I Became the Eldest Daughter of a Fallen Family - Chapter 17

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

Chapter 17. A I Am Ground Introduction
“I was merely passing through when I saw someone in peril, so I offered assistance. In fact, thanks to my intervention, the Elderly Lady was able to dislodge the rice cake stuck in her throat without incident.”
“Bah! Nonsense! If what you say were true, you’d be a benefactor to the Wei Family’s matriarch. Then how could they have issued a Wanted Order for your arrest?”
“That I don’t know! I don’t even live in Jinseong. I only just arrived at the gates when I was seized. How could I possibly know the answer to that?”
If our family had maintained relations with a house as prominent as the Wei Family, we wouldn’t be scraping out a living on that mountainside.
So Yeon-hui found the whole affair absurd—imprisoned for doing good—and let out a long, weary sigh.
Wang, who had been observing them, pressed forward with his questions in a stubborn, unyielding manner.
“As a criminal, why did you enter Jinseong in the first place?”
“I came to sell Tanghulu. And strictly speaking, I’m not a criminal. I wasn’t yet fifteen when my father received his sentence, so I wasn’t subject to the Implication Law.”
The Daejin Kingdom’s punishments were severe, but remarkably lenient toward minors.
Unlike the other family elders, who could barely leave the village without bribes, So Yeon-hui was able to move freely through the Five-day Markets and Jinseong itself—all because of that mercy in the law.
But that was the law as written in the codes. Reality, however, was quite different.
Wang, the village functionary of Haenghwajin, laughed mockingly at So Yeon-hui and brandished his Six-sided Baton as a threat.
“What safety do you speak of? How dare you lecture me on law in this place? If I say you’re a criminal, then you’re a criminal! When the county magistrate isn’t here, I am the law—I, Wang Yun!”
He seemed genuinely convinced that So Yeon-hui had meant harm to the Elderly Lady, and appeared ready to apply torture on the spot.
‘Listen to what people are saying, you fool! You make up your conclusion first, then conduct an interrogation? That’s not an investigation—that’s fixing the outcome!’
Contrary to her expectations, the atmosphere grew steadily grimmer, and So Yeon-hui’s expression darkened with it.
The one saving grace was that she’d managed to convince her mother—who would have found any means necessary to accompany her—to stay behind.
Had she come along, So Yeon-hui would have been truly punished for entering Jinseong without proper notice to the village chief, transforming this misfortune into something far worse.
“Ugh… Threaten me however you like, but my answer remains the same. I simply tried to help someone in danger. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Enough! You continue to lie even as matters have come to this! Guards! Beat her at once!”
“No! I’m telling you I did nothing wrong!”
Tears welled up from the injustice of it all.
Arrested without cause was shameful enough, but to be whipped for it—she thrashed against the restraints, desperation rising—when suddenly.
A commotion erupted outside the office, and a Village Functionary came rushing in breathlessly.
“Functionary Wang! The Wei Family’s eldest son has arrived!”
“What? The eldest son himself?”
Wang, caught utterly off guard by the prospect of such a distinguished visitor, fidgeted nervously.
But his feelings seemed to matter little, for moments later a young man in silk robes entered the magistrate’s office with such a fierce expression that he looked capable of beating anyone present to death.
At the mere sight of his commanding bearing, Wang’s complexion drained of color, and he quickly bowed his head.
“I, I apologize, Young Master! I was merely attempting to uncover this woman’s crimes, but her shamelessness is such that she still refuses to confess—”
But before Wang could even finish his obsequious words, the young man’s finger shot out in accusation, and he erupted in fury.
“Are you out of your mind? We asked you to find our benefactor, and you issue a Wanted Order and conduct an interrogation? Are you trying to paint the Wei Family as an ungrateful house before the whole world?”
“Y-yes? But I didn’t—! It’s a misunderstanding! I was only investigating this woman—I mean, this lady—that is, this… this person—”
Wang’s shoulders shrank under the force of that thunderous rebuke.
He glanced back and forth between So Yeon-hui, still bound and kneeling, and Wei Zheng, then prostrated himself flat on the ground and cried out loudly.
“Ah, Young Master Wei! I have made a grave error! It was only foolishness, not malice, that drove me to this! I beg Your forgiveness, Young Master!”
His transformation was nothing short of grotesque.
Witnessing a shift so complete—180 degrees from his interrogation just moments before—So Yeon-hui at last grasped the situation.
‘Ah, he was simply overcompensating in his zeal. The idiot.’
A powerful local magnate had offered a reward and asked him to find a person, so without bothering to investigate the facts, he’d simply issued a Wanted Order in hopes of winning favor.
But in doing so, he’d nearly damaged the reputation of that very magnate’s house—a thought that must now be chilling him to the bone.
‘Thank heavens the one I saved happened to be the matriarch of such an influential family. Otherwise I’d have been framed with no way out.’
To punish someone for a crime when no one had even died—such a thing was absurd.
Yet watching the soldiers’ whips in their hands, So Yeon-hui felt her own spine turn to ice.
She’d been fortunate enough to escape today, but had circumstances been different, she might well have suffered vicious beatings.
‘Mother was right about everything. It truly would have been better never to get entangled with the powerful at all.’
She began to worry whether she’d made a mistake—whether she should have simply remained quietly in Mangok Village instead of scratching an itch that would only cause sores by doing business in Jinseong.
The only true blessing was that the arrival of Wei Zheng had dissolved the misunderstanding that had plagued her.
He immediately ordered his men to unbind So Yeon-hui, who had been trussed up like a bundle.
Then, with formal courtesy, he clasped his fist in salute and greeted her.
“My apologies for the late introduction. I am Wei Zheng, eldest son of the Wei Family, a prominent house in Qingyang County. I am profoundly grateful for your salvation of my grandmother’s life yesterday. I and the Wei Family shall never forget this debt of grace.”
This handsome young man possessed such an upright bearing—where did such virtue come from?
Had this world been a novel and the genre a romantic fantasy, So Yeon-hui thought, this man would surely be the male lead.
‘No, wait… the traditional male lead type is usually that cold, northern duke archetype, isn’t he? This one’s more of the sunshine character, so he’d fit better as a secondary love interest.’
Caught off guard by the appearance of this handsome stranger, So Yeon-hui felt a flutter of excitement, but she quickly composed herself and replied with formal courtesy.
“Not at all. I simply did what any person ought to do. I’m embarrassed that you make so much of such a humble act.”
A life spent in exile catching fish with her bare hands and crafting Tanghulu and sausages from accumulated goodwill points—such a life was, by any measure, far removed from romantic fantasy.
‘No romance novel heroine in the world would process pig intestines with her bare hands.’
Even without donning lace and attending a grand ball, a female lead ought to maintain a certain minimum of dignity.
The act of scrubbing tripe clogged with bits of green plant matter—no amount of thinking could make that seem like something a heroine of romantic fiction would do.
And yet, somehow…
Wei Zheng, as if determined to advertise his own charm, continued speaking despite her demurral, his smile radiant as sunlight.
“How can you say such things? You saved a human life—my grandmother’s life, no less. Should I prove ungrateful, surely I would be struck down by heaven itself.”
Then, suddenly—
“So please, would you not tell me your name, benefactor?”
He stepped forward and tilted his head in a gesture of appeal.
Before that practiced yet undeniably charming smile, So Yeon-hui found herself thinking:
‘Oh, you’re really turning up the charm, aren’t you?’
That head tilted at a perfect forty-five degrees. His luminous forehead framed by strands of hair that fell with artful precision.
A smile untouched by shadow, eyes glimmering with faint nostalgia.
‘Are you some kind of celestial beauty?’
For young ladies of this era, where gender separation was strict and they’d never encountered such handsome-man skills before, this would be effective flirtation indeed.
But So Yeon-hui, who had once served as a national producer and dumped her album-profit savings into a fixed-term deposit, recognized it as nothing more than transparent seduction.
Most likely he was simply trying to win her favor in order to quietly bury this embarrassing affair.
‘No matter how you look at it, such blatant pretty-boy tactics? This is definitely not a romantic fantasy novel.’
No male lead or secondary love interest in any romance novel would resort to seduction this transparent and obvious.
But that made things even more complicated.
If he wasn’t from a romance novel, and he was still trying to gain her favor, then nine times out of ten it had nothing to do with her, and everything to do with her father.
Even though he now lay under false accusations and in exile, he remained a legendary military general and a savior of the nation.
‘I’m not sure revealing my family name is truly the right choice.’
So Yeon-hui cast a wary glance at Wei Zheng.
His face bore no obvious hint of hidden designs, but that very lack made her all the more uneasy.
‘Better to tell the truth than to lie and heap another crime upon myself. Legally speaking, there’s no problem at all.’
So Yeon-hui suppressed her anxiety and clasped her hands respectfully.
Drawing together every ounce of propriety she could muster, she opened her mouth and spoke with measured composure.
“Then I shall tell you. I am So Yeon-hui, eldest daughter of So Jin, who served as commander and General of Victorious Destiny of Eolimgun.”
In that instant, sparks of recognition blazed in Wei Zheng’s eyes.
And it was around that very moment that the village functionary Wang lost consciousness and toppled backward from shock.

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