Stop Talking and Listen to People! (5)
“What did he say?”
“He says this isn’t the place?”
“Heh. So it’s not?”
“Guess this isn’t the mountain.”
“Wow, so we were wrong.”
Cold sweat trickled down Baek Cheon’s back. The damned bastards were all narrowing their eyes and stealing glances at him.
“Then if we’d died here, wouldn’t that make it a useless death?”
“We’d have become water ghosts, wouldn’t we? Vengeful spirits, vengeful spirits. The sect leader would’ve come later and held a memorial for us.”
“Wow. What an impressive plan. Really reassuring.”
“Hwaeghmarg…….”
“What was that? I can’t quite hear you.”
“Cut it out…… or I’ll hit you.”
Baek Cheon clenched his teeth and trembled all over.
But by then, Chung Myung’s interest had already moved on from him.
“What? This isn’t it? Then who the hell beat up our kids and dragged away the commoners?”
“I-I don’t really…….”
“Don’t really?”
“I-I really don’t know!”
“You don’t know? So that’s it?”
Chung Myung seized Jo Seung by the collar and started shaking him like a rag.
“And this bastard’s acting up too! You don’t even know something like that, and you still run around playing bandit on the water? Fine! You say you’re good at swimming, huh? Let’s see if you can still get away when I tie you up from head to toe, chain a boulder to you, and chuck you in!”
“P-please spare me! You said you’d spare me!”
“I did?”
“Yes! You clearly…….”
“I did?”
“…….”
Jo Seung looked blankly at Baek Cheon and the other disciples. But they all deliberately looked off into the distance and avoided his gaze.
We’re sorry.
What else can we do?
Amitabha. May you be reborn in paradise.
Wow…….
What a filthy world.
“So, in other words! You heard what I said, right? With your own ears?”
“……No. I must have misunderstood.”
Jo Seung had survived the savage black water fish all this time by reading the mood, and at this moment, he instantly knew exactly what he had to say.
“Anyway…… you don’t know?”
“Th-that’s right.”
Chung Myung turned to look at Baek Cheon with a sulky expression, and Baek Cheon protested as if he’d been wronged.
“No, we went aboard and looked for special supplies! We told them we were from Mount Hua Sect, but they still drew blades on us—who would’ve suspected that?”
“……That’s what he says.”
“Th-that…… they’d heard that special escorts were sailing around Jiujiang, so as bandits on the water, how could we not at least try to poke around once?”
“Then why did you keep slashing at us even after hearing we were Mount Hua Sect?”
“That was…….”
Jo Seung scratched the back of his head awkwardly, looking embarrassed.
“Who would’ve thought the Mount Hua way up in distant Shaanxi would actually come all the way to the Yangtze? Hahaha…….”
“Hahahaha!”
“Ha…… hahahaha!”
“You’re laughing?”
Crack!
From Jo Seung’s mouth, his neck twisted like it was about to snap, and a beastlike scream burst out.
“Why are all the youngsters these days so damn clueless? And now even a water bandit is grinning in my face!”
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Jo Seung’s head whipped violently left and right.
“Die! Die, you bastard! Die! You don’t know anything! You can’t read the room! Then you should just go die! Die!”
It was a bizarre sight.
The one being thrashed by Chung Myung now was a thief. If the authorities had caught him, only beheading would have been an acceptable punishment; if he’d fallen into the hands of another righteous warrior, his head should have come off in a single stroke then and there.
And yet Chung Myung was currently performing a miracle that made even a water bandit who deserved death look pitiful.
“Aaaagh! I remember! I remember! I’ve got a lead!”
“Oh?”
Chung Myung stopped his fist and brightened at once.
“You remembered?”
“Yes! Yes! I-I have an idea!”
At that, everyone applauded in their hearts.
You can wring water from a dried squid after all.
He’s making an answer out of nothing…….
Amitabha. What a sight no one should be forced to witness.
Jo Seung’s face had swollen like a steamed bun, so much that his original features were no longer discernible. He opened his mouth with desperate urgency.
“R-recently, I heard some water bandits had set up near Dongting Lake.”
“What the hell does that mean? Aren’t you lot the Water Bandit Sect? Then why are you talking about some other water bandits?”
“O-our Daegyeong Fort is one of the Yangtze River Eighteen Water Forts, but that doesn’t mean we manage every single water fort on the entire Yangtze. If it worked that way, wouldn’t everyone trying to set up a new fort have to go ask permission from the Black Dragon King? That makes no sense.”
“Really?”
Chung Myung turned to Im So-byeong as if asking him to verify it, and Im So-byeong nodded.
“It’s true. A bandit fort is established first, and only after its scale grows does it come to the Green Forest. Then we decide whether to fold it into the Seventy-Two Forts and exclude other forts, or whether to let it use only the Green Forest name.”
“That’s ridiculously troublesome.”
“Sometimes I think Dojang Chung Myung seems to know everything about the world, but when it comes down to it, he doesn’t actually know the basics. This is common knowledge.”
“Why would I need to know the common knowledge of mountain bandits or water bandits? I can just catch them and kill them.”
“…….”
At a loss for words, Im So-byeong let his shoulders droop. Baek Cheon patted him on the shoulder as if to say it wasn’t his fault.
“It’s all right. It’s all right. Anyone can tell that bastard’s the bad one.”
“……Thank you for saying so.”
In the short time it took, Chung Myung had already created a whole new set of victims and dragged Jo Seung back over by the collar.
“So?”
“T-the forts under the Water Bandit Sect almost never use such brutal methods. If a fish farm gets destroyed, the fisherman dies, doesn’t he? If what they say about the commoners being dragged off is true, it was probably those guys. Newcomers are the ones who act brutal without knowing any better.”
“Hmm.”
Chung Myung nodded as if that made sense.
“There aren’t any other water forts around here?”
“N-not around Jiujiang. Daegyeong Fort has everything locked down…….”
“You lot don’t seem that strong, though.”
“…….”
Tears streamed down Jo Seung’s face.
It’s you who’s a monster, you bastard!
The words thundered in his heart, words he could never, ever say aloud.
“Tsk.”
Chung Myung stared hard at the Five Swords before him, his face full of dissatisfaction. The Five Swords, in turn, merely kicked at the ground beneath their feet.
“W-well…….”
“…….”
“You know…….”
“…….”
“Forget it. Don’t speak.”
“Insult us, damn it, you bastard!”
“Get angry at us!”
“Ah, fine, we were wrong!”
In the end, everyone who could no longer hold it in erupted at once. But Chung Myung only clicked his tongue and turned his head away.
Wasn’t indifference the most miserable thing of all? The Mount Hua disciples suddenly felt a deep, searing sense of injustice.
Still, it was also true that if not for Chung Myung, they would have been dead without question, so they had no real excuse.
“Whatever. This is good enough, I guess.”
“……Really?”
“Who could’ve imagined they’d drag the whole boat over? Can’t be helped.”
Why was he acting like that?
If it had been his usual self, he would’ve been furious, flipped over, and rolled around on the ground.
“Still.”
Chung Myung looked at Baek Cheon and the others with slightly colder eyes.
“If wanting something badly was enough to make it happen, then this wouldn’t be Jianghu.”
“……I’m sorry.”
“Good. As long as you know.”
With that, Chung Myung gave a light nod. An awkward silence settled between them for a moment.
After all, the Five Swords had plenty to feel guilty about and nothing to say, while Chung Myung was a man who had bitten plenty of people but had never once comforted anyone. So there was naturally nothing for either side to talk about.
Into that awkwardness, Im So-byeong slipped neatly.
“So what now, Mount Hua Divine Dragon? What about that water fort?”
He was trying to change the subject discreetly, and Chung Myung let him have it without pretending otherwise.
“What else? We crush them.”
“First, I sent some of the captured water bandits to the other forts nearby. Told them to find out whether there’s a place that’s been kidnapping commoners.”
“……And they just obeyed?”
“Of course not. I drugged them. Told them their guts would melt and they’d die if they didn’t come back within five shichen, and they turned white as sheets and ran off like their tails were on fire.”
“…….”
Chung Myung had been about to praise him for being clever—something like, Having one smart guy really does make things easier.—but he quietly shut his mouth.
He kept forgetting that bastard was a bandit.
“Anyway, from the look of it, this doesn’t seem to be the work of the Water Bandit Sect’s men.”
“Seems that way. Well, can’t be helped. Damn, what a waste of effort.”
While listening to the conversation the whole time, Yoon Jong thought, Then what the hell are the water bandits who got beat up out of nowhere supposed to make of this disaster? But he didn’t say it aloud.
Honestly, water bandits didn’t really need a reason to get beaten up.
The problem was that the ones saying it were a mountain bandit and a Taoist who was worse than a mountain bandit.
“After digging through the water bandits’ information, it seems those guys have made an island their base.”
“An island? What do you mean, an island?”
When Chung Myung tilted his head, showing he didn’t quite understand, Im So-byeong carefully explained what he’d heard.
“So…….”
After hearing the explanation in full, Chung Myung said in disbelief, “Because the Yangtze is so wide, there are places where islands sit in the middle like it’s the sea, and those bastards are using one of those as a water fort to build their strength?”
“It seems so.”
“……There are all kinds of freaks in this world.”
“What will you do?”
“What do you mean, what will I do?”
Im So-byeong shrugged.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend attacking an island. We’re bandits on the mountain, not water bandits. If it’s somewhere our feet can touch the ground, there’s nothing to fear, but fighting on a boat is a little hard on us. We don’t exactly have anyone who knows how to steer one, either.”
“You worry about the strangest things.”
“Pardon?”
“There are plenty right there who know how to steer boats.”
Chung Myung pointed at the bound water bandits with a jerk of his chin.
“No way…….”
Im So-byeong’s eye twitched.
“The basic rule is to use water bandits against water bandits! This is iijeolje!”
At last, the Five Swords, who had been holding it in and holding it in, muttered among themselves.
“He sure likes saying iijeolje.”
“Let him. It’s one of the few characters he knows.”
Regardless of their muttering, Chung Myung turned toward the Yangtze and ground his teeth energetically.
“Island, my ass. If they picked a fight with Mount Hua, I’ll chase them all the way to hell and smash their heads in! Tell those guys to steer the boats! We’re moving out right now!”
“……No, my own opinion…….”
Im So-byeong was in the middle of saying something when Chung Myung suddenly draped an arm over his shoulder.
“Why are you making such a fuss? We’re all in the same boat here.”
“……I’m saying this because we’re really about to be in the same boat. I get terrible seasickness.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll handle everything. You don’t trust me?”
“May I answer honestly?”
“No.”
“……Yes.”
Watching Chung Myung’s expression carefully, Im So-byeong said cautiously, “No…… at this point, I’m not against it anymore, but if that’s the case, we should just wait for Mount Hua Sect reinforcements and go together. That would make things easier, wouldn’t it?”
“Nah. That won’t do.”
“Why not?”
Chung Myung looked at him as if he’d just heard the most ridiculous question in the world.
“What if the boat sinks and our kids fall into the water?”
“……Then what are we, not people?”
“Can I answer honestly?”
“……Don’t.”
“Hurry up and get ready. I’m a busy man.”
“…….”
Im So-byeong’s choice had not been wrong. He had merely overlooked one thing.
That the world didn’t only have racehorses running a set course—sometimes it also had racehorses that broke out of the track and kicked people in the face.
Sadly enough.