The Uncrowned King of the Peninsula

Chapter 6 The First Principle
With a bang, the passenger door was slammed shut and Choi Sulli got into the car.

"Where are you going?" She looked at both sides of the car vigilantly, her right hand next to the door handle.

"Choi Jong-Bum's house." Pei Yongjun started the car, drove out of the parking lot of Haedongting, drove onto the main road and headed west.

"Do you know where he lives?" Choi Sulli looked at Bae Yong-jun in the driver's seat.

"Can you tell me?" Pei Yongjun asked while driving.

"You!" Choi Sulli suddenly raised her voice, feeling as if she had been deceived. "You don't even know where he lives, and you're talking about getting the video back!"

"What the hell are you doing?! I want to get off the bus! Quick..."

"No. 39, Nonhyeon-dong-ro." Bae Yong-jun's words made Choi Sulli pause.

"It's a five-story villa right at the intersection, with a great view." He looked at the road ahead and said as he drove, "It's a light gray outside, very beautiful."

"That's Goo Hara's home. Choi Jong-Bum often lives there, right?"

"...I don't know." Choi Sulli hesitated and shook her head.

"Don't you know?" Pei Yongjun smiled softly, "But, he doesn't live there now, right?"

"I don't know." She still shook her head stubbornly.

"Why doesn't that Hara-xi live there anymore?" Bae Yong-jun glanced at Choi Sulli. "Sulli-xi, don't you know this either?"

Choi Sulli stared at him, with only distrust and vigilance in her eyes.

"The lights in the villa have been off for three days, and no one in the surrounding area has seen Goo Hara return, nor has Choi Jong-bum."

"You were the only one who went there, and you drove that car, then you grabbed some things and left in a hurry."

"In the past three days, you were the only one who saw Goo Hara. Even today, you drove her to the TV station."

"So what? Can't unnie stay with me for a few days?" Choi Sulli's tone became excited again.

"Okay, but then why did you drive to St. Mary's Hospital in Seocho?"

"Are you following me?!"

"Friends, assistants, passersby, surveillance footage, parking lot payment records."

"Xu Lixi, you are a star, and stars have no privacy."

Choi Sulli bit her lip tightly.

"So why did you go to the hospital?"

"Are you feeling unwell? Or is it someone else?" Pei Yongjun stopped the car at a red light, turned around, and looked straight at him. "For example, your Hara-unnie?"

Choi Sulli's pupils suddenly shrank.

"Turtleneck sweater, long sleeves and long pants, hair draped over the side of the shoulder, covering the right ear. Why does Goo Hara dress like this?" His words hit like a hammer. "Tell me, Sulli."

"Is it true that Choi Jong-Bum beat up Goo Hara, and then used private videos and Goo Hara's life to threaten and blackmail you?" He said word by word.

"That's why Goo Hara-xi was admitted to the hospital and didn't even dare to go home, right?"

"So you were forced to let him squeeze all your money out of you, right?"

"Shirley, tell me, is this the truth?"

Choi Sulli stared at him blankly.

"Shirley, what should we do next?"

"Money, then the car, then the jewelry, and then are you going to throw away the house too?"

"Are you going to give away even your own home?"

The green light came on, but she still didn't speak. Her dark eyes were like trembling stars.

Pei Yongjun turned around and continued driving.

He didn't say anything else and the car was very quiet, but not long after, a faint sobbing sound came from the passenger seat.

"Yes, that's right." Choi Sulli clasped her hands around her knees, tears streaming down her snow-white cheeks, "But what should I do?"

"what should I do?"

"Why did you meet someone like this? Why?"

"Doesn't he love Ernie very much? Why would he do such a thing?"

"Ouni has already knelt down to him, but he won't let us go. Why?" Tears rolled down her face as she sobbed uncontrollably. "That's it. Why?"

"What did I do wrong? What did Ernie do wrong?"

Keeping such a secret and bearing such malice pushed the already fragile Choi Sulli to her limit.

Faced with the truth revealed by Pei Yongjun, her strong yet fragile appearance could no longer be maintained and collapsed under her tears.

Bae Yong-jun parked the car on the side of the road and listened quietly to Choi Sulli's crying.

When he was learning about Choi Sulli and Goo Hara's information in the afternoon, he asked Yoo Sung-soo to inquire about their latest whereabouts and found something unusual.

Originally, these were nothing, but combined with the conversation he heard between Choi Sulli and Goo Hara, he guessed what had happened.

After a while, the crying gradually stopped.

"Wipe it." Pei Yongjun took out two tissues and handed them to Cui Xueli. Tears slid down her chin and dripped onto his hands.

It’s so cold, like the melting snow in my heart.

"Thank you." Choi Sulli took the tissue away, her voice a little hoarse.

She looked at Pei Yongjun, and the vigilance in her misty eyes faded a lot.

Since he knows all this, will he really be able to get the video back?
Can I trust him? I really have no other options...

"Editor-in-Chief, I'm sorry. My attitude was not good just now." Choi Sulli wiped the tears from her cheeks and said, "Please forgive me."

"You just said you wanted to get the video back. Is that true?"

"Of course." Pei Yongjun nodded.

"Can you tell me why you did this? Don't you already know what happened?" she asked.

"That was just my conjecture. Without evidence, it can't be called the truth, and it can't be called news," Pei Yongjun said. "What I need is real news, not groundless speculation."

"Is the truth important? Isn't it enough to just write the report like this?"

"Then why do you care so much about Goo Hara?" Bae Yongjun asked back, "You are just friends, aren't you?"

"...Yes," Choi Sulli nodded slowly, staring at Bae Yongjun intently, "But she is my best friend, and I have a responsibility to protect her."

“Whatever it takes.”

"When no one believed in me, it was Hola-oni who stood with me."

"Maybe I've done a lot of wrong things, maybe I've hurt a lot of people, but this time," her fragility disappeared from her body, "I will never let Holaoni get hurt again."

"Very good, that's good." Bae Yong-jun looked at her red and swollen eyes, and her resolute expression. His mind seemed to flash back to the time when he was forced to leave KBS, and the eyes of Liu Chengzhu and others who followed him firmly.
"Then our goal is the same now." Pei Yongjun smiled, "Get the video back."

"Thank you." Choi Sulli's tone was very sincere.

"You're welcome. It's just my responsibility."

"responsibility?"

"The truth. I have a responsibility to tell the truth." Pei Yongjun's eyes were blazing, as if he wanted to see through everything. "I must know the truth no matter what. This is my first principle as a reporter."

"The first rule of a journalist?" Choi Sulli muttered to herself as she looked into his shining dark eyes, as if something in her heart was touched.

"Okay, let's go." Pei Yongjun smiled, turned around to start the car, and got back on the road. "Let's go to Cui Zhongfan's old residence first."

"it is good."

The wheels started moving again.

"Editor-in-Chief Nim, thank you, thank you so much."

"You're welcome. Even though he's a paparazzi, he's still a reporter, isn't he?"

The Pei Yongjun in front of her no longer seemed to be the kind of greedy paparazzi she was used to seeing, but more like...

And like a real reporter.

Looking at Pei Yongjun who was driving, a glimmer of hope rose unconsciously in the deepest part of her heart.

Maybe, I can really get the video back tonight and get rid of that villain Choi Jong-Bum.

Choi Sulli's heart suddenly leaped, as if she had finally seen the dawn.

The car merged into the traffic flow and disappeared into the night of Seoul.

(End of this chapter)