Chapter 263.1

Chapter 263.1

The engine roared to life. Lee Wooshin fitted two different in-ear devices into his ears and gripped the motorcycle handles tightly.

The harsh growl of the engine cut across the street as the road curved sharply. He leaned deep into the turn and sped forward as if he had become one with the bike. The ruined city lights streaked past on either side like blurred stripes.

―The scratch on the ring has just been analyzed!

The moment he saw the coordinates flash across his watch, he twisted the throttle. He clenched his teeth without slowing down.

A makeshift barricade of tangled rebar blocked the road ahead, but he had no time to detour. He lifted the motorcycle almost as if ramming through and forced it through the narrow gap.

For an instant, the bike left the ground before slamming back down. He tugged at his outer jacket to keep the severed body part strapped to his shoulder from falling.

‘This arm does not belong to my wife.’

Even so, he could not discard it.

Because he wondered if she had once held a corpse the same way.

Because he believed she must have endured this same agony that tore at his chest.

Losing her now felt like the price he paid for the life he had led.

“Seoryeong.”

Living on with only fragments of her left behind. Perhaps that was the true punishment he had to bear.

He suddenly remembered the doctor who had stiffened when he once declared that if anything ever happened to Seoryeong, if she died and left him behind, he would follow her immediately. The doctor had called it unhealthy. He had scoffed at the time.

Now he saw that they had both been wrong.

To follow her in death would have been easy. Too easy.

Even if life meant losing another fragment again and again, he had to endure what remained. That was the burden of a man married to an agent.

If he had not resigned from the National Intelligence Service, she would have suffered the consequences of being married to an agent instead.

In that case, it was better that he bore it a hundredfold. That was what life meant when your wife was a black agent. She handed him impossible trials. She gave him a love that felt like pain.

Just as he once had.

Then he would endure it. He would live on clutching even her fragments. It was better that every trial fell upon him alone. This was the shape of the love he had to carry.

―Team leader, are you listening?

Na Wonchang’s voice came through the other in-ear. He had given the man only a few hours.

“Speak.”

―Director Tae Mu-kyung approached a woman in Hong Kong named Zhang Weiming. On the surface, at least. The Zhang family were Chinese businesspeople who fled to Hong Kong to escape the Communist Party. They ran a trading company. An elite family. But their real face was…

When Na Wonchang hesitated, Lee Wooshin prompted dryly, “Go on.”

―They were aligned with the Communist Party. An unofficial proxy organization for China.

―The Zhang family had acted as a financial channel in efforts to take control of Hong Kong. They monitored and restrained pro-democracy forces. At the time, Black Agent Tae Mu-kyung was deployed into that situation.

Lee Wooshin raced on without faltering, weaving between buildings shattered by bombardment.

―He approached them slowly, taking his time. Eventually, he even married the Zhang family’s second daughter. On paper, the marriage appeared stable. But behind the scenes, he cleverly sowed distrust within the family. He secretly secured evidence of money laundering and leaked information about illegal arms trades. He ruined relationships with their key partners. Later, he even falsely tipped off the Chinese Communist Party, suggesting that the Zhang family might be double agents. He drove wedges between all of them. The scale of his achievements was staggering….

A sound that was neither quite a sigh nor admiration clung to his eardrum. Lee Wooshin realized Na Wonchang genuinely felt awed and hardened his expression.

―From that point on, the Zhang family slowly fell apart. When information leaked to the press that they were suppressing pro democracy forces, they began to collapse. They completely lost their influence in Hong Kong, and all their assets were frozen. Every member of the Zhang family was either arrested or killed.

“….”

―All of this happened within three years of Agent Tae Mu-kyung’s infiltration. The mission succeeded perfectly. But….

Lee Wooshin already knew what would follow. He pushed the motorcycle to its limit.

―When they were captured by the Communist Party and interrogated, his wife was included. At that time… Agent Tae Mu-kyung had already withdrawn.

“.…”

“It appears she committed suicide after enduring electric torture. During interrogation, she learned that her husband had been a covert operative. It seems she suffered an irreversible shock upon discovering that her entire marriage had been part of his assignment….”

A chill shot down his neck, and he swallowed hard. A woman who could not bear the truth had taken her own life. That single line made his mind reel.

‘That could have been me.’

If things had gone wrong by even a fraction, it might have been Seoryeong in that position.

Lee Wooshin tightened his grip on the handlebars. The dead woman had been Tae Mu-kyung’s wife, not Seoryeong, yet dread clawed at his chest. It felt as if a shard of metal had lodged deep in his throat.

If Seoryeong had not been strong… if his owl had not been Han Seoryeong.

If she had collapsed and never recovered, he would never forgive himself.