WeTried Translations

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◈ The Hunting Genius of the Japanese Colonial Era

Chapter 43

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Black Monday (1)

The next day.

Monday, May 1st, 1933.

Go Tae-chon stretched. His joints, not far off from forty, cracked and popped, but the smile on his face refused to fade.

"Whoa! Gooood mor-ning, good mor-ning!"

Had the morning air of Sebeom Valley ever tasted this sweet before? No. Surely it never had.

And why?

"Time to do business, business!"

Because today was the day to grand-open the tavern he'd taken off that San brat's hands, practically for free.

"The morning of a mighty, powerful financial prede-tor!"

Today, truly, was the best day of his life.

"Honey! Jin-dong! What are you all doing? Let's go open up shop!"

Go Tae-chon bellowed it at the top of his lungs.

"Ugh, so loud, honestly... why are you shouting first thing in the morning, oppa? If my heart starts pounding all over again, are you going to take responsibility?"

Mrs. Go came walking out of the master room. Go Tae-chon grinned at those eyes of hers, drooping in that lazy way only she had.

"Why would it pound? If it's going to pound, eh, it should pound from counting money. Now, now! Let's go, all of you! Quick! Jin-dong, you hurry over here too!"

"Yeah! Dad!"

And so the Go family set off for the tavern.

'That layabout San pulled in 200 won a week, didn't he?'

At first he'd figured he could pull in 200 won himself, but on second thought, that math was wrong.

If even a clod like that could pull in 200 won, then by rights he ought to be able to pull in 300, even 400, no?

Why?

Because he was far more learned than Han San, far more refined, and steeped through and through in firm, solid business management know-how!

"First thing's the signboard, eh? Wolf-Catching Tavern, what kind of name is that, Wolf-Catching Tavern? So plain, so country-bumpkin about it! Honestly!"

Go Tae-chon draped a length of cotton cloth he'd spent all last night preparing over the existing signboard.

[Kill WOLF (Kill Wolf, Kill Wolf)]

Beneath it, in flowing script, were these English letters as well.

[Kill WOLF]

"Kya! Killer! This right here is Gyeongseong sty-le, eh? Modern-bar!"

Go Tae-chon clasped his hands behind his back and admired it.

"Honey, how's it look, eh? This typo-graphy's so elegant and refined, real stylish, right? Eh?"

"Ugh, I don't know. Oppa, don't you know I can't read Chinese characters or English or Japanese or Hangul?"

"No, honey, but honey, you can even read Rus-sian..."

"Not today. Guess I'm not in the mood to read."

"...Ah, right. Hm. Jin-dong. How's it look to you?"

"It's red! Like the blood from that chicken and badger that died back then!"

Go Jin-dong laughed and bounced up and down. Go Tae-chon let out a hmm, then decided to just be pleased about it.

"That's right! Passion red as blood! That's the the-me of our tavern!"

Creaky as it was, Go Tae-chon's preparations to open the tavern came together step by step.

Soup boiled in the cauldron, and the storehouse was full of makgeolli hauled in on a donkey.

Any moment now, customers with rolls of cash would come pouring in like a flood.

That was when it happened.

"Hey, did you hear?"

"I heard! How could I not?"

Across from the tavern, along the side path between the Lower Hamlet of Sebeom Valley and the new road, the voices of passing charcoal-burners reached Go Tae-chon's ears.

Go Tae-chon's face lit up and he waved a hand.

"Oh! Customers! You've already heard, eh? The news that this tavern's had a renew-al, that is, its grand reopening!"

"Eh? Reopening?"

One of the charcoal-burners blinked.

"No, that's not it... I heard the wolf got caught?"

Go Tae-chon went stiff.

"...Huh?"

"Ah, that Ginsei or Gensei or whatever it's called, you know. The wolf with the bounty on it that had all sorts of riffraff churning up the mountain. I heard they caught it."

"The wolf... got caught?"

When Go Tae-chon asked back with a dumbfounded face, the charcoal-burners nodded eagerly.

"Caught, they say, caught. There was gunfire last night and a whole commotion, and that was them trying to catch it, see."

"Whew, now we can finally walk the mountain in peace!"

"The military police hauled the corpse up and they're doing a triumphal march all the way to town right now, they say. That's why this fellow and I are headed over to go see it."

"Right, a spectacle like this doesn't come along often. Got to see for ourselves whether the fur's really silver, no? They say it's monstrous huge too."

Snickering, the charcoal-burners headed off toward the new road.

Go Tae-chon stood frozen on the spot like a stone statue.

'What?'

It got caught?

That Silver Star?

The beast that had thrown Inje into terror, ranging across Seorak as it pleased, the incarnation of Sirius with an unheard-of 300 won bounty on its head — put down?

"Aw... no way."

Go Tae-chon shook his head.

"It's a false rumor, sure. A false rumor. That, th— anyway, that terrifying beast, eh? Caught in a single night, as if. Plain as day it's some clods somewhere catching wind of a false rumor again, eh? Anyway, there it is again, that uncivilized peninsular-folk habit, that irresponsible ru-mor with no fact-che-ck whatsoever..."

For all his mouth blustered on, putting up a calm front, he couldn't stop the thread of cold sweat that ran prickling down his spine.

'It mustn't get caught...'

And now of all times?

Of all the times, now?

He'd just bought the tavern yesterday. He hadn't even made his first sale yet.

If that promised beast, the one that guaranteed the windfall season, had gone and gotten itself caught — if that were true, then wasn't he exactly a man in a clown's hat with a cherry stuck on his nose?

"It didn't get caught! Sure. It didn't get caught. It hasn't been caught. It wasn't caught. As expected of Silver Star. Not getting caught! Magnificent. Completely immortal, that one."

Muttering to himself over and over, Go Tae-chon threw himself into sweeping the yard. His hands shook so badly the broom shook right along with them, but anyway.

Did that wish get through to someone?

When midday passed, the low-rank hunters coming down from the mountain began peeking past the front of the tavern one by one.

"Eh? Didn't the tavern's name change?"

"What the hell did they write up there? That... ah, dammit, what the hell did they scrawl up there? Is that supposed to be human language or what?"

Go Tae-chon, beaming, came dashing out.

"Welcome, welcome! This is the modern-bar Kill WOLF ~Kill Wolf~! You've all worked so hard catching wolves! Now, now! Come in, have a bowl of hot gukbap and a cup of liquor, then off you go to catch more wolves!"

The men snorted with laughter.

"What? Off to catch more wolves?"

"Ha, dammit, is he making fun of us? Word's already spread far and wide that it's been caught, so what's there to catch now?"

Go Tae-chon's heart dropped with a clatter, but he desperately pulled himself back together.

'The false rumor's spread all the way out here!'

Of course, Go Tae-chon only thought that to himself, and, hm, in truth it wasn't that the thoughts didn't occur to him — the thoughts of whether Ginsei really had been caught, whether he himself hadn't become a clown, whether he ought not go somewhere and just scream — those, tho-se kinds of thoughts weren't entirely absent, no, they weren't, but...

"Eh, whatever. Got to grab a bite on the way down."

"Right, right. Honestly, I just busted my back, and last night I nearly got shot by those bastard military police in the forest. I need to loosen up with some liquor, can't take it anymore."

Yes!

Go Tae-chon cheered inwardly.

'That's it! Wolf caught or not, a man's still got to eat! A food-and-liquor business, eh — would that go under so easily?'

Even if the wolf really had been caught, wouldn't there still be some last-of-the-season trade to be had?

Yes, the final rebound! It's that thing they call the dead cat boun-ce, where it doesn't just nosedive straight down but gives you one escape stretch somewhere in the middle. Like tossing you a tip.

"Honey! Take the customers! Gukbap, the special, make it rich!"

Go Tae-chon, having flowed like water through denial and anger into the stage of bargaining, called out.

A moment later, Mrs. Go came out carrying a tray.

"Here, eat up~ I gave it a fine, fancy Gyeongseong-style touch, though I wonder if there's anyone here who'd even recognize it."

The rough hunter customers clicked their tongues at the sight of Mrs. Go.

"Gyeongseong? No, what's that doing way out in this mountain hollow..."

"Damn pretty, though..."

"Huh?"

"What?"

The hunters looked at one another, then, neither one going first, shook their heads and brought the soup bowls to their mouths.

Slurp.

And then, at the same instant, they spat it out with a pff.

"What the hell! What is this!?"

"Ah, this crosses the line!?"

The customers raised an uproar.

Go Tae-chon came running over, flustered.

"Why, why is something wrong, customers? Is the, uh, taste of our mo-dern gukbap not, well, to your liking..."

"No, dammit, it's not a matter of being to my liking or not... hey! Why is the gukbap so damn sweet!"

The customers picked up the soup bowls and shook them.

Mrs. Go let out a sigh.

"What do you mean, sweet? Didn't you hear me say it's Gyeongseong-style? I put in sugar for the hidden flavor."

"No, what!? Hidden flavor!?"

"Why would you hide sugar in gukbap!?"

The customers shot to their feet. Even the one who'd called Mrs. Go pretty was the same.

After all, can a beauty ever compare to gukbap?

If Diao Chan[1] had run a serial about hiding sugar in gukbap, then even Lü Bu[2] would surely have flown into a rage and fired off a 5,700-character manifesto.

Go Tae-chon went pale as a corpse.

"H-honey! Why'd you put in sugar, sugar!"

"Oppa. Don't you know salty's always supposed to be chased with sweet?"

"You never put it in before! So why in the gukbap..."

"Is now an ordinary time?"

Mrs. Go raised her chin proudly.

"Since you started a new business, oppa, I tried something new too. Don't you appreciate that spirit of challenge in me?"

"No..."

Go Tae-chon buried his face in his hands.

In the meantime, the customers' thunderous scolding fell.

"For crying out loud! It's so foul I can't eat it, honestly!"

"Of all things, in gukbap! Wretched people, the lot of you!"

Go Tae-chon hurriedly bowed his head.

"Aigo, I'm sorry, customers! I'll make sure this never happens—"

"Never happens again, my foot! Just give me a refund, quick!"

"Yes, a refund... no, customer, you haven't even paid yet."

"I haven't paid, but refund me anyway! Don't you understand a wounded customer's heart?"

Go Tae-chon couldn't say, No, I don't understand, you damn bastard. Because he wasn't Han San.

Choking it down like a mouthful of mustard, he just said,

"Now, now! Cu-customers! Just, hm, forget about the gukbap!"

"How can we forget that!"

"You forget. You forget it. You've forgotten it... and why do you forget? Here! Liquor! I'll send around a cup of liquor each on the house, eh, so forget about it, please?"

Clack, clack! That was the sound of a bowl of makgeolli per person being set down on the bench.

The customers wore truly exasperated expressions.

"Heh, well... what just happened a moment ago?"

"Nothing... happened."

"Hm."

"Yeah."

The low-rank hunters sat back down. And they tipped the liquor bowls straight back.

"Kuh, that's good!"

"This is the taste, all right! Sure enough, you can't taste any sugar in the liquor!"

The tavern's powder-keg atmosphere was, just barely, smoothed over that way.

A while later, a few more groups of customers came in, and the tavern began to liven up in earnest.

"Boss, another cup of liquor over here! No gukbap!"

"Hey, over here too! Just a cup of liquor each!"

The customers raised their hands here and there as they called out.

Go Tae-chon bowed his head over and over and called back.

"Yes, yes! Now, now, the freebies ended a moment ago, and from here on it's the proper price! One bowl of makgeolli, 40 jeon! I'll give it to you at 40 jeon each!"

The customers scowled.

"40 jeon? No, dammit, for one bowl?"

"No, customers, the price of liquor down in town's shot way up these days too, eh? And on top of that I hauled it all the way up here with such effort, so..."

"Haa... fine. 40 jeon. Give it here, give it."

When the customers accepted the price like that, a touch of relief finally surfaced on Go Tae-chon's face.

'That San brat always sold the gukbap and liquor bundled together, didn't he?'

A kid who didn't even know what an economy was. Did he not get that a drink business should focus on selling drink in the first place? Look how well business goes even without any gukbap!

'But at this rate, the liquor will run out soon...'

What to do? Going back and forth to town. And dragging along that wretched, disobedient donkey on top of it would take three days. Renting the donkey isn't free either...

'No, I'll think about that later.'

Anyway, the money was coming in, wasn't it? 40 jeon a bowl. Figure on cutting it with a little water, and those two liquor barrels come out to nearly 100 won's worth.

'With 100 won, I could hire an errand boy to run to town, and instead of renting a donkey I could just buy a whole obedient one outright...'

It was while Go Tae-chon was sunk in such happy imaginings, even if only for a moment.

"Ugh, that hit the spot!"

A fierce-faced low-rank hunter set down his empty bowl with a clack and rose from his seat. A muscular man with no weapon, dressed in some ratty martial arts robe with nothing but a headband around his head.

"The liquor's decent! Good business to you."

The robe-clad man spat a gob of phlegm onto the yard, ptoo, and ambled off toward the tavern entrance.

Go Tae-chon hurriedly stepped into his path.

"Cu-customer? The, uh, the bill..."

"The bill?"

"Yes! You, uh, had five bowls, so it's 2 won all together...?"

Go Tae-chon said, rubbing his hands together.

And the robe-clad man, instead of pulling two 1 won bills from his shirt, scowled with everything he had.

"Put it on a tab. Credit."

[1] Diao Chan (초선, 貂蟬) is one of the legendary Four Beauties of ancient China, famed from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms for the love triangle she is used to set between the warlord Dong Zhuo and his adopted son Lü Bu.

[2] Lü Bu (여포, 呂布) was a renowned warrior of the late Han dynasty, celebrated in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms as the era's mightiest fighter and notorious for his fickle, hot-tempered betrayals.

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