A Handsome K*nky Gangster Reporter - Chapter 80

#80

‘Am I worried about my family when I die? Not at all. Our relationship wasn’t so close that it had to be remembered just before death.’

I was the eldest daughter K who couldn’t receive a drop of affection from my parents, and the side dishes of meat at home and all sorts of support were only for my younger brother. The family that did nothing for me, but only criticized me for always judging me. I broke off the difficult relationship with my family about a year before I died without receiving an apology from them.

‘Come to think of it, I should have at least written a will beforehand. I should have made sure that I got a lawyer notarized.’

[I donated all my remaining savings and stocks that was close the lowest limit to an animal shelter.]

If I left one document like this, it wouldn’t be unfair when I left. Who knew my life would end so early? In the end, all the wealth I had accumulated as a reporter by being criticized by my seniors, would be saved for my younger brother’s mouth.

I cried in the dark because it felt so unfair. In the end, I d*ed for just doing nice things to little brother like an enemy. Perhaps, my parents would be happy at the fact that I’m d*ad. My inheritance must felt like a bonus that the b*st*rd called life gave them.

How many times have I cried like that? My vision slowly brightened.

I saw my hands and feet becoming small before my eyes, and my body immediately popped into the air. Someone picked me up. The beautiful woman, who was holding me, kissed my cheek with a gentle smile and whispered in my ear.

“Our beautiful Hailey. Thank you for being born as my daughter.”

Oh. When I heard this, tears flowed out of my eyes again.

The words I desperately wanted to hear in my previous life. Did my parents know about my previous life? Their daughter, the so-called woman who was strong enough to break ties with their family, was the one who was disarmed by thanks.

Even when my younger brother invested in all sorts of private education which he wanted to study and didn’t care for me at all because I had no money at home. When I told them that I wanted to go to the local national university that gives four-year scholarships instead of the university in Seoul because I had no money. And when I spent my first hard-earned savings in social life to get my younger brother married.

Maybe if I had only heard a thank you from my parents, I would have forgiven them and continued to live according to my own will.

“Even if you teach your daughter, she only makes others do good things. She’s already married.”

“Can’t you be a good big brother and help your little brother?”

‘Would it be a little less painful if the one who said that wasn’t my biological parents?’

The memories of the past and the beautiful mother figure who smiled at me now seemed to dissolve.

Yes. I immediately fell in love with this red-haired mother after she expressed her gratitude to me when we met for the first time.

‘Thank you too. You’re my mom.’

I wanted to say this, but only a small crying sound came out of my mouth.

Perhaps because my reborn body was young, my emotions were uncontrollable at that time. Therefore, I cried in my mother’s arms shamefully for a while before falling asleep from exhaustion.

My vision became hazy again. I heard someone’s voice in my ear.

“Hailey! We’ve arrived. Wake up.”

Someone was shaking my body which made me me wake up from the dream and returned to reality. I saw a familiar face as I slowly blinked my eyelids.

“Phil… lip? Yes?”

“Did you have a nightmare in an instant?”

Phillip’s voice gave me goosebumps all over my body. Oh, I was living in Rophan’s world now.

He wiped my eyes with a soft handkerchief.

“Goodness gracious, Hailey has so many tears. She’s so soft-hearted.”

I would have been touched by Phillip’s kindness normally. Somehow, rejection kept coming from my body. I managed to stop Phillip.

“I can do it myself.”

He slapped my cheek lightly with the intention to quickly clear my eyes and get up. Claude, who was watching me for a while, spoke calmly.

“Noona, I’ll accompany you today.”

“It’s fine, so all of you should leave now. I have a lot of things to do today.”

Did I see something wrong again? After all, she must have felt weak. I kept having strange dreams, experiencing things I didn’t understand. Look at it now. I was sure I was on my way to work, but I ended up in a strange place.

“But where am I?”

The train didn’t stop in front of Tom Baker’s bakery. The place I saw now looked like the back alley of a slum with a dark, damp smell all over the place.

Phillip smiled awkwardly and explained.

“You have to walk by foot from here. The bigwigs don’t keep an eye out up here. We have Turd Payne here.”

Phillip’s men said that they were now protecting our reporter. George Abe, the fiancé of a daughter caught in an illegal drug deal, had reportedly sent a man and was looking for our reporter.

Those words made me worry about the other employees.

“Oh! Then aren’t the other employees also in danger now?”

Mary, I wasn’t worried because she was not easy to catch, but the new employee, Anna Rey, was a strongly soft-hearted person.

“Yesterday I sent my men to protect them. When I got there, I heard two women already beating up the Count’s servant.”

“…What?!?”

“The boss and his employee, alright.”

Phillip burst out laughing while holding his stomach, and Claude nodded in agreement with Phillip. My mouth was just wide open with a somewhat puzzled expression.

Yes. If our employees were fine, that would be enough.

We got off the train and walked down a narrow alley.

“Step carefully and follow me.”

Phillip took the lead and I chased after him. Claude followed behind me, and I wasn’t afraid of the narrow dark alley at all.

The stench of rotting carcasses stung my nose as if a sewer was running nearby. The rats living in the area were angry because they invaded their territory every time we stepped forward. Rats also seemed to be the easiest among us. Soon, something wet and unpleasant hit the instep of my foot and ran away.

“Ugh!”

Two men overreacted to my brief shout.

“What’s wrong, Noona? Are you hurt? Do you want me to carry you?”

“Hailey, are you okay?”

At the sight of both men speaking at once, my cheeks heated up. I was just a bit surprised. I quickened my pace to hide my embarrassment.

“I’m fine. Let’s go.”

I wanted to get out of this dirty, smelly place as soon as possible. My eyes didn’t easily get used to the darkness because the surrounding was extremely dark. I was barely groping the walls and following Phillip, when something slippery touched the toe of my shoe.

“Oh my God!”

I closed my eyes tightly because I was about to fall to the ground.

Claude who was walking behind me, quickly hugged my waist. My heart was beating fast as I felt his hot breath in my ear.

“Oh, no. Let’s keep going like this until we get out of this alley.”

Claude walked carefully, holding my left shoulder with one hand and my waist with the other. Looking back, Phillip frowned displeasantly, but immediately stopped where he was and pointed somewhere with his finger.

“Let’s go up this building.”

When I climbed to the top of the building pointed by Phillip, I saw a path that was almost connected to the next building and only one wooden sign.

“We have to go this way.”

Looking down, my heart sank at the height I felt. It was only three stories high, but it looked like the blow would be quite big if I fell. I felt like if I took one wrong step, I would fall. To be honest, I was scared because it seemed as if it was about to break at any moment.

Phillip, who astutely noticed my hesitation, knelt down and turned his back to me.

“Climb on my back.”

“I’m heavy.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

I tried to approach Phillip because I thought he would be fine, and my body rose into the air.

In an instant, my face was facing the sky. Claude hugged my legs and waist.

“It’s safer.”

Claude looked at Phillip’s face and stepped over the dangerous-looking wooden planks. Phillip also entered lightly into the building next door, then cleaned the board and placed it on the wall. He explained to me in a rather calm voice.

“This building doesn’t have a separate entrance. It was a building that purposely had no windows on the first floor. I’m sorry because I’m scared to go in, Hailey.”

According to him, one of the safe houses that hides is for fugitives or people who need protection because there is a small risk of outsiders attacking them. I looked at the damp walls which had darkened because of the moss with great interest and nodded at Phillip’s words. Of course, buildings like this could be used by dark organizations like Black Scorpion.

However, the words that escaped Phillip’s mouth made me feel embarrassed as if my eyes were going to pop out of its socket.

“He locked Turd in the dungeon. We’ve finished the interrogation. If you have any questions, check with him.”

What? They lock up our employees? Interrogation, what is happening…?

* * *

Yesterday, Turd Payne was wandering around in a shabby warehouse near the port. That was because he received information that there was an illegal transaction carried out by the empress’s fiancé, George Abe.

‘We have to find out who the director’s source of information is.’

Not long after joining the company, he gained the trust of the newspaper’s president and got an additional camera. So, if you seduce the innocent woman well, she will tell me who the source is.

‘He said he would give me the position of president of the Morris Daily if I got any useful information.’

Turd made it clear in his eyes that he would rule as president of the newspaper. He smiled and kept up with this boring time.

He hid in a place full of wooden boxes and waited for, as the actual president of the newspaper said, George Abe to appear there. Without realizing it, Turd curled himself up and tilted his head.

‘Wait. Come to think of it, aren’t he and I on the same team?’

George Abe was also a subordinate of Empress Fiona, and he himself was later promised a higher position on condition that he be supervised by the newspaper. He still hesitated to reveal his true identity to George now.

The mixed strong wind penetrated the coat Turd was wearing. Perhaps because of the wind, a strong fishy smell emerged from inside the box where he had hidden the entire time.

“Uh-uh!”

Without realizing it, Turd became nauseous because of his obsession with neat things.

“Who’s there?”

George glanced around nervously. Turd quickly patted the butt of a cat that was tearing the head of a nearby fish.

“Y-yes-! Kyaaaaak!”

The spotted cat fluffed up and ran out to yawn for a while then licked its front paw as if nothing had happened, straightened its tail, and disappeared gently.

“Oh, what’s that? I thought it was someone from the National Police Agency again.”

After baron Stephen’s death, the laws regarding the medicine of the Morris Empire became more strict. Despite being only a baron, his wealth and influence were considerable in the Empire. The economic situation in the empire became increasingly difficult if Stephen’s Bank faltered. Luckily, the bank soon stabilized thanks to the Baron’s wife taking over and operating it smoothly.

The palace banned illegal drug trafficking, saying this should never happen again. Thanks to this, transactions such as suspicious nutritional tonics imported from abroad, energy medicines, and youth-making potions became illegal. Those illegal drugs were also something that George Abe had been secretly distributing to the empire all this time. In other words, the little countess’ money line is currently in danger.