You’ll find out soon enough. (1)
“Good grief, you’re all rather peculiar.”
The face reader stretched his mustache straight out, looking utterly baffled.
He had heard that they were people who had met on their way from Shaanxi, but they shared a peculiar trait. Some had thrown away their own good fortune, while others had barely managed to find a way to survive, but every last one of them…
“It’s rare enough to find people with such a hard road laid out so plainly ahead of them, so why have such people all gathered together in one place?”
It was enough to make even ghosts weep.
“Then is this a bad thing?”
“Not necessarily. They aren’t the sort to drag others into the hardships that await them. If anything, they’re closer to the sort who bring good fortune to those who keep them near. You might say their destiny is such that, if a fallen tree stands beside them, it will eventually rise upright again.”
“Then there should be no problem.”
The Cheif Administrator nodded, clearly pleased.
He knew better than anyone how gifted that face reader was. Since a man like him had given such an assessment, there should be no problem accepting them all.
“Problem…… problem, you say.”
“Is something the matter?”
“No. It’s nothing.”
The face reader shook his head.
‘As if I could possibly say it.’
To set a fallen tree upright meant eliminating the bad and spreading the good. It sounded nothing but positive, but…
‘So if you are the wicked one, that means you will be torn up by the roots.’
How could he possibly say that? That if you lot aren’t decent human beings yourselves, you’d be better off not taking them in.
“Anyway, thank you. Here is your fee.”
“Thank you. Please call for me again next time. That is, if there is a next time.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s nothing.”
The face reader grinned and turned away.
The disciples of Hwasan let out small murmurs of admiration as they watched.
“He’s incredibly gifted.”
“Right? I thought all those people were just con artists.”
“…A Taoist monk shouldn’t say something like that, should he? If you think about it, physiognomy must be part of the realm of Taoist arts, too.”
“What are you talking about? We don’t deal with that kind of thing.”
“Hmm? I heard they were both types of teachings based on yin-yang and the Five Elements.”
At Jwa Gohak’s words, Yoon Jong shrugged and explained.
“That isn’t wrong, but Hwasan has no particular connection to yin-yang and the Five Elements. The place that accepted yin-yang and the Five Elements as its mainstream was Wudang, while we should be considered part of the Way of the Immortals [선도(仙道)] rather than that. That’s why Hwasan doesn’t practice divination [점복(占卜)].”
“Is that why your sect was always short on money? You learned Taoist arts, but none that could make you any money?”
“Huh? Uh…. Huh?”
Yoon Jong’s mouth fell open of its own accord. So that was the problem…
“Did you lot come here to play? Why are you all chattering so much!”
Just then, the Chief Administrator walked towards them with an irritated look on his face.
“There are no other problems, so I’ll accept you for now. But you’d better keep this in mind. Anyone who can’t do their work properly or tries to shirk will be beaten and thrown out…. What’s with that brat?”
The Chief Administrator blinked as he looked at Yu Hanbin, who was standing beside Baek Cheon.
“How long has he been there?”
“From the beginning.”
“Huh? Why didn’t I notice him?”
“…..There were a lot of people around earlier.”
“I suppose there were. But that’s not important. Why are you standing there?”
“He’s part of our group……”
“Part of your group?”
The Chief Administrator narrowed his eyes for a moment.
“If you’ve brought him all the way to a place like this, it seems there’s no one to look after him. Surely you’re not saying that we have to feed and house that brat as well?”
“Well…….”
The disciples of Hwasan were just about to say something when…
“Excuse me, a moment.”
“Hmm?”
“Just for a moment. Over here. Just a moment.”
Yu Hanbin strode forward, seized the Chief Administrator by the sleeve, and pulled him towards a corner. The Chief Administrator followed, dragged along by Yu Hanbin’s confident actions despite his bewildered expression.
Once they reached the corner, Yu Hanbin and the Chief Administrator began whispering about something.
“….What are those two doing?”
“Right?”
“That man’s expression keeps changing every second…”
“What on earth are they talking about?”
And it did not take long for their curiosity to be satisfied.
The two suddenly patted each other on the shoulders and returned to them as though nothing had happened.
After watching Yu Hanbin return to the spot where he had originally been standing without saying a word, the Chief Administrator cleared his throat and opened his mouth with a slightly awkward expression.
“By coincidence, we… uh, yes. We needed a young attendant to server the young masters in their quarters, and he seems to be just the right age… So we might as well hire him while we’re at it. But make sure you understand that we can’t pay him the same wages as an adult.”
“Of course. That goes without saying.”
“Ahem. Right, then, everyone, unpack your belongings in the living quarters. Don’t waste any time.”
The Chief Administrator spun around and quickly walked away.
Everyone’s eyes then turned to Yu Hanbin.
“……What did you do?”
“Oh, it wasn’t anything major.”
“Huh?”
“Before coming here, I looked into him, and it turns out he has three sons. It seems the second one hasn’t been studying at all lately and has been going astray.”
“…..So?”
“I told him I’d get his son to settle down and study. It’s good for everyone, isn’t it? I’m happy because I get a job, he’s happy because his son gets back on the right track, and his son is happy because studying will let him rise in the world and make a name for himself.”
The mouths of Hwasan’s group fell open of their own accord.
“H-He just believed you? A man who looks that strict?”
“Oh, come on.”
Yu Hanbin waved a hand and smiled faintly.
“Making him believe is a skill in itself.”
“…”
“Tsk. It’s a shame, though. If this had been Jinan instead of Beijing, I could have made a tidy sum using this as an excuse.”
Baek Cheon turned his head and looked at Chung Myung.
“That… I don’t know if it’s a little late to be saying this.”
“Huh?”
“Are we sure making this kid study is really the right thing to do?”
“…”
Chung Myung could not bring himself to answer that.
⠀
“So, we managed to infiltrate the place successfully.”
“If you get right down to it, Hanbin did all the work.”
“…Which is why I do feel a little uneasy about it.”
“Sasuk. Don’t frown like that. You really look like a bandit.”
“…”
Baek Cheon forcibly suppressed the anger boiling inside him. To begin with, whose fault was all this…
“Anyway.”
There was no point in airing his grievances. If he wanted to get out of this situation as quickly as possible, their only choice was to obtain what they needed from this place as quickly as they could.
“I’ll say it again: we absolutely cannot get caught.”
“Come on, that’s obvious…”
“Of course it’s obvious! That’s why I’m saying it! How many times have we actually managed to do the obvious thing properly?”
Everyone fell silent at those words. Anyone with even the slightest bit of conscience couldn’t possibly answer that.
“We’re not the only ones here. So don’t cause any trouble. Until we figure out exactly what’s going on here and get a proper lead, keep as quiet as a dead mouse. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“I said I understand.”
“You! You bastard, you! You know who started all this, don’t you? If you cause trouble, I’ll tell the Sect Leader and have you thrown into the Repentance Chamber for at least a year.”
“Yeees, yeees. Oh, how terrifying.”
“Ugh…….”
Yu Hanbin shook his head as he watched Baek Cheon clutch the back of his neck while making a strange sound. Was trusting these people really the right thing to do?
“Is this it?”
The disciples of Hwasan let out hollow laughs as they arrived at the quarters the Chief Administrator had told them about.
“What kind of servants’ quarters are this lavish?”
“So this is what they mean when they say a house is as big as a whale’s back.”
“How much money must a person have to….”
Of course, Hwasan’s group had already seen more than enough places with money to spare. Shaolin alone was surely so wealthy that this place could not dare compare itself to it.
But this place felt different.
Those places simply had a lot of money, while these people were, how to put it…
“Does lava start boiling in their guts if they can’t flaunt how rich they are……”
From the buildings down to every last furnishing, it felt as though money had been needlessly slathered over absolutely everything. A strange sense of distaste made the Hwasan’s party’s faces twist into scowls.
“To think a bastard like this is a Director of the Ministry of Revenue. No wonder the country is in this state.”
“Is he the only one?”
“What’s so surprising? Retired Great Confucian scholars have built themselves paradises and spend their days playing at being immortals.”
“Ahem.”
Jwa Gohak apparently had nothing to say to that, for he could only clear his throat again and again.
Of course, the corrupt officials and Confucian scholars indulging in extravagance here were clearly cut from different cloth, but… what difference did that make? To those people, they would all look like the same Confucian scholars. If he said anything, he would only get beaten more.
“But… it is definitely strange.”
“Hmm? What is?”
Jo Geol spoke up as he glanced around out of the corner of his eye.
“Far too many goods are coming in.”
“Isn’t that just a sign that business is doing well?”
Jo Geol shook his head and clicked his tongue.
“You could think that, but this is a little different. Usually, once a merchant guild reaches this size, it develops a main line of goods. And once it secures business partners that way, it generally starts taking in large quantities of specific items.”
“I suppose…. that makes sense?”
“But here, the goods coming in are far too varied, and the people bringing them don’t particularly look like merchants, either. So, to put it simply…”
“Bribes?”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean they are, but they certainly don’t look like goods meant to be sold.”
“Hmm.”
Baek Cheon furrowed his brow and fell into thought for a moment.
“I understand what you mean. But what I don’t understand is… if even we, who haven’t been here for so much as a full two hours [one sichen], can notice it, wouldn’t most people be able to figure it out? To do something like that so blatantly….”
“That is what power is.”
Before Baek Cheon could finish speaking, Jwa Gohak opened his mouth.
“Power does not allow someone to do what an ordinary person cannot. That is closer to just being wealthy. Power allows someone to do, and without a care, what an ordinary person must not do.”
“…”
Jwa Gohak let out a quiet sigh before continuing.
“People would notice? What difference does that make? Even if they know, there is no one who can bring charges against the Director of the Ministry of Revenue. There may be one law in the country, but that law is applied differently to each person.”
“Does that make any sense?”
“What can we do? That is simply the reality.”
Jwa Gohak’s gaze grew somber.
“That is why we must change it. Somehow.”
“Hmm.”
Chung Myung tilted his head as though he did not quite understand this.
“Why not just beat him up?”
“…That would only replace the current person with someone else. If the system itself is not changed, this kind of corruption will continue to appear.”
“Then we just beat them up again.”
“Then we do it again…”
“Then we beat them up again.”
“…”
Chung Myung kept tilting his head, unable to see what the problem even was.
“If you just keep beating them up and beating them up again, eventually the problem gets solved.”
“Huh…”
“Isn’t it just that you don’t have enough perseverance? All that matters is getting everything cleaned up in the end.”
Feeling as though he had come face-to-face with a wall he could never overcome, Jwa Gohak looked at Baek Cheon as if asking for help. Baek Cheon patted him on the shoulder and said.
“It’ll still be hard for you to accept.”
“Still?”
“But I’ve been through it myself, and I came to realize something. Sometimes the solution that seems the hardest is actually the easiest.”
“…”
“Don’t dwell on it. You’ll find out soon enough anyway.”
“That’s right.”
“It’s too late for you to get out now.”
The disciples of Hwasan left Jwa Gohak standing there in a daze and headed for their quarters. Jwa Gohak alone remained awkwardly frozen on the spot, unable to shake a vague sense of unease, before hurrying after them.
That was when they stepped inside their quarters.
“Well, well. New arrivals.”
The people occupying the room greeted them with broad smiles.
“You came prepared for your initiation, right? This isn’t a place to take lightly, so you’d better brace yourselves.”
“…”
Chung Myung, who was at the front, turned to look at Baek Cheon.
“A little squabbling among servants wouldn’t exactly count as drawing attention to ourselves, would it?”
“…Why even ask? You’re going to do whatever you want anyway.”
“Right?”
Chung Myung grinned.
“Come on, then. Let’s see whether this place can be fixed too.”
Chung Myung clenched his fist with a beaming smile on his face.
Special Spinoff Chapter 62 >>>
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