Spring in Paju came much later than in Hanyang.

The wind still concealed winter’s sharp blade. White breath frosted with every exhalation of morning air.

Unknowingly, my body shrank inward.

But the appearance of one woman made me forget the cold temperature and the wind brushing my cheeks.

Two servant women working in the kitchen brought a large meal tray to the guesthouse. A woman called “Arang” followed behind the edge of the tray.

“When you finish eating, please pull this cord.”

The older servant woman pointed to a long cord hanging in one corner of the guesthouse.

Kwon Jwa Woo and the other members of the investigation team nodded reflexively.

Even after the servant and the magistrate’s son disappeared outside, Arang continued to remain.

No, she simply took a seat right next to Hong Woo Geon.

“I know it’s proper not to share a table with a woman, but…”

Arang fixed her grape-like eyes on Kwon Jwa Woo, Lee Gyo Young, and Yoo Chi Sung one by one. Then she spoke in a voice full of aegyo.

“Could you not turn a blind eye just this once?”

Arang’s expression was so earnest that refusing here would make one feel like a sinner.

“Of course. Go ahead. It’s not just this once. Every meal, together… ahem.”

As Yoo Chi Sung, falling for Arang’s gaze, rambled on thoughtlessly, Lee Gyo Young jabbed him in the side.

‘What?’

To the silent question, Lee Gyo Young only sent a look telling him to keep his mouth shut, and sought out his own portion of food.

“Here you go.”

The quick-witted Arang neatly placed rice, soup, and utensils in front of Lee Gyo Young.

Nodding his head in gratitude, Lee Gyo Young picked up his spoon.

Arang showed the same kindness to Yoo Chi Sung and Kwon Jwa Woo as she had to Lee Gyo Young. Then she turned her gaze to Hong Woo Geon sitting beside her.

“I begged Father.”

“For what?”

“I threw a fit, asking to stay here at the government office when I knew elder brother Hong was coming.”

Every word exuded both elegance and affection.

As she spoke, Arang intermittently moved the side dish bowls on the tray. She moved Hong Woo Geon’s favorite dishes closer to him, and those he disliked further out of reach.

“Don’t worry about me, just eat.”

Hong Woo Geon said, seeming burdened by Arang’s thoughtfulness. But Arang shook her head.

“No. Arang will eat after elder brother finishes.”

“I see you still get unwell when pollen is in the air.”

“It’s much better these days. I don’t get short of breath like before.”

Hong Woo Geon smiled faintly at Arang’s adorable reply.

The conversation between the two flowed quite naturally.

As it contained details one could only know from spending many years together, the other investigation team members including Kwon Jwa Woo had no choice but to become spectators listening intently to their dialogue.

“Oh my, I’ve been so inconsiderate. The others who came with you must have things to say too. I was just so happy to see elder brother after so long…”

Arang smiled, making her eyes into crescent moons.

Seemingly captivated by her strikingly beautiful appearance, Yoo Chi Sung kept smiling contentedly.

“You two must have known each other for a long time?”

When Yoo Chi Sung asked, Arang rolled her eyes for a moment as if recalling old memories.

“Elder brother Hong was nine, and I was six. It’s already been over ten years.”

“Oh, that’s practically family then.”

Arang laughed softly at Yoo Chi Sung’s amazement.

“Though our blood isn’t mixed, aren’t Arang and elder brother Hong closer than blood relatives?”

As if seeking Hong Woo Geon’s agreement, Arang gently leaned her body against his shoulder.

At that moment, was it coincidence?

“What are you doing? If you’re done eating, shouldn’t we go out to investigate?”

Hong Woo Geon stood up abruptly.

Because of this, Arang ended up falling into empty space.

Kwon Jwa Woo turned her head away pretending not to see, and hastily shoved the last spoonful of rice into her mouth.

“We have documents to look over here at the government office.”

Lee Gyo Young said, leisurely eating his half-finished rice.

“Is that so? Then we should be going.”

Hong Woo Geon grabbed Kwon Jwa Woo’s wrist and hurriedly left the room.

No, he tried to leave.

But he was caught by Arang at the doorway.

“Elder brother, here.”

Arang pulled out a scarf from inside her sleeve.

The scarf, lined with marten fur on the inside, looked warm just to look at.

“Arang made this over three days and nights. Elder brother catches colds easily, don’t you? It’s colder here than in Hanyang, so you must wear this whenever you go out.”

With words of concern, Arang tightly wrapped the scarf around Hong Woo Geon’s neck.

Kwon Jwa Woo silently watched the two from beside them.

Perhaps from eating too quickly?

She had felt uncomfortable in her chest since earlier.

She shouldn’t have eaten that last spoonful after all.

Regretting it, Kwon Jwa Woo left the room.

Hong Woo Geon and Arang followed behind her like a close couple.

It took a good 5 li to go from one end of the village to the other.

“To visit all the houses with stomach ailments in one day, it would be best to split up.”

Kwon Jwa Woo suggested, citing efficiency.

But in reality, it was because she felt uncomfortable.

Ever since Arang appeared, strangely, her mindset towards Hong Woo Geon had become thorny. Despite Hong Woo Geon not doing anything in particular, her attitude towards him was no longer as comfortable as before.

Whenever she saw him, Arang’s face calling him “elder brother Hong” came to mind. And when she thought of Arang, she strangely felt stifled. She felt inexplicably displeased, as if a flower she had been holding had been snatched away.

That’s why she had suggested separating to investigate first.

Hong Woo Geon readily agreed.

But… why?

Seeing him agree so readily again made her feel like a hot pillar of fire was rising from deep in her stomach.

Unaware of her feelings, Hong Woo Geon leisurely headed towards the west side of the village.

Kwon Jwa Woo went to find the widow Son’s house at the eastern edge of the village.

Some time later.

“It was from last autumn. That’s when people started having stomach ailments.”

Kwon Jwa Woo was listening to how the villagers came to suffer from stomach problems.

For a widow’s household.

While not prosperous, it didn’t seem impoverished enough to skip meals either. Widow Son herself had smooth skin and a glowing face that belied her mid-thirties age.

Did the puzzlement show on her face?

Widow Son’s voice reached Kwon Jwa Woo’s ears.

“It’s thanks to Scholar Jung.”

“Pardon?”

“After my husband’s funeral, I was worried about where the next meal would come from. That’s when Scholar Jung’s household started sharing grain, firewood, and other necessities as needed.”

“Is that so?”

“Is there a house in this village that hasn’t received help from Scholar Jung’s household? They were generous even when the lady of the house was alive, but after she passed, they say his generosity increased even more.”

“Scholar Jung’s household must be quite well-off then.”

“You can’t walk anywhere nearby without stepping on their land. They’ve been a wealthy family for generations, but now rumors say their wealth has multiplied many times over.”

“The interest on the grain and firewood sent by Scholar Jung’s household must be high?”

At Kwon Jwa Woo’s question, Widow Son shook her head.

“Goodness, don’t say that. Scholar Jung lends without interest, only taking back exactly what he lent.”

“Yet his wealth has increased?”

“Heaven must have been moved by the scholar’s kindness and blessed him.”

“What if someone doesn’t pay back?”

“He understands there must be circumstances and is lenient, they say.”

“What an admirable person.”

“Indeed. There’s no one else like him in the world.”

It was said that not even the king could eradicate poverty. Even the relief grain given out by the country was returned with some interest added. Yet Scholar Jung not only didn’t charge interest, but laughed it off even if he couldn’t recover the principal.

“By the way, it looks like Scholar Jung’s granary threshold will be worn down again this barley hump.”

“What do you mean?”

“Wasn’t there severe flooding last autumn? The crops we were waiting to harvest were all washed away by the rain, and we barely made it through winter with what little remained. Every household’s grain jars must be showing their bottoms by now. So in this village, there’s only one place to go – Scholar Jung’s house.”

As she spoke, Widow Son looked back at her own empty grain jar. She too would have to cross Scholar Jung’s threshold in a few days.

“But how did you come to have stomach ailments?”

Kwon Jwa Woo asked, belatedly remembering the reason for her visit.

Widow Son arranged kindling for the fire with an unconcerned expression.

“Well. Maybe we ate something bad. Or maybe we ate food past its time. Probably something like that?”

“But I heard the stomach ailments continued one after another. Is that true?”

“That’s right. When one household’s stomach ailment ended, another household would start having it, and when that ended, suddenly a different house would have someone with a stomach ailment. Come to think of it, the severity of the ailments seems to have worsened too.”

“The severity of the stomach ailments worsened?”

“The first people who had stomach ailments just had pain for a few days, then the next vomited what they ate, and after that some were vomiting and defecating everything in their bodies for days. I heard someone even vomited blood recently…”

“Vomiting blood sounds serious, doesn’t it?”

Is it an endemic disease unique to this village? Or an epidemic?

If it’s an epidemic, we need to report to the government as soon as possible to investigate the cause of the illness.

If not, could someone be intentionally…?

Surely not, that can’t be.

“That’s all I know.”

Widow Son, finished arranging the kindling, roused Kwon Jwa Woo from her contemplation.

In the distance, the edge of the sky was beginning to turn red.

Evening had crept up unnoticed.

Despite hurrying as much as she could.

By the time she entered the government office gates, the world was pitch black.

“Why are you back so late?”

The guard at the gate offered a concerned word.

“Have the others all returned?”

“Of course. They should be having dinner by now. If you hurry, the kitchen won’t have to prepare a second meal.”

It seems the guard’s wife works in the government office kitchen.

Leaving behind the man worried about his wife’s workload, Kwon Jwa Woo quickly made her way to the guesthouse.

How long had she been hurrying like that?

The brightly lit guesthouse with its torches in the courtyard came into view. The scene inside the room with its oil lamps was also visible on the paper windows.

As the guard had said, dinner was in full swing inside.

But one, two.

Strangely, there were only two shadows. And one was a woman’s shadow.

Kwon Jwa Woo approached closer to the guesthouse room, wondering what was going on.

“Elder brother, are you really going to be like this?”

“…”

“What should I do? If elder brother doesn’t eat, this Arang will eat it all up.”

“Do as you please.”

The voices of Hong Woo Geon and Arang alternated.

Kwon Jwa Woo, who had grasped the door handle, unknowingly let go and stepped back.

She didn’t have the courage to disturb Hong Woo Geon and Arang’s intimate moment.

So, she tiptoed backwards down to the guesthouse courtyard.

As soon as she reached the courtyard, Kwon Jwa Woo turned to leave through the middle gate of the guesthouse.