Episode 60. scar
Gong Chi-yeong immediately went outside to check.
In the meantime, Gu Sang-wook drove away as soon as he realized that the wiretapping device had been caught.
“Really, that old man…”
I went back to the PC room and locked the door.
“I am so sorry. That man doesn’t know moderation.”
“it’s okay. Still, you got me a scanner quickly.”
“Thank you for understanding. But what came out? Oh, if it’s difficult to say, you don’t have to. It’s your mother’s business anyway.”
To be honest, Gong Chi-young was also very curious.
However, Kang Su, who is always calm, was the only sensitive thing about her mother.
I didn’t know if that was a line I shouldn’t touch even as a friend.
“no. Looking at the current situation, it seems clear that my mother is related to Savnak or Infectus, or both.”
“Is it because of that woman named Jennifer Han?”
Gong Chi-young was also very surprised when he compared the photos of the two.
It was the same with Teresa. Unless they’re twins, they can’t be so alike…
“But there are so many oddities. If they were twins, there would have to be a record that they were orphans. mother is an orphan But Jennifer Han and Han Jin-hee are not. It is supposed to have biological parents.”
I don’t know the details of the birth record until I shake it myself.
However, when Gong Chi-young confided in Jennifer Han’s school or surrounding relationships on the surface, there was no room for suspicion.
He was born and raised in the United States, went to school, went to various companies here and there, and was supposed to have risen to the branch manager of Infectus Investment.
“I don’t know if there is a story or if it was intentionally hidden. Or maybe it’s plastic surgery.”
In the case of Min Hwan-sik, it was plastic surgery. The man who was first found as a corpse who had committed suicide had a plastic surgery face.
The problem was that Min Hwan-sik, who was killed by Kim Chang-soo, had a plastic face. I still can’t find where the real Min Hwan-sik went, when, where, and how he became.
First of all, the police speculated that he had stolen Min Hwan-sik’s identity long before he joined Woo Joon-jun as a secretary.
“But your mother said she wasn’t plastic surgery, so what about Jennifer Han?”
“I don’t know either. I don’t know what my mother looked like when she was young, but looking at Jennifer Han’s school photos, I think she must have looked like that.”
This is because overall facial plastic surgery cannot be performed on people whose growth period is not completely over.
Of course, I wasn’t 100% sure. Kang Soo-su has never seen her mother’s childhood or youth because there are no photos.
When Kang-su asked at the time, she said that the orphanage her mother lived in caught fire and everything was destroyed.
Then, Theresa, who had been quiet, brought up the original story again.
“What came out of the microfilm? can you tell us?”
“that’s right. If so, I’ll help you somehow. After all, Savnak and Infectus have already been touched.”
After pondering for a while, Kang-soo led them into a secret room.
On the street, I connected my cell phone to Gong Chi-young’s computer.
“Show me some pictures inside.”
“wait.”
As the folder opened, the contents of the microfilm taken by Kang-su earlier appeared on both monitors.
“Were these things inside?”
“If it’s a method of hiding it in a picture, won’t it come out in a movie or drama? I don’t think there’s actually anywhere that does this.”
“I don’t know why. And most importantly, the coordinates came out.”
Kang-soo pointed to a picture with coordinates engraved on the screen.
In response, Gong Chi-young clicked with the mouse and raised it.
[36.383546, 128.919589]
“wait.”
I immediately searched for that latitude and longitude on another screen.
As I hit enter, the screen changed.
[137-136, Minaesoil-gil, Gilan-myeon, Andong-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do]
It was in the mountains, about a 4-hour drive from the current location to the destination.
“It comes out with something. . . . Is there a temple nearby?”
I was able to confirm it with a search engine satellite image.
However, only the address was stamped and there was no basic information.
“Due to the location, I’ll have to climb a mountain or pass through a temple to get here.”
The straight line distance from the temple to the location of the coordinates was about 1 km.
After thinking quietly about Gong Chi-young’s explanation, Kang-soo made a decision.
“I will take care of that. We should start here in the morning. And Chiyoung, can you check the registration records and the words in the photos here? Especially around the DGI Project.”
“Once I get it. But do you want to go right away?”
“I think we should check something. Teresa takes care of things while I’m gone.”
“Can I go too?”
“no. You should be in charge of protecting Yoo So-hyun. You brought it on yourself.”
There are shifts in between, but Theresa was like a bodyguard in charge.
Teresa knew that straying from the set schedule hurts other people.
“Eight—!”
“I’ll be back soon.”
After Kangsu said that, the word ‘DGI Project’ kept ringing in his mouth.
* * *
Kangsu, who left around 1 am, arrived at the nearby road surrounding the address, the destination.
[AM 05:20]
After checking the watch on the car, Kang-soo parked the car nearby, changed into hiking clothes, and put on sneakers and climbed the mountain.
The straight line distance to the destination is about 720m.
However, it was a steep slope and difficult enough to reach the top of the mountain.
Sabak— Sabak—
In the past, I lived in the mountains for nine years and climbed the slopes.
Thanks to that, it took less than an hour to see the destination. At the same time, the morning sun rose to a certain extent, and I began to see what was at my destination.
“Buildings…?”
All of them were one-story, and only the shape of four remained.
As I approached, all the windows were broken, leaving only the frame, and the other furnishings were in a state of tatters.
It was filled with a feeling of despondency. In addition, there were a lot of black soot marks here and there, probably from a fire.
Fortunately, there was only one such building inside that looked like a warehouse.
Kangsu went inside the building without hesitation.
“What school was it?”
Kang-su, who went inside, saw a classroom-like room with a blackboard or a place that looked like a teacher’s office.
Then there was a place that looked like a sleeping room.
“···orphanage? Is it like a childcare facility?”
Kang-soo wanted to find a trace that could confirm something.
So, while searching here and there, I stumbled upon something that looked like a picture frame on the floor of a room that looked like a teacher’s office.
A bundle of rotten pieces of cloth was placed on top, so I couldn’t see what it was. Kang-soo had heard of such a frame once.
“wing?”
The shape of the wing, which had even been drawn on microfilm, was filling up the wooden board inside the frame.
It was a picture carved with something like a carving knife, and it was almost the same shape as the ones I had seen before.
“What the hell does this wing drawing mean? Symbol of Savnak? But there…”
Savnak is a picture of a sword and a spear crossed behind a lion’s head.
And Infectus had nothing to do with the current wing painting.
Kang-soo, who got out of the teachers’ room, looked around the other rooms and went into a room with a nameplate that said, “The director’s office.”
There were only traces of something here and there.
It’s empty now, so I don’t know what was there, but…
I couldn’t find anything in the director’s office, so I went outside.
Considering the time when coordinates were engraved on microfilm, that was at least 30 years ago. The reason Kang-soo inferred that way was that nothing existed in the registration records that Gong Chi-young recognized.
The owner of the land was also said to be a temple called Jiiksa at the end of the road leading down. Right now, it is difficult to know the exact time when the building was built.
“Is there anything to salvage? If so, I think we should find out through Jiiksa.”
It was because it was the only temple located at the corner of the road, so I seemed to know everything.
Kang-soo looked around the building and found letters that looked like children’s graffiti under the corner of the outer wall.
However, it was written in Chinese characters, not Hangul.
[天翼]
The cement wall was dented and the writing was engraved.
However, it felt like it was drawn rather than written.
“Cheon…? Wings of the Sky? Angel’s wings? Come to think of it, if this is an orphanage, shouldn’t it have at least a name?”
Even though I checked all the places like the teachers’ office, classrooms, and the director’s office, there was not even a name similar to that.
I didn’t know if it had rotted away because it had been so long.
The only thing I could find was someone’s wooden frame. And it seemed to be connected to the letter ‘Cheonik’ that I just discovered.
“hmm? It looks like someone is coming closer.”
Perhaps because he was so nervous, Kang-soo sensed a presence in the quiet atmosphere and hid on the other side.
However, the presence did not come any closer from a certain moment.
At this, Kang-soo turned around the building and checked the path leading down to the temple.
I saw someone standing at the corner of the street that was supposed to be the entrance to the building complex.
‘···monk?’
An elderly monk stood quietly with his eyes closed and his hands together.
Smoke rose from the incense stick on the floor in front of him.
Kang-soo, who had been watching quietly, took out his cell phone just in case, and zoomed in on the monk’s face.
Of course, the sound was set to be turned off so it was quiet.
After that, he put his cell phone in his pocket and went forward while deliberately revealing his presence.
Bassrock—
The quiet monk opened his eyes in surprise at the sound of footsteps.
“who are you?”
“sorry. I got lost while climbing a mountain and came out near here.”
“…Oh, did you wander around the mountains all night?”
Kang-soo pretended to be in distress.
In response, the monk scanned the river up and down once. Gangsu’s mountaineering clothes had many traces of brushing with small tree branches here and there.
Of course, it was a trace of the precipitation that had been forced to come to this place by speeding up the slope.
“Somehow it happened. But do you know what this is? I was surprised to find a building in a place like this.”
“It is also a strange sight.”
“Looking at it earlier, it seemed like they were giving alms.”
Kang-soo’s gaze turned to the incense rising from the floor.
It was difficult to say that it was not an offering.
“It seems that you will have a hard time all night due to distress, so I will guide you from the road. Please follow me.”
Monk took the lead.
In response, Gangsu followed, winding down a narrow mountain path.
It took about 30 minutes to go down and there was a temple.
It was a temple called Jiiksa (地翼寺), which I confirmed on the map.
Kangsu was more suspicious because of its name.
‘Cheonk-Ik ··· Profit ·······.’
There could not have been a name so similar without being related.
Kang-soo followed the monk and entered the temple.
“I’ll give you a room, so you can take a rest and leave.”
“Ah, if you know anything about that building from earlier, I’d like to hear it.”
“You are a curious person.”
“I am kind of like that. So I got lost.”
The excuse now was the reason Choi Yun-ho gave to Kang-su when he got lost in the mountains.
“If you can afford it, I’ll talk to you over tea.”
“I see.”
Kang-soo went into the monk’s room.
The steam of warm tea rose between the two.
“Oh, I couldn’t even introduce myself. My name is Manjeong.”
“It is called the Han River.”
After introducing each other, Venerable Manjeong began to explain after hesitating for a moment.
“I didn’t see it, I only heard about it. It has already been like that since I came here.”
“Has anyone seen that place in person?”
“I heard… I’m not sure, but I heard that it was closed because of a fire about 30 years ago.”
“It did look like there was a fire in a building inside.”
30 years ago. That’s not accurate either. could have been earlier.
At the same time, Kang-soo remembered that there was a fire in the orphanage where his mother lived.
‘Could it be that this was the orphanage my mother spent as a child?’
While I was thinking about this and that, Venerable Manjeong took a sip of tea and put it down.
“I know this is where the children used to live. At the time, the children who had no place to go were received and raised here at Jiiksa, and as the number increased, they built a building over there and operated it as an orphanage.”
“Is your name Cheonik by any chance?”
“Oh, you can call it that too. But the name I heard was Angel Wings Orphanage. And I heard that there were many children who died in fire accidents at the time, so I went up every day to comfort them.”
Heavenly Wings means angel, not heaven.
If so, the wings engraved on Min Hwan-shik’s neck also meant the orphanage of today.
“It must have been a place with many stories.”
“However, it is not clear whether the fire or the children died. Those who were there before also kept quiet about it before going to other temples, and now everyone has changed names…”
“Are you saying they all died?”
Venerable Manjung did not answer, but quietly closed his eyes and put his hands together.
With that action alone, he could know what Kangsu meant.
Returning life of a retired S-class mercenary