Chapter 46

For Cheong-ra with his injured neck, Yeo-jin brought porridge that was easy to swallow. Cheong-ra carefully scooped up the porridge and swallowed. Even after swallowing just a little, pain rose, making him frown involuntarily. As he seemed about to put down his spoon, Yeo-jin said worriedly,

"You need to take medicine too, so please eat at least half."

Cheong-ra endured the pain and barely managed to swallow half of the porridge. He could hardly taste it. Then Yeo-jin handed him the medicinal decoction she had brought on the tray and explained.

"This medicine helps relax the body and promotes recovery. It's good for bruises."

At those words, Cheong-ra swallowed the bitter decoction with difficulty. He wanted to erase the hideous bruises on his neck as soon as possible. After he finished drinking the decoction, Yeo-jin carefully applied ointment to Cheong-ra's neck. Afterwards, she wrapped a thin cotton cloth around it once to help with faster absorption.

"I'll change the ointment and cloth again in the evening. Please call me anytime if you need anything. Oh! I put the precious item that was on the table in the drawer of the dressing table."

Cheong-ra nodded as if he knew nothing, and soon Yeo-jin left the room. He inwardly sighed in relief, recalling how he had been rubbing the ice jade against his cheek without regard for appearances. If Yeo-jin had seen, what an undignified act she would have thought it was.

Still unable to resist, he took out the beautiful ice jade again and fiddled with it carefully. He felt extremely enraptured whenever he saw beautiful things, whether living or not. How wonderful it would be if the world were filled with only beautiful things...

As he was playing with such an expensive item, the effects of the medicinal decoction began to set in, and he sat on the bed to perform his evening meditation. Afterwards, he looked at the ice jade again and then anxiously checked the bruises on his neck in the mirror. They didn't seem to have faded at all.

'Yeo-jin... will probably come in around lunchtime.'

From experience, she was someone who never set foot in except to bring meals. Nevertheless, after hesitating several times, Cheong-ra hid behind the wardrobe and carefully half-removed his lower garment. As expected, the string he always tied was gone, leaving him free. Cheong-ra took out a spare string from his luggage. His hand, accustomed to winding the string from the root of his member, paused.

Recalling Dang Ran-yeong's large, firm hand grasping and shaking his thing, his breathing quickened slightly. How ecstatic was the sensation of that grip tightly holding his thing. The fingertips winding the string halfway trembled. Finally giving in to temptation, he grasped his thing in his hand before fully winding the string.

"Haa..."

With a low sigh, he began to move his hand. His eyelashes trembled and fluttered with pleasure. As he slowly moved his hand up and down, his earlobes gradually turned red. However, when his erect thing swelled and the string wound around the root tightened, causing pain, his hand stopped immediately.

The temptation to ejaculate was so strong that he bit his lip and closed his eyes tightly. His fingers slowly caressed his half-erect thing from top to bottom. Just a little more and he could reach climax.

However, due to his long-standing habit, he didn't go all the way to the end and took a deep breath as he finished winding the string. Even though he deliberately ignored it, his erect thing wouldn't subside easily.

Cheong-ra looked around for a cotton cloth to wipe his hands. There was a basket of cotton cloths that Yeo-jin had left, saying to use them when needed. As he was wiping his hands with a slightly dampened cloth, his gaze suddenly turned to an object placed next to the basket.

"This wasn't here until yesterday...?"

Cheong-ra's eyes widened slightly. He quickly approached and examined it, finding it was a carving of a rat. It was very snow-white, and its small, round shape was as cute as a rice cake. Cheong-ra, who had been thinking it was just a decorative carving, paused. He rummaged through his luggage and took out the rabbit carving he had bought in Xiangyang last time.

"Is this the Chinese zodiac...?"

The rabbit carving was very similar in size and shape to the rat. Placing it next to the snow-white rat for comparison, he noticed the rabbit had a slightly yellower tint. Cheong-ra's eyes wavered. Although the color was slightly different, it was clearly the rat, one of the twelve zodiac carvings. When he turned it over to check the bottom, there was a small mark where the craftsman had engraved a sentence.

Although he knew no one would come in, Cheong-ra quickly turned his head to look at the door. His eyes, looking at the rat carving placed next to the rabbit, wavered with conflict.

'I didn't know rats could be this cute...'

After fiddling with it for a long time and pondering, he glanced at his luggage containing all his wealth. He was tempted to leave a little more money than the amount he had paid for the rabbit carving last time. But immediately, he blushed with shame at his own thoughts.

"Taking something that clearly belongs to someone else is theft!"

After scolding himself, he earnestly admired the rabbit and rat carvings placed side by side until Yeo-jin came. He imagined how nice it would look to have all twelve zodiac carvings collected and displayed. Finally, when it was mealtime and Yeo-jin came in with lunch, Cheong-ra asked politely.

"Miss Yeo-jin, would it be possible to buy those carvings over there?"

"Ah! You mean Master Chang-ryong's work? I thought you might like it for its majestic aura. If you want, shall I try placing an order with Master Chang-ryong?"

"Ah, no. Not that..."

Yeo-jin had mistaken it for the tiger wooden decoration next to the rat carving. It was embarrassing to mention the zodiac carvings that were said to be popular among women, but Cheong-ra spoke as calmly as he could. His voice was still soft and quiet due to his sore throat.

"I meant the decorative item carved as a rat."

Yeo-jin tilted her head in confusion, looked at the tiger wooden decoration again, and then discovered the zodiac carving placed modestly beside it. At this, Yeo-jin exclaimed, "Ah!"

"I believe that carving is one of the twelve zodiac signs. I'd like to buy all the carvings."

There would be two rabbits since it was a duplicate, but he planned to display one and carry the other to enjoy secretly whenever he had time. However, unexpectedly, a troubled expression spread across Yeo-jin's face.

"I'm sorry, Young Master Baek Ri. That item is no longer sold at the merchant group."

Cheong-ra was deeply disappointed by Yeo-jin's answer. He had asked Yeo-jin because he didn't have the courage to go to the merchant group and ask for the zodiac carvings, but now they were no longer sold there.

"Then could I at least buy this rat carving?"

"Well..."

The troubled expression on Yeo-jin's face intensified. Her following answer was unexpected, making Cheong-ra's mind go blank.

"Seeing that an item that wasn't here until recently suddenly appeared, it seems to be something the Lord Owner left behind, so you would need to get permission directly from him."

***

The cute rat carving did seem out of place in the guest room where all decorative items were harmoniously well-matched. However, he hadn't thought for a moment that Dang Ran-yeong had left it behind. Such a carving wasn't particularly well-suited for a martial artist like himself, and it was an even less fitting combination for that person.

Thinking about it, had information been collected from the moment he bought it at the White Jade Merchant Group in Xiangyang? Had it been left behind conspicuously because he wanted some kind of reaction from Cheong-ra himself?

Otherwise, Yeo-jin, who had been pretending not to know the Lord Owner's whereabouts all this time, wouldn't have told him the location of the room Dang Ran-yeong was using. Cheong-ra thought this as he stared intently at the door of the room Dang Ran-yeong was using.

Although several days had passed, his strangled neck still ached and it was uncomfortable to speak. That's how much fear and shame towards the other person remained in Cheong-ra's heart. The fact that he had completely subdued him and dominated him to the point of losing consciousness, and that he had succumbed to violence and eventually put the chair's armrest in his mouth.

And those words that seemed to praise him for enduring well...

His heart pounded even though he hadn't seen the other person. As he was fiddling with the object in his arms and pondering, just as he was about to turn away, a voice flowed out from inside.

"Young Master Baek Ri, don't be a nuisance and come in."

Cheong-ra sighed slightly, turned back, and opened the door as if he had never hesitated.

"I came because I have something to say..."

Cheong-ra's eyes, tense as he took one step inside, wavered with shock.

The guest room where Dang Ran-yeong was staying seemed to be three or four times the size of where Cheong-ra was staying. However, that huge space was completely cluttered in disarray. The state of the room was chaos itself.

Ledgers strewn haphazardly on the floor, silk robes piled up like clouds in one corner, belts, accessories carelessly swept into a box, a huge scholar's rock whose purpose for being there was unclear, a water basin with a small carp swimming and splashing water everywhere, a crumpled blanket, and various other odds and ends.

In addition, Rin-rin, the baby Venomous Horned Serpent, was cleverly hiding coiled in a circle on the table, pretending to be a bracelet.

Amidst this chaotic arrangement, Dang Ran-yeong was lying in the most disorderly state of all.