Descent of the Demon Master-Chapter 1293. Discussing (3)

“...”

“...”

Kang Jin-Ho’s car glided down the road. Its exhaust noises felt more noticeable than usual.

Kang Jin-Ho soon realized why that was: the eerily quiet interior of the car.

He sneakily glanced at the passenger seat and tried to study Choi Yeon-Ha’s expression.

“...”

Her face was hard, like that of a stone statue. Naturally, Kang Jin-Ho hurriedly fixed his gaze on the road ahead.

I can’t figure it out.

Nowadays, Kang Jin-Ho had gotten more or less proficient at detecting Choi Yeon-Ha’s moods by looking at her expressions. At least, that was what he thought. But right now? He couldn’t figure out what she was thinking at all.

He even resorted to enhancing his senses with qi, but using some random nonsense technique to analyze the complicated heart of a maiden proved incredibly challenging.

“...Mister Jin-Ho.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Choi Yeon-Ha turned her head slightly toward Kang Jin-Ho. And he panicked slightly after noticing the look on her face. Unlike her usual self, the area around her eyes seemed more moist than before. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

“Mister Jin-Ho, does your father hate me?”

“...”

Kang Jin-Ho’s brain kicked into higher gears and churned incredibly fast. No matter what, he must think of the best answer available to evade the potential catastrophe!

“I, I don’t think so?”

“...”

Unfortunately, a rocks-for-brains would remain a rocks-for-brains regardless of how much it racked itself. Indeed, it didn’t matter how many times it got churned, a rock wouldn’t suddenly turn into a diamond!

“Hah...”

Choi Yeon-Ha covered her face with both hands, her head faltering a little.

Kang Jin-Ho sensed his heart shrivel up at this sight and forced his trembling lips to flap open. “N-no, listen. It’s not what you think, but...”

“Argh... Dang it!”

Choi Yeon-Ha suddenly raised her head and unwound the passenger side window. Cool winds gushed inside to blow her hair around.

Ah, that’s right. I should have known.

Kang Jin-Ho admonished himself for thinking that, even for a moment, Choi Yeon-Ha had been taken over by disappointment and sorrow. How could he have forgotten that she wasn’t that type of woman?

“Hah...!” Choi Yeon-Ha urgently fanned herself several times before her lips twitched ominously. “I mean, come on! If only that was your little sister or your friend! I could have done something! But your father! Isn’t that too much?!”

“...”

“And you! Mister Jin-Ho, why didn’t you manage my image with your family better?! Your father now thinks I’m a bossy woman!”

But wasn’t that the truth? Wasn’t she proving that she was indeed bossy right now?

Of course, if humans freely uttered what was in their minds all the time, this world would have been filled with nothing but pure evil and unspeakable terror by now!

The thing was, though... Kang Jin-Ho didn’t have enough courage to reveal the truth, even if that hypothetical apocalypse would never happen!

“My father was just joking around back there,” said Kang Jin-Ho.

“Didn’t sound like it, though...”

Choi Yeon-Ha wound the window back up, then leaned against the seat, her expression one of stupefaction. She had never experienced a crisis like this before.

Holy cow! The hurdle this time is Mister Jin-Ho’s father...?

Choi Yeon-Ha believed grit, determination, and enough effort could overcome any wall in this world. Her life so far was all the proof needed to verify this claim.

But the father of her boyfriend? Now there was a wall that couldn’t be overcome with mere effort or determination alone!

“Mister Jin-Ho, we need a special plan of attack here.”

Kang Jin-Ho blinked his eyes. “...I’m sorry?”

“In my honest opinion? This happened only because your parents don’t know me very well.”

“...”

“Now that we’ve arrived at this point in our relationship, let’s just have a full-on introductory meeting with your parents. Please set a date up as soon as possible. I gotta introduce myself properly to your...”

“H-hold on a sec!” Kang Jin-Ho urgently tried to stop the runaway train called Choi Yeon-Ha. “Don’t you think you’re moving too fast?”

“I’m telling you, this is an emergency!”

Flames erupted from Choi Yeon-Ha’s eyes.

“Don’t you know how important the first impression is?! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to overcome the public’s incorrect image of you? People who had to quit the entertainment industry because of bad public perception, even though they had done nothing wrong, are a dime-a-dozen, you know!”

“Oh, uh...”

And here he was, wondering why Choi Yeon-Ha had been overreacting like this. Considering the world she had come from, it made some sense for her to react so sensitively to this development.

“This is why building a favorable impression early on matters so much, you know! Knowing you, I’m sure you probably smiled awkwardly and mumbled something about next time and whatnot whenever your parents asked you about me!”

“...”

Did she install hidden cameras around his house or something? For a simple guess made on the fly, that hit way too close to home!

Choi Yeon-Ha wasn’t done yet, however, and continued to bite Kang Jin-Ho’s head off. “That’s why! Stop thinking that things will resolve themselves after some time! Set up a date for us, okay!”

“...But didn’t you say you’re going to China soon?”

“Ah!”

Choi Yeon-Ha helplessly scratched her head. She was displaying new sides to her every day, it seemed.

“Hah-ah... That’s right, I’m supposed to go to China, aren’t I? This timing is... It’s not ideal.”

Choi Yeon-Ha leaned against the seat again, the burning focus in her eyes now long gone. Kang Jin-Ho chuckled wryly at that.

“Miss Yeon-Ha, I’m telling you, there is nothing to worry about. My father was simply horsing around. And you just happened to walk in while he was in the middle of his joke. That kind of complicated the situation somewhat, but still...”

“Mister Jin-Ho? Don’t you know that all jokes are rooted in reality?”

“...”

Kang Jin-Ho sensed a hint of iciness in Choi Yeon-Ha’s voice and promptly gave up on persuading her. Any further attempt at reaching a peaceful resolution could inadvertently shift the target to him instead!

“Fuu-woo!” Choi Yeon-Ha let out a lengthy groan, then turned to look at Kang Jin-Ho. “Don’t worry, Mister Jin-Ho!”

“Sorry?”

What worry was she talking about?

“I’m a woman who has changed the minds of many stubborn directors numerous times. If I tackle this problem with everything I have, even your father won’t be able to resist me!”

Kang Jin-Ho could only wryly smile just then. He held himself back from muttering out, Seriously, it’s not as bad as you think, Miss Yeon-Ha.

She shot him a glare. “You’re smiling?”

“...”

“Mister Jin-Ho, it seems you think this is a trivial matter, but...!” Choi Yeon-Ha growled as venomous flames began flickering in her eyes. “The happiness between two people isn’t only dependent on the couple involved, okay! If you fail to persuade the people around us, we’ll be cursed to carry this burden for the rest of our lives!”

“...I’m not sure if this is something that grave, though?”

“What will you do if your parents disapprove of our relationship?”

“Well...”

Kang Jin-Ho tilted his head slightly. Would they oppose it, though?

As he had never considered that possibility until now, nothing came to his mind right away.

He asked while cocking an eyebrow. “Why would they disapprove of you?”

“...”

Kang Jin-Ho found this hypothesis difficult to understand. Even if Kang Yu-Hwan was the father, he didn’t have the final say in the direction of his son’s life. Only Kang Jin-Ho could do that.

Besides, was there a reason for Kang Jin-Ho’s parents to say no?

Objectively speaking, was there a better girlfriend material than Choi Yeon-Ha? It’d not be easy to find someone who out-qualified her.

Kang Jin-Ho chuckled softly. “This might sound strange coming from me, but...”

Choi Yeon-Ha tilted her head. “Yes?”

“I’m sure my father will approve of you once you two talk to each other.”

“Really? What makes you think that?”

“Because you’re a good person.”

Choi Yeon-Ha playfully shot him a side-eye. “You’ve learned how to butter people up now, haven’t you?”

“...”

When Kang Jin-Ho fixed his gaze on the road ahead again, Choi Yeon-Ha grinned softly.

“In any case... I was thinking of properly introducing myself to your family sooner rather than later, anyway. The times might have changed, but I thought it was impolite not to say hello when everyone already knows what’s going on.”

“Mm...!”

Kang Jin-Ho nodded in agreement. Choi Yeon-Ha was right about this one.

If his parents had no idea about who Choi Yeon-Ha was, he probably could have delayed introducing her to them. But that wasn’t the case here. They knew who she was and her relationship with their son, so not “officially” greeting each other had made things rather awkward.

Since that was the case, maybe setting up a suitable date for them to meet up and chat could be a good idea.

“But it’ll have to wait until I’m done with my business in China,” said Choi Yeon-Ha.

“Yes, that’s true.”

“I guess things will get busy for us after my trip to China. Don’t forget, we still have that trip to the ski resort, too.”

“That’s right. There’s that,” Kang Jin-Ho replied, a wry smile on his face.

He suggested that trip without too much thought, but it seemed the Seongsim kids were genuinely looking forward to it. Since he got them all excited, it was now his duty to make the trip happen.

“When did you say you’re leaving for China?”

Choi Yeon-Ha cutely tilted her head. “I guess in a week or so?”

“How long will you be there?”

“I’ll be staying for over a week since I gotta take care of quite a few things. For one, there’s the negotiation over my next project, and then, there’s the matter of various commercials they want me to be in.”

“Mm...”

Kang Jin-Ho slowly nodded.

Would this be fine, though? An insistent worm of concern began wiggling its way into Kang Jin-Ho’s heart.

The Crimson King might not be interested, but Cai Kechang was definitely the type to monitor Kang Jin-Ho’s every little activity. He wouldn’t do something stupid like deploying spies and surveillance teams, since he knew how sharp Kang Jin-Ho’s senses were. Still, he must be using whatever methods available to monitor Kang Jin-Ho.

That meant it was safe to assume that Choi Yeon-Ha’s existence must have been exposed to the Crimson King’s faction by now. Sure, she had gone to China once before, but the situation had changed too much since then.

When objectively viewed, the odds of the Crimson King’s faction targeting Choi Yeon-Ha were...

...Am I overthinking this?

Kang Jin-Ho subtly furrowed his brow.

The Crimson King proclaimed himself to be the inheritor of the orthodox—in other words, righteous—faction’s ideology. A man like that wouldn’t do something as petty as going after the significant other of his sworn enemy.

Plenty of hypocrites existed among the orthodox faction people in ancient Zhongyuan, but warriors of honor who resolutely walked the path of righteousness were just as numerous back then, too. In Kang Jin-Ho’s opinion, the Crimson King seemed to be the latter type.

He was a man who never strayed from his goal of cutting down his enemy, but at the same time, had the necessary self-control to stick to what was right.

However, he wasn’t the problem here.

That’s right, the real problem is Cai Kechang.

Even if the Crimson King was unwilling, Cai Kechang was capable of resorting to whatever means possible to win.

Excessive loyalty inevitably led to wrong decisions. Cai Kechang was clearly the type of person who did not hesitate to soil his hands if doing so could assist the Crimson King in some way.

Looks like we need a plan.

Kang Jin-Ho sighed under his breath. He wondered if he should talk Choi Yeon-Ha out of going to China. But he quickly realized that was not something he should do.

Choi Yeon-Ha had her own life to live. Should she give up on her life and her career just because she was seeing Kang Jin-Ho now? That was definitely not what he wanted for her.

...Which meant he had to protect her somehow without her noticing it.

Sounds like it won’t be a walk in the park...

Kang Jin-Ho couldn’t help but chuckle wryly.

After his return to the modern era, there was a brief period in his life when China felt more like home to him than South Korea. Even though he thought of himself as a Korean, it was still difficult to ignore the familiarity of the land he had spent an entire lifetime on, after all.

But now? Thinking about China roused this feeling of reluctance, a certain discomfort, in Kang Jin-Ho instead.

Choi Yeon-Ha subtly tilted her head. “What are you thinking about?”

“It’s nothing important,” said Kang Jin-Ho with a brief shake of his head.

She casually shrugged. “I’m going to make as much preparations as possible this time. I mean, my last trip to China turned into a bit of a struggle, didn’t it?”

Kang Jin-Ho and Choi Yeon-Ha bitterly grinned at the same time.

For sure, Choi Yeon-Ha was forced to work herself to near-death during her last sojourn in China. If Kang Jin-Ho hadn’t arrived in the nick of time, she would have experienced something much worse, too.

That convinced Kang Jin-Ho. He should make as much preparations as possible himself, too.

Just as he began wondering about how to protect Choi Yeon-Ha, his phone began ringing loudly.

“Mm?”

Kang Jin-Ho saw “Lee Hyeon-Su” appearing on the phone’s screen and answered the call without a second thought.

“What’s up?”

-Assembly Master.

Kang Jin-Ho’s expression stiffened almost immediately. He could tell Lee Hyeon-Su’s voice was subtly different from his usual self. Worse still, Lee Hyeon-Su only spoke like this whenever something major had happened.

“What’s going on?”

-It’s difficult to explain over the phone, sir. It seems we need you back in the Assembly as soon as possible.

“Got it. On my way.”

-Thank you, sir.

Kang Jin-Ho ended the call and sighed deeply, before glancing sneakily at Choi Yeon-Ha.

“Uhm, well...”

She smirked softly. “What about the table in the fancy restaurant we reserved for our dinner? Or the movie we planned to see afterward?”

“...”

“Or, what about our date, that promised to be a fun night out?”

“...”

Choi Yeon-Ha casually shrugged. “We can always do that tomorrow. Or the day after. Don’t worry about it and go, Mister Jin-Ho. A person’s self-worth inflates when they know others are depending on them, you see?”

Kang Jin-Ho gently smiled. Choi Yeon-Ha certainly knew how to put his mind at ease.

“However! Don’t forget that I wanted to depend on you today, too! Since I willingly took a rain check, promise me you’ll hang out with me and have lots of fun next time.”

“Of course.”

Kang Jin-Ho stepped on the accelerator while smoothly turning the steering wheel toward Choi Yeon-Ha’s home.