The fog hung low.
The side gate leading to the rear garden was different from the one in the front courtyard. There was no red paint, nor was there a Gatekeeper. A moss-covered stone staircase and a few bamboo stalks were all there was. Jang Isu stood before the side gate at the time the man had told him yesterday. The gate was already open.
Inside, he saw a pond. A pavilion seemed to float above the fog. Within it, one person sat alone with a go board between them. He was an old man with his hair split evenly between white and black, but his back was not bent.
"You're here."
He said it without even turning around.
"I was told you sent for me."
"Sit."
Jang Isu merely stood before the pavilion. He did not sit. Only then did the Estate Master turn his head. His eyes were narrow, but they were different from Jwa Woryang's. They were not eyes that measured. They were eyes that had already measured everything.
"Do you know how to play go?"
"No."
"Better that you don't. Those who know how always try to win." The Estate Master picked up a black stone and placed it on the board. "I have no interest in winning or losing. I only watch to see which side the next move will come from."
"Is that neutrality?"
"Neutrality is a name you people came up with." The Estate Master placed a white stone as well. "I merely sit in a position worth selling. Whichever side wins, I collect the price."
"I have nothing to sell."
"You do." The Estate Master pointed to a corner of the board with his fingertip. "A single sheet of paper."
Jang Isu did not answer.
"Yesterday, an alley. Today, the front gate. For Jwa Woryang to come in person, that one sheet must be worth quite a lot." The Estate Master placed another stone. "Give it to me. After three years of sitting in the position where you open and close a gate, you'll move to another seat."
"What position are you referring to?"
"My eyes and ears." The Estate Master smiled for the first time. Only the corners of his mouth moved. "Among all the faces coming and going from the mountain estate, no one has counted them as long as you have. If I put those eyes to work under me, they'd be worth more than a Gatekeeper."
"Counting and selling are different things."
"Everyone says that at first." The Estate Master took another black stone from the bowl and toyed with it. "Every face you've counted over the past three years is information worth something now. There are people who would lose their livelihoods just from knowing who came through this gate and when. You've been counting all of them for free."
"It wasn't free. It was the price of my position."
"No."
"No what?"
"I don't need that position."
The Estate Master's hand stopped above the board.
"You've stood in front of that gate for three years, and all you want is to hold on to a mere Gatekeeper's position?"
"I'm not holding on to it. I'm standing in it."
"I'm tired of word games too." The Estate Master set the bowl down with a clack. "Fine. Let me ask another way. Are you refusing to hand over that paper because you truly don't know what it's worth, or because you do know?"
"Neither."
"Then what is it?"
"I can't give it to you because it isn't mine. Its owner has already been decided."
"And who is that owner?"
"Jwa Woryang. Where that paper goes is for him to decide as well."
For the first time, the Estate Master's eyes narrowed and stayed that way. They were eyes measuring something anew.
"Isu." The Estate Master called him by name. There were few people who had called him only by his name, without his surname, over the past three years. "No one stands at Everblue Estate for three years without a reason. I haven't asked what yours is yet. But it's not as if I have no reason to ask."
"You may ask."
"What happens if I ask tomorrow, in front of Jwa Woryang, what I didn't ask here today?" The Estate Master's voice dropped. "Who you are, and why you've been standing in front of this gate. Once he starts getting curious, this won't end with a single sheet of paper."
Silence settled over the pavilion. The fog spread lower across the pond.
"Then," Jang Isu said, "Jwa Woryang will have one question to ask first."
"What question?"
"When did the Estate Master first know?"
The Estate Master's hand stopped again.
"Three years ago." Jang Isu continued. "If someone who said nothing for three years suddenly brings it up in front of Jwa Woryang, he'll wonder about that before he wonders about my identity. Why did you watch me for three years? What price were you putting on it all this time?"
"…That's my problem, not yours."
"It won't be the Estate Master's problem anymore. It will become Everblue Estate's problem." Jang Isu's voice remained low. "If word gets around that a place selling neutrality knowingly concealed something, the people who come here next time will put a different price on this place."
The Estate Master was silent for a long while. He dropped the black stone in his hand back into the bowl. Clack. The sound spread through the fog.
"…You." The Estate Master laughed softly. This time, it was not just the corners of his mouth; his shoulders shook. "You weren't playing Gatekeeper for three years after all. And no one ever taught you how to put a price on things."
"No one taught me. I was only standing there."
"If standing is a skill, then it's a skill." The Estate Master swept his hand across the stones on the board. The game they had only half laid out collapsed where it stood. "Fine. I won't ask today. And I won't take the paper."
"But remember one thing." The Estate Master rose. Resting a hand against one of the pavilion's pillars, he looked toward the red front gate beyond the fog. "Last night, Jwa Woryang sent a messenger pigeon to headquarters. He asked them to send more people before word of the Heukpungchae affair got out."
Jang Isu's eyes narrowed for the first time.
"Does that mean the Celestial Blossom Gang's headquarters is coming?"
"I don't know yet whether headquarters is coming or only some people." The Estate Master began to walk. "But Jwa Woryang has admitted, of his own accord, that he can't win this game by himself. Whether that's good news or bad news for you isn't for me to decide."
The Estate Master said no more. He left the pavilion and disappeared deeper into the rear garden. The fog quickly erased his retreating figure.
Jang Isu stood there for a long time. A few scattered go stones still remained on the board. He did not touch them. Cleaning up someone else's board was not his position either.
As he left through the side gate, Jang Isu pressed his right thumb against the spot hardened by calluses.
The side gate closed soundlessly behind him.
On the way back to the front courtyard, Wang Ho was waiting at the corner of the covered walkway. Unlike yesterday, he was unarmed. The moment he saw Jang Isu, he approached and lowered his voice.
"What did the Estate Master… say?"
"Nothing of note."
"He couldn't have said nothing of note." Wang Ho's face hardened. "He summoned the Gatekeeper for the first time in three years, and he said nothing of note?"
"I have nothing to tell you."
Wang Ho glared at him for a moment, then lowered his gaze. The force he had carried until yesterday was gone from his eyes.
"Did you hear that someone is coming from headquarters?"
Jang Isu did not answer. His silence was answer enough.
"You heard." Wang Ho spat the words softly. "When headquarters arrives… what happened with Heukpungchae last night, and the fact that the gate was opened that night ten years ago—it'll all be dragged back into the light. It won't be just Jwa Woryang who falls. Everyone who stood beside him will be dragged in too."
"Are you afraid?"
"Who wouldn't be?" Wang Ho's voice cracked. Unable to continue, he limped away toward the far end of the walkway.
Jang Isu walked alone into the front courtyard. The red front gate stood open beneath the midday sun, as it always did. Carts came and went, and attendants crossed the yard. On the surface, it was a day no different from yesterday.
The paper inside his clothes brushed his fingertips again. The game he had thought would end with Jwa Woryang alone was growing larger, now carrying the name of headquarters as well. Among all the faces he had counted for three years, never had the stakes been this high.
Taking up the broom again, Jang Isu turned his eyes toward the street outside the gate. So far, there was not a single unfamiliar face in sight. But somewhere along that street, the name of the Celestial Blossom Gang's headquarters had surely begun to move forward.
The red front gate was still open. Beyond it, footsteps carrying a different weight were drawing near.