The Avatar of the Horse-Face Demon
Hao Yu, a native of Shandong Province, worked as a liaison for a criminal organization specializing in voice phishing and romance scams.
His job was simple.
He relayed the boss’s instructions to the Korean manager in charge of the money mules—while keeping an eye out for any signs of disobedience.
Because of that, he traveled back and forth to Korea often, and before long he had developed a natural interest in Korean culture, especially its laws and punishments.
The more deeply he dug into Korean law, the more he couldn’t help but laugh.
"Seriously? That’s all the time they get?"
No matter how much he searched, most voice phishing cases ended up with sentences under five years.
Now and then he saw someone get ten years or more, but from Hao Yu’s point of view, those people were just stupid.
"Idiots. They should’ve set things up properly so they could get a reduced sentence."
Korean law was truly bizarre.
Just claiming you’d been fooled by the boss because you knew nothing at all, and then appealing on that basis, could count in your favor.
On top of that, if you were the head of the household or unemployed and claimed you’d done it because you’d been pushed to the brink, then as long as you submitted a sincere-looking repentance letter, you could even get your sentence reduced.
China, by contrast, was merciless.
Of course, the sentence varied depending on the amount stolen, but the ones caught recently had been sentenced to life imprisonment.
"What an easy country to scam people in."
So Hao Yu never really felt burdened by traveling in and out of Korea.
Maybe that was why he’d loosened the leash too much.
He’d wasted all the money he’d brought back from the casino, and perhaps he’d just needed somewhere to vent his frustration.
He’d had a few drinks, so he’d only meant to cause a little trouble—lightly, even playfully—but the situation had spiraled into the worst possible outcome.
"That cop must be the incarnation of the Horse-Face Demon... I’m sure of it. Absolutely sure!"
The ruthless executioners from Chinese mythology, the ones who inflicted horrible punishments on sinners in hell.
Just thinking about that young Korean police officer made Hao Yu feel like he might wet himself.
Even though the man had only touched his hand, an unexplained pain had surged through his entire body.
And it came in bursts, with strange intervals between each wave.
That only drove him more insane, crushing even the slightest will to resist.
"I can never run into him again. If I meet him a second time, I’ll really be dragged straight to hell."
He’d sworn he’d return to China as soon as possible and never come back to Korea.
"Eek!"
When the Horse-Face Demon’s incarnation appeared before him again, Hao Yu nearly fainted on the spot.
The remnants of the pain he’d desperately tried to forget began boiling up once more, and his whole body trembled violently.
That had probably been the moment.
The moment when the primal urge to live—or rather, the urge not to be hurt—consumed every scrap of reason.
“Y-yes, that’s right! I only receive orders from the boss over in Shandong Province and pass them along to the manager in Korea. That’s all I do. I swear it.”
There was so much sincerity in Hao Yu’s eyes it was almost overflowing.
Anyone else might not have noticed, but detectives who dealt with criminals all the time couldn’t miss it.
"What the hell is this...?"
Not just Pyo Se-jun, but even the detectives from the intelligence team.
Everyone stood there with their mouths open, staring at the absurd scene unfolding in the interrogation room.
Some even pinched their own cheeks.
"I only deliver the boss’s instructions to the manager. I don’t even really know what the content is."
"You’re rambling a bit too much. You don’t need to defend yourself—just tell me what’s true."
Swallowing a breath of disbelief, Hao Yu bowed his head so fast it nearly hit the table.
"S-sorry. Usually, the things I have to pass on to the manager come through in a separate message. And when I come to Korea, I pick up a burner phone in Incheon and use that to contact the manager."
Without anyone needing to ask, Hao Yu had begun spilling everything on his own.
"This time, the instructions I relayed were these: don’t use the same account for too long, never do anything you weren’t told to do, and replace every device you’re using. Things like that."
"Hmm..."
Song Tan scratched his chin and took a sip of the half-cold instant coffee in his cup.
Then he waved a hand, telling him to keep going.
"The manager I met this time is a guy named Jang Cheon-hwang. He’s from Yanbian in Jilin Province, and he’s short with a big crescent-shaped scar on his forehead, so he should be easy to recognize."
"Where can we find him?"
"Ah! Sorry. I should have said that first... I memorized the address. It’s 201, 152-3 Taewon-dong."
The moment Hao Yu finished speaking, the detectives in the intelligence team exchanged looks.
At the same time, they nodded.
"We’ll bring him in right away."
"Be careful. If you botch it, he’ll definitely try to destroy the evidence first."
"Don’t worry. Still, to think the guy we’ve been chasing for months would turn up so anticlimactically... Hah, unbelievable."
One of the intelligence detectives let out a dry laugh, then hurried out the door with a few of the others.
Team leader Moon Dong-cheol kept his eyes wide open, listening intently to the conversation between the two men.
The real one still hadn’t appeared yet.
"That’s good. I’m glad Hao Yu seems to have come to his senses at last."
"Really? Thank you! Thank you very much."
The detectives who heard the interpreter’s words tilted their heads.
They couldn’t for the life of them understand what there was to be grateful for.
"But you conveniently left out the important part. That’s what bothers me."
"Th-the boss, you mean?"
When Song Tan looked at him without a word, Hao Yu’s face turned deathly pale.
"I really don’t know anything. I don’t know how old that person is, or what he looks like. Hell, I don’t even know if it’s a man or a woman. Please believe me."
"That’s unfortunate. You were doing so well, and then right at the end you took a wrong turn."
Clicking his tongue, Song Tan slowly raised a hand.
Hao Yu turned rigid in terror, squeezed his eyes shut, and cried out in a panic.
"T-Tsinghua University!"
Song Tan, who had been shaking a ballpoint pen that refused to write, looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"Tsinghua University?"
"Yes! That much I remember clearly. He said he’d majored in computer science at Tsinghua University, so we had to trust him and follow his orders no matter what. The videos and voice messages he sent were so perfect you really couldn’t help believing they were real. He even said he’d built the messenger program himself."
"Hmm... Is that all you know?"
"That’s it. Really. Please believe me. I have no intention of lying to you, sir."
Song Tan gazed steadily into Hao Yu’s eyes, then gave a slight nod.
He could read the man’s desperate sincerity in them.
"Thank you for your cooperation. Although you committed a serious crime, you confessed of your own accord, so that will likely count in your favor to some extent."
"Thank you. Thank you for showing mercy."
Whether he was thanking him for making him confess, or simply for ending it here, Hao Yu kept offering his strange, breathless gratitude.
"Then wait here for a moment."
"Y-you’re leaving?"
Hao Yu bowed politely to Song Tan as though seeing off some high-ranking official, then closed his eyes tight.
He prayed that the hellish Horse-Face Demon would disappear from his sight as quickly as possible.
Click—
The interrogation room door opened, and Song Tan stepped out.
All the detectives gathered outside stared at him with their mouths hanging open.
Even Detective Sergeant Pyo Se-jun, who had called Song Tan here in the first place, was no exception.
"I think my part’s over here. I hope I was helpful."
Moon Dong-cheol, the first to recover, rushed over in a few quick strides and seized Song Tan’s hand.
"You! Who the hell are you? What did you do in there that made that arrogant bastard suddenly start spilling everything?"
Everyone fixed their eyes on Song Tan’s mouth.
It was a question they were dying to know the answer to.
Song Tan scratched his head, looking a little awkward.
"Nothing much... I just asked what I was told to ask. I didn’t expect him to answer so obediently either."
"What?"
Moon Dong-cheol deflated, his shoulders sagging.
Still, he couldn’t push any harder.
Hadn’t they all seen it with their own eyes?
Song Tan had simply asked in a soft, polite manner, and the Chinese criminal had answered readily enough on his own.
The problem was that somewhere in the process, the crucial question of why had gone missing.
Wasn’t the man crafty enough to know Korean law inside and out from the start?
He had practically been toying with the Korean police, too.
And yet once that greenhorn probationary officer went in, the whole man changed.
If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, wouldn’t they have accused him of staging a rigged card game?
"Hah... Well, damn."
Still, that wasn’t the urgent matter right now.
"Team leader! If this is how it’s going to go?"
The corners of Moon Dong-cheol’s mouth split wide in a grin.
"The suspect confessed, so the whole board just flipped. Go get the warrant right now."
"Yes, sir!"
The excited intelligence detectives ran off in a hurry.
When the bustling observation room finally quieted down, only Pyo Se-jun, Moon Dong-cheol, and Song Tan remained.
"Thank you, Song. Thanks to you, things got a lot easier."
Pyo Se-jun took Song Tan’s hands in both of his and shook them.
"No, Sergeant. I hardly did anything. And please, speak casually with me. I’ve wanted to tell you that since earlier."
"I don’t usually speak casually to people... But I figure I’ll be seeing a lot of you from now on, so maybe I should?"
Sweetness practically dripped from Pyo Se-jun’s eyes.
Like a club owner looking at a monster-level prospect.
"As expected of a top graduate from Junggyeong. There really is something different about you."
"Top graduate?"
Moon Dong-cheol looked a little startled, then nodded as if it all made sense.
"So that’s it... No wonder you seemed unusual. Sergeant Pyo didn’t ask you for help for nothing."
"He’s famous at the precinct too. Isn’t Annam Machen Precinct pretty well known?"
"Of course. There are plenty of cops who went in there and quit the force."
"But Song here caught a wanted criminal on his very first day at work. And that was after he’d already subdued a knife-wielding attacker during training."
Moon Dong-cheol’s eyes went wide.
For once, he looked genuinely shocked.
"That guy was this guy? My God..."
That was the moment Moon Dong-cheol’s expression changed completely.
He’d been a cop for eighteen years now.
Hadn’t he seen it now and then?
That once in a while, there were people whose promise was obvious from the very beginning.
[~~♬]
Perfect timing—the ringtone went off, and Moon Dong-cheol’s face brightened as he answered the call.
"You caught him? Okay! Good job. Tell everyone to gather in the conference room."
Clenching his fist tightly, Moon Dong-cheol hit the end-call button.
"They caught that Joseonjok manager bastard. They’ve also hauled in dozens of burner phones and bankbooks from the room."
"So now we can catch them all?"
"The warrant will be out soon, so from this point on we’ve got to turn everything inside out. With this much evidence piling up, something’s bound to turn up."
Even the dark circles under Moon Dong-cheol’s eyes couldn’t hide the vitality shining there now.
After wandering the endless open sea with no land in sight, a lighthouse had finally appeared; it was only natural that fresh energy would surge through him.
"I think we should start with a meeting. We’d appreciate it if the foreign affairs team could join us too."
"Of course."
A look of resolve settled over Pyo Se-jun’s face.
He meant to crush them, no matter what.
"No time to waste. Ahh! Today’s our wedding anniversary, and it’s ruined. Completely ruined."
After tearing at his hair for a moment, Moon Dong-cheol hurriedly gathered his things.
"I’ll go ahead and get the meeting ready."
"Yes, and I’ll round up my people and head up shortly."
The mood was wrapping up when Song Tan, who had been standing there blankly, bowed his head.
"Everyone, good work. I’ll be on my way now."
"Where do you think you’re going?"
"Pardon? Well, back to the precinct, of course..."
"Quiet. You come with us too! We’re pressed for time."
Moon Dong-cheol tossed the words at him like he was speaking to the youngest detective, then dashed out like a bullet. Pyo Se-jun also began tidying up the room.
"See you in a bit, Song."
"............"
Left alone, Song Tan scratched his chin, looking a little troubled.
"Is this really okay...?"
And quietly followed after Moon Dong-cheol.
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