Proposal and Uninvited Guests (1)
“Well then, ‘Aww-yes,’ enjoy your day off… Pfft.”
Dang Un-sang stamped the leave papers while barely containing his laughter, and Dang Su-jeong’s fists trembled with rage.
Smashing a fist into that smug bastard’s face would have felt wonderful for a moment, but today was special, so she held herself back.
Yes.
Today was a special day.
Even the explosions of the Innovation Hall chirping outside the window sounded sweet, and the powder-smoke laced with poison vapors rising from the underground of the Poison Hall smelled fragrant.
Overwhelmed by the swelling emotion, she flung the window wide open, and a pouring downpour welcomed her.
“Ahh~! What perfect weather!”
“It’s raining…”
Her beloved nephew Hui-yeom stared at her as if she had lost her mind, but no, impossible—her adorable nephew would never look at her like that.
Dang Su-jeong approached Hui-yeom with a bashful smile and clasped his hand tightly.
“I heard you practically designed the entire hangar yourself?”
“Secretary Lee did most of it. I just helped a little…”
“Kyaa!! A living bodhisattva! How did that childish monkey of a brother of mine produce such a thoughtful, beautiful child? Oh my, you precious thing!”
When Dang Su-jeong even planted a kiss on his cheek, Hui-yeom laughed helplessly.
“Aunt, I’m twenty-three. I even have children. Aren’t you treating me a bit too much like a kid?”
“Ah, how could I not when you’re this cute! Oh… and look, our fairy is here too~!!”
The look Dang Su-jeong gave Ye-eun went far beyond dripping honey; it was the gaze of a starving honey badger staring at an entire jar of the stuff.
Whatever happened to the days when she had subtly kept her distance, claiming she could never read Ye-eun’s true thoughts? Whatever happened to the body language that screamed “I will never trust her” while she constantly probed and guarded against her? Those days seemed buried like black history she was determined to forget completely. Dang Su-jeong charged forward to hug her.
Ye-eun, startled, dodged with that peculiar footwork of hers that wasn’t quite a martial art and yet somehow was—
Fwoosh—!
Dang Su-jeong’s body split in two, stretched like taffy, and succeeded in wrapping her arms around her.
Sama Yun, who had been bouncing little U-ju in her arms, muttered in disbelief.
“She’s using Form Displacement for this?”
“Secretary Haaaan!! Thank you so muuuuch!! Aigoo! How can one person be this perfect, hmm? Pretty, competent, great at bodyguard work—just perfect!”
“…Please let go.”
“Nooo~! I’m not letting go!!”
Dang Su-jeong began frantically rubbing her cheek against Ye-eun’s.
Two soft, white rice cakes meeting and rubbing until the Yangtze boiled over… well, not quite that far, but the contact was far more intense than usual, and Ye-eun looked genuinely terrified.
Barely escaping Su-jeong’s embrace, Ye-eun glared at her from behind Hui-yeom like a hissing cat.
Yet the eyes that looked back at her remained utterly gentle…
Everyone present reached the same conclusion.
Dang Su-jeong has lost her mind!
Hui-yeom let out a sigh mixed with laughter.
“Are you that happy?”
“Of course! Hey! I’m finally getting married, hehehe!!”
It was already an established fact that Lee Jin-myeong would propose today.
The man she had long harbored feelings for—originally she had meant to keep him at arm’s length because of the age gap and their different positions—but she had been unable to withstand his confessions, which went beyond solid straight pitches and felt more like cannonballs packed with grapeshot blasting straight at her.
Today she would finally see the fruit of it all. How could her heart not flutter?
“Hmm-hmm~.”
Humming a little tune, she headed toward the place where she was to meet Lee Jin-myeong.
Even though the entire family knew about it, somehow meeting him at the estate and leaving together still felt… off.
With footsteps light enough to fly, she opened her umbrella and ran out into the pouring rain.
Thanks to her swallow-like footwork, not a single fold of her skirt got wet.
“…Does anyone usually go that far?”
“Normally they’d change the date.”
“Why didn’t they?”
“Apparently he didn’t want her to wait even one more day.”
“A matched pair of lunatics. Perfect for each other, damn it.”
Dang Un-sang brushed his arms as if the sight of his blood kin drowning in love was somehow repulsive.
For reference, the reason they could have this conversation while watching Dang Su-jeong go to meet Lee Jin-myeong was simple:
They were tailing her.
“…I never dreamed Aunt wouldn’t notice my surveillance…”
“Her heart’s out in the cabbage field. Disqualified as a martial artist.”
Hui-yeom and Dang Un-sang.
“…So why am I here?”
“Aren’t you going to look after your junior to the end?”
“I already helped with his career and saved his life once. What more do you want?”
“Come on, you were curious too. That’s why you came along without much protest, right?”
“….”
Ye-eun.
“Oh my, oh my, look at your sister-in-law! Makeup that looks natural but she put real effort into it? She never uses those pure, innocent tones… how adorable.”
Eun Seol-ran.
If someone asked whether the core pillars of the Dang Family and their closest aides had nothing better to do than gather to peep on someone else’s love life, they would have a hard time answering.
But how could they not care?
It wasn’t just anyone—it was those two.
Interest is born from affection.
And so they had decided to watch over Su-jeong and Jin-myeong’s somewhat special day.
On the way to receive a proposal—
Of course he wouldn’t just blurt it out immediately. They would spend the whole day having a wonderful time and the proposal would come at the end.
Just imagining it made the inside of her chest tickle so much that Dang Su-jeong could barely hold back the silly grin spreading across her face.
Just for today, I really have to act demure!
She made a firm resolution.
She had never once been ashamed of her formidable martial strength.
She had been the last trump card of the declining Sichuan Dang Family.
When the family faced an unprecedented crisis, two genius siblings of extraordinary talent had appeared.
Her brother Dang Un-sang was bound by the duties of Family Head and could not move freely, so she had to act.
As the Dang Family’s iron mace, as its poison,
like a wounded dog that barks louder and bares its teeth, she returned even more merciless retribution to anyone who dared look down on or touch the family even slightly.
If she had not done so, the Dang Family would already have collapsed long ago.
From Sichuan’s First Flower to Sichuan’s Blood Flower, from Blood Flower to Poison Phoenix, and from Poison Phoenix back to Blood Phoenix—it had not even taken ten years.
The pure young girl who loved martial arts more than anyone and loved her family more than anyone
had been forced to pile up a tower of skulls high enough to rival the demon heads of the Demonic Cult.
She had no regrets.
They had all been villains who tried to violate the Dang Family.
Yet as the notoriety of the martial artist “Blood Phoenix” rose higher,
the name of the woman “Dang Su-jeong” had been smothered in its shadow.
The shadow cast by the proud life of a martial artist that she had chosen was that cold.
But then…
—Chief Dang is the most charming woman in the world to me.
He had appeared.
—? Haven’t I told you countless times? I’ve never seen a beauty who can compare to Chief Dang.
—Is a pretty face everything? Of course not. Chief Dang isn’t just beautiful—she possesses a strong heart and a sense of responsibility. A true heroine. I can’t help but admire her.
—How can I say such embarrassing things…? My heart has nothing to hide and I stand with a clear conscience, so what is there to be embarrassed about?
—Other people’s reactions? Ignore them. They’re just jealous of Chief Dang.
—If I could save only one life between mine and Chief Dang’s… Family Head, I don’t understand the intent of the question?
—Huh? You still want an answer? Hmm, of course I would save Chief Dang’s life.
Risking one’s life for the person one loves is the natural duty of a lover, is it not?
—The fact that Chief Dang is stronger than I am is unimportant. What matters is that I love Chief Dang and that I possess the resolve to offer even my own life for her.
—But why are you asking all this…? Pardon? Lie detection? Everything is true? Ah, so Senior Han has that ability? Ohh… I didn’t know… Yes? Well of course. I, Lee Jin-myeong, may admit when I don’t know something, but I am no petty man who speaks falsehoods.
At first she had thought he was just another common man trying to use her, a direct descendant of the Dang Family, to secure a good position.
It had happened many times before.
No one truly loved her, no one truly wanted her, so those who pursued her fell into one of two categories:
They wanted her as a weapon, or they wanted her as an ornament.
The handful of scum who saw her as an object of lust weren’t even worth discussing.
So she had no choice but to view Lee Jin-myeong the same way.
But as time passed,
after she learned that he was already the left-hand man of Hui-yeom, the family’s real power, and had no need for such schemes, she tried hard to grasp his true intentions.
And from the moment she realized that this man was a sincere person who possessed pure, unvarnished straightforwardness itself—
the heartfelt confessions he threw at her every single time nearly drove her insane.
How on earth had a man like this come to her?
Countless men had wanted her until now.
Some coveted the martial power of the Poison Phoenix.
Some wanted her for her beauty, which—despite her prickly personality—had still ranked her among the Seven Beauties of the Martial World.
Some harbored the filthy desire to make the famous heroine of the jianghu their own.
Countless fools had courted her, been thoroughly humiliated, and been driven away.
She had never needed a man in her life.
And yet,
only after Lee Jin-myeong came to her did she realize she had been thirsty all along.
Like a single cup of sweet dew after a long drought,
Lee Jin-myeong’s presence had gently moistened her heart, which had unknowingly grown barren through long years of life in the martial world.
So this time she would convey that feeling.
She would answer his heart.
And for that, she would become a “demure and shy woman.”
Hadn’t she even badgered Sama Yun into teaching her pure, girlish makeup techniques for that very purpose?
Her face reflected in the glass mirror looked quite decent even to her own eyes.
She had worried the pouring rain might smear her makeup, but the thought that the slightly damp clothes clinging to her body would reveal a woman’s alluring curves made even the downpour feel lovely.
Thinking that, she ran to the meeting place… only to find—
“Hey, can’t you hear me? Your splashing mud got all over Young Master’s expensive silk clothes! How are you going to make up for it, huh?!”
Something completely absurd was happening.
People say that when something is too ridiculous, a person becomes strangely calm.
Watching Lee Jin-myeong being threatened by a gang of thugs, Dang Su-jeong felt her heart freeze solid.
In Sichuan, no one touched people of the Sichuan Dang Family.
Forget about valuing their own lives—lately the Dang Family was treated like a living Buddha’s household, so no one would dare.
Dang Su-jeong’s gaze turned to Lee Jin-myeong, who was unusually well-groomed.
Instead of his usual overworked scholar look, he was dressed like a refined young nobleman, and her heart fluttered anew.
Ah, so he wasn’t wearing anything that marked him as a member of the Dang Family.
In his own way, he must have felt awkward showing up in family colors when proposing to a blood relative of the Dang Family. She understood.
She understood, but she was angry.
Wasn’t this the same Lee Jin-myeong who had nearly died from an assassination attempt not long ago?
How could such a fragile man who would blow away with a single puff of air walk around so defenseless?
And so,
the fury of a woman whose beloved was being threatened transformed into seething killing intent aimed at that gang.
Judging by the way they were crowing without even recognizing Lee Jin-myeong’s face, they were outsiders.
And for them to cause this much of a scene right in the middle of the marketplace, they had to be the son of some family with a bit of power, along with his servants.
Did she care?
Striding forward, Dang Su-jeong hurled her resolution to “be pure and demure just for today” into the far corners of her memory and flared her eyes, which now burned a vivid green.
“…I’ll make you regret ever being born.”