Blooming even in the mud - Chapter 38

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

Chapter 38: Blooming Even in the Mud
 
 
 
The chanting of the monks and the steady rhythm of the wooden fish softly rippled through the dark night air.
Yoo Seo-hwa hid herself in the deep shadows where she could not be easily seen from the main hall. Kneeling on the slightly frozen, chilled earth, she bowed deeply toward the ancestral tablets.
‘Knowing it, I still failed to stop it, and my ignorance is an even greater sin. Please do not forgive this girl.’
Yoo Seo-hwa thought to herself. If, just by some small chance, Gyeong Won-ui had not been her betrothed, perhaps the cruel blade of the purge would never have fallen.
Because Gyeong Won-ui was destined to become the Imperial Family’s Buma and stand at the very center of power, had her imperial father grown more wary of him?
‘Everything is my sin. On the day I first saw Master Gyeong, I should have thrown a tantrum and begged my imperial father that I did not wish to marry him.’
Had she done so, Gyeong Won-ui’s family would have survived unharmed. Gyeong Won-ui would not have sent her such a frigid, mocking sneer either.
Even if it meant never receiving his love and discarding a youth filled with heart-fluttering happiness and affection, she should not have loved him.
Without ever knowing love.
If only she had married whatever man her imperial father chose for her.
If only she had done that…
 
It was the dead of night.
Listening to the sound of the chanting, Gyeong Won-ui thought of his family, whose corpses had not even been properly laid to rest.
‘Father, Mother, Won-yeong. Because of this son who has still failed to clear your names, have your spirits found no place to return, and do you resent me?’
This Buddhist ritual was not only for the Gyeong family, who had met an unjust death and had yet to be vindicated, but also for the spirits of their ancestors whose shrines had been destroyed. The charge of treason still loomed, but since the Emperor had permitted it, no one dared to basely call it wrongful.
Because the charge of treason remained, this was a Buddhist rite that carried considerable political burden for Gyeong Won-ui as well. Even so, he could not leave the wronged souls of his family, who had not even been peacefully buried, to wander the underworld.
It was also for the purpose of hardening a single resolve.
‘This son will surely uncover Father’s innocence.’
The power he lacked five years ago was now in his hands. If it was to prove their innocence, there was nothing he would not do. Even if the evidence lay beneath a thousand-yard abyss, he would plunge down without a moment’s hesitation.
There was only one single existence that caused him to waver.
“…”
Suddenly, through the cracks of his unsettled mind, the image of the woman walking alongside the cart among the slaves seeped in.
The woman, who wore a headscarf and bowed her head so deeply that her face was completely hidden, was nothing more than a common, ordinary slave. A slave among slaves. That was all. …And yet, Gyeong Won-ui had recognized her at a single glance.

Yet even this time, Gyeong Won-ui, in the end, managed to find her. Hiding herself behind the dim shadows of the Buddhist hall and the thickets, looking like nothing more than a dark figure flickering in the darkness.
‘Yoo Seo-hwa, you are truly…’
Yoo Seo-hwa. Yoo Seo-hwa. Yoo Seo-hwa. Once again, that mangled name was chewed between his teeth.
Is she not a truly shameless woman? After mocking him with some wretched letters as if the dead were perfectly alive, does she now shamelessly show her face at this place of offering for the spirits?
His clenched fingers dug deep into the flesh of his palm. He wanted to cast her out from this place right this instant.
This time, for certain, he felt he could strangle the neck he hadn’t been able to wring before. A chilly murderous intent boiled up inside his chest.
But.
But…
“The Great Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra, Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara…”
With her hands pressed together in prayer as she knelt on the dirt ground, Yoo Seo-hwa moved her lips along with the monk’s chanting, bowing, bowing, and bowing again.
In the cold winter mountains where a chilling frost seeped in just by standing outside for a brief moment, she remained unyielding and upright even after a whole day of grueling labor.
As if she were genuinely praying for the peaceful repose of the dead.
‘…No, this is a trick to show me.’
He spat the woman’s name from between his gritted teeth. His coldly composed reason assured him that he had seen right through the woman’s ruse. Was it not the woman herself who had trampled their relationship so heavily that it could never be restored, just to make a show of herself by offering a few paltry bows?
This, too, was futile.
Just like the ignorant, tender words of affection he had once whispered to the woman.
Nevertheless, the end of his twisted gaze was relentlessly chasing the woman hidden in the darkness.
 
* * *
 
“Ah, it’s seriously so annoying!”
At Chu Na-yeon’s unceasing irritation, her maid broke out into a cold sweat.
“What should I bring you, My Lady?”
“What is there to bring in a mountain valley like this! It’s cold, cramped, and the food is so meager! It’s boring! Anyway, I hate everything about it!”
“My Lady, please calm yourself. Your voice is too loud.”
The maid tried to soothe her while flustering, but the frown on Chu Na-yeon’s face showed no signs of smoothing out.
“To participate in a Buddhist ritual that isn’t even our family’s affair from start to finish. It was far too reckless.”
With her lively disposition, it was impossible for her to stay quietly at a temple for seven days and nights. If it had at least been the affair of her own Chu family, she might have gone through the motions, but the Gyeong family were complete strangers.
“But it’s the family that will eventually be joined with you in marriage, My Lady.”
“Well, that’s true.”
Was this not the mountain she climbed just to instill a good impression on Gyeong Won-ui and burden him with a debt of gratitude?
‘Unlike my lady’s intentions, General Gyeong is completely ignoring her as if she’s a ghost, though. Even I can see that clearly.’
If she voiced such thoughts, she would certainly not escape unharmed, so the maid kept her mouth tightly shut.
Having barely calmed her mind, Chu Na-yeon prepared to attend the tedious ritual. However, on the third day, trouble finally erupted.
“This is a Buddhist rite that continues for a long duration. This poor monk knows that even the young novices who have shaved their heads to cultivate themselves find it overwhelming. It must be even more difficult for a young female lay Buddhist. However, even so, one must not bring worldly food that still reeks of blood into this pure and clean sanctuary.”
“I have nothing to say…”
At the scolding of the old monk with a long white beard, Chu Na-yeon hung her head low, entirely unlike her usual self.
In truth, even if she had ten mouths, she had no excuse. Having grown weary of the temple food which lacked the five pungent spices and any grease, she had been caught eating fresh raw beef that she had ordered her maid to smuggle in secretly.
“Rest for a while and wash away your defiled mind.”
In the end, forbidden from even attending the ritual and ordered into a confinement that was not quite confinement, Chu Na-yeon’s face filled with humiliation.
Beside her, the maid trembled violently. She might endure it here at the temple, but the moment they returned to the estate, a harsh beating from her lady, claiming it was her fault they were caught, would surely fall upon her.
‘Oh dear, what should I do? It would be better if we didn’t return to the estate and just offered Buddhist prayers at the temple for the rest of our lives.’
The maid stamped her feet in anxiety over her own safety. Thanks to that, the trivial gossip of ‘I think I saw the slave today at the temple, the one whom my lady ordered me to slap at the Gyeong estate,’ was quickly erased from her mind.
 
* * *
 
Because she secretly performed overnight prayers after her work was finished, the time Yoo Seo-hwa could close her eyes to sleep was less than half a Shijin a day.
‘Since they said we can rest until the day after tomorrow on the day we return home after the ritual ends, let’s endure for just four more days.’
She steeled her mind like that, but the fatigue resulting from the lack of sleep was difficult to shake off.
While holding a kitchen knife, she dozed off and nearly caused an accident. Seeing Yoo Seo-hwa’s pale face thickly caked with deep exhaustion, Deok-sun sighed and sent her outside.
“Go wake yourself up a bit.”
“I have no excuse.”
Bowing her head repeatedly to apologize, Yoo Seo-hwa scooped up the stream water flowing beside the Buddhist hall and washed her face. The icy water, which felt as if ice were being rubbed against her cheeks, managed to drive away her drowsiness to some extent.
“Ouch.”
At the sharp sting, Yoo Seo-hwa reflexively curled her fingers. Without her realizing when she had been hurt, tiny cuts had formed on her fingers.
‘It must be wounds from being scraped and pressed by the sand while bowing on the dirt ground.’
The pain vanished shortly. This much was nothing. Yoo Seo-hwa brushed her palm once and walked back to her workplace with a slightly limping stride. Her entire body felt heavy and sluggish, as if she were a piece of cotton thoroughly soaked in water.
That night, she did not forget her prayers either.
She did not listen to the instinct of her flesh screaming at her to rest for just a single day. She had already rested enough. For five whole years.
Listening to the distant sound of chanting, Yoo Seo-hwa prostrated herself on the dirt ground. Placing both hands, her knees, and her forehead against the earth, she prayed for the peaceful repose of the dead. Now, she had to raise her body.
“…Ah.”
Suddenly, her head spun. She simply could not lift her face, which was bowed deeply enough to touch the dirt ground.
‘I must get up quickly.’
Even as she thought that, it was only for a fleeting instant. A darkness far thicker than the mountain night that had settled over them engulfed her in an instant.
Just before she lost consciousness and completely collapsed onto the ground, it felt as though something familiar was supporting her body, but that, too, was nothing more than a fleeting moment.
Only, a solid touch and a body scent that embraced her with familiarity wrapped around her so sorrowfully, causing a deep longing to form at the corners of her closed eyes.

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