Monopolizing Fortunes (83)
Monopolizing Fortunes (83)
The alcohol drained away as if he had been plunged into ice water, and goosebumps prickled across his skin. Gong Myeong-un glanced sidelong at Yang Su-pan.
Any hope of help shattered to pieces the moment he saw Yang Su-pan flirting with the courtesan.
'There's no way he'd step up for me after I got on his bad side.'
Do Tong-dal, sipping his Sagiju, didn't look like he'd be any help either.
'I'm the only one who's dead.'
Thwack!
Yang Un-ha grabbed Gong Myeong-un by the scruff of the neck.
"Shall we go see the inspector and stand trial?"
Yang Un-ha dragged Gong Myeong-un off, and Baek Sa-min glared at Do Tong-dal and Yang Su-pan.
"You two look like local gentry. No interest in helping your magistrate?"
Do Tong-dal answered with a shrug, and Yang Su-pan didn't even pretend to listen.
"Faithless bastards."
Once Baek Sa-min left, Yang Su-pan asked Do Tong-dal.
"Why aren't you stepping in?"
"And why aren't you, sir?"
"It's no fun if it ends too early."
Just then, along with a sharp crack, Gong Myeong-un's shriek of "Eigo!" rang out.
"Puhahaha—! He's dressed so strangely, and even his screaming is funny!"
"Kehahaha! Hit him harder! I want to hear what kind of scream comes out next!"
Another slap rang out, followed by a "Yelp!" of pain. Do Tong-dal drained his cup and quietly rose.
"Those bastards are making a filthy mess of things."
Yang Su-pan asked.
"Going to help?"
"Help, my ass."
Do Tong-dal ambled out of the room. Gong Myeong-un's screams were coming from the room across the hall on the left. The door had been smashed to splinters, so the sound carried even more clearly.
Do Tong-dal poked his head in and looked around. Yang Un-ha and Baek Sa-min were taking turns beating Gong Myeong-un, and a middle-aged man in his mid-forties seated in the place of honor kept bursting into laughter as if the sight amused him.
Only three people in that room were enjoying themselves. The six courtesans and two apprentice entertainers had gone pale and were trembling.
Watching those three, Do Tong-dal understood exactly what happened when petty, vicious people seized power.
And yet the man was a county magistrate, and they were toying with him simply because he was weaker than them.
"Nothing amusing has happened in a while. It's been ages since I've had a good laugh."
The inspector seated in the place of honor said this while looking at Gong Myeong-un, whose face was swollen and whose nose was streaming blood. What had the man been doing all this time to amuse himself?
Do Tong-dal didn't particularly need to know.
"What's that?"
The inspector belatedly noticed Do Tong-dal. Yang Un-ha, who had raised his hand to slap Gong Myeong-un, turned his gaze toward Do Tong-dal.
"Huh? Aren't you the one who was drinking with this ridiculous magistrate?"
Baek Sa-min said with a grin.
"What, did your conscience finally catch up with you? Come to get beaten alongside him?"
Do Tong-dal let out a long sigh.
"They ought to abolish the civil service exams. Fuck, what good is being good at studying? Your character's still dogshit."
"What?"
"I've seen my share of officials, but filthy, lunatic officials like you are a first."
Baek Sa-min approached slowly.
"So you didn't come to get beaten with him. You came to die?"
"You think you can kill me?"
"Do you know what the Jehyeong Surveillance Commission is? It's the kind of place that can make a hundred deaths of scum like you disappear without breaking a sweat."
"Do you even know what kind of man I am before you say that?"
"A nobody who drinks and carouses with the Hangzhou magistrate!"
Baek Sa-min threw a punch at Do Tong-dal. It was fast enough to send Red Tiger Society thugs flying with ease, but far too slow to trouble Do Tong-dal.
Do Tong-dal caught Baek Sa-min's fist in his palm and squeezed.
Crack!
The sound of breaking bone and Baek Sa-min's scream rang out at the same time.
"Aaargh—!"
"That—that bastard!"
Yang Un-ha swung a fist at Do Tong-dal's face. That fist, too, was caught easily in Do Tong-dal's hand. Again came the sound of breaking bone, and naturally a scream followed.
The two men caught in Do Tong-dal's grip trembled and dropped to their knees. With their finger bones broken, the screams kept pouring out without pause.
"You bastards are loud."
Do Tong-dal lightly kicked both men in the solar plexus with the tips of his toes.
"Hurk!"
Their breath cut off, the two could only turn red in the face, unable even to scream. Their breathing kept catching, and they looked as if they might die at any moment.
When Do Tong-dal released them, the two bent over and planted their heads against the floor. Desperately gasping for air, they looked like trembling rabbits.
Do Tong-dal's gaze shifted to the inspector.
"This is more entertaining than watching the magistrate get slapped. Why aren't you laughing?"
"Y-you wretch! Do you have any idea who I am, that you'd dare do this!"
Do Tong-dal strode toward the inspector. With every step he took, the color drained further from the inspector's face.
Do Tong-dal grabbed the inspector by the head and slammed it down onto the table.
Bang!
"What's so great about being an inspector—!"
Bang!
"Coming into my precious Cheonsangru—!"
Bang!
"And throwing your weight around like dogs—!"
Bang!
"You worthless piece of shit!"
Bang!
The inspector's nose broke, and five of his front teeth flew out. His face drenched in blood, the inspector could only let out a low groan.
Do Tong-dal grabbed the inspector by the scruff of the neck and flung him beside the two commissioners, who were still doubled over.
"Ugh!"
The inspector hit the floor with a strangled cry.
"Huh? You finished already?"
Yang Su-pan appeared belatedly and asked. Do Tong-dal answered.
"It's just getting started."
"Those guys look like they're dying right now."
"People don't die that easily."
"Are you going to kill them?"
"They laid hands on an Underworld thug. They've got to get beaten half to death at least."
Do Tong-dal kicked Yang Un-ha and Baek Sa-min in the ribs as they struggled to rise. Each of them must have lost at least two ribs.
"You sure they won't die from a beating like that?"
"If they die, nothing to be done about it."
"How about not killing them?"
"Why?"
"If you have all the fun, what am I supposed to do?"
Just then, Yeon Ja-yeon appeared.
"I called the physician in black."
As expected, the woman was quick on the uptake. The physician in black appeared with astonishing speed and couldn't hide the disappointment at seeing the three bloodied men.
"What the hell? I thought there were patients!"
"Why else would I have called you?"
"Damn it! You come to a pleasure house, you expect wine and women!"
"You make plenty of money. Buy your own."
"Do you know how many patients I have to see just to afford one bottle of Sagiju?"
Yeon Ja-yeon, standing nearby, spoke up.
"If you treat those three, I'll treat you to a bottle."
"Heh heh heh... really?"
"Of course."
Do Tong-dal grumbled, "The bill's going to land on me." The physician in black, treating the three men, clicked their tongue.
"You really worked them over."
"This is only the beginning."
"You're going to patch them up and beat them again?"
"Depends on how they behave."
"If they're just going to get broken again, I'll fix them up roughly."
Yeon Ja-yeon said.
"Please treat them properly."
"Hey, I was only talking. You think I'd actually do a sloppy job?"
The physician in black was so skilled that the treatment didn't take long.
"Y-you wretches! Do you think you'll get away with doing this to me, an inspector?"
"Fuck, the way he talks, you'd think an inspector was the emperor."
In a single province, an inspector did wield power like an emperor. Do Tong-dal spoke to the three men, who had painfully pushed themselves upright.
"If I were you, I'd start by getting on my knees."
"Me, kneel to an Underworld thug—!"
Do Tong-dal slapped the inspector mid-sentence.
Smack!
"Yelp!"
"Huh? His scream sounds just like our magistrate's."
Another slap produced a similar-sounding scream.
"This is fun. So this is why you kept hitting him?"
The physician in black had just patched him up, but blood was already flowing from the inspector's nose again.
"S-stop..."
"Knees."
Only when the inspector had painfully dropped to his knees did Do Tong-dal stop slapping him. Do Tong-dal's gaze shifted to the two commissioners. Yang Un-ha and Baek Sa-min quickly knelt as well.
"Without your offices, you're not worth shit."
Yang Su-pan asked Do Tong-dal.
"You beat officials like that. How are you planning to handle the aftermath?"
"The aftermath isn't my job."
Yang Su-pan pointed at himself, and Do Tong-dal nodded.
"Damn it, you have all the fun and then dump the trash in my yard?"
"You've been useless so far. Time to make yourself useful for once."
"You hold grudges, don't you?"
"A thug without grudges is a saint."
Yang Su-pan dragged over a chair.
Screeeeech—!
The sound of the heavy chair scraping across the floor made everyone clench their teeth.
"Heavy as hell."
Yang Su-pan set the chair in front of the kneeling inspector and sat down.
"So you're the Zhejiang Province inspector?"
"Th-that's right."
"Hmm. If you're the Zhejiang inspector, you'd be Hwang Baek-jung?"
"You know me?"
"I've heard the rumors. The son of a bitch of Zhejiang Province."
"Are you mocking me?"
"Oh dear, I'm telling you what they say about you in the capital. It's awkward when you take it that way."
"Th-the capital?"
"Huh? Didn't I tell you who I am? I should have an identity plaque here somewhere..."
Yang Su-pan rummaged at his waist, and a square identity plaque dropped out. The front of the plaque showed his name and place of residence, while the back listed his current status and, for officials, their office.
The back of the plaque happened to face the ceiling, so Yang Su-pan's rank and affiliation were visible.
"A—a Left Censor of the Office of the Censorate!"
"Oh my, a senior third-rank inspector has discovered that I'm a mere senior fourth-rank official. Whatever shall I do?"
Of course, Yang Su-pan's rank was lower. But between central and local officials, there was a difference in power that transcended rank.
And this was the Office of the Censorate. If the Jehyeong Surveillance Commission was the local grim reaper, the Office of the Censorate held the leash on every official in the Central Plains.
Get on the wrong side of the Office of the Censorate, and no matter how upright an official you were, you could be executed for bribery.
"S-so you are a Left Censor of the Office of the Censorate."
"I was already planning to pay a visit to the Jehyeong Surveillance Commission. Meeting you here gives me a rough idea of what kind of man your superior is."
Hwang Baek-jung prostrated himself flat on the spot.
"Th-the Jehyeong Surveillance Commissioner is a man of excellent character, completely unlike me!"
"Do you not know the saying that there are no sycophants under an honest official and no weak soldiers under a strong general? If the Jehyeong Surveillance Commissioner's character were truly excellent, his close subordinate wouldn't be called the son of a bitch of Zhejiang Province."
Cold sweat streamed down Hwang Baek-jung's back. Even a junior seventh-rank investigating censor would have thrown the Jehyeong Surveillance Commission into an uproar, and here stood a Left Censor, no less.
'Wait! A Left Censor...!'
Praying it wasn't so, Hwang Baek-jung asked cautiously.
"Might the censor's name, by any chance, be Yang Su-pan?"
"Huh? How do you know me?"
Hwang Baek-jung squeezed his eyes shut. This wasn't just a grim reaper. This was King Yama himself standing before him.
The man currently called second only to one in the cabinet was Jeon Su-bang, Minister of Personnel. He had fallen out of imperial favor and been demoted to the provinces, then won merit by exposing a treasonous plot and returned to the capital.
Perhaps because of that, the emperor's favor toward him was extraordinary, and he had seized the top post among the Six Ministries in a single leap. And the person Jeon Su-bang cherished most was Yang Su-pan.
"Th-this lowly one has committed a capital offense."
Rank meant nothing here. Yang Su-pan had the power to swat away even the Jehyeong Surveillance Commissioner with a single finger.
Suddenly, Do Tong-dal kicked Hwang Baek-jung in the face. As Hwang Baek-jung went tumbling with a scream, Yang Su-pan asked Do Tong-dal.
"What's that for, all of a sudden?"
"He committed a capital offense, so he should die."
"Even so..."
Just then, Namgung Seol-rin's voice came from outside.
"Tong-dal! Tong-dal!"
At the urgency in her voice, Do Tong-dal stuck his face out the door.
"In here!"
"You have to come with me to the clan right now!"
"The Namgung Clan? Why there?"
"My brother's been poisoned!"
The news was shocking enough to make his heart drop.
"Cheol-hyeon's been poisoned?! What do you mean!"
"The message came by carrier pigeon, so it was too short. I don't know the details either!"
"He's alive, right?"
"It didn't say he was dead, so he must be alive!"
Do Tong-dal steadied his pounding heart.
'If he's been poisoned, what he needs most is...'
Do Tong-dal's gaze turned to the physician in black.
"You're coming with us."
"Why me again?"
"A physician going to a patient is only natural!"
The physician in black's shoulders slumped under Do Tong-dal's fierce pressure.
"What power do I have?"
"Horses! We need the fastest horses!"
* * *