WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 100: When Young, I Knew Not Sorrow's Taste (5)
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“I can't explain the details, but Liaoning's problems aren't completely resolved. More precisely... the aftermath has been severe. That's why I'm looking for traces of the Demonic Path. We need to understand exactly what we're dealing with and find a solution.”
What Moyong Ha told him on the way back to Yuezhou was nearly a secret.
It was what she had truly kept in her heart, hidden from everyone while showing them only kindness, righteousness, and gentleness.
‘I only met him today, and I’m telling him all this...’
This side of herself felt unfamiliar to Moyong Ha, but she didn't feel uneasy. Instead, it felt natural, comfortable, even pleasant.
Since Moyong Ha had opened up to him, Yeon Sowol found himself sharing more about his own life as well.
He told her about a few things that had happened in Shinheung County, along with the two aliases he had gained there, Sole Crimson and Hidden Sun Sword.
He also told her about the trivial details of his journey by boat from Yanggang to Yuezhou.
Then, as Moyong Ha listened intently, her eyes suddenly flashed.
“What? You have more friends? What? Young Hero Won, the Dragon-Seeking Wanderer? And Young Hero Jin is first-rate too? What are you waiting for? Lead the way. I need to greet them!”
A strange land far from home.
To track down the Demonic Path's forces in a place like that, she needed many friends.
So Moyong Ha eagerly followed Yeon Sowol to the inn where he was staying.
The moment they opened the door, Jin Geol, Won Huiseung, and So Hye came into view.
The three of them had claimed a table and were having dinner.
“Oh. Sowol. What took you so long... Ah?”
Jin Geol raised a hand when he saw Sowol, then let out an exclamation when he spotted Moyong Ha entering behind him.
“Hair like clouds, sideburns like cicada wings! Bright eyes, hands as delicate as jade! Young Lady, your beauty is like a painting!”
Yeon Sowol was flustered.
“Jin Geol! That's rude.”
Commenting on her appearance when they had just met?
Yet Moyong Ha seemed pleased.
“I'm honored by your praise. You must be Young Hero Jin, right? I've heard a great deal about you.”
“Oh? Sowol talked about me?”
“Of course.”
“Are you close with Sowol?”
“Of course.”
“Good. Then, Sowol, help me out.”
“With what?”
“This young lady's beauty deserves to be remembered. I'll find a portrait painter, so ask her to allow me to have her portrait painted.”
“No...”
Yeon Sowol's head began to throb.
‘What's gotten into him? He likes visiting pleasure houses, but he wasn't a skirt chaser.’
He wanted to have her portrait painted and carry it around before they had even exchanged names. Wasn't that insane?
But Jin Geol was serious.
“Sowol, why do you think I travel the world? To see and experience every beautiful and rare thing there is. This young lady's beauty is truly rare. I have to leave a record of it.”
There wasn't a trace of laughter on his face.
Enough to make Yeon Sowol think, ‘Huh? Maybe I should help him?’
“Hm. Young Hero Jin is quite the aesthete. But sitting for a portrait is very tiring. You have to sit still in front of the painter all day without doing anything else.”
“I still ask this of you, Young Lady.”
“And that's not all. Though I've heard stories about you, Young Hero Jin, you're still a man I've only met today. Giving you my portrait would be quite burdensome.”
“Ah...”
Jin Geol lowered his head.
He looked so genuinely disappointed that Yeon Sowol was dumbfounded.
‘What were you expecting?’
At that moment, Moyong Ha smiled at Yeon Sowol.
“But if my friend, Yeon Seonhong, asks me, I might be willing to agree. What do you think? Sole Crimson of Shinheung County? Do you permit it?”
‘The ball got thrown into my court?’
Yeon Sowol's eyes widened.
Then he noticed Jin Geol.
Jin Geol was desperately signaling with his eyes. A voice transmission even pressed into Yeon Sowol's ear.
「Please. Please, Sowol. I'm begging you. Okay? Opportunities like this don't come often. Please. Okay?」
When a friend pleaded this earnestly, one had to answer in kind.
Especially between close friends.
Yeon Sowol bowed extravagantly and spoke with the utmost courtesy.
“Young Lady Moyong Ha, treasured daughter of the Moyong Family.”
“Yes, Young Hero Yeon.”
“Please never agree to it.”
“Yes, I shall. I'm sorry, Young Hero Jin. I don't think the portrait will be possible.”
They had staged the whole performance themselves.
The man and woman who had become friends that day laughed together as they settled the matter, while Jin Geol trembled with betrayal and shouted.
“Yeon Sowol! You Guangdong monkey!”
Crash!
A cup flew in from somewhere and struck Jin Geol on the bridge of his nose. He toppled backward with a loud clatter.
“...?”
As Yeon Sowol stood there in surprise, Won Huiseung raised a hand.
“I took care of it for you.”
“...Why?”
“Sowol, calm down first. Friends shouldn't fight.”
“No...”
Moyong Ha quietly listened to their exchange, her eyes sparkling.
“Does Sowol hit his friends?”
“Not usually.”
“No, saying it like that makes it sound like I sometimes hit my friends...!”
“...? But you did.”
“We weren't friends then!”
While Yeon Sowol trembled with indignation, So Hye appeared from somewhere carrying warm tea on a wooden tray and politely offered it to Moyong Ha.
“Ah? You're Young Lady So Hye, right? Thank you for the tea.”
So Hye silently bowed deeply. For some reason, the tips of her ears had turned red.
“Shall we sit first?”
As Moyong Ha moved, So Hye quickly pulled out a nearby chair for her.
“Uh, um... thank you. You don't have to do this.”
Moyong Ha was a little flustered, but So Hye shook her head vigorously.
“Beautiful women must be treated well. It's a beautiful woman's natural right.”
“Pardon?”
Moyong Ha was stunned.
A girl more beautiful than anyone she had ever seen was saying this to her. What was this? Was So Hye making fun of her?
Won Huiseung spoke to the flustered Moyong Ha.
“Few among this group are in their right minds. There's a fighter, someone ruled by his moods, and someone obsessed with outward appearances. My apologies, Young Lady.”
Yeon Sowol shouted.
“Take that back! I've never hit my friends, Won Huiseung!”
Jin Geol rubbed his nose as he got to his feet.
“I even got hit on the nose. Can't you at least let me have the portrait?”
So Hye placed a small bowl in front of Moyong Ha and served her some food.
“You haven't eaten yet, have you? You shouldn't starve. Eating little is fine, but starving isn't. Here, this is Dongpo pork. It's good for keeping your complexion clear.”
The table quickly grew lively and noisy.
Moyong Ha sat there blankly for a moment, then...
“Pfft!”
She burst out laughing.
She doubled over, tears even gathering at the corners of her eyes.
Nobody there knew it, but it was the heartiest laugh Moyong Ha had had since coming to the Central Plains.
* * *
“I heard up to that point, Young Lady. You found people being kidnapped and taken away, and you want to investigate further because they seem connected to the Demonic Path. Is that right?”
“Yes, that's right.”
“And you say this book, the <Yuezhou Guide to Avoiding Danger>, is the clue?”
“Yes. It's a booklet containing information merchants share among themselves. Some might say there is nothing worth seeing in records written by people who aren't from the Jianghu, but I think it could be quite useful.”
Won Huiseung nodded seriously.
“I agree, Young Lady. If you travel the Central Plains looking for the Demonic Path's forces, I too wander the world seeking dragons. There have been times when ordinary people knew more than martial artists.”
“Exactly!”
Yeon Sowol joined in.
“There was something similar in Shinheung County. Jin Geol, you remember, right? Those three mysterious old men?”
Jin Geol sighed and nodded.
“I could never forget them.”
“There were clues about them in the Shinheung Danger-Avoidance Manual too.”
“To that extent?”
Jin Geol's eyes widened.
Those three elders were undoubtedly eccentrics of the martial world. If the Guide to Avoiding Danger contained clues even about people like them, it could not be taken lightly.
Jin Geol's strong reaction made the others focus even more closely on the <Yuezhou Guide to Avoiding Danger>.
“All right, let's read it first and continue talking afterward.”
Flip.
Moyong Ha turned to the first page of the <Yuezhou Guide to Avoiding Danger>.
- - - -
One. If you are walking through an alley in Yuezhou at night and hear someone crying for help from the other end, never approach. The person in the greatest danger is you.
Two. If you leave Yuezhou's city walls and walk along Dongting Lake, then see a government soldier or martial official walking into the water, stop where you are, hold your breath, and close your eyes. Remember this. No government soldier or martial official in Yuezhou patrols the Dongting Lake shore outside the city walls.
Three. If you pass through Dongting Lake by boat and spot a naked person alone on a small island, immediately turn your back and pretend to be occupied with something else. It is not human.
Four. If you enter an inn anywhere in Yuezhou and the waiter approaches you, saying, “Fresh chili pork just came in. Shall I serve it in a bowl marked with a dot?” say, “I only came to say hello today,” drink a cup of wine, and leave. You must remain calm. Never let your eyes dart about or break into a cold sweat.
Five. You may encounter a peddler in Yuezhou's back alleys. If they offer absurdly good goods at an absurdly low price, never buy them. But if they sell absurdly good goods at an absurdly high price, it is safe to buy them.
- - - -
“Good heavens.”
“Oh...”
“Hmm.”
“How strange.”
While everyone else expressed their amazement, So Hye was the only one who murmured to herself.
“If I read this without thinking it was a clue, I would've dismissed it as nonsense. But if we consider it a clue connected to the martial world...”
She extended a finger and pointed to each passage in turn.
“The first one could be related to the kidnappings. They lure people in by crying for help, then capture them.”
Moyong Ha smiled.
“That was my thought as well, Young Lady So Hye.”
Earlier, So Hye would have been overwhelmed by Moyong Ha's praise. But she was focused now, so she continued naturally.
“The fourth one... could be a code used by some Black Path gang. It isn't really an inn, but a meeting place.”
Jin Geol interrupted.
“I think they sell human flesh.”
“Pardon?”
So Hye's eyes widened.
Yeon Sowol was startled too.
“They sell human flesh?”
“Yeah. You might think fresh chili pork is just a meat dish, but the bowl marked with a dot bothers me.”
Jin Geol dipped a finger in water and wrote on the table.
“If you add one dot to the character for bowl, it becomes the character for blood.”
“Ah...”
Everyone's expressions turned grim.
Yeon Sowol said, “That's certainly how it looks when you think of it that way. Then number five might be a kind of stolen-goods deal. Number two might be related to smuggling.”
“Oh. Smuggling. That could be it!”
Everyone nodded.
“But I can't really guess what number three means.”
Won Huiseung answered, “Well, it doesn't seem very connected to the Demonic Path.”
“Maybe...”
Yeon Sowol narrowed his eyes. A naked person on an island... It didn't seem likely to involve an organization, but...
“You never know. The records in this Guide to Avoiding Danger often go far beyond what you'd expect.”
It might be something like the tiger ghosts controlled by the Heavenly Road Mountain bandits.
Thinking that, Yeon Sowol's expression darkened.
“Hmm. Is that so?”
“Yeah. So let's investigate numbers one, four, and five first, while keeping numbers two and three in mind too.”
“Sowol, I'll take number four. Something like that is better handled by one person who can go in and out smoothly than by a group. That's my specialty.”
“Good, Jin Geol. The remaining numbers, one and five, require us to search all over the city, while numbers two and three take us outside it. We'll need a lot of people. Let's mobilize Yuezhou's young martial artists who agreed to work with us.”
“Perfect.”
Yeon Sowol and his friends quickly organized their plan.
Their familiarity from traveling and working together came through naturally.
Moyong Ha watched the four of them with a happy, somewhat moved expression.
“I didn't expect everything to come together so quickly...”
Yeon Sowol shrugged as if it were nothing.
“We don't know yet. Like I said earlier, some things in the Guide to Avoiding Danger go far beyond expectations.”
“We'll only know once we try,” Yeon Sowol murmured.
Yeon Sowol looked down at the words in the guide.
Somehow, it finally felt real.
He had left Guangdong's martial world and entered Hunan's.
Footnotes:
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