Passengers of the Same Boat
A brief interval of rest.
Yeon So-hyeon lifted the water glass before him and drained the last remaining swallow. Then his gaze settled on the bottles already set out upon the table. Those elegant glass vessels had long since run dry.
"Ahem."
The former family heads had already finished every drop.
"Hem-hem."
Having worn their throats raw through sharp exchanges, they coughed dryly. The garden was under strict control; there was not even a steward to attend them. Yet none among them rose to fetch fresh water.
This is their true nature.
If someone brought the water, the others would look down on him as if he had become their subordinate. If he brought only his own share, they would brand him a selfish, shortsighted fool who thought of no one but himself. So no one fetched water.
Yeon So-hyeon looked upon them and sent a sneer thick with contempt deep into his heart.
Yeon So-hyeon beamed outwardly.
"Your Excellencies need only use these selection rights to…"
The old masters' eyes gleamed as every gaze fixed upon him.
"…select the Sichuan Tang Family and the Dali Duan Family as the contractors."
Every face looked as if it had been struck a blow. Studying those expressions carefully, Yeon So-hyeon continued his explanation.
"With this, instead of clumsily dominating middling-strong houses in Sichuan and Yunnan, you will become the benefactors of two families that already wield influence equal to or greater than any of the Sixteen Imperial Capital Families in their respective regions."
"Indeed!"
With their peculiar instinct the old masters had already caught the scent. By sense and by experience they grasped the picture Yeon So-hyeon had painted.
"That is a choice no ordinary man could ever make!"
"The monetary gain one could take from a single selection right would be a truly enormous sum to most people!"
"But the practical benefit we require right now is not 'that sort of thing'—it is political advantage!"
Like beggars devouring a sumptuous feast set before them in an instant, they flung themselves upon the bait Yeon So-hyeon offered and gorged themselves.
"Excellent! Superb! Then this Gongsun Na-gang shall use his selection right to name the Sichuan Tang Family!"
"No! We all share the same thought, do we not? Let the First Young Master simply distribute the selection rights appropriately to those two houses on our behalf!"
Yeon So-hyeon shook his head.
"That will not be necessary."
"Surely not…?"
By this point, even men who were not these old masters would have begun to see the way Yeon So-hyeon placed his pieces.
"Yes. The selection rights have already returned to the two houses that originally entrusted them to me."
Those two houses were, of course, the Sichuan Tang Family and the Dali Duan Family. The former family heads' gazes turned to the bundle of envelopes Yeon So-hyeon held.
"Then those are…?"
Yeon So-hyeon shrugged.
"What is inside are genuine selection rights. They have simply already been used, and thus their effect has expired."
He handed each of them an envelope containing a selection right.
"But when Your Excellencies return to your respective main houses, these will also serve as the immediate proof you require."
"…."
The former family heads accepted the envelopes and shared a peculiar expression. Watching their faces, Yeon So-hyeon laughed inwardly, chuckling to himself.
And soon the question he had been waiting for sprang from one of the former family heads.
"Very well. So far it is excellent. But the Chongqing urban development project and the Yangtze waterway expansion and maintenance project—commonly treated as a single venture—still have reefs ahead, do they not?"
"Indeed. The reason this project has been delayed in the first place has not yet been resolved…"
Everyone nodded. Even with what Yeon So-hyeon had already given them, they could return to their main houses and display their presence beyond mere sufficiency. Yet now they wanted the whole bundle handed over as well.
"Quite so."
But Yeon So-hyeon, who had been waiting for that very question, readily agreed.
"The two houses that form the core of that project are precisely the Sichuan Tang Family and the Dali Duan Family."
It was Gongsun Na-gang who took up his words.
"Yet those two houses—the Sichuan Tang Family and the Dali Duan Family—have continued their rivalry for centuries."
"And of late that rivalry has turned openly hostile precisely because of this project."
The Sichuan Tang Family could not endure the idea that the Dali Duan Family must jointly conduct business in Chongqing, which belonged to Sichuan soil. And the Dali Duan Family had already secured a substantial enough share of Chongqing. Conflict between the two houses was inevitable.
"Correct. However…"
After giving them a moment to chatter and form a consensus, Yeon So-hyeon spoke.
"There is one fact Your Excellencies do not know."
He did not wait for a reaction before producing the answer.
"Along Chongqing and the Yangtze basin, the Emei Sect has been secretly purchasing vast tracts of land."
"The Emei Sect?! Those people who do nothing more grand than run academies?"
"It was not their capital."
"Then whose?"
"In truth, the Emei Sect has been receiving funds from the Dali Duan Family and buying those lands on their behalf."
One of the former family heads clapped his hands.
"Of course! The Sichuan Tang Family would never have stood by and watched the Dali Duan Family purchase land so openly!"
Only after the Emei Sect had bought up enough land on the Dali Duan Family's behalf did their alliance surface. By the time the Sichuan Tang Family sensed something amiss and investigated, it was already too late.
"But I heard that the Emei Sect, which has grown markedly stronger of late, has begun to resist the Dali Duan Family's oppressive control."
"Legally the ownership of those lands rested with the Emei Sect, so the Dali Duan Family could not apply sufficiently strong pressure."
Using that as leverage, the Emei Sect had been carefully advancing their own will little by little, taking care not to drive the Dali Duan Family into full fury.
"So that was it!"
Their gazes gathered on Yeon So-hyeon.
"That is why the First Young Master extracted the Emei Sect's letter of surrender through such complicated and troublesome means!"
"Precisely."
Yeon So-hyeon unfolded the letter of surrender.
"The Emei Sect renounces all land included within each project zone and transfers ownership to the Dali Duan Family and the Sichuan Tang Family."
The document exactly fulfilled the demands Yeon So-hyeon had conveyed to the Emei Sect through the Dali Duan Family and the Sichuan Tang Family.
"…What the Emei Sect least wished to surrender even to the last moment."
Among them, who had briefly been struck speechless, the first to catch on opened his mouth.
"So that is why the First Young Master told us what he did. That 'protecting Daseonrang' was the reason he obtained the contractor selection rights."
At those words a quiet shock rippled through the old masters' minds.
"The provision of justification…!"
To the Dali Duan Family, Daseonrang had become an exceedingly important pretext with which to cut free of the increasingly irksome Emei Sect and reclaim even half their stake in the project sites. Moreover, once the project was simply up and running, the share the Sichuan Tang Family took would no longer feel regrettable.
"First Young Master, a moment!"
One of the former family heads called to Yeon So-hyeon.
"The Sichuan Tang Family received only a stake in the project sites. Yet you say the Dali Duan Family has been permitted to conduct business jointly within the Tang Family's domain? The calculation does not balance."
"Precisely."
Yeon So-hyeon smiled.
"The Sichuan Tang Family has long been striving for entry into Luoyang, which had been as impregnable as an unassailable fortress."
But because Yak Seonmun—whose business fields overlapped—was a partner of the Luoyang Sword Family, it had been impossible. And that was also why the Fourth Young Master had, compared to the other successors, been forced to be gratefully content with 'insufficient and meager support.'
"So for their sake I arranged, in secret from the Sword Family, to provide them a foundation for that entry."
Every old master cried out.
"The Valley of Sin!"
That place was precisely the joint business site the First Young Master had obtained through scheme. The original planned site of Hodu Village had been no more than the scale of a single village; the Valley of Sin differed entirely in scale and location—more than enough for the Sichuan Tang Family to use as an excellent bridgehead for advancing into Luoyang.
But it meant deceiving the eyes of the Luoyang Sword Family within Luoyang itself, and thus carried far too many risks. It was not something a young Fourth Young Master who had yet to greatly prove his ability could have undertaken. Thus the Sichuan Tang Family's trust regarding that deal was directed toward the First Young Master, who had demonstrated the full measure of his capability and standing. Moreover the First Young Master was already operating a joint enterprise with the Fourth Young Master who carried Tang blood—was that not the finishing touch upon perfection?
Yeon So-hyeon smiled.
"Precisely."
Then another old master shouted.
"Still! Still more!"
Spittle flying, he questioned Yeon So-hyeon.
"But every one of those premises begins from this project operating 'normally'!"
"Indeed. One can hardly expect two hostile houses simply to proceed smoothly with a venture merely because they began it together."
Other houses and merchant groups that held business rights would be fortunate merely not to flee from the power struggle between those two.
"So Your Excellencies' calculations reach the same conclusion as well?"
Yeon So-hyeon wore a meaningful smile.
"That is why I gathered Your Excellencies all in one place like this."
A brighter smile than any before settled upon Yeon So-hyeon's face.
"Your Excellencies have been appointed the supervising authorities of these two projects."
"…!"
"And therefore."
Now every face simply stared blankly at Yeon So-hyeon.
"Your Excellencies are no longer merely the 'benefactors' of the Sichuan Tang Family and the Dali Duan Family…"
Yeon So-hyeon's gaze brushed over them one by one.
"…you have become the 'noble patrons' of every great and small house and merchant group that holds business rights and merely hopes the projects will proceed."
And he added,
"With this, when you return to your main houses, you will become noble patrons within your families as well—ones who can never be replaced."
The assembly was engulfed in a vast shock.
Time flowed past without a word spoken.
After staring blankly for a long while, one of the former family heads worked his lips.
"…So that was the decisive condition that made the Sichuan Tang Family and the Dali Duan Family agree to the deal in the first place."
"…Only the former family heads of the Sixteen Families—'all of them'—would be enough to manage that project smoothly."
And then they realized.
"Then that means?!"
"The reason the First Young Master came and went on Mount Beimang as if it were his own home was…!"
Yeon So-hyeon said nothing; he merely smiled deeply.
"That was it! That was it! That is why he came and went among the families of Mount Beimang as if they were his own home!"
"Because only then would we all gather of our own free will…!"
The result of Yeon So-hyeon's actions. The last time they had gathered together had been at the resolution of the northern war. Unless by the Emperor's command, these men would never have assembled—yet they had come together of their own accord in one place. Had he tried to gather them by any other means, each would have calculated, suspected, and scrambled for position until only time slipped away.
"…."
The assembly sank into a heavy silence born of shock, and time passed.
"Is he here?!"
After some while, a commotion rose from the far side of the garden.
"Ah—you must not!"
"There was an order that no one was to enter the garden!"
Stewards cried out desperately.
"You insolent things! Unhand me at once!"
"Do you even know who we are to dare this?!"
With a crash of something breaking and screams, a group of figures burst into the garden.
"That way!"
After glancing about for a moment, they confirmed people gathered in one corner of the garden and rushed over at once. They were none other than blood relatives of several families who had come searching for the former family heads to stop them. Having sought the whereabouts of the great elders whom no one in their respective manors knew about, they had met upon the main road. And upon seeing the bizarre sight of the First Young Master's procession besieged before the Gongsun Family's estate, they had forced their way in.
"Uncle! What in the world are you doing at the Gongsun Family…?!"
Every last drop of color drained from the middle-aged man's face as he arrived first.
"What are you doing? Have you found the elders?"
Those who came panting behind him froze just as solidly as stone. It would have been the same for anyone.
The Sixteen Imperial Capital Families. Of the former family heads of those Sixteen Imperial Capital Families, fully fifteen were present in this one place.
"E-elders. What on earth are you doing here…. No, why…?"
At the confused voice from beside him, a member of another family also cried out as if screaming.
"W-what in heaven's name is this…?!"
Then Gongsun Na-gang stepped forward and spoke.
"What are you all standing about for? Seize every one of them and lock them in the underground prison."
At his order, the guard martial artists who had not dared forcibly restrain the blood relatives of other Sixteen Families now bound them without hesitation.
"What utterly outrageous tyranny is this?! When the family head of our main house learns of this, there will be an enormous uproar!"
"The Gongsun Family imprisoning blood relatives of other houses! This will never simply be overlooked!"
"Even if you silence our mouths it will be useless! Once word that the former family heads have gathered in one place reaches the Imperial Capital, it will surely…!"
Their cries gradually faded into the distance.
"Ahem."
Gongsun Na-gang cleared his throat lightly and turned toward the assembly.
"We have unavoidably confined blood relatives of several families, but I trust there will be no hard feelings."
He grinned.
"We are a community of shared destiny aboard the same boat, are we not?"
Upon the old masters' lips settled the same deep smile as Gongsun Na-gang's.
"Indeed. Thanks to the First Young Master, our interests have come to align exactly."
"In this rough journey, there will be those among us who deceive or betray."
"But that man must be prepared for the vengeance of the remaining fifteen."
"And above all…"
Every gaze turned as one toward Yeon So-hyeon.
"Decisively, the First Young Master here will mediate among us so that no friction arises, will he not?"
Yeon So-hyeon laughed heartily. His appearance was that of a thoroughly good man itself.
Yet at the same time, Yeon So-hyeon was laughing at the old masters in his heart.
Mocking them.
In the deepest place of his eyes, contempt and hatred toward them lay hidden. That emotion was so fierce, so explosive, that one could only marvel at how he managed to conceal it at all.