Chapter 114: Gyeon's Ten Rounds (3)
Gyeon Sul’s corners of the mouth curved askew.
“Look who it is. To meet my ‘old friend’ of all places here.”
Gyeon Sul’s voice, full of joy, echoed against the plastered walls of the tavern.
“Hey, Ha Gu!”
At that, the man in front of him spun his head around in surprise.
A man with a protruding forehead, gloomy eyes, dark skin, and a short stature opened his eyes wide upon seeing Gyeon Sul.
“……Gyeon Sul?”
“It’s been a long time, He Jiushu! You rascal!”
Gyeon Sul immediately approached He Jiushu and put his arm around his shoulder.
And turning back to Chui and the inn owner, he smirked.
“He’s my childhood buddy. We always stuck together since we were kids. How have you been doing in the meantime, punk!”
“…….”
However, He Jiushu’s expression was not bright.
He was simply standing still with a lukewarm expression.
Gyeon Sul asked again.
“Come to think of it, do you keep in touch with my brother? Is he doing well?”
“…….”
He Jiushu was still silent.
Soon, he reached out his hand and gently pushed away Gyeon Sul’s hand.
“We’ve met after a long time, but it’s a bit burdensome when you act so close.”
“……What?”
Gyeon Sul widened his eyes.
However, He Jiushu was still smiling awkwardly.
“Honestly, we only hung out a bit when we were kids. Aren’t we not in a position to pretend to be so close like this now?”
“No…… hey, what a disappointing thing to say……”
“It’s not about being disappointed, Sul. We’ve spent more time not seeing each other than seeing each other. In the first place, I haven’t seen you even once since you moved away when you were a kid. I don’t know what you’ve been doing in the meantime, but how should I say it. It’s a bit perplexing because you’re acting too close.”
He Jiushu sighed softly.
Then, he extended his pinky finger and scratched between his eyebrows.
“Anyway, yeah. I’m also glad to see you after a long time.”
“…….”
“Have a good drink. I will pay for about the price of the alcohol here. Well then, let’s meet again whenever you have time.”
He Jiushu tapped Gyeon Sul’s arm.
And after emptying his pouch to hand five copper coins to the inn owner next to him, he walked out of the tavern.
“Oh dear, what to do. It seems you met after far too long.”
The inn owner looked at Gyeon Sul with pity and quickly went into the kitchen.
“…….”
Gyeon Sul sat blankly in front of the table, seemingly thinking about something.
Chui asked.
“Were you not that close?”
“We were extremely close.”
“Then why is he like that?”
“I am also thinking about the reason. Hold on.”
Gyeon Sul did not get angry.
Even though, with his usual personality, he would have drawn his Dog-Head Guillotine already.
Soon, Gyeon Sul raised his head and asked Chui.
“Pretty boy. That guy earlier. Did he by chance scratch his face with a finger?”
“He did.”
“Where did he scratch?”
“Between the eyebrows. He scratched between his eyebrows.”
“Which finger did he scratch with, by any chance?”
“……?”
Chui tilted his head.
And he opened his mouth.
“He scratched with his pinky finger.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.”
Gyeon Sul crossed his arms.
Then, he asked Chui once again.
“Usually, when people scratch between their eyebrows, which finger do they use?”
“It’s something I haven’t thought much about. If I had to choose, the index finger?”
“But that guy earlier scratched with his pinky finger. Why is that?”
“Is there a meaning in such a thing?”
“There is a meaning.”
Hearing Chui’s question back, Gyeon Sul curled up the corners of his mouth askew.
“When we were kids, that guy and I used to raid nearby fields for watermelons or oriental melons like crazy. Sometimes we even stole and ate chickens or dogs.”
“And?”
“And if we got caught by the owner while fleeing, there were times when our escape routes split or crossed, right?”
Gyeon Sul’s eyes flashed brightly.
“At those times, we used to send a signal to separate for now and gather at a specific location later when night fell. That is precisely scratching between the eyebrows with the pinky finger.”
So to speak, it was a secret signal between childhood buddies.
* * *
Dark night.
Gyeon Sul visited a stream far away from the village.
“This place has changed so much that I can’t even recognize the way.”
Mulberry fields turn into blue seas, blue seas turn into mulberry fields, a single grain of millet in the vast blue sea.
Old houses were demolished and new houses stood.
In the places where oriental melon and watermelon fields used to be, bustling commercial buildings were situated.
However, since the terrain forming the riverbed itself had not changed, Gyeon Sul traced his memory to find the way.
Beyond the riverbank where darkness had fallen.
Soon, a shabby house next to the pontoon bridge was visible.
It was a warehouse built with planks, straw mats, and discarded nets, and it seemed to have been abandoned for quite a long time.
“Wow—this is still here? I thought it would have rotted away long ago. In the past, we used to roast stolen chickens here and do stuff.”
Gyeon Sul walked inside the tent with a surprised expression.
Then.
“……You came?”
From the inner part, a man holding a candle stood up.
He Jiushu. He was smiling as he looked at Gyeon Sul.
“You rascal, Gyeon Sul! It’s really been a long time!”
A completely different appearance from back at the tavern.
The two embraced each other and shared their joy.
Soon, He Jiushu spoke with a serious expression.
“From now on, we will go to my house through the back path here. Follow me without making a sound.”
Seemingly, there was some sort of circumstance.
Chui and Gyeon Sul quietly followed behind He Jiushu.
After circling around the narrow and dirty alleys several times, they arrived at He Jiushu’s house, which was built like a shabby warehouse.
“Hahaha—He Gu, you rascal. What did you do to act so secretly like this again? Did you run off with money while gambling?”
“Am I you?”
He Jiushu looked at Gyeon Sul as if he were pathetic.
Soon, He Jiushu brought out a bottle of liquor and a simple dried snack in front of Chui and Gyeon Sul.
“I work. I earn money quite diligently, punk.”
“You earn money, yet you live in a house that looks like an overturned crab shell?”
“You try supporting an elderly mother, getting married, having two kids, and raising them. There are places to spend money everywhere. My back is bending.”
“So why get married, you idiot.”
“Still, punk, when I look at the kids, all the hardship completely vanishes.”
“Then you can just not get married and only have kids, you blockhead.”
“I didn’t think of that, you motherfucker.”
The friends who met after a long time giggled while facing each other.
Gyeon Sul asked while drinking.
“How about mother and sister-in-law? Where are the kids?”
“They are all sleeping together in that room. I told them a friend was coming. You sleep here today.”
Since it was a small two-room house, this was an incredibly generous hospitality.
Gyeon Sul spun his cup around and asked.
“But what kind of work do you do? I’m sure it’s a trivial job anyway. Hahaha—”
“I work as an undertaker.”
“Oh? You do an unexpectedly normal job? But why did you ignore me earlier, even using the secret signal?”
“…….”
It was a bright question, but the returning answer was dark.
He Jiushu’s expression suddenly became depressed.
Perhaps because his eyes were already gloomy, the atmosphere turned heavy in an instant.
“……You. Have you not heard news of your brother?”
“What? My brother? I asked because I hadn’t heard, since I just returned. Why?”
Gyeon Sul asked while spinning his liquor cup.
Then, after a long silence, He Jiushu opened his mouth.
“I prepared him for burial. Your brother.”
Without even looking at He Jiushu, Gyeon Sul immediately replied.
“Burial shroud my ass, stop bullshitting. I don’t accept jokes about parental or sibling death, punk.”
“I even took care of the funeral procession.”
“What is this bastard saying now?”
“He passed away. Your brother.”
“……?”
At He Jiushu’s words, Gyeon Sul distorted his expression fiercely.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your sister-in-law…… you know she had an affair, right?”
“……!”
Gyeon Sul’s expression froze stiffly.
There was no way he didn’t know.
Because it was precisely due to that that Gyeon Sul left the village in the first place.
He Jiushu lowered his gaze and continued speaking.
“After you left…… it seems your brother saw the scene himself. I heard from Uncle Yun who runs the fruit shop that he cried all day that day. Saying he committed a great sin against his younger brother…….”
“…….”
“And to find you, your brother combed this area like searching for lice.”
However, it must have been too late already.
Since Gyeon Sul was taken in by Gong Je-hwan while dying of stab wounds and went to the Yangtze River.
He Jiushu gulped down a cup of strong liquor.
“But perhaps thinking that a greater disaster would occur if your brother found you…… your sister-in-law……”
“Sister-in-law what? So why did my brother die?”
“It seems your brother was poisoned by your sister-in-law.”
“……!”
Gyeon Sul’s body froze.
Dying naturally and being poisoned were a world of difference.
Gyeon Sul’s fingertips were trembling faintly.
He Jiushu suddenly stood up from his seat.
And he took something out of the drawer behind him.
Clatter-thud!
What came up onto the table was a dusty cloth pouch, and something wrapped in Korean paper.
“Pan Jinlian. That woman and Ximen Qing. The two of them came and asked me to write down ‘death by illness’ on the death certificate to be submitted to the government office. This is the reward money I received then. I left it exactly as it was without spending a single coin. Just in case it might become evidence.”
Inside the cloth pouch He Jiushu placed, large silver ingots were filled to the brim.
It was visible that dust was thickly piled on top of the pouch, as if he had not taken out and spent a single coin despite being pinched by economic difficulties.
Soon, He Jiushu also unwrapped the piece of paper next to it.
Inside it, a few bone fragments left after being burned were lying.
Bone fragments where the partially burned parts were black, but the unburned parts bore a dark blue tint.
He Jiushu spoke.
“As soon as I saw your brother’s corpse for the first time, I knew immediately. His complexion was eggplant-colored. The face color of a person who died after consuming arsenic is like that. For such a person, the bone fragments that come out when the corpse is cremated also turn into a dark blue color.”
Gyeon Sul’s gaze trembled violently.
He stared intently at the bone fragments of his brother, Gyeon Rang, placed on the table.
He Jiushu sighed.
“Because I had these things, I was careful when I saw you for the first time. Since we don’t know what would happen if the fact that we met reached the ears of that crazy bastard, Ximen Qing.”
“…….”
Gyeon Sul quietly gulped down the strong liquor.
“…….”
“…….”
Neither Chui nor He Jiushu spoke.
Before the flickering candlelight, the shadows of the three people wavered silently.
Soon. Gyeon Sul opened his mouth.
“My brother was short.”
His voice was calm.
“And his face was also incredibly ugly.”
There was not a single shred of trembling.
“But you see. That was all because of me.”
Gyeon Sul raised his head.
“After our parents passed away due to the plague, my brother worked down to the bone to raise me. What he would eat, what he would wear, he yielded every single bit to me. That is why my brother was short and his face was worn out.”
Hot heat was blazing in his eyes.
“He was my brother. He was my older brother. He was my brother who shed tears of blood even until the very moment he kicked me out.”
Chui and He Jiushu kept their mouths shut, unable to say anything.
Gyeon Sul scratched the table top with his finger.
The wooden table gouged deeply, leaving a mark where his finger scratched.
“Although he disowned me, it was not because he did not love me. It was because he loved that woman that much. I tried to understand such an older brother. I tried, and tried again. But……”
Gyeon Sul dropped his head.
Just then, He Jiushu, who had been listening silently, stood up once again.
“Sul. There is a letter left by your brother. Do you want to see it?”
“……?”
Gyeon Sul raised his head.
He Jiushu took something out of the drawer.
It was a small, torn piece of wallpaper.
“When I lifted your brother’s corpse to prepare him for burial, it was written on the wall below the bed. Afraid someone would see it, I quickly tore it off and kept it.”
He Jiushu placed the piece of wallpaper in front of Gyeon Sul.
There, crooked writing written in blood was visible.
-I am sorry, Sul.
The moment he saw that.
Trickle—
Something flowed beneath Gyeon Sul’s eye.
It was not something like tears.
Blood stretching stickily like honey.
It was trickling down under Gyeon Sul’s eyes.
Right at that moment.
…Crash!
A loud noise drifted from where the gate of the house was.
The widowed mother and the wife, who were sleeping crowded together in the opposite room, woke up startled, and the two children also began to cry.
“W-what is it?”
He Jiushu stood up startled.
Then.
“You bastard—He Gu! Aren’t you going to pay back the money!”
“The interest has long exceeded the principal!”
“If you keep not paying back like this, we’ll drag your wife and kids away!?”
Giggling voices drifted from the gate.
“Oh dear! Those ruffians even here……!?”
He Jiushu rushed out with a pale face.
Then, the faces of those who entered inside He Jiushu’s house and made a scene were visible.
“Ahem—you bastard! Are you not afraid of this Hairless Tiger Wu Yi!”
A scoundrel with a bald head, tiger tattoos all over his body, and all his teeth replaced with gold was threatening him, having brought his subordinates along.
“On behalf of my Big Brother Ximen Qing, I will punish a wicked debtor like you!”
While selling that familiar name.
Unrivaled Spear Ghost