Chapter 39: Chapter 39

White-haired old man Salt Master Jang lifted his cup alone, emptied it, and refilled it with his own hand. He immediately brought up the main point.

“So, the look in your eyes didn’t seem like you’d give up and leave just by words. A daughter who has been sick for a long time, a husband who works as a hard laborer, and the woman herself is quite a beauty with a mole near her left cheek··· is that right?”

“Yes, yes that is right! Do you know her?”

Before Jang Geon could answer, Jin Won-sang stepped forward. Jang Geon, who thought about calming him down a bit, simply kept his mouth shut considering his current feelings. The person who had come all the way from the distant Central Plains to find his past lover was Jin Won-sang after all.

“Hah··· My goodness. I do know one woman who fits your story perfectly. Of course, besides that woman, there are many households where the daughter is sick and the husband does hard labor. Because living is hard everywhere.”

Salt Master Jang brought the cup to his lips and continued speaking.

“However··· for some reason I feel that woman is precisely the woman you are looking for.”

Jin Won-sang approached close to the old man.

“Elder, So-so is a friend who was with me since my earliest memories. Although for the past ten years I have only heard news through letters, she is still my most precious friend. Please, please tell me her whereabouts.”

Sipping his liquor, Salt Master Jang frowned upon hearing Jin Won-sang’s plea.

“Who said I wouldn’t tell you? I just··· don’t know if you can handle it.”

“Pardon? Handle it?”

A immense fatigue settled over the old man’s expression as he set down his cup. Seeing that face, Jang Geon also felt an ominous foreboding.

Salt Master Jang looked up at Jin Won-sang while seated, then turned his head slightly away and said:

“So-so. Yes, I heard she used that name before marriage. She used the name Yeo Song-yeon here.”

“Yeo, Yeo Song-yeon? Yeo Song-yeon··· I see, Song-yeon. I must remember it.”

“···There’s no need to remember it.”

“Pardon?”

Yeo Song-yeon. Jang Geon involuntarily raised his right hand to cover his eyes. It was a name he had heard only once recently, but remembered. The old man spoke, unable to even look straight at the bewildered Jin Won-sang.

“Yeo Song-yeon is dead. She poisoned her husband, was captured, and was hanged.”

Jin Won-sang’s expression turned blank. No, rather than blank, it was more accurate to say that he had no expression at all. Like a statue made of brass, all emotions disappeared from his face.

“···No, wait a moment. What is the reason you are certain the woman we are looking for is that Yeo Song-yeon? Couldn’t it be that you, old man, are mistaken? The woman who died a few days ago happens to be the woman we were looking for?”

Jang Geon, who was listening while holding his eye area, interjected. Certainly, they were searching for Yang So-so with only insufficient clues. They couldn’t confirm her so easily with just family environment and a vague appearance. Jin Won-sang’s expression brightened again as his thoughts reached that point upon hearing Jang Geon’s words.

Salt Master Jang still wore a bitter face even after seeing their expressions. Refilling his empty cup with his own hand, he said:

“My age is sixty this year. Living this long, you get to see how people live roughly. The irony of life. But if you need more certain proof··· Her husband’s name was Jin Gu-yang, right?”

Jang Geon turned back to Jin Won-sang. He had only mentioned that Yang So-so’s husband did rough work, and hadn’t told him his name. Jang Geon thought that was because he didn’t know the man’s name.

As if that was a wrong thought, Jin Won-sang’s expression turned pale again.

“I don’t know his name, but··· a man with the surname Jin···”

“There is something even more certain. The execution took place last week. She had no relatives, no close friends··· and having killed her husband with her own hands, there was no one to hold a funeral for her, so she should still be at the mortician’s house. If you really want to see, go and check. And if she isn’t, come back then. Curse at this old man for speaking foolish nonsense. At that time, even if I have to mobilize all my workers, I will find that woman for you.”

Jin Won-sang trembled upon hearing the old man’s words, then turned to Jang Geon.

“Ma-Martial Artist Jang. The mortician, do you know where the mortician of this place is?”

Jang Geon looked at Jin Won-sang for a moment, then taking the lead to leave the kiln, he turned his head to the old man and said briefly:

“We will return.”

Salt Master Jang roughly nodded his head and raised his liquor cup again. Even as Jang Geon and Jin Won-sang hastily left the kiln, he slowly drank his liquor alone, feeling the heat of the kiln warming his face. Swallowing the liquor with a gulp, he muttered:

“The irony of life, irony···”

* * *

Yang Gu-ja, who made a living working as a mortician in Salt Lake City, was about to go to sleep early today.

Although he lived alone without a family, his nights were not lonely. He had disdained mingling with people from the start and preferred spending time quietly by himself. Perhaps thanks to that, corpses that made no words or actions during work were more comfortable than living, moving people.

Therefore, he extremely disliked people who visited suddenly in the evening or night. In the first place, he had few close acquaintances so few would visit late, and if it were a merchant knocking on the door to sell goods, he would swing a club to chase them away.

However, his heart was not so cruel as to speak harshly to a person who collapsed on their front and wept bitterly over a dead person.

“···I thought she had no relatives to hold a funeral, nor friends. No one to make a tombstone either. So I was planning to bury her tomorrow.”

He spoke towards the man leaning against the doorway with folded arms, rather than the man weeping face-down on the floor. Because at least that man, though appearing bitter, did not look so sad that he couldn’t speak.

However, that man, Jang Geon, didn’t open his mouth either. Seeing Jin Won-sang, who started crying after confirming the corpse, his mouth felt bitter. So much that no words came out.

Yang So-so, Yeo Song-yeon. The woman who possessed two names had become a corpse with dark purple bruises on her neck, saying nothing. Perhaps because she was laid down with a straw mat on a cold floor with rising chill in the cold weather, although nearly a week had passed since her death, it was not a state where it was hard to deduce her living appearance.

If she were alive, she had a face that would be quite a beauty as Jin Won-sang had described, and as he said, there was a mole on her left cheek near her nose. And that corpse was indeed the woman whom Jang Geon had seen upon entering this city, gasping for breath without even crying properly in front of the execution rope.

Jang Geon pulled out paper and tobacco from his chest and rolled it. Then, placing it in his mouth and lighting it, he deeply inhaled the smoke. After half a day of tracking, what he met was this single corpse and a man weeping while gasping for breath just like when she died.

The cigarette smoke he exhaled dispersed softly and thinly.

*

A long time passed, and it became time for the mortician to go back upstairs to sleep, and three or four smoked butts rolled around under Jang Geon’s feet. Jang Geon set down the tobacco with only the tip remaining, rubbed it out with his foot, and looked at Jin Won-sang. Having cried as if he were to die, whether he had now composed himself or completely gone insane, he was kneeling in front of Yang So-so’s corpse on the straw mat, his head deeply bowed.

After hesitating for a moment, Jang Geon spoke:

“···Get up. The mortician only knew that she was executed by hanging and didn’t know exactly what happened. Let’s go to Salt Master Jang and find out the background story at least.”

Jin Won-sang had no answer.

“I’m not telling you not to be sad. Didn’t you say she had a daughter? With the father dead and the mother executed by hanging, there’s no telling where or what that child is doing right now. Shouldn’t we look for her? I told the mortician we’d return tomorrow daytime, so for now let’s go to Salt Master Jang and find out the circumstances.”

Only after a long while passed did Jin Won-sang answer faintly in a voice like scraping iron:

“···Child··· Right, she said she had a daughter who was sick for a long time···”

He stood up from his seat, glitching as if something were broken. But he still couldn’t take his eyes off dead Yang So-so’s face, and his complexion was incomparably pale. Seeing that appearance, Jang Geon spoke:

“Or would you wait at the inn? I’ll go and find out the general circumstances.”

“No··· No. I will go together with you.”

Standing up from his seat, Jin Won-sang pressed his palms together, chanted something, and slowly turned around. His eyes looking at Jang Geon were sunken dark. Facing those eyes, Jang Geon tried to say some words of comfort, but taking the lead, he simply said:

“I don’t know if Salt Master Jang will still wait for us. Let’s go quickly.”

Leaving that place, the two immediately returned to Salt Master Jang’s kiln. Jin Won-sang staggered intermittently, but by the time they arrived at the kiln, he ended up walking with his back straight.

Salt Master Jang was sitting in front of the kiln in a state not much different from when they first visited. Only a couple of empty bottles were placed beside the liquor table.

Seeing them enter inside, the old man, who wondered if it were so, shook his head sorrowfully upon seeing the expressions of the two.

“···It seems it was the person you were looking for. I’m sorry.”

Jin Won-sang closed his eyes without a word, and Jang Geon let out a light sigh, stroking his rough chin.

“If you’re really sorry, explain to us what happened. Did she really poison her own husband?”

“Yes. And she was a person who had ample reason to do so.”

Jang Geon frowned.

“Reason? What do you mean by that?”

“Her husband was trash. A fellow who deserved to die.”

At those words, Jin Won-sang’s closed eyes snapped open. Looking at Salt Master Jang with such wide-open eyes, he spoke:

“···Please explain a bit more.”

Salt Master Jang met those eyes straight on and replied:

“Her husband Jin Gu-yang wasn’t a simple laborer, but a person who owned a kiln like me. He didn’t have skill, but bought money to employ people. But this fellow was famous for treating his wife recklessly. Every night he frequented the brothels, got drunk and played around with courtesans, and when he went home, it was a daily occurrence to beat her. Once, he tore off all her clothes and kicked her out into the street in the middle of the night.”

Having spoken up to there, the old man, finding it hard to meet Jin Won-sang’s eyes any longer, lowered his head and filled his liquor cup.

“···Everyone knew she was abused. But that fellow had plenty of money and many ties with Sword Dragon Sect executives, so even after doing that bullshit, there was no major problem. If it were me, I would have died right away in that situation, but Yeo Song-yeon couldn’t even do that for her sick daughter. She must have felt that if even she herself were gone, who would take care of her daughter who wasn’t awake for half the day normally.”

The old man raised the filled cup and gulped it down. Jang Geon, watching that, asked:

“What kind of disease is it?”

“Her child’s disease? I don’t know. It was a disease where her body gradually hardened and her awake time decreased, but even a physician brought from Heavenly Empress City couldn’t cure it. When she was young she walked straight, but recently she was lying down almost like a corpse.”

Shaking his head softly, the old man refilled his cup.

“···Honestly, if it were only that, Yeo Song-yeon wouldn’t have thought of killing her husband. She would have rather run away. But··· there was a problem. One was that Yeo Song-yeon’s daughter, who was just lying down, was pretty beyond what suited her age of twelve, and second was that Jin Gu-yang was far more trash than expected.”

He continued speaking as he saw Jang Geon and Jin Won-sang’s expressions contort.

“One night, drunk Jin Gu-yang tried to enter his daughter’s bed. Yeo Song-yeon risked her life to stop it. Yes, probably at that moment she resolved to kill Jin Gu-yang. Her daughter was getting prettier even while dying, but Jin Gu-yang was still too young to die of old age or sickness.”

Having spoken up to there, the old man let out a deep sigh. A sigh full of sorrow.

“Jin Gu-yang was good at flattery and bribery, but he wasn’t a smart fellow. Feeding him poison wouldn’t have been that hard. Thus that fellow died··· After that, since the salt kiln owner who used to fill their pockets reliably died, the Sword Dragon Sect turned on their lights to find the killer. How meticulously could a woman who normally stayed only at home plan a murder? Thus she was captured, and setting the sect’s authority first regardless of her unfortunate circumstances, the Sword Dragon Sect hung her immediately.”

He let out a hollow chuckle.

“This is all. Truly··· a shitty living world, all of it.”

The kiln where the three were became quiet. Only the strange sound of flames roaring in the kiln was laid low, and none of the three had any words.

Only after a long while did Jin Won-sang open his mouth. It was a harsh voice like rubbing two rusted pieces of iron.

“How do you know the circumstances so well, Elder?”

“If you had asked around about the story of Yeo Song-yeon rather than Yang So-so, you too would have known quickly. Because everyone in Salt Lake City who knows knows.”

Jin Won-sang closed his eyes again. Watching him for a moment, Jang Geon let out a sigh and stepped forward.

“Then where is that daughter right now? Jin Gu-yang’s house?”

“···Jin Gu-yang’s kiln and house were all confiscated by the Sword Dragon Sect. That child wouldn’t even have been able to protest. With no relatives to help and sleeping most of the day, what could she do? The child is at a temple in the east of the city.”

“A temple? Is there a temple?”

The old man nodded his head.

“It’s a place that gathers and takes care of the poor and orphans. But if you want to find the child, you’d better go quickly. Since the circumstances there aren’t so good, I don’t know if she received proper care.”

Jang Geon nodded his head and greeted:

“Thank you for telling us.”

“What for. I just··· never mind. This matter is not something to avenge anyone or do anything about. The Sword Dragon Sect only caught the killer and made her pay the price. Where in the world is there a matter where gratitude and resentment are clear··· So just take good care of Yeo Song-yeon’s daughter. Since she lost both parents, she must be out of her mind. I’m sorry for not being able to help the child.”

Jang Geon lightly nodded his head again and turned around. To find the temple in the east of the city.

Just then, Jin Won-sang opened his closed eyes and spoke:

“There is no shortage of those who must receive the price.”

“What? You, what does that···”

The old man and Jang Geon’s complexions hardened upon seeing Jin Won-sang’s eyes, strangely calm yet gleaming pitch black. Jang Geon instinctively gripped his scabbard and spoke softly:

“···I don’t know what you’re thinking, but shouldn’t we find her daughter first right now?”

“Yes, we should.”

Jin Won-sang replied so as if it were nothing, turned around, and walked ahead. Jang Geon followed behind, looking at Jin Won-sang’s back with a deeply sunken gaze. Only Salt Master Jang, left alone in the kiln, let out a sigh as if pitying Jin Won-sang, and raised his cup to drink again.

The night was deepening.