114. Beijing (2)
Beijing (2)
114. Beijing (2)
"Your sect sisters are seriously pretty, you know? Is your sect like that unni's Red Flower Pavilion—are you pleasure-house people too?"
Do-hwa asked as we walked through the alley.
"What kind of nonsense is that? Our Yeongsan Sect is an orthodox Daoist sect. There's no way I'd be part of some unorthodox pleasure-house business."
"Daoist? Wow. What a waste of a face. If you'd become a courtesan like Seungju unni, you'd be sitting on a pile of money.
"Ah. Don't go tattling to them that I said this. I only said it because I deal in goods and am friendly with the courtesans; I wasn't disrespecting your sect."
Those kinds of knickknacks must have sold well to young women with plenty of ready cash, especially courtesans. Do-hwa seemed close to other people from the pleasure houses besides Seungju.
"What tattling? What are we, kids?"
"Seeing you after so long, it really feels like being back in Jilin. Makes me happy. So, are you a Taoist now?"
"Yeah. My Taoist title is Yeongmok."
"Good. Perform a memorial rite for my husband. He's a damned bastard, but he's my son's father, and it's pitiful he can't even eat the offering food."
Had there ever been anyone in the world so utterly at ease with me? Gyeong Su-yeon, Murong Rin, Ji-gyu—I thought of them as friends in their own way, but having taken their place in the Martial World, they were tangled in complex interests, and no matter that we were friends, martial artists accustomed to the logic of strength were always conscious of one another's power.
"That big-breasted woman before—why was she looking at me like that?"
"This Senior Sister inherited the mantle of your ancestor, the Medicine Immortal."
"Really? The Medicine Immortal was a real person? That wasn't just my dad's drunken babbling?"
"Apparently. And she wasn't just an ordinary pharmacist—they say she was an extraordinary martial master."
"How ridiculous. That a master's descendants end up in this state. Then again, the man next door says he's the descendant of a Han Dynasty chancellor, and the unni working at the pleasure house says she's descended from Chu royalty. If you go by that, is there any shabby bloodline under heaven?"
Brushing off talk of her ancestor coolly, Do-hwa spoke a deep truth.
"You got anyone close in the Martial World? Someone from a famous sect."
"Hm. The Murong Clan?"
"Isn't the Murong Clan too far away? You don't know people from the Gongsun Clan, the Peng Clan, the Eon Clan, the Beggars' Sect?"
"I know someone a little in the Peng Clan."
"Perfect. Go tell them you're close with the Peng Clan. Don't say branch line or household retainer or any of that—tell them you're tight with the direct line. Then those bastards won't dare mess with you either."
A snort of laughter escaped me at Do-hwa's civilian naivety. If that kind of bluff worked, those guys would have to take down their unorthodox-faction signboard.
Well, not that I couldn't. Truth be told, I did know even the Peng Clan Head.
"You really give a lot of orders. Buy you things, give you guide money, fix this mess, hold a memorial rite. What am I, an errand boy?"
"Ah, come on. Aren't I pitiful? I'm a widow with a kid, crushed by debt. I was supposed to pay off twenty silver taels in interest by today, or I'd have to pay with my body. Instead of those bastards, I'll do it with you once, so just help me out a little. You're the youngest in an all-women sect, so you can't even go to the pleasure houses, right?"
"You saw my senior sisters earlier, right? My standards have gotten real high."
"Don't make me laugh. You think peerless beauties like that would give the time of day to their youngest junior brother? A woman never lies down for any man lesser than herself. Fine. I'll call that unni from before too. Her Red Flower Pavilion got smashed to pieces by the Gongsun Clan, so they can't do business in this neighborhood anymore. She's free, so that should satisfy you, right?"
To be treated with the utmost deference by Peng Seok, one of the Top Hundred Masters and eighty years old, then to see this Do-hwa—it felt completely refreshing. While I was chattering with my old friend, we finally arrived at a place called Jeonchu Finance House.
Ridiculous bastards. They called it Jeonchu Finance House, but it wasn't even a proper hall—just an ordinary building.
"Do-hwa. Long time. Did you wash up down below good?"
The man guarding the entrance looked at Do-hwa with a smarmy face and lewd banter, clearly glad to see her.
"Fuck. Stop obsessing over other people's cunts and wash your own dick clean."
"Of course I'll wash it. After all, Do-hwa's about to become the beloved woman of all the men at Jeonchu Finance House."
She must have lived a rough life, because Do-hwa's tongue was no slouch either.
"Who's the brat behind you? You keeping a man too now?"
"You're all dead. You know the Jilin Baek Clan Estate? Their eldest son's my friend."
"Jilin? There's a sect there?"
The man asked not to mock her, but because he genuinely didn't know. So this was how far the prestigious name of the Jilin Baek Clan Estate reached in Beijing.
"Right now he's the head disciple of Yeongsan Sect."
Do-hwa piled on the boasting as she spoke to the man.
"Yeongsan Sect? And where's that?"
The man asked, truly clueless. Flustered, Do-hwa didn't answer and marched straight into Jeonchu Finance House.
"Oh my. Do-hwa. You came to pay the money back? There can't be any left by now—did you decide to lie down for our boys after all?"
The woman sitting behind a large table with her legs crossed was around thirty. Well, loan-shark offices do have female staff handle the reception, but I hadn't expected a woman here.
"And the handsome man behind you? Here to pay up together? He's my type. I'll credit him for two months' worth of interest."
The woman looked at me and spoke in a decadent voice. Her face was passable, but her attire was remarkable. A skirt that exposed her legs like that, a neckline that showed cleavage—in this era. It seemed someone ahead of her time could be found anywhere.
"He's a friend from my hometown, Jilin. A truly fearsome martial artist who even became sworn brother to a direct-line descendant of the Peng Clan."
Having realized that the prestige of the Baek Clan Estate or Yeongsan Sect meant nothing at all here at Jeonchu Finance House, Do-hwa led with a powerful bluff from the start. What was truly funny was that the bluff was the truth.
Clink.
The woman in the chair dropped her teacup.
"I... I am Jo Sa-eun of Jeonchu Finance House. Might I dare hear the Reverend's Taoist title?"
The woman forced herself to look at me and asked, her voice trembling. I wasn't even wearing a Taoist robe, yet her asking for my title meant she must have heard the rumors from Seungdeok, right on Beijing's doorstep, very quickly. And she must have only now begun to sense the enormous internal energy in me, just shy of first-rate.
At last, my renown had spread. Things would get a little easier from now on.
"Yeongmok."
At those words, the woman rose from her seat. With a face rigid with extreme tension, she squeezed out her last bit of courage and asked.
"I do not mean to doubt, but faced with a name so vast, I do not know how to conduct myself. Might I see proof?"
Proof? With no resident registration card, what was I supposed to prove myself with? As a nominal second-rate martial artist, I usually kept my internal energy tightly controlled and suppressed it as I moved about. Though erasing every trace like a first-rate master was beyond me. As if assuming a battle stance, I unfurled the internal energy I had been hiding. The woman called Jo Sa-eun sprang from behind the table, pressed her hands and knees to the floor, and prostrated herself flat before me.
"I do not know how to beg forgiveness. Shall I prepare taels of gold? Shall I take down our signboard? Or shall I undress?"
At the sight of Jo Sa-eun like that, Do-hwa burst into laughter. Right now, she was probably thinking her bluff had worked. That must be it—Do-hwa, who had only briefly attended a martial academy as a child, was just an ordinary civilian utterly incapable of even sensing qi. I understood now why the Flame Emperor had deliberately chosen not to teach me how to direct killing intent: if I simply revealed my full internal energy, any martial artist weaker than me would tuck tail and bow their head, and against a civilian like Do-hwa, it would have no effect at all.
"How about you start by taking your clothes off? I'll take the chance to check real carefully whether you've washed your cunt clean."
"I shall do as you wish."
Truly without a second's hesitation, she stripped as though tearing her clothes off and prostrated herself on the floor. As expected of a bottom-feeding unorthodox-faction martial artist, her survival instinct was no joke.
"Ah! Reeks of piss! Did you wet yourself?"
Do-hwa, who had stuck her face right up to Jo Sa-eun's backside, recoiled holding her nose.
"I'm... I'm sorry."
For Do-hwa, this was a prank, but for Jo Sa-eun, it truly was no joke. Her whole body trembling uncontrollably, she simply prayed for this disaster of a situation to pass safely.
"What'll you do? Wanna do her and go? But if you do it with this bitch first, it might be real hard when you're with me tonight—wouldn't it be better just to do it with me?"
"I don't want to do it with either of you. You said you're Jo Sa-eun? What's your position here?"
"M-Manager."
"The way I see it, it's best you and I never get tangled up again, from now on."
"Yes! You're right!"
"How much money have you taken from her all this time, in total?"
"T-Two hundred fifty taels. I'll repay you tenfold."
"No need. The principal was two hundred, and fifty in interest means you haven't taken a loss either. So let's settle the debt relationship here, and let's not see each other if we can help it.
"The one hiding in the back room right now—that's the branch head, isn't it? We're heading to Henan, so if you've got a problem with me, tell him to come find me at the Henan Martial Alliance Branch, or at nearby Seungdeok Manor."
"I shall follow your command."
That was why renown was so useful. Do-hwa's problem had been resolved cleanly without spilling a single drop of blood. I left the naked woman behind and stepped outside with Do-hwa.
"Huh? Out already? Don't tell me this man paid your debt for you?"
The man guarding the door asked, a little startled.
"That's right, you son of a bitch. We've got no business from now on, so don't even come near my house. Might get yourself killed."
"Haah. Then who's gonna soothe my swelling hard-on? I've been holding back from the red-light district thinking of you, Do-hwa."
"Go on inside. There's sure to be a shitty cunt-hole that fits your filthy dick."
The man, who'd sensed something odd, hurried inside. He could do as he pleased—Do-hwa dragged me back to the alley and laughed like crazy.
"Did you see that bitch's face? Thick-headed slut. She stripped like a whore the second the Hebei Peng Clan's name came up! And they called her a martial-world type—isn't she seriously stupid?"
Jo Sa-eun wasn't stupid. If anything, she was truly remarkable. Based on information barely a few days old, the moment she heard I'd come from Jilin and was Peng Gang's sworn brother, she'd immediately identified me as the protagonist of the incident. And without an instant's hesitation, she had prostrated herself flat before me, and so Jeonchu Finance House had escaped annihilation. I hadn't intended to spill blood myself, but if I called Peng Gang, that guy, being the scion of a noble house who despised unorthodox factions, would have handled it himself.
"Still, if it weren't for you looking so scary, they probably wouldn't have believed the Peng Clan story. Thanks. A hometown friend really is the best. Come to my workshop tonight. I'll really work hard for you. I've been married, you know, so a bachelor like you won't even be a match for me."
"You're debt-free now, so don't go throwing your body around. If your son finds out when he's older, it'll really break his heart."
"What can I do? Beijing's taxes alone are no joke. How many kind-hearted customers like your pretty Martial Aunts do you think exist? I have a hard time earning even five silver taels a month. Seungho's going to keep growing, and it'll only cost more. On top of that, I'm a woman living alone, so sooner or later some lunatic's gonna crawl into my house in the middle of the night. Because this is that kind of neighborhood.
"So I'm planning to join a pleasure house soon, following my unni. It's just a hole that's already been pounded by some bastard's dick—what's there to be precious about now?"
Even splendid Beijing didn't mean everyone lived happily. Behind those grand streets, shadows like this existed.
Right.
Do-hwa had already become prey for Jeonchu Finance House—that was exactly why she had been safe all along. With the public order of a neighborhood like this, a young woman living alone really would be easy prey.
"Hey. How much does a house on the main street cost?"
"The prices there are insane. Not a great estate like the Baek Clan Estate, but even a small house like mine costs around a hundred taels. Of gold, not silver."
Ten thousand silver taels.
That really was insane.
"Aren't your parents in Beijing either?"
"In heaven. My mother passed away in Jilin, and my father died not long after he married me off. Why is my life seriously like this? If it weren't for my son, I'd have killed myself long ago."
She spoke with a bright laugh, but her eyes grew dark at the thought that her beloved son too would inherit her shabby fate.
"My poor son. To get him into a martial sect or something, it'd probably cost a lot of money, right? To send him to Yeongsan Sect, how much would I need?"
"We can't take disciples for a while."
"By the time Seungho grows up, you'll have shaken off being the youngest too—can't you pull some strings? If I become a courtesan, I'll really learn how to fuck right, and I'll do it for free every time you come by."
"Ever thought about remarrying?"
"How could I remarry and leave my son? If you were me, would you want to take on a woman with a kid and live with her? If you took our Seungho in, I might think about remarrying, but I'd just end up nursing some old coot on his sickbed until he dies, and then I'd get kicked out. Honestly, being a courtesan is better."
The Medicine Immortal, a woman who, in a sense, left behind achievements far greater than the Four Heroes. Why had her descendant fallen so utterly? It was a good thing I'd left Lee Eun-ha behind. The Medicine Immortal inside the rice paddle on Lee Eun-ha's back would have been truly distressed if she had heard this story.
"Hey. Let's go to that main street from before and buy something."
"Huh? What are you buying? It's time for our Seungho to nurse."
"I'll handle that. Just guide me to the main road."
"What's so urgent that you need to buy it now?"
"A house."