, and Kwang-soo opened his mouth with a trembling voice.
“Come on, long term? uh, what does that mean?”
“… … .”
“Sir, sir, please save me. Well, I’ll do anything. Please, save my life.”
The man ignored Kwang-soo’s words and opened the 007 bag on the table with a click.
Various surgical instruments, including a medical scalpel, were neatly arranged in the bag. The man took a mask out of his bag and covered his face, wearing blue surgical gloves on both hands.
Kwang-soo’s gaze was fixed on the objects in the bag, and warm liquid began to flow down the chair where Kwang-soo was sitting.
The man pulled an empty chair and sat facing Kwang-soo.
“Park Kwang-soo.”
Gwang-soo, who was enchanted and looked at the surgical tools, was startled and said to the man.
“Yes Yes! Come on, sir!”
“You must be wondering why I was brought here… . If you know the reason and die, it will be less embarrassing, right? is not it?”
Kwangsoo couldn’t say anything with a blue tired expression on his face, and the man wearing a mask continued.
“Did you meet Chae Jung-ho today?”
“Yes, yes, that is right!”
“And I said that I was going to kill Chae Jung-ho.”
“I, me?”
The man stared at Kwang-soo instead of answering, and Kwang-soo nodded his head violently and opened his mouth.
“Yes Yes! I remember. I said so.”
“Jungho Chae, he is our customer. And we put the safety of our customers first. This is why you are dying today. Okay, let’s start working on it now.”
At the man’s words, Kwangsoo spoke in an urgent voice.
“Come on, sir! That, that word was a poem, a word made by mistake. He just said it out of anger, anger.”
“… … .”
“It really is.”
When the man still stared at Kwang-soo without saying a word, Kwang-soo finally burst into tears.
“I really am. Teacher. I am sincerely repenting now. I will never do anything reckless to Jung-ho again in the future. Please believe me.”
“that word… Can I trust you?”
Kwangsoo nodded his head so strongly that the chair he was sitting on creaked.
“Yes, it is. I swear to the sky. I will never go anywhere near Jeongho in my lifetime.”
The man nodded silently at Kwang-soo’s words, opened a brown vial from his bag and wetted thick gauze with the liquid in the vial.
“I will be watching. Are you keeping that promise?”
“Yes, I will definitely keep it. Sir, please, just save me.”
The man covered Kwang-soo’s nose and mouth with gauze and said.
“And Kwangsoo… .”
“Eupe—!”
The sweet smell seeped into his nose, just before Kwangsoo lost consciousness… The man’s voice was heard.
“Let’s live a little better from now on. Do you understand?”
The man noticed that Kwang-soo’s body was droopy, took off his gloves and mask, threw it in the trash, and took out the phone from his pocket.
“Chief Kim Jung-soo, this is Hee-rak.”
– This exaggeration. Still waiting for a call. did you get it right?
Manager Hee-rak Lee said with a sad expression on his face.
“Yeah, it worked out fine. And I think Lim Yeon-ji will be fine without worrying too much.”
– What did you find out?
“Yeah, it’s clear that Lim Yeon-ji is up to something, but it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with customer number 17.”
“okay? Hmm… Then, is it okay if I withdraw all the people who were attached to Lim Yeon-ji?”
“Yes, I think that would be good. Isn’t there a shortage of manpower these days because of Lim Yeon-ji?”
Team leader Kim Jung-soo’s voice came from the other side of the receiver with a short sigh.
-The lack of manpower is actually because of customer number 11, well… .
“ah… ! By the way, what are you doing, Mr. Lee Il-gu, taking his children to the West Sea these days?”
– You found a treasure ship.
“A treasure ship? How did you find such material?”
-You found it in the Chongqing Provisional Government document sent by the Chinese government last year. Then a provisional government agent sank a Japanese naval cargo ship, and I think there was something great in it.
“If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be possible to investigate directly at the National Museum of Korea instead of going through the National Intelligence Service?
– That doesn’t seem to be enough information to secure the Cultural Heritage Administration’s budget.
“Anyway, it’s a treasure ship… Do you have any questions?”
-Then next week, manager Lee will take customer number 11 and go to the sea together?
“ha ha ha-! I will specify that. I have severe seasickness. ah… ! Leader, isn’t there a tee in our team? Did you ever hire someone?”
– No, not yet. But why? Is there anyone you would like to recommend?
“yes. He is an incumbent police officer and belongs to the Danwon Police Station in Ansan City. My name is Jin-goo Yu, and I would like to have the number 17 dedicated to the customer.”
-okay? If Manager Hee-Rak Lee makes a recommendation, is this something you are looking forward to? I’ll see you in person.
“all right. Then, I will organize my work here, Park Kwang-soo, and I will go to work right away.”
– Yes, it was hard.
* * *
the next morning.
When he opened his eyes, Kwang-soo was lying on the bed of his house.
Kwang-soo jumped out of bed and said, pinching his cheek.
“ah-! You are alive!”
Kwangsoo took a deep breath in the joy of living.
The smell of garlic, the hoarse smell of kimchi, and the smell of urine were all mixed together and irritated Kwang-soo’s nose.
but it’s still ok Kwangsoo took another deep breath and thought. In the future, I will live a really good life.
* * *
same time.
Laboratory of Mechanical Engineering Department, Korea University.
I am preparing a new turbulence experiment. And this time I plan to use a supercritical fluid.
A supercritical fluid is a fluid in which there is no boundary between gas and liquid. Simply put… A fluid that is neither a gas nor a liquid is a supercritical fluid.
When carbon dioxide is applied to a high pressure of 75 atmospheres or more at a temperature of 35 degrees Celsius, it becomes a supercritical fluid.
For reference, viscosity plays an important role in determining whether a fluid flow is laminar or turbulent flow.
For example, when the same amount of kinetic energy is applied to two different fluids, the flow of a fluid with a higher viscosity becomes laminar, while a fluid with a lower viscosity follows a turbulent flow.
In order to change the flow of a fluid from laminar to turbulent in all the experiments so far, of course, it is necessary to increase the flow rate of the fluid.
But this was the problem.
To increase the flow rate of a fluid, you must apply pressure or narrow the path through which the fluid flows. That is, there is a change in the flow of the fluid itself.
For this reason, there was a limitation in applying the experimental results to the simplified Navier-Stokes equation, and as a result, it was difficult to find the dimensional transformation function, which is the last step in the proof of the Riemann hypothesis.
So, the method that came up is to use a carbon dioxide supercritical fluid.
In this experiment, only the temperature is changed while the flow of the fluid remains the same. For example, in an experiment in which carbon dioxide supercritical fluid is passed through an elongated tube, the temperature at the inlet side of the tube is lowered and the temperature at the outlet side of the tube is raised.
Then, due to the low temperature at the inlet side of the tube, the carbon dioxide supercritical fluid becomes more viscous, and as a result, the laminar flow is maintained.
On the other hand, in the vicinity of the outlet of the tube, the viscosity decreases rapidly as the temperature increases, so the flow of the fluid changes to turbulent flow.
In other words, it is possible to apply the experimental results to the simplified Navier-Stokes equation, and it is expected that information about the dimensional transformation function can be found through this.
So while I was experimenting… Suddenly, I remembered what happened at the restaurant yesterday. Because it was an unpleasant event, it remained in my head as a strong memory.
Of what happened yesterday… It is not the words or actions that Kwang-soo said or did that made me feel uncomfortable.
It was a brief moment, but it was a case in which a reporter’s mask was put on my subconscious mind. Being the person I hate the most… It goes without saying, but it’s not a very good experience.
So looking back now… The reason I desperately ignored President Jackson’s contact four years ago was probably because I had to wear a reporter’s mask every time I talked to him.
All the events of the moment when So-Jeong So-Jeong’s mask was put on last night passed through my head like a scene from a movie, and I could even remember the voices of two women whispering in the backseat of the restaurant.
But that voice… It was Yeonji and Sookyung’s.
uh?!
30 centimeters long dagger.
Among the conversations left in my memory, Yeonji asked Sookyung to save her.
Why did Yeonji make such a request?
When I first met Yeonji at a coffee shop yesterday, she said that she had come to Korea because she had work to do.
Perhaps… Does what Yeonji has to do in Korea have something to do with the hoe sword?
So, when thoughts began to bite their tails, and soon reached the realm of quite old memories… My mind was blown.
Revenge!
The reason why Yeonji came to Korea… It was for revenge.
And the target of revenge… A century journalist was clear.