Dan Seol-young eyed Tang Mu-jin with suspicion. Of course, Tang Mu-jin found it equally hard to trust Dan Seol-young.
“The head of the Chu family said if I needed help fixing the Mok In-hang, I should find someone from the Dan family…”
“Then you’ve come to the right place.”
“Really?”
“There’s no one who knows more about the Mok In-hang than I do.”
Tang Mu-jin raised an eyebrow. The whole thing sounded strange.
“I heard women aren’t allowed inside the Shaolin Temple under any circumstances.”
“That’s true.”
“Then how have you seen the Mok In-hang, Miss Dan?”
“Of course, I haven’t.”
Tang Mu-jin’s eyes narrowed. Had he come to the wrong person, someone not quite right in the head?
“You haven’t seen it, but you know it well?”
“That’s possible… But more importantly, who are you to come here and interrogate me? You’re the first person the Chu family head has ever sent my way. Are you a con artist?”
Dan Seol-young’s demeanor, which had softened a bit, turned sharp again. Tang Mu-jin quickly waved his hands.
“No, it’s not like that. The head of the Chu family said I could inspect the Mok In-hang’s interior, but I couldn’t make sense of its structure. When I asked if there were any records or materials related to it, they told me to come here.”
Dan Seol-young looked at Tang Mu-jin with a skeptical tilt of her head.
“That’s a plausible reason… But I heard the Chu family doesn’t let outsiders into the Mok In-hang. How did you get in?”
“Well, it’s a bit embarrassing to say, but I’m quite handy.”
“Just for that?”
In situations like this, showing is better than telling. Tang Mu-jin approached the slowly turning waterwheel.
The waterwheel was made up of many parts, some of which were old or in poor condition. Tang Mu-jin’s eyes fell on a thick wooden gear about half a hand’s width.
It wasn’t a part that bore the direct weight of the wheel, but it had been worn down over time, with visible cracks.
“This part looks like it’s on its last legs.”
“You’re right. I was just about to make a replacement because I thought it might break soon.”
Indeed, there were quite a few discarded wood pieces around the waterwheel.
Some were deeply indented, possibly from knots, and others had split along the grain from being forced in the wrong direction.
“Could I borrow a small knife and a piece of wood?”
Curious about Tang Mu-jin’s skills, Dan Seol-young handed him a half-hand-length knife and a piece of wood.
The dry wood had a distinct texture. It was perfect. If you carve wood that hasn’t dried, it warps as it dries, rendering the part useless.
Tang Mu-jin checked the size of the wood against the faulty part and began carving immediately.
His speed in crafting was astonishing.
Back in Chungkyung, blacksmiths were more impressed by how quickly Tang Mu-jin could make things than by the quality of his work.
If he was that fast with metal, imagine how quickly he could carve wood. In no time, Tang Mu-jin had crafted a gear and handed it to Dan Seol-young, who was left speechless.
“Wow, it’s like you’re peeling away the bark to reveal the core.”
“I hear that sometimes. Check if the part fits.”
“Just a moment.”
When Dan Seol-young pulled on the precariously placed gear, it didn’t come out; it crumbled pathetically.
With a slightly annoyed expression, she tossed aside the broken part and fitted the new one Tang Mu-jin had made. It fit perfectly, almost miraculously.
“Do you believe me now?”
“Impressive. I think I can show you the inside of the Mok In-hang. Oh, and you can speak casually. We can’t be that far apart in age.”
“Got it… I mean, okay.”
“So, you’re here to fix the Mok In-hang, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Great!”
Dan Seol-young beamed like a child, her smile simple yet bright.
Being so close, Tang Mu-jin caught a faint whiff of sweat from her, but it wasn’t unpleasant. It seemed to suit her.
“Sorry for being prickly. The only people who’ve come to see me and my dad before were either curious folks who broke things or con artists claiming they could fix the Mok In-hang.”
Her apology was quick and straightforward. Tang Mu-jin nodded.
Now it was his turn to ask questions.
“You said you know the Mok In-hang well without having seen it. What’s that about? Why did the Chu family head refer me to you?”
“I think it’s faster to show you than to explain. Come inside!”
Dan Seol-young led Tang Mu-jin into her home.
From the outside, it looked like a shabby hut, but inside, it was surprisingly spacious.
Despite its unimpressive exterior, the interior was sturdy and meticulously crafted.
The most striking feature was the inner walls.
The inside of Dan Seol-young’s home was lined with thin mulberry and oak panels, covered in tiny, densely packed writing.
“What is all this?”
“My dad wrote down everything he knew about the Mok In-hang. I added a bit myself. Our family has always lived around the Shaolin Temple, helping the Chu family. We’re practically part of the Shaolin lineage. I heard our ancestors were the ones who originally built the Mok In-hang.”
It seemed like talking to Dan Seol-young’s father would be much quicker. Tang Mu-jin asked her.
“Where is your father?”
“Over there.”
Dan Seol-young pointed somewhere outside the house.
Beyond a small hill on the mountainside, a small bush by the stream was visible.
“The bush?”
“Yes. My father’s grave is just beyond that bush.”
“Oh…”
“You don’t have to look so sorry. It was a long time ago, and I don’t even tend to the grave.”
”…Why not?”
“Because it’s annoying. My dad left me with a ton of work without fixing the Mok In-hang. A few years ago, I was pulling weeds by the grave and told him not to feel bad if I didn’t take care of it. I promised to let him know when I finished the work. That’s enough, isn’t it?”
Despite the somber topic, Dan Seol-young’s voice was cheerful. She seemed all too accustomed to her father’s absence.
She ran her fingers over the writing on the wall as she spoke.
“Anyway, none of our ancestors could fix the Mok In-hang. My dad spent a long time on it, but he wasn’t skilled enough to fix it. Looking back, I don’t think he even fully understood how it worked.”
Tang Mu-jin nodded. As someone who also didn’t understand the structure, he could relate all too well.
To understand and repair the Mok In-hang, they’d probably need to gather everyone in the Central Plains who knew anything about mechanisms.
Dan Seol-young continued.
“But my dad did compile all the information he knew about the Mok In-hang and mapped out its interior and underground structure. This is essentially everything there is to know about it.”
She tapped the wall as she spoke.
So this writing was the structure of the Mok In-hang? Tang Mu-jin read a portion of the text on the wall.
[…Seven and a half feet east from there is a gear. The gear’s radius is two chi and five pun. The gear faces west-southwest, and the connected pillar is about the thickness of a pinky finger. It extends seven chi towards the heavenly stem…]
Just reading it made his head spin.
Obviously, trying to document the structure of something as complex as the Mok In-hang in writing was absurd.
Could they express the structure with ink and brush? That would be equally challenging.
“Can you understand this?”
“At first, it was overwhelming. But after staring at it and pondering it all day, every day, from childhood until now, I started to get it.”
Tang Mu-jin looked at Dan Seol-young skeptically. Could that really be true?
“It is. Look at this.”
Dan Seol-young stepped outside and returned with a scroll and a model.
The scroll, when unfurled, revealed a crudely drawn diagram. It seemed complex, but its meaning was hard to grasp.
The model she brought was more intuitive. It was a roughly made contraption of gears and rods, intricately intertwined. When Dan Seol-young turned a stick at one end, the other parts moved organically, much like the Mok In-hang.
“What is this?”
“I skipped the parts of my dad’s records I couldn’t understand and built models for the unclear sections. Most things become clear when you draw them, but some parts need to be built to be sure. My dad’s records aren’t entirely accurate.”
Tang Mu-jin read the writing on the wall again. It was like a cryptic code.
How much effort must it have taken to decipher such sparse explanations, understand the structure, and even create prototypes?
No, this was beyond effort; it was a matter of talent. If Tang Mu-jin had a knack for blacksmithing, Dan Seol-young had a talent that transcended ordinary limits in another field.
However, there was something that Tang Mujin simply couldn’t wrap his head around. It wasn’t the structure of the wooden puppet, but something more fundamental.
“What does this mean to you? You can’t even enter the Shaolin Temple.”
“True. My father never intended to teach me. Just like my grandfather did with him, he was preparing to pass the knowledge to my younger brother.”
“Where is your brother now?”
“By my father’s side.”
Once again, Tang Mujin found himself at a loss for words. He shook his head a couple of times before continuing the conversation.
“Then why did you organize your father’s records?”
“I can’t enter, but if I have a son, he could join the Shaolin Temple. My child will fix the wooden puppet in my place. While I wait for that day, I’m doing what I can outside the temple.”
Dan Seol-young pointed to a pickaxe leaning against the house. Only then did Tang Mujin realize why she had been digging with it.
The force that turned the pillar connecting the puppet to the ground didn’t come from a person but from a waterwheel beside the hut. Dan Seol-young was digging the ground beyond the temple walls, maintaining the waterwheel, burying wooden posts, and organizing the structure of the puppet to transmit the waterwheel’s power into the temple.
His chest tightened. What was this crazy girl dedicating her life to?
Unlike other girls who wore pretty clothes or put on makeup, she wore loose garments, sweating profusely as she swung a pickaxe to dig the earth.
While others played with trinkets, she was holed up in a room, wrestling with her thoughts.
Even if Dan Seol-young’s plan went smoothly, it was still a problem.
No one would recognize or appreciate her dedication. The one who would be credited for fixing the puppet would be her son, not her.
Dan Seol-young was sacrificing her life for a dream she couldn’t even witness. She couldn’t even confirm the fruits of her labor with her own eyes.
For such a dream, she was burning her life away, choosing to be a bridge to pass on knowledge.
Tang Mujin asked, “Why on earth?”
He wasn’t living that life himself, just hearing about it from the side.
Yet it was suffocatingly frustrating. How could she accept such a life?
“You won’t even see the puppet with your own eyes. Why bother fixing it? Can you be sure you won’t regret it when you’re an old woman?”
“Why can’t I?”
Dan Seol-young asked back shortly, looking Tang Mujin straight in the eye.
Like a pine tree growing on a mountainside. Her eyes, having endured many twists and hardships, were straight and unwavering. That gaze was somehow dizzying.
“Can’t? Of course—”
“Of course? No, there’s nothing ‘of course’ about it. You wouldn’t understand. My dad, he wasn’t a bad person, even if he wasn’t skilled. But just because he couldn’t fix that wooden puppet, he lived his life hunched over like a criminal. Even the Shaolin monks didn’t say anything.”
Dan Seol-young chuckled.
“When I was young, I thought my dad was a fool, but in the end, I turned out the same. No matter what I do, I can’t shake the thought that the puppet is still. My child, my descendants, they’ll live like that too. So I decided. I have to hear that the stupid wooden puppet moved. I have to hear that the Dan family finally did it. Is that strange?”
Of course, it was a strange story.
The puppet was a bizarre mechanism, the Dan family had taken on a peculiar role, and Dan Seol-young had chosen an even stranger life.
Yet at the same time, Tang Mujin could somewhat understand Dan Seol-young’s story. Not with his head, but with his heart.
It was a tale that would make most people lament their misfortune.
But Dan Seol-young’s voice was full of excitement.
She went outside and brought back a knee-high jar, struggling with its weight. Inside, a milky, slightly yellowish liquid sloshed around.
“What is this?”
“Wine!”
Tang Mujin sniffed the jar.
The strong scent of cheap rice wine yeast wafted up. Dan Seol-young spoke as if singing.
“I used to drink a little when I was in a bad mood, but today I’m going to finish it all. There won’t be any more bad days ahead.”
Dan Seol-young handed Tang Mujin a rough cup. He looked at the cup, then at Dan Seol-young. She had a cup in her hand too.
“Why are you giving me this?”
“Because you’re going to help fix the puppet, right? We should drink together.”
Dan Seol-young’s logic wasn’t sound. But it was understandable.
She pulled out a few dried fruits. For someone with so little, it was quite a luxurious snack.
“Come on, bottoms up!”
Dan Seol-young and Tang Mujin downed their drinks. The wine tasted sour.
Dan Seol-young looked at Tang Mujin and grinned, showing her teeth. It was a fitting smile. Tang Mujin found himself grinning back without realizing it.
She refilled their cups, then unfurled a scroll she had brought earlier and began explaining.
“Look at this drawing. This part connects to the inside of the Shaolin Temple wall, but I haven’t seen it myself. Still, I know the structure well…”
Tang Mujin listened to Dan Seol-young’s excited explanation.
He nodded occasionally, chimed in now and then, and asked questions whenever he was curious. Dan Seol-young grew even more animated as she continued. As the conversation flowed, the wine in the jar gradually diminished.
How much time passed like that? Tang Mujin, drunk, eventually fell asleep without realizing it.
Tang Mujin awoke.
The surroundings were dark, and the smell of wine lingered in his mouth and nose.
He tried to recall where he was and remembered drinking with Dan Seol-young. A moment of panic set in.
‘Did I do something stupid?’
He quickly checked himself. Fortunately, he was fully dressed, and Dan Seol-young was nowhere in the house.
He breathed a sigh of relief and cautiously stepped outside.
It was a bright moonlit night. Wispy gray clouds drifted lazily across the sky.
Judging by the position of the moon and stars, dawn was still a long way off.
Tang Mujin looked around, wondering where Dan Seol-young might be. It wasn’t hard to find her.
She was sitting by the waterwheel, knees drawn up, resting her chin on her hands, singing a slow song.
Tang Mujin followed her gaze. She was looking at a small hill beyond the bushes.
He watched her profile for a long time before quietly retreating back inside to sleep.