The Seventieth Birthday Feast (3)
The Tamdu cut through the waters off Yantai. A pleasant breeze swept across the sails and brushed past Jinmyung's face.
"Running a pleasure yacht this size must cost a fortune in operating expenses…"
"That's not our concern. Word is it's being sent to Joseon."
Yeongmyeong, clinging to the railing, answered Jinmyung's muttered remark. Jinmyung turned to him.
"Brother Yeong, what do you mean by that?"
"This ship was presented to the Imperial Palace… and will be sent on to the King of Joseon. It's a warning that his greed for Liaodong has grown excessive."
Yumyeong stepped over and answered. Yeongmyeong, seasick even in coastal waters, kept dry-heaving over the rail.
Yumyeong held out the wine bottle he had been drinking from. Yeongmyeong refused it, still too nauseated to take a sip.
"This is precious Nü'er Hong. If you won't drink it, I will."
"You brought Zhejiang's Nü'er Hong all the way out here? Impressive."
"Heh heh — only Brother Jin appreciates it. You have no idea how hard I worked to bring this for Grandfather's seventieth birthday…"
"A money-losing venture. But the money you spent on that effort… everyone noticed."
Jinmyung praised his younger cousin's thoughtfulness. Nü'er Hong was a famous wine of Zhejiang, deep in Jiangnan.
It was brewed when a daughter was born and left to age until she came of age. That rarity made it a treasure few could ever taste…
"From Zhejiang… ugh… to haul it all the way here you'd need a f-first-class escort agency, and the storage alone…"
Wine was not bulky, but keeping it sound was a constant headache. Even a celebrated vintage like Nü'er Hong rarely made it north of the river for precisely that reason.
"Grandfather mentioned Nü'er Hong once. I was going to present this as a gift and become Junior Merchant Lord myself…"
Yumyeong took a long pull from the bottle and shot Jinmyung a sidelong look. Jinmyung chuckled and accepted the bottle from him.
"Your thoughtfulness does you credit. I've no doubt you started preparing this the moment you were posted to the Zhejiang branch."
Yumyeong made no reply, only averted his eyes and stared out at the open sea for no particular reason. Jinmyung and Yeongmyeong exchanged a knowing smile, well aware of his embarrassment.
From the bow, Danjun watched the three of them. He intended to retire after this seventieth birthday feast.
That was why he had arranged the celebration — to install Jinmyung as Junior Merchant Lord. Fortunately, the family seemed to have accepted it without friction.
Danjun decided the sea wind had blown his unease away. The merchant group's future was bright. He dismissed the rest as the fretting of an old man who had no business fretting.
"S-Supreme Merchant… Lord."
Ak Sun approached. His steps were not hurried, yet the panic in his voice was impossible to hide.
"What is it? It's been some time since I've seen you flustered."
"The Merchant Lord is asking for you in the hold. You should go at once."
"The hold?"
The hold was the cargo space below deck. Built as a pleasure yacht, the Tamdu had little room to spare down there.
Was there any reason to go below…? Danjun was puzzled, but he followed Ak Sun down into the hold.
The moment he descended, a groan reached him. Danjun's stride quickened. If he was not mistaken, that voice belonged to Eunseong.
When Danjun stepped deeper into the hold, he found Eunseong with a blade buried in his stomach.
"F-Father…"
"Eunseong! Ak Sun! What are you doing? Light a lamp! I need to see the wound!"
But Ak Sun only shook his head and did not strike a light. As the ship rolled, sunlight from the hold entrance flickered in and out, the only illumination in the dark.
Ak Sun raised a hand and pointed deeper into the hold. Danjun looked. Dark cargo lay heaped in the shadows. Some of it had spilled, and black powder showed through the rupture. The cargo was…
"E-Explosives… The Hwangbo Family… set a t-trap…"
Explosives had always been managed directly by the state. But once the Hwangbo Family assumed escort duties for the Donghwa Merchant Group, they had been granted a portion of the stock to counter pirates.
"I came down looking for the wine the Merchant Lord had stowed, and found Hwangbo Bae handling the explosives."
"Where is Hwangbo Bae?"
Danjun asked the question calmly. Eunseong was pressing both hands to the wound in his belly, trying to stem the blood.
Danjun's voice was steady, but the hand he reached out to cover his son's wound trembled violently. Eunseong refused that hand and shook his head.
"I tracked Hwangbo Bae, but he fled with some of the crew."
Come to think of it, the senior sailors — the helmsman and his like — had been missing for some time. Danjun realized only now that failing to notice had been his own fatal error.
He drew a long breath and rose to his feet before Eunseong. Eunseong read the meaning in his father's eyes.
"Ak Sun, bring my son a bottle of warm wine. And call Jinmyung to the bow."
"Yes… Supreme Merchant Lord."
Danjun strode up to the deck with deliberate purpose — as if he were once again the young man who had walked the battlefields.
Jinmyung made for the bow at Ak Sun's word. Listening as Ak Sun summoned the rest of the family onto the deck, he found Danjun waiting at the prow.
"I heard you were looking for me."
"Do you know why I named you Jinmyung — Advance into Brightness?"
Danjun asked, gazing out at the horizon. All of Jinmyung's cousins shared the character Myeong — brightness — in their names.
He had been told it was chosen to match the new dynasty's ideal: that all people should live in a bright world. Jinmyung was about to say as much when he sensed his grandfather was not waiting for an answer.
"This old man once came to the Central Plains and, to survive, conducted black-market deals no better than fraud without a second thought."
"Wasn't that true of everyone during the war?"
The old empire had been a world of the strong devouring the weak, where might alone was honored. Jinmyung had heard that anyone who wished to survive there had no choice but to grow a little cowardly.
"Yes. That's right… Even so, I hoped your generation would live in the light. That is why I named you Jinmyung."
On the far sea Danjun was watching, a ship appeared.
"Trade is the art of balancing people's greed. This old man was rather good at it. I even commanded greed enough to overturn the world."
The ship drew steadily closer. A sailor in the crow's nest bellowed.
"P-Pirates!"
"I thought I had become an iron-willed man who commanded greed itself. So I meant to sail these seas on this ship, then retire."
To Jinmyung, Danjun's words sounded like a last will. He could not understand. Even if they were pirates, before the Hwangbo Family…
"Let us make a credit transaction. Are you prepared?"
"You taught me that credit is a terrifying thing… but what is there to fear in a transaction with family?"
"After the war, many came to sell this old man martial manuals, or offered to teach me martial arts. I refused them all."
Knowing the whole family was gathering at the bow, Danjun turned and looked at them all.
"A merchant is one who balances greed — not one who seizes what belongs to others for his own. How can you trade with a man when your hands hold weapons…?"
Danjun had, in truth, gone bare-handed even onto the battlefield to meet his counterparts. Ministers of the old empire and generals of the new dynasty alike had traded with him without hesitation.
The sailors, watching pirate ships close in from every side, threw themselves into the sea. But every one of them knew full well they could never swim as far as the shore.
"The Donghwa Merchant Group will purchase your life, Jinmyung. So live as a merchant. If you cannot… then better to neither fly nor cry. Do you understand?"
From Ak Sun's manner and the murmuring around him, Jinmyung realized this was a trap laid by the Hwangbo Family. Danjun's words were an order to keep silent about it.
"What… the whole family is about to die, and you're talking about this?"
"They say a great tree leaves a massive stump behind. I leave you — someone will trip over that stump and fall."
Jinmyung did not hear the rest. Danjun signaled Ak Sun, and Ak Sun wrapped his arms around Jinmyung and leapt into the sea.
As he fell, Jinmyung caught the look in Yumyeong and Yeongmyeong's eyes. They believed in him.
Splash! The instant Jinmyung hit the water, Danjun's sound transmission reached him. Even as Jinmyung stared up at the ship in shock, Ak Sun was already driving them farther away with his water arts.
From the pirate ships, countless fire arrows arced toward the Tamdu. Pirates who needed to plunder would never loose fire arrows.
It was the Hwangbo Family's doing after all — and just as the thought formed… the Tamdu exploded. But Jinmyung never heard the blast.
Ak Sun pressed a vital point, and Jinmyung's consciousness went dark. To escape notice, Ak Sun unfurled his water arts and dove beneath the surface.
As Jinmyung slipped under, he dreamed. A dream in which the seventieth birthday feast went on and on at Bongrae Pavilion, the whole family gathered together.