The Shadow of the Palace, Eunuchs (9)
Shortly after.
Jin Myeong and Jeong Go stepped out beyond Xi'an Gate to the west of the palace.
“Xi'an Gate... how long has it been...?”
“Only four days, right?”
Deung Go's blunt reply came immediately to my wistful words that carried a deep sense of nostalgia.
Did I overdo the “long time no see” act? It was embarrassing.
Who would say that about someone from the Hainan Sect, like a sword-wielding fellow.
“Uh, uh. Yeah, that's right. Just four days.”
Xi'an Gate was the western gate of the palace.
Passing through the gate, along the main road and alleys, the market stalls lined up, and further northwest, military camps appeared.
Yuwol Pavilion was also in that market district.
“Jang Dangcha! Jeong Naegwan! Dongchang Bong-eo Deung So... yo. Nice to see you... so.”
Deung So, who was responsible for road maintenance on the Xi'an Gate road today, spotted us and approached.
The Directorate of City Overseers was one of the 24 bureaus, and due to its difficult and grueling nature, it had the lowest rank.
Even at the same 6th rank, lowering oneself more than Man Deok of the Imperial Stables was all for that reason.
This Deung So uncle was older than Man Deok by ten years.
He really had to live a long time to reach the rank of 5th rank supervisor, or otherwise end at 6th rank.
Thinking about it, it was a bit pitiful.
His appearance and voice were innate qualities, yet they divided him between being a eunuch or not.
“Please speak comfortably. This humble one is Dangcha, and Jeong Naegwan is merely a sidekick.”
“Even so, to the eunuchs of the Directorate...!”
“Deung Gong! Follow Jang Dangcha's words. It would be inconvenient for us.”
Seeing Deung So slightly uncomfortable, Jeong Go added.
I wasn't particularly uncomfortable.
As I said, it was just a bit wistful.
The bitterness of a eunuch's life, divided by status and noble birth.
“T-then! I'll speak comfortably. As I heard! I heard from Man Gong of the Imperial Stables. There are great figures in the Directorate of Ceremonial. Seeing them up close, their spirit is bright and truly humble.”
“You honor me, Deung Gong.”
“This morning, the high officials of the Directorate of City Overseers were all supposed to be on duty at Xi'an Gate, but there was no such commotion. Look here. Everyone is waiting to greet you two.”
“Deung Gong, is there anyone coming today?”
“Huh? What do you mean? Who is coming?”
“Our today's duty was originally the Directorate of Transport, but it changed to the Directorate of City Overseers this morning. I asked if perhaps a high official was coming.”
“Really? There was no word about anyone coming today. If high officials are coming, they would come through the main gates, not this way, right?”
“Indeed, that's true.”
I still couldn't understand.
If no one was coming, why change the duties? I couldn't guess the reason.
Who? At dawn? Why?
Not Yi Gak or Yun Bong, who else, and why change it.
It was strange, this was the first time.
“Come, let's go. I'll explain about our Directorate of City Overseers in detail. More detailed than what I explained to the eunuchs of the Directorate of Ceremonial before. It will be at least two shichen worth, so listen for fun and your observation duty will be over. What do you think? Oh-hong-hong!”
Deung So casually talked about two shichen.
This guy was real. Really.
Two shichen worth.
Is he joking? To preserve my eardrums, thirty-six lines of marching songs would have been the only way.
“Yes... thank you, Deung Gong. Before that, may I go somewhere for a moment. I won't stray from the road.”
“Is that so? Feel free to go. Now that I think about it, this is the first time you've come out of the palace? There must be much to see.”
“I won't go far. It's right here.”
“Huh? Where? There? Yuwol Pavilion?”
Deung So asked as if confirming the place my finger pointed to.
“Yes. I'll go for a short while.”
“Oh! This person's taste for elegance is extraordinary? Starting from this morning?”
“Huh?”
“This is a secret... since our mouths are empty, we put it in a bottle and sip it. Our duties are a bit tough. We work with the power of alcohol. Hong-hong! It's a secret, got it?”
Deung So scanned the surroundings and whispered.
I could guess his personality.
Surprisingly, there was a touch of innocence.
So I wanted to tell him.
Instead, look at Jeong Go.
He's not quiet because he has nothing to say.
“It's an extremely expensive place over there. Even ordering just one bottle of Dongpa meat and alcohol would fly away your monthly salary. Places like us can't even approach it. I'll tell you a good place, follow me.”
“It's fine. I'm not here to buy alcohol.”
“Here, business doesn't start in the morning! It's a product of the brothel! Eh? Ehehei! I wasn't going to say good place...!”
I grabbed his arm and pulled the frustrated Deung So back, then flung open the doors of Yuwol Pavilion with a bang.
“Mother! Sisters!”
Shortly after.
Deung So stood there speechless, staring blankly.
The other eunuchs who had rushed over upon hearing the news were in the same state.
It was because the young eunuch from the Directorate of Ceremonial had kicked open the door of the capital's premier brothel.
He had heard about the news that a 6th-rank Dangcha had been appointed after only three days in the palace, but still, what kind of money did a 6th-rank eunuch have to frequent a place like Yuwol Pavilion?
Yet here we were.
“Oh my! Have you come to see your old granny? No, no, no? Why would an old granny be worth visiting? You must have come to see your sisters.”
“Even water has its upper and lower parts, young one. This humble one has come to greet your respected mother first.”
“Myeon-ah! Our son, let me see your face. Have you eaten? Have you slept? Is there enough money? Pull out your ledger and hand it over. Eh?”
“Mother, eat well and sleep well. Don't worry. Oh my, our mother is looking so worn out again. Go-ya, greet them. This is the grandmother of your uncle. Mother.”
“My name is Jeong Hui. Jeong Gong, please take good care of our son. If you receive any favors, come to our house with Myeon.”
Despite my worries, what was this?
“A house? Yuwol Pavilion?”
The famous beauties of Yuwol Pavilion and the capital's most renowned beauties were all pouring out.
The legendary Yuwol Pavilion was their home?
The capital's number-one beauty from my childhood nightmares, Zheng Hui, and her sisters were mothers and aunts?
“Pull out your ledger and hand it over?”
And what? A ledger? How much? Ten taels of silver? A hundred taels? They were just handing it over like that?
The most shocking and incomprehensible part was this:
“Wait, so you've turned your only grandson into a eunuch? Are you out of your mind? Why? A family that has enough money to eat and play all their lives?”
Even if I generously assumed the women supported a 6th-rank Dangcha eunuch succeeding in his role, I still couldn't understand it.
Yet I had to agree.
They had agreed to cut the ties of blood.
The Directorate of Ceremonial Dangcha wasn't some great authority, and right now it was normal to feel ashamed.
Yet they were casually mingling in the middle of the road where everyone could see.
It was completely incomprehensible.
“When you became a eunuch, did your family like it?”
“Are you crazy? We cut ties.”
“Yeah, that's normal. But why do they like it so much here? It feels like they met their son who just returned from military service.”
“The Directorate of Ceremonial Dangcha is at the level of the world's best, but even so, he's a eunuch? No matter how great, he's still a eunuch? But they like him like this?”
“They aren't concubines who would do anything for him, and why do they like a eunuch who can't stand?”
“It's strange. No matter how you look at it, this family is weird. Aren't all these women perverts?”
“Perverts? Us?”
Among the gathered eunuchs, they were all gossiping about Jin Myeong and his family.
It was shocking enough that women had turned their own relatives into eunuchs, but to surround themselves with a mere eunuch.
To put it bluntly, the beauties of Yuwol Pavilion weren't even related by blood.
Actually, it was normal to find it disgusting if they were related by blood.
There was even talk of real siblings.
“As expected, even eunuchs have their own way.”
“Indeed, what eunuch in the world would receive such treatment from such beauties.”
“What a thrilling eunuch life... I just wet myself just now.”
“Oh! Disgusting! Not a eunuch that smells bad, go away! Anyway, if reborn as such a eunuch, I could become one again in my next life.”
“Of course, it's definitely possible. Eh! That! That! Ah! So envious...”
One of the eunuchs reached out to Jin Myeong's arm and couldn't stop babbling at Shang Hua's heartbroken expression.
And Deung So, watching from the side, made a decision.
“Heh heh heh! Jealousy and envy are for underlings. To this eunuch, Jang Dangcha is the light and salt of the future. I must match Jang Dangcha with his family and go to Yuwol Pavilion!”
It was better to envy a great man and get some benefits than to be jealous.
“Jang Dangcha, you are already the best eunuch in my heart. Please take care.”
He was spinning grand fantasies that would be terribly burdensome if the person involved knew.
Shortly after.
I had become almost a heroic figure among the eunuchs of the Directorate of City Overseers.
A eunuch hero that had never existed before and would never exist again.
Those were the words of the talkative Deung So.
“Teach me the secret, Jang Dangcha! You are the hope of our eunuch clan!”
The most frequently asked question.
What was the secret?
If I told them, I would have to offer my neck right away.
No, before that, they would first try to kill me.
A mere eunuch pretending to be a eunuch.
But if the true qi didn't run out, the Huanxu couldn't be undone.
I was relieved.
“Sister, go in and sleep now.”
“Yeah, be careful.”
It was Shang Hua.
A beautiful woman with a snow-white face and a warm heart.
The center of the Yuwol Thiradolescent Flowers' beauty.
Her family had gone to sleep.
She was the last one left.
“In just three months, I can come out whenever I want. I'll come often.”
“Okay, come often. My master is always waiting.”
Her master was Mother.
The first Yeong Hwa and second Shang Hua were disciples of Mother.
“Of course. Let me hug you once after such a long time, our sister.”
“It's only been four days.”
“Four days or nine months. Come here.”
“This is the latest! I'm your sister!”
“I know.”
Poof.
I swiftly pulled her close and hugged her.
As expected, the scent was completely different from the eunuch smell.
Shortly after.
“I'm leaving, don't come out.”
“Just watch me leave.”
“Hey! Go in quickly and take a nap. I'll be here in the afternoon too.”
“Okay.”
She nodded reluctantly, looking disappointed.
“Yeah, I have to do some work now... Eh? Sister.”
As I turned to leave, I spotted a teahouse across the street and called to her.
“Huh?”
“The teahouse across the street, Gong Ga, isn't doing business in the afternoon?”
The windows of the three-story teahouse across the street were all closed.
The teahouse operated from morning to evening.
Gong Ga Tea House was a landmark of the capital alongside Yuwol Pavilion.
Gong Ga and Da-go never skipped business even if they were sick.
So I asked.
“No? They are. Why?”
“Not doing business? Look there.”
“Really? Is something wrong?”
“I was going to greet them, but where did they go? Okay, I'll go in.”
“Yeah, Myeon too, go quickly.”
“Then, shall I go to Gong No-ya's?”
I stopped Shang Hua from following me all the way and turned to the neighboring Gong No-ya's store instead.
To my surprise, Gong No-ya's store was also closed.
“What? Gong No-ya's store too?”
“What are you doing if not going?”
“No, is Gong No-ya not doing business either?”
Our neighboring store, Gong No-ya's, was the largest store in the capital.
Normally, people who couldn't stay at our house went to Gong No-ya's.
Anyway, the store operated business from noon to midnight.
“Really? No, even yesterday our rooms were full, so guests went to Gong No-ya's?”
“Really? But what day is today? Why is the street so quiet...”
At that moment.
It was the first time I felt a sense of unfamiliarity in the scenery of the road I had seen every day before entering the palace.
“Why? Myeon-ah?”
“Wait, wait. Sister.”
The teahouse and store were closed.
A woman looking at silk in a fabric shop.
There had been one when I left Xi'an Gate.
One sitting in front of a closed store.
A scholar dozing at an outdoor table in a bookstore and three strangers who looked like dice rollers I had never seen before.
Two old men avoiding a water pipe.
All of them had been there one shichen ago.
“Myeon-ah?”
“Sister.”
The place they were in... Qian, Kan, Li... Bagua... ? It was Zhen!
I recognized their formation.
It was a formation.
One of the ancient killing formations, Hunchen Miri Killing Formation!
“Huh?”
“Wake the family, the soldiers.”
I turned my head away so they wouldn't notice.
“These are the kind of evil spirits that even a dog wouldn't bite! What kind of killing formation did they lay here?”