Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 108 - Merchant King (2)
Chapter 108 – Merchant King (2)
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Son Yeong-ui was glaring at me, but not as sharply as he had at the Salt Transport Office. If anything, he felt rather meek and pitiful now. It meant I had won the contest of momentum.
Right now, Son Yeong-ui was surely feeling considerable humiliation. At a time like this, one must not attack the other party directly. That would mean openly trying to fight. The point was to make my own feelings clear.
“I felt deeply humiliated. No matter how impressive the Huizhou merchants may be, how could you speak as though you were taking in someone from the same merchant world as if he were an inferior underling?”
“…Huh.”
Son Yeong-ui seemed to have lost his words. He looked as though he were considering whether what I said was reasonable.
But now that he had already lost the battle of momentum, Son Yeong-ui would listen more closely to what I said. He would also reconsider whether his own words could indeed have sounded like that.
You didn’t win a fight by rashly planting a flag. The flag was only a symbol. What mattered was claiming territory.
“I-if that’s how it sounded, then I apologize. I absolutely did not mean it that way.”
“Is that so. Then I shall apologize as well. And I have no intention of going under anyone.”
“Yes, yes, of course. Someone as capable as you has no need to go under anyone in truth. I think I was too eager to have you and spoke rashly. My apologies.”
“I accept.”
I smiled inwardly. I had been the one to start the quarrel, yet I had received the apology. At this point, it was fair to say the winner of the dispute had been decided.
The reason I could handle Son Yeong-ui this easily was largely because I had ties to him in my previous life as well.
At first glance, Son Yeong-ui had a loud voice and looked strong. I remembered that he had even been given the nickname Litigation Hound for it. But in truth, Son Yeong-ui was famous for immediately tucking his tail and changing his stance in front of anyone who looked stronger. That was why he had another nickname, Puppy.
Right now, Son Yeong-ui had just changed from Litigation Hound into Puppy.
“Is that all you wished to say?”
“Ahem. No. There is more. But this may be something unpleasant for you as well.”
Son Yeong-ui was showing the most extreme low posture imaginable. Since it looked like he would not be able to devour me, he had changed his attitude at once.
Some people might call it cowardly, but that was exactly why he had managed to stay active in the commercial world for so long.
“That’s all right. Since you told me beforehand, I’ll take that into account as I listen.”
“This time, it couldn’t be helped, but I would like you to use a different salt yard in the future.”
I stared at Son Yeong-ui without speaking. When I said nothing, he hurriedly added more.
“You may not know it, but the Huaiyin salt yard holds great meaning for the Huizhou merchants. Right now, since this is your first time and everyone thinks it was a misunderstanding, the other merchants are overlooking it, but if you keep coming, your relations with all the Huizhou merchants will worsen.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course. No Chief Salt Merchant has ever permitted a merchant company that isn’t made up of Huizhou merchants to use the Huaiyin salt yard more than once. Since you’re a merchant too, you know how important territory is. The Huaiyin salt yard is such a core area that it’s called the birthplace of the Huizhou merchants. If a merchant company outside the Huizhou merchants keeps exchanging salt at the Huaiyin salt yard, other merchant companies will start probing as well, and we’ll be hounded by doubts that the Huizhou merchants’ power has weakened. We lose too much by allowing the Huaiyin salt yard to be used.”
“I see.”
I answered with feigned indifference. Seeming to grow more impatient, Son Yeong-ui spoke even faster.
“In that sense, you have little to lose by going somewhere other than the Huaiyin salt yard. Of course, the expedition will be longer and the incidental costs somewhat higher, but we can make up for that much.”
“How?”
“I’ll do what I can to make you a partner merchant company of the Huizhou merchants.”
I smiled inwardly in satisfaction. This was exactly why I had come to the Huaiyin salt yard.
To obtain the position of partner merchant company to the Huizhou merchants. The sole meaning of becoming a partner merchant company was that I would gain a channel to communicate directly with the Huizhou merchants. And that held more significance than one might think.
“Hmm.”
But I stroked my chin and pretended to think it over.
“Listen, becoming a partner merchant company of the Huizhou merchants is no easy thing. It will greatly help when your merchant company broadens its sphere of activity. The very fact of being a partner merchant company to the Huizhou merchants acts as a kind of guarantee, and…”
Son Yeong-ui’s voice turned even more desperate. He truly looked like a little dog rolling over and flailing with its belly exposed.
Well, he could hardly help being desperate. This matter was tied to the honor of the Chief Salt Merchant.
Pretending to deliberate for as long as possible, I slowly opened my mouth.
“Very well.”
“Yes, that’s a truly excellent choice.”
At my words, Son Yeong-ui brightened immediately. But I had not only pretended to think it over in order to toy with him.
“On one condition.”
I smiled. Son Yeong-ui’s expression twisted. A defeated man was always asked for war spoils.
* * *
“That was entertaining.”
“Heh heh. Perhaps because you’re young, you really know how to play.”
“Livening up the atmosphere is always the job of the youngest.”
At my words, everyone laughed. I too now had an easy mind, having achieved every goal of this expedition to the salt yard.
Even the strange wariness that had been between the merchants and me was resolved by Son Yeong-ui. That was because he guaranteed that I would never come back to the Huaiyin salt yard.
From their perspective, I was an appealing newcomer. A Company Lord connected to Wudang, and one with enough martial strength to beat a rising member of the Namgung Clan. The one and only issue was that I had come to the Huaiyin salt yard, and once that problem was solved, the other merchants no longer had anything to hold back over.
I’d expected things to turn out like this with the merchants, but there had also been an unexpected connection.
“Come visit the Namgung Clan sometime later.”
Unlike the other merchants, Namgung Hwi had not been drinking, so a certain crispness remained in his voice.
“Would a mere merchant like me really be allowed to enter the greatest clan under heaven?”
“You go too far. To me, Company Lord, you are not merely a merchant but a benefactor.”
Namgung Hwi seemed to think that in earnest rather than out of politeness.
Well, if I hadn’t returned Azure Radiance, Namgung Hwi might truly have been struck from the family register, so from his perspective I was a benefactor. Of course, from mine it had simply been a troublesome item I traded away.
From his bosom, Namgung Hwi took out a token made of azure jade and handed it to me.
“If you carry this token, the other members of the Namgung Clan will also treat you like a friend. If you ever need to visit the clan later, just show them this.”
The eyes of the merchants all turned to it. A jade token proving that the Namgung Clan owed me a favor. Everyone in the jianghu would have wanted one. I had not expected Namgung Hwi to hand over even that.
“May I really receive something this precious?”
“I was taught that above all else in the jianghu, debts and favors matter. I never imagined I would use this here, but I received your favor.”
I nodded. There was no reason to refuse.
“Then perhaps I’ll come and receive your hospitality one day.”
“Any time.”
Namgung Hwi smiled. Up to now I had only seen his stiff face or his tearful expressions, but when he smiled, he truly was as striking as one would expect from a rising star who represented the jianghu.
The merchants watching me talk with Namgung Hwi had eyes full of envy. A connection with a prestigious house on the level of the Namgung Clan was not something one could create by force. In that sense, meeting Namgung Hwi had, in its own way, been a fortuitous encounter for me as well.
That was how the banquet broke up. Everyone scattered in all directions. Only Myeong-gyeong and Son Yeong-ui remained.
Myeong-gyeong had already fallen fast asleep from fatigue, so I was carrying him piggyback on my back.
“As for what we discussed earlier, I’ll send word by tomorrow. Even I can’t guarantee that one.”
Son Yeong-ui said it with a gloomy expression. Since he too was a capable merchant, he could probably tell that he’d been completely outplayed by me.
“Understood.”
“Right. Get back safely.”
That was how I parted with Son Yeong-ui at the end. Carrying Myeong-gyeong on my back, I walked back to the inn.
Perhaps it was because of the lingering alcohol, but I suddenly looked up at the sky. Gems I had not yet managed to mine were set there one by one.
* * *
“So the famed Son Yeong-ui got cooked perfectly.”
“I am ashamed.”
“Everything that happens has its reason. It seems that young fellow is more outstanding than expected.”
“To be honest, yes.”
A man sat in a chair so splendid it would not have been strange to call it a grand preceptor chair. Though the chair was ornate, the one seated in it wore plain clothes woven from coarse cotton.
“That’s your problem. Once you start acknowledging someone, you overestimate them. That’s why your reputation splits to extremes. To some you’re Litigation Hound, to others you’re a puppy.”
Mercilessly cutting words poured down. Yet Son Yeong-ui could not complain.
The man he was facing now was none other than the Merchant King, Yeo Bul-jin, who currently wielded peak authority even among the Huizhou merchants.
“Overestimating others is, in a way, rationalizing your defeat. One must analyze and judge defeat objectively to move forward. Haven’t I always told you that?”
“Yes. That’s true.”
Clicking his tongue in displeasure, Yeo Bul-jin made Son Yeong-ui bow his head even lower.
“Even so, it’s true that Muk Hui-yeong isn’t ordinary. To be frank, he was even more difficult to deal with than the Shanxi merchants.”
“Oh? Now that’s a new evaluation.”
Yeo Bul-jin’s eyes shone. Son Yeong-ui certainly had a strong habit of praising others too highly in order to flatter himself, but for him to say this much still had meaning.
“So, can you guess why that fellow wanted to see me?”
“I cannot.”
“Of course you can’t. If he were the sort of fellow who showed that easily, he wouldn’t be difficult.”
In one sense, he thought it might simply be the difference in level between Son Yeong-ui and Muk Hui-yeong. Among martial artists too, experts recognized weaker men, but weaker men failed to recognize experts. Even so, Yeo Bul-jin did not voice that much aloud. Son Yeong-ui was not his own man, so there was no need to interfere that far.
“I suspect it has something to do with Hong-yang.”
“Young Master Yeo, you mean?”
“Yes. As far as I know, Hong-yang entered Wudang as a lay disciple around the same time, so they must be of the same class. And if Muk Hui-yeong is really that capable, then he’ll have built a tie with Hong-yang as well.”
Son Yeong-ui was impressed. He had known that Muk Hui-yeong was a Wudang lay disciple, but had not thought to connect that fact to Yeo Hong-yang.
In truth, Yeo Hong-yang was widely regarded within the Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company as a failed successor, and that too was why Son Yeong-ui had not paid him attention.
“Good. Then shall we meet him once?”
“Please do. Then I’ll send word tomorrow.”
“Do that.”
Yeo Bul-jin nodded and dismissed his guest. Son Yeong-ui bowed and withdrew.
“Muk Hui-yeong.”
Yeo Bul-jin smiled. Seeing new people was always enjoyable.
“Will you entertain me?”
Yeo Bul-jin murmured. In the darkness, his bright eyes shone like stars in the night sky.