My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 192

“Well, I can support you with investigation funds and such.”

“No, I’m not asking for that. I just have another favor to ask.”

“What is it?”

“I’d like you to make it public.”

“Make it public?”

“Yes, the goal is to prevent them from messing with us for a while.”

If they were to investigate quietly, they might quietly disappear at any time.

The police protect the police. That’s a fact.

But it’s also true that disappearances happen among the police every year.

Sometimes, they disappear while secretly tracking criminal organizations, or sometimes they disappear for offending someone important.

“But, sunbae [senior colleague or mentor]… to be honest, making it public will be difficult.”

Lee Yeon shook her head.

“We’ve already milked this issue so many times.”

“Milked? That’s a bit harsh.”

Lee Ji-soo frowned at Jung Yi-yeon’s words. However, Jung Yi-yeon, as a lawyer, definitely had more knowledge of social issues than Lee Ji-soo.

Moreover, she had seen and learned a lot because her father was a famous lawyer.

“Ji-soo, to be honest, if you want to make this public, you need some bait. Slavery? Don’t you know this has been going on for decades? You do. But it’s been made public at least five times. And it’s still like this?”

“That’s true, but…”

“Unless it helps with views, reporters aren’t interested.”

Of course, slavery makes people angry and excited. But at the same time, it’s also an incident that doesn’t affect them personally.

“Certainly, in such cases, they get excited for a moment but quickly forget.”

“That’s right.”

The reason why Shinan [a county in South Korea known for its salt farms] is still using slaves, even while being criticized as a slave island, is because people forget everything after that brief period of public attention.

“Humans are definitely creatures of forgetfulness. Especially if it doesn’t concern them.”

At first, they might get excited and angry about using people as slaves, but later, if they have to release them all and buy expensive salt, they might even agree to use disabled people as slaves.

“That’s right. To make the slavery issue public, we need something impactful. But frankly, simply using slaves in salt farms is now common knowledge.”

Trying to bring it up now would just be treated as common knowledge by people.

“Of course, there will be an impact. But I’m not asking you for that; I’m asking someone else.”

“Someone else?”

“I think he’s about to arrive.”

As Park Do-joon glanced at his watch, the door opened and someone walked in.

“Do-joon, it’s been a while.”

Park Do-joon smiled as he saw reporter Kim Geun-chan waving his hand and entering the coffee shop.

“How have you been?”

“Yes, thanks to you. My brother is doing well too. But what brings you here? It’s so far from Seoul.”

“Well, if there’s work, I have to come.”

“I guess so, since you even go to the States.”

Kim Geun-chan nodded at Park Do-joon’s words.

“Who is this?”

“This is reporter Kim Geun-chan, someone I know. He’ll be in charge of the impact in this case.”

“Impact?”

Kim Geun-chan, who had just arrived, tilted his head, and Park Do-joon explained the situation to him.

Kim Geun-chan nodded at his words.

“Unfortunately, that’s correct. We can report on this case, but there’s a very high chance it will be buried.”

There’s no impact. Of course, they might get angry and outraged for a moment, but it’s now too chronic of a crime to turn into a nationwide wildfire.

“To report on this, we need something more than just the fact that there are slaves.”

Jung Yi-yeon nodded at Kim Geun-chan’s words, and Lee Ji-soo looked somewhat gloomy. She felt that things were not going according to her plan.

But everyone’s eyes widened at the next words.

“There is an impactful topic.”

“What is it, sunbae?”

Park Do-joon smiled and said to Jung Yi-yeon.

“Wouldn’t ‘inheritance of slaves’ be impactful?”

“Inheritance of… slaves?”

“Yes.”

“That’s happening?”

That was definitely a completely different issue.

“What do you mean, sunbaenim [term of respect for a senior], inheritance of slaves?”

Lee Ji-soo was shocked. She hadn’t even thought of that.

“Do you have evidence?”

“We can infer it.”

“How?”

“The salt farm isn’t newly established.”

Park Do-joon tracked when the salt farm was established. And he realized that the salt farm had been around for at least 50 years.

“But the current owner is 48 years old. The salt farm existed even before he was born.”

“So?”

“In fact, not many people take over salt farms these days.”

The work is hard, the money isn’t great, and the constant salt farm slave incidents have made the external perception not very good.

“Then there’s a very high possibility that this salt farm was inherited.”

“Ah, I see.”

Since the owner is younger than the salt farm’s establishment date, it must be either inheritance or acquisition. And realistically, inheritance is much more likely than acquisition.

“Then what would they do with the employees who worked there?”

“Don’t tell me…”

Of course, they would usually transfer employment. But is it really just a simple transfer of employment?

“You mean they inherited slaves wholesale…”

Kim Geun-chan, quick-witted as a reporter, sparkled his eyes.

“That’s probably the case. We think there are about 50 people there now.”

“This definitely changes the story.”

Usually, salt farm slave incidents involve at most one or two people. But this place has as many as 50 people. And if they are being exploited after inheriting ownership from their dead parents, people can’t help but be interested.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. The previous owner’s surname is Jo. And the current owner is also Jo.”

They haven’t checked the family relationship in detail, but there’s a very high possibility that the two are father and son.

“Moreover, their ages roughly match. And it’s true that the previous owner died. To be exact, the ownership was transferred on the date the previous owner died.”

“Then it’s a done deal.”

Jung Yi-yeon said with a serious face, and a slight smile appeared on Kim Geun-chan’s face. In his head, he was already crafting the title ‘21st Century Inheritance of Slave Ownership—’.

“But we can’t know if those people are slaves, can we?”

“That’s why I asked for your and Kim Geun-chan’s help. If we try to rent a boat to go to the island, there’s a high chance they’ll notice.”

“Ah!”

They need to rent a boat quietly from outside, but realistically, renting a boat in Shinan is like telling them where they are investigating.

“So, we need to rent a boat from somewhere other than Shinan under someone else’s name.”

“The press can do that.”

“That’s right. The expenses can be processed by the press anyway.”

The press can rent a boat and sneak in to take pictures. Of course, the crime of trespassing is established, but coverage of such incidents is legally exempted.

“We can’t go in openly.”

“So, we just follow the reporter-nim [term of respect for the reporter] in?”

Lee Ji-soo exclaimed, realizing what Park Do-joon was aiming for. It was a way to investigate while hiding their identities.

“Moreover, if the media starts to break this, it will be difficult for them to pay attention to us.”

Because the whole nation will rise up again about this issue.

“Great. Then we’ll rent a boat. We should move at night, right?”

“That would be great.”

Park Do-joon smiled.

Kim Geun-chan easily rented a boat. Of course, the boat wasn’t rented from Shinan. Although it wasn’t rented under Park Do-joon or Lee Ji-soo’s names, they still went to another city next door and decided to rent a boat at a reasonable price to move.

“That’s the place.”

In the pitch-black night, Park Do-joon and Lee Ji-soo, who had boarded the boat that had come through the darkness, greeted the other reporters and headed to the island.

“That’s Jangjeongdo [Island Name].”

Very late at night, Kim Geun-chan, who had checked the location in advance from the boat heading out to sea, said as he looked at the island.

“Are there really salt farm slaves there?”

“That’s probably the case. We’ll have to go in and see.”

If there aren’t, they’ll just end up getting some flak later when they get caught, but if there are, then it’s a jackpot.

“The good thing is that there aren’t many people on the island to notice us approaching at night like this.”

They got their clothes wet with seawater as they approached the boat to a place other than the pier, but they couldn’t approach the pier.

Since the pier was right in front of Jo Pal-gyu’s salt farm, it was impossible to go up without being noticed by the people there.

The boat, parting the moon shadows drawn on the sea, approached a place where there were likely no people.

“Careful, careful.”

Park Do-joon and Lee Ji-soo, who had boarded the boat they had brought from afar, and the reporting team slowly approached Jangjeongdo. Jangjeongdo is not a large island. So, it was about a 40-minute walk from where they arrived to Jo Pal-gyu’s farm.

What they saw when they arrived was a shabby building visible under the moon.

“Is it because it’s so late? There’s no one around.”

“Everyone must be sleeping at this hour.”

Basically, salt farms need the sun to make salt. Of course, they can’t make salt late at night, so there’s no other way but to sleep.

“Hmm. But if this is the case, it won’t be easy to confirm if there are slaves here.”

Kim Geun-chan said as he looked at the empty salt field. But Park Do-joon was certain.

“No, I’m sure. This place runs on slaves.”

“How do you know?”

“Look over there.”

Park Do-joon pointed to where the houses were gathered. There was a fairly large house shining with light.

“That’s the only place with electricity here.”

Since it’s an island, it’s natural that electricity wouldn’t be easily available. In fact, there was only one house with electricity, and solar power panels were standing around it.

They probably generate electricity with solar power and use generators at night to produce electricity.

“So?”

“Then the employees have to live without electricity. No matter how you look at it, that amount of solar panels can’t handle the electricity used by many people.”

“Huh?”

No matter how much they looked, that was the only building with electricity. But no matter how they looked, it didn’t seem like employee housing.

“Then where are the other employees?”

That house is probably the owner’s residence, and the employee housing is somewhere else.

“It’s probably that.”

Park Do-joon pointed to the long wooden plank building below it.