The Mending Studio - Chapter 19

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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 19
When Yeop Jang-cheong first spoke, she’d accepted his words at face value.
But then Yu Jang-ha wore the same grave expression, talking about souls being cleansed and such — doubt crept in despite herself.
Judging by their age and bearing, they didn’t seem the type to flatter just anyone. That’s what made it so confusing.
She couldn’t tell from their faces alone whether they meant it sincerely or were merely jesting with a stranger they’d just met.
It was the raw leaf of an ordinary wild tea plant.
The aroma was pleasant enough, but it couldn’t possibly cleanse anyone’s soul.
Yeop Jang-cheong kept smiling while her thoughts churned beneath.

‘Fine. I’ll have to face them properly at Baduk sometime.’

There was no way to deflect verbal teasing, but at Baduk she was confident.
Even so, another calculation was forming in her mind.
What if they really did like the taste? Couldn’t she refine her technique and sell proper tea?
If she learned the roasting and drying process, she might even open a small tea shop.
The general store business wasn’t always steady either.
While Yeop Jang-cheong was absorbed in merchant’s thoughts, Yu Jang-ha withdrew an ornate Gold Casket from his robe.

“Yeop Jang-cheong.”
“Yes?”

Yu Jang-ha presented the Gold Casket with both hands.

“A small token of goodwill. Please accept it.”

Yeop Jang-cheong’s gaze naturally drifted to the casket.
Moments ago she’d been planning to humiliate them at Baduk, but hearing the word “gift,” her anger cooled swiftly.

‘Was what they said earlier sincere, then?’

Besides, Yeon Bing-sim had stayed at her house for several days.
It seemed they’d prepared this small token of thanks so her family wouldn’t leave empty-handed.

“There was no need to go to such trouble.”

She said so with her mouth, but she was curious what lay inside.
Yu Jang-ha smiled.

“Inside is a Hyeon Bing-ju. Not something I would call invaluable, but please regard it as my sincerity.”
“A Hyeon Bing-ju?”

It was a name she’d never heard before.
Yeop Jang-cheong hesitated a moment, then opened the casket.
A chill brushed across her face.
A pure white pearl lay nestled inside.
It was the size of an infant’s clenched fist.
Wisps of pale frost coiled across its surface, and the very air grew cool the moment the lid was lifted.
The eyes of Jang Hyeon-jin-in and Yuk Mu-ssang shifted.

‘A pearl of Mystical Ice carved to that size?’

Mystical Ice was known to form only in extreme lands where bitter cold had accumulated for tens of millions of years.
Though possessed of an intense chill, paradoxically it excelled at treating wounds and fire poison.
For cultivators with a Spiritual Root aligned to ice especially, it was more precious than most spiritual medicines.
Taehyeon Sacred Ground did possess Mystical Ice.
But even a fingernail-sized fragment was beyond pricing. The mere fact that they had refined such Mystical Ice into a pearl the size of an infant’s fist spoke volumes of the Daeyeon Imperial Family’s power.
Yeop Jang-cheong glanced once at both their stern faces, then carefully picked up the Hyeon Bing-ju.
Her palm grew cool.
Nothing more.

‘Oh.’

It pleased her more than expected.
Even at the tail end of summer, the days were still sweltering.
If she placed this pearl in a vessel, it seemed it could chill fruit and drinks nicely.

“Quite refreshing, isn’t it.”

Yeop Jang-cheong rolled the pearl with evident satisfaction.

“It would be splendid for keeping fruit and such cold on hot days.”

Jang Hyeon-jin-in’s mouth tightened.
Yuk Mu-ssang gazed silently at the pearl resting in her palm.
Even Yu Jang-ha found himself at a loss for words.
The Hyeon Bing-ju was no object an ordinary human could hold bare-handed.
If a common person touched it, they might freeze to death outright; even cultivators without an ice-natured Spiritual Root would find its extreme cold a calamity. It was no trifle, even for masters of the Huahsin Realm.
Yet Yeop Jang-cheong remained utterly composed, as though he felt no chill whatsoever.
And his intended use was merely to keep fruit cold.
Yu Jang-ha swallowed a breath that might have been laughter or a sigh—he could not say which.

‘To him, it is nothing but a small plaything after all.’

Yeop Jang-cheong placed the pearl back inside the Gold Casket.

“I am most pleased. I shall use it well.”

Yu Jang-ha’s expression brightened.

“I am relieved to hear it has won your approval.”

He studied Yeop Jang-cheong for a moment, then turned toward Yeon Bing-sim.
Now came the time to broach his true purpose.

“And there is another matter, sir.”
“Please, speak on.”
“My young lady has imposed greatly upon your hospitality these past several days.”

Yeon Bing-sim’s expression stiffened slightly.
Yu Jang-ha continued.

“Her family has been anxious for some time now, so I intend to take her back with me today.”

Yu Jang-ha finished speaking and looked toward Yeon Bing-sim.
Word alone that she had been found would have already set the Imperial Palace in upheaval. How much sleepless anguish the Emperor and Empress—who held Yeon Bing-sim especially dear—must have endured needed no elaboration.
Under normal circumstances, there would have been no reason to ask Yeon Bing-sim’s wishes. Since she had been found safe, the proper course was to bring her home at once.
Yet because the master of this place was Yeop Jang-cheong, Yu Jang-ha could not speak with his usual certainty.

“Ah.”

Yeop Jang-cheong’s eyes reflexively sought Yeon Bing-sim.

‘At last she leaves?’

In truth, Yeop Jang-cheong had long been anticipating Yeon Bing-sim’s departure.
She was a stranger who had materialized in his bedchamber without warning, and she was hardly skilled at household matters.
Now that her family had come seeking her in person, he could finally let his guard down.
Yet with Yu Jang-ha having presented such a precious gift, he could not simply wear an expression of relief.
Yeop Jang-cheong arranged his face to show a show of reluctance as he regarded Yeon Bing-sim.

“It’s happened faster than expected.”
“You and I are parting sooner than I anticipated, it seems.”

Yeon Bing-sim’s eyes widened at those words.
Jang Hyeon-jin-in and Yuk Mu-ssang exchanged a swift glance with each other.
Yu Jang-ha too bore an expression of surprise.
To their eyes, Yeop Jang-cheong appeared genuinely reluctant to part with Yeon Bing-sim.

‘What on earth does he see in her?’

Yu Jang-ha found himself taken aback.
Jang Hyeon-jin-in and Yuk Mu-ssang wore similar expressions of bewilderment.
The very notion that a being like Yeop Jang-cheong would seem to regret someone’s departure struck all three as extraordinary.
Yeon Bing-sim, who had never wished to leave this place to begin with, hesitated for a moment upon hearing those words.
Then she looked toward Yeop Jang-cheong.
Her hesitation did not last long.

“Master Yeop.”
“…Yes?”

Yeon Bing-sim broke into a radiant smile.

“I’m not going.”

Yeop Jang-cheong’s expression froze in place.
The regretful look he had worn out of courtesy vanished in an instant.
He had merely been observing the niceties toward Yu Jang-ha—but Yeon Bing-sim seemed genuinely intent on remaining here longer.

‘What?’

Yu Jang-ha’s eyes widened as well, having expected no such thing. Jang Hyeon-jin-in and Yuk Mu-ssang both turned their gaze upon Yeon Bing-sim.
She wore no expression of jest.
She turned to face Yu Jang-ha.

“Uncle Yu.”
“Please, speak freely, young lady.”
“Please tell Father and Mother that I am safe. I should like to stay here a while longer, and when I feel the time has come to return home, I shall do so then.”

Yeop Jang-cheong’s eyes narrowed.

‘Why on earth?’

He had merely made a polite remark about being sorry to see her go.
Though he had begun to grow accustomed to having another person in the house, that did not mean he wished to keep someone her family had come to collect.
Above all, for a man and woman to continue living under one roof was, no matter how he considered it, an improper arrangement.
He did not know how lightly the people of this world regarded such matters, but by Yeop Jang-cheong’s own understanding, it remained a complication. He was, after all, still a young man.
If they dwelled together day and night, any unfortunate incident could leave them both in an impossible position.

‘Are her family truly unconcerned about this?’

He looked toward Yu Jang-ha.
Yet Yu Jang-ha, the elder of her household, did not immediately object—he seemed to be deliberating.
Yeop Jang-cheong felt only more exasperated.

‘Why are all these people so broad-minded?’

Moreover, he himself was hardly a man of means.
He lived on what he earned from the general store and the study hall.
Supporting one additional person was not an immediate hardship, but neither could he sustain responsibility for another family’s precious daughter indefinitely.
After a moment’s consideration, Yeop Jang-cheong opened his mouth with measured care.

“Yeon Bing-sim.”
“Yes, sir.”
“There is a saying: Filial Piety Foremost. Is there not?”

Yeon Bing-sim blinked.

“Your parents have likely worried for a long time. If this place pleases you, return home and spend time with them, and come back again later if you wish.”

Yeon Bing-sim grasped the gentle meaning at once.
Her lips pressed together slightly.
Yu Jang-ha’s eyes grew brighter.
Jang Hyeon-jin-in nodded slowly as well.
He had lived nearly thousands of years.
After entering the path of cultivation, his sense of time had changed, and even his parents’ faces lay buried in the distant past.
Back then, the way of cultivation had seemed too long and steep to afford a glance behind.
Now, in hindsight, there were too many words left unsaid to people he could never see again.
Jang Hyeon-jin-in spoke quietly.

“You are right, sir. What Master Yeop says is true.”

Yeon Bing-sim looked at him.

“When one reaches my age, one’s parents have long since turned to dust. While they still remain at your side, it is better to serve them well.”

Yu Jang-ha nodded, his expression touched with feeling.

“A human life is shorter than one thinks. Though a cultivator’s years may exceed an ordinary human’s, even that span does not grant eternity to bonds of kinship.”

Neither old man’s voice held a trace of jest.
Yeon Bing-sim’s expression gradually grew solemn.
Yeop Jang-cheong inwardly felt relief at the sight.

‘Yes. It is better for the elders to speak such things.’

Then, quite suddenly, a poem he had read long ago returned to him.
The verses flowed naturally from his lips.

“Daylilies bloom upon the courtyard steps; a wanderer journeys far from home.”

The courtyard fell silent.
Yeop Jang-cheong continued, reciting softly.

“The loving parent waits by the hall’s entrance; yet the daylily flowers she shall never see.”

Yeon Bing-sim’s eyes wavered, and Yuk Mu-ssang held her breath.
The verses were not elaborate.
There was no trace of forced artifice. If anything, that very plainness struck deeper.
The waiting and regret that lingers between parent and child lay bare, unadorned, like something spilled from a full cup.
Daylilies at the doorway; a child who has journeyed beyond the horizon.
Simple as the poem’s meaning was, the weight it carried for Jang Hyeon-jin-in and Yu Jang-ha proved entirely different.
Both men had parents long since departed from this world.
Buried deep in the long millennia of cultivation, memories they had nearly forgotten stirred again at those few lines of verse.
Now, no amount of regret could grant them the chance to fulfill their filial duty.
That truth pierced their hearts.
The old men’s eyes reddened.
Yeon Bing-sim too found herself thinking of her own parents without intention.
This time, she had vanished without leaving them a single proper word.
How much her family must have worried was something she need not deliberate to understand.
Yuk Mu-ssang set down her teacup in silence.
Only Yeop Jang-cheong was startled by the four people’s reactions.

‘Did I choose something too heavy?’

He’d only meant to convey that they should visit home once.
But seeing the expressions on the two old men’s faces, it seemed he’d touched an old wound.
Yeop Jang-cheong cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Just something that came to mind, I’m afraid.”

Jang Hyeon-jin-in exhaled slowly.
The turbulence in his heart gradually subsided.
Oddly, old regrets surfaced, yet strangely one corner of his heart felt clearer than before.
He could not erase the past.
But it felt like a warning not to create the same regrets again.
Yu Jang-ha was much the same.
The two men’s gaze upon Yeop Jang-cheong had grown deeper than before.
The moment words left his lips they became poetry, and the meaning within it was unadorned and profound. Even among those in the Middle Kingdom who counted themselves heirs to the legacy of literary refinement, it would not be easy to offer such verse so readily in such a moment.
To the two men, even that single phrase seemed to carry the weight of propriety.
Had Yeop Jang-cheong heard this, he would have waved it away at once.
After a brief silence, Yu Jang-ha rose from his seat.
Looking out at the sky beyond, he saw that considerable time had passed.
He adjusted his robes and bowed deeply to Yeop Jang-cheong.

“Master Yeop, I’ve imposed upon you far too long today. I shall escort the young lady home now.”

This time, Yeon Bing-sim did not object at once.
She worked her lips for a while, then looked toward Yeop Jang-cheong.

“Master Yeop.”
“Yes?”
“I… I shall return home for now.”

Reluctance colored the end of her words.

“And after some time passes… might I call upon you again?”

Yeop Jang-cheong smiled.

“Of course. Whenever you wish.”

Yeon Bing-sim’s face brightened slightly.

“I promise I shall return.”

Yeop Jang-cheong nodded, but something strange stirred in his heart.
Now that he was about to see them off, all those things he’d thought bothersome just moments before came back to him.
Still, this was right.
Those with family must return home.
And as Yeon Bing-sim had said, when she came again, he too would have a favor to ask.

‘Perhaps this time I’ll venture out beyond as well.’

Five years since he’d fallen into this world.
The only places Yeop Jang-cheong had properly traveled were Sojijin and the vicinity of Taehyeon Mountain.
To have come to this vast world where Cultivators existed, only to grow old within a small village, felt a waste.
How flourishing must the Daeyeon Kingdom’s capital be, as Yeon Bing-sim had described it?
He wanted to see the world beyond with his own eyes. Most of all, he wanted to walk through the wide expanse beyond Sojijin at least once.

“I shall escort you to the edge of the village.”

Yeop Jang-cheong rose from his seat.
Yu Jang-ha started in surprise and waved his hand.

“There’s no need for you to go to such trouble yourself.”
“It’s not far at all.”

Yeop Jang-cheong smiled and turned his gaze toward Jang Hyeon-jin-in and Yuk Mu-ssang.

“Would you and the lady mind waiting here for a moment, if you’re not in a hurry?”
“Of course not.”

Jang Hyeon-jin-in replied at once.
Yuk Mu-ssang nodded as well.
Yeop Jang-cheong led Yeon Bing-sim and Yu Jang-ha out into the courtyard.
The door closed behind them, and their footsteps faded into the distance.
Jang Hyeon-jin-in watched them go for a moment, then exhaled slowly.

“A truly unfathomable man.”

Yuk Mu-ssang answered with only a faint smile.
With the two of them alone now, Jang Hyeon-jin-in’s gaze drifted naturally toward the writing desk.
The Taehyeon Landscape Painting that Yuk Mu-ssang and Yeon Bing-sim had been studying lay unfurled there.
Jang Hyeon-jin-in stepped forward almost without thinking.
Then he stopped.
His vision was drawn into the painting.
In an instant, the colors around him vanished.
Before his eyes remained only a vast mountain range rendered in black and white.
Layer upon layer of peaks.
A ravine thick with ancient gnarled trees.
Ancient halls glimpsed faintly through veils of mist and cloud.
For Jang Hyeon-jin-in, who had spent thousands of years at the Taehyeon Sacred Ground, it was a landscape far too familiar.
Yet this was not a painting that could be dismissed as merely resembling the real thing.
It was more itself than Taehyeon Mountain itself.
Each peak and each hall was threaded through with a presence that defied description in words.
Jang Hyeon-jin-in’s gaze turned toward the deepest place.
The main peak where Taehyeon Hall stood.
Above it, clouds of five-colored auspicious light settled broad and wide.
In that moment, Jang Hyeon-jin-in’s body went rigid.

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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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