Journey to Sichuan (8)
Journey to Sichuan (8)
The letter did not come.
Hong Ye's face twisted.
She looked in the mirror, narrowed her brow, put on a severe expression, then tried to return to her original expressionless face. But this time her expression did not easily return. When she looked into the mirror intently, her eyebrows twitched and her lips quivered.
Her twisted lips made it seem as if her mind was twisted, and her sharp eyes looked as if they were filled with malice.
This wouldn't do.
Because she looked too fierce.
It was a face utterly unbecoming of the direct disciple of the Yang Family Taijiquan Gate.
But she absolutely could not hide her expression.
Because the letter had not come.
It was not because she loved Jong Yuseop.
Hong Ye only knew Jong Yuseop's face.
From the beginning, their connection had been built because Jong Yuseop sent letters. Hong Ye had started the letter romance with the intention of using the direct disciple of a major sect like the Zhongnan Sect, and thought that if she could just marry him, the rumors swirling around her would die down.
But the letter had not come.
So Hong Ye stared into the mirror and practiced her expression again.
"Again."
She looked too fierce.
"Again."
This was too much of a tearful face.
"Again."
She couldn't smile too foolishly either.
"Again."
Her expression, at least, had to be calm.
*******
"Hmph."
As she walked down the corridor, a snorting laugh brushed past her. Hong Ye was the direct disciple, and the sect members all acknowledged it. However, they did not like the fact that Hong Ye was the direct disciple. To them, everything about Hong Ye was a flaw. When face-to-face, they would talk as if nothing was wrong, but as soon as they turned their heads, all kinds of written accusations flew toward the Grandmaster and the elders.
The Grandmaster had never shown those accusations to Hong Ye, but Hong Ye could guess their contents: her gait was insolent, her fierce expression frightened the elders, and she believed her martial arts were strong and tyrannized her juniors.
She had never done such things.
Since entering the sect as the Grandmaster's adopted daughter, she had never once done such a thing to anyone. But there were senior martial brothers who believed they had lost to her by a hair's breadth, a junior martial sister who believed she was enjoying some privilege, and a few elders who did not think she suited this sect.
They believed that even if Hong Ye didn't do it now, she would in the future, and were convinced she had done it when they weren't looking.
But she had never done it.
She tightened the belt of her training uniform and took a deep breath.
"They say the Crimson Ring Sect is a really formidable sect. Did you hear that rumor?"
"I heard they're already doing well in Shaanxi."
"Wow, if I had known, maybe I should have gone and greeted them beforehand?"
Young disciples who had not yet shed their worldly dust were chatting. When Hong Ye passed by, they looked away awkwardly at each other. As she passed, they resumed their conversation in whispers.
Hong Ye was on her way to meet the Crimson Ring Sect Leader now.
******
"Are you serious? What wind is blowing to make you bring a child from the Southern Barbarians into our sect?"
Hong Ye remembered the corridor she walked for the first time at age five, holding the Grandmaster's hand. The scene where elders and disciples gathered, trying to persuade the Grandmaster as if something serious had happened, still remained vivid in her memory.
Her parents were innocent, but in this place, she was the sinner. Those gathered here were so wise that they could discern her character just from the way she held her head stiffly, and were convinced she had no talent.
"Look at that skin color. A face as if painted with brass, and those bony limbs. Look at her frame, anything—she is a child with no remarkable talent. So why is the Grandmaster trying to bring the bloodline of the Southern Barbarians into this sect?"
The Grandmaster closed his eyes at the elders' pressing voices. He wore a serene expression like an ascetic cultivating on a high plateau. At that moment, young Hong Ye unconsciously imitated that expression and pursed her lips.
For some reason, it felt like if she made an expression like that, she could escape this crisis.
The Grandmaster held Hong Ye's hand firmly. She felt a strong grip, but strangely it did not hurt.
The Grandmaster stroked his white beard and said,
"When the first Grandmaster first realized the principle and created Taijiquan, he did not discriminate among people. He called anyone who wished to learn and taught them the principle. But as learners increased, different understandings arose, and eventually it split into the two branches of Chen Style and Yang Family. You now, here again, seek to divide those who wish to learn by skin color—what do you intend to create? Who gave us such authority?"
The elders could not refute those words. Those words pierced deep and thick into young Hong Ye's heart like a seal.
He did not divide people.
Hong Ye wanted to become such a person.
"I've been waiting."
And Docheol had been waiting in the training ground first. He looked her over with sly eyes, but once the lesson began, he observed her posture with serious eyes and respectfully asked for advice.
But Hong Ye didn't like Docheol.
Because even as she lost time to such a man, she felt her position was being eroded.
********
"You seem like a truly remarkable master for your young age. You must have undergone deep training."
Today's training ended as well.
A brief rest after training
Docheol was drinking water and wiping off sweat, extending a water bottle to her. Hong Ye accepted the water bottle he offered and said,
"Since I started training at a young age, it's only natural. If I couldn't achieve at least this much as the direct disciple, I would lose face."
"Heavy words."
Docheol said that and took another sip of water. Hong Ye replied,
"It is indeed heavy. Because living up to the name of the direct disciple is... a very difficult thing. And I have to work twice as hard."
As Hong Ye said this, she deliberately avoided Docheol's gaze. Because when she talked like this, people would either offer perfunctory sympathy or make awkward faces.
But the glimpse she caught of Docheol's face showed a puzzled expression.
Hong Ye could read the emotions surfacing on his face. Not sympathy, but puzzlement. And then rising surprise and understanding. She was taken aback by the unexpected reaction. Docheol drank water again and said,
"You must have suffered a lot in your heart."
Hong Ye was bothered by his earlier reaction, but the questions wouldn't come easily.
She couldn't tell if these words were sincere or teasing. Because there were many who threw out such empty words. They said that to her face, but when they touched hands they kept their distance, and behind her back they said other things.
Hong Ye, keeping her expression as stiff as possible, changed the subject.
"Do you understand the flow of Taijiquan?"
Docheol lifted his head. They had just finished learning each of the basic stances once. Now they had to go through the period of training to apply those stances and master them through repetition.
"Four ounces deflects a thousand pounds, they say. It seems like a truly marvelous phrase. I can understand it in my head, yet I don't, and it feels like I could do it with my body, yet I can't follow."
"It is a sentence that encapsulates Taijiquan itself. Therefore, it is difficult to easily understand."
She continued in a stiff tone. Docheol put down his water bottle and said,
"But, it feels like I might grasp something... I feel that kind of sensation."
Hong Ye didn't budge at his words. Because she had seen plenty of people who boasted like that. Since it looked like a simple martial art, there were many who acted that way. Hong Ye said indifferently,
"If you keep that feeling without losing it, you will certainly achieve something."
She had heard that there were people who gained sudden enlightenment in actual combat, or who faced a great force, embodied its principle, and approached the profound mystery.
Docheol was someone who fell into neither category. But Docheol looked at the ceiling with a confident attitude and said,
"So, the sensation of stirring a large force with a small force. Isn't it that you can't know the flow until you try it yourself?"
"That's right. The best is to try it yourself, but it's not easy to try because it's dangerous."
"Lately, I've been thinking that I'm in the middle of that vast flow."
The thought struck her as reckless arrogance.
Isn't he too presumptuous just because he has the Zhuge Family's patronage?
But the other party was a guest requested by the Zhuge Family.
She couldn't show a sharp reaction to this level of arrogance. Hong Ye managed her expression and said,
"The result will be decided by heaven."
"That's also true. I don't know if what I'm feeling now will lead to achievement either."
Docheol stretched. He was thinking about the flow surrounding him. The Zhuge Family and Venerable Geumbok. And the businesses that collapsed with a touch, and the marriage issue of the Zhongnan Sect.
And Hong Ye's hips and breasts.
"How could someone who has once grasped a great flow fail to understand smaller things?"
Docheol looked straight at her face.
Hong Ye avoided his gaze.
Hong Ye did not like Docheol.