Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 37 - The Heart Beats (4)

Chapter 37 – The Heart Beats (4)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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I had developed the habit of waking before dawn back when I was still a merchant, since I often had to rise early to go procure goods. Even after I became the lord of a merchant company and no longer needed to rush around personally, I kept that habit.

But today, judging by the warmth of the sunlight and the direct rays I felt before even opening my eyes, it seemed I had been more tired than I realized. It felt very different from the dawn air that usually cleared my lungs the instant I woke.

“Quite a lot of people are waiting.”

“So you’d force someone awake while he’s asleep?”

I opened my eyes at the sound of Myeong-gyeong’s vicious voice.

Looking to the side, I saw that Myeong-gyeong was blocking people outside the door.

The officials saw over his shoulder that I had awakened and hurriedly spoke.

“Young Master Muk, Young Master Muk is awake.”

At the officials’ uproar, Myeong-gyeong finally turned around and looked at me.

“You’re not going to sleep more?”

“I’ve slept enough.”

“I heard you worked until dawn.”

“It seems to be around noon now. If I sleep too much, I get a headache.”

“Don’t push yourself. If you overdo it and something happens, how would I ever face Master?”

That felt more like something I should have been saying, not him. But since Myeong-gyeong clung stubbornly to acting like a proper senior brother, I let it pass.

“But why have the officials come?”

“I don’t know.”

“No, no, we told you several times already. The Vice Minister is waiting for Young Master Muk right now.”

At the official’s words, I shot upright. The Vice Minister was waiting for me? It had to be Jin Mu-byeok, the Vice Minister of Revenue I had met at dawn.

Even when I had been lord of the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company, a Vice Minister wasn’t someone I could deal with casually. And now I had kept him waiting when I had nothing to my name.

“Then why doesn’t this Vice Minister person just come himself?”

Myeong-gyeong said something absurd. The officials all stared at him in disbelief.

I quickly straightened my clothes and hair. When I moved to step outside, Myeong-gyeong followed right behind me.

“Senior Brother, you can stay here.”

“Yes. The Vice Minister only asked for Young Master Muk.”

At the movement to exclude him, Myeong-gyeong’s eyes snapped open.

“How am I supposed to trust people who worked my junior brother until dawn and send him alone?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Junior Brother, are you saying you won’t listen to your senior brother now?”

Myeong-gyeong stood there full of force. His tightly shut mouth showed a resolve not to lose a second time. I smiled awkwardly at the officials.

“Gentlemen, please just say my senior brother is coming with me.”

“…Ahem. I’m not sure the Vice Minister will permit it.”

Myeong-gyeong glared at the officials as though he might devour them whole. His eyes were so fierce that the officials actively avoided his gaze.

In the end, Myeong-gyeong and I went together. The Vice Minister had allowed it.

We entered the room where he was said to be waiting. There were two familiar faces and one unfamiliar one. The familiar faces were Jin Mu-byeok and Registrar Hyeong Tae-seong.

What mattered was that the unfamiliar face was seated in the central seat between Jin Mu-byeok and Hyeong Tae-seong. That meant that the unknown man was of higher rank than Jin Mu-byeok.

“You’ve come.”

Jin Mu-byeok rose first and greeted me. Since my identity at present was more that of a martial man than anything else, I cupped my fist.

“My apologies. I heard you were waiting because of me.”

“Ha ha. I can wait a little. Are you not Hubei’s benefactor?”

“Benefactor is too much.”

“There are even people already calling you the Divine Physician of Hubei.”

At that embarrassing title, I merely smiled awkwardly.

Even while doing so, my attention stayed on the man I didn’t know. He was looking at me with a steady gaze, as though he were examining me.

No matter how I looked, I had never seen him before. Of course, that made sense. How could the me of that time possibly have met high officials like this in my previous life? I had probably still been working as a lowly errand boy in some merchant company back then.

At that moment, the unfamiliar man opened his mouth.

“I am Wang Song, serving as Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate.”

I was startled. A Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate was a high official of the third rank.

It was only one grade above Jin Mu-byeok, who was lower third rank, but the actual power they held was incomparable. That was because the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief didn’t belong to the Provincial Administration Commission, but to the Imperial Court itself.

More importantly, the Censorate was an organ of inspection and oversight, the underworld of officials, and the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief was the deputy head of that body.

“I greet Lord Wang.”

“Good to meet you. And the one beside you is your junior brother?”

Myeong-gyeong immediately looked ready to explode and open his mouth, but my hand was faster. I clamped a hand over his mouth and shook my head.

“No. He is my senior brother.”

“Your senior brother, hmm. Your generational order must be quite tangled.”

I only released Myeong-gyeong once he had calmed down.

After that came the obvious questions. How had I seen through an illness even physicians had failed to notice correctly? What did my father do? It was a simple background investigation.

Even if it was a simple investigation, however, when it was the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief asking, it felt more like an interrogation.

“Since you stopped an epidemic that might have grown huge, you should be rewarded.”

My eyes lit up. Yes. This was exactly why I had come.

“Is there anything you want?”

“Hmm.”

I pretended to think, as though I hadn’t expected such a question. In truth, this was all I had been thinking about.

“Since you say it so suddenly, I’m not sure what I ought to ask for…”

“Hoho. Think about it slowly.”

Wang Song smiled like a kindly gentleman. Even so, I didn’t let my guard down and carefully opened my mouth.

“There is actually a reason I came to the Provincial Administration Commission in the first place.”

“Oh? And what was that?”

“Originally, I came to report the establishment of a merchant company. But since the Registrar’s office was vacant, I couldn’t file it.”

“A merchant company?”

The words seemed unexpected, because Wang Song tilted his head. Jin Mu-byeok and Hyeong Tae-seong, who were seated there with him, reacted the same way.

“Can a disciple of the Wudang Sect found a merchant company?”

“I’m a lay disciple, so it’s no problem.”

“Ah, a lay disciple. Then now that the Registrar has returned, you can simply register it.”

“There is, in fact, one small problem with that.”

“And what might that be?”

“When reporting a merchant company, isn’t the minimum capital normally one thousand nyang of silver?”

“That’s right.”

“I originally had it, but recently I had to spend money rather suddenly, so I’ve fallen short of the full thousand.”

After all, I had spent two thousand nyang in the blink of an eye on the talent Unyielding. So now I had only five hundred nyang left on hand. Of course, even five hundred nyang wasn’t a small amount.

Jin Mu-byeok looked slightly uncomfortable.

“Mm. Even so, rules are rules.”

I quickly read Wang Song’s expression. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but since he didn’t stop Jin Mu-byeok, he seemed to feel similarly. If they had simply agreed, I would have thanked them and moved on. But quickly changing one’s approach in moments like this was exactly what being a merchant meant.

“Ah. Of course, I’m not asking for leniency regarding the capital itself. Rules ought to be upheld.”

“I see. Then perhaps I misunderstood.”

“Not at all. I spoke in a way that invited misunderstanding.”

The Right Vice Censor-in-Chief might have been present, but the Vice Minister was still a sufficiently high official in his own right. I couldn’t afford to give offense to either of them here.

“Once I’ve gathered the capital again, it may be difficult for me to come to Wuhan personally, since I may be back at Wudang by then. So what I wanted to ask was whether it would be possible to have the report approved by letter hawk.”

Whew. I’d thought of it on the spot, but it was excellent. Jin Mu-byeok smiled faintly and nodded.

“That much would be possible.”

“Just approve it now.”

At that moment, Wang Song cut in. Jin Mu-byeok looked startled as he replied.

“Even so, there are rules. Especially since if the Wuhan Merchant Association learns of it, they may not take it well.”

“Since when has the government conducted its business while watching the mood of a merchant association?”

At Wang Song’s displeased tone, Jin Mu-byeok hurriedly lowered his head.

“This subordinate spoke out of turn.”

“Do you have the documents required for approval prepared?”

“Ah, yes. I prepared them in advance.”

At Wang Song’s words, I pulled out the documents I’d drafted beforehand.

“Registrar, take them.”

“Yes.”

As Wang Song instructed, I handed the documents to Hyeong Tae-seong.

Even so, something felt strange. To begin with, why had the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief come all the way to the Hubei Provincial Administration Commission? And why was a man like that giving direct instructions on internal matters of the Provincial Administration Commission?

But suspicious or not, it wasn’t my business. In the Central Plains, there were far more people who died because they knew too much than because they knew too little.

I had already gotten what I wanted, so I was about to excuse myself and leave. But the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief wasn’t inclined to let me go so easily.

“By the way, Young Master Muk.”

“Yes?”

“How did you know that the frontier supply system would be abolished?”

For a moment, I had to do everything I could to keep my expression from breaking.

Back in the Yichang market, I had once stopped the Shanxi merchants from making excessive profit by knowing in advance that the frontier supply system would be abolished and the commuted-payment system implemented. Had that reached the ears of the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief?

“That was quite a sudden change of topic.”

“Is it a question so difficult to answer, even for the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate?”

“It’s difficult because it came out of nowhere.”

“There don’t seem to be any powerful figures among your father, mother, or relatives. So I find myself very curious as to how someone who is no more than a lay disciple of Wudang knew that in advance.”

“So this was the true point.”

“More precisely, I happened to notice you by chance. I heard from the Shanxi merchants that some friend named Muk Hui-yeong, a lay disciple of Wudang, had caused them trouble, so I remembered the name. Then suddenly I heard that the Divine Physician of Hubei was named Muk Hui-yeong. Muk Hui-yeong isn’t exactly a common name.”

“So did the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief come all the way to Wuhan to see me?”

“The Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate is not such an idle office.”

Wang Song smiled. I had to read his expression without looking straight into his eyes.

“I was simply curious. I wondered whether perhaps you knew someone in the Imperial Court and learned of that policy through them beforehand.”

“I cannot answer that.”

“Even if I were to pin on you the crime of divulging Imperial Court secrets?”

“I have done nothing that violates the national law.”

“Young man, you’re too soft. Things like that are irrelevant. If I accuse you of it under a charge of ‘perhaps there is guilt,’ that’s enough.”

Of course I knew that. That was exactly why officials were frightening. But I couldn’t say anything, because there was no person who had leaked state secrets to me in the first place.

“I will not say.”

“Oh ho. I see.”

The look Wang Song gave me made it hard to breathe. With a mere flick of his hand, he could strip any of these officials of their robes and take their heads. Before such a man, I, a mere commoner, was no more than a fly’s life.

“It’s a joke. How could I arrest an innocent man? I’m one who arrests officials, not one who arrests commoners. The people who arrest commoners are different people altogether. The Embroidered Uniform Guard, for instance, or the Eastern Depot.”

“That was a frightening joke.”

“Ha ha. Then I apologize.”

Wang Song laughed loudly. Cold sweat was running down my back, and he really was carefree.

“If you ever come to Beijing later, seek me out. I’ll entertain you generously by way of apology.”

“Ha ha. Thank you.”

I forced a smile. At any rate, just having made the acquaintance of the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief was meaningful. I knew tens of thousands of things that became possible simply by having a face-recognition relationship with a third-rank official. He might even be a surprisingly good person.

“Still, don’t act rashly. I’d rather not see you at the Ministry of Punishments.”

No. He wasn’t a good person at all. He had just been warning me. He meant that I was not to use state secrets privately the way I had before.

That was how my meeting with the frightening Right Vice Censor-in-Chief ended. Honestly, I hoped I would never have to face him again.

Since the order had come down from the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief himself, the registration of my merchant company proceeded with lightning speed. Even though there was already a long waiting list because the Registrar’s seat had been vacant, my company was established before all the rest.

“Heh heh heh.”

The moment I looked at the plaque that proved I was a merchant, a smile naturally spread across my face.

Radiant Crystal Merchant Company.

Now I could officially use that name again.

Muk Hui-yeong, Company Lord of the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company.

Of course, only the title was the same, and I was lacking in everything else. Even so, that in itself made my heart beat.