Snake Venom Ch 31

Chapter 31

“It takes about two days, and if you take the booster suppressants on time, it passes like a cold.”

Lee Yeonwoo, gripping the seatbelt, recited his private information with utmost effort.

“You don’t need a separate partner either. I, I can manage alone.”

“…….”

Cheon Wooshin glanced sideways at Lee Yeonwoo. Lee Yeonwoo’s cheeks had turned red again as he looked around embarrassedly. Soon, Cheon Wooshin, who had been staring straight ahead, placed his other hand on top of the steering wheel he was holding with one hand.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Yes.”

Cheon Wooshin turned the steering wheel to exit the narrow entrance of the parking lot.

“What was the story you were trying to tell?”

“Ah.”

Lee Yeonwoo, who had been drinking water, quickly wiped his lips.

“When you came out after opening the door. I felt a scent, so I took another careful look.”

“So that’s why you stared at the person so intently?”

At Cheon Wooshin’s counter-question, Lee Yeonwoo clapped his hands together as if he finally understood the situation from that time.

“Ah, that’s why!”

It seemed the man had focused on him for that reason. Indeed, he had looked very intently.

“The scent was coming from that man, but it wasn’t exactly the same, it was similar. Really similar, but similar yet different.”

Not the owner of the poison, but similar. It was a clue that the suspect was indeed a blood relative of the Tessa Group. Cheon Wooshin, who had been silent, pressed his temple firmly.

“The deceased is the brother of the man who opened the door.”

Lee Yeonwoo, who had memorized the list, also knew this. They were brothers.

“We must definitely confirm the ninth customer.”

Cheon Wooshin pressed the accelerator.

The van stopped in front of a massive building that displayed a different kind of grandeur from the Tessa Group’s main house. Hanseong Hospital. It was a top-tier hospital corresponding to the domestic Big 5.

As Cheon Wooshin got out, he asked if Lee Yeonwoo wanted to come along. Cheon Wooshin was going to see a corpse, and Lee Yeonwoo’s role was to distinguish poison scents. Even though it wasn’t strictly necessary to go together, Lee Yeonwoo opened the door. If he wouldn’t be in the way, he wanted to choose to be together.

A refined silence pervaded the hospital lobby with only the necessary lights turned on. Silently stepping on the smooth marble floor, Cheon Wooshin and Lee Yeonwoo passed through the glass double doors. They felt a presence at the desk. After quickly completing identity verification there, the two headed toward the elevator boarding area.

The morgue was in the basement. After turning once through the long corridor tinged with gray, a sign hanging from the ceiling announced their arrival.

Cheon Wooshin knocked. Before long, with a click, the sound of a lock being released, a man in a white gown opened the door.

An inexplicably cold aura followed like a shadow at the feet of the two men.

The duty medical examiner guessed the purpose of Cheon Wooshin’s visit just from his attitude. Identity verification was conducted as a formality. The medical examiner removed the corpse from the freezer.

The corpse, revealing its appearance starting from the face, had a peaceful expressionless look. It was sleeping soundly as if it had no idea in its dreams that it had been murdered.

Darren Kim. He was a naturally capable businessman who owned subsidiaries as prestigious as his brother’s and actively operated them. Had he committed something dishonest enough to be murdered, or did he have grudge relationships? The details would need to be investigated, but this was the death of a person presumed to be part of the perpetrating force. Cheon Wooshin moved his pupils back and forth to examine the corpse.

He had been killed instantly by something long and thin piercing under his chin. This method of killing required aiming at a non-resisting target from close range and inflicting a fatal wound in one strike. Swiftly and accurately without exception. Moreover, the opponent was a carnivorous purebred. It would have been impossible without considerable skill, and the level of those they had confronted today was nowhere near adequate for such a feat.

He had heard that there were no traces of entry or intrusion at the location where the corpse was discovered.

“…….”

Cheon Wooshin raised his eyes to briefly stare at the corner near the door. A closed-circuit camera for checking visitors was watching him.

The perpetrator is someone reliable enough not to need identity confirmation through the official entrance camera, and familiar enough that the victim wouldn’t need to resist.

Meanwhile, the medical examiner opened the corpse’s mouth to find the venom sac. A long needle penetrated behind the molars. Cheon Wooshin watched emotionlessly as the yellow, viscous venom filled a small portion of the syringe scale.

It was ridiculous. A venom sac in a being with human form. An inexplicable emotion arose toward a being that simultaneously possessed both strange and wondrous aspects.

“Here it is.”

The medical examiner handing over the extracted substance to Cheon Wooshin seemed curious about many things, but was someone who distinguished between public and private matters. Perhaps because he had already received instructions, he didn’t add unnecessary words.

It was when Cheon Wooshin was looking down at the corpse and the cylinder in his hand. The hem of Cheon Wooshin’s jacket became slightly taut. Lee Yeonwoo, who had been holding his breath without presence beside Cheon Wooshin, had pulled it.

When he turned around, Lee Yeonwoo was looking up at Cheon Wooshin with more determination than necessary, just like when he had suggested the code word. At the same time, a lively whisper penetrated Cheon Wooshin’s ear.

“Team Leader.”

Lee Yeonwoo had merely called Cheon Wooshin, but Cheon Wooshin had already grasped Lee Yeonwoo’s intention. Just then, the phone rang at the medical examiner’s desk.

“Would you like to see more?”

Cheon Wooshin had been granted priority autopsy rights for the victim.

“I would like that.”

The medical examiner, leaving word to wait a moment, returned to his desk.

The method Lee Yeonwoo would use to check was obvious. Cheon Wooshin stepped back one pace for him. Then Lee Yeonwoo closed his eyes tightly, opened them, and lightly shook his shoulders. The act of bringing his nose close to a corpse required considerable resolve on his part.

“I respectfully pray for the deceased’s peaceful rest. I apologize for the intrusion.”

Lee Yeonwoo, who had asked the deceased’s understanding, slightly bowed his upper body. The somewhat flustered movements and the tense face changed the moment he drew in breath. Lee Yeonwoo’s gaze sank firmly.

A few seconds were sufficient for the confirmation time. Lee Yeonwoo, who had straightened his upper body abruptly, approached Cheon Wooshin.

“I’m certain. This person has the Hepesi smell.”

Clumsy enthusiasm that even he himself wasn’t aware of rippled in his large pupils.

“That thing about overlapping distribution routes with that snake.”

“…….”

Cheon Wooshin, who didn’t readily respond, silently looked down at Lee Yeonwoo. To think he had remembered and stored away that ‘snake’ that Jung Suho had mentioned casually, without even knowing what it was.

“And I’d like to check that quickly too….”

Lee Yeonwoo glanced at the venom that Cheon Wooshin held, then grabbed his nose with a face that said it was absolutely impossible.

“Could I go to the bathroom for a moment?”

Lee Yeonwoo looked anxious, as if he couldn’t endure the nausea any longer.

Cheon Wooshin understood the reason without difficulty. To distinguish the desired scent in a short time, he would have sharpened his sense of smell to the extreme, and in that process, he would have inhaled all the surrounding smells he didn’t want to smell at once. It wasn’t that he couldn’t hide his rudeness, but rather Lee Yeonwoo was in a state of excessive overstimulation.

“Go ahead.”

As soon as permission was granted, Lee Yeonwoo rushed out of the morgue. A silent gaze followed the hurried retreating figure.

The detection dog that had just been collared and put into field training was producing results beyond expectations. Concentration, sense of responsibility, desperation. He was acting as if molded exactly as desired.

Despite being covered in purebred pheromones, the reason he had insisted on coming along was due to his eagerness to contribute something more. Lee Yeonwoo, wagging his tail to fulfill his usefulness in any way possible, was touching on aspects that Cheon Wooshin hadn’t particularly considered. For Lee Yeonwoo, this wasn’t a very good sign.

He’s too valuable to use just once and throw away. The fact that the more he liked him, the more sharply he had to guard remained unchanged, but Cheon Wooshin decided to add one more condition to that.

If he ever turned his back, he would not only discard him without mercy but crush his highly valued abilities so that no one else could use them. Making him pay dearly for betrayal was the surface reason, but—

‘Who would I be giving that away to for free?’

It was just malicious mischief stemming from his damn nature. Though he was acting like the perfect gentleman in front of Lee Yeonwoo, his original temperament had always been like this. He simply hadn’t revealed it because there was no need to.

Cheon Wooshin was inherently distrustful of people. Even more so with demi-humans. Mixed-breeds went without saying. This was proof of how great his desire for Lee Yeonwoo was, and Cheon Wooshin didn’t try to deny this fact. Lee Yeonwoo was someone he had chosen so meticulously.

To be charmed by his well-packaged self and continue to behave so admirably and loyally as he was now.

Cheon Wooshin, withdrawing his cold gaze, asked the medical examiner in charge.

“Did you conduct a drug test?”