Chapter 123
Chapter 123
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 123
Chapter Title: Ancestral Secrets
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Hangzhou's nights were colder than expected.
It was because of the massive West Lake right next door, and since Zhejiang Province itself bordered the sea, the winds blew fiercely.
For Yang-hui, who was turning thirty this year and had already reached a transcendent realm, the cold was no reason for discomfort.
'Has it really been ten years already since I left the clan and became a wandering swordsman?'
Lost in such thoughts, he handed his own overcoat, which he had draped over his shoulders, to his client.
"The wind is biting. Put this on."
"Thank you, young hero."
She bowed her head slightly in gratitude. Their eyes met for a moment.
Quiet, and thus noble.
"Why do you look at me with such eyes?"
"Nothing special. For someone called Hangzhou's foremost courtesan, you don't seem to have anything particularly striking about you."
Her beauty was renowned enough to spread across the land, yet it stirred no emotion in Yang-hui.
"It's just an empty title. Unlike you, young hero, who earned the moniker Best Sword Among Wanderers at such a young age."
"Best Sword Among Wanderers? That's barely a name whispered in the eastern reaches of the Central Plains. It's far from resounding across the world. So it's an empty title all the same."
Dismissing each other's fame as mere flattery, the two continued walking along the West Lake shore.
Suddenly, So Wol-hyang gazed at the sky and let out a sigh.
It dragged on so long it felt like it might never end.
"What troubles weigh so heavily on you? Ah, that question crosses a line. Consider it unsaid."
So Wol-hyang stared silently at her bodyguard, then smiled faintly.
She was always surrounded by men eager to overstep boundaries.
Watching Yang-hui, who never once crossed the line she drew, naturally put her at ease.
"Young hero, it's already been three months since you took on protecting this Heavenly Lady."
"Has that much time passed? My thanks. My purse will be nice and fat because of it."
"You accepted the commission without setting a price, and now you say such things. It's quite troubling."
"That's why I'm saying it. The fee is up to me."
But So Wol-hyang knew.
Yang-hui had taken the job for his own sense of justice, and such a man would never demand excessive payment.
Their relationship was established with a promise of compensation.
Yet So Wol-hyang could only see Yang-hui as truly on her side.
There was no one around her she could trust or rely on.
"People wish for their children's brilliance, yet brilliance ruined my life. Better to be foolish and dull, just grow up unscathed."
"Su Dongpo's Washing the Child."
So Wol-hyang looked at Yang-hui with surprise.
He had shown many sides different from ordinary men, but he was still a wanderer.
She hadn't expected him to recite a poem and name its source on the spot.
"You have a deep appreciation for literature as well?"
"My family prides itself on excelling in both letters and arms. I particularly love the poems Su Dongpo left behind."
"You must be the scion of a venerable house."
"Just the remnants of a third-rate martial family."
So Wol-hyang glanced briefly at Yang-hui, who shrugged nonchalantly.
"May I hear your story?"
"Nothing to hide, so I can tell it. But it won't be entertaining."
"I'd like to hear it anyway."
He told her.
His father, who had adopted him—an orphan unaware of life's meaning—as his son.
The son who inherited his father's dream.
The years of desperate effort for a dream that became his life's purpose.
"And that's how it happened."
"......"
"Your silence and that look make me embarrassed."
"So even you, young hero... chase a dream that's not truly your own."
"Hm. Is that so?"
The wind pushed against the lake's surface, creating ripples and waves.
"Young hero, have you heard of So So-so?"
"Of course. The greatest courtesan of all time, a prodigy unmatched. Even Su Dongpo, one of the Eight Masters of Tang and Song, praised her in his poems."
"Then you know her tales as well."
"Naturally. A story of tragic love as poignant as that of Xiang Yu the Overlord and Yu the Concubine."
So So-so, parted from her beloved due to unfortunate circumstances, pined away and left the world young.
Later generations cited her story as the epitome of devoted love.
"That's the common tale. But there's a hidden truth."
"Hm? What hidden truth?"
"So So-so didn't die of grief. She passed early from childbirth."
"How do you know that?"
"Because she's my ancestor."
"Uh?"
Yang-hui's eyes widened as he stared at So Wol-hyang.
With her exceptional beauty and talents in the arts that dominated the era, it wouldn't be strange if she were So So-so's descendant.
"That's not all. You said you like Su Dongpo. He's one of my Heavenly Lady ancestors too."
Even Yang-hui couldn't maintain his composure at those words.
Su Dongpo, one of the Eight Masters of Tang and Song, counted among the greatest writers ever, a descendant of the greatest courtesan So So-so?
"Is that true?"
"Why would I lie?"
"Fair enough. But how did So So-so pass the family name to her descendants as a woman?"
"There are circumstances. The Heavenly Lady's name So is indeed passed down from her."
"I see. Ah, now it makes sense. Does the Moon Lake Tower Lord know this?"
The reason the famed courtesan So Wol-hyang hired a mere wanderer as her bodyguard was simple.
The one meant to protect her was instead oppressing her.
From her girlhood days right up to now, solely for his own gain, he had shattered her family and shamelessly played the benefactor.
"You're truly perceptive, young hero. Yes."
So Wol-hyang had hired Yang-hui, the Best Sword Among Wanderers from Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and the eastern Central Plains, for one reason.
To escape the clutches of the Moon Lake Tower Lord who had bound her for nearly twenty years.
"What do you say, young hero? The commission you've taken is to protect me... me, descendant of So So-so and Su Dongpo..."
She took a deep breath and continued.
"From someone who knows my worth and thus will never let me go. He's even a villain who resorts to any means. If you're afraid, or worried about losses, I'll withdraw the commission now."
"......"
A brief silence. Then Yang-hui just chuckled softly.
"I see. Then I'll set the price. Sing me just one verse."
So Wol-hyang's eyes widened. Seeing such an expression on her usually serene and noble face felt refreshingly novel.
Like color finally coming to life.
"Just that? Please take it back."
"No way! A verse from the descendants of So So-so and Su Dongpo! It's worth a king's ransom—I'll take it for sure!"
He shouted dramatically and added a few words.
"If possible, set it to music from one of Su Dongpo's poems. A Su Dongpo descendant singing Su Dongpo's poem. Just imagining it is exquisite."
"......"
She smiled. Like a flower blooming, a grin spread across So Wol-hyang's face.
"You won't regret it?"
"Ah, regrets? I used them all up at birth."
"......"
Celestial notes echoed along the West Lake shore.
Facing the lake breeze, feeling Hangzhou's cool, serene air with his whole body.
Yang-hui closed his eyes and savored the melody.
A month later.
So Wol-hyang's commission would reach its conclusion.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ So Wol-hyang felt a moment of bewilderment.
The cause was Yang-hui gazing at her with distant eyes.
'Why does the young master look at me like that?'
A gaze one might see upon reuniting with a long-lost friend after ages.
They had met only twice, so it didn't fit reason or propriety.
'What a truly peculiar young master.'
And that wasn't the only odd thing.
'Why is he so aggressive toward the Tower Lord?'
Unlike their rude first meeting, the Baek Yang-hui she had come to know appreciated the arts.
Here, arts meant benevolence, not forms or techniques.
His attitude toward Junior Sister Je-gal Seol-ha and the words he offered her.
By all accounts, Yang-hui had a warm heart.
Yet he was prickly only toward the Moon Lake Tower Lord, which felt all the more strange.
"How much is the debt and the grace combined?"
"......Why do you ask?"
"Because I'd like to settle it all and escort your sister away."
Even now. Asking so bluntly showed a lack of respect for the other party.
'If I'd known it would be like this, I should've said from the start I had no intention of following.'
Her family, House So, had once been in dire straits.
On the brink of total ruin and dispersal, it was the Moon Lake Tower Lord who saved them.
So Wol-hyang had engraved that grace in her bones and remained at Moon Lake Tower as a courtesan to repay it.
Leave with Yang-hui and Je-gal Seol-ha?
'That would be repaying grace with ingratitude.'
The hard days when her mother cut her hair to sell at market, her scholarly father forced into manual labor.
Red-light den patrons offered soot-covered silver to claim her mother's body.
Her father fell gravely ill, bedridden, where ten taels monthly for medicine was the difference between life and death.
Days filled with thoughts that life was hell. No, it was hell.
The Moon Lake Tower Lord had ended that era of pain.
He was her benefactor before being the brothel's owner.
'A grace too vast to repay in a lifetime. As a daughter of House So, I can't abandon all five virtues of propriety.'
As such thoughts swirled, Yang-hui and the Tower Lord's conversation drifted into So Wol-hyang's ears again.
"Then even after repaying debt and grace, your sister can't leave Moon Lake Tower."
The Tower Lord had promised to release her bonds swiftly once the money spent saving House So was repaid.
In other words, no reason to hesitate in answering.
"......"
Yet the Tower Lord remained silent for a long while.
As if such a thing must never happen.
Even if the Tower Lord ordered her to leave, So Wol-hyang had no intention of following Yang-hui.
She was grateful for valuing her enough to offer half the profits, but she couldn't let greed blind her to grace.
Instead of voicing her thoughts, she watched the Tower Lord quietly for a moment.
'Tower Lord, why hesitate in your answer...?'
"Why won't you speak? By your earlier words, you could readily agree."
"......"
The Tower Lord's reply was evasion.
"This is no concern of yours, young master."
Emotion laced his words. His tone sharpened.
As if viewing Yang-hui as an enemy.
"I decide what concerns me. So answer, Tower Lord. Can your sister gain her freedom?"
"Wol-hyang's debt is my property too. By what right do you overstep like this?!"
So Wol-hyang felt ripples stir in her heart.
He was right. Not a shred of error.
But.
"Wol-hyang, worry not. Hone your talents. I'll handle your family and money matters entirely."
It was hard to believe this was the same Tower Lord who had offered such kind words and gentle promises in the past.
'Surely the Tower Lord... always supported my dreams, wishing only for my diligence. A good man.'
People naturally pursue pleasure.
In her grueling, horrific past, the arts had been So Wol-hyang's sole solace.
A means to escape pain had become her dream and life's goal.
To transcend her courtesan status like So So-so, earning the title of greatest ever and the world's acclaim.
Like Su Dongpo, one of the Eight Masters, leaving countless famed poems for posterity.
She too wished to unveil supreme talents, reaching the pinnacle of arts as the third great So.
"Why treat you so well? I simply wish to see you achieve fame in arts and dance like your ancestors. That fulfills me."
'That's what you said, Tower Lord.'
"Rights, you say. Then I'll ask you, Tower Lord. This young master plans to investigate the So bloodline starting tomorrow. Does that trouble you?"
That was the moment.
The Tower Lord's face twisted ferociously.
"Wh-what...? What nonsense is this?! Shut your mouth, you brat!"
The Tower Lord lost his composure and bellowed.
The ripples in So Wol-hyang's heart swelled into a storm.
"What's wrong? Like a thief with guilty feet."
"I said shut it!"
"I don't know by what right you order silence. Let me share more plans. I suspect a shadow behind the fall of the So family line. What say you, Tower Lord?"
"......Urgh...!"
The two continued jabbing with words, hurling insults like stones, for quite some time.
To the point she could no longer just watch.
"Enough. Enough. Enough."
So Wol-hyang stepped between them with a small, soft, yet resolute tone.
Yang-hui shut his mouth as if he'd been waiting.
The Tower Lord, fuming, couldn't speak for a moment.
"I've seen both your shameful displays."
"......"
"......"
"First, young master. Your words are baseless suspicions and rumors."
"Yes, Wol-hyang! I've shown you grace—how can his ravings hold water? Come, let's leave!"
Ignoring the Tower Lord's shout, So Wol-hyang continued.
"So please, Tower Lord, tell me."
"......Wol-hyang."
She gazed at her benefactor with misty eyes.
She could hardly believe suspicion arose from mere moments of talk.
Yet she was sharp enough to grasp the undercurrents of that brief exchange.
The constant favor and affection from the Tower Lord.
His current attitude, utterly opposed to his usual self.
Pressing her chest, taking a deep breath, she barely managed to continue.
"Does it truly not matter if the young master investigates what happened to my house?"
'Please say yes, Tower Lord.'
But her benefactor betrayed her hopes.