The Poison Empress Goes Shopping
Sichuan had been famous for its silk since ancient times.
Shu brocade in particular — with its dazzling patterns that seemed to catch the hem of a celestial maiden's robe — fetched such handsome profits that merchants from every province flocked to buy it up in Chengdu.
"Welcome! What may I show you today?"
Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. At a silk shop, the owner greeted the two mysterious women who had just walked through his door.
Both faces hidden beneath mianli veils trailing gauze. Were they murim ruffians come to cause trouble? Suspicious, very suspicious. Concealing his wariness, the owner waited for his customers to speak.
"Show me the finest silk blanket in this shop."
The young woman's voice carried a surprising strength.
"Young customer, what you ask for is very, very expensive. Perhaps we should start with an ordinary silk blanket."
Even an ordinary silk blanket cost a fortune, and she wanted the finest one? The owner doubted his own ears.
A vain little thing, come to gawk at a silk blanket she has no intention of buying.
It happened sometimes. Women who wanted to touch Shu brocade without buying a single thread. This one was surely no different. The owner kept his smile in place and cursed her silently with his eyes.
When he made no move to fetch anything, the woman sighed softly and removed her veil.
"I have money. Show me."
The moment the owner saw her rare, striking face, his eyes went round — not because she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, but because of the color of her hair and eyes.
"Gah! Y-you're from the Sichuan Tang Clan! Welcome, welcome! I'll show you a Shu brocade so dazzling it'll make your eyes pop!"
Tang Hwarin looked at the silk the owner hastily produced and let out a small sigh.
"Don't you have anything that looks plain enough to go unnoticed at a glance, but reveals loving care on closer inspection?"
"I do have some, but..."
"Show me that. But the feel has to be so good I couldn't sleep under anything else."
"Will the person using it happen to be a man?"
"My fiancé."
"Why didn't you say so sooner! I'll show you one soft enough to snuggle up with your husband all night! It's the very same item used in the wedding trousseaus of great noble houses!"
The owner hurriedly laid out silk blankets worthy of Tang Hwarin's eyes. Only then did the corners of her mouth — stiff with the slight she'd felt at being dismissed upon entering — finally begin to stir.
"Heh heh. The second blanket is the one. Next time, bring out the same one for me."
"Please travel safely!"
Should have treated her better from the start. Swallowing his regret, the owner bowed her out with all his might, praying she would return.
"Master. On to the next shop."
Tang Hwarin pointed at the store ahead of them.
"That blanket looked fine enough. Why not buy it right away?"
"It's the blanket Yoonho will sleep under, so I have to compare shops. My purse is deep enough."
The pouch Tang Hwarin drew from her breast looked plump indeed at a glance.
"I never dreamed you'd go so far as to demand a blank promissory note."
"Heh heh. Making a scene paid off — I didn't get a blank note, but I got plenty."
Moyong Seop had balked at her demand for a blank draft, but he'd done his utmost to show sincerity. Thanks to that, Tang Hwarin received a promissory note with a sum so satisfying she could almost forget months of hardship.
"Buying gifts for your betrothed is a fine thing. But rather than buying half the market to send him, send only gifts that carry your heart — and send the rest as money to be spent where it's needed."
The Poison Martial Empress had willingly come out to the market for her disciple who had suffered for months, but a premonition that one misstep might keep them shopping until nightfall forced the remark out of her.
"Because I know Yoonho."
"You do?"
"Work this, escort duty that. He'll look after everyone else, but himself? Not a chance. He'll wear whatever's comfortable, put on the same clothes he wore yesterday because they don't smell yet, work late into the night writing, then flop down to sleep without so much as tidying up around him. I can see it all too clearly."
Tang Hwarin pressed two fingers to her forehead and shook her head as if she could see it without looking.
"You remind me of my late husband."
The Poison Martial Empress smiled with her eyes at the memory.
"A man who spends money on everyone but himself — so it falls to me to look after Yoonho."
Tang Hwarin rested the back of her hand on her hip as she spoke. If Yoonho concerned himself with the world outside, then she would concern herself with Yoonho. Even from far away.
"Such devotion."
Who on earth made this child fall so hopelessly in love? The Poison Martial Empress found herself wanting, more than ever, to see her disciple's fiancé with her own eyes.
"Heh heh. Next, clothes! I'll pick some out for you too, Master!"
Tang Hwarin laughed and tugged at the Poison Martial Empress's sleeve.
"We'll be busy all day, then. Very well. Let's go."
That day, wherever the two women went, the merchants of Chengdu wore ear-to-ear grins.
"The antidote is complete, so we wish to make preparations for departure."
In the Patriarch Hall of the Sichuan Tang Clan, Moyong Seop — leader of the Moyong Clan's delegation — paid his respects to the Clan Head and announced that they were preparing to return home.
"I regret I could not do more for you."
"How could you say such a thing? The Tang Clan produced an antidote that could not be found anywhere else in the world. On behalf of the Moyong Clan, I offer my thanks once more."
Moyong Seop knelt on one knee and bowed in gratitude.
"How could anyone in trouble be turned away? When do you intend to depart?"
"As soon as the physician we brought has mastered the antidote's preparation, we will leave at once."
They already had the antidote and the recipe, so it would not take long. The Tang Clan Head nodded at Moyong Seop's answer, then opened his mouth to make a proposal.
"How about traveling together with a physician from our Medical Pavilion?"
"The physician we brought is a renowned doctor himself."
"Then I shall attach Tang Clan warriors as your escort."
"Tang Clan warriors? There is really no need."
"Do you not wonder what storm of blood will break loose the moment an antidote appears in the Moyong Clan?"
"...!"
Only then did Moyong Seop grasp the true meaning behind the Clan Head's words.
How much does he know?
The Tang Clan Head had sensed that something was wrong within the Moyong Clan. Moyong Seop forced his expression to stay smooth while his mind raced.
Had he noticed the poison was demonic in origin? Or did he simply assume it was factional infighting? Or perhaps — perhaps he was offering to help Clan Head Moyong Cheon himself.
"Clan Head Moyong Cheon used to boast of his daughter now and again. I have long suspected the rumors about your mistress circulating in the world were greatly exaggerated."
Tang Baekho, Clan Head of the Sichuan Tang Clan, had come dangerously close to the heart of the matter.
"Clan Head..."
"What say you? If the Moyong delegation agrees, I will have them ready at once."
Moyong Seop could not open his mouth carelessly.
For the Tang Clan Head to send allies meant he wished to support his lord. But saying yes would mean exposing the fact that the Moyong Clan was being infiltrated and seized by the Demonic Cult.
After long deliberation, Moyong Seop spoke.
"A family's affairs... must be handled by the family, must they not."
One could not burn down the whole house just to catch a bedbug.
If word escaped that the Young Lord had conspired with the Demonic Cult — that the Moyong Clan had become a den of demonic cultists — the clan would suffer a wound from which it could never recover.
Moyong Seop declined, with all courtesy.
"Very well. A fair answer."
"Clan Head, I thank you once more for your kindness. With your leave, I will withdraw."
The Clan Head accepted Moyong Seop's bow and gazed out the window until the man had left the Patriarch Hall.
The Poison Human incident, which had even touched the Tang Clan with demonic ties, was a matter to be buried in absolute silence. All the more so if demonic cultists were involved more deeply — it was only natural to want it ended within the family walls.
"First the Sichuan Tang Clan, now the Moyong Clan... Just how far do their hands reach?"
Tang Baekho looked up at the night sky with a bitter expression, thinking of the murim's future.
"Lady Hwarin, shall we send the arrivals straight to the Seocheon Escort Agency?"
"I need to write a letter to send along with them."
Tang Hwarin gazed fondly at the goods that had arrived at the Forbidden Garden as she spoke to Sibi.
"Of course. Once you give me the letter, I'll have the Seocheon Escort Agency deliver everything to Daseogak."
"Thank you."
Over the past several days, Tang Hwarin had bought every gift for Kang Yoonho that came to mind.
Shipping cargo as an escorted consignment from Chengdu all the way to Yichang would cost a small fortune, but as a Poison Human using the Tang Clan's own Seocheon Escort Agency, that was no concern at all.
"Now, time to write the letter."
Nothing was missing. She checked one more time, then returned to her room to write.
To my beloved Yoonho,
"Ugh... why is writing it down so embarrassing?"
The moment she finished the first line, Tang Hwarin's face burned and she set down her brush.
She could say it a hundred times, a thousand times, out loud without blinking. Why did putting it in writing set her cheeks ablaze? It felt as though her feelings were clinging, sticky and inseparable, to every single character.
It tickled. Embarrassing, but it felt good. A feeling she didn't want to show anyone. Maybe she should set the emotions aside and start with her instructions first.
Tang Hwarin scratched her tingling forearm and pressed on.
By the time the escort men arrive, it will be autumn. I'm sending autumn clothes and winter clothes. Wear them. I'm sending a winter blanket too — when it arrives, don't just sleep under it as is. Be sure to ask Uncle Chang, that regular of Daseogak, to have it stuffed with cotton batting, and...
The moment Tang Hwarin reread her advice about the gifts for her fiancé, she seized her hair in agony.
"I sound like a mother..."
Like a mother worrying over a son living far away, studying for his exams.
"I-I want to write something a lover would say..."
A mother's love was love too, but she wanted words worthy of a lover. In the end, Tang Hwarin glanced around the empty room to make sure no one was watching, and continued the letter.
Yoonho. Every time you sleep under that blanket, you must think of me. Underst—
"I've lost my mind! I've lost it! Truly! Hoooooo."
Unable to bear it, Tang Hwarin flung herself onto the bed.
"I should start with how I've been."
Fanning her burning face with her palm until she had barely calmed down, Tang Hwarin sat back at the desk.
Yoonho. I have a master now. The Poison Martial Empress — someone truly, famously famous.
Just as Yoonho had done, she was writing down everything that had happened. Tang Hwarin continued writing, calm and steady.
A while ago, people from the Moyong Clan came to the Tang Clan, you see.
There was so much to tell.
Yoonho, you should have seen the Tang Clan people's faces. I wanted to see that delighted face of yours, right beside me.
Getting a master. Making the antidote. Her achievement in the martial arts. The more Tang Hwarin wrote of the past half year, the more her feelings for her fiancé soaked through every line.
Write back to me. I love you.
— Hwarin
A letter holding half a year of Tang Hwarin's life.
With that final sentence, brimming over with her heart, the letter was complete.
"I'm glad we came to the Sichuan Tang Clan after all."
A few days later. A warrior of the Moyong Clan turned his head and spoke toward the Sichuan Tang Clan compound, still visible in the distance.
"With the antidote alone, we can turn the board over."
Moyong Seop said this as he tenderly touched the antidote tucked against his chest.
"The moment our Clan Head rises, we can sweep those filthy wretches away in an instant. And then our lord will become the next Clan Head."
"Yes. That's right."
"So there is no such thing as dying after all. The Sichuan Tang Clan... what an incredible family. We call ourselves the Hegemon Clan of Liaodong too, yet look at the difference."
The Hegemon Clan of the wealthy Sichuan region and the Hegemon Clan of a frontier land crawling with barbarians could never be the same — but the faces of the Moyong warriors were full of bitterness all the same.
"One day the Moyong Clan will command that same fearsome prestige."
"I believe it's possible too — once everything returns to its rightful place, with our lord at the helm."
Their present circumstances were bleak, but not without hope. The Moyong Clan still had the Master of Changbong Hall, Moyong Sang-ah.
If only the Moyong Clan could be restored to what it once was, then in the next generation it might become a family that could hold sway over the whole world.
The faces of the Moyong warriors, thinking of the Master of Changbong Hall, were filled with utter trust in their lord.
"This is truly..."
"Enough gawking..."
"...these Sichuan folk and their incredible..."
"The column behind us has been restless for a while now."
Ending the conversation, Moyong Seop nodded with his chin toward the rear, which had looked disordered for some time.
"Ah, probably because of the gifts we brought from the Tang Clan."
One of the Moyong warriors said this with an inexplicable grin.
"Gifts?"
One of the Moyong warriors fished something out of his breast and handed it to Moyong Seop, who tilted his head.
"We reach the inn soon. Why not have a look?"
What the warrior handed over was the very object that had shaken the Tang Clan to its core.
"...Wind and Cloud of the Tang Clan?"
It was a book written by Kang Yoonho.