Chapter 131
“A king must act like a king, a subject like a subject, a father like a father, and a child like a child. Do you truly think what you did was the act of a father?”
It is only in a corrupted form of Confucianism—or, to be more precise, the form whose worst aspects were magnified after it crossed over into Japan—that people are taught to torment and abuse their children as they please while demanding unquestioning filial piety.
Even Mencius, Confucius's successor, said, ‘A king must act like a king. A bastard who does not act like a king is not a human being but a verminous rebel. It is permissible to kill him.’
To think that a man who called himself a father would get drunk, beat and mistreat his lawful wife, and even beat his own children—could such a thing make any sense?
He's such a piece of shit that even dunking him in sewage three times and roasting him alive wouldn't be enough.
"Do you know what expressions the children in my house had on their faces when they came running out of your residence?"
"How should I know? I was drunk and out of my mind at the time."
"They looked terrified, like children fleeing a murderer chasing them with a sword. I may be overstepping by involving myself in your family affairs, my lord, but when I saw the children running out because they wanted to live, I could not simply pass them by."
The civil servant who helped my family used to say that.
The district chief would chew him out, telling him to stop making such a big deal out of everything and asking whether he truly had no intention of getting promoted.
No matter how much they berated him, he somehow kept going around helping people like me, the socially vulnerable, within the bounds of the law.
Later, after I was appointed as an administrative officer, I looked into him and learned that, if only he had been a little less meddlesome and a little better at handling office politics, he could easily have risen as high as a senior secretary.
Apparently, he had made himself disliked by his superiors because he was always helping people here and there, and retired at Grade 6.
The reason I, despite being selfish by nature, came to go around helping people like this...
is because I owe that man a debt, and because I want to become like him.
No, the reason I became an administrative bureaucrat in the first place was because I wanted to become a civil servant like him.
That was why I couldn't simply leave Gwon Ram and his sister behind.
He probably hasn't come all the way to Joseon to watch over me, but I still want to become someone I would not be ashamed to face in his eyes.
"Then are you saying that I was trying to kill the children?"
"They say oppressive laws and tax collection are more terrifying to the people than a tiger. A father who gets drunk and lashes out with violence is an even more terrifying presence to his children."
There is one truly ironic thing.
The instinct to survive is embedded in children's DNA.
That is why, when faced with a threat to their survival, children try to earn their parents' love.
Even when their parents are child abusers, children instinctively love them when they are young and do everything they can to be loved.
No matter how hard the children tried, their parents would continue abusing them.
That civil servant used to say this, too.
At trials involving child abusers, when they ask a child about the abuse...
the child keeps defending the father, saying, "Dad isn't a bad person. He just acts that way sometimes when he drinks."
So what does it mean when a child, overcoming both that powerful survival instinct and the desire to be loved by their parents, runs away from them?
How badly must that child have been abused?
That son of a bitch deserves to be torn apart and killed, and even that wouldn't be enough.
"I hesitate to presume to judge the conduct of Lord Munchunggong (Gwon Geun), a meritorious subject at the founding of the dynasty, and a man who himself served as a provincial governor. But do you truly love your children, my lord?"
"What parent in this world does not love their children? Are you calling me a piece of trash who does not love his own children, Kim Sain?"
"Just imagining my own child running out of the house late at night makes my heart collapse. I would be terrified that some gang of miscreants might do something terrible to them."
People like Gwon Je cannot empathize with other people's feelings; they're psychopaths.
You can tell such a person to love their children as a parent and cherish and raise them well, but they simply won't understand.
They have lacked the ability to empathize with emotions since birth, so how could anyone teach them empathy?
"If I were frantic with worry like that and then heard that someone was protecting my child... I think I would collapse on the spot from relief. Even if the person who protected my child were a slave of the lowest status, I would bow to them in gratitude and try to honor them as my lifelong benefactor. They would have saved the child dearer to me than my own life. Is that not the feeling a father ought to have?"
"......"
A psychopath like Gwon Je lacks empathy, but that does not mean he lacks the ability to distinguish right from wrong.
That is why people with psychopathic tendencies in childhood, or who are diagnosed as such, judge every problem in society according to right and wrong.
Going further, although they cannot empathize with what others feel, they distinguish what others might be feeling according to the standards of 'good and evil' and adapt to society.
So even that beast wearing human skin must have realized how much bullshit he had been spouting, since I explained it to him in terms of 'good and evil.'
"If you wish to impeach me, then impeach me; if you wish to condemn me, then condemn me. But no one else will sympathize with what you are saying, my lord."
Gwon Je clicked his tongue sharply when he heard me.
"I was too harsh. I shall apologize. Since you protected my children, I shall send a token of my gratitude shortly. Now, I shall take Ram and Yeong-i home."
"The children are badly injured and are receiving treatment from a physician. The physician says they need to be treated at my house for at least a week."
There is a mistake that police officers who receive reports of child abuse often make.
They simply withdraw from the scene when the child and the parents say that it is not child abuse.
The reason this is the wrong response is that what parent in this world would calmly confess, ‘I am abusing my child,’ while abusing their child...
and how could a child find the courage to report their own parent as a child abuser?
A parent who feels ashamed and betrayed after being reported because of their child might burn with vengeful resentment toward the child and subject them to even worse violence.
If I sent the children back to Gwon Je now, I could not guarantee what would happen.
It was possible that one of the children might even die as a result of an accident (since Gwon Je would not have intended it).
"I will leave them in your care."
"And I have heard from the rumors circulating that your relationship with your wife is not good."
Divorce isn't easy even in Korea, but in Joseon, a divorce in a yangban family had to be approved even by the king...
It was not something one could simply do merely because one wanted to.
The process of obtaining the king's permission naturally involved review by the Royal Secretariat.
In an era as starved for entertainment as Joseon, that became an unmanageable dose of dopamine.
Naturally, rumors spread through society like wildfire.
And yet, in the original history, this man ultimately succeeded in divorcing his wife.
He did it because he wanted to live sweetly with his gisaeng concubine afterward.
No matter how one looked at him, he truly was a piece of trash who defied all standards of common sense in Joseon.
"How does Kim Sain know so much about my family circumstances?"
"The rumors have spread widely. And..."
I spoke right beside this yangban's ear.
So that only the two of us could hear.
"I will help you get a divorce."
A smile appeared on Gwon Je's face when he heard that.
"Is that true?"
"Yes. I will help you."
People tend to consider divorce when their husband or wife is violent-tempered, spends recklessly beyond what they can afford, or cheats as often as they eat.
However, because they have children, many couples cannot divorce and instead endure their lives while continuing to quarrel.
They think that their parents' divorce would be bad for their children's development.
I understand that feeling, but in the long run, it can actually be worse for the children.
They say that living in a family on the verge of divorce causes children stress equivalent to being forced onto a battlefield.
If you're going to inflict that kind of stress continuously, it is better to choose divorce.
In other words, one great pain is better than ongoing pain.
Of course, the best option is for everyone to live well together without divorcing, but if that is impossible, would it not be better to choose the lesser evil?
To save Gwon Ram, his sister, and their innocent first wife, I thought this was the best choice.
"Then I shall take my leave."
Gwon Je said this, then left the house humming to himself.
As soon as he was gone, I immediately called for Gapseok.
"Gapseok, scatter a huge amount of salt at the front gate. And buy a talisman to ward off evil spirits and put it up."
Just thinking that a piece of human garbage like that had visited made me find myself wanting to go looking for talismans.
I thought I would feel at least a little more at ease after Gapseok scattered the salt and put up the talisman.
Then I went to find Gwon Ram.
"Your father will not come here for the next week."
"Thank you, my lord. But are you really all right..."
I gave him a light flick on the forehead, careful not to hurt him.
"If you're a child, then act like a child and feel free to seek comfort from an adult."
There are two things Gwon Ram absolutely needs for healthy personality development.
One is the warm love of an adult who can fill his father's place.
The other is escaping the trauma caused by his father.
And the best way to escape trauma is...
'Revenge.'
"I have a proposal for you."
"What kind of proposal are you talking about?"
"It isn't anything bad."
Do you think I would leave that child-abusing bastard alone?
"Do you want me to send your father to join Goryeo?"
Gwon Ram's pupils trembled.