“Hey, what do you mean you have a fiancée… What on earth is going on?”
I’m just dying over here.
The manly Kang Yoon-ho. Even the scale of the funeral march is grand. I can hear explosions going off in my ears.
“So you pretended not to know! How shameless!!! Master Kang Yoon-ho has a fiancée from the Sichuan Tang Family! And now you act like you didn’t know!”
Chief of the Medical Department. Do I really need to repeat it just in case everyone missed it?
They say the Tang Family doesn’t forget. Now that I see the Chief, I realize it’s true. I never imagined they’d come to rip my limbs apart just because they failed to cut off my right hand last year.
“Is it true that Kang Yoon-ho had another fiancée?”
“A fiancée from the Sichuan Tang Family?”
“Even though he has a fiancée, he came to ask for permission to marry Hyang?”
Yes! To be precise, I have three more fiancées. I came to ask for permission to get married.
Bombs keep dropping one after another. I feel like dancing a tear-soaked dance to the rhythm.
“Hah! Taking advantage of the fact that Kang Yoon-ho’s fiancée is in long-term care due to illness to force a marriage! And now you all plan to act innocent and dodge responsibility?”
Mother-in-law. What do we do now? I sneaked a glance at my mother, and she sighed softly and looked at me.
‘Son-in-law. Just try to survive for now.’
“Kang! Yoon! Hooooo!!!”
Mother-in-law. I feel like I’m going to die in three seconds.
I don’t know how to respond to Father-in-law’s furious voice. There should be some kind of preparations for a situation like this. What on earth am I supposed to do now?
It’s ruined. I’m finished.
There’s no helping it.
“If I really think I’m going to die, please step in then.”
For now, I should start half-dead. I gestured for the martial artists surrounding me from the Tang Family to step aside.
“There’s no need for that, Master Kang.”
The Tang Family’s martial artists didn’t part ways.
“Don’t worry! We will protect Master Kang!”
“We will keep Master Kang safe!”
“We won’t let those Zhuge Family scoundrels lay a finger on you!”
“No, that’s not what I meant…”
While their expressions were earnest, pleading for my trust, I thought that maybe taking a step out could save my corpse from being desecrated.
“Kang Yoon-ho! What in the world is going on!!!”
“Father…”
“Step back, Master.”
As I exerted my strength to step forward, this time the Chief gave a direct order.
“Chief! There seems to be a misunderstanding!”
“I’ve already figured everything out. Step back and protect Master Kang!”
“I’m telling you, it’s a misunderstanding!”
Forced marriage? I came here willingly to get married. As I shouted with an exasperated expression, the Chief smiled bitterly as if he’d thought of something.
“It’s your bad habit to sacrifice yourself to protect others. I won’t let you go off alone and lonely like last time.”
You’re stating facts!
I can’t believe this.
I guess the Chief was quite impressed when I gave up my rights as the Deputy Head of the Tang Family and returned alone.
“That’s right, Master Kang! Please trust us!”
“Ugh, no! Umph umph umph!”
What can I rely on? My three inches of tongue? What am I supposed to do when my mouth is blocked?
“Bring Kang Yoon-ho to me at once! I need to talk!”
As Father-in-law tried to stand up with an angry face, the Chief replied with a cold expression.
“The only one allowed to give orders to me is the Head of the Tang Family, Master Tang Baek-ho.”
“Deputy Head!”
“The ones who should be angry are not the Zhuge Family but our Sichuan Tang Family! We already know about the Zhuge Family’s schemes! How dare you dodge responsibility?”
“A scheme by the Zhuge Family…?”
A scheme? All the Zhuge Family did was drag Father-in-law here to ask for marriage permission.
“Man Geum-jeon.”
An unexpected name slipped from the Chief’s mouth.
“Huh?!”
“Do you think our Sichuan Tang Family wouldn’t know why the Zhuge Family schemed with Man Geum-jeon to force Master Kang into marriage? We aren’t fools!”
What kind of nonsense is this?
———
“Black intentions, you say? What do you mean by that?”
Father-in-law took a step back when he heard about Jang Noya, who is his father-in-law.
“Hah! It’s certainly something to be ashamed of! If this gets out in the Martial Arts World, you’ll be pointed at! You seem to be pretending not to know. Can you keep pretending till the end?”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
Black intentions, you say.
What on earth is going on here? Kang Yoon-ho, think calmly. No way? A thought suddenly crossed my mind.
I, Kang Yoon-ho, sacrificed everything for Lady Tang and left the Tang Family. From the perspective of the Sichuan Tang Family, I must seem like an exemplary lover. But suddenly, news of marriage to the Zhuge Family?
Kang Yoon-ho wouldn’t do that. Then who’s the problem?
It should have been easy to conclude.
The Zhuge Family must be the issue. They must have plotted something grand. I finally grasped how the situation was unfolding.
“Master Kang Yoon-ho is the son of the Head of the Tang Family. Although his hair is black, the purple blood runs thicker than any child of the Tang Family.”
It does not flow.
It doesn’t flow at all!
“Today is the first time I’ve heard that Master Kang has Tang blood flowing through him.”
“Even if I hadn’t heard that, a sharp nail tends to stick out. You’ve been renowned in Yichang as an exceptional trader. And there was one person who took notice of that trader.”
“Are you talking about Father-in-law?”
The Chief nodded his head.
“Man Geum-jeon lost his only son and has no successor. Naturally, it would be appealing to have our Master Kang Yoon-ho, who possesses the Tang blood and has the potential to be a successor! Isn’t that right?”
“It’s true that Father-in-law has chosen Kang Yoon-ho as a successor. But it has nothing to do with the Zhuge Family.”
The Chief laughed loudly, seeming incredulous at Father-in-law’s denial.
“Hahahaha! So now, without consulting the son-in-law and daughter, Father-in-law wishes to take the granddaughter and forcibly marry her to the black-haired guy—are you seriously asking us to believe that?”
“Hmm…”
Father-in-law couldn’t easily respond.
“Hrum.”
“Ha ha ha!”
The Elders’ Council was in the same boat.
The direct lineage of the family cohabits and gets engaged. All of this was something Father-in-law did unilaterally. We had no idea. It’s because mentioning it to the rival family would be a huge blow to our reputation.
To be precise, the matriarch intervened, so it wasn’t entirely without consultation. We decided not to raise this issue any further because it was also a sensitive matter between the Head of the Family and the Elders.
“Even if Man Geum-jeon is of old age, how can the Zhuge Family stoop so low? How can this happen!”
Ultimately, only the Chief continued to speak, having seized the advantage.
“A lowly tactic? Do you think we wouldn’t know? Man Geum-jeon is elderly. If he were to pass away just like that, the wealth would need to be shared with the maternal family. But if the successor to Man Geum-jeon is the son-in-law of the Zhuge Family, everything changes!”
No way.
This black intention that the Sichuan Tang Family thinks the Zhuge Family harbors—
“Man Geum-jeon gets a perfect successor. The Zhuge Family swallows the wealth of Man Geum-jeon. To achieve that, the Zhuge Family and Man Geum-jeon conspired to forcibly marry Master Kang Yoon-ho, didn’t they?”
————
To outsiders, the circumstances seem plausible. Yes, it’s a reasonable deduction from the perspective of the Sichuan Tang Family.
Since the outcome itself aligns, it’s a logic that’s hard to refute.
“That’s an absurd speculation!”
The Elders’ Council burst into protest.
“Are you really trying to say you didn’t know until now?”
“That we coveted the wealth of Man Geum-jeon!”
“There’s no reason for the Zhuge Family to resort to such vile acts to covet Man Geum-jeon’s wealth!”
“Does the Zhuge Family seem that desperate?”
Naturally, they vehemently denied it.
It’s true that Man Geum-jeon is wealthy, but why would the top martial arts family in Hubei, the Zhuge Family, plot such a scheme?
The Chief. This is ridiculous. Just as I was about to speak up, they lifted their hands from my mouth.
“Right. That’s a valid point. There’s more to this matter than just financial issues.”
It seems the Tang Family might have another reason.
“There’s more to this matter than just financial issues?”
“The identity of Ho Pil.”
“……!”
In an instant, everyone’s gazes turned toward me.
The Chief smirked at this sight and continued as if he expected it.
“Seeing everyone’s attention is directed at one person, it seems the Zhuge Family indeed noticed Master Kang’s identity.”
No, I found out just a little while ago.
“What does Master Kang being Ho Pil have to do with this?!”
“Man Geum-jeon has stopped the continuation of The Rise of the Tang Family.”
“Ugh…!”
An overlooked truth surfaced from the Chief’s words.
“At first, the Tang Family thought it was merely a debt issue. Since Master Kang didn’t reach out for help, everyone remained passive and did nothing. But upon realizing the truth, I was so shocked that I couldn’t speak! To think the Zhuge Family was behind all of this!”
‘The issue was merely a matter of rights being caught up for a moment.’
The Tea Bookstore was in debt and had fallen to Man Geum-jeon, which was why The Rise of the Tang Family couldn’t be serialized.
This is maddening. For now, the fact that Man Geum-jeon was trying to connect me with Miss Zhuge through the Tea Bookstore makes the Tang Family’s deductions look quite reasonable on the surface.
Forced serialization.
The Zhuge Family has caused The Rise of the Tang Family to be put on hold. There was anger lacing the Chief’s voice. The eyes of the martial artists surrounding me were aflame with fury.
Right in front of me stood angry readers, furious at the forced serialization.
“Nonsense!”
“We didn’t block the release of The Rise of the Tang Family!”
“It was merely Man Geum-jeon’s unilateral decision. It has nothing to do with us!”
“Then, what is the meaning of that?”
Is there something else?
The Chief glared at the Zhuge Family people, as if to say this isn’t over yet.
“What?”
“Please explain why The Rise of the Tang Family is a forbidden book in the Zhuge Family.”
“…….”
The Elders’ Council suddenly fell silent.
“Ah! I understand the Zhuge Family well! You must have been enraged! You must have been furious! Even after over a thousand years of receiving talented retainers! You can’t even produce a novel featuring the Zhuge Family as the protagonist! Our Sichuan Tang Family is thriving with The Rise of the Tang Family! Must’ve been agonizingly jealous, leading you to make it a forbidden book!”
“Th-that’s absurd!”
“It’s a misunderstanding! It’s speculative!”
The elders, with flustered expressions, eagerly denied it. But the situation is just too coincidental.
“Perhaps… they meant to forcibly marry Ho Pil and get him to write a novel featuring the Zhuge Family as the protagonist?”
Ah. That’s—
“Gasp!”
“Ugh…”
“Could it be… for real?”
The Chief’s shocked gaze fell upon me.
In a situation where it was difficult to affirm or deny, I turned my gaze aside and noticed a familiar figure approaching the entrance of the Head Family’s Hall, holding something.
“Chief! Look at this!”
“What is it?”
“This was brought from Master Kang’s residence!”
What the Tang Family warrior brought was a freshly printed book.
“This book… What is this book?”
[Zhuge Seolrok.]
The book I painstakingly wrote featuring the protagonist of the Zhuge Family. My words got stuck in my throat at the shocking turn of events.
“…….”
“Who wrote this book?”
“…….”
Naturally, there was no one who could answer.
“Why is Ho Pil’s new work here! Why is the title Zhuge Seolrok! Someone, just say something!”
In an instant, the atmosphere in the Head Family’s Hall froze, as if ready to explode.
