Chapter 56
Dongbaek and Cao Cao downed yet another drink, having lost count of how many they’d had. Though she wasn’t getting drunk, the alcohol was making her stomach feel bloated and uncomfortable.
‘Maybe it’s because it’s rice wine that makes me feel fuller. I wonder if there’s some clear wine in the wine storage… Should I go get some?’
The thick rice wine left a sticky sensation in her mouth. Unlike her thoughts, Cao Cao was on the verge of losing consciousness.
His flushed face, slurred speech, and his eyes, once sharp, had grown hazy, gave away his condition.
“If it’s too much, you should stop drinking.”
When Dongbaek tried to discourage him, Cao Cao emptied his remaining drink with a smirk, as if her concern was unnecessary.
“Haha, how could I stop here? A man would lose his dignity! But seriously, you’re something else, aren’t you, Commander So? You’re drinking like water just slides down your throat.”
Though nothing was more foolish than believing a drunk person’s claims about being fine, since it was that Cao Cao, she wondered if maybe he was different.
‘Still, he’s been drinking since daylight, so he can’t possibly be fine.’
Cao Cao pushed over his empty cup with his index finger. As the cup rolled in circles on the table, he stopped it with his index finger, leaving it tilted.
“I thought I’d at least win in drinking, though.”
“What use is winning in drinking?”
“That’s something only a winner can say. The loser has no right to talk.”
Shaking his head at his rising intoxication, Cao Cao stared at Dongbaek, who sat straight without showing any signs of dishevelment. Unlike his drunken state, she showed no signs of fatigue, maintaining a clear face with slightly pursed lips.
Dongbaek chuckled softly, finding his appearance amusing.
“I’d like to hear my Commander So laugh out loud for once.”
“I’ll laugh when there’s something worth laughing about.”
“Isn’t it funny how I’m playing along with you like this? Hm?”
“Playing along implies adjusting to match the other person’s standards… Since I haven’t felt any consideration, perhaps that’s just your own thought, Yilang Cao.”
Dongbaek responded while solemnly lowering her eyes. Cao Cao grew impatient with how Dongbaek maintained such cold and rigid distance despite drinking so much.
‘What a high horse he sits on!’
Cao Cao never imagined he would become so desperate to win someone’s favor. And for that person to be Zhang Rang’s adopted child, no less! When Xiahou Dun had first told him about So Dongbaek, he couldn’t have imagined things would turn out like this.
But Dongbaek was exactly the kind of talent he craved. It wasn’t just that becoming friends would be beneficial—his instincts were screaming that he must befriend and obtain this person.
Whether or not So Dongbaek was too big a fish for him to swallow didn’t matter. Cao Cao believed in his own abilities as much as he believed in Dongbaek’s talents.
‘Still, we’ve known each other for some time now, and he’s still calling me Yilang Cao…. No wonder it feels like there’s a wall between us—it’s all in the way we address each other.’
Suddenly thinking about how they addressed each other, Cao Cao grabbed Dongbaek’s hand that was resting on the table and asked casually,
“So, how long are we going to keep calling each other by titles?”
Dongbaek tried to pull her hand away, but Cao Cao’s grip was surprisingly strong. It was clear Cao Cao wasn’t letting go so easily. Dongbaek responded with both irritation and puzzlement.
“Isn’t this level of formality sufficient between us?”
“Formality? I’d say we’re already much closer than that.”
“So what kind of relationship do you think we have, Yilang Cao?”
“Aren’t we bound by a written agreement?”
At Cao Cao’s innocent-looking head tilt and smooth-faced question, Dongbaek couldn’t help but let out a quiet laugh. Cao Cao shook his head as if admitting defeat.
“I guess even that’s not enough to make you laugh out loud. And here I was, using my ultimate charm.”
“This time, I felt like I actually did play along.”
“If you played along, then you played along—what’s this ‘felt like’ nonsense?”
His skill at picking apart words was impressive even in his drunken state. Though drunk, his mind seemed to be working quite well.
With a confident smirk, Cao Cao leaned forward.
“Still, you brought me into your house, so you can’t hate me that much, can you?”
“I was rather hoping to see your face turn pale if my father caught us.”
“Fine by me! If that happens, I’ll make sure to put on a good show.”
Removing his hand from atop Dongbaek’s, Cao Cao proudly jabbed his thumb at his chest.
“Mengde. Call me Mengde.”
Mengde was Cao Cao’s courtesy name, a form of address that showed respect. Usually, only colleagues, superiors, or peers could use it, so it was quite a friendly gesture to offer it to someone as young as Dongbaek.
“Ah, come to think of it, you mentioned before that you haven’t had your coming-of-age ceremony yet?”
Cao Cao spoke as if he’d just remembered something. His intentional act of pretending to be unintentional was quite detestable.
‘So that’s why he offered his courtesy name—he was planning to call me by my given name.’
While using each other’s courtesy names would make them equals, unlike courtesy names, using given names was a way of talking down to someone.
‘I’d use his courtesy name while he uses my given name… What a mess, what a complete mess.’
Usually, courtesy names were given between ages 15 and 20, during the coming-of-age ceremony. However, Dongbaek had already gone through her ceremony when she took office. Though it had been somewhat rushed and simplified, she had received her courtesy name then. That was incredibly fortunate.
Dongbaek rested her chin on her hand and thought for a moment. While she felt reluctant to reveal her courtesy name to Cao Cao first, it wasn’t something worth hiding either. For the first time, she introduced her courtesy name.
“Saryang (思量). You may call me So Saryang.”
Cao Cao blinked as if caught off guard.
To be fair, a lot had happened since he’d last heard that Dongbaek hadn’t had her coming-of-age ceremony. She had not only taken office but also married, so it wouldn’t have been strange for her to have had the ceremony in between… Cao Cao sighed regretfully.
“This is the first I’m hearing about your coming-of-age ceremony!”
“Just because it’s news to you, Yilang Cao, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, Cao Mengde.”
Having seen through Cao Cao’s game like reading her palm, Dongbaek deliberately emphasized his title teasingly.
“So Saryang kept his courtesy name so tightly hidden! How was I to know?”
“I didn’t particularly hide it. We simply weren’t close enough for me to tell you, so it’s natural you wouldn’t know, Cao Mengde.”
“My, my! So Saryang, you’re too cold! Besides, you should have invited me to your coming-of-age ceremony!”
“And Cao Mengde, you’re too shameless! We weren’t close enough for invitations, and would you have come even if invited? Has the wise Cao Mengde forgotten who my father is?”
Just as they were bantering back and forth using each other’s courtesy names, suddenly there was movement outside the room.
“Is Dongbaek here?”
Despite the aged voice, it carried an inexplicable pressure. It was Zhang Rang, Dongbaek’s adoptive father and the master of this house. Speak of the devil—at his sudden arrival, both Dongbaek and Cao Cao froze, staring at each other’s faces. Dongbaek was the first to regain her senses.
“H-hide!”
“Where?”
“Anywhere!”
True to their earlier joke, Cao Cao’s face turned a sickly pale as he frantically searched for a hiding place. The sparse room had not a single chest where he could conceal himself.
Dongbaek was just as flustered, making her earlier teasing about wanting to see Cao Cao’s face turn pale seem ironic. She pushed Cao Cao toward a corner while heading to the door herself.
In his panic about where to hide, Cao Cao desperately threw himself onto the nearby bed.
‘Who the hell puts a bed right against the wall like this, leaving no space to hide!’
Thinking quickly, Cao Cao hastily messed up the neatly folded blanket and covered himself. He managed to turn his back and cover his face with the blanket just as Zhang Rang entered the room.
Dongbaek approached Zhang Rang with a smooth expression, as if her earlier panic had been a lie.
“What brings you here at this late hour, Father?”
“I hadn’t heard you’d returned home today, but saw the light on and came to check.”
“You could have sent Elder Hwang. The spring night air is still cold.”
Dongbaek’s voice was softly composed and full of concern. Though she tried to block Zhang Rang’s view of Cao Cao, Zhang Rang wasn’t one to miss such details.
“Who’s that?”
Zhang Rang asked, noticing the suspicious bulge in the bed. From the back view, it seemed to be a man rather than a woman…
Dongbaek internally gulped at Zhang Rang’s question. Worried her expression might stiffen into an awkward smile, she scratched her cheek casually while quickly answering.
“It’s one of my centurions. We were drinking together and he passed out, so I just let him sleep here.”
She deliberately mentioned a subordinate rather than a friend. It would be troublesome if she was later asked who this friend was, as she had no other friends she could name.
“Hmm…”
At Zhang Rang’s suspicious grunt, Cao Cao and Dongbaek’s hearts pounded in unison. As Zhang Rang’s eyes narrowed, Dongbaek’s mind filled with worry that he might have figured it out.
After a long moment, Zhang Rang spoke.
“Very well, I trust you to handle yourself appropriately.”
In other words, he was saying he believed the person wasn’t someone dangerous and would let it slide. Only then did Dongbaek let out a sigh of relief.
-ˋˏ ༻❁✿❀༺ ˎˊ-
-ˋˏ ༻ 𝚃𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚘𝚛 𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚎 ༺ ˎˊ-
A courtesy name (字, zì) in Chinese culture is a type of name traditionally given to individuals, usually around the age of 20, as a part of adulthood rites. It was a way of showing respect for the individual while maintaining formal distance. It was common in historical China, including during the Three Kingdoms period, and the practice extended to other East Asian countries like Japan and Korea.
Cao Cao had a courtesy name, Mengde (孟德). The character 孟 (Mèng) is commonly used as a first name or a courtesy name for the eldest son, while 德 (Dé) means “virtue” or “moral integrity.” This could suggest that his courtesy name was associated with a sense of moral strength and leadership.
While So Dongbaek’s courtesy name is Saryang (사량) / Siliang (思量). From this chapter onward I’ll use Saryang (사량). The character 思 (Sī) means “to think” or “to contemplate.” It is often associated with the act of reflection or considering something deeply. And 量 (Liàng) means “to measure,” “to consider,” or “to evaluate.” It implies a sense of weighing or gauging something carefully.
Together, 思量 as a courtesy name could be interpreted as “one who thinks carefully” or “one who evaluates and contemplates,” reflecting a person who is thoughtful, wise, and deliberative in their actions.
-ˋˏ ༻❁✿❀༺ ˎˊ-
Thank you for reading! ♡
