Unwelcome Guest - 1
“No cutting in line!”
“Think we’ll actually get to buy a copy today?”
“Came late yesterday and they were already sold out.”
The novel had even made the official gazettes. A lewd martial arts tale officially recognized by the literary circles. To get their hands on it, the first floor of Daseogak was permanently packed with a queue that never seemed to end.
The second floor, too, had earned a reputation as the place where restless fans of Dangga Pungun could burn off their unspent passion, and it was just as perpetually packed to capacity.
“I will grant that Du Eunghyang was pure of body. But it is also true that, throughout her life, she sold her smiles to other men. Gu Sukjeong, on the other hand, showed her smile only to Dang Jeong—her one true love. Does that not make her the true principal wife?”
These days the most passionately devoted regular at the Daseo Society meetings was, without a doubt, Scholar Hwang’s younger brother. You would never guess he had ever badmouthed Dangga Pungun.
A fresh recruit to the Society, Scholar Hwang’s little brother was pouring out his logic with blazing zeal at a member of the Hubei’s Greatest Courtesan faction.
“Urgh…”
One of the Hyanga Faction men looked as if the logic had struck him right in the solar plexus.
“So hurry up and abandon the woman who sold her smiles to other men, and return to the embrace of the woman who smiled for only one man.”
Scholar Hwang’s younger brother grinned and casually slid a Sukjeong Tea set across to the man in front of him.
“Are you… wavering right now?”
Scholar Hwang, watching from the side, asked in astonishment.
“J-just a little.”
“My friend. You’re falling for the sophistry of a newcomer who only just joined? Listen carefully. When Hubei’s Greatest Courtesan Du Eunghyang smiled and poured wine for Dang Jeong, did Dang Jeong fall for her because of that smile?”
“No.”
“Exactly. Dang Jeong did not fall for Du Eunghyang’s looks. And the same goes for her. She fell for him because he saw past the surface of her face and understood her true inner self.”
“That’s right.”
“Calling someone the principal wife just because she smiled once? The Sichuan’s Greatest Beauty faction are nothing more than rootless drifters who can’t see past outer appearance. We of the Hyanga Faction are the true principal-wife purists who value genuine beauty of the heart.”
“I… I nearly lost my way.”
The man who had just received the sermon thumped his chest as though he had attained a profound enlightenment.
“Elder Brother! That’s going too far. Are you saying the inner self of Sichuan’s Greatest Beauty loses to some mere courtesan?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“Even coming from you, Elder Brother, I cannot let that stand!”
“You want to settle this right here? Clearly I have failed to raise my little brother properly!”
“Ahem.”
I cleared my throat once, drawing the attention of the noisy crowd, and pointed a finger toward the door.
“The manager says one more time and you’re all getting tossed out. Let’s keep it down.”
“I was this close to converting him…”
“The Hyanga Faction doesn’t sway that easily.”
“No matter how hard you try to hold people back, Elder Brother, the tide will not turn. Look at the board over there.”
Scholar Hwang’s younger brother pointed at the popularity poll standings board. I followed his hand and looked at the source of all our recent headaches.
This was a problem. A real problem.
Was it because Du Eunghyang had Joseon blood? Or simply because she was a courtesan? The Dangga Pungun popularity poll wasn’t an overwhelming landslide, but Sichuan’s Greatest Beauty Gu Sukjeong was visibly pulling ahead.
“I still haven’t given up. Just as Dang Jeong never gave up until the very end, I will never give up on Du Eunghyang.”
Yes. Don’t give up. Please.
“Looks like Du Eunghyang’s going to lose in the end. Hell with it. I’m broke anyway—skip the Hyanga Coffee and just give me an iced Americano. Manager! One iced Americano over here!”
Scholar Hwang’s fighting spirit was admirable, but this was definitely becoming a problem.
Even a popularity poll lost its commercial value once the gap grew too wide. If people decided the lead was insurmountable, they simply stopped trying.
And lately more and more Daseo Society members were starting to show exactly that reaction.
Maybe I should try a different approach. Something like only showing the daily results and running the cumulative total as a blind vote. That way the true gap would stay hidden and people would keep buying. But the existing gap had already leaked out through rumor—what then?
Or I could do the field-trip recreation instructor routine: “Today’s special set votes are worth double points!” and shout it from the rooftops. Was that too shameless?
I was still turning it over when an unexpected visitor walked through the door.
“So this is the famous Daseogak I’ve only heard about. Very nicely arranged.”
An old man entered, leading a small retinue.
Wait. That face…
“Chairman! What brings you here?”
The visitor to Daseogak was the head of the Yichang Merchants’ Association—the same man who had helped us during the Dangga Pungun piracy incident.
“Just passing by and thought I’d look in on you. A popularity poll, eh? The kind of commercial gimmick an old man like me would never have dreamed up.”
The Chairman glanced over the standings board, then smiled at me.
“Nothing more than a small method for gauging the reactions of our devoted readers.”
A commercial gimmick? It was purely an auxiliary tool to assist the readers’ great principal-wife war.
“Heh heh. What an entertaining young man. With your mouth, your hands, and your head, you keep stirring up endless waves in this city of Yichang.”
The Chairman knew my real identity.
When I had gone to him for help, I had needed every scrap of moral high ground on my side. Without revealing that I was Hopil himself, I never would have received that aid.
“You always rate me far higher than I deserve. I hardly know where to put myself.”
I bowed my head respectfully in thanks. The old man seemed pleased by the gesture; he nodded, then looked back at the poll board.
“Tsk tsk. How can Hubei’s Greatest Courtesan be trailing Sichuan’s Greatest Beauty?”
“Haha. I find it rather regrettable myself.”
If the gap kept widening like this, the entire poll would go cold.
As I stared at the board, the Chairman made an unexpected proposal.
“I’ll buy one thousand sets.”
“Pardon?”
“Perhaps this young man’s hearing is going. I said I will order one thousand sets of Hyanga Coffee.”
He pointed at the Hyanga Coffee display with the expression of a man about to settle the poll once and for all.
“The Chairman is Hyanga Faction?!”
“Ooooooh! That would flip it into an overwhelming landslide the other way!”
“Daseogak just hit the jackpot today!”
One thousand sets.
If I accepted, all my poll worries would vanish. I could dribble the votes in slowly and keep the race looking nail-bitingly close.
On top of that, the sheer sales volume from a thousand sets. I could close up shop right now, take Hwarin out for a good meal, and call it a holiday.
But—
“I’m sorry, but I must decline that order.”
I refused the Chairman’s order without a second’s hesitation.
“Why?”
He looked at me with genuine puzzlement.
“Author Hopil wants to see the reaction of the many. He does not want the result decided by a single individual.”
“I heard there are people who order multiple sets.”
“Those are cases of one person drinking a few cups a day, or buying on behalf of others. Author Hopil would not want the vote to end this way.”
“Author Hopil may feel that way. What about Manager Kang?”
The Chairman was probing: as a writer you may refuse, but as a merchant, why turn down this order?
“I feel the same.”
“And the reason?”
“Because I promised that this poll would gather the opinions of the many. It may look like a small commercial trick, but as a merchant I believe one must not break faith.”
I said it that way, but it was not some lofty claim that a merchant must always be pure and honest and never use shallow schemes.
I myself was running a cash-for-votes scheme, after all. Still, there were lines that money must not cross.
Especially when the scheme was not something happening quietly under the table, but something being watched by everyone in broad daylight.
“Even when the profit would be enormous?”
“The moment you break the way of the merchant, you are no longer a merchant—you become a swindler or a con man. I want to make large sums while walking the merchant’s path. I have no desire to make money as a swindler.”
I was not some rootless barbarian wanderer who could ignore reputation. I was the manager who had planted his flag at Daseogak.
Having announced that the special sets were sold to measure the heroines’ popularity among readers, there was no need to pile up bad press just to make a sale.
“Many men keep the merchant’s way and still never make large money. Is letting this opportunity slip not a loss?”
“That is because they do not know how to walk ahead of others.”
“Do not know how to walk ahead?”
“Great fortune smiles upon the man who walks, without fear, a road no one has ever walked before. And I am confident I can walk farther ahead than anyone.”
Having succeeded once, I would succeed a second time and a third. Success as Author Hopil. Success as Kang Yunho, manager of Daseogak. Both would continue.
I might use shallow commercial tricks, but I would never do anything that destroyed my reputation.
“Hahaha! Truly! A youth one rarely sees these days!”
The Chairman looked at me with genuine pride.
“I can only apologize for having to decline the Chairman’s generous goodwill.”
“Nonsense. I get to keep my money—good for me. Ah! I am heading to Wuhan today, as it happens.”
Why the sudden mention of a travel destination?
“A long journey, then.”
“I am to meet Elder Jang of the Man-geum Pawnshop in Wuhan. Looks like I’ll have a very interesting little story to take with me.”
“Please speak kindly of Daseogak when you do.”
Elder Jang of the Man-geum Pawnshop was one of Daseogak’s largest creditors. Please tell him we’re doing just fine—don’t suddenly send the collection squad.
“I’ll do that. And if I cannot drink a thousand cups by myself, I’ll tell the underlings to order them often. That much is fine, yes?”
“You are welcome anytime.”
“Good. I’ll be on my way. Keep up the hard work.”
“Please take care on your journey.”
I called Hwarin out of the printing room where she had been working hard, and together we saw the Chairman off. Thinking of the thousand-set sale I had just turned down did leave a slightly bitter taste.
After the Chairman left, the mass votes from his subordinates reignited the popularity poll completely.
“Two hundred vote gap!”
“Finally only a hundred!”
“Nooo! Why did it jump back to a hundred thirty?!”
“Eighty-vote gap today!”
Thanks to that, it looked like we could keep selling special sets at least until Volume 3 came out.
“Let’s have another fun day of business!”
Sales climbing vertically day after day. At this rate, both the growth of my own renown and the clearing of Hwarin’s debt looked smooth and easy.
Everything at Daseogak was going beautifully.
“I just hope it keeps going exactly like this.”
If only no one threw cold water on this atmosphere, and the good days simply repeated forever. But the thought had barely formed before I realized I should never have said it.
The unwelcome guest I truly never wanted to see had arrived.
“This. Who wrote it?”
A man shoved a copy of Dangga Pungun at me and demanded the author’s name.
Unmistakable purple hair. The exact same color as Dang Hwarin’s.
The man standing in front of me with a hard expression was from the Sichuan Dang Clan.