Helpless (2)
...
...
...
...
...
"Old Jiang, w..."
...
"Sir Ji, please listen to me..."
...
"I am, but these so-called 'amnesia' that you keep mentioning are non-existent."
"She truly lost her memories, what do you mean that it was not the work of the poison?"
"It really isn't, she must have been trying to mess around with you. Now, please do not waste my time with such measly matters, the number of patients that I need to treat today is not small. Listen, Old Jiang, I know you are worried about the Young Miss, Tang Soso, but know that a large number of the poison inside her body has been expelled recently. What she needs now is a long series of therapy, presumably with someone who was exceptionally close to her."
...
mmh...
Jo Do-Yoon quietly woke up from her sleep as she slowly opened her eyes. The sunlight pierces her blind grey eyes and her long eyelashes flutter as she squints. Her delicate figure sprawled on the massive bed with her limbs all over the place. As the warm air of the morning caressed her smooth skin, she quickly got up with a yawn.
However, instead of the sounds of the morning bird, what greeted her was the conversation of two strange old men standing beside her bed, examining her. One of them being the damn old man from before, but the other was completely new.
'...what the fuck?'
"Oh? It seems she has woken up. Good Morning, Young Miss." the new old dude muttered indifferently despite knowing her status. He had the aura of a dignified man from a noble family, along with an old tone full of aloofness, uncaring of the world. From the conversation she heard just then, he seems to be a doctor.
However, something else caught her attention other than this new guy.
Shhhiiing!!
Shhhiiiiing!
'H-Huh!?'
The sounds of a knife being sharpened could be heard from a distance. Jo Do-Yoon could even hear something being cut in succession right beside her. A small sprinkle of a sticky liquid even touched her skin. W-Was that blood? What in the world is happening?!
At this moment, the new old man got closer to her as a strange feeling of a sharp object was slowly nearing her skin. At this point, her skin jumped out as she was startled out of her wits!
'They're gonna kill me!!'
She immediately jumped out of bed and stared at both men with her blind eyes full of suspicion, before trying to run away toward the door. Despite having just woken up, Jo Do-Yoon's movements were bursting with fiery spirits in a situation where death is a possibility. Sadly, before she even made three steps, she stumbled on a nearby chair and fell to the floor.
"..."
"..."
Silence filled the room as Jo Do-Yoon was unconscious once again. Both of the old men inside the room could only sigh at the sight of this.
The truth was that the sounds were coming from her servant, Jiang Sam, who was cutting up some fruits for her to eat, while the doctor beside him was trying to use acupuncture needles to smoothen her blood flow. These two men didn't think something like this would scare the shit out of Jo Do-Yoon. In their eyes, she looked more or less like a crazy person.
"I see now where you are coming from, Old Jiang."
"See? I've always been an honest person, Sir Ji. The Young Mistress was acting quite strangely don't you think? Can you imagine what would befall me if the Patriarch found out about this?"
"The Patriarch will definitely eat you alive. Sigh, ever since I've become a doctor, I've never once seen something like this. There might truly be something wrong with her head that I'm not aware of..." the new Old Man muttered under his breath.
"Alright, let's not waste any more time. We should get her back to bed and tie all of her limbs, this time around..."
"That is a good idea, Old Jiang."
As the seconds ticked away, both of them quickly carried the unconscious Jo Do-Yoon back to the bed and tied all of her limbs with some nearby cloth to the bedframe. Jiang Sam continued to do his thing while the doctor carefully treated the unconscious Jo Do-Yoon once again.
...
...
...
...
GASP!
Jo Do-Yoon woke up once again, but this time her sleep was not full of enjoyment. Fear and anxiety were spiking up through the roof of her mind as frantically tried to get up.
'I-I knew staying here was a bad idea... They truly are trying to kill me! I don't care if I'm a young heir or not, I am getting out of here... HUH!?'
However, to her nightmare, her limbs were all tied up to the bedframe and she couldn't move her legs even by an inch. Her dainty arms and legs tried to fling around, but each time the cloth that restrained them completely stopped any movements. Jo Do-Yoon was hyperventilating at this point.
'I-I'm doomed!'
"Ah, Young Lady. You woke up once again." Jiang Sam muttered from a distance as he slowly walked toward her.
'The old man's here... I'm going to die! I've just been reborn, I don't wanna die!! Not like this!!' she screamed in her mind as tears slowly became visible at the edge of her sharp eyes. This was no laughing matter, Jo Do-Yoon was experiencing true terror beyond her imagination.
Regardless, Jiang Sam continues to approach her, unknowing of what the hell is going on in his Young Lady's mind. After arriving right in front of her bed along with gazing at the pale-faced Jo Do-Yoon, he simply gave her an apple and sat beside her.
His aged face casually smiled as many wrinkles on his skin became visible under the morning light. His long beard fluttered with his vigorous movements and his bundled long hair further accented his aura as a gentle person.
'...huh?'
Jo Do-Yoon was simply fixated on the apple in her hand as she became extremely confused about this old man's intentions.
"Young Lady, this is the highest quality apple within the Sichuan province and we have a lot of these within our Tang Clan. The doctor from a few hours ago said that you should refrain from eating any meat in case your symptoms start to worsen. Now, the Young Lady should rest once again in case any side effects start to show up." he explained briefly as he slowly untied her limbs.
'O-Okay?'
"Since the Young Lady needs some more rest, I shall take my leave. You can call me anytime if you need anything else."
The old man slowly got up and walked toward the door, but as soon as he took a step forward, Jo Do-Yoon grasped his wrist with her gentle hand. The other hand grabbed the signboard from the desk beside her bed as she quickly wrote a sentence.
[ Wait a minute, you promised me you would answer my questions after I woke up ]
Jiang Sam quickly glanced back toward Jo Do-Yoon and saw the signboard in her other hand. It was written in hurried, messy writing that looked like it belonged to a child. After a brief quietness, he threw his head back before bursting into a laughing fit in the quiet room.
"Hoho! That is true, I did say that to you, Young Lady. Now, what has got you curious?"
[ Who am I? Where Is this place? ]
His eyes shone as he saw what Jo Do-Yoon was trying to ask, "Now that is a complicated question, Young Lady. I can explain it, but it will be really long story. Do you want me to explain it all to you?"
Such a thing doesn't even need to be pondered about and Jo Do-Yoon immediately nodded. This information about her current identity is very crucial and she will need this to survive from now on.
After seeing that the other was completely bent about it, the Old man sighed as he finally relented.
"If you said so, then I shall tell you. It starts from the moment I first entered this clan as a servant..."
...
...
...
The rambling went on for a whole thirty minutes as the old man patiently explained to Jo Do-Yoon about her current identity. It was overwhelmingly boring, and the old man's voice being similar to a 60s news channel didn't make it any better. But regardless of it, she kept on listening to his explanations through and through.
His explanations went from the first time he entered this place, to the first time he met her, to this place's history, and so on. If Jo Do-Yoon had to explain it, it would be like this.
First of all, the place she was currently residing in is the Tang Clan, the great murim clan that sits on one of the top spots among the five great noble clans of the Justice Faction. They are a clan that specializes in poison arts and hidden weapons.
Since the beginning of time, the Tang Clan has always been a clan that stayed away from the norm. In general, most sects or clans would teach their disciples that the way to improve one's martial arts and become stronger is to cultivate, train, and fight while avoiding dangerous substances that could ruin your body. However, instead of following this principle, the Tang Clan uses poisonous substances to become stronger.
And that was not to mention how their members' behavior was completely unlike other martial artists who are in the Justice Faction!
A true martial artist of the Justice Faction would fight fair and square against any opponent they face. And even when they are about to lose, they would rather go down in an honorable way due to their unwavering pride and righteousness. But once again, the Tang Clan is different.
They are a bunch of madmen who dabbled in poison, a dangerous practice that could leave most people dying to utilize them against their enemies. Due to this practice, most of them use hidden weapons to easily incorporate their poison specialty into their martial arts. Moreover, their clan members were all similar to poisonous snakes who would gallop upon any opportunities and weaknesses to trample on other forces that opposed them. Trickeries and deceit are their specialty.
Even Jo Do-Yoon in her previous life wondered about how on earth this clan managed to find a place within the Justice Faction, let alone become one of the five great noble families.
As a noble clan, the Tang Clan didn't really have a great reputation due to their shady vibes and all, but they were still quite respected. After all, they are still one of the five great noble families who are the pillars of the Justice Faction and that title does not come easily. The Tang Clan held a ginormous amount of strength in their name and had thousands of powerful elite soldiers under their rule. With this strength, the Tang Clan single-handedly guards the gates of Sichuan and Central Plains against the terrifying Demonic Cult to this day.
Thus, no one with a sane mind would dare to offend them. So most people within the Justice Faction tend to treat them as some kind of necessary evil, or rather a dark hero. And that's all that would come to their mind since any further word about the Tang Clan would most likely send their heads flying someday.
Anyway, this body's original owner is Tang Soso, the youngest child of Tang Hwi, the current head of the Tang Clan. From a young age, she was hailed as the most beautiful flower and the future of the Tang Clan. And she was also... the most despised heir among them all...
It was quite the story!
According to Jiang Sam, she used to be the most treasured child of Tang Hwi when she was little. Tang Soso loves to hang out with everyone she meets and due to this, she quickly became a social butterfly among her peers. Amongst everyone she met, she was the closest person to her sister, Tang Seryoung. Having a great status along with unmatched looks, all clan members showered her with love as she got everything that she wanted.
However, as she grew up, things slowly started to change.
As Tang Soso grew up, she realized that her talent in martial arts was quite inferior to those around her. While her siblings began to show promising talents and progress in learning the Tang Clan's advanced techniques, Tang Soso was still lagging behind trying to master the basic arts.
At first, it didn't discourage her as much as she continued to work harder on her training. A couple of years went by just the way it has been. No one noticed the difference between the siblings and Tang Soso, and she also tried her best to hide her lack of talent with pure hard work. But as time went on, it only got worse. Such a huge difference in talents is not something that could be covered so easily.
Eventually, the gap between Tang Soso and her siblings feels as large as the mud and sky. Everyone within the Tang Clan could see a noticeable difference in skills between her and the other children of Tang Hwi. Despite training day and night while exerting the most effort out of all the other siblings, Tang Soso still could not catch up to them.
While all the other siblings have become first-rate martial artists, she was still stuck as a second-rate. Her poison Qi was extremely minuscule and unrefined, while the others had accumulated a large amount of internal energy and sharpened their Qi to form a blade-like shape. While the other's physiques slowly developed to suit their own style, Tang Soso's physique was still that of a small child despite already being twenty years old. Nobody knew what kind of condition caused her to be like this, especially since Tang Soso was from the main bloodline of the Tang Clan.
But one thing everyone was sure about was that Tang Soso's future looks extremely bleak.
For a long time, they have always held high hopes for Tang Soso, who was the favorite child of Tang Hwi. As anyone could guess, upon discovering that her talent was utter garbage, the disappointment within them was really overwhelming.
A child of Tang Hwi, who will become the pillar of the clan in the future should have been better than this!
Slowly, everyone's attitude toward Tang Soso was getting colder and colder day by day to the point that she lost all of her admirers. Even the support that she had gained from the clan slowly diminished.
All relationships she built throughout her life were slowly crumbling away as most friends left her side. Even the other siblings slowly looked down on her and saw her as nothing but a rock on the side of the road.
The only person who stayed by her side was her sister, Tang Seryoung, but even she had to leave the clan to go to a martial academy at one point. Now she was left alone by herself without anyone supporting her. Out of 'pity', her father Tang Hwi decided to leave Jiang Sam, the oldest and least capable servant of the Clan to attend to her needs.
In the end, Tang Soso could not help but lock herself up in her room due to the amount of pressure she was facing. She was afraid of going outside. She was afraid of showing her face to the world. She was afraid of facing the people. She could feel their mocking eyes staring down upon her as if she was just garbage sitting in between golds and diamonds. That was all she could hear from others nowadays, all their talk was simply about comparing Tang Soso with her other siblings.
Despair slowly took over her mind...
Of course, Tang Soso didn't do anything wrong. This was simply the fate of a clan heir if they failed to live up to their clan's expectations. This is the reason why most young masters or young ladies always acted all lofty and arrogant. It was because they could not show any weakness and wanted to improve their public image so that they could gain better standings amongst others. They must always maintain a powerful image of themselves so that the public can see them as someone they can depend on.
However, Tang Soso failed to do so, she displayed herself as someone weak and incompetent to the point of being mocked by the public. Thus, she inevitably met her doom.
Nowadays, all she does is eat and sleep, while confining herself within her dark room. Other than her servant, Old Jiang, she no longer talked to anyone else and slowly developed a cold and awkward personality.
Then one day, just a few months ago, came her father's birthday. Either out of sympathy, pity, or family tradition, he decided to invite Tang Soso to his birthday banquet. At this point, she no longer cared about these kinds of events, but since her father demanded it, she could not refuse. She eventually attended this event to pass the evening, to simply get things done.
When she arrived at the event, she met the cold eyes of her clan members that trailed upon her from time to time. She ignored them all as she continued to treat herself to some food and drinks while watching the event go on.
But once again, tragedy happened. It was at this point in time that one of the drinks that she consumed turned out to be poisoned and Tang Soso collapsed on the spot. Everyone stared with wide eyes as this unfolded. Although Tang Soso was considered terrible in martial arts, she was still born out of the main bloodline of the Tang Clan and thus has naturally developed a strong resistance to most poisons. However, this poison that she consumed made her collapse immediately as if that natural resistance were non-existent.
Moreover, it was discovered that there was a massive chance that there was an unknown force behind this culprit, and that force was not weak in the slightest. Thus, the clan couldn't do anything about this incident and decided to let this fly by.
This poisoning was the incident that Jiang Sam had been referring to before, and this one thing made the whole clan extremely anxious about their safety. After all, there was an assassin who was wandering around the clan unhindered, able to send one of the main heirs to collapse in less than a second.
And from then on, Tang Soso was sent into a deep slumber. The powerful poison that she ingested was soon discovered to cause her to lose most of her senses and corroded her strength to the point of losing most of her martial prowess. Since then, she has been lying in bed unconscious for months right until Jo Do-Yoon entered this body.