In Search of Our Destiny - Chapter 218

During that time, Su-Jin had admired the house from afar.

She was in a daze, thinking how fortunate they were for finding such a place, one that was so well hidden in the forest. It was really wondrous how no one seemed to be around at this time of day, when all the rest of the properties back in the village were bustling with people.

The trip up there hadn’t even been as dire as Su-Jin initially believed it would be. The angle of elevation of the slope wasn’t that high, and there were lots of trees on both sides of the road. In the end, both Su-Jin and Ji-Won had a surprisingly easy time getting there.

But, even though the road wasn’t difficult, it still took around half an hour to reach the end of it. Therefore, Su-Jin quickly surmised that not many people would be willing to walk around so much during that hot weather.

Yet, even as she thought of all this Su-Jin also felt quite regretful, but for an entirely different reason.

Glancing at her phone, Su-Jin saw the time was already late into the afternoon. Once they would get back from this little adventure up the mountain the sky would have already grown dark and the street lights would be lit.

Thinking this might just be their last stop for the day, Su-Jin glanced back towards the village. Feeling rueful for not being able to find the ‘Summer Triangle Villa’, she made a mental note to talk Director Kang into coming back to the village again some other day.

Meanwhile, the man himself was walking past the tall gate of the mysterious property. He moved slowly along the brick wall, trying to peer above it.

At some point, though, Ji-Won had stopped moving. He stood frozen next to the wall, gaping at the building.

“Miss Park, you should come and see this.” he said blankly.

“What is it, Director Kang?” Su-Jin asked, heading towards him.

As soon as she stopped next to Ji-Won, she became speechless as well.

Then, Ji-Won slowly opened his mouth to speak. His voice was low, barely more than a whisper.

“We found it, Miss Park. We actually found the place you were looking for.”

“Can it really be this place?” Su-Jin asked, her heart being caught between hope and doubt.

“This is definitely it. If you still don’t believe me, then look up there.”

With that, Ji-Won raised a hand and pointed at something right below the upturned eaves.

Su-Jin’s eyes followed the direction he was pointing at. Her gaze moved slowly towards the upper floor of the building, until it finally landed on the object Ji-Won was looking at.

It was a large name plaque, the same kind that used to hang at the entrance of traditional houses a long time ago.

The plaque looked extremely old. The wood had lots of cracks, and the corners showed signs of erosion from the weather.

Yet, despite looking so worn down, the neat and elegant writing was still visible. The golden Chinese letters had lost all luster over the years, but on the dark background they still retained that bit of light. And there was no doubt that they said ‘Summer Triangle Villa’.

After staring silently at the plague for several seconds, Su-Jin finally snapped out of her daze. At once, she became excited and turned towards Ji-Won with a pair of glistening eyes.

“It’s here. The house is really here.” she chuckled, feeling her eyes growing moist. “I thought we wouldn’t be able to find it, that we’d have to come back again. Or even worse, that it would no longer be here. After all, it’s been such a long time… lots of things could have happened. The owners could have closed it down or even demolished it…”

“Miss Park.” Ji-Won softly called out in an attempt to interrupt the young woman’s rant.

“Mn?”

“Would you like to try and go inside?”

Su-Jin’s eyes opened wide. She stared at him like a child who had just been given a long-awaited gift.

“Yes! Of course, I want to go inside! Let’s try and knock first.”

Without waiting for Ji-Won to reply, Su-Jin ran towards the gate. Once she stopped in front of the massive doors, she raised a hand and knocked rapidly.

The successive rapping sounds reverberated through their surroundings, emphasizing the heavy quietness that seemed to envelop the entire estate.

After she knocked a few times with zealous enthusiasm, Su-Jin stopped and waited. But even though she waited for a full minute, no one came to open the gate for them.

Starting to feel restless, Su-Jin tried to push the doors open by herself. But, no matter how hard she tried, the heavy doors didn’t budge. The gate was clearly locked from the inside.

Just when she was about to knock again, a small sound came from the other side of the doors. Su-Jin perked her ears and was able to hear a soft rustling, followed by sounds of footsteps.

In a moment of shock, she gasped and quickly turned to look at Ji-Won.

Staring back at her, Ji-Won saw that Su-Jin’s eyes were filled with a mixture of apprehension and anticipation. He tried to smile reassuringly, hoping to help Su-Jin be more at ease. But it was difficult to appear calm, when he himself was just as much of a nervous wreck as she was.

Just when Ji-Won opened his mouth and was about to say something, the doors were pulled open from the inside, and an old woman appeared in the threshold.

Ji-Won was instantly rendered speechless by the sight of that person and, for the longest time, both him and Su-Jin stared at the woman in shock.

It wasn’t just the fact that she was old, but rather her entire appearance was very unkempt.

Her clothes were a disheveled mess, torn and stained with what looked like dried, old food and wet dirt. Looking carefully, under all that mess, Su-Jin could see lots of places where the fabric had been patched up. But the stitching was already starting to show signs of tearing.

The woman’s head looked even more untidy than her clothes. What could be seen of her graying hair was mostly dirty and tangled, looking like it hadn’t been washed or combed in a long while. Some of it hung over her shoulders in thick clumps, while the rest was pulled up and tied in a messy bun.

Su-Jin’s eyes roamed across the woman’s appearance, until they finally settled on her face.

The old woman’s skin was wrinkled and white like a sheet of paper. Yet, compared to the rest of her appearance, her face was very clean. Her eyes were half-lidded and lacked that spark of life a person usually has. She appeared like a listless puppet, only able to move because of a series of strings attached to her members.

Before either Su-Jin or Ji-Won could fully recover from their stupor, the woman opened her mouth. Next, a hoarse voice came out from her throat, sounding as though she hadn’t spoken in a long time.

“W-Who are y-you?”