I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 61

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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 61

Gang Sang-sik examined the paper laid out before Dan-bi.
Across its center, a three-view drawing was rendered with meticulous care—front, back, and side profiles of a garment all visible at once.
But that wasn’t all.
At every point where ornaments would be attached, precise measurements were densely written in.
Looking at the Design Drawing alone created the illusion that a finished garment was coming to life before his eyes.
With trembling hands, he lifted Dan-bi’s Design Drawing.
As if unable to believe what he saw, he held the paper up to the light, turned it over, examined it from every angle.
“It feels like the garment might burst right out of the page at any moment.”
Myeong-i, standing beside him, murmured as though entranced. The others around them nodded as if they’d all been thinking the same thing.
Realizing his thoughts had been read, Gang Sang-sik bit his lower lip with a bitter expression.
“Is it still lacking something?”
……
At Dan-bi’s question, Gang Sang-sik exhaled deeply. Understanding what his silence meant, Dan-bi clutched the cloth in her arms.
“Does that mean I can work at the Sang-ui-won now?”
“I yield to your wishes, young mistress.”
At last, Gang Sang-sik bowed his head.
It was a complete defeat. There was no ground left even to lodge a protest.
Dan-bi grinned and extended her hand to him.
Gang Sang-sik stared at the hand offered to him for a moment, then raised his head. Without hesitation, Dan-bi took his hand and shook it lightly.
“That was a good match.”
“I beg your pardon, young mistress.”
“Well then, shall we begin in earnest?”
……Yes?
At the sudden summons, Gang Sang-sik’s head snapped up.
Dan-bi gestured, and the cloth girl scurried out. Watching her go, Dan-bi continued with perfect composure.
“Since I won, I can ask for the Sang-ui-won’s help as much as I need, can’t I?”
“That is… true, young mistress.”
Night had already fallen, the courtyard fading into darkness.
Though the Sang-ui-won never slept, he never imagined she’d want to start work the moment the match ended.
“Young mistress!”
Just then, the cloth girl came in, struggling under the weight of something cradled in her arms.
Dan-bi rushed to help, and together they set what she’d brought onto the table with a heavy thud.
Thump!
A dull sound, and a weighty object was placed down. Gang Sang-sik looked at Dan-bi with confused eyes.
“What is this?”
“It’s a stone.”
I can see that for myself, he thought.
Gang Sang-sik eyed the halved stone on the table suspiciously, its surface gleaming with a peculiar light.
Dan-bi then placed her hands confidently on her hips and spoke.
“We’re going to make a moon out of this.”
Make a moon out of stone?
At her bold declaration, the eyes of everyone present flickered with confusion. Gang Sang-sik, still not understanding, turned back to her.
“You mean to say… you’ll make a moon from this stone?”
“That’s right.”
At her firm answer, Gang Sang-sik tilted his head. Dan-bi seized that moment and raised a finger.
“But not as it is now, obviously.”
Dan-bi slowly caressed the rough surface of the stone. The cool sensation beneath her fingertips was pleasant.
“We’re going to grind this entire stone down. So fine that no particles are visible—extremely small.”
……!
Gang Sang-sik’s head jerked up. Dan-bi nodded, her eyes burning with certainty.
Gang Sang-sik moved toward the stone as if mesmerized. When he brushed a bit of stone dust from the fractured surface with his finger, the powder glinted with light across his fingertip.
He studied it carefully with narrowed eyes, then turned his gaze toward Dan-bi.
“Are you perhaps planning to dye fabric with this?”
“Exactly.”
At her calm reply, Gang Sang-sik looked down at the powder clinging to his hand once more.
Now he understood her intention.
The plan was to grind the stone to an impossibly fine powder, dissolve it in water, then dye the fabric with that mixture.
It was worth attempting.
If the luminous light streaming from the fractured surface seeped directly into the cloth, an earthly moon might be born—something that existed nowhere else in the world.
Yet doubt still lingered in one corner of her heart.
“If I may ask one thing, Dan-bi—”
“What is it?”
Gang Sang-sik hesitated a moment, then fixed his gaze directly on her.
“Why do you wish to create a moon?”
“I hadn’t explained that yet.”
Dan-bi paused to consider, then continued.
“When the dancers perform their Yeon-mu, I’m thinking of suspending the moon at the very center of it.”
“During the Yeon-mu performance, you mean?”
Gang Sang-sik felt as though a mountain of questions pressed down on him.
To begin with, where she’d obtained such a stone was itself a mystery. Though he’d spent decades honing his craft at Sang-ui-won, he’d never laid eyes on a stone that pulsed with such luminescence from within.
Yet what truly perplexed Gang Sang-sik was not the stone alone.
Despite handling an object whose nature remained utterly unknowable, she moved with a deftness that suggested she’d done it thousands of times before.
Just as his mind grew tangled by that alien competence, she went further still, uttering words that defied comprehension—an earthly moon for the Rain-seeking Ceremony, of all things.
Ordinarily, a Rain-seeking Ceremony culminates in the main rite held at night, while the daylight hours are occupied with preliminary rituals, including the Ablution Chamber and various other ceremonies.
The dancers appear twice over—day and night—their movements kindling the ceremonial atmosphere.
Yet they were merely adjuncts to the ritual, never its center.
Gang Sang-sik could not begin to fathom what Dan-bi intended by suspending such a grand moon within the dancers’ movements.
Dan-bi waited a breath before speaking.
“You may have noticed, but this isn’t ordinary light.”
“I’m not certain what you mean—”
“Before that, though.”
In the instant all eyes converged on her, Dan-bi suddenly glanced about the room, then leaned close to Gang Sang-sik’s ear and whispered.
“Could you gather a few people for me—quick-handed but tight-lipped?”

***

“Good grief!”
At Gang Sang-sik’s exasperated sigh, the man beside him, Gwon, spoke calmly.
“If you keep that up, you’ll be awake all night again today.”
“Are you picking a quarrel with me now?”
“Gwon oppa is only worried about you, sir.”
As Gang Sang-sik shot a look at Gwon, Myeong-i, seated beside him, answered in a bright voice and brushed the dust from her hands. Luminous particles cascaded down like snow, trailing her gesture.
Gang Sang-sik watched the sight for a long moment, then heaved another sigh. The shattered stone in his grip felt uncommonly heavy today.
His lot these days was truly wretched.
Here he was, a master craftsman of Sang-ui-won, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with these youngsters grinding away at rocks.
From the start, he’d harbored not the slightest intention of laboring himself.
Yet under Dan-bi’s firm directive, Gang Sang-sik had no choice but to hold his tongue.

“Pardon? All of this stone—”
“All of it. Grind it all.”

Dan-bi had asked him to select trustworthy people of proven skill. From that careful winnowing came Gwon, a craftsman, and Myeong-i, a seamstress.
She had declared she would entrust the work only to these three, including Gang Sang-sik, and immediately issued the special order to grind the entire massive stone.

“Ah, I understand, Dan-bi.”
“You’ll need to help with this too, Director Gang.”
“What?”
“The more hands we have, the faster the work gets done.”

His protest that he was no man for such drudgery never even made it past his lips—it simply withered away unspoken.
By now, the three of them had been grinding stone for three straight days.
Driven by her bold promise that every last grain must be finished by tomorrow, he’d gone without sleep the night before.
“Good morning!”
The inner door swung wide open.
As the old saying goes, speak of the tiger and it appears—Dan-bi approached with a bright, oblivious smile, and anger flared hot in Gang Sang-sik’s chest.
Gang Sang-sik gripped his aching lower back and offered a respectful bow.
“Will you not eat, my lady Dan-bi?”
“Have you finished grinding all the stones?”
“That is…….”
What? I thought you said tomorrow.
Gang Sang-sik flinched as Dan-bi suddenly swept in, her eyes wide and intense, scrutinizing the stone dust with an urgency that made his shoulders twitch.
He had walked through countless trials to reach this place and witnessed all manner of human nature, yet never had he encountered anyone so relentlessly exacting as this.
Dan-bi examined the heaps of stone dust piled before Kwon and Myeong-i with meticulous care before finally straightening. Then, with evident satisfaction, she broke into a smile.
“Well, you’re doing splendidly!”
“Your kindness knows no bounds, my lady.”
“Then shall we begin in earnest now?”
“……Pardon?”
As Gang Sang-sik lifted his head in confusion, the door swung wide open as if on cue.
Solm struggled in hauling a mountainous heap of white cloth, followed by seamstresses filing in one after another until the room overflowed with bolts of silk.
Before Gang Sang-sik could even voice his bewilderment, Dan-bi spoke first.
“We’re beginning the dyeing now.”
He had heard as much beforehand, but seeing the sheer volume spread before his eyes made his head spin.
Gang Sang-sik barely suppressed the exasperation rising in his chest.
“My lady, why must you go to such extremes…….”
“Why such lengths, you mean?”
Struck by her pointed restatement, Gang Sang-sik fell silent, his lips pressed together.
She had never answered his original question about why these garments were being made at all, and so he watched her mouth intently, anxiety gnawing at him from within.
“The reason is simple enough.”
Dan-bi glanced at Gang Sang-sik, then continued with unwavering resolve in her eyes.
“I mean to deceive heaven itself.”

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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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