Monopolizing Fortunes (46)
Monopolizing Fortunes (46)
Do Tong-dal picked up his chopsticks.
Clack! Clack!
The chopsticks produced a fairly clear sound as they struck together.
"Well, not bad."
He glanced at the empty seat across from him. With Namgung Seol-rin gone from the spot she had occupied for eight months, he felt a hollowness, as if his front teeth had all been knocked out.
"She was just a nuisance who's gone now."
He forced the words out and scooped up some rice with his chopsticks. His arm still only rose to about chest height. And the angle at which his arm bent was still minimal.
He had scooped the rice, but getting it to his mouth was not smooth going.
Tremble, tremble.
His whole arm shook, and half the rice had already spilled. Only after craning his neck forward and bending at the waist did he manage to get about a fifth of the first scoop into his mouth.
It was hard, but for the first time in eight months he had put food into his own mouth. Now it was the side dishes' turn. His eyes fell on the seasoned spinach.
Reaching out and gripping the spinach with his chopsticks was not very difficult. It was easier than the rice. Getting it to his mouth was just as hard as the rice had been.
The spinach he had spilled pattered down onto his pants and the front of his shirt.
"Ah, shit!"
When Namgung Seol-rin had been feeding him, he had not known eating was this hard.
"It's a matter of standing on my own two feet someday."
Steeling himself with that thought, he dipped his spoon into the soup bowl. Then he tossed the spoon aside.
His clothes, not his mouth, had swallowed all the soup. The reason he was this angry was probably that he couldn't eat by himself.
There was no other reason. That was all. A good idea came to mind.
"I'll have to eat with Wang Chil."
"Huh? Why are you alone?"
Wang Chil checked behind Do Tong-dal once more. Namgung Seol-rin was definitely not there.
"Did you send her off?"
"Where?"
"How would I know that?"
Wang Chil put on a startled expression.
"Did you two break up?"
"Were we even going out? To break up."
"You were stuck together all day, so you were more than going out!"
"She just left when it was time to leave, so don't make a fuss."
Wang Chil grumbled under his breath, "Says the one with a face like death."
"Oh? Coordinator Do!"
The person who expressed both surprise and delight was Baek Jung-sik, who had been falsely accused of murder. Do Tong-dal greeted him with a smiling face as well.
"I heard you avenged your grudge. That's impressive."
Baek Jung-sik scratched the back of his head with a sheepish look.
"Impressive, nothing. That bastard was drunk and rambling, so it was practically a confession. I should have thanked you long ago. You saved my life twice, Coordinator. Thank you, truly!"
As Baek Jung-sik bowed deeply, Do Tong-dal waved his arm.
"Why are you being like this? You're Wang Chil's contemporary, so treat me comfortably like before."
"There's a clear hierarchy, so I can't do that."
Wang Chil cut in between the two of them.
"Enough, enough. Let's just go eat."
It was fortunate that Wang Chil brought up eating first. The place the three of them went was an ordinary restaurant with no particular character.
Mealtime had passed, so there were few customers. Do Tong-dal thought that was lucky.
Once various side dishes were set on the table, Wang Chil picked up his spoon.
"Let's eat well."
He was scooping up a full spoon of rice when a spoon heaped with rice was suddenly thrust in front of his mouth.
Following the spoon with his eyes, he saw Do Tong-dal with his arm stretched out.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to feed you."
"My arm's fine."
"My arm isn't fine."
"So?"
"Let's feed each other."
Baek Jung-sik also froze in the middle of scooping his rice. It was a truly strange sight.
"Are you messing around?"
"Would I joke around with food?"
Grrrowl—!
From inside Do Tong-dal's stomach came a sound like a person drowning.
"I haven't had a single meal today."
"Then why'd you send Miss Namgung away!"
"I sent her because she was worth sending!"
"A guy who can't even eat by himself, worth sending! My ass!"
"Ah, shit, seriously! You can't even feed your little brother!"
"You send Miss Namgung away and then come to me and pull this crap!"
Baek Jung-sik moved the rice he had scooped over to Do Tong-dal.
"Shall I feed you?"
Do Tong-dal, who had been glaring at Wang Chil, ate the rice as if he would devour the spoon too. In the end, Baek Jung-sik fed Do Tong-dal.
As they left the restaurant, Wang Chil said.
"If you can, just say you were wrong and bring her back."
"Forget it. I can just hire someone."
"Hey, an important asset of the Red Tiger Society has left."
When they went up to the second floor, bickering all the while, a guest had arrived and was waiting.
"Huh? The slaughterhouse old man?"
It was the old man with a sickle who had given Do Tong-dal trouble when he went to the slaughterhouse. After Do Tong-dal had gone there to get in Jang Jeong-baek's good graces and come back with four nyang of silver, the old man had faded from memory.
"It's been a while. I've been hearing the rumors about you."
"Are you still selling meat to the government office?"
"Heh heh heh! They're my most reliable customer."
"That's good to hear. But what brings you here today......?"
The way the old man looked at Baek Jung-sik suggested they were acquainted.
"Actually, I came after hearing about Branch Chief Baek here. They say you can tell whether someone is lying just by looking at their face, and remarkably well at that."
Baek Jung-sik said.
"The only person who believed in my innocence that firmly was Coordinator Do."
Wang Chil chimed in as well.
"Our Tong-dal is the best lie detector in the Central Plains."
Perhaps because the argument at the restaurant had been weighing on him, he talked Do Tong-dal up to the fullest. The old man asked Do Tong-dal.
"Could we talk alone for a moment?"
"I keep nothing hidden from Wang Chil."
The old man let out a thin sigh, as if he had no choice.
"The truth is, I'm a member of the Hao Sect."
The Hao Sect was a sect where people from the lowest walks of life—thieves, butchers, courtesans, clowns—gathered.
Even if not everyone of low station belonged to the Hao Sect, it clearly had an enormous number of members. Some said its numbers might exceed those of the Beggars' Sect, the sect of beggars.
Nevertheless, the Hao Sect's standing in the martial world was insignificant for reasons that went beyond martial arts alone.
A Hao Sect member could quit whenever they wanted to leave the sect. Freedom to join and leave was synonymous with there being little room for loyalty to develop.
Except for a few in the leadership, most had almost no awareness of being Hao Sect members. There were countless members who carried the name while doing only the bare minimum of activity as Hao Sect members.
Naturally, it was an environment in which becoming a strong sect was difficult. Perhaps there were quite a few Hao Sect members even within the Red Tiger Society.
"I see."
It was not surprising that the old man, a butcher, was a member of the Hao Sect.
"But what business does the Hao Sect have with me?"
"It's an embarrassing matter, but the Young Sect Leader's sacred token has been lost."
That damn Young Sect Leader's sacred token! The reason Do Tong-dal's arm had been ruined was that damn sacred token.
"You'll have to go to the government office."
"However insignificant the Hao Sect's presence may be, we are still a martial sect in name, so we cannot borrow the power of the authorities."
"Borrowing the Underworld's power wouldn't be a good look either."
"It is not the Underworld's help I seek, but Do Tong-dal's personal help."
"I'm not a constable who catches criminals."
"We've already detained the three people responsible for the loss of the Young Sect Leader's sacred token. The problem is that we can't tell which of the three is the culprit. They're all denying it far too stubbornly."
"So you want me to point out one of them."
"I'm asking."
"With no evidence, can you trust my word alone?"
"That will be for us to judge."
It was a request he was not particularly inclined to accept. As Do Tong-dal hesitated, Wang Chil said.
"Using this chance to open a connection with the Hao Sect wouldn't be bad."
The old man chimed in.
"It would never be bad for the Red Tiger Society either."
"He said it's a personal matter."
"Hey, isn't helping when someone's in trouble a thug's loyalty? Go help him out."
"What loyalty do I owe the Hao Sect?"
He grumbled, but Do Tong-dal decided to go along with it. With Namgung Seol-rin gone and his mind unsettled, it wasn't bad to focus his attention elsewhere.
Without wasting time, they went to the Hao Sect's Hangzhou branch. The Hao Sect's headquarters was originally in Henan Province, but the Young Sect Leader had come to Hangzhou for pleasure and lost the sacred token.
"There are three suspects in all."
According to the old man, Go Seong-cheol, they were an attendant, a maidservant, and a coachman.
The Hangzhou Hao Sect branch was the house directly behind the slaughterhouse. The house, with two buildings standing one in front of the other, was fairly presentable.
The suspects were locked in a storehouse attached to the wall. The man guarding the front of the storehouse opened the door.
The three people, their hair disheveled, were bound and kneeling. Clear traces of a beating with a cudgel covered their entire bodies, including their faces.
Do Tong-dal looked around the damp storehouse and asked.
"What is the Young Sect Leader's sacred token, that you're raising such a fuss?"
He expected it might be a jade plaque like the Namgung Clan's. No answer came from Go Seong-cheol. Do Tong-dal turned his eyes to Go Seong-cheol, who stood with his hands clasped behind his back.
"What is the sacred token?"
"Well...... this might sound a bit strange...... it's a tit-ring."
"Excuse me?"
"A nipple-ring."
"A nipple-ring? What is that?"
"You know. If you put it on your arm it's a bracelet, on your ankle an anklet, that sort of thing."
Do Tong-dal laughed.
"So you're saying it goes on a nipple?"
It was a joke, but Go Seong-cheol, with a serious expression, nodded.
"How can you hang something on a nipple?"
"You pierce a hole, like an earring."
"Why make something like that a sacred token?"
"Because it's made of blue diamond stone, so it's worth quite a lot. If some calamity befell the Hao Sect and its power declined, the idea was to use that sacred token as capital to rise again."
"Even so, of all things, why a nipple-ring with such a hideous name?"
"It is a sacred token imbued with the wisdom of our predecessors, so say no more on the matter."
As expected, it was a strange sect from its very origins. Just then, the storehouse door opened and a young man in his early twenties wearing blue silk entered.
The expression of the young man, who had a pale face and small eyes, was full of arrogance.
"Young Sect Leader, you've come?"
"Elder Go, have you found the culprit?"
"I have brought someone who can find them."
The Young Sect Leader's gaze swept over Do Tong-dal.
"This person?"
"That's right."
"Please find it quickly. It feels so empty without it."
As the young man rubbed his right chest, Do Tong-dal could not help but picture the nipple-ring.
'Damn it!'
Do Tong-dal turned his gaze to the three bound people. If the culprit was among them, finding them would not be very difficult.
He had read the face of a gambler who vied for the top in the Central Plains, so a Hao Sect thief was nothing.
Do Tong-dal moved a chair from one side of the storehouse with his foot and sat in front of the three people. From the left were the coachman, the attendant, and the maidservant.
Do Tong-dal studied the three people's faces closely. They only glanced at Do Tong-dal and did not dare meet his eyes.
'Hmm, all three seem to be Type 2.'
It was a common type and easy to read. Do Tong-dal spoke to the three of them.
"No matter how I think about it, a nipple-ring—isn't that ridiculous?"
The coachman quickly said.
"I didn't even know such a thing existed!"
The Young Sect Leader, standing behind, shouted angrily.
"You heard about it from that maidservant bitch!"
"I...... I thought it was a joke. I swear!"
Do Tong-dal's gaze turned to the maidservant.
"The Young Sect Leader's sacred token seems to be a secret, so why did you tell the coachman about it?"
"I...... I was just chatting, and it somehow came up......."
He could see she was hiding something.
"It doesn't seem like the sort of information you'd let slip in idle chatter."
If it were something she could mention so easily, the whole Central Plains would know that the nipple-ring was the sacred token of the Hao Sect's Young Sect Leader.
"We were drinking with our meal, so I got a little drunk......."
Do Tong-dal's gaze swept over the coachman. A similar guilt showed on both their faces.
"You two are in a relationship."
"What? Ah...... no......."
"Th...... that's......."
A definite reaction. Do Tong-dal immediately threw a question at the shaken pair.
"Did the two of you conspire to steal the nipple-ring?"
"No! I never even saw that nipple-ring thing!"
"I happened to see it once, but I absolutely did not steal it!"
The coachman and the maidservant jumped.
'Those two don't seem to be it.'
Do Tong-dal's gaze turned to the attendant. The attendant, who looked to be a little over thirty, glanced at Do Tong-dal with uneasy eyes.
"Are you the one who stole the nipple-ring?"
"Pfft—!"
The attendant burst out laughing, then quickly apologized.
"I'm sorry. Just hearing that name makes me laugh."
"I'm barely holding it in myself, so it's fine."
"I truly did not steal that nip...... ple-ring, heh heh....... Even if I did steal it, I would have to dispose of it while avoiding the Hao Sect's eyes—how could that be possible?"
"The fact that you thought that far means you did have the intention to steal it?"
"I saw it just once, and I did covet it. But coveting isn't a crime, is it?"
There was a reason the attendant's face was in the worst shape.
"You only thought about it, but didn't steal it?"
* * *