“Master Kang! Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you!”
As the commotion seemed to settle down, I slowly approached the crowd.
“Is everything over?”
“The postmen of Lush Green Post Office have already been subdued…”
The head of Seocheon Post Office turned his head awkwardly, looking toward the warehouse.
“Do you think I’ll easily let you open it?!”
There, the postmaster of Lush Green Post Office and a few postmen were struggling to kneel, still holding onto their swords.
Wow. They’re completely drenched in blood and still holding on without falling.
“What’s going on?”
“The postmaster and the postmen are insisting that they absolutely cannot open the warehouse.”
“Heh, you lot are just pretending to be dignified, but when your numbers are off, you try to force things! Seocheon Post Office! Man Geum Battlefield! If you really want it, take our heads and open the door!”
The postmaster spat blood and glared at the martial artist who seemed to represent Man Geum Battlefield.
“I just want to confirm.”
The martial artist from Man Geum Battlefield was caught in a dilemma, glancing back and forth between us and the postmaster.
“The warehouse is the heart of the post office! For you, it’s just opening the warehouse, but for us, it’s like asking us to give away our hearts!”
“If I were you, I would have said the same. This is a tricky situation. Man Geum Battlefield is also reluctant to open the warehouse door.”
It really is tricky.
Today’s goal is to subdue Lush Green Post Office, not to annihilate them.
This situation is equivalent to an outsider saying they want to open a private safe. While someone might say, “If you have nothing to hide, why not check?” the very trust of the post office is at stake.
I know what’s in that warehouse, but it’s a different story to expose the wrongdoings and punish the offenders than just punishing them and exposing the crime.
“Wait a minute. Expose the wrongdoings?”
Let me take a quick look around.
The postmaster and the postmen guarding the warehouse.
The martial artists from Man Geum Battlefield watching the situation from a distance. Thanks to that, a large no-man’s land is forming in the middle.
This could work!
“Seocheon Post Office postmen, the threats have disappeared, so please gather some bystanders.”
I quickly called over the postmen from Seocheon Post Office and explained the plan.
“Huh? Why gather the bystanders?”
Why you ask?
“Because we need to quickly cover up the slander spread by Lush Green Post Office with praises!”
We need to quickly restore lost trust and find a way to open the warehouse without violence.
If there’s a way to do that, then we should.
It’s time for the long-awaited debater Kang Yoon-ho to take the stage.
—————–
“The heart of Lush Green Post Office can never be given away!”
As I waited for the standoff to settle, the bystanders who had been loitering nearby came flocking over after hearing the commotion.
First, let’s use the Small Wheel Mental Image Technique.
With all my vitality, I took a spirited step into the no-man’s land.
As soon as I popped out, I felt all eyes turn toward me.
I spoke in a low, deep voice for everyone to hear. “Mou-ji-jai-zen (謀事在人), seong-sa-ja-cheon (成事在天), bul-ka-gang-ya (不可強也).”
Starting with a famous quote from Zhuge Liang.
“If you want to open the warehouse, take our heads! What?! No! Who are you?!”
The postmaster scowled upon recognizing my face.
I won’t keep my neck on the line and not open the door.
“Then I’ll put my head on the line since my cargo is in there.”
Then I boldly stuck my neck out.
“Master Kang!”
Surprised voices erupted from all around.
“A Joseon person? Who is that?!”
Those seeing me for the first time began to whisper among themselves.
“I am Kang Yoon-ho from Tea Bookstore. I led this matter, so I will also put my neck on the line.”
“You?! You dare to capture an innocent person?!”
The furious postmaster tried to stand but swayed as he bled too much and fell back to his knees.
Whoa! I almost ran away!
I composed myself and pulled out a fan from my robes. It was an incredibly luxurious folding fan.
Whoosh!
Look at how it fits in my hand! Truly, a fan is necessary when speaking.
As I opened and closed the fan, all attention shifted back to me.
“An innocent person?! Do the gathered people here think I’ve captured an innocent person?”
Now that I have brought out my fan, let’s start the story.
I casually asked the audience looking at me with blank expressions.
“…”
They might know the postmen or the martial artists, but the audience is probably clueless about what’s happening.
So, let’s begin explaining the situation.
“Not long ago, the postmen of Seocheon Post Office, who were someone’s father, husband, and son, could not return to their families and were attacked on a ship by a sinister faction!”
I may have become a writer, but my hard-earned experience in life isn’t so easily lost.
I changed my voice’s pitch with each word, starting my explanation in the exaggerated style of a debater.
“Oh! A ghost ship!”
“Didn’t Seocheon Post Office succumb to a numerical disadvantage, leaving only ghost ships?”
Great. Everyone knows this rumor.
“How could it be that the postmen of Seocheon Post Office fell victim when they weren’t even attacked from the outside or because of something mixed in the cargo?!”
With that, I took a step forward to spark more curiosity.
“Hmm…”
I paused for a moment and then opened my mouth again as I caught sight of the audience’s expressions shifting with confusion.
“The crew’s cargo! The mysterious attackers hid among the lax cargo and waited for their moment! And it’s well-known that the crew’s cargo was poorly monitored by those familiar with it!”
“How could such a trivial reason have led to our attack?!”
The postmaster protested loudly at my answer.
Yep. There’s more.
What I’m doing right now is making a story.
If I’ve made them curious, it’s time to add quality to the tale.
“The postmen of Seocheon Post Office! If they were ordinary people, they would think of their families while dying! But our postmen of Seocheon Post Office! Even while dying! They made a great decision to inform us of the whereabouts of the cargo!”
I clutched my chest and grimaced as if I were someone prepared for a final stand before dying.
“What decision?”
“They swallowed the green hair they had cut off during the battle! A handful of that green hair!”
Transforming a simple eyewitness account into a gripping tale.
The important thing is the green hair, not the other trivial details.
I scattered the green hair I had collected beforehand for the audience to see.
The act of a dying postman leaving evidence for his comrade. This tale alone will honor just how remarkable the postmen of Seocheon Post Office truly are.
“They swallowed green hair?!”
“Yeah! That way, even after death, there’s evidence left behind!”
“That Seocheon Post Office postman even went that far….”
“Look there! The hair is cut short!”
The audience pointed to a place where a handful of green hair had just been cut off.
“This is fresh! It was just cut!”
No use. Once I’ve started speaking, anything I say can only be interpreted as an excuse.
“You suspected us for such a trivial reason! There’s abundant green hair everywhere!”
That’s true. I nodded to the postmaster’s remark and turned my body to point my fan at him.
“Your goal was to use the ghost ship to announce to Wuhan as a whole that Seocheon Post Office had failed. Your plan was perfect! But heaven did not permit it.”
I pointed my fan at the sky and then back at the postmaster.
“What do you mean?!”
“The eldest son of the deceased postman witnessed you at the port.”
“What?!”
Now that I’ve added mystery and quality to the narrative, it’s time to ramp up the emotions.
I turned towards the audience, wore a face of deep sadness, and started to pace around.
“A son who has been longing for his father to return, unaware that he never will! While waiting at the port, he fortuitously spotted the green-haired individuals loading their cargo and told me about it!”
In truth, it was Ho Mun who informed me, but…
“Good gracious!”
“Cough! Such a thing!”
The audience couldn’t help but show sorrow as if they knew the eldest son.
“There are countless paths at the port! Green-haired people are not rare! That alone cannot serve as evidence!”
“Mou-ji-jai-zen (謀事在人), seong-sa-ja-cheon (成事在天), bul-ka-gang-ya (不可強也).”
It’s a famous saying by Zhuge Liang: Making plans is up to people, but achieving them is up to heaven. You can’t force anything.
“What?”
The postmaster said with a bewildered expression.
“I told you before! That day, heaven saw your evil deeds and did not allow them to come into fruition.”
“What nonsense is that!”
“Yesterday, tears fell from the heavens.”
Normally, one might shout that heaven does not forgivingly allow such things, gaining trust.
“Tears? No way… it rained?”
“The rain that fell the night before! There were no tracks of carts that had moved cargo at the port that day! This means the boy pointed in the direction where paved roads were being used!”
I pointed to the door with the paved road and slowly drew my finger around to indicate this place.
Anyone notice what I’m doing?
“Uh? No way?!”
“Wait! Lush Green Post Office had paved paths leading from the port to here?!”
Perfect.
I approached the postmaster, boldly declaring that the truth is one.
The expression on the postmaster’s face passed into despair. It’s now or never.
I raised my fan and pointed toward the sole criminal for my final proclamation.
“The only place that knows the workings of the post office! Lush Green Post Office, which has been wronged by having all its contracts snatched away, motivated to inform the entire Wuhan of Seocheon Post Office’s failure by docking a ghost ship! And the postmen there have green hair! The direction pointed to by the deceased son of Seocheon Post Office! The only post office on a paved road is… only!!!”
“No way?!”
“Ahhhhh?!”
“Lush Green Post Office! Where the hearts of beasts reside, not humans!”
“Urk!”
In the end, the postmaster could not utter any protest against my deductive reasoning.
The truth is, I knew and pieced this together.
Like an arrow targeting the heart of evil, I pointed my fan toward the warehouse.
“Open the heart of beasts! Let the world know of their wicked deeds!”
It’s over now.
You beastly fiend.
“Your scoundrel! Because of you!”
“Master Kang!”
“Be careful!”
Oh no. I didn’t think of this.
I got so excited that I got too close to the postmaster.
The kneeling postmaster sprang back up like a spring, lunging his sword at me.
The opponent was a master leading the post office.
In an instant, he closed the distance to my face. I felt like one of my limbs would fly off with just a single breath.
“Gah!!!”
That would have been the case.
Psssh!
With a sound like a carbonated drink popping open, five talismans shot out from the tip of my fan and struck the postmaster simultaneously in the chest.
“Master Kang subdued the postmaster with his fan!”
“Oh my!”
If there was someone totally covered in blood with not a healthy spot left on them.
That would be sufficient with the talismans from the Sichuan Tang Family.
“There! The stolen cargo is here!”
“Indeed, the culprit was Lush Green Post Office!”
Once the warehouse door opened, the beast’s wrongdoings were far too easily exposed.
People looked on in admiration at a young man’s deduction and turned to look at the black-haired youth once more.
“Amazing!”
“Unbelievable! He subdued a master with just a fan!”
We were so close.
The martial artists present had seen Kang Yoon-ho subduing the postmaster with talismans, but to the bystanders, it simply looked like a black-haired master was subduing the famous postmaster with a fan.
“To think that a young man like him could subdue evildoers like this!”
In reality, that wasn’t much of a big deal.
The scene of exposing and punishing the villain who killed the postmen and stole the cargo was enough to stir admiration from everyone, from Man Geum Battlefield to Seocheon Post Office and the bystanders.
One more person was moved by that scene.
“It’s Master Kang!”
The pride of the Zhuge family, with blushing cheeks, called out to Kang Yoon-ho with admiration.
“Miss Zhuge! So you were here!”
Kang Yoon-ho spotted Zhuge Hyang and approached her with a warm smile.
‘Master Kang looks so much bigger all of a sudden!’
No, he looks bigger every day, but today he looks even larger! Zhuge Hyang could not take her eyes off Kang Yoon-ho.
Even with all those people watching, it felt like no one else existed. Normally, she would hide away, but today, she felt no such urge.
It felt as though there was only Kang Yoon-ho and her in the world. In her eyes, there was only one person visible.
I have to gather my courage. With a heart pounding out of her chest, she mustered the courage to say to Kang Yoon-ho in a melting voice.
“Master Kang! Please let’s exchange diaries!”
