Chapter 582

Chapter 582 - Side Story 16

Tang Yu-jeong and Jin Heon entered an extremely luxurious restaurant. Each guest had their own separate room, and the large round table in the center of the room was filled with a sumptuous feast.

"Eat a lot. Hehehe."

Tang Yu-jeong kept looking at Jin Heon with curiosity. Jin Heon frowned the whole time, feeling burdened by Tang Yu-jeong's gaze.

"You don't talk much."

"You talk too much. And that shabby shop up ahead is better than here."

Jin Heon himself didn't seem to notice that the word he used to address Tang Yu-jeong had unconsciously changed from 'you' to the more formal 'you'. But Tang Yu-jeong noticed.

"What? If you knew, you should have told me earlier."

Jin Heon said quietly while eating.

"If you only look for shops that are flashy on the outside, you'll never find delicious places."

"That's a good lesson."

"At the Tang Family, you probably only go to shops like this normally, right?"

"No way. My allowance is meager. I can only come to places like this on missions."

Tang Yu-jeong giggled and added.

"Using work expenses."

Jin Heon looked at Tang Yu-jeong with a somewhat surprised tone.

"The Tang Family is undeniably the number one family in the world right now. But your allowance is meager?"

Tang Yu-jeong pressed her lips with chopsticks and spoke as if reminiscing.

"Since I was little, I've never received more than the set amount. When I started missions, my allowance was completely cut off. Mom is very strict about that."

Jin Heon opened his mouth to ask what about Dad, then closed it because he didn't want to say the word 'Dad'. As if knowing what Jin Heon was about to say, Tang Yu-jeong spoke.

"Dad is..."

Jin Heon cut her off.

"I don't want to hear it."

Then he slurped his noodles loudly as if refusing to listen.

"Dad's unemployed."

Pfft!

Jin Heon almost spilled his noodles.

"He saves up his allowance and secretly gives us a little, or sometimes makes and sells things to give us money."

"You're joking?"

The renowned Poison Dragon, the Asura King, the former Murim Alliance Leader, living off allowance at home!

"Who would believe that! Do you know how much money he brings to our sword sect every year? The allowance he leaves for me..."

"Dad couldn't possibly have money."

Tang Yu-jeong's eyes narrowed.

"Mom gave it to you separately!"

Flinch.

Jin Heon closed his mouth at the fierce atmosphere. Tang Yu-jeong fumed and asked.

"How much allowance did you get?"

Jin Heon ignored Tang Yu-jeong and ate.

"How much allowance did you get? Hm? Hm? Tell me."

She was almost desperate, as if she needed to know the name of a lifelong enemy she'd been chasing. Jin Heon answered in a barely audible voice.

"Ten nyang."

"Every year?"

"Every visit."

Tang Yu-jeong's eyes widened. Suddenly Tang Yu-jeong got angry.

"That's why!"

"...?"

"I keep saying our mom and dad are only strict with their main family children!"

"It's only ten nyang. How can you say that's a lot?"

'Only? Look who's full. No wonder you were just throwing money at bandits. I got half a nyang per quarter until my missions.'

Jin Heon said while eating without even looking up.

"Don't lie. What would you gain by lying to me that you get little allowance?"

"Hm? It's not a lie though."

"Then how can you come to an expensive restaurant like this with that little allowance? Just what we ordered now will be at least five nyang."

"Be grateful."

"For what?"

Tang Yu-jeong said with a bitter, pitiful expression.

'It's my emergency fund I saved penny by penny to get married. So I'm giving up getting married and feeding you this meal.'

Jin Heon suddenly felt burdened.

"Why go this far..."

"Sorry, that was actually a lie."

Jin Heon's insides boiled up and he glared. Tang Yu-jeong chuckled and said.

"Not marriage, it's money I saved from not spending on missions. I'm pitiful, right?"

"No! Not at all!"

"Then you pay."

"What?"

"Our family motto, didn't I tell you?"

"What family motto all of a sudden? I don't want to know that. And I'm not a Tang."

'You're a Jin.'

Jin Heon's face reddened. Whether Tang or Jin, he was Jin Ja-gang's child either way.

"Our family motto is 'integrity and defense'. We may not know other things, but shamelessness is absolutely not tolerated in our family. Since I found your money, if you know integrity, naturally you should pay. Understand, Heon?"

Jin Heon said.

"Just one request. Don't call my name carelessly anywhere. I've never been called by my real name in Hainan until now."

"Huh? You already know?"

"Know what?"

"Actually, we came looking for you because we heard strange talk. Someone is targeting us. It seems they're trying to shake Dad."

"Sorry, but I've been used to that since I was very young. You at least lived under the Tang Family's protection, but I was born in a sect that was falling apart."

Jin Heon said with a calm face.

"I was thoroughly hidden. Since childhood, wherever I went, I only heard my childhood name. Mother and Aunt taught me that way. Because if anyone found out I was his child, who knows what kind of person would come after me."

"But you wrote Heon in the letter? That's how we found you."

"..."

Jin Heon didn't answer.

Tang Yu-jeong smirked.

"What? You deliberately wrote Heon to rebel? You're really timid."

"Mind your own business."

"Well, I understand it's funny to use a childhood name at your age and for parents and children to exchange letters like secret codes. Hehe."

"I said mind your own business!"

"Okay, okay."

Tang Yu-jeong nodded as if she understood.

She deliberately didn't tell Jin Heon that someone targeting them was related to the safety of the entire jianghu martial world.

Anyway, to Jin Heon, his sect was already as good as destroyed. So even if the jianghu martial world collapsed again, Jin Heon's world wouldn't be much different from before or in the future. That might be the difference between the position of those with vested interests and the position of a declining sect that could disappear at any time.

Tang Yu-jeong shook her head with complicated emotions, casting off her thoughts, then asked.

'What was your childhood name?'

"You're curious about that?"

Jin Heon didn't answer. But he recalled something he heard before and smirked.

"Poison Heaven?"

Tang Yu-jeong flinched.

"Hey! How do you know that? And why are you laughing after saying someone's childhood name? Huh?"

Tang Yu-jeong even tried to grab his collar.

"Stop it. I'm eating."

"Tch. Seeing you laugh at my childhood name, you definitely had a cute childhood name. That's why you had no choice but to use the name Heon. Because it's embarrassing."

"Don't obsess over weird things. I won't tell you no matter what."

Rebuked, Tang Yu-jeong pouted and said while eating.

"Actually, what I'm curious about is something else. The fact that you were called by your childhood name where other people were means you could go outside from when you were young, right?"

"Of course."

"We couldn't do that."

"Are you trying to compare who suffered more? Only one person will get cursed at."

"Who is that... Oh."

Dad.

"You hate Dad because you think he made you suffer."

"Think it's that simple? And I don't want to talk about that man with others."

"We're not others, we're siblings."

"We met for the first time today."

"Ah, well yeah. That's true."

Tang Yu-jeong put her hands behind her head and leaned back.

"But you know. I'm the same. There are times I like Dad and times I hate him. But what I hate more isn't Dad, it's me, being Dad's daughter. And I hated even more that I couldn't tell anyone about that situation."

When Tang Yu-jeong was looking at the ceiling, Jin Heon slightly raised his head and looked at Tang Yu-jeong.

Tang Yu-jeong said as if lamenting.

"We couldn't leave the house. Because we couldn't control our poison, in case we harmed others. Mom and Dad cared more about how they looked to others than about us, forcing us to be morally and ethically flawless as if they had some kind of cleanliness obsession."

"That's natural."

Tang Yu-jeong looked at Jin Heon.

"Controlling poison is naturally what you must do if you don't want to harm others. You can't complain about that. Even I desperately controlled my poison because if I made a mistake, Hainan Island would become hell."

Jin Heon also knew about the power of poison flowing in his body. But that power made Aunt An Ryeong crippled and gave Mother a lung disease she'd carry for life. He felt more than anyone how terrible and frightening that poison was.

Cursed blood. He didn't want to use it if possible.

'Right. The poison in our bones could create hell if things go wrong. That's what I fear most too. If it spreads on the wind, thousands, tens of thousands of innocent people will die.'

The main hall of the old Murim Alliance in Nanchang was prohibited from general entry for years despite Jin Ja-gang's purification work. Until recently, it was a land of death where not even a blade of grass grew and even insects avoided it.

"Wait. But knowing that, you tried to use that poison on me earlier?"

At Tang Yu-jeong's words, Jin Heon glared at her. The back of his head still stung. Rather, the one who suffered damage wasn't Tang Yu-jeong but Jin Heon.

"Even if I did, you wouldn't even blink."

'Well, that's true.'

Jin Heon felt something strange. Tang Yu-jeong had been having parts of the conversation telepathically. He wondered if she was saying things others shouldn't hear, but that wasn't it either.

"What are you doing? Why are you using telepathy with someone right in front of you? Is it a habit?"

"Ah, it's nothing. I'm calling my younger brother."

Tang Yu-jeong said.

"He seems to be almost here. Treat Gyeong well when you meet him later."

"That won't happen."

"Gyeong couldn't leave the inner grounds until recently. Because he couldn't control his poison."

"Siblings who only cause trouble."

Tang Yu-jeong laughed.

"Now you're included in that."

Jin Heon felt like his appetite was ruined.

Just then, a cheerful voice was heard from outside the room.

"Sister!"

Slam! The door opened and Tang Gyeong entered.

Jin Heon stared at Tang Gyeong. Then looked at Tang Yu-jeong again.

Even if he hadn't called her sister, it would have been obvious they were siblings at a glance. They resembled each other.

Tang Gyeong also glanced at Jin Heon. He was clearly thinking the same thing as Jin Heon.

"What, you're late."

Tang Gyeong answered Tang Yu-jeong's words.

"I found out. You were right, sister. And there's something important."

"The money I gave you. Did you spend it all?"

"Ah, you gave me barely anything. There's nothing left. More importantly, there's something important!"

"It's okay. You can say it. We're family."

Jin Heon was about to argue who's family, then stopped. It would only make the conversation longer.

Tang Gyeong said.

"There are many other people here besides us."