Ten Paths of the Master - Chapter 30

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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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Episode 30. What pleased you so much about it?
Yang Bok trembled visibly, his mind churning rapidly.
Dan Yeop continued without pause.
“The Je Hyung Yu Gun made from silk and embroidery—the silk cost is fixed, but in the end it’s the embroidery price that matters. And you know the embroidery merchants inside and out. Seven silver taels would cover the work, so please meet me at ten. Even then you’d have a three-tael profit margin. Combined with the Yuan Ling Po, that’s five taels total. Keeping fifteen taels is highway robbery.”
Yang Bok, biting his lip in agitation, spoke.
“You know one thing but miss the other. The wealthy think clothes are quality only when they’re expensive. If the price is low, they suspect something’s wrong with the garment itself. That’s how they think.”
“Please—even the difference between fifteen and ten taels is an enormous sum. How can anyone call clothes costing more than ten taels cheap?”
“Fool, other cloth merchants charge twenty-two taels for a single Yuan Ling Po. Twenty taels is the bargain price.”
“That’s the expensive shops. The cheaper places sell it at twelve taels. So fifteen taels is quite respectable.”
Dan Yeop, having already toured every cloth merchant in Seo-si, spoke without hesitation.
Yang Bok, gritting his teeth, suddenly shouted.
“I won’t do it! Absolutely not!”
“Then I’ll inform my customers, in good conscience, exactly how much profit margin you’re taking.”
“You think I’ll just let you walk out of here?”
“What will you do?”
“Obviously I’ll throw you out. Penniless as you are, how do you expect to survive the winter?”
“I’ll find work at another cloth shop. Since I already know the trade inside out, it shouldn’t be hard to find a position.”
“Once you cause trouble and leave my shop, do you really think Yang Hoe will help you find another job? Not a chance.”
“Even if he won’t help, I have enough resourcefulness to manage on my own.”
Dan Yeop had no money, but he spoke with absolute confidence.
If he couldn’t find work at another cloth shop, he was prepared to follow Ma Deung around and work the water trade.
When Dan Yeop turned hardened and resolute, Yang Bok’s bravado faltered.
“You ungrateful wretch. How dare you treat me this way? I gave you an advance and let you work freely with trust.”
“I’m grateful for the hundred cash you advanced me, but thanks to me, you’ve earned five silver taels. You can’t call that being ungrateful.”
“Ugh! I concede. I’ll add another silver tael to your wages. So say nothing more about the clothing prices.”
In the end, Yang Bok decided to try coaxing Dan Yeop.
He thought it better to give one tael and pocket nine more in return.
But Dan Yeop refused to fall for the shop master’s trick.
“I can’t accept that. I made a promise to my customer. I can’t break it.”
“What promise did you make?”
“That I would help her buy what she wants at a fair price.”
“Damn it—so you’re really going to be stubborn about this?”
“It’s not stubbornness. It’s conducting business honestly.”
Yang Bok suddenly felt a surge of anger and bellowed.
“Get out! Get out of here, you bastard!”
“Does that mean I should quit the cloth shop immediately?”
“Quit? I’m saying get to work! Now!”
“Yes, understood. In any case, you must agree to the clothing price. For your own customers, do as you see fit. I’m flexible enough about that.”
“Out! Now!”
“Yes.”
Once Dan Yeop left, Yang Bok immediately sent someone to summon Yang Hoe.
Half a shichen later, Yang Hoe entered the Yang Household cloth shop.
“Brother, I heard you were looking for me?”
The moment Yang Bok saw Yang Hoe’s face, he let out a groan.
“Yang Hoe, you’re giving me such a headache I could die.”
“What? What’s happened?”
“That Dan Yeop is driving me to the brink. My head’s pounding.”
“Dan Yeop? What has he done?”
Then Yang Bok recounted everything that had transpired in exhaustive detail.
“He’s arrogantly deciding the clothing prices himself—saying he’ll only take fifteen taels for the Yuan Ling Po and ten for the Je Hyung Yu Gun. Is he the shop master? Why does an ignorant boy strut around like that?”
“My goodness! If someone overreaches like that, shouldn’t you simply discipline him firmly? Why torture yourself?”
“I disciplined him, but it didn’t take. The boy who couldn’t even meet my eyes on his first day now talks back brazenly, without a shred of respect. I could sicken from this.”
“What would you like me to do? Shall I take him away?”
Yang Hoe studied Yang Bok’s expression.
In truth, hearing Dan Yeop criticized made him uncomfortable.
His master had instructed him to look after Dan Yeop well, as Dan Yeop’s adoptive father was a certain Directorate official of high rank.
In earlier days, when relations between the six ministries were sparse, such words would never have surfaced.
Then Yang Bok waved his hand dismissively.
“No, a person shouldn’t be so harsh. Yang Hoe, you deflate that boy’s arrogance a bit. Make him obey my orders.”
“Understood. I’ll speak with him first and scold him properly. If he still doesn’t listen, I’ll simply take him away……”
“How now, Yang Hoe! Why do you insist on making me out to be some villain? Just give him a scolding and be done with it.”
“But what if he won’t listen, sir?”
“Sigh! What choice do I have? I’ll keep him close and mold him into something worthwhile.”
“Most admirable, sir. But then—what is Dan Yeop’s monthly stipend at present?”
“Two hundred cash.”
Yang Bok, who had been deducting fifty cash from the official wage to give to Yang Hoe through an off-the-books arrangement, looked at him with an expression that said, ‘You know that already—why ask?’
“This time, I will forgo my share. Simply raise Dan Yeop’s wages to two hundred fifty cash.”
“Give him an extra fifty? Whatever for?”
“Winter approaches, does it not? He ought to have a chance to prepare for the cold months ahead.”
“Fair enough. Truth be told, it’s been nagging at me a little too. But never mind that—seek out Dan Yeop yourself and have a word with him directly.”
At Yang Hoe’s instruction to find him and speak to him, Yang Hoe tilted his head.
“He is not here?”
“I tried keeping him close and teaching him the work, but he couldn’t seem to grasp it. So I sent him out to bring in customers instead.”
“Understood. I shall find him and give him a proper talking-to.”
Upon leaving the Yang Household’s cloth shop, Yang Hoe set out to search for Dan Yeop.
But finding him proved far more difficult than expected.
After spending the entire morning wandering the Cloth Market, he turned his steps toward Xiangman Tower when noon arrived.
As he suspected!
Dan Yeop was sitting at a table with a good view, contentedly eating On Myeon.
“Dan Yeop!”
The moment Yang Hoe spotted him, he let out a sharp cry, his voice tight with emotion.
Dan Yeop then swallowed the food in his mouth and asked with a nonchalant air.
“Oh? Do I know you?”
“How brazen! It’s Yang Hoe!”
“Ah! Master Yang. Come for lunch, have you? Would you care to sit?”
As Dan Yeop gestured to the empty seat across from him, Yang Hoe suppressed his mounting anger and sat down.
A server approached and bowed obsequiously to Yang Hoe.
“Master Yang, welcome! What may I serve you?”
Yang Hoe, who happened to be growing hungry, placed an order.
“Bring me lamb soup and a meat bun.”
“At once, at once, sir! I’ll have it out to you presently!”
Once the server had withdrawn, Yang Hoe let out a low growl.
“Now then—tell me exactly what wrong you have committed against the master of the household.”
Dan Yeop tsk’d lightly and began his account.
“Tsk! The master must have explained it oddly. The truth is……”
Dan Yeop gave a brief account of what had transpired between himself and the master.
Yang Hoe, listening with a bewildered expression, pressed further.
“The master offered you a whole silver ingot and you refused?”
“In matters of commerce, reputation outweighs money, does it not?”
“Have you forgotten who you are? You’re no merchant. Surely you don’t wish to become a cloth shop owner?”
“Not at all. My goal is to climb higher.”
Dan Yeop pointed his index finger upward into the air.
“Then you ought to secure silver for yourself.”
“I was taught that if one gives one’s best to the task at hand, all else follows.”
“But that……”
Yang Hoe, who was about to say ‘that’s only what the sages speak of,’ fell silent as the server approached.
Soon the lamb soup and a plate of meat buns were placed before Yang Hoe.
Dan Yeop’s gaze, having finished his On Myeon, fixed upon the meat buns.
Yang Hoe picked up one of the meat buns and offered it to him.
“Have a taste.”
“Thank you.”
Dan Yeop tore the bun apart with his hands and placed it in his mouth.
Being meat he hadn’t eaten in some time, it melted softly on his tongue.
In the blink of an eye, Dan Yeop finished the meat bun, and Yang Hoe quietly slid the plate toward him.
“Have more.”
He then called the server and ordered another plate of meat buns.
“So you mean not to heed the master’s wishes?”
“The master’s own guests may be handled as the master sees fit, but at the very least, my own guests deserve to be served at a fair price.”
“I see. If that is your resolve, there’s nothing to be done.”
“I am grateful for your understanding.”
“Oh, and about your monthly stipend—you’ll be getting two hundred fifty cash, not two hundred.”
“I’ve looked into it, and the head of the Yang Household really does pay poorly. If the chance comes, I’m thinking of moving elsewhere. That should be all right?”
“Of course it is. A person ought to look after themselves first, after all.”
Yang Hoe studied Dan Yeop with fresh eyes.
‘The fellow who couldn’t even meet my gaze two days ago…’
He seemed like an entirely different person in just forty-eight hours.
Even the light in his eyes and the set of his expression had changed.
In the end, Yang Hoe simply bought Dan Yeop some food and departed.
***
Chang’an.
Eastern Market, Dae An Bang.
Jin Bo Sang Bang.
Na Geum Ryeong’s days followed an unchanging rhythm.
Mornings she spent at Hyeonmugwan learning martial arts; afternoons, she composed poetry or played the Pipa at home.
Her brother Na Bu Gang’s routine was much the same.
The difference was that Na Bu Gang had graduated from Hyeonmugwan and enrolled at Samun School to pursue scholarly studies.
When Na Bu Gang returned from Samun School that afternoon, Na Geum Ryeong sought him out.
“What is it?”
“The more I think about it, the stranger it seems.”
“What does?”
“What exactly appealed to you about that clerk from the Cloth Market?”
Na Geum Ryeong stared intently at her brother’s face.
For her exacting brother to sign a contract for Yuan Ling Po without question or complaint was utterly unlike him.
No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t make sense of it.
Na Bu Gang turned the question back on her.
“Why did you agree to purchase Je Hyung Yu Gun?”
“I happened to need it, so I simply followed your lead and made the contract.”
“That sounds like an excuse.”
“It’s the truth. But why did you do it?”
“I’m not entirely sure. Something about him appealed to me.”
“Because he’s handsome?”
“When he approached, didn’t you feel something unusual about him?”
“That he seemed delicate?”
“You really did just look at his face, didn’t you?”
“You said you weren’t judging by appearance.”
“His gait was subtle. There was something refined about it, like when Master Tae Sa Bu demonstrates the Yuyun Bo.”
“Are you saying that clerk was a martial artist?”
Na Geum Ryeong’s eyes widened at the unexpected claim.
“I didn’t say he was a martial artist. I said his gait was subtle.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“Not necessarily. His gait could simply be distinctive. But didn’t the man’s slender build seem rather distant from martial training?”
“I suppose it does. So you helped him because his gait was unusual?”
“No, it was what he said that impressed me. He’s the sort of person you rarely encounter—genuinely honest.”
“Not strange, then?”
Na Geum Ryeong recalled what that clerk, Dan Yeop, had said.
Even granting him every benefit of the doubt, what he’d said was not something you’d ordinarily tell a stranger on the street.
“Ha, ha, ha! You’re right. He’s honest to the point of being strange. I should speak with him at once.”
Na Bu Gang sprang to his feet, and Na Geum Ryeong, caught off guard, rose with him.
“Now? This very moment?”
“Karmic connection flows like a river current. If you don’t seize it when the opportunity arrives, it simply passes you by.”
Na Bu Gang walked out briskly, leaving his bewildered sister behind.

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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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