I'm Here To Sell Timber

The next day, I went to my mother’s quarters.

“Mother, your son Mujin is here.”
“Come in.”

I opened the door and stepped inside to find Mother tending her orchids. She wiped each leaf in turn with a soft cloth, moving with a grace that would not have shamed the lady of the most prestigious clan. She set the cloth down.

“You have thrown yourself into your training of late. Martial arts are not everything in life, so do not push yourself too hard.”
“I understand.”
“So, what brings you here?”
“I mean to go and see a timber merchant, and sell wood. I would like to be of some small help to the family’s finances.”

Mother’s eyes widened a little. The words had caught her off guard.

Well, I understood why. The boy I had been back then was so eaten up by his own inferiority over having no martial talent that he was poor with people and blind to what anyone else was feeling. For a son like that to step forward and offer to help the family, it was no wonder she was startled.

A smile curved her eyes and the corners of her mouth.

“So that is why you have been felling trees all this while.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”

The contentment on her face as she said it made something well up in my chest. To be this happy over a single word from her son… What a worthless son I had been. She was watching me with a proud light in her eyes.

I’ll come to see you more often, Mother.

Surely coming often like this and talking with her was filial duty too. The filial duty I left unfinished in my past life, I would repay over the life ahead of me.

Mother went on.

“Have you found a timber merchant?”
“I mean to call on a man named Hwang Yanggeon.”
“Hwang Yanggeon? He does not sound like anyone from these parts.”
“He is in Linqu County.”
“That is not close. There are timber merchants in Qingzhou as well — is there a reason it must be that man?”
“Yes.”

I answered shortly. Only through Hwang Yanggeon would I have the means to make real money, and on that money I meant to build more. Once the family’s livelihood was secure I would have grounds to close the escort bureau, and my father would not die.

But I could not tell my mother any of it. She would find it hard to believe, and she would never permit me to go somewhere dangerous.

“…”

Mother held my eyes in a long, steady look, and I met it without turning away. After a moment she let out a short sigh.

“You came here already set on going.”
“Yes. I will take Elder Kang with me and get some air while I am at it. It should take about four days.”
“Very well. If Elder Kang goes with you, then your mother can rest easy.”

Mother nodded, drew a money pouch from inside her robes, and held it out to me. It had a solid weight when I took it.

“It is your first time away. Stay at a good inn, and eat well.”
“I will use it gratefully.”
“Go, then, and take care.”
“I will be off, then.”

I made my farewell to Mother and left the house with Elder Kang.

Linqu County lay southwest of Qingzhou, half a day away at a quick walk, but we ambled along as if on an outing and stopped for snacks on the road. By the time we arrived it was around the hour of the Rooster, and the sun was going down.

“Young master, we had best take an inn and rest for today.”
“All right.”
“This way, if you will.”

I followed Elder Kang into an inn, and a server came to meet us as we stepped inside.

“Welcome, welcome. Two of you, is it?”
“Two clean rooms. We’ll be staying four days.”
“That’ll be four taels of silver.”

I took the silver from the pouch and handed it over, unpacked in my room, and came back down carrying nothing but my spear. Elder Kang came down soon after and sat across from me. He glanced at the spear leaning against the wall.

“Young master, is that spear not heavy? They say the road from Qingzhou to Linqu County is well kept and there are no bandits on it — you might have left it behind.”
“It’s fine. A martial artist carries his weapon. That’s only natural.”

Elder Kang nodded at that and asked nothing more. After a little while the server came back.

“Will you be eating?”
“Dongpo pork, and one bowl of plain noodles. Elder Kang?”
“Noodles for me as well.”
“You heard him.”
“Dongpo pork and two bowls of noodles. Nothing to drink with the meal?”

At the server’s question I looked at Elder Kang.

“None for me, young master.”
“No wine.”
“Very good.”

The server went off to the kitchen.

“Young master, will you be going to the timber merchant tomorrow?”
“That’s the plan.”
“I wondered why you were felling trees and filling the storehouse to the rafters — so this was what you had in mind. The Patriarch will be delighted when he hears. Heh heh.”

Elder Kang laughed as he said it. He clearly found it admirable that I wanted to be of use to the family.

“I think so too.”

When this business was over I would likely have come away with a great deal of money. And if the storehouse was full, wouldn’t Father be overjoyed? Truly something to look forward to.

For that I had to meet the timber merchant, and to give myself a pretext I had felled the trees. Training done and a pretext made. Two birds with one stone.

While I waited for the food I looked around the inn. The dinner hour had the room packed and loud. I ran my eyes over the crowd and reached back through the memories of my past life.

Hwang Yanggeon. A timber merchant near Linqu County. Went out after lightning-struck jujube wood and lost his life.¹

It was widely believed that bandits killed him while he was out searching for lightning-struck jujube wood to give his grandson’s teacher as a gift, but the truth was otherwise. It came out later that the killers were no bandits at all, but unorthodox-sect scum. They had heard that Hwang Yanggeon had come into a large sum, so they dressed themselves as bandits and did the deed.

Stop Hwang Yanggeon’s death, and take the lightning-struck jujube wood.

That was why I had come to Linqu County. Sell timber first and get acquainted, then shadow him and save him at the dangerous moment. A simple plan. Of course it would not be as easy as it sounded.

Since I’ll have to face Geodobang dressed up as bandits.²

Geodobang was one of the unorthodox sects working out of Qingzhou, in Shandong, and they were still around when I left for Blood Sand Plain. They were no rabble. One on one might be another matter, but at my present level I was not equal to facing a crowd of them. Not that I had no way around it.

I was still sorting out my thoughts when the server brought the food.

“Your Dongpo pork and noodles. Enjoy your meal.”

The server set the dishes down, steam curling off them, and withdrew. The Dongpo pork gleamed with fat, simmered down to a deep soy-sauce color, and the sight of it alone set my mouth watering. A neat scattering of green garnish sat on top, and the noodles in their milky broth looked clean and light.

“Please eat, young master.”
“Mm.”

I took a soft piece of the Dongpo pork with my chopsticks and put it in my mouth.

— Melting away.

The meat dissolved on my tongue, sweet and salty at once. The taste was superb.

This place knows its business.

A smile came of itself. Elder Kang was helping himself to the Dongpo pork too, a satisfied look on his face, and for a while we gave ourselves over to the meal without speaking.

By the time we had nearly cleared the dishes, a drunk man’s raised voice cut across the room.

“Ah, dammit! A man can’t live in this filth!”
“Brother Gu! Stop drinking. You’ve had far too much.”
“It’s because it eats at me, that’s why, it eats at me! What’s the good of working yourself to death? Those Geodobang scum take the lot of it!”
“Shh! You’ll bring ruin on yourself talking like that! Do you want to end up like Hwang?”

The man across the table glanced around anxiously as he said it, but the drunk paid him no mind and only got louder.

“Hwang wouldn’t pay their protection money, so those scum smashed every stick of his timber! Isn’t that going too far by any measure? Bastards who wouldn’t know decency if it bit them!”
“Good grief, man, you really… shut your mouth, I beg you!”

Hwang.

Timber.

It could only be the Hwang Yanggeon I knew of.

Did something like this happen?

I had no idea. All I knew was that Hwang Yanggeon had gone looking for lightning-struck jujube wood and died at the hands of men disguised as bandits. That Geodobang had been squeezing him was news to me.

An opening.

Both for getting acquainted and for saving him later. I decided to change the plan.

I set down my chopsticks, rose from my seat, and took up the spear leaning against the wall.

“Young master?”
“I’m going out for a short walk. Turn in without me.”

I left the inn, cut across the street, and headed for Hwang Yanggeon’s timber shop. Between the crowd and the sound of things being smashed, finding it was no trouble at all. I pushed past the onlookers and stood in front of it.

Inside the door, beneath a signboard reading ‘House Hwang Timber’, five or six big men with sabers at their waists were wrecking the place.

An old man standing in front of them spat and shouted.

“You bastards! Do you have any idea how much you’ve taken off me by now?”
“That all went up the chain. Today we’re only asking a few coins for our drink.”
“You’ll get nothing more! Take that as final!”
“If you hate it that much, pay back every coin you borrowed from us. Behind on the interest as it is, and you turn stiff-necked on us?”

The one who looked to be their leader made to kick at the timber stacked along one side, and the old man shoved him back and planted himself in front of it.

“Don’t you dare! Not the timber, you bastards — never the timber!”
“Has the old man lost his mind?”
“The loan and the interest will be paid soon enough, so get out of here!”
“You say that and you think we go, ‘Oh, is that so?’ and leave nice and quiet? Why, you—!”
“Go on, then! Split my skull open first!”
“Let’s see if you can still talk like that with a piece of you cut off!”

The moment the leader drew his saber and made to swing it at the old man, I thrust out the spear in my hand.

— Fwish!

The shaft bent like a whip and went for the leader’s wrists, a snake lunging at its prey. A single silver line traced across the air.

— SHK!

Both his wrists came away, and blood fountained from the stumps.

“Gwaaaaagh!”

The leader clutched at his wrists and rolled about on the floor. The whole thing had taken an instant, and the place went dead quiet. Then the rest of the pack came to their senses and pulled out their sabers.

“Boss!”
“Why, you little—!”

They rushed me all at once. I set my stance to face them.

— Tak.

Legs spread to shoulder width.

— Clench.

Right hand at the middle of the shaft, left hand at the butt end. Back held straight, upper body tilted a little forward. The most basic stance in spearmanship.

My eyes stayed on the men charging in. The first one to reach me brought his saber down on a diagonal, and I named the counter to myself as I threw it out.

Lan.³

I swept the shaft from the inside out and turned his saber aside.

— CLANG!

The saber bounced away and his chest lay wide open. I twisted my wrists slightly and gouged the spear blade into his shoulder.

“Agh!”

One of them screamed and dropped where he stood. The next came running with his saber raised, aiming at my waist.

Na.

I brought the shaft down from the outside in, pressing as it fell.

— TANG!

His saber flew from his grip and buried itself in the floor. As he reached for the fallen weapon I cracked the shaft into his solar plexus with everything I had.

“Kuh—!”

Another went flying backward with a groan and slammed into the ground.

“…”
“…”

With two of them down in a heartbeat, the rest stopped short. Their eyes darted back and forth; they looked to be working out among themselves what to do. None of them showed any intention of coming at me, so I moved first.

Zha.

I stepped forward and drove the spear out. In a flash three silver strands split the air.

“Khh!”
“Gwak!”
“Agh!”

Three thrusts followed in an instant, and the rest of them all went down. Silence settled over what a moment before had been bedlam.

I let my stance drop and walked over to the old man.

“Are you the master of House Hwang Timber, sir?”
“…I am.”
“I’m here to sell timber.”

At that, Hwang Yanggeon and every person around us turned to look at me at once.

What?

Never seen a man come to sell timber before?