EDFF 11

Chapter 11

Honesty and Integrity

‘If the answer is right in front of you and you don’t use it, that’s shirking your duty.’
She’d spent half her earnings on meat, yet So Yeon-hui felt not a moment’s regret.
It was obvious this would all come back to her as far greater profit—so what was the problem?
Of course, she wasn’t unafraid. With taxes looming and every last coin spent, that anxiety was only natural.
‘But what if it doesn’t sell?’
Still, you needed a beast’s heart to make real money, didn’t you?
‘No, no, it’s fine. I’ll earn it back. I’ll earn and earn until I do.’
So Yeon-hui feigned composure, gripping the cord of her carrying frame tight.
At least she’d had the sense to buy Barley and enough to eat immediately, not just meat.
It had left her completely broke, but so what? That was the only way forward.
Fortunately, she could buy the Sugar for the Tanghulu at Jijang Market.
Meanwhile, the So Family Estate had been in chaos since early morning.
Yeon-hui, whom everyone thought was in her room, had slipped out without a word—and the deception had unraveled.
‘I should have caught on when she said something about making Tanghulu!’
Jang paced the room in agitation, her distress written plain across her face.
“I’m beside myself with worry, truly. With everything else on my mind, how could she be so reckless?”
“It was something I permitted her to do. I asked someone trustworthy to look after her—let us have faith in Yeon-hui and be patient.”
“But how dangerous the world is! If something terrible should happen to her—oh, what am I to do!”
A boy might manage, perhaps, but a girl? Fifteen years old, at the very age she ought to be blossoming.
All manner of rumor from the Laundry Place churned through Jang’s mind in a dizzying storm.
In the grip of that anxiety, trembling with worry, the moment came.
A light, quick footstep sounded—and So Yeon-hui finally returned home.
“Mother, Father! I’m back!”
Relief flooded through them at that confident voice, yet somehow fury rose in its place.
“So Yeon-hui! Have you taken leave of your senses?”
Jang bolted into the courtyard and brought her palm down on her daughter’s shoulders—slap, slap.
“Ow! Ow! Mother! Just a moment! What kind of greeting is this?”
“Greeting? You dare speak of etiquette? You slip out without telling your parents, and now you lecture me about propriety?”
“I—I know I was wrong, but I had my reasons—ow! Father! Please, help me!”
So Yeon-hui twisted quickly out of her mother’s reach and ducked behind her father’s back.
Even after just two blows, her back was already stinging; if she’d stayed there much longer, her mother’s handprints would have been red across her skin.
“My poor back will be flayed raw. Father, please tell Mother something. I brought Meat and grain, and this is the welcome I get?”
So Yeon-hui made a pitiful face and sniffled theatrically.
Jang, annoyed at her daughter’s act, had begun to point an accusing finger when the words “Meat” and “grain” made her pause. She stared at the girl.
“Behold. How about it? We’ll eat well for six days, won’t we?”
Jang’s eyes narrowed at first, skeptical. But when So Yeon-hui proudly opened her carrying frame to display her wares, Jang’s mouth fell open in astonishment.
“Is—is all of this really what you brought home?”
“Yes. I went to the Five-Day Market and sold Tanghulu, and it flew off the stands so fast! Within an hour, I was completely sold out!”
So Yeon-hui answered with unmistakable pride.
In a single venture, she’d secured provisions for her whole family, and earned ten Good Deed Points besides.
To achieve Two Birds with One Stone was surely something to be proud of.
Yet not everyone welcomed her success.
Hong, the matriarch of the So Clan, made her displeasure evident at once.
“What? You sold Tanghulu at the market?”
Hong’s eyes widened in alarm. Sensing the sudden shift in mood, So Yeon-hui’s smile faltered and she quickly looked away.
“There are limits to forgetting one’s station. How could a Yangban woman hawk candy in the streets!”
“But thanks to that, I brought back five measures of Barley, Eggs, Vegetables, and Meat.”
“What’s a measure of Barley to me? Are you set on dragging our household’s name through the dirt as a merchant’s family?”
Hong seized the table’s edge and shot to her feet, pointing an accusatory finger at So Yeon-hui.
Her anger was so fierce that her fingertips trembled.
“What kind of house is ours! A family that saved the nation more than once, that received the title of Anguk Duke—and you, selling candy in the streets? You tarnish our ancestors’ legacy!”
“Grandmother, surely survival is what matters now, not prestige.”
“Silence! You’ve brought the house to ruin, and still you lack sense!”
Hong’s shrill voice rang out across the courtyard.
In truth, Hong had not always hated So Yeon-hui. Quite the opposite—she had doted on her.
The So Clan had few children to begin with, but that scarcity had deepened in So Jin’s generation.
Both his elder brothers had died in war before they could marry; So Jin himself, the youngest, had passed twenty-five with no heir.
And so Hong cherished her firstborn grandchild, So Yeon-hui, dearly.
She had even sewn swaddling clothes for her with her own hands, displaying such profound affection.
But one morning, the family’s fortunes shattered—Exile came.
On the road of banishment, as the soldiers escorting the So Clan spoke their words, Hong’s rage finally found its target.
“To think the proud So Clan has come to this. What a pity.”
“Who could have guessed? Word is the eldest daughter thoughtlessly angered the Fourth Prince, and that’s how it came about.”
“Is that truly so?”
“I can’t say for certain, but a friend who works in the Sabok-si mentioned it. That eldest daughter drew the displeasure of the Fourth Prince and his consort, the Royal Concubine Yeon, quite thoroughly.”
So Yeon-hui’s reckless deed had earned the enmity of the imperial family.
And because the Royal Concubine Yeon, beloved by the Emperor, had mobilized her own clan to destroy the So Family.
Whose fault was this, if not So Yeon-hui’s?
From that day forward, So Yeon-hui had become Hong’s enemy.
What was a beloved granddaughter compared to the clan one had preserved through a husband’s and children’s graves?
Her identity as matriarch of the So Clan was her last bastion, her final dignity. For that to crumble so utterly was unforgivable—So Yeon-hui could not help but be despised.
Yet as if Hong’s resentment could not be borne a moment longer, So Jin let out a weary sigh and stepped forward.
“Mother. Enough. I gave her permission to do this.”
“What?”
“We are in Exile—there is no work beneath us anymore. And as I have told you repeatedly, the So Clan’s ruin is not Yeon-hui’s doing. Why do you keep blaming an innocent child?”
Hong’s mouth fell open in shock at her son’s unexpected defiance. She stood frozen.
“Even at breakfast, I sensed something amiss. Now you speak back to your mother to protect your daughter? You dare—how could you—!”
The sudden rebellion of her dutiful son, who had never caused her distress in his life, seemed to steal her very breath.
But how could she rage at the one remaining child who had barely survived the war?
And so Hong’s fury swung back toward her granddaughter, So Yeon-hui.
Just as she was about to point her finger again and unleash more harsh words.
Jang, who had been silent and enduring all this time, suddenly cried out in a voice that shook the courtyard.
“Otherwise your son will be broken, Mother! He cannot pay the Taxes and will be dragged to Forced Labor in the depths of winter! Will you lose the last child you have so thoughtlessly?”
Her voice was hoarse with strain, her eyes swollen and red from long-held tears. She looked as though she might break down at any moment.
Yet the shock reached far beyond Hong alone.
“…Forced…Labor?”
Hong’s face went ashen. Her trembling hands, which had been groping at the air, suddenly clutched at her chest.
“Mother!”
So Jin stumbled forward and caught his mother as she began to collapse, steadying her.
But Hong’s spirit seemed to have fled halfway—she could only grasp at her chest and shake in silent, convulsive sobs.
‘Her breathing is shallow and rapid. Is she hyperventilating?’
So Yeon-hui’s face went cold.
Her grandmother suffered from mild Asthma; there was real danger of suffocation.
She dashed to the kitchen, emptied a sack of Barley into the rice jar, and pressed the empty cloth sack to her grandmother’s mouth.
Then, gently stroking her back, she spoke in a low, clear voice.
“Grandmother. Look at me. Relax, and breathe with me—slowly, and deeply.”
Hong’s eyes, which had been darting wildly, fixed on So Yeon-hui at last.
Whoosh, ahhhh.
After several absurdly exaggerated Deep Breathing cycles, Hong’s rapid breathing gradually began to slow.
When silence had finally settled over the courtyard.
As if the tension had broken, Jang burst into tears at last.