The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 147

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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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A Fallen Clan’s Limited Years — Episode 147

“How did you know this Green Pine Stone was a fake……?”
“Didn’t you recognize it too, Master Nam?”
“Well, I…….”
No matter how skillfully one counterfeits a Green Pine Stone, there exists a subtle difference in the luminosity of its color.
Most people could not discern it, but Nam Yu Pyeong was the sort who noticed such things.
“Then again, you’re such a masterful craftsman — you must have recognized it at a glance.”
Ryeon murmured this with an innocent air, and in that instant, some knot of bitterness that had dwelt in Nam Yu Pyeong’s chest washed away a little.
“Seol, when Gi’s apprentice arrives later, deal with this properly. I almost admire the audacity of foisting counterfeits right at the Dan Mok Clan’s front gate. And he might try to pin this on someone else, so…….”
The young man, a disciple of Gi, still stood holding the false Green Pine Stone ornament, his face blank with confusion.
Seol Gwan Hui nodded with a stern expression, yet smiling with quiet satisfaction.
“Don’t worry. I’ll handle it decisively.”
“We’ll need to return everything we’ve transacted with them at the Guild. Jo, see to it.”
“Yes, Miss.”
Jo Jeong Bong, steward of the Man Song Merchant Guild under Gyeon Wi Un’s authority, hurried over and nodded briskly.
“And it seems someone may have deliberately framed him…….”
Ryeon spoke while her gaze swept lightly across the assembled crowd.
“We’ll look into that as well. Don’t worry, Ryeon.”
Nam Yu Pyeong still wore a bewildered expression. As Seol Gwan Hui called people together to issue orders, Gyeon Wi Un regarded him with a complicated look.
“Master Nam.”
“Yes, yes…….”
“You’ve endured much all this while.”
“I…….”
Nam Yu Pyeong’s eyes darted about in confusion. Emptiness and joy, sorrow and resentment, relief and mistrust all churned together.
“I simply cannot understand why he—why Master Gi resorted to counterfeits at all…….”
Nam Yu Pyeong’s first thought was: ‘Now it’s his turn.’
Now Gi Yeon Ung would have to live out his remaining years beneath the stigma of having used false gems. He would become a weathered driftwood, buffeted perpetually between waves of people’s distrust and hatred.
The second thought that followed was: ‘But why?’ Nam Yu Pyeong could not fathom it. After Nam Yu Pyeong’s fall, Gi Yeon Ung had become the finest jeweler in Hang Zhou—so why?
Why would the man who had looked down upon him, who bore the false accusation of a crafting error and fraud, who drifted from job to job changing bowls as if he were rubbish, why would such a man do this?
“Master Nam, how can one who does no harm fathom the heart of one who does harm?”
“Ah…….”
Gyeon Wi Un recalled those eyes he had glimpsed once in passing—the eyes of this fellow Gi—and shook his head slowly.
That arrogant, callous notion that genuine gemstones were wasted on fools who could not tell the real from the false—how could he not understand it?
“The world is a harsh place. Heaven and earth are without feeling, and not all grievances in Kangho are resolved, nor are all crimes punished, yet…….”
Gyeon Wi Un glanced in turn at Jo Jeong Bong, who moved quickly at his command, at Seol Gwan Hui organizing the clan’s people some distance away, and then at Ryeon, who had perceived the genuine from the false.
“Now and then they seem to cast a merciful eye upon us, it seems.”
Nam Yu Pyeong stared blankly at the Ivory Sphere he had made.
The oddly shaped carvings, another Ivory Sphere nestled within the shadows created by the seams of each piece, and within that, still another. They shifted slightly, light and shadow playing across them in ripples.
Though a harsh world dwells beneath an unfeeling heaven and earth, they do cast their gaze downward at times…….
“None of this would have happened if Master Nam had not persevered. If this Ivory Sphere had not existed, if you had not come this far, none of it would have occurred.”
At those words, Nam Yu Pyeong felt his mind clear as if he had drunk cold water all at once, the chill spreading through his chest and dispersing into his lungs.
Even if this Ivory Sphere had existed, even if he had come this far.
‘If the person before me had been someone else.’
The harsh world would still have been harsh, and he would never have known that the unfeeling heaven and earth held any mercy at all.
“First of all, I’d like to purchase this Ivory Sphere. And what about working here at our clan? Have you made up your mind?”
Nam Yu Pyeong stumbled over his words.
“Could I possibly, at the Dan Mok Clan……? Even though……? Could I……?”
The stories about breaking the Hairpin he had been hired to repair, the accusations of swapping genuine gems for counterfeits.
The things he had worn himself down to the bone trying to refute, only to waste away entirely.
Did this girl pay no mind to any of that?
As if in answer to his inner turmoil, Ryeon posed a counter-question.
“Were all those things actually true?”
“No, no! I have never deceived anyone, nor have I ever made such grave mistakes…….”
“Then work with us here at our clan.”
“Ah, I understand!”
Nam Yu Pyeong cried out loudly before he could stop himself.
And that was the end of it. As though hearing a sincere answer was all that mattered.
For the first time since that incident, the girl who had never simply accepted his words at face value without reservation smiled brightly at him.
“There’s quite a lot to do. First, there’s this large jade stone—it came from Kunlun Mountain.”
“Please, leave it all to me!”

* * *

As Nam Yu Pyeong found himself suddenly employed and was led away to Jae Gyeong Wing with a bewildered expression, the gathering naturally dispersed.
Gyeon Wi Un watched in turn: the ornaments that Dan Mok Ryeon had selected and purchased, the retreating figure of Nam Yu Pyeong being led away almost against his will, and the backs of the old artisans as they cast curious glances and vanished.
Gyeon Wi Un had come to this gathering precisely because he’d heard that Dan Mok Ryeon would be selecting and purchasing the ornaments herself.
‘I was worried someone might look down on her and try to cheat her…….’
Such concern proved entirely unnecessary. In fact, her eye for gemstones appeared even keener than his own.
She rejected counterfeits with an almost supernatural instinct, and picked out every genuine piece without missing a single one. Watching from the side, he found himself genuinely impressed.
For a few of the ornaments, even his own eye couldn’t immediately determine whether they were authentic, requiring professional appraisal—yet Dan Mok Ryeon picked them up without hesitation or doubt.
Gyeon Wi Un had an intuition that each of those pieces, once appraised, would be pronounced excellent and genuine.
“This Nam artisan…….”
Gyeon Wi Un murmured with a strange emotion.
“I knew he’d been falsely accused.”
Yet the lingering doubt—’what if’—had constricted his judgment. A broken hairpin could never be mended.
“An artisan of such caliber wouldn’t make that kind of mistake.”
Dan Mok Ryeon replied.
But even knowing that, no one else would willingly employ a craftsman whom everyone avoided, one who had fallen out of favor with the local official.
‘Perhaps she’s still too young to think that far ahead?’
Yet in the next moment, Gyeon Wi Un’s thoughts shifted. It didn’t seem like Dan Mok Ryeon would make such an oversight.
‘This one…… has the Three Examinations.’
Since the examination system had been established, one could count on one hand those who had swept all three stages—Provincial, Intermediate, and Palace Examinations—clean.
That person who had achieved the Three Examinations worked for the Man Song Merchant Guild, and the Guild’s relationship with the Dan Mok Clan was something the heavens and earth themselves knew of. No local official, however much authority he wielded, could act entirely on whim.
“I thought if I entrusted him with this fine piece of jade, it would work out!”
But seeing her smiling so brightly, Gyeon Wi Un found it hard to believe she’d been making such calculations.
If so, all the better. He simply needed to ensure nothing ill came of it on his end.
“What do you mean to make from it?”
“I’m planning to make several ornamental pendants and share them with my family. And the person who gave it wanted me to make a bracelet originally, so I’ll make one of those too……. And I’ll carve a few small beads as well!”
“Hmm.”
Pendants, beads, bracelets—Gyeon Wi Un mentally added gemstones and ornaments to the list of gifts he would frequently send to Dan Mok Ryeon in the future.
“Then since we’ve bought everything, shall we stay to confirm the Cheong Ryeon Water and Baek Yak Cheong are finished and sent off?”
“……!”
Gyeon Wi Un broke into an undisguised smile. Had his younger brother seen him just then, he would have witnessed an expression he’d never seen before—yet Gyeon Wi Un couldn’t stop smiling.
Walking alongside Dan Mok Ryeon, Gyeon Wi Un spoke.
“It’s a long journey to the Northern Sea, so you must travel carefully. Don’t fall ill, don’t get hurt, and if anything troubles your heart, send me a letter and I’ll see it’s resolved one way or another. Of course, the family elders will likely attend to it first…….”
If one were to name the place that understood the peculiar efficacy of Cheong Ryeon Water best, aside from the Dan Mok Clan, it would be the Man Song Merchant Guild.
How was this special extract made, that it produced different effects than counterfeits made with identical proportions? What on earth could be different?
The answer came from his father, Gyeon Eon Jo: wasn’t it simply that the person making it was different?
As for the question of whether a young girl’s single stir of the jar containing the extract could make such a difference—he let that matter drop.
He wasn’t foolish enough to lose what was in his hand while digging into the reasons and logic of his good fortune. Besides, there existed in this world things beyond his comprehension, mysteries of a realm he could not fathom.

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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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