Oh My, Goodness. What on Earth Is Going On? (4)
"Did you say Yunnan?"
Jo Pyeong’s voice was edged with a faint trace of anger.
Jo Gul closed his eyes slightly at the sound. His father, whom he was seeing again for the first time in years, had grown a little more gray in the meantime.
"Yes."
"And you said that knowing what kind of place Yunnan is?"
"I do."
"And you still said it!"
Jo Pyeong’s face trembled faintly.
"You come home after five years, and the first thing you ask is for me to find a way for you to go to Yunnan? So you’re saying you didn’t come home at all?"
"That’s not it."
"You little brat!"
Jo Pyeong stared at Jo Gul in utter disbelief.
"It’s already been a full year since the day you promised you’d come home. You show up this late, and now you’re telling me you still haven’t come home? Is that what you call coming home?"
His voice was clearly furious.
And yet Jo Gul knew better than anyone that his anger was laced far more with worry and frustration than anything else.
'This is exactly why I didn’t want to come.'
With a sigh, Jo Gul lifted his head. This was a situation he was going to have to face sooner or later.
"Father."
"Yes. Go on, then."
"Going to Yunnan is something I absolutely have to do."
"What you absolutely have to do is return to the family and take over the guild."
"But there’s my older brother, isn’t there?"
"Have you forgotten our family’s tradition? All members of the family are supposed to carry on the business together. That is our law, our tradition!"
Jo Gul let out a long breath.
"I promised the sect leader that I would make this trip to Yunnan a success."
"And the promise you made me wasn’t a promise?"
"That’s…"
"Enough excuses!"
Jo Pyeong cut him off sharply.
"I even allowed you to join the fallen Mount Hua because you said you wanted to test yourself somewhere your family’s influence didn’t reach. I believed hardship in a place where you had nothing would help you grow into a fine man. And now you’re betraying your promise to me, saying you’re going to stay holed up in that Mount Hua sect!"
"Mount Hua is no longer a fallen sect. Soon, the name of Mount Hua will shake the whole world."
Jo Pyeong looked straight at Jo Gul.
"...If you say so, then perhaps that may be true."
He did not lightly deny or dismiss his son’s words.
"But that is Mount Hua’s business. The place you should be putting your strength to use is Sahe Sanghoe, our family, is it not?"
"..."
"Gul-ah."
Jo Pyeong exhaled deeply.
"I’m your father. How could you fail to understand the heart of a father who has sent his child off to a faraway place?"
"...Father."
Jo Gul worried at his lip. In the end, this was a conversation that could only run parallel without ever meeting. And he knew full well that the fault was his.
"Please find a way for me to go to Yunnan."
"You—!"
"After that, I’d like us to talk again."
There was a flicker of something in Jo Pyeong’s eyes as he looked at his son.
Meeting that gaze head-on, Jo Gul spoke.
"This is something I must do as a man, and as a disciple of Mount Hua. Until I finish this, I won’t be able to do anything else. Just this once more, please let me follow my own will."
"Mm."
Jo Pyeong gave a heavy sigh.
"And you know how dangerous it is to go to Yunnan, and still you ask this?"
"Yes. I’m prepared."
"I understand what you want. But it isn’t as though I have some brilliant way to get you into Yunnan."
Jo Gul quietly studied his father before speaking.
"I confirmed that Pu'er tea from Yunnan is circulating in Chengdu."
"..."
"The family’s guild is selling it as well. If there were no trade route, that would be impossible. No matter how much Southern Barbarian Beast Palace blocks things, at least a minimum amount must still be getting through. Isn’t that right?"
"Mm."
Jo Pyeong let out another low hum.
As far as he knew, Jo Gul had arrived today, and he had only spent a very short time walking around Chengdu. Yet he had already pieced together how the tea was moving. That meant he had been thinking about this sort of situation for a long time.
'What a shame to have such a gifted merchant brain.'
And yet the boy was obsessed with swords, like some child at play. It was impossible to understand.
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"There will be caravans going to Yunnan."
Jo Gul’s eyes lit up.
"Whether it’s smuggling or an official trade caravan with Southern Barbarian Beast Palace’s permission, whether it’s small or large, there will definitely be caravans. Please let me accompany one of them. I’d even gladly go as a porter."
"No."
The one who refused was not Jo Pyeong, but Hua Yeon-bi, who had been quietly listening to their conversation all this time.
"Mother."
"Yunnan is a dangerous place. And the reason you’re trying to sneak into Yunnan under a false identity is because you intend to do something even more dangerous there, isn’t it?"
Jo Gul lowered his head without replying.
He couldn’t lie to parents he was seeing again after five years.
"What kind of parent would help send their child off to his death? No. Absolutely not."
"Mother."
Jo Gul spoke firmly.
"Have you not always told me that leading a caravan means taking risks?"
"..."
"How can someone who can’t even manage one trip to Yunnan become a good merchant? Please, let me go."
"You don’t even want to be a merchant!"
At that moment, Jo Pyeong spoke in a tone of clear reluctance.
"Do you truly have to go?"
"Yes."
"And if I don’t allow it?"
"Then…"
Determination settled in Jo Gul’s eyes.
"I’ll put on these clothes with the plum blossom embroidery and walk into Yunnan if I have to."
"You damn brat!"
At last, unable to hold back his temper, Jo Pyeong sprang to his feet.
He glared at his son with terrifying eyes, but Jo Gul only met that look with calm composure.
After the silent standoff lasted a while, Jo Pyeong’s strength seemed to drain away all at once, and he sat back down.
'You’ve grown up.'
This wasn’t some childish impulse.
As a merchant who had spent his life making countless deals, he could tell. This wasn’t naivete, and it wasn’t recklessness. It was the will of a man who had already chosen his own path.
Thinking that pushing any harder might truly make him lose his son, Jo Pyeong bit his lip slightly.
"Then let’s do this."
"...How?"
"What you’re trying to do by going to Yunnan is deal with Mount Hua’s business, isn’t it?"
"It is."
"Then you’ll be going with Mount Hua’s disciples, and acting with them?"
"Th... that’s right?"
Jo Gul’s voice was already losing confidence.
Uh…
This was not how this was supposed to go.
"Then the Mount Hua disciples who came with you are the ones who will accompany you to Yunnan?"
"Uh… um, yes…"
Jo Pyeong did not wait for Jo Gul to finish.
"Then I’ll meet them first and decide. I want to see whether they’re truly people I can trust to take you with them. That is the best compromise I can offer. What do you think?"
"Uh…"
The spark in Jo Gul’s eyes vanished.
Imagining what would happen if Jo Pyeong carried out exactly what he had said, Jo Gul desperately tried to steady his trembling pupils before speaking.
"Ha…"
"Huh?"
"H-How about one person gets left out?"
"..."
Jo Pyeong stared at his son with a look that said he had no idea what was going on.
* * *
"And so I have brought them before you."
Baek Cheon gave a slight respectful clasp of the hands.
"My apologies for the late introduction. I am Baek Cheon, a second-generation disciple of Mount Hua. Please forgive us for the lack of preparation in unexpectedly visiting the home of our junior brother."
"Please think of this as your home and stay as comfortably as you like. If you are Jo Gul’s martial uncle, then you are no different from family to me."
"We appreciate your hospitality."
Baek Cheon smiled faintly, then said,
"However, there is one matter I must bring up, and I ask your indulgence as I do so."
"And what matter would that be?"
Baek Cheon’s gaze settled solemnly on Jo Gul.
"Mount Hua had no idea that Junior Brother Jo Gul made such an agreement with the head of the family business. If we had known, the sect leader would have sent him straight back. Please do not think Mount Hua has done something presumptuous."
"Ah, of course. That child does have that side to him."
"Thank you for your understanding."
Watching Baek Cheon’s manners, Jo Pyeong let out a soft admiring breath.
'What a talent.'
Baek Cheon in his white robes was so striking that even a man could not help but admire him. With both courtesy and dignity to his name, how could one not be impressed?
The same was true of the people seated to his left and right.
The one on the right was not especially eye-catching at first glance, but the depth in his eyes made it instantly clear that he possessed a calm and composed nature.
And the woman seated on the left was of such extraordinary beauty that Jo Pyeong had never seen the like in his life. On top of that, her movements held both precision and grace.
'I had no idea Mount Hua was overflowing with prodigies like this.'
He could begin to understand why Jo Gul liked Mount Hua so much.
And yet…
'Why is that one there?'
There, beside them.
Yes, beside them.
The final Mount Hua disciple was a little… no, he was rather strange.
Since entering the room, that boy had not once taken his eyes off the bottle of alcohol in front of him. He stared at it with such intensity that it was almost as if he intended to drink it dry with his gaze alone.
"...But that person there is..."
"Ah."
Baek Cheon waved a hand decisively.
"Please don’t pay him any mind."
"No, I mean I am paying—"
"It’s fine. He’s always like that. He’s in a bad state because he was drinking and got cut off in the middle."
What?
Drinking…?
A daoist?
Chung Myung smacked his lips and stared at the bottle.
"That’s why I said I wasn’t coming…"
"Be quiet."
The instant Baek Cheon started to speak, Yu I-seol poked Chung Myung hard in the side. Chung Myung clicked his tongue in disappointment and shut his mouth.
"Ahem."
Seeing that bizarre scene, Jo Pyeong understood at once who the one Jo Gul had wanted to exclude was.
'Yes. Not everyone can be a prodigy.'
But why had they sent that one along with the prodigies? It was utterly incomprehensible.
"You said you called us here because of the matter of going to Yunnan?"
"That is correct."
Jo Pyeong sighed.
"My son, who returned after five years, is throwing a fit and insisting on going to Yunnan, so I’m in a dreadful position."
Baek Cheon’s gaze moved to Jo Gul. In response, Jo Gul flinched and lowered his head.
'Look at that.'
Even when Jo Pyeong had been shouting at him, Jo Gul had held his head high. But under Baek Cheon’s gaze, he immediately tucked his tail. It was clear how deeply he respected Baek Cheon.
"How may we help you?"
"To be honest, it’s not so much that I need help as… I wanted to see whether I could trust the people who would be taking my child to that dangerous place called Yunnan."
"I see."
Baek Cheon closed and opened his eyes once.
"There’s no need for that."
"...Pardon?"
Baek Cheon said firmly,
"No parent would want their child to go somewhere dangerous. We will not be taking Jo Gul to Yunnan. So please, head of the family, help us get to Yunnan…"
"I’m going, Martial Uncle!"
Jo Gul shot to his feet.
"There’s no way you can go without me! If my legs are broken, I’ll crawl there! Don’t even think about leaving me behind!"
"Sit down."
"Martial Uncle!"
"I said sit."
Jo Gul clenched his teeth and reluctantly sat back down.
Meanwhile, Chung Myung quietly withdrew the hand he had been stretching toward the liquor bottle.
'Come on, argue a little more.'
Then he might have been able to sneak a drink.
"Martial Uncle. I told the sect leader I would go to Yunnan and complete the task. Even if you are my martial uncle, you cannot stop me."
"Do you truly think that?"
"...Pardon?"
"If the sect leader had known about this, do you think he would have told you to go to Yunnan?"
"That’s…"
Baek Cheon was absolutely unyielding.
"The sect matters. But the family matters too. Is doing something your parents do not want truly your dao?"
"...Martial Uncle."
"You are here…"
"Dao my ass."
At that moment, Chung Myung, who had until then cared only about the liquor bottle, spoke up lazily.
"Doing whatever you want is the dao!"
"..."
Baek Cheon looked at him, pained.
"Stay out of it!"
"No. That’s not it, Martial Uncle!"
"...What do you mean, not it?"
"What kind of sense does it make to leave Sahyung behind just so you can go to Yunnan a little more comfortably? It’d be better to suffer a bit more."
Baek Cheon’s face hardened slightly.
"This is Jo Gul’s family matter."
"What we’re doing is sect business."
Unusually serious, Chung Myung’s voice held none of his usual playfulness. For that reason, Baek Cheon naturally faced him with a similarly solemn expression.
"Whether he values his family or his sect more isn’t something you, Martial Uncle, get to decide. That’s entirely Jo Gul Sahyung’s decision."
"But…"
"Even if you’re his senior, you can’t force that on him. That’s just something of the heart. Yeah. Only a matter of the heart."
There was something oddly profound in those words.
When Baek Cheon fell silent, Chung Myung turned to Jo Gul.
"So what are you going to do, Sahyung?"
"...You’re saying I get to decide?"
"Isn’t that obvious?"
"But to go to Yunnan, I need the family’s help…"
"Jeez."
Chung Myung cut him off decisively.
Then, without hesitation, he reached out, grabbed the liquor bottle, and tipped it back as if drinking straight from the jug.
The alcohol went gulp, gulp, gulp down his throat.
"Khh!"
He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and grinned.
"You worry about the weirdest crap. Who do you think I am? Even without this nonsense, I’d smash the Beast Palace and every other bastard’s skulls in. Don’t worry about that stuff and do whatever you want!"
Chung Myung flexed one arm slightly, showing off his biceps.
At that, Jo Gul couldn’t help but laugh.
'It’s weird, but whenever that bastard acts like this, I feel at ease.'
With his expression noticeably brighter, Jo Gul slowly spoke.
"I…"
It was right then.
Knock, knock, knock.
A knock sounded at the door, followed by a slightly raised voice.
"Head of the family."
"...What is it?"
"A, a guest has arrived."
At this hour?
Jo Pyeong’s face hardened coldly.