CHAPTER 161: CHAPTER 160. THE SNAKE WORK HARDER

"Good evening, Miss Diamond."

Sarah arched her brow as Sol greeted them in front of the basement parking lot of the hotel they hadn’t been using for a while. He was in his security guard uniform and a pair of glasses--a reminiscence of their first meeting.

In this timeline, anyway.

"Are you cosplaying again, Mr. Manager?" Sarah scoffed at the smirk on Sol’s face.

"This is roleplaying, Miss."

Sarah chuckled and followed the manager to the secret tunnel leading to Helios. But it wasn’t as if they had never used this tunnel before, so there was no need for Sol to go out of his way to escort them, actually.

"Do you have something to tell me before I see the Big Boss?" Sarah asked. "Want me to put in a good word?"

Sol laughed. "I’ll be thankful if you do, but there’s something else I want to tell you about."

"We have quite a long way," Sarah nodded.

Sol raised his hand and wiggled his index finger. "You asked me to look into the gangsters that the third wife used to threaten the other mistresses, right?"

Sarah narrowed her eyes. "Is it Daesung?"

It was already obvious at this point, especially after the chairman’s brother confirmed that he was introduced to Daesung by the third wife.

"Yes, it is someone from Daesung. But that’s not what I want to tell you."

"Okay?"

"The third wife doesn’t exactly have a connection to Daesung’s executive in general. She just knew one of their member--the one she always sent to threaten the other women."

Hajin raised his brow. "The one you caught?"

When Sarah asked them to protect Vivian--so she could safely crash into the gloriously chaotic family--Sol’s men went as far as to catch the people. Making it seem like they were caught by another gangster to incite chaos, Sol took them into one of his ’dungeons’ and interrogated them.

"That. Rather high ranking, but not exactly an executive. I wasn’t sure whether they were lovers or just fuck buddies, though," Sol said. "Now, this is where it gets interesting..."

He paused to open a door at the side of the tunnel, letting Sarah enter first before following her, leaving Hajin to hold the door behind them while grumbling.

Ignoring the annoyed puppy, Sol continued. "The one who told that woman to seduce the chairman was this person."

"...what?!" Sarah stopped in her tracks as his brain finished digesting that fact. Her eyes widened, and her expression darkened slightly. "You mean--"

"Oh, don’t worry. She wasn’t being coerced or anything," Sol replied quickly when he saw the complicated expression on Sarah’s face, smiling sympathetically. "That was actually their shtick--you know, seduce rich men and take their money kind of thing? He helped by pretending to be a loan shark, or a kidnapper, or whatever."

Sarah exhaled slowly while Hajin stroked her back in soothing motion. It was a relief knowing that she didn’t have to feel any pity for someone she had despised her whole life.

And then she realized that Sol had only told her this now, despite catching the person a while back, because he had made sure to find out everything first.

"Oh..." Sarah muttered in relief and gratitude. She nodded to tell the manager that she was ready to walk again.

With a smile, Sol turned back to continue the walk and his report. "So it seems like Jeong Mina was actually a serial scammer--at least on a small scale--and this person from Daesung helped clear any suspicious things."

Sarah narrowed her eyes, thinking back to her mother’s friendship with this woman. For all she knew, they were friend during school days and a bit at the start of college days before Mina disappeared without any news. She suddenly contacted Sarah’s mother one day, and being the nice person that she was, Raisa was just happy that she could find her old friend again.

Hearing about this now, Sarah wondered if Mina had befriended her mother as a ruse from the start. Hanging out with a sweet and kind girl, it would seem like she was also the same lovely and kind person.

And it made Sarah’s blood boil thinking about it.

"The last scheme was the chairman of HS Group. It’s just that this time, this person told her to go further and marry the chairman--instead of just dating and extorting as usual."

Sarah frowned in suspicion. "Did that person...get anything from this?"

"Not really--which is suspicious, don’t you think?" Sol turned his head, smirking. "So, we interrogated him further, and he told me that it was an order from a client."

"A client..."

They stopped again, this time in front of a lift. As Sol activated the lift with a password, Sarah chewed the inside of her cheek, pondering the identity of the client.

It wasn’t very hard to guess, however, seeing the meaningful look reflected in Sol’s eyes.

"Seo Joseph?"

The small bell sound from the elevator seemed to tell Sarah that her answer was correct, along with Sol’s simple smile.

But he had more surprising news, it seemed. "And that some client, it seemed, asked Daesung to use one of their gang affiliates to get close to one of the children," he said as they entered the elevator.

Hajin arched his brow. "Gangs have affiliates now?"

"Most of them are companies now, so why not affiliates?" Sol shrugged.

"Wait--are you talking about Jasper?" Sarah widened her eyes. "The motorcycle gang that gave him drugs?"

"It’s not like Daesung could sell the drugs themselves," Sol smirked. "The dirty stuff they do through the small groups."

"Hah!" Sarah covered her mouth; she had no idea whether she wanted to laugh or scream. This new information was just...confusing. "So...you were telling me Joseph had been actively trying to ruin the family for a long time?"

"Looks like it," Sol smiled wryly. "I don’t know if it’s something like you or like the chairman’s brother, however."

The lift opened, and Sol held the door open while gesturing for Sarah and Hajin to come out. This was his last stop.

"Maybe Little Bird can tell you instead," he shrugged and waved his hand before the elevator door closed again.

Sarah sighed, massaging her throbbing temple. Hajin stroked her shoulder and asked gently. "You’re alright?"

"Yeah, just..." Sarah exhaled slowly. "I feel like these days, even the answer only creates more questions."

"Well...that’s just how puzzles are, isn’t it? Every piece is confusing until you get all the parts and combine them," Hajin shrugged.

Sarah looked up, staring at her steady puppy, and chuckled. She shook her head to get rid of any cloud and gave Hajin a little peck as a reward.

Yeah...let’s just wait for all the pieces to gather.

After clearing her head, Sarah proceeded to another lift at the other side of the hallway--a short one that would bring them directly to the garden.

The place was almost as she remembered it five years ago. The guards were still in their exact positions, that Sarah tempted to think they never left their post. The flowers seemed a bit different--because of season and whatnot--but Sarah didn’t know flowers that much anyway. The clear difference from five years ago was the table.

Instead of a round table, there was a long table this time, almost like a dining one, and Yonghwa wasn’t the only one there.

"Eonni!" Sua dashed toward her and gave her a big hug--perhaps because she looked a bit upset last time.

"Oh, you’re here too?" Sarah chuckled. Naturally, Suoh was also there, although he only waved from the table.

Sua grinned and pulled her toward the table. "It’s a tea party!"

"At night?" Sarah arched her brow. She could see a spread of pastries, both sweet and savory, as well as several clear teapots with different kinds of tea.

"None of us drinks anyway," Sua shrugged.

"I do..." Austin said with a pout, but Sua pushed a pastry into his mouth to shut him up.

Sarah chuckled and patted the quiet, hooded head. "Hello, Birdie."

"Miss Diamond!" Little Bird hugged Sarah from her seat, and Sarah spent a while stroking the girl’s head as an early reward.

She had no idea what Little Bird had found, but she knew the girl had worked hard for it.

As if following the younger kids, Yonghwa raised his cup from the head of the table. "Miss Diamond."

Sarah made a playful curtsy in return. "Investor-nim."

"You look good," Yonghwa smiled.

Sarah flicked her black hair playfully. "It’s like the old days, isn’t it?"

"You have a better expression than that day."

"Is that so?" Sarah tilted her head. She didn’t even know what kind of face she was making back in the day, when her head was still jumbled from her regression.

Yonghwa tapped his armrest lightly, pale eyes observing Sarah’s face. "At least you no longer look like you’re going to jump into the fire you light yourself."

"Hmm..." Hajin, who was pulling back a chair for his princess to sit on, hummed skeptically.

Yonghwa chuckled softly. "Make sure you grab your leash tightly, J."

"I’m trying."

Sarah sat down while pursing her lips. "Why are you talking as if I’m being difficult?"

"Because you are, Princess."

"So even the great J couldn’t control his owner, huh?"

Hajin just shrugged in resignation, prompting Sarah to clap her hands to stop the annoying topic. "Okay, okay--so what is the topic of this tea party?"

"To hear the progress of Miss Alice’s adventure in the toxic wonderland?" Yonghwa shrugged.

As expected, it was a progress report meeting. No wonder all of her collaborators were there--well, except for Sol, who already reported his findings to her.

"Well..." Sarah intertwined her fingers, tapping them against each other. "Where should I start?"