Surviving as a Maid of the Sichuan Tang Clan

When I carefully patted his back, Tang Jung flinched and went stiff as a board. He just twitched his fingers, unable to bring himself to either hug me back or push me away.

He clearly had no idea what to do with this situation.

After a long silence, he let out a deep sigh.

“You soft-hearted thing, this is when you ought to throw a fit. What part of this is ‘okay’ to you.”

“You told me the truth honestly, didn’t you? So it’s okay.”

“Ha!”

He snorted like he found that ridiculous. But it didn’t feel like he disliked my answer.

When I loosened my arms from around him and stepped back, I could see his expression had softened a little.

I met his eyes and gave him a small, crooked smile. He let out a faint chuckle and stroked my cheek.

“You look like you don’t know anything, but your heart goes too deep for nothing. I worry how you’re going to live in this world being this gentle. I know you must have felt hurt, no matter what you say. This old man just... wanted you, at least, to spread your wings and fly free. It’ll sound like an excuse, but...”

He spoke calmly, then trailed off. It must have sounded like an excuse even to his own ears.

At that moment, a rough voice came from outside the window.

“What do you mean, ‘fly free’? What a maudlin thing to say. Child, you don’t need to shoulder that old man’s greed. Just listen half-heartedly and let it go in one ear and out the other.”

At that lazy drawl, Tang Jung scowled and grabbed a teacup, hurling it out the window. As the tea splashed on the ground, Peng Rak grumbled,

“Ugh, that temper. Did I say anything wrong?”

“You’re irritating. I should sew that mouth of yours shut.”

“Go ahead and try. If you want to stitch my flesh, you’ll need Celestial-Silkworm Thread. Khahaha!”

Laughing uproariously, Peng Rak suddenly thrust his huge head in through the window.

His eyes flashed yellow, and I jumped, clutching my chest.

Good grief. I thought he was a goblin.

His snow-white hair and beard were covered in bits of grass. He must have been hiding in the brush and eavesdropping.

“Tsk. People keep calling you a fierce tiger, and it’s gone to your head, has it? Look at the state of you.”

“Did you say everything you wanted to say?”

“I did, you brat.”

Eyes wide and fierce, Peng Rak turned his gaze on me. I flinched but met his eyes. The pupils, as narrow as a predator’s, softened and curved.

“Child. Right, they said your name was Sohae. Sohae. Don’t feel indebted over what your grandfather said. All you have to do is live your own life well.”

“You...!”

“Did I say anything wrong? What would a kid know? You just need to grow up straight without going crooked.”

“...”

At that blunt reply, Tang Jung gave a bitter little laugh and agreed with him.

“...Yes, the bastard’s right. Child. Pretend you never heard what this old man said.”

As he took back what he’d just said, countless emotions flickered across his face.

Watching him, my own feelings tangled up with his.

Just how long had he been blaming himself?

Time doesn’t cure every wound. If you pretend not to see a wound that’s festered and rotted, if you act like it isn’t there, that doesn’t make it heal.

I was sure it was the same with Tang Jung’s wound.

If teaching me helped ease his heart, if it could lighten the guilt he’d carried his whole life, that didn’t seem like such a bad thing.

When silence fell between us, Peng Rak clicked his tongue and lightly swung himself in through the window into the tearoom.

“You dragged me all the way here; when are you going to give me that drink?”

With that breezy question, he shifted the mood as if it were the most natural thing in the world and jerked his chin toward the reception room.

“You’re impatient. Let’s go.”

Smiling faintly, Tang Jung led the way and opened the door to the reception room.

Following him in, Peng Rak sniffed the air in puzzlement.

“There’s no poison smoke in this badger den? That’s unusual.”

“Badger den? So that’s what you thought of my quarters?”

“Well, isn’t it true? All that greenery spread out and boiled day and night for your poisons... All right, all right, put down whatever you’re holding.”

Backing away in little steps with his hands up, Peng Rak’s thick eyebrows twitched. It seemed he’d suffered badly from Tang Jung’s poisons before.

Completely unbothered, Tang Jung replied,

“Un’s been coming and going a lot lately, so I put it away to one side. He was coughing up blood in my quarters.”

That was because you pinned someone in place with your inner strength, sir. You really had some nerve.

I shot him a sidelong look and sniffed. Now that he mentioned it, the acrid smell I’d noticed the first time I came here was gone.

So that had been poison smoke? Maybe the real reason he’d hated having maids in his quarters all this time was because of the poison.

Wait—then he’d brought me into a room full of poison fumes? Sir. What would you have done if I hadn’t been Myriad-Poison-Immune?

“How is Un?” Peng Rak asked. “Any improvement at all?”

“...No. Un’s mother is desperately bringing back rare elixirs, but it isn’t going well. I’d say a year or two at most.”

“Have you taken him to see the Ghost-Hand Divine Therapist?”

“I’ve mentioned it. But he’s a cantankerous old monster who does whatever he wants. He came all the way to Chengdu, hung around like he’d take a look... then suddenly up and went to Wuhan a little while ago.”

“That man’s iron rule is to never create trouble for himself. Taking on Un would be the same as getting involved in your clan’s succession struggle, that’s why.”

Peng Rak lifted his shoulders like he understood.

“I know that too. He’s spent his whole life tormented by the grudges and debts of the martial world. You save one blade-eating bastard, and the next blade-eating bastard shows up screaming that you resurrected his enemy and comes at you for revenge. That’s not something that happens once or twice. No wonder he’s sick of playing Therapist.”

...So being a Therapist in the martial world was an extreme job too. How was that any different from a doctor stuck between gangs getting abused by everyone.

From their conversation, it sounded like that Im-family guy Tang Jung mentioned a while back might be the Ghost-Hand Divine Therapist.

If he had a nickname like “Ghost-Hand,” his skill must have been incredible. Maybe he could even cure severed-meridians disease.

The fact that they were trying to show Tang Un to him at all meant there might be some hope.

I sank into thought. I felt like the Ghost-Hand Divine Therapist had been mentioned briefly in the novel too...

The Ghost-Hand Divine Therapist’s secret cave was hidden so well that no one would even realize there was a cave. It lay beneath a lake.

Strangely enough, the cave was filled with water most of the time, but on the fifteenth day of every month, the water drained away. Once the full moon passed, water would fill it again and connect it back to the lake, so an ordinary person had almost no chance of ever noticing it existed.

Which made it the perfect place to hide something. Whether that was a strange artifact... or a person.

On a night when the full moon shone bright, Namgung Hwi walked the rim of the lake, hunting for the entrance to the secret cave. At last, the mouth of the cave revealed itself on the western side of the lake.

Right. That was one of the lucky encounters Namgung Hwi got. Of course the guy who wasn’t the protagonist wouldn’t be running around scooping up every miraculous opportunity under the sun.

In the novel, it had just said he discovered the last will of some transcendent who’d passed on, but it looked like the Ghost-Hand Divine Therapist was still alive here.

Back then, Namgung Hwi picked up a pile of rare elixirs and pills and boosted his inner strength.

If that stash existed, there had to be at least one thing in there that could help Tang Un.

Couldn’t someone bring back one of those treasures from the Ghost-Hand Divine Therapist’s secret cave? If I told Tang Jung about it...

He’d just ask again how I knew and start suspecting me. No—forget that. I didn’t even know which lake it was in the first place.

Nothing was ever simple. As I smacked my lips, Peng Rak asked,

“Child. Why the sigh?”

“Sir? Ah, it’s nothing.”

“You must be feeling stifled thinking about your older brother. That boy’s close with Un. You go on and study your characters. We’ll take care of the drinking.”

Waving me off, Tang Jung gestured in my direction. I nodded and was just about to back away when Peng Rak grabbed me.

“Brother, you’re really going to make her study even today? Don’t do that, let her sit here.”

“What do you mean, ‘even today’? There’s no such thing as a special day for playing or a special day for studying. There’s a lot for her to learn.”

“You’re no fun at all. Let it go just this once. Sohae, come sit here.”

Laughing heartily, Peng Rak pulled a chair out for me. I genuinely didn’t know whose tune I was supposed to dance to.

When I hesitated, he slapped his big palm against the chair.

“I said sit. Hurry up and get over here.”

I looked at Tang Jung; he nodded as if to say it was fine. I edged over and sat down on the chair.

Seating me beside him, Peng Rak looked satisfied as he ruffled my hair again. Naturally, the hair I’d just managed to fix went wild all over again.

At this rate, I was going to go bald. Sir, please watch your strength. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

“Are Tang Clan kids always this little? I can’t get over how small your head is. It fits right in one hand.”

“Careful. You’ll hurt the child. And are you insulting me right now?”

“I didn’t say you were small, but...”

Mumbling, Peng Rak snuck the chair a bit farther away from Tang Jung.

“Ahem. In any case, since I feel bad, this old man’s going to give you a present.”

Clearing his throat, he reached into his robe and pulled something out.