The Regressed Gangwon Hunter Makes a Fortune in 1933 - Chapter 119

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Chapter 119: January 1, 1934 (2)

──────

A hill overlooking the upper reaches of the Soyang River.

As the first sunlight rose over the ridge, a reddish glow spread across the frozen river. Han San stood with his hands behind his back, watching it as he asked,

"What did you wish for in the new year, miss? I hear that's what they do in Japan."

"What about you, San?"

"Me? That my family's healthy and business goes well. The usual."

He had also renewed his resolve to prevent the Great Flood of the Gap-sul Year, but that was something he had been doing even before the year changed.

"So what about you, miss?"

"Hmm... I suppose I want to see a better world."

"Oh, come on. What kind of wish is that? You should make a wish for yourself."

"That's very persuasive coming from you."

Han San scratched the back of his head. Come to think of it, his own wish was not really for himself either.

"Anyway... did you get good pictures?"

"Yes! I made sure of it. Pictures of the sunrise in Gangwon."

Ayame lightly stroked her portable camera. Han San found himself a little amazed.

"But in this day and age... Well, never mind. That camera can take pictures of the sun too?"

"Huh? People have been taking sunrise photographs for nearly a hundred years."

"Really?"

"Ahaha, there are things even you don't know, San. You need special film, but yes, it comes out properly."

Ayame smiled brightly and breathed into her gloved hands.

"I see... I'm glad you got good shots."

"Yes. I took a few pictures with you in them too, but don't get your hopes up. With this camera, people only come out as silhouettes."

Han San almost asked why she had taken them, then decided against it. Ayame looked oddly pleased.

'If she likes them, that's enough.'

What mattered more was the next stop.

"Then I'll head down now. I should go see my family in Sebeom Valley. Even if it's the Gregorian New Year, New Year's still New Year's."

"Ah, can I come with you?"

"Pardon?"

Han San blinked.

"Uh... it's quite a trip. Even by car, it'll take almost four or five hours. Then there's still a long walk uphill..."

"Still! I want to go!"

Ayame stamped her feet. Han San had started getting used to these sudden fits of stubbornness, so he pressed a hand to his forehead.

"What could there possibly be to see... All right, all right. Let's go."

By the time they reached Sebeom Valley, the sun was high overhead.

"Mother! I brought a guest. This is Miss Hajama Ayame. You know that Mr. Tsuchikaku who came by a few times with a camera? She's his niece."

When Han San entered with Ayame, Ham Ssang-sim literally came running out in her socks.

"Oh my! What a lovely-looking girl! What brings you all the way to a mountain village like this... Come in, come in! It's freezing outside!"

"Ehehe. Please take care of me! I'm Hajama Ayame."

Ham Ssang-sim and Ayame hit it off from their very first greeting. They sat side by side on the warm floor, whispering, giggling, then whispering again.

'Women really do have more fun when they're together.'

Feeling as though he could finally relax, Han San sat across from Bada.

"Hyung! I've learned all my Japanese! I can write katakana too! And I can read simple Chinese characters!"

"Oh, really?"

"Yep! Want me to write some? Should I write some now?"

His younger brother, now nine by Western reckoning, chattered excitedly. Compared to when Han San had regressed, Bada had filled out and grown much taller.

Han San felt both sentimental and relieved.

'Come to think of it, it's about time Bada started school.'

He thought of Teacher Namgung Eok and the teachers at Mogok. If he polished up the curriculum there a little more...

"Bada. Do you want to go to school?"

"School?"

"Yeah. I set up something like a school this time. If it later receives approval and becomes a proper school."

"Really!?"

Bada's eyes sparkled.

Han San grinned as he stroked his brother's head.

"Yeah. But some of the little beggars will be attending too. So if you don't like that, or if you want to go to a better school..."

Bada did not even give Han San time to finish.

"I want to go! If it's a school you built, hyung, it'll be the best school in the world!"

"You little rascal, you know what's good!"

Han San lifted Bada high into the air with a broad smile. Bada nodded eagerly, his eyes still shining.

"And I'll get to see you a lot more if I go there!"

"Of course! I'll stop by whenever I can while I'm doing business!"

Han San shook his brother enthusiastically, thinking he ought to start making preparations little by little.

"Hyung, I'm dizzy..."

"Ah, sorry!"

By then, Ham Ssang-sim and Ayame had apparently finished whatever they had been talking about and returned side by side, both looking pleased.

Han San set his brother down, ruffled his hair, and turned to the two of them.

"So, Mother. Is that task you're doing with your maternal relatives going well?"

Ham Ssang-sim puffed out her chest.

"Of course it is! Want to go see it now?"

Han San grinned.

"Naturally. Miss Ayame, would you like to come too, if you're interested? Bring that camera."

"Yes, San!"

The three rose together in perfect sync. It was a warm scene.

The meeting to hunt Han San was proceeding just as warmly.

At least on the surface.

"Thanks to Father Cho this time, I've come to understand that bastard Han San clearly. I am grateful."

Myo San bowed deeply and politely, while thinking, 'Is that bastard going to inherit the priesthood too? What a fraud.'

"Oh, no need for thanks. We're catching a devil, aren't we? Of course we should join hands."

Father Cho smiled kindly, while thinking, 'The Great Magistrate of Baekbaekgyo, my ass. What a fraud.'

Even their outward cordiality and inward contempt followed the old ways of holy alliances throughout history.

Though the cult official and the self-proclaimed priest, their religions, titles, and smiles were all fake, the [Holy Alliance] formed between them was genuine, a single strand of truth blooming amid lies.

Do-yusa Yi Gyeong-deuk asked with a satisfied expression,

"You said there were three plans. What's the last one?"

"The third plan." Myo San raised his third finger. "The holiday gift market."

Chuncheon was Gangwon's eldest daughter.

Unlike Inje and Sokcho, which had lost the whole autumn cleaning up after Typhoon 3383, Chuncheon's people had been able to enjoy Hangawi in comfort.

This was when the hierarchy between cities showed itself.

With no particular disaster since then, that comfort was bound to grow even greater for the Lunar New Year.

"The New Year's rush is a great flood, with two or three months' worth of business changing hands in just fifteen days. And doesn't the deadline for deciding the winner fall right on New Year's?"

It was like a special tenfold chance.

You have one hundred points, while I have ten, and there is only one final question left? What a shame. This final question is worth one hundred points, so getting it right means I can turn things around. That sort of trashy promotional-show climax was exactly what the New Year's rush was.

"To seize that opportunity, Myo's Myriad Commerce has prepared this."

Myo San set out a box.

A beckoning cat's face was embossed on the lid of the lacquered wooden box. Opening it revealed a red silk cloth laid inside.

Nestled on it were a bottle of refined sake, a bag of sugar, a bottle of ganjang, a bottle of cooking oil, a bottle of that damned oyster sauce, and three neatly arranged cans of crab.

"It is the [Myo's Lucky Box]. Wouldn't this be enough to let both the giver and receiver save face?"

"Oh-ho."

Yi Gyeong-deuk stroked the box. He pressed his index finger against the beckoning cat's face for no particular reason, then tilted his head.

"...Will this be enough?"

"Do-yusa, did Father Cho not say so himself? Until this time last year, those people were country bumpkins digging up potatoes in some mountain valley. He said that even at Hangawi, they threw together a mishmash altar like savages and celebrated however they pleased.

"How could people like that understand city folk's culture of holiday gifts?"

"That's true, but those bastards aren't ordinary. What if they bring out some unheard-of gift again, like that chicken thing?"

"That is certainly something I am wary of."

Myo San acknowledged the point, then shook his head.

"But if they bring out something like that, I'll just copy it at once."

"Can you?"

"Yes. Holiday gifts are in a different category from new dishes."

Food had endless combinations. If he could not figure out the secret behind the final spoonful, he might wander in circles for nearly ten days, just as he had with the soy sauce seasoning.

But holiday gift sets?

They were packaged long before they went on sale. Open that package, and you could find out everything inside it and where it came from.

In other words,

"No matter what they put in the box, there will be enough time and a complete blueprint for copying it. In that situation, how could I fail to copy it?"

"Hmm..."

Yi Gyeong-deuk considered it carefully. There was certainly no way Myo San could fail to copy it.

Myo San had even taken every precaution.

"Father Cho, you're from Sebeom Valley too. Have you seen any sign of what they are preparing?"

"Hoho, any sign?"

Father Cho licked his lips and smiled.

"It seems they're doing something with sea fish at most. They even brought in a whole crowd of maternal relatives. That side of the family is from Wonsan."

"Wonsan!"

Myo San's narrow eyes flew open.

"That is information worth a thousand pieces of gold, Father Cho!"

Fish caught in Wonsan, things like pollock, herring, and flounder, could not possibly become holiday gifts. They would not last long enough.

And if they used dried squid or dried pollock, which did last, what sort of holiday gift would that be? Such cheap goods were hardly fit for a gift.

He had to see the essence of it.

'Where was Wonsan again?'

It was the center of logistics for Hamgyeong Province. And if one went a little farther north, where would one arrive?

'Primorye.'

Myo San nodded.

'Soviet goods.'

That bastard Han San was planning to bring in northern imports and assemble gift sets with them!

"Thanks to Father Cho's information, I am now completely certain."

Myo San crisply folded his handkerchief.

"If that bastard intends to rely on imported goods, he will be digging his own grave."

Products manufactured in foreign factories might look exotic on the peninsula. With foreign writing printed on them, they could even seem refined at a glance.

Yet their essence was nothing more than factory goods anyone could bring in if they had the money.

Just like Hong Kong oyster sauce.

"To be honest, I am slightly behind in the current contest. But if I control this single holiday rush, I can turn everything around and still have change left over."

Myo San smiled with confidence.

At that same time, Han San had climbed to the place where Han's Myriad Commerce's holiday gifts were being prepared.

It was a basin reached only after passing Upper Hamlet, climbing farther upward, and then threading through a remote gorge valley path like a maze.

Nothing blocked the sun in that bitterly cold place. Above lay an open expanse of pure white winter sky, while below, wooden drying racks roughly woven from logs stretched out in rows like furrows in a field.

"Wow... the color is absolutely beautiful."

Han San exclaimed in admiration.

"Of course it is! It's coming along just right now. This is a job entrusted to me by my son, so how could Madam Grand Sajang of the House of the Taste Magistrate not handle it properly?"

Ham Ssang-sim stood with her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest.

Ayame clasped her hands and tilted her head.

"It's a wonderful sight, San. May I take pictures?"

"Yes, take as many as you like. But it's under embargo, all right? You must keep it absolutely secret until I tell you otherwise."

Han San said this with a grin, and Ayame beamed like a flower in bloom.

"Yes, of course! Thank you for trusting me, San!"

As Ayame took picture after picture, Ham Ssang-sim's maternal relatives from Wonsan worked between the drying racks like soulless jiangshi[1].

A familiar face staggered out from among them.

"Cousin! Get me, get me out of here!"

It was Ham Byeong-cheol. In two months, his face had grown so thin that his buck teeth seemed twice as prominent.

Han San smiled brightly.

"Come on, what are you saying, Brother Byeong-cheol? This is the critical point."

"I've been trapped on this mountaintop for two whole months! Even when I go out for a moment, all I do is carry frozen crates back up this high mountain! I've lived like this for two months!"

"It's already been two months. Just endure exactly two more months."

"No... San..."

"Here. This is a New Year's bonus. Today is January 1, after all."

Han San took five crisp one-won notes from his pocket and placed them in Ham Byeong-cheol's hand.

Ham Byeong-cheol accepted the five won in a daze. He broke into a foolish grin for a moment, then immediately scrunched his brow.

"No, wait! What am I supposed to spend money on here? I haven't even had time to spend what I've already been paid. It's all still sitting untouched in my wallet!"

"That's why I'm telling you to keep your spirits up, brother. Once the New Year's gifts all go out, I'll give you a generous Lunar New Year bonus too. You can spend the money then."

"No! Forget the money, I really can't take this... Two days! No, even one day, just give me leave in town, San! Sajang! Sajang..."

"Keep fighting, brother!"

Han San gave him a hearty cheer and turned away.

It sounded like someone was shouting something behind him, but well, this seventy-four-year-old man's hearing was poor. Nobody else would be able to hear it either.

Han San was not the slightest bit worried about information security.

At the entrance to the mountain pass sat a man with a .22 long rifle slung over his shoulder.

"Father."

"Mm."

"I tell you every time I come, but please make sure these relatives from Mother's side cannot contact anyone until the Lunar New Year."

"Mm."

Han Man-seok nodded.

As if in agreement with that nod, the sunset stretching from afar spread deeply across the golden fish hanging on the drying racks.

Only as that sunset faded did the marathon meeting of the cult's holy alliance begin to wind down.

Do-yusa Yi Gyeong-deuk slapped his knee.

"Yes! Excellent plans! There really isn't a single opening! I can already see those bastards' faces turning pale!"

Myo San modestly wiped his cheek.

"They will do more than turn pale. Once the ship called Han's Myriad Commerce begins to list, rats trying to escape will appear. And won't such rats be perfect for basking in the white light of our Great Magistrate?"

Father Cho added from beside him,

"Oh, leave some for me. I have little lambs to lead too. That devil Han San is from my village, after all."

"Of course, Father Cho. When the time comes, the rats we have tamed and the sheep led by Father Cho may end up snarling at one another..."

"I am looking forward to that."

Father Cho stroked his cross and licked his lips.

"Let them bite and tear at each other."

Do-yusa Yi Gyeong-deuk laughed heartily.

"I keep telling you, Father Cho and I think exactly alike! That's it! Let them bite and tear at each other!"

As Father Cho and Yi Gyeong-deuk enjoyed themselves, Myo San alone hesitated.

There was something deeply unsettling about this talk of making them bite and tear at each other...

'It must be my imagination.'

Myo San took out his fourth handkerchief and wiped his cheek, tossing that feeling into the evening glow of January 1.