[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-flowers-are-bait":3,"chapter-flowers-are-bait-flowers-are-bait-chapter-164":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Flowers Are Bait",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},751655,998,"Chapter 163:","flowers-are-bait-chapter-164",164,"\u003Cp>Whenever she feels depressed, she looked at trees.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She sent away Choo-ja who was hanging around at the front door, then started to look at all the record of patients. It was a few years of hard work and now, she even cured the ones that she thought couldn’t be saved.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Starting that day, Lee-yeon started to study again. She opened the books as if to recount the knowledge she lost and read the thesis that was piled up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She reviewed other hospital’s charts that were being shared and read all kinds of papers to try to recover her root that was shaken.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then she remembered something—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘It’s been a while since you became useless.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘I told you you’re no longer useful to me.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was a fantastic tree doctor that could cut off the branches, cut off the part that was gone, fill the holes, and do a complete makeover.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even though Kwon Chae-woo scarred her to her core, there were parts that he could never ruin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ring, ring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“….!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lee-yeon’s neck became stiff. Until the moment she checked the name on her screen, she didn’t realize she stopped breathing. But the moment she checked who it was, her shoulders slumped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“… Hello?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She rubbed her face. And a weak voice came with a sigh.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>–Lee-yeon, would it be ok to check the Spirit Tree first and then we’ll have to hand in the document at the Tree Agency.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“….”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She couldn’t answer even at such a simple request.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>–We’ve been delaying it using your prescription as an excuse, but this is it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>–Are you listening?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Just…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She stopped her voice from shaking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Just a little longer.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As she thought that she had to check the dead Spirit Tree, her fingers went cold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The conversation she had with Kwon Chae-woo in front of the tree, the gift she got. It was a wooden flower that will never wither and the red part was his blood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking back, that was the last of the man Lee-yeon loved. After that day, Kwon Chae-woo fell asleep for a long time and got his memory back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“N, not yet…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lee-yeon took a deep breath and wiped her forehead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The feeling she was having was similar to rejection. The dead Spirit Tree felt like her stomped heart. She couldn’t see that awful sight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>–By the way, Gyu-baek hasn’t been seen lately.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Pardon?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>–I’ll stop by his place. You just rest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment the phone went silent, the silence hit her. Then she suddenly felt hungry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She went to the kitchen to start cooking. She opened the fridge and took out all the side dish she could find. It seemed like Choo-ja cooked a new batch of rice as it didn’t smell anymore. She sat at the table.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hmph…!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The side dish was still too salty. It felt like she could smell something weird but she still couldn’t stop eating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Last time, Choo-ja tasted all the side dish and looked for garbage. But it was Lee-yeon who stopped her from throwing it all away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘Yoon Joo-ha.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The name of the woman you surrendered for money.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘She died in that house.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lee-yeon shoved spoonful of rice in her mouth and then the side dish. She didn’t even chew properly and swallowed and then she looked for water to wash it down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But she had to eat it somehow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mother was held captive in the basement of our hometown for seven years. Right beneath the room where I slept. She never saw the light of day and emerged from there like a lifeless body.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was his way of telling her that he wouldn’t listen to Lee-yeon’s claim of innocence, so she had to swallow it all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To accept, to grasp, to understand, to take in the fate of loving is sinning from her life. To let Kwon Chae-woo find peace. To let him go, to digest this familiar resentment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She will have to chew it all. She desperately swallowed everything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘Why would I have to consider a woman who would lie about everything? You’re telling me to just swallow everything you spit out?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even during all of this, his bloodshot eyes were clear to her. His look of contempt opened her stomach and his sharp words became like tattoo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This might be the ending that was expected since the moment she lied, no, even way before all that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The relationship between the offender and the victim. The result of the lies she piled up. All the problems that were tangled up like a ball of thread.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ugh…!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, she jumped up and ran to the sink, feeling nauseous. She vomited everything she had eaten and turned on the water, continuing to retch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason her eyes were watering was because of this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a night she couldn’t handle yet again.\u003C\u002Fp>",806,"2026-06-02T12:18:33.569Z",1,"novelbin.me","2f9ae234caa98d9f9a393e300b68f43df34b5c612f57b086f85ba9ec8c4cbd03","flowers-are-bait-chapter-165","flowers-are-bait-chapter-163",260,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fflowers-are-bait-cover.jpg"]