Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Why Did I Become a Server Again?
A desolate dawn.
I woke up to the sound of rain.
The ceiling showed yellowed wallpaper, and the room smelled of musty mold. But the headache that had plagued me my entire life was gone, which made me feel strange.
And what was even stranger was that the smell felt familiar, and the scenery before my eyes looked familiar.
The atmosphere of an extremely poor house was generally like this, and this place looked like my old home no matter how I looked at it.
Upon closer inspection, this was the small room in the Purple Glow Inn that my grandfather had left me.
The reason my name is Lee Jaha is also because of this inn.
"Why am I here?"
After this Purple Glow Inn burned down, I never had a decent house, so there was no way I could be mistaken.
Suddenly, the words of the unidentified man came to mind.
'This is the last lifeline. Don't swallow the Celestial Jade again.'
How could I swallow the Celestial Jade twice?
Unless I went back to the past.
"Huh? Wait a minute, the past?"
Come to think of it, my physical condition was much better.
It was strange that my headache was gone, but the injuries I sustained while breaking through the Celestial Net of Earth had also completely disappeared. However, the area around my face felt somewhat numb, as if I had been punched by someone.
To understand the situation, I opened the door and saw the shabby interior of the Purple Glow Inn.
Combining the man's words and the current situation, it seemed that even if I went back to the past, I shouldn't swallow the Celestial Jade in the same situation.
If so, then 'now' clearly meant my 'past.'
I was so flustered that I didn't realize that this situation was a blessing.
"Wow, what the hell is this?"
I always thought of the Purple Glow Inn as a tiresome and dirty place, but the scenery of the inn that I saw after a long time was truly serene and tranquil.
Beyond the entrance of the inn, dawn was breaking on the mountain ridge where the rain had just stopped.
"Hmm……."
I stared at this scene for a long time.
Until the dim sunlight began to spread and filled the quiet inn.
It was a peace that had come to me after a long time.
I was a little disappointed.
Why did it have to be this time?
My elderly grandfather was not to be seen in the inn.
Or I wish I could have gone back to when I was younger and seen my parents.
But according to my grandfather, my parents passed away due to poor health, so it would have only hurt my feelings more.
I couldn't help but feel a sense of melancholy.
While I was staring at the scenery outside the inn for a long time, my right eye throbbed particularly.
It seemed to be bruised.
Since there was no mirror, I had no choice but to leave the inn.
I thought that if I looked around the inn, I could recover my memories because old memories would be scattered like fragments or in the realm of oblivion, but screw that!
First, I quickly ran to the stream to check my face.
"……."
I never thought I would be so surprised to see my own face.
My face, with all the scars gone, gave such a gentle impression that even I was surprised. However, the area around my right eye was bruised dark blue as if I had been hit recently, and my lips were also torn.
'When did I get hit like this?'
Anyway, it was my early twenties face.
I had been through so much at this time that I couldn't help but be confused about the timing. I stared at my face reflected in the water as the rippling waves calmed down, and I was lost in old thoughts for a long time.
* * *
Anyway, this was definitely my hometown at the southern end of Ilyang County.
Where people live, their own Murim is formed. There were no prestigious sects or families here, but it was a world where Baekdo-like Heukdo and Heukdo-like Baekdo forces were entangled in a chaotic manner.
To put it simply from the perspective of when I was called Gwangma, it was just an area with a lot of pathetic bastards.
Among them, there were particularly pathetic bastards in Ilyang County.
Because it was a place where brothels flourished.
Since I was young, local thugs had been gathering and doing things that were worse than third-rate gangs, and the dream of those local thugs was to join a Heukdo gang outside of Ilyang County.
Looking at the quiet Ilyang County, I couldn't help but shout.
"You bastards! I'm back!"
A man who had barely fallen asleep at dawn answered from nearby.
"Be quiet! You crazy bastard! If you're drunk, go home quietly. Aish, damn it."
"Okay, bye."
A man who had barely fallen asleep at dawn shouted from inside his house. With that curse, I realized that I had definitely returned to the past.
Was this good fortune due to fighting the Demonic Sect, or was it because of the unidentified man?
It could be said that my actions to not leave the Demonic Sect alone and good fortune overlapped and caused this to happen.
* * *
I deliberately acted as a server during this time.
I thought that if a young kid was the owner of the Purple Glow Inn, I might receive disadvantages, so I often avoided situations with the lie that a relative had entrusted the inn to me.
Of course, the townspeople who were close to my grandfather knew that I was not a server but the owner of the Purple Glow Inn, but they remained silent. People called me Lee Jaha because I was a server at the 'Jaha' Inn with the Lee surname, but that was actually my real name.
Memories of the time when I couldn't even call my own property mine flashed through my mind like a revolving lantern.
Only then did I grin.
"It's good to be back."
The thought of being able to live again made my body tingle already. I didn't start learning Martial arts in earnest until much later than this time. So I couldn't even dare to guess how much stronger I could become this time.
Because it was seven or eight years earlier than my previous life.
In terms of being easily subjected to disregard, insults, humiliation, and harassment, the job of a server is the pinnacle in Murim.
But I will never be harassed here again.
Because the server of the old days survived and caused disputes with the Murim Alliance, and grew into a man who clashed with the Demonic Sect.
* * *
I took a tour of Ilyang County to dredge up memories.
Every time my gaze reached, the memories that were hidden in every corner of the street revealed themselves.
Dirty alleys, the fishy smell coming from the fish store, the large pot lid placed in front of the dumpling shop, the windbreak covering the stalls, even the unique rice soup restaurant I used to frequent.
The ordinary scenery and the smell of this street kept dredging up memories.
Every time I recovered a memory, the emotions I had forgotten also came to mind.
Ironically, there were all kinds of shops here, but the only place I enjoyed using was the Chunyang Restaurant, which I visited occasionally.
While walking around the alleys and streets, my mouth often twisted.
The feeling of having to save every penny because I had no money.
The miserable feeling I felt when I had my protection money taken away.
There were not many memories to be called memories in the memories that came to mind every time I passed an alley.
I had an inn at a young age, but I lived a life that was worse than a beggar from the Beggars' Sect because I was too busy trying to make a living. Because I never spent money in vain, customers often teased me by calling me a miser.
The bruise on my face now is a similar case.
A customer once asked me what I was going to use the money I was saving like a miser for.
To be honest, I was quite surprised when I received this question.
I was an orphan, so I was saving money desperately. Where would I get the money to spend like you, who works as a bodyguard in a brothel?
At this time, I said in my young mind, trying to be funny…….
I said that my wish was to save money little by little and listen to a song by Chae Hyang of the Plum Blossom Brothel.
I swear, that was really a joke.
People laughed as expected, but the story spread without the fact that it was a joke.
I learned then that the meaning of a rumor changes as it passes through people's mouths.
Because the words "I want to listen to a song" had changed to "I want to sleep with Chae Hyang."
Isn't it amazing?
This rumor spread like wildfire throughout Ilyang County, but there was no mention of it being a joke anywhere.
"I heard that the server at the Purple Glow Inn is saving money desperately to sleep with Chae Hyang?"
"He was a crazy bastard. I wondered why he was saving money so desperately."
"A pathetic bastard."
"Chae Hyang wouldn't sleep with him even if he did that. Chae Hyang is not a prostitute, so she must be upset. She has a strong sense of pride, and there are so many guys who are after her."
When I recalled the old days, my stomach still twisted.
"No, that was a joke, you bastards. Ah……."
Every time a rumor circulated and stuck in my ears, I had to tear my hair out.
Well, how pathetic and funny is this story?
The words I said to be funny became the reason why I was really saving money and spread throughout Ilyang County, and eventually became a legendary story. There was even a pathetic joke that it would be known to the Murim Alliance.
* * *
I stopped for a walk at the Plum Blossom Brothel, which had a Blue Lantern hanging.
Hanging a Blue Lantern meant that there were prostitutes.
Hanging a Red Lantern meant that you shouldn't come here to find prostitutes.
Of course, the meaning was different in each region, and later the meaning changed over time, but that was the case here.
Old memories flashed through my mind like a revolving lantern.
The bodyguards of the Plum Blossom Brothel, who heard the rumor that there was a server who wanted to sleep with Chae Hyang, came to the inn to tease me, and because my expression was stiff, they started by punching me in the face a few times and ended up kicking me.
There are many reasons.
They may have been angry that I was treating Chae Hyang like a prostitute. It may have been the ugly behavior of the men who were trying to look good to Chae Hyang.
Judging from the condition of my face, it seemed that the incident had happened just a few days ago.
It was such a long time ago that I didn't dwell on it much, but when I came back to the past, I couldn't help but keep thinking about it.
At the time, the reason my face stiffened was because the guys had brought Chae Hyang to tease me on purpose.
How can I express the frustration and humiliation at that time?
In fact, it wouldn't have mattered to the guys whether it was a joke or not.
They must have been upset that a server was daring to covet Chae Hyang, who was said to be the most beautiful in the Plum Blossom Brothel.
I saw Chae Hyang for the first time then.
She was pretty, but there was nothing more humiliating than looking at a woman's face with anger and contempt.
As these emotions came to mind clearly, a smile spread across my lips.
Since they had humiliated me while people were watching, I was planning to visit the Plum Blossom Brothel in the evening when the most people could watch.
It was necessary to turn the 'rumor' that had spread back into a 'joke.'
As I stared at the Plum Blossom Brothel for a long time and turned around, a guy who worked at the fabric store across the street approached me and started talking.
"Are you so angry that you're going to set it on fire? What are you glaring at like that? You pathetic bastard."
It was the most pathetic voice in the world. Of course, it was true that I was a pathetic guy at this time.
But the more important fact is that I am still pathetic.