Seong-ho Kim and Mun-jong Lee were at Pyeongchang-dong once more, and Tak-hyeon Lee announced his decision to them.

"I shall go, so take it as settled."

It was Suk-ja Chu whom the decision startled.

"Why on earth should you go there?"

"Then who is to go?"

"You must send Mun-jong."

"Did I not say the Blue House named Seong-ho outright?"

"And what has that to do with anything?"

"Waaah—"

Perhaps Suk-ja Chu's shrillness grated on her — Seo-yeon Kim, asleep until then in Gyeong-eun Lee's arms, burst into tears.

Suk-ja Chu had no patience for the sound of a child crying, and her voice came out full of irritation.

"Why have you brought the baby to a place like this? Kim. Will you not even let her use a nanny? Have you pushed Gyeong-eun into raising the child with her own hands?"

"Why take it out on my husband? I am holding her because I want her with me."

Thoroughly vexed, Suk-ja Chu called over the household help waiting at a distance.

"Cheongsong-daek. Come and take the baby."

"Is our Seo-yeon a piece of luggage? Why must she be carried off and put out of the way?"

Angered by that, Gyeong-eun Lee handed her daughter carefully to Seong-ho Kim.

She had decided to have it out with Suk-ja Chu.

Gyeong-eun Lee raised her voice at her mother, and her mother raised hers straight back.

"Howling away like that, how is she any different from a piece of luggage? She is lovely to you because she is yours — who else is going to be fond of a child that howls so?"

"Is she only my daughter? She is your granddaughter, Mother. Is a granddaughter not lovely to you?"

"For all that, is she not a Kim?"

"Then are you a Lee, Mother? You are no Lee yourself, so how can you say such a thing?"

"I married into a house of Lees, but you married out into a house of Kims, did you not? So you have borne a Kim grandchild — what is there in that to be fond…