“Good people are rewarded, and bad people are punished”?
What a load of nonsense!
If the world really worked according to those old moral tales, things would never have gotten this bad.
“You stupid bitch. Why couldn't you stay in your place? Did you really think some stupid notebook could bring me down?”
A piece of trash like this wouldn't be walking around society freely.
There was a time when So Yeonhee believed the world was beautiful.
Hard as it was to believe now, she once had a perfect life.
A strong and upright father. A gentle and loving mother.
Two younger siblings who had inherited their parents' warm personalities, and even a somewhat old-fashioned but affectionate grandmother.
But that happy family collapsed in an instant.
“Y-Yeonhee... Don't panic when you hear this. Your father... he's been taken away by the police.”
Her father, a successful executive at a major corporation, was suddenly arrested one day on charges of embezzling company funds.
Before the trial could even begin, he took his own life in detention.
When her grandmother heard that her beloved son had hanged himself in prison, she collapsed.
Her mother, while caring for her, developed a serious illness.
“It's a relief that you're here, Yeonhee. If you weren't, I don't know how your mother would have endured.”
Just hearing those words...
So Yeonhee immediately dropped out of school.
She survived on only a few hours of sleep each day, using everything she earned to pay her mother's hospital bills and her grandmother's care expenses.
But poverty is merciless.
The hellish struggle for survival slowly wore away at Yeonhee's soul.
“Unni, I'm sorry. I need to buy sanitary pads, but I don't have any money...”
“I'm sorry, Noona. I just wanted to help the family a little... Will the settlement cost a lot?”
She hated her father for destroying the family.
She hated her grandmother for falling apart after his death.
She hated her mother for making herself sick trying to be the perfect daughter-in-law.
She hated her younger sister for quietly enduring everything without complaint.
She hated her younger brother for constantly causing trouble while claiming he wanted to help.
Then, on the day her mother died following her grandmother, So Yeonhee handed her siblings a bankbook.
“From now on, let's each live our own lives.”
After that, she left the crowded city.
She bought and renovated an abandoned house deep in the mountains and cut herself off from the world.
Everyone said she would never adapt.
But life in the mountains was better than she had imagined.
Her body suffered from endless work, but her heart no longer did.
“Yeah... Spending the rest of my life quietly like this wouldn't be so bad.”
But one day, the siblings she hadn't heard from in nearly ten years were discovered as cold corpses.
And when she found an old notebook hidden deep inside a wardrobe among their belongings...
Her world collapsed once again.
Chairman Joo asked me to handle the sale of the Samcheong-dong building he intended to leave to his fourth son, Master Joo Hajin.
He also requested an investigation into Saebit Maternity Clinic, where his son was supposedly born.
However, Saebit Maternity Clinic was completely destroyed by an unexplained fire three years ago, leaving no records behind.
It was her father's journal.
At the time, her father had been helping Chairman Joo investigate Chairman Joo's illegitimate son, Joo Hajin.
So it was never embezzlement in the first place.
Father had simply been managing Chairman Joo's assets as a trustee.
After learning the truth, her siblings had apparently struggled desperately to clear their father's name.
They had failed to uncover the truth.
Failed to restore their father's honor.
At that point, Yeonhee became curious.
Just what kind of secret was this man hiding that her entire family had to die for it?
Grinding her teeth in resentment, she abandoned the peace she had found in the mountains and began pursuing Joo Hajin's secret.
And when she finally uncovered the truth he had tried so desperately to hide...
She felt only emptiness.
Our family was destroyed... for something this pathetic?
Everything felt meaningless.
Which only made her angrier.
If society won't punish a criminal, then I will.
Laughing wildly, So Yeonhee vowed revenge.
If the world insisted on ignoring his crimes and his true nature, then she would force everyone to see them.
After making all the necessary preparations, So Yeonhee lured Joo Hajin out using the "journal" he was desperately searching for.
Perhaps because it involved a secret he could not afford to lose, he rushed to the meeting place immediately.
Yet he remained as arrogant as ever.
The moment he arrived, he began threatening her.
“You've got some nerve pulling something like this on me. Are you brave, or just stupid?”
Joo Hajin sounded irritated.
In response, Yeonhee calmly spoke the words she had prepared.
“Reveal the truth. Admit that my father's embezzlement charges were fabricated. And confess that you murdered my siblings and disguised it as a traffic accident.”
“How long are you going to keep milking the story of some old man who hanged himself?”
He sneered.
“And your siblings? Ha! Do you have any proof? Do you think anyone would actually believe you?”
With a mocking laugh, he walked up to her and tapped her head.
“Sending you to prison would be easy. If you've got any sense, hand over the journal and disappear quietly. I'll make sure you're paid well.”
His response was exactly what she had expected.
Yeonhee laughed coldly.
“Joo Hajin. Even if you take this evidence from me, you'll never become the successor of Cheonha Group. A murderer can't become the next chairman.”
“No matter how much a nobody like you talks, Chairman Joo already chose me as his successor! That will never change!”
Seeing that he wasn't shaken at all, Yeonhee smirked.
“Really? Even after everyone learns you're a cuckoo chick?”
"...What?"
“You aren't Chairman Joo's son at all. Not a single drop of Joo family blood runs through your veins.”
His expression froze.
“Your mother was quite something. She burned down an entire maternity clinic just to erase your birth records.”
"..."
“Oh, and just so you know, it's already too late to kill me and silence me.”
She smiled brightly as she held out her phone.
“I released everything before coming here.”
Joo Hajin's eyes trembled violently as he saw his ugly secrets dominating real-time social media trends.
He immediately grabbed Yeonhee by the collar.
“What is this? What the hell did you do?!”
“You're the criminal. Why are you asking me?”
“You crazy bitch! I'll kill you!”
Completely losing control, he wrapped his hands around her throat.
Yeonhee struggled desperately, but she couldn't break free.
So this is how it ends.
She felt wronged.
Yet strangely relieved.
If she died here, Joo Hajin's crimes would only become more severe.
No amount of bribery would cover this up.
Hundreds of thousands of viewers were already watching him commit murder through her live broadcast.
How could he possibly escape?
Looking toward the small red light of a hidden camera concealed among old flowerpots on the rooftop, Yeonhee smiled quietly.
Hot tears ran down her pale, distorted cheeks.
Can you see this, Father?
I've proven your innocence.
But...
What did any of it matter now?
It wouldn't bring her dead family back.
As emptiness consumed her, her vision gradually blurred.
Death approached swiftly.
And then—
“...Unni?”
A child's bright and cheerful voice.
“Unni! You're finally awake!”
For some reason, the voice sounded familiar.
...Who is it? I know that voice.
Driven by curiosity, So Yeonhee slowly opened her eyes.
And then—
...Huh?
Standing there was her younger sister.
The very sister who had never once appeared in her dreams.
And she looked twenty years younger—a little girl of about ten years old.
“Y-Yeonsu? Is that really you?”
“Of course it's me! Is there some fake Yeonsu running around? You worried everyone sick, and that's the first thing you say?”
So Yeonsu snapped back in disbelief.
Then, deciding her sister wasn't worth arguing with, she turned and shouted toward the door.
“Mother! Father! Unni's awake! Hurry and come see!”
Words Yeonhee had thought she would never hear again echoed through the room.
Her heart pounded wildly.
Hope and fear tangled together inside her.
And then—
“Yeonhee!”
Her mother rushed into the room.
“Yeonhee! What were you thinking, eating a poisonous mushroom?! If something happened to you, how could your mother go on living?”
Excuse me?
Poisonous mushrooms?
I ate poisonous mushrooms?
For a moment, Yeonhee was too stunned to process the reunion.
Then memories suddenly flooded into her mind.
“Dismiss General So Jin from office! Confiscate all property of the So family and exile them to the frontier!”
They were memories of how the prestigious So clan—a family that had produced Great Generals for three generations—had fallen into ruin.
And they were also the memories of the So family's eldest daughter...
So Yeonhee.
The body that had now become her own.
