Chapter 41
Chapter 41
-------------------------------------------------
Translator : M.N 1391
Chapter: 41
-------------------------------------------------
“Is that so.”
Kim the reporter nodded along with Kyung-wan’s words. As the interview continued, he was able to hear a wider range of stories from Kyung-wan’s mouth.
“The furlough system itself is the damn problem. A beast tastes freedom, why would it want to go back? Let’s say the bastard gets more meticulous, has help outside, and even manages to escape overseas. If he goes to China and launders his identity as a Joseonjok, do you think he’ll be easy to catch again? We caught him easily only because he was just a simple rapist-murderer. If he’d been a gang boss type, he’d already be sipping tea in another country.”
“A prison should be a prison, not some kind of retreat. Reporter Kim, do you know what these criminal bastards actually do inside their cells? They share tips on how to secretly spike drinks with date drugs, how to evade taxes, how to scout empty houses and rob them quietly, how to harass their assault victims into forced settlements. That’s the kind of garbage they exchange. There’s not even a grain-sized speck of rehabilitative intent in them!”
Hearing this, a satisfied smile slowly spread across the interviewing reporter’s lips. Rising view counts, the year-end bonus swelling in his imagination, he could practically see it already.
When the visitation time ended, Reporter Kim left, promising to meet again, and some time later, Kyung-wan saw the article he wrote online.
[Prison Management. Can This Continue?]
After reading the whole article, Kyung-wan’s impression was simple.
“Would you look at this scumbag reporter?”
The interview had been distorted. It didn’t outright fabricate things he never said, but by omitting parts and scrambling the order, it sufficiently twisted the intent of his words.
His opinion on abolishing the furlough system had been softened into “partial reinforcement,” the prison turning into a school of crime due to its operating guidelines was reframed as “humanity’s inherent evil supporting the theory of innate depravity,” and the part about untouchables in prison became “corruption outside the watch of human rights organizations.”
Simply changing sentence arrangement and deleting a few lines, this level of narrative manipulation, the imagination, the skill, the boldness, it impressed even Kyung-wan to the point of making his tongue curl. He was a top-class scum journalist among all scum journalists.
And even while using the name “Lee Kyung-wan” as a clickbait lure, the article made not even the slightest mention of the National Assembly terrorist incident he had caused. Such exquisite tightrope walking was enough to earn favor from certain high-ranking people.
When people thought of the name Lee Kyung-wan, they would associate it not with the terror attack on the lawmaker, but with these trivial prison issues. That reduced the burden on the high-ranking individuals tied to former lawmaker Yang Seung-tae.
In truth, that kind of media manipulation was commonplace. Don’t like a politician? Even without evidence, you spit something out first. If needed, you mobilize the NIS or Defense Security Command to stick dirty images on him, organize comment-manipulation squads to sway opinions on portals and communities, and at the right timing, you feed it to mainstream media to amplify it.
Once an image is dirtied, that alone is victory. You might not sway passionate supporters, but you can influence the neutral demographic, and fully sway those who casually consume politics. Everyone says negative campaigning is bad, but its addictive efficiency is like a drug.
The problem was that the innocent victims of such tactics had nowhere to appeal their injustice.
The “freedom of the press” that scum journalists chanted had long degenerated into mere indulgence. Freedom without responsibility was the same as lawlessness.
Kyung-wan now worried for the prison that had been cooperating with him in a mutually beneficial way. More precisely, he worried for the small conveniences the prison administrators quietly provided him. With public sentiment turning this way, the ones under pressure would be the prison.
So Kyung-wan had no choice but to behave more quietly. He didn’t demand conveniences with hints or nudges. The guards also stopped arranging encounters between Kyung-wan and noncompliant inmates. They all agreed, without words, to stay low until the media storm passed.
A silent mutual agreement. Cooperation without complicated communication.
Isn’t that what makes life among people worth living?
“Long time no see.”
“Detective Jang? What brings you here?”
In the middle of all that, Kyung-wan met an unexpected visitor, Detective Jang Dong-gyun, the man whose life he had once saved.
“You didn’t forget after all.”
Detective Jang smiled awkwardly. Understandable, he never expected to meet the man who saved his life again like this: the lifesaver who had become a long-term inmate convicted of attacking a lawmaker. How many detectives in this country could say that?
“Have you been well?”
“Thanks to you.”
“No aftereffects from the stabbing?”
“No.”
After a few polite exchanges, Kyung-wan cut to the point.
“A busy violent-crimes detective wouldn’t come all this way just to ask how I’m doing, right?”
“Coincidentally, I need your help.”
“Really? The higher-ups won’t be thrilled.”
Detective Jang had been around long enough to know social realities. As a detective, he knew exactly how filthy the world operated. On his way here, he had even been given a thinly veiled warning from superiors.
But he couldn’t not come.
“A child’s life is at stake.”
Detective Jang’s determined expression made Kyung-wan nod.
The media was hammering the Lee Kyung-wan image into the frame of “prison mismanagement.” If he moved visibly again, it would trouble the prison. But turning away a detective willing to risk his own career to save a child… that was difficult.
In society, people called such men “madmen.” And what could he do? Kyung-wan was weak to that type of madman.
“Alright. I could ask how I’m supposed to help… but it’s interrogation, right?”
“Yeah. Your famous Twenty Questions of Truth. We need that.”
“Ugh~ goosebumps.”
“What now?”
“Whenever someone says ‘Twenty Questions of Truth,’ it sounds like someone shouting the name of a cringy teenager-grade special move.”
Detective Jang snorted a laugh at Kyung-wan’s whining.
“You’re ridiculous. Anyway, you’ll help, right?”
“Yes. But…”
“But?”
“Some chicken…”
“Got it. Don’t worry.”
Detective Jang nodded fiercely.
= = = = =
The interrogation Kyung-wan was to assist with was simple but enormous. A child had been kidnapped, and they needed to interrogate the accomplice who helped with the abduction.
The caught accomplice was a middle-aged man. His face had luckily been captured on CCTV, and a database search revealed his identity, a former robber.
But despite that, the whereabouts of the kidnapped child remained unknown, and the accomplice refused to open his mouth, clinging to his right to silence.
Kidnapping cases had a direct correlation between time and the child’s survival, so they needed Kyung-wan, someone who could know the answers even if the suspect stayed silent.
“Detective Jang, can you handle the fallout?”
Detective Goo, Jang Dong-gyun’s partner and senior, spoke with concern. The upper ranks did not like involving a prisoner, especially one who had attacked a lawmaker. Naturally, they would not look kindly on Jang, who pushed the request through.
Jang gave a bitter smile.
“What choice do I have?”
The moment he saw the parents crying as if the sky had fallen, he had no choice. He was also a father, of two.
Snuffing out his cigarette, he entered the interrogation room where the suspect, Lee Nak-su, was being held. Soon after, escorted by officers, Kyung-wan also entered.
“Hi~.”
Lee Nak-su stared at the relaxed greeting with a stiff face, then glared at the detective as if asking what kind of circus this was.
Detective Jang began.
“You don’t need to open your mouth anymore.”
“Let’s get started.”
Kyung-wan placed both hands on Lee Nak-su’s shoulders.
“What the, ”
“You shut up.”
When Lee Nak-su tried to speak, Kyung-wan whispered in his ear. The mockery, contempt, and coldness laced in his voice made the suspect freeze, eyes darting to grasp the situation.
“Your name is Lee Nak-su, right?”
“He says yes.”
Detective Jang asked, and Kyung-wan answered. Lee Nak-su stared at the two in disbelief, but Detective Jang continued unfazed.
“You have an accomplice, right?”
“He says yes.”
“Is there only one accomplice?”
“He says no.”
“Two accomplices?”
“He says that’s right.”
“You, what are you!?”
Revealing something the suspect had never spoken aloud made Lee Nak-su’s spine go cold. But the two ignored his shouting.
“Are the two accomplices together right now?”
“He says yes.”
“And the child is with them?”
“He says yes.”
“The child’s alive, right?”
“Mm…”
“Don’t tell me they killed the kid?”
Detective Jang’s eyes flickered with lethal intent.
Reading Lee Nak-su’s reactions, Kyung-wan spoke.
“He doesn’t know. From his reaction, killing the kid wasn’t off the table, but since he got arrested, he has no idea.”
“Is what he said correct?”
“He says yes.”
“What is this! What the hell is this!”
Panicked that his thoughts were being read raw, Lee Nak-su screamed, but the questioning continued.
Detective Jang pulled out a sheet of paper listing names, people Lee Nak-su knew, former cellmates, associates.
“Is your accomplice one of these?”
“He says no.”
“This one?”
“He says also no.”
“How about this?”
“Oh! He says that’s the one.”
“One down.”
When the identity of one accomplice was uncovered, Lee Nak-su thrashed wildly.
“This is impossible! I have the right to remain silent!”
Kyung-wan sneered and threatened him.
“Remain silent my ass. Hey, you want all your corn peeled off, or you gonna keep your mouth shut?”
The suspect instantly silenced himself. It wasn’t exactly the threat, more the smile. That terrifyingly bright smile.
Seeing it, Lee Nak-su finally realized who Kyung-wan was, the very man from those infamous clips online, the one who had smiled radiantly while stabbing a lawmaker in the waist.
“Heheheh. Looks like you finally recognize who I am?”
Kyung-wan tapped his cheek lightly and grinned, making Detective Jang frown.
“We’re in a hurry, kid.”
“Yes, sir!”
Like an eager rookie soldier, Kyung-wan snapped into attention in an exaggerated manner, then placed his hands back on the suspect’s shoulders.
Detective Jang resumed questioning, and Kyung-wan resumed answering.
= = = = =
[Kidnappers of ○○-dong Child Arrested at the Scene!]
[Kidnapped Child Safely Returned Home!]
[Strange Cooperation in This Investigation?!]
[Police Criticized, Forced to Rely on a Criminal for Help!]
[Is It Legal for Criminals to Assist in Investigations?!]
Somewhere, the fact that Kyung-wan had helped in the investigation leaked. Seeing the news online, Kyung-wan clicked his tongue.
“Tsk tsk tsk. Detective Jang’s gonna have a headache.”
People who wanted to distort and dirty the positive image of Kyung-wan, and bury the hundred-billion-won Ponzi scheme and Creative Capital Gate behind him, had no use for this positive buzz. The media’s shift to police-bashing was surely not unrelated to that.
But thanks to it, the prison seemed to relax. They gradually resumed giving him small conveniences. Allowing him internet access like now was part of that goodwill. Saving a child had softened people’s view of him even further.
The guards already saw him differently from other inmates. To them, he was at least someone who didn’t lay hands on innocent people.