Chapter 126
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 126
Chapter Title: A Fiery Reunion
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Cho Ak-ryang hurriedly stopped her.
“Sister Byeok! Wait!”
Byeok Hwa-ryeong, who was about to light the cannon, turned to Cho Ak-ryang with a chilling gaze.
“Come to think of it, there’s one more person to blow away.”
Cho Ak-ryang was momentarily flustered by Byeok Hwa-ryeong's terrifying expression. But he soon began to persuade her in a calm voice.
“Sister Byeok, are you going to give up just like this?”
“...?”
“If you fire that, it’s really over.”
“Isn’t it already over?”
“No. You never know what might happen.”
Cho Ak-ryang continued, his eyes serious.
“Don’t throw away your long wait just to vent your anger once. Firing that cannon might feel satisfying for a moment, but the regret will last a long time.”
At his words, Byeok Hwa-ryeong’s gaze wavered.
Then, Cho Ak-ryang drove the point home.
“Think about when you finally win his heart! And all the effort you’ve poured in until then! Isn’t your life too precious to throw away just to vent, Sister Byeok?”
“...”
For a moment, she looked back and forth between Beom Gye-wi and the cannon, her eyes filled with confusion.
“Aah! What am I doing!”
Belatedly regaining her senses, Byeok Hwa-ryeong grabbed a nearby coiled rope and threw it to Beom Gye-wi.
Then she smiled as brightly as she had at first.
“Hurry up and climb.”
But Beom Gye-wi, his face filled with righteous fury, shouted.
“Hey, you crazy bitch! Just shoot! One of us dies today!”
“Why say such scary things? It was just a little joke.”
“A joke? This is a joke?”
“It’s been so long since we’ve met. Can’t I even throw a little tantrum?”
“Tantrum, my ass! You had the look of someone determined to make me fish food!”
“It’s not like you would have died if I shot it.”
She offered a charming smile as if nothing had happened.
“Besides, you deserve this much punishment.”
“Punishment? What punishment?”
“You made me lonely all this time.”
“...!”
“How could you do that? Not a single visit, not even a letter, for ten years.”
Beom Gye-wi was rendered speechless.
No matter what anyone said, the fact that he had neglected her was undeniable. In the end, Beom Gye-wi reluctantly grabbed the rope she had lowered and climbed onto the ship.
Byeok Hwa-ryeong reached out a hand toward the soaking wet Beom Gye-wi.
Beom Gye-wi flinched for a moment but couldn’t bring himself to push away her hand as it stroked his beard.
“You’re handsome even when you’re wet. I really know how to pick a man.”
Beom Gye-wi shivered at her chilling transformation.
Cho Ak-ryang was the same.
For a rare moment, Cho Ak-ryang cast a pitying glance at Beom Gye-wi.
“Raise the anchor! We’re heading back at full speed!”
“As you command!”
At Byeok Hwa-ryeong’s command, the warriors of the Hainan Sect shouted in unison.
A short while later, the ship left the harbor, turned its bow, and began to cut through the waves at a frightening speed.
* * *
An inn near Mount Diancang.
A middle-aged beggar dressed in rags climbed the stairs to the second floor. His eyes fell upon the only group occupying a table.
“Are you Young Master Dan?”
The beggar approached them with quick, short steps.
“You’re from the Beggar’s Sect?”
When Dan Ak-seon showed his recognition, the beggar smiled and nodded.
“My name is Jin Wi-yang, and I am the regional leader for the Yunnan area. I have come, at the risk of being rude, with a message from our Sect Leader.”
“Was the matter he attended to handled well?”
“Yes, thanks to your concern, it seems to have been resolved smoothly. The Sect Leader headed this way immediately and said he should be able to join you by tomorrow morning.”
“I see. Thank you for letting me know.”
“Don’t thank me. I was only doing my duty.”
“You haven’t eaten yet, have you? Please stay and have a meal with us.”
Jin Wi-yang glanced at Han Seol-hwa with a troubled expression.
“No, thank you. The Sect Leader gave me a strict order. To report and then immediately flee... no, I mean, withdraw.”
Through the Sect Leader’s repeated warnings, he was well aware of how much Han Seol-hwa despised beggars. With an apologetic look, Dan Ak-seon saw Jin Wi-yang off as he disappeared down the stairs.
Returning to the table, Dan Ak-seon let out a soft sigh.
“It feels empty without Uncle Beom and Uncle Cho.”
The outstanding scenery and delicacies he had enjoyed along the way were no longer as delightful as before.
Han Seol-hwa, on the other hand, looked relieved.
“It’s quiet and nice, what’s the problem?”
Ga Du-dal felt the same.
The number of people he had to be wary of had dropped from three to one, so he seemed to feel more at ease.
“Really? I feel like something is missing…”
As he soothed his disappointment by taking in the view outside the inn, a question suddenly occurred to Dan Ak-seon.
“By the way, who is this person from the Hainan Sect that Uncle Beom has a connection with?”
“Hmm... Was it about fifteen years ago?”
After gathering her thoughts for a moment, Han Seol-hwa began to speak.
“There was a man named Wi Bul-gun who held considerable influence in the Guangdong region. He had quite a unique history and was a renowned master of the orthodox faction.”
He had once served in the military, but when his superior was purged for political reasons, he left and entered the martial world.
Having spent many years on the battlefield, he possessed practical martial arts, and thanks to his upright and magnanimous character, he was respected by many.
“Then one day, he announced that he would perform the Gold Basin Hand-Washing Ceremony.”
The Gold Basin Hand-Washing Ceremony, where one washes their hands in a golden basin, was an event to settle the complicated grudges and debts of the past.
Afterward, no one could hold the person accountable for past grievances, and the person who underwent the ceremony could no longer interfere in the affairs of the martial world.
“At the time, Wi Bul-gun invited many orthodox faction figures with whom he was acquainted. Since it was an occasion to settle old grudges, he was afraid that those who held a grudge against him would flock there on that day.”
The idea was that one couldn't create new grudges while trying to settle old ones, so he preemptively gathered a large crowd as a deterrent.
“So that’s a thing. But why did he decide to perform the ceremony?”
“Because of Brother Cho.”
“Uncle Cho?”
Han Seol-hwa nodded.
“Brother Cho had declared he would kill him.”
“Why?”
“People of the orthodox faction, who live and die by their principles, and people of the unorthodox faction, who act according to their interests—each follows their own way of life. They might dislike each other, but unless someone is truly evil, it’s hard to fault them for it and pick a fight. However, there are some things that neither the orthodox nor the unorthodox can tolerate.”
“...?”
“Hypocrisy.”
In the past, Wi Bul-gun had killed many infamous members of the unorthodox faction, earning a considerable reputation within the orthodox faction. However, among those he killed was one of Cho Ak-ryang’s few acquaintances.
“He was the leader of the Iron Sand Sect. For someone from the unorthodox faction, he had a decent sense of shame.”
Wi Bul-gun launched a surprise attack and killed him while he was drunk.
That much could have been overlooked, but he went around the martial world boasting that it had been a fair duel.
That wasn’t all.
Afterward, a few people investigated and found that most of his acclaimed achievements involved picking off and killing unorthodox faction members who were much weaker than rumored, after which he would bribe gossips to exaggerate the stories.
“It turned out he was a far cry from being upright and honorable.”
Han Seol-hwa had also attended his Gold Basin Hand-Washing Ceremony.
She had learned that he had secretly raped a young girl and then killed her to silence her.
“Beom Gye-wi was there too.”
He had once challenged Beom Gye-wi and then fled, but he twisted the story and spread rumors that Beom Gye-wi was the one who ran away.
“From the Hainan Sect, the Sect Leader, Byeok Dae-gyeong, also attended, bringing his daughter and over two hundred warriors.”
It was because of a debt that existed between the Hainan Sect and him.
Using his military background, Wi Bul-gun had extorted a lot of money from the Hainan Sect in the name of introduction and commission fees.
But in the end, it all turned out to be lies.
When the imperial court and the Hainan Sect established direct relations, the absurd fraud he had used to deceive the sect for years was exposed in its entirety.
“They were in the middle of a heated argument when Beom Gye-wi suddenly burst in. He sent the golden basin filled with water flying and then smashed the man’s head.”
Dan Ak-seon was startled.
“She supposedly fell for his manly spirit when he decisively blew Wi Bul-gun’s head off, like cutting a tangled knot with a sharp sword. Byeok Hwa-ryeong started following him around from that time.”
Han Seol-hwa let out a snort.
“After that, they happened to have a private meeting, and she supposedly fell for him all over again while they talked through the night. Unbelievable, I know.”
“Can you fall for someone you’ve already fallen for?”
“It’s possible because it’s Byeok Hwa-ryeong. Of course, I don’t understand it.”
“And then?”
“I heard Byeok Hwa-ryeong confessed to him right then and there. Beom Gye-wi rejected her on the spot. Then, she apparently told him he’d regret it for the rest of his life if he refused. She tried to persuade him, saying he’d never meet another woman like her.”
“So what happened?”
Finding Dan Ak-seon’s intrigued expression cute, Han Seol-hwa smiled quietly.
“Beom Gye-wi is said to have made a bold declaration on the spot. That he would find a lover within five years. I heard he boasted that if he couldn’t, he would marry Byeok Hwa-ryeong.”
“Ah! So that’s why…”
Han Seol-hwa chuckled drily.
“Perhaps this time, we’ll get to see the rare sight of that ugly bald man getting married.”
Dan Ak-seon, however, sank into deep thought with a serious face.
“So it wasn’t just an ordinary matter.”
“You don’t need to worry. It’s something for those two fools to sort out themselves.”
“Two of them? Is Uncle Cho involved too?”
“Of course.”
As if finding it absurd even now, Han Seol-hwa let out a snort.
“When Beom Gye-wi made that stupid vow, the one who stepped up to be the witness was none other than Brother Cho.”
* * *
“That damn wine is the enemy.”
As the island of Hainan came into view, Cho Ak-ryang sighed.
“I shouldn’t have drunk that wine back then.”
Beom Gye-wi nodded as if he finally remembered.
“It was Huadiao wine, wasn’t it? The one Byeok Hwa-ryeong offered.”
In the Shaoxing region, there’s a tradition of burying a jar of Jiafan wine when a child is conceived. If the child is a daughter, the wine is unearthed when she gets married and served to acquaintances.
That’s why it’s called Nu’er Hong.
Conversely, if a boy is born, the seal is broken when he comes of age and sets off to take the civil service examinations, as a prayer for him to place first.
This is called Zhuangyuan Jiu.
The wine itself is the same, but it is given a different meaning depending on the gender of the child.
Cho Ak-ryang licked his lips.
“The sweet taste that hit the tongue so intensely the moment it entered my mouth was quite impressive.”
As Cho Ak-ryang continued, his eyes grew distant.
“It was spicy and sharp as it went down my throat, and the bittersweet aftertaste lingered long, carrying the fragrance of flowers and fruit. The intense heat that rose later powerfully etched that complex flavor into my mind. Hah... There really was no other wine like it.”
“You’re making a fuss... Aren’t all Shaoxing wines more or less the same?”
Cho Ak-ryang snapped at Beom Gye-wi’s remark.
“That was Huadiao wine! Real Huadiao wine, aged so long that flower patterns form naturally on the jar! Not the fake kind where they just paint flowers on the jar and sell it carelessly!”
“Don’t worry. Once this is all over, I’ll buy you a big drink.”
Cho Ak-ryang sighed and shook his head.
“Don’t bother. Do you think it’s so easy to find a fifty-year-old aged wine?”
Just then, Byeok Hwa-ryeong, who must have overheard their conversation, slyly interjected.
“I have some wine I’ve been saving to open on my wedding day. It’s even sixty-five years old…”
Cho Ak-ryang’s gaze wavered.
Seeing this, an anxious Beom Gye-wi quickly stepped in front of Byeok Hwa-ryeong.
“Don’t lie. You’re forty-five, how could you have a sixty-five-year-old Nu’er Hong?”
“My grandfather buried it, and I happened to find it recently. My grandfather passed away before my father came of age, so it was never opened and was forgotten.”
At those words, Cho Ak-ryang’s gaze intensified.
“You should just get married.”
Beom Gye-wi growled at his words.
“You’d sell me out for a single jar of wine?”
“I’m even overvaluing you. Honestly, who other than her would like an ugly, ill-tempered guy like you?”
Byeok Hwa-ryeong burst out laughing.
“As expected of Brother Cho! I’m glad I didn’t blow you away with the cannon.”