Chapter 347. The Reason for Showing Courtesy
“You’ve never had qingjiao rousi? Wow……”
The Lecher looked at me with a startled expression. Sometimes even a startled expression carried intent, and the Lecher was making that face to tease me. In truth, I had only heard rumors of proper qingjiao rousi.
Food varied by region, so how could I possibly have eaten all of it? I was not someone who cultivated cooking, but someone who cultivated martial arts.
“I haven’t. I just need tangcu liji when we go down. Today I’ll eat three plates.”
“Don’t you ever get sick of that damned tangcu liji? You eat it every single day.”
“For me to get sick of it, I’d have to eat it for another seventeen years.”
“Impressive. Why are you so obsessed with it?”
“It’s like when you’re fighting a crowd and you only beat on one guy.”
“Ah, I understand.”
As we descended the mountain path of Wanzhang Cliff, a bunch of grown men were holding an in-depth discussion about what to eat, and it felt like we were having the most childish conversation in the world. Perhaps because of that, the dignified Ghost Demon, Sword Demon, and White-Clad Scholar did not dare join in this childish conversation.
In truth, I found childish conversations amusing.
The Lecher said with a sneer.
“To think you’ve never even had the common-as-dirt qingjiao rousi. You really were a country bumpkin. Fine. I’ll use my discerning eye to find a decent restaurant, so just follow me. I’ll show you the taste of proper qingjiao rousi.”
As I listened, I wondered why my mood was becoming slightly unpleasant.
The Lecher asked the Sword Demon.
“Master, you like qingjiao rousi too, don’t you?”
The Sword Demon looked at his disciple with an indifferent expression.
“I’ve never had it.”
“My apologies.”
“It is not something for you to apologize for.”
“Yes.”
There was no way a decent eatery would suddenly appear beneath Wanzhang Cliff. After traveling for half a shichen, we entered a fairly developed commercial district and looked for somewhere to have a meal.
* * *
“Three plates of qingjiao rousi, four plates of tangcu liji, five orders of plain dumplings, one bottle of Dukang wine, two bottles of Fenjiu. Bring all of us yumi geng first. Do you have jiaohua ji too?”
At the Lecher’s question, the waiter nodded.
“We do.”
“We’ll order more after tasting it, so bring us that much for now.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Lecher looked at the Ghost Demon.
“This should be enough, right?”
The Ghost Demon replied.
“Are you trying to make our stomachs burst?”
“For some reason, that fish really stirred up my appetite. Maybe because it was greasy. I’m going crazy. I miss all kinds of seasonings that are bad for the body.”
In truth, I felt the same way.
We sat around a large round table and looked outside from the second floor. We had tried to find a proper inn or restaurant, but in the end, we entered the largest eatery.
The White-Clad Scholar, who had remained quiet until now, asked softly.
“Does everyone have money?”
All four of the Great Evils looked at me, so I answered.
“I do, so eat without worry.”
Only then did I realize why the White-Clad Scholar had followed us here so quietly. It seemed he did not usually carry money.
‘What an absurd beggar bastard.’
In truth, whether I fell off Wanzhang Cliff or into the eastern sea, I always tended to pay attention to my money pouch. After all, one needed money to eat.
The yumi geng arrived in no time. It was a simple dish made by mixing egg into corn, but in truth, one could generally predict the standard of a restaurant just by tasting its yumi geng.
Once the warm yumi geng entered my stomach, I finally felt like I could live. Apparently, I was not the only one, because everyone spooned up the yumi geng like beggar bastards. People came up the stairs to the second floor and took seats nearby, looking at us, but we were too busy eating to pay them much mind.
The liquor arrived, and the dumplings and qingjiao rousi appeared like newly rising masters of the jianghu. When the wooden lids covering the dumplings were removed, steam rose in wisps from the crowns of the dumplings, as if they had just finished circulating qi and regulating their breath.
“Oh……”
The Lecher split open a large dumpling with his hands and smelled it. Only then did the startled Ghost Demon look at me.
“……We didn’t check like usual.”
The White-Clad Scholar asked.
“You mean for poison?”
We looked at the White-Clad Scholar. Had this fellow checked in advance? The White-Clad Scholar continued.
“Eat at ease. If poison appears, I will massacre this place.”
The Lecher nodded.
“That’s right. If there’s poison, I’ll kill them all.”
At the murderous words of the White-Clad Scholar and the Lecher, all the customers looked this way. A strange silence settled over the place, so I also glanced around.
Was there some small local sect or black path faction in this town? There was a mix of ambiguous people who looked like jianghu men and yet did not.
The Lecher stuffed a generous amount of qingjiao rousi, picked up with chopsticks, into the dumpling he had split in half. Then he covered it with the remaining dumpling half, held it with both hands, and began eating the qingjiao rousi dumpling.
His face seemed to be saying, Have you ever eaten it like this?
I copied him exactly. I split a dumpling, shoved qingjiao rousi into the dumpling skin, and then held it with both hands. Just as I was about to take a bite, an unfamiliar voice cut in from nearby.
“……Country bumpkins.”
I briefly kept my mouth open and turned my head to look at the ones flapping their mouths carelessly. Some of them were waiting as if they intended to have a staring contest with me.
I stared at them in disbelief while eating the dumpling, but because of the flavor of qingjiao rousi spreading through my mouth, I soon stopped caring.
“Wow, this is pretty good.”
Only the Lecher and I ate the qingjiao rousi dumplings, while the rest picked up the qingjiao rousi with chopsticks.
I picked up the Dukang wine and poured it into five small cups, then turned the rotating round tray inside the table. The Four Great Evils and the White-Clad Scholar, who had been eating, each took a cup.
I said in the quietest voice I could.
“Why are there so many people who stake their lives on a single word?”
The Ghost Demon said as if admonishing me.
“Let’s eat quietly and leave.”
“We should.”
As it happened, the Lecher and I were sitting with our backs to the window, while the Ghost Demon, Sword Demon, and White-Clad Scholar sat with their backs to the other customers, so our group must have looked young.
“Your tangcu liji is here.”
My anger quickly subsided. Not that I had planned to beat anyone, but in any case, the tangcu liji had saved a man’s life.
The Lecher said.
“Third Brother said he’d eat three plates, so I ordered four.”
I looked at the White-Clad Scholar.
“White-Clad, eat plenty. You’re picking at your food like the most boring man in the world.”
The White-Clad Scholar snorted and continued picking at his food as before. Whether he did or not, we ate diligently.
Three plates of tangcu liji was too much.
After eating a plate and a half, I suppose you could say everything in the world started to feel like a hassle. Since we could not speak of Cheonak in a place like this, we mainly talked about climbing Manjangae. To others, it must have sounded like nothing more than mountain climbing stories.
Only after filling our stomachs did the White-Robed Scholar ask in a quiet voice.
“……Do you all truly intend to go see him?”
At the White-Robed Scholar’s question, everyone looked at me. I took a sip of Dugangju and nodded.
“From what I felt when I saw him, the grave air about him is similar to our eldest brother’s. The circumstances of losing a junior brother or junior sister are similar to our second brother’s. If he suffers from madness, then that, too, is a plight similar to mine. I have no intention of using him, and he is not someone who would fall for petty tricks or schemes. I do not mind even if it is an ordinary drinking gathering.”
I looked at the White-Robed Scholar.
“Let’s go meet him. Even someone the world cannot understand—strange as it may sound—we can understand. I doubt it would be any comfort knowing that men like us understand him, but I cannot help thinking this. It feels as though we are visiting someone imprisoned in a cell. Do you understand what I mean?”
“…….”
“I am saying you seem to be acting like a guard.”
The White-Robed Scholar nodded.
“Very well. Let us go. To think I am a guard—I must clear up this misunderstanding.”
When the conversation broke off, the voices of guests from a short distance away drifted over.
“……They must be going to visit a prisoner.”
“Seems like it.”
The Lust Demon narrowed his brows and spoke to the guests.
“Why are you cutting into other people’s conversation as you please? Have you lost your minds?”
I looked at the Lust Demon. Had my madness transferred to this fellow? The martial artists had already mocked us twice, so even the Sword Demon and the Ghost Demon remained silent.
As I looked…….
Martial artists here and there who had been watching outsiders were glaring at the Lust Demon. Someone replied to the Lust Demon’s words.
“When did we cut into your conversation?”
We watched as the Lust Demon quietly rose.
I had no intention of stopping him either.
For some reason, the Sword Demon did not calm his disciple either. Watching the scene unfold, the atmosphere was such that it would not have been strange if all of the Lust Demon’s limbs were broken. Since this floor was fairly spacious, some thirty guests were all staring at the Lust Demon.
The Lust Demon slowly grabbed a liquor bottle from another man’s table and, as everyone watched, poured the liquor onto the floor.
But the liquor pouring from the bottle froze solid before it could even touch the floor.
Crack—!
Frozen like a winter waterfall shrunk down in size. Grasping the bottle like the hilt of a sword, the frozen liquor soon became a pale blade.
Holding the frozen blade, the Lust Demon slowly walked between the tables, looking at the martial artists.
“……Does anyone else have something more to say to me?”
“…….”
“No one? Personally, I wish someone did. Don’t squeak like rats—be brave and stand up. I truly cannot fathom what it was you wanted to say.”
Holding the frozen bottle, the Lust Demon slowly made his way across the floor and thrust the jagged ice toward one man’s face.
“Do you have something to say?”
The man shook his head. It was strange that not a sound could be heard despite so many people being present.
The Lust Demon spoke as he walked around.
“Eat your meals. This is a fine restaurant. Eat good food, drink good liquor, and then don’t go picking fights with others.”
The Lust Demon placed the frozen liquor back where it had originally been with a clang, then returned.
The inn had become considerably quieter.
Once the Lust Demon sat down, the Sword Demon asked.
“What was that about? I thought you were going to raise a ruckus.”
The Lust Demon answered.
“I held myself back.”
The Sword Demon folded his arms and let out a hollow laugh. Then the Ghost Demon lightly rapped the table and burst into laughter.
I folded my arms as well and looked at the Lust Demon.
“……You little shitter, all grown up. I’m proud of you. The Madman of Baengeungji will be left as a legend now. To think you held that back.”
Eventually, while the Sword Demon and the Ghost Demon laughed aloud, the White-Robed Scholar suppressed a smile with a strange expression. He seemed reluctant to laugh in front of us.
The Lust Demon muttered.
“I really…….”
“…….”
“I never imagined that as a grown man, I’d be teased so persistently for so long for being a little shitter.”
The Sword Demon and the Ghost Demon, who roughly knew of the rivalry between the Lust Demon and me, burst into even greater laughter.
The Ghost Demon spoke.
“It generally does not end well for anyone who recklessly picks a fight with the third brother. He is a man said to outlast even Tangchoricheok by another seventeen years. You, little shitter, will be stewed in that nickname for another seventeen years as well.”
The Lust Demon answered.
“What do you want me to do about it. I don’t mind when it’s just us. But please restrain yourself in front of a beauty like Ilbongiseon. I’m asking you. I’m asking in advance.”
I called out to the Lust Demon.
“Fourth.”
“What?”
“Try calling me ‘Third Brother.’ And use honorifics with Second Brother too.”
The Lust Demon nodded his head and answered.
“Bite me.”
“Sure.”
The Sword Demon said as he stood up.
“Let’s go.”
At the Sword Demon’s words, we all stood up. I took out my money pouch and spoke.
“Go down first. I’ll go after paying.”
I called the waiter, paid the bill, took my change, then looked around and approached the frozen liquor bottle. It seemed the Lust Demon had achieved something, for the liquor remained frozen in a vicious shape.
As the backwater martial artists watched…….
I flicked the bottle with my index and middle fingers. The winter waterfall that had jutted out sharply collapsed in an instant, part splattering onto the bottle and part onto the table.
The Four Great Evils and the White-Robed Scholar had already slipped out of the inn.
Naturally, everyone on this floor was staring at me.
I looked around at the guests and spoke.
“I am Ijaha, the Haomunju. I intend to take a brief stroll around town and leave, but if there is a group that needlessly harasses merchants, I plan to shatter them utterly with my companions. The fellow who just showily used ice arts is the youngest of our group. I suppose I need not say what manner of men the rest are?”
“…….”
Since no one answered, I grabbed the shoulder of the man beside me. The man whose shoulder was seized flinched as if convulsing. This was the fellow who had called us country bumpkins earlier, and I naturally remembered.
I whispered to the man.
“Did you understand? Answer.”
“Yes.”
I tapped the man’s back and spoke.
“The stir-fried chili peppers here are tastier than Tangchoricheok’s.”
“Ah, yes. That is so.”
“The country bumpkins are leaving. Take care.”
When I stepped out of the inn, my companions were waiting for me. Seeing them like this, they all looked rather shabby. It was because they had struggled their way up and down Manjang Cliff.
As everyone was looking at me, I made a proposal to the group.
“I’ll buy each of you a set of clothes, so let’s all change into new outfits before we set out.”
Ghost Demon asked.
“Why clothes?”
I looked at the White-Clad Scholar. Even this neat man’s garments were smeared here and there with dust and dirt. I said to the four of them.
“Let’s all dress in white. It seems we were looked down on even more because our clothes were such a ragged mess.”
I gathered with my companions and started walking down the street. As we walked, Lecherous Demon asked.
“Why are we suddenly buying clothes?”
I answered while looking around the shops.
“We’re going to meet the greatest master of the age, so we should at least show that much courtesy. Besides, if the five of us all change into clean white robes, I feel like it’ll somehow put us in a better mood. If I tell you to shut up and do it, then do it. I’m the one paying.”
“Fine.”
In any case, I intended to observe even the smallest courtesies.
Of course, there was courtesy toward Cheonak, but even more so because he was the White-Clad Scholar’s friend.