What Happened at Cheonhwaru
There was something the orphanage director used to tell me long ago.
This world had karma, he said — cause and effect. Live badly and you would reap the consequences.
He mostly said it while looking straight at me. Looking back, he was probably just trying to get me to stop causing trouble.
Anyway, when I asked him with a completely innocent face, “So we got abandoned because we piled up bad karma?” he shut his mouth with a flustered look.
He meant no harm. He was only trying to rein in a problem child.
Whatever the case, from that day on I dismissed talk of karma and “justice always wins” as pure nonsense and lived however I pleased.
Lately, though, watching the good deeds I’d done just to stay alive come back to me in ways I never expected, I was starting to waver.
“Young Master Geum, your body’s gotten even sturdier since I last saw you.”
One of the Beijing Five Flowers — a beauty so stunning it made your jaw drop — was letting me rest my head on her lap as a pillow.
When had I ever enjoyed luxury like this? It was a reality I could barely believe.
“Just a few years ago there was still a bit of that youthful look about you.”
She spoke softly. She must have been talking about the first time we met on the street.
I remembered her asking for help, saying she had no money, so I took the sweets she was eating as payment and drove off those thugs for her.
“So you don’t like it now?”
I tossed the question out casually.
“Heehee, no? I like you better now. It means you’ve become a proper adult who can take full responsibility for a woman.”
She lowered her head, and her glossy black hair spilled down like a waterfall.
She smiled sweetly and let that suggestive remark slip out.
“Well, that’s a relief then.”
In the end, this relationship with Ju Wolay had started because I didn’t just walk past some nameless woman on the street and saved her instead. Was this what they meant by reaping what you sow?
Lying on her warm lap, I found myself thinking that maybe living kindly, like the director had said, wasn’t so bad after all.
Unbelievable… over a mere woman…
Salsung, who was always watching for a chance to corrupt me, overheard that thought and reacted with pure disbelief.
Apparently it was beyond galling that her grand plan to normalize the Heavenly Killing Star had collapsed in front of a woman’s lap pillow.
With such impure… motives, you think you’ll cast off… your destiny…?
She spelled out every word in red letters, stammering her way through.
So what if my motives were a little impure? Someone got help from my good deed, and I got something in return.
Win-win, right? And as long as I sincerely believed that, the Seongun Simbeop would take my side too.
“If you live kindly, fortune comes your way.”
I’d muttered it to Salsung, but Ju Wolay, who was cradling my head, responded.
“Oh my, are you calling me your fortune?”
She smiled, eyes curving gently. It wasn’t her usual seductive smile — her voice was full of hopeful anticipation.
“Uh, well… maybe…?”
The position was wonderful, but there was no escaping her gaze.
I could see the expression on her face shifting from moment to moment as she looked down at me, wondering what she was thinking.
Before I knew it her round face was so close I could feel her breath.
With the delicate features of Beijing’s number-one courtesan right in front of me, she opened her mouth in a tiny voice.
“Then… about that redemption talk… not as a cover, but for real…”
Rattle. Clack.
Just then the door opened and Ilhong came back from the washroom.
Ju Wolay and I both jumped and pulled apart at the same time. I cleared my throat with a fake cough; Ju Wolay fanned herself and wordlessly stared out the window.
We both pretended nothing had happened, but the tips of our fingers were trembling slightly.
“…What was that just now?”
Ilhong stood in the doorway, looking back and forth between us.
Even though we’d scrambled apart, she must have picked up on the strange atmosphere between us. Her eyes narrowed bit by bit until they were sharp as scissors.
“What were you two doing?”
Her voice carried a chill like a sheet of ice. The temperature in the room plunged below freezing in an instant. Cold sweat ran down my spine before I even realized it.
“Tell me, Boss.”
Ilhong folded her arms and stepped closer. Her tone and expression were calm, but the pressure behind them felt like it came from a master of the Transcendent Realm.
“Ah, nothing?”
A dozen different answers flashed through my head before I finally managed to spit that one out.
“Hmph. So you weren’t doing anything. Then why are you stuttering?”
Ilhong’s eyes narrowed even further.
With her fuse already lit, she was no longer the reliable subordinate I knew — she was a powder keg about to blow if someone touched the wrong thing.
“Young Master Eun… no, Young Hero Ilhong. I believe you’re under some kind of misunderstanding.”
When I started babbling, Ju Wolay stepped in from the side, trying to calm Ilhong down.
Unfortunately that only fanned the flames.
“So what exactly is the misunderstanding?”
The moment Ju Wolay spoke up, Ilhong’s voice rose a notch. She’d already been wary of Ju Wolay for reasons I didn’t fully understand.
“I don’t know why you’re reacting this way, but we were only putting on an act to lure out the stalker. It really wasn’t anything special.”
Ju Wolay waved both hands, repeatedly explaining that it was a misunderstanding.
Ilhong gave a short laugh and took a step toward her.
“Is that so? Then how about you show me that ‘nothing special’ performance as well.”
It was a request from Ilhong, who had used her peerless male disguise to become a dazzlingly handsome young man.
“That’s a little… embarrassing…”
Ju Wolay flushed and looked away. Even for her, having the same kind of contact she’d just shared with a complete stranger of a man was a bit mortifying.
“Grr…!”
Seeing that, Ilhong gritted her teeth. From Ju Wolay’s reaction she seemed certain something had happened; she whipped her head around and glared at me.
Yeah… this one was on me alone.
Even after the job was over and we got back to the office, the atmosphere was going to be a little awkward.
“Boss, you said it was a cover.”
“It was a cover…”
“Then why were you doing something so indecent where no one could see? And while I was out of the room, no less?”
Look, I’d been doing a lot of good deeds lately, so I figured this might be my reward coming back to me.
That’s why I’d just grinned and not really pushed her away… I never expected it to turn out like this.
Wait, but have I actually done anything wrong?
The thought suddenly hit me. From the way things were going, I was the villain here, but all I’d done was lie there quietly.
Feeling a little wronged, I was about to say something when—
Stop it… you idiot…
Salsung, who normally only opened her mouth when I was about to fall into darkness, rarely offered me advice.
What had gotten into her?
I was tilting my head at that strange phenomenon when—
“Young Master Geum, are you in?”
Madam Okryeong of Cheonhwaru came to visit the VIP room.
Her timing was so perfect I couldn’t help but think it was almost miraculous.
Apparently another problem had cropped up at Cheonhwaru.
Madam Okryeong, who had come looking for us, pointed straight out the window at the line of carriages waiting there.
An unidentified group loaded with gold, silver, jewels, and silk, lingering because they couldn’t get through the front gate.
“So you’re saying all of that is a procession of treasure someone brought to redeem Ju Wolay?”
I pointed at the carriages piled with an absurd amount of riches and asked, unable to believe my eyes.
Beijing might be the wealthiest city in the Central Plains, but this was ridiculous.
“Yes, a redemption. It seems more people have come saying they want to take our Wolay away.”
Apparently offers to redeem Ju Wolay were fairly common.
In Beijing there wasn’t a soul who didn’t know her fame and beauty. Anyone with a decent amount of money in their household would swagger around claiming they were going to take her home.
“But a case like this is unprecedented… barging in with chests of gold first and throwing a fit about being the one to redeem her.”
Most people knew her enormous redemption fee, so they usually just talked big and never followed through with action.
This time, though, someone had been so desperate they’d skipped proper negotiations entirely, given a one-sided notice, and shoved money in first.
And the reason someone would suddenly act this urgently? That was obvious.
“Because of us?”
Rumors that the Sichuan young masters had come to redeem Ju Wolay had apparently spread all over Beijing.
For the past week we’d been loudly declaring we were going to redeem her. As proof, we’d even announced we were monopolizing her for weeks by offering the highest price.
We’d even gone as far as proposing a specific sum to the madam and putting on a serious negotiation that looked like we were carefully counting every abacus bead, right in front of everyone.
Once Madam Okryeong started the back-and-forth “negotiation” as if she might actually accept the redemption this time, desperate people had started popping up everywhere.
“Looks like the effect was pretty strong.”
They called it beating the grass to startle the snake. When you thrash the undergrowth, you never know what might jump out.
We’d only been thrashing the grass to catch a stalker, but it seemed things other than snakes had come flying out this time.
“At this rate, that lecher who loves beast ears should start moving soon too.”
I’d heard there were several people obsessed with Ju Wolay, and among them this stalker was considered the worst of the lot.
But when the madam overheard my mutter, she suddenly looked puzzled and asked,
“Young Master, a lecher who loves beast ears?”
Her expression said she’d never in her life heard such an absurd combination of words.
“Uh, the stalker who keeps obsessing over and chasing Ju Wolay. That’s why we came, isn’t it?”
“It’s true that many people are obsessed with our Wolay, and that some of them are dangerous, but I’ve never heard of that particular… preference…”
What was this? Had she only told me she had a stalker and left out the part about the beast ears — the very thing that had made me feel responsible?
“….”
When I gave her a confused look, Ju Wolay flinched and quietly avoided my eyes.
Why was she acting like that all of a sudden?
“Anyway, Madam, please refuse this redemption offer as well.”
She hastily changed the subject and spoke up.
I looked out at the spectacular sight lined up outside the window and spoke with a slightly surprised expression.
“Even for that much money?”
Guarded by escorts, someone was opening a golden chest and flaunting their wealth for all to see.
It clearly seemed to exceed the amount we Sichuan young masters had offered. Whoever had sent it, the bastard must have money rotting away in piles.
“No matter how much money there is, it cannot buy my heart. The lotus of Cheonhwaru chooses the pond where she will bloom for herself.”
She had no intention of falling into the hands of people who thought money alone could buy a person.
After saying that, she began looking at me with a strange gaze.
The slight upward tilt of her eyes and the longing in them were like a coded glance meant only for me.
The problem was that I completely failed to receive the message.
“Hah. So it’s a lotus that wants to bloom even in a pond that already has an owner.”
Beside me, Young Master Eun muttered under her breath with a slightly irritated face.
Her voice was quiet, but my ears caught every word crystal clear. Watching Ilhong get jealous never got old.
“Wolay, I’m sorry, but… this time it may not be easy to refuse the redemption.”
Madam Okryeong, who had been quietly reading the letter sent from the carriage procession, delivered the bad news with slightly trembling hands.
Until now she had firmly supported Ju Wolay and respected her wishes, but she was saying it might be difficult this time.
“Why is that?”
I narrowed my eyes and asked for the reason.
The madam chewed her lip, then answered with a shadowed face.
“It seems someone quite high-ranking in the Imperial Court is trying to redeem Wolay.”
In a courtesan house rooted in the imperial capital, refusing a proposal from someone high up in the Imperial Palace could have serious repercussions.
As the heavy burden in the madam’s voice became clear, a faint anxiety began to settle over Ju Wolay’s expression as well.