Chapter 20
I decided to live in monk Mang-ryang’s house for three years. Fortunately, there was a separate house about twenty paces away from Mang-ryang’s thatched cottage. Apparently, he made a good amount of money from fortune-telling, and he had built this separate house for his lover. From what he said, it seemed he had one lover in Jinrang Valley and a few more in other provinces.
‘This guy is quite indulgent in pleasures of the flesh.’
Could it be that he left the imperial palace to freely cavort with women?
Of course, it was unnecessary to offend my benefactor by saying something like that out loud, so I kept quiet. We agreed that I would live in the separate house and occasionally help Mang-ryang with his work to earn my keep.
“From now on, just call me Mang-ryang instead of monk Mang-ryang; it will be less cumbersome.”
“Alright.”
“Shall I call you Baek-woong?”
“Sure.”
After settling on how to address each other, our studies began the next day.