Book VII: The Mister Is Pretty and the Flowers Are Kind
Soye quickly ducked behind the bushes.
Staring wide-eyed, the young girl checked what the man was holding in his hand.
A shovel?
Sweat beaded on the man's forehead as he dug into the dirt with a shovel no bigger than his palm.
What she had thought was dried blood turned out to be just dirt.
As he planted some kind of seeds and flattened the soil, he suddenly raised his head.
Our eyes met!
A thin veil was wrapped around his face.
It was something young ladies of wealthy families often wore when going out, but it suited the man quite well.
"Ah, hello."
Startled enough to nearly collapse onto the ground, Soye hurriedly bent down to greet him.
The man blinked slowly, his eyes fixed as if seeing an unbelievable sight.
"You…"
A low groan escaped his lips.
Soye tilted her head at his reaction.
"Mister, do you know Soye?"
"Mister?"
Bewilderment seeped through his voice as he repeated the word.
She thought they might have known each other before.
Just as she tried to take a step closer, the man unexpectedly stepped back.
What? Is he really shy around strangers?
"Do not come close."
"Why?"
"…That is."
The man kept his mouth shut tight. He clearly looked unaccustomed to dealing with children.
Yet, his eyes frantically scanning her were filled with worry.
Though half-hidden, his face was easily one of the handsomest she had ever seen.
If he only had a bit more sharpness to him, his looks alone could kill anyone.
The slightly drooping corners of his eyes looked completely harmless, and his pale complexion made him look as though he could not even hurt a fly.
Though striking and deadly—like a poisonous flower—he seemed gentle at heart.
First Socheong, and now him. Are all men in the Tang Clan gentle-tempered?
Recalling the Poison Demon, Soye quickly brushed that thought away.
Tang Yirak was… not nice by any stretch of the imagination.
Is he an uncle or something? He doesn't seem to be the father of this body.
He looked too young to have a daughter her age.
"Where is your nanny?"
Yet this man seemed to know about Gong-hui too.
Soye jumped on the spot in feigned surprise.
"Ah! Are you someone the nanny sent, mister?"
"Sent by your nanny?"
"Shh! Shh! We are playing hide-and-seek right now. If the nanny catches me, Soye will be it."
As she flapped her arms to tell him to keep quiet, the man's eyes softened briefly before returning to normal.
Wiping away his sudden smile, the man spoke.
"Even if you are playing hide-and-seek, you must not come here. This is forbidden ground. It is dangerous, so never come back."
He pointed with his shovel toward the path Soye had come from.
"Go back."
The man turned around just like that.
It looked like he was heading back inside the pavilion for good.
Soye narrowed her eyes and stared at the back of his head.
Did you really think I would just let you leave?
Since he seemed to know her, she needed to play along and extract information from him.
"Ow!"
This was 'Form 1 of Socheong Martial Arts: Falling Flat on Ground.'
Just as Soye staggered and was about to fall dramatically, an arm shot out and caught her.
"Huh?"
The face of the man who caught her turned pale in an instant.
Because they were so close, she could even hear his heart thumping loudly.
He carefully set Soye down on the ground and pulled away in a flash.
"Hurry… and go back."
As if that brief contact were some fatal attack.
After a moment of thought, Soye brushed the dust off her clothes herself.
"Goodbye then."
A good thief always knows when to retreat.
It… it should be fine, right?
As her footsteps pitter-pattered into the distance, the man rushed into the pavilion.
Rummaging through a wooden box, he pulled out a piece of paper and cut his hand to squeeze out blood.
It was a tool originally made to detect traps in enemy territory.
But for him, it was more of a daily necessity used to measure the poison qi remaining in his body.
The blood dripping onto it was red. Still, the man burned the paper over the fire with his heart in his mouth.
His gaze flared with intense anxiety as he stared at the crumpled corner.
If it turns black… what if it turns black?
Luckily, the smoke rising as the paper burned was white.
It was fortunate that there was almost no poison qi remaining in his body right after the seizure.
If the color of that smoke had been even slightly dark, he would never have forgiven himself.
I never thought a curious child might come all the way here.
Biting his lip, he clenched his fists tightly, then stopped when he felt his nails digging into his skin.
In his current state, he could not afford to bleed carelessly.
What a relief. What a relief.
The man covered his mouth, his shoulders trembling.
Not out of sadness, but out of joy.
When he sent his daughter away, he drew a firm line, believing he should never see her face again.
To think we would meet like this.
People said children grow by the day, and that was undeniably true.
The child who used to crawl had grown to reach his knees, and now reached up to his waist.
She seemed thinner than he remembered, but her cheeks were still plump.
Growing just that little bit brought out her resemblance to her mother.
If she grows a little more… if she grows just a bit bigger, will I see parts of myself in her too? Will I… even be alive by then?
Lowering his eyes, the man, Tang Woohyun, recalled the first day Soye returned.
* * *
"I believe I told you not to come look for me."
Beyond several layers of lowered bamboo blinds stood Soye's nanny.
When she said she had come to report on Soye's recent well-being, Woohyun could not bring himself to turn her away.
"Still, I thought you would want to hear about your daughter."
Gong-hui smiled charmingly.
She was one of the few people who knew that the father had not abandoned his daughter.
"Ah, right. Silly me. I should be telling you about the young lady."
No matter how cold he acted, she did not back down easily.
It was precisely because of that personality that she remained as the nanny despite Soye's complex circumstances.
And she is from the same hometown as Lady Woon.
She calmly reported on Soye's recent situation.
The man listening quietly suddenly spoke up.
"…I heard she was gravely ill once."
It was the biggest event that had taken place in the village.
A threat had befallen his child.
Gong-hui bowed her head deeply.
"Forgive me, young master… I had no idea a servant in the Tang Clan village would harbour such evil intentions and swap the poison."
Her face was hidden behind the blinds, but her voice quavered with choked tears.
Soye's nanny continued in a self-reproachful tone.
"This is all because I am merely a nanny. Without your authority, young master, everyone disregards the young lady… and so everyone disregards a mere nanny like me."
To Woohyun, Gong-hui's true intention was painfully clear.
Give me the power to protect your daughter.
The man ignored it.
The authority he had already given Gong-hui was more than enough.
That the child ended up ingesting poison unsuited for her training was ultimately due to Gong-hui's carelessness.
Woohyun had no intention of punishing Gong-hui, but he also had no intention of granting her power beyond her station.
I should attach one, no, two more eyes to watch over them.
He could not easily discard the nanny Soye was attached to.
Although she had stabilized now, the child had been extremely unstable ever since her mother disappeared.
To the point of having convulsions whenever even the nanny stepped away.
Even if Gong-hui was a flawed human being, he kept her around because his daughter wanted her.
If she lacked resourcefulness despite her devotion to the child, Woohyun could simply fill in the gaps himself.
After all, once this moment passes, I won't be able to indulge her childish requests like this anymore.
Woohyun could not help but dote on his daughter.
In truth, since he did not have much time left, he might just be greedily trying to enjoy his daughter's spoiled affection while he could.
"…I heard the child lost her memories."
At those words, the woman's mouth clamped shut for a moment.
As if weighing how to speak to lessen her guilt, she spoke cautiously.
"Even so, once she sees her father, she will recall everything quickly."
The man heard those words, but he did not accept them.
"If you could give it a little more time…"
No, he could not do that.
"It is a relief that she lost her memories."
Woohyun said with conviction.
"Do not bring her before me, nor speak of me to her. Let her never even know whether someone like a father existed."
So that he alone could bear the weight of this parting.
Yet when the child called him mister, he had not known that a one-sided farewell could hurt this much.
Get the latest chapter and best reading experience at www.novatls.com
Comments