WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 91: In 1933, the Automatic Hunter Makes Good Money (4)

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It would have been nice if someday he could lose himself among people the way one could in a city, but So Seobang's world was far too small for that.

"That's So Seobang. Tsk. Bad luck, seeing something like that first thing in the morning. Brought scabies with him, he has. Scabies."

"Why's that bastard here? I told the Meokbawi Valley Gorge Management Council to strike his name off, didn't I?"

"Shouldn't we just smash his house down too?"

Back before the Han household had the Chuk Brothers, there had been a reason Han San spent twenty won of his own money to send Gomchi to the village communal labor. And the reason he handled Meokbawi Valley for free for a while had not simply been to stick it to Deok-tae.

In a slash-and-burn village like Sebeom Valley, being ostracized was a matter of life and death.

Even So Seobang's wife and children would not take his side.

"You fool of a man! What in the world were you thinking? What in the world possessed you to do something like that? How am I supposed to hold my head up around the village now?

"You always went around acting like you were the only clever one, even when you were off elsewhere. I knew it. I knew someday it'd come to this!"

"Father... I'm ashamed of you..."

In the end, So Seobang could not endure it. He broke down sobbing and dropped to his knees in front of the Han household.

"San... no, sajang! Chairman! Just once, please! Please forgive me just this once! I was, I was so shortsighted! Please forgive me! I won't do anything foolish ever again! I'll do anything, truly anything, so please, just give me one more chance!!"

"Good grief... no, I mean... no, never mind. That's enough."

Ham Ssang-sim pitied the sight, but held her tongue. It had long been a principle of hers that there could not be one person earning the money and another basking in the credit.

As for Han San, who had come home after a while and found that waiting for him,

"Sajang! Chairman!"

Han San did not stop walking. He passed the kneeling man as he was and stepped up onto the wooden floor.

Then he looked back at the resident of his domain kneeling outside the house and said,

"If it's forgiveness you're asking about, I already gave you my answer on that. And the accounting between you and the company is already finished, mister. We already clawed back everything you siphoned off."

So Seobang's head, once used for township clerk work, quickly understood what those words meant.

Right, everything he'd skimmed off had already been paid back. Then didn't that mean he no longer owed the company anything? Clean, proper, blank slate and all.

If so, surely, having more ability than the ordinary people in this village, he could still...

"But there's one thing left."

Han San held up one finger.

"Trust. And that isn't the sort of thing you can claw back, so it keeps sitting there in the red."

So Seobang's face went pale.

"There won't be any call to use you from here on."

There was no useless person in this world.

Only people being used in the wrong place.

And it had already been proven that the post of employee at Han's Myriad Commerce was [the wrong place] for So Seobang.

It was a simple matter.

And so, when the yard had grown quiet, Han San addressed So Seobang's wife.

"Ma'am, come out starting tomorrow."

"...Pardon?"

The one who asked back was not the kneeling man, but So Seobang's wife, who had been watching from a distance with head bowed.

Han San turned toward that side and said,

"For now, take charge of simple sales in town and see if it suits you. We can't have living people going hungry, after all."

"Oh, goodness... thank you, young San... no, sajang...!"

So Seobang's wife bowed her head. Beside her, So Seobang's face had gone paler still.

The reason was obvious.

From that day on, economic control in the So Seobang household passed into the mistress's hands, and there was no longer any occasion for So Seobang to throw his weight around at home.

Just as Han San had expected.

'If I'd cut off the whole household's way of making a living outright, Mister So probably would've left the village and turned robber.'

And the sort of robber who thought he was clever, at that. The sort who knew Han's Myriad Commerce's ox-cart timetable.

'Better an incapable middle-aged man inside the territory, eating under his wife's glare, than one outside it walking around with a pitchfork, isn't it?'

While he was at it, Han San went ahead and carved it into the rules outright.

One. Mistakes are acceptable. Even if the company suffers a loss, what should be taken into account will be taken into account, and I will establish a way to resolve it and carry it out.

'That's what the sajang is there for.'

Two. But anyone who joins hands with outsiders and causes the company harm will never be used again.

'You've got to cut out the enemy.'

Three. However, that crime will not be visited upon their dependents.

'Or rather, it makes risk management easier.'

The people of Middle Hamlet called these rules the [So Seobang Law]. So Seobang shuddered every time that name was spoken, but no one cared whether a man whose name had been stuffed into a law, and who now lived on spending money from his wife, liked it or not.

'Without even noticing, I went and passed judgments, made laws... come to think of it, I've gone and set up a code.'

It wasn't that he found it tiresome, but it did not especially excite him either. It simply seemed necessary.

'Though now that I think about it, I did lay down the basic rules too when I set up the Meokbawi Valley Gorge Management Council and dumped the gorge valley management onto it.'

It might not be bad to formalize it properly one day and keep it in the house.

'Should I call it the Han Family Code?'

When he pictured himself coolly saying a single line, [Handle it according to the Han Family Code], whenever something happened, hmm, that did feel a little exciting.

'The first case to be handled under the Han Family Code...'

Han San quietly began hovering around Go Tae-chon.

'Mister So is Case Zero, so Case One...'

He hovered a little more.

'Case One...'

He kept hovering.

But in the end Go Tae-chon never embezzled, and Han San had no choice but to click his tongue and withdraw.

Anyway.

As the ledgers were put together and the regulations gradually systematized, Han's Myriad Commerce more or less settled into discipline.

And once its shape had straightened out, the final problem, too, was soon corrected.

Problem Four. The logistics network.

Again, this was sorted out quickly. It was only a matter of giving concrete form to something they had already recognized.

It had already been said several times that the volume of freight Inje and Sokcho could absorb was limited.

If so, what exactly was that volume, and how many carts going back and forth between Inje and Sokcho would make it line up right?

There was no choice but to spend a large sum first, put it into practice, and adjust from there.

At first they increased the number to six.

Freight saturation hit almost immediately, so they cut it down to four.

Then it was, 'Huh? No, wait. We can just take in other people's freight on consignment, can't we?' So he increased it again, reaching a total of ten, and there at last found the balance point.

Four company ox carts, and six ox-cart drivers running their own carts.

The reason he kept the company carts to just four was because he was taking into account the fact that later, through the Inwang Gang, he would be able to buy a cargo truck. A truck could not go over the old Misiryeong Pass, of course, but even if it had to come around by Hangyeryeong, it would probably still be faster.

Those ten did not all travel at once. Instead, they moved by dispatching one to three a day depending on the day, and it fit exactly.

"More than I expected."

"The timing lined up. Not that it's a good thing for the people who got hit by the typhoon."

Typhoon 3383 ruined a number of market merchants. The old logistics network also collapsed here and there.

And Han's Myriad Commerce had succeeded in getting one foot into that space.

'If I'd borrowed money and pushed a little harder here, I could probably have eaten about twice what I'm getting now, but...'

The reason Han San had not chosen that road was obvious.

'Get greedy and your belly bursts.'

Did he take the chairman of the Inje Township Merchant Association and men like him for suckers? Who were those people camped out at South Jade Pavilion playing mahjong, and how could they sit there drinking such expensive liquor every day?

The bigger chunks left vacant by the disaster already all had future owners waiting in line. Just as he'd thought when talking with Ayame, if he wanted to eat one of those chunks, Han San's 【standing】 had to rise higher than this.

And he was already scheduled to secure that 【standing】 before next year's great flood. There was no need to hurry now.

'I've already picked up all the scraps worth eating, so it's smarter to stop around here. Besides, I've got to let things digest a little.'

And so, the parts that had been creaking after Han San stepped back into the second line healed one by one.

'From here on, I only need to step in when something unexpected happens or when something important comes up.'

And those two things are called what they are precisely because they do not happen often.

Money copying itself. No.

Automatic money hunting was finally in full swing!

Before September was even over, Han San flew off to Sokcho and paid the rest of the boat money. Once that boat started operating, and once the employees' wages had been settled once, Han's Myriad Commerce's monthly net profit was revealed.

"After taking out wages, notes, company operating costs, and everything else, net profit alone is 800 won a month!"

Which meant,

"9,600 won a year!"

Chuk Jae-seok was startled.

"No, sajang! Then doesn't that mean if you sold the whole company right now, it'd be worth nearly 80,000 won? If you handed the company off to some great merchant and slipped away, you'd be closer to having 100,000 won than merely 10,000."

Of course, that was an exaggerated way of putting it.

What [selling the whole company] meant here was including the freight Han's Myriad Commerce had hold of, the human resources, every connection they had. It would even have to include Han San's place as the lord of Middle Hamlet.

Even so, considering that he'd been penniless when he regressed in April, it meant he'd written a myth with his bare hands in under half a year!

Han San was in a good mood. He smiled even as he waved both hands in denial.

"Come on, why would I sell the company? What's impressive is that now even if I don't lay a hand on it, this much money comes in automatically."

Which meant?

"Now I can invest in things that are actually more important."

"And what would that be, sajang?"

To that question from foreman Chuk Hong-cheol, the leader of the hired hands who had worked alongside him longest, Han San smiled and answered,

"First off, 2,000 won for the Meokbawi Valley construction costs. Pure spare funds alone, after taking out every cost the business needs. It's almost certain that'll be ready before the year's over."

He said it like he was setting down one great burden, then held up one finger.

"But the sooner the better, right? To do that, we've got to make the board bigger."

What he had done so far was, in short, making the board he had already built turn on its own.

He needed to move to the next stage.

"We need to get ready to go to Chuncheon."

"Chuncheon...! Hah, Chuncheon, where those automobiles run wild? They say the Gyeongseong-bound buses line right up over there, and you can get to Gyeongseong in just a few hours."

With the Soyang River running alongside it, fishery resources were abundant. Forest resources were rich too. It was exactly the sort of place that made Inje bite down on a handkerchief, grind its teeth, and tremble as it watched the retreating figure from behind: Chuncheon, Gangwon's eldest daughter.

The size of the game would be changing outright!

"But, sajang. If we're going to do business in a place like that... it's not like salt-cured mackerel can make it all the way there without spoiling, right?

Sure, the weather's about to turn cold, but they say once autumn passes, mackerel stop getting caught along the East Coast. And would people living by the Soyang River even want to eat frozen sea fish?"

If you wanted to play on a bigger board, you had to bring an item fit for it. Chuk Hong-cheol's question truly sounded like that of Han's Myriad Commerce's first employee.

But Han San was not worried in the slightest.

"I've already got an item in mind."

Han San grinned and looked up at Seorak once.

More precisely, toward Daegwallyeong.

'Because in this era, they still don't have [that].'

If he got there first, he would literally be able to eat until his belly burst.

"But before that!"

Han San clapped his hands together.

"Let's celebrate Chuseok first!"

It was October.

Hangawi, the Korean people's great holiday, was right around the corner.

'My first holiday since the regression!'

Han San opened his purse wide and spread people out broadly.

"Foreman! Take the people and just bring back whatever you can see. Rice matters. Fruit too. Apples and pears, if there are any. Even if there aren't, if it's fruit, just bring it. You and Mister Park, follow Brother Baechil around the mountain and gather up some chestnuts.

"Brother Pi Sun-dae. Please get some hwatu cards and mahjong ready. And let me say this now, not the marked ones! We're all just going to play together for fun. I'll cap the stakes myself! We're keeping it just for fun."

To nearly all of Han's Myriad Commerce, meaning just about all of Middle Hamlet and Lower Hamlet put together, Han San gave those instructions to everyone within his reach.

And what was he himself going to do?

'What else. Get the meat ready.'

That didn't mean he had to go buy meat like everyone else.

Why buy meat?

Sure, livestock tasted better, but on a holiday like this, spirit mattered more.

As he stepped through the front gate, Han San shouted,

"Father! Let's go catch something together!"

It was nearing half a year since Han San's regression.

Meanwhile, that October before Chuseok, a meeting was being held in the great hall of Upper Hamlet.

"Yun Cheom-ji, it seems a fair amount of time has passed. Didn't you say you would come up with a scheme that would make Lower Hamlet and Middle Hamlet bite and tear at each other?"

"Ho ho, didn't I tell you to wait?"

Yun Cheom-ji merely stroked his chin with a refined face.

"Hangawi is near. And this is a Hangawi arrived at after the Water Tiger ran rampant.

"They may say those wretches built houses, but tsk, do you think they managed any proper autumn harvest?

"They'll all be going about half-starved."

At those words from Yun Cheom-ji, one of Upper Hamlet's oligarchs said this:

"That Han San fellow's household seems to've come into better circumstances, though. They say if the Middle Hamlet lot has nothing to eat, they go over to that house and get fed."

Yun Cheom-ji's elegant smile twitched for an instant at that name, but soon enough he went ahem and stroked his chin once more.

"What is it but some lowborn hunter's household. They say he's handled a little money. He must be catching beasts and spending his own money to buy goodwill as though he were begging for it.

"But how long can that possibly last?

"After all, death and life are decreed, and wealth and honor rest with Heaven."

The sage's words rang clear through Upper Hamlet's great hall.

"It means everyone has their own fate, and poverty is beyond even the king's relief.

"I hear he even had all those Middle Hamlet lowborns' houses repaired. No matter how much money he had, how much could be left by now?"

"True enough. He really did go around throwing money about."

"Exactly. For all we know, he may be staring into an empty storehouse and weeping tears of blood even now. Ho ho ho..."

As far as Yun Cheom-ji was concerned, there was no other possibility.

Money disappears in proportion to how much you spend. It wasn't as though Han San possessed some bottomless treasure vessel that spat out money.

By now, the money must have run clean dry!

Therefore.

"Let us hold our Hangawi ancestral rites on a grand scale this time."

Wearing a benevolent smile, Yun Cheom-ji continued speaking.

"Let two households among us take charge of setting the ancestral table. Put out rice cakes, lay out meat, open the doors wide, and say this to Middle Hamlet and Lower Hamlet respectively."

He spread his fingers.

"To Middle Hamlet, tell them this: only the households that cut off dealings with those Lower Hamlet lowborns may come up, help prepare the rites, eat, and take food home. To Lower Hamlet, tell them the opposite."

"Oh ho."

"This is not the spring hunger gap, but the Water Tiger hunger gap. No matter how fine the house, if a belly goes empty, the insides are bound to rot.

"And in the middle of that, our Upper Hamlet extends such a generous offer...

"What lowborns would turn away ritual food? Dogs are bound to bark the way the people who fill their bellies tell them to. They'll turn enemies in no time, cursing their in-laws' eighth cousins and even those vulgar ancestors of theirs, and all hell will break loose."

"That scheme's not bad at all. Our Yun Cheom-ji hasn't lost his touch."

Father Cho licked his lips and stroked his cross.

"Scripture says it too. Do you think I came to bring peace to the world? I came to bring the sword. Matthew 10:34."

"And the sages said it as well. When the way differs, one does not make plans together. If the path is different, one does not walk it together."

The descendant of scholars and the head of that Catholic family looked at each other with satisfied smiles.

Watching the sight, Uncle Baek the blacksmith let out a sigh.

"Well now... feels like a bit much to me, but... well, all right... at least it won't come to bloodshed..."

It was right then.

Bang! The great hall of Upper Hamlet rang out loudly. Someone had come running in so hard they were out of breath.

Yun Cheom-ji's expression turned cold.

"What is all this...?"

Before he could finish, Jin Ssi, who had burst in, shouted,

"M-Middle Hamlet is holding ancestral rites!"

Upper Hamlet's oligarchs all froze.

Yun Cheom-ji frowned in displeasure.

"Ancestral rites, what ancestral rites! You need offerings for an ancestral rite. Ho ho. What, are they planning to draw up that damned water from Meokbawi Valley and pray with all devotion for us to somehow do something for them? As if that would..."

"Ox carts, ten ox carts!"

Jin Ssi's shout cut him off again.

And then came the rest.

"Rice cakes, grain, all sorts of things, and, and wild boar! Three autumn wild boars, shot with hunting guns!

"The whole of Middle Hamlet is getting ready for a feast! People from Lower Hamlet have come up too, and they're all helping together and eating together..."

There came a clatter. Yun Cheom-ji had shot up from his seat so violently that the brass ashtray went rolling to the floor.

Footnotes:

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