What else have you uncovered?
I reviewed the painters with whom the guild conducts business,
but none of them seem to be the one we seek.
The guild's archives contain no suspicious records.
Chief Merchant Sim must be overseeing all matters regarding the painter.
I suspected as much.
You must delve deeper still.
To do so, you must appear genuine to all.
That was far too risky.
That wench Sim Jae-yi almost ruined everything.
Kept alive, she will only do us harm.
Eliminate her.
DEAR HONGRANG
I am well aware of the sincere loyalty you have shown the chief merchant
as masters of the guild over the years.
Thus, I understand it was no easy decision to come here.
In return, I shall repay you handsomely for a long time to come.
You have my word.
Yes, madam.
I have asked you all here today
not to take down my husband, the chief merchant of this guild,
but for the greater good of the guild.
I hope you do not reproach yourselves for attending.
However, should you leave this place and have another change of heart,
you should be prepared to lose your life
and for your kin to face the consequences for generations to come.
You have my word on that as well.
Now, shall we commence the meeting?
Madam.
Master Mun.
It is not we masters
or the guild's disposition that moves the chief merchant.
- Then what does? - The patrons.
Their steadfast patronage has ensured the guild's profitability.
Among those, the patrons with the most significant influence
have continued business with the guild out of loyalty to your late father,
the previous chief merchant.
Therefore, I assume they are inclined to your favor, madam.
You should win them over first.
Madam held a covert meeting with the guild masters.
General opinion is against you,
with rumors that the guild's leadership has passed to Young Master Hongrang.
Let us depart at daybreak. I shall go to Jin Art Studio.
See to this task personally and with the utmost secrecy.
Yes, sir.
I will be extra cautious.
How is business?
Good.
What is it, sir?
It is nothing.
I caught the trace of a familiar scent.
A familiar scent?
Mun Gyu-ha.
Pardon?
Why mention that name?
How is he faring these days?
That man is dead.
Drinking and gambling ruined him and his kin.
Following the death of his neglected mother,
it is said he took his own life.
BIG EYES AND LEAN FACE
I am sorry I kept you waiting.
Let us first get you to safety, then…
What did you do to my sister?
- Seize him! - Where is she?
Tell me! What have you done to Kkot-nim? Where did you send her off to?
Where is she? Please tell me!
Take your pick.
You may leave with that wench, or you may take this seal
and assume this place for yourself.
Either leave with nothing
or secure your place.
Mistress.
Mistress Jae-yi. Are you still asleep?
Mistress, I have brought you some food.
You haven't eaten for four days.
Mistress.
Kept alive, she will only do us harm. Eliminate her.
Whether you are an imposter or not,
I hope you are no longer in pain.
And yet, she herself is in no position
to worry about another.
Mistress.
Good heavens! Eul-bun!
Eul-bun!
- What is it? - This is terrible.
Mistress Jae-yi is…
What about my sister?
Sister, please get better.
It discourages me
to see you in pain.
I feel down.
A lack of food has impaired her spleen and stomach.
Her severe anxiety may explain the coughing up of blood.
She will recover after several days of rest, so do not worry.
I shall prescribe some lotus heart powder. Brew it in water and have her drink it.
Why, is this not Miindo by the painter Sin?
How did you manage to acquire such a precious thing?
I shall buy it from you this instant. What is your asking price?
It is a gift from madam to you, Minister Hong.
What?
She is offering this as a gift? A piece as precious as this?
Very well, then.
How may I be of service to her?
She has returned?
Why? Is there more I must know?
I was rash.
It was careless of me.
I know full well the extent of your pain even before the incident.
And yet, I have only caused you further suffering.
I am sorry.
What if…
What if he truly is Hongrang?
What do you intend to do, then?
I must accept it.
A brother of yours is, in a way, a brother of mine.
Let me get this straight.
The one who conspired with Hong-sik to have me drink pomegranate wine
was not Sim Jae-yi but rather the stake himself.
She was trying to protect him…
and I merely danced to her tune.
I am utterly repulsed and cannot eat. Do not delay your words further.
Why have you gathered us all here?
Hongrang.
Yes?
Pay your great-uncle a visit.
My uncle? But it is quite a journey from here.
He has sent me a letter.
He last saw you as a child and wishes dearly to see you again.
It was inconsiderate of me not to send you sooner.
I would like my sister to join me.
I have yet to fully recover my childhood memories,
and it worries me that I may unintentionally cause him distress.
Her company would help alleviate my uneasiness
and may even help stir up old memories.
Very well. She may join you.
He is away yet again?
Yes, he is.
Considering that he travels without his palanquin,
his leg must have recovered.
Well, that is--
Have this delivered to His Excellency.
He handed you this and simply left?
Yes, my lord.
Both the husband and wife are making a tactful effort.
However, I have already received a gift beyond measure from madam.
It would be hard to persuade me with anything else.
What… is this?
Prepare the palanquin!
I must go to the Min Family's Guild at once!
- This is a counterfeit. - Which one?
It is such meticulous work, it is almost impossible to discern.
Are you telling me that Madam Min sent me a counterfeit?
Are you certain?
Listen.
I do not distrust your judgment, Chief Merchant Sim,
but how can you be so certain when the two are indistinguishable?
I am certain.
I mark all items that come by the guild.
JIN
She dares… How dare she deceive me so!
Your Excellency, I have made a grave error.
Please forgive me.
No, you have done nothing wrong.
I now realize that Madam Min has acted in an undignified manner,
all to claim the guild for herself.
She likely meant no harm, my lord.
She oversees the guild's finances. As such, her eye for art is less refined.
Wait a moment.
There must be others who also received counterfeits.
Your Excellency, you should have sent word of your visit.
Please come inside.
Chief Merchant…
Find out what is going on.
As you wish.
What is this dagger for?
Remember what I taught you?
I do, but vaguely.
Like this, maybe…
Let me.
Was that it?
Please have mercy.
Was that good?
Yes. Use it to protect yourself like so.
You must return home safely.
I will.
Tie it tighter, will you?
My son.
It pains me that I cannot accompany you.
An urgent matter has arisen, now of all times.
Your great-uncle is a strict and principled man.
Treat him with the utmost courtesy.
Of course. I will see you upon my return.
I have them tailed, so please rest assured.
- Help yourselves, everyone. - We must hurry.
This is tasty, all right.
Oh dear. It is still but a fledgling.
How ever did you fall from there?
Its mother may have pushed it.
What?
Mother birds often abandon weak or deformed chicks.
Keeping it alive only adds another mouth, one unlikely to survive.
No. This one tells me you are mistaken.
See? It is flapping its wings for help,
asking us to return it to its mother and siblings.
Here. You hold it.
Hand it to me once I get up there.
Can you even climb?
You hold it.
Hand it here, will you?
What are you doing? Were you thinking of catching me?
- Why not? - If you so wish.
You said you would make an effort!
Is this you making an effort to be my little brother?
Is this not the nature of little brothers? Unruly, unthinking, and unsound?
The artworks I sent to the patrons were all counterfeits?
They were.
How is this possible?
Those pieces were taken from the treasure chamber.
Someone must have tampered with them.
Who? Why?
So they were all counterfeits to begin with?
This is disastrous.
I have tarnished the guild's reputation and betrayed its esteemed patrons' trust.
I shall be held accountable for everything.
My lady, word has it that Madame Gwigokja has returned to the city.
Find out where she is. Now!
Yes, madam.
Eliminate her on the journey.
You may claim she went to Yanjing to find her brother.
We have evidence that she saved money while working with those strays.
Hongrang. Is that really you?
- You have not changed one bit. - Hongrang.
I feared I may never see you again!
Do you remember me at all? Take a look around the place.
Everything should be as you remember it.
No wonder… it seemed quite familiar.
Especially… that pine tree over there.
Goodness, it is you!
You used to stand on your tiptoes, claiming you would grow taller than that.
Thanks to my sister,
I am recovering my memories little by little.
Well, you two were inseparable when you were little.
Of course.
Your name was Jae-yi, was it? You have also not changed at all.
Yes. It is good to see you.
Who imagined he would return?
I hear you were of a different opinion.
Pardon?
What was it?
What made you instantly deny the brother you had not seen in over a decade?
I merely found him unrecognizable as an adult.
What about now? Is he undoubtedly your little brother?
I led countless soldiers in my youth.
Each and every one of them
harbored some sort of fear deep within.
Fear often stems from one's childhood experiences.
Soldiers who almost drowned as children often develop a fear of water,
while those who once fell from a great height often fear heights.
Which means…
you must fear this.
You were severely burned by the flame of a heating stove in this very room.
You must still bear the scar.
Yet, you do not appear to fear fire at all.
It is because I have endured far greater horrors.
A relentless, suffocating hunger scorched my insides,
and the biting cold tore at my skin,
igniting the agony of a thousand flames.
In that great abyss of darkness,
I yearned for the warmth of a single ember,
even if it would mean perishing in flames.
However,
what I feared more than the hunger, cold, and darkness…
was being utterly alone.
Nothing could rival the fear born of such despair and solitude.
I shall never know
a greater fear.
By fortune, it seems you shall no longer suffer such solitude.
Here she comes.
Such a decrepit place does not befit you.
Please come with me.
Once more,
you appear to be at risk of losing something.
Please bestow me with your blessing.
Both my son and I are at great risk. We are indeed in harm's way.
Had you not put yourself in harm's way to begin with,
you would not have needed to come here at all.
You are right.
This is all due to my imprudence.
Is it not the existence of the real that gives rise to the fake?
Sorry?
What do you…
I once believed it was for the best that you had not returned.
I hoped you had either passed on
or found happiness living another life as someone else.
I did not wish for you to suffer the repercussions of your parents' sins.
May I ask
what sins you're referring to?
Never forget
that the spilling of innocent blood always has its consequences.
Let us stay the night there.
Make camp with the porters further out.
Why do you idle here?
Let us end this quickly, lest we wake one who is sound asleep.
Hongrang.
Hey!
You there!
Are you sleeping?
Such a shame.
Wasteful, indeed.
You are quite the swordsmen.
Now tell me. Who sent you?
You are up against the Soul Reaper.
Take only your most skilled men.
Do not let her out of your sight.
He must not harm a single hair on her head.
Dispose of the bastard.
But the grandmaster's orders were to simply protect the mistress.
I doubt your silence stems from loyalty. Is it pride? Or is it your work ethic?
I would not expect
to see pride and work ethic in bastards who kill for coin.
I do understand you though.
I, for my part,
am not so different from you.
What is going on?
You startled me.
- Did something happen-- - I…
I thought I lost you.
- Again. - What?
I thought I lost you
again.
You thought what?
What was that?
What will you do with that? Protect me?
Just shut it.
What now? "Shut it"?
What is it now?
This? I scratched it earlier when I…
Why are you like this?
Why do you keep getting hurt?
Why…
So, in order to resolve this issue,
let us compare the ones you received
with the ones in my storage
to identify which are authentic and which are counterfeits.
Send in the appraisers.
Goodness, tell us something!
What is taking you so long?
Hurry, now. Tell us whether it is authentic or not.
Why do you need to inspect it for so long?
Come on.
Your conclusion?
After repeated examinations and discussions,
we have unanimously concluded
that the pieces on the right are authentic.
So, we truly have been had?
How on earth did this happen?
I am curious as well.
Did you set out to deceive us?
Let us hear what it is you have to say.
Madam Min. Speak up and explain yourself!
What are you doing?
You are mistaken.
This!
And this!
All of these are fakes.
They were just appraised before our very eyes!
Indeed they were.
But those imbeciles are all fake as well.
Let me now show you the truth.
Bring him in!
Are you not Chu from Jin Art Studio?
Which of these did you draw?
I drew the counterfeit drawings on the right, madam.
Counterfeit?
What nonsense.
I leave my mark on each of my imitation pieces.
A mark?
Is that so?
Then shall we see if there is, in fact, a mark?
JIN
Those marks indicate their authenticity--
It is clearly a mark in my handwriting that indicates it is an imitation piece.
The character "jin"?
- It is his handwriting! - So those are fakes?
Now then,
shall I fill that chest before you with gold,
or shall I fill it with your family's severed heads?
This is ridiculous.
What do you think you are doing?
I merely took a page out of your book.
You replaced the authentic pieces with counterfeits, did you not?
Do you really think
you can falsely claim that those fakes are authentic?
You shall face the consequences of this regardless.
There are original painters who created the authentic artworks
as well as dozens of appraisers.
Do you believe that sheer insistence
can turn a counterfeit into something genuine?
Is that not exactly what is happening now?
No! Everything here is authentic! Put the fire out now!
No! Quench the flames, quick! Hurry, put it out now!
- Fire! - Fire!
These are all authentic pieces!
This cannot be!
What makes a fake a fake is the existence of an authentic.
Now then,
which of them should we call authentic?
I have a favor to ask.
How ludicrous. I should not have cried like that.
Strange, is it not? I am the one who is injured,
so why is she in pain?
Perhaps we are alike.
I was simply pitying her.
Seeing her care for another while clearly suffering herself.
It was a pitiful sight to behold.
Worry not.
I am well aware that there are far more pitiful lives out there.
It is but a fleeting sympathy.
We cannot have the Min Family's Guild's only daughter looking this gaunt.
You should rest from the arduous journey and make yourself presentable.
My son, welcome home.
Have you been well?
Of course.
Let us go inside.
Oh dear.
Why is the girl still alive?
You are not one to fail at such a task. Did you spare her out of choice?
That is right.
It would be a shame.
"A shame"?
I am not Sim's son but a fake.
Mu-jin is merely an adopted son to be used as a stand-in for Sim.
Thus, Sim Jae-yi is Sim Yeol-guk's only remaining blood.
Kept alive, she will prove useful when the critical moment arrives.
However, the wench still suspects you and will keep you at risk.
Her trust.
That is all I need to earn from her.
Can you truly earn her trust?
It has been a while.
But why the pallor? One would think you had seen a ghost.
No.
I heard nonsensical rumors…
The rumor of my mother dying in search of my lost sister
and that I killed myself after succumbing to drinking and gambling?
I should say that is only a half-truth.
As you can see, I am alive and well.
I have been living in Qing.
I have been helping my uncle with some land he owns there.
I see.
And what brings you back here?
Right.
There is something I must do.
I have someplace to be now.
Let us catch up another time.
I must ask…
How can you be so heartless? She was once your lover, after all.
Why is it that you do not inquire as to my sister Kkot-nim's whereabouts?
Perhaps you do not wonder at all.
Or perhaps you have always known her exact whereabouts.
I will protect you… at all costs.
It is good to see you, Chief.
It has been too long,
Mother.
Subtitle translation by: Jimin Choi