The Flat-Chested Tyrant’s Meltdown
Cheong ascended to the upper floor with bold, confident strides. The officials followed behind her, and a few spectators who decided watching a fight would be more entertaining than observing the Jade Qilin’s face quietly joined the procession. Thus, on the seventh floor, as the two women faced each other, Moyong Juhee was the first to open her mouth.
“You. If you think I’m going to thank you, that’s a huge mistake. Whose fault is this from the very beginning? Giving someone a disease and then handing them the medicine?”
Dang Nan-a immediately flared up. “Wow, look at that rudeness. Cheong-ah, you don’t need to bother thinking about someone like her, okay? Even if you’re mortal enemies, shouldn’t she at least say thank you after what just happened? Hey, kid, what do you think? Is your sister acting right?”
“Uh… sister?”
“What! What did I do wrong?! From the start, you two aren’t even close, so isn’t it wrong to create a situation that causes misunderstandings?! You set everything up to make people misunderstand, and now the person who fell for it is at fault?!”
It was Moyong Juhee’s bold counterargument. Moyong Jun’s eyebrows and shoulders drooped. His large eyes, an exact copy of his sister’s, trembled moistly, sending ripples across them.
“J-Jun, why are you looking at me like that? Don’t. Are you not going to take your sister’s side?”
“Y-Yeah…”
“Tsk tsk. Look at you, doing such a great job.” Dang Nan-a clicked her tongue.
Moyong Juhee scrunched her face into a deep scowl. Just how did that girl turn into such a loyal handmaiden? Was this the same person who used to pour poison on anyone who dared speak to her husband without the main wife’s permission?
More than that, her little brother wasn’t helping at all. Or rather, he was actually fueling the triangular rotation of guilt inside her.
I need a spokesperson to take my side too.
Moyong Juhee looked back at her own group. Half of them had stayed behind on the lower floor to admire the Jade Qilin’s gracious visage, leaving her with a diminished entourage. The remaining followers subtly averted their eyes, looking elsewhere. It was their way of saying this seemed a bit much.
“Ugh.”
“Fine. I didn’t help you to get thanked anyway. What’s the point of acting smug about it? By the way, Moyong Sojeo? Just how long do we have to continue this childish, pointless argument before you’re satisfied? Or should I start by asking if the reason I seem so narrow-minded is because there’s no room left in my heart?”
“Y-You! How can you say something like that!”
“Sigh. So, if you’re confident you can win with words, why don’t you give it a proper try?”
“Ugh!”
Moyong Juhee, who had already been thoroughly beaten by Cheong’s verbal jabs before, swallowed her rage. No room left in her heart? After those light punches had already dug deep and torn everything apart, she had no choice but to hesitate at the suggestion of a “proper” fight.
“So let’s get this straight once and for all. Why are you acting like this? Are you going to keep making things exhausting every time we run into each other?”
“You’re asking because you don’t know? You humiliated me so badly! You gave me the worst disgrace of my life! And now you’re going to play the victim?”
“If you’re talking about the drinking contest, honestly, wasn’t it just Moyong Sojeo getting drunk and acting out? I even let you win because I thought you might make a mistake.”
“Who asked you to let me win?! Who did you think would shed tears of gratitude over such a pathetic concession?! Wouldn’t anyone get angry about that?!”
“What if I hadn’t let you win? Did you know my alcohol tolerance wasn’t even half full at that point? Honestly, even if I hadn’t thrown the match, the result would have been the same, or you would have embarrassed yourself even worse with your drunken antics, wouldn’t you?”
“Then you should have just left it like that! You take all the good stuff for yourself—being the kind girl, the admirable girl, the respectable girl! It would’ve been better if you just got drunk and acted like a fool. Instead, you turned me into an ungrateful wretch who gets angry even after being shown consideration!”
“So you do understand.”
The spectators’ cold gazes pierced Moyong Juhee’s heart. She breathed heavily, chest heaving. Cheong let out a deep sigh.
“Wasn’t it Moyong Sojeo who set up the drinking contest on the first floor and gathered all the participants of the Dragon Phoenix Gathering? If we had just quietly enjoyed a few drinks up here on the seventh floor, you wouldn’t have had to, um, confess your physical characteristics.”
“Don’t call it a physical characteristic! And if that’s the case, then you should have said something first! You should have told me your tolerance was that good!”
Moyong Juhee’s followers lowered their heads. Juhee, how much more embarrassing are you going to make this? If she had known the tolerance was that high, she would have just kept sipping water until the other person showed signs of getting drunk.
“Alright, fine. I’m sorry, Moyong Sojeo. I have quite a strong tolerance for alcohol. And I’m sorry for letting you win the drinking contest. I only did it because I was worried you might make a mistake while drunk. There was no bad intention behind it.”
“There it is again! Again! So you’re the only good girl?! Does that make me the only bad one?!”
“If my tolerance had been weak, I would have been the one making a fool of myself. And Moyong Sojeo would have been confident of victory. So what exactly made you so upset? Enough to prepare such an elaborate trap?”
“Because you were the one who insulted me so horribly first! It was so humiliating. I’ve never heard such terrible things in my entire life!”
“That’s because you were the one who picked a fight with me first, wasn’t it? Honestly, comments about my face being ugly or my figure being vulgar—I could have just laughed those off. But did I really have to overlook you insulting the Goddess Sect as a whole?”
“T-That… I mean, it was just… yeah, it looked like a beggar’s robe when you wore it. I didn’t mean the Goddess Sect’s uniform itself was like that…”
Moyong Juhee offered a pathetic excuse. Because it really had been a slip of the tongue.
Proper female cultivators from the Nine Great Schools were rare to begin with. Even fewer of them made it up to the seventh floor. Most either stayed on the fifth floor pretending to be lofty alongside their senior brothers and sisters, or huddled together in their own groups. So when women from the great clans met female practitioners from the Taoist sects, they were usually just girls their own age who were sick of mountain life. And those girls, the moment they opened their mouths, were always busy criticizing how harsh their own sects were. That was why Moyong Juhee had unconsciously looked down on them.
“So that was all my misunderstanding too? Very well. Then I apologize for misunderstanding, and for acting immaturely by getting angry and spouting harsh words. I’m sorry.”
“Ugh! That’s why! Why do you always do it like that!”
Moyong Juhee was starting to feel dizzy. Or perhaps it was closer to terror. This bitch is seriously trying to bury me alive.
Previously, she had said it was Cheong’s fault for creating the misunderstanding, and Cheong had apologized. Now Cheong was apologizing again, saying she herself had misunderstood. If Moyong Juhee complained that this was different from before, it would only make her look like the one-sided villain.
“Then you must have had your reasons for suddenly picking a fight with me, right? The reasons you called me an ugly bitch and said I had a vulgar body the moment you saw my face?”
Moyong Juhee felt wronged. It was unfair that she alone was the bad guy, and it was heartbreaking that her chest was so small, and now she was being insulted by someone with a huge chest. So at this point, her sense of injustice exploded.
“Y-You were the one who shook those things right in front of me first! You shouldn’t do that! Having something that big and shaking it around like that—isn’t that wrong?!”
Pathetic tears streamed down Moyong Juhee’s face. The entire hall fell into a solemn silence. Surprisingly, Moyong Juhee had a talent for creating a grave atmosphere every time she exploded!
Cheong spoke awkwardly. “Um. Moyong Sojeo. I was wondering… Do you pick fights with every woman who has a large chest?”
“Yes! I do! Happy now?! Does it feel good to make me the ultimate villain of the world?! Why are you the only one who gets special treatment?! You’ve always been like this, so why are you acting like it’s such a big deal only when it’s you?!”
“You’re saying I was being too sensitive? That other people just put up with this rudeness—no, this terrible behavior?”
“What? Rudeness? You’ve said enou—”
“Wait! You there, miss. Yes, you.”
The woman who had been pointed out hesitated before speaking. She looked like someone who had received quite a few insults from Moyong Juhee.
“Well… it happens so often that I just think, ‘Ah, she’s doing it again,’ and…”
“Then you never responded in any way?”
“I figured she’d meet her match someday. And besides, she’s from the Moyong Clan, so someone like Jin Seol might be able to push back, but a small clan like mine wouldn’t gain anything from picking a fight.”
She fidgeted, glancing around nervously.
“Miss? Do you have anything else to say?”
“Honestly… it doesn’t even feel that bad. Moyong Sojeo is one of the Five Flowers, so when she looks at me and gets so jealous her eyes flip, it actually feels kind of nice in its own way.”
“Who’s jealous?! I’m not jealous at all! Who would be jealous of those disgusting lumps of flesh?!”
“Juhee, stop. Just stop already. Juhee, wipe your tears, okay? Your makeup is running.”
Moyong Juhee’s followers swarmed in, ready to restrain her if necessary, and busily dabbed at her eyes with handkerchiefs. Perhaps gaining courage from this, the young miss finally spoke again.
“And even if Moyong Sojeo acts like that, it would be a bit… inappropriate for me to respond, wouldn’t it?”
“Inappropriate how?”
“W-Well, it’s not anything else, it’s just… that. It’s okay to mock someone who doesn’t have it, but the reverse isn’t, right? Because it would be pitiful…”
“That’s right.”
“It really is.”
Several women nodded in agreement. Every single one of them shared the same characteristic—they were the ones who always got insulted. In Cheong’s homeland, there had been similar logic. The poor could curse the rich, but not the other way around. Because that would be going too far. Black people could curse white people, but not the reverse. Because it would be too much for a master to curse a slave on top of everything else. Just let them curse all they want while picking cotton.
“What?! Hey! Pitiful?! How dare you look down on someone just because they have a bit of extra flesh! This is exactly why I hate you big-chested bitches!”
“Um, Moyong Sojeo, I’m sorry, but we don’t look down on people with small chests. We just feel sorry for you.”
“Hey! You—!”
“And, um, if you’re going to put something in there, you should fix it properly. The left and right sides are at different heights and everything. Last time I saw you hurriedly pulling it up after it had slipped all the way down to your solar plexus… But I couldn’t say anything about it.”
Perhaps deciding she might as well go all in, the woman who had been giving testimony poured out her pent-up grievances. Moyong Juhee’s blood pressure shot straight up. Of course she would be furious after hearing that everyone had been pitying her all this time.
“Y-You—You ugly things!”
However, no one seemed particularly hurt by the insult. After all, while they might not reach the level of the Five Great Clans, they were still from prestigious local families or long-established manors that ruled over cities. Even if they fell short of Moyong Juhee, one of the Five Flowers, their beauty was nothing to scoff at. Their backgrounds were similar—while not comparable to the Five Great Clans, they were all princesses in their own territories.
Moyong Juhee received the biggest shock of all.
“All of you… you’ve all been looking at me with those eyes? No, you can’t! How could you! No, don’t look at me like that! Don’t look at me with such pity!”
Moyong Juhee took one step back, then another. Suddenly she shoved her followers aside, turned around, and ran away.
After watching her flee, Cheong thought, Well… after it turned out like this, I feel like I might have done something quite mean.