A Modest Investment (5)

"A refusal? Unexpected. You looked desperate enough that I thought you'd snatch the offer up at once."

"If that is what you thought, then it seems you know a great deal about me."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

In truth, I did not know much. I was only pretending that I did. I had learned his real name moments ago, from his own mouth. The name I knew was Merchant King — Dok-am.

All I actually held were the steps he would take from here, and the few words he had left me, broken as shards.

"How could anyone claim to know another person completely? All of it is conjecture. I do know what you want, at least. You need someone to put up the money, do you not?"

I dressed it up just enough, and let it pass.

"Yes."

"And I am the backer whose interest you've caught."

"That is correct."

"Then why refuse? If you knew who I was, you should have been certain I would make a backer more than satisfactory."

"I believe it is dangerous money — more than I can bear as I am. You mean to invest in me funds you pocketed while playing the second young master of the Golden Manor. I have no wish to involve myself in anything that might later make an enemy of the Golden Manor. By the collusion of certain factions, I could even be branded a public enemy."

"Not entirely wrong."

That was my mistake. By laying the risk bare myself, for no good reason, I had given him cause to take a step back.

Even so, the man I knew as Dok-am was the sort who would move readily enough, so long as the profit outweighed the loss. I would have wagered this was a test — his way of taking my measure. Even now, I had to grant that he was impressive.

"And if the deal falls through, and I choose to kill you and bury every trace — what then, that you speak so freely? You have seen who I am. Unless we board the same boat, you are a liability to me."

"Then that would be my fate. Better that, a hundred times over, than being dragged along helpless with no choice at all. Above all, Young Master, you will not be able to kill me."

"Why?"

"There must already be men at your side rated higher than I am. If you passed them over and went to the trouble of finding me, you will have had your reasons. To a merchant, time is gold, is it not? I would be too dear to cut down in a single stroke."

"A clumsy boast turns to arrogance, and arrogance will close around your throat."

"Conviction with grounds beneath it can also open the door to a new opportunity."

"So. What is it you truly wish to say to me?"

"I mean that you will neither steer my course nor order me about like a subordinate. If, however, you invest not in me but in my venture, and if you say you will wait until it bears fruit, then I am inclined to accept. It is an opportunity that will not come to me easily."

Watching him, one of the things the Heavenly Demon had once said flickered through my mind. What would she have done? Walking a different road from hers would never erase what I had learned at her side, and followed. To me, she had been the greatest of masters.

Yes. As the Heavenly Demon had done with me, so in this life the commanding of others was my charge, and my capacity. I wanted to trust the quality of Dok-am in his youth — of Baek Mun-gyu — and put him to use. But that had been my greed.

What unsettled Baek Mun-gyu, what he feared, was my position: a man who had not even cleanly closed his affairs with the Golden Manor. The eyes that watched me from outside came home to me anew. My place struck against my own skin. Unlike Cheon Yu-wol, who had been sure of herself, I was still lacking. I understood that setting Baek Mun-gyu beneath me was impossible. What had to be admitted, I would admit — and then I would think about what I could actually do.

"Very well. I will cleanly abandon any thought of taking you under me."

Baek Mun-gyu's brow twitched, ever so slightly. I could not tell whether he was startled that I had accepted the matter so calmly, but it was true that the look he turned on me grew a shade stranger.

"I have a condition of my own, however."

"Please, speak."

"Since I cannot step to the fore myself, I will set someone in my place. And to invest in a single venture is far too small a stake, set against the worth I have seen in you."

"……"

"I believe in your worth, and I trust the continuity of the ventures you will carry forward. In that sense, one pledge. I will settle the matter of the Golden Manor on my own side, and until that is done I will stand another in my stead."

I went on.

"Seol-ha."

At the call, Seol-ha stepped into the room. Her face was set as she looked at me. She had already heard every word spoken within.

"She is my sister. Should you need to reach me, send a messenger or a carrier pigeon to her. And further—"

Seol-ha's eyes grew wider and wider, and still I pressed on without hesitation.

"Contracts, and the division of profit on every venture, can be handled through her. In return, I will take six parts in ten of the earnings, and whenever it is needed we will discuss what share of that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is to be put back in. I expect to look favorably on most of it."

"I will need time to deliberate."

"A few days more will change nothing. I am a busy man myself. And you are hardly so dull to profit and loss that you need several more days of fretting, are you?"

"This is a decision on which I stake my life. I do not know how you see me, but I bear that much weight as well."

"Then let me make it easier. If you do not decide now, I will not board the same boat as you."

"You said you would give up keeping me as a subordinate — and yet in the end you mean to hold my purse strings in place of a leash. Is that not so?"

"Well begun is half done, as they say. I will be the one to place that half in your hands, so I ought to take a price to match. For a merchant, what bond is surer than the purse? So long as each of us profits the other, we will be the finest of friends. As partners."

Baek Mun-gyu looked from me to Seol-ha and back again.

"It seems the lady who is your sister never anticipated this choice at all."

"Settle the decision first. I will persuade my sister afterward, so do not concern yourself with that. I give you time enough, here and now."

I wet my burning throat with another swallow of wine. Honestly, even I did not know whether he would take the offer.

Then, after a long silence, he asked me outright.

"As of this moment, how much are you able to invest in me? Be specific."

"Promissory notes of the Hwangpyo Money Exchange, under the Golden Manor. What these notes can draw comes to two thousand five hundred taels of silver — half a coffer of gold. Substantial funds. Enough to purchase five hundred pyeong of land, nearly half an acre, on the outskirts of Chengdu. Sufficient, is it not?"

In truth, it was more than sufficient. It would have stunned him. No one lays out money on this scale for a stranger met the first time.

"The venture I intend requires as much again as the sum you have just named. Within three months at the latest, you must raise that much more for me. Can you?"

"Hm."

"Once we begin, we cannot stop midway. Opportunity is taken from you the instant you leave a gap. Capital enough to drive the thing through in one push is essential."

I knew little of Baek Mun-gyu as he had been — of the Dok-am of the past — but I knew exactly the affair that had first made him shine, once he began to move in earnest under the name Dok-am. It was the tale of how he bought the land over a hidden underground mine, as if he had seen what was to come. Buried there in vast quantity was an ore called Blood Jade Stone, and that had been an event without precedent: the moment countless factions came to know his name. The one power that had invested in him was reborn at a stroke, from a group that had only ever watched its step among the great collectives into a power with strength of its own. The group that would be called Baek Mun-gyu's right arm.

"Very well. I pledge the additional capital as well. So set the Hao Sect aside from your plans for the time being. I will be the better string to pull."

At that single sentence, a strange light passed through Baek Mun-gyu's eyes. He could not take his gaze from me, and a hollow laugh escaped him.

"Astonishing. I had heard that Young Master Geon-gon received no support at all from the Golden Manor — a bird in a cage, whose talent had never bloomed…"

"Not untrue. But to say it so bluntly is a bit much."

"I beg your pardon."

"No need to scoop up water already spilled. In any case, the cage was too small for me, so I broke out of it."

"Remarkable."

"If that is sincerity and not flattery, then I thank you."

"Hear it however you wish."

I let out a short laugh and brought the brief exchange to a close, the better to drive the point home.

"Well then. If you found no one else of use at the Sichuan Dragon and Phoenix Gathering besides me, take this chance. Enough time has passed by now, I should think."

Baek Mun-gyu nodded, carefully.

"In any case, I had already meant to give up the search for a better backer, as of this year."

Inwardly, I let out a breath of relief. A change of plans, coincidence stacked upon coincidence, had instead brought this meeting with him to pass.

"Even so, do not commit the folly of cutting the Hao Sect away as if you had no need of them. To my eye as well, they are the sort who would make good partners, if one joined hands."

The Hao Sect was a gathering of those the world called vulgar and low. Among courtesans, pickpockets, thieves, shop clerks, and the ordinary folk one passes by chance, their eyes and ears were everywhere. They were a net of cells, bound together for one another's survival. Their cohesion was weak — and yet, given only a cause, a man could draw from them a great store of intelligence and of hands.

In time, I meant to leave open the chance of forming ties with them through Baek Mun-gyu as well. Useful people are better the more of them one can put to work.

"How is it that the scion of a distinguished house would seek to join hands with the Hao Sect, so full of the vulgar and the harmful?"

"What has noble or base to do with the making of money? If both sides can be satisfied, both prosper. Fail to understand that, and you may as well close up shop."

"……"

He looked like a man who had run out of things to say, and in that look I felt a peculiar, clean satisfaction. At once I had Seol-ha draw from the bundle at her hip the things we had prepared.

"Think of it as earnest money. I have the papers ready to match. Stamp the mutual agreement with the seal you carry. A man out seeking a backer is hardly likely to be without his own seal."

"Were you so certain I would accept?"

"I didn't even know you were here. I only prepared."

"I have weathered my share of storms, and still I am no match for you, Young Master."

"Enough flattery. Let us make the contract."

We pressed our seals at the center of the agreement, then split the tally and each took half. At last, after all the push and pull, the contract was done.

"Come find me again around the time spring arrives. I will have the funds I pledged ready in advance, as notes. I will send them through my sister."

"Understood."

"Before that…"

He indicated my cup.

"Do you mean to go on drinking alone?"

So he had been hoping for a cup all along. With a broad laugh, I passed him mine. I poured, and he drank it off in a blink, drew a deep breath, and rose.

"Before I go, I would ask one thing more."

"Speak."

"Why was your choice me, Young Master? Even granting it was a decision of profit and loss, I cannot quite be persuaded that you would choose a man who has proven nothing at all."

"……"

"In truth, you don't know my venture, do you? I have never shared my plans with anyone."

It seemed I had found him a little early. His question was sharp enough. But I was a man who knew the future.

"Turn it around. A man already laying practical plans for the very venture I had weighed would have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to be rather insightful. There cannot be many ordinary fellows with an eye on a single market town along a frontier where drought comes often. Least of all on the underground mine buried beneath it."

Baek Mun-gyu could not answer. A fine tremor ran through him. Nothing said another man could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not have conceived the venture he meant to build. He, of course, did not know that, and he stared at me as if he were looking at a ghost.

"I feel as though my soul might leave me. I have never been stripped bare like this."

"A far-reaching plan, the will to act, the connections you have built — and my capital added to them. I expect you will pull the schedule well forward. How long do you give it before the investment is recovered?"

"Within two years, I should think."

"Bring it forward."

"A little over one year."

"Satisfactory."

"Thank you for the hospitality."

"Next time, the turn is yours. I do not want you to be a rock standing alone and tall in a wasteland. I want you to become a mountain range, raising forest and earth all around you."

"Then what do you intend to become, Young Master?"

"Something higher than that, I should think. For instance—"

I rose and opened the door for him instead.

"The sky that holds the ranges in its arms?"

I had sworn I would show as much to the Heavenly Demon who sent me back into the past. Perhaps he took it for grandiose cheek. Baek Mun-gyu let out a short laugh.

"Until we meet again."

I nodded, and before me Baek Mun-gyu bent at the waist in a bow of perfect courtesy.

It was the moment I looked down upon Dok-am.