CLS-Chapter 431

Chapter 431:

“Excessive?”

Zhuge Wen-in glared at Wei Yan-ho with sharp eyes.

“What do you mean excessive?”

“Well, you’ve worked them to the bone, and now you’re talking about favors? Anyone looking would think you raised them like princesses without making them do any work.”

Zhuge Wen-in’s face flushed red.

“When you take in people who would starve to death on the streets and feed them, they should naturally know to be grateful. Don’t you understand such a simple principle?”

“Ha!”

Wei Yan-ho looked at Zhuge Wen-in as if incredulous.

“So how much salary did you pay them?”

“……”

“Did you even feed them properly? Looking at him, he seemed to go crazy when he saw food earlier.”

“……”

“Since you fed them so well, you must have given them good jobs, right? Not like sneaking into other people’s houses like bats to steal information?”

Zhuge Wen-in’s lips twitched.

“Good grief, what a wicked employer. Try going somewhere and telling people to do that kind of work just for meals. See if even one person agrees to it. But what? A favor? A faaavor?”

Wei Yan-ho threw a strong verbal punch at Zhuge Wen-in.

“This is what a favor looks like!”

“You, you bastard!”

Wei Yan-ho clicked his tongue and said,

“I thought a renowned family would at least walk a proper path, but what you’re doing is no different from the Unorthodox Sects. Look here, that’s human trafficking.”

In that moment, Zhuge Wen-in was horrified.

Why was human trafficking coming up here?

“Hu, human trafficking!”

“It is human trafficking! Taking in kids with nowhere to go, holding them hostage, overworking them, making them do labor—if that’s not human trafficking, then what in the world is human trafficking?”

“How is this so twisted?”

Zhuge Wen-in felt like he was going crazy and wanted to jump around.

He wanted to refute it, but the words were right. The words were all correct. In fact, now that he heard it, Zhuge Wen-in was starting to think this did seem like human trafficking.

“We are the Zhuge Family. Working for the Zhuge Family is a glorious thing.”

“Is that so?”

Wei Yan-ho looked at Wu-il. Wu-il hesitated and couldn’t answer, but So-ryeo decisively shook her head.

“It’s not! You human trafficker!”

“It’s not!”

Zhuge Wen-in turned around in panic.

People were gathering.

Having made such a loud noise when barging through the door, people who came to see what was happening were hardening their faces at the words “human trafficker.”

‘This can’t be.’

At this rate, the Zhuge Family would become known as a human trafficking organization. Faced with a situation he had never experienced before, even the great Zhuge Wen-in’s mind was going blank.

“Th, that’s right!”

Zhuge Wen-in, having found a way out, smiled triumphantly.

“Of course, there might be room to see it that way. If you look at it shallowly.”

“You’re talking as if you see things very deeply.”

Zhuge Wen-in ignored Wei Yan-ho’s words. He realized that the more he engaged, the more entangled he became.

“But the internal circumstances are completely different. We didn’t traffic them—we made them servants.”

“Servants?”

Wei Yan-ho tilted his head.

“That’s right. Servants. This is a contract. We feed them, house them, and let them live. In return, they do the work we assign them.”

Wei Yan-ho asked with a blank face,

“Without paying them wages?”

“What household pays wages to servants!”

“You don’t pay them?”

“That’s right. There’s no need to pay servants wages. You just feed them and house them.”

When Zhuge Wen-in spoke confidently, Wei Yan-ho sighed.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes?”

“That’s human trafficking.”

“……”

Zhuge Wen-in’s face hardened like stone.

“Haven’t you ever thought that taking people with no connections and making them work as servants would naturally violate the law?”

Zhuge Wen-in became mute as if he had swallowed honey and turned his head. The members of the family gathered by the door subtly avoided Zhuge Wen-in’s gaze.

‘Wait, you all do it too.’

Am I the only trash?

Are we the only garbage?

Zhuge Wen-in’s face twisted horribly.

“Fine, good. Let’s say that’s human trafficking. So what are you going to do about it?”

When you’re losing in logic, you have to be willing to cut your belly open.

Life becomes easier when you give up trying to sound like a good person. Though Zhuge Wen-in was someone who valued face, he was also someone who could throw face into the trash when necessary.

“Are you admitting it?”

“Yes, I admit it. I’ve admitted it. So what?”

Zhuge Wen-in spread his fan wide and smiled mysteriously.

“Do you think you can oppress our Zhuge Family over this matter? No one will side with you. Though the appearance may be slightly different, everyone is doing similar things. Your Righteous Alliance……”

“That’s not the point.”

Wei Yan-ho waved his hand, cutting off Zhuge Wen-in’s words.

“You’re saying strange things. I don’t need to know about that. Didn’t you investigate? If you came here claiming to face me, you must have investigated who I am.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Think carefully. I have several positions, you know.”

The character for ‘trouble’ appeared on Zhuge Wen-in’s forehead.

‘What is this bastard talking about?’

Having several positions, what kind of……

Zhuge Wen-in’s fingertips trembled as he searched through information about Wei Yan-ho in his mind.

Eldest son of the Wei Family of Guangdong.

Temporary training instructor for the Righteous Alliance.

Owner of an unidentifiable merchant company.

And……

“In, Inspector……”

“You know?”

Sweat began to flow from Zhuge Wen-in’s forehead.

“And you probably don’t know this well, but my position is probably higher than you think. I got promoted, you see.”

“Th, that can’t be. Isn’t your position honorary?”

“Who said that?”

Zhuge Wen-in couldn’t answer.

“I’ll praise your intelligence network for finding out that my position was honorary. Come to think of it, the Zhuge Family probably has many people who’ve advanced into the Imperial Palace, so it wouldn’t have been particularly difficult. But you didn’t know this part, did you? I’m not honorary. I told you I got promoted.”

As Wei Yan-ho grinned, Zhuge Wen-in shouted urgently,

“How cowardly, bringing in the law! Let’s settle this with martial world rules!”

“What are you saying?”

Wei Yan-ho laughed as if incredulous.

“I’m a government official. Why is it cowardly for an official to do things according to the law?”

“Th, that’s……”

Wei Yan-ho shook his head.

“What will you do?”

“What…… do you mean?”

“Will you compensate, or will you do things according to the law? Since this happens to be the capital, just one signal and they’ll swarm like a pack of dogs—are you confident you can handle that?”

Zhuge Wen-in’s body flinched.

The principle is that the government and the martial world don’t interfere with each other. But that’s just a principle. If the government really tried to intervene while discussing the law, there was no justification to stop it.

Moreover, if it wasn’t a power struggle within the martial world but clearly involved civilians, there would be no room for excuses.

When he had entered the Righteous Alliance before, hadn’t a single swing of the golden sword prevented the intervention of the Regional Military Commissioner and made breaking down Luoyang’s city gates go unpunished?

If someone who wielded that much power had risen to an even higher position, it was obvious that the Zhuge Family would be completely destroyed.

No, that would be fortunate.

If the Zhuge Family wasn’t destroyed, the problem would become even bigger. The Zhuge Family was a place that pursued both civil and military arts simultaneously, and countless Zhuge clan members had advanced into the current Imperial Palace.

But if something like this happened?

The Imperial Palace wasn’t such an easy place that one could hope to maintain power after giving political enemies such good prey. If mass dismissals occurred because of this incident, the arrows would fly toward Zhuge Wen-in, who had touched Wei Yan-ho and driven the situation to this point.

In the worst case, he might have to step down from his position as Vice Family Head. No, if things went really badly, even the Family Head would be affected.

Having quickly finished his calculations, Zhuge Wen-in opened his mouth with an awkward expression.

“I didn’t think that far. I apologize.”

When you need to bow your head, you must do it quickly. Zhuge Wen-in was someone who knew when to retreat.

But the problem was that Wei Yan-ho had hunting dog-like tendencies. Once he bit, he wouldn’t let go. It was the wrong opponent to try retreating from.

“I think you’re apologizing to the wrong person.”

“……I’m sorry.”

Zhuge Wen-in quickly bowed his head toward Wu-il.

But Wei Yan-ho had no intention of letting it go with just this. Once he bit, he would bite to the end. That was his master Baek Mu-han’s teaching.

“Just with words?”

“……”

“I’m really sorry too.”

Wei Yan-ho bowed his head deeply toward Zhuge Wen-in. Zhuge Wen-in blinked at that unexpected apology.

Of course, Wei Yan-ho wasn’t actually apologizing.

“I can also apologize just with words. But that’s not how you apologize. You have to compensate the other party enough to hurt yourself—that’s a real apology. So how much will you pay?”

“Mo, money has to be given?”

“Of course?”

Wei Yan-ho asked back.

“Then what will you compensate with? Are you going to bring back his lost childhood?”

That was impossible.

“There’s no need to make a fuss about apologies. You just need to pay money. Giving enough money to satisfy the other party—that’s a true apology.”

“Who on earth said such a thing……”

“Our master.”

“……”

Zhuge Wen-in felt his words get stuck for a moment.

When someone said their master taught them that, what could he say?

“There’s no need for many words. How much will you give?”

Zhuge Wen-in quickly turned his head. It was lamentable that he had to use his head, which he took pride in as high-quality talent, for something like this, but there was no other way.

If it could be resolved with money, it had to be resolved with money. If he tried to save money unnecessarily, he might face even bigger trouble.

“Little Brother.”

Even the way he addressed Wei Yan-ho had changed.

“I can’t get a sense of how much I should compensate. I’m weak with such things. So wouldn’t Little Brother set the standard?”

If he gave face like this, negotiations would become easier. The problem was that Wei Yan-ho wasn’t someone such things worked on.

“Well, it’s simple.”

Wei Yan-ho turned his head to look at Wu-il.

“How many years did you work at the Zhuge Family?”

“If you’re talking about work, it’s hard to calculate.”

“How old were you when you entered the Zhuge Family?”

“Ten years old.”

“How old are you now?”

“Eighteen.”

Wei Yan-ho nodded.

“Eight years. Then one gold nyang per year, so eight gold nyang should do.”

“Eight gold nyang?”

“Yes.”

Zhuge Wen-in smiled triumphantly.

‘This bastard must be young, so he has no sense of money.’

Eight gold nyang was certainly a large sum. But there was no reason the Zhuge Family couldn’t pay that much. He spent more than one gold nyang per month alone.

“Good. Originally we should negotiate more, but as an apology, I’ll add two more nyang to make it ten nyang. Then let’s consider this matter closed.”

If he could escape from this disadvantageous situation with ten gold nyang, it would be rather convenient. Just as Zhuge Wen-in was secretly celebrating, Wei Yan-ho shrugged.

“What do you mean closed? This is just the beginning.”

“Huh?”

Wei Yan-ho spat on his hands and rubbed them together, saying,

“Miss.”

“Yes?”

Wei Yan-ho smiled meaningfully and said,

“How many kids are currently being held at the Zhuge Family?”