First Kiss 3
At my sister’s instruction to look at the silver mirror, I wondered why she was suddenly telling me to check a mirror.
But when I pulled myself together and went to wash my face that morning, I finally understood what she had meant.
The face reflected in the washbasin was nothing like yesterday’s.
“What the… something feels off?”
My features looked sharper, and even the feel of my skin had changed. After washing, I rubbed my cheek with the back of my hand—my skin clung to it with a soft, jelly-like springiness.
In the end I did exactly as Sister had said and asked a maid to bring a silver mirror. One look confirmed it: my skin had been completely transformed. It looked as if I had walked out of a high-end Gangnam clinic after a full chemical peel.
The body I had reincarnated into belonged to a scrawny orphan from a remote fishing village on Hainan Island. Living under the sea wind and in the tropical jungle had left freckles and a permanent sun-darkened complexion. Now, though, my skin was as pale and flawless as if I had just applied a perfect layer of BB cream.
“Royal jelly has this kind of effect too? Where the hell did the Hainan country bumpkin go?”
They called it a mid-grade poisonous creature, but the royal jelly of the Golden-Haired Bee King was truly something else.
While I was still marveling at my new skin, a sudden thought hit me.
Wait a second… this is completely like a girl’s skin…
Royal jelly was the miraculous substance that turned ordinary worker larvae into queens. I jerked in alarm and immediately checked inside my trousers, half-afraid of some bizarre side effect even Sister hadn’t noticed.
Ah, still there… scared the life out of me.
Thankfully the precious cargo in my pants was unharmed. For a second I had actually wondered if the royal jelly had turned me into a girl. What a relief.
Once my heart settled, I finally understood Sister’s earlier reaction.
Hold on… so the reason her face went bright red… don’t tell me she’s a face-con?
Even by my own objective standards I looked a lot better now. From someone else’s perspective I must have been downright handsome.
Thinking that Sister’s earlier fluster might have been a green light, I headed for the family dining hall where the direct-line members of the Tang Clan gathered for meals. Around this time they normally finished morning training and came to eat together—though today I had been unconscious and had missed training entirely.
The path through the rear garden was still dim; the sun was only just poking its head over the mountain ridge.
Still, this is ridiculously early for breakfast…
Ever since I decided to become a member of the Tang Clan, the hardest part—aside from the psychological adjustments—had been this dawn culture. Martial artists barely slept to begin with and rose in the dead of night to train. Matching their schedule had been pure agony.
But that suffering was over as of yesterday. With ten years’ worth of inner energy now filling me, my body felt incredibly light. Sister had also said I would no longer struggle to get up in the morning.
When I stepped into the dining hall, Mother-in-law, who had been overseeing the maids setting the table, brightened the moment she saw me.
“My goodness, our son-in-law’s face looks so much better! How is your body?”
“I’m fine, Mother-in-law. I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“Not at all. Congratulations on obtaining a fortuitous encounter. And look at this face and skin…”
She was clearly delighted by the change. Looking further inside, I spotted Sister already seated.
“So-ryong.”
“Miss Hwa-eun. You must be exhausted after watching over me all night…”
I sat in my usual place beside her, trailing off apologetically. Sister gave me a small smile.
“It’s all right. I recently learned I can manage even after going several days without proper sleep.”
“Ah… haha. Right…”
I gave an awkward laugh and sat down. She had said it like a joke, but I still felt guilty—after all, she had gone without sleep because I had run off with the queen bee.
She’s not holding a grudge… is she?
Father-in-law and Grandfather Mandok Singun arrived soon after, and the Tang Clan’s breakfast began. The simple morning spread consisted of large dumplings stuffed with lamb, a warm broth, and a few stir-fried vegetable and meat dishes.
These lamb dumplings are seriously delicious…
“So, So-ryong, how is your body?”
I was just about to stuff the first dumpling into my mouth when Father-in-law’s question came. I hastily set it down and answered.
“Yes, ahem. Father-in-law. I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“Not at all. I’m glad you obtained a fortuitous encounter.”
He congratulated me on the gain. Only then did I remember I still hadn’t thanked Grandfather for examining me, so I quickly offered my gratitude as well—so I could get back to the dumplings as soon as possible.
“Ah, Grandfather, thank you as well. I heard you examined my body. I’m sorry for the trouble.”
“I heard the rough outline from Hwa-eun, but what exactly happened?”
I desperately wanted to eat the lamb dumpling, yet every pair of eyes around the table sparkled with curiosity. Realizing yesterday’s events had them thoroughly intrigued, I lowered the hand that had been reaching for the dumpling and began explaining.
“It seems the hive took a liking to me and wanted to repay a favor. I was dragged into the nest and suddenly fed Bongwangjang—the royal jelly. I believe that was the reason it sought me out in the first place.”
“To think even a mid-grade poisonous creature knows how to repay kindness…”
“Even the lowliest creatures repay favors. How wondrous.”
“Exactly. It’s truly amazing.”
Though brief, my explanation covered the essentials, and the adults nodded. I reached for the dumpling again—only for Father-in-law, Grandfather Mandok Singun, Mother-in-law, and Sister to all fire questions at once.
“By the way, could you obtain more of it? If, as you say, we could keep getting the honey or that substance, it would be a great help to the Tang Clan.”
“Father is right. Even a steady supply of the Golden-Haired Bee King’s honey would be no small benefit, and Bongwangjang would be an enormous one.”
“That’s right, son-in-law. Can it be obtained again?”
“So-ryong, can you get more?”
It made sense. Martial artists spent every spare moment circulating their energy instead of sleeping just to raise their inner power. A single dose of royal jelly that granted ten years’ worth of energy would make anyone’s eyes light up.
But after thinking it through carefully, I realized obtaining more would be far from simple. Unlike ordinary honeybees, you couldn’t just set out multiple queen cups, wait for them to fill with royal jelly, remove the larvae, and harvest it. The clever Golden-Haired Bee Kings would never stand for that.
Moreover, royal jelly was normally produced by worker bees as larval food, yet the one that had fed me was the queen herself. If it was a unique substance that only the queen secreted, further supplies were unlikely.
And if word got out that it granted ten years of inner energy, people would start carving open the goose that laid the golden eggs. Until everything was clear, I needed to make it sound nearly impossible.
How should I put this? Ah! That’s it!
After a moment’s thought, the best method that came to mind was simply telling the truth—the kind of truth that would make people recoil.
Only those who held an open heart toward every living creature on Earth could earn the title of Possible Insect. And consuming Bongwangjang was possible only for an ultimate Possible Insect.
“It would be… difficult.”
“Difficult? Why?”
“Yes, son-in-law, why do you say it’s difficult?”
Everyone’s eyes went round at the word “difficult.”
“Even if it can be obtained, the question is whether there’s anyone who can actually eat it…”
“Is the taste strange? Or the smell?”
Father-in-law asked whether it was a matter of flavor or scent. I shook my head.
“No. The truth is, it comes from the mouth of the Golden-Haired Bee King queen. She has to deliver it herself… and it has to be transferred mouth-to-mouth, the way insects perform trophallaxis—her tongue has to go right into your mouth…”
“What!? Mouth-to-mouth with the queen bee!?”
“M-mouth-to-mouth with the Golden-Haired Bee King!?”
The entire family stared at me with stunned eyes. Even I, who loved insects, had nearly lost my mind during that nutrient exchange. The idea that anyone in their right mind could do it was absurd.
“Then we should consider it unobtainable.”
“Indeed. Having to press mouths with a Golden-Haired Bee King… perhaps only someone the queen already favors, like So-ryong, could manage it. For anyone else it’s impossible.”
I figured I had successfully killed their greed and was about to finally eat my dumpling when—
Thud.
Something dropped beside me. I turned my head and saw Sister letting her hand fall limp onto the table, her face utterly vacant. Her eyes had gone dead, as if she had just brushed against some forbidden knowledge she should never have learned.
Ack! I completely forgot about Sister!
Telling them that only an ultimate Possible Insect could consume the Golden-Haired Bee King’s royal jelly was the same as announcing that I myself was an ultimate Possible Insect. The light in the eyes of the woman who had pledged her future to me had turned pitch-black.
After the meal I thought we would head to training, but Grandfather forbade it, saying my body needed time to adjust to the new inner energy. Now that I had accumulated power I was supposed to begin training that used it, yet my body first required time to adapt.
“There will be no training today. In fact, for the time being you will rest thoroughly while taking the medicine Hwa-eun brings you.”
“What? Is that true?”
“Yes. Because so much energy entered you all at once, your meridians need time to grow accustomed to what has accumulated.”
So for now my transformed energy had to harmonize with my body. Rest was mandatory for a while.
Nice.
Even so, I still had to attend the clan meeting after breakfast. The reason was the disposition of the people who had sold information about the Golden-Haired Bee King to every buyer they could find.
All the clan elders gathered in the Black Tortoise Hall, the clan head’s residence.
“So, Clan Head, you’re saying there are people who sold the same information they sold to our Tang Clan to others as well?”
“Yes, that is correct, Elders.”
At first I had expected something different. Father-in-law had bought the information without proper verification, so I assumed the branch-line members and elders would rake him over the coals for the blunder. In a way it was his mistake.
How could he purchase such information without checking it thoroughly and stain the Tang Clan’s face!?
Judging by the earlier atmosphere, the conversation had seemed headed that way. But to my surprise, the same elders who were so noisy and exacting about internal matters spoke with one perfectly unified voice when the trouble came from outsiders.
“How dare they! To think there are those who would sully the Tang Clan’s dignity…”
“If we simply let this pass, what will the rest of the martial world think of us!? Even if they die, they must not die cleanly!”
“It seems our Tang Clan has shown too gentle a face of late. To think something like this could happen.”
Internal squabbles among ourselves were fine, but if anyone dared to damage the clan’s prestige, they would not be forgiven—that was the unanimous message. In the end the punishment for the information sellers was decided in true Tang Clan fashion.
“I have already asked the Beggars’ Guild to track where the culprits fled. Word should arrive within a few days. When it does, I will go myself.”
“Yes, that is something the Clan Head should handle personally. Go and show them the Tang Clan’s Hundred Punishments and Hundred Precepts.”
“Then what of the method of execution?”
Father-in-law answered the elders’ question with a gentle smile.
“We will use Soul-Destroying Poison, Blood-Melting Poison, and Intestine-Severing Poison so that their blood burns, their organs dissolve, and their souls feel as if they are leaving their bodies. Then we finish them with Seven-Step Soul-Severing Poison. Would that not be appropriate?”
Khh… cocktail therapy.
In my previous life cocktail therapy had been used for treatment. Here it was being used to kill people. The decision was made: the swindlers would be finished off with a mixed dose of at least three poisons.
When that mind-numbing meeting finally ended and I started to leave—
“Ahem!”
“Ahehem!”
Coughing sounds came from behind me. The clan elders I had expected to scatter back into the estate after the meeting were standing there, all of them staring at distant mountains.
What now?
“Wi So-ryong greets the elders of the Tang Clan.”
Sensing they had something to say, I quickly bowed with proper respect. One of them stepped forward, glanced around carefully, and spoke in a cautious voice.
“Ahem. So… you obtained a fortuitous encounter?”
“Yes? Yes, Elder.”
Don’t tell me this is about the Golden-Haired Bee King’s royal jelly?
They had brought up the fortuitous encounter out of nowhere, so I wondered if the elders were getting greedy. Sure enough, the request they hesitantly produced was a favor.
“A-ahem. The reason we sought you out is… well… we have a request.”
“What kind? Is it about the Golden-Haired Bee King’s…?”
“No, not that.”
“Pardon?”
I had cut in quickly, thinking they would ask whether I could obtain more of the bee king’s honey, but the elders shook their heads. The one speaking looked embarrassed as he continued.
“Every spiritual medicine and rare treasure in the world already has its rightful owner. Do you think we would covet something like that?”
“Of course not, of course not.”
“Then…?”
“W-well, the thing is… you know… that… Earth Gall Pill… Since you made it, the authority rests with you… ahem!”
“Earth Gall Pill? Ah!”
The Earth Gall Pill was the cantharidin vitality tonic I had made from blister beetles. For ordinary people, misuse could mean death, but for members of the Tang Clan—who already possessed a certain resistance to poison—it was a fine medicine that could restore a man’s pride.
I smiled and answered.
“I’m still having a hard time adjusting to life in the Tang Clan in many ways. If the elders would help me here and there, I would be truly grateful. Of course the medicine is yours.”
If you help me, the medicine is all yours.
The elders brightened at once.
“Naturally! Even in death you are a member of our Tang Clan!”
“Indeed, indeed. Worry no more. We will all support you.”
I had the distinct feeling that life in the Tang Clan was about to become a smooth, paved highway.