Flowers Are Bait

Chapter 153:

“I knew this would happen!”

Choo-ja gritted her teeth as she stepped on the muddy ground.

Currently, Lee-yeon was revisiting the site where a landslide had occurred after receiving the notice for the fourth round of evaluation.

The place that remained as a nightmare was still in a state of chaos and had not been restored. Especially the moment when Lee-yeon almost lost Kwon Chae-woo came back vividly like yesterday, sending chills down her entire body.

The smell of something rotten pierced her nose, and the mud that couldn’t be swept away piled up like a riverbank.

Her eyebrows furrowed at the sight of the muddy boots covered with dirty wood scraps, but now this place had become a testing ground for Lee-yeon once again.

“I never thought I would meet that snob like this!”

In the fourth round evaluation of the Hwaido Project, Lee-yeon was finally going to confront the ancient D Hospital. The theme was gardening, and the task was to rebuild the forest that had turned into a wasteland due to two landslides.

Hwaido was soon to be opened, and if she passed this evaluation, she would finally be among the top six finalists.

At first, it was just a bidding competition for livelihood, but as the evaluation continued, Lee-yeon seemed to be clearing up her defensive past and opening a new chapter. So, every time she overcame a crisis and moved forward, the desire for the final bid grew little by little.

She wanted to become the best tree doctor in Hwaido.

“If I become a little better… maybe Kwon Chae-woo will see me in a different light?”

Lee-yeon, who had just been trying to get through each day unscathed, finally began to have ambitions.

“I should have met Soleil earlier and talked to her!” Choo-ja exclaimed

“Soleil Landscaping Company?”

“Even if we had a tight grip on Soleil, this evaluation was a piece of cake! We’re stuck in this mess!” Choo-ja swatted the mosquitoes that kept clinging to her arms.

This 4th evaluation was a resident participation evaluation, where the side with more votes would advance. The only condition was that they had to restore the forest they had lost more and more vividly.

However, how can an individual restore a forest like this, buried in a swamp like an abandoned mine?

Lee-yeon looked around, her expression showing that her mind was completely blank. Chooja let out a frustrated sound, “Jo Kyung-cheon must have surely asked Soleil to take on the task. Then they’ll probably turn it into a luxurious wedding hall!”

The areas each hospital was assigned happened to be facing each other. Since the two areas were in plain sight, it was an easy location to compare the results.

If one side showcased a flashy gardening display, the other side was inevitably going to fall behind. For some reason, a sigh escaped her.

“Is covering the dirty ground with lots of flowers really the entirety of this evaluation?”

It’s a judging competition where people who had to leave their land because their houses collapsed participate.

Not only the land but also the people were devastated. Inviting those who suffered directly and showing only superficial things felt ridiculous for some reason. Even if they cover the un-washable stench with expensive perfume, is that the forest the residents wanted?

With just a little shift of perspective, in a situation where the true face of the forest is clearly visible, the methods of a famous landscaping company seemed far from sufficient to alleviate the bitterness felt by the observers.

Don’t get too mesmerized by the word ‘gardening’ and forget its essence. Restoring the forest means it must be in touch with comfort.

“If we’re going to do it, we might as well do it properly and honestly.” Lee-yeon said.

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t mean just imitating it, I mean really bringing the forest back.”

“What do you mean?”

Lee-yeon looked at the devastating scene with a troubled expression. “Instead of just focusing on interior design, let’s approach it differently,” she said.

“Are you suggesting something like horticultural therapy?”

A ray of hope was suddenly planted in Lee-yeon’s eyes. Perhaps the real purpose of this gardening project was to give the people a chance to return to their hometown.

“If we can’t cover the entire mountain, then we’ll have to give up on the visual aspect.”

“What?”

“Instead…”

Lee-yeon had only experienced one forest in her childhood. Therefore, it didn’t seem necessary to reproduce the forest only visually.

The four seasons that always appeared in front of her, riding on the wind. In a land already worn out, the most dramatic way to feel the forest was–

“Hey Director So!”

At that moment, a familiar voice cut off her thoughts. When she turned around, sure enough, Director Jo Kyung-cheon from D Hospital was coming towards her in long boots, trudging through the muddy ground.

“What’s going on here? Ah, did Director So come here for a preliminary investigation?”

“Yes, well…”

Lee-yeon bowed politely. As she did, she looked around with a sudden sense of something missing, like a missing puzzle piece. She wasn’t particularly curious about her annoying senior, but she realized she hadn’t seen him even once since the congratulatory party.

“Why is the director Jo leaving Hwang Jo-yoon behind?”

“Ah―”

He lightly clapped his hands as if he suddenly remembered the thing he had forgotten and left behind.

“Oh, he’s gone now.” He said it like it was no big deal to him which made Lee-yeon even more confused.

“Did you send him back to Seoul?”

“Well, he went somewhere.”

His gaze as he answered with a tight-lipped expression suggested that he didn’t want to say anything more about it, but Lee-yeon didn’t want to ask any further about Hwang Jo-yoon either.