WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 117: Taming the Copycat (2)

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Myo San took the oyster sauce, tasted a little on his pinky finger, and nodded.

"Yes... This is the taste, isn't it?

Well done! How much did it cost?"

The white-clothed employee bowed their head.

"Th-this one bottle cost 50 won. You said it didn't matter how much it cost, that we had to get a bottle as quickly as possible..."

"What!?"

Myo San froze. Fifty won?

Hadn't the bounty for the Wolf disturbance that turned the neighboring area upside down been 300 won?

One-sixth of that amount for a single bottle of sauce... Granted, that neighboring area was a bit of a backwater...

Still, Myo San nodded through gritted teeth.

"No, you did well."

Another white-clothed employee went pale.

"B-But, Sajang! If we pay 50 won for every bottle of sauce, even with our financial resources..."

Myo San snorted.

"Do you think I'm insane? Like I'd keep buying it at that price."

"Pardon?"

"It's from Hong Kong. It hasn't even been a year since it started circulating in earnest. Goods like that ordinarily have to be ordered in bulk."

It was a limitation of the times.

They might come across individual bottles at a five-day market or somewhere, but there was no consistency or reliability in that.

"How can we place a bulk order without knowing whether this is the right one? What if we're barking up the wrong tree? What happens to all that money? Are we supposed to guzzle down all the leftover sauce ourselves? And how much time would we waste waiting for it to arrive?"

Myo San lightly tapped the bottle with his slender fingertips, like a beckoning cat calling in customers.

"The 50 won we paid isn't the price of sauce. It's the price of time. Now that we know the answer, if we look around a little, won't a supply route at the right price show up on its own?"

And just as he said, it did.

The next day, before the sun had even set, a supplier claiming they could meet Myo's Fried Chicken's oyster sauce demand came to them of their own accord, as though they had been waiting.

The price they named was still rather steep.

Myo San frowned.

"Two won and fifty jeon a bottle?"

The supplier nodded.

"That's right.

I'll be honest with you. I hear it costs 1.2 Hong Kong dollars in Hong Kong. Considering the exchange rate, that makes the base cost about one won a bottle.

But it takes work to bring it all the way here, doesn't it? We have to make something too."

"Even so, taking a won and a half just for distribution is a bit greedy..."

"Naturally, we're not importing it directly from there either. We're bringing it in from Busan. Those people need their share, and so do we. When that many spoons dip in, what can you do?"

Myo San ground his teeth.

It sounded plausible, and the price was set perfectly. It was a damned price, yet not one he couldn't pay. It felt as though someone had seen straight through the maximum price he was willing to tolerate.

'I might be able to get it down to around two won a bottle if I spend more time looking...'

But it was already late December. The new year was just around the corner.

The peninsula still celebrated Lunar New Year, and the deadline for their business contest was Lunar New Year as well. Yet as the Japanese colonial era dragged on, Japanese New Year culture had also taken root throughout the peninsula.

'During the first week of January, goods and distribution will grind to a halt everywhere. It may be even harder to find it then... Damn it! I'll have to use this for now!'

Having reached a decision, Myo San slammed his fist on the table.

"Buy it!"

The supplier's eyes gleamed.

"Oh! What impressive decisiveness."

"Enough nonsense. Just bring the goods on time. With the price I'm paying, if you change the terms later or delay the shipment... I'm actually a very frightening person."

Myo San laid on the threats, then rose from his seat. He had expected to be furious, but once he made his decision, his mind felt a little calmer instead.

'Han San. Your clever ganjang seasoning, whether it's Daegu-style or Daejeon-style, truly chilled me to the bone. But I've caught up with you now!'

That was enough.

After all:

'It's not as if another new menu item will come out right away!'

Brilliant ideas that came once in a decade would not keep pouring out endlessly. The premium attached to this oyster sauce was simply the price of the leash around that brat Han San's neck.

Myo San laughed heartily.

"Han's Myriad Commerce! Sajang Han San! Just wait! I'll crush you!"

The supplier must have gotten caught up in the excitement, because they laughed along.

"A song of crushing echoes through Myo's Myriad Commerce...!!"

Silence fell for a moment.

Myo San cleared his throat.

"Well, there's no need to sing..."

"Ah, my apologies. It slipped out from force of habit... Anyway, until next time."

And so.

Having signed an exclusive two-month sauce supply contract with Myo's Myriad Commerce, the supplier strode proudly back to the office at [headquarters].

That night, the following conversation took place at Han's Myriad Commerce's office.

"I'm telling you, there really was a sucker who bought one bottle of sauce for exactly 50 won!"

"I saw it too! I saw it with my own eyes!"

Choi Seo-bang and Park Seo-bang were astounded. They had been chosen for this mission because they traveled the Inje-Sokcho trade route and were unfamiliar faces in Chuncheon.

Beside them, Agent No. 3, Mr. Lee, slapped a contract onto the table.

"I saw a sucker too. Two won and fifty jeon a bottle, but look at the stock and the contract term."

Choi Seo-bang and Park Seo-bang marveled at the contract Mr. Lee had put down.

"Good heavens! Two whole months!"

"Two won and a half per bottle... How much exactly are we bringing this in for?"

"One won and fifty jeon a bottle."

"Huh! Those bastards are buying it for two won and a half? That means our company makes a full won for every bottle we sell them?"

The Middle Hamlet Husband Youth Corps stood there with their mouths agape.

Only a few months ago, they had been slash-and-burn settlers growing potatoes...

"Is making money supposed to be this easy? This is a piece of cake!"

"That's what I'm saying. And they can't make that new menu without this sauce, so if they want to keep copying it, they'll have to keep buying from us..."

"Good grief. You make money from a new menu, then sell the key component to the bastard copying it and make money from him too. What kind of devil... No, Zhuge Liang himself..."

The employees of Han's Myriad Commerce were nearly fainting before these advanced business practices that had raced ahead of their time.

Though it looked simple, what Myo San was suffering through was a combination of three capitalist abilities: rebranding, resale scalping, and the cormorant business model.

"I knew it from the start, our sajang is a master of wondrous schemes!"

"I knew it too! I knew it!"

"A song of wondrous schemes echoes through Han's Myriad Commerce...!!"

While the employees sang for the first time in a while, their sajang was taking a bite of Myo's Myriad Commerce's new Soy Sauce Fried Chicken and marveling.

"Wow... Look at this bastard."

The crispness of the skin. The savory flavor soaked deep into the meat.

"It looks like they even copied the part where we brush on the ganjang seasoning while it's hot instead of pouring it on or stir-frying it..."

[Pride Fried Chicken] and [Sauced Fried Chicken] had been like that too, but this could have passed for something made in the same shop.

Han San smacked his lips.

"This bastard... I kind of want him."

At the Gangwon Province Flag Festival, Myo San had said he would take everything Han San had.

What a fateful first meeting it had been.

Han San wanted everything Myo San had too!

"If someone like him joined our company, I could put Chuncheon business on auto-hunt in one go, just like the Inje-Sokcho trade..."

Of course, there were still many mountains to cross first.

Mostly mountains Myo San had to cross. To work for Han's Myriad Commerce, wouldn't he have to cross every mountain Han San put in his way?

(Whether Myo San himself would want to work for Han's Myriad Commerce was something the seventy-four-year-old did not care about in the slightest.)

"Do your best, Myo San! You still have plenty of entrance exams to pass!"

Sending him 5,700 characters' worth of encouragement from the depths of his heart, Han San immediately placed the next mountain in his path.

"Fried pollock!?"

The next day, Myo San froze in the middle of brushing ganjang seasoning onto chicken at Myo's Fried Chicken.

The white-clothed employees rushed over and nodded.

"Yes! You know dried pollock? They shred the flesh into strips, fry it lightly in oil, toss it with pepper and salt, and give out small portions for free!"

"They're also selling fried pollock separately for cheap! Calling it a [side menu]!"

"The dakgalbi place next door is serving unfried dried pollock as a snack with drinks, and that's getting a good response too! They do family dining and drinking business in the first place!"

Myo San paused, thought for a moment, then immediately grasped the principle behind it.

"So that's why they opened a fish stall at the public market...!"

Since November, the temperature had dropped sharply. Gangwon winters were especially cold.

And now it was late December.

It was the heart of winter, when even the day's high temperature often remained below freezing.

Which meant?

"That bastard Han San used to operate in Inje, right? They say he made some money selling salted mackerel during mackerel season there too.

And Inje is close to Sokcho..."

Fish from Sokcho's sea could now reach Chuncheon while still fresh!

Myo San did not know it, but that was also why the Husband Youth Corps, who traveled between Inje and Sokcho, had set foot in Chuncheon at this particular time. Playing agents was secondary. Now that they could run several cargo trucks, the conditions were in place to connect the Sokcho-Chuncheon trade route.

"They sell the sea fish brought in that way at the fish stall, and among them, pollock. Yes. Pollock is perfect. It's caught in large quantities and easy to dry...

But if they fry pollock in the oil used for chicken, then fry chicken in oil used for pollock, won't the flavors become muddled?"

No, that was not it.

Han San would never make such a beginner's mistake.

Which meant...

"Fuck! He's squeezing every last use out of spent oil!"

Myo San could not help but admire him.

Chicken quickly oxidized frying oil, mainly because of the batter. It was fine for one day, but after two days, the oil gave off a stale, rancid smell if they kept frying with it.

The upscale customers the chicken market targeted would not tolerate that kind of defective product.

That was why they had to replace the oil quickly. Yet by the standards of this era, the oil discarded after frying chicken could hardly be called spent oil.

It was still clean enough that an ordinary restaurant could use it several more times.

So they had been collecting the oil that could no longer fry chicken and selling it to oil merchants to offset the loss. Those merchants then made their own profit by selling it to cheaper restaurants or soap makers. But with fried pollock as a side menu, Han's Myriad Commerce had squeezed another level of value from it.

"Excellent.

That way, the fishy smell of dried fish won't seep into the chicken. Instead, the savory flavors of the chicken and batter coat the fishiness of the dried pollock, increasing its appeal..."

Of course, the fried pollock would take on that stale oil flavor, but it was different from the main item, fried chicken.

They gave some away for free anyway, and even when they sold it, it was a cheap side menu.

They were properly fooling the sharp yet foolish tongues of their customers!

"And whether it's chicken or dakgalbi, those premium dishes... often leave you wanting just a little more. This lets them fill that gap cheaply, while people who try it as a snack can become a new customer base... Han San, you bastard!"

Having seen through all the calculations hidden in this small trick, Myo San ground his teeth.

He had thought he had finally caught up with the monstrosity called seasoned chicken, only for Han San to bring out another move. And it worked in an entirely different way from a simple new menu item.

"An extraordinary man really is extraordinary."

Business was like pursuing immortality. Fall one step behind, and you kept falling behind.

Han San's back was once again far ahead of him, but Myo San clenched his fist.

"Hmph! Even so, it's only a petty trick! Do you think you're the only one selling fish!

While I'm at it, I'll show you why sea fish are only a brief winter product here in Chuncheon!"

Myo San had lived in Chuncheon longer. And when it came to the fish trade, had not Myo's Fisheries been the predecessor to Myo's Myriad Commerce?

The next day, Myo's Fried Chicken released a side menu.

"Fried Soyang River smelt! Available as a side menu starting today!"

"We'll give you some for free too!"

December was the season for ice fishing on the Soyang River.

The employees of Myo's Myriad Commerce went around the Soyang River area buying up smelt. They even paid premiums to merchants who had already been eyeing and stockpiling smelt.

For example, merchants like this one.

"You're really buying it for exactly that price?"

Or merchants like this one.

"I'll sell too! I want to sell too!"

And merchants like this one.

"A song of smelt fishing echoes through the Soyang River...!!"

Myo San couldn't shake the feeling that something was odd, especially because every price was somehow damned while still being payable.

Still, confident that he had once again taken a step closer to Han San's heels, Myo San ground his teeth and shouted.

"I can do more! I'll show you my very best, Han San!"

At the same time.

Across the street at Han's Chicken, Han San accepted the money the Husband Youth Corps had made selling smelt and nodded with satisfaction.

"You can do more, right? Show me your very best, Myo San!"

The last day of 1933 was passing.

Footnotes:

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