The Third Night – Fractured Filial Doubts
Jeong Hyang opened her eyes amid a languid haze and thick fatigue. Was lifting my eyelids always this hard? she wondered as she finally pried them open, revealing an unfamiliar ceiling.
"Where...?"
Her body was enveloped in what was clearly an exceedingly luxurious blanket, soft and warm at a glance. Her mind felt foggy, like it was shrouded in mist, and her throat ached as if she hadn't drunk water all day. With a groan, she pushed herself up.
"Ugh...!"
A faint pain surged through her entire body. Especially her shoulders and arms, bound behind her back for two whole days—their muscles screamed in protest. Overwhelmed by the unbearable agony from her arms, Jeong Hyang collapsed forward, gasping for breath as she kneaded them desperately for a while.
"Ugh... I never imagined life in prison would be this grueling..."
She had only been locked up for two days, yet she couldn't have fathomed the toll it would take.
Wait... prison?
Jeong Hyang jerked her head up in alarm. This wasn't the prison cell. Nor was it the humble thatched house where she had lived peacefully with her beloved son Jeong Yun for so many years. The room was filled with antique, opulent furniture, and the soft, plush bedding was something she could never afford in a lifetime of labor.
"Where am I?"
Jeong Hyang slowly scanned the room. One wall was entirely a sliding paper door, suggesting it connected directly to the adjacent room when opened. It seemed like a deliberately partitioned large space, divided by these doors for separation.
As she continued looking around to grasp her situation, she noticed a tray beside the bedding, laid out as if prepared for her to eat.
"First, I need to wet my throat."
Questions aside, tending to her body's state was the priority. She must have slept far longer than expected—her throat burned like it was tearing apart. Ignoring the appetizing food for now, she grabbed the water pitcher on the tray.
She poured it generously into a delicate, fragile-looking bowl and gulped it down like a parched traveler finding rain.
Instead of the cool refreshment sliding down her esophagus, a fiery heat spread in the opposite direction. She yanked her mouth away, coughing violently.
"Cough! Cough! Hnngh...! Th-this isn't water—it's liquor!"
Once she realized it was alcohol, the clear, pure aroma of the pale liquor wafted up subtly. She belatedly understood why the "water" pitcher had such an ornate design—it was a sake bottle.
"Ugh..."
Dumping liquor into an empty stomach made her head spin dizzily. This place was undoubtedly one of the many rooms in the Gwansa. Wary of what that lecherous magistrate might have done to the food, she had avoided it, but maintaining an empty stomach like this would surely make her ill.
"I just need to eat enough to settle it."
Jeong Hyang began nibbling at what seemed more like drinking snacks than a proper meal. As one bite, then two, slid into her belly, hunger finally crashed over her, sharpening her awareness of her condition. Her body was far more depleted than she'd thought; she could feel it craving more sustenance relentlessly.
"Hm..."
Her son had force-fed her to preserve her strength over those two days, but eating comfortably like this brought a whole different level of satisfaction. Even rotten, a government rice cake was still tasty—the food was excellent.
As she stuffed her mouth and regained some stamina and energy, she finally had the leisure to think of other things. Namely, her son.
"......"
In the end, she had committed an act that would anger the heavens: incest. A child's wrongdoing is the parent's fault. Her son must have fallen for the magistrate's scheme and violated the natural order.
Chewing on more food, lost in thoughts of her son, Jeong Hyang stared blankly at the tray, mulling over a sudden question that surfaced in her mind.
Did he really fall for the magistrate's scheme?
"Gulp..."
A chilling tension crept up from her toes. Since when? Living with her son, she had sensed something off—an instinctive warning and scream from a mother, a parent. But she had willfully ignored and turned away from it.
No, it can't be. He's such a filial son, my one precious treasure left in this world, so dear, so very dear... my son...
Something wearing her son's skin. He's clearly my son, so what is that? She had felt that vague suspicion.
Since when? Why did it become like that? What changed her son so?
Innumerable questions bubbled up in her mind like foam and vanished.
Thus lost in thought, mouth full of food, her gaze drifted to the sliding paper door filling one wall.
"......"
The adjacent room, shrouded in darkness. Why had she woken here? Where was her son, and what did the magistrate intend by bringing her here?
A barrage of mounting questions was interrupted by heavy footsteps thudding against the floor. The outer door slid open with a rattle, and in lumbered a beast she could devour raw without regret, calling her name.
"Jeong Hyang. You're awake. Heh heh—already touching the drinks to prepare for attending me? Good. It seems you've resolved to spend tonight in my arms."
"You truly harbor severe delusions, my lord. At that level, even you should know you'd be treated as a madman rather than a magistrate."
She sharpened her tongue like a sword and thrust it at the beastly magistrate entering the room. But his corpulent body showed no sign of injury; he just smirked vilely and settled into the head seat prepared for him.
Embarrassed at having touched the tray out of thirst and hunger, Jeong Hyang cautiously set down her food.
"Why set it down already? To spend the long night with me, you need a full belly. Or what? Are you eager to attend me right away?"
"Though I couldn't resist thirst and hunger and touched the tray, I know shame."
Her attitude was upright as she admitted her mistake without hiding a thing. Proud even, as if ready to accept punishment for her wrongdoing. The magistrate's lips twisted even more grotesquely at her haughty demeanor.
"If you've done wrong, you must be punished. Isn't that right, Jeong Hyang? Come here and attend me."
Though she admitted guilt, it wasn't toward him. It was toward herself, and whoever had prepared the food. Outraged at his ugly, brazen attempt to use it as an excuse to have her, she couldn't hold back and shouted.
"You scoundrel of the world! How dare you commit such heaven-defying acts without shame! Your sins will reach the heavens, and lightning will strike you down soon enough!"
Her mind was already a mess over her son, and this lust-crazed beast adding to her turmoil—she could bear it no longer and snapped.
The magistrate, far from angered by her frantic roar, chuckled delightedly. He rose from his seat and approached Jeong Hyang, slumped like a wilting flower. The thought of finally claiming this proud, refined woman with her fierce, glaring eyes made his loins grow heavy.
Before crushing a thorny flower, he shoved his face close to kill her spirit, spitting cruel words.
"Jeong Hyang. Jeong Hyang. Don't shout like that. Even without your fierce cries, your wailing voice will reach your son in the next room."
"......What?"
His words were so shocking it took time to process.
Someone in the next room?
Jeong Hyang's porcelain face drained white. He gripped her elegant jaw, forcing her mouth open. Such a small, lewdly tempting hole. He dangled thick saliva into it like feeding prey, but she trembled rigidly, as if afraid even her breath would escape.
She seemed oblivious to what filled her mouth or what was being done to her. He leaned even closer to the pale widow gulping his spit and whispered in her ear.
"Jeong Hyang. I can't wait to see how long you can hold back that lovely voice."
With that, the magistrate slowly untied the rigid knots of Jeong Hyang's garments. Unlike the plain white clothes she favored to guard her chastity, the colorful, pretty jeogori and skirt she now wore were alluring. The vivid red contrasted sharply with her image as a pure widow striving for fidelity, amplifying the effect.
"Haa... haa... haa..."
Jeong Hyang ignored her pale skin emerging as the ties loosened, focusing every nerve on the room beyond the sliding door. Terror gripped her—what if her son heard even her breath? Suppressing her increasingly ragged breathing was giving her a headache.
Her gaze shifted from the door to the beast untying her clothes. With trembling lips, she barely squeezed out words.
"How... how can a man in human skin commit such heinous acts..."
"Hm? You're mistaken. I'm not the villain you think. Just a kind superior granting your 'filial' son's request."
"Request?"
The unbelievable words from the magistrate's mouth. Jeong Hyang's confused mind couldn't follow the logic. How could a filial son's request lead to this absurd situation?