The Bid — 6
The Seocheon Escort Agency.
It was run by the Sichuan Tang Clan and commanded enormous prestige back in Sichuan. But in Shaanxi and Hubei, where its power was still expanding, other escort agencies had outpaced it, and it never enjoyed the same dominance it held at home.
There was one place, however, where the Seocheon Escort Agency had been investing heavily in a bid to broaden its reach: the Yangtze waterway connecting Sichuan to Hubei.
The agency's recent purchase of the grand Baek Family Manor in Yichang, Hubei's great commercial city, was likewise meant to serve as a beachhead for that expansion.
Granted, one could not entirely dismiss the other reason behind this sudden push into Yichang — namely, that it was the city where the Tang Clan Head's illegitimate son lived.
"I'd like to sell you the mansion we've been using as the Yichang branch, at a very modest price."
I remembered the building the branch manager mentioned. It was by no means a sprawling estate — but it was more than large enough to house a full printing operation, with room to spare for generous stock storage.
And he was offering it at an absurdly low price.
"You truly intend to sell it at this price?"
It was a price seductive enough to snap me sober on the spot. Was this some cursed purchase that would bite me later? I asked with open suspicion.
"Branch property can only be sold to someone approved by headquarters, so we've been struggling to find an eligible buyer. But if word spreads that we sold it to you, Sir Kang — a holder of the Seocheon Escort Agency's jade tablet — no one at the Chengdu headquarters will raise a single objection."
Ah. So it was the same dilemma as the official in charge of the government printing press. A job with no personal gain in it, yet one that had to be done, under constant meddling from headquarters that demanded endless attention.
In other words, he wanted to sell it to me and rid himself of the headache. I was this close to telling him to fetch the paperwork right now so I could sign.
If only it weren't for one small problem.
Buying this building means emptying every coin I have — and then borrowing on top of that.
I'd be digging under the bed for stray copper coins to toss into the pile.
My original plan had been to buy one modest, comfortably affordable building and run the print shop out of it.
Of course, at the price he was now offering, this was something worth straining myself to buy.
I downed a glass of cool water to chase the fog of drink from my head and set my brain racing.
Find a way. I have to buy this building. Is there any way to spare the money? This is a rare chance. A method that won't poison me afterward. Just find the way to digest it — deliciously.
The moment I felt the cold water hit my stomach, a fine idea flashed through my mind.
"I'll pay the purchase price in steady monthly installments. Would that be acceptable to you?"
Not a lump sum — installments. I said it to the branch manager with a sober, serious expression, as if the wine had never touched me.
Who sells property on long-term credit to someone they barely know? As a rule, an unreasonable demand — but if I leaned on the right connections, it was a proposal worth trying.
"The amount was set with a single payment in mind, so that would be... somewhat difficult."
And "somewhat difficult" meant: make it not difficult, and I'll sell.
"In return, I'll add ten percent interest to the sale price."
I hadn't expected instant agreement. On a real estate deal where large sums changed hands, ten percent was real money. I laid out the first term I had prepared in advance.
"Hmm..."
The branch manager stroked his beard and let out a small sigh.
He's wavering. Then I'd better sink my teeth in so he can't slip away.
"If you grant my terms, then from this day forward, Daseogak will use the Seocheon Escort Agency exclusively."
I had no more money to put on the scales. Did that mean the deal had to collapse?
No — I simply had to drop a weight heavier than money onto the scale.
"Use us exclusively? What do you mean, exactly?"
"Daseogak intends to open branches all along the Yangtze. But the printing house itself will remain here in Yichang — and nowhere else."
"Meaning every single book will travel through the Seocheon Escort Agency. Hmm..."
My words landed. The corner of the branch manager's mouth lifted slightly. A deal with a promising enterprise like Daseogak certainly had its appeal.
I pressed on in a tone of utter confidence, adding weight to the scale.
Dangga Pungun is not a story that ends in Yichang. And once other novels besides it begin to gain popularity, imagine how many books will move along the Yangtze. And every one of those shipments will bear the name of the Yichang branch manager."
Not just a windfall for the Seocheon Escort Agency — a career-making accomplishment for you personally. I set one more seductive weight upon the scale, one that could tip its markings.
Would it hold? The branch manager kept stroking his beard — then abruptly burst out laughing.
"Hahaha! Dealing with you feels like sparring with a merchant of real genius! I can't win this one. Very well! I'll accept it as an investment. But there's one more condition."
"A condition?"
"Ownership transfers the moment the contract is signed and sealed. In exchange, I'd ask that you let the Seocheon Escort Agency use part of the mansion as an unloading warehouse for the time being."
He added that even with the warehouse and the printing house sharing the space, room would remain in abundance.
"Sharing a building with the Seocheon Escort Agency, hmm..."
"For as long as we store goods there, the agency will post escorts around the building at all times for its protection."
They'd even station guards to protect Dangga Pungun? At that point, there was no reason left to refuse.
"Done."
I agreed on the spot.
"You've done well."
The night the drinking party at the Seocheon Escort Agency ended, Tang Pae summoned the branch manager and quietly commended him.
"It was nothing. Though I can't help but wonder if I've troubled you — surely the Tang Clan could have spoken a single word on the matter."
Having already been briefed on Kang Yunho's true identity, the branch manager smiled as he spoke.
"You once had your life threatened by the man, yet you kept it to yourself. If the clan stepped in directly to help, he would clearly balk. So we lend a hand from one step removed."
He bought the printing press, so he'll need a printing house. Today's affair was the clan's work.
"Young Master Kang truly is a remarkable man. I expected him to scrape together nonexistent funds and insist on buying — but instead of simply taking what was offered, he haggled and yielded in turn and forged an even more astonishing deal."
"Whose son is he, after all..."
A quiet pride welled up in Tang Pae's voice.
"Astonishing, truly. He's a young man barely past his coming of age. Yet his writing shakes all of Yichang, and the business he leads is known to every soul in the city. As you heard at tonight's table — for a moment there, I honestly thought I was facing some seasoned merchant with a half-dozen vipers coiled up his sleeve."
The branch manager deliberately widened his eyes, dramatizing his astonishment at what had just transpired.
"And he possesses the daring to stake his life for love, besides."
And a heart for chivalry, just like the Clan Head. Tang Pae smiled with his eyes as he recalled what he'd witnessed at Kang Yunho's side.
"A tiger's blood, it seems, is indeed a tiger's."
"If only he hadn't refused the Tang surname... such a waste."
Tang Pae gazed toward the room where Kang Yunho slept, his voice tinged with regret.
"A rift between father and son, twenty years deep — how easily could that ever be stitched shut? And there is the matter of the young heir as well. Even by my eyes, Young Master Kang has conducted himself rightly."
"Even once we depart, I'll rely on you to keep up the good work here. The Clan Head worries about this more than words can say."
Tang Pae nodded at the manager's words and gave him his charge.
"Is there any question of it? I'll smooth things over by offering to pay storage rent out of the building's sale payments, in installments."
"The Clan Head will remember your name."
The Seocheon Escort Agency belonged to the Tang Clan. Even the smallest flicker of interest from the Tang Clan Head would return to the Yichang branch manager as an immense benefit.
His face glowing from ear to ear, the Yichang branch manager bowed deeply to Tang Pae.
"I shall serve with utmost loyalty!"
The Yichang branch manager of the Seocheon Escort Agency. He was, as yet, a man thirsting desperately for promotion.
"Sister Hayeon! Wasn't the manager so cool today?"
It was the evening Kang Yunho, having won the printing press bid, was off drinking with the Tang Clan folk.
On the walk home, Ha Soso, wearing her trademark bright grin, brought up the day's events — Jeon Gilsan and Kang Yunho — to Lim Hayeon.
"Well..."
Thugs who threw their weight around never earned a warm reception anywhere.
To send a rabid young lord from another city — one who'd been strong-arming the local merchants — packing so satisfyingly, and then win the bid on top of it. Lim Hayeon could hardly bring herself to call it anything but cool.
She pressed her lips tight and lowered her gaze, thinking back on Kang Yunho that day.
"Hee hee. Things going well with Manager Kang?"
Ha Soso did not miss the small shift in her expression.
"It's not like that! Go home already!"
Lim Hayeon jumped like a cat that had narrowly escaped capture and darted into the shabby inn where she was staying.
"You're two days behind on your room rent!"
The moment she stepped inside, the innkeeper — arms crossed — frowned ferociously and called her out.
"I'll pay it soon!"
"You're a Daseogak girl so I'll trust you! And don't forget my offer from before!"
Lim Hayeon let the innkeeper's words go in one ear and out the other, and slipped into her run-down room.
Work, home. Work, home.
When something truly out of the ordinary breaks into that repetitive rhythm, it lingers in memory even after you clock out.
All the more so when it involved the man who bought her dinner, without fail, every single day.
Lim Hayeon sat at her table, recalling what she and the other Daseogak staff had watched Kang Yunho do.
"To subdue that rabid young lord so effortlessly."
Handling thuggish young lords was, for courtesans, both a daily fact of life and a constant torment. Even the veteran sisters, hardened by years in the trade, sometimes lost to such brutes and came to Lim Hayeon pouring out their grievances.
By everything she'd pieced together from rumor, Jeon Gilsan was one of those rabid young lords whom even the courtesans dreaded dealing with.
And yet he'd turned that rampaging brute, blind to the whole world, into a terrified puppy. Lim Hayeon couldn't deny the thrill she'd felt watching it.
"It was a surprise, too, that he behaved so properly at the drinking party."
A trace of wonder colored Lim Hayeon's voice.
Wine strips the mask off any man. But Kang Yunho had been different.
As the days brought fresh slander about Jeon Gilsan, praise for Kang Yunho — who sipped his drink and enjoyed the music with perfect courtesy — mounted day by day as well.
So much so that when the most celebrated beauty of the pleasure house, dressed to the nines, asked whether she might sit beside him, his firm refusal became quite the talk of both the Gyobang and the Haomen.
Lim Hayeon recalled that news and let the corner of her mouth curl into a small smile.
Knowing the truth, there's nothing to be surprised about.
He had no choice but to refuse in the first place.
That man.
"Because that man has fallen for me."
Kang Yunho was in love with her. A small doubt that had begun with Ha Soso's teasing — at some point, that little doubt had hardened into certainty.
Come to think of it, it had all been strange. The way he flinched, startled, the first time they met. The way he saved her when the "wicked merchant" Kang Yunho had no reason whatsoever to save her.
The way he kept helping her even after she refused his aid.
"Because he fell for me at first sight."
The way he always seemed to contrive reasons to go out together. The way he insisted there was no one else but her, all the while showing a discreet interest.
And this latest refusal of a courtesan's request was the most obvious thing of all.
With every ear in the Haomen open and listening, what man alive would dare risk such a thing reaching her own two ears?
cheonggi
Lim Hayeon gazed at her own face in the mirror, recalling the words a courtesan sister had once thrown at her.
Right. What's so special about Yichang's most celebrated beauties? He'd never waver. The loveliest woman in the city sits beside him, and she doesn't even dress up like the others.
A faint, strange sense of victory played on Lim Hayeon's lips.
She didn't realize it herself — but having grown up her whole life in the Gyobang, that garden of flowers where courtesans are raised, and never once been the object of a man's interest, her heart was now fluttering.
"Ngh! No! Absolutely not!"
Fearing someone might see, Lim Hayeon hastily pressed both hands to her cheeks. Feeling happy that a man like that likes me?
That's the wicked merchant Kang Yunho. I should be disgusted.
"A man I simply cannot read."
What came to mind wasn't the bidding war, but Kang Yunho's face as he played with the messenger pigeon.
Utterly unreadable. At times he seemed like a child. At times a rapacious merchant. At times the most magnanimous man in all of Yichang.
Deep inside Lim Hayeon's heart, a place no one had ever entered, her thoughts swirled in confusion over one man.
"You may sell your song, but never give away your heart."
Sell singing, not flesh. The ancient maxim of the courtesan. Perhaps Kang Yunho, contrary to her imaginings, was not purely the wicked merchant she'd painted him.
But because he'd been kind, because he had good points — giving him her heart was out of the question.
"...He's after something, in the end."
So had that man. Her mother had fallen for that man's finer qualities too — but he had been nothing more than a thief who made others weep.
And in the end, when mother and daughter were no longer of use, he had discarded them like worn-out shoes and never once appeared before them again.
She must not let her guard down. Perhaps that man truly had good in him. But some terrible vice might lie hidden beneath it all as well.
Because he was after something.
Steadying her heart, Lim Hayeon took out the dinner Kang Yunho had bought her that day.
It was a flavor even the most successful courtesans of Yichang had never tasted — a flavor the other women at Daseogak, the ones with a soft spot for Kang Yunho, would never get to taste.
Lim Hayeon didn't notice her own lips creeping upward at the thought.
She only thought that the food Kang Yunho had bought tasted especially good today.
"No dinner starting today."
"Whaaaaaat?"