53. Punishment
Ri Su-jin wanted to tear her younger sister apart and kill her.
At the same time, she wanted to keep her alive.
In the end, she was the only family she had left.
But the answer had already been decided.
“Summon them.”
“Chairman? Who exactly?”
“Wang Hao and Xu Shunzhu.”
“Yes!”
Ri Su-jin called her two closest subordinates to her home.
They were the trash she used like limbs, the ones who knew her escape plan, even the afterthoughts.
Yes. The principle was to punish the betrayer.
If she showed mercy to her sister, she would lose everything else.
Ri Su-jin already had prepared escape routes besides the Chiang Mai one. As long as the warrant came and forced arrest didn’t hit her first, she could simply slip away.
But thinking about the future, punishing the betrayer was essential.
Lose her base too, and why would the fool who couldn’t even manage one sister follow her to the National Intelligence Service? She would either betray alongside her or try to eat her last.
Ri Su-min was her sister…
Because she was the most precious person to her, she had to punish her even more decisively.
‘Sending only Su-min means nothing.’
The real enemy was elsewhere.
The shadow of Joo Sung-hyun lurking behind the backstabbing sister…
The face of that vicious, crafty, and utterly incomprehensible bastard kept flashing before her eyes. She had really wanted to avoid him, but she couldn’t, so she had struck, and he had immediately brought the NIS to counterattack.
It was clearly connected to Ri Su-min’s betrayal as well.
This time, there was no evidence.
But Ri Su-jin was willing to stake everything on her certainty.
“If that bastard stays alive, he’s not to be allowed to.”
Her words came out flat, without inflection. The closest subordinates arrived one after another.
“Sister. Why did you call us?”
“President Ri. I called you on short notice… but don’t you know this is the time for us to stick together? Even like this, it’s really all right?”
Both of them were trash. Money could make them do anything.
Ri Su-jin swept her eyes over their faces, then sent a text to her sister.
[Su-min-ah. Come over now. I got profiles of the young ladies we’ll need the maids for in Chiang Mai. Pick them with your own eyes. If I pick them alone, you’ll just complain again. Come quick ^^ Thinking about leaving, it feels really good, doesn’t it?]
Come quickly, Su-min-ah.
Every word of the message was a lie, a veiled threat.
Ri Su-jin had no intention of going to Chiang Mai’s scenic condo or choosing a maid.
She only wanted to bring her sister here.
For punishment.
****
The call from her sister.
The text was warm, but Ri Su-min had no desire to go.
‘Had she found out? Over some cheap love gel?’
Her mind was still a mess right now.
The sister’s crime justification materials… while copying the fake marriage documents, she had accidentally knocked over the love gel that had been hiding inside the safe.
It looked like she had put it back in place, but maybe it had just been roughly set upright.
For Ri Su-min, who had never even gone past a kiss with her boyfriend, the love gel felt quite uncomfortable. And she knew its use because of her sister, which made it even worse.
She wanted to give a plausible excuse and refuse her sister’s summons, but—
“Ri Su-min, act naturally.”
“Maybe she’s found out. Even if it’s a stupid thought, I knocked over the love gel…”
“Then you have to go.”
“…”
The timing was awkward now.
The police had only just scribbled the crime report and handed it to the prosecution.
Before the arrest warrant, the NIS and police had no grounds to touch Ri Su-jin.
And considering she was a foreigner and receiving potential espionage consultation, it was even less so. Procedurally, everything had to be clean in order to bring her to court and punish her.
In the end, Ri Su-min was pushed along to the house where she lived with her sister.
She had not gone there naked.
A micro patch microphone attached just below her collarbone, and an earpiece.
It was espionage work she had never even considered as a patrol officer.
And the target was her own sister? Ri Su-min let out a bitter laugh.
“God, I’m going insane.”
Standing in front of the house, Ri Su-min’s mind was filled with thoughts.
Had her sister noticed?
It might have been because she was reacting nervously. At best, it was just a used-up tube of love gel.
I want to kill Joo Sung-hyun so badly.
If I had known this would happen, I should have run away with her… but it’s already too late?
Arriving at the house without an answer to her own question.
Ri Su-jin, her sister, stood with subordinates flanking her and greeted her.
“Come in. Su-min-ah.”
A kind smile on her face. That was why it was even scarier.
****
What crossed Ri Su-jin’s mind as she looked at the betrayer’s ugly face…
Was none other than their parents.
The sister’s parents had been brokers operating near the North China border.
They sheltered defectors, deceived them, sold them to Han Chinese bachelor parties or nightlife establishments, and even helped with illegal money transfers.
They seemed like a great criminal, but they were just small-time offenders.
In her hometown, quite a few of their compatriots lived off this kind of work.
Then eventually both died in a traffic accident.
An unnatural death, and so Ri Su-jin took only her sister and was pushed across to Korea.
Once there, she sold her body diligently. Every time she was in pain, she endured it while looking at her sister and telling herself, I’m this child’s parent, and she has no one but me. With her ability, she did everything she could for her.
But the result was betrayal.
Before punishment, if she had hesitated, it would have been a lie (was it right for me to sacrifice myself?) Fortunately, Su-min relieved her of that hesitation.
“Sister. You said you were choosing a maid, right? Show me.”
Ri Su-min’s state was strange. Her eyes trembled slightly, her jaw was tightly clenched, and her fingers were clenched tightly on her knees.
It felt like watching a new prostitute sitting in front of a customer for the first time.
She wasn’t a prostitute from the beginning. Just like every prostitute had their first day with her sister, every one of them had that first day. The first time entering the room as a helper, the first time in a cheap motel room with a client…
They all trembled like that.
But they endured because the boss was watching.
Su-min was the same.
The pretty Wang Pui girl, who had once been the half of Ri Su-min’s life, was now nothing more than a puppet in the hands of the NIS. A whore.
“Sister. But honestly, I’m more for the Thai girls than…”
“Su-min-ah.”
“Hm? Why?”
Why? Ri Su-jin let out a scoff.
“I suddenly worry about you… What if someone finds out that you’re a spy who became naturalized under the instructions of the Chinese secret consul? Right now, the fact that you passed the police exam was also due to a directive from above, wasn’t it?”
She had thrown her sister under the bus as a spy.
Ri Su-min raised her hand toward her collarbone, then lowered it again.
Of course she was being monitored.
Ri Su-min’s pretty face was completely covered in confusion.
At this point, Ri Su-jin had no choice but to admit it.
She had spoiled her sister too perfectly. She had grown up into a little princess because she had been allowed to do whatever she wanted.
“Sister. What are you talking about?”
“Really? You passed the police officer exam on the instructions of the Chinese side, right. At least that’s why the Korean police didn’t send you to the security bureau—thank God they weren’t fools.”
“What the hell are you saying…!!”
“Don’t get agitated. Do you really think I would report you?”
It started with framing her sister as a spy.
Honestly, it was plausible.
Her sister had succeeded in her business, yet she wanted to become a police officer? Even changing nationality.
Thinking about Ri Su-jin’s business, the theory that the sisters were both doing espionage was more logical, but for the purpose of pressuring Su-min, it was more than enough.
Immediately after, Ri Su-jin gestured to her subordinates.
“Xu Shunzhu, our Su-min has something weird on her clothes. Can you take it off?”
“Of course, President Ri. I’ll handle it. …Su-min-ah. Let’s see the maid. Don’t worry.”
“Sister!”
“Stay still. Su-min-ah.”
Next came the seizure of the listening device.
A flesh-colored patch microphone the size of a fingernail and an earpiece came off Ri Su-min’s body.
Ri Su-jin did not destroy it. That would have been stupid.
Instead, she smiled faintly at her startled sister, then switched to written notes. She didn’t actually scribble; she used her phone.
[Su-min-ah. Don’t worry. Why would your sister hate you? I think you were fooled by that bastard Joo Sung-hyun. You didn’t mean to do it on purpose, did you? You weren’t really trying to turn your back on me, right? So, I wanted to give you a chance to make up for your mistake.]
Ri Su-min kept her lips tightly shut, trying to appear calm. The suppressed anxiety seeped into her and her entire face.
It wasn’t just that her back had been exposed…
It seemed the meat cleaver in Wang Hao’s hands might have played a role too.
The cleaver would not actually stab, cut, or slash Ri Su-min, but the atmosphere of terror was definitely created. Another subordinate, Xu Shunzhu, also had her hand on Ri Su-min’s shoulder. Instead of soothing the tense sister, Ri Su-jin continued the written note.
[Su-min-ah. If you just obey my last request, your sister will quietly disappear. You won’t suffer any inconvenience from me either. But if you refuse, your sister will be very upset, and I might have to do something. You know I’m telling the truth, right?]
It wasn’t that her network overseas was disappearing.
Especially not with a Korean-Chinese who had been marked as a betrayer.
Ri Su-jin kindly told her exactly what she could do.
[Karaoke places line the national highway going to Cambodia’s Siem Reap. It’s not real karaoke; it’s a prostitution business targeting tourists on zippy tours. They charge about five customers a day, and the condoms and pills are on the house. The passport and ID are of course kept by the boss. The thing is, they say the more you work, the more the debt keeps piling up.]
Cambodian sex factory. Ri Su-min’s expression slowly hardened.
She really meant that far…? Her expression said so.
She didn’t think her sister had the ability to do that. Considering how many people were tied to Ri Su-jin’s lifeline, and the fact that Ri Su-min was the one who had exposed the person who helped her sister escape overseas, it was something that could be settled with a single finger push.
Ri Su-min’s reaction seemed to stem from their bond.
She probably thought, Sister wouldn’t do that to me.
‘The stupid girl. A stupid and pitiful girl.’
Ri Su-jin decided to confirm it was not a joke.
[Su-min-ah. Would you like to go too? I can send you within three weeks.]
Only then did Ri Su-min’s gaze waver, then slowly settle.
Her eyes looked red, as if she had realized what she had done… but the trembling had stopped, and she was staring straight ahead.
Realizing that her sister was ready to obey, Ri Su-jin’s hands moved.
The final order to her once-beloved sister.
Wang Hao wrote it out in his own handwriting and passed it on.
Process Joo Sung-hyun, cooperate.
The order was to cooperate in eliminating the main enemy that had caused all the disasters.
Wang Hao would carry out the execution, but Su-min’s cooperation was necessary for success.
This was both punishment for her sister and revenge against Joo Sung-hyun.
If her sister took this order to the police?
It didn’t matter. In any case, Ri Su-jin had no intention of being crushed in Korea. As soon as she sent her sister off, she would disappear via the pre-prepared route. If her sister even refused this offer, there would be no reason to spare her, and she had decided to send both of them.
“Su-min-ah. Don’t you have something to do? You can choose the maid later, right?”
Ri Su-jin pointed at the entrance and asked.
Ri Su-min looked at the order instead of answering.
Process Joo Sung-hyun, cooperate.
Obeying would mean a peaceful severance; refusing would mean becoming a whore.
“Yeah, sister. There is… something to do.”
Ri Su-min’s choice was the first one.
Thinking that she was a really easy girl, Ri Su-jin answered with a smile.