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Chapter 6
“Via, go outside. I have something to discuss with your grandfather.”
Father gently pushed me on the back. But I shook my head.
“No, I don’t want to.”
“Why not?”
“You’re going to talk about me, aren’t you? Then I should hear it too.”
Father had no intention of telling me the truth about “Mandokbulchim” (the body immune to all poisons).
So if I didn’t insist on hearing it now—
‘I’ll never get the chance again.’
Somehow, I felt that with Grandfather here, this might be the last opportunity.
“Fine, let the child stay and talk,” Grandfather said.
Father let out a deep sigh, then slowly opened his mouth.
“Bi truly does have the Mandokbulchim constitution.”
“Then why have you kept it hidden until now?” Grandfather cried in disbelief.
“If that Blood Demon Snake hadn’t bitten the child, you never would have told me!”
The Tang family children are tested at regular intervals for their resistance to poison.
The results are compiled and reported to Grandfather, who evaluates each child’s potential.
And the one who oversaw these ‘tests’ was none other than Father himself.
He was the examiner for all Tang family children, both main and branch families, and every report Grandfather saw went through his hands.
So if Father had deliberately hidden my constitution, it was only natural that not only I, but the rest of the family, would know nothing about it.
But if I really was Mandokbulchim…
‘Then why did I have seizures?’
If my memory was right, I often had fits when I was young.
Father had said it was because, with no resistance, even a trace of poison could trigger it.
But if poison wasn’t the reason—then why?
No, that’s for later.
‘Anyway, I never once took that test.’
In my past life, I was never allowed to participate.
Father always said I could die from even the faintest trace of poison and forbade me from taking it.
But even now, he seemed unwilling to speak about ‘the reason.’
At that moment, something Uncle had told me before he died flashed through my mind:
‘Your father has been poisoned for ten years.’
It was no secret in the Tang family that Uncle had always been trying to hold Father back.
Grandfather had declared he would pass the family down to whichever of the two brothers proved more capable.
And objectively, that was clearly my father.
So everyone in the Tang family believed Father would become the next head…
‘I know Uncle was restraining Father—so there’s no way Father himself didn’t know.’
I snapped my head up.
Until now, I had assumed Father was poisoned without realizing it.
But if he knew he’d been poisoned all along?
I calmly organized my thoughts.
Uncle had backing from his wife’s family. Father had none.
And Father had me to protect.
‘Father was poisoned when I was very young.’
If I were him…
I narrowed my eyes.
I would have hidden the fact I was Mandokbulchim too.
Uncle was the kind of man who even poisoned his own brother.
If someone like that learned his little niece was Mandokbulchim?
‘He would have killed me when I was too young to defend myself.’
With that realization, I understood why Father had desperately hidden the truth.
I looked at him and carefully opened my mouth.
“…Poisoning.”
“Hm?”
“You’re poisoned, aren’t you? You haven’t detoxified it yet, so you had to keep my Mandokbulchim hidden, right?”
“Bi? Y-you… how did you…?”
Father was utterly flustered.
Seeing his face fill with panic, I knew I wasn’t wrong.
And just then, the memory of Father collapsing, killed by Uncle’s hand, flashed before my eyes.
Father, powerless. Me, unable to do anything.
‘I can’t let that happen again.’
And if I wanted to change that fate, now was my chance.
I suddenly grabbed Grandfather’s sleeve.
“Grandfather, Father is sick. I think he’s poisoned—just the other day, I saw him coughing up blood!”
Of course, I’d never seen such a thing. But since most poisons cause hemoptysis, I just made it up.
Choking up with tears, I went on.
“He only hid it because of me. He was afraid if he collapsed, no one would take care of me…”
Grandfather’s brows shot up.
“Why would no one take care of you?”
“Because without Father, everyone treats me like I don’t exist! But that’s not important now. Please, hurry and check Father’s condition. Grandfather, if you don’t, he’ll just pretend he’s fine and refuse any diagnosis!”
“Bi! No, Father’s fine. You’re just worked up right now…”
That was when—
“Uwah!”
Grandfather suddenly swept me up in his arms.
I stared at him, bewildered, as he looked past me toward the door and shouted.
“Is anyone there?”
“Yes, Elder!”
One of the attendants hurried over.
“Go fetch Sayuk immediately.”
“Yes, at once.”
I heard footsteps running away outside.
Father was still staring at me and Grandfather in bewilderment.
Grandfather said,
“Whether Bi’s words are true or not, it’s worth checking your condition.”
“Father…”
“But Jinhyun.”
At that moment, I felt the arm holding me tighten.
“If you truly have been hiding your poisoning…”
“…”
“…There is no poison in the world the Tang family cannot cure. What were you so afraid of? And furthermore!”
Grandfather’s voice rang out.
“Even if you were to die, I would be here to care for this child. Why, then, did you not tell me?”
For some reason, his voice sounded sorrowful.
And in that moment, I thought the hand holding me trembled slightly.
“His body is already badly damaged,” said Tang Sayuk.
Tang Jinhyun rolled his sleeve back down after the pulse diagnosis.
Watching silently, Tang Cheongi spoke.
“Sayuk, you don’t seem surprised to hear that Jinhyun was poisoned.”
Sayuk nodded.
“In truth, I already knew. He confided in me at the very beginning, in secret.”
“You knew?”
“Yes, but only me. He never told anyone else.”
“Then you also knew Bi was Mandokbulchim?”
“That, I did not know.”
Tang Cheongi sighed.
That Jinhyun, when cornered, had gone to Sayuk for help instead of him—it stung deeply.
Though Sayuk was head of the family’s medical hall, it was still a shock.
Sensing his mood, Sayuk quickly bowed his head.
“My apologies.”
“Have you at least identified the poison?”
“I’m afraid not. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”
As Sayuk continued, Bi’s expression grew darker.
Jinhyun tried to cover her ears, but she brushed his hand away—
as if to say she would hear everything from beginning to end.
Cheongi watched the father and daughter, then sighed again.
“Now I see why you hid it.”
If even the master of the medical hall couldn’t recognize it, then nothing good could come of it being known.
‘Still, even so…!’
He was about to scold Jinhyun when he suddenly felt a tug on his robe.
Looking down, he saw his little granddaughter clinging to the hem, big eyes staring up at him.
“Grandfather, then… is there no way to treat Father?”
Cheongi gazed at those eyes for a long while, then pressed his forehead and replied:
“It’s not that there’s no way at all.”
