Chapter 10
The Daughter-in-Law of a Murim Family
How much time had passed?
After a long while, the man rubbed his face with one hand, then turned toward Bingbing and gave her an order.
“Check the medicine again. Just in case, it would be better to prepare another cup.”
“I will test it on someone else.”
Bingbing quietly answered and soon disappeared beyond the door.
Still feeling dazed, I asked the man a question.
“Are you close with Bingbing?”
The man made a strange expression at my question before giving a bitter smile.
“I cannot tell whether you are acting or if this is real. If everything you are showing right now is an act, then you must be the greatest actress in the world.”
“I don’t have that kind of talent. I did dream about it for a short while when I was young, but after trying it a few times, I realized I wasn’t suited for the stage.”
But if this man wanted to become an actor, I would gladly support him.
Who cared if he couldn’t sing, dance, or act? Just looking at that face would make anyone lose track of time.
“But who are you, really? Are you from the Hwangbo Family?”
“……”
“Come to think of it, where is Master Bang…?”
Before I could finish speaking, the door opened.
Bingbing appeared with an expressionless face. In one hand, she held a small potion, while with the other, she dragged in a man who was much bigger than herself.
The disheveled-haired man suddenly snapped in irritation.
“I said I can walk by myself!”
“It would be better for you to see the effect with your own eyes, so I will use it on this fellow first.”
As soon as Bingbing finished speaking, she forcibly opened his mouth and dropped a few drops of the potion inside.
“Uff—”
The man grimaced and glared fiercely at Bingbing.
“What is your name?”
“Akbi.”
“When you were seven years old—”
“Hey! Didn’t we agree not to talk about that?!”
His face turned pale, but Bingbing quietly pushed Akbi down by the shoulder and continued asking in a calm voice.
“Who was the woman you had a crush on when you were seven?”
“My second elder brother’s wife. No, that was when I was young!”
“I remember that at the time, there was dirt on Second Senior Brother’s wedding clothes. You insisted until the very end that you had never worn them.”
The face of the man who had called himself Akbi turned pale.
As he desperately shook his head, Bingbing asked him with an expressionless face.
“You were the one who got the wedding clothes dirty while trying them on, weren’t you? And when you tore them, you cried your eyes out and begged Auntie Subang to keep it a secret, didn’t you?”
“Yes. That was me.”
“Three years ago, you took the thousand-year-old He Shou Wu that I had brought for my master, ate it, and pretended you didn’t know anything, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
The moment he answered with a resigned expression, Bingbing slapped him across the face.
Akbi was sent flying across the room by the hand of the young girl and crashed into the far corner.
“As you can see, the effect of the Confession Powder is certain.”
The man took the potion Bingbing held out and approached me.
I carefully pointed at the man groaning after being thrown against the wall.
“If I drink that, will I end up like him too?”
“No. Using force is the last resort. I also have no desire to lay a hand on you, Miss, so I would appreciate it if you cooperated.”
I glanced at Bingbing, but she was staring straight ahead with an expressionless face.
It was as if she had no intention of helping me no matter what this man did to me.
I quietly accepted the potion.
He had said he would not use force, but that was only on the condition that I ‘cooperated.’ If I continued wasting time, there was no doubt he would act without hesitation.
Either way, I was going to die. There was nothing left to make things worse.
I squeezed my eyes shut and swallowed the potion in the bottle.
Perhaps it was just my imagination, but my throat felt slightly warm. Then, soon after, the feeling disappeared.
After waiting for a few seconds, the man continued his questions.
“What is your name, Miss?”
“Gye Nari.”
“Do you know me?”
“No.”
“Do you not know who I am?”
“No.”
I really didn’t know him.
A man with an appearance like this would have been memorable even if I had only passed him from a distance.
No matter how hard I searched through my memories, I had never seen this man before.
The man was silent for a moment before changing his question.
“What is your purpose in infiltrating the Hwangbo Family?”
My purpose in infiltrating?
I tilted my head in confusion, and he asked again.
“What are you trying to do in the family?”
What was I supposed to be doing?
In this situation, I had only one purpose.
My one and only wish, one that I desperately and sincerely wanted.
For some reason, I spoke aloud the small desire in my heart that I had never been able to tell anyone, without even the slightest hesitation.
“I have to run away.”
“Run away?”
“I want to run somewhere so far away that I won’t even hear the word ‘Hwangbo.’ I want to change both my name and my family name so that I will never have anything to do with them again, settle down somewhere, and make a living.”
“……”
“If possible, it would be nice if I could take all of this with me.”
Shyly, I took out the heavy money pouch from inside my clothes and showed it to him.
The man fell silent again.
Handsome men really looked even more impressive when they were lost in thought.
Just as I was admiring him while he was deep in thought, the man raised his head.
Then, as if he still had more questions to ask, he spoke again.
“How did you obtain the family treasure? And why did you spread false rumors about it and bring the people of the family here?”
The family treasure? Ah, he meant that luminous pearl.
At the man’s words, which touched upon the very beginning of my misfortune, tears suddenly filled my eyes.
Perhaps it was because I had been lying constantly just to survive.
Now, I wanted to tell the whole truth and finally feel relieved.
“Sniff……”
The tears I had been holding back flowed down my cheeks as the sorrow inside me overwhelmed me.
“I… I just didn’t want to sleep on the streets anymore.”
Once I started talking, I couldn’t stop.
Starting with how I had accidentally obtained the Hwangbo Family’s treasure, I told him everything in detail—how I had made up a fake lover to get a slightly better deal for it, only to be kidnapped by Master Bang and brought all the way here.
“I tried everything I could to get out, but they wouldn’t give me a chance to escape. No, why do they keep saying they will take responsibility for me? Why are the people of this family so unnecessarily responsible that they make life difficult for people? I clearly told them it was fine! I even said I would return the money, but they said no!”
“……”
“It was already ridiculous enough that I suddenly became engaged to a man whose face I had never even seen. And if that man comes back, I’m as good as dead.”
Perhaps my story was so unbelievable that the man did not stop me as I cried and poured out everything. Instead, he quietly listened.
Even Bingbing, who had been staring straight ahead with an expressionless face the entire time, had turned her eyes toward me.
Even the man called Akbi, who had been thrown against the wall, came closer and listened carefully to what I was saying.
“It’s also a problem if that man doesn’t come back. Then doesn’t that mean I have to live as a widow and remain faithful to a man I’ve never even met? Besides, the Hwangbo Family is a clan village!”
Akbi, who had been listening closely, tilted his head.
“Why is that a problem?”
“The person in the house in front is also a relative elder. The person next door is also a relative elder. The person behind us is also a relative elder. Just how many elders from my husband’s family am I supposed to live with?!”
“……”
“Other people get divorced because they can’t stand living with just their sister-in-law and parents-in-law!”
While the man kept his mouth tightly shut at my cries, Akbi muttered with a bewildered expression.
“In all my years, this is the first woman I’ve seen refuse the chance to become a member of the Hwangbo Family for such a reason.”
I had cried so much that the corners of my eyes had begun to sting.
Seeing me grimace, the man quietly held out a handkerchief.
“Thank you.”
As I carefully wiped the corners of my eyes, I smelled a familiar scent coming from the handkerchief he had given me.
I felt like I had smelled it somewhere before.
I tried hard to remember, but nothing came to mind.
After wiping my face, I still couldn’t shake off the dazed feeling and asked him another question.
“But who are you, really?”
Who was he to bring me here? And what was that potion from earlier?
Aside from a very slight burning sensation when it went down my throat, it had no particular taste or smell. It was basically just water.
The man, who had remained silent all this time, slowly took the handkerchief from my hand and answered.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Gye. I am late in introducing myself. My name is Hwangbo Un-gyu.”
“Ah… Hwangbo Un—?”
“I am the man you are engaged to.”
