Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 40 - Merchant Association (3)

Chapter 40 – Merchant Association (3)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The merchant whose life I had saved introduced himself as Jeong Cheol-won. Jeong Cheol-won glanced around nervously, then pulled away the cotton cloth covering his goods and unlocked his shop door.

The surrounding merchants saw Jeong Cheol-won opening his shop and immediately began whispering among themselves.

“I assume all those merchants are members of the Wuhan Merchant Association?”

“Not assume. It’s certain. Everyone doing business in Wuhan right now belongs to the Wuhan Merchant Association.”

“There must have been members of the East Lake Merchant Association once too.”

“Of course there were. But I don’t hold any hard feelings against them. If you’re with the East Lake Merchant Association, they come charging in immediately and disrupt your business. If I were them, I’d bow my head and join the Wuhan Merchant Association too.”

“Then why didn’t Association Master Song just bow his head and join them? If they’re making it so you can’t even do business at all, living must be hard.”

At my words, Song Hwan-yeong smiled bitterly. It didn’t seem he took my question as rude. Then again, he must have heard it an enormous number of times already.

“Well. At first, I was going to.”

“But?”

“You may not understand, since you’re a martial man. People like us, who bow and scrape before customers every day and would happily roll over ten times if it made money, still have our pride.”

At Song Hwan-yeong’s words, I laughed without meaning to.

“Heh heh. I knew you would react like that. Pride in a merchant. It really does sound absurd, doesn’t it?”

“No. I laughed because I sympathize.”

“You sympathize?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I am a merchant. There is that, after all. Everyone thinks merchants are creatures without a shred of backbone, but in truth, they’re unexpectedly a race with very strong pride.”

Beside me, Myeong-gyeong clicked his tongue in obvious displeasure, but our conversation continued.

“Whether the Wuhan Merchant Association charges more than double the commission, or turns a blind eye when customers are fleeced and even encourages it, honestly, none of that is my concern. Many people say I’m holding out with the East Lake Merchant Association because of things like that, and they praise me for it, but that isn’t true at all.”

“I know.”

“I am not such a righteous man. I believe private profit matters more than public good. And yet…”

“Wrong is wrong.”

Song Hwan-yeong looked at me after I cut in.

The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepened even further.

“That’s right. Wrong is wrong. I can’t explain it, but this just isn’t right. My identity as a merchant rejects the Wuhan Merchant Association. If I give in even to this, then the person I am would collapse. That’s how it felt.”

I knew that feeling well. And unlike Song Hwan-yeong, I could explain it.

“It goes against your values.”

“Values, hm. Even I don’t really know what my values are.”

I grinned. Most people didn’t really know what their values were. But merely realizing that one didn’t know was better than being someone who believed he did.

A stupid merchant listened to the voice of money. A wise merchant listened to the voice of people. Money determined price, but people determined value.

In that sense, Song Hwan-yeong, the Association Master of the East Lake Merchant Association, was an excellent merchant. He moved according not to money, but to the voice crying out from within himself. Though he still seemed to lack certainty.

“They’re coming.”

Song Hwan-yeong’s voice turned grave. And indeed, rough-looking thugs had begun loitering around Jeong Cheol-won’s shop.

Judging by the various tattoo marks on their forearms, they didn’t look like men who had lived an upright life.

“Hey. Looks like you still haven’t gotten the message. If you want to do business, join the Wuhan Merchant Association and pay the entrance fee first.”

One of the men swept his arm across the goods under the cotton cloth and sent them crashing to the ground. The men, each of whom seemed two heads taller than Jeong Cheol-won, looked threatening enough.

“For now, I’ll keep watching.”

I said that and continued observing. Even in front of the much larger thugs, Jeong Cheol-won didn’t flinch.

“If I’m doing business in my own shop, why should I pay any entrance fee?”

“Then you don’t get to do business.”

Crash.

Goods were hurled out into the road and shattered. The passersby who had been calmly walking there flinched and avoided Jeong Cheol-won’s shop entirely.

“You sons of bitches! Pay for those goods!”

Jeong Cheol-won grabbed onto the thugs’ forearms and hung there desperately. But the thugs didn’t even care and focused solely on wrecking his shop.

The merchants doing business in nearby shops merely watched Jeong Cheol-won’s store. What floated in their eyes was fear and relief. Fear that they too might wind up like this, and relief that for the moment, at least, it wasn’t happening to them.

“How long do you intend to wait?”

“Just a little longer.”

Song Hwan-yeong asked anxiously, but I still didn’t step out. Even Myeong-gyeong, who had been silent until now, had begun to frown at the outrage unfolding before us.

Not long after, constables carrying cudgels came running from far away. If the disorder had reached the point of dirtying the streets, the constables were bound to come.

But when the constables saw Jeong Cheol-won and the two men with tattooed arms, they cleared their throats awkwardly and started to leave.

That was when it became my turn to step in. I rushed forward and blocked the constables’ path.

“Constable sirs, are you really going to take no action even after seeing this kind of tyranny?”

“W-What now?”

The constables were taken aback. Naturally so. This was a clear dereliction of duty on their part. But before long, they instead tried to intimidate me.

“If we say it is so, then it is so. Who are you to interfere in government business?”

“So the government really is going to ignore this sort of outrage?”

“We don’t mediate every trivial dispute like this.”

“In what world is this a trivial dispute? An entire place of business is being destroyed one-sidedly.”

“If we say it’s trivial, then it’s trivial.”

The constables smirked. Their whole attitude said, So what exactly are you going to do about it?

That confidence of theirs had to be rooted in something. To break them, I first had to understand the source of it.

“A trivial dispute, is it? Then I hope you’ll keep to those words.”

“What?”

I slipped between the bewildered constables and stood directly in front of the thugs.

“Huh. What’s this? Some pale-faced scholar?”

“Looks like I could snap his leg with a single kick.”

As expected, vulgarity seeped from even the way they spoke. There was no need to say anything further. Without another word, I grabbed one by the face and smashed it into the wall, dragging him along it.

“Go ahead and break it, then.”

“Aagh!”

With a scream like a death cry, blood was painted across the wall like red brush calligraphy.

The head in my grip twitched for a moment, then went limp. The pain of his nose bone being pulverized had probably been too much, and he’d passed out. I released his head and looked at the other thug.

“Hieek!”

Now he understood that I was an opponent beyond what he could handle. Amazingly, despite his huge frame, he ducked behind the constables.

“C-Constable sirs, do something. Why’s a martial man suddenly butting into commercial affairs?”

“Honestly.”

At that lightning-fast reversal, I let out a hollow laugh. The constables clearly didn’t know what they ought to do. Well, after the words they’d already spoken, there wasn’t much they could do without exposing themselves either.

In that delicate standoff, one of the constables looked at me more closely, and his eyes widened.

“Could it be that you’re the Divine Physician of Hubei?”

“Is that important?”

“Of course it’s important. Come over here for a moment.”

The constable tucked his cudgel back into his belt and beckoned me into an alley.

When I followed him into the alley, the constable gave me a crafty smile.

“Ha ha. I wasn’t sure because I saw you from far away, but I never imagined you were the Divine Physician of Hubei. My apologies for not recognizing you.”

“I think that isn’t what you should be apologizing for.”

“Come now, don’t be so stiff. If you’re the Divine Physician of Hubei, then you know Lord Vice Minister of Revenue, don’t you?”

“Only enough to be familiar faces.”

“The truth is, the Association Master of the Wuhan Merchant Association happens to have a close relationship with Lord Vice Minister of Revenue.”

“Ah.”

At once, everything became clear in my mind. So that was why Jin Mu-byeok had said the Wuhan Merchant Association would be displeased. Then again, it was only natural for high officials and merchants to be entangled with one another.

“So for the sake of Lord Vice Minister of Revenue’s face, let this one pass, will you? You’re not even from Wuhan anyway.”

The constable rubbed his hands together with a servile smile.

At times like this, seeing a person rub his hands is even more revolting than watching a fly do it.

“You filth!”

At some point, Myeong-gyeong had come after us, leapt high, and smacked the constable on the back of the head. I had a tolerance for disgusting people, since I’d seen countless of them, but Myeong-gyeong still lacked that kind of resistance.

“Gack!”

Hit by the sudden blow, the constable rolled his eyes back and collapsed face-first.

“Trash like you! And you call yourselves officials? I really can’t stand the sight of you!”

“W-Wait, did you just hit a constable?”

The other constable was so shocked by his companion being knocked out that he stood there trembling, clutching his cudgel. Now he too had realized we were martial artists, and that we were not opponents a mere constable could handle.

“No matter how much of a martial man you are, to strike a government officer. Your arrogance touches the heavens!”

“Did I do something wrong?”

Myeong-gyeong turned to me and asked. I shook my head.

“No. You did well. Men like these need a beating before they learn.”

“Can I hit that one too?”

“You’re the senior brother. Why would you need my permission?”

“Ah. Right. I’m the senior brother.”

Myeong-gyeong’s face turned a little red, as though he were embarrassed that he had failed to act like a proper senior brother on his own just now. But what of it? Children were children. I simply smiled at him and let it pass.

The moment he received my permission that wasn’t really permission, Myeong-gyeong shot forward and rammed his head into the constable’s solar plexus.

“Kyaack!”

Watching Myeong-gyeong gleefully beat up the constable made me strangely cheerful. Unlike me, who had simply mangled a face in a street brawl, Myeong-gyeong was carefully beating him with proper Wudang martial arts. Just watching it was educational.

“That was excellent Taiji Fist.”

“Right?”

Myeong-gyeong dusted off his hands. At his feet, the constable lay collapsed, foam bubbling from his mouth.

“But where’d the bad one go?”

Myeong-gyeong looked around. One of the two men who had started the trouble in front of the shop had disappeared at some point.

I shrugged.

“Well, I’m sure we’ll see him again eventually.”

“I should’ve beaten him too.”

Myeong-gyeong was still huffing, not yet done with his anger. He truly was every inch a main-sect disciple of a prestigious orthodox sect, full of righteous indignation.

“W-What in the world have you done, beating constables like this?”

Song Hwan-yeong, who had rushed over late, trembled at the sight of the devastation. From the point of view of an ordinary merchant, beating the lackeys of a rival association was frightening enough, but beating constables would be truly terrifying.

“It’s all right.”

“In what possible way is this all right? Do you want to rot in prison?”

“There’ll be no prison. Please don’t worry so much.”

“How am I not supposed to worry at a time like this?”

“If your heart is that weak, how are you going to call yourself a merchant?”

“How is this a matter of weak nerves?”

I smiled as Song Hwan-yeong shouted in frustration. Myeong-gyeong, seeing me smile, smiled along with me. As we stood there grinning, two long shadows stretched toward us from the far end of the road. Those shadows darkened rapidly until they covered me whole.

I looked up at the man with the square jaw while keeping that smile on my lips. Beside me, Song Hwan-yeong recognized him and nearly jumped out of his skin.

“J-Jeon Gil-sang!”

“I was wondering who it might be. So it’s the scraps of the East Lake Merchant Association. Association Master Song, didn’t I tell you? If you appeared in my sight again, I’d bury you for good.”

Only then did another man come panting up behind Jeon Gil-sang. There was no need to even ask who it was. It was the very thug who had fled at top speed when Myeong-gyeong began beating the constable earlier.

That man had been big enough already, but Jeon Gil-sang was half again as large as that. He looked as though he could fold someone my size in half with one hand.

“Association Master Song. Did you really think you could stand against me by relying on some fellow who looks like a scholar?”

Jeon Gil-sang growled and tried to move toward Song Hwan-yeong. I inserted myself between them and blocked his way.

When I stood in his path, Jeon Gil-sang laughed as though I were ridiculous. I laughed along with him.

At some point, both smiles vanished. That was the moment we finally collided.