The Ever-Warm Jade
Lee Jin-woo — no, the man who must now be called Ouyang Qiangang — took his time surveying the room.
It was larger than he had expected, but simplicity hung over every corner of it. Old books lined the walls, their spines bearing the full weight of passing years, while atop the desk sat an inkstone, a brush, and a sheet of paper left half-used.
Ouyang Qiangang approached the desk and picked up the paper. A single line was written across it in a delicate, beautiful hand:
Life is short, and suffering is long.
A bitter smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. The deep sorrow and despair of a boy born into a sickly body, forced to live on borrowed time, poured out of that one sentence undiluted. It felt as though a shard of cold ice had been driven straight into his heart.
Just then, a knock sounded at the door, followed by Hwang Nodae's voice.
"Young Master, I have returned."
Ouyang Qiangang drew a deep breath and opened the door.
"Nodae, what did my father say?"
"He said that if you are not too unwell, you are to be brought to him."
Ouyang Qiangang walked to the wardrobe set against one wall of the room. He chose the most formal clothes he owned and dressed, but even that simple act left him breathless and his whole body heavy with fatigue.
My stamina really is… pathetic.
"You know it is because of your illness, Doctor. Until we find a treatment, enduring it is the only option."
Akasha, were you a capital-T tsundere or something?
"I am a superintelligent AI created by you, Doctor, if I may say so?"
On the road to the clan's main hall with Hwang Nodae, Ouyang Qiangang studied his surroundings carefully as they passed through the garden.
Cracks webbed the courtyard walls, and the garden that must once have been beautiful was now buried under weeds, with only a desolate wind drifting through it. The roof tiles of the buildings had long since faded, and the paint peeling away in patches seemed to speak of the family's declining fortunes. Weeds stood thick upon the training grounds; in place of the shouts of young warriors, only silence lingered, and not a single martial artist practicing could be seen anywhere.
The glory that this clan had once enjoyed was fading into memory.
"The Ouyang Clan was once one of the Ten Great Clans of the Murim. However, it suffered near-annihilation in the Righteous-Demonic Great War that broke out forty years ago."
Akasha had already transferred Ouyang Qiangang's memories to him, but too many links were missing from them, and having her organize and explain things was far easier to follow.
The Righteous-Demonic Great War?
"A large-scale war fought between the orthodox Murim and the Demonic Cult. At that time, the Ouyang Clan's leadership was nearly wiped out, and the main estate was devastated. Many of its secret martial arts were also lost."
So to put it simply, the original owner of this body is a descendant of a family on its way out?
"It would not be entirely wrong to say so."
Shot by a gun-wielding robber in the other world, on a deadline in this one, and the heir of a falling house besides… When my late mother called me a man with a rough fate, she wasn't exactly being generous, was she…
While he grumbled inwardly, he and Hwang Nodae arrived at the main hall. Hwang Nodae bowed at the door and spoke toward the interior.
"I have brought the Young Master, Clan Head."
"Enter."
A dignified man's voice carried from within. Hwang Nodae opened the door and stepped inside with Ouyang Qiangang. Nervous though he was, Ouyang Qiangang showed nothing of it and entered calmly, recalling the proper etiquette from his inherited memories as he came to a stop.
He looked across the hall. A middle-aged man and woman, a boy of about twelve, and a girl of six or seven were seated in chairs there. The middle-aged man, his beard and sideburns touched with grey, sat bolt upright, his eyes sharp as blades. The woman beside him wore a cold expression, yet she was a woman of staggering beauty. The boy and the girl were every bit as striking.
At a glance, Ouyang Qiangang knew exactly who they were: the Clan Head Gu-yang Baek, his stepmother Dong Yeon-hwa, and his half-siblings Gu-yang Cheon-gi and Gu-yang Cheong-cheong.
Superior genes run in this family.
"Xue Xiang, Ouyang Qiangang's mother and the original first wife, died thirteen years ago in an accident of unclear circumstances, after which Dong Yeon-hwa, who had entered the household as a second wife, became the official wife. Gu-yang Cheon-gi and Gu-yang Cheong-cheong were born afterward."
Just then—
"Big Brother!"
Gu-yang Cheong-cheong came running with a radiant smile and threw her arms around Ouyang Qiangang's waist. Looking up at him with her large, vivid black-and-white eyes, the child asked,
"Did you… miss me?"
Uuurgh… this little rascal… her cuteness is exceeding critical limits…
His body was a boy's, but his mind was that of a thirty-eight-year-old man, and Ouyang Qiangang barely restrained himself from planting a kiss on the child's adorable head. He remembered that doing such a thing in this era — and in front of the Clan Head and his wife, no less — would unleash consequences that were no laughing matter.
Instead, he gave Gu-yang Cheong-cheong's chubby cheeks a gentle tug and said,
"Don't say such silly things. I missed our little one more than you know."
"Really truly?"
"Really truly!"
Dong Yeon-hwa spoke to Gu-yang Cheong-cheong with a stern look.
"Cheong-ah, that is enough. Return to your seat."
Gu-yang Cheong-cheong glanced back at her, rose up on tiptoe, and whispered,
"Big Brother, you have to play with me later, okay?"
"I promise."
After Gu-yang Cheong-cheong returned to her seat, Ouyang Qiangang bowed respectfully at the waist.
"Father, Mother, your son Cheon-gang offers his greetings."
Gu-yang Baek regarded him with deeply sunken eyes before speaking.
"I heard you collapsed again. Are you well?"
"I only felt dizzy for a moment. I am quite recovered now."
"I am glad to hear it."
Unlike Gu-yang Baek, Dong Yeon-hwa did not so much as look at him. A frigid indifference radiated from her. Gu-yang Cheon-gi, pretending not to, kept sneaking glances at him — and in that gaze, alongside the curiosity peculiar to a child his age, was mixed some subtle emotion that was difficult to read. Gu-yang Cheong-cheong, for her part, simply beamed at him with eyes that looked as though honey might drip from them.
Ouyang Qiangang could feel that this family's relationships were decidedly complicated. Above all, his father Gu-yang Baek's eyes held a tangle of light that could not be summed up in a single word.
"Gu-yang Baek cherishes his son, but he is deeply disappointed that this body cannot learn martial arts. For the heir of a declining clan to be incapable of cultivating martial power is no trivial matter, he says. The boy whose body you now occupy, Doctor, appears to have lived carrying a heavy burden of guilt over it."
He must have suffered a lot inside, for a kid his age.
"One would imagine so."
Gu-yang Baek spoke.
"Gang-ah, congratulations on your seventeenth birthday."
"Thank you, Father."
"We have decided not to hold a feast, out of concern for your health. Do not take it as a slight."
"I know it was done out of your care for me. Why would I feel slighted?"
Gu-yang Baek's gaze deepened.
"You have grown."
Ouyang Qiangang only dipped his head slightly and gave no reply.
From within his ample sleeve, Gu-yang Baek drew out a silk pouch the size of a fist and held it out to Ouyang Qiangang.
"Take it."
Taking the pouch in hand, Ouyang Qiangang was bewildered by the sensation of warmth spreading through his fingers.
They had hand warmers in this era?
Gu-yang Baek spoke to him.
"Take it out and look."
"Yes, Father."
Opening the silk pouch, Ouyang Qiangang saw a jade pendant inside. It was roughly five chi in size, its craftsmanship so exquisite that calling it a treasure would have been no exaggeration.
"It is a gift from your maternal grandfather. It is a rare thing carved from Ten-Thousand-Year Warm Jade, so carry it against your chest at all times. He said doing so would slow the progression of your Nine Yin Severed Meridians."
"Ah!"
Ouyang Qiangang's eyes went wide.
So the illness this body suffers from really is the Nine Yin Severed Meridians you mentioned… If we can't find a treatment, it's a life on borrowed time, confirmed.
"Doctor, the maternal grandfather the Clan Head just mentioned is Dong Hyeon-do, Lord of Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor. He is Dong Yeon-hwa's father and is counted among the Five Great Tycoons of the realm."
One of the Empire's Five Great Tycoons? That's an absurdly powerful house. A magnate that big married his daughter into a family this run-down?
"You certainly do talk like a capital-T tsundere, Doctor. The marriage of Gu-yang Baek and Dong Yeon-hwa could have been the romance of the century, transcending station and background, couldn't it have?"
You have a tendency to see the world far too beautifully.
"Would that not be better than seeing it crooked?"
Are you in your rebellious phase or something?
"Better than anyone, you know full well that I have not yet been alive for five months."
So you're not a middle-schooler, then.
"I have not even started kindergarten yet."
So you admit you're a baby.
"………"
Engaging in a lighthearted (?) war of words with Akasha, Ouyang Qiangang bowed at the waist.
"Thank you for the gift, Father."
"Give your thanks to your mother. She went to great lengths to obtain it for you."
The woman who won't even spare me a glance went out of her way to secure something this rare? Curious. Was it to put Gu-yang Baek's mind at ease, or is there some other scheme at work? A woman impossible to read.
Concealing his true thoughts, Ouyang Qiangang bowed to Dong Yeon-hwa.
"Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Mother."
Dong Yeon-hwa met his words with a cool, frost-edged gaze.
"Only when you are well will your father's heart be at ease. Bear that in mind."
"Yes, Mother."
Gu-yang Baek spoke.
"You have barely been here, and already your color is fading. Go and rest."
"Then I shall take my leave."
After his farewells, Ouyang Qiangang left the great hall. Hwang Nodae, who had been waiting for him, asked with a worried expression,
"Young Master, you look worn out."
"I can manage. Let us head back now."
"Yes, Young Master."
Back at his own quarters with Hwang Nodae, Ouyang Qiangang entered his room and took out the pendant of Ten-Thousand-Year Warm Jade. A faint warmth reached his fingertips from its smooth surface.
Akasha, Gu-yang Baek said this pendant is made of Ten-Thousand-Year Warm Jade. What exactly is that?
"It is judged to be a special jade stone that accumulated thermal energy deep underground over an immense span of time."
It seems to hold the same warmth as when I first received it. Why would that be?
"The pendant appears to function much like an 'energy storage device,' slowly releasing the heat it has absorbed."
So it was given to him to use in suppressing the yin energy of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.
"I concur. From what I have observed, it appears the effect will be genuine as well."
Akasha was able to analyze anything that came into contact with Ouyang Qiangang's skin. With the nanobots not yet activated, her analysis was far from perfect, but it was still proving a great help.
"But Doctor……"
What is it?
"An unusual energy pattern has been detected in the motif engraved on the pendant's surface. It may not be a mere decorative carving."
Ouyang Qiangang's eyes gleamed.
Can you figure out what the pattern is?
"I will begin analysis. As you are aware, my condition is not fully operational, so it will take some time."
Take all the time you need. I can wait as long as it takes.
Tucking the pendant back into its silk pouch, Ouyang Qiangang closed his eyes. Merely visiting the main hall had left him feeling as though his stamina had been drained to zero.
He fell asleep at once.