"Where did you catch it?"
"I didn't catch it."
Hua Sochen asked and Cho Myung answered. But Cho Myung's answer was puzzling.
When Hua Sochen and Jeok Yorap looked at him with curious faces, Cho Myung told them how he had brought the child.
When the story was over, Hua Sochen looked at the child and then stared at Cho Myung again. It was because she seemed to know why Cho Myung had bothered to bring the child.
'He must have felt sorry for her. Like his past self.'
While Hua Sochen was nodding, Cho Myung was handing the chopsticks to the child.
"Eat."
The table was full of meat dishes that Cho Myung liked. But the child just held the chopsticks and drooled, only looking at Hua Sochen and Jeok Yorap.
"What's your name?"
Hua Sochen asked.
The child mumbled her lips.
"Can you speak a little louder?"
"It's Biyun."
Biyun was an orphan.
She didn't even know her parents' faces. She had no parents since she could think. She was taken in and raised by a wandering monk, and she was given the name Biyun, meaning to live freely like a swallow someday, but reality was not easy.
When the monk passed away, Biyun was taken in by a gang of street urchins and had to learn to be a pickpocket.
"Biyun, that's a pretty name. I won't scold you, so let's eat first."
Hua Sochen said with a smile.
Biyun just looked at them with a suspicious face, wondering if it was really okay.
"You can eat a lot. We like children who eat well."
Jeok Yorap also said with a smile.
"I was like you too. These are good people who saved me and protected me. You can eat with peace of mind."
Cho Myung said.
Then he properly placed the chopsticks in the child's hand and then led her to the dishes and made her pick up a piece of meat.
"Eat."
Biyun just stared at Cho Myung.
Cho Myung picked up another pair of chopsticks from the chopstick holder, picked up a piece of meat, and brought it to his mouth.
Hua Sochen and Jeok Yorap also started eating with their chopsticks.
The three deliberately looked away and pretended to be engrossed in their own eating.
Biyun, who had been watching the scene for a moment, slowly brought the chopsticks to her mouth. While chewing the meat in her mouth, she looked at the three people.
The three continued to not look at her. It was to let Biyun eat comfortably.
Biyun, who had chewed and swallowed the meat in her mouth, looked at the three people alternately, hesitated for a long time, and then slowly reached out her hand.
The three pretended not to see.
Biyun, who had gained courage from that, picked up a piece of meat, put it in her mouth, and chewed.
Everything is difficult the first time. After doing it once, the second and third times were a little easier. When Biyun started eating, Hua Sochen gently pushed the plate with the dishes towards Biyun.
"You're pretty even when you eat. Eat a lot."
When Hua Sochen spoke kindly, Biyun looked at her with round eyes and nodded. Then she began to move her chopsticks. As her chopstick movements became a little faster, Hua Sochen and Jeok Yorap stopped eating and looked at her with satisfaction.
"Thank you."
Biyun, who had put down her chopsticks after finishing her food, said.
She still looked wary and intimidated.
She couldn't even look straight at the faces of Hua Sochen, Jeok Yorap, and Cho Myung, who had shown her kindness, and was bowing her head.
It could be seen that looking at people's faces had become a habit.
Cho Myung was also like that.
When he met a new person, he would first examine whether that person was a good person.
Perhaps Biyun was also like that.
"Can we go like this?"
Hua Sochen asked Jeok Yorap.
She was asking if it was okay to take Biyun with them like this. But Jeok Yorap also couldn't know. It was because he didn't know what Biyun's situation was. But it was when the two's worries were just beginning.
"There he is! That bastard snatched the purse. Look. Biyun is there too!"
A group of people appeared at the entrance of the inn.
The one who was shouting as if in a rage and pointing his finger at the front was the burly man with the bushy beard whom Cho Myung had sent flying.
There were more than twenty of them, and each of them was holding a blade that looked vicious.
"I am the Iron Chopper of the Ten Thousand Iron Sect."
After surrounding Cho Myung's group, a strong man with rich sideburns revealed his identity, shaking a sharp blue chopper.
The reason he had spoken first without using force was because he had felt that he should not treat Hua Sochen and Cho Myung's appearance lightly.
But he could not back down like this either.
Because the amount in the purse that the bear-haired guy had seen was enormous.
The Iron Chopper quickly scanned the three people.
'The two of them clearly don't know martial arts. The problem is this guy...'
You can tell if a person has trained in martial arts by looking at their hands.
Hua Sochen's hands were too clean, and Jeok Yorap's hands were closer to those of a farmer than a martial artist. So the only one left was Cho Myung, who looked to be about fourteen or fifteen.
The burly man, Bear Hair, had said.
That he had caught the sword with his bare hands.
If that was true, there was a high probability that he was a master he could not face.
But there was nothing to worry about.
Because he had already asked for one of the masters of the Ten Thousand Iron Sect.
"So?"
Hua Sochen asked.
She deliberately pretended not to know, even though she knew they had come because of Biyun.
It meant that she would not let them have their way.
"Are you asking because you don't know?"
"Yes, I'm asking because I don't know."
The Iron Chopper's caterpillar eyebrows twitched as if angry.
"You beat up our kid, kidnapped him and the money, and now you're going to be so shameless?"
The momentum of shouting while shaking the Iron Chopper was murderous.
At that, Cho Myung got up from his seat.
The startled Iron Chopper took a big step back and was wary.
"Ho-ho! Since when did the Hua Family Clinic become a martial arts sect!"
An old man's voice was heard from the entrance of the inn.
When Cho Myung turned his gaze, he saw an old man in yellow clothes approaching with his hands behind his back. At the appearance of that old man, the Iron Chopper's face lit up.
"Head of the family, Han!"
"I came because you said it was a big deal, but if it's a useless matter, I'll wring your neck."
When the head of the family, Han, threatened, the Iron Chopper looked back at Bear Hair.
At that, Bear Hair nodded vigorously as if to say not to worry.
The head of the family, Han, who had seen the two's actions, pulled an empty chair as if he understood and sat down, saying.
"Go on."
At that, the Iron Chopper stood in front of Hua Sochen.
"Since you're from the Hua Family Clinic, I won't say much. Return the child and give back the money you extorted from my trusted subordinate."
"That's ridiculous. That side pickpocketed my purse, and you're saying we extorted it?"
"Do you have proof that it's your purse?"
At the appearance of the head of the family, Han, the Iron Chopper's tone became rough.
At that, Cho Myung frowned, and Hua Sochen quickly said.
"Then do you have proof that it's your purse? Do you know what picture is embroidered on the purse?"
"You must have already examined it in detail. We're not the type to look at things like purses carefully. I'll say it again, since we had it stolen, it's ours. If you don't give it back, you won't see a good end."
"Since I was pickpocketed, it's mine."
Hua Sochen did not back down either.
It was at that moment.
Slap!
The head of the family, Han, suddenly clapped his hands.
When everyone's attention was focused, the head of the family, Han, pointed at Biyun and said.
"We can just ask that child."
The head of the family, Han, who had roughly grasped the situation, said.
He had grasped at once that there was a lot of money in the purse and that the child who was trembling with fear next to Cho Myung was the one who had pickpocketed it. He could not fail to recognize it because his clothes were so different from the three.
"You bitch! Speak straight! If you say even a little bit of nonsense, I'll pluck out your eyeballs!"
Bear Hair shouted.
At that, Biyun trembled as if in fear.
At that moment, Cho Myung moved one step. He was angry at the sight of them threatening the child. But Jeok Yorap reached out and grabbed him.
"You can't solve everything with your fists. How about we leave it to the head of the family for a little longer?"
Cho Myung endured it and kept his place.
"It's cowardly to threaten a child!"
Hua Sochen shouted.
She sensed that they were at a disadvantage. She had guessed what kind of words would come out of the mouth of the frightened Biyun.
"You'd better watch your mouth. I'm not the type to go easy on you just because you're a doctor and a woman."
The head of the family, Han, said coldly.
Hua Sochen glared at the head of the family, Han, for a long time, thought and thought, and then took out a purse from her bosom.
"I'll take this child. This amount should be enough for a ransom. Of course, if you have no intention of selling, there's nothing I can do."
When Hua Sochen held up the purse, Bear Hair and the Iron Chopper's faces lit up.
"That's enough. Although I'm at a loss...!"
"Shut up!"
The head of the family, Han, quickly cut off Bear Hair's words and shouted. But it was too late. The words that should not have come out had come out.
Hua Sochen threw the purse to Bear Hair. Bear Hair, who had caught it in a daze, looked at the purse and the head of the family, Han, alternately.
"You fool!"
The head of the family, Han, burst with anger.
"From now on, Biyun is one of us."
Hua Sochen said.
The head of the family, Han, did not say any more and just stared at Hua Sochen.
It meant that the initiative had completely passed. But Bear Hair and the Iron Chopper still did not know what was what and just made a bewildered face. Hua Sochen, who had turned her gaze to the two, smiled coldly.
"You insisted so much that it was your purse, but when I gave it as a ransom for the child, you don't say that it's your money?"
"......!"
"......?"
"It was my purse from the beginning, and it was my money. Right?"
Bear Hair and the Iron Chopper, who now knew that they had been tricked by Hua Sochen's cunning, blushed.
Hua Sochen looked at the two and said more aggressively.
"Now shall we talk about my purse being stolen?"
"This purse is..."
"Why? Are you still going to claim that it's your purse?"
Bear Hair could not answer and looked at the Iron Chopper, and the Iron Chopper looked at the head of the family, Han. But the head of the family, Han, had sat down in his chair and even closed his eyes, as if he would not interfere any more.
At that, Bear Hair, who was frantically racking his brain that was not working well, pointed at Biyun and said with great momentum.
"That child did it, so it's not my fault!"
"That's ridiculous."
"What's so ridiculous!"
"You swing a sword and say the sword did it? What fool in the world gets stabbed and blames the sword? They blame the owner who swung the sword."
"I didn't swing a sword!"
"No one will believe that. So give me back my stolen purse."
"You crazy...!"
Bear Hair could not even finish his curse.
It was because Hua Sochen was glaring at him coldly.
Even a fool of the world could not fail to know that the situation was completely suppressed.
It was at that moment.
The head of the family, Han, suddenly opened his eyes. And he got up from his chair.
An unpleasant energy was slowly flowing from his body.
"Hmph!"
The head of the family, Han, who was snorting as if to show off.
'I'll have to see some blood!'
He had lost the argument, but what did it matter!
The eyes of the public?
That didn't matter. When did the Demonic Path ever care about such things? They just had to press them with force and take it. It was when the head of the family, Han, who had decided to see blood, was twisting his lips.
Cho Myung, who had been watching until now, stepped forward.
Until now, Hua Sochen had handled it very well, but looking at the head of the family, Han's, face, it seemed that the situation would not end with words. So now it was his turn.
But it was the moment he clenched his fists and completely blocked Hua Sochen's front.
"That's right! If you're stabbed, you have to blame the one who swung the sword!"
It was a statement that came from over the railing on the second floor.
The moment everyone's gaze went up, there was a person who fell gracefully, fluttering his clothes, from over the railing on the second floor.
A young martial artist with sharp eyes, wearing a purple martial arts uniform.
It was Xue Gongdao of the Qingcheng Sect, who had come to the Hua Family Clinic three years ago with a single portrait.
"I am Xue Gongdao of Qingcheng. The Ten Thousand Iron Sect will have to handle this matter properly. If you try to see blood after not only pickpocketing, I, Xue Gongdao, will not stand still, staking the name of Qingcheng!"
The corners of the head of the family, Han's, mouth, which had been twisted up, trembled.
He must have been angry.
But he could not fight with a disciple of the Qingcheng Sect as he pleased.
The head of the family, Han, suppressed his anger inwardly.
"It seems you haven't learned the lesson that the elders of Qingcheng received in the past."
"What do you mean by that? Are you trying to insult Qingcheng?"
"Go back and ask your elders. If Qingcheng has ever received any lesson in the land of Sichuan in the past."
The head of the family, Han, who had uttered words that Xue Gongdao could not understand, suddenly reached out and grabbed Bear Hair's one arm.
Crack!
"Aaargh!"
A bone-breaking sound burst out, and Bear Hair screamed.
The head of the family, Han, did not stop there and snatched the purse and threw it to Hua Sochen.
"We'll meet again. It will be very different then."
With those words, the head of the family, Han, left the inn.
The flustered Iron Chopper supported Bear Hair, who was writhing in pain, and retreated with his subordinates like a tide.
"Don't worry. It's a threat that the demonic factions usually make. By the way, have you been well?"
Xue Gongdao smiled brightly as he looked at Hua Sochen.
"Yes, have you been well too, young hero Xue?"
"No, I've had a hard time. I don't know if you know, but three years ago, the Six Orthodox Heavens gathered only a hundred outstanding young martial artists from all over the world and created the Divine Martial Stage. I was also chosen, I'm sorry to say. Thanks to that, I've been training to death all this time."
Xue Gongdao was being modest.
In the end, it was just showing off.
"Ah, I see. Congratulations."
"Let's not do this here, let's go to the second floor. I was on my way to Qingcheng with my peers after receiving a three-month vacation, and I just stopped by. They are all children of prestigious families, so if you get to know them, it will be helpful to the clinic in many ways."
"Ah, no. We just finished our meal, and we're busy with the clinic's work."
"Ah, right. This isn't An. You came because you had work."
"Yes, that's right."
"Then I'll come to the clinic once when I have time, so please don't turn me away at the door."
"Ah, yes. Then."
Hua Sochen, who was burdened by Xue Gongdao, hurriedly finished her greetings.
And she gestured to Jeok Yorap and Cho Myung and left with Biyun. Xue Gongdao, who was staring at their backs, licked his lips.
"Ha, I really want her. If I hadn't been chosen for the Divine Martial Stage, I would have sent a matchmaker... Is it too late?"
(End of Chapter)