Free Web NovelUnlike when he had come to pay his respects to Tang Jung a few days ago, Tang Un was dressed plainly.
There was no jade hair ornament, and he wasn’t wearing the long robe with delicate embroidery.
Over a simple green robe he had thrown on a snow-white outer coat. It was a bit too modest a look for a direct-line son of the Tang Clan.
Not that it did anything to hide that particular young master aura of his. If anything, he looked like some nobleman who had dressed down for a covert outing.
He really was ridiculously handsome.
I stared at Tang Un in open admiration.
Every time he moved, his loosened hair swayed gently.
Toward the ends, the soft brown strands grew paler, and I felt like if they faded any further they’d look almost wheat-colored.
Here and there, the lighter patches were already the color of wheat. It had to be the effect of the severed-meridians disease.
I was in no position to worry about anybody when I could barely keep myself alive, but it still made my chest tighten.
The first time we met it had been late at night, and the second time was in a lamplit sitting room, so I hadn’t really seen him clearly.
Now that we were face-to-face in a bright room, I could see it for certain.
Tang Un’s face was steeped in illness. There was the smell of unavoidable death on him.
What would happen when his hair turned completely white?
Namgung Under Heaven didn’t have a single line describing Tang Un. He probably died before Namgung Hwi reached adulthood...
I hastily shook my head and bit the soft inside of my cheek. It was rude to sit here imagining a future that hadn’t arrived yet with the person in question right in front of me.
After groping for words for quite a while, I barely managed to get one line out.
“Grandfather has gone out.”
“Yes. I know. Grandfather called me here to help you with your studies, Sohae. Come sit.”
Pushing his fallen hair back behind his ear, Tang Un pulled out a chair for me. The smile at his lips didn’t match his pale complexion.
“This older brother was surprised you changed your mind. Before, you said you had no interest in studying.”
Sohae. So that’s how you were, huh?
“Ah... I did say that.”
I somehow got an answer out, fidgeting awkwardly with my hands.
It seemed Tang Un had once tried to teach me to read.
Seeing my reaction, he must have decided I’d shrunk into myself, because he spoke gently.
“I’m not interrogating you, so don’t worry. I’m just saying I’m glad, now that we’ll be able to trade letters, you and I.”
“Ha ha... yes.”
“I hear you’ve been learning the Thousand-Character Classic. Would you let this older brother see how far you’ve gotten?”
“Yes.”
“Good girl.”
Praising me, Tang Un patted my head. It wasn’t exactly the kind of thing you did to a grown younger sister.
It was more like the way you treated a five-year-old than a fifteen-year-old.
The fact that he didn’t feel anything strange about it made me think he must have been patting Sohae’s head like this since she was very young.
The gift from last time too—apparently Tang Un had been quietly looking after the illegitimate little sister no one else cared about.
This is exactly why you shouldn’t judge people too fast.
You’re a good guy. Sorry for misunderstanding you. I’ll take the next present you give me.
While I was hurriedly reflecting on my hasty past behavior and reevaluating Tang Un, writing tools were set down in front of me.
Placing a brush in my hand, Tang Un spoke softly.
“Then shall we see how skilled our Sohae is?”
His voice was mild, but I felt a shiver run up my spine. In the eyes I’d thought were only gentle, I caught a strange glint of madness.
I had a bad feeling about this. I swallowed hard and lifted the brush.
*****
After looking over the characters I’d written on the paper, Tang Un showered me with embarrassing praise, saying I must be the most gifted prodigy in all Sichuan.
Then he picked out seven strokes that were wrong and made me write each of the incorrect characters twenty times.
He was a teacher with an uncanny knack for alternating carrot and stick.
By the time I’d obediently written the character for “ink” twenty times, my fingers were tingling. I set the brush down and called out to him.
“Older brother. I’m done.”
“Let me see. Oh, excellent. But wouldn’t the character look neater if this stroke went up a little more? What do you think, Sohae?”
“...I’ll write it again.”
He was picky about my handwriting too.
Without protest, I spread out a fresh sheet of paper. Even to me, my writing looked like worms crawling across the page.
In my defense, it was because I’d never had to write characters by hand before. My handwriting in Korean hadn’t been this atrocious.
“There we go. That’s much better. Now, why don’t you try this stroke again? The ends need to meet as one to look nice.”
“Like this?”
“Try it like this. Hold the brush a little more upright...”
Despite his gentle tone, Tang Un seemed to have no intention of compromising with my squiggly handwriting. He calmly pointed out every reason something didn’t work and kept at it until it did.
He was a completely different type of teacher from Tang Jung, who was more the “just try it first” type.
Somehow, this side was scarier. Maybe it was Tang Un, not Tang Jung, who was truly shaped out of that peculiar Tang Clan ferocity and obsession.
But there was no way I could keep practicing as much as he wanted. My hand was shaking so badly now that it was hard to hold the brush.
Watching his face, I cautiously tried to speak up.
“Older brother. I think this is enough for today...”
“Hmm? Cough, cough. I didn’t quite catch that.”
“I think today’s writing practice is plenty—”
“Cough, cough. Urk!”
After coughing for a while, Tang Un spat up a whole basinful of blood.
I rounded my eyes at the blood dripping down his fingers, and he smiled kindly.
“I’m fine, so pay me no mind.”
Does that look like something anyone could “pay no mind” to?
He was so calm about it that I honestly couldn’t tell whether he was coughing up blood because his condition was really that bad, or whether he’d done it on purpose just to cut me off.
Was that how severed-meridians disease worked, coughing blood like this? This seemed more like tuberculosis.
I hurriedly pulled out a strip of plain cotton and held it out, and after wiping the blood from his mouth and hands, Tang Un soothed me.
“I only overdid it a bit. I’ll be fine if I rest, so don’t worry.”
From the way he looked completely unshaken by the blood-stained cloth, he seemed used to coughing up blood.
Without a word, I brought ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) him a fresh strip of cotton and a brass basin filled with lukewarm water. Dipping his hands into the basin, Tang Un squinted his eyes in a smile.
“You’re very kind, Sohae.”
Anyone would bring something to wipe with if they saw someone coughing up blood like you.
Pretending I hadn’t heard him, I asked,
“Shouldn’t you change clothes?”
“If I go back to my quarters now, it’ll be hard to make it back here. I don’t have the stamina to walk all the way again.”
“How did you get to this hall in the first place?”
“Grandfather carried me over.”
As I pictured Tang Jung carrying Tang Un, I hurriedly bit my lip.
The image of Tang Jung tucking an adult man a head taller than him under his arm and vaulting over walls made it very hard not to laugh.
Tang Un chuckled as if he knew exactly what I was imagining.
“As you know, Grandfather is clumsy at carrying people. Sometimes my legs drag along the ground.”
“Ha ha, really?”
This time I couldn’t help laughing out loud.
It was impossible not to laugh when I thought about how, to Tang Jung, both Tang Un and I were just things to be picked up and whisked around.
Letting someone’s legs drag along the ground was a bit much, Elder. Compared to that, the motion sickness was nothing.
Feeding you snacks like you were some kind of pet to calm you down, too—maybe Grandfather really had no talent for childcare.
Strictly speaking, calling it childcare when Tang Un was comfortably over 180 centimeters tall was a stretch... but let’s just go with it.
Maybe it was because I’d stumbled on an unexpected point of common ground, but Tang Un suddenly felt a lot closer.
Smiling, I reached out my hand.
“Give me the basin. I’ll go throw this out.”
“This foolish older brother is making you work hard, Sohae.”
“Please don’t say that. I’ll be right back.”
Winking at Tang Un, I picked up the brass basin and stepped out of the hall.
*****
The moment I stepped outside, the harsh sunlight stabbed at my eyes.
I winced and stopped walking. The light was so sharp it made my eyes water.
I stood there, waiting for my eyes to adjust, when a curt voice came from above my head.
“So you were here after all.”
I lifted my head and saw a boy perched on a willow branch.
It was Namgung Hwi.
“Young Clan Head. Don’t tell me you climbed over the wall.”
At my question, he grimaced and hopped down from the tree. His expression was thoroughly disgruntled.
“Sohae, did you see my letter? Why didn’t you come out? I waited and waited.”
Where exactly did you write for me to come? I didn’t see it. Tang Jung burned it to ash nice and clean.
More to the point, do you seriously think a maid can read letters?
I let out a dry laugh and answered.
“Young Clan Head. I can’t read.”
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t. And Grandfather Tang told me you’re not to climb over the wall. There are mechanism traps installed. You could get hurt.”
“Ah... I didn’t think of that. All right. I’ll use the path from now on. So why didn’t you come out?”
Talking to a brick wall.
I pressed my lips together in dismay. I had no idea where to even start with this colt of a boy.
Maybe I should claim I hadn’t gotten all my money back and wring some more out of him. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
First of all, I needed to explain that you couldn’t just stroll into Grandfather Tang’s quarters.
I swallowed a sigh and opened my mouth, when a calm voice slipped into our conversation.
“Young sir, may I ask which clan’s guest you are?”
I turned around to find that at some point, Tang Un had followed me out and was standing there, smiling.
Namgung Hwi’s breath caught when his eyes met Tang Un’s.
“Uh, I, that is, I...”
Unlike the day he’d so confidently declared he was from the Namgung Clan to me, Namgung Hwi couldn’t get a word out.
Polite phrasing aside, what Tang Un had effectively asked was which clan thought they could send their son to wander around someone else’s estate without an escort.
Namgung Hwi’s face flushed bright red.
It seemed he was only just now realizing his behavior had been out of line.
