The Dang Clan's Storm Volume 2 - 4
From Daeheung County in Hubei Province, through Yichang, and all the way to Shaanxi Province.
Dang Geoho had pursued his experimental subject across this long road.
When he met Hwarin again she would be startled, yet she would welcome him. He would hold back his own stories and simply listen to everything Dang Hwarin had been through; that alone would make the girl happy.
Once the atmosphere had fully ripened, he would dangle official membership in the Dang Clan as bait and offer her the poison pill. She was a child forever starved for affection; a little coaxing would be enough to make her swallow it whole.
If Dang Hwarin became a Dokin, it would finally prove that he could create a Poison Human by his own power. Should the experiment fail, the decade of effort would sting, yet he could simply erase every trace of the subject and begin again.
Would the experiment that had consumed more than ten years of his life succeed or fail?
With a heart hammering in anticipation, Dang Geoho knocked on the gate of the grand manor in Shaanxi Province.
“You abandoned her and came back? What nonsense is that?”
The child who ought to have rushed out barefoot the moment she heard of his arrival did not appear. That alone told Dang Geoho that something had gone badly wrong.
But—abandoned her and came back?
“Hoho. Well, you see…”
Dang Hwarin’s mother forced an awkward smile, desperate to dodge his wrath.
“Are you even human, you bitch?”
To abandon her own daughter just to save her own skin—and a daughter so ill she could not even walk.
“Hoho. Great Hero, the girl is an adult now. She can manage on her own.”
“You fucking whore…”
Rage overflowing, Dang Geoho strode straight toward her.
“Protect the madam!”
Sensing the situation turning deadly, the bodyguards and servants closed ranks around Dang Geoho at once.
“Insects.”
He flicked his hand through the air as though brushing away annoying bugs.
“Keuk!”
“Huuuk!”
In a single heartbeat every person inside the manor collapsed from the poison he had scattered. Paying no attention to the falling bodies, Dang Geoho fixed his gaze on Dang Hwarin’s mother, who trembled in terror.
“I have handled countless poisons in my life, yet I have never met a viper as filthy and grotesque as you.”
“Hohoho. Hero Dang—no, Brother Geoho. Let’s not stay here. Come talk with me in the bedroom.”
A middle-aged beauty. Though she was in her forties, her face still looked early thirties. The woman who had once twisted the two men of the Seong Family around her finger now poured out coquettish charm simply to stay alive.
“I deal with vipers. I do not lie with them.”
Dang Geoho seized the white nape of the viper-like woman with one hand and lifted her clean off the floor.
“Keok!”
“Even though you disgust me, the only reason I have ever helped you is because you cooperated in turning Hwarin into a Dokin.”
The poison that had destroyed the head of the Seong Family had been supplied by Dang Geoho himself.
“I would love nothing more than to reduce you to a handful of bloody pulp this very moment, yet for Hwarin’s sake I will keep you alive and take you with me.”
The girl had loathed her own mother for years. This latest betrayal would have driven their relationship across a river that could never be crossed again. If he reunited with Dang Hwarin and handed her the chance for revenge, the poison pill would slide down her throat with ease.
He pulled a vial from his robes and forced the poison into the open, gasping mouth of Dang Hwarin’s mother. She lost consciousness at once.
“Hero Dang! It is true the madam has done wrong, yet this is not the conduct of a righteous martial artist. The world will point its fingers at you!”
One of the bodyguards who had witnessed everything shouted at him.
“…Yes. You are right about that.”
Dang Geoho glanced around once, then nodded quietly.
“Hero Dang.”
Had his anger cooled? The bodyguard dared to hope so.
“There must be no witnesses.”
That was the last thought the bodyguard ever had in this world.
“Keoeoeok!”
Dang Geoho emptied every extreme poison he carried upon every living soul remaining in the manor.
Without witnesses, no one remains to point fingers. That was precisely why a man whose nature was as sinister as a snake and scorpion could still be called Great Hero.
“Hwarin… where are you?”
He slung the unconscious woman over his shoulder and walked out of the manor.
Not in Yichang. Not in Shaanxi Province either. It would be convenient if she were still at the inn her mother claimed to have abandoned her in, yet the odds were slim.
With his own strength alone he could never scour the vast Central Plains for the experimental subject. Was he to give up on a subject that needed only one final step?
“I have no choice. I must borrow power.”
Dang Geoho’s eyes, blazing with madness, had never learned how to surrender.
The popularity poll was a roaring success.
“Two Sookjeong Tea sets, please.”
“Three Hyanga Coffee sets.”
I had successfully funneled their aimless passion into the vote. As a result, the usual chaos inside Daseogak had quieted considerably.
“Your words go too far. Are you saying Sichuan’s Greatest Beauty is losing to some mere courtesan?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
“You bastard!”
“Ahem.”
Of course the noise had not vanished completely, yet even the Daseo Society members now glanced around and kept their “main-wife war” at a discreet volume.
“The manager is giving us the eye. If we don’t want to be thrown out, let’s simmer down and join forces.”
One of the members caught my look, ducked his head, and whispered carefully.
“Tch. Fine. We’ll just order another Sookjeong Tea set.”
“We already ordered Hyanga Coffee. Let’s drink that.”
The two factions of the Daseo Society began consuming the special sets named after the women they supported. Please, just stop the racket. If you’re going to fight, at least do it by ordering the premium sets.
“As expected of Sookjeong Tea. A single sip releases such a profound fragrance—exactly like Sichuan’s Greatest Beauty whose radiance can be felt even from afar.”
A man of the Sookjeong faction praised the tea with the solemn air of a food-manga judge sampling a heavenly delicacy.
Of course, Sookjeong Tea was ordinary tea leaves.
“Ridiculous. This Hyanga Coffee, with its perfect harmony of sourness and bitterness, captures Du Eunghyang’s charm exactly.”
That one was just ordinary beans too.
“And the sweets? Their sweetness instantly calls to mind the face of Sichuan’s Greatest Beauty.”
“These sweets on our side evoke Du Eunghyang’s sweet voice.”
Both plates of sweets had been supplied by the exact same vendor; only the color differed.
“If you would only try the Sookjeong Tea set you would understand at once that it is far superior to that coffee of yours.”
The man pushed his plate forward.
“You should try our coffee and sweets instead of that tea.”
“Enough. I know your real goal is to finish quickly so you can order another round.”
“Look who’s talking.”
If the two factions ever swapped plates they would instantly realize the other’s praise was nonsense, yet that day seemed a long way off.
Running a popularity poll produced some truly entertaining moments.
“Scholar Hwang, welcome. Shall I bring you a Sookjeong Tea set?”
Scholar Hwang, who had helped the Daseo Society a great deal, walked into Daseogak. His complexion looked poor today, and he kept avoiding my eyes.
“N-no Sookjeong Tea set.”
He shook his head vigorously. Pocket troubles, perhaps?
“Then an iced Americano?”
“N-no… give me a Hyanga Coffee set.”
For a moment I could not process the words that left his mouth.
“Scholar Hwang… have you defected?”
Who was Scholar Hwang? He was the sort of passionate Sookjeong faction member who had once declared that if Dang Jeong and Sichuan’s Greatest Beauty actually existed he would personally act as matchmaker.
“Shh! Someone might hear. Keep your voice down.”
He glanced around in panic. So he really was ordering Hyanga Coffee. Had he switched main wives? This was genuine news.
“All right. One coming up.”
I added one more stroke to the tally for Hyanga on the chalkboard and began preparing the set.
“Elder Brother! What on earth are you doing here?!”
While I was making the coffee, an outraged voice erupted behind me.
“Younger Brother? How did you find this place?”
I turned and saw Scholar Hwang staring, startled, at a man who looked very much like him. So they were real brothers.
“I heard rumors that you had fallen in with some ‘Daseo Society’ and were neglecting your studies, so I followed you in secret. Elder Brother, you are supposed to be preparing for the provincial examination, yet here you are frolicking with this vulgar crowd. This younger brother is heartbroken.”
Scholar Hwang’s younger brother wore the exact expression of a man who had tracked his older brother all the way to Seoul for civil-service cram school only to find him in a PC bang.
Provincial examination, did he say?
Scholar Hwang… you’re not an ordinary scholar at all. You’re a saengwon.
In the Central Plains one must first pass the local qualifying exams simply to sit for the provincial examination. Passing those grants the status of saengwon—a student treated almost like an official—and merely achieving that already makes one one of the handful of true talents in Yichang.
Of course the provincial exams and the higher ones required to become a real official were far more brutal. At that level even certified geniuses crashed and burned so often that many saengwon simply settled for the title rather than risk further humiliation. It was roughly as difficult as Kang Mo—with his face smashed in—trying to date an idol girlfriend.
“Younger Brother, this is merely an ordinary reading club. There is nothing improper about a scholar attending a reading club.”
Scholar Hwang offered the awkward defense of a cram-school student insisting that a little PC-bang time to clear his head was perfectly healthy.
“What books the club is reading matters a great deal. Those people are reading nothing but pornographic trash. How can you fill your mind with such lowbrow fiction? It will rot your once-brilliant brain. A true scholar, from ancient times…”
The younger brother launched into a morning-show-expert-style lecture on the evils of obscenity.
It had been a long time since someone insulted my novel to my face. This stranger reeked of the haters back home.
“Even you cannot be allowed to insult Author Hopil. Besides, you have never even read The Dang Clan’s Storm.”
“I do not need to read it. Those trash novels are all the same. I simply cannot understand why Elder Brother wastes his mind on garbage like that—”
“You dare call The Dang Clan’s Storm garbage? Are you insulting Author Hopil right now?”
Scholar Hwang’s usually mild face looked ready to explode. I myself was fine.
Popularity never satisfies everyone. I had eaten so many hate comments that this level of bile did not even leave a scratch.
Still, if I left them alone a brotherly brawl might break out. Better intervene.
“Two Hyanga Coffee sets, ready.”
I inserted myself into the conversation to cool Scholar Hwang before he detonated over insults to his beloved work.
“I only ordered one.”
“On the house. Share it with your brother.”
“Th-thank you.”
Considering how much help he had given me already, a free set was nothing to thank me for.
“And this is a service for your younger brother.”
I held out a copy of The Dang Clan’s Storm Volume 1 to the scowling younger man. You only talk like that because you have never tasted this novel. Hey! Try it! Try it!
“I have no need of it. Recommending this kind of pornography to me only reveals the true level of this bookstore.”
He turned his head sharply in refusal. If you’re going to refuse, at least be polite. If Hwarin had been standing next to me she would have already decked you.
Keep the customer-service smile. In this industry, facial control is life.
“Younger Brother!”
“The Master said that one who is trapped in prejudice and refuses to learn will fall into dogmatism. How can a student who has never even opened the book slander what his own elder brother enjoys?”
I recited a carefully chosen fragment of Confucius with a grave expression and offered the book again.
“How does a barbarian know the words of the Master?”
The younger brother stared at me, eyes wide. What? Did you think black-haired barbarians spent their days wearing bronze and grunting “uga-uga”?
Central Plains people never change.
“Even a barbarian knows and practices those words. Are you, a scholar, going to refuse to read them?”
If even a black-haired barbarian knows the saying, yet a proper scholar refuses to act on it, then you are worse than a barbarian.
I needled him gently while keeping a polite face.
“Tch! I am a member of the Yichang Literary Society. If this novel turns out to be the vulgar trash I expect, I will issue an official condemnation under the Society’s name.”
Yichang Literary Society… so this guy was one of those pure-literature types of the Central Plains. Fine. Read it. I am confident.
He snatched the book and stalked off to a corner.
“Manager Kang… have you studied for the civil examinations?”
Scholar Hwang asked, still astonished by the exchange.
“I merely picked up a few scraps of the Four Books and Three Classics. Nothing worth boasting about next to a saengwon such as yourself.”
The Kang Yunho of Joseon, you see, had been tutored by actual final-passers of the highest examinations. Of course he never actually studied.
“And modest as well. No wonder you are Author Hopil’s confidant. In any case, thank you. Here is payment for the sets.”
“Just take the cost of one cup.”
“Take it all.”
“Really, it’s fine.”
I kept refusing, yet he kept insisting on paying. Why was he being so stubborn?
When I continued to decline, Scholar Hwang leaned in with an apologetic look and spoke quietly so no one else would overhear.
“Then… earlier, when you gave me two cups, I saw you only add one stroke to Du Eunghyang’s tally. Please add a second stroke.”
Ah. So that was why he wanted to pay for both.
“Of course. I’ll add it right away.”
Still reeling from the revelation that Scholar Hwang had truly switched main wives, I duly drew one more stroke of the character on the chalkboard.
“Haa… I’m worried.”
Back home in his room, Scholar Hwang let out a long, heavy sigh.
His younger brother had always looked up to him as if he were the sky itself. The boy had gone around the whole neighborhood bragging that his elder brother had passed the examinations and become a saengwon at such a young age.
In truth, Scholar Hwang never felt he was that great a brother.
“He might become a liability for Author Hopil.”
Anyone who read The Dang Clan’s Storm would be drawn in. Yet his brother belonged to the Yichang Literary Society—a young man who despised popular fiction and only savored the classics.
If, even after finding the book entertaining, he publicly poured out scathing criticism simply because it was not to his refined taste? Scholar Hwang would never be able to face Author Hopil again, and he would never be able to lift his head in the Daseo Society.
“Should I go talk to him right now?”
No matter how different their tastes, he had to stop the boy from saying such things.
Just as he was about to hurry to his brother’s room—
“Elder Brother.”
His younger brother announced himself outside the door.
“Come in.”
“E-Elder Brother…”
“What is it?”
Scholar Hwang opened the door and found his brother looking… strange.
When he first entered he seemed deeply shaken; once inside he could not meet his elder brother’s eyes.
“…”
“Has something serious happened?”
Alarmed by a reaction he had never seen from his brother in his entire life, Scholar Hwang asked again. Had some disaster befallen the family?
The answer that came was nothing he had expected.
“Elder Brother… I’m sorry, but… Hubei’s Number One Courtesan—n-no… do you happen to have Volume 2?”