Monopolizing Fortunes (108)
Monopolizing Fortunes (108)
"Not all of them are, so don't make the mistake of generalizing."
"Because sometimes a white tiger is born. So, you want to repay the favor?"
"You could...... say that."
"Then buy me a drink."
"A drink?"
"No money?"
"I'm not a man in need."
"Then it's settled. I play fine alone, but no matter how dull the company, two is better than one."
Do Tong-dal took the young man to Cheonsangru.
"I'm Do Tong-dal. You?"
"Ju...... no, Jo Pil-yeong."
'He's lying about his name? What's this?'
The young man was so guileless that "I am lying right now" might as well have been stamped on his forehead.
'Not my business. He doesn't seem like the type to do me harm.'
A drinking companion for one night was enough.
The Beijing Premier Pleasure House was as large and splendid as befitted the finest pleasure house in Beijing.
"Hey! The exterior passes! But what matters is the liquor and the courtesans."
In front of the pleasure house gate, wide enough for two carriages to enter side by side, about ten people were waiting.
This place ran on reservations too, it seemed. But any pleasure house always kept a room or two empty for a distinguished guest who showed up unannounced.
Do Tong-dal approached the middle-aged man greeting guests at the gate. The middle-aged man spoke with a soft smile.
"Do you have a reservation?"
"I do. Here's my reservation slip."
In Do Tong-dal's hand was one nyang of silver. No matter how high-class the pleasure house, one nyang of silver was at least two months' wages for an employee.
The middle-aged man's back bent supple in an instant.
"Oh my, so you do. I shall escort you inside. You there! Show these two gentlemen to the Cheongun Room!"
The servant who had been summoned came scurrying out and guided them to the second floor.
Jo Pil-yeong, following Do Tong-dal, kept glancing around with a bewildered expression the whole time.
"What's wrong? You look like someone visiting a pleasure house for the first time."
"F-first time...... no. I've been plenty."
'It's his first time. Definitely his first. What kind of silver spoon is this?'
For sons of wealthy families, a pleasure house was a rite of passage they had to go through at sixteen. Only after blowing at least a few hundred nyang at a pleasure house could they finally hear their friends call them a man of taste.
'He has no friends. Tsk, tsk, tsk.......'
They entered the Cheongun Room the servant had guided them to. Behind a large table and six chairs, a handsome folding screen was spread open.
"The room is cozy."
Still, it was spacious enough for two people to enjoy themselves. A woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties came in and made a fuss.
"Good heavens! Such tall, handsome young masters have come! Our girls hit the jackpot today!"
Do Tong-dal glanced at Jo Pil-yeong's swollen face and spoke.
"First, clean this fellow's face up a bit. And the table, the finest; the liquor, the finest; the courtesans and their arts, naturally the finest. Let's see what a pleasure house recommended by Censor Yang is worth."
Do Tong-dal casually dropped Yang Su-pan's name. If you ran a pleasure house in Beijing and didn't know Censor Yang's name, you might as well close up shop.
And Yang Su-pan was surely a regular here, no doubt about it.
"Pardon? You are acquainted with Lord Yang?"
"You know Censor Yang?"
"Of course! What an honored guest has come. I will take special care of you."
While a servant brought cold water and wiped Jo Pil-yeong's face, the table was set. Having asked for the finest, the food arrived until there was barely room on the table.
It looked excellent, and the taste was even better. The beauty of the courtesans who entered was also outstanding, every one of them fit to rank in the top ten percent of Hangzhou.
As expected, a place with many people had many beauties. The one disappointment was the entertainment.
The dancing was passable, but the music did not satisfy Do Tong-dal.
'Well, that's because Su-yeong's playing is so exceptional.'
Technique aside, there was something in her playing that stirred the listener's heart, as if her soul were infused into it.
Do Tong-dal was enjoying himself drinking with the courtesan beside him, but Jo Pil-yeong was a sack of barley propped in the corner.
He only sipped the liquor the courtesan poured and picked at the side dishes, and otherwise did not move a muscle. The courtesan trying her best to liven him up was pitiful to watch.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk...... This won't do. Bring the dice!"
No sooner had Do Tong-dal finished speaking than a courtesan ran off and returned with dice and a bowl. It was a common amusement in pleasure houses.
"The game is simple. We throw the dice, and the two people with the highest or lowest rolls take off one piece of clothing each."
Jo Pil-yeong was startled by Do Tong-dal's words.
"T-take off clothes?"
"Oh my! I've put on a little weight around my belly lately......."
The courtesan beside Jo Pil-yeong spoke as if embarrassed, but she did not refuse. The game began, and naturally Jo Pil-yeong got caught too.
Taking off his outer robe was no problem. He managed to take off his upper garment as well. But he absolutely refused to take off his trousers.
Do Tong-dal frowned and spoke.
"I can't very well strip a man myself. Go bring two or three more courtesans."
At those words, the courtesan attending Do Tong-dal scurried off and brought back two more courtesans.
"Oh? Coordinator Do!"
A courtesan with a round face and round eyes acted as if she knew Do Tong-dal. Do Tong-dal quickly pulled her name from memory as well.
"Chun-wol?"
"Hehehe! Here I'm Seon-wol! I came to Beijing half a month ago."
She was a courtesan who had worked at a place called Seowonru in Hangzhou.
"Why? Didn't like the treatment?"
"Wanderlust got the better of me. But what brings Coordinator Do to Beijing? Are you taking over the Beijing night too?"
Do Tong-dal waved his hand.
"I just came because I have some business."
One of the courtesans asked.
"Taking over the Beijing night?"
"Coordinator Do is the coordinator of the Red Tiger Society in the Hangzhou Underworld. In practice, he's practically the Society Leader."
"What? That young? Ah! If he's from an Underworld family, that could be possible."
"No way! Coordinator Do is a self-made man!"
Chun-wol, now going by the name Seon-wol, recited everything she knew about Do Tong-dal at length. Some of it she didn't know, and some events were exaggerated, but it roughly explained what kind of person Do Tong-dal was.
Do Tong-dal spoke.
"Don't waste this fine time on useless talk. Hurry up and strip that fellow. The courtesan who gets the last piece off......."
Rattle.......
One nyang of silver dropped onto the table.
"You can take that."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the courtesans swarmed Jo Pil-yeong.
"W-wait! S-stop this!"
Four courtesans blinded by prize money could not be stopped even by a first-rate martial artist. The prize went to Seon-wol, the one with wanderlust.
In her hand was Jo Pil-yeong's last undergarment.
"I only needed to get his trousers off......."
Jo Pil-yeong, fallen over and covering his little brother(?) with both hands, shouted with a face on the verge of tears.
"This is too much!"
"You're the one who's too much, sitting in a pleasure house like a sack of barley. Since it's come to this, let's all strip and play! Bring more liquor!"
When Do Tong-dal and even the courtesans tossed off their clothes, Jo Pil-yeong sat down in his chair with an "Ah, to hell with it!" expression.
"Fine! A mad world, let's do something mad for once!"
Once all his clothes were off, Jo Pil-yeong became boisterous, as if freed from shackles.
They had been playing for a while when the door suddenly burst open and five men barged in.
"Aah—!"
At the appearance of the strangers, the courtesans screamed and hurriedly threw on their clothes. Jo Pil-yeong sat still, not understanding what was happening, while Do Tong-dal sat upright and studied the men who had entered.
They were thugs who reeked of the Underworld at a glance. Among the five, a man in his early thirties at the center fixed his gaze on Do Tong-dal.
"Are you the Red Tiger Society's coordinator from Hangzhou?"
"And you, who just poured cold water on the mood I'd worked so hard to raise?"
"I am Baek Do-gil, Commander of Fifty of the Eighth Unit of the Beijing Jincheon Society."
"Commander of Fifty in the Eighth Unit. What is this, an army?"
"What business does the Hangzhou Underworld have coming all the way to Beijing?"
"As you can see, I'm enjoying myself at a pleasure house."
"You left all the many pleasure houses in Hangzhou and came to Beijing? You expect me to believe that?"
"Did it never occur to you that I might have stopped by a pleasure house while I was in Beijing? A thug's head holds nothing but liquor, women, and fighting, whether in Hangzhou or Beijing."
Baek Do-gil strode over, placed his hands on the table, and bent forward.
"If you came to drink, then just drink and go back to Hangzhou quietly. Don't cause trouble in Beijing."
"As a threat, that isn't scary at all, so it's just the barking of a dog."
"What?"
"Did you come because you heard rumors about the Hangzhou Red Tiger Society, or did you come because you heard about me, Do Tong-dal?"
Do Tong-dal's back had straightened at some point as he asked, and his gaze was fixed squarely on Baek Do-gil.
Even after drinking quite a lot, his eyes held a chill instead of drunkenness.
The martial world is called a forest of swords and blades, but the back alleys of the night are not so different. Baek Do-gil had stood at the crossroads of life and death at least ten times so far.
That was why he could feel the killing intent in Do Tong-dal's eyes.
Gulp!
He swallowed thickly without meaning to.
'A dangerous one!'
When you have crossed between life and death a few times, instinct shows you the path to survival.
"W-well, I heard both......."
His words slurred on their own and his body shrank back. As Do Tong-dal raised his pressure, Baek Do-gil curled in on himself like a fly caught in a spider's web.
"And still you pick a fight? That means you don't care if you turn me into an enemy."
Baek Do-gil struggled desperately to summon his courage. Showing weakness in front of his subordinates was fatal for a thug.
But Do Tong-dal's eyes hurled Baek Do-gil's courage into a blazing furnace.
"It is not a quarrel. I am saying we should avoid a fight if possible."
"If that's your business, your Society Leader should have come, not you. Get lost."
Even after hearing such words from a man far younger than himself, he did not feel angry.
"Hmph! I shall withdraw for today."
The hand he lifted from the table was drenched in sweat. He had heard that Do Tong-dal was as strong as a first-rate martial artist. He had thought it was nonsense.
A thug as strong as a first-rate martial artist?
But Do Tong-dal's presence was not that of a first-rate martial artist—it was that of a killer. A killer who had clearly sent hundreds of lives to the underworld.
As Baek Do-gil was about to leave the room, Do Tong-dal spoke.
"You ruined the mood, so you're covering the liquor bill."
Ridiculous! Do you know how expensive the liquor is here!
It was only a cry in his heart; from his mouth came the polite answer, "Understood."
Once the thugs left, Do Tong-dal gathered his clothes and put them on.
"Damn! The mood's completely ruined because those weirdos showed up. Might as well drink."
Jo Pil-yeong, who had hurriedly dressed along with the courtesans, asked.
"Are you really a thug?"
"Yeah."
"You became a thug and took over the Hangzhou night in just one year?"
"Yeah."
"And you're nineteen this year?"
"Yeah."
"You're the same age as me, and you're amazing. I'm floundering in a swamp of helplessness, unable to do anything."
"Can't do it, or don't want to do it?"
"I want to. I want to like crazy. But there's nothing I can do."
"You're a coward."
"What?"
"You've got money, right?"
"I do have plenty."
"Good family?"
Jo Pil-yeong nodded.
"A guy with plenty of money and a good family is whining about what he can't do?"
"It's a problem you can't understand."
"Do you know how a little punk thug took over the Hangzhou night in just one year?"
"What's the method?"
"To see what is right and not do it is cowardice."
"Seeing what is right and not doing it is cowardice. From the Analects."
"It might not be the perfect analogy, but I thought it was something I had to do. A man can't be a coward."
"What kind of thug knows the Analects?"
"What kind of silver spoon tries to stop a woman from being harassed and gets beaten up by thugs?"
Jo Pil-yeong smiled bitterly.
"Because that's all my courage amounts to."
"That much courage seems like enough. Though I don't know what it is you want to do."
"You think so?"
Do Tong-dal raised his cup and nodded.
"Better to die fighting than to die of embarrassment."
* * *