Precautions of a Snakepit - Chapter 74
“It’s been a while since I’ve been this excited. No, maybe it’s the first time.”
He was like a child anticipating a Christmas present. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that 99% of what made up his current demeanor was pure excitement.
Pure was a word that didn’t seem to fit the man in front of her, but she couldn’t think of another term. She guessed it wasn’t completely wrong, since pure can also describe evil. It was pure evil.
Leaving the man alone in his own world, Won mulled over the information that had come out of nowhere.
‘Days.’
The fateful day when everything would be decided.
‘In that time, I need to figure out the password to the vault…’
Just as she was thinking about that, Dr. Madison’s familiar face appeared in front of her. It had happened so fast that she didn’t even realize he was still in the room. Won nearly stopped breathing.
For some reason, he looked straight into Won’s face without saying a word, then gently cupped her cheek with his hand and squeezed. No, he tried to embrace her, but she pushed him away before he could reach her.
His expression twisted for a moment as if the rejection crushed him. But then, as if on cue, he smiled.
“This will be the last time we do this, too, because when the ‘treatment’ is over, you’ll stop standing up for yourself like this and go along with whatever I want.”
“Dream on, because that’s not going to happen.”
Won looked him straight in the eye as she said it.
She’d rather die than be like that. She refused to live like that. She knew a hundred ways to kill herself.
“Well, we’ll see. I think you’ll like it, and I’m not trying to coerce you. I’m just saying that I…”
Dr. Madison hesitated for a moment, thinking about the right words.
“I… I want to make you happy, I guess that’s what I’m feeling right now. I want you to be happy, under my control, within my sphere of influence. I’ll make you live a happy life. No pain, no sorrow, only pl*asure. I can make that happen, so…”
Watching this man, drunk on his own emotions, blathering on and on about something he didn’t deserve, Won felt her patience being tested.
“I can’t be happy under those conditions.”
“You’re assuming before you experienced it. You’ve picked up some bad habits, so you’ll have to work on them.”
“There’s a thing in the world called priori knowledge1 philosopher immanuel kant’s idea of a type of knowledge acquired independently of a particular experience. for example, u dont need to say “unmarried bachelor” bc we already know bachelors are unmarried without experiencing being bachelors ourselves .”
“Priori? Ah, Kant’s Critiques of Pure Reason, okay, but this is posteriori. We don’t know ourselves that well until we actually experience it, and we usually have so many illusions that we miss out on real happiness because we deny it; we say we can’t possibly like something.”
With a string of pedantic remarks, he walked past the desk and back to his seat.
‘What sh*t philosophy.’
Won scoffed at the man who arrogantly sat in his chair.
“If you’re done with your lecture, do you mind if I leave?”
“Well, sure. It’ll be the last time you get to walk out of here at will.”
Dr. Madison smiled back. It was the kind of smile that gave one last look of mercy.
Leaving the office, Won crossed the hallway at a brisk pace. She knew that in a few days, something would happen, whether it was a strange religious ritual or the unwelcome treatment.
She wondered when a “few days” was. Tomorrow, the day after, the next day, or the day after that?
She would say it’s less than seven days, normally. If it was more than 7 days, it’s more than a week, but if it’s tomorrow, it’s not necessarily a few days. She can use a range from roughly two days to a few days out…
‘I need to figure out the password to the safe sometime today or tomorrow.’
Because at worst, two days from now might be D-Day.
By Dr. Madison’s standards, she better pray that the day after tomorrow doesn’t count as a “few days.” At least from glyphs onwards, it was recognized as a day.
There is a name for it, so wouldn’t it make more sense to just say the number of days after the glyph? She wished Dr. Madison agreed with that line of thinking.
‘No way.’
Giving up waiting with her mouth wide open under the persimmon tree, Won set out to find Ms. Yang to do what realistically she could do.
It seems impossible to get the password from the owner of the safe. Grasping at straws, Won clings to Ms. Yang.
If Ms. Yang doesn’t give her the password by the deadline, or if she does and they can’t open the lock because the password changed, they are out of luck.
‘Give up the safe.’
The truth is, the information in the safe isn’t a piece of the puzzle she needs to get her hands on, and it isn’t going to stop her from completing her mission. The only reason she cares is because that’s what Ms. Yang offered in exchange.
She gave Won information, so Won would leave with what was in the vault. That’s the deal. If she doesn’t keep it, she feels like she’ll regret it. She didn’t want to do something like that, but if she couldn’t do it, then she couldn’t do it.
What else could she do? Try to crack the code and open the safe or carry it on her back as she runs away? She has no choice but to walk away.
‘Black Cat seems to have a use for the information in the vault, so I’m cooperating as best as I can… but I’ll take what I can get.’
It wasn’t the law of the Good Samaritan, but the virtue of a good collaborator.
‘I’ll have to let them know that this could happen in a few days.’
Black Cat and Top Dog would need time to prepare. Won walked to the main hall. Ms. Yang wasn’t there. Speaking of chickens instead of pheasants, if Top Dog was here, she might share some information, but he was nowhere to be seen, his usual couch empty. Deciding he wasn’t worth the trouble, she moved on.
After searching the entire first floor, there was no sign of Ms. Yang, so she went up to the second floor. The audio-visual room wasn’t open, so she went into the library, where she found Black Cat, but not Ms. Yang.
He didn’t go to the chair, but stood upright in front of the bookshelves, reading a book, and looked like a person living in another world. It was as if only he and the book existed.
Some things are instinctive. For example, if there were two planets, their orbits would never overlap. If it were so, they would never meet.
It has nothing to do with whether he is rich or poor; it has everything to do with whether he lives in a world of unimaginable poverty where she wouldn’t dare set foot into.
The thought of not wanting to disturb him crossed her mind. It’s a bit like not wanting to step into a well-organized room. She felt like if she did, somehow the room would never be the same.
‘There’s no time to waste.’
Won pulled herself together and walked over to Black Cat.
“Are you enjoying that book?”
“Oh.”
With a short sigh, Black Cat tore his gaze away from the book and looked at her.
“It’s okay. Do you want to try?”
He slid the book down, one finger curling between the pages in place of a bookmark. She can’t have that, they need the book.
Won gently wrapped her hand around Black Cat’s, the one holding the book, and felt him flinch.
“I want to see what’s in it.”
Conscious of the CCTV, she whispered, stroking his hand in a flirtatious manner. She needed to make it look like she was a so-called ‘foxtrot,’ lest the watchers suspect her ulterior motives.
“Hold the book. Let’s look at it together.”
Black Cat stiffened and lifted the book. She tugged on his hand, angling it toward her.
“A little higher than my eye level because if you hold it for me, I’ll have trouble reading it because you’re so tall. I just have to look up and… well, this should work.”
It’s the perfect position to hide her mouth from the CCTV view.
Won lowered her voice and cut to the chase.
“Just listen, your mouth will be visible on the CCTV because it won’t be covered by the book, so you’ll need to manage your expression.”
Black Cat’s overlapped hands stiffened for a moment, then relaxed. She couldn’t see his face, so she assumed he was maintaining a poker face.
“I’m not sure, but I think the cult’s ritual will take place in a few days. If I don’t have the combination to the safe by then, I’m giving up. You can do what you want, Gyeom: escape with me, or stay at the hospital and hope for a chance to open it.”
Translator
