WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 104: When Young, I Knew Not Sorrow's Taste (9)

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The fight between Yeon Sowol and Namgung Ujin became a hot topic on the streets of Yuezhou.

"I heard Yeon Sowol beat Namgung Ujin flat?"

"Yeon Sowol? Who's that... Ah. That young martial artist from Guangdong?"

"That's him. I heard he made quite a name for himself in Hengyang too."

"That guy beat who? Namgung Ujin? Are you joking? If you're going to joke, at least make it believable."

"No, I'm telling you, it's true."

At first, no one believed Yeon Sowol had won.

He had accumulated several exploits and become the talk of the town as he traveled from Chenzhou through Hengyang to Yuezhou, but this time, his opponent was a Namgung.

The rulers of Anhui, a prestigious family whose name was known throughout the realm.

As the Namgung Family's fourth young master, Namgung Ujin had drawn everyone's attention from the moment he arrived in Yuezhou. Over the following years, he had remained in the city, clashed with countless visitors from the Jianghu, and fought them one after another.

He had always won overwhelmingly, proving that Namgung, Number One Under Heaven, was no empty name.

And now, some country martial artist from Guangdong who had only recently begun building a reputation had defeated Namgung Ujin?

In a world without television or social media, even the truth took time to be accepted as truth.

Those who had seen the fight actively testified about it.

Namgung Ujin was spotted with his face badly swollen.

Young martial artists gathered around Yeon Sowol like clouds.

Only after all that evidence piled up did people gradually begin to believe that Yeon Sowol had won.

Even then, flustered, they spoke in trembling voices.

"Y-yes. From what I've heard, it does seem that Young Master Namgung lost... B-but perhaps he let his guard down, or something. That Yeon fellow probably barely managed to win through sheer luck."

Countless objections followed.

"Would his face look like that if the other guy only barely won?"

"Yeon looked perfectly fine, though?"

"I saw it myself. It was terrifying. Young Master Namgung kept getting back up and challenging him again, but Young Hero Yeon just kept beating him down. I thought Young Master Namgung was going to die."

"That badly...?"

As the story grew more dramatic, people looked increasingly stunned.

It was hard to believe.

Yet they could not deny it.

Before long, the conversation shifted to another matter.

"But why did those two fight in the first place?"

"Ah, you know Lady Moyong, right?"

"Of course."

"It seems she got some information about a group that kidnaps people. They got into an argument while investigating it."

"Huh? What was there to argue about?"

"Apparently, Yeon Sowol thought Namgung Ujin wasn't properly handling the work he had taken on."

"Ah. That I can understand."

People snickered.

"They call them Yuezhou's rising young talents, but aren't they really just layabouts who drink and brawl?"

"Exactly."

"How could anything run properly when those types are gathered together?"

"Right, right."

"Still, now that Yeon Sowol has defeated Namgung Ujin, won't the atmosphere change?"

"Not likely. Being good at fighting and leading people are completely different matters."

"Still! Those plays have the Blue-Robed Five Heroes, don't they? They resolve injustices the authorities cannot. Couldn't the young martial artists actually carry out a proper chivalrous venture, like in those stories?"

"Ha. You're awfully naive."

"Naive. So naive."

In this alley.

By that well.

At that inn.

Different people gathered and chatted, but every conversation reached roughly the same conclusion.

"Real heroes like that only exist in stories! Have you lived in Yuezhou all this time without realizing it? Actual martial artists only drink and cause trouble because the authorities look the other way."

"Exactly. And this kidnapping business? I heard it did not even happen in Yuezhou. They found abducted people in a carriage that was passing through Yuezhou."

"Oh? It wasn't a kidnapping within Yuezhou itself?"

"Of course not. Lord Yang, Yuezhou's provincial governor, is creating an age of peace and prosperity. How could something like that happen?"

"That's right. Since Lord Yang arrived, farmers get bountiful harvests as long as they plant their fields, and even the street thugs walk around with their eyes lowered."

"Those martial artists are only stirring things up to show off."

"I didn't take Lady Moyong for that sort of person. But she was a Jianghu person after all."

"Right. You actually trusted someone from the Jianghu?"

* * *

Yeon Sowol faced Moyong Ha.

"Ha-a."

He had added the child suffix to Moyong Ha's given name, calling her familiarly. Lost in thought, Moyong Ha suddenly raised her head.

"Yes?"

"You said you handed the kidnappers we caught before over to the authorities, right?"

"I did."

"What happened after that?"

"...According to the authorities' investigation, they weren't trying to enter Yuezhou. They planned to pass through Yuezhou, board a boat, and sell the captives to Yangtze river pirates."

"You think otherwise, don't you?"

"...Yes. I think Yuezhou itself may have been their destination. Until we find the people who were actually kidnapped, we need to remain suspicious."

Yeon Sowol nodded.

His gaze moved to the three men bound hand and foot, their mouths gagged. They looked up at him with pleading eyes.

"Then let's not hand these bastards over to the authorities."

Moyong Ha's eyes widened.

"Not hand them over?"

Yeon Sowol nodded again.

"Your guess already differs from the authorities' judgment. There is no need to share information with them, then."

Moyong Ha narrowed her eyes.

"Sowol. Don't tell me you think there's an insider among the authorities?"

Yeon Sowol shrugged.

"Who knows?"

"People say Yuezhou has become an age of peace and prosperity since Lord Yang arrived."

"An age of peace and prosperity?"

As he spoke, Yeon Sowol looked at the three tightly bound men.

"These men remember kidnapping more than two hundred people. They said that on some days, they kidnapped two or three people. And this is an age of peace and prosperity... I don't know about that."

Moyong Ha smiled.

"I like that very much, your distrust of the authorities. I feel the same way. But... will the others accept it? The people we're up against are no small matter. Will they really take up their swords and risk their lives when they could simply hand this over to the authorities?"

"We have to persuade them."

Yeon Sowol spoke.

"I think I understand now, at least a little, how to move the young Jianghu crowd."

* * *

In Yeon Sowol's view, the previous search operation had failed.

Moyong Ha had succeeded in drawing people in with her natural charm, but she had failed to lead them.

Why?

'Because it wasn't fun.'

To Yeon Sowol, these Jianghu people were worse than middle schoolers from the twenty-first century.

If something interested them, they swarmed in and ran wild. If it did not, they scattered like dandelion seeds.

They were old enough to know better, and they possessed martial strength that kept others from daring to touch them. That made them far worse than middle schoolers from the twenty-first century.

The rising young talents of Yuezhou were especially young and hot-blooded even among Jianghu people. He could not expect reason to work on them.

Yet Yeon Sowol was now in a position where he had to bind them together.

He needed to make them willingly take the lead and bear the risks.

How?

'I need to make it fun.'

He thought of Yi Yubaek.

Yi Yubaek had wanted to gather heroes for the Heavenly Road Mountain Expedition, but no matter how hard he worked over the years, progress had been painfully slow.

Then there had been one event that sped up that sluggish progress all at once.

'The Jipseong River boat outing.'

A boat outing with countless river lanterns and sky lanterns.

A spectacle anyone would enjoy, something people might only see once in their lives.

There was a reason Yi Yubaek had been so delighted when Yeon Sowol brought him the news.

'It took something that fun to gather Jianghu people.'

The Heavenly Road Mountain Expedition had been the same.

The story of Hang Inwoo's betrayal had been a provocative tale that shook all of Guangdong.

In this world, a sworn younger brother betraying his sworn older brother was something that disgusted people even more than adultery or cheating disgusted people in the twenty-first century.

So it would not be entirely wrong to say that the heroes who had come to help with the Heavenly Road Mountain Expedition had ultimately gathered to take part in that entertaining story.

As Yeon Sowol saw it, only one thing had been lacking.

Fun.

And now, all he needed was excitement.

Yeon Sowol gathered Yuezhou's rising young talents at Yueyang Tower.

Excitement.

Yeon Sowol, who had utterly crushed Namgung Ujin, known as Yuezhou's foremost rising young talent, was calling them all together?

What was he going to say?

Their hearts could not help pounding. Even if Yeon Sowol said something ridiculous, they would probably gather three times just to hear him out.

Then Yeon Sowol spoke.

"People say Yuezhou is enjoying an age of peace and prosperity. But is it? From what I've seen, it isn't."

Excitement.

Right from the beginning, Yeon Sowol deliberately made a provocative statement.

Everyone praised Lord Yang, Yuezhou's provincial governor, and spoke of an age of peace and prosperity. Yeon Sowol alone opposed them.

To keep that excitement burning, he presented fitting evidence.

Yeon Sowol turned his head.

Three men sat there with their hands and feet tightly bound, their faces badly swollen, their shoulders trembling.

"What did you do?"

The instant Yeon Sowol finished speaking, the three men began spilling out everything they had done as though vomiting blood. Together, they described it so vividly that it was almost like a performance.

How they had waited in an alley, imitated a child's voice, and lured people in.

How they had knocked them unconscious and stuffed them into sacks.

"They did that...?"

"Things like that really happened in Yuezhou?"

"Look at him imitating a child's voice. It gives me chills..."

Hearing it directly from the perpetrators was entirely different from being told about it. Yuezhou's rising young talents focused intently, their eyes reddening.

At that moment, ordinary people who had been sitting silently in the corner jumped to their feet and screamed.

"You vermin! Give us back our child!"

"Did you take my husband too? Huh?! Did you take my husband like that too?"

"Give me back my grandchild! My grandchild!"

Excitement.

They were the families of people who had gone missing in Yuezhou.

Yeon Sowol and Moyong Ha had spent several days diligently asking around to find them.

'There were far more than I expected. That surprised me.'

They were living witnesses.

Proof that Yuezhou might not be as peaceful and prosperous as it appeared.

On the surface, it was an age of peace and prosperity. Yet in the shadows, where everyone looked away because it was someone else's problem, countless people who had lost their families were left screaming in despair.

The hidden side of Yuezhou, concealed beneath the phrase age of peace and prosperity.

Excitement.

"...How can this be?"

"It makes my blood boil..."

Yuezhou's rising young talents' fists trembled.

Their eyes shone fiercely.

Most were young people in their early or mid-twenties.

The truth of the world that others did not know.

The miserable reality hidden behind a dazzling, peaceful facade.

They were at an age especially vulnerable to stories like that.

Yeon Sowol drove the final nail into their blazing emotions.

"I interrogated those three kidnappers and learned who was behind them."

The young talents shouted.

"Who is it?"

"Who could be behind this?"

"What kind of people would commit such cruel acts..."

Yeon Sowol lowered his voice and spoke carefully.

"They are all influential people in Yuezhou. Men who own large estates, drink with officials, and are addressed as 'Lord.'"

"...!"

Excitement.

Local notables protected by corrupt officials.

It was a simple, striking arrangement, one that lodged itself directly in their minds and sent their emotions surging.

"Because they are close to the officials, if we leave this to the authorities, they may all get off. So we will personally escort the families here and storm their estates. If we find people there who were truly kidnapped and rescue them, even corrupt officials will not be able to cover for them!"

"Well said!"

"That is right!"

In a Yuezhou where something was clearly going wrong, they were the only ones who could set things right.

Excitement.

As he watched the young talents, flushed with fervor, strike their tables with their cups, Yeon Sowol met Moyong Ha's eyes and nodded.

The dragon was complete. It was time to paint in the eyes.

"We will be entering estates guarded by escort warriors, and a melee may break out. To recognize one another as allies, we will all wear white robes!"

At Moyong Ha's gesture, workers carried over clothing chests packed with dozens of neatly folded robes and spread them out in a long row.

Robes were expensive clothing. But with Moyong Ha, the beloved daughter of the Moyong Family, covering the cost was no difficult matter.

"Oh!"

"Ooh?"

The young talents were delighted to receive such precious robes for free.

But the real excitement began once they all put them on together.

"Good heavens..."

"Ha..."

Dozens of young martial artists wore white robes together.

White hems fluttered all around them.

The exhilaration of matching clothes swept through them.

They felt as if they were about to accomplish something truly great.

The crowd's mood grew hotter and hotter.

Yeon Sowol gave their fervor no time to cool.

"We cannot give those bandits time! We should move immediately. Now, advance!"

Flap!

Yeon Sowol took the lead, his white robes billowing.

He descended from Yueyang Tower and crossed Yuezhou.

Behind him followed the families of the missing, their faces resolute. Young martial artists draped in white robes lined up behind them as if escorting them.

"What is this? What's happening?"

"What? What is it?"

People on the streets stared with wide eyes.

The young martial artists following Yeon Sowol grew even more excited.

A few whispered with flushed faces.

"Ah... This is exactly the Jianghu I dreamed of..."

"You too? Me too!"

"It reminds me of the Blue-Robed Five Heroes. Since we are a group in white robes, would it not be fine if people called us the White-Robed League or something?"

"Ahh..."

Yuezhou's rising young talents had become thoroughly intoxicated by the waves of excitement crashing over them.

They were so swept up in the atmosphere that they responded keenly to every word Yeon Sowol spoke at the front.

"Walk faster! Stay close!"

Whenever Yeon Sowol shouted,

"Yes, Leader!"

"At your command!"

Some answered without the slightest shame.

The air grew hotter and hotter.

And somehow, only the tips of Yeon Sowol's ears had turned red.

Footnotes:

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