CDBW 08

Chapter 8

“Fine. I’ll give it to you.”

Zuhan finally stretched out his arm while grumbling.

“This might sting a little.”

Yunseol dug her fingernails deeply into Zuhan’s arm.
Blood immediately began to flow from the wound.

Wenling caught Zuhan’s blood in the ink bottle he had prepared in advance.

Zuhan’s hair would serve as the brush, and his blood would be mixed with the ink.
That was the alternative Yunseol had come up with.

When Wenling first heard the idea, he opposed it. The Zuhan he knew was not someone who would casually give away pieces of his own body.

But Yunseol’s answer had been simple.

If he wouldn’t give it willingly, they could just take it.

At first Wenling didn’t understand what that meant. Yet somehow, things had led to him ambushing the man who was supposedly his older brother, cutting off his hair and even drawing his blood.

“Damn, that hurts. All this suffering because of my idiot little brother.”

Zuhan held his wounded arm, his eyes watering.

Seeing the wound, Yunseol bit her own finger. Then she held out her webbed hand, dripping blood, toward Zuhan.

“Eat.”

Zuhan frowned and snapped,

“Take that away! I hate fishy-smelling food.”

Ignoring him, Yunseol shoved her finger into his mouth.

Her blood naturally flowed down his throat.

Soon, fresh flesh began to grow over Zuhan’s wound, and in moments it healed completely.

Zuhan’s eyes widened in shock, and he made a huge fuss.

“So the rumors are true? If you drink mermaid blood, you gain eternal youth? Does this mean my humble dream of living to 130 with three wives and four concubines will finally come true?!”

Yunseol replied flatly.

“No. I’m only half-mermaid, so it doesn’t go that far. It just heals wounds. Don’t expect too much.”

“Ah… so this world really has neither dreams nor hope.”

Zuhan let out a long sigh, looking genuinely disappointed.

Watching him, Yunseol felt strongly convinced that the famous Heo family might actually be nothing special.

She had only met two members today, but the so-called elite older brother was practically missing a few screws entirely, and the younger brother—though quick on his feet—was far more incompetent than expected.

How could such a pair possibly continue the lineage of a prestigious family?

Yunseol suddenly felt sorry for their ancestor, Cangjie.

“Wait a second, little brother. I still have something to say.”

Zuhan called out to Wenling, who had been packing up the ink bottle.

Wenling instinctively frowned with hostility.

“What now? Looking for another fight?”

“It’s a thank-you for showing me that precious mermaid.”

Glowing red characters burst from Zuhan’s fingertips in a neat line.

“‘Even if Xi Shi hides behind willow leaves, how could her beauty ever be concealed?’”

With those words, the characters swept across Wenling’s chest.

Before long, nausea surged up from his esophagus.

“Uwaaaaaaack!”

Unable to hold it in, Wenling vomited on the spot.

But something hard suddenly surged up his throat along with it.

Wenling forced it out.

“Wh-what is this?”

When he regained his senses, a grotesquely twisted insect resembling a centipede was wriggling among the vomit.

Seeing the disgusting creature, Yunseol gasped in horror.

“What on earth is that?”

“It’s a material used in the Gu sorcery practiced by the Miao tribe’s Chogwi faction.”

Zuhan stepped on the insect and crushed it as he explained.

“They bury all kinds of venomous insects in a deep jar. They devour each other until only the strongest survives. That’s called Gu poison. It’s used to place vicious curses on people. Usually a boiled egg or quail egg is used as the catalyst. Don’t tell me you didn’t even know something like that was inside your stomach?”

Wenling wiped his mouth and recalled the old woman in blue he had met earlier.

The moment the old woman spoke to him, he heard the cry of some beast from somewhere.

Then, as if enchanted, he had forced himself to eat the boiled egg she handed him.

He never imagined something like this had entered his body through that.

“Listen carefully. The Chogwi sorcerer who cursed you is stronger than you think. Sorcerers skilled in Gu magic often use not only venomous insects but also animal spirits. One of those must have clung to you and concealed the presence of the curse.”

Zuhan looked down at Wenling with a mocking smile.

“Honestly, I wanted to pretend I didn’t notice. But if rumors spread that my little brother died because worms chewed through his intestines, I’d be too embarrassed to live.”

Wenling closed his mouth, his expression full of humiliation.

He had been so devastated about losing his fountain pen that he hadn’t thought that far ahead.

Gu curses only grow stronger over time, eventually driving the victim mad before killing them.

As much as he hated to admit it, if Zuhan hadn’t intervened, the symptoms would have worsened.

Yunseol looked at the crushed insect and asked with confusion,

“Baekryundang are smugglers, right? Then why is a Chogwi sorcerer traveling with them?”

“Baekryundang and the Chogwi faction are close.”

Zuhan answered lazily.

“The boss is from the Miao tribe. They usually bring one along so they can punish people who refuse to pay properly after a job is done.”

After saying that, Zuhan stretched lazily.

Then he pointed at the hammock he had been lying in earlier.

“Well then, our business here is done, right? Can I go enjoy the rest of my vacation now? My flight leaves Jeju tomorrow.”

Wenling flared up immediately.

“What vacation? Have you forgotten you’re a wanted criminal?!”

“Then go ahead and arrest me.”

Zuhan replied mockingly.

“After you catch me, where will you keep me? A detention cell? Do you really think a place like that could hold me? And what if you get hurt fighting me? What if Baekryundang escapes while that happens?”

Wenling fell silent.

Zuhan wasn’t wrong.

Even if they captured him right now, there was no one in Jeju capable of keeping him under proper watch. And it wasn’t as if they could just lock him in an ordinary prison.

More importantly, Zuhan was no easy opponent.

If Wenling or Yunseol got injured while fighting him, tracking down Baekryundang would become much harder.

“Mr. Zuhan is right. We don’t have the capacity right now.”

Yunseol calmly assessed the situation.

“Our priority is retrieving the dangerous artifact to prevent casualties. Clashing with Mr. Zuhan right now would only make things harder.”

“See? I told you she understands.”

Zuhan shrugged smugly.

Yunseol glared at him and deliberately flicked seawater with her tail fin.

“For your information, in this state my sense of smell becomes extremely sharp.”

Her gills fluttered reddish each time she breathed, and she deliberately showed them to Zuhan.

“I can distinguish the scent of blood from dozens of kilometers away. Honestly, finding you in a place as big as Jeju wasn’t difficult. I remembered your scent.”

She bared her sharp teeth.

“If you try anything funny, I’ll chase you no matter where you go.”

“A mermaid lady chasing after me because she can’t forget me? Just hearing that makes my heart flutter.”

Despite the deadly warning, Zuhan only laughed.

* * * * *

Dayoung habitually checked her smartphone.

The meeting time was approaching, yet the person she was supposed to meet hadn’t shown up.

Out of boredom, Dayoung kept opening and closing the chat app.

[Where are you?]

Soon, a message popped up on the screen. Dayoung smiled brightly and replied immediately.

[In front of the restroom entrance.]

[Wait a little. I’m almost there.]

Humming to herself, Dayoung checked her reflection in the restroom’s glass door.

She had even worn her favorite light pink dress because she wanted to look pretty.

Truly, she couldn’t be a more perfect bait.

“Hi. You’re Dayoung, right?”

A middle-aged man suddenly appeared from across the hall.

In the chat app he had introduced himself as a college student in his mid-twenties, but he looked well over forty.

But that didn’t matter anyway.

“Yes! That’s me, oppa.”

Dayoung approached him first with a cute smile.

At the word oppa, the man grinned widely.

He was so easy to read.

Dayoung immediately clung to him playfully.

“So oppa, what should we do now?”

“Huh? Well…”

The man glanced toward the nearby restroom.

Dayoung smiled innocently and grabbed the man’s sweaty arm.

“You said you’d show me something fun when we met.”

Looking up at him with a wide grin, she could clearly see the uncontrollable desire boiling on his face.

“Shall we go do something fun together, oppa?”

The man pulled Dayoung toward the restroom.

She obediently followed him inside.

“Is this really something a man your age should be doing?”

A sudden unfamiliar voice interrupted.

Confusion flashed across the man’s face.

Footsteps approached steadily from the restroom entrance.

Then a sharp sound cut through the air, followed by a massive impact that shook the restroom.

“AAAAAAAH!”

The man screamed as he fell backward.

Dayoung quickly ran along the wall and leaped onto the ceiling.

Only the partitions and toilet bowls were smashed to pieces.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

A voice like a beast’s roar burst from Dayoung’s mouth.

“An elder is finally about to enjoy a good meal, and you dare interfere? Yoo Hyerim, didn’t anyone teach you table manners?!”

Through the cloud of dust, a woman with long straight hair walked forward.

She looked to be in her mid-twenties.

The woman called Hyerim asked calmly,

“Didn’t you promise the museum you’d stop seducing men and eating their livers?”

Dayoung chuckled and jumped down to the floor.

“I’ve told so many lies in my life that I can’t even remember them all. Do you really think someone like me would keep a promise made with a mere human?”

She glared fiercely at the one who had interrupted her hunt.

Yoo Hyerim.

A curator belonging to the Great Museum, responsible for the Gangwon branch.

Dayoung let out a low growl at Hyerim. At the same time, her mouth protruded like the snout of a beast.

“A-a fox! A fox! It’s a gumiho!”

The man sitting on the floor screamed in terror.

Hyerim genuinely felt sorry for him.

How could he have imagined that the girl he met through a chat app was actually such a vicious creature?

Clicking her tongue, Hyerim said,

“A gumiho is a fox that has cultivated the Dao and reached a high spiritual realm—a sacred fox spirit.”

She gestured toward Dayoung.

“That thing is the complete opposite. A creature that commits every vile act imaginable—closer to an evil spirit than a divine one. What we call a wild vixen.”

A gray tail swayed beneath Dayoung’s skirt.

At the same time, the nails on both her hands curved into sharp claws.

“You know how you call a cunning woman a ‘vixen’?”

Dayoung flexed her newly grown claws.

“The kind of vixen you’re talking about… is me, you bastard!”