A Brush with Genius
Running a food delivery business through the Jeonseo Delivery Guild meant there was one item we burned through nearly as fast as our ingredients.
"For the paper, please give us the amount we ordered. We only used half of last week's order, so just that much will do."
Order paper — the sheets we used to write down every delivery order.
To keep unit costs down, we bought the cheap stock in bulk, but it remained a purchase that demanded real care.
Which was why Lim Hayeon and I had been making the rounds of our suppliers since morning. It wasn't that I couldn't haggle with them myself, but the owner was a pushover for a pretty face, so Lim Hayeon usually handled the negotiations.
Why was it that nothing ever got thrown in for free when I was the one shopping? Lim Hayeon might be a peerless beauty, but wasn't this favoritism a little too extreme?
"Paper prices have climbed lately, so I'll have to charge you more than last time."
"Do you have any idea how much paper we buy from you every single week? How can you say that to us?"
Lim Hayeon asked, glaring daggers at the owner.
"It's the truth, I tell you! Paper prices these days could bend a man's back in two!"
"And all that volume we buy every week leaves you a tidy profit, doesn't it?"
"It's precisely because you buy so much that I haven't breathed a word until now. Go anywhere you like these days — you won't find a soul selling cheaper than me."
He had a point. This was easily the cheapest shop in the neighborhood.
"Hmmm. In that case, give us a good price today too... Mr. Ownerrr."
Apparently deciding that hardball wasn't working, Lim Hayeon switched tactics, pleading in a honeyed nasal voice thick with feigned sweetness.
"Urk! Act as cute as you like, it's not happening this time! Things are genuinely tight, I tell you!"
The middle-aged owner refused, desperately hiding a face flushed red by her coquettish act.
"Fine. If that's how you feel, sir, so be it. In exchange, throw in plenty of scrap paper instead. You can manage that much, can't you?"
"Goodness. Well, that much I can do."
"Mm-hm."
Satisfied that she'd gotten what she wanted, Lim Hayeon smiled in contentment.
When I'd first put her in a management role she couldn't even place an order properly, and now she was an employee who knew exactly how to turn her own charms to account in a negotiation. Frightening progress.
"A pretty face AND a head for business — I can't compete with that! Young man, you've truly landed yourself a fine wife!"
"Haha. I've told you before — we're not like that."
"Then hurry up and make her your wife!"
"If you keep teasing, the young lady will find it awkward. Isn't that so, Miss Hayeon?"
"……."
When I turned my head, Lim Hayeon's lips were jutting out in the faintest pout.
"Miss Hayeon?"
"What were you looking at just now?"
She'd been window-shopping so as not to disturb the negotiation, apparently.
"They had a fine selection of brushes, so I was just having a look."
To be precise, I'd been looking because they carried Joseon-made yellow-hair brushes here as well. The one Hwarin had given me as a parting gift was a high-grade brush, and it was sitting back in Yichang now.
"Do you want one?"
Lim Hayeon asked, as though probing the thoughts inside my head.
"Just browsing."
"As they say, to see is to want. Now's hardly the time for us to be indulging in luxuries. We already have all the paper, brushes, and ink we need."
Lim Hayeon spoke in the tone of a mother gently reproving her child.
"I'm well aware."
Right now, every last coin had to be wrung out and poured into the business. A gift would be one thing, but I had no desire to buy an expensive brush.
"Once all this is over, we'll pick out a nice brush together and treat ourselves to a little luxury, you and I."
With a faint smile, Lim Hayeon whispered quietly at my side, low enough that the owner couldn't hear.
Perhaps because the business was doing well. The woman who had once come to my room weeping softly now seemed, thanks to me, to hold hope in her heart — and the thought warmed me.
"Gladly. Oh, that's right! When this is done, I'm going to grab some lunch."
I brought up the thing I hadn't yet managed to tell her.
"Hm? Let's eat together."
"Haha. Well... there's someone I'm meant to eat with. Separately."
"Name one person in Wuhan who could possibly give you a reason to dine without me alon— ...Oh."
Realizing who it was, Lim Hayeon fixed me with a scrunched-up scowl.
"I don't plan on staying long. I'll just stop by briefly and come back."
I needed information on the Daseogak branch before I could set my plan in motion, after all.
"...Do as you please. It's your business."
With that one frosty remark, Lim Hayeon pushed open the shop door and walked straight out.
Smiling one moment, storming out with a scowl the next. At least finish placing the order before you go.
"Send it to the inn as usual, please. I'll settle payment after inspecting the goods, as always."
"Will do. But really — are you two not about to be married?"
"Haha."
"She's a good woman, and not merely for her looks. Do you know how she reacted just now, while you were eyeing that expensive brush?"
"What do you mean?"
"She opened her own purse, compared it against the price tag, and then sighed to herself where you couldn't see."
"Haha."
There was truly no need for her to buy me a gift.
Lim Hayeon was working for practically nothing. She'd refused a salary, insisting every coin be poured back into the business, but somehow it made me feel like a sweatshop boss, and I felt guilty about it.
"I know it's my own merchandise, but it's hardly overpriced. A woman may seem stingy, but that's exactly what a good wife ought to be. The husband may earn the coin, but it's the wife who keeps the household — isn't that the way of things?"
"I know very well how diligent Miss Hayeon is."
"I'll throw in some mulberry paper on top of the scraps, so off you go after her."
With a farewell to the owner and the somewhat sulky Lim Hayeon, I headed for the restaurant where I was to meet Jegal Hyang.
"Ah, h-helloooooo!"
I was slightly behind our appointed hour, having had to see to the morning's work first.
Hurrying into the restaurant's reserved room, I found Miss Jegal Hyang shrunk utterly into herself, offering me a timid greeting.
"You arrived early, I see. I'm a little late. My apologies."
"I also just, j-just got here tooooo!"
Jegal Hyang sprang up in alarm, waving her hands in denial.
I had written in my letter to come at her leisure. Apparently she'd arrived around the same time I did.
"Miss! How much longer must you wait? The guests who came in at the same hour have long since finished their meals and lef... Ah, here he is now."
"It seems you did wait quite a while. I'm sorry."
So she had waited. And judging by that, she'd waited an awfully long time.
I apologized to Jegal Hyang once more, with every courtesy.
"Ah, I, um... W-waiting for you, Young Master Kang, was also en-enjoyable, tooooo!"
Jegal Hyang said, dodging my gaze.
As if waiting could be enjoyable. Watching her get caught in a considerate little lie and scramble for a flimsy excuse only deepened my guilt.
I asked the serving girl to bring out the food that had been prepared, and took my seat.
Why wasn't she sitting down?
Even after I sat, Jegal Hyang did not resume her seat. Instead she turned her body toward me, timidly spread both arms wide, and tilted her head to one side.
Jegal Hyang was trembling faintly. Somehow she resembled a small herbivore quivering as it waits for its master's hand, and before I knew it, a smile had crept onto my face.
Was she asking me to look at her?
Not the pretty dress from the day of our matchmaking meeting, but a loose, comfortable outfit made for moving about. Nothing seemed much changed from last time.
Ah. I realized what had changed as I looked at the sleeves Jegal Hyang so timidly raised.
"Your clothes are quite tidy this time."
No ink stains on them this time.
"Ah! Th-that's because la-la-last-last-last time I came straight from painting! I'm sorryyyyy!"
Only then did Jegal Hyang bow her head over and over, apologizing to me.
So her attire from our last meeting had been weighing on her mind. Come to think of it, that visit had been rather sudden.
"I came straight from work today as well. If it's about what you wore last time, please don't let it trouble you. I didn't mind in the slightest."
It was a contract relationship, after all.
"R-really?!"
Jegal Hyang asked, beaming at me with an innocent smile, like a lamb whose every sin had just been absolved.
"Yes. What I enjoy is meeting you, Miss Jegal Hyang, and coming to know you through conversation — not looking at what you wear."
If I meant to keep the contract relationship under wraps, then when the leading questions came later, knowing a great deal about Jegal Hyang would matter far more.
Whether Jegal Hyang wore a bunny girl outfit, a qipao, or dolphin shorts, what difference would it make?
"...Mm. Me toooooo."
Heaven knew what she was embarrassed about, but Jegal Hyang answered with an expression like she was melting on the spot.
"And the book you said you were enjoying last time — how did it treat you?"
I kept the conversation with Jegal Hyang rolling along at an easy pace.
So the location for the Daseogak branch had been settled, but the transfer of the property was still pending.
Once the meal was over and we stepped outside, I began reviewing what I'd quietly drawn out of Jegal Hyang over lunch.
Heo Song's killer was never found in the end. The officials and the murim alike had turned the place over so thoroughly that people could practically smell the blood, but since the deed had been done in the pleasure quarter, the culprit was never run to ground.
The Daseogak branch had supposedly purchased a building in the heart of the bustling district — a building so expensive that even I, hardly a longtime resident of Wuhan, was astonished anyone had bought property in that spot.
The problem was that the Mangeum Lord, the man who would have to grant final approval, was away at a regular assembly.
If the Daseogak branch were already standing, the plan I had in mind would go down so much more easily.
For now, I would have to proceed on the assumption that it didn't.
"……."
"Fond of brushes, are you?"
While we waited for the driver to bring the carriage around, I noticed Jegal Hyang studying a brush hung outside a stationer's shop.
"Ah, I, um, that is..."
She neither confirmed nor denied. In my experience, that usually meant yes.
"Then let's go in and have a look together."
Painting was her hobby. There was no chance she disliked the four treasures of the study.
"Th-th-th-th-this sort of place is far too high a difficulty for meeeee."
Jegal Hyang said, hanging her head in distress.
"There will be things inside you like even better. Come, have a look around. Wouldn't it be a shame to walk away without so much as a peek?"
A contract relationship that had her dining alone with a man she had no real feelings for. And on top of that, I'd even arrived late.
With a personality as timid as hers, she probably couldn't bring herself to enter shops on her own, so browsing together at a moment like this counted as its own kind of consideration.
"A shame... Ah! Yes, yes, yes!"
Jegal Hyang looked up at me, seemed to ponder briefly, then nodded her head with tremendous vigor.
"Please, go on inside. I'll ask the driver out there to wait a moment and join you."
"Yeeees? T-together..."
"I'll be right back."
I saw Jegal Hyang into the shop and hurried off toward the driver approaching from down the street.
"As expected of you, sir! You know your goods! This brush is a perfect match for a lady like your companion there!"
The shop I entered after asking the driver to wait.
"Ah, n-no. That's..."
"Too expensive, you say? Then you don't know what you're talking about! This is the very brush favored by the famous painters of Hubei itself! If a young lady like her won't buy it, who will?"
"I-I'm quite all right, reallyyyy..."
"And how about an inkstone to go with the brush? We have one here carved from black wu stone."
"I, th-th-th-then, that will be all..."
"Why in such a hurry to finish your shopping? And what of a water dropper? We happen to have one that pairs beautifully with the wu stone inkstone."
"Ah, um, excuse me. That is..."
Jegal Hyang, her face on the brink of tears, stood a hair's breadth from being strong-armed into a purchase.
"We'll browse a little longer."
"Tch. Very well. As you wish."
The moment I stepped abruptly into the attendant's path and loomed over him with my most intimidating look, he clicked his tongue and slunk back to his post.
"Haaaah..."
Jegal Hyang let out a long breath of relief.
"We only came in to look around. It's rather flustering when they carry on like that, isn't it?"
"Yeeees! They insist you pick it up, try it out, and the moment you say you won't buy, they start cursing you with their eyeeees!"
Perhaps she felt genuinely wronged, for Jegal Hyang poured out her woes to me with tears pooling faintly in one eye.
"Haha. I'll stand guard so no attendant comes near, so take your time and look over whatever catches your eye."
Wearing a deliberately dependable smile, I stationed myself at Jegal Hyang's side, blocking her from the attendant's line of sight.
"……."
At that, Jegal Hyang looked up at me, her mouth slightly agape.
Had I stood too close?
"Miss Hyang?"
"Ah! Yesyesyesyesyes! Eheheheheh!"
Heaven knew what delighted her so, but Jegal Hyang laughed with her eyes curved into crescents, covering her lips with both hands.
And so the browsing began. If the shop we'd visited that morning had been a stationer selling goods for practical work, this one clearly dealt in the finer things.
"This brush looks good, and it's cheaper than the others. If you're going to buy, something like this is the sensible choice."
Half to keep the conversation going, I pointed at one of the brushes and spoke to Jegal Hyang, who had been gazing at them in deep concentration.
"No."
"I beg your pardon?"
The look on Jegal Hyang's face as she turned around was the most serious I'd seen from her all day.
"That is a goat-hair brush. A brush made from a goat's whiskers or tail hair. Goat hair has very little spring, so it's difficult to send strength into your strokes when writing, and the characters come out frail and boneless more often than not. So much so that they say not a single piece of writing done with the feeble goat-hair brush was ever handed down to posterity. The goat-hair brush is..."
Jegal Hyang raked the brush before her over the coals with acid venom, as though denouncing a mortal enemy.
"M-Miss Hyang?"
"Ah, I, um..."
Only then, as though snapping back to reality, Jegal Hyang looked up at me with trembling eyes.
"You really do love your brushes, I see."
After all, she was a delightful young lady liable to slam the accelerator down at any moment, with no telling where.
"It's my hobby. I'm sorryyyyy! I've gone and made another mistaaaaake..."
Jegal Hyang was shaking hard.
"Miss Jegal?"
"Eheheh... In the end, I... somewhere to hide..."
As though she had finally resigned herself to her fate, Jegal Hyang turned her body toward the space beneath the desk.
"Why would you be ashamed of teaching me something I don't know? I'm hopeless when it comes to brushes, so I'd like to hear your explanations of the other pieces as well, Miss Jegal Hyang."
"R-really?!"
What a swift change of expression. As if she had never despaired at all, Jegal Hyang came toward me, eyes sparkling.
"Yes."
"Eheheh. Th-then. This one is called a purple-hair brush. Shall I begin with it? A-and this one is a mixed-hair brush. Oh? This is the finest-quality brush in the whole shop, you knowuuu."
"Hm? Aren't there pricier brushes here?"
"Pricy or not, they're all cheap junkkkk."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Ah, th-th-that's. Because I've used finer brushes made from the same hair before..."
"I see."
The woman before me was the youngest daughter of the Jegal Clan. A lady raised in a house of staggering wealth — the articles she used at home were surely of a far finer grade.
"B-but this one, on the other hand, was made from fine hair, meticulously sorted in just the right proportions. It must surely be the work of a master craftsmanrrr."
"If Miss Jegal Hyang vouches for it, it must truly be an excellent brush."
"……."
"Miss Hyang?"
"I, um. Y-y-y-y-young Master Kang!"
Suddenly, Jegal Hyang clasped the mixed-hair brush tight and held it out to me.
"Yes?"
"C-could I... gi-give you this as a present?"