CLS-Chapter 104

Chapter 104

The wine cups clinked together, spilling some liquor onto the floor. But Dok-bi didn’t seem to care as he drained his cup in one gulp.

Wei Yan-ho also drank about half his wine before grimacing and setting down his cup.

“Lately I’ve been having more occasions to drink, but I don’t understand why people drink this stuff. It’s just bitter.”

Dok-bi nodded.

“Wine is bitter.”

“Then why do you drink it?”

“Because it’s bitter.”

It was an answer that seemed both understandable and incomprehensible at the same time.

“If wine were sweet, there’d be no reason to drink it, would there?”

“I think I’d like it if it were sweet.”

“That’s a pity.”

Dok-bi lifted the wine bottle and poured wine into the empty cup.

“What brings you to see me?”

“I’m curious about something.”

“Speak. I’ll answer.”

Wei Yan-ho emptied what remained in his wine cup. As soon as the cup was empty, Dok-bi lifted the bottle and poured wine into his cup.

“Why did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“You lost on purpose.”

“Interesting words. Are you saying that I, Dok-bi, deliberately lost in a match?”

“Yes.”

Wei Yan-ho answered calmly.

“You could have made Six-Six at the end, couldn’t you? But you deliberately didn’t make Six-Six.”

“Hoho.”

Dok-bi drank his wine without answering.

“Originally, I should have lost. But I ended up winning instead. I want to know why you did that.”

Wei Yan-ho didn’t beat around the bush.

Having always heard people speak in half-truths and roundabout ways, Dok-bi was a bit flustered to meet someone who asked so directly.

“You don’t seem like someone with an impatient personality…”

“I don’t like wasting time on useless things.”

“I see.”

Dok-bi lifted his head to glance at the sky briefly before opening his mouth.

“What do you think gambling is?”

“Gambling is gambling.”

“A foolish question, wise answer. That’s right, gambling is gambling. Gambling is ultimately about competing in matches. People sitting at the gambling table mobilize all their capabilities to determine the outcome.”

“Competition…”

“But lately, useless things keep interfering with gambling tables. Things like plans and strategies.”

“Hmm…”

Wei Yan-ho looked at Dok-bi as if he didn’t understand at all.

“Isn’t that what you’ve been doing all along?”

“That’s right. But sometimes in life, you want to cast aside such things.”

“Hmm.”

Wei Yan-ho looked at Dok-bi as if he couldn’t understand at all.

“So you lost on purpose?”

“I’ve never lost on purpose. My luck just ran out there.”

Dok-bi smiled slightly and continued.

“But thanks to my luck running out there, for a while there won’t be people going bankrupt because of Golden Flower Hall. A new gambling house will appear and someday try to suck people’s blood dry like Golden Flower Hall did, but until then, I’ll be able to enjoy interesting gambling again, won’t I?”

“But you must have lost everything.”

“What do you mean?”

Dok-bi asked Wei Yan-ho back as if he didn’t understand.

“The things you had built up.”

“Hohoho, you say interesting things.”

Dok-bi held out his wine cup.

“Do you see this?”

“What?”

“What’s in this wine cup?”

“…Nothing.”

“Is that so?”

Dok-bi poured wine into the cup.

“What about now?”

“There’s wine in it.”

Dok-bi lifted the cup again and drank the wine.

“Now the wine cup is empty, so have I lost everything?”

“…”

Dok-bi shook his head.

“What’s important isn’t what’s filled, but the vessel itself. I may have lost my reputation, followers, and even credibility, but what I built up wasn’t those things. What should truly be valued is my skill. A wine cup is for holding wine, isn’t it? Even if the wine is gone, as long as there’s a cup to hold wine, I haven’t lost everything. Rather, you could say I haven’t lost anything at all.”

“…That sounds a bit like sophistry.”

Wei Yan-ho scratched the back of his head.

“So what if it’s sophistry? If I think that way myself, then that’s what it is, isn’t it?”

“That’s also true.”

Dok-bi was a strange person.

Though he worked as a gambler, something that ordinary people despised, he didn’t lose his dignity about himself.

And though he lived in a world where winning and losing was everything, and claimed to live in a world of competition, he didn’t consider that to be everything.

Jin So-ah and Jin Ye-ran had split apart because of their different values despite walking the right path. But Dok-bi was maintaining his principles while doing work that everyone pointed fingers at.

Where did that difference come from?

Wei Yan-ho also turned his head to look at the sky.

How is it?

His master’s face seemed to overlap with the large full moon.

Wei Yan-ho looked at that moon for a while without saying anything.

After calling Wei Yan-ho a couple of times, Dok-bi also silently tilted his wine cup when Wei Yan-ho continued looking at the sky without answering.

It felt like wind was blowing from somewhere.

Wei Yan-ho turned his head to look at Dok-bi.

“You seem to have something deep to think about.”

“It’s really strange, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“I may have been with perhaps the kindest person in the world until now.”

“…”

“Whether it’s the work they do or their consideration for others, I was with someone who’s really hard to find in today’s world for a long time, but I didn’t particularly feel anything. I just felt that they walked a path I wouldn’t dare to even think about. I knew in my head that it was amazing, but I couldn’t really feel it, you could say.”

Dok-bi nodded.

He seemed to understand what Wei Yan-ho was saying.

“I didn’t feel anything particular while being with such a person, but talking with you, uncle gambler, I feel like some framework has been broken.”

“Hahahaha.”

Dok-bi laughed pleasantly and lifted the wine bottle.

“That’s unfortunate.”

Dok-bi poured wine into Wei Yan-ho’s empty cup and raised his own.

“But isn’t that too natural?”

“Natural?”

Dok-bi chuckled as if Wei Yan-ho’s reaction was amusing.

“If people should naturally do right things and avoid wrong things, then why would gambling houses exist?”

“Ah…”

“That’s what people are like. Even knowing something is wrong, people still walk that path.”

“Are you trying to say that the work isn’t important, but the person is?”

“I don’t know such difficult words.”

“Hmm…”

“However, what I do know is…”

Wei Yan-ho quietly waited for Dok-bi’s next words.

“That’s what people are like. Even in the same situation, they feel different things and walk different paths, which is what makes the world interesting, isn’t it? If everyone naturally walked the path they should walk, how boring would the world be?”

“That’s true too.”

“That’s why the last gamble with you was enjoyable, wasn’t it?”

Wei Yan-ho raised his cup.

Dok-bi also silently raised his cup.

The two cups clinked together in the air.

The moon quietly looked down upon them both.

***

“Be careful on your trip.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon. Is there anything you want to eat when I return?”

“Just come back quickly.”

“Alright, alright.”

Joageol left the house with his wife seeing him off.

“What beautiful weather.”

From morning, the sunlight was warm—it was truly a good day.

When he worked at the Black Spider Brotherhood, he couldn’t even imagine such mornings.

His wife couldn’t make eye contact with others due to guilt about her husband being a thug, and Joageol’s heart was also heavy every time he went to work. When the Black Spider Brotherhood collapsed, he thought they’d have no way to make a living, but who would have known it would turn out to be such a blessing in disguise?

“Are you leaving?”

As he entered the main gate, the servants all bowed in unison.

“The patients will be rushing in soon. Are the preparations going well?”

“Yes. Don’t worry.”

While the doctors, medical women, and pharmacists were managed by a separate head administrator, Joageol was in charge of managing the servants. It was a position that was high if you considered it high, low if you considered it low, but Joageol was satisfied with his current position.

The salary was also quite decent.

“Are there any problems?”

“Well…”

“Hmm? What’s the matter?”

“It seems like all the rooms will be full today.”

“…Is that so?”

Joageol scratched the back of his head.

“Well, I see.”

Sacred Hand Hall was currently in a situation where business was flowing smoothly.

Customers came endlessly, and its reputation was growing day by day. When they didn’t raise treatment fees even after the fake Sacred Hand Hall collapsed, people recognized the sincerity of Sacred Hand Hall.

And the doctors were also reputed to be highly skilled. The main factor was that Ha Dae-bung, the head administrator, spared no expense in bringing good doctors, and Jin So-ah’s reputation as the heir of Sacred Hand Hall also played a big role.

With all these factors combined, Sacred Hand Hall was now soaring like a tiger with wings.

A branch of Sacred Hand Hall was set to be established where the fake Sacred Hand Hall used to be, so unifying the medical world of Hubei was not just a dream.

However,

If there was just one problem…

Joageol sighed deeply as he looked at the door visible before him.

In this place where everyone was working hard, there was one idle gentleman who was just lounging around.

“Ugh.”

It had been five days since he’d seen this door open. Except when servants carried in food, this door inside which that gentleman resided never opened.

“So why is he staying here…”

Even when Ha Dae-bung offered to arrange a house for him, saying it was embarrassing to see him in front of people working hard, Wei Yan-ho had stuck to his room, saying it was bothersome.

“Supreme Elder.”

Joageol called Wei Yan-ho in a low voice.

Only Jin So-ah, Ha Dae-bung, and himself knew that Wei Yan-ho was the actual owner of Sacred Hand Hall.

It was natural for the other two to know since they had founded it together, and Joageol was someone who knew how Wei Yan-ho had brought down the Black Spider Brotherhood and how he had extorted their wealth.

However, he was in complete agreement with Ha Dae-bung’s words to not tell others since it would be embarrassing.

Joageol carefully called Wei Yan-ho again, making sure others couldn’t hear.

“Um, Supreme Elder.”

There was no answer.

“Sigh.”

Joageol let out a deep sigh and stepped onto the wooden floor. It was obvious that he would be lying down sleeping, so he intended to wake Wei Yan-ho.

“I’m coming in.”

Even without the respect due to a Supreme Elder, since Joageol knew what level of master Wei Yan-ho was, every movement was cautious.

Creak.

He carefully opened the door and stepped inside.

“Huh?”

***

Ha Dae-bung was absorbed in his office work.

“The road to recovery is long and arduous.”

Though business was going well, since they had invested so much money, it seemed it would take quite a long time to recover that investment. But they had gained enough momentum, so in the long term, earning several times the invested money wouldn’t be too difficult.

“One location won’t be enough for that.”

Ha Dae-bung’s mind began to fill with plans for the next steps.

But unfortunately, his thoughts couldn’t continue.

“Administrator! Something terrible has happened!”

“Hmm?”

Ha Dae-bung frowned at the voice coming from outside. But since the voice was so urgent, he couldn’t easily ignore it.

Opening the door and going outside, he asked Joageol, who was looking at him with an anxious expression.

“What’s the matter?”