The Rise of the Blue-Red Faction
Dangga Pungun, Volume 3 — news had swept Yichang: the Sichuan Tang Clan had hauled away Kang Yunho, the bookseller who published it.
What kind of novel could Dangga Pungun possibly be, that the Tang Clan itself would seize its author? People whispered that the series might never see another volume. Which meant one thing — read it now, while you still could.
The round trip from Yichang to Sichuan had taken months. Looking back, it had been a journey that brushed past death more times than I cared to count — but upon my return, it had produced a marketing effect beyond anything I could have dreamed up.
Back then, there wasn't a soul in Yichang who hadn't at least heard of Dangga Pungun, even if most pretended to ignore it. Now even those people had surrendered, white flags flying, and put the book in their hands.
And it didn't stop there. Word of Dangga Pungun had begun spreading to cities more than ten days' travel beyond Yichang itself.
Everyone who read it sang its praises and prayed for the next volume's safe release. What had been a matter of life and death for me was, for everyone else, simply the patient months of waiting for a single book.
And now, at long last, Dangga Pungun Volume 3 had arrived.
Escorted by the Sichuan Tang Clan, no less.
"No cutting in line!"
A Tang Clan warrior's shout rang out loud and clear in front of Daseogak.
"Purple hair and green eyes! It really is a warrior of the Sichuan Tang Clan guarding the place!"
"I'm telling you, it's true!"
"Then is the rumor real — that the Tang Clan read Dangga Pungun and wept tears of praise?!"
"A friend of mine is a member of the Tea Book Club. He went to Daseogak and came back saying he heard a Tang Clan man raving about it!"
"Good heavens!"
"A novel guarded personally by the Sichuan Tang Clan. How good can it possibly be?"
"That's what I'm saying. I want to read it already! Why won't this blasted line get any shorter!"
It was day two of Volume 3's release. The line that had stretched endlessly since yesterday had today grown beyond all measure.
"Squid jerky! Grilled butter corn! Puffed rice, get your puffed rice!"
"Might as well have a snack, friend! No popcorn, though? Just puffed rice?"
"Got consommé flavor, onion flavor, caramel flavor. Which will you have?"
"Consommé?! Now that's a man of taste! One of those!"
"Coming right up!"
Word of the long lines from the first two volumes had drawn the street vendors out in force. An absolute blue-ocean market.
"I'm here for Dangga Pungun Volume 3!"
While I was still debating whether to start charging vendors rent or open a snack stall of my own for Volume 4, the customers kept flooding in.
"Anyone here for Dangga Pungun, head straight to the display shelf!"
There wasn't a spare moment to savor the novel that stood right before us.
Like the noodle shops that slash their wait times by selling one single dish, I funneled every customer who came for Volume 3 directly to the shelf, guiding the crowd through a swift purchase and out the door.
"Manager! The presses can't keep up with how fast we're selling!"
"I'll send spare hands to the printing room. Take your lunch breaks in shifts. The presses must never stop."
"Yes, sir! Understood!"
I wanted to buy more presses, open a dedicated print shop — but a printing press was a high-grade asset, so ruinously expensive that buying even one had made my eyes spin.
In the end, the one ancient press inherited from Baekga Bookstore was still churning away so diligently, it was practically crying out, Have you no respect for your elders?
Once we make enough money, I'm retiring that press grandfather for good.
"Manager Kang!"
"Ah — members of the Tea Book Club?"
The club members approached me with doleful faces. What now? Didn't they buy out the stock just yesterday?
"Is it ready yet?"
"Ready? Ready what, exactly?"
"Volume 4! When does Volume 4 come out!"
"Haha. Volume 3 only went on sale yesterday."
"Gnngh! We waited so long — why doesn't Master Hopil write ahead and have Volume 4 ready!"
The Tea Book Club members heaved great, mournful sighs. Outrageous, wasn't it.
Try surviving the situation I was in, why don't you — the mad-scientist Poison Human obsessed with demonic cultists, the Tang Clan hounds after my life, our fresh new Tang-blooded junior needing martial training, full Tang Clan curriculum, protective techniques, the works. Where exactly was I supposed to find time to write Volume 4?
"So Volume 4 only comes out if Volume 3 sells well?"
"Naturally."
"Haah! How long must we wait to see Dang Jeong escape the treacherous trap of the demonic cult!"
"Volume 3 was only supposed to be as good as expected! Why is it better than we hoped?!"
"At this rate, Master Hopil's celebrated cliff-cutting will truly become the Divine Cliffhanger Art!"
"His cliff-cutting feels like it's carving out my heart along with the chapters!"
Joy and lamentation, despair and delight — a chorus of sighs burst from the club members, all tangled together. Well, better reactions than I expected. That's a win.
"Hahaha. Sell out Volume 3, and Volume 4 shall follow."
Enjoy the book and buy another copy, please and thank you. It all goes toward paying down Kang Yunho's debts.
"Gnngh! One of each for all of us. We'll be buying again regardless."
And true to their word, the club members each walked out with a full copy of Dangga Pungun. This is why loyal readers matter. Not rereading copies, but buying collector's copies, gift copies, evangelism copies.
After surveying the war-torn first floor, I slipped upstairs for a moment's breath.
If the first floor was a battlefield, the second floor had one person swooping about like a hawk over a military dictatorship.
"About that scene in Volume 3 where Dang Jeong—"
"QUIET!!! PLEASE!!!"
Oho. Is that what a D-rank palm strike looks like? A gust of pink wind sealed the man's careless mouth.
"Gah! Lady Hayeon! What is the meaning of this?"
"Read the warning sign."
⚠ FOR THREE DAYS FOLLOWING THE RELEASE OF DANGGA PUNGUN VOLUME 3,
DISCUSSION OF DANGGA PUNGUN IS FORBIDDEN ON THE SECOND FLOOR. ⚠
"Banning talk of Dangga Pungun at Daseogak itself?! What nonsense is this!"
"There are many people here enjoying their reading upstairs who haven't managed to buy Volume 3 yet."
Lim Hayeon gestured toward the patrons quietly reading around them.
"But this is the very headquarters of Dangga Pungun! How can you censor it here of all places!"
"You. Will. Comply. Won't. You?"
Whoa. She's smiling, but her eyes are glaring like she's ready to kill.
"Urk... v-very well."
The fury of a beautiful martial artist is a terrifying power.
"Diligently done. Keep it up."
I smiled and offered quiet praise to Lim Hayeon as she returned to her post at the shelf.
My eye for talent is simply unmatched.
I'd been testing a few people in supervisory roles on the off chance, but when it came to the all-rounder five-tool player, Lim Hayeon reigned supreme.
"I simply don't want to hear about Dangga Pungun I haven't read yet out of someone else's mouth."
Oh. So that was it.
Like a hero who spares the criminal's life but guarantees compound fractures in every limb, Lim Hayeon now glared across the second floor with eyes ablaze.
"And in Volume 3, when Dang Jeong—"
"QUIET! PLEASE!"
No need to worry about spoilers at Daseogak, apparently.
"Thank you all for your hard work."
Third day of extended hours, shop closed. I greeted my employees, who were sweating even in the lingering chill.
"Thank you for your hard work!"
The staff bowed, then drifted out in little clusters with the coworkers who shared their route home. Next month I'll have to tack a bonus onto that "well done."
"Not heading home?"
Lim Hayeon stood rooted to the floor as if someone had poured concrete over her feet, staring at Dangga Pungun.
"From tomorrow, the Tea Book Club will be talking about Volume 3, won't they?"
She spoke with a conflicted voice, not meeting my eyes.
"It'll only get busier from tomorrow. Counting on you."
"..."
At my words, Lim Hayeon's head drooped in defeat.
It wasn't payday yet. Volume 3 wasn't expensive — but not cheap enough for Lim Hayeon, who relied on me for her meals, to buy on a whim.
They say the worst torment of working at a movie theater is hearing spoilers for the film you've been dying to see. At this rate, tomorrow Lim Hayeon would hear the contents of Volume 3 secondhand, from someone else's mouth.
For someone who'd waited for Volume 3, nothing could sting worse.
A flicker of frustration crossed her face — and with it, something like restrained longing.
Silly girl. All she had to do was say one word.
"Take it."
I picked the cleanest copy from the stack and held it out to her.
"This is...?"
"Dangga Pungun, Volume 3. A gift."
"A gift?"
Lim Hayeon's eyes went round as saucers, darting between me and the book.
"Why so shocked? You'd think you'd never received a present in your life."
You worked hard as my manager. Here — one copy. Enjoy.
"I-I've received presents before! From the gisaeng sisters at the Gyobang!"
A gift is a gift — why bark at me like that? You look like someone whose sore spot just got jabbed dead-on.
"Go home and read it. Don't be late for your shift tomorrow."
When I pressed Volume 3 into her hands, Lim Hayeon looked between me and the book once more — then clutched it precious-close to her chest.
"Th... thank you."
Head bowed low, she fled Daseogak as if running for her life.
The day had come at last when open discussion of Dangga Pungun Volume 3 was permitted.
"Hnnnnngh. All I can do is marvel!"
"Has Master Hopil gone mad? How can a human being write a story like this?"
"Is Master Hopil your drinking buddy? How dare you speak so loosely of him!"
"Stop quarreling, gentlemen, and gaze upon the word 'Hopil' until calm returns."
"Gngh! It blinds me!"
"My — my eyes, I'll go blind!"
"To finally behold Volume 3! Truly, I could die now without regret."
"So Volume 4 isn't even necessary anymore, is what you're saying?"
"A joke! A joke, I say!"
Daseogak was packed shoulder to shoulder, without an inch to spare.
"I have devoured countless books in my life, but never have I seen anyone unfold a story the way Master Hopil does!"
"Well said. When a crisis looms and the chest tightens — slash! — he cuts it open in one clean stroke! And when others fall into peril, he leaps to their rescue faster than anyone, so dashing even grown men weep!"
"And the women! When word came that two new women would appear, I fretted — but what magnificent allies, what splendid wives they made!"
"True, true. Especially the shared-bed scene, ahem—"
"Ahem. That scene speaks for itself."
"Young hero Dang Jeong is so, so magnificent..."
Lim Hayeon murmured at the empty air, her voice dreamy as a woman strolling through a field of flowers.
"Save the daydreaming for home."
"Urk!"
Lim Hayeon scrunched her face at me — the exact expression of someone jolted from a mobile game world back into reality by the sight of an ugly grinning mug reflected in a black loading screen.
"Did you sleep at all?"
Dark circles lay thick beneath her eyes.
"Dangga Pungun is not a book that yields to something as trivial as sleep."
That's a 'no,' then.
"Really! Ahh... how does Master Hopil write like this..."
There she goes, drifting off to dreamland again.
"Fail to focus on your work and it's docked pay."
"Urk! You're so cruel! ...Fine. Focusing."
The moment I dragged Lim Hayeon back from the world of Dangga Pungun, a commotion rose from the Tea Book Club's corner.
"Isn't Dang Jeong being too much?! Both women are flirting with him right to his face, and all he thinks of is the woman in his heart!"
"That's precisely what makes Dang Jeong great! Don't you see — even with Gu Suk-jeong and Du Eung-hyang in his heart, the Blue-Red Flowers' open seduction can't shake him!"
"He loves both women equally — that's exactly why he holds firm."
"Hah."
Lim Hayeon gave a scornful little snort.
"Something the matter?"
"They're wrong."
She answered with one corner of her mouth curled up.
"What do you mean?"
"In Volume 3, Young hero Dang Jeong mentions Du Eung-hyang one time more than Sichuan's Number One Beauty. Which means! In Dang Jeong's heart, Hubei's Number One Courtesan outranks Sichuan's Number One Beauty!"
You counted mentions? Losing sleep over this? A truly devoted Du Eung-hyang stan.
"THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!!"
Just as I was marveling at Lim Hayeon's obsessive thoroughness, a roar erupted from the Tea Book Club.
"We merely offered some friendly advice!"
"You scoundrel, wriggling out of it to the very end!"
What squabble is this now? Lim Hayeon and I rushed over.
"Volume 3 has barely been out — what in the world is going on here?"
"Hear this, Manager Kang. This fellow here — right now, in this very gathering of the Sichuan's Number One Beauty Faction, he had the gall to claim that Im Mi-ryeong, who aided Dang Jeong, is more charming than Sichuan's Number One Beauty herself!"
"...I beg your pardon?"
"You were doing it too! Our side just flushed out this scoundrel claiming that Im Min, who likewise aided Dang Jeong, is more charming than Hubei's Number One Courtesan!"
"How dare you poach people so shamelessly! Who are you people, really!"
At the uproar, testimony began pouring in from the Hubei's Number One Courtesan Faction's corner as well.
"We've been exposed."
"Could have poached a few more, at that."
"What is the meaning of this?!"
The entire Tea Book Club stared in horror as a new force rose simultaneously from within both rival camps.
"We have been waiting quietly for our moment."
Their smiles were sinister as they gathered in one place, emerging from both the Hubei's Number One Courtesan Faction and the Sichuan's Number One Beauty Faction alike.
"Meaning what?"
"Two flowers defeating one is a matter of simple arithmetic. The tide has already turned, friends."
"It can't be!"
"Indeed. We are the Cheonghong Faction — those who champion the Blue-Red Flowers as Dang Jeong's true first wives! Join us, and quickly."
Yichang, already burning hot over Dangga Pungun.
And with the Cheonghong Faction's emergence, the Tea Book Club split into three legs — like a tripod.