Book 23 Chapter 13

Two sides of the coin

-Tips

"Yeonbi, is he doing well?"

Na Yerin asked, putting down her tea.

"You're probably doing great, Rin. So don't worry too much."

It seemed like it could hardly fail.

"I don't want to believe that that exists in my reality."

What she was talking about was Ryu's past.

"That's the darkness of being human, because as much as you can be the most virtuous, you can also be the most vile, and that's the karma of being human… Infinite possibility is not a one-way street."

It was bittersweet.

"Is it karma… the inevitable……. I don't need such infinity……."

As a fellow human being, it was very painful to have to see the ugly side of humanity.

"Well, maybe it's 'too much of a good thing,' maybe it's God's way of seeing if we can handle it or not, but whatever it is, what matters is this moment, right now. The fact that she was born a girl, and the fact that her brother was born a boy. That's a fate that can't be changed."

Your destiny is determined the moment you are born and cannot be changed.

"But I don't think you need to be so depressed."

"Why is that?"

"I've told you before, you can't change your fate, but you can change your destiny. It's your destiny because you can move."

"It's so unfair that I have to have everything just because I'm an employee……."

Na Yerin herself has encountered many "if only she hadn't been a woman" situations in her life. Most of them were not good memories. However, her parents have always been on her side and have done their best to cherish, love, and protect her.

* * *

"Was it wrong to be born a girl?"

In a bitter tone, the girl self-helped.

Murim is a world ruled by strength. It was too harsh a place for a woman's slender body to endure, but Yun Bi saw through Liu Eun Kyung's thoughts.

"No, that's not true, isn't it? What's wrong with being born a woman? Women are so much better than men, who just create violence for nothing, because at least they're beautiful. Women are more than two-thirds of the way to the survival of the human race, and men aren't much good at giving birth to and raising children."

They just have different roles. Differences exist in this world. And without differences, the world would stagnate. There is no such thing as complete equality, and there shouldn't be. That's why Yeonbi said to Ryu Eunkyung, "We are all equal.

"Okay, so that's it, we're going to take it on merit, and we're going to take that one snotty family on merit, and that's it." How's that sound, simple?

It's not that simple at all, Ryu said.

"Poetry or skill?"

She'd never thought of it that way; to her, the family had always been a giant that could swallow her whole in a single bite. So she added, "I'm sorry.

"Well, it's not hard to see what kind of a wreck she'd be if she'd been raised with all those younger brothers and sisters. If you lose to a wimp like that, there's something fundamentally wrong with you. I don't think she's that weak, she's just rigid in her thinking. There's no worse curse than stereotypes, for they snuff out the wings of a person's talent and shackle their feet. You just have to reinvent the wheel. There are always exceptions, after all, so why not make yourself one?"

"Well, that could be……."

Liu Eun-kyung looked quite shocked. Yan Bi's words were so off the rails that she couldn't even follow them. It was clear that she had never thought of it that way before. And it was the first time she realized she could think that way. It was a way of thinking that didn't exist in her world.

"Who says you can't do that? Did you even try it once?"

"……."

Liu Eun Kyung was silent. The sharp blade of Yun Fei's words, shattering her common sense, had already shaken her spirit. The way she kept repeating that it shouldn't be like that made her wonder if it was the last straw for Zubak.

"If you don't have a goal, you can have one now. Someone somewhere said, 'Boy, be ambitious,' but they never said a girl shouldn't be ambitious. Besides, there's no such thing as a little wish, an ambition, unless you're like me and want to conquer the world."

"Conquer the Ming Dynasty?! Is that a wish?"

"No, no. I'm kidding, of course."

Yunfei smirked. Somehow, it's scarier when it doesn't sound like a joke," the silver-haired girl chuckled slightly.

"It's a waste of money to conquer something that won't do you any good, and when you calculate the cost of conquering it, and the profit you'll make afterward, the price\/performance ratio is so bad that wishes like that are for boys."

Later, he was the one who might have suggested changing Murimen to a woman.

"Well, that's certainly a possibility."

She was briefly worried about her father's future.

"Kudos to you for not running away from an ugly reality, even if it's a foolish one. Now, what are you going to do, resign yourself to it, or confront it and try to rise above it?"

Liu Eun-kyung thought for a while. She realized that how she answered could completely change who she was.

"…I'd rather be recognized head-on."

It was a declaration of liberation from the shackles of the past. It was a declaration to be different.

"Okay. If you put it that way, I'll help you, but it's a waste of time trying to help someone who has no intention of actually doing it, and I hate waste."

It's an irresistible urge, especially when your efforts to help are dismissed, and I wanted to avoid that.

"I'll show you the way!"

It is only necessary to show the way to those who are willing to go forward on their own. For what good is a path to one who is unwilling to walk?

"Then which……?"

Yeonbi replied with a smirk.

"I have a trick for wooing a male courtesan, are you interested?"

Ryu Eunkyung nodded quickly and said.

"Sure. But is there really such a thing?"

Ryu Eun-kyung, who is deeply distrustful of the world, asked, her eyes shining.

"Sure. Sure. I don't make a habit of joking around with this stuff, but I'm sure this trick will keep him in line."

"Please teach me the secret, please."

Ryu Eun-kyung said, her eyes sparkling like stars.

"Hmmm, I wonder what to do……."

Yeonbi was bounced once as a courtesy.

* * *

"You must have succeeded because I even gave you a trick, so don't worry too much, Rin."

"I really hope it works out."

"It'll work out, maybe."

It was a pretty nonchalant answer.

"Should we have taken him as the third player in our group?"

Na Yerin thought for a moment, then said.

"That wouldn't have been a bad idea, but since you seem to have connections to the palace captain's family, I'd suggest……. Besides, we have this Sojae, don't we?"

It was clear that he was going to throw a fit if I didn't include him.

"Oh, there was that kid, I just forgot about him for a second."

But I might as well have forgotten about it.