How to Move Forward - 4
The night market of Palseon Village was quite famous, even within the empire.
For one thing, Mount Changun itself, where the village sat at its foot, was a famed destination that drew martial artists fresh to the jianghu and devotees of the Dao alike. More than that, though, Palseon Village was the only place travelers could lodge while seeking the sacred treasures granted to those who donated a fixed sum to Changungwan.
Admittedly, the treasures one could obtain from Changungwan were said to be imitations of the Eight Immortals' own relics. Even so, the fact that they had been crafted by the hands of miracle-working Daoist masters was more than enough to stir people's hearts — even if everyone knew full well that the treasures would grant none of their effects without the proper installation rites performed.
And still they came. Those hoping to lean on the Eight Immortals' name made their way to Mount Changun to claim those treasures, or to offer up prayers to the Immortals themselves, and they lodged in Palseon Village while they did. For that reason, the village — small as it was beside Yangwi Fortress — teemed with visitors.
Where people gather, money gathers; that much was only natural. And so merchants with an eye for profit always claimed their spots along Palseon Village's night market street. Up and down the road, shopkeepers sold weapons and trinkets for martial artists newly stepped into the world, while others lit colored lanterns to catch the eyes of the non-martial folk, dressing the street in splendor and conjuring something like a festival air. Drawn by it all, the crowds came flocking.
By the time we arrived at that teeming market street, Sa Yun's eyes had gone round as saucers. Between the stalls open in every alley and along every stretch of road, the shops touting for customers, a hulking strongman snapping iron chains to hawk unverified medicines, and monkeys turning somersaults for spare change, she seemed too dazzled to know where to look first.
"Sa Yun. Keep staring like that and you'll get lost."
Hong Ryeon tossed the remark out flatly, as though to rouse her. Only then did Sa Yun come back to herself; she nodded and, quite naturally, took Hong Ryeon's hand. The crowds were one thing, but she seemed more afraid of being bewitched by the shops' glitter and wandering off.
"Could we buy gifts for Master and my senior sisters here?" Slipping a careful hand into the pouch at her breast, Sa Yun asked anxiously. It seemed she meant to spend the silver I'd sent her.
"I-I did of course set aside the money for dang-gwa from the Seomhwachon trading house!"
"Haha. There, you see? Still, the dang-gwa at least I can cover. You came along on this trip, after all — I ought to repay you for that. Not that I won't be paying the escort fee separately, of course."
"But... you already paid our travel expenses."
"Never mind all that. Sun-Falling Sword — do you accept?"
"Hmm... well. If it keeps things simple — give what you give, take what you're taken — fine. Honestly, we've received so much from you already that you could just call this one a favor."
Not a chance. I only smiled at her half-hearted protest, and in the end Hong Ryeon simply grinned back at me.
"Then let's start with a look around, shall we? If anything catches your eye to eat, speak up — don't hold back. Most of what a night market sells doesn't cost much."
And that was no lie. Most of it could be had for a handful of coins. And should we eat our fill and find ourselves wanting more, we could always go back to the inn — so there was no reason to feel pressed, either.
"Ah... yes!" Her hesitation gone, Sa Yun met my gaze with a smile and bobbed her head with real energy.
Heh. That's the spirit.
"Sun-Falling Sword. You too."
"Hehe. Understood."
Crowded as the street was, neither Hong Ryeon nor Sa Yun so much as brushed a shoulder. Walking on the Hongseong Divine Art's footwork, they simply slipped past obstacles of this caliber without thinking.
"Hehe. Decent training, wouldn't you say?"
"Well, I can hardly say otherwise."
She had a point. Partway along, she switched to a different footwork — deliberately, as if to show me — and merely fumbling along after her example was enough to cut the collisions down.
"Do you know Chae Family Tai Chi Chuan?"
"Not perfectly, but I know the sequences and the forms. More than enough to teach you. Hehe — how many bouts do you think I've traded with Chae Jin?"
Fair enough. In the martial arts, whatever you don't know is what ends up hitting you. Against a rival's techniques, she was bound to have done her homework.
In any case, moving in her wake, I found the press of people easing off as I got the hang of it, and only when we reached a stretch where walking was easy again did Hong Ryeon let go of Sa Yun's hand.
"You'll need to put in more footwork practice when we get back, too."
"Mm... yes, ma'am."
Hong Ryeon had given her a light scolding for the few collisions on the way here, and there was nothing grating or odd about the sight — Hong Ryeon's voice had been closer to a mentor's counsel than a rebuke.
"Now then — shall we try a little something here? Ah, mooncakes over there. Sa Yun, do you like mooncakes?"
One of those pastries — flour dough baked around a filling of red beans, chestnuts, and the like. I asked with a nod toward the stall, but no answer seemed necessary. Sa Yun's eyes were already sparkling without her knowing it. She must have realized as much herself, for she hurriedly schooled her features — but she'd been caught, so I bought three and handed one to each of them.
"Better eat them while they're warm."
"Yes. Thank you."
"Mmm. This is good."
Hong Ryeon, it seemed, had already surrendered with impressive speed and resolved to enjoy herself. Unlike the still-dithering Sa Yun, there she was with a mooncake cupped in both hands, munching away — a sight that sat ill with her outwardly aloof elegance. The contrast pulled a laugh out of me before I could help it, and Hong Ryeon grumbled, her cheeks tinged pink.
"W-well, what am I supposed to do? I like mooncakes too, that's all."
"No one's scolding you, so don't fret."
And I thought I understood her game, too. Sa Yun was hesitating, glancing about for permission — so Hong Ryeon had simply dug in first. So that her youngest would think: if the eldest senior sister can do it, then so can I. I watched her with fond eyes; she fidgeted, sheepish, then returned to her mooncake once more.
Munch...
Only then did Sa Yun finally bite in — a big, deliberate mouthful — and her eyes went bright. She seemed to have taken quite a liking to it.
"Well then — shall we go see what else there is to try?"
Of course, having come all this way, we couldn't spend the whole visit merely eating. In Cheonsang Myeongwol, a trip to Palseon Village's night market sometimes turned up items that were hard to find anywhere else. It took luck, of course. Still — you never knew. So we strolled on at an unhurried pace, browsing this and that, and whenever a tempting snack appeared, we bought it and shared it around.
It was a peace I hadn't felt in a long while. Crowded, yes — but peace all the same.
"Oh."
Hong Ryeon stopped mid-stride. What had caught her eye was a shop selling thread, cloth, and needles — dolls and the like besides. Perhaps because it stocked not only ordinary thread but varieties from every corner of the empire, she stood fascinated, unable to tear her eyes from it.
"Want to have a look?"
"Huh? Oh — no, let's keep going. Things like that only interest me..."
"Then browse a while. Sa Yun and I will step into that shop up ahead."
"Ah... that one..."
The gift Sa Yun had in mind for her senior sisters — settled on before we ever set out — was scented candles. Hongseong Gate stood on Mount Hongseong, where the Thousand-Day Plum Blossoms bloomed without end, so their fragrance was ever at hand. But even the loveliest scent grows tiresome when you breathe it day after day. Hence her wish to buy scented candles that would fill the halls with some other pleasant fragrance. Then buy them, obviously.
"We won't be long. And with the two of us at your elbow, Sun-Falling Sword, you wouldn't be able to browse in peace anyway, would you?"
"Ah... w-well, that's true. Then just a moment... may I ask a favor?"
Hong Ryeon looked apologetic; I shook my head. There was nothing to apologize for.
Honestly — what a strangely considerate man.
So thought Hong Ryeon as she watched Yu Wol disappear into the shop across the way with Sa Yun. That attentiveness of his — noticing everything while pretending not to — sat warmly in her chest. In any case, if his consideration had bought her the time, then she had best spend it choosing. There were her junior sisters' garments to think of, for one, and she wanted to add more thread for the new clothes she meant to make. And she wanted to look for fine thread besides — so that someday she could make Yu Wol another garment. This shop was cheaper than she'd expected, too; if she could buy here, surely it was better to stock up now.
"Why is the thread here so cheap? It's not defective, is it?"
"Defective, my foot. It's thread from other regions — folks around here have little use for it."
In other words: clearing out old stock. Which made it all the more unobjectionable. Beaming, Hong Ryeon piled thread and needles into her basket. This much should do nicely, shouldn't it?
"My, my. Young bride, you do buy only the good things. You've a fine eye. How about this Azure-Red Silk? That gentleman from before — sturdy fellow, looked dependable enough. Isn't he your husband? And the child you had in tow, from the look of her — a daughter, I'd say. And you know, clothes made for one's family bring health and vigor..."
"Ah — no, we're not—"
"If the Azure-Red Silk doesn't suit, what about this, then? Clothe a man in fabric and thread like this, and nothing on earth becomes him better."
"Oh — ohh."
"Or how about this one? It's called Shining Sacred Silk... Embroider with this, and the colors are beyond compare."
Shining Sacred Silk was a thread even Hong Ryeon knew. It could be drawn only from the Hwisan silkworms, which grew to maturity on nothing but rare starlight mulberry leaves — and just as the proprietress said, embroidery worked with it gleamed with colors as lovely as a sky of stitched stars. The trouble was that the thread was anything but easy to handle. Frailer than ordinary thread, it snapped at the slightest strain. To wield it properly, one needed either needlework skill that touched the heavens, or internal energy enough to shield the thread while stitching. Even within the Murim Alliance, only a scant few of those devoted to the needle arts could manage it. Still, as the proprietress said, a garment embroidered masterfully with it would sometimes come to carry a special blessing. In the right hands, it could make something truly wonderful.
In the right hands.
Tsk. This proprietress had never yet met anyone who could handle the stuff, and so had simply kept it stored away. Call it dead stock if you liked — but Hong Ryeon looked over the Shining Sacred Silk and shook her head. Fine thing that it was, it was expensive.
"Why not have your husband buy it for you? He looked to have money, that one. Ah, young bride, you really don't know a thing. Work embroidery with this and give it to your husband — or make him a whole garment — wouldn't that be just the thing? Make it beautifully enough and he'll be delighted, saying it was worth every coin. Men love to crow about it, strutting off to work in clothes their wives made them."
"H-he's not my husband?"
"He isn't? You two looked so close, I took you for just that."
You two looked so close. The proprietress's words lodged in her chest.
"Well then... shall I total up just these, dear?"
Hong Ryeon wavered a moment, then nodded. And then—
"Bought everything you need?"
"You startled me!"
While the shopkeeper wrapped purchases in the back, Yu Wol and Sa Yun had drawn near. At the scented candles in their hands, Hong Ryeon smiled.
"Looks like you chose well. I can smell them from here."
"Hehe. The innkeeper knows ever so much about scented candles."
"What don't I know? I know only what I know. More to the point... isn't that Shining Sacred Silk? I hear one can make remarkable things with it."
"...You even know this?"
"That it bestows a special blessing when handled well, at least. But why only look? With hands like yours, I'd think you could master it."
"Ahaha... well. There's the price, for one."
The proprietress's words from moments ago rose unbidden. Husband. Young bride. How well they suited each other. No wonder her heart was pounding and her face had gone hot.
"Proprietress. This as well, please."
"Wha—!"
Before a startled Hong Ryeon could intervene, the proprietress smirked slyly — a smile that seemed to say: the two of you are plainly together, so why the act? She ought to have called it a misunderstanding, but her lips would not move. And so, in the end, all she could manage was a single words.
"Th... th-thank you."
"Think nothing of it. If you're truly grateful..." Yu Wol nodded, entirely at ease, toward the Shining Sacred Silk. "...then make something of it for me. Anything from the Sun-Falling Sword's hands is bound to turn out beautifully."
Hong Ryeon closed her eyes. She drew a long breath, as if arriving at some resolve, and spoke.
"All right. I'll make it a gift for you."
Then she opened her eyes and met his gaze head-on.
"The finest work I have ever made."