Episode 194. Is there anyone who would die for their comrades?
Hwasangchon.
Around lunchtime.
Three people entered the village.
The nine thousand years of suffering are like a swindler, a bull and a stone man tied tightly with rope.
Both of their faces were swollen from being hit so many times, and their gait seemed awkward.
The townspeople who saw the horrific sight began to whisper from afar.
But Simtong didn’t even blink an eye.
He roughly grabbed the rope whenever the swindlers’ steps slowed.
The arduous march ended only when they arrived at the guest house.
In front of the guest house, Simtong led the way with the ox and stone man that he had been dragging along until now.
Sangdo, who was startled when he saw the middle-aged people tied up with ropes, smiled brightly when he saw Simtong following behind.
“Elder Shim, welcome!”
“Yes. Where is Confucius?”
“Suicide, no, you are in Hyojaam.”
“Hyojaam?”
“Yes, he told me to call the rock that is always there ‘Hyojaam’.”
“who?”
“Confucius said he didn’t want to hear the word ‘suicide rock’ so he told us to change it.”
“Hehehe. Why the sudden mention of Hyojaam?”
Sangdo briefly explained what had happened to Simtong, who was puzzled.
“… … Since that day, Nokdam-pyeong has been in mourning there for three years. That’s why I think it’s called Hyojaam.”
“Tsk! I told you you’re so soft-hearted.”
At Simtong’s words, the faces of the dying ox and stone man brightened slightly.
I thought that if I did well, I could survive since I had a soft heart.
Simtong moved back to Hyojaam with the two swindlers at the forefront.
“Your Majesty, it’s all done.”
Yeonjeok-ha, who was sitting precariously on the edge of a rock, catching fish with a sword, stood up.
Nokdam-pyeong, who was grilling fish in the fire, took a step back.
The man sitting on the folding chair picked up a skewer and bit into it.
Then, when I felt bored, I would drink a whole bottle of Sohongju.
Nokdam-pyeong, who knew Yeonjeok-ha’s true identity, didn’t even breathe loudly.
It’s time for Yeonjeokha to throw the skewers with only bones attached into the fire.
Three people approached with a ‘thud’ sound of tree branches breaking.
Yeonjeokha, who had confirmed his opponent, was delighted.
“Old Man Shim! It’s later than I thought?”
“Hehe. I completely misjudged the direction so it took a while.”
Simtong scratched his face with an awkward expression.
If we had gone east instead of west where the settlement was, it would not have taken even two weeks.
Because I ended up taking the exact opposite direction, it took a month and ten days.
“But I don’t see Sosam?”
“These guys hit Sosam on the back of the head and ran away to Je-nyeong. What happened? In the end, Sosam was the only one who got lucky.”
“Money?”
“I got back 15,000 nyang. I spent 1,500 nyang out of that.”
“Wow! Those two guys spent 1,500 nyang in one month and ten days? Are you crazy?”
“It’s understandable since they live in a casino and work with prostitutes in the highest-class pubs. The money that they could spend on leisure activities quickly disappears in the hands of scammers. Since it wasn’t money earned through sweat and tears, they spend it without any sense of regret. They can make more money by scamming others. They are worse than dogs.”
After releasing the ropes that had tied up the ox and stone man, he kicked them and sent them towards Yeonjeokha.
“Please save me!”
“Your Majesty! Please spare my life!”
The bull and the stone man knelt before Yeonjeokha and shouted.
Yeonjeokha, who had been looking down at the two men with indifferent eyes, opened her mouth.
“But why is your face like this?”
“Why do you try to run away every time you get a chance? Every time that happens, I get angry and hit you.”
“Oh my! Your face was so swollen, I almost couldn’t recognize who was who. Tsk tsk!”
As Yeonjeokha clicked his tongue as if to say that he was sorry, the bull carefully raised its eyes.
“Confucius, please forgive me. If you spare my life, I will return to my hometown and live there to support my old mother. Please.”
“I, I also have a mother and a wife and children back home. If you just spare my life… … .”
“You must have had a hard time, Mr. Shim. Bringing all those talkative swindlers. Why didn’t you just pull out their tongues and come? I told you not to kill them.”
“… … .”
The startled bull and stone man shut their mouths again and banged their foreheads on the rock.
“You said that if I asked you to ‘spare me, forgive me’ one more time, you would pull out my tongue. Should I pull it out now?”
“That won’t do. This is Hyojaam. How can you do something like that at Hyojaam?”
“Oh, yes.”
After finishing his work, Simtong squatted down by the fire and picked up a skewer.
Then, Nokdampyeong hurriedly approached and quietly put down a bottle of Sohongju.
What he does is completely pointless.
Simtong looked at Nokdam-pyeong with sharp eyes and bit into the fish.
Nokdampyeong was at a loss as to what to do under the sticky gaze of Simtong.
Yeonjeokha got up from her chair and walked towards the Yellow River carrying her luggage on her back.
The mental pain of the past month and ten days came to mind.
Even now, I still feel uncomfortable thinking about the disregard for Namchogyeol and the pity and suspicious looks of the workers.
There were countless days when I woke up feeling resentful of my own carelessness and murderous intent toward the scammers.
I couldn’t even look for it openly because I was afraid that people would laugh at me behind my back.
How can I deal with those guys and feel better?
“I realized it after experiencing it. Fraud is more terrifying than murder. Murder only kills the body, but when you are fraudulent, even the soul is withered away. If the soul dies, the body dies too. That’s why you killed me and Old Man Shim twice.”
The bull and the stone man followed the river on their knees and pleaded.
“Please just save me.”
“Please, have mercy… … .”
Suddenly, Yeonjeokha’s gaze turned to the vortex swirling three zhang (about nine meters) below.
“I’m not a bad person.”
“Go, thank you!”
“thank you!”
At Yeonjeokha’s words, the bull and the stone man first expressed their gratitude.
But at the next words, the faces of the two people turned dark and dead again.
“But the world keeps making me a bad person. It’s all because of swindlers like you that I’m becoming poisonous. Now I don’t even know what kind of person I really was. Old Man Shim.”
“yes.”
Simtong put down the fish he was eating and jumped up.
“Go and get me two pieces of rope about 12 meters long.”
“I’ll bring it right away.”
Simtong ran like the wind without asking or questioning and disappeared from the rock.
After about 30 minutes (about 1 meal)?
Simtong returned, carrying a bundle of thick ropes in each hand.
Yeonjeokha looked at Nokdampyeong.
“Hey, Nok-hyung, I’m going to have to work hard for you. Tie the two guys’ waists together at each end of the rope.”
“yes.”
Nokdampyeong was puzzled, but he did as he was told and tied the two people’s waists tightly.
“Did you tie it well? It shouldn’t come undone.”
“Yes. Even if it breaks, it won’t come off.”
“Good job. Brother Nok, do you know how to fish?”
“yes?”
“Don’t you know how to fish? How to catch fish.”
“Oh, I know.”
“I’m going to pull in two conmen, thinking they’re fish. Got it?”
“You’re pulling it up?”
How do you get people up off the rocks?
This is when Nokdampyeong becomes curious.
Yeonjeokha, who had returned, kicked the buttocks of the bull and the stone man with his foot.
“Eww!”
“Ahh!”
The bull and the stone man fell into the vortex below the three chapters.
Whirlyrick.
When the rope suddenly came loose, Nokdam-pyeong was startled and grabbed the end of the rope.
Ting. Teeing.
In an instant, the two ropes that had been wrapped around each other became taut.
Yeonjeokha, who returned to her chair and sat down, nodded with a satisfied expression.
“Good job. Now it’s time to catch it again. If you’re late, it might end up as fish food.”
“Hey, you want me to pull this up?”
Nokdampyeong’s heart sank.
It was difficult to exert strength because I was holding a rope in each hand.
“Can’t the firefighter of Sambobang do that? Where did the strength he used to hit women go? If you want to save someone, you’d better do it quickly. It’s almost time for him to die.”
“… … .”
Dry saliva gulped down Nokdam-pyeong’s throat.
It seems that Yeon Gongja will use him to get revenge.
A heavy burden fell on his shoulders when he realized that two people’s lives were in his hands.
Even if you’ve lived like a dog, killing someone isn’t easy.
Besides, given the nature of the Yeon Confucius, he didn’t know what harm the swindlers would do to him after his death.
The con artists and themselves were like flies caught in a spider’s web spun by the old man.
But how?
Nokdam-pyeong, who had been rolling his head, quickly turned his wrist.
As I wrapped the rope around my forearms, I gradually felt a heavy weight.
Both of them were so sore that their arms felt like they were going to fall off, as if they had lost consciousness.
“Ugh!”
Nokdampyeong used her strength like a mother giving birth to a child.
A moment later, the two swindlers, soaking wet with mud, were pulled up onto the rock.
Nokdampyeong sagged after examining their pulse.
Yeonjeokha, who was squatting on a chair and drinking alcohol, turned her head slightly.
“Green Brother.”
“yes?”
“Throw it three times a day in front of us. Morning, noon, and evening. Think of it as practicing external energy.”
“Three times?”
Nokdampyeong’s eyes widened.
I feel like I’m going to die just from lifting it once, but you want me to do this three times in one day?
“Why? Is it a little less?”
“No, I think that’s about right.”
“If it’s really hard, don’t pull him up and just let him go. Brother Nok shouldn’t suffer because of those swindlers. He has to go through three years of mourning.”
“I will do my best.”
Nokdampyeong did not say, ‘I will do it until the end.’
I was thinking of trying to do it until it got too difficult and then just giving up.
Shouldn’t you live too?
I’ve only had a rope wrapped around my forearm once and I still can’t make a fist.
That’s because the blood hasn’t been flowing for over 15 minutes.
No matter how much I thought about it, this wasn’t external training, it was an act of abandoning one’s body.
The bull and the stone man woke up an hour later.
The eyes of the two people who had been to the threshold of the afterlife were already half dead.
Yeonjeokha stood up and said.
“Green Brother. Keep a close eye on him. If the swindlers run away, I’ll tie Green Brother up and throw him away until I catch him again.”
“Yes! Hold on tight! I won’t take my eyes off you for even a second.”
Yeonjeokha and Simtong returned to the guest house to talk about what had piled up.
As the two people left, Nokdam-pyeong called the attendant of Sambobang who was serving him.
“I have to go and get more kids. I don’t have enough hands to guard these scammers for a few days.”
“yes.”
Sambobang’s subordinate left Hyojaam to call his colleagues.
Soon, Nokdampyeong turned his gaze to the two squatting conmen.
Even at first glance, these are faces that show no hope.
“The Duke of Yeon told me to throw you three times a day. I’m having a hard time, so those who are going to die before then, die quickly. Honestly, hell might be easier for you guys.”
The stone man, who had been staring blankly into space, asked.
“Who is this man named Yeon Gongja?”
Seok-in was curious about the true identity of Yeon Gong-ja.
It would be difficult for an ordinary person to catch someone in just one month and ten days and torment them viciously without any concern for life or death.
Nokdampyeong looked around to see if anyone would hear, then spoke softly.
“Green Forest Patrol Commander Yeonjeokha.”
“… … .”
In an instant, the faces of the stone man and the bull hardened.
I feel guilty that I messed with someone I shouldn’t have.
At that moment, Nokdam-pyeong held out his swollen arm in front of the two people.
“Look. I pulled you guys up at the same time and this is what happened. I had to wrap a rope around your arms. Like this.”
Nokdampyeong showed off the rope wrapped around both of his arms.
“I don’t know how many times it will be possible in the future. One guy might be okay? Two guys are impossible. Is there anyone who will die for their comrade? If not, both of us could die. I don’t want to become a cripple either.”
In the face of the cruel question, the bull and the stone man only looked at each other.
Wuxia,
