Bian Zhong was lucky.
He had come from Jiangxi to Hubei as a coachman, and for two days he had been unable to catch a carriage heading back.
Then, just in time, he found a carriage going to Jiangxi.
At places that rented out carriages, they hired coachmen like this, connected them with work, and took a portion of the money the coachman earned.
Bian Zhong asked the manager of the carriage rental office.
“How far is the passenger going?”
“To the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s Jiangxi Branch.”
Bian Zhong lowered his voice and asked quietly.
“Could he be a demonic practitioner?”
“Didn’t look like one on the outside.”
Even so, Bian Zhong grew tense and afraid. How many coachmen had died after getting caught up in fights between unorthodox faction members and demonic practitioners?
Bian Zhong cleaned the carriage and waited, and before long, the passenger arrived. He was a young and handsome man.
“My name is Bian Zhong. I’ll see to your comfort.”
“I’ll be in your care. It’s nothing urgent, so there’s no need to drive too fast.”
“Understood.”
Seeing the young man greet him, Bian Zhong could tell.
‘He’s not a demonic practitioner.’
He had carried several demonic practitioners before, but he had never seen one so courteous.
Of course, Bian Zhong was mistaken. The other party was the most famous demonic practitioner among all demonic practitioners. The young man was none other than Geom Mugeuk.
Geom Mugeuk intended to rent a carriage and ride to Jiangxi. He would practice the Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art in the carriage, and if there was a place with fine scenery, he would stop and look around before continuing on. He meant to go leisurely, resting as he pleased.
“Now then, we’ll be setting off.”
And so the carriage departed.
After they had been traveling for quite some time, Bian Zhong glanced back through the window connected to the coachman’s seat. Geom Mugeuk had his eyes closed. Bian Zhong could not tell whether he was sleeping or lost in thought.
‘Yes, this is the best kind of passenger.’
Inside the carriage, Geom Mugeuk was cultivating the Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art. At times like this, when he was on the move, he actually found it easier to concentrate. The sound of wind brushing past the carriage, birdsong from afar, the voices of passersby chattering. Sometimes such sounds heightened his focus all the more.
And when he grew tired of training, he would look out at the scenery, as he was doing now.
‘This is what resting is.’
The rest Ian had spoken of surely had not meant cultivating the Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art while taking brief pauses, but in his current situation, even this sort of rest was a luxury.
After gazing at the scenery outside for a while, Geom Mugeuk closed his eyes again.
He began to recite the endlessly tedious verses of the Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art with care, as though learning them for the first time. Another drop of water was added to the water jar.
* * *
That evening, the carriage stopped at an inn. Every coachman had different places where he rested, but they had one thing in common.
“I’ve heard the inns where coachmen rest are good at cooking.”
“That’s right. Since we travel so often, we know all the inns with good food.”
The two of them entered the inn.
“Then please rest well.”
“Let’s eat together.”
“I’m all right.”
As a rule, coachmen ate separately from their passengers. There were passengers who bought them meals, but for the most part, each person took care of eating and sleeping on their own until departure.
“I don’t like eating alone. Join me.”
Bian Zhong sat down with him, pretending he had no choice. From Bian Zhong’s perspective, it was a good thing; if he could get even one meal out of it, that was money saved.
“You must know this place well, so recommend something. What’s the best dish here?”
Bian Zhong recommended a few dishes. Geom Mugeuk ordered everything he mentioned.
“Now, we’re hungry, so let’s eat plenty.”
To a coachman, Geom Mugeuk was the finest kind of passenger.
He had invited him to eat together, yet did not ask this and that or nag him.
There were people like that. People who, while showing kindness, made a show of every bit of it; people who bragged about themselves until your ears ached; even people who asked how much a coachman earned and advised him that he ought to live a different life.
But Geom Mugeuk merely stared blankly outside the inn.
If anything, Bian Zhong wanted to speak to him.
He wanted to ask what the young hero did for a living, and why he was going to a branch of the Demon Cult.
Of course, Bian Zhong asked nothing. He had reached an age where he knew well enough that nothing good came from getting entangled with martial artists.
A short while later, the dishes came out, and Geom Mugeuk ordered wine as well.
He poured a cup for Bian Zhong too.
“I have to drive the carriage, so I’ll have just one cup.”
After drinking wine for the first time in a long while and eating delicious food, Bian Zhong truly felt alive again. Lately, he had been barely staving off hunger every day in order to save money.
‘Truly, if I only had passengers like this, being a coachman would be a decent job.’
Rather than lucky days like today, a coachman’s life was a succession of anxious, nerve-racking days.
Since the man had even bought him a meal, it felt shameless to say nothing at all, so he cautiously asked one question.
“Is this perhaps your first time going to Jiangxi?”
“No.”
“I see.”
The question of why he was going to the Demon Cult’s branch rose all the way to his throat, but he forced it back down.
“Thank you for the meal.”
Geom Mugeuk did not deliberately start a conversation, fearing it would make him uncomfortable. During his life as a wandering warrior, he had experienced enough to know that at times like this, simply remaining quiet was what best served the other person.
After finishing the meal, Geom Mugeuk was heading up to his guest room when he asked Bian Zhong,
“Why aren’t you going?”
“I can sleep in the carriage. Please go and rest comfortably.”
Bian Zhong usually snatched a little sleep in the carriage. He had to save even a single coin.
Geom Mugeuk booked a room for him as well with his own money.
“I’m fine.”
“I want to ride in a carriage driven by someone who slept comfortably.”
When he put it that way, Bian Zhong could not refuse again. Truly, if only there were passengers like this!
Upon entering the guest room, Bian Zhong felt wonderful.
‘How long has it been since I slept in a bed?’
That night, he slept very comfortably. He did not even envy the leader of the Martial Alliance.
The next day as well, Geom Mugeuk’s kindness continued.
He invited him to eat together and booked him a room too. Bian Zhong waved his hands and said he was fine, but Geom Mugeuk put forth the logic that taking care of the person holding the reins was the same as taking care of his own safety.
In the end, they ate together, and he slept in a good bed.
On the first day, he had eaten and slept happily, simply pleased by it all, but on the second day, while he was eating the dishes, he thought of his wife and children. It was because the dish was one his children liked. It was the dish he had bought for his eldest on his birthday last year. No, had it been the year before?
If only he could pack this up and take it with him. If he truly could, he wanted to take it home.
Then he raised his head and saw Geom Mugeuk looking at him. As if he had read his thoughts, Geom Mugeuk asked whether he had children.
“Do you have children?”
“I have two.”
“How old are they?”
“Seven and nine.”
“You must miss them.”
Bian Zhong grinned and nodded. Miss them? Of course he did. At times, he even felt the impulse to drive the carriage back to them at once.
And that night, his children appeared in his dreams.
* * *
Now and then, Geom Mugeuk had the carriage stop at places with good scenery.
Far off in the distance, the sun was setting beyond the river. The sight of the crimson sunset spreading over the glittering river was truly magnificent.
Geom Mugeuk stood with his arms crossed, gazing at it in silence.
Thanks to him, Bian Zhong also looked at the sunset for the first time in a long while. Come to think of it, it had truly been a long time since he had watched the sun set like this. So long that he could not even remember.
Whenever the sun went down, he was too busy driving the carriage with the thought that he had to reach an inn before it grew dark. To him, the sunset had instead been a signal that made him anxious. Today, he felt it anew. The sunset was this beautiful.
“My heart told me so. It said I looked tired, and that I should rest a bit. So I intend to listen to my heart.”
“Ah, I see.”
Bian Zhong answered as though he understood, but he did not understand what that meant. His heart? What did that mean? It only led him to the mistaken notion that perhaps this man had a heart condition.
They traveled on and on like that, until it was the day before they would reach their destination.
Bian Zhong was caught by Geom Mugeuk while refunding the room he had borrowed from the innkeeper and getting the money back. Geom Mugeuk, who had happened to come out for some fresh air, saw him. Pretending not to have seen, Geom Mugeuk went outside.
“Ah!”
Bian Zhong let out a sigh. Considering the other man’s sincerity, it was something he should not have done. Even if the other party understood, he himself felt terribly wretched.
The next day, troubled by it the entire time he drove the carriage, Bian Zhong approached Geom Mugeuk when they stopped in a field to let the horses rest for a while.
“I’m sorry about what happened yesterday.”
“It’s all right.”
It probably would have been enough to leave it at that and move on. But suddenly, a thought occurred to him.
He would have explained himself in detail to someone with a foul temper out of fear, yet to such a good person, he was going to say only that he was sorry and let it pass. That felt cowardly.
Fine. At least let me make my excuses properly.
“Last year, my second child suffered from a terrible fever. Back then, I borrowed money to pay for medicine. We were already living hand to mouth, and in my urgency, I borrowed money I should never have borrowed.”
“You borrowed from the Yama lenders.”
“That’s right.”
Bian Zhong let out a sigh.
“It wasn’t even much. I borrowed ten taels for the treatment costs… but now, after a year has passed, it has become seventy taels. Even though I’ve paid more than twenty taels in interest in the meantime.”
That was why he slept in the carriage. He had to pay the interest and feed his wife and children. But the debt only kept growing.
“It’s my fault. I borrowed it even after hearing how expensive the interest was from the start.”
He did not regret it. If he had not borrowed that money then, his second child would have died or become crippled.
Then Geom Mugeuk said,
“How could that be your fault, Mr. Bian? The fault lies with those who make Yama loans with interest beyond all common sense.”
At the words “Mr. Bian,” Bian Zhong’s heart surged. No one had ever addressed a coachman with such respect before.
And whenever he told people about borrowing money, they all said it was his own fault. Why had he borrowed money from a place like that in the first place?
“What is the name of the place where you borrowed the money?”
“It’s a place called Tongqiansuo.”
“Let’s go there first.”
“We mustn’t. They are violent and vicious people. Some of them know martial arts, and I’ve heard rumors that terrifying people are behind them. They have been making Yama loans in the region for a very long time, yet they’re still going strong.”
Bian Zhong felt hope that he might be able to escape this hell, and at the same time fear that this good man might be killed by them.
Geom Mugeuk stared at him blankly and said,
“It seems there’s been some misunderstanding. I’m going because I need money.”
For a moment, Bian Zhong wondered whether he should believe those words or not. This was someone who had spent money so freely on the way here, and now he was going to take out a Yama loan? So suddenly?
“Let’s go.”
What could he do when the passenger said they should go? The carriage changed direction from where it was originally supposed to go.
* * *
Surprisingly, after arriving at Tongqiansuo, Geom Mugeuk really did borrow money.
“How much can you lend me?”
Zhou Yang, the man in charge of lending money, looked Geom Mugeuk up and down.
“We don’t often lend money to outsiders…”
He did not state it firmly, trailing off instead. It meant they would lend the money after all.
“Do you have collateral?”
“No. Shall I leave this sword?”
“What would a sword be worth? We don’t take swords as collateral.”
Most of the swords martial artists tried to leave as collateral were miserable things. More than a few would buy some cheap sword from somewhere and pass it off as a famous blade.
“My sword would be offended to hear that.”
Zhou Yang looked at the sword. When he saw the sword wrapped round and round in bloodstained cloth, a snort escaped him. He had dressed it up well to make it look impressive.
“If you have no collateral, someone who will stand surety for you will do.”
At Zhou Yang’s words, Geom Mugeuk turned to Bian Zhong, who had come with him.
“Would you stand surety for me?”
Bian Zhong jumped in fright. For a moment, he wondered whether the man had brought him here to squeeze blood from a stone and make him stand surety.
“I’m joking. My father said you shouldn’t stand surety even for family.”
Bian Zhong, who had been tense, let out a sigh of relief.
“If I have neither collateral nor a guarantor, how much can I borrow?”
“We can lend you up to ten taels.”
“Good. Let’s borrow ten taels.”
“Now, write your personal details on this loan document and press your thumbprint.”
Geom Mugeuk wrote as instructed and even pressed his thumbprint. When lending the money, they made it easy—truly fast and simple.
“If you don’t pay it back on time, interest will be added. There are always bastards who later throw a fit, saying the interest is expensive or whatnot. Shameless wretches who came here on their own two feet to borrow money, then spout that kind of nonsense.”
Bian Zhong lowered his head. Zhou Yang had said it for Bian Zhong to hear.
At that moment, Geom Mugeuk took Bian Zhong’s side.
“How desperate must someone be to borrow money even at such high interest? Those who take advantage of desperate people’s hearts are the shameless ones.”
For an instant, Zhou Yang’s expression hardened. But Zhou Yang, seasoned as he was, did not get angry. That was because he knew better than anyone what kind of end awaited men who acted cocky like this.
‘You damned fool. Let’s see if you can still say that later. I’ll show you what it means to be unable to repay money even when you want to.’
Zhou Yang checked the contents written on the loan document.
“Your hometown is Guangxi City, I see. You’ve come from far away. I trust you wrote the address properly. Your father’s name is Geom Ujin—what a fine name. I don’t know if you’re aware, but we have branches in every province. We’ll soon confirm what you wrote and receive word back.”
“Do that.”
“I’ll say this in advance: don’t think about running away without paying back the money. Your family will have to pay it back in your place. I’m saying we’ll go find your father.”
“My father has plenty of money.”
He left the place together with Bian Zhong. Many men wearing blades were coming and going all around the courtyard. It was a fairly large-scale Yama lending house.
Once they left, Bian Zhong asked the question he had been holding back.
“Why on earth did you come here?”
He had worried that there might be a bloody fight. He had been worried, and he had also hoped for it.
He had hoped this young hero would draw his sword, sweep them all away, and say, “From now on, you have no debt.” It was selfish and worldly of him, but honestly, that was how he had felt.
“Didn’t I say I came to borrow money?”
“You came just to borrow ten taels? Young hero… don’t you not need that money?”
Considering how Geom Mugeuk had spent money on the way here, it made no sense that he would borrow ten taels.
“I do need it.”
It was not solely because of the Yama lenders that he had come. He intended to begin his secret inspection of the Jiangxi Branch from here. Corruption was always connected to money.
Far behind Geom Mugeuk, two men attached themselves to their trail. It was an open tail, meant to show they were being watched and that they should not think of doing anything else.
“If they lend ten taels and use two men to watch you, isn’t that a loss for them instead?”
Geom Mugeuk showed him the ten taels in his palm and asked in return,
“This isn’t ten taels, is it?”
Bian Zhong let out an exclamation. He had understood what Geom Mugeuk meant.
Starting with these ten taels, they would insert a tube and suck blood for a lifetime. That was why the money borrowed just now was not ten taels. It was hundreds, thousands of taels. Just as he himself was suffering now.
“Let’s see how they collect these ten taels.”