Surviving as Jang Hee-bin's Child Court Lady - Chapter 79

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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 79. I’ll Come Find You
“…What?”
My mouth fell open at those few words.
I was utterly dumbfounded. My mind went blank.
On a whim, I cracked the window open again, but Park Moon-soo’s voice was no longer audible.
‘Your brother Hwang Jin-gi is looking for you!’
That’s exactly what Park Moon-soo had said.
‘But…. Hwang Bong-bong’s brother is dead.’
Since becoming a maid at Chwisuondang, it was something I had never once doubted.
Hwang Bong-bong’s brother, Hwang Jin-gi, was dead.
That’s what Han Sang-gung had said, and the woman from the Song Jin-sa household next door had said the same….
‘But…. Was that really the case?’
I grasped at my hazy memories.
Fragments of stories about my brother that had drifted in my mind surfaced one by one.
‘My brother mainly associated with martial artists, so it seems he must be dead.’
That night when I pretended to be fast asleep and eavesdropped on Han Sang-gung and Seol-hyang’s conversation.
Words I had heard from Han Sang-gung’s lips.
‘He must be dead. We never found his body, but if he were alive, he would have visited this house at least once.’
And when I went to find Hwang Bong-bong’s house.
The words left by the woman from the Song Jin-sa household next door….
‘Surely not….’
A shock struck me suddenly.
No one had ever confirmed to me that ‘my brother is dead.’
‘He seems to be dead.’
‘Though we couldn’t find his body, he must be dead.’
That’s all anyone had said.
It was I myself who had accepted as truth a death that no one had ever definitively established.
Just as my brother in my past life had died, so too must Hwang Bong-bong’s brother have perished.
Like me in my past life, Hwang Bong-bong must be a lonely orphan with nowhere to lean.
‘I simply chose to believe it that way.’
And so I had concluded the death of my brother Hwang Jin-gi, who might very well be alive and well.
“Sigh….”
Suddenly I felt nauseated. The vibrations of the swaying palanquin churned my stomach.
I clutched at my chest and tried to steady myself.
Only after taking several deep breaths did the shock finally begin to subside.
It was then that question marks I should have raised long ago began to surface.
‘How does Park Moon-soo know about my brother?’
It was the first doubt that came to mind.
My brother Hwang Jin-gi—a man whose face I didn’t even know.
All I knew about Hwang Jin-gi was merely three things.
He got along well with the martial artists, and he took meticulous care of me when I was young.
And there was a ten-year age gap between us.
That was all I knew about my older brother.
‘Park Moon-soo was about ten years old back then. So did he have a prior connection with Hwang Jin-gi from the beginning?’
I shook my head immediately.
The timeline didn’t add up at all.
When I first encountered Park Moon-soo at the Shell Game Area, we were clearly meeting for the first time.
If he had already been acquainted with Hwang Jin-gi, he would have recognized that I was Hwang Jin-gi’s sister the moment he heard my name.
‘Did he fail to recognize me because I use the name Bong-bong instead of Hwang Bong-mok?’
That possibility was equally unlikely.
Park Moon-soo was reckless and unprepared, but he was certainly not a fool.
In the end, I reached a conclusion.
‘Then… Park Moon-soo must have met Hwang Jin-gi after the day he encountered me.’
But how on earth…?
My mind felt like a tangled ball of yarn.
I grasped my head with both hands, wrestling with the frustration, but no satisfactory answer came.
‘Everything is uncertain. That Hwang Jin-gi is alive, and I can’t even understand why Park Moon-soo told me this news.’
The situation was filled with questions, yet strangely, I didn’t suspect that Park Moon-soo had lied.
It wasn’t because I trusted him. I barely knew Park Moon-soo well enough for that.
I didn’t trust the character of a young nobleman I hardly knew.
But it was the desperation in his voice when he called my name on Yukjo Street.
The determination with which he ran all that distance—a distance that was certainly not short for a ten-year-old child—from Yukjo Street to Dongmyo.
And the sincerity in his eyes that I witnessed the moment our gazes met.
Through all of that, I could be certain he had spoken the truth.
‘I need to meet Park Moon-soo again.’
But how?
After thinking for a moment…
“Ah!”
Before I knew it, I clapped my hands together.
The man who had been with the Crown Prince.
Lee Tae-jwa, the librarian of the Crown Prince’s Institute and Park Moon-soo’s maternal uncle.
‘That’s it. I should go find Lee Tae-jwa.’
A four-year-old palace maid suddenly appears and asks about her nephew?
Of course Lee Tae-jwa would be taken aback.
He might dismiss it as a child’s idle jest, or he might look unfavorably upon a mere maid like me asking about a young nobleman from a yangban family, but…
‘Still, it’s worth trying.’
With my resolve set, I nodded.
Sway, sway.
Meanwhile, the palanquin continued its journey toward the Royal Palace.
I closed my eyes for a moment.
A fourteen-year-old boy named Hwang Jin-gi.
I tried to recall what I knew about him—Hwang Bong-mok’s older brother.
But the truth was, I knew nothing about Hwang Jin-gi.
Not his appearance, not his height, not his build, not even the sound of his voice.
In the darkness that clouded my vision, his image remained obscured, as though hidden behind a veil of mist—formless and indistinct.
What surfaced in that moment was a memory.
[I will find you, no matter what.]
Words written on the back of a slip of paper left in the cracks of the floorboards at home.
Despite the neat handwriting, those few lines carried the weight of someone’s desperate longing.
“….”
Why did I suddenly think of my older brother from my past life?
‘If my brother had lost me….’
He would have done the same.
Just as Hwang Jin-gi was doing now.
He would have made that vow, searching everywhere for me, determined to find me by any means necessary.
To me, Hwang Jin-gi was nothing more than a stranger I didn’t know.
But to Hwang Jin-gi, I—Hwang Bong-bong—was his only remaining blood relative in this world, a beloved younger sister he had to find at any cost.
I could not bear the thought of Hwang Jin-gi losing his sister forever.
Losing my own brother had felt like my entire world crumbling to dust.
I did not wish for Hwang Jin-gi to endure such sorrow.
Therefore….
‘I will find him.’
Without fail.
I, Hwang Bong-bong, will find my older brother Hwang Jin-gi.
***
“Bong-bong, did you have a good trip?”
“You must have been hot. You’ve grown so gaunt in just half a day.”
“Did you see many interesting sights? I heard riding in a palanquin makes your stomach churn—are you alright?”
The moment I arrived at Chwisuondang, I found myself surrounded by palace maids.
It was only natural.
For palace maids, an outing was as rare as beans sprouting during a drought.
The palace maids were equally fascinated by the royal procession.
In the end, I was held captive for quite some time explaining what the royal procession looked like, how many crowds had gathered, what Dongguan Wang Temple looked like, and so on.
“Oh, and did you use the chamber pot?”
I knew this question was coming.
“I didn’t!”
Though it had been a day full of things to think about, I was genuinely proud of myself for managing to maintain human dignity throughout it all.
‘It should be about time.’
Nestled among the palace maids, I kept glancing toward the entrance of Chwisuondang.
‘She’s here.’
Soon enough, the face I had been waiting for appeared.
It was none other than Bok-hee.
I excused myself from the palace maids by saying I needed to use the outhouse.
Then I met with Bok-hee at the secret location we had arranged beforehand—behind the Nae-so Kitchen.
“Did you confirm it, sister?”
At my question, Bok-hee nodded vigorously.
The moment I arrived at Chwisuondang, what I did was send Bok-hee to observe the movements at Sung-gyeong Hall.
It would have been best if I could go myself, but my face was far too well-known.
In that regard, Bok-hee was the perfect choice.
She was unlikely to be recognized by others, she obeyed my words unconditionally, and above all, she was an experienced spy.
“What was it like? Tell me quickly.”
Despite my urging, Bok-hee looked uncertain about where to even begin.
Finally, Bok-hee opened her mouth.
“I’m not entirely sure what’s happening, but something’s definitely wrong. There are so many people gathered at Sung-gyeong Hall.”
“What kind of people?”
“The first ones to arrive were officials. From the way they were carrying medicine chests, they looked like people from the Royal Medical Bureau. There were quite a few of them, and they all went into Suk-ui’s quarters.”
“Ah….”
I let out a sigh of relief.
Good. The King had decided to move faster than I expected.
The Royal Physician was likely among those people from the Royal Medical Bureau that Bok-hee had seen.
“But…. Do you know who arrived next?”
“Who?”
The moment I saw Bok-hee’s expression—unusually grave—a premonition that this was no ordinary matter flashed through my mind.
“The palace guards. The Naegumwi officials came flooding into Sung-gyeong Hall.”
“The palace guards…? Into Sung-gyeong Hall?”
“Yes. I didn’t see the details, but I heard they were conducting a thorough search of Sung-gyeong Hall.”
“….”
In that moment, even I felt a chill run down my spine.
I had forgotten.
The king of this era was no ordinary ruler—he was King Sukjong.
He was not merely a swift man, but a meticulous one.
Then it struck me.
The king had descended upon us unannounced to uncover two things simultaneously: the evidence and the culprit.

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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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