"My Lady, please let me go…I can barely even walk…and I just want a small sip of water…" "Well, now that we have your attention servant, I have also noticed that you are old enough to get married now, isn't that right? You are wasting your youth here in looking after a woman who has no needs for servants at all and we would only be seen as evil doers if we were to keep you confined to this household." "What are you talking about?" "I have decided that you shall also become a concubine to my husband since his first one is rather lacking in domesticated skills." "But your husband is the same age as my own grandfather! No, you cannot do this to me! I am a precious servant of The Lord Nam and he will not let you sell me off! His wife needs me!" "That girl doesn't need anybody in her life at all, believe me you, so after you heal from your injury, I will personally send you off to his bed chambers and from there your marriage will be consummated. Think about this wisely girl, your are being offered to become a concubine overnight for absolutely nothing at all." "I would rather be a lowly servant all of my life than to marry such an old and broke man!" "You lowly servant, how dare you throw our grace back into our faces so casually! Has my grand nephew's wife taught you no manners at all! Someone bring her onto her knees and slap her until she reagins her senses!" "Big Madame, please! Do not do this to me…!" "All you have to do is to agree to the marriage and we can stop torturing you all together! Surely some commoners must have a little common sense, isn't that right?" "I am to valuable to my Master, he told me so multiple times! He needs me, I have served him since I was young and…" "Enough of this! Take her to where the concubine's family is and kill her last for all I care!"
"Kill her last? What is that supposed to mean, Big Madame? Can you explain to me why you intend on killing my servant?" "Lord Nam's wife? What on earth are you doing see after disappearing for so long? Where did you go without taking our permission? How can you just barge in here and…" "Madame, may I remind you that I am the rightful owner of this yangban and that I also live here? We have our belongings here, so where else do you expect me to go?" "Ah, but we should have been informed of your absence in order to successfully run the household and…" "Forgive me Madame, but that last time I checked, myself and my husband openly left The Mistress Han in charge of this household and we put her servant in charge of the servants, so I am not the one to be giving this lecture to. If The Mistress Han has failed to uphold her duties, then you need to be scolding her instead of venting your anger upon my servant! Unhand her and take her to be treated for her injuries at once!"
"We have decided to marry her off…" "Without my permission or my blessing? She is my servant, this isn't your home so I am really beginning to wonder exactly what authority you think you have under this roof to marry or imprison anyone you see fit? Isn't this breaking the rules of my husband's household? And who exactly are these new servants that I have never seen before? I assume that they are not on my husband's payroll?" "We called in some favours from our old friends since we found your servants much too inconstant and rude in your presence." "Madame, I have taken great pains to help my husband train those servants for nearly a decade, and you are telling me that you just felt like selling them off at will? Just for that act alone, I am afraid that it will continue to make issues between us even more difficult, so before hearts about this, I am advising you all to go back to you respective homes and…" "Madame Nam! It is one thing for you to show up here married and with child without our permission and blessing, but you simply cannot just…" "Forgive the interruption, but you did not acknowledge his birth and have had no dealings with him since after we had planned our marriage ceremony in front of my family and our friends, so I had no legal right towards any of you, and I certainly was given no instructions about your stay here. Now will you release my servant, or do I have to call in my husband to deal with you directly? Or I can have your current servants sent to the prefecture office for simply defying my instructions alone? Well?"
"Enough of this nonsense! Let us go through with this marriage and…" "In case you hadn't noticed Madame, we already have an unmarried woman here who is in desperate need of a husband and is closer in age to him than my young servant who deserves to have a spouse that she can mature with, what do you say?Otherwise I fear that I will have no choice but to send all of your own personal staff to the prefecture office on behalf of my husband. And I will make sure they are all searched so they have no household items on their person unless they are willing to be charged with the crime of theft, which will result in them loosing at least one hand each."
"Wife? What did you just say? Who are these people in my home and where have my servants gone?" "Husband, please calm yourself for my sake! It seems that your family has taken liberties to…my god, what on earth is that awful smell?" "What did you just say? And where have my damned servants gone! Why can't I leave my home for a few hours without it turning completely upside down! Who the fuck gave you all the idea to just…" "Servant! Where is that awful smell coming from? What is it?" "Madame, I have been told that The Senior Scholar's wife had left out a pregnant tonic for you after the lunch banquet. Bur you had just left straight afterwards and the new servants your husband's family brought in were too afraid to do anything about it. Int was supposedly made with the best herbs…"
"The best herbs do not rot like that after 3 days; send this to MoonBok in the village pharmacy straight away and do it quickly before anyone notices. And then carry out an investigation and report this to me immediately." "Yes Madame." "…I do not think that you appreciate our efforts in your household, Lord Nam! We recruited these better servants to be trained just for you and you do not even acknowledge us at all!" "WHO TOLD YOU TO SELL MY DAMNED SERVANTS YOU OLD HAG!" "Husband…" "Servant! Take my wife to rest in our chambers and I will not have her stressed out on her return home so soon!" Very well husband, but do not make me wait for too long." "My Lady, should you perhaps try to clam him down more?" "I would much prefer he take out his anger on somebody else besides me whilst he can, I am already too focused on his life to simply enjoy my pregnancy in peace, so the family who has no plans to part from us should take the brunt of his temper. My goodness; open up a window before I throw up, that smell is just awful. And where is my husband's nephew?" "He was very sad at the fact that you just left him behind and he has locked himself in the library room of the yangban. But The Big Madame has been talking about making plans for your husband to adopt him, in case you give birth to a girl…of if you cannot carry the baby to full term…" "So they want to give him legitimacy? Even though he literally shares the same bloodline as my husband? The same boy who overtook my husband's aunt's family at such a young ago? God only knows what he will do to us in return if he thinks we are turning our backs on him after I have birthed my own children…no, I cannot even think of the possibility." "My Lady, do you then intend on turning him away from the family?" "No, I could never abandon him either as I helped to raise him myself, but I do need to get this idea out of my husband's head before it backfires on us."
"My Lady, the physicians has come back with a detailed report of the tonic that was laid out in your chambers…" "So it was a tonic then? A pregnancy one? But how on earth could an outsider have made one so quickly, and on the every day that I announced it? Does that make the slightest bit of sense at all?" "No My Lady, but…" "Very well, I understand the intention; reward the servants to kept its out and bring them to my chambers later on for a special meeting. It seems as though I will have my work cut out for me already. Let me see this report and call upon the nephew to eat lunch with me."
"…All hell has broken loose since you absence! We have had to bring in new servants just as we found out that your concubine has been dealing with black magic!" "What did you just say? Is this some kind of a joke?" "And that is not all! My husband has fallen terribly ill since you left us with that girl that he chose to take in, the other woman wasting away here is suffering to no end with no way out, I have no help…" "and yet your grandchildren are now granted marriage within the palace? Both at once? That seems like a worthy cause to take on all of that burden, don't you agree, Big Madame?" "And what of the other inauspicious signs that surround them? What if it follows them into the palace and we get blamed for becoming jinxes? This family is falling apart before the greatest day of our lives and there was even more mishaps that got on here in your absence! I broke my hip, my husband is bed bound, my daughter is divorced before coming here and this all happened so soon maybe I should consult the astrological office in the palace to take a look at this place before we handle all of the arrangements…?" "You all are the jinxes in my plan, not my damed wife! Every time one of you get involved in my life, you all subconsciously ruin all of my effort and hard work! I have lost everything that I worked hard for just because of a stupid crush that I once had on the wrong woman! And now my father's clan who refused to acknowledge me until some weeks ago now comes into my life and lets go of the only people that I trust to help me get back on my feet! Get out! All of you, after these weddings take place I order you to go back to your respective homes….or you can all rot in hell here and I will be the one to take my family away from all of this! I swear upon everything that I hold dear that my child will not know any of your faces at all! Because I will protect my child even from myself if I have to!"