Chapter 39
After making the promise with the Manor Lord. The Manor Lord truly kept his word. He did everything he could to cure my mother’s illness.
First, the Manor Lord sent Physician Jeong to examine my mother. I had some hope. After all, Physician Jeong was famous even within the Xiao Family Manor for being highly skilled. But Physician Jeong could only shake his head.
‘…I’m sorry.’
In the end, he couldn’t determine the cause of her illness.
And it wasn’t only Physician Jeong. Afterward, the Manor Lord introduced me to various other physicians as well. Among them were occasionally famous physicians whose names I had even heard before.
But…
“Good heavens, how could such an illness…”
“In all my years, I’ve never seen symptoms like these.”
“No matter what we try, there is absolutely no improvement. We have no choice but to give up…”
There was not a single person among them who could cure my mother. No matter what new treatments they tried or how precious the medicinal ingredients they used, the illness did not improve.
If anything, it only grew worse.
‘Why?’
Eventually, I even began to resent the heavens.
If the young lady’s illness had been cured, shouldn’t my mother’s have been cured too?
What was lacking that my mother had to continue suffering?
What had I endured and struggled for all this time…?
The unfairness of it all was so overwhelming that there were times when I secretly cried.
I had been sniffling quietly while my mother was asleep, but apparently the sound had woken her.
Seeing me crying, Mother whispered softly,
“Danna, it’s all right.”
“…”
“Mother is really all right.”
Then she took my hand and gave me a faint smile.
“Everything will work out, so don’t be too sad, my dear.”
What could I possibly do in front of a mother like that?
I had no choice but to suppress the emotions welling up inside me and hold her hand in return.
After that, Mother began sleeping for longer periods. As though saying those words had put her at ease, as though she now simply wanted to rest deeply.
The amount of time she spent asleep began to exceed the amount of time she was awake.
Naturally, the time I could spend talking with Mother also decreased considerably. Whether I was leaving for work or returning home, I increasingly found Mother already asleep.
But rather than become discouraged, I chose to behave as I always had.
“Mother! Did you have a good day today? Nothing happened, right? Nothing much happened to me either, but something a little funny happened, and what happened was…”
I would sit beside Mother and chatter away by myself.
Of course, Mother remained asleep and didn’t even answer me.
But I paid no attention to that and eagerly told her about everything that had happened that day.
I wanted to tell my sleeping mother about the world outside, and I felt that if I continued treating her normally like this, then when she eventually woke up, she would naturally respond, ‘Is that so?’
“…And that’s what happened.”
After finishing my story today as well, I paused for a moment to catch my breath.
A heavy silence descended. Mother was still asleep, and the surroundings were eerily quiet.
“Mother.”
As I quietly gazed at her, I suddenly stood up and put my ear against her heart.
Thump… thump…
Only when I heard that faint beating did the tension finally leave my body.
I straightened up and sat back down in the chair.
Then, after watching Mother for a while, I lay down beside her and muttered as though speaking to myself,
“I miss you…”
***
“Fwaaaahm.”
I yawned as I entered through the gates of the Xiao Family Manor.
Perhaps because I had fallen asleep while lying face down yesterday, my body felt stiff and sluggish, leaving me in a thoroughly unpleasant mood.
Whenever I had days like this, something always seemed to happen…
I rubbed my stiff shoulders and continued walking. A familiar figure appeared from the opposite direction.
“Aso!”
“You’re here? I actually had something to tell you…”
I tilted my head as Aso quickly approached me.
Regardless, Aso grabbed me and began rattling off something I couldn’t understand.
“You’re obviously going to the Namgung Family, right? I begged Madam Ma to let me go too, but her reaction was lukewarm, which makes me a little nervous, so you…”
“No, wait. What?”
I stared blankly and asked.
“The Namgung Family?”
Instead, Aso tilted his head and asked,
“What’s with you… You don’t know?”
What I heard next was extremely shocking.
The Manor Lord was going to leave for the Namgung Family with the young lady before long.
Officially, the reason was that the young lady had recovered her health and they wanted to take the opportunity to travel and make up for the outings she hadn’t been able to enjoy before. But according to Aso, he thought they were actually planning to go together with Namgung Jeong and look for further treatment methods.
“They’re apparently going to travel around various places, so they’re only taking a small number of household members with them. Do you know how fierce the competition is? It’s an opportunity that doesn’t come around often, so everyone’s going crazy trying to get picked…”
“…”
“Ahem, anyway, if you were going, I naturally assumed you’d be going too. You’re the only one who attends to the young lady, after all… You really didn’t hear about it?”
I hadn’t.
Was it merely that I hadn’t heard?
I had never even imagined it in the first place.
Going to the Namgung Family.
Wasn’t I supposed to live here for the rest of my life?
“Well… we might see each other again soon.”
Only then did I understand what Namgung Jeong had said.
I had wondered if he had said that because he intended to return to the Xiao Family Manor soon. But from the beginning, he had been assuming that the father and daughter of the Xiao Family would be going to the Namgung Family.
If the young lady went, I would naturally be going along with her.
But still…
How could I not have known about this?
Surely the young lady knew?
“I knew.”
“What?!”
When I looked at her with an aggrieved expression, the young lady instead spoke as though she couldn’t understand what the problem was.
“Was there any need to tell you? You’re the only person who attends to me anyway, so of course you have to go.”
“Ah…”
“Well, I suppose it’s fine to tell you now. We’re leaving for the Namgung Family in a month. It’s quite a long journey, so pack your things in advance. We’ll prepare whatever you need here, so you don’t have to pack anything elaborate.”
“…”
“Understood?”
‘Of course.’
I should have said that. But strangely, the words wouldn’t come out.
I hesitated for a while before eventually managing to say only this:
“Will we… be staying there for a long time?”
The young lady looked at me strangely before answering,
“Probably.”
‘Probably.’
It was an extremely ambiguous word. It meant we might stay for a long time, or we might not.
But we were traveling all the way to Anhui Province. To cover a distance of more than 3,000 li, it certainly wouldn’t be a short journey. And she had even said we would stay there once we arrived.
It might take at least a year or two…
‘A year or two?’
Then what about my mother?
Would my mother be able to hold on while I was away at the Namgung Family?
What if I returned, only to find that Mother had already left this world forever…?
‘No. I absolutely have to stay by Mother’s side.’
Then what should I do?
Should I bring Mother with me?
Would the Manor Lord allow me to bring her?
Even if he did, could Mother endure such a long journey?
For several days, I wavered back and forth, agonizing over what to do.
And eventually, I had no choice but to make a decision and stand before the young lady.
“My lady, about going to the Namgung Family…”
“Yes?”
“I don’t think I can go.”
The young lady’s eyes widened.
“What…?”
The young lady was rarely caught off guard like this, and I stammered as I explained.
Of course, all I really did was draw out the statement ‘My mother’s condition is too poor for me to leave’ at length. But the young lady, who already knew about my situation, couldn’t say anything.
Only after a long silence did she finally open her mouth.
“I’ll… I’ll speak to Father. If I ask him, we should be able to bring your mother along with us.”
“…”
“The journey won’t be too difficult, either. I’m in poor health myself, so we can’t travel too hard anyway. Physician Jeong will be coming with us as well, so it’ll be easier to take care of her. And if it becomes too difficult, we can stop and rest along the way…”
“…”
“You understand, right? I’ll go speak to Father right now, so…”
“My lady.”
I bit my lip and said,
“My mother is in very poor condition.”
“…”
“She hasn’t been able to open her eyes for quite some time now. We don’t know when she’ll wake up, so I don’t know if it would be all right. Even if I bring Mother along, she’ll only become a burden to you. Rather than that…”
I paused for a moment.
Then I lowered my head, unable to look at the young lady’s face as it gradually turned deathly pale.
“I’m sorry.”
“…”
The young lady remained silent for a long time. She merely stared at me before eventually letting out a long sigh and saying one thing.
“Let’s talk about it again later.”
After that, the young lady never brought up the subject again.
But I knew… No matter how many times we talked about it again, the conclusion would be the same.
I would end up telling her the exact same thing.
‘How did it come to this?’
I felt a little depressed.
Just when the young lady had finally opened her heart to me, just when I felt that we had grown a little closer, we were going to have to part ways in the end…
I quickly shook my head.
No, there was no telling what might happen. Perhaps, miraculously, the situation could improve.
And if that happened, couldn’t I go to the Namgung Family later and meet the young lady there?
Even if I didn’t go right away, if I waited here, the young lady would eventually return…
‘Yes. That will be enough.’
I forced myself to soothe my bitter feelings.
The Xiao Family Manor was bustling with activity for the first time in a long while.
Preparations for the journey to the Namgung Family were proceeding rapidly, and the people accompanying the trip looked strangely excited despite being busy rushing about.
I could only watch them from afar.
In truth, I didn’t even have the time to pay attention to them. Because not long afterward, Mother opened her eyes.
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