WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 122: We Must Win (3)

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A rumor was making the rounds in Chuncheon's marketplace.

A rumor about Han's Myriad Commerce.

"Did you hear? About Han's Myriad Commerce."

"Of course I did. Those lunatics have been burning money to cut off Han's Myriad Commerce's cash flow, yet they supposedly haven't fallen behind on a single promissory note. How's that even possible?"

"I looked into it, you know..."

One merchant glanced around meaningfully, and the others swallowed hard and leaned in.

"They say their sajang digs up wild ginseng from this mountain whenever he's about to hit a wall, then digs up more from that mountain whenever he hits another one! Eighty-year roots, ninety-year roots, just like that!"

Silence fell for a moment.

The merchants stared at one another, then burst into boisterous laughter.

"Come on, man! What are you talking about?"

"Ha ha ha! What, does he think wild ginseng is a mountain hare? That it just pops up everywhere he goes?"

"Are you saying Han's Myriad Commerce's sajang has the protection of the mountain gods or something?"

"I listened seriously because you sounded serious, but what a load of nonsense!"

The merchant who had started the story looked aggrieved by their response.

"But it's true..."

The others kept laughing.

"True, my foot. Good grief, listen to this man. I know more about it than you do. Apparently, the young sajang has been associating with a young woman who's the granddaughter of some big businessman from Busan."

"I heard he's close with the military police and Government-General officials too. See that bridge over there? They say he sat in the VIP section at its completion ceremony and even received a drink personally from the provincial governor!"

"Ah! Now it all makes sense!"

"Wild ginseng, my ass. This is the real answer."

Only then did the merchants look as though they had heard something believable. A few even pointed at the man who had brought up the story first.

"Know why this fellow's saying such absurd things? He's one of the business partners who issued promissory notes to Han's Myriad Commerce with those due dates."

"I heard that too. As if stabbing them in the back with those due dates wasn't enough, he also happily pocketed ten won for withholding his own loan from Han's Myriad Commerce. A merchant ought to keep faith..."

"What if Han's Myriad Commerce only pretended they were about to default? To weed out people like that before doing business with them in the future."

"Oh dear, the poor fellow took the bait hook, line, and sinker. No wonder he kept going on about impossible wild ginseng stories.

[The money they used to cover the notes has to be from selling wild ginseng! There's no way I stabbed a powerful man in the back, a man who's the prospective son-in-law of a rich family and beloved by influential people! It has to be wild ginseng money!]

That's probably what he's thinking."

"What a shallow man. No wonder he chases after ridiculous rumors."

"N-no..."

His face reddened as he lowered his head. He felt wronged, but the words would not come.

Leaving him behind, the merchants moved on to another topic.

"Did you see it? That Lunar New Year gift."

"The one Han's Myriad Commerce put out this time?"

This topic, too, concerned Han's Myriad Commerce.

"Yes, that gift!"

"I haven't seen it yet... What did they put out?"

"Don't even ask. That gift set is a huge hit..."

At that same moment, Blue-Gold Pavilion.

"Noona. Happy New Year."

"Oh? What's this for?"

Kim Seong-ja smiled brightly as she accepted the gift box Han San held out.

Click.

The moment she opened the lid, Chuncheon's owl's eyes went wide.

"Huh?"

Seven fish, their tails braided together with red straw cord, lay spread out like a fan inside the box.

"Dried fish...? No, not just dried fish..."

There was none of the stale, fishy smell usually associated with dried seafood.

Instead, a clean, rich fragrance rose from it, as though it held both dry straw and winter sunlight within it.

"And this color..."

That color.

The fish's puffed, bright-yellow skin bathed the inside of the box in a brilliant golden glow.

"This is Han's Myriad Commerce's exclusive gift set, prepared for this Lunar New Year."

Han San grinned.

"It's called [Golden Pollock]."

Kim Seong-ja blinked at the unfamiliar name.

"Golden Pollock...?"

"It's pollock. Dried pollock. But it's frozen at night and thawed during the day, over and over throughout the winter. That's how it becomes this golden beauty."

At this point in time.

The year 1934.

Everyone who ate pollock knew that drying it made dried pollock. They had known that for ages.

They also knew how hard dried pollock could be. Poorly dried pollock could scratch the roof of your mouth and throat like a thorny branch. Even well-dried pollock was only fit as a drinking snack, nothing more.

But Golden Pollock?

When it was frozen and thawed day after day, the story changed. The moisture in the flesh froze and expanded, then drained out as it thawed. Repeated enough times, the flesh did not simply dry out. It puffed up soft and fluffy, like bedding.

"Try some."

"Mm..."

Kim Seong-ja did not usually enjoy dried fish, but this rich aroma was hard to resist.

She reached out, pinched at that Golden Pollock or whatever it was called, and gave it the slightest twist.

Riiip.

It pulled apart as softly as fine cotton.

'My goodness. It's this tender?'

Blinking, Kim Seong-ja brought it to her lips. The texture was soft and airy when she chewed it, followed by a deep savory flavor spreading across her tongue.

"This would be good with drinks..."

"It's good the day after drinking too. Make soup with it, and the broth turns white like ox-bone soup. The flavor is deep and incredible. You could call it the ultra-ultra-ultra-ultra-ultra-ultra-ultra upgraded version of the pollock chicken porridge we're serving as a side dish."

"My goodness..."

As if enchanted, Kim Seong-ja stroked one Golden Pollock.

"That common pollock, turned into this... It's completely different from regular dried pollock. Where did you even get something like this? How...?"

Han San scratched the back of his head and smiled modestly.

"My mother's family is from Wonsan. I tried making it the way they did back home, up here in the Gangwon mountains, and this little marvel came out."

That was right.

What Han San had produced by putting Mr. Five Won and his maternal relatives through the wringer was what had been called hwangtae, or yellow pollock, in his previous life.

In the original history, it would not appear until the 1960s, nearly ten years after the Korean War ended. Wonsan refugees who could no longer return home had tried making norangtae the way they did in their hometown, and Gangwon's climate had created a happy accident.

The prince of dried seafood, Uncle Hwangtae, beloved by all, had been summoned into this world thirty years early by the regressor!

"You made it all winter...?"

"Yes."

Han San nodded.

Kim Seong-ja put another piece of Golden Pollock in her mouth and chewed as she asked,

"How long did it take...?"

"Hm. That?"

Han San began counting on his fingers.

"The drying racks... the places where you hang fish to dry them. We built those right after Chuseok, in October. We started buying pollock and hanging it up once the nighttime temperatures dropped below freezing, so around November. And these ones here, the ones in the first gift sets, were taken down the day before yesterday..."

Han San grinned.

"It took three months."

At the Baekbaekgyo hideout, Myo San's jaw dropped.

"Three months!?"

Myo San compared the golden fish in the box with the white-clothed attendant's report that they had been frozen and thawed over and over all winter. His mind spun furiously.

There was only one conclusion.

'This... can't be copied!?'

It was impossible.

Physically impossible.

'If it's a manufactured product, I can buy the same thing. I can spend more money and include something better. If it's food, I can buy the ingredients and make it. But...'

It took three months?

'It's already February. Lunar New Year is only two weeks away...'

Even if he poured in not sixty thousand won, but six million won, it would not be enough. Time could not be bought with money.

'If I buy this norangtae they have in Wonsan...'

The thought had barely formed before Myo San shook his head.

That norangtae and this Golden Pollock were probably already different products. Even if he brought some back, it would be nothing more than an inferior imitation.

'If I face them head-on with Myo's Lucky Box...'

Again, Myo San shook his head.

It was already too late. The rumor had spread through the marketplace. Fish caught in the sea and dried atop the mountains. Gold fashioned through three months of freezing in the wind and thawing in the sunlight.

Against that, refined sake, sugar, canned goods, oyster sauce... What was he supposed to do with those? How could items anyone could fill a box with if they had enough money defeat three months of [story], of [devotion]?

"Well!?"

Yi Gyeong-deuk's impatient voice interrupted him.

"It looks like some shabby fish! We can win, right!? We really can win, can't we!?"

Myo San looked up.

The irritation, pity, and contempt that passed through his eyes lasted only an instant, so Yi Gyeong-deuk did not notice any of it.

Then Myo San broke into a broad smile.

"We will win!"

He declared victory without a moment's hesitation!!! Then Myo San planted his hands on his hips.

"To make sure we win, though, hm. I need some time alone to organize my thoughts."

"What!? Time!?"

"Yes. Think of it as a necessary period of maturation before the final sprint. Just a brief moment to catch my breath before the grand reversal begins, before the climax of this business battle that no one will be able to look away from. They call it closed-door cultivation on the continent."

"C-closed-door cultivation..."

Yi Gyeong-deuk blinked. The second-in-command of a fraudulent religion, whose education was less than nonexistent, did not even know what that phrase meant.

Myo San nodded confidently.

"Shouldn't heavenly secrets remain undisclosed, Do-yusa?"

"...Ah! Right! Heavenly secrets have to stay hidden!"

At least Yi Gyeong-deuk knew that phrase. It was one he used often.

"Lunar New Year's evening."

Myo San raised a slender finger and smiled.

"I will bring you news of victory then, Do-yusa. Please wait without worry."

"Y-yes! All right! I'll wait!"

"Yes, then..."

After soothing Yi Gyeong-deuk and sending him away, Myo San called in only his closest aides as soon as the door shut.

"Hey. Gather up the remaining cash and anything valuable. Fill a cart with it, now."

"Yes? Yeongchunsa, w-what do you mean...?"

"It's luggage for my closed-door cultivation. Hurry up."

The days passed.

February 14, 1934.

Lunar New Year's Day of the Gap-sul Year.

Han's Myriad Commerce's Golden Pollock utterly dominated Chuncheon's holiday-gift market.

"Thank you! Please come again!"

"Han's Myriad Commerce Golden Pollock! We still have some left!"

The local notables exchanged Golden Pollock among themselves. Officials gave them to their superiors, who passed them down to their subordinates. Some people even bought them at a premium, sold them in Gyeongseong, and made a killing.

Before the sun had even set on Lunar New Year's Day, the winner of the business battle had been decided.

In truth, it had been decided long before that.

"Thank you! This is Han's Myriad Commerce!"

"Golden Pollock! We will continue to have stock for the time being, even after the gift season! Please visit Han's Store in Chuncheon Market!"

Han's Myriad Commerce made record-breaking profits, and Han San's name appeared at the very top of the list of [Chuncheon's New Figures of the New Year].

Elsewhere.

[Out of Business]

The same notice was posted on the doors of Myo's Fried Chicken and Myo's Dakgalbi across the street. Father Cho, who had busily gone in and out of both shops, had already vanished without a trace over a month earlier, when Han San made good on his first promissory note.

And then.

When the holy Baekbaekgyo's second-in-command, Do-yusa Yi Gyeong-deuk, and his faithful underlings broke into the small room that was supposedly being used for closed-door cultivation, they found only one sheet of paper.

[Why the fuck are you looking for me again? Can't you just stay holed up and chant the Great Magistrate's incantations?

P.S. Jeon Yong-hae and Yi Gyeong-deuk, you sons of bitches.

P.S. 2. The Great Magistrate, my ass... (laughs)]

"MYO SAAAAAAN!!"

And so.

Only Do-yusa Yi Gyeong-deuk remained in the empty room, down on all fours as he screamed.

"Myo San! Han San! You goddamn lowborn bastards! I'll kill you both!!"

Overwhelmed by sorrow and resentment, his cheeks puffed out round and plump again, while tears streamed from his impossibly sparkling eyes.

No longer having the strength to scream, Yi Gyeong-deuk lowered his head and muttered,

"I... I worked hard..."

Footnotes:

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