Murim Login - Chapter 130

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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 130
Winter in the borderlands is merciless. A middle-aged man shuddered as the biting wind cut through his clothes.
“Damn, it’s freezing.”
The man, Seok Chil, was a porter for the Seongyun Escort Agency in southern Shanxi Province.
After more than half a day hauling carts laden with over a hundred catties, my entire body was drenched in sweat, and during brief respites like this, I had to battle an overwhelming chill.
“Elder Brother, put down the cart and come warm yourself by the fire. We’ll freeze to death at this rate.”
A fellow porter who had already crouched by the campfire spoke. Seok Chil answered curtly and moved forward.
“You fool, I have five mouths to feed. I’m far from dying yet.”
“True enough. With a cunning wife and rabbit-like children, you can’t afford to die.”
“Cunning? More like a bear.”
“Was that your dying wish? Your wife would snap your neck if she heard that.”
“A man curses the king when no one’s listening. Don’t you know that?”
Seok Chil drew closer to the campfire.
Using dried dung as firewood meant a foul stench permeated the air, but after nearly twenty years as a porter, the smell was as familiar to me as the aroma of cooking rice.
“Ah, now I can finally feel alive again.”
“But Elder Brother, isn’t that a bit stingy of you?”
“Huh? What nonsense is this?”
The fellow porter grinned and gestured with his chin.
“You should have brought a new recruit along. How can you come alone and expect to survive?”
Seok Chil, warming his frozen hands, turned his head. At the end of his gaze sat a young man on a snow-covered rock, staring blankly into space.
‘There he goes again.’
The young man was a newly hired porter from Hanan. According to Song Pyo-du, who was in charge of this escort run, he seemed capable enough to earn his keep.
‘Well, there’s always a shortage of hands.’
The problem was that the young fellow often seemed lost in thought, like he was now.
Seok Chil clicked his tongue, and the fellow porter asked him.
“Is something strange about him?”
“He works well. Stronger than he looks.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that the young fool’s always like that, and it frustrates me. Back in my day….”
“You dreamed of glory and lived each day with determination, is that what you want to say?”
“Exactly. A real man should set lofty goals and pursue them.”
“I doubt your lofty goal was to become the greatest porter in the land.”
“You brat.”
At Seok Chil’s indignant reaction, the fellow porter changed the subject.
“By the way, what’s that fellow’s name?”
“Chung Poong.”
“Ah, what a fine name. It suits him perfectly too.”
“That much is true.”
Though Seok Chil harbored private misgivings about the young man, Chung Poong, he fully agreed with that assessment.
Gazing at his serene features and clear eyes, one’s heart inexplicably found peace, and anger naturally subsided.
“Listen here, newcomer!”
Chung Poong turned his head at the words of his fellow escort.
“Me?”
“Who else is the newcomer here besides you? Come over here and warm yourself by the fire. Sitting over there, your backside will freeze right off.”
“That doesn’t sound like such a bad experience.”
“Experience? What experience?”
“The experience of having my backside freeze off. I’ve never had that happen before.”
The fellow escort, who had been silent for a moment, whispered to Seok Chil.
“What is this guy doing?”
“No idea. The kid’s a bit strange. Must’ve eaten something that didn’t agree with him.”
Chung Poong tilted his head.
“I ate two dumplings this morning.”
“…Your ears are sharp, aren’t they? Well, since you heard, come sit down.”
“Should I?”
As Chung Poong trudged over and sat before the campfire, the usual questions came flying at him.
“Where are you from?”
“From Hanan.”
“So you’re from Hanan.”
“A month ago, I was in Hubei.”
“Mm. Hubei’s nice too.”
“Before that….”
The escort spoke to Seok Chil.
“This is driving me crazy.”
“Right? Talking with him makes me feel strange too.”
“How did you manage to put up with this guy for two months?”
“That’s why I don’t talk to him anymore. The last conversation we had was about four days ago.”
Chung Poong answered with a serious expression.
“Four days and three hours ago.”
“….”
“….”
The two men barely restrained the urge to smack Chung Poong upside the head.
“So where are you really from?”
“I lived in the mountains.”
“That’s not what I meant… Never mind, I’m grateful you answered at all.”
“You’re too kind.”
Seeing Chung Poong’s bright smile, my anger mysteriously subsided.
Incomprehensible eccentricity paired with childlike innocence. Curiosity stirred about this peculiar specimen I’d never encountered before.
“But you really lived in the mountains?”
“Exactly as I said. Since I was young, I farmed in the mountains, gathered medicinal herbs, and did various other things to get by.”
The two men immediately surmised that Chung Poong came from a family of slash-and-burn farmers.
Most of the slash-and-burn farmers had fled to the mountains to escape the tyranny of ruthless landlords or to evade the authorities after committing crimes both great and small.
“You must have endured considerable hardship.”
“Actually, I found it quite enjoyable.”
“Is that so?”
The life of a slash-and-burn farmer enjoyable? The thought flickered through Seok Chil’s mind for a moment, but he saw no reason to press the matter further.
“Then what prompted you to descend from the mountain?”
“Life in the mountains grew monotonous. I wanted to see the world and meet certain people I had in mind.”
“So that’s why you came to Hanan.”
“Yes. I ended up taking a roundabout path, but I’m not displeased with how things have turned out. Escort work is quite fascinating, actually.”
“Escort work fascinates you?”
Chung Poong answered with a broad smile.
“Observing people is entertaining, seeing the land, seeing the sky. Even contemplation brings me joy.”
For Seok Chil, who had spent countless years in the escort trade, such sights had long grown tiresome.
People worn down by exhaustion and the anxieties of livelihood, damp earth and biting winds that howled like madness. His mind was consumed entirely with calculating how much compensation he would receive from this escort mission.
‘Well, he’s still young enough to speak such things.’
Moreover, as someone born a slash-and-burn farmer who had spent his entire life in the mountains, it was only natural.
Soon enough, when harsh reality revealed itself and the years accumulated, wouldn’t he gradually become like me?
‘I was like that once too.’
Seok Chil gazed at Chung Poong with eyes that mingled envy and regret, then opened his mouth.
“Consider it idle talk and listen anyway.”
He knew it was meddlesome of him, but he wanted to impart some understanding of reality to this guileless young man.
To begin as an escort worker and grow old dying as one—wasn’t that too bleak a future for such a promising life?
“The work is only bearable for so long. In ten or twenty years, the future becomes difficult to perceive, you understand? No matter how hard an escort worker strives, he remains an escort worker. Far better to learn even third-rate martial arts from some local martial hall and begin as a proper martial artist. That path is infinitely superior.”
Chung Poong blinked.
“Is that so?”
“It’s not ‘is that so’—I’m telling you to do it. You may be past the ideal age for learning martial arts, but who knows? You might possess unexpected talent and rise to become a first-rate master.”
“A first-rate master….”
A fellow escort worker who had been listening quietly clicked his tongue.
“Aren’t you filling his head with hot air? A first-rate master isn’t some common thing.”
“It’s just a manner of speaking. Does it make sense for someone his age to be satisfied as an escort worker?”
“Well, you have a point. If I were just ten years younger, I wouldn’t be doing this either.”
“There you have it.”
Seok Chil patted Chung Poong’s shoulder.
“You heard him? Save diligently for one or two years and register at a martial hall. Until then, I’ll guide you well.”
Chung Poong tilted his head.
“One or two years?”
“Why, does that seem too long? You’re unfamiliar with how the world works, I suspect. The registration fee for a martial hall isn’t a trifle. Even at the lowest estimate, it takes at least a year to….”
“No, I plan to quit before then.”
“Quit? When?”
“Now.”
“Huh?”
“Eh?”
Chung Poong laughed brightly.
“I didn’t know the way to Shanxi Province, so when I heard there was an escort heading to Shanxi, I asked to tag along.”
“…And?”
“Since we’ll reach Taewon in just one more day, I was planning to part ways around here.”
Seok Chil and his colleague Jang Ja-su exchanged bewildered glances.
“What’s this guy talking about? Didn’t Song Pyo-du say he put his thumbprint on a one-year contract?”
“That’s what I understood too. That’s why I had him attached to learn from our most senior member.”
Seok Chil asked Chung Poong with a confused expression.
“You put your thumbprint on something when you joined in Hanan, didn’t you?”
“Ah, yes.”
“If you have it, show it to me.”
Chung Poong pulled out a yellowed bamboo slip from his breast and showed it.
It was a contract stating that for the next year he would work as a porter for the Seongyun Escort Agency, and that he would pay a penalty for unauthorized departure.
“You can read, can’t you?”
“I completed the Four Books when I was four years old.”
“Stop spouting nonsense. Read that part there. Yes, that one. Read it out loud and clear.”
Chung Poong read out the section Seok Chil indicated in a clear, ringing voice.
“Once the thumbprint is affixed, it cannot be revoked. In case of unauthorized departure, a penalty of fifty silver taels or equivalent compensation shall be paid.”
“You know how much fifty silver taels is, I’m sure. Do you understand what ‘equivalent compensation’ means?”
Chung Poong, who had been lost in thought, suddenly slapped his forehead.
“Does it mean… paying with my body?”
“Exactly, you fool. Did you think the escort agency was some gathering of spineless weaklings?”
Seok Chil felt his blood pressure rising, his neck tightening. He wanted to crack open this idiot’s skull to see what was inside.
‘How does someone like this even exist? Did he really spend his whole life in the mountains?’
The dangers encountered while transporting goods across the realm were beyond imagination. Horse bandits, water bandits, mountain bandits—all manner of brigands and interference from rival escort agencies.
Even if one overcame all these obstacles, a single natural disaster could spell failure for the entire escort mission.
The escort agency was as thorough and brutal as any major martial sect, if not more so.
‘And yet he put his thumbprint down and now says he wants to part ways here?’
This young fool before him knew nothing of the world, absolutely nothing.
Seok Chil opened his mouth with the determination of a man saving a life.
“I’m telling you this just in case—abandon any thoughts of running away. Just think of it as earning money for one year and do your job. Understand?”
“One year is too long. I think I can manage until tomorrow.”
“You bastard!”
“Elder Brother, please calm down! If Song Pyo-du sees this, it’ll be troublesome.”
“Let go! Will you let go?”
It was at that moment when Seok Chil’s eyes were blazing with fury.
“Wouldn’t this be enough as a penalty?”
Clink.
Chung Poong extended his hand, and the two men’s eyes widened in shock.
The horseshoe-shaped object gleamed with a brilliance whiter than snow—pure silver.
“Silver… silver ingots?”
“Two of them, no less!”
Two silver ingots, each worth fifty taels of silver—a staggering sum.
One hundred taels of silver was a fortune so immense that even a skilled laborer would struggle to earn it in a decade of backbreaking work.
That such wealth should emerge from the purse of a wandering youth seemed impossible.
“H-how… how is this possible?”
“I received some traveling money when I left home.”
At Chung Poong’s ingenuous reply, both men fell silent, their mouths agape.
What sort of household gives one hundred taels of silver as traveling money? And judging by the bulging pouch hanging at his side like a drooping testicle, this was merely the beginning.
“I believe this should be sufficient to cover the breach of contract penalty…”
The two men nodded frantically, as if possessed.
“Yes, absolutely. More than sufficient.”
“Why did you suddenly switch to formal speech?”
“It simply feels more natural this way.”
“Indeed. It is the most comfortable way to speak.”
“Ah, well then, what can I say?”
Chung Poong, regarding them with evident curiosity, handed over the two silver ingots.
“I shall take my leave now. Please inform them that this is the penalty payment.”
“Is this… all of it?”
“It is far too much…”
“If there is any remainder, please divide it between yourselves. I am not accustomed to spending money. Perhaps purchase warm clothing for each of you—something with fine fur lining.”
“…!”
As Chung Poong shouldered a small bundle and prepared to depart, Seok Chil hastily spoke up.
“M-might I ask your name?”
“Chung Poong. I was a resident of Hanan a fortnight ago, Hubei the month before, and Shaanxi before that.”
Having answered, Chung Poong began walking briskly toward Taewon.
The sky stretched blue above, and tender new shoots were sprouting from the damp earth.
“Will spring arrive early this year, I wonder?”
He smiled broadly at the thought, hoping that the plum blossoms would bloom abundantly this spring as well.
Suddenly, he found himself thinking of Lotus Peak on Huashan, from which he had secretly fled not long ago.

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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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