Deep in the mountains of Hubei Province.
A place so overgrown with bushes that it’s hardly recognizable from the outside. A mountain hideout that makes it difficult for any intruder to approach easily.
Together with the Shadowless Thief, who has become a source of fear for corrupt officials, this is where the bandits, spoken of by the poor and destitute, reside.
“Did the leader become Ho Pil?”
The executives of the Green Forest, no, the executives of the Huabin Party, exclaimed in surprise at the news from Wuhan.
“Yes. Ho Pil has become so famous that no one in Wuhan is unaware of him.”
“Ho Pil, you say! Isn’t he supposed to be leading the Shadowless Thief?”
Recently, the Huabin Party had sent people to Wuhan after hearing news of another group of righteous thieves, only to accidentally learn about Kang Yoon-ho.
Suddenly, the news of Ho Pil surfaced. Their leader was doing righteous deeds with the Shadowless Thief as his subordinate. How could anyone not be excited?
Everyone was left wondering.
“They say he is the Shadowless Thief’s only rival!”
“What?! You mean he’s really become a bandit-catcher?”
“Is it true that our leader has become our enemy?”
Ho Pil is one of the enemies that thieves face. The news of their leader standing on the opposing side was shocking for the Huabin Party, who operated as righteous thieves.
“Quiet.”
With a single oppressive word from the man sitting calmly, the tent fell silent in an instant.
“Secretary Su!”
“Didn’t you just say the world is talking about it?”
Secretary Su Tal-lin stroked his magnificent mustache and replied.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Are you daring to doubt our leader? Surely there must be another reason.”
Su Tal-lin glared at the subordinate who spoke up, then shifted his gaze to the one who brought the news.
“Ah, truly, Secretary Su! I couldn’t believe it at all, but you figured it out in an instant! Yes, that’s right!! He has taken on the stigma of Ho Pil just to achieve great things!”
The messenger couldn’t help but nod vigorously.
“Speak in detail.”
“A little while ago, a faction impersonated the Shadowless Thief, killing courtesans and pillaging the innocent.”
“A fake Shadowless Thief?!”
“How dare they meddle in what he is doing?!”
“How dare they! A faction? No way! Get moving at once!”
“That’s right! They’ve already raided three mountain hideouts; we must help him who is in trouble!”
The executives were ready to draw their swords at the news of obstacles to their leader’s actions.
“No need for that! Our leader is already aware, and he has slaughtered them all!”
The man delivered the astonishing news as if to say it wasn’t necessary.
“What?!”
“He personally slaughtered them?!”
The executives of the Huabin Party could hardly close their mouths at the fact that their leader had directly punished them.
“He was trying to punish those who sully his great achievement.”
Su Tal-lin nodded calmly.
It was indeed him. The reason behind becoming Ho Pil was to utilize public power. Su Tal-lin couldn’t help but admire this revelation but had to suppress his emotions.
Su Tal-lin was the leader who needed to lead the Huabin Party with a cool head on behalf of the leader.
“That’s not all. Recently, the Shadowless Thief robbed the Head of the Branch’s house.”
“W-What?!”
But at the next piece of news, even Su Tal-lin couldn’t hide his surprise.
“You mean he robbed the Head of the Branch’s house?!”
“Is it true that’s the Head of the Branch?!”
“Yes. The Head of the Branch was in such shock after his treasury was completely robbed, he couldn’t get up for days! It seems our leader entered the Head’s house as a spy, allowing the Shadowless Thief to find a way in!”
“Haha! That’s our leader! That’s definitely our leader!”
Nobody in the tent could hide their surprise. But the messenger’s words didn’t end there.
“That’s not all. An inspector woke up to find the Head of the Branch’s ledger of corruption at his bedside! Because of that, the Head of the Branch has now been transported to the capital and is in a position to face his executioner.”
“Goodness!”
“Did he single-handedly take down the Head of the Branch…! And that too, the Head of the Branch!”
“Truly, our leader Kang Yoon-ho!!”
“Our leader is your friend! How dare you speak his name so recklessly!”
“I-I’m sorry!”
With the news that they had executed such a significant bourgeois figure as the Head of the Branch, the tent erupted into a frenzy of joy.
“I’m so ashamed…! So very ashamed!”
Except for one man at the innermost seat of the tent, who hung his head with a sorrowful expression.
“Secretary Su?”
The executives were shocked to see Secretary Su clutching his head in agony.
“I can’t even deal with a mere local magistrate because of the authorities! And here I am, alone, making the Head of the Branch tremble in fear! It’s so embarrassing to see our leader!”
If they recklessly touch the officials, the authorities will come looking. Even the growing Huabin Party needs to avoid direct clashes with them.
Thus, they were only targeting the wicked bourgeois, but the leader had come down from his position to judge not just any local magistrate but the Head of the Branch. Alone, at that!
As the one leading the Huabin Party on behalf of the leader, Su Tal-lin couldn’t lift his head in distress.
“How can you be ashamed when you guide us so well! Thanks to you, we’ve already taken the third mountain hideout!”
Where they were gathered was a mountain hideout once known as the Jeokgangchul. Upon hearing that their leader was commanding the Shadowless Thief, they took over the third Green Forest hideout.
“That’s right! It’s our leader! He’s someone we can’t even dare to judge!”
“Who would dare to imagine that someone could single-handedly overthrow the Head of the Branch? It’s only possible because of our leader!”
“Secretary Su, you are the only one directly appointed by our leader! Hold your head high!”
“Indeed! This is truly amazing! To think that Secretary Su even considered that there might be something behind the claim of our leader becoming Ho Pil! Nobody else here thought that, did they?”
The Huabin Party respected Kang Yoon-ho as their leader above anyone else, but they also trusted Su Tal-lin as the practical leader appointed directly by him.
“Hehe. Our leader must have been doing the shadows all along, I thought he must be just acting!”
Su Tal-lin smiled wryly at the supportive sentiments of the executives.
“Indeed! It’s just like you, Secretary Su, who heard his words up close!”
“Our leader’s words are always full of inspiration! Is there more?”
Everyone wanted to hear more about their leader. The more brutal Su Tal-lin became towards the bourgeois, the more he looked forward like a child waiting for a gift at the messenger.
“There are workers who have seen our leader up close in Wuhan!”
“Tell us quickly!”
————
“Our leader is currently undergoing a test to become the successor of the Man Geum Battlefield.”
The expressions of the executives turned stiff at the news brought by the Wuhan workers.
“What?!”
“Don’t lie. There’s no way he would do that!”
“It is true.”
“That’s impossible! Are you saying our leader is trying to become a bourgeois?”
“Are you saying our leader has ultimately turned traitor or what?”
Who is the biggest enemy of the Huabin Party? Those greedy brats who sip on the tears of the poor like wine.
Now, to think their leader was not just becoming Ho Pil but was trying to become a bourgeois? The Huabin Party had no idea how to accept this fact.
“Are you still doubting our leader?”
Only one person remained steadfastly loyal—Secretary Su.
“Secretary Su?”
“Our leader must have a great intention behind this. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Su Tal-lin interrogated the green-haired worker as if he knew everything already, despite hearing nothing.
“How could that be! I-I was just as skeptical at first like my comrades! Indeed! He is merely preparing to don a new mask for his great undertaking!”
The worker exclaimed with an overwhelmed voice full of emotion.
“Indeed! Explain in detail.”
“He has rallied the workers to strike.”
“Strike? What’s that?”
“It’s another method he devised for achieving his great undertaking and being a righteous thief! He spoke to us about the necessity of the strike, and we couldn’t hold back our tears… our tears…”
The worker dropped to his knees, trembling, as if he couldn’t bear the weight of the speech he’d heard.
“W-What did he say? What did our leader say to the workers?!”
Secretary Su couldn’t contain his excitement at what the leader supposedly said.
“I will tell you now.”
The worker began to recite the speech that Kang Yoon-ho had given at the logging station.
———
“Ugh.”
“Ugh!”
“Ahhh!”
“Our leader’s speech always strikes a chord!”
As Kang Yoon-ho’s words echoed through the mountain hideout, the Huabin Party was instantly turned into a sea of tears.
“The reason we were poor!!! It wasn’t because of us!”
“Our poverty was due to the rich who own the means of production!”
“The bourgeois who sip on the tears of the hard-working!”
“It was all because they owned the means of production!”
“If we don’t rise up! If we don’t move! If we don’t resist, things won’t change in a year, in five years! Or even in ten!”
“Refuse to be part of the bourgeois’s assets!”
“That is truly our leader’s thought! The golden rule of the Huabin Party!”
The Huabin Party had been overwhelmed with the task of hunting the bourgeois and expanding their influence. Now, they couldn’t hold back their excitement for their leader’s concretized new thought.
“Ugh! My heart is so full! I can’t breathe!”
“Doctor! Come here quickly!”
“The leader’s words bring even a dead heart back to life! What help could I need? Stand up!”
“What was that? The leader’s call to rise again! I can’t just fall here!”
The man quickly regained his breath.
“It’s a miracle! The miracle of our leader! He’s spreading miracles from afar!”
“I couldn’t hold back my tears when the leader urged the workers to rise together!”
The worker also cried as if confessing what he experienced during that time.
“Our leader!”
“I want to rush to our leader right now and hear more of his words!”
“Haha… hihihihihi…”
In the midst of such overwhelming excitement, a man couldn’t contain a maniacal laugh.
“Secretary Su?”
“Yes. That was it.”
Su Tal-lin nodded coldly.
“What is it?”
“Did no one notice?”
“What do you mean?”
Everyone looked puzzled at Secretary Su’s question. Su Tal-lin chuckled at their expressions.
“Indeed… Only I can barely fathom his intentions.”
“Secretary Su! Please tell us! What is the matter?”
Su Tal-lin wore a cold expression like the biting wind blowing from the North Sea as he approached the worker who had recited the leader’s speech.
“Did he mention your hair color and pretended not to notice?”
“Y-Yes! That’s correct. He looked at me while saying we were all workers in the same boat.”
“Why did you all fail to realize why our leader—all the while lurking in the shadows—suddenly gave such a grand speech?”
Su Tal-lin glanced around at the Huabin Party’s members with a look of pity.
“What do you mean?”
“Did not the great leader see your hair color and guess where you came from?”
“……!”
Everyone in the Huabin Party looked at Secretary Su with astonished eyes at a single question.
“Our leader! He gave such an impassioned speech to communicate with us—foolish as we are!”
He was someone who had returned to the shadows to avoid becoming a bourgeois after gaining power.
He became Ho Pil and made the Shadowless Thief his subordinate, but wasn’t he someone who desperately concealed his true identity?
Then why, of all places, did he reveal himself in front of the green-haired worker?
Only Su Tal-lin grasped that realization at this moment.
“It can’t be!”
“Bring me paper and a brush! Don’t miss a single word! Today! As Secretary, I will interpret the meaning behind every single thing he said!”
He needed to understand the words he had for him.
A fiery spark brighter than anyone else glinted in Secretary Su’s cold eyes.
