The Black Lotus Gambit
Haomen.
Jo Gwak was an orphan.
In the brutal world of Zhongyuan Wulin, orphans didn’t have many choices to begin with.
At the very least, Jo Gwak, a lowly rank-and-file Haomen member, could count as one of the more successful ones among the street-born lot.
“All right, forget that for now. I’ve got a job for you.”
“Huh?”
For a moment, Jo Gwak thought he’d misheard.
What the hell had he just said?
No, calm down.
He forced himself to think back over the day from the beginning.
Today was the day the information brokers, Jo Gwak included, reported the intelligence they’d gathered to the branch chief.
Jo Gwak had dug stubbornly into the death of the Byeokun Merchant Group’s lord, an incident that had recently set Beijing ablaze, and he’d come away with something to show for it.
He’d returned to the branch in high spirits, grinning to himself, and finished his report just moments ago.
Yeah, no, I definitely misheard him.
The branch chief would never shove a hard-won scoop to the side like that.
“What, pretending you didn’t hear me?”
But the branch chief opened his mouth and flatly crushed Jo Gwak’s hopes.
“Huh?”
Jo Gwak asked again, like an idiot.
“The what, huh? There’s someplace you need to go.”
“Where, exactly?”
He couldn’t make heads or tails of this conversation.
Is he messing with me?
He knew the branch chief wasn’t the sort to joke around on the job, and yet he found himself thinking something that stupid.
“I’ll only say it once more. Go investigate the Hebei Paeng Clan’s good-for-nothing bastard.”
The branch chief gave him a look of annoyance.
Jo Gwak was just as stunned.
Black Lotus? Surely he meant the rumor that had been making the rounds in Beijing’s streets and markets.
“Branch Chief, you actually believe that nonsense?”
Black Lotus—the black lotus.
A flower that existed only in fantasy.
“Even if it’s nonsense, what matters is who’s saying it.”
The branch chief lit his cigarette.
“That Paeng Clan bastard, the one with a shattered dantian who can’t even do his job properly—the useless wreck?”
“You know him well enough, so why aren’t you moving?”
“Branch Chief, I’m useful, aren’t I?”
“Yes, you are useful.”
The branch chief nodded.
“That’s exactly why you’re the one who should go.”
“What? How does that make sense?”
He couldn’t accept it.
Jo Gwak didn’t want to waste precious time chasing a rumor that was obviously bullshit.
“I know what you’re worried about. It’s hard to trust that Paeng Yeohun bastard.”
The branch chief was right on the mark, as if he’d peeked into Jo Gwak’s head for a second.
“That’s right.”
Jo Gwak nodded.
He still couldn’t understand why the branch chief was fixated on this nonsense, and his face stayed hard.
“You don’t get why I’m reacting like this.”
“…No, I don’t.”
Jo Gwak answered honestly.
“How long have you been working under me?”
“A little over three years.”
“Three years, huh. Has it really been that long….”
The branch chief looked at him for a moment, then nodded.
“All right. This is usually only told to proper disciples, but… you should be fine.”
Jo Gwak swallowed reflexively.
That meant the branch chief had, in his own way, acknowledged Jo Gwak as a legitimate Haomen man, didn’t it?
Soon enough, he might even get the title of a proper disciple.
“First, let’s establish one thing. Does Black Lotus really exist?”
“W-well, if you’re reacting this strongly, doesn’t that mean there’s something to it?”
“No. Black Lotus does not exist.”
The branch chief shook his head firmly.
“Then what…?”
Jo Gwak still couldn’t understand what the branch chief was trying to say.
“Black Lotus is the token of a vow made by Haomen’s founding leader and his close friend. It isn’t a real flower.”
“A vow? A founding leader?”
Everything he was hearing was new.
“Yes. The short version is this: if you bring out the token, the black lotus jewel, they’ll help you whenever you need it.”
“Help?”
The words sounded grand, but the definition of help was annoyingly vague.
“Don’t look at me like that. You think the standard is too fuzzy, don’t you?”
He really can read minds, can’t he?
Jo Gwak felt a chill run up his spine.
“Of course it’s fuzzy. It was a promise made when the founding leader was young, between him and his close friend.”
“A close friend?”
“Yes. Not blood-related, but they were said to be no different from brothers.”
Brothers not bound by blood.
Jo Gwak had known people like that too. He couldn’t remember their faces now, but he had once.
That was what life born and raised in the streets did to people.
If you survived, they became memories. If you didn’t, they became nightmares.
“The founding leader told his brother this: even if they ever became enemies someday, they would keep the vow.”
“But Branch Chief, that still doesn’t give me a reason to listen to the Paeng Clan’s bastard.”
Now he understood, at least somewhat, why Haomen would react so sharply to Black Lotus.
But even so, he still didn’t understand why the Paeng Clan’s bastard mattered.
“He only mentioned Black Lotus by chance, didn’t he?”
Who was that bastard from the Paeng Clan anyway?
Arrogant, shameless, and completely witless—didn’t even have a proper brain in his skull.
There was no way a moron like that would know anything about an old vow.
It was a coincidence, that was all. No reason to make such a big deal out of it.
“There’s one thing missing from what I just told you. Do you know what it is?”
The branch chief asked quietly.
This was a test.
If he was being tested, then Jo Gwak would pass with flying colors.
What’s missing?
He closed his eyes and worked through the branch chief’s words, and soon enough, he found the answer. It wasn’t a difficult problem.
“The other person—his friend. You left out the friend’s name.”
“That’s right. Good catch.”
The branch chief smiled at the answer.
“As a reward, I’ll tell you who he was. That friend’s name was Paeng Cheonggang.”
“Paeng? Wait, no way.”
“Yes way. Paeng Cheonggang, the founder of the Hebei Paeng Clan, one of the current Five Great Families.”
The branch chief continued calmly, “Is it true? That the Paeng Clan of the Five Great Families and the founder of Haomen, a faction of the lower world, were friends?”
“Well, in the past, people didn’t divide the world into orthodox and unorthodox paths the way they do now, so there’s no contradiction in the two of them having been close.”
At this unexpected revelation, Jo Gwak’s eyes went wide.
Haomen was one pillar of the unorthodox world, and the Hebei Paeng Clan was one of the Five Great Families, a pillar of the orthodox world.
And the founders of those two groups had been friends?
More than that, they’d been close enough to make a vow?
“Is it really all right to tell me something like this…?”
What the branch chief had just said was the kind of thing that could shake the foundations of Zhongyuan itself.
It wasn’t something he should be telling some low-level punk who was still only on the road to success.
“Go ahead and run your mouth about it somewhere else. Who’d believe you? They’d all just say you’d lost your mind.”
The branch chief snorted.
“Well, that’s true.”
Right now, if Jo Gwak started spouting this nonsense in broad daylight, nobody would believe him.
“But… if that’s the case, wouldn’t the Paeng Clan’s bastard obviously be lying?”
Jo Gwak asked, still confused.
He understood that such a promise had existed in the past, but if the one talking about it wasn’t the Paeng Clan head, and instead some disowned bastard like Paeng Yeohun?
There was no way it was true.
“Well, I think so too.”
The branch chief nodded as well.
“Then there’s no reason to go chasing after him, right?”
Jo Gwak said it plainly.
“I think so too, but….”
The branch chief let out a short sigh and pulled something from his pocket.
“What is that?”
“Black Lotus. The black lotus.”
“…This?”
Jo Gwak frowned.
It looked exactly like a lotus freshly plucked and then doused in ink.
“That’s fake, isn’t it? You said Black Lotus was a jewel.”
“Of course it’s fake. Still, look closely.”
The branch chief shoved the shabby black lotus right up to Jo Gwak’s face.
Even now, it was still just a half-assed thing that looked like someone had smeared ink over a cheap lotus.
Wouldn’t it be a laughingstock if he went out and got fooled by that?
“Huh?”
Jo Gwak’s eyes flickered slightly.
There was something strange about the lotus.
“Writing?”
Words had been engraved on the petals.
At a glance, they looked like stains, but if you leaned in, they were clearly letters.
“Do you see it?”
“What… is this?”
“Friendship. Interesting, isn’t it?”
Friendship.
What an absurdly fitting word.
“Could it be….”
“Yes. I’m told the real Black Lotus also bears those same characters.”
The branch chief took out several more Black Lotuses from his pocket and laid them out in a row on the table.
Every single one had writing engraved on the petals.
“Satisfied now? You can’t say the bastard doesn’t know about Black Lotus anymore.”
“…”
Jo Gwak closed his mouth.
If what the branch chief said was true, then only a tiny handful of people knew the secret of the real Black Lotus.
For some rare token like that to be reproduced by chance so accurately was practically impossible.
“So the higher-ups want to know how the Paeng Clan’s bastard learned this, and if he did know, then by what route. And whether the entire Paeng Clan knows about it too.”
Only then did Jo Gwak fully understand the situation.
Vows like this gain power when the number of people who know them is small.
But if the Paeng Clan’s bastard, of all people, knew—an exiled bastard at that?
Then it could no longer be called a secret.
“They said he’s staying at the Byeokun Inn. Go there fast and check what the hell made him bring up Black Lotus.”
“Understood.”
Jo Gwak nodded.
It better be a waste of time.
He mentally hurled every curse he knew at the Paeng Clan bastard who had caused all this commotion.
* * *
“…Who’s cursing me?”
It had been a peaceful day, like any other.
I’d gotten my hands on money and was enjoying the hell out of what you might call economic freedom.
Then, out of nowhere, my ears started itching.
...Come to think of it, it’s about time someone bit.
I’d thrown out a top-grade lure that nobody with a brain should be able to resist.
If they didn’t bite, I’d be the one in trouble.
I’d sunk half my fortune into preparing that bait, and I’d practically torn myself apart working through the night to do it.
“A pleasure.”
Right on cue, someone casually took the seat across from me.
He’d taken the bait.
“And you are?”
“I’ll ask straight out. How do you know about Black Lotus?”
Before I’d even finished my question, the man was already frowning as he opened his mouth.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
First, I played dumb.
“This. You made this, didn’t you?”
The man reached into his robes, pulled out an ink-stained lotus, and shoved it in front of my face.
Yep. He’d bitten all right.
“Well, yeah.”
“How did you know?”
“Know what?”
I kept it light, and his face only grew nastier.
“Hey, bastard, do I look like I came here to joke around with you?”
“What if you did?”
As our words traded back and forth, his face cycled through red, blue, and purple with alarming variety.
“I don’t want to have to use force, so tell me why you pulled that stunt, and tell me everything you know.”
The man ground his teeth and growled at me.
“I just pulled a prank because I wanted to catch Haomen’s eye.”
I gave a small shrug.
“What…?”
“Didn’t you hear me? I said it was just a prank.”
“You little—!”
The man shot to his feet and threw a fist straight at me.
This is nice. He’s moving exactly as planned.
I muttered to myself and clenched my fist.
Heavenly Luck Fist
The dice began to roll.
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