Ten Paths of the Master - Chapter 56

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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 56. The Young Miss of the Jin Estate
The next day.
Dan Yeop began his inquiries, moving from shop to shop, wandering through the market.
He was searching for someone who had lost a child fourteen years ago.
But no one remembered events from fourteen years back.
As dusk fell, he returned to the inn.
For supper, Western bread and lamb soup were brought to his table.
Jeomsoi, setting the dishes down, asked in passing.
“You’re here again? What brings you to our town?”
“Not business. I’m looking for someone.”
“Who?”
Dan Yeop gave a small smile and turned the question back on him.
“How old are you?”
“Fifteen.”
“Then you wouldn’t understand. It’s about something that happened before you were born.”
“You shouldn’t say that, sir.”
“Why not?”
“People nowadays know Confucius and Mencius well, don’t they? But by your logic, since they lived before I was born, I shouldn’t know about them.”
“That’s different. Confucius and Mencius are famous.”
“Then if nobody knows this person, who would remember something from fourteen years ago?”
Dan Yeop could not help but shake his head at the boy’s sharp tongue.
“You win. I’m looking for the family of a four-year-old child I lost fourteen years ago.”
“Ah, I see. I hope you find them, sir.”
Satisfied with his answer, Jeomsoi asked nothing more and returned to his duties.
Dan Yeop, shaking his head slowly, soon reached for his food.
After the meal, as Jeomsoi cleared the dishes while Dan Yeop sipped his tea, the boy spoke again.
“That child must have come from a distinguished family?”
“Me? No.”
Dan Yeop looked at Jeomsoi with a puzzled expression.
He was wearing plain clothes—he couldn’t fathom what would make the boy say such a thing.
“Not you, sir. The child you lost.”
“Why?”
“I mentioned it to my master out of curiosity, and he said that seven or eight years ago, someone in fine silk clothes came looking for a child like that, then disappeared after a few days.”
Dan Yeop’s eyes flickered with interest.
It was similar, but not quite the same.
He was searching for the family that had lost the child, whereas the silk-clad stranger had been searching for the child itself.
“And did that person find the child?”
“Unlikely. He wandered through Nag’an County like you for several days, then vanished.”
“Really? Was he from the family that lost the child?”
“No, sir. What family loses a child and then stays quiet for six or seven years before searching?”
“Fair point.”
Dan Yeop, nodding slowly, handed Jeomsoi five coins.
“Thank you.”
Jeomsoi quickly pocketed the coins and, gathering the empty dishes, returned inside.
Night had fallen outside the window.
Dan Yeop stared blankly into the empty street.
This was his second day.
His search for his parents had made no progress whatsoever.
It seemed that if his parents had searched for him even fourteen years ago, someone would remember—yet there was no sign of it.
Nothing like that had happened at all.
‘Could the child that silk-clad person was searching for have been me?’
It was possible, but also possible it was not.
The circumstances suggested it was unlikely.
After losing the child, his parents had not searched for him.
Then, the old woman he had seen yesterday appeared again in the same spot.
As Dan Yeop stared blankly at the old woman, the innkeeper approached and spoke.
“Grandma Jang was sound of mind when she worked at the Jin Estate.”
“You know her?”
“Yes, sir. Her son used to work in our inn’s kitchen. That’s why she still wanders around the inn every evening.”
“I see!”
Dan Yeop sighed at the somehow poignant tale.
The innkeeper continued.
“Grandma Jang originally worked at the Jin Estate. When the Jin Estate’s precious daughter married into the Gwak Residence, she went along as a maid. She did well there, but as they say, time waits for no one—starting last year, something changed.”
“Changed how?”
“She started speaking nonsense to the Gwak family’s only grandson.”
“What did she say?”
“Every time she saw the boy, she’d say, ‘Do you know you have an older brother?’ That’s basically claiming the lady bore a child by another man. Gwak the Scholar could have beaten her to death, but fortunately it came out that Grandma Jang had simply lost her mind. He forgave her on those grounds. And then Lady Jin quietly sent away an old maidservant she’d kept, perhaps to put the matter to rest.”
“They sound like honorable people.”
“Ever since her mind went, even her children have turned their backs on her. I worry she’ll simply waste away in some roadside inn.”
“How sorrowful.”
Dan Yeop regarded the old woman with fresh eyes.
Even she must have had her youth once; there was something deeply sad about the passage of years.
Just then the old woman slipped on the ice and fell, and Dan Yeop sprang forward without thinking.
“Are you hurt, Grandmother?”
As Dan Yeop helped her up, the old woman gripped his hand tightly and spoke.
“Oh my, how kind you are. Thank you so much.”
The old woman took another step, only to slip again and stumble backward.
Dan Yeop reached out, but her flailing hand caught his collar instead.
His tightly fastened upper robe came undone, and his neck was exposed.
“Oh heavens! I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—”
The old woman’s apology caught in her throat as her eyes fixed on his neck.
She saw the unmistakable nail marks, and her hand began to tremble.
“Lord have mercy, young mistress. No, don’t. Please don’t do this. You’ll die, young mistress. What wrong has she done to deserve this? Don’t do it. Oh, my poor mistress. Poor young mistress… Sob, sob.”
Tears streamed down the old woman’s face, and Dan Yeop awkwardly tried to comfort her.
“Please, Grandmother. Don’t cry.”
He thought she was remembering the days she’d spent raising children at the Gwak residence.
But her next words froze him solid.
“Those marks on your neck—how can we hide them? The child will be found, surely found…”
Dan Yeop suddenly understood: “young mistress” might not refer to Gwak the Scholar’s grandson at all.
“Grandmother, was this young mistress born at the Jin Estate? Or at the Gwak residence?”
“What are you talking about? The first child was born at the Jin Estate, naturally.”
“So that’s why you told the Gwak grandson he had an older brother?”
“Of course. Would I invent something that wasn’t there? Do you think I’ve gone mad?”
“What happened to the Jin Estate’s young mistress?”
“She was lost.”
“Lost? The Jin Estate never found her?”
“They never looked. An unmarried girl bearing a child—who would search for her?”
“I see.”
The old woman stared at Dan Yeop intently and asked.
“But who are you?”
“Me? Just a wanderer passing through.”
“And those marks on your neck?”
“Ah, this? When I was small, someone nearly strangled me to death. This is what remained from that time.”
“Good heavens, what a terrible thing to say. Don’t speak of such horrors. Our young mistress tried to kill her own child. Do you know how desperately worried I was that the little one would die?”
“Why did she try to kill her?”
“She went to Gwangbulsa and suffered a terrible outrage there. Then she suddenly found herself with child.”
“Was the father a Buddhist monk?”
“I don’t know. I only heard about Gwangbulsa when the lord and mistress were arguing about it. Let me see your neck.”
Dan Yeop obligingly opened his robe to show his neck.
The old woman examined the marks slowly, then murmured as if to herself.
“How strange… they’re just like the marks on our young mistress’s neck.”
“She married into the Gwak residence after the child disappeared?”
“Yes, that’s right. She married the following year. I went to the Gwak residence with the mistress at that time.”
“What was the child’s name?”
“She had none. No one at the Jin Estate gave her a name.”
“Pity… and who else knows of the child?”
“Only I, since I’ve served the mistress since those days at the Jin Estate.”
“I understand. May you live long, Grandmother.”
Dan Yeop drew a silver coin from his purse and pressed it into the old woman’s palm.
At the sight of the silver, the old woman started in surprise and quickly tucked it into her bosom.
With nothing left to say, Dan Yeop turned slowly to go.
Then a voice called out from behind him—the old woman’s voice.
“You take care of yourself too.”
Dan Yeop paused, raised his hand in acknowledgment, then stepped back into the inn.
He sat down and stared blankly into the void until Jeomsoi approached.
“Say, guest. It’s time we closed the dining room. You’ll be staying another night, yes?”
Dan Yeop, who had been lost in thought, looked at the boy and asked in return.
“Do you know where the Gwak Residence is?”
“Of course I do.”
But the young Jeomsoi did not actually tell him where it was.
With a bitter smile, Dan Yeop produced a coin and laid it on the table.
Jeomsoi reached for the coin, but Dan Yeop was faster.
Dan Yeop covered the coin with his palm and spoke.
“Then where is it?”
“Head out from the inn, follow the left path for a good stretch, and it should appear on your right.”
“I’ll just know it when I see it?”
“There’s a plaque on the gate that says ‘Gwak Residence.’ If you can read characters, you’ll find it right away.”
When Dan Yeop lifted his hand, Jeomsoi quickly snatched up the coin.
Dan Yeop rose from his seat, retrieved his pack from his room, and headed outside.
He walked a long way in the direction Jeomsoi had indicated, but the Gwak Residence did not appear.
Just as he thought he’d been deceived and was about to turn back, he spotted a plaque reading “Gwak Residence.”
In that moment, his heart hammered against his ribs.
‘Calm yourself. It might not be her.’
He muttered to himself, ‘It could just be the rambling of an old woman’s failing mind,’ and stood before the gate.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
As Dan Yeop rapped on the gate, the Gatekeeper emerged after a moment.
“Who is it?”
“A traveling Examination Candidate passing through. Might I trouble you for a night’s lodging?”
An Examination Candidate referred to someone who had left home to sit for the civil service exam.
After a brief look up and down at Dan Yeop, the Gatekeeper spoke with reluctance.
“Wait a moment, please. I’ll go ask the Magistrate and return.”
The Gatekeeper went inside and returned not long after.
“Please come in. Why must you travel in such bitter cold?”
Since the civil service exam took place in autumn, this was a veiled reproach—’What have you been doing all this time, and why are you only now heading home?’
“Circumstances required it.”
“You should explain your situation to the Magistrate.”
As they entered the inner quarters, an old man stood in the main hall, hands clasped behind his back.
“Magistrate, I’ve brought an Examination Candidate.”
The moment their eyes met, Dan Yeop bowed respectfully, pressing his hands together.
“I am Dan Yeop, sir. After failing the examination, I lodged at an inn in Jang’anseong, but my funds ran dry, so I was returning home when fate brought me here.”
The Magistrate Gwak, after scanning Dan Yeop from head to foot, opened his mouth.
“A tale of misfortune, it seems. We can hear the details tomorrow—for now, rest. Take him to the guest quarters.”
Having spoken, Magistrate Gwak turned and entered his chamber without a backward glance.
The Gatekeeper led Dan Yeop to the guest quarters.
Once in the guest quarters, Dan Yeop ventured a quiet question.
“You are most gracious. Do you always welcome uninvited visitors so warmly?”
“The gentleman is fortunate. If our Young Master weren’t preparing for the examination, this would never have happened.”
“The Young Master, you say?”
“The master’s grandson.”
“I see.”
Dan Yeop nodded as if in understanding.
It seemed the Magistrate had allowed him to stay because the grandson was preparing for the exam—a courtesy to a fellow candidate.
“How old is the young gentleman?”
“Thirteen this year.”
A strange feeling stirred in Dan Yeop.
With only five years between them, it seemed she had married the following year and borne a son.
“Then rest well.”
The Gatekeeper vanished into the darkness, and Dan Yeop withdrew into his chamber.
Yet he did not lie down to sleep.
‘If Dun-jae knew where he was, what expression would cross his face?’
He chuckled like a mischievous boy at the mere thought of it, his whole face lighting up with delight.
He had been sitting motionless in the darkness, but now he lit the oil lamp.
Then he drew the Book of Poetry from his pack and opened it.
As if the heavens themselves had guided his hand, the page fell open to words perfectly suited to the moment.
[My father gave me life, and my mother nurtured and cared for me. Oh, how sorrowful and tender my parents are! How much hardship and labor they endured to bring me into this world and raise me.]

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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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