The Lazy Young Master of the Jin Clan

"You've worked hard!"

Jin Seomok and Yu Seoheung grandly welcomed their two children who had returned safely.

Especially since the letter had reported that Jin Gahyeon had made a significant contribution to connecting the commercial rights between Anhui and Shanxi, there was nothing better for Jin Seomok.

"As expected of my daughter!"

Jin Seomok looked lovingly at Jin Gahyeon, who was showing a tremendous business acumen that resembled him.

After stroking Jin Gahyeon's head, he saw Jin Sohyun standing next to her.

"And... Sohyun, you've worked hard too."

"Yes."

For Jin Seomok, it was enough that Jin Sohyun had returned safely without any major incidents.

"Ah... there is a letter that Family Head Namgung asked me to deliver to you, Father."

"Family Head Namgung to me?"

Jin Sohyun took a letter from his bosom and handed it to Jin Seomok.

As a sense of pride and some kind of expectation could be felt on his face, Jin Seomok became inexplicably anxious.

"I'll read it slowly. Then, you must have been busy with the merchant trip to Anhui, so go inside and rest comfortably."

"Yes!"

"Yes."

As Jin Gahyeon and Jin Sohyun returned to their quarters to rest, Jin Seomok, who was about to finish his business and return to his office, found Siu with her two eyes sparkling in front of him.

She was staring at Jin Seomok's face with her two eyes wide open, without saying a word.

She looked like a small puppy waiting for praise.

"W-Well... Siu, you must have worked hard taking care of Sohyun and Gahyeon."

"Yes!"

Siu did not deny it.

She made sure to take what was hers.

This was Siu's motto.

To take her share, Siu was putting some kind of pressure on Jin Seomok, and at this, Jin Seomok let out a hearty laugh.

"This is what it means to be a maidservant of the Jin Family. So, what is it that you want?"

Siu, who he had expected to talk about a special bonus, gave a completely unexpected answer.

"Please appoint me as the Young Lady's exclusive maidservant!"

"No."

Like a peak master parrying an opponent's attack, Jin Seomok's answer was very fast and without hesitation.

"The Young Master doesn't need me anymore..."

"No."

"..."

"No. Go back. I have no intention of changing it."

"Then at least a bonus..."

"I'll send that through Yonghu."

"...Yes."

Although Siu turned back with a dejected look, Jin Seomok did not feel any pity.

'That lazy bum definitely needs a maidservant like Siu.'

Jin Seomok had long since seen the ambition in that little fox.

'She'll make Sohyun move, even for her own success.'

For Siu to become the head maidservant, she had to prove her own abilities, and the best she could do was to make the lazy Jin Sohyun move.

Therefore, Jin Seomok had no intention of ever! no matter what! separating Siu from Jin Sohyun's side.

"Not a chance."

Having sent Siu away, Jin Seomok then bowed his head deeply to the old man who had come to see him.

"You have truly worked hard, Elder Gongsun. Please come inside first."

Jin Seomok, who had entered the reception room with Gongsun Su, let out a sigh of relief and said.

"I was really surprised to hear the news. I never thought there would be assailants who would attack a carriage bearing the flag of our family. If Elder Gongsun hadn't been there... hmm! I don't even want to think about it!"

"Hoho... I thought of you as the sturdy great tree of Shanxi, but I didn't know you were such a cunning fox!"

"A cunning fox... what do you mean by that?"

As Jin Seomok showed a puzzled expression, Gongsun Su's gaze became sharp.

"To have the Flying Sword Hero accompany the merchant trip without even my knowledge... shouldn't you have at least told me? Did you really not trust me that much?"

Gongsun Su shot at him sharply so that Jin Seomok could not make any excuses.

But Jin Seomok, who had heard his words, had an expression as if to ask what he was talking about.

"That's impossible. Why would I have Elder Kang accompany you without Elder Gongsun's knowledge?"

"Oh! Are you going to pretend you don't know until the end?"

"But Elder Kang is in Shaanxi right now. I heard he is catching up with an old friend..."

Having examined him with his inner vision, not a single trace of falsehood could be felt on Jin Seomok's face.

Then, it was Gongsun Su who was flustered instead.

'It wasn't Kang Cheon? Then who on earth!?'

Was there another master who could use the Flying Sword Technique?

Looking at the thoughtful Gongsun Su, Jin Seomok asked carefully.

"Was there something else that I don't know about?"

"...Is it really true that the Flying Sword Hero is in Shaanxi?"

"Yes. As far as I know, that is the case."

Gongsun Su's gaze shook rapidly.

***

"Hoohoohoo..."

At the sight of Jin Sohyun, who was lying on the bed, tapping his ankle and humming a tune, Siu asked with a gloomy face.

"You seem to be in a very good mood, Young Master. Is it because of that incident at the Namgung Family?"

"Yes. That's right!"

"Hah!"

As Jin Sohyun admitted and nodded, Siu covered her mouth in surprise and then had a sad face.

'Someone is giggling in love with a woman who is a daughter of a prestigious family recognized by everyone in the Central Plains and has incredible beauty, but my future, who was more loyal than anyone...'

Siu shed a single tear, imagining herself sweeping Jin Sohyun's front yard even when she was old.

Whether he knew this or not, Jin Sohyun felt very lighthearted and even a sense of freedom.

"I'm free now."

While Jin Sohyun was stretching, feeling a sense of freedom, unusual movements were felt in the Jin Family.

"They were attacked again?"

"That's right. It took a whopping fortnight to go and come back, but we were attacked helplessly."

"I will speak to the Family Head and compensate you as much as possible, so please wait a little."

"Thank you!"

Having sent the merchants away, Mu Yonghu went straight to see Jin Seomok.

"Family Head."

"Yes. I just heard. The peddlers of Shanxi were attacked again, you say?"

"That's right. From their actions and the merchants' testimonies, it seems to be the work of similar guys."

"Hoo... they are people who have traveled a long way at our request, so compensate them appropriately."

"Yes."

As Mu Yonghu withdrew, Jin Seomok's head throbbed, and he massaged his temples with both hands.

"Is it those bandits again?"

Yu Seoheung, who had come to the office, massaged Jin Seomok's shoulders with a gentle touch.

"That's right. It seems they targeted small-scale merchant groups or peddlers again this time."

"Of all things..."

The merchants of Shanxi had been having a headache for a week because of several groups of bandits that had suddenly appeared.

They were stationed on the forest roads that merchants mainly used and were plundering small-scale merchant groups of one or two carts or peddlers.

If it had been a large-scale mountain fortress, it would have been enough to dispatch martial artists to subjugate them, but the scale of the bandits did not exceed five at most, and of course, there was nothing that could be called a mountain fortress.

Moreover, since they did not take lives and only stole goods, even if they succeeded in catching the bandits by asking the authorities, they could only be punished as petty thieves.

"When the martial artists from inside and outside the family appear, they hide, or if they judge that it's not feasible, they immediately surrender and enter the prison of the authorities on their own feet. So even if we catch them with difficulty, nothing changes."

"It would be difficult to attach escorts too."

"Because the scale is so large..."

It was no exaggeration to say that the Jin Family currently held the commercial rights of the entire Shanxi.

Because of this, the number of merchants that the Jin Family had to manage was so large that it was not only impossible to attach escorts to each of them, but there was also not enough manpower to do so.

But they couldn't tell the small-scale merchant groups or peddlers to stop their merchant trips either.

This was because they were the driving force that had allowed the Jin Family to rise to the position of the number one merchant family in Shanxi in a short period of time.

Jin Seomok had embraced not only large-scale merchant groups and trading companies, but also small-scale merchant groups and even peddlers who did business with bundles.

—There is no useless merchant in this world.

With large-scale merchant groups, he conducted large-scale transactions in conjunction with escort agencies, and with relatively small-scale merchant groups or peddlers, he used them for small transactions.

In particular, he commissioned peddlers for local specialties from regions that were not yet known.

And when the peddlers brought the local specialties, he immediately conducted market research, and if he judged that the local specialties had commercial value, he formed a merchant group and proceeded with the transaction.

Thus, since everyone was an indispensable existence to the Jin Family, Jin Seomok had to embrace everyone, even if it meant enduring losses.

"At this rate, we might go bankrupt. Hahaha."

As Jin Seomok said with a playful tone, Yu Seoheung gently caressed his cheek.

Of course, the Jin Family would not go bankrupt with this level of loss.

But as time went on, merchants who would try to take advantage of the Jin Family's goodwill would appear, and this would surely deal a significant blow to the economy of the Jin Family and Shanxi.

"Let's find a solution together. I'm sure a good idea will come up."

"I think so too. Ah, come to think of it, Family Head Namgung sent a letter through Sohyun."

"A letter? Let's see it quickly."

Jin Seomok took out a letter with the seal of the Namgung family from his bosom and read the contents.

Befitting a letter sent by the head of a prestigious family, a phrase written in a dignified and powerful handwriting was written in it.

The content of the letter was, surprisingly, about worrying about Jin Sohyun and that his body was different from others, so being exposed to the sun for a long time was harmful to his health.

"Huh!"

Although the content was not readily understandable, the expressions of the two, who could not dare to think that Namgung Muhyeok would lie, became serious.

"Should we not let Sohyun be exposed to the sun?"

"If Family Head Namgung went so far as to send a letter to warn us... it seems to be quite serious."

"The reason Sohyun is lazy might be..."

"Mmm! It's possible that there was such an influence."

The Jin couple, who had learned a fact they had not known, blamed and reflected on their own actions of trying to send Jin Sohyun out somehow.

"I didn't even know that... it seems we have been doing a terrible thing to Sohyun, my dear."

"It seems so... we really don't have the qualifications to be parents..."

Yu Seoheung, who was about to wipe her tears, felt something strange in the letter.

"From now on, we should just let Sohyun live as he wants."

"Wait. My dear. Look at this."

"What is it?"

Yu Seoheung pointed to the words in the letter with her hand and said.

"Family Head Namgung's handwriting is powerful and angular. Moreover, the end of the characters always points upwards. But some characters have their ends drooping downwards."

"Isn't that just Namgung Family Head's habit?"

"Just a moment."

Yu Seoheung personally took up a brush and marked the characters with drooping ends.

"Cloud Longing Bird Cage? What does this mean..."

While Jin Seomok was tilting his head at the combination of characters that was not readily understandable, Yu Seoheung's eyes sparkled.

"No. We have to change the order. Then... it becomes like this."

As they changed the order of the characters as Yu Seoheung had said, surprise appeared on the faces of the two.

"The Caged Bird Longs for the Clouds!"

The Caged Bird Longs for the Clouds.

A bird trapped in a cage longs for the clouds.

It was an idiom that usually referred to someone who desired freedom, and the Jin couple realized the hidden meaning of Namgung Muhyeok in it.

"The reason he hid these words in this way must have been to tell us not to keep Sohyun cooped up in the family estate and to send him out into the world, right?"

At Yu Seoheung's words, Jin Seomok also greatly agreed.

"It seems so! I don't know why he conveyed his meaning in such a complicated way, but Family Head Namgung must have seen Sohyun's true worth that we couldn't see."

"We weren't wrong!"

"That's right!"

The Jin couple were greatly pleased.

And they thought.

From now on, they had to push and push Jin Sohyun even more and send him out into the world.

And Jin Sohyun, who had no way of knowing this, was humming a tune, not knowing that he had been deceived by Namgung Muhyeok, and was about to laze around to his heart's content when he shot up.

"The weather is nice, so shall I do it in advance?"

Jin Sohyun extended his hand towards the clothes rack where his robe was hanging.

Float—!

Jin Sohyun, who had grabbed the robe using Void Object Manipulation, grinned.

"To think I didn't know something so convenient until now! Master Kang is too much. He should have told me earlier if there was something so convenient."

Jin Sohyun, who was humming a tune and had put on his robe, went out to the yard, took a seat under a large tree, and sat with his legs crossed.

"Let's work hard today."

Jin Sohyun, who had come out to perform qi circulation for the first time in a very long time, closed his two eyes and began to circulate his qi.

In the meantime, someone had come to see Jin Sohyun without anyone knowing.

'I'll have to check with my own two eyes.'

Gongsun Su, who had come to Jin Sohyun's quarters in pursuit of the truth, found Jin Sohyun sitting with his legs crossed.

'As expected, he is performing qi circulation. I will find out your true identity today!'

Gongsun Su, who had hidden his presence, watched Jin Sohyun, hiding still as a mouse for a whopping two shichen.

'He's circulating his qi for a long time... no, wait a minute.'

Gongsun Su's face contorted as he discovered Jin Sohyun's head nodding back and forth.

'That brat... don't tell me!?'

Gongsun Su, who had carefully approached Jin Sohyun, confirmed that he was dozing off while sitting.

"He wasn't circulating his qi, but sleeping?!"

Gongsun Su, who had learned the truth, felt pathetic for thinking that Jin Sohyun had been hiding his martial arts.

"Tsk! Well, what can this lazy bum..."

Gongsun Su, who had realized that his thoughts were wrong, left the place.

As Gongsun Su left, Jin Sohyun's closed eyes opened with a squint.

"Why did he come?"

Jin Sohyun, who was yawning, closed his eyes again.

To freely handle ten flying swords, he needed a larger amount of internal energy, so he had to work hard on qi circulation just for today.

But it was not enough to overcome the approaching drowsiness.

"Kuuu... kuuuu…”

(End of Chapter)