Who Came, You Say? (5)
Glug, glug, glug.
Wine filled the cup to the brim.
As Yu Gong stared at the bowl that looked ready to spill over at any moment, a drunken voice reached his ears.
“Aren’t you drinking?”
“⋯⋯.”
Yu Gong lifted his head, shot a glance at Cheong Myeong’s grinning face, and brought the cup in his hand to his lips. He swallowed it in one go.
“Oh. You can handle your liquor. Good.”
A fiery heat swept down his throat, as if it meant to burn him from the inside. Yet Yu Gong didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow; he simply sent the wine in the cup straight down.
Clink.
He set the emptied cup down.
“Now then, you’d better have another.”
Cheong Myeong chuckled and poured more wine into the cup. Yu Gong only stared at him as he did so.
He had so many things he wanted to ask.
He had so many things he wanted to say.
But he had long since become the kind of person who said what he had to say, not what he wanted to say.
Yu Gong lightly lifted the cup full of wine, made a show of glancing around, and opened his mouth.
“I was surprised.”
“Hm?”
When Cheong Myeong tilted his head slightly, Yu Gong gave a faint smile.
“I don’t know whether you’re aware of this, but we people of Hainan have never thought very highly of people from the mainland.”
“Hmm?”
“Of course, that might sound a little strange to others. Hainan is a great sect, one of the Ten Great Sects, after all.”
“⋯⋯.”
“But no matter how famous Hainan has become, that doesn’t erase the history of how we lived being treated as lowly island folk.”
Cheong Myeong looked at him in silence.
“And then… when the Jiangnan Bridge-Sealing Treaty happened, that feeling only grew worse.”
Yu Gong let out a snort of laughter.
“Nobody ever said it outright, but I’m sure everyone had the same thought. If we had been mainlanders instead of island folk, if Hainan hadn’t been the sect isolated by the Jiangnan sealing, would we really have been cast aside so completely? But…”
Yu Gong turned his head slightly and looked at the sprawled-out figures nearby.
“Those same people who harbor such poor feelings toward mainlanders ended up getting tangled up with the outsiders who arrived today, drinking themselves senseless, and now they’ve all collapsed like that.”
“⋯⋯.”
“Hua Mountain is said to have a strong secular flavor, but if you look at it closely, it’s actually an orthodox Daoist temple with a history that runs even longer than Wudang’s. I suppose that isn’t wrong, seeing the sort of Daoist arts you’re showing here.”
Yu Gong’s gaze searched Cheong Myeong’s face.
“Or perhaps that isn’t it at all. If I may be so bold as to ask, is Hua Mountain’s Daoist art truly extraordinary? Or is it the Mount Hua Divine Dragon’s skill at handling people that’s so remarkable?”
At that, Cheong Myeong gave a snort of laughter. Yu Gong tried as hard as he could to match that smile with one of his own.
That is, until he heard the next words.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“Stop talking nonsense and drink already. Three cups. You’ve only had one.”
“⋯⋯.”
“Drink.”
Yu Gong coughed awkwardly and brought the cup back to his lips.
Then, just like the one before, he gulped down the full cup in a single breath.
“If I catch you using your inner energy, I’ll make you pay back the wasted liquor, so handle it yourself.”
“⋯⋯.”
“Now, another one.”
Cheong Myeong grinned and poured more liquor into the empty cup. Seeing the wine rise again, Yu Gong’s face went a little pale.
He was forcing himself to keep pace because he didn’t want to lose in spirit, but Hainan’s liquor was never meant to be drank like this from such a large cup. It was a spirit that should be sipped carefully from a small cup.
No matter that he was a martial artist—drinking this hard liquor one cup after another, all while unable to use his inner energy, was no small burden.
“You want an answer?”
“⋯⋯Yes?”
“Then drink. After three cups, I’ll deal with you.”
“⋯⋯.”
At those words, Yu Gong’s face hardened slightly. He looked at Cheong Myeong for a moment, then began to gulp down the third cup.
“Oh. You really can drink.”
Gulp! Gulp!
Suppressing the feeling that his throat was on fire, Yu Gong forced the last of the liquor down and pulled the cup from his lips as though tossing it away.
“Kgh!”
A cry that sounded almost like a scream broke from between his lips.
Each time he opened his mouth, the fierce scent of liquor surged violently in his mouth, and his stomach felt as though he had swallowed molten lava. His whole body’s blood seemed to boil, rushing through his veins twice as fast.
“Nice.”
Cheong Myeong chuckled and poured wine into his own cup with a splashing sound. Then, before the cup had even finished filling, he snatched it up and drank greedily.
“Kuuuuuh!”
Thud!
The cup—though it was more like a bowl—was set down with a clear ring.
Cheong Myeong wiped his mouth with his sleeve and looked at Yu Gong, who was struggling to steady the sudden rush of intoxication.
“So.”
“Yes?”
“What was it you were curious about again?”
“That is… um…”
Yu Gong faltered, flustered for a moment. Cheong Myeong watched him and grinned.
“No way you remember. You probably just asked whatever popped into your head because you weren’t all that curious in the first place.”
Yu Gong’s face flushed.
Whether from the alcohol or from helpless embarrassment, even he couldn’t have said.
“Still, I’ll answer you. I didn’t really do anything.”
Cheong Myeong turned his head to look at the collapsed disciples.
“I just told them to bring the liquor, and I drank it. The rest of the bastards drank themselves into that state on their own.”
“⋯⋯.”
Yu Gong let out a sigh.
“Even if the disciples of Hainan are simple-minded, and even if some of them take a certain pride in that simplicity, they’re not fools enough to make such a spectacle of themselves in front of visitors who arrived today. No matter how you look at it, you must have done something, Mount Hua Divine Dragon.”
“What is it with you people? Do you only ever get played for suckers? I’m telling you, I didn’t do anything.”
“Yes. That may be.”
Yu Gong nodded quietly.
“But if you think about it, that’s even more remarkable. Even without doing anything yourself, the atmosphere around you changed so naturally…”
“Hey.”
At Cheong Myeong’s voice cutting him off, Yu Gong’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“My cup’s empty. Want another?”
“⋯⋯I should really stop…”
“Why? You got something you shouldn’t say after getting drunk?”
“⋯⋯.”
“Drink.”
Cheong Myeong poured wine into Yu Gong’s cup again.
Yu Gong looked back and forth between Cheong Myeong and the cup with a complicated expression. Once the cup was full, Cheong Myeong shrugged.
“Ah, well. Don’t misunderstand. I hate forcing drinks on people who don’t want to drink. Why the hell would I waste good liquor on some bastard who says he doesn’t want it? I don’t even have enough for myself.”
“Then…”
“Not drinking is your freedom. But if you’re not going to drink, then I’d appreciate it if you’d move. I’m here to drink with someone, not have a conversation.”
“⋯⋯.”
“So what’ll it be? Do you want the drinking, or do you want the conversation?”
At that, Yu Gong let out a long sigh and clutched the cup tightly. This time, he began to drink slowly, without rushing. Seeing that, Cheong Myeong gave a slight smile.
“Well, at least you can carry on a conversation.”
“Khh.”
Yu Gong set the cup down. His hand trembled slightly as he did so. His face was flushed so red it looked like it might catch fire at any moment.
“Tsk. I told you not to use your inner energy. You’re wasting perfectly good liquor.”
Cheong Myeong clicked his tongue and poured his own cup full again, then started drinking it down in gulps.
Once another round had gone around, Cheong Myeong continued the conversation.
“Am I that impressive?”
Cheong Myeong snorted.
“You don’t get it. I really didn’t do anything.”
“⋯⋯Then.”
“This didn’t happen because I was impressive. It’s the opposite.”
“Yes?”
Cheong Myeong nodded toward the fallen men with his chin.
“How does it look to you?”
“⋯⋯Pathetic.”
That was his honest answer. At the very least, this was not the sort of sight one should show to guests.
He had no right to criticize them as he was about to leave Hainan, but at least he could judge the scene, couldn’t he?
“Is that so?”
Cheong Myeong gave a snort and poured more wine into his cup. Then he offered a different judgment from Yu Gong’s.
“To me, they look impressive.”
“⋯⋯.”
Yu Gong fell silent. Part of it was because the liquor was hitting him hard, but it was also because he couldn’t quite make sense of Cheong Myeong’s words.
“Like you said, no matter how young and simple-minded these guys may be, they wouldn’t be fools without a thought in their heads, not to the point of getting drunk and collapsing in front of people who came to visit Hainan for the first time today.”
Yu Gong nodded with glazed eyes.
“So why do you think that happened? Because I was so clever at stirring them up?”
“⋯⋯.”
“No. I really didn’t do anything. Everybody was already pushed to the limit. They were holding on, grinding themselves down, pressing themselves right up to the edge in a situation where they never knew what might explode at any moment. Under the pressure that tomorrow might be the last day they ever lived and breathed.”
Cheong Myeong’s eyes sank as he looked at the people who had passed out from drink.
The sight of them overlapped with the scenes he knew.
Those who, after returning from battle, searched for liquor with almost obsessive desperation and then collapsed into unconscious sleep.
Those who drank in sudden, frantic gulps, trying to shut off their own minds with the guilt and relief of having come back alive while others died that day, and with the terror of having to walk back into the battlefield again tomorrow.
Yes. That had truly been agony.
But those people, at least, had been capable of fully bearing responsibility for themselves. The ones here were still too young compared to the people he had known back then.
So—
“It’s impressive they held on this long.”
“⋯⋯.”
“What breaks a person who’s been holding on isn’t some great, overwhelming thing. It’s a tiny bit of relief. Not relief that they can stop holding on altogether, but something trivial—just the feeling that tonight, at least for a few hours, they might be safe.”
“⋯⋯.”
“That’s all I gave them.”
Yu Gong opened his mouth as though to say something, then lowered his head. After a long silence, a groan-like voice slipped from his lips.
“⋯⋯They weren’t holding on.”
“Hm?”
“There just wasn’t anywhere to run. Nowhere in the world.”
Cheong Myeong lifted his eyes to the ceiling.
“⋯⋯Yeah. That.”
I know.
I know it better than anyone.
“So leave them be. Sometimes people want to let go even when they know they shouldn’t. They’ll wake up tomorrow and clutch their heads in regret, but sometimes that very thing becomes the strength they need to endure the next day.”
Yu Gong’s eyes drifted to Gwak Hwan-so, who was fast asleep. His face, which had always been as rigid as a rock lately, looked a little more at ease than usual.
Maybe Cheong Myeong was right.
Maybe what those people needed wasn’t a clear answer or a grand objective, but simply the luxury of falling asleep for one day without thinking.
But… they might be able to do that. He, however…
“Drink.”
Cheong Myeong thrust a cup of wine right in front of Yu Gong’s face.
“⋯⋯.”
When Yu Gong only stared at it blankly, Cheong Myeong said lazily, “Whatever your position is, whatever your story is…”
“⋯⋯.”
“Even if we might be allies starting tomorrow—or enemies, for all we know—you’re still someone who’s been holding on just like they have.”
“⋯⋯.”
“I’ve got my own circumstances too, so by morning I probably won’t be able to say everything I want to say. So let me say this now.”
A faint smile touched Cheong Myeong’s lips. Then, looking at Yu Gong, he spoke in a slightly gentler voice.
“You did well holding on, kid.”
“⋯⋯.”
Yu Gong’s shoulders trembled faintly.
It was a horribly arrogant thing to say. A horribly presumptuous thing to say.
And yet, strangely enough, Yu Gong didn’t feel offended at all. No—far from it.
“Drink. Then pass out. You can worry about the cleanup starting tomorrow. That’ll be plenty soon enough.”
Yu Gong looked at Cheong Myeong with dazed eyes.
“Aren’t you drinking?”
“⋯⋯.”
A slightly trembling hand took the cup. Holding it with both hands, Yu Gong slowly—very slowly—began to drink.
“Nice.”
Cheong Myeong slowly poured wine into his own cup. Then, as though drinking in a contest with Yu Gong, he raised it to his lips.
Up until now, the liquor had been for them. But this cup alone belonged wholly to him.
Everyone.
The image of the 100,000 Great Mountains, which had passed by as though it meant nothing, rose in his mind.
Don’t blame yourselves too much. I’ll go there someday too.
The harsh liquor slid down his throat.
Memories of the past, which had been crawling up from below, were washed away by the wine Cheong Myeong forced down, sinking back into the depths. But…
The scent left behind in that place did not disappear. It drifted around Cheong Myeong, lingering in the air.
Just like on those days long ago.