What Time Cannot Fade
Some memories never fade with time. Instead, they only grow sharper. The way wine deepens in flavor as it ages, memories steeped in the passing years brew an ever-deeper longing. People called that nostalgia. On the outskirts of Yinghua Village's main thoroughfare. A place reached after a long climb uphill and an even longer ascent of the mountain stairs. Jin Cheong-un let out a long breath, and his eyes softened into something distant.
"Hoo."
A wall wrapped in overgrown brush came into view, then a gatehouse, and beyond it a handful of dilapidated buildings. He walked over slowly and ran his hand along the doorpost of the cracked-open front gate. Whooshhh! Wind blew in from somewhere. Dream or illusion. Memories he had thought forgotten — memories he had deliberately never dredged up — came back to life like a drifting dream. From now on, this place is your home. The memory of first opening this gate, holding his master's hand. Hey, you brats!Shit — we're caught! Run! The memory of kicking down that same gate and fleeing with his fellow disciples. Cheong-un. We train in the martial arts in order to protect something. Strength used to harm others is nothing but violence — how can you not understand this? Even the master's scolding, worn into his ears like a callus. Cheong-un. I hope you grow into someone who makes choices he doesn't regret — even if they aren't wise ones. Well, you were right about that. If he'd truly taken those words to heart, he wouldn't have thrown himself into the Supreme Alliance and suffered all that hardship. Still — yes. I have no regrets. He'd thought it was the only way at the time. This unfilial disciple would probably make the same choice even if he went back to those days. Whooshhh! The wind blew again, and before he knew it the old memories had melted into the empty air like dawn mist and scattered.
"……"
Jin Cheong-un raised his head. Before his eyes, hanging precariously from the eaves of a spiderweb-draped gatehouse, was an old wooden plaque. Four characters were carved into it, searing themselves into his sight.
Qingyun Martial Arts Academy
Cheongun Martial Arts Academy
It was the name of this academy — and also the name his master had given to a nameless orphan child. Before long, Jin Cheong-un flung the doors wide open. Clunk! The full view of Cheongun Martial Arts Academy spread out before him. The training grounds where he had practiced with his martial brothers every morning were now choked with weeds, and the halls he had polished with a thorough cleaning every season had rotted past old into something that looked ready to collapse. Jin Cheong-un moved through the place as familiarly as if it were his own home. And the moment he stepped into the main hall— His steps stopped dead.
"……"
Something sat in a sunlit spot deep inside the building. A memorial tablet. A battered incense burner and the ash of fully burned-out sticks. A wine cup and a wine bottle. Withered, shriveled flowers. On a humble altar rested objects beneath a layer of pale dust. Jin Cheong-un brushed the dust off lightly, then pulled out a fresh bottle of wine he hadn't yet touched. Glug-glug-glug! Clear liquor filled the cup and was placed atop the altar, the scent of wine spreading through the silent hall. I'm far too late, but— Jin Cheong-un stood quietly for a long while, then let out a long breath. I've finally come back, haven't I. To Cheongun Martial Arts Academy. To the place that had been his hometown, his home…… Yes. I'm back. Back was good and all. So can someone explain what the hell is going on right now? Jin Cheong-un turned around slightly. The moment their eyes met, Jeong So-so, who had been standing there like a fool, flinched and shuddered.
"……"
"……"
A suffocating silence stretched between them. Then— "Um."
Jeong So-so, hunched in on herself, was the first to cautiously meet his gaze. And she said: "……Master-Uncle?"
"Ugh."
This was enough to drive a man mad.
Let's think about this for a moment. What, exactly, does the family tree look like here? Did one of my martial brothers marry and have a child? Given the nature of a martial academy, it felt cheap to quibble over titles, but if one were to quibble — well, she'd be his martial niece. Jin Cheong-un turned back toward Jeong So-so. Still — as the saying goes, the world runs on school ties, blood ties, and hometown ties, and beneath the bewilderment he did feel glad to see her. But then a thought flashed through his mind, and goosebumps crawled up his arms. If this is real, who does this academy belong to? Getting scammed out of a manor he'd poured his retirement savings into was already infuriating enough — now the academy too? And she was tangled up with him in both?
"W-why aren't you saying anything?"
"……"
"Are you really my master-uncle?"
The law of the Central Plains had, ever and always, followed the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius. By seniority, Jin Cheong-un was the rightful heir. This was the correct order of the world that Confucius and Mencius themselves would nod along to from the afterlife. But look at the actual circumstances? A master-uncle who'd kicked the academy aside and returned more than a decade later. A martial niece who'd starved through hard times to stubbornly protect the sect. Put those on a scale, and the former weighed light as a feather while the latter turned into a hunk of iron weighing a thousand catties. ……Weigh seniority against that, and Confucius himself would hurl his own scriptures across the room yelling, 'What kind of human being are you?!' Which left only one path. As of today, I shall forsake the Confucian way and follow the Daoist law! Laozi himself said it: the Dao that can be named is not the true Dao! And right now, this very instant, he would achieve enlightenment and declare it!
"I never had a martial niece like you!!"
"W-why would you say that of all things?!"
Jeong So-so, who had shouted before she could stop herself, flinched at her own outburst.
"S-sorry. I didn't mean to raise my voice."
She made a face on the verge of tears. Coincidences should overlap in moderation — what in the world was this? Which meant. If this turned out to be true— The man I was arguing with over property…… is my master-uncle? Wh-what kind of soap-opera nonsense was this? This was not the reunion she'd imagined. It was supposed to be moving! Heartwarming! Suddenly last night's words flickered through her mind, and recalling all that talk of insubordination and dragging elders through the mud and treacherous beasts made her head swim. Right! Verification! Verification first!
"You're saying you really were a member of Cheongun Martial Arts Academy?"
"Yeah. That's right."
"You're far too young for that, though…… From what I heard, the academy closed its doors……"
"Yeah."
Jin Cheong-un's expression turned distant.
"Twelve years ago already, wasn't it?"
"……?"
Jeong So-so instantly furrowed her brow and tilted her head.
"It's not twelve years, it's fourteen. Almost fifteen now."
"Close enough. Moving on."
Moving on, my foot! If it's true, how old is he? Going by looks alone, he seemed around thirty, maybe. Aside from a certain weathered, battered air about him, you could squint and believe he was in his twenties. If his apparent age was real, that meant he'd debuted in the Jianghu younger than she was now…… Cyl, now that I think about it, I did wonder when I first heard the name. But! But!! Cheong-un couldn't be that rare a name in this world! Who would ever anticipate a coincidence like this?
"C-could it really be…… that you're my master-uncle?"
"Like I said, I never had a martial niece……"
"Stop joking around already! You're not some father-in-law kicking out a son-in-law he can't stand!"
"It's not a joke. I'm serious."
"Huh?"
Jin Cheong-un crossed his arms.
"Think about it. How could you possibly be my martial niece? The academy went completely under — we never trained together."
"……!"
At those words, Jeong So-so's face darkened at once. Why? A corner of her heart throbbed with a dull ache. She'd been confused, yes, but inwardly she'd been excited and happy — the elder of her father's sect, waited for and longed for, had finally returned. And then Jin Cheong-un had said it. You and I are nothing to each other. It was the truth, and she acknowledged it, but somehow it felt as though she'd been abandoned all over again, and the words stung with unexpected coldness.
"You're not wrong, technically……"
Jeong So-so replied as evenly as she could manage, then clasped her hands tightly together. Right — there had never been any guarantee that an elder of her father's sect would treat her like family. She had to stand on her own. Hadn't she sworn as much, back when her father abandoned them? Maybe this disappointment, too, had sprung from her own weakness — from needing someone to lean on. But then— "That said, it's not as if there's no connection at all."
"What do you mean?"
Jin Cheong-un exhaled briefly and studied the girl who had pushed back. Jeong. Jeong, was it. Among the fellow disciples he remembered, someone with the surname Jeong…… There was. One person. A name impossible to forget.
"Let me ask you something. Is your late father's given name Baek, then Heon?"
"……!"
Jeong So-so clapped a hand over her mouth, stunned.
"So it is. Of course."
Jin Cheong-un let out a bitter laugh. Truly, me. Who knew the day would come when I'd hear someone call me uncle — something that was never in my fate.
"So you were Big Brother's daughter."
"……Huh?"
"Yes — now that you mention it, I do remember. I'm fairly sure I saw you when you were just a little thing……"
Jin Cheong-un let out a long, deep sigh and looked around the academy.
"So he was the one who kept this place to the end."
It was a long time ago. A memory Jin Cheong-un had packed away in a corner of his mind.
"You little troublemaker! I wondered where you'd slunk off to instead of your studies. Get down here, now!"
Jin Cheong-un, sprawled lazily in a tree, flinched. He's on my case again. He stole a glance down at the base of the tree. A young man with wide, glaring eyes was looking up at him. It was Jeong Baek-heon — the eldest of the academy's disciples and famous for his firecracker temper. He hopped down from the tree and answered with all the nonchalance he could muster.
"What."
"What? WHAT?! You really don't know why I'm angry?!"
"I wasn't doing anything. Just resting here."
"So lounging around is a point of pride for you, is it?"
"……"
The truth was, Jin Cheong-un had entered the academy later than his fellow disciples. And as sure as water flows downhill, senior disciples picking on the newcomers was simply the natural order of things. Jin Cheong-un was being bullied under the banner of exactly that seniority.
"I told you to get along with the others! Where in the world do you find a kid who hits his own senior brothers?"
"They're the ones who started hazing me."
"You call a little nagging — telling them to go easy on the boys their own age — hazing?"
"……"
Jeong Baek-heon heaved a deep sigh.
"Aigoo. Give me your hand."
"Why my hand?"
"When I say give, you give. So young, and yet you talk back at every single turn."
"I'm not into that, senior brother."
"Are you completely out of your mind?"
Jeong Baek-heon shot him an exasperated look, then abruptly seized Jin Cheong-un's wrist.
"Look at this! It's swollen, isn't it!"
And with that, he slathered salve, thick and thorough, over the backs of Jin Cheong-un's hands, raw and red from catching senior disciples' blows. Jin Cheong-un averted his eyes, embarrassed for no good reason.
"Hey."
"What."
"Say 'what' one more time and you're actually dead."
"You're weaker than me, though."
"No more snacks for you. Ever."
"Yes, sir. As you command, Big Brother."
Jeong Baek-heon let out a hollow laugh. The reason he was called Big Brother rather than Senior Brother Eldest was that, in many ways, his circumstances were different from the other disciples'. To put it in a word: a child of privilege. Eldest son of a fairly well-known merchant family, heir to the family business, future bright as could be. Unlike Jin Cheong-un and the others, who ate and slept at the academy out of their own desperate circumstances, this one only came out to town once or twice a week to learn self-defense. Ordinarily that kind of gap breeds distance, but his temperament was so good that everyone looked up to him like an actual big brother. He was an only child himself, and preferred being called Big Brother to Senior Brother Eldest anyway.
"Isn't it about time you got a little friendlier with your senior brothers?"
"We are friendly."
"Friendly is throwing punches the moment your eyes meet?"
"In my old village, that was a greeting."
"What kind of village did you even live in?"
Having finished applying the salve, Jeong Baek-heon spoke up.
"Cheong-un. Do you hate it here?"
"……It's fine, I guess."
"I like it."
"……?"
"The master, the senior brothers — they all feel like family, somehow. If I ever have a child of my own someday, I'd want to enroll the kid here too, that's how much."
"What's that supposed to mean, out of nowhere?"
"It means that once you've joined the academy, you're one of us now too."
Jin Cheong-un fell silent.
"So I want you to think of me that way. Of all of us, that way."
"……"
"You're a damn good fighter, you know that? Later on, if any of our family ever comes home beaten, or something terrible happens, and you're there standing between them and trouble — how good would that be? Wouldn't it?"
Whoosh — the mountain wind blew past. Jin Cheong-un, listening in silence, gave a small nod.
"I understand."
"Really?"
"So hand over the snacks, then."
"……You little brat."
Jeong Baek-heon ruffled his hair into a complete mess, then pulled a paper-wrapped confection from his robe and handed it over. The sweets had seemed sweeter than usual that day.
Jin Cheong-un turned his gaze. He looked over Cheongun Martial Arts Academy from end to end, and sighed. So you really kept it alone, all this time, while everyone else left? The man was a fool. No talent to speak of — he'd even refused the title of senior disciple when it was offered — and of all people, the one least bound by any duty to hold this place together…… Why on earth had he guarded an academy everyone else had abandoned, all by himself? And now even his daughter, too— Jin Cheong-un looked at Jeong So-so with aching eyes.
"Th-then what should I call you……"
She asked hesitantly, watching his reaction.
"……Uncle?"
"Ugh."
Genuinely, absolutely maddening.