The Muddy Water Rising to the Ankles

Muddy water rose to his ankles. Cha Yeonho pressed hard on his left thumb. A pain like a bone out of joint drove up his wrist and into his elbow. But he didn't let out a single groan, and instead studied the taut angle of the rope. The wooden pillar of the Gugok Floodgate shrieked and twisted. The enormous water pressure was trying to push the pillar out.

Senior Brother, the rope can't hold much longer! At this rate the pillar will snap!

Seok Muan's urgent shout was swallowed by the sound of the rain. The skin on his palms had been scraped off by the rope. Cha Yeonho pressed his hand to each worker's shoulder in turn, checking their footing and their breathing. If people with different strength just pulled without thinking, the floodgate would never move. That was Hoeryu Gate's old custom, the way it had always ground the joints of its disciples down to save the sect's face. Cha Yeonho had to break that cycle.

Everyone, watch my feet. From now on we don't pull with strength alone. Four beats. One, two, three, four.

Cha Yeonho wound the rope around his waist and drove his heels deep into the mud. He drew in a breath and tightened his diaphragm. His lungs were compressed and pain shot down his back. The numbness in his left hand swept through his whole body, but he kept his eyes fixed only on the floodgate's sill.

One!

The workers pulled the rope together. Cha Yeonho's heels dug faintly into the ground, absorbing the recoil of the current.

Two!

Seok Muan spread his feet wide and lowered his center of gravity. The vibration traveling through the rope grew smoother. Beside them, Baek Miryeong had her ledger open and was recording every detail of the workers' joint movements. Her eyes moved back and forth between Cha Yeonho's left hand and the workers' shoulders.

Three!

At that moment, An Sobin's voice burst out from the end of the rope.

Senior Brother, the third beat is too fast! The force is scattering, please start it a little later!

Cha Yeonho responded to Sobin's call at once. Sobin was the weakest among them, but no one read the trembling of the rope more sharply than she did. Cha Yeonho slowed his own breathing by half a beat. The tension caught in the rope then flowed up through the pillar in a steady, even wave.

Four!

The moment the four beats came together, the floodgate rose with a heavy grinding sound. The rushing water flowed swiftly into the drainage channel. The workers dropped where they stood, but none of them were hurt. Cha Yeonho forced the numbness lingering in his left hand to pass through him and drew a ragged breath.

Did we... did we really raise it? The sill moved!

Seok Muan clenched and unclenched his bloodied hand, speaking in a daze. Cha Yeonho gave him a short nod. Just then, heavy footsteps sounded from the hillside path beyond the floodgate. Men dressed in black, their chests marked with the seal of Nam Gyuhan, the branch overseer of Hoeryu Gate.

Nam Gyuhan waded through the mud and came up to Cha Yeonho. He looked first at Cha Yeonho's bandaged hand and the workers' haggard state, before the condition of the floodgate itself. His eyes held both contempt and a businesslike coldness.

You've worked hard, Senior Disciple Cha. Playing at being a laborer, when you should be training in the martial arts. It seems nothing satisfies you until Hoeryu Gate's dignity is dragged all the way into the dirt.

Nam Gyuhan pulled a scroll stamped with a red seal from inside his robe and threw it at Cha Yeonho's feet. The document landed on the ground and slowly soaked through with mud.

What does this mean?

Cha Yeonho asked. Nam Gyuhan smiled thinly and signaled to the enforcement disciples with his eyes.

This is a document Elder Im Bokjin left before he died. The unauthorized floodgate repair you carried out today, without going through proper procedure, is a violation of sect code. Hoeryu Gate's seal, next year's rights to toll revenue, and even the secret to that labor rhythm you just proved out here, all of it transfers to the merchant guild. Any objection?

Cha Yeonho picked up the wet document. The seal was certainly Elder Im's, but the grain of the paper and the way the ink had bled were distinctive to the fine hanji the merchant guild used. He crumpled it in the hand that held it.

This is a forgery. It imitates Elder Im's hand and his seal, but the texture of the paper is wrong. Elder Nam, why don't we compare this document you've brought against Hoeryu Gate's own ledgers, right now?

Nam Gyuhan's eyebrows twitched. He gripped the hilt of his sword, hiding the flicker of unease that Cha Yeonho's steady bearing had stirred in him.

Are you daring to say I'm wrong? To doubt a document from the merchant guild is to deny the authority of Hoeryu Gate itself.

Numbers in a ledger don't lie. I'm saying we compare the wage records we kept today for raising the floodgate against the totals in the document you brought. If you're confident, open your ledger right here.

Cha Yeonho pushed the ledger he had restored days earlier into Nam Gyuhan's chest. The edges of the ledger were stiff with dried salt. Nam Gyuhan stepped back, still holding the document. The enforcement disciples half drew their swords and closed in around Cha Yeonho, but he didn't retreat.

Fine. We'll compare the ledgers, just as you claim we should. If even one discrepancy turns up, all of you die today in the sect's name. We start the sect code inquiry right here, right now.

Nam Gyuhan slammed the document with the red seal down on the table. As the rain thinned, the silence in the yard settled even heavier. Cha Yeonho rose past the pain in his left hand and opened the first page of the ledger before Nam Gyuhan's eyes.

Let's begin. Junior Brother Do, Junior Sister Miryeong, prepare to record.

Do Gyeom took up a brush with trembling hands and stepped up to the table in front of Nam Gyuhan. The enforcement disciples raised their torches high. Nam Gyuhan lifted his own brush, glancing back and forth between his document and Cha Yeonho's ledger.

This is your last chance. If even a hair's width of discrepancy shows up in this comparison, I'll cut off your wrist myself and shut Hoeryu Gate's doors for good.

Cha Yeonho answered calmly. He pointed to each entry in the ledger in turn and read out the numbers. Do Gyeom moved his brush to match the figures. Nam Gyuhan scrutinized his own document, searching for grounds to object, but the ledger Cha Yeonho presented was too precise. The fragments of the seal and the traces of salt were stronger evidence than any forged document could be.

Elder Nam, look here. Don't the material costs, wages, and medical expenses for the floodgate repair all match exactly? Then why are these very items missing from the merchant guild's document?

Nam Gyuhan bit his lip. His face turned pale. Cha Yeonho didn't stop, pressing further into Nam Gyuhan's mistake.

This is Hoeryu Gate's law. To reveal whose blood and sweat is recorded in the ledger. What you brought here is nothing more than an order to erase that record.

Nam Gyuhan threw his brush down onto the table. Ink splattered, staining the document black. He had nothing left to say. Cha Yeonho took the brush from Do Gyeom's hand and left his final signature in the blank space of the ledger.

Tomorrow morning, I will send the original of this ledger to the Genealogy Registry's central office. Along with the fake document you brought.

Nam Gyuhan turned, flustered, to look at the enforcement disciples standing behind him, but even they, cowed by Cha Yeonho's bearing, didn't dare move rashly. Cha Yeonho stared straight at Nam Gyuhan and gave Seok Muan an order.

Guard the gate. No one leaves this yard tonight.

Nam Gyuhan hesitated, then vanished into the darkness. Alone in the yard now, Cha Yeonho spoke again.

"Senior Sister, there's something we need to do while the ink on this ledger dries." Yeonho said, pulling the lamp on the table closer.

Baek Miryeong glanced at Yeonho's left hand and pressed a finger to the bloodstain seeping through the bandage. "Once morning comes, the Genealogy Registry's auditors will be here. We can't leave this ledger as it is until then. Even if it means our wrists break, we need to verify every number again tonight."

"Agreed." Do Gyeom cut in, his expression hard. He wet his brush again and asked, "Senior Brother, can you work out the amount the merchant guild embezzled that's missing from the floodgate repair costs?"

Yeonho set his left hand on the table and spread his fingers. The joints were twisted into a grotesque shape, but his finger pointed precisely at a specific line in the ledger. "The figures here are too clean. As if someone had planned the manipulation from the very start. Remember the rhythm Sobin called out? This is the exact item where that rhythm broke down."

Baek Miryeong stared hard at the spot Yeonho was pointing to. Her eyes narrowed. "Now that you mention it, only this section has slightly thicker strokes. That's not Elder Im's hand. It's Nam Gyuhan's."

"Exactly. He never imagined we'd notice, even as he compared the ledgers while looking at his own handwriting." Yeonho closed the ledger with a cold smile. "Junior Brother Do, take this page out separately and keep it apart. Tomorrow it'll be the evidence that makes them dig their own graves."

The moment he heard Yeonho's instruction, Do Gyeom handled the ledger with tense, careful hands. Baek Miryeong unwound the bandage wrapped around Yeonho's hand and began winding a stiff new cloth around it. Dawn light was beginning to touch the Gugok Floodgate. Cha Yeonho lifted his head to look at the sky. The rain was stopping. Now was the time to prove his skill openly, under the sun. He took a calm step forward. A new morning for Hoeryu Gate was beginning that way. The document with the red seal that Nam Gyuhan had left behind was trodden into the mud beneath Cha Yeonho's step. That document could no longer threaten Hoeryu Gate. Only the ledger Cha Yeonho had written would now be Hoeryu Gate's one and only law. The sect's rebuilding was only just beginning. He carried that resolve, firmer now, as he walked deeper into the main mountain. Cha Yeonho's left thumb sent another dull wave of pain, but he didn't stop. That was the price he had to bear, and the very strength holding Hoeryu Gate together. All that remained now was deciding, together with his fellow disciples, how they would repay this debt. Cha Yeonho opened the door and stepped inside. Baek Miryeong was already waiting there, preparing the audit report for the next morning. Her eyes moved calmly between Cha Yeonho's hand and the newly written ledger. All preparations were complete now. It was time for a new record to begin.