Surviving as a Maid of the Sichuan Tang Clan

Tang Jung’s expression went rigid.

“The child can hear you. Stop flapping that tongue.”

“That kid doesn’t know anything. Brother, have you really gone senile? Just what were you thinking...”

Grumbling mid-sentence, Peng Rak clamped his mouth shut. It felt like Tang Jung, belatedly remembering me, had cut him off by sending his voice straight into his head.

At the aura rolling off an obviously angry Tang Jung, Peng Rak scratched his head roughly and tucked his tail between his legs.

“It’s not like I said anything I shouldn’t have. Ugh. Fine. I get it, so stop getting mad. How am I supposed to live, scared like this?”

“That mouth of yours never grows up. Even if you fell into a lake, it’d be just your mouth bobbing on the surface.”

With a disgruntled face, Tang Jung kicked him in the calf.

“Argh! Old men are going to be the death of me!”

Peng Rak clutched his shin and made a big fuss, whining exaggeratedly. Judging by how he was rubbing a spot that hadn’t even been kicked, he was clearly hamming it up on purpose.

The two of them had gone straight back to acting chummy, as if they’d never been at odds.

But I couldn’t bring myself to laugh along. My head felt hollow, like I’d just been smacked.

Tsk. Of course he’d be drawn to that ‘I don’t know anything, I’m innocent’ face when it’s just like Hwayeon’s.

Even her crying face looks like Hwayeon’s, no wonder it gets under his skin.

My stomach lurched. My heart thudded in my chest in a way that felt sickening.

I’d vaguely sensed that Tang Jung was seeing someone else overlapped with me.

But I hadn’t known that person was his younger sister.

And I definitely hadn’t known we looked so alike that Peng Rak would warn him not to drape a dead person over the living.

What was I even supposed to call this feeling?

Betrayal? No. I’d only known Tang Jung for a couple of months at best. We weren’t close enough for a word like “betrayal” to apply.

Disappointment? What had I been expecting in the first place to be disappointed now?

If anything, my life as a maid had gotten easier thanks to him. I’d only gained from this, not lost.

Now that I knew the reason behind his kindness, all I had to do was take, smartly, only what I needed from it.

Knowing that, and still having my insides this noisy...

...I must have been leaning on Tang Jung more than I’d thought.

I forced myself to breathe deep and move my legs. My heels felt heavy, dragging across the ground.

Somehow, Tang Jung caught the change in my footsteps like a ghost and glanced back. He took one look at my complexion and let out a sigh.

“Sohae. Come here.”

“...Yes.”

I shuffled toward him, hesitant. I wanted to act like nothing was wrong, but my heart was pounding hard enough to shake.

He wrapped one arm around my shoulder and stretched out his hand. A dome-shaped, translucent barrier rose up and enclosed the three of us.

Even at the sight of something that amazing, I felt nothing. My chest was so tight it was hard to breathe.

Stroking his beard, Peng Rak asked,

“What are you going to say that you’re even putting up an energy barrier for it?”

“This child is my granddaughter.”

“What?”

“My granddaughter.”

Looking put out, Tang Jung pressed at the corners of his eyes with his fingers.

“She’s Muheok’s youngest daughter that he had outside. Because of certain circumstances she hasn’t been acknowledged as direct line yet. Do I really have to say something this embarrassing out loud? Thanks to you, Sohae misunderstood.”

“Oh dear. Well, now.”

Peng Rak twisted his beard with an awkward look on his face. He clearly realized he’d messed up.

“I made a fool of myself. I’m sorry, child.”

“Sir? No, it’s fine.”

“Blood really is a strange thing. I can’t believe you can look this much alike. You said your name was Sohae? Someday, come visit the Peng Clan with your grandfather. I’ll give you a grand reception by way of apology. I can’t give you the liquor brewed in Hebei, but... the meatball dishes are worth eating.”

He muttered as he thoroughly mussed my hair. It felt like he was just saying anything that came into his head out of embarrassment.

That hurts, sir.

Every time his big hand moved, my head shook and I started to feel seasick. Under that rough grip, my dumpling bun was coming undone and my hair was turning into a wild mess.

Unable to watch any longer, Tang Jung smacked Peng Rak’s wrist.

“Why are you trying to yank out someone else’s precious granddaughter’s hair?”

“When did I ever yank anyone’s hair out... Are you all right? I’m sorry.”

“Ha, ha... I’m fine.”

I let out a hollow laugh as I fixed my wrecked hair. When I pulled a comb from my sleeve, Tang Jung clicked his tongue and held it out to me.

“Don’t let that idiot’s words get to you. It’s not like that.”

“Yes.”

I nodded as if nothing was wrong and forced a smile. But it seemed I hadn’t managed to hide the shadow that had fallen over my face.

Softening his voice, Tang Jung called me.

“Child.”

When I raised my head, I saw both Tang Jung and Peng Rak looking at me with gentle eyes.

“Let’s get going first. Once we’re back, your grandfather will tell you an old story.”

He whispered it as he patted my shoulder. I forced my heavy feet to move.

*****

As soon as we reached the pavilion, Peng Rak excused himself, saying he was going to take a walk in the back garden.

“I must really be getting old. Just eating a few pieces of meat and it’s already sitting heavy. I’ll go walk it off.”

At that flimsy excuse, Tang Jung didn’t even bother to answer and just flapped his hand like he was shooing him away.

He looked about ready to thrash Peng Rak for creating this whole situation.

Taking me to the tearoom, Tang Jung sat me down in the seat by the window where the sunlight poured in. Then he took out the tea set he cherished and set it in front of me.

With the sound of water boiling, a rich floral scent spread through the tearoom. It was jasmine tea.

Pouring the flower tea into a clear jade cup, Tang Jung said,

“If you don’t feel like drinking, just smell it. It’ll help you feel a little better.”

“Yes.”

I answered and slowly picked up the jade cup.

I pressed my lips together to pin my expression in place, but the stiff muscles wouldn’t move the way I wanted them to.

When I just held the cup without saying anything, Tang Jung asked gently,

“You’re wondering who Hwayeon is, aren’t you?”

I gave a small nod. When our eyes met, he smiled.

“Hwayeon is my younger sister, who I lost long ago. She left this world when she was about your age. It’s been well over a hundred years.”

“...”

“She was talented and bold. A tomboy whose thoughts showed on her face, just like you, Sohae.”

Longing surfaced in his dark blue eyes. Once again, he was looking at Hwayeon through me.

I quietly drained the flower tea. The scent should have been sweet, but it tasted bitter.

Slowly closing and opening his eyes, Tang Jung went on.

“But Hwayeon never received the Tang Clan’s martial arts. Her marriage was arranged to Hubei while she was still in the womb. Once she married, she’d be considered part of another family, so she couldn’t learn anything beyond the basic inner method.”

“Her marriage was arranged while she was still in the womb?”

“Yes. It was an important marriage contract.”

When I asked again in shock, he answered calmly.

They said the Tang Clan’s marriages only ever pursued profit, but apparently even a child in the womb wasn’t spared when it came to sacrifices for the family’s gain.

Watching my expression, Tang Jung spoke slowly.

“Of course, Hwayeon didn’t give up. She followed me around every single day, begging me to teach her poison arts. But I couldn’t do it. Because of the foolish idea that I couldn’t break the family’s strict laws. At sixteen, Hwayeon left the clan in a political marriage. And then... she closed her eyes giving birth.”

I sucked in a breath and put the teacup down. His voice was even as he spoke his dead younger sister’s name, but his face was full of sorrow.

“Neither the child nor the mother survived. At the time, I was away, roaming the martial world, so I heard the news very late. I was a useless older brother who couldn’t even see her off on her final journey.”

“Grandfather.”

“If she’d learned even a little martial arts, she wouldn’t have gone so needlessly. I still regret it. Well, now it’s nothing more than an old man’s lingering attachment.”

Speaking flatly, Tang Jung looked out the window.

Maybe it was my imagination, but his dry eyes looked wet.

Even this old man, who seemed to have transcended worldly affairs, still had scars that wouldn’t fade.

“Grandfather, I...”

“Child. Why are you making that kind of face?”

“I... that is... I’m sorry.”

“You’ve done nothing wrong. I’m the one who should apologize. It’s this old man who created this situation.”

Carefully, I reached out and held his hand. Seeing him blame himself felt completely unfamiliar.

“At first, your resemblance to Hwayeon is what caught my eye. That’s an obvious fact, so I won’t deny it. This old man...”

Hesitating, Tang Jung opened his mouth again.

“...kept thinking that if Hwayeon had ever had a daughter, wouldn’t she have been like you, Sohae.”

He gave a wry smile and lowered his gaze. His long lashes cast a faint shadow.

“Ah... Then the reason you tried to teach me martial arts...”

“I wanted you, Sohae, to live differently than Hwayeon. One person is enough to have her talent rot away, bound by rules.”

A small sigh slipped out of me.

The man in front of me right now wasn’t the Poison King Tang Jung who granted the protagonist a miraculous encounter, nor the Grand Elder of the Sichuan Tang Clan.

In this moment, he was nothing more than a man whose heart had been wounded by his younger sister’s death.

A man who had lost someone precious, trapped in a swamp of guilt even after a span of time long enough for mountains and rivers to change dozens of times.

I bit down hard on my lower lip.

Even if he’d first taken an interest because I resembled his sister, that didn’t erase the kindness he’d shown me.

And unless you were at least Peng Rak’s age, there was no way you could’ve known this story, so it wasn’t as if he’d deliberately deceived me.

Things had just... ended up this way.

Thinking of it like that, my mind settled.

There was nothing to blame Tang Jung for. If I was being honest, I’d only ever thought of him as a prickly character from a novel myself.

We’d both failed to really look at each other. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

When I let go of his hand, he lifted his head. His eyes looked darker than usual.

His face betrayed no readable emotion, but to my eyes, he looked unbearably lonely.

“It’s okay.”

“...”

“I’m okay, Grandfather.”

I hugged Tang Jung tightly.