Wuhan - 1
Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei Province.
Countless tributaries of the Yangtze River flow down from the west, all converging here to form one massive waterway — that is Wuhan.
Just as all roads lead to Rome, no matter which upstream channel of the Yangtze you took, every waterway eventually led to Wuhan.
Naturally, Wuhan, where all the river's branches gathered, became a place that sucked in every ounce of manpower and goods, laying the foundation for it to grow into a city so vast that nothing else in Hubei Province could compare.
After days of travel alongside Lim Hayeon and the escorts of the Seocheon Escort Agency, I finally set foot in Wuhan.
"Young Master Kang. Welcome back. We've sent word ahead asking Mangeum Hall to contact us through the Seocheon Escort Agency."
"Thank you for your efforts."
Just as no city in Korea could hold a candle to Seoul, Wuhan was so enormous it made Yichang look like a village — but we had no time to stand and marvel. We were swept up at once in a flurry of errands across the city.
"However, the Wuhan branch of the Seocheon Escort Agency is apparently too cramped to have rooms for guests. It seems we'll need to find lodging elsewhere."
The escort spoke with his head bowed low, as though shame itself kept him from lifting it.
Hubei Province was the domain of the Wudang Sect, the greatest pillar of the Nine Great Sects and One Union, and of the Zhuge Clan, a martial family that could trade blows with the Sichuan Tang Clan. On top of that stood the Mangeum Hall, unrivaled in financial power if not in martial arts, and beneath it all, the Haomun ruled the underworld.
It seemed a great many checks were being thrown up to keep the Sichuan Tang Clan from extending its influence into Wuhan, the capital of Hubei.
"Coo-coo-coo!"
"Coo!"
"Quiet down!"
"Coo..."
The moment Lim Hayeon snapped a word at the large crate full of carrier pigeons, the whole flock fell silent at once.
Had bringing the pigeons really been the right call? Lim Hayeon had insisted they'd prove useful since they were clever creatures, but somehow I couldn't see it.
"There's an inn we can stay at, so let's head there."
I turned my gaze away from Lim Hayeon and answered the escort in an offhand tone.
"Have you been to Wuhan before?"
"No."
I had wandered the Central Plains plenty, but this was my first time in Wuhan.
"Then how will you...?"
"I've brought along someone to guide us."
I said, pointing at a man who looked for all the world like a common waiter.
"That hair color of yours stands out, so put on this straw hat and follow me."
The man's true identity was a Haomun member out of the Simun.
While the escorts went off to the Seocheon Escort Agency and Mangeum Hall, Lim Hayeon and I paid a visit to the Simun — the Haomun's brotherhood of waiters here in Wuhan.
We couldn't get an audience with the Simun Branch Master, but the moment I presented the iron coin Chief Gwak had given us, the Simun agreed to look after us.
Thank goodness that slap turned out to be worth its price — otherwise I'd have had to go back and repay it twofold.
"Where are we going?"
"I'm taking you somewhere the eyes of the Domun and Gimun can't reach."
Saying so, the man led us away from the bustling streets toward a quiet residential quarter.
It was certainly thinner of foot traffic than the crowded districts around the government offices or the harbor — we could likely stay out of sight here.
Following the Haomun member's footsteps, we arrived before a shabby-looking inn. Was this really where we were to stay? Shouts were leaking through the gaps in its worn door.
"Why are you back again!"
"Brother Ahn! Our little ones are starving! Just one meal, I'm begging you!"
"I've got no customers and I'm starving to death myself!"
"Aren't you the most successful of any of us, Brother Ahn? I'd even work as a waiter — please!"
"Waiter, my foot! I've got time to spare cooking and greeting customers all by myself, you rascal!"
"...Is this the right place?"
You didn't bring us here to recommend a failing inn, did you? I asked the Haomun member, my tone thick with doubt.
"Ahem! If you stay here, you won't stand out the way you would in a busy quarter. And there is another reason."
The Haomun member gave me a sidelong glance, then pushed open the inn's door and pointed at the innkeeper.
"A Joseon man?"
The innkeeper was a middle-aged man with black hair and black eyes, unmistakable to anyone.
"Who's this now? Hey! Don't tell me that's a friend of yours? There's no food for your lot!"
So the beggar had been a Joseon man too. Arms crossed, face screwed up in a deep scowl, the innkeeper looked us over.
"It's been a while."
"Gah! What's the Simun want with me? I-I-I paid off this month's debt!"
The innkeeper jolted in alarm, like a bulldog running into its most hated veterinarian in the middle of a walk.
"I haven't come about debt."
The Haomun member let out a small sigh and explained the situation, quietly enough that only the innkeeper could hear.
"I see. That much I can do."
"Few people pass through here, so the Domun and Gimun members' eyes won't find you. You may stay put here for a while, until we contact you."
"My thanks. Mind yourself on the way back."
When the innkeeper nodded, the Haomun member tossed a word our way and took his leave.
"Tsk. All the same, this doesn't sit right with me... Well?! What do you want to eat?! Or shall I show you to your rooms first?"
With a doubtful look on his face, the innkeeper came over to where we sat at a table.
My first fellow Joseon man in ages. I found it genuinely novel, but Joseon folk must be a common sight in Wuhan, because the man questioned us without batting an eye.
This was a man I needed in my debt if Lim Hayeon was to stay out of their hands — and it would be a problem if he stayed this uncooperative.
"Might I ask where your hometown lies?"
After a moment's consideration, I put the question to the innkeeper.
"What's a Joseon fellow want with my hometown? Namwon, that's where."
"Namwon? Might you have kin there bearing the family name Ahn?"
"Huh? Wh-why, yes. How did you know?"
I'd heard the surname Ahn from outside the door, that's how.
"I once lived in Namwon myself. You're an Ahn, aren't you? A dear elder brother of mine lives there."
I thumped my chest, wearing a look that said just as I thought.
"Is that so? And where in Namwon did you live?"
The doubt on the innkeeper's face eased a shade as he probed me in a testing tone.
He might not actually be from my hometown, I reminded myself. But this was the way in, wasn't it?
"Do you know Gwanghanru Pavilion?"
"Of course. What use is a Namwon man who doesn't know Gwanghanru?"
"If you follow the road between the Namwon Bureau — the government office — and Gwanghanru, you come to a quarter where people live..."
"Ah! I know the place you mean. My relatives must be living around there. Tell me — is that corrupt official with the Kim family name still in office?"
"A corrupt official named Kim? Ah! I believe I know just who you mean. I hear he was denounced to the court and stripped of his post. I was only a child then, so I know it only as rumor."
"So that bastard finally got himself dismissed..."
Unable to hold back his laughter, the innkeeper covered his face with a hand and murmured to himself.
"And might I ask what brings you all this way?"
Extortion and crushing levies. Fleeing one's hometown to escape a corrupt official's tyranny was much the same in the Central Plains as in Joseon.
"Who in this world has no story to tell! A guest after all this time turns out to be a hometown man bearing good news! Yes! I'll show you to my finest room!"
The innkeeper beamed at me, a smile utterly unlike the scowl he'd worn when he first came at us.
"Thank you."
"Young friend! I've mixed some noodles into dongchimi broth — cold radish kimchi soup — have a taste! It's on the house!"
"Hometown cooking! Thank you, Brother Ahn!"
Room delivery, no less. The service here was excellent.
"How nice, meeting a hometown man in a place like this."
Lim Hayeon said to me, wonder written across her face.
"He's no hometown man of mine."
I replied in an indifferent tone.
This cold noodle soup was delicious. The man clearly knew his way around a kitchen — so why were flies buzzing about? Something must have happened.
"I'm sorry?"
"I did live there a few days, didn't I?"
After all, I was Kang Yunho, a vagabond who loved nothing better than roaming every which way. I'd even taken a look around Namwon at the foot of Mount Jiri once.
"You lied to him?"
Lim Hayeon asked, as if she couldn't believe her ears.
"I told no lie. And he's the man who'll be hiding us for a while. We need to lay down a store of trust with him."
It wasn't as if the innkeeper could run all the way to distant Joseon to verify whether Kang Yunho really hailed from Namwon.
The Simun had vouched for us, but you could never be too careful. If only to keep Lim Hayeon from being dragged away, I needed him bound to discretion.
A fellow Joseon man, and a countryman from the very same hometown at that — he'd look after us and hold his tongue, no question.
"Wow..."
Lim Hayeon couldn't close her mouth, stunned.
"The Simun Branch Master is away, they said, so let's lie low and wait for the time being."
"Have you finished reading all that information on the Mangeum Lord that Chief Gwak gave you?"
"Every word of it — but all I received was the Mangeum Lord's life story. Not a line about why he's set his sights on Daseogak."
I'd read enough to write the great man's biography, and still I couldn't fathom his true intentions.
Why on earth would he target the bookstore of the master of the Baek Family Manor — his childhood friend, his sworn companion?
Simply to spite that rascal Jeon Gilsan?
A man who raised his own son the Spartan way would hardly turn soft on his grandson.
Or was it about money?
If money were the issue, he could have simply disposed of Daseogak back when we'd met over the debt. Why, with a change of heart, would he only now come throwing his weight around?
"So going to Mangeum Hall right now would get us nowhere, wouldn't it?"
"The information may be thin, but I've thought of a countermeasure. Even if we go straight away, we can at least talk — so don't worry yourself too much."
I might not know the man's heart, but with the information I'd gathered on him, there was a move worth trying.
The trouble was that, from the Mangeum Lord's standpoint, I was at best Debtor Number One — a man with only a sliver of connection to him.
Would the Mangeum Lord even grant an audience to a mere debtor like me? If I had to turn back without so much as a meeting, things would truly become a tangled mess.
"Young Master Kang! Someone has come from Mangeum Hall!"
I never dreamed they'd show up this fast.