The Cop Is Too Strong [EN]: Chapter 60

Jian’s aunt grabbed a kitchen knife and screamed wildly.

“Shut the fuck up!! I’m going to kill you all!”

Instead of helping to subdue her, the youngest brother took out his phone and started recording the situation.

Jian’s aunt stretched the knife out towards Shin Hae-soo’s stomach.

Hae-soo twisted his body to the side to avoid the knife and lightly swung his hand.

*Thwack-*!

“Kyaa!”

Hae-soo’s palm landed squarely on Jian’s aunt’s face. She flew sideways, hit the sofa once, and then collapsed to the floor.

*Thud.*

If you take Hae-soo’s slap with your mouth open, your teeth won’t be okay.

A few white teeth spilled out of Jian’s aunt’s mouth as she fainted.

Hae-soo handcuffed her hands.

“You are under arrest for aggravated homicide. You have the right to an attorney, and you have the opportunity to explain yourself.”

To have perfect evidence of murdering her husband, he needed to check if Jian’s aunt had purchased the wallpaper or flooring, but she preemptively got stabbed and had a seizure, making it even clearer.

*

The circumstances of the husband’s murder were as follows.

Jian’s aunt had seen her husband looking at Jian with lecherous eyes and subtly massaging her shoulders or touching her legs several times before.

The day her husband came in with a bleeding head, she replayed the car’s black box footage and understood the situation by listening to the audio.

-Did you end up like that because you were trying to sleep with that bitch? Aren’t you ashamed? Not a twenty-year-old, not a high school student, but a middle school student, is your brain full of semen?

-Ah, what the fuck, I did it because she’s an easy target since she obediently takes the money, why? You don’t see her as a person either, do you? You see her as a money bag, right? Ah, you see me as a money bag too, right? I knew it when you played that weird game.

-Shut the fuck up! Before I kill you!!

-Bullshit, my husband is about to get beaten to death by a monster, and you want me to get up and win for just 2.4 million won? Tell me honestly, at that time, you wanted that money whether I died or not, right?

-Yes, you crazy bastard!

That’s how Jian’s aunt stabbed her husband to death with a knife and put the car back in that spot with the black box, making it look like Jian had killed him.

*

As soon as Jian’s aunt was caught, Kim Jian was immediately released.

As soon as she ran into Jian, her aunt had another seizure.

“This is all because of you, you bitch!!”

The aunt, still handcuffed, rushed at Jian to grab her hair, but Jian sharply knocked away her hand and tripped her.

*Thump!*

The aunt, who was countered by Jian for the first time in her life, froze in shock after falling. Jian looked down at her with contempt and said.

“Aunt, why is that because of me? It’s because of your greed… Rot in prison for the rest of your life.”

“Y-you, you bitch!! Kyaa!”

Hae-soo strongly pressed down on the aunt’s shoulder to shut her up and took Jian out.

*

“You’ve been through a lot. You’ve been through a lot.”

“…Thank you.”

Hae-soo took Jian to the Reed Building where her siblings were, and Haru came out to greet her with her siblings in front of the building.

Hae-soo stared silently at Haru, who was welcoming Jian, and opened his mouth.

“I’m sorry.”

It would be a lie if he said he didn’t doubt her at all. He was sorry for not trusting her even for a moment.

“What are you talking about?”

“Just, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t do that.”

“What?”

“I don’t want the landlord to be someone who feels sorry.”

He didn’t know what it meant, but it didn’t feel bad. Hae-soo chuckled.

“Okay, I won’t.”

Hae-soo turned around to return to his team, but stopped.

Then why the hell was she there at that time? What kind of conversation did she have with Jian?

Hae-soo was about to turn around again, but stopped. If it wasn’t a criminal conspiracy, it wouldn’t be right to pry into a secret conversation between women.

*

The potato stew restaurant and the detached house behind it were originally in his grandmother’s name, and it was an inheritance that Jian would receive when she turned twenty.

However, the aunt bribed a lawyer and quickly swallowed the inheritance.

The lawyer, who became anxious when he found out that an investigation was being conducted on suspicion of murder, turned himself in, and it all came back to Jian.

All the money the aunt had taken, as well as compensation, was recovered as all of her assets.

And Hae-soo became the legal guardian of the three siblings.

“You said it’s where you lived when you were young, right?”

“Yes… But, I don’t want to go back there.”

After her grandmother passed away, her aunt and uncle, whom she had never seen before, came and said that hellish days unfolded from then on.

Hae-soo actively accepted Jian’s opinion and disposed of the detached house and the potato stew restaurant, and the three siblings moved to the 9th floor of the Reed Building.

The luggage that could be brought from the one-room where the three siblings lived was only about the size of one box.

Hae-soo filled it with bedding and home appliances such as beds, sofas, TVs, refrigerators, and washing machines as a gift for becoming neighbors.

The house felt chilly at first, moving from a 4-pyeong [approx. 13 sq ft] basement to a 40-pyeong [approx. 130 sq ft] house, but the children were as happy as if they had the whole world.

Jian didn’t show it like her siblings, but he could feel that the shadow that had been on her face had lifted a little.

*Ding-dong.*

Hae-soo’s doorbell rang for the first time.

“It’s here.”

Haru happily went to open the front door.

Kim Jian, Ji-won, and Ji-gu, dressed up in new clothes, smiled brightly and held out snacks.

“They gave it to me at the convenience store!”

“Did you meet the owner?”

Jian nodded at Hae-soo’s question.

“Yes, I told them about the meat I bought. They cried.”

“Good job.”

Jian thanked the convenience store owner and explained the general situation, saying that she was okay now.

The owner wiped away tears and was happy as if it were her own business.

It was the first time that an auxiliary chair had been added to Hae-soo’s table.

Today’s menu was spicy crab stew and shrimp.

Jian widened her eyes and asked.

“…Did you make this, Mister?”

“No, delivery.”

“Ah…”

Haru peeled the shrimp shells surprisingly well, leaving as much meat as possible and peeling the shells cleanly.

When Haru piled about five shrimp on his plate, he put one on Jian’s rice with red pepper paste.

Hae-soo was more surprised than Jian at the sight.

Jian, who was eating rice, stopped when she saw it.

“Ah.”

Jian stared at the shrimp for a moment, then her eyes became moist and she lowered her head. Her shoulders trembled slightly.

Haru looked embarrassed at the sight.

“I’ll peel the crab meat for you, too.”

Jian shook her head while bowing her head.

“I’m too… happy. So, I’m anxious. Can I… be this happy? I feel like it’s not my place…”

At Jian’s words, which were filled with sincerity, the second child, Ji-won, stopped eating and lowered her head, shedding tears.

Then Ji-gu also burst into tears.

“Why is hyung [older brother] crying? Waaaaah!”

“Ji-gu, don’t cry, waaaaah.”

Suddenly, the table became a sea of tears.

Haru bit her lower lip at Jian’s words.

If she were to express the feeling she had felt a while ago in words, it would be exactly the same.

But, stupidly, she didn’t know how to use such expressions.

Haru reached out and wiped Jian’s tears with her slender fingers.

“It’s okay, take it slowly, slowly… soak into happiness.”

Haru’s words, which were like an order, deeply reached Jian’s heart.

Jian looked at Haru with teary eyes and nodded her head greatly.

The three siblings stopped crying, and the youngest Ji-gu, who was running around the house, shouted.

“I want to come over and play every day!”

Haru answered his shout.

“Two days.”

“Huh?”

“Once every two days. If you come over every day, you’ll get tired of it and won’t know its value.”

“Awesome!”

“Do you want to go to the outdoor bath?”

“Huh? N-no.”

Ji-gu shook his head in fear.

***

Gangjin Police Station: A man with tattoos all over his arms and a menacing impression strode into the police station.

*Squeak.*

The place he headed to was the violent crimes unit office. He looked around with sharp eyes and approached a detective, bowing deeply.

“I’m here to see the physical therapy doctor [slang for Shin Hae-soo, likely referring to his ability to inflict pain]!”

The violent crimes unit detectives’ attention was focused on his loud greeting.

Shin Hae-soo took his eyes off the monitor and glanced at him.

He was wearing a convenience store vest that didn’t match his unmistakable gangster appearance.

“Aren’t you Dong-dong’s younger brother [referring to a subordinate or member of the same gang]?”

He is one of the Dong-dong gang members he had seen a few times before.

“My name is Go Jeong-hoon. *Hyung* [older brother/term of respect for a male] told me to go see the doctor if anything happened… I’m sorry to bother you.”

Hae-soo turned his chair towards him and pointed to the empty chair opposite him with his index finger.

“Sit down, tell me about it.”

“It’s my fault. I got into gambling following Young-shik…”

The incident was like this. Jeong-hoon went to gamble a few times following other gang members, but he quit, but Young-shik kept going.

Then one day, he couldn’t be reached, and suddenly Kim Dong-dong contacted him.

“He said to save him, to bring him 100 million won [approx. $75,000 USD], or he’ll have his organs harvested…”

“So?”

“*Hyung* is all about loyalty, he left a message saying he didn’t have money but he was going to go and solve it… and then he disappeared. It’s been two days.”

Hae-soo narrowed his brows and patted his shoulder.

“You came to the right place. If you went to look for Dong-dong now, you would be missing too. *Maknae* [youngest/junior member], track Dong-dong and Young-shik’s location.”

“Yes, *sunbaenim* [senior colleague/mentor]!”

Jeong-hoon gave the *maknae* his phone number, and the *maknae* requested location tracking from the intelligence department.

“Tell me everything you know.”

“That’s all I know… Ah, he said it was Byeolcheonji. He said he didn’t know where it was.”

Oh Gyeong and Hae-soo exchanged glances as they listened quietly.

“This is a filtering.”

“I think so.”

The *maknae* asked, hearing the words for the first time.

“What is filtering?”

“They look at the small gambling house and pick out the kids who will have their souls *teol-eo-meogeul* [completely stripped bare/fleeced] before taking them to a proper gambling house.”

“Ah…”

In the meantime, the intelligence department called, but both of their cell phones were turned off, so tracking was impossible.

He knows how to investigate. The team leader scratched his head and frowned.

“Ah… gambling house investigation fee. I’ll have to get grabbed by the collar by the chief. Who’s going? *Maknae* line [youngest members of the team], like before?”

Then Go Jeong-hoon opened his mouth.

“At the gambling house, if a man is healthy and young, they check which family he belongs to first. If they can’t confirm it, they don’t take him to Byeolcheonji.”

At his words, Oh Gyeong’s gaze turned to the team leader. Naturally, Hae-soo and the *maknae*’s heads also turned to the team leader.

“Me? Me? I’m the team leader?”

*

That night, a Chinese restaurant in a back alley of a dilapidated neighborhood.

A middle-aged man with disheveled hair, crooked glasses, and worn-out clothes, who looked like he was burdened by life, hesitated in front of it.

“G-going in.”

-Why are you shaking so much, veteran detective?

“Wouldn’t I be nervous going into a den where they harvest organs? It’s been 5 years since I went undercover… Ugh.”

The end of his voice trembled, as if he was serious.

-Don’t pretend to be sick and go in quickly.

-I believe in you, team leader.

“Damn it…”

The team leader muttered softly and went into the store, taking a seat at one of the tables.

A young man with dark circles came up and asked.

“What would you like to eat?”

“I want to eat something that goes into my pocket, not my mouth [meaning he’s there for something shady, not food].”

The man glanced up and down at the team leader and gestured for him to follow.

Following him, he arrived at the last room that connected to the back door through two rooms. When he opened the door, a gambling house appeared with thick cigarette smoke.

There were four tables and about twenty people. When the team leader came in, people scanned him.

“You can sit anywhere.”

“Oh, okay.”

The team leader took out crumpled money from his pocket and gave it to him.

However, the man, as well as the others, were slightly surprised that there were two 50,000 won bills [approx. $37.50 USD each] that didn’t match the crumpled bills.

As the team leader took a seat among the menacing-looking men, one of them lit a cigarette and asked.

“I’ve never seen you before, how did you find out about this place?”

-Do you know what your team leader’s nickname was when he was a team member?

The team leader sniffled and arrogantly raised his chin and answered.

“Can’t a gambler smell the gambling den? I came in following the wind.”

“Your sense of smell is as good as a dog’s? Shall we see if your *pae* [gambling hand] is good too?”

“If you have confidence, why don’t you check?”

-Because he’s a Kwak… Milk carton?

After one round, the man dealt a *pae* to the team leader as well.

Then the team leader didn’t even look at the *pae* and flipped over the water cup next to him, slamming it down on the man’s hand.

*Bang!*

“Argh! What are you doing!”

-No, Goam-dong Agwi [a formidable gambling figure known for using unfair methods].

“Stop, do I look like a pushover to you? Where are you trying to cheat from the first round?! I would have been given a *dal tteuneun palttaeng* [winning hand in Korean card game], and you grabbed a *samchil ttaengjabi* [another specific winning hand, implying the dealer cheated], I’ll bet your wrist on it!”

<#60. Gambling Den Infiltration (Paid)> End