“Hey, are you seriously practicing the guqin again today without reading the book you bought yesterday?!”
It was a noisy morning at the Zhuge Family estate. The martial artist from Zhuge Family visited his friend’s house, just like yesterday.
“Stop right there.”
His friend put down the guqin, as if expecting him, and blocked the martial artist from entering the room.
“Huh?”
His friend looked at him intently and spoke with an expression as confident as a character from a novel.
“Red eyes, a haggard face, wrinkled clothes that aren’t ironed like usual, and even wearing the same outfit as yesterday. You, you stayed up all night reading a book.”
“How did you know? No way! Is this Zhuge Seolrok’s deduction?!”
“Hehehe, it’s basic deduction.”
Success! Indeed, Zhuge Seolrok’s deductions weren’t impossible. His friend barely held back a smile.
“Well, I could probably guess that just by stopping anyone on the street.”
“Uh, I got it somehow, didn’t I?!”
His friend defensively explained under his friend’s skeptical gaze.
“Let me guess.”
“What? You? No need for that. Do you think Zhuge Seolrok’s deductions are that easy?”
“You stayed up all night reading Zhuge Seolrok, then played the guqin at night, and for breakfast had something spicy.”
“How do you know that?!”
How did he get everything right? Could it be that a martial artist had detective qualities? His friend was shocked and asked with a surprised expression.
“You’ve got pepper in your teeth. Go brush your teeth.”
“Ah.”
“I ran into the guy from the house next door, and he told me to let you know that if you play at night again, he’ll break down the door.”
“……”
“Seems like you had fun reading, huh? You even ditched the violin to play the guqin again.”
The martial artist chuckled at his friend, who was frozen in thought.
“Of course, if you’re from the Zhuge Family, it’s got to be the guqin!”
The image of Zhuge Seolrok playing the guqin, lost in thought, looked so cool even to another man. His friend couldn’t bring himself to voice his true feelings.
“What an incredible novel. It’s chaos everywhere. Did you see Zhuge Seolrok this morning? Make sure to check it out. The lines for purchasing are still growing.”
“I too was blown away. I never thought a story like this could unfold. A detective catching the culprit.”
“Seems like it’s a story only someone from our family could pull off. How did the author Ho Pil come up with such a tale? The Elders’ Council is raving about it.”
There were so many things to discuss and admire. The martial artist and his friend ran on with praises about Zhuge Seolrok.
“I’ve been thinking about something all night.”
His friend couldn’t hide his excitement and carefully opened his mouth.
“Hmm?”
“The way the instruments are handled, the subtle personality—they’re remarkably intellectual.”
“You’re not planning to….”
What is this friend trying to say? The martial artist’s brow furrowed with unease, but his friend just kept talking.
“Don’t you think I’m somewhat similar to Zhuge Seolrok?”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”
A deep sigh spread across the room.
“Are you saying there isn’t actually a volume 2 of Zhuge Seolrok?”
“Yes, volume 1 is finished.”
“No way! Didn’t ‘The Rise of the Tang Family’ and ‘Chronicles of the Wind and Cloud Heroes’ almost get published together?! Why isn’t there a volume 2?!”
“You’ll find the answer in the last line.”
“I get that it’s written to celebrate Master Kang’s engagement, but…!”
People who arrived late to rescue Zhuge Seolrok and those looking for the next volume were in a frenzy by the pond selling Zhuge Seolrok, even more chaotic than yesterday.
“It’s just as I expected.”
I watched the scene from afar with satisfaction and said to Gil-san.
“Ho Pil is congratulating Master Kang on his engagement. Anyone who has read Zhuge Seolrok knows exactly who made this novel happen.”
“You can use it without even revealing the identity.”
Ho Pil wrote Zhuge Seolrok to congratulate Kang Yoon-ho on his engagement. It’s a good excuse for the people of the Zhuge Family to support my engagement.
“Still, to congratulate oneself is quite the bold move. How does one even come up with such an idea?”
“Sometimes, people need to be shameless.”
Recommending a well-received piece in the community feels different from recommending one that hasn’t been acknowledged.
It’s to ensure that others from the Zhuge Family can sincerely congratulate me on my engagement, acting as a springboard for Ho Pil’s congratulations.
It isn’t at all shameful to sneak in a recommendation for one’s own writing. Really.
“What now? Should I go around saying the next volume might never come out?”
“There’s no narrative in that. You can’t do that.”
“Narrative?”
I had no intention of openly broadcasting something that would make me look bad. I simply couldn’t let Kang Yoon-ho down because the second volume isn’t coming out. I need to build a narrative. I should make everyone talk about my story.
“Waiting for public opinion to naturally form might be a method, but there’s a better way.”
“Master Kang! Did you call?”
Just then, the invited guests arrived.
“Glad you made it.”
“Hyeon-won Dae? Why did you suddenly summon him?”
It was natural for Gil-san to be surprised. The persons who came were none other than Hyeon-won Dae, who brought us from Man Geum Battlefield to the Zhuge Family estate.
There was no reason for me to summon Hyeon-won Dae for any other purpose.
“It’s for the Tea and Book Club.”
The Zhuge Family’s Tea and Book Club. Even if ‘The Rise of the Tang Family’ is designated as a banned book by the Zhuge Family, it was a secretive group that had been reading Ho Pil’s works. They were the ones most sensitive to Ho Pil’s new pieces.
“Master Kang! Thanks to you, we could read Zhuge Seolrok right away! But are you really giving us the manuscript from the author Ho Pil?”
“If you could just do me a small favor, I could definitely share it.”
I needed someone to speak on my behalf.
People who love Ho Pil’s works and are actively willing to participate. Hyeon-won Dae, who had already fallen in step with my scheme, was the perfect choice as an instigator.
“What do you mean there might never be a volume 2 of Zhuge Seolrok?”
The rumors within the family were entrusted to the family member. Following Kang Yoon-ho’s plan, the whisper spread quickly.
Since ‘Chronicles of the Wind and Cloud Heroes’ became popular in the Zhuge Family, the Tea and Book Club’s presence has been steadily growing.
Now that even the Elders’ Council couldn’t help but praise the new amazing piece of work, it was only natural for everyone to lend an ear to Ho Pil’s tale.
“Didn’t you read the last page?”
The martial artist from Hyeon-won Dae began explaining to the gathered crowd.
“Does the author Ho Pil congratulate Kang Yoon-ho on his engagement?”
“Take a close look and read what’s written there.”
“My own work. Detective, Kang Yoon-ho. Huh? A detective?”
The Zhuge Family members caught on to something unusual in the last line.
“That’s right. Exactly that.”
“A detective? Kang Yoon-ho is a detective?”
Isn’t the detective a nickname Zhuge Seolrok uses for himself? The idea that Kang Yoon-ho could be a detective was completely baffling.
The martial artist from Hyeon-won Dae revealed an astonishing fact to the bewildered crowd.
“You know about the ghost ship incident? It turns out that Master Kang solved that case.”
Anyone who has read Zhuge Seolrok could hardly contain their surprise.
“What?! Are you saying the ghost ship incident is true?!”
“There might be some fictional embellishment, but a ghost ship appeared in Wuhan, and it was said that the postmaster was captured. The gist of it seems to be the same.”
They thought it was fiction within the novel. But to actually learn it was real astonished everyone listening.
“Oh my……. Then does that mean that Zhuge Seolrok’s deduction skills as well?”
“I heard the Elders’ Council was utterly shocked by Master Kang’s deduction skills.”
“Is it true?! That’s possible?!”
“There might be differences from the story, but it’s not entirely impossible.”
“I think I heard something similar in the Elders’ Council. They said the elders were shocked silly.”
As one of the martial artists working in the Elders’ Council chimed in, others looked wide-eyed in amazement.
“Hahaha.”
“In Wuhan, Ho Pil is known as the best postmaster. If you say Kang Yoon-ho, they respond with renowned postmaster Ho Pil.”
“No. Master Kang is the successor of Man Geum Battlefield. It’s surprising, but why would he engage in such a petty job?”
The martial artist from Hyeon-won Dae nodded at the reasonable observation.
A postmaster collecting no salary is more of a meager title. It’s merely a job of catching thieves while taking bribes from local merchants.
It was quite unsuitable for the successor of Man Geum Battlefield. Even more so as a son-in-law of the Zhuge Family. Why on earth would Master Kang take on the work of a postmaster?
“So that’s why he’s called a detective.”
With a single line, all the questions of the crowd were instantly resolved.
“Truly……!”
“Detective Kang Yoon-ho. That’s why Ho Pil called him that!”
Zhuge Seolrok, a direct descendant of the Zhuge Family, is a detective. Kang Yoon-ho, a successor of Man Geum Battlefield and a detective as well.
There were certainly similarities.
“But what does not having Volume 2 of Zhuge Seolrok have to do with it?”
While the crowd was amazed, they did not forget the earlier comments.
“This person! Don’t you know who Kang Yoon-ho is getting engaged to?”
“I know. It’s Lady Zhuge Hyang, isn’t it? The youngest daughter of the head of the family! But didn’t they pass the Hongcheonmirijin already?”
“Right. Given they are still not kicked out, it seemed like the engagement was going well.”
The Zhuge Family is not a clan that discriminates greatly regarding hair color compared to other denizens of the Central Plains. It was a point of contention initially to marry someone with black hair, but since Hongcheonmirijin had been passed, it was not an issue.
Being a candidate to become the head of a family, if those above permitted, there wouldn’t be too much trouble.
“Don’t be startled when you hear this.”
The martial artist from Hyeon-won Dae shook his head with a bitter expression.
“What’s going on?”
“What is it?”
“It seems that Master Kang had a sickly fiancée before Lady Zhuge Hyang, who’s come to get permission for marriage!”
The breathless crowd got excited upon hearing this. A brazen fellow hiding his fiancée and coming to seek another engagement. Did they think our family was easy to deal with?
“The head of the family is reportedly in deep deliberation.”
“Deliberation? We should kick them out right now!”
The martial artist took a deep breath, looking at the excited crowd and then revealed deeper matters.
“They say it will take ten years just to treat the fiancée.”
He was referring to the part Master Kang had repeatedly asked him to express with careful attention.
“What?! What do you mean?”
“The successor of Man Geum Battlefield wants to get married after turning thirty. Does that even make any sense? So, he and Lady Jang teamed up to push this engagement through.”
“Indeed… So that was the case.”
The expressions of half the excited group changed instantly.
In this world, if one states they plan to get married in their thirties, they are treated like a madman. Whatever reasons they provide, it’s nonsense.
“I understand what you mean but…”
Some people still did not change their minds. How could anyone come seeking an engagement while having a fiancée in tow, especially from the Zhuge Family?
Of course, there’s another hostage for such people.
“Wait?! Are you saying there might forever be no Volume 2 of Zhuge Seolrok?!”
“If the engagement falls through, there’s no Volume 2.”
“……”
At last, they fully realized. It wasn’t simply about the head’s daughter getting married.
This marriage now involved a story like none they had seen before. The fate of a story they desperately wanted to see the next volume of was hanging in the balance.
“A novel that the Elders’ Council raves about?!”
“Isn’t Zhuge Seolrok based on a person Ho Pil knows well? And it’s a congratulatory gift for marrying into the Zhuge Family….”
The narrative was perfectly aligned. There were sound reasons behind it.
Since the novel was about Kang Yoon-ho, if he were to be engaged, it wouldn’t be surprising if Volume 2 never came out.
“Damn it! Is that really the case?!”
“I’ve heard other things too.”
A martial artist working in the Elders’ Council chimed in with a serious expression.
“Do you have any specific stories you heard from the Elders’ Council?”
“They say if the engagement is broken off, it could become ‘Tang Seolrok’ instead of ‘Zhuge Seolrok.’”
“What?!”
Everyone’s jaws dropped simultaneously, as if they had rehearsed it. Even the martial artist from Hyeon-won Dae telling the story was taken aback.
“Isn’t this a congratulatory gift for Master Kang’s engagement? Even if it breaks off, he’d still marry someone from the Tang family, so it makes sense…….”
“That’s something I can’t let happen!”
Such horrid thoughts. Not only would there be no Volume 2 of Zhuge Seolrok, but the tragic fate of Zhuge Seolrok itself being taken over by the Tang Family was unbearable.
“Wait, does this mean the head is currently deliberating on whether to let the Tang family take Zhuge Seolrok away?”
“……!”
Master Kang’s marriage dilemma had instantly morphed into a competition of surnames for Zhuge Seolrok.
A giant balance scale was placed in the minds of everyone gathered.
Kang Yoon-ho. Plans to marry another woman in ten years, but will they accept a successor of Man Geum Battlefield and a detective?
Or, will they sacrifice him, a successor of Man Geum Battlefield and a detective, along with Zhuge Seolrok to the Tang family?
No, will they give him up?
“Hmm, thinking about it, isn’t it odd for a man to have issues? Why should we delay marriage until he’s thirty!”
“Y-yeah! If you’ve got ability, what’s the big deal about marrying a few wives! What’s wrong with marrying another one in ten years?”
“They’re a couple that can’t live without each other. Let them get married!”
“Exactly what I’m saying!”
It was all too clear where the weight was tipping.
