Good people are rewarded, and bad people are punished?

What a load of nonsense!

If the world truly worked according to those old fairy tale morals, things would never have ended up like this.

“You stupid bitch. I told you not to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong. Did you really think that little notebook could bring me down?”

If the world were fair, trash like him wouldn’t still be walking around freely.

There was a time when So Yeonhee believed the world was beautiful.

It was hard to believe now, but she had once lived a perfect life.

An upright, incorruptible father. A gentle, loving mother.

Two younger siblings who had inherited their parents’ kindness and grown up cheerful and carefree.

Even her grandmother, though somewhat old-fashioned and patriarchal, had been full of affection.

But that happy family fell apart in the blink of an eye.

“Y-Yeonhee… Listen carefully, and don’t panic. Your father… he was taken away by the police.”

Her father, a respected executive at a major corporation, was suddenly arrested for embezzling company funds.

Before the trial could even begin, he took his own life in detention.

When her grandmother heard that the son she had cherished all her life had hanged himself in prison, she collapsed.

Her mother devoted herself to caring for her, only to fall gravely ill herself.

“It’s a relief that I still have you, Yeonhee. If you weren’t here too… I don’t know how I would have endured.”

Just those few words.

They were enough for So Yeonhee to quit the university she had been attending without hesitation.

She survived on only three or four hours of sleep each night, working endlessly to pay for her mother’s hospital bills and her grandmother’s care.

But poverty is merciless.

As the saying goes, generosity comes from a full granary. Living in hellish poverty slowly wore away at So Yeonhee’s soul.

“Unni… I’m sorry. I need to buy sanitary pads, but I don’t have any money…”

“I’m sorry, Big Sis. I just wanted to help the family even a little… Will the settlement cost a lot?”

She hated her father for ruining the family.

She hated her grandmother for losing the will to live after his death.

She hated her mother for making herself sick trying to be the perfect daughter-in-law.

She hated her younger sister, who timidly lived only by reading everyone else’s moods.

She hated her younger brother, who only caused more trouble while trying to help the family.

Then, on the day her mother died after her grandmother…

So Yeonhee handed her siblings a bankbook.

“From now on… let’s each live our own lives.”

She left the crowded city that very day.

Deep in the mountains, she bought an abandoned house, renovated it, and cut herself off from the world.

Everyone said she’d never adapt.

But life in the mountains turned out to be far better than she’d imagined.

There was always work to do, and her body was exhausted every day.

But at least her heart no longer suffered.

“Yeah… Spending the rest of my life quietly like this wouldn’t be so bad.”

But then…

The younger siblings she hadn’t heard from in nearly ten years were suddenly found dead.

Cold corpses.

And among the belongings they had left behind, she discovered an old notebook hidden deep inside a wardrobe.

Her world collapsed all over again.

Chairman Ju asked me to arrange the sale of the Samcheong-dong building that he intended to leave to his fourth son, Master Ju Hajin.

He also instructed me to investigate Saebit Maternity Clinic, where the child was supposedly born.

However, Saebit Maternity Clinic was completely destroyed in a mysterious fire three years ago, leaving behind no records whatsoever.

It was her father’s diary.

At Chairman Ju’s request, her father had secretly investigated Ju Hajin, the chairman’s illegitimate son.

“So it wasn’t embezzlement from the beginning.”

“He had merely been managing Chairman Ju’s assets as a trustee.”

After learning the truth, her siblings had done everything they could to clear their father’s name.

In the end, they had failed.

They failed to reveal the truth.

They failed to restore their father’s honor.

By that point, one question consumed her.

Just what kind of secret had that man been hiding… that my entire family had to die for it?

Grinding her teeth in bitterness, So Yeonhee abandoned the peace she had finally found in the mountains and began pursuing Ju Hajin’s secret.

At long last…

She uncovered the truth he had desperately tried to conceal.

And all she felt was emptiness.

“For something this pathetic…?”

“My family was destroyed… for something like this?”

Everything felt meaningless.

Hopeless.

Which only made her rage burn even hotter.

If society refuses to punish a criminal… then I’ll do it myself.

Laughing like someone possessed, So Yeonhee vowed revenge.

If the world insisted on ignoring his crimes and his true identity…

Then she would force everyone to see them.

After making thorough preparations, So Yeonhee lured Ju Hajin out by using the “diary” he desperately wanted as bait.

Perhaps because it concerned his darkest secret, Ju Hajin rushed to the meeting place without delay.

Yet his arrogance hadn’t changed one bit.

From the very beginning, he resorted to threats.

“You’ve got some nerve pulling something like this on me. Are you brave… or just stupid?”

As Ju Hajin spoke with open annoyance, So Yeonhee calmly recited the words she had prepared.

“Clear my father’s name. Prove that the embezzlement charges against him were fabricated.”

“And confess that you murdered my siblings and disguised it as a traffic accident.”

“How long are you going to milk the story of some guy who hanged himself?”

“And your siblings?”

“Hah! Do you have any proof?”

“Do you honestly think anyone would believe you?”

Sneering, Ju Hajin stepped closer and casually tapped her head.

“Sending one more person to prison isn’t difficult for me.”

“So if you’ve got the message, hand over the diary and disappear.”

“I’ll make sure you’re well compensated.”

His response was exactly what she had expected.

A mocking smile crossed her lips.

“Ju Hajin.”

“Even if you take this evidence from me, you’ll never become the successor of Cheonha Group.”

“A murderer becoming the next chairman?”

“That’s impossible.”

“No matter how much you bark, Chairman Ju has already chosen me as his successor.”

“That will never change!”

Ju Hajin remained utterly unfazed.

Seeing that, So Yeonhee smiled faintly.

“Really?”

“Would he still choose you after learning you’re nothing but a cuckoo chick?”

“…What?”

“You’re not Chairman Ju’s son.”

“You don’t share a single drop of blood with the Ju family.”

“Your mother was certainly impressive.”

“She burned down an entire maternity clinic just to erase every record of your birth.”

“…”

“Oh, and just so you know…”

“It’s already too late to silence me by killing me.”

“Before I came here…”

“I released everything to the public.”

Smiling brightly, she held her phone in front of him.

• Saebit Maternity Clinic Fire

• Ju Hajin Cuckoo Child

• Ju Hajin Identity Fraud

The moment Ju Hajin saw his filthy secrets dominating the real-time trending topics on social media…

His eyes shook violently.

He grabbed So Yeonhee by the collar in one swift motion.

“What is this?”

“What the hell did you do?!”

“You’re the one who committed the crimes.”

“So why are you asking me?”

“You crazy bitch!”

“I’ll kill you!”

Completely unhinged now, he wrapped both hands around her neck and began strangling her.

She struggled desperately to break free.

But it was useless.

So… this is how it ends.

She resented dying.

Yet at the same time…

She felt relieved.

If she died here…

Ju Hajin’s crimes would become even more severe.

No amount of bribery could cover this up.

After all…

Hundreds of thousands of people were already watching him commit murder through the live broadcast.

How could he possibly escape now?

Looking toward the tiny camera hidden among the old flowerpots on one corner of the rooftop, So Yeonhee smiled quietly.

Hot tears streamed down her pale, distorted cheeks.

Are you watching, Father?

I’ve proven your innocence.

But…

What did it matter now?

Her dead family would never return.

An overwhelming emptiness filled her.

Her vision gradually blurred.

Death came swiftly.

And then—

“…Unni?”

A clear, high-pitched voice unique to a young child.

“Unni! You’re finally awake!”

For some reason…

The voice sounded strangely familiar.

…Who is that?

I know this voice.

Curious, So Yeonhee struggled to open her eyes and looked toward the source of the voice.

Then—

…Huh?

Standing there was her younger sister.

The sister who had never once appeared in her dreams.

And somehow…

She looked twenty years younger.

A little girl of about ten years old.

“Y-Yeonsu?”

“Is it really you?”

“What, is there a fake Yeonsu too?”

“You had everyone worried sick, and now you’re saying weird things!”

So Yeonsu shot back as though the question were absurd.

Then, deciding there was no point talking any further, she turned toward the door and shouted.

“Mother! Father! Unni’s awake! Hurry!”

Words she had believed she would never hear again echoed throughout the room.

Her heart pounded wildly.

Could it be…?

Hope and fear tangled together.

Then, at that very moment—

“Yeonhee!”

Calling her name, her mother rushed into the room.

“Yeonhee!”

“What were you thinking, eating poisonous mushrooms?”

“Huh?”

“If something had happened to you…”

“How could your mother have gone on living?”

“…Excuse me?”

“Poisonous mushrooms?”

“I ate them?”

Before she could even process the shock of their reunion…

A flood of unfamiliar memories suddenly surged through her mind.

“Dismiss Great General So Jin from his post, confiscate all of House So’s assets, and exile the entire family to the frontier!”

It was the memory of how the prestigious So family, which had produced Great Generals for three generations, had fallen into ruin.

And they were also the memories of So Yeonhee, the eldest legitimate daughter of the So family…

Whose body had now become her own.