The Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains
A few days had passed since the Black Tiger Gang incident.
Tonight, once again, Jeong So-so could not easily fall asleep. She had never been a deep sleeper to begin with—nightmares came often, and the moment she lay down on her bed, thoughts of So-ryong's illness and the household's finances came floating up to circle her head.
This time was no different.
The Black Tiger Gang. Merely thinking of them made her breath catch in her throat.
Will things really be all right like this?
Even after everything that had happened, Jin Cheong-un had calmly gone about preparing to open the academy. Whenever she probed him slyly, all he would say was that it wouldn't be too late to decide once they saw how the Black Tiger Gang moved.
I need to stop worrying and get some sleep.
She knew perfectly well that thinking it wouldn't make sleep come. In the old days, worries that deepened like a bog would have seized her by the ankles and refused to let go.
That was how it used to be.
—It's fine. It'll work out somehow.
It was a strange thing, truly. Whenever her master's voice brushed through her mind, she would think, what kind of irresponsible nonsense is that?—and yet her breathing would suddenly ease.
"Right. It'll be fine..."
And so, before she knew it, So-so drifted off.
"There's work to do... mmm..."
Before long she had sunk deep into sleep, murmuring to herself.
How much time had passed?
"That's right. There was something I was supposed to do."
Yes. Set out the breakfast table, get to work at the inn, and there was that promise at dawn...
Huh?
Who was talking just now?
"W-who's there!"
So-so bolted upright, flinging back her blanket, startled out of her wits.
In the darkness, a pair of eyes flashed a ghostly blue, and a black figure advanced one step at a time.
"Get up. Come along quietly."
"KYAAAAAH!"
A short while later, in the front courtyard of the Jeong household, Jin Cheong-un slapped his palm against his ear a few times and shuddered.
"What a set of lungs. Nearly took my ear clean off."
"I thought you were a bandit! Honestly, who wakes someone up like that!"
"Well, whose fault is it that you didn't get up when you were called?"
Just then, Jeong So-ryong shuffled out, his eyes still bleary with sleep.
"Big Sis. I think you're actually the one in the wrong here."
So-so felt something catch in her throat. She had plenty she wanted to say, but what flew out instead was pure reflex.
"S-So-ryong, you couldn't get up either!"
"I'm ten, you know? And isn't it a little embarrassing, comparing yourself to a sick little kid?"
Y-you sly little...! I didn't raise you to be like this!
Face flushed crimson, So-so fidgeted in place.
"I don't usually do this. It was a mistake. I'm sorry. M-Ma... Master."
The word Master still seemed to sit awkwardly in her mouth; she stumbled over it several times.
Jin Cheong-un smirked as though he had won. "If everyone's awake now, then focus up."
"Yes."
The two young lambs answered in unison.
Good fire in their eyes.
Laughter spilled out of him unbidden.
The reason he had dragged the two of them out at this ungodly hour was none other than this.
"As I said—from today on, I'll be teaching you martial arts."
So-so mumbled something under her breath, looking disgruntled, and Jin Cheong-un tipped his chin at her.
"If you've got something to say, say it. No need to watch my mood."
"Is it... really all right for us to be doing this right now?"
"Why?"
"The Black Tiger Gang business isn't over yet."
Jin Cheong-un nodded. "Learning knows no season."
"...?"
I don't think that's the kind of saying you use at a time like this...
"Anyway, back to the matter at hand. You're probably wondering why I woke you at this hour, when even the roosters aren't up yet."
So-so and So-ryong nodded. The sky was slowly turning blue at the edges, but the world was still sunk in darkness.
"Dawn is where the yin energy of night crosses over into the yang energy of day, which makes it the ideal time to train internal energy."
Hands clasped behind his back, Jin Cheong-un pressed on. "The energy of nature is clear and abundant at this hour... um, the mind and body settle into stillness, and it's broadly favorable for regulating the flow of qi and blood... well, just remember it as something like that."
Midway through, he had rapidly lost interest and waved the rest away.
Is he allowed to just skip over it like that?
She stole a glance at her brother, but So-ryong was simply nodding along, looking for all the world like he'd just absorbed something profound.
"You'll come to understand it all in time anyway. What matters is this: from now on, barring anything unusual, you will get up at this hour every single dawn and train."
"What? Every single day?!"
"...Every day?"
The two of them went round-eyed at the same time.
"Once you've learned breath circulation, you'll practice on your own. Until then, follow my instruction closely." Jin Cheong-un smirked. "What, scared already, and we haven't even started?"
"N-no, that's not it..."
"If you don't want to, you don't have to."
"...What?"
Jin Cheong-un shrugged. "By all means, don't. It's perfectly fine. Just live out your days in comfort without ever learning martial arts."
Both mouths snapped shut at once.
Grinning, Jin Cheong-un explained. "In the Jianghu, they say that when one learns the martial arts, one must train essence, qi, and spirit—or else mind, qi, and body—without letting any of them fall out of balance."
Simply put: the tempering of the flesh and one's internal energy mattered no more and no less than the tempering of one's heart and will.
"So-ryong, you must learn martial arts if only to cure your illness. And you have the goal of growing stronger, so the will is there. But..."
Jin Cheong-un turned to So-so.
"What about you, So-so?"
"M-me?"
"Yes. Not the muddling-through kind of learning, just because I said I'd be your master. Do you have a reason of your own for wanting to master the martial arts?"
A reason.
She honestly didn't know. The days she'd spent at the academy were from her earliest childhood, hazy now in memory, but they had been warm. And to carry on the academy, she would need to master its arts. She owed Jin Cheong-un a debt, too, and besides...
But that doesn't feel like the answer.
Just then, Jin Cheong-un spoke.
"Once, my own master said something to me."
His voice was utterly serious.
"The word martial first meant one who takes up a spear and marches out to fight. But in time, it came to mean the halting of the spear—the ending of war."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"What if you had been able to use martial arts that day?"
So-so froze.
"It's a hard, unforgiving world as it is. What I'm saying is that strength is needed to stop a fight—or to protect something."
"..."
"Of course, strength brings problems of its own, so you'll need the resolve to carry it, too."
At those words, a fierce light began to gather in So-so's eyes.
If I had been strong...
She would never have had to lean helplessly on her master, nor stand before the Black Tiger Gang thugs doing nothing but shouting and bluffing.
"I... I think I've found my reason to learn martial arts."
Jin Cheong-un flashed a grin, then put on a deliberately solemn voice as he regarded the siblings.
"Good. Now that both of you are wholehearted in your intent."
"Yes."
"And your resolve is sufficient?"
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
So-so answered, and So-ryong's shout followed right on hers.
"Since my disciples' will burns so brightly, this master is most satisfied. Then I suppose I must declare my own will in turn."
The mood was warm and heartening.
Then, without warning, Jin Cheong-un's eyes gleamed.
"I will never stand by and watch disciples of an academy bearing my name get beaten down anywhere. Am I understood?"
"...?"
"Rain or snow from this day forward—even if the sky collapses and the earth caves in—training will not be skipped. With willpower and mental fortitude, anything can be overcome!"
What kind of nonsense is that? If the sky is collapsing, how is willpower supposed to beat it?
"This master, in turn, shall teach until his mental strength gives out, and I expect my disciples to learn until their willpower gives out. That is all."
Something.
Something was going very, very wrong here.
"First, So-ryong!"
"Ah—yes! Master!"
"You remember the mnemonic I taught you yesterday? Today I'll teach you breath control—how to expel and draw the breath. Sit cross-legged."
"Yes!"
Why only So-ryong?
Suddenly, So-so felt uneasy.
"W-what about me?"
"You need to start with the fundamentals."
Oh! The fundamentals!
Phew. And here I was scared for nothing.
"Then what do I start with?"
"What do you think the fundamentals are?"
"Internal energy? Oh! Or forms?"
"Nope. Physical fitness."
"...What?"
"And nothing builds fitness like running."
"...?"
"What are you waiting for, So-so? You run."
"...!!"
A short while later.
"AAH! AAAAH!"
"Hoo-hah. Koff! Whew, hah."
So-so was tearing around the courtyard shrieking, while So-ryong sat in deep concentration, sweat trickling down his face whenever his breathing slipped out of rhythm.
Jin Cheong-un surveyed the courtyard with a contented look.
When the body is exhausted, idle thoughts don't get a chance to creep in.
Pointless anxiety, needless worry, useless brooding—all of it had a way of simply evaporating. And they got their training in as a bonus. It didn't get better than this.
The Black Tiger Gang should be reacting, one way or another, before long.
Which meant that now was the time to take care of what he had been putting off.
I suppose I should go and check on what my master left behind.
Jin Cheong-un gazed off in the direction of the Cheongun Martial Arts Academy.
In the "Tang Wen" chapter of the Liezi, there is a tale of a foolish old man.
The old man's home lay in a remote mountain valley, where two great mountains blocked the road, forcing anyone bound for another town into a long detour. Though ninety years of age, the old man resolved to level the mountains together with his family—apparently on the reasoning that on some trip to visit a friend in the neighboring village, he might just as well take a detour to the underworld while he was at it.
Naturally, his wise acquaintances tried to talk him out of it, saying only a fool would speak so. But human beings are, by nature, the sort of creatures who want to accomplish a thing all the more out of spite when they hear such talk. And when the old man declared that his children's children, unto every generation after them, would make flattening those mountains the family's hereditary work—
Where there is sincere devotion, Heaven is moved. The mountain god, suddenly fearing for his territory, scrambled to petition the Heavenly Emperor, who judged the old man's devotion admirable and had the mountains carried off to distant lands.
Truly a stirring tale, is it not?
As he saw it, the moral of the story was precisely this:
If something stands in the way of your will, you set about it with the resolve to flatten that something right out of your path!
So the reason his retirement had gone off the rails was that he had kept too peaceful a heart. From now on, it would be different. Swindlers, debt collectors, corrupt officials—whomever it might be, anyone who stood in his way would be cleared from before his eyes.
No interference, whatever its shape, will delay the opening of this academy.
Jin Cheong-un met again with the middle-aged carpenter he had first been introduced to through So-so—this time at the academy itself.
And then—
"I'm afraid I'll have to charge a fair bit more than I quoted you the other day."
Jin Cheong-un froze solid on the spot.
"You said nothing of the sort when you gave me the estimate and left. I've already paid the deposit. This puts me in a very difficult position."
"Well then, I'll simply do the work up to that amount. It might be a touch uncomfortable, but I'm sure you can live with it."
At the offhand answer, Jin Cheong-un stared hard at the carpenter.
Don't tell me this old man is a swindler too?
He asked, as politely as he could manage, "Might I hear the reason?"
If the man was a swindler—
Yes. The mindset of the Foolish Old Man.
If the Foolish Old Man could flatten mountains, then he could flatten the skulls of swindlers.
Fortunately, Master Carpenter Jang—Jang Chun-gwang—was no swindler.
"Take a look at this pillar here. Mold's gotten into it, see?"
Thud, thud.
The pillar he rapped with his hammer gave out a dull, dead sound.
"Judging by that sound, the inside has rotted clean through. Nobody kept up with maintenance, so the damp crept in. This wall here is load-bearing, and it's warped along the side, so it will need reinforcing..."
"So roughly how much more are we talking?"
"Can't say for certain until we get into it, but to be safe, you'll want to add another twenty nyang."
He didn't know the details, but it sounded like a legitimate reason and a fair sum. Only then could Jin Cheong-un finally relax and breathe easy.
"Whew. Almost cracked your skull open."
Jang Chun-gwang blinked. "What was that you just said?"
"Nothing at all."
"That wasn't nothing. I distinctly heard—"
"To be honest, until this very moment, I had misunderstood you, Master Carpenter." Jin Cheong-un smiled apologetically. "But it seems my fears were unfounded. I apologize."
Jang Chun-gwang tilted his head for a moment, then threw back his head and laughed. "Hah! So you thought I was out to fleece you, did you?"
"I'm sorry."
"No harm done, no harm done. It's a lot of money—you ought to be careful. You're a sharp young man; no one will ever swindle you."
At that, Jin Cheong-un's expression twisted.
"Hm? What's the matter?"
"Nothing at all."
As they walked outside, Jang Chun-gwang spoke up. "Construction starts four days from now. Timber's hard to come by at the moment, on account of those Esoteric Cult folk or whoever they were."
"I'm in your hands."
"By the way—you truly don't mean to touch the yard in the back? I could do it cheap, seeing as it'd be exterior work only."
"..."
At that, Jin Cheong-un's gaze slid over. In the rear courtyard Jang Chun-gwang indicated stood a single building—too small to be called an annex, too large to be called a storage shed.
"That's not a storage shed. It's a training chamber."
"A training chamber?"
"A space where martial artists can meditate and train in quiet. I'd prefer it left as it is, if at all possible."
"No wonder the thing was built so solid. I kept wondering why more care went into the 'storage shed' than into the house itself. Understood."
"I'm in your hands."
Having seen Jang Chun-gwang off, Jin Cheong-un trudged toward the training chamber.
Creeeak!
The moment he opened the door, the dust blanketing the floor swirled up in a gust. It was a dark, barren space—but just as Jang Chun-gwang had said, unlike the shabby exterior, the interior was sound, the craftsmanship plain to see.
"Well, then."
Rolling up his sleeves, Jin Cheong-un let out a long breath.
"Time to go find my master's legacy."
Somewhere down here, hidden away, lay the secret of his master that he had failed to find before.