Episode 41. Hong-Sister’s Narrow Escape
Hongshin poured all her strength into her lightness skill, putting as much distance between herself and the Black Cat House as possible. What scared her most was the thought that the lunatic might change his mind and order someone to drag her back.
Because she had no idea what went on inside that fake senior’s head, her fear of him only grew with every step she took.
Almost without thinking, her feet carried her toward somewhere—anywhere—the Black Cat House’s influence wouldn’t reach.
After running hard for quite some time, Hongshin slowly began to decelerate, a frown twisting her face. A single word popped into her head.
“Diarrhea…?”
One word led to another.
“No way…?”
They say that “no way” is usually how trouble starts. As if diarrhea and “no way” had signed some unholy pact, her stomach lurched, and a bead of sweat rolled down her forehead.
“Here of all places? Is it because of the Gu poison…?”
Hongshin pressed a hand to her belly and walked, stiff-legged.
Gu poison came in many varieties, but most of them worked the same way—after some time, worms formed inside the victim’s body. If you didn’t kill them with an antidote, you died. Simple, cruel, and effective.
The reason such poison wasn’t commonly used was just as simple: it was very hard to manufacture. But since Hongshin didn’t know who the fake senior really was, she couldn’t just assume the Gu he’d given her was fake.
Her life literally depended on it.
That was why the sudden stomachache rattled her even more. She’d never taken true Gu before and had no idea diarrhea might come with it. Still, on an empty stomach, poison—or whatever it was—tearing up her insides felt natural enough.
She swallowed hard, glancing around as she twisted her body in strange angles.
“Please… please… I’ll live a good life, I swear, just please…”
There was no latrine in sight.
On the verge of crying from sheer frustration, she forced herself to hold it in. She had the feeling if she started crying, things would… flow faster.
Her vision dimmed off and on, but she clung to consciousness and continued searching desperately for either an outhouse—or at least some quiet bushes.
Every time she slowed down, though, some peddler would appear out of nowhere and stare at her with a weird look. Each time, Hongshin’s face went scarlet and she shot off again, using her lightness skill just to escape their gaze.
“Please… someone… anyone… help…”
Whenever she reached a spot with fewer people, she would stop running again.
Because if she kept running, she really might lose control while moving.
On a quiet stretch of road, she took a deep breath and squeezed every last bit of power into her… lower muscles. If she hadn’t trained martial arts, she’d have had an accident already. As it was, her much-abused body barely held the line.
Just then she saw someone coming from far down the road, kicking up dust—running fast. Not just fast—blisteringly fast.
Even on a good day, at full strength, she doubted she could compete with that speed.
A man in clean white robes streaked past, then turned his head slightly to look at her.
She swallowed again as he passed.
“A real expert…”
The white-robed gentleman came to a stop a short distance away and called out, “Miss, is something the matter? You’re pale as a ghost.”
His voice was deep and steady. Hongshin hesitated, then answered in a tired voice, “I’m… poisoned…”
The moment the word left her mouth, she flinched.
“What am I doing?”
He was clearly a martial artist—why in heaven’s name had she blurted out she’d been poisoned?
But at this point, she felt so awful she didn’t care anymore.
“I’m looking for… a latrine…”
The man walked up to her in a few strides, his face deadly serious.
“So in short: you’re poisoned and desperately need a toilet? Get on my back. I was heading to a regular spot anyway. Unless you’d rather go take care of it in the mountains, I’d better get you to a proper place. You look awful. Quickly now…”
He turned around and offered his back without a shred of suspicion. Bold man.
Hongshin wondered what he’d do if she attacked him, and asked weakly, “Is it close?”
“I’ll run at full speed.”
“Please.”
She climbed onto his back and squeezed everything down there for all it was worth. If she hadn’t trained as hard as she had, she’d have disgraced herself the moment she climbed up.
He shot forward like a wild stallion. “Hold on tight.”
She grimaced and managed a reply as the scenery blurred around them.
“Thank you…”
His voice stayed calm the whole way. “Stay calm and you can survive any crisis.”
They entered a small village with a scattering of shops. He blew past a construction site and stopped behind one eatery, right in front of the lavatory.
He almost tossed her inside. “Go, quickly. I’ll be in the shop. Take your time.”
Face white as paper, Hongshin staggered into the latrine.
The moment he vanished from sight, she dropped her trousers and finally, finally dealt with her crisis.
If this had been a quiet affair, it might have been less traumatic. But it was diarrhea—loud, explosive diarrhea.
It was, without exaggeration, a life-or-death moment.
Pinching her nose with one hand, she thought, “I’m grateful, but I don’t think I can ever look him in the face again…”
To her own surprise, a tear rolled down her cheek. She couldn’t say why. The wet slap of things hitting the pit below echoed again and again.
Feeling she might break down sobbing from the flood of indescribable emotion, she shoved a fist into her mouth and barely suppressed it.
Still… she was very, very glad.
By the time the splashing noises finally died down, she wore a look of enlightenment.
“Life’s… nothing much, really.”
After completely escaping her immediate crisis, Hongshin wandered the village until the lingering smell on her body had faded. She took long breaths, slowly regaining her composure.
Her mind finally felt clear again.
Keeping her distance on purpose, she circled back toward the eatery, then peeked inside.
The white-robed gentleman sat with his back to her, eating something and occasionally chatting with the owner.
After wrestling with herself for a moment, Hongshin—newly enlightened to the fact that life was nothing much—opened the door and stepped in.
The gentleman looked over and asked calmly, “Feeling better?”
The shop owner bowed. “Welcome.”
Hongshin replied, “Yes. Thanks to you, I’m fine now. Really… thank you.”
On impulse, she reached for the money pouch at her chest, thinking to give him something—then froze.
“Oh. Right…”
She’d lost it at the Black Cat House.
The gentleman saw this and said, “It’s fine. If you’re alright, then have a bowl of hot noodles. The clear broth will settle your stomach.”
“It’s alright. I don’t feel like eating yet.”
“I won’t force you.”
Her legs felt weak, so she sat. The man slurped his noodles for a bit, then the owner said, “Starving yourself again? The way you’re eating, you’d think you haven’t seen food in days. Wait here.”
The gentleman grinned. “Oh? Something special today?”
The owner came out from the kitchen carrying a large, glistening slab of meat and set it on the table.
The gentleman rubbed his hands together. “Lucky me. Nothing better than this with soup.”
“Eat up. If you hadn’t shown up today, I’d have just tossed it in the soup pot. You’ve got a knack for showing up at the right time.”
“I need some kind of luck. My life’s miserable enough.”
Hongshin stared at the meat, saliva gathering, and asked, “What’s that? I’ll have to try it next time.”
The owner answered, “Pig spine.”
Holding the bone with his bare hands, the gentleman tore off a chunk and chewed, then looked at her and said, as if asking her to remember it, “Pig spine.”
“I see.”
The owner waved a hand. “No need to wait until next time. Try one now.”
Hongshin shook her head. “No, really, I’m…”
“Come on, it’s fine. You taste it now, you’ll come back later.”
He brought out another pig spine on a small plate and set it in front of her.
“Eat with your hands. No chopsticks. It’s fully seasoned—no need to dip it in anything. Just grab both ends and bite.”
Her mouth was already watering. “You really didn’t have to…”
Was this really the same woman who’d been fighting for her dignity in an outhouse a short while ago? Hongshin lifted the bone and began gnawing. Now that her insides were empty, she realized she was starving.
The owner and the gentleman politely looked away, chatting between themselves to avoid making her self-conscious.
“Anything happen while I was gone?”
“Would anything ever happen? It’s been too quiet—it’s boring.”
“Boring is good.”
“True enough. How about you?”
“Ah… there’s no place like home. The food’s all wrong out there. And people—everyone’s scheming. Young or old, they’re all sly as snakes.”
“Sounds like it suits you.”
Meanwhile, Hongshin stripped the bone clean, then sucked the last bits of meat and fat from it, lips shining with grease.
The owner finally asked, “Good, isn’t it?”
She lifted a thumb instead of answering.
He smiled. “Come often. Just know, we don’t have pig spine every day. On those days, try the noodles. The soup’s good too.”
She nodded, still licking her lips, then glanced around the shabby little shop.
“So this is one of those hidden gem places.”
“If you come too late, it might not exist anymore.”
“Oh? Are you moving?”
He pointed outside. “Didn’t you see the construction work on your way in?”
“I did.”
“Once it’s finished, we’re moving over there.”
“Ah, that huge place? What is it?”
He grinned. “Big inn. It’ll be the pride of this town.”
Her eyes widened. “Wow, that’s all an inn? This town must be loaded.”
The gentleman pulled a pouch from his robe, took out three pieces of silver, and handed them over. The owner’s face lit up.
“Ha! See? A man has to succeed. Look at this.”
“That clear my old tab?”
“And then some. Ha ha!”
Watching, Hongshin thought the white-robed man was generous. At the same time, her thief’s instincts didn’t miss the way the money pouch slipped neatly back into his robes.
Her face froze.
“…”
Silence fell. Her gulp sounded loud in the little shop.
The gentleman slowly turned his head and looked at her.
“…”
She looked into his eyes again.
“No way…”
They say “no way” is how you tempt fate. Not knowing why the air had changed, Jang Deuksu, the owner, glanced between them and asked, “So… what’s your relationship?”
The gentleman spoke in a steady, quiet voice, eyes still on her. “Little sister.”
The moment she heard “little sister”, poison, fake senior, diarrhea, latrine, splashes, pig spine, coin pouch—all the scenes and voices of the last few hours stacked on top of each other in her mind at once.
And she fainted on the spot.
A brief, pure case of deviation from qi—caused by sheer mental shock.
Even as she blacked out, a tiny scrap of consciousness remained, no bigger than a mouse dropping. Through that sliver, she heard his voice right next to her ear, whispering:
“Ten days left…”
Then her awareness was gone completely.