WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle

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◈ Raised by a Ruthless Swordsman ◈

Chapter 35: A Knife Behind a Smile

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I followed the woman up the stairs.

Strangely, though she climbed one step at a time, her shoulders did not sway in the least. Only the hem of her skirt brushed soundlessly over the stairs, and not a single footstep escaped.

There was something pleasing about movements without the slightest disorder.

Did the women here learn how to walk as well?

At the top of the stairs, rooms lined both sides of a narrow corridor. Laughter and music leaked through every closed door. Through some of the gaps, I caught glimpses of silk sleeves and the corners of wine tables. The floorboards felt soft beneath my feet without a single creak.

The woman opened one of the doors and went in first.

Unlike the noisy hall outside, the room was quite cozy. Thick cushions were laid around a low table, and silk covered the window, letting in the faint glow of the water. Such luxury felt unfamiliar from head to toe.

The woman gestured to a place before the table.

“Please make yourself comfortable. I will have the food and wine brought up shortly.”

She gave a slight bow and withdrew. When the door closed, I was alone in the room.

Remaining seated, I looked around once. The window was covered in silk, but it seemed to face the water. The door I had entered through was the only way in or out. I made sure to remember where I could flee if it came to that.

Before long, the door opened again. Wine and snacks came in first. Then a finely dressed young woman entered, cradling something long-handled in her arms, and lightly settled beside me.

She was quite different from the woman who had greeted me earlier. While the other had possessed an orderly, dignified grace, this girl had a youthful face and looked perhaps a year or two younger than I was. She also smiled readily.

The moment she sat down, she reached for the wine bottle and scooted close beside me, as though she had never been shy around anyone.

It was my first time in such a place, so my shoulders stiffened inside. Outwardly, though, I accepted the cup and sat as if nothing were wrong.

As she tilted the bottle to fill my cup, she spoke.

“This humble girl is Chae Ryeon.”

Her voice was low, with a soft lift at the end and a faint nasal sweetness. Each word curled around my ears. It was the sort of voice that might enchant someone if they were not careful.

Then, holding out her own empty cup in both hands, she asked what she should call me.

I hesitated for a moment. Could I give my name as Jin A-pyeong here? After a brief thought, I threw out the first name that came to mind.

“Jin Song.”

If Du Gi heard it, he would know I could not be Jin Song, but someone who knew that group. Then he would soon remember my face.

“Young Master Jin Song.”

Chae Ryeon repeated the name prettily and emptied her cup. When she held it out again, I filled it for her. Her eyes curved beautifully as she smiled.

For a while after that, we simply passed cups back and forth.

Chae Ryeon kept my cup from ever emptying, offered me snacks, and sometimes plucked out a tune. She laughed at my dull jokes and told me the names of snacks I had never seen before.

Then she drew closer the instrument she had brought in, cradled it slantwise across her lap, and began to pluck its strings.

Thrum, thrum.

That was the sound I had heard outside yesterday, and again in the main hall earlier. I had not realized the sound like raindrops came from strings plucked by fingertips.

As Chae Ryeon’s fingers moved across the strings, the scattered notes I had heard became a single melody. For some reason, it gently tugged at a corner of my heart.

It flowed slowly and low, its ending trailing off at length. I could not have put it into words, but listening to it made my chest ache. The sea breeze of Yeongpa, Yeona’s face that I had left behind, the moon on the night I came down from the mountain. Things I had not even meant to remember rose one by one on the melody.

The wine I had drunk was beginning to weigh on me. My eyelids and tongue had grown heavy. My heart kept softening to the tune, and I did not entirely dislike it.

At last, her fingers stopped, and the final note slowly faded.

“I hope this girl’s poor playing did not spoil your mood, Young Master.”

Chae Ryeon’s gentle voice curled around my ears. Far from grating on me, it inexplicably filled my chest. Still, I did not want to show that plainly, so I only said that I had liked it.

Chae Ryeon smiled faintly and softly stroked the strings with her fingertips.

“Whenever I play this song, I always think of home.”

Her hand slowed as she poured the wine.

“I was originally from a riverside village in Shaoxing. When I was seven or eight, there was a famine. I was sold so there would be one less mouth to feed, and eventually I drifted here.”

She trailed off with a faint smile. It was a strange smile, as though she wished me not to ask further, yet wanted me to keep listening.

As I listened quietly, a corner of my heart began to ache for her. At seven or eight, she had been two or three years younger than I was when the elder dragged me away.

“And you, Young Master?”

Chae Ryeon raised her eyes prettily as she filled my cup.

“What brings you all the way to distant Hangzhou, with your hands so callused from holding a sword?”

It was a warm question. My heart had softened, and I almost opened my mouth before I could stop myself. But as the words rose in my throat, I suddenly came to my senses.

What was I doing?

Wine, music, and the first kindness I had ever received like this had distracted me so thoroughly that I had forgotten why I had come here in the first place.

I had come to find Du Gi. I had not dressed in silk and come here to sit across from a pretty girl and listen to her lament her lot.

I closed my mouth again, lifted the cup only to my lips, then set it down. Then I considered how to proceed.

It would be foolish to explain my circumstances honestly to someone I could not trust. But if I kept my mouth tightly shut, what had I come inside for?

If I dropped words that left Chae Ryeon no choice but to pass the names Bright Mirror Society or Yun Baek along upstairs, someone who knew them would catch on and come of their own accord.

“Actually, I came to meet someone.”

Chae Ryeon’s eyes rose slightly. Meeting her gaze, I spun my tale on the spot.

In Geonnyeong, I had hit it off with a man from the Bright Mirror Society named Yun Baek. We had traveled together by boat through Guju, but circumstances on the way had forced us to part for a time.

He had urged me to visit the Mist and Sunset Pavilion, saying it had a particularly skilled girl. Yet when I came here, no one seemed to know him, leaving me in a difficult position.

“So could you look into it? Whether anyone in this establishment truly knows the Bright Mirror Society or Yun Baek.”

When I finished, I watched Chae Ryeon’s face.

The bones of the story were true, but all its flesh had been made up. Still, if someone had an idea who I meant, they would pass those names up before sorting truth from lies.

For a moment, Chae Ryeon’s hand stopped as she poured the wine. But that was all. She soon resumed pouring as though nothing had happened and gave me a pretty smile.

“You must be very lonely after parting with someone you traveled so far with.”

Then she set down the bottle and pouted slightly.

“But you sit before this girl and only ask after another girl. How heartless.”

Her sulky expression made me flinch before I knew it. Something like, “No, it’s not that,” came out as an excuse, but Chae Ryeon burst into laughter first.

She seemed delighted that she had managed to tease me. When her laughter faded, she picked up the wine bottle and stood.

“We are out of wine. I will bring another bottle. While I am gone, I will discreetly ask whether anyone knows that gentleman or the girl you mentioned.”

Chae Ryeon withdrew lightly, and the door closed.

Alone in the room, I felt a small twinge of guilt, as though I had needlessly hurt her feelings. She had clearly only pretended to be upset, yet it was ridiculous that I had flinched at such a brief moment.

Still, that feeling did not last long. The die had already been cast.

Once Chae Ryeon carried those names inside, something would soon come back, whether someone knew them or not. Perhaps a welcome face would appear, perhaps one I could make no sense of. Either way, I could not afford to let my mind remain clouded.

I pulled over the bowl of water and drank again and again. I chewed salty snacks, then drank more water. I washed away the faint haze of wine in my head until the empty bowl showed its bottom.

Before long, my thoughts began to settle.

I did not know how much time had passed when the door opened again.

It was not Chae Ryeon who entered. A man opened the door, stepped inside, and quietly bowed.

He looked around forty. He was not tall, but his shoulders were broad. A scar ran across one eyebrow, and his hands were rough, giving him a fierce look. Yet his steps were solid and steady, and there was not a single opening in his bearing.

Such a man was bowing to an ordinary traveler.

“I was ordered to escort you upstairs. Someone who knows the person you seek is there, so please come with me.”

Someone who knew the person I sought. It seemed the bait had been taken.

But before I could feel pleased, a chill ran down my spine. The fact that they had sent this sort of man instead of the girl who had poured wine so prettily made it difficult to move easily.

“Could you ask that person to come here for a moment?”

When I tested him, the man smiled faintly.

“You invited that person, did you not? It is not that person who invited you. How could I ask one of my superiors to come all the way to a guest room?”

I had no answer to that.

My thoughts raced. If I retreated now, I would have thrown out bait yet gained no way of reaching Du Gi. I had no choice but to go up.

My dantian was half full, so even if things went as badly as possible, I should have enough to get myself out.

I rose from my seat.

“Lead on.”

The man went ahead, and I followed. We crossed the corridor, climbed the stairs I had taken with the woman, and went up another floor.

The upper floor was different again. Below, every room had been brightly lit, leaking laughter and music. Here, the corridor was dim and entirely silent. There were only a few rooms.

At the end of the long corridor stood a closed door.

Two men stood before it, split to either side. They wore the same clothes as the guards below, but their stances were much firmer.

Following the man toward the door, I quickly swept my eyes over both sides of the dim corridor. The closed doors were all silent, and the stairs we had come up were the only way in or out.

When we reached the door, the man stood before it and quietly announced to those inside.

“The guest has arrived.”

“Let him in.”

The voice that answered was unexpectedly low and feminine. A woman commanded men like this? But if she was the owner of a place like this, it made sense.

The two guards pushed the doors open from both sides.

The room inside was completely different from the ones below. There was no wine table or cushion, only a low table set on one side of the spacious floor. Through the wide-open window, I could see the water sleeping beneath the darkness, dotted with lanterns.

And before the table sat a woman.

She looked to be in her mid-thirties. Her prime seemed to have passed, yet her mature beauty drew the eye all the more.

Her makeup was light, and her clothes were not as flashy as those of the girls downstairs. But her calm eyes made it impossible to see even an inch into her thoughts, though a faint smile rested on her lips.

The woman gestured toward the seat opposite her.

“I hear you have come from far away. Please, sit.”

As I walked closer at her invitation, I scanned the room with my eyes. The door we had entered through was the only way in or out. The only other opening was the wide-open window.

If necessary, it looked as though I could leap through it into the water. Water was something I was more familiar with, if anything.

Just as I was about to sit, I stopped.

The man who had guided me there had somehow moved behind me and taken up position by the door. The woman seated across from me was one thing, but I could not feel at ease with someone who had held a sword before standing behind me.

I had no desire to take a blade from behind while seated. Yet asking openly for the owner’s man to be removed the moment I entered would only make things more hostile.

As I considered how to put it indirectly, the view beyond the open window caught my eye.

“I will sit, since you ask me to.”

I paused and looked out the window.

“But the view is so fine that if we sit facing each other, my eyes may keep wandering there. I fear it will be difficult to focus on our conversation. Would it be all right if I sat beside you instead?”

“When the view is good, conversation often flows more easily.”

The woman answered with a faint smile. Her tone made it clear that she had seen through my excuse from the start. Yet after studying me for a moment, she gave a quiet laugh and spoke toward the door.

“It seems I alone am not enough scenery to keep our guest’s eyes from wandering. Great Hero Wi, do not remain standing. Come and take a seat as well.”

Without complaint, the man moved over and sat across from me with his back to the window. He blocked the view, but in return, my back was no longer exposed.

Only then did I sit comfortably.

As we faced each other, the woman’s calm eyes seemed closer than before. Though she smiled prettily, I could not shake my unease.

The woman took a cup herself, placed it before me, and poured in steaming tea.

“This tea is from Wuyi. Its fragrance grows deeper when steeped in good water. Please, have a cup.”

I had no idea what Wuyi was, but the scent rising from the cup seemed familiar somehow. When I tried to recall where I had smelled it, it resembled the scent from the bundle inside my robe.

Just in case, I did not readily touch the cup. The woman did not seem to mind. She lifted her own cup, took a sip, and spoke.

“How did you come to know Taoist Master Yun Baek?”

There was no obvious barb in her voice. Rather, it held the warmth of someone asking after an old acquaintance.

“I heard news of him once in Guju. We had been waiting because we heard he was headed for Hangzhou. Then someone who knew him came to us.”

She had heard of him in Guju. How did she know he had been there?

I suddenly recalled the inn Du Gi had pointed out, the place he had called Haomun. It was said to lie spread across society’s lowest strata, a network that reached everywhere people walked, a sect that was not truly a sect.

Could this place be Haomun?

Once I considered that, other things began to make sense. Why Du Gi had sent me somewhere like this, and why swordsmen guarded the inside.

Having reached that thought, my sealed mouth loosened a little.

“I met him on a protection convoy.”

The woman’s eyes lifted slightly. Watching her reaction, I gave her the details one at a time.

“It was a Faithful Escort Agency convoy. We guarded cargo bound for Yeongpa, and we worked in the same squad. I only learned the name Yun Baek at the end.”

I stopped there and looked at the woman’s face again. She was silent for a moment.

Some of the smile faded from her pretty face, and her calm eyes slowly traveled over me. From my face to my hands, then from my hands to the sword at my waist.

“So it was a protection convoy.”

She repeated it quietly, then continued.

“I already knew that Taoist Master Yun Baek had joined a protection convoy. So perhaps you truly did travel with him.”

For a moment, I thought things might go well. But the woman’s voice grew strangely drawn out toward the end.

“But how can I know that you are that very person? Learning who was on a protection convoy is something anyone could do if they set their mind to it.”

Her words were soft, but their target was clear. Saying that I had traveled on the convoy was not proof that I was truly one of those companions.

The situation seemed deeply tangled, so I could understand her concern. But how was I supposed to prove it?

In the meantime, she continued.

“Then how about this? Until news of Taoist Master Yun Baek arrives, stay at our establishment for a few days. Even if you are in a hurry, consider it waiting for him.”

I came fully alert.

Consider it waiting for him. It sounded harmless, but was that not a way of saying they would keep me here until Yun Baek arrived?

My spine went cold. The moment my feet were tied down in a place this deep, whatever hand I held, I would be in their palms. If Du Gi never appeared, or if something had already happened to him, there would be no one to vouch for me.

If I stayed here, nothing would come of it.

“I will decline your hospitality.”

I slowly rose from my seat. In those brief moments, my eyes searched the room once more.

The man across from me worried me most. I might be able to deal with the two men by the door somehow, but that man would not be easy to overcome.

The open window was a little over ten paces away. If it came to it, I would have to throw myself through it.

“If you cannot believe the truth, there is nothing more to say. Perhaps I will return after I have met Yun Baek.”

I threw out those words and turned to walk toward the door.

But the door opened first. The two men guarding outside entered, shut it behind them, and blocked my way.

When I looked back at the woman, the man who had been seated across from me was already standing. Their intent was clear. I was trapped front and back in a narrow room.

“Is this your way?”

The woman set down her teacup. A faint smile remained on her lips, but her eyes did not smile at all.

“If you find us cruel, please forgive us. But news from Taoist Master Yun Baek has been cut off for a long time. We cannot simply let go someone who has come bearing his name.”

The bundle inside my robe crossed my mind, but I dismissed the thought at once.

If this truly was what they sought, the moment I took it out, I would cease to be a traveling companion and become merely someone holding the item. Then my path out would only grow narrower.

I checked my dantian once more. A little over half remained. It was not ample, but enough to make a fierce rush.

Even if I was forced to reveal my hand, I first needed to show them that I was not someone they could lay a hand on easily.

A hand revealed by someone considered weak was nothing but a plea.

Having made up my mind, I slowly placed my hand on the sword at my waist.

“If that is how you insist on doing things, then let us see what you have.”

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