Chapter 6

The next morning.

Seeing off by a bawling Go Sun, Jaheon and Choseon left the village. From the village where the siblings had lived, Jinyang was quite far, and they arrived there after traveling a full three days. Watching Choseon accompany him without a word of complaint despite the arduous journey, Jaheon imagined killing Wang Yun about a hundred times.

Of course, Jaheon did not spend the whole journey just imagining Wang Yun’s death.

“What a musty old man.”

He had also prepared plans to persuade Wang Yun. There were dozens upon dozens of such plans. If only he could meet Wang Yun, he was confident he could persuade him somehow. Yet upon arriving in Jinyang, the situation proved different.

Originally, Jaheon intended to meet Wang Yun first under the pretext of Choseon. But Wang Yun was not easy prey. In all matters concerning an adopted daughter, he sent proxies and even refused to converse. He was the quintessential ancient official who would not deign to associate with those of lower standing. At this rate, Jaheon might truly have to send Choseon to Wang Yun.

But Jaheon could never allow that, even over his dead body.

“To think I’d have to use even this.”

In the end, Jaheon played his final trump card.

“…How is it?”

At the inn, after finishing preparations, Jaheon asked as he looked at Choseon.

“……”

Mouth slightly agape, Choseon stared at her brother in a daze.

Jaheon had half‑braided his jet‑black hair up, tinted his snow‑white cheeks with a faint rouge, and donned women’s attire rather than male clothing.

Choseon had thought that eighteen‑year‑old Jaheon was now beginning to look distinctly adult.

But with loose garments that hid Jaheon’s frame and a face carefully adorned, he did not seem a boy at all.

An unmistakable beauty.

Choseon answered, gazing blankly at Jaheon.

“…No one would imagine you are a man, brother.”

“Then that’s enough.”

“But will it be all right? If you’re found out…”

“There’s no way.”

Jaheon’s secret trump was cross‑dressing. Instead of Choseon, Jaheon in women’s dress would personally enter Wang Yun’s residence. At Choseon’s words, Jaheon shook his head.

“Men who select adopted daughters like choosing wares won’t be examining them properly, will they?”

Jaheon replied shamelessly.

“But still…”

“Don’t worry.”

It was fortunate that his build was not too large. Jaheon mulled over how his height had recently been shooting up like bamboo. Had he waited a little longer, he would have been forced, sobbing inside, to send Choseon directly to Wang Yun.

“Good thing puberty isn’t over yet.”

Being found out? It didn’t matter even if he was. From the very beginning, everything was to remove Choseon from Wang Yun’s roster of candidates.

“We’re going in precisely to be found out.”

It would suffice for Jaheon alone to burn indelibly into Wang Yun’s mind.

“The girls to be sent to General He Jin have arrived. Would you like to inspect them?”

At the butler’s words, a middle‑aged man sipping tea asked quietly,

“Are they girls whose deaths would cause no problem?”

For such a grim question, the man’s tone was calm.

“Yes. All are either orphans or girls whose parents sent them due to urgent need of money.”

His name was Wang Yun.

Renowned for integrity and uprightness, he had risen to Inspector of Bing Province, a Registrar in staff service.

“Any girls of use?”

“You will know at a glance, sir.”

But the very integrity and uprightness that had brought Wang Yun renown were instead holding him back. Officials of the degenerate faction led by the Ten Attendants opposed the recommendation of Wang Yun.

“Please inspect them, my lord.”

By reputation alone, Wang Yun deserved appointment as Censor‑in‑Chief of the third rank. Yet the Ten Attendants opposed the advancement of a potential enemy like Wang Yun, and thus the Three Excellencies, seeking any means to recommend him, were trying to settle for a fourth‑rank post as Remonstrance Censor.

“If not for those damned Ten Attendants…”

In short, it was Wang Yun’s defeat.

Born in Bing Province, Wang Yun had no base in Luoyang—it was only natural. So Wang Yun now sought to build a base in Luoyang. He planned to send an adopted daughter to He Jin—as a concubine—to forge a marriage alliance, He Jin being the brother of Consort He, a favored consort of the Emperor.

“Empress Song has borne no child, so Consort He, who has a son, will soon become Empress.”

In that case, He Jin’s rank would rise accordingly, and his voice in court would grow stronger. If such a He Jin would aid Wang Yun, it might be possible to eradicate the Ten Attendants and set the state aright.

“This is a sacrifice for the greater good…”

It was as he contemplated this, looking over the girls, that—

“……?”

One girl caught Wang Yun’s eye.

Still tinged with girlishness, yet tall enough to seem adult, and yet possessed of a beauty not fully ripened to call her truly grown. Moreover, the girl’s appearance would not let Wang Yun’s eyes turn away: hair like ebony silk, skin so fair it seemed translucent, and eyes of light brown, like gold.

And there was something else that piqued Wang Yun’s interest.

The girl did not fear the situation.

Adopted daughter.

At a glance it might seem a fine thing, but most knew the truth. It meant taking in a foster girl to send as a concubine in place of a daughter. In fact, Wang Yun himself was seeking an adopted girl to send to He Jin because he had no daughter. Then why did this girl not tremble?

“Do you understand what situation you are in?”

Thus Wang Yun asked the girl. Smiling at his question, the girl answered evenly,

“You are selecting a concubine for General He Jin.”

The girl’s voice, while a sweet treble, had a strangely low undertone. Yet Wang Yun did not perceive the difference.

“What?”

Ordinarily, he would surely have noticed. Broad shoulders for a girl, or an Adam’s apple peeking through the carefully concealed collar.

“Is it not the case that you seek to marry into He Jin’s household in order to gain a stable base in Luoyang?”

It was the surge of shame. Wang Yun was instead flustered. He had not expected his desire to be laid so bare by a young girl; his face flushed scarlet.

“……”

At once, with a face like a wrathful demon, Wang Yun turned to glare at the butler.

“Butler!”

Startled, the butler prostrated himself and cried out,

“My lord Wang! This humble one has not breathed a word of it!”

“If not you, then who? Butler, I trusted you…!”

It was the moment Wang Yun was about to vent his rage upon the butler.

“The elderly gentleman is innocent, my lord.”

“……?”

The girl before him spoke.

“Are you not the one charged with the mission to overthrow the Ten Attendants and restore the Han house?”

Wang Yun, his face set, fixed his gaze on the girl—sharp as a knife. Yet the girl did not yield to it.

“If one knows that alone, one can easily infer the reason you seek an adopted daughter.”

At those face‑saving words, some of the anger shading Wang Yun’s face diminished. But not entirely. Wang Yun signaled to the butler. The butler then led the other girls out of the room.

“Then you came here of your own accord even knowing this?”

He Jin was a man over forty.

Suspicious of a girl who had come of her own will knowing she would become such a man’s concubine, Wang Yun asked in a steely voice.

“Yes.”

At the girl’s unhesitating reply, Wang Yun’s brow twitched.

“Why—was it for your family?”

“No. It was for you, my lord.”

But an unexpected answer came from the girl’s lips.

“For me?”

Wang Yun asked, taken aback. To him, the girl replied, unperturbed,

“Yes. A loyal servant of the Han like yourself is about to resort to the inferior strategy of marriage, is he not?”

It struck home.

“…What would a mere little girl know to speak so?”

Wang Yun’s voice rose in his fluster.

“Even a girl knows it is an inferior stratagem. Unless she were your real daughter, General He Jin cannot become your man. And when do you think General He Jin will rise all the way to Grand General? Will you bow your head before the Ten Attendants until then?”

“And how dare you speak so now…!”

Yet the girl before him did not quail. She even snapped right back at Wang Yun. Wang Yun finally grew enraged.

“However, even if so, bowing to the Ten Attendants is a grave matter.”

“……?”

But then, that anger dissipated.

“It would be a choice that tarnishes the reputation you have built. It would take time to restore that name. And the Ten Attendants are not men who know humaneness and right.”

The girl’s words were clear and simple. Moreover, they pierced the core exactly. Wang Yun was not petty enough to miss that fact.

“……”

Thus, it was not easy to refute. Lips twitching, Wang Yun asked with eyes still edged in anger,

“Then what superior stratagem do you imagine, that you behave so rashly?”

Smiling at his words, the girl answered,

“…Create another set of Ten Attendants.”

“Another set of Ten Attendants?”

“Yes. Not Ten Attendants who submit slander, but Ten Attendants who submit remonstrance.”

And she quietly added,

“Namely, yourself, my lord.”

At those words, Wang Yun, who had been silent, burst out laughing.

“Ha. Hahaha.”

What other meaning could those words have?

In other words, it need not be the eunuchs. It could be the scholar‑official faction, or the harem faction. She was telling Wang Yun to cultivate with his own hand a faction favored by the Emperor as much as the Ten Attendants.

That was indeed a superior stratagem.

It was more certain than forging a marriage alliance with He Jin. If the Emperor’s favorites were on his side, Wang Yun might even occupy one of the Three Excellencies, the highest offices of the Han. But Wang Yun knew.

“Do you think that is possible?”

It was impossible.

If it were so easy to make eunuchs loyal to Wang Yun, would he be rotting here in Bing Province? Despite such renown and such service, had he not only recently been put forward for a central post as Remonstrance Censor?

“My lord.”

At that, the girl—Jaheon—who had been smiling, addressed Wang Yun.

“Do you still think I am a girl?”

“……?”

In that instant, Wang Yun’s face filled with shock. But Jaheon answered with composure,

“The superior stratagem is of the same principle.”

In Jaheon’s eyes, a strange, uncanny light flickered.

Footnotes:

1. “Ten Attendants” refers to the notorious late‑Han eunuch clique; contrasting “slander” versus “remonstrance” frames a proposed strategy to build an Emperor‑favored faction grounded in moral admonition rather than court manipulation.