Right after that, I heard urgent shouts.
“Wake up! Baekwol!”
“Baekwol!”
I turned my head and saw someone collapsed on the floor, with people gathering around her.
I hurriedly ran over and asked,
“What happened?”
“Baekwol suddenly collapsed.”
At that, I looked down and saw a courtesan lying on the floor. Her face was so pale it looked like she might stop breathing any moment.
“Let’s get her to a physician. Now.”
At my words, Palgap immediately hoisted her onto his back.
“Where’s the closest clinic around here?”
The server who had been attending us stepped forward at my question and offered to guide us.
“Please, follow me.”
We rushed after the server toward the clinic. But it was farther than I expected.
I was sure I’d seen two or three medical banners on the way here.
“Why is the clinic this far away?”
“…The other physicians won’t treat courtesans.”
“Why not?”
But he stayed silent at my question, and soon we arrived at a clinic.
“We’ve got a patient!”
At the server’s shout, a woman rushed out from inside. Seeing the courtesan called Baekwol on Palgap’s back, she quickly said,
“Lay her here!”
Palgap gently set her down on the couch, and the physician took her pulse.
“She’s badly indigested.”
I knew it…
I’d already thought the Qi and blood in her body weren’t circulating properly, and now I had my reason.
The physician brought out her needles and began inserting them into Miss Baekwol’s body. Then she propped her up and firmly smacked her back.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
After a few solid blows, something flew out of Miss Baekwol’s mouth.
Huh? That’s…
“Rice cake?”
“It’s rice cake, all right.”
Palgap answered my mutter.
Meanwhile, Miss Baekwol’s color slowly returned, and she turned her head away, looking mortified.
The physician clicked her tongue and said,
“You swallowed without chewing properly, it got stuck, and blocked your Qi and blood.”
Everyone turned to look at Miss Baekwol, and she spoke in a tiny voice.
“I was so hungry… When they were clearing the table, the leftover food looked so delicious…”
So basically, she’d been so hungry she scarfed down the leftovers and ended up with indigestion?
I asked the server,
“Is your courtesan house in that bad a shape? Bad enough that the courtesans can’t even get a proper meal?”
The server hesitated, and the physician answered instead.
“Clear Wave Pavilion is actually one of the better places. Things aren’t abundant, but they still give the girls two meals a day.”
Miss Baekwol spoke in a wavering voice.
“Our house mistress isn’t at fault. I’m just too greedy with food. Our house mistress is a really good person.”
The physician added,
“That’s true. At other places the girls have to pay for their own food, but at Clear Wave Pavilion it’s provided free. It’s a good place.”
Then she continued,
“In any case, for today’s consultation fee…”
“Um, could today’s fee go on the tab? We haven’t had any real customers lately… so…”
Miss Baekwol looked desperate, while the physician just looked troubled.
I let out a sigh and asked,
“How much is it?”
“Excuse me?”
“I’ll pay your fee. Please, just rest for now. And Physician, may I have a word with you?”
I led the physician off to one side.
“What is it?”
I got straight to the point.
“How many physicians are practicing around here?”
“More than ten, I’d say.”
“On the way here from Clear Wave Pavilion, I saw quite a few places flying medical banners. But the server ignored them and brought us all the way here. He said the others wouldn’t treat courtesans.”
She calmly nodded.
“That’s right.”
“Is there a reason?”
“A reason… there is.”
She gave a bitter smile as she went on.
“They say they can’t treat lowly courtesans who sell their bodies. They’re afraid that filth will rub off on them.”
Were physicians in other places like this too?
“I don’t know about other regions, but around here it’s particularly bad. Maybe because there are so many taverns and so many courtesans.”
“…”
“So a lot of them die even from minor illnesses. Just like my mother.”
She didn’t say more than that, but it wasn’t hard to guess. Because of what happened back then, she’d studied medicine and opened this clinic.
“That’s a sad story.”
I said that and pulled a single gold tael from my robe.
“Here’s your fee.”
Her eyes went wide when she saw it, and she waved her hands in alarm.
“What? That’s way too much.”
Yeah, it was a lot, even to me.
The reason I went this far was because I was a little – no, very – annoyed.
At the physicians who refused to treat courtesans just because they were “lowly,” and at the courtesans who had gotten used to that and just accepted it.
Aren’t courtesans people?
They’re human beings with precious lives, people who marvel at beautiful things, people who shed tears when they see someone pitiful.
Yet when men need them, they keep them at their side and drink with them just fine, but the moment the women need help, they pretend not to see…
Phew, I was getting too worked up.
I calmed myself and said,
“From what I’ve heard, other courtesans probably can’t get proper treatment because they don’t have money. So whenever a courtesan comes in, please use this to treat her.”
“…You’re a good person.”
“Please take that back. Call it a whim, nothing more.”
Clear Wave Pavilion.
Its house mistress, Cheongpa, gazed at the spot where Eun Seo-ho had just been sitting.
He’d said he wanted to acquire her tavern.
He’d said he liked the tavern, and that he liked her as well.
That had triggered an instinctive rejection in her.
Too many men had tried tricks to get their hands on her.
Even though Eun Seo-ho was a hero known as the Handsome Young Hero, she hadn’t relaxed just because of that name.
Even so-called heroes looked at her with nothing but lust in their eyes.
But… Eun Seo-ho was different.
There hadn’t been a trace of lust in his eyes when he looked at her. He’d only been seeing her as a business counterpart.
“Phew…”
She let out a long sigh.
In truth, Clear Wave Pavilion’s situation wasn’t good.
She’d scraped and saved every coin, cut every expense she could, and managed to hold on until now, but the end was close.
She rose from her seat, opened the cabinet, and took out a letter.
[If you become our branch and serve as our eyes and ears, we’ll make sure Clear Wave Pavilion doesn’t fall. So come back.]
Cheongpa sighed again.
The sender wasn’t written, but she knew who it was.
The Hao Clan.
An information network made up mainly of courtesans and tavern staff.
In other words, they wanted Clear Wave Pavilion to become a branch of the Hao Clan.
But Cheongpa didn’t like this offer.
She didn’t want any outside faction interfering in her tavern.
The Hao Clan had long coveted her and Clear Wave Pavilion ever since she became famous as Hangzhou’s number one beauty, but back then she’d been financially stable enough to refuse their proposals.
‘You think I left that place so easily?’
In truth, she was originally from the Hao Clan.
But when she founded Clear Wave Pavilion, she broke away from them.
After that, she happily ran the tavern… until the famine struck without warning and the Prohibition Decree came down.
She had no idea when these disasters would end, and she was already at her limit.
So she had been on the verge of accepting the Hao Clan’s offer with tears in her eyes when a man named Eun Seo-ho appeared.
“House Mistress.”
Just then, she heard the server’s voice from outside.
“Come in.”
She quickly hid the letter and spoke.
The door opened and the server came in.
He’d been with her ever since she first opened Clear Wave Pavilion.
“I heard Baekwol suddenly collapsed.”
“Yes. We took her to Physician Jami and she was treated safely.”
“I’m glad. So she’s fine now?”
“Yes.”
“You must be worried about the consultation fee. I’m sure she put it on the tab, so take this money and…”
But the server shook his head.
“That won’t be necessary. Deputy Merchant Lord Eun Seo-ho who came by earlier paid for it.”
“Deputy Merchant Lord Eun did?”
“Yes.”
The server nodded.
“And Physician Jami gave us a heads-up earlier. Deputy Merchant Lord Eun handed her a gold tael and asked her to use it for other courtesans’ treatment fees.”
“He really is a strange man.”
She couldn’t think of any other way to describe him.
Plenty of men had thrown money around before to satisfy their own desires, but not one of them had ever done something like this for the courtesans’ sake.
“By the way, why did Baekwol collapse?”
“Well…”
The server dropped his head as he answered.
“She was so hungry that when they cleared the customer’s table, she swallowed a piece of rice cake without chewing. That gave her indigestion…”
“…”
Cheongpa bit her lip at that.
Normally, once a customer’s table was cleared, the leftovers went to the servers or the kitchen staff.
But the courtesan had been so hungry she’d broken that rule.
“The meals we’ve been giving the courtesans lately have been a bit lacking, haven’t they?”
“Even so, the girls are grateful just to be fed without having to pay.”
Since at other places they had to pay for their own food.
Recalling Eun Seo-ho’s gaze, Cheongpa asked the server,
“Do you know where Deputy Merchant Lord Eun Seo-ho is staying?”
“Most likely at Yangyang Martial Hall.”
“Send word to him. Tell him I’d like to meet.”
I was spending time at Yangyang Martial Hall.
All I was doing was playing with the kids, but that alone made the caretakers at Yangyang Martial Hall overjoyed.
Well, the kids loved it too.
Once we move to our new place, they’ll probably like it even more.
The tavern built on the land where Yangyang Martial Hall originally stood was called Gaho Pavilion.
And returning Gaho Pavilion to Yangyang Martial Hall’s embrace was something I planned to do far in the future.
Once I began acquiring taverns, the people working at the taverns around West Lake would start to have hope.
Hope that they wouldn’t starve to death, or that they might finally make some money.
And since Gaho Pavilion was a tavern too, its owner, Seong Jun, would cling to that hope and wait for the day his turn came.
That’s what I was aiming for.
But in the end, that hope would never come to Seong Jun.
Too cruel?
For an ungrateful man like him, this was generous.
Even the late Seong Ji-myeong would understand this much.
Anyway, when was Clear Wave Pavilion going to send word?
If they’re going to accept my proposal, they should say so. If they’re going to refuse, they should say that. I just wanted an answer quickly.
Right then.
One of Yangyang Martial Hall’s students came up to me and handed me a letter.
“Someone from Clear Wave Pavilion asked me to deliver this to you, Deputy Merchant Lord.”
I accepted the letter, read it, and smiled.
The moment of decision had finally arrived.
.
.
.
A little later.
I headed for Clear Wave Pavilion.
The same server who’d greeted me yesterday came out to welcome me again.
“Welcome. We’ve been expecting you. This way, please.”
I followed him to the house mistress’s room on the third floor.
The Escort Guard standing in front of the door announced my arrival the moment he saw me.
“House Mistress, Deputy Merchant Lord Eun Seo-ho of the Eunhae Merchant Group has arrived.”
“Show him in.”
Clack.
The door opened, and I stepped inside.
She was as beautiful as ever.
From what I’d heard yesterday, she was well past thirty, but maybe that had something to do with her practicing martial arts.
I’d heard there were martial arts techniques that could slow or even halt aging.
“Deputy Merchant Lord Eun Seo-ho pays his respects. Thank you for inviting me like this.”
“Please, sit.”
“Yes.”
Once I sat down in front of her, she personally brewed and poured the tea.
Every single one of her movements was graceful and fluid.
Training might have played a part, but I was sure she was born with a lot of it too.
It was probably the combination of all that that earned her the title of Hangzhou’s number one beauty.
“Please, drink.”
“Thank you. I’ll enjoy it.”
I raised the cup to my lips.
Hm? This fragrance… Dragon Well?
If she was serving such an expensive tea, today might really be worth looking forward to.
Clink.
As I set the cup down, she spoke first.
“I invited you today to discuss the matter you mentioned before.”
“Yes.”
“So then, how much do you think this tavern is worth?”
“I was thinking one thousand silver taels.”
She thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Very well. And the condition you mentioned earlier, that you’d leave the management of the tavern to me, is that still valid?”
“Of course. In fact, I’d really like to ask that of you.”
“Would you be willing to contract me for life?”
“Certainly. Since you built this tavern with your own hands, you must be deeply attached to it.”
She nodded at my words.
“I won’t be involved in the day-to-day management here very much. Judging from how you’ve run it so far, I feel like my interfering too much would just make things worse. But I’d like you to give me detailed reports.”
“That’s fine. Then I’ll hand this tavern over for one thousand silver taels.”
I cheered inwardly at those words.
We finalized the contract, and I paid her on the spot with ten notes worth one hundred silver taels each.
Then I handed over another five hundred silver taels as operating funds and went to see Shopkeeper Wi Jun-deok.
“Welcome.”
Shopkeeper Wi greeted me, and I told him I’d acquired Clear Wave Pavilion.
“That’s truly impressive.”
He marveled.
“So where’s the next tavern in the best condition?”
.
.
.
After hearing from Shopkeeper Wi about the next tavern’s situation, I returned to Yangyang Martial Hall.
Night had completely fallen.
I washed up and was about to rest when Palgap came running in a panic.
“Young Master! Young Master! This is no time for you to be relaxing!”
–TL Notes–
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