A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 95

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 95
Sect Master Seon Ryeo was equally taken aback.
He snapped his gaping mouth shut and struggled to collect himself before speaking.
“What are you doing standing there! Go fetch the wine our benefactor mentioned at once!”
Pockmark scurried off and returned carrying a wine bottle wrapped in yellowed cloth.
The bottle’s mouth was sealed securely with a wooden stopper and candle wax.
“Please accept this, young lady.”
As Hong Seol took the cloth-wrapped bottle, Seon Ryeo’s face broke into a pleased smile.
“Han Seo Jin Immortal said the wine would find its true owner when the time came. It seems that owner is you, young lady.”
“Thank you, Sect Master.”
“But what do you intend to do with this wine?”
No matter how one looked at it, Hong Seol was barely eight years old—hardly of an age to enjoy spirits.
Perhaps she meant to save it for her wedding day and use it as a union wine.
Hong Seol smiled brightly.
“I want to give it to someone as a gift.”
* * *
“Excuse me, Miss Jang!”
At the sound of her name, the young herbalist woman turned around.
A small girl came racing toward her from the direction of the Changnyeong Sect’s main hall.
Confusion flickered across the woman’s face.
“Miss Nam Goong Seol?”
“Huff… huff…”
Having sprinted to reach the woman, Hong Seol caught her breath before speaking.
“Where are you headed?”
“I’m a wandering herbalist, you see. Though it was quite a tumultuous night, I slept well enough. Now I must be off to gather more herbs.”
“I see. Here, please take this!”
Dok Bi Jo accepted the heavy wine bottle without warning, blinking in bewilderment.
“What is… this?”
“Open it!”
As she unwrapped the yellowed cloth, a large wine bottle emerged.
It was made of a rare, transparent glass.
The lower portion was rounded like a gourd, and the neck was remarkably short.
“This is…?”
Inside the narrow-necked glass bottle sat an enormous whole peach.
“How on earth…?”
The peach, submerged in wine, looked as fresh and rosy as if it had been picked yesterday.
“It’s wine brewed by Han Seo Jin Immortal, the Gae Pa Jo Sa of the Changnyeong Sect. It’s called the Eternal Peach Wine.”
Hong Seol spoke each word with deliberate clarity.
“It means to never be parted forever.”
True to its name, the peach seemed destined to remain within the bottle eternally, unless the glass itself were shattered.
From the time the peach was still tiny, she had carefully nurtured it while suspending a glass bottle from the branch, then fermented the fruit into wine.
It was easier said than done—one would have had to worry constantly whether a storm might shatter the bottle or cause the peach to fall.
This was a wine that could only be created through the devotion of visiting the Peach Orchard hundreds, thousands of times.
“I don’t know who she is, but it seems Han Seo Jin Immortal must have harbored a cherished beloved in her heart.”
Hong Seol recalled the story she had heard from Seon Ryeo.
“For some reason, they each went their separate ways in the end… but she yearned for that beloved her entire life. All while crafting wine bearing such an exquisite name.”
Hong Seol spoke carefully, gauging the woman’s expression.
“I don’t know the circumstances, but when I saw you weeping in the Peach Orchard, I wondered—might you too carry a connection to an old beloved and the peaches?”
What exactly was a cherished beloved?
Was it something like the heart of Grandfather Nam Goong Ho, who still rose before anyone else at dawn to offer a small bow before the memorial tablet of the departed Lady Wi?
Or was it the heart of the Medicine Master, who willingly chose to abandon her martial prowess to remain at the side of Family Head Nam Goong On?
Hong Seol sensed that the woman’s careful manner as she breathed in the peach fragrance resonated with a similar thread.
“So I thought, perhaps this wine might bring you solace. Surely your beloved is somewhere, waiting for an eternal moment never to be parted again.”
Hong Seol lifted her head as she finished speaking. The surroundings had grown profoundly silent.
“Lady…?”
Crystalline tears began to overflow from the woman’s eyes.
Pop.
The woman uncorked the wine bottle, which had been sealed well with candle wax. In that instant, the fragrance of peaches seemed to vibrate across the entire mountain.
The woman brought the bottle to her lips and took a sip.
It was as though peach blossoms bloomed brilliantly throughout her mouth.
Just as they had on that day when she first met the young Taoist, Wi Mu Seop.
“Foolish man. I told him I despised peaches so…”
Fermented into wine, it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
Hong Seol watched the weeping woman in silence for a long while.
“You have such a warm heart, young lady. Not a single Taoist I ever knew possessed such a gentle spirit—unable to simply pass by another’s tears.”
The woman wiped her tears with the back of her hand and carefully tucked the wine bottle into her robes.
Then she bowed deeply to Hong Seol.
“Young lady, I shall take my leave here. I sincerely hope you regain your health.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Once you have recovered, I shall surely seek you out and repay this kindness.”
“Oh, no—there is no debt of gratitude to speak of…”
“Until that day, may you remain unharmed.”
As Hong Seol’s cheeks flushed, the woman had already vanished.
Only the faint peach fragrance lingering in the air testified that she had ever been there.
Just then, Nam Goong Ho’s voice, infused with inner force, echoed from afar.
“Let us depart now, Seol Ah!”
“Yes, Grandfather!”
Hong Seol, who had begun to rush toward Nam Goong Ho, suddenly stopped.
‘Regain my health? Did I ever tell that woman about my Yin-Yang Severed Meridians?’
Hong Seol turned her gaze back toward where the woman had disappeared, but already no trace of her remained.
* * *
The journey proceeded smoothly.
Hong Seol’s party boarded a vessel in Wuhan and ascended the Yangtze River Three Gorges, following Ye In Seon, who had resumed his duties.
Nam Goong Ho found the cabin stifling and was conversing with the escort masters on deck.
Hong Seol rested her chin in her palm, gazing blankly out from the cabin window.
The unchanging expression on her face despite the shifting scenery suggested her mind was preoccupied with weighty thoughts.
Unable to bear it any longer, Nam Goong Baek finally asked.
“What occupies your thoughts so deeply?”
“What exactly is a soulmate?”
“Cough, cough!”
Nam Goong Baek, seized by a sudden choking fit, convulsed with his shoulders.
“Are you all right, brother?”
Nam Goong Baek withdrew a silk handkerchief from his robes, covered his mouth, and coughed until his face flushed crimson.
“What is the matter?”
Nam Goong Ho, stationed on deck, called through the window to inquire.
“Brother choked on something!”
As Nam Goong Baek composed himself, Hong Seol answered in his stead.
“A soulmate? Why such a thought?”
Nam Goong Baek’s words came between coughs, his face flushed scarlet.
“Seeing Lady Zhang this time made me wonder. The peach wine that Gae Pa Jo Sa of the Changnyeong Sect created—it’s the same. And Je Gal Hyeop, whose face brightened the moment he solved the riddle.”
All of them seemed to embody something profound.
“What thoughts crossed your mind?”
“What feeling could be so powerful that someone would yearn for one person their entire life?”
“I cannot say.”
Nam Goong Baek’s expression grew troubled.
“Will I ever have a soulmate someday?”
At Hong Seol’s brightened face, Nam Goong Baek’s expression darkened with displeasure.
“You are still so young, yet you already wish for a soulmate!”
“Yes! I wish to have one. Then I could marry!”
“You cannot marry.”
“What? I cannot marry?”
“Sigh.”
Nam Goong Baek, his expression heavy with thought, ran his hand through his silver hair, disheveling it.
Then, his blue eyes gleaming, he spoke.
“You have grown much now, so I shall tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“Do you know that men and women exist in this world?”
Hong Seol nodded innocently.
‘I am not Jeok, so there is no way I would not know that. Why is brother acting this way?’
He, having posed this cryptic question, suddenly drew near and pressed both hands against the sides of Hong Seol’s knees.
Thanks to this, Hong Seol’s plump forehead and Nam Goong Baek’s forehead drew so close they nearly touched.
“Brother…?”
The blue eyes beneath held an infinite gravity.
“Seol Ah, you must never trust men.”
“Pardon?”
Caught off guard by his unexpected words, I could only blink like a wooden doll.
But Nam Goong Baek remained serious.
“You must not smile at them, nor carelessly offer them your hand.”
“Not even smiling?”
I searched through my memories carefully.
Since arriving at the Nam Goong Family Estate, Heuk and Jeok had smiled so much in front of me.
And Yang Do Jin, a member of Pal Shin Woo, had smiled often as well.
So all of that was forbidden?
“I understand. I’ll be careful!”
But my brother Nam Goong Baek did not stop there.
A stream of things I must not do poured from his lips.
“Should a man ever offer you a gift, you must refuse. If he insists, smash it to pieces the moment you receive it.”
I listened with my cherry-red lips parted slightly.
“And above all, if a man says he loves you and proposes marriage…”
His knuckles whitened against the carriage seat, and his blue eyes grew intense.
“You must refuse outright. Tell him you will spend your life with your family at the Nam Goong Family Estate.”
“Family…?”
At my repeated words, Nam Goong Baek smiled warmly.
“Yes, family.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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