Want to Make Las Vegas with Me? (2)
A few hours earlier, before seeking out Dogoe, Hui-yeom had first paid a visit to Eunharu—the finest pleasure house in all of Suzhou.
Unlike Beijing, where the Emperor resided and no building was permitted to exceed the Forbidden City in height, Suzhou suffered no such architectural restrictions. With the city half land and half waterways, the scarcity of solid ground only made the structures climb higher still.
Feels like even less land than the twenty-first century. Probably because there's no reclaimed land. Still, it's remarkable they raised these multi-story towers with nothing but joinery and nails—no rebar, no concrete. This era's architecture isn't something to dismiss lightly.
Hui-yeom took in the glittering buildings around him as he arrived at Eunharu's entrance. Just as the Haomun men of the Horse-Demon Branch had done, someone here had clearly been tracking his movements. A tall man waited at the main gate, and the moment he spotted Hui-yeom he bowed at the waist in greeting.
"Young Hero Dang Hui-yeom of the Sichuan Crouching Dragon—thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for honoring Eunharu with your presence. It is our privilege to receive you. I am Gam Song, humble general manager of this establishment."
"You flatter me. I am merely one more rising talent among many. Ceremony of this sort is better suited to seniors who have spent long years serving the martial world."
"Haha—humble as well, just as they say. This way, please. The proprietress is expecting you."
Hui-yeom was led straight to the uppermost floor of Eunharu. Contrary to the claim that the proprietress was waiting, the top floor was empty. The space itself had no walls at all—only a roof, open on every side like a grand pavilion.
"Where is the proprietress?"
"She will be up shortly. She is personally preparing the wine and dishes…"
"Ah. Understood."
He was the one who had arrived unannounced; there was little ground for complaint. Hui-yeom occupied himself with the view, and one fact soon struck him.
Nothing in the city stands higher than this place. All of Suzhou is laid out beneath my eyes.
Only then did he understand why the floor had no walls. He could look down in every direction and feel something close to omnipotence and freedom—yet no one below could see him unless they deliberately craned their necks. The same logic that put a conglomerate chairman's office or a hotel cocktail lounge on the top floor of a skyscraper.
"The sunset over Suzhou is rather magnificent, is it not?"
A voice sweet enough to melt on the tongue drifted from behind him. He turned. A beautiful woman stood smiling, her figure lit by the dying sun until she seemed to burn red-gold.
The moment he saw her balancing a tray, a single thought crossed Hui-yeom's mind: This one overflows with feminine allure.
If Sama Yun was pure and pitiful and Jegal Eun-ryeo possessed a refined, intellectual beauty, this woman simply radiated ripe, intoxicating womanhood. She knew it, and made no effort to hide it. The thin silk robe she wore—draped more than worn—followed every violent curve of her body as it slipped downward. That lush, overflowing figure would have made a fine contest even against Dang Su-jeong.
If one were unkind, she looked a little older. Late twenties if one were generous, early thirties at most. Considering Dang Su-jeong's age and beauty, the woman before him might well be of similar years.
That, perhaps, was why Hui-yeom alone remained unmoved. Any other man would have stood frozen, mouth open, eyes stolen. He merely smiled and returned the greeting.
"Indeed. Looking down at an entire city steeped in sunset is a deeply romantic sight. My only regret is that I have no talent for poetry, calligraphy, or painting."
"My, a young master who understands refinement. If you visit again late at night, the view grows even more intoxicating. The Milky Way of moon and stars spills across the sky, across the canals, and across Suzhou itself."
"The galaxy in the heavens, the galaxy reflected on the water, and the galaxy of lanterns in the pleasure quarter—certainly worth seeing. A pleasure to meet you, Proprietress. I am Hui-yeom of the Sichuan Dang Family. Or should I address you as Branch Leader?"
The woman smiled faintly at the words.
"Seol Baek, Suzhou Branch Leader of Haomun and head of the Wind-Flow Branch. In the jianghu they also call me the eldest of the Four Beauties of Murim—Pungryu Gahwa, the Flowering Song of Wind. You are most welcome, Young Master."
"So you are the eldest sister among the Four Beauties."
"Hehehe. Embarrassing as it is, I have long since outgrown the age for such a title."
So she really is around the same age as Aunt Su-jeong.
It was nothing to mock. That she still held the seat meant no other beauty of the realm had yet managed to dislodge her, even after all these years.
"Still—what business brings the hero who saved the Central Plains, the lucky man who took the youngest of the Four Beauties as his wife, all the way to Eunharu? Surely you haven't come to pluck another flower of the Four Beauties simply because you already have one… hehehe."
"Spare me words you don't mean. I love my wife."
"Of course you do. Yet is it not a man's nature never to be satisfied with only one woman?"
"One is enough."
It was no joke. Hui-yeom had experienced the meaning of "dried up and twisted" with vivid clarity. The memory of a certain honeyed, hellish night with Sama Yun threatened to surface; he shook it off, then offered his characteristic gentle smile.
"I came to present a business proposal to the Branch Leader. Depending on how you receive it… it may sound closer to a declaration of war."
"A declaration of war? My, how frightening. What wicked scheme has that greedy fish-head of the Horse-Demon Branch been whispering in your ear?"
"Whatever he said, I had no intention of going along with it—which is precisely why I came to you instead."
"Oh my. Does that mean you intend to abandon the Horse-Demon Branch and join hands with me?"
"No. I intend to take all of Suzhou. But only after I have taken the four Branch Leaders first."
"You can't seriously think that is a reasonable proposal."
"Hear me out first, then decide."
"And if I listen and refuse?"
"I am certain you will not refuse."
"…What absurd confidence. Very well—let us hear it. But first…"
Seol Baek grinned and gave the wine bottle a little shake.
"Honest conversation is incomplete without wine, is it not?"
Hui-yeom and Seol Baek traded cups while they talked. At first, most of the speaking was his.
"Suzhou is already one of the foremost tourist cities in the Central Plains. It makes excellent money even now. Once transportation improves, far more visitors will reach it with ease, and the profits will grow larger still. The state-sponsored works I am carrying out with His Majesty's leave will turn the Yangtze's chaotic, merchant-controlled water logistics into something faster, more rational, and reliable enough for the many rather than the few. The new Angang Personal Boat service is part of that effort."
"Originally I planned a simple commission service—handing Personal Boat passengers over to the local boatmen of Suzhou for a fee. Angang takes the commission; the Suzhou boatmen receive customers. Everyone wins."
"I see."
"But once tourists arrive to enjoy themselves, how can the pleasure houses be left out of the arrangement? Naturally, linking with you would create a powerful synergy."
"Customers come to us whether we lift a finger or not. Why bother?"
"You say customers come even if you do nothing—yet you still send sedan chairs to see regulars home, don't you? Left alone they would find their own way. It is the same principle."
"Mm. When you put it that way, I have little room to argue."
"Providing convenience is itself a great value. There's an old saying—same price, choose the red skirt. The power of package sales is greater than most expect. Linking transport to entertainment keeps customers from wandering off down side paths."
"I understand. But what does any of that have to do with the Dang Family swallowing Suzhou whole?"
"Because Haomun lacks the capacity to oversee a city-wide enterprise of that scale."
"…"
It was the truth. Even if Seol Baek herself won the branch leadership contest and became Suzhou's Haomun Branch Leader, the other factions would never truly obey her—except her own Wind-Flow Branch. Haomun was no disciplined hierarchy; it was a loose collection of cells and individuals, each looking out for themselves.
She hesitated, then asked carefully:
"Young Hero… what do you intend to do about the Palace of Rapture and the Red Snake Chamber?"
"Ah."
The Palace of Rapture and the Red Snake Chamber were the two great unorthodox sects that dominated Suzhou. Strictly speaking, Haomun occupied a subordinate position under their protection. Many of the city's pleasure houses were run by the Palace of Rapture, with Haomun members merely working inside them.
A gathering of the powerless and the weak. To unify and properly manage such people required either overwhelming martial strength or the magnetic force of personality—the kind the previous branch leader had possessed.
"Truthfully, our Dang Family does not care who it is. We install one branch leader as a figurehead, roughly purge the factions of the others, and the rest runs itself. Since Tam-ri approached us first and handed us the pretext to interfere in the succession, Haomun has no grounds to complain. Even if they did complain, there is little they could do about it."
The Dang Family had no reason to fear Haomun. Haomun was not a sect of strong martial artists. Other factions found them troublesome for two reasons only: they could never be fully rooted out, and their information network was formidable. Yet after Hui-yeom's thorough remodeling of Sichuan, Haomun barely existed there at all. The worst they could do was spread rumors that Hui-yeom colluded with bandits and river pirates to monopolize state projects—rumors that might sting him, but how much weight would anyone give the words of thieves, thugs, pickpockets, and courtesans?
The political animals in Beijing would seize any excuse to tear at him, of course. Hui-yeom could even fall from grace. But if he fell, the Dang Family's grudge would remain. And given that the Emperor himself had authorized those state projects, no one could pretend His Majesty was ignorant. In other words, the true hand guiding Hui-yeom belonged to the throne—and the Emperor's wrath would burn Suzhou's pleasure quarter to ash.
Tam-ri had thought to threaten Hui-yeom into withdrawal. To Seol Baek's eyes, that was as reckless as playing with fire outside an oil warehouse. As a high-class courtesan who flattered officials and traded in secrets, she understood the machinery of court far better than Tam-ri ever could.
That stupid greedy fool overreached beyond his station—and now he wants to chase a fox by inviting a tiger!
Seol Baek turned the problem over in her mind a while longer, then gave up. In the present situation there was no way to escape the Dang Family's hand. Even Haomun itself would not side with her. Knowing the Sichuan Crouching Dragon's character and ability, she could easily imagine him walking straight to the Haomun Master and saying, Let's do some business. I've got a plan to make serious money in Suzhou, but the local branch leaders aren't to my taste. Mind replacing them? And the current Haomun Master—her own "master"—would have no reason to refuse.
"…All right. I'll follow the proposal."
"No need to think of it as a loss. From now on Suzhou will become the greatest city of pleasure in the Central Plains—larger and grander than today, yet entirely legal: tourism, entertainment, and gambling. I've decided to call the project this."
Hui-yeom smiled with complete confidence.
"The Lasubaegasu Construction Plan."
"Patrol the waters and multiply profits?"
"Suzhou will become a beautiful destination where water, gambling, wine, and pleasure coexist. At the same time it will become a model city that pays enormous taxes. Branch Leader Seol Baek—I have very high expectations for the role you will play."
Seol Baek could only nod blankly.
"…Yes."
Having heard the story this far, Dogoe's mouth fell open.
"Good heavens. Little brother, you really are something else."
"Thank you for the compliment."
"But that still leaves the Dark Night Branch, doesn't it? What do you plan to do about those thieves? Bring them in as well?"
"The Dark Night Branch… from what I hear they are less an organization than a loose guild of individual thieves who never act as a group. There is no room for negotiation. We kill them on sight—or those who surrender can be re-educated and put to work as security or intelligence agents."
"Hmm. Is that so? My thinking is a little different."
"Pardon?"
In the very next instant, Dogoe's fist tore through the air toward Hui-yeom.