The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 7

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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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Decline of a Great Family — A Limited Lifespan, Episode 7

“Ah, here.”
Hwa Ryun stared at her in bewilderment, then fell silent and opened his mouth.
He accepted the Yakgwa she broke off for him piece by piece, swallowing each morsel with quiet contentment.
He looked just like a baby bird, and she smiled softly as she spoke.
“Is it good? This is my treasure.”
“Yeah, um… it’s good.”
“But…”
“…?”
She gazed at the Yakgwa, now half-eaten, and broke into a mischievous grin.
‘Even if he is the Young Master of the Ma Cheon Gyo, two years means just counting the number of bowls — three, six, nine, twelve… two thousand one hundred!’
She flicked him on the crown of his head with her knuckle — a sharp tap.
“What’s with the casual speech to your sister? You little thing.”
“…”
She planted her hands on her hips and spoke as though issuing a threat, while Hwa Ryun stared back with the stunned expression of someone who’d been struck by lightning — or as if he himself had been the one struck.
He was so shocked that the old basket he’d been holding slipped from his grasp. It was as though he’d witnessed someone knocked down by a sudden bolt, now watching them spring back up right beside him — or as if he’d been the one hit.
His shock was so complete that she herself flinched in surprise.
“Did it… did it hurt that much? I was gentle… just a tiny tap on the head…”
“…No, it doesn’t hurt…”
“Really? Well then, here’s more!”
“…!”
She flicked him again on the crown. Hwa Ryun flinched backward a step, then carefully rubbed his head with his hand several times, regarding her with an expression of utter bewilderment.
And then, unexpectedly, he smiled.
“…?”
He stopped smiling just as suddenly, then studied her face from every angle.
For a long while — until she tilted her head in confusion.
“I should go now.”
Perhaps because she’d hit him for speaking casually, or perhaps to match her tone, Hwa Ryun spoke formally now.
When he suddenly announced he was leaving, she blinked in utter astonishment.
“What? Already? Now?”
He nodded and picked up the basket he’d dropped. She shoved the last piece of Yakgwa into his mouth, then rushed to where her nursemaid was hiding and fetched an umbrella, speaking hurriedly.
“Take this. It’s raining… and I feed the chickens here every morning at this time. If you come here then, we’ll see each other. You understand? You have to come visit.”
Hwa Ryun moved his hands back and forth, trying to refuse the umbrella, but she firmly caught his hand and pressed it into his grip.
He looked at her, nodded once, and turned to leave.
Uneasy for no clear reason, she caught the boy by the arm before he could turn away, and thrust both the Yakgwa and Glutinous Rice Cake she’d been holding into his embrace.
Hwa Ryun looked at her with an expression asking why she’d given him all this, but when she pushed him gently on the back, he accepted without further protest and began to walk.
As she watched the boy’s figure disappear into the distance, her nursemaid Jang approached her.
“Young mistress!”
“Oh, Nursemaid.”
Jang dried her hands with a thin cloth and drew her coat up over her head to shield her from the rain, examining her face carefully.
“Young mistress, do you like that boy?”
She swallowed a complicated expression and forced a smile instead. Did she like him? It wasn’t that simple…
“…Just in case you see him again, be kind to him, all right? Make sure to give him delicious things.”
Jang nodded at her earnest words, though worry lingered in her expression.

* * *

These days, Dan Mok Cheon Ki had one persistent source of vexation: his eldest grandson, who seemed incapable of reading the room.
“Do you think my mind will change just because you come by every day?”
“No, sir?”
“…Then why do you keep coming, knowing that?”
“Because I want to see my grandfather.”
The boy answered so matter-of-factly that Dan Mok Cheon Ki found himself at a loss for words.
“Hmm.”
“Ah! I brought the water for tea today myself. It’s from the stream behind Wol Yeong Jae.”
“What if you fall in the water…….”
“Gang Lip came with me. Today I’ll brew the tea for you, Grandfather.”
Dan Mok Cheon Ki let out a low groan and waved his hand—a gesture of permission.
His granddaughter then moved her hands without hesitation, her every motion flowing as smoothly as water.
‘That’s……?’
Dan Mok Cheon Ki watched her from above, arranging the tea leaves, his eyes flickering with something like wonder.
He had been surprised when she awoke and came to offer her thanks for the Eternal Extreme Blood Restoration Technique.
She had carried herself as though the burn scars on her face were invisible.
But given that only a few months had passed since her awakening, he had thought perhaps she simply could not yet distinguish between what was ugly and what was not.
Yet she kept coming to him, day after day. And she did nothing in particular.
She would sit with him for roughly an hour, sip the water he brewed, prattle on about trivial things, and then take her leave.
But during those long hours of sitting, she never slouched, never grew restless, and never found the intervals of silence awkward.
Was it not the mark of an Absolute Expert to glimpse the principles of heaven and earth in the fall of a single leaf?
All the more so—in the eyes of Dan Mok Cheon Ki, who had once commanded the realm itself before his injury—there bloomed the unmistakable sprouts of exceptional talent.
‘Remarkable, though. Did the Bul Mo Se Su cause this? No, that can’t be…….’
She arranged the tea utensils in order, and into the gaiwan
(a lidded teacup)
she measured the leaves, poured the hot water, rinsed the leaves, and swirled to release the aroma—her movements matched his own exactly.
It was enough to make him entertain the wild notion that the Bul Mo Se Su had somehow caused this.
But more than anything, watching this small child grip a teacup barely larger than her palm and move with such grace stirred something inexplicable in his chest.
“Grandfather, please.”
Concentrating all her focus with a furrowed brow, she held out the steeped cup, but her arms were so small and short that the rim barely reached past the midpoint of the table.
Dan Mok Cheon Ki felt a laugh threatening to escape, suppressed it with a cough, and gently wrapped his hands around the cup she offered.
Dan Mok Cheon Ki closed his eyes and savored the tea.
Clear and crystalline in hue, with a subtle fragrance and a natural sweetness that lingered long on the tongue.
‘Since when did tea taste like this?’
Decades ago, when the clan was at its height, he could taste all manner of rare leaves—but not anymore.
For years now, Dan Mok Cheon Ki had grown accustomed to the stale, musty flavor of aged tea leaves, yet what his granddaughter brewed stirred the memory of the precious teas he had savored in his most glorious days.
The taste seemed as clear as spring water, and after a sip, his breathing and spirit felt subtly more at ease.
It was the same tea leaves he had brewed for himself just days ago…….
“How is it?”
“…….”
Suppressing his surprise, he slowly savored the fragrance, and even the persistent pain that had plagued his damaged Dantian since his battle with Hyeol Ra Gok decades before seemed to ease.
‘Something feels…… different.’
He lifted his head and opened his eyes to find his granddaughter’s bright eyes gazing at him, awaiting his praise of the tea.
“……Your skill is not altogether poor.”
Did she take after her father?
His eldest son had also possessed a deep knowledge of tea, and they would often sit together to enjoy its fragrance.
Dan Mok Cheon Ki thought of his eldest son, who had departed this world far too soon, and fell silent. The pain of losing a son pierced his heart like a nail, yet could it compare to the sorrow of a daughter who had never even seen her father’s face?
“You should devote yourself to perfecting the Tea Ceremony rather than wasting effort on making Glutinous Rice Cakes.”
He had spoken to redirect his thoughts, but a shadow fell across his granddaughter’s face.
Dan Mok Cheon Ki inwardly winced, but he did not take back his words.
There had been a time when his granddaughter came to pay her morning respects and brought him Glutinous Rice Cakes.
The red bean filling was far too sweet, almost bitter, and the white cake was scarcely edible. Yet after finishing, a peculiar coolness and menthol sharpness lingered in his mouth.
He was a man of the old days, one who had even waged war. Eating was not a pleasure for him but a necessity, and he had never cultivated a taste for delicacies or indulgence.
He ate whatever was given to him without complaint. His sole luxury was tea, and even that—now that his fortunes had waned—amounted to slowly sipping aged leaves.
Yet those clumsy, misshapen red bean Glutinous Rice Cakes his granddaughter had made seemed to him an astonishingly profound taste.
He had thought then that it was natural for a child to be unable to cook properly, but seeing how skillfully she now brewed tea, it was clear she simply lacked talent in cooking alone.
Dan Mok Cheon Ki resolved inwardly that when his granddaughter came of age and was wed, he would certainly include the finest embroiderer of Zhejiang Province in her dowry.
“But the tea…….”
His granddaughter trailed off with a murmur.
The thought crossed Dan Mok Cheon Ki’s mind that praising her further would breed arrogance, yet he could not bring himself to be stern.
“Did I not say so? You’ve done well enough.”
Only then did his granddaughter’s face brighten, and she smiled.
Dan Mok Cheon Ki realized that during those brief moments when her face had grown dark, he had forgotten the taste of the tea—and only now, with her smile restored, could he taste it again. It was warm and tender, with a gentle sweetness.

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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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