President Min-gu Noh and the economic delegation stepped off at the airport in Beijing to an ardent welcome from China.

The Chinese who had come out to the airport to greet him conducted the President and the delegation to the Great Hall of the People.

It was a long while since a President of the Republic of Korea had come to the country with an economic delegation, and China mounted an event for them and raised the pitch of its welcome.

Boom!

Mun-jong Lee frowned at the salute.

"Has a war broken out somewhere? How many rounds of salute are they going to fire?"

"The Chinese are fond of gunpowder, are they not? So they seem to be laying it on a little thick."

"This is past laying it on thick. Anyone would think another country had come over the border."

Seong-ho Kim let a laugh escape at the grumbling, as though he agreed.

Because to his own ear too the salutes had gone well past excess.

Boom, boom, boom!

A gun salute ordinarily ends after one round. This one went on for twenty, and stopped only when the square was thick with the acrid smell of powder.

"Ugh, my ears have gone quite dull."

Mun-jong Lee felt at his deadened ears and followed the guide into the Great Hall of the People.

As he was about to sit in the seat he had been shown to, the guide stopped him and said,

"Please be seated after His Excellency the President has come in."

"Haah…"

Mun-jong Lee dug a finger into his still-ringing ear and waved a hand to say he understood.

Seong-ho Kim, at his side, answered the guide in his place.

The guide gave him a sidelong look for answering with a gesture rather than words, and turned away.

"And what will you do if you glare at me? A red, and he—"

"Brother."

Seong-ho Kim checked him hurriedly.

"They will understand every word of Korean."

For the party from the Republic of Korea, China had made a point of assigning guides who could all of them speak…