“What kind of book is this, anyway?”
Dan Seo-wol couldn’t believe the story she had just heard, even as she held the book written by her disciple’s significant other.
“Hey, please say something nice to Master Ho Pil for me. I’m a dedicated reader, Dan Seo-wol. It would be great if you could add another sentence!”
It was definitely a heartfelt request. That’s why Dan Seo-wol found it even harder to believe. A book that even the master of an assassin group found charming?
What kind of book could it be?
“Number 5! Why are you changing your words? Hah! Lady Dan Seo-wol! Have you returned?”
As Dan Seo-wol opened the door, she found two people inside who seemed to be in a squabble.
“Did you come back?”
The disciple greeted her with a blank expression, but his eyes suggested he was finally getting rid of something bothersome.
“What were you doing?”
“Yukiko! Number 5 is being so frustrating!”
Seol-ja pounded her chest and ran to Dan Seo-wol.
“Frustrating, you say?”
“Yukiko! Number 5 agreed to learn the seduction techniques of the kunoichi learned from the East, but after the hermitage training, he suddenly said he wouldn’t do it!”
“That wasn’t very helpful, was it?”
“Didn’t we learn a little last time and ended it there?! Did Number 5 gather any inner power right after learning martial arts?!”
“Huh?”
“…This is why geniuses!”
“Just look at this book.”
It seemed like a trivial matter. After grasping the situation, Dan Seo-wol pulled out a book from the bundle she had brought and handed it to the two.
“A book?”
“Nin-nin! What book is it? The Rise of the Tang Family? Is it a martial arts manual written by those poison-loving guys?”
Seol-ja, an assassin of the Salmak, frowned as soon as she saw the book’s title, recalling that the Tang Family’s poison and secret arts were more of a hassle than a sturdy ally.
“This…”
On the other hand, Cheon So-hee looked at her master with wide eyes, unable to close her mouth.
“Yeah. It’s a book written by your significant other.”
Dan Seo-wol smiled and revealed the book’s identity to her noticing disciple.
“Your brother wrote this book…?”
“When I asked about your significant other, I got this book in return.”
“Oooh! A book written by Number 5’s significant other! Yukiko! I’m curious about the content!”
Seol-ja, upon the news that it was a book written by Number 5’s significant other, immediately dropped her serious act and frantically examined the book.
“You’re curious too, huh? Just what kind of level does it have that makes it so hard to find in Hubei Province?”
Why would the master insist on a hardcover edition? Dan Seo-wol looked at her disciple, as if she also wanted to know.
Cheon So-hee didn’t know the exact content of the book either. But she understood why the book was popular.
“Whenever my brother starts talking, people swarm around like bees.”
Since the book was written by her brother, it was bound to become famous. Cheon So-hee’s face, which usually wore a cold expression, was twitching with pride.
“A talented conversationalist; that means he wrote well, too.”
He was the one who could make a disciple, who seemed to have no ties to love, say she’d follow him to the grave if he died.
Just with a flick of his tongue, even a bandit trying to take treasure would end up weeping and laying the treasure down. Dan Seo-wol thought it all made sense.
“Hearing this only makes me more curious!”
“I want to read it.”
“Here it is.”
Dan Seo-wol handed the book, written by her disciple’s significant other, over to her.
“The Rise of the Tang Family…”
Cheon So-hee received the book carefully and mumbled the title, written in neat handwriting.
“They say the protagonist is from the Sichuan Tang Family and was taken to the Tang family.”
“Why the Sichuan Tang Family?”
It’s a book that had dragged her brother to the Sichuan Tang family. But he wasn’t even from the Sichuan Tang Family. So why was the protagonist from there?
Her brother wasn’t even a martial artist, and she only helped him lay the groundwork. Cheon So-hee couldn’t fathom the reason behind the Tang family protagonist.
“I don’t know the full circumstances either.”
Neither the master nor the disciple had anything particularly relevant to say.
“Ha! Yukiko! I’ve figured it out!”
Seol-ja stared at the book pensively, then raised her finger as her eyes sparkled with realization.
“Do you know the reason?”
Cheon So-hee finally turned to Seol-ja with a curious expression. What could the reason be? How would Seol-ja know?
Seol-ja, pleased with her perfect deduction, laughed gleefully and laid out her theory.
“Ho-ho-ho! Number 5’s significant other! Didn’t he live with a Tang family woman?”
“…”
“Since the significant other isn’t a martial artist, she must have helped him! Nin-nin!”
Seol-ja wore a satisfied expression as she reveled in her perceived brilliance, completely unaware of the chaos unfolding before her.
“Yukiko.”
“Jeok Na-chal! What’s wrong? Hieeek! What’s this murderous intent flowing from you?!”
Seol-ja jumped, feeling shivers run down her neck from the killing intent.
“Right. Brother Yoon-ho. He was living with a woman…”
Of course, the source of the murderous intent was Cheon So-hee. Her expression hardened.
Why hadn’t she remembered it?
In the corner of her mind focused on worrying about her brother, a memory she intentionally tried not to acknowledge surfaced forcibly.
Her brother was living with a woman. Living with a Tang family woman.
No, they said they were just friends. But if he was sharing martial arts techniques for a novel, they couldn’t just be friends—it was more than what she and her brother shared…
Deep in Cheon So-hee’s heart, in the calm sea of murderous intent, bubbles began to rise.
“Is it more than just a simple friendship…?”
She was right here. Yet her brother was living with that woman.
“Nin-nin! Hieeek! I can see the Heavenly Killing Star!!! I must use Ninja Technique No. 1 for escape!”
Flustered, Seol-ja began to hastily form hand signs. Dan Seo-wol watched the two and let out a small sigh before speaking.
“Your significant other has returned to Yichang, but the Tang woman did not.”
“They’re not living together?”
The bubbles beneath the sea of murderous intent exploded in unison.
“While I’m not sure what happened with the Tang family, I’ve heard he’s living alone.”
“Ah, I see.”
Cheon So-hee nodded as if nothing had happened.
It was unnecessary worry. She tried to revert to her usual cold expression, but Seol-ja didn’t miss the subtle change on Number 5’s face.
“Ah! Number 5 is smiling!”
“I’m not smiling.”
“Liar! You looked relieved, thinking he wasn’t cheating after all! You said you trust him! You didn’t trust him, did you?!”
“…I did trust him.”
She didn’t trust her brother. Seol-ja teased her with a playful tone, but Cheon So-hee couldn’t retort against the sharp criticism.
“It’s tough for a woman with a heart of gold to be loved!”
“Living with difficulty…?”
It’s tough to be loved by her brother. Cheon So-hee stared at Seol-ja, unable to keep her mouth shut.
“Ho-ho-ho! Number 5’s expression is amusing! So become a woman who gets loved using the seduction skills learned from the East…”
“Enough of the jokes, are you taking it with you?”
Dan Seo-wol asked her disciple, who had taken the book in hand.
“Yup.”
“Yukiko! Enough of the jokes! I want to see too!”
“There are more here.”
Dan Seo-wol pulled several copies of The Rise of the Tang Family from the bundle.
“Wait?! Didn’t you say it was hard to find a book like this?”
At Seol-ja’s question, Dan Seo-wol scoffed and replied with disbelief.
“I’ll give you viewing and preaching copies. They say they want one they can’t just hand over to anyone.”
“Huh? What does that even mean?”
“Something like that exists. Read it all and let’s talk.”
Dan Seo-wol distributed the books among her disciple and her disciple’s friend and sent them back to their rooms.
———
A book written by Brother Yoon-ho.
Cheon So-hee entered her room, tightly clutching The Rise of the Tang Family.
“Ho Pil.”
Barbarian writer. Like a woman writing the name of her beloved lover on his palm, Cheon So-hee delicately traced the pen name with her fingertips.
Her brother used a pen name instead of his real name.
Cheon So-hee understood without hearing the reason. Because her brother was also from Joseon; he knew well what would happen if he put himself forward directly.
She recalled the moments when her brother acted as a conversationalist.
“Just how well can a barbarian tell stories? He’s just a barbarian stick, right?”
“Even if he’s a barbarian conversationalist! Still, you should just listen.”
“What can a barbarian know?”
The moment they saw his black hair, they looked down at him with disdain. People are not judged by outward appearances, but such people were everywhere in the Central Plains.
There were those types who were especially intolerable.
“Wow, look at that. A conversationalist, huh? Can we chat after the story?”
“Are we just chatting? I want to mix in some other stuff too.”
“What a nice guy… Oh?!”
“Ugh!”
How dare they not understand her brother’s inner self and only talk about his appearance? She couldn’t forgive those pesky flies that allowed her brother to converse with them even once.
She swiftly knocked them out and handed them over to the goods store guy.
She didn’t understand why the goods store man took on that role, but he was sharp enough to minimize complaints, sighing at the repeated returns.
Anyway, her brother seemed to be accustomed to the disdain of people in the Central Plains, smiling, but sometimes wore a bittersweet expression that she could also feel.
Surely, the pen name Ho Pil was a name her brother crafted after much thought. Cheon So-hee looked at her brother’s pen name with affectionate eyes.
“The Rise of the Tang Family.”
Cheon So-hee murmured the book title with a stiff voice.
“Lady Tang…”
She said it was a business partner and friend. Being a business partner, she probably helped with writing the book. It must not mean anything else. Yet, no matter how much she thought about it, it felt strangely ominous.
Cheon So-hee, unaware that the sensation was what others might call a woman’s instinct, was engulfed with anxiety.
Ultimately, she stood up and looked into the mirror.
Other women might look into the mirror daily for makeup, but she hadn’t given it much thought before.
Today, however, she gazed intently into her reflection.
“He said I was pretty.”
Though her face still had a youthful look, to say she was among the most beautiful women in the eight provinces of Joseon was no exaggeration.
However, below that youthful face was a physique that would baffle anyone for not believing she hadn’t yet reached maturity.
Feeling a sense of crisis she had never experienced before, she involuntarily forced herself to suppress the unease reflected in the mirror.
Cheon So-hee barely calmed her heart and opened volume one of The Rise of the Tang Family.
“Tang Jung.”
She didn’t have a hobby of reading novels. There was no time to find fun in letters, as calming the murderous intent of the Heavenly Killing Star was more critical. But The Rise of the Tang Family was written by Kang Yoon-ho.
Cheon So-hee even murmured the protagonist’s name as she completely focused on the text.
The protagonist falls for a woman named Sa-cheon-jeil-mi and diligently hones his skills. He works hard with a sincere heart for one woman.
That figure reminded her of someone.
“Brother Yoon-ho…?”
It was similar. That figure, working hard while thinking of one woman.
Cheon So-hee spotted her brother in the protagonist Tang Jung. Her brother, just like her, faced life threatening circumstances and lived diligently.
Tang Jung was her brother. As soon as her thoughts reached that point, she realized an astonishing fact about the heroine of the novel.
“Sa-cheon-jeil-mi is… me?”
Isn’t the person Brother Yoon-ho loves herself? Of course, the woman known as Sa-cheon-jeil-mi could only be someone else.
Cheon So-hee finally realized it.
The Rise of the Tang Family is a love story between her brother Yoon-ho and herself. The moment she grasped the truth, she immersed herself in the novel.
[Sojeo! My skills are limited, so I can’t guarantee victory. But to approach sojeo, first, you must take my life.]
“That’s a story about the Head of the Seong Family.”
It’s definitely her brother.
It was when the Head of the Seong family went wild, and he didn’t give up on trying to save her. Cheon So-hee thought back to that moment, her heart aching, yet brought to life by thoughts of Kang Yoon-ho.
“Brother Yoon-ho…”
Tang Jung was trying to protect Sa-cheon-jeil-mi.
Tang Jung was Yoon-ho. Sa-cheon-jeil-mi was herself. Cheon So-hee couldn’t help but envision her brother Kang Yoon-ho’s face in Tang Jung’s figure and imagine her own face in Sa-cheon-jeil-mi’s place.
‘Does Brother Yoon-ho protect me?’
Brother with a sword, protecting her. Although she hadn’t experienced it, the mere thought was enough to make her heart swell with warmth. Cheon So-hee’s face slowly flushed.
She couldn’t tear her gaze from the book until the very end.
[Go go. Please, I ask you for my first time.]
Until the scene of their night together.
“Uh…?”
Cheon So-hee’s eyes widened as she instinctively closed the book, realizing the letters were dark, but the content was wrapped in a pink hue.
It was too explicit. Of course, she knew what men and women do at night to some extent. But only at a mechanical educational level.
Thus, the intimate scene in The Rise of the Tang Family, crafted to evoke excitement in its readers, was an overwhelming shock for her.
‘The first night together.’
Tang Jung was Kang Yoon-ho. Sa-cheon-jeil-mi was herself. Getting immersed like that before she even reached this scene only left Cheon So-hee startled.
Her heart raced. When she turned the page, it depicted her first night with her brother Yoon-ho.
Should she avert her eyes?
“Of course, I’ll look.”
It’s said that only those at the peak can resist the allure of explicit scenes.
Unintentionally looking around as if checking for prying eyes, Cheon So-hee brought the book closer and began to read.
The scenes in The Rise of the Tang Family were extraordinarily vivid, catering to specific tastes.
“My chest is a place where a baby feeds… Can you do this too…?”
At 19 years old, Cheon So-hee was undergoing a belated but quick education in her sexuality.
Some might say that explicit novels provide warped sexual education, but typically, one must start with an interesting distortion. And she didn’t mind if it was warped sexual education.
‘Because it’s the book written by Brother Yoon-ho.’
Since it reflected Kang Yoon-ho’s preferences.
Cheon So-hee’s significant other was Kang Yoon-ho.
In truth, it was the most tailored education.
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