"Son? What on earth are you…how dare you enter your cousin's concubine's quarters? Have you lost your mind! Come to bed this instantly and…what exactly is going on here? The sheer nerve of you…how dare you!" "Mother! You do not understand! She was my woman first! She inserted herself here in my cousins' home to follow me and make me take her back, which is what I am more than willing to do…" "but her disheveled clothes….what did you do? You know that The Princess has a very keen eye on you, so how can you do this now of all times!" "My Lady please help me…please…" "Son! Get dressed and come back to your quarters immediately so that we can discuss this! Quickly!" "But mother, what about the concubine…" "She is a maid, she knows how to look after herself! Just leave her alone and come back before your cousin finds out anything about this!" "No, please do not leave me on my own…where is my servant?" "My Lady? I have bought you your meal as you requested….Big Madame? What are you doing in The Lord Nam's concubines quarters?" "I just helped her to her room after I found her kneeling all night long, do not think to much about it! Return to your chambers, you are dismissed for the rest of the day, it is not appropriate for you to wander around the yangban this early into the morning." "Very well My Lady, thank you." "Mother…!" "I cannot believe how you have lost all sense of propriety and shame! How could you rape your cousins concubine just when your marriage is fixed alongside your sister's! And we live here now away from your father! Do you ever think abut anyone other than yourself? Where do you expect me to go after your cousin finds out that this equally high=born cousin took advantage of his own woman! You do not even know his temper, let alone his habits and preferences to win over his favour!" "We are both noblemen by birth, why do I need to win over my own family's favour?" "Now what will we do!" "Mother, listen to me! I will never marry any woman without taking this girl back as my concubine and we both know that I can walk out of those gates and never look back! Then I shall see what excuse you can come up with to The Royal Family on my behalf?" "Damn you boy, I have obviously spoiled you far too much to make any use of you at all! Even my divorced sister's son is doing better for himself than you ever will if you didn't have this marriage prosper at all!"
"…my son has really gone too far this time; how could he attack you like some heartless monster without any sense? Do no blame him though, this incident is entirely my fault; I have been pampering him too much to meet his needs. If he didn't drink too much at the brothel, then he would never have…" "There was not a drop of liquor on that man at all and you know it Madame…." "Here; these are the remainders of my dowry and then some; this headdress for instance is made from the coral of the south sea and it is very precious to me, but I am wiling to hand it over to my son's woman for her upcoming wedding." "Wedding? What wedding? I am…" "You have no more ties to my sister's nephew, lest I expose this scandal to him and he kills you himself because we all know that he is more than capable of doing so. It is also normal for a couple to get into small fights like this, but all will be resolved if you forgive him and coddle him as I do. And children always help to strengthen the relationship between a man and a woman…" "I am not a cheap woman that can be bought with a few trinkets that are hardly worth anything anymore! Nobody respects me a human anymore…." 'And who will after finding the aphrodisiac medicines that I myself have planted in your room with many of these home servants as my witnesses in case you ever decide to go against my position? Unless you can tell me right here and now that my worries are completely unnecessary and do not need any further assistance on my part to exaggerate in my favour, isn't that correct, daughter=in=law? You do not require me to spread the word about what has taken place tonight, do you? Only if you agree can I call in a discreet physician for you girl. Or did you really expect to walk away without facing any consequences at all?" "How lucky I am to be you're son's concubine indeed Madame." "Yes you are and don't you dare forget it maid."
"I really do not have any other option either I take it?" "Well, I suppose that you can leave the city and I can find you anther prospect as soon as my sister's nephew forgets all about you in poverty and loneliness. And I will help you out with your diary as much as I possibly can so you would no need to worry about that at all." "Then in that case…I am willing to marry The Young Master Nam for the sake of this family clan." "Very good; in that case I shall inform The Lord Nam about this change of circumstances myself."
"Fret not concubine; I will respect you as much as I possibly can from now on and I shall never let anyone speculate and scheme upon your good name that I will take on as my own as your husband instead of keeping my ties with this useless Nam Clan of mine, so never because my affection for your take it for granted as well, otherwise I wall make you live in your own personal hell." "You are already my personal hell from the moment I met you." "You…" but before he had a chance to finish off his mindless threat to me, The Lord Nam came storming up to him and proceeded to punch his own cousin in the face multiple times until passed out bloody and bruised. It was almost mid afternoon now and he was only getting home now, which meant that something bad had have to have happened for him to be as angry as he was right now. "You dumb fucking bastard! How dare you do this to me after letting you into my home and feeding you! You turn against me like this! You betray me like this! No wonder your father wants nothing to do with you at all!" "No! Get off my son! Stop hurting him! You will end up killing him! What exactly is wrong with you…!" "I was locked up overnight because of some speech your stupid son said in a damned brothel where he loafers around all day long and makes friends with bums who use my money to entertain themselves! Your son indulges himself in vices with The Princess watching his every move, and I am the one that gets punished for such things! He was the one who badmouthed her and I had to pull teeth so that The Emperor's men did not raid my home!" "But I do not understand…." "It was my employer at the same brothel who heard his words1 You are very lucky that he didn't send anyone to kill your son instead! He even talked about The Third Prince himself…" "Nephew?" "Tell me clearly, are you spies in my family? Are you working with The Senior Scholar? Do you plan to overturn my family? Do you plan to harm my wife?" "Nephew! What on earth are you…." "Get our of my home! All of you! Pack up and go back to your marital homes! Right now! If you son wants to endanger your family, then take him to the palace himself where everyone can hear his blasphemous words and impose the correct punishment on yourself instead!" "Husband? What is going on here?" "The Emperor has imposed strict punishment on those who discuss the matters of The Third Prince, and yet my own cousin here will not hesitate to throw his own family into the fire to same himself from this upcoming marriage!"
"What on earth? The Emperor must be loosing sleep over this matter and your family is intent on ruining us! Husband, we must move locations immediately!" "Wife, forgive me for giving you so much stress at the wrong time. Wait for me in our quarters whilst I wrap up business here; this useless and dangerous cousin of mine has been enjoying wine and women into the early hours of the morning and discussing The Third Prince who has the opposite relation to his betrothed!" "Husband, don't you remember our astrologer informing us about bad omens in this household right after we had gotten married? We keep encountering nothing but misfortunes here and it isn't good fr ur growing family!" "Carrying the small star at the tail that has the momentum to bring down the moon; a yangban mansion in the north that holds potential danger…and we were the stars outside the yangban at the time…"
"What nonsense are you spewing now nephew? Do not think that you can distance yourself from us since we are all part of the same clan!" "Are we though?" "What do you mean?" "Madame, after I married my wife, I was the one who changed my name to Seo and I recently got that change notarised, so I officially have nothing to do with The Nam clan anymore." "Have you lost your mind! How can you just…" "I can do it by the order of His Highness The Emperor! Servants! Spread the word about The Nam Clan; the rooftop yabngan impinged on the moon several months ago, and the signs of the heavens have changed within the alternating sun and moon. The faint purple signifies the harmonious chi, showing that aggression will soon pass as soon as my wife and I move out." "Are you telling the kingdom that we are inauspicious, nephew?" "Actions have consequences, no matter how much you try to hide them. Your foolish son is ignorant of court affairs and doesn't even think to contribute to this kingdom at all! Maybe for him it is better to become a simple subject and be spared of meaningless fights. I hover shall teach my children on the complicated relations of The Royal Family and to be a worthy subject for the right cause!"
"Your children with that fox spirit of a woman! You married a woman of the brothel who shall force you to cut ties with your own family! Are you really so blinded nephew! You should have married someone who was untouched by the stares and prodding of men in such a public place and marred the woman who is able to help you heal your relations within your own family! We still have the robes of The Empress and whoever touches it will be charged with harassment and harbouring ill intentions towards this family in The Imperial Court! How dare such an unclean woman seduces any Nam Clan member at all? Our family is still upright and dignified whereas your slut acts just like her mongrel of a father…!"
"Madame, you have simply pushed your luck! Your purchased titles does not mean that you live up to them and unlike you I have lived without money all of my life!" "You cannot distance yourself from us! What about our shared businesses!" "As you no longer have any heir to protect The Nam assets, I shall be the one to take them back under my father's shares and…" "What about your wife? She will soon be too busy to help you out at all with the businesses and you need an heir soon to help you with it all! At least let you nephew help you out if you will not look at your cousins at all!" "I am not a fragile and delicate noblewoman; I worked even when my epilepsy was active." "So what are your family supposed to live on!" "You can start again with your children's marriages, don't you forget that!"