Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 99 - Huizhou's Nobles (4)

Chapter 99 – Huizhou’s Nobles (4)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Son Yeong-ui the lovable dog. A member of the Son Family, one of the Huizhou Fifteen Clans. I had not known that at this time he would already have been serving as Chief Salt Merchant.

“A pleasure.”

Son Yeong-ui extended his right hand toward me. I immediately extended mine as well and shook it. Son Yeong-ui’s expression grew strange.

“The pleasure is mine, elder Chief Salt Merchant. I am Muk Hui-yeong, Company Lord of the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company.”

“You know the greeting of the Western Regions.”

“Personally, I prefer it to a martial salute.”

The act of clasping hands and shaking them, a handshake, had originated not in the Central Plains but in the Western Regions. That was why handshakes were a kind of upper-class custom known only to merchants who traded with western merchants. After all, not many merchants, then or now, could deal directly with merchants from the Western Regions.

“I have heard that a handshake is an act meant to show that one carries no weapon. And that shaking the hand up and down means there are no weapons hidden in the sleeves either.”

“And yet you have a sword at your waist?”

“I’m a lay disciple of the Wudang Sect.”

“Oh. Is that so.”

Not only Son Yeong-ui, but even Hu Geum-yang, who was watching from the side, seemed to have gained a hint of curiosity in their eyes as they looked at me. It was obvious what they had thought of me before.

Probably no more than some ignorant bumpkin or naive greenhorn who had intruded into Huizhou merchant territory. But now that they had met me and exchanged a few words, it seemed they felt something a little different.

“Yes. I’m quite fortunate today. I intended to pay my respects to the Salt Transport Office and then call on the Chief Salt Merchant, but to find both of you in the same place.”

I smiled. Hu Geum-yang smiled too, and Son Yeong-ui returned the smile. Smiles were contagious by nature.

“Fortunate indeed. If you’d come to me, I wouldn’t have met with you.”

That did not mean the smiles were pleasant. In conversations between merchants, smiles simply formed part of the default setting. Son Yeong-ui smiled even as he said such words without the least hesitation.

Then again, as Huizhou’s Chief Salt Merchant, he occupied a position no merchant could ignore. A mere newly established Company Lord was not someone before whom he needed to choose his words carefully.

“Ha ha ha.”

“Ha ha ha.”

“Ha ha ha.”

The laughter of the three men blended together harmoniously. I heard the salt office officials watching nearby swallow hard. That probably meant they could sense the tension hanging between us.

“Then let’s speak plainly. What exactly were you thinking when you came to Huaiyin’s salt yard?”

Hu Geum-yang asked first. Son Yeong-ui watched with interest.

“Isn’t Huaiyin’s salt yard the place that produces the most salt in the entire Central Plains?”

“We’ve not spoken for long, but you don’t strike me as someone too stupid to understand the real intent of that question.”

“Ha ha. I’m only grateful that Lord Hu sees me that way. Then let me answer again.”

I took my eyes off Hu Geum-yang and looked straight at Son Yeong-ui.

“Because I thought I could eat it.”

“…!”

One of the salt office officials even covered his mouth with his hand. Even to me, it was rather drastic. The sight of a newly established young Company Lord openly picking a fight with Huizhou’s Chief Salt Merchant, after all.

“Heh heh heh…”

Son Yeong-ui laughed out loud. Only Son Yeong-ui’s laughter filled the Salt Transport Office. Even Hu Geum-yang, the actual office head, stayed quiet for the moment.

When Son Yeong-ui stopped laughing, only a cold smile remained like a trace at the edge of his mouth.

“I don’t dislike spirited young men like you. A real man ought naturally to carry dreams of blue clouds in his heart.”

“Thank you.”

“But public matters and private matters are different. As the representative of Huizhou’s salt merchants, I can’t overlook this.”

“And what are you going to do about it?”

At my provocative question, Son Yeong-ui leaned in until his face hovered above my shoulder and whispered.

“I’ll bury you so that you can never operate in the commercial world again. Smashing one small merchant company is nothing at all.”

“Wow, scary.”

“You think this is a joke, don’t you?”

“Of course I know it’s not a joke. I’ve buried the Wuhan Merchant Union myself, so I know.”

“Comparing me to that little local merchant union is rather insulting. Surely you weren’t filled with confidence because of just that one thing?”

“Not exactly. As if I’d be able to bury the Huizhou merchants.”

It was chilling. Until recently I’d been dealing only with clumsy local merchants, so talking to a genuine top-tier merchant really did feel different in terms of pressure. Spending so much time around my Senior Brothers must have dulled me somewhat. Still, merely because a famous sword was buried in mud did not mean its edge would lose its keenness.

“I only mean that I’d like to tell you not to do it.”

“Are you threatening me right now?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you were something a little different, but you’re just the usual sort of madman.”

“I hear that a lot.”

“Perhaps because we’re Huizhou merchants, you assumed we’d use more refined methods than other people?”

Son Yeong-ui growled. With that protruding mouth and drooping eyes, he looked less like a human-faced dog and more like a dog-faced human.

“Let me tell you plainly right here. I’m going back to the union immediately, putting your merchant company on notice, and turning everything into chaos. Report it to the government? Feel free, if you have any evidence.”

I smiled. No matter how ignorant I might be of some things, there was no way I would not know the methods of the Huizhou merchants.

In truth, these were not only the methods of the Huizhou merchants. They were the methods of every merchant. If the Huizhou merchants had a distinctive trait, it was only that they trampled others more cruelly than most.

So Son Yeong-ui’s words were the exact opposite of the truth. I had not assumed the Huizhou merchants knew how to use refined methods. I knew they used the roughest methods in all the Central Plains.

Since I continued to respond only with a smile, Son Yeong-ui stormed out in fury. He was angry enough to slam the door so hard that several faint-hearted people jerked at the sound.

“Have you lost your mind?”

The moment Son Yeong-ui was gone, Hu Geum-yang shouted.

“Why?”

“No, even if you don’t understand the world, there should be a limit. Of all people you could provoke, you provoke the Huizhou merchants? And among them, the salt merchants, who are said to be the strongest?”

“That can happen. It’s not something the Salt Transport Office needs to worry about. It’s my merchant company’s business.”

“That much is obvious. We don’t care in the least. I’m worried about you personally.”

Far beyond merely not caring, if we were dragged into litigation, it would be this very Huaiyin Salt Transport Office that stepped forward to side with the Huizhou merchants. Regardless of Hu Geum-yang’s personal likes or dislikes, the Huaiyin Salt Transport Office had no choice.

And no, unlike before, I couldn’t drag in the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate and have the Huaiyin Salt Transport Office torn apart. The Salt Transport Office itself stood at the high rank of upper third rank, and the Huizhou merchants also possessed more than enough connections to devour a mere Right Vice Censor-in-Chief.

For a moment I considered using the Investigating Censor tablet Wang Song had given me, but that had been given so I could watch the martial world, not so I could watch the government. And just because I was an Investigating Censor did not mean the Salt Transport Office would so much as blink.

“I’m grateful for your concern.”

“If I were you, I’d run to the Chief Salt Merchant right now, grab his trouser leg, and apologize. You might even crawl between his legs.”

I nodded. Naturally, that did not mean I agreed with the suggestion. Rather, it was because I felt I now understood why this Hu Geum-yang fellow had lasted in the Huaiyin Salt Transport Office. He was the very model of an official who knew how to preserve himself.

“And even if you go to the Provincial Administration Commission and ask for constables, it will do no good. Constables don’t go out to prevent trouble. They go out afterward, when something has already happened, to clean up the mess.”

“That’s true.”

I nodded again. This time, it was because I genuinely agreed with the point.

“In any case, the exchange of salt certificates will proceed on the schedule that was set.”

“…Do as you like.”

Hu Geum-yang shook his head, as though he had concluded there was no point saying anything more to me. I left the Salt Transport Office immediately. The eyes of the officials watching me go all looked as though they were staring at a madman.

Just as the foreman I had sent ahead had said, the inn was indeed close to the salt yard. The salt yard and the Salt Transport Office were some distance apart. Naturally so, since the Salt Transport Office was a government office and therefore sat in town, while the salt yard lay on the outskirts.

“That didn’t take long?”

“No.”

In the inn’s front courtyard, my Senior Brothers were training. Apparently they had started training almost as soon as they arrived.

Since we had been doing nothing but riding horses during the journey, it was true they had not really had any time to train.

The inn was three stories tall, and every window was filled with people watching my Senior Brothers’ sparring with interest.

There were only two kinds of people at an inn near a salt yard: people from salt merchant companies, or laborers from the salt yard. Since neither had much to do with the martial world, it was natural for them to find the sight fascinating. Jiangsu, where Huaiyin was located, did not really possess any notable martial sects or clans of its own.

“Amazing. What kind of merchant company’s escorts are that flashy?”

“Seriously. Shouldn’t they be disciples of one of the Nine Great Sects at least?”

“Come on. Even if they’re the Huizhou merchants, how could they use disciples of one of the Nine Great Sects as escorts? Maybe temporarily, but they wouldn’t bring them all the way to a salt yard like this. Those people are so proud.”

The merchants perched in the windows were chatting away, apparently assuming their voices wouldn’t carry.

Then again, from the perspective of commoners, it would be impossible to imagine that conversation on the third floor could be heard on the first. Martial artists and commoners lived in different worlds. I just happened to be a man with a foot in both.

I dearly wanted to proudly shout to them that these men were from Wudang, one of the Nine Great Sects, but I restrained myself. There was a reason we had not planted Wudang’s banner during this trade run.

I sat quietly on the veranda and watched my Senior Brothers spar. It felt as though I had now reached a realm where experience could be gained simply by watching, even without personally sparring.

Martial artists really were martial artists. Just as merchants drank and built relationships for the sake of business, my Senior Brothers swung their swords until sunset. Even the commoners who had been watching from the windows clicked their tongues and left.

“Why don’t you all have dinner now? Aren’t you hungry?”

When it showed no sign of ending, I clapped my hands. The sound, filled with internal energy, rang out clear and bright.

“Huh? It’s already this late?”

“Seriously. When did the sun go down?”

As though rehearsed, my Senior Brothers all said the same thing to one another.

“I hadn’t really trained properly at all on the way here, so my body was stiff. It finally loosened up a bit.”

“We’re doing it again after dinner, right?”

“Of course. My body only just loosened up, so now we should train properly.”

Inside Wudang, it had been an ordinary sight, but seeing it from outside made me realize it anew. Disciples of the Nine Great Sects were not just anyone.

“Come to think of it, aren’t you training too, Junior Brother? Doesn’t your body feel a little itchy?”

“Yeah. If you bottle that sort of thing up, it turns into sickness.”

My Senior Brothers crowded around me as they spoke. In truth, I was feeling a little restless too. I had trained with them every day at Wudang, after all. Even so, I could hold back if I chose to.

“It’s fine. I think I’ll have a chance to let it out in the very near future.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Have we only known him a day or two? When isn’t he talking nonsense?”

“But hasn’t it been true more often than not?”

“Now that you put it that way, that’s creepy.”

Laughing among themselves, my Senior Brothers headed into the dining hall. In one corner of the first-floor dining room, our merchant company people had already taken seats.

“Over here, Hall Master. Daoists.”

One of the foremen raised his hand and called to us. The dishes were already steaming hot, as though he had known exactly when we would arrive.

“I thought you’d probably come around this time, so I ordered in advance.”

“You’re good.”

“Ha ha. You flatter me.”

I had told Jo Chung-heon not to be stingy when hiring people, and now it seemed true experts had found their way to us. It was easy to work with people like this.

As expected of a place where commerce was so developed, even the outskirts had good food. Matching the tastes of merchants was always the hardest thing. They were people who traveled across the whole Central Plains tasting every kind of delicacy there was. That was why any place with developed commerce had many good restaurants.

My merchant company people and Senior Brothers, who had not been able to eat comfortably on the way to Huaiyin, devoured the food like wolves.

And not long after, someone kicked the inn door open.

“Where are the bastards from the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company in here!”

At a glance, the fellow looked exactly like a thug from the black path, a broadsaber slung over his shoulder. Every time he swaggered, the metallic rattle from his waist made the other guests’ faces turn pale.

“Anyone not involved, stop holding your spoons and get out!”

We quietly looked at them, and the other guests poured out like an ebb tide at the black-path man’s shout. Their emptied places were instantly filled by the men who had come in with the thug.

“Oh-ho. Seeing as you lot are the ones staying put, I guess you’re the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company bastards.”

The black-path men glared and slowly advanced toward us.

“Heh heh heh…”

Then the merchant company staff looked at each other and laughed. They knew who was attached to us.

The black-path thugs, who obviously did not, had their eyebrows rise as though they might fly straight up into the sky.

I too suddenly found myself smiling. I had intended exactly this, but the sight of black-path ruffians picking a fight with disciples of one of the Nine Great Sects was even more amusing than I had expected.

“Very near future indeed.”

It seemed Myeong-yeop had roughly pieced together the shape of the incident, because he gave a booming laugh.

“Junior Brothers. There’ll be no separate training after dinner. This time, it’s real combat.”

“Yes!”

I didn’t even need to step in. The moment Myeong-yeop shouted, the four martial men of Wudang raised their momentum, and the complexions of the black-path thugs rapidly turned dark with dread.