Blooming even in the mud - Chapter 98

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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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Even if a child who couldn’t yet properly understand words wouldn’t answer, Gyeong Won-ui muttered bitterly, as if continuing a conversation.
“I worry that my sins have passed on even to you.”
“Ooh-woong.”
“Years ago, your father took refuge in that distant northern land. Unable to invite sleep each night, I used to look up at the moon alone, just like today.”
Patting Su-yeon, who was whimpering with a finger in her mouth, Gyeong Won-ui raised his gaze.
“The moon looked exactly the same, whether in the northern sky or the southern sky, whether in my youth or back then.”
Yoo Seo-hwa, who had been secretly holding her breath and listening, caught her breath. Because she understood what his words meant with a chilling clarity.
During her childhood when she grew a feeling of love for Gyeong Won-ui amidst Emperor Xuanwen’s favor, on the day she hanged herself at the news of his death, and on the nights she swallowed her sorrow as a slave, the heartless moon had been just as bright.
Though they suffered, tormented by despair and agony, that moon must have been what they looked up at together from afar.
Just like her own heart that still beat rapidly whenever she thought of Emperor Xuanwen and the Deposed Emperor, Gyeong Won-ui must have been smelling the scent of past bloodshed all this time.
Yoo Seo-hwa returned to the room without a word. Sitting alone on the empty bed, she thought about Gyeong Won-ui’s past for a very long time.
Not his childhood, which left her with regret for not having experienced it, but him during his time at King Ning’s Residence, which she had never been able to look into properly.

Gyeong Won-ui had once marched out to Qiheng Province where King Ning’s Residence was located, and had later stayed there for five years to escape. There would be quite a few people who built a connection with him and remembered those days.
Among them, those who also had a connection with Yoo Seo-hwa were rare. At most, Wang Jeong-mun or the Empress.
However, if she sent a private letter to Wang Jeong-mun, an unrelated man, it might cause unnecessary misunderstanding, and she could not ask the Empress to tell her about Gyeong Won-ui’s affairs.
These various thoughts turned into worries and piled up in a corner of her heart. She tried her best not to show it, but it seemed she could not hide it from those close to her after all.
Kkot-bun, who was lightly dabbing powder onto Yoo Seo-hwa’s face, frowned slightly.
“Is the makeup not taking well?”
“Yeah, it’s been a bit like that lately.”
After thinking for a moment, she carefully opened her mouth.
“You seem tired lately, is it because of the young lady? If the young lady still can’t sleep well at night, shall I look after her instead?”
“If you stay up all night, won’t you be tired too?”
“Oh my, I’m still perfectly fine. I’m younger than the Wet Nurse, after all.”
At her exaggerated fuss as she lifted her arm to pretend to be strong, Yoo Seo-hwa let out a small laugh despite herself. She was a good person who was always cheerful and brought comfort.
Then, it would be fine to confide a worry.
“Actually…….”
The weight of the layered worries was heavy, but once confessed, it was not even that long.
Listening closely to the story, Kkot-bun tilted her head.
“I still don’t know the etiquette of the Gyubang well, so this might be a rude thing to say, but…….”
“Why should such a thing be difficult between us?”
“Then can I say it?”
With a relieved face, though still looking as if she didn’t understand, Kkot-bun asked back.
“Can’t you just visit King Ning’s Residence yourself?”
“……Ah.”
Yoo Seo-hwa tapped the armrest of the chair without realizing it. She was right. Since women had a custom of refraining from traveling far if possible, she hadn’t thought of it, but there was no reason she couldn’t go to King Ning’s Residence.
Yoo Seo-hwa took Kkot-bun’s hands playfully.
“You are truly my Zinang.”

At those words, Kkot-bun’s eyes widened, and she soon burst into a loud laugh. Someone might criticize it as a vulgar laughter that shouldn’t be heard from the Gyubang.
But Yoo Seo-hwa looked back at her with a gentle smile. She quite liked this vitality, which was proof of a person living.
She hoped that her and Gyeong Won-ui’s children would also grow up brightly amidst such vitality.

“……You say you want to visit King Ning’s Residence once?”
“Would it be difficult?”
“Rather than difficult…… it is the northern border, so the distance is far and the road is rugged. It will be exhausting even if you go by carriage.”
Gyeong Won-ui, who was combing her hair tonight as usual, spoke with a somewhat troubled voice.
Yoo Seo-hwa quietly looked back. The expression of Gyeong Won-ui looking down at her matched his voice.
What was contained in that expression was not just concern for her, who would travel a rough road.
……Probably his painful past that she might see at King Ning’s Residence. Worry about that.
“I am fine.”
She did not add lengthy explanations. She merely conveyed the fact that she would be fine.
It is fine even if I confirm again what my father’s sins have wrought. It is fine even if I experience your pain again. It is fine even if the past days are brought back to mind because of it.
Was it said in Buddhism that there are things conveyed not by words, but from mind to mind?
Gyeong Won-ui, who read the quiet whisper just by looking into his lover’s eyes, let out a low sigh.
“I do not want to wound you anymore.”
“There is nothing that would wound me, unless you are meeting another woman.”
“……Pardon?”
“Don’t tell me you secretly hid a beautiful lady at King Ning’s Residence and left her behind?”
She glared at him with a deliberately serious voice.
Looking down with a blank face at the sudden words, Gyeong Won-ui soon let out a silly laugh. He must have been so surprised, for he was quite late to realize it was a mischievous joke.
“I did leave a beautiful lady behind.”
“Oh dear.”
“I hid the memory of a certain princess whom I loved dearly there.”
Yoo Seo-hwa, who had been glaring with eyes that didn’t suit her, ended up hiding her mouth with her sleeve and laughing softly.
Even his sister, Gyeong Won-yeong, wouldn’t know the fact that he, who was always serious and calm, was a man who could make such jokes.
A side of him that only she in the entire world knew and could see.
Yoo Seo-hwa thought human psychology was truly cunning.
She had felt regretful that Gyeong Won-yeong or others knew a side of Gyeong Won-ui that she didn’t know, but to think it would feel this good to monopolize his only unique aspect.
Gyeong Won-ui, who had finished the remaining combing, extended his hand. Yoo Seo-hwa placed her hand on her husband’s large hand and rose lightly.
A warrior’s hand with hard calluses from holding a sword and practicing martial arts since childhood. Yet, in front of her, it was a hand that became cautious and delicate, as if handling a precious gem.
Gyeong Won-ui, who assisted her to sit on the bed, stirred the brazier with a poker to arrange the fire so it would burn well through the night. Next, he poured the hot water that had been kept on the brazier into the Tangpa and wrapped it well with a cloth.
As the Tangpa, which quickly warmed up, entered inside the blanket, Yoo Seo-hwa felt the tips of her toes melt softly at the warmth.
It was all work that a Maidservant should do, but Gyeong Won-ui enjoyed taking it upon himself.
When she asked the reason, he had said this:
‘Serving you so that you can be comfortable is quite enjoyable.’
In his answer, the guilt of having used her as a slave would not be entirely absent. However, Yoo Seo-hwa was happy because the joy of liking to look after her surroundings meticulously was expressed more greatly than that.
She also felt secretly thrilled watching Gyeong Won-ui wait on her. Because it was proof that this man, whose status meant he never had to get a single drop of water on his hands throughout his life, cherished her that much.
Tonight was a night when even the moon did not rise.
As Gyeong Won-ui covered the candlestick, darkness quickly seized the Sewing Room. As her vision dimmed, her senses became more acute.
The sign of Gyeong Won-ui approaching the bed, lifting the blanket, and lying down beside her came through clearly. The reason a flush still rose on her face at the rustling sound of the silk clothes brushing against the blanket—was it because she still felt like a newlywed even after giving birth to a child?
Yoo Seo-hwa curled the corners of her mouth into a smile in the darkness and leaned against her lover’s shoulder. The man’s solid arm embraced her with utmost gentleness.
“King Ning’s Residence is a cold, harsh, and desolate land.”

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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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