Taking Over Suzhou
In the split second Dogoe’s fist came flying, Hwiyeom froze solid, unable to move.
He had only just crossed the threshold of First-rate and was still merely brushing the edges of Peak; with that level of ability, properly perceiving the fist of a Transcendental Peak master was simply impossible.
Fortunately, instead of bursting Hwiyeom’s head like a watermelon, Dogoe’s fist passed over his shoulder and smashed into the space behind him.
—BOOM!!
“Guhh!!”
At the sound of something exploding like a cannon and a groan of pain, Hwiyeom finally realized Dogoe had struck someone behind him and spun around.
There, already reduced to a distant black speck, a man in dark clothes was fleeing.
“An assassin?”
“Close enough. The branch leader of the Amya Branch—a man called Ganryeong.”
“That man just now? Why would he…?”
“He wouldn’t have had some long-standing grudge, would he? If he did, he wouldn’t have attacked Little Brother right in front of me. More likely he was watching the situation, decided it was hopeless, and jumped in on impulse.”
“He never expected me and Great Hero Jang to join hands, I take it.”
“Exactly. And the shock made him leak his presence.”
Dogoe let out a hearty laugh.
“…Should we not pursue him?”
“Chase him? That one? Forget it. Unless the Murim Alliance itself lays out a heaven-and-earth net, you’ll never catch him. His martial level isn’t anything special, but when it comes to hiding and running, he’s one of the best under heaven.”
“I see…”
“Just give up on the Amya Branch. They’re not like the Hyeopgaek Branch, all clustered together in one neat pack, so wiping them out is impossible. Leave them be and kill them whenever they show their faces.”
“Understood. We’ll do it that way.”
“What, I can’t even do this much for the benefactor who exposed a fixed game?”
Dogoe laughed again.
Hwiyeom reflected deeply to himself.
He had put far too much blind faith in the power of gunpowder weapons and the authority that came with social status. If Dogoe had not protected him just now, he might have died without even knowing why. The same was true this very moment. If Dogoe stopped laughing and suddenly threw a fist, Hwiyeom would die.
Sending Aunt Su-jeong to the Hyeopgaek Branch and coming here alone was a mistake.
Why had he believed every opponent would be rational, capable of dialogue, and persuadable simply by presenting the proper balance of profit and loss? Why had he thought that even if talks collapsed he could simply turn and walk away?
Even after more than twenty years living in this world, his fundamental way of thinking was still that of a twenty-first-century man. And Hwiyeom once again reminded himself that this was a savage world where a single moment of carelessness could bring not social death, but biological death.
“So that Lasubaegasu Plan isn’t going to start right away, is it?”
“No. The queue is pretty backed up. First is the second State-run Ironworks construction, then the Beijing Railway Joint-Stock Company project, and only after that.”
“Hmm. So what do we do in the meantime?”
“We can’t launch the massive construction of a whole new entertainment district yet, but we can put the systems in place beforehand.”
“Put systems in place?”
“Building a tight cooperative framework for mutual benefit. For that, we’ll need to negotiate with Haomun as well.”
“The Haomun Master, huh… Hmm.”
“What kind of person is he?”
Dogoe answered Hwiyeom’s question.
“How should I put it… An old hag who has a few things in common with you, Little Brother.”
“An experienced woman, I take it.”
“She’s in her sixties, so yeah. And with that age she practices the Zhuyan Art and goes around pretending to be a middle-aged courtesan. Creepy as hell.”
Dogoe brushed his arms as if just thinking about it gave him goosebumps.
“I’ll be able to meet her, won’t I?”
“After stirring up this much of a storm, she’ll come looking for you first, don’t you think?”
“Understood. I’ll prepare so the negotiations benefit both sides. Then I’ll take my leave for now.”
“Hold it. I never once said I was cooperating.”
“Pardon?”
The atmosphere had made him assume they had already shaken hands. Hwiyeom rewound the previous conversation in his head and soon gave a bitter smile.
“You’re right. My mistake. Then does Great Hero Jang have no intention of cooperating?”
“To be honest, those grand plans and businesses of yours don’t matter to me one bit.”
He grinned.
“What matters to me is fun gambling. Ever since I learned this damned martial art, the whole world turned colorless. Only gambling makes me feel alive—makes me happy, makes me angry.”
“I see.”
“So… let’s settle the matter between us with a gamble as well.”
“A gamble… Does that mean I have to win for you to accept my proposal?”
“No. Just play one round. A gambling table reveals a man’s true nature more clearly than any conversation or debate.”
“I understand. Then what shall we play?”
“Hmm…”
“?”
“All sorts of games come to mind, but most of them rely on sleight of hand or pure luck, so they’re no good for seeing the person. There is one excellent game, though—I wonder if you know it…”
“What is it?”
“A game that only appeared recently, and even in Suzhou it’s just starting to circulate in the bigger gambling dens… Have you ever heard of… mahjong?”
“Pardon?”
“Mahjong. Originally a four-player game, but one-on-one works fine.”
“Mahjong…”
Hwiyeom stared blankly for a moment, then let out a short laugh.
Of all the games he could pick against me, it had to be mahjong.
“Elder Dogoe, you really shouldn’t gamble.”
That day, Dogoe had his soul completely cleaned out by Hwiyeom. Unable to accept it, he finally staked a zero-wage, zero-pay labor contract on one last, ultimate, end-of-the-line, final-final-last showdown—and was annihilated by a yakuman hand of Kokushi Musou. They say he howled in despair.
For reference, Kokushi Musou is the mahjong equivalent of a royal straight flush in poker.
“Y-you cheated! How else could you—!”
“That’s enough.”
And that was not the end of it.
The gamblers of the Dohon Branch who had gradually gathered around began placing side bets among themselves while watching Hwiyeom and Dogoe’s table. In the end they all stood with their mouths hanging open at Hwiyeom’s godlike hand movements, the growing mountain of chips in front of him, and the endless stream of yakuman hands.
When Dogoe finally tore at his hair and sank, the other gamblers all rushed Hwiyeom at once. Until the worried Dang Su-jeong and Lee Jinmyeong finally arrived, Hwiyeom was forced to show the gamblers of Suzhou a heaven beyond heaven until late into the night.
“Thanks for the fun~ Ah, I’m sure you’ll honor the contracts~.”
As he rose from the table, Hwiyeom distributed every coin he had won that night as a house tip. That did not mean he was being a soft touch. The gamblers who had signed zero-wage, zero-pay labor contracts—Dogoe included—bowed their heads as heavily as men who had mortgaged their souls to the devil.
“…Will they actually work if you don’t pay them?”
Hwiyeom answered Lee Jinmyeong’s question with perfect calm.
“No salary, but there will be bonuses. If they want to clear their debts quickly, they’ll work themselves to the bone. The loan interest is a bit steep, you see.”
“Debts? Loan interest? What are you talking about?”
“Later on they started borrowing money from me to bet. The going loan rate at Suzhou gambling dens is roughly… forty percent monthly compound. If they don’t want their whole lives mortgaged, they’ll have to work themselves to death.”
“…The man who smashed Yeowangchae is doing this. It’s a little confusing.”
“Even when you make analogies… Secretary Lee, when did I ever tell them to borrow money? I kept saying we should stop. They’re the ones who went crazy and kept charging in.”
“…Weren’t you the one who deliberately held weak-looking hands to lure them in, Young Master?”
“That’s on the idiots who fell for it.”
“….”
Today, once again, the Young Master was terrifying.
Lee Jinmyeong shook his head in sympathy for the Dohon Branch gamblers who had been sucked dry down to the marrow.
Having cleaned up Suzhou’s Haomun in the blink of an eye, Hwiyeom returned to the Juma Branch. This time Tamri was waiting for him with a far more complicated expression than before.
“Well now… I failed to recognize a truly formidable person. To think you would settle the entire Suzhou Haomun in a single day.”
“You flatter me. I was merely lucky.”
“Excessive humility starts to sound like arrogance. I regret ever putting a justification into your hands that day. If I hadn’t dragged you into the Haomun succession struggle myself, I would never have had to hand all of Suzhou over to you…”
“What do you mean?”
At Hwiyeom’s words Tamri gave a short laugh.
“No need for professionals to play dumb. You now hold two candidates for Suzhou branch leader. There’s no longer any real need to prop me up, and the same logic applies to the other two. You can install whoever you want as Suzhou’s branch leader, and the three of us have no choice but to follow your orders. Am I wrong?”
“That’s quite a leap. Without the Haomun Master’s consent, isn’t that just an empty hypothesis?”
“And you’ve already prepared a secret plan to persuade the Haomun Master.”
Tamri let out a long, deflated sigh, then gave a sly smile.
“Very well. I admit defeat. From this moment the Juma Branch follows your orders.”
“Your situational awareness is a real convenience.”
“It was always my only strong point.”
“Have a seat. Let’s talk about what comes next.”
“Yes.”
Hwiyeom and Tamri sat facing each other with cups of wine.
“The Lasubaegasu Plan will take quite a long time to realize. But there are things we can do even before then.”
“You mean the business partnership between Angang Personal Boat and the Suzhou Boatmen’s Guild.”
“Exactly. You remember the proposal I made on the first day? Today let’s discuss the concrete details. We’ll even write a memorandum of understanding so it can go straight into practice between the two groups.”
“Do we really need to go that far? Your will is already as good as mine, Young Master.”
“We do. Tamri, a transaction between groups must never become a transaction between individuals. In an extreme example, you and I may be replaceable, but the contract between the two groups must not change.”
“…You’re not openly threatening to discard me the moment things go wrong, are you?”
“Hahaha. Of course not.”
Hwiyeom gave a short, dry laugh. Then, in a slightly softer voice that was somehow even firmer, he whispered again.
“Right. Of course not.”
“…….”
Tamri completely erased every remaining thought of rebellion from his heart.
Before this monstrous schemer, even the smallest omen would be exposed, and any attempt at betrayal would be answered with the most terrible retaliation. But as long as he proved himself a useful servant, the rice bowl would overflow with bones.
Having grasped the essence of the man called Hwiyeom with uncanny accuracy, he rose from his seat and knelt before him.
“What is this?”
“Please accept my loyalty, my lord. Though I belong to Haomun, from now on I shall serve you.”
“….”
Hwiyeom looked down at his back for a moment, then smiled sweetly.
“Good. Let’s make one more contract, Tamri. Only this one will be carved not on paper, but in the heart. Remember this well. I will continue to give you benefits no one else can provide. Therefore do not betray me. If you betray me, every last one of those benefits will vanish like dust, and you will fall into the abyss amid the most exquisite suffering.”
“Loyalty!”
And so Hwiyeom wrote the memorandum of understanding together with his newly sworn retainer Tamri. With that, Angang Personal Boat and the Suzhou Boatmen’s Guild were firmly bound by a business partnership.
Holding one of the two copies, Hwiyeom asked Tamri, who was still gently blowing on the seal paste to dry it.
“Tamri, I have one personal request…”
“What is it?”
Hwiyeom hesitated in a rare display of awkwardness, then finally forced the words out.
“A date… I mean, could you recommend a good itinerary in Suzhou for a young couple to spend time together?”
“Pardon?”
“We’ve been talking nothing but business ever since we arrived, and I feel my wife might be feeling left out. I’d like to give her a somewhat special experience… and I doubt anyone knows this place better than you.”
“….”
Tamri stared blankly at Hwiyeom for a moment, then for the first time that day broke into a bright, wide grin.
“Leave it to me!”