The Money Downpour Begins in Earnest - 12
Grandma, your stride is remarkably confident?
She'd apparently wandered this earth for over a century, and yet she navigated the path without so much as glancing around her? This was clearly not a road she was walking for the first time.
Trailing behind the White Porcelain Grandmother, I began turning over in my mind the things that had been nagging at me in a strange, unplaceable way.
The white porcelain the Grandmother lives in was made in the late Joseon era — but she kept saying Gyeongseong, not Hanyang.
Would someone who had lived through the very period when the nation's name changed from Joseon to the Korean Empire go around calling it Hanyang?
No — she simply hadn't gone out while the country was still called Joseon.
Jinryeonggun was still alive back then. In other words, before Empress Myeongseong was assassinated, the nation's name was unmistakably Joseon.
By the time the name changed to the Korean Empire, Jinryeonggun and Empress Myeongseong had already passed from this world.
Only then, it seemed, had the White Porcelain Grandmother broken free of her confinement and begun to roam.
And because the country had been renamed the Korean Empire by then, she had drifted through Gyeongseong rather than Hanyang.
What's more, she seemed to have visited Mount Namsan — then called Mount Mokmyeok — quite often in those days.
Wait. Could it be that the white porcelain the Grandmother inhabits was somewhere on Namsan itself?
She had said she was sold off for speaking honest words to Jinryeonggun, after all.
Perhaps, having been sold into another's household, she had slipped out at night to wander, just as she did at Moon Sung-il's place.
"Slow down, please."
"You can't even keep up with this? Hohoho."
With light, gliding steps, the White Porcelain Grandmother set off toward the northern circular road of Namsan.
Then she stopped before the newly built staircase leading up to Namsan Tower, lifted her head, and gazed at the summit.
"It'll be right beside the shrine pavilion up there, next to the pavilion. My master's adopted son hid a treasure there."
The Grandmother's master was Jinryeonggun — and the adopted son in question was Yi Yu-in.
And the only pavilion on Namsan I knew of was the Palgakjeong Pavilion.
You're telling me Yi Yu-in hid a treasure beneath the Palgakjeong Pavilion on Namsan?
"Palgakjeong? I've never heard such a name."
Settling gracefully onto the steps, the White Porcelain Grandmother watched the valley water stream past as she continued.
"Mount Mokmyeok is a sacred, hallowed place. From ancient times, shamans held rituals and offered rites there. The treasure lies buried beneath the pavilion next to the shrine where the rites were held."
I hastily pulled out my phone and searched.
What poured out was information that matched the Grandmother's words exactly.
So Yi Seong-gye founded Joseon, enshrined Namsan as the Great King Mokmyeok, and offered sacrifices to it?
From then on, the summit of Mount Mokmyeok served as a national ritual site known as the Guksadang — the Hall of the Nation's Master.
Ordinarily, commoners were forbidden from holding rites or shamanic rituals there, but as word spread of its mystical power, people began sneaking up in secret, one after another, to pray and hold gut ceremonies.
Empress Myeongseong was no different.
She had Jinryeonggun perform rituals on Mount Mokmyeok and had her court ladies offer up prayers there.
Yi Yu-in must have climbed to the summit of Mount Mokmyeok countless times alongside Jinryeonggun for those very rituals.
And perhaps he reasoned that if he dug beneath the pavilion beside the shrine and buried the treasure there, no one would ever dare disturb the ground.
"Oh, dear me."
The Guksadang had been forcibly relocated to Mount Inwang during the Japanese colonial period.
When the Japanese built the Chosen Shrine, they insisted that the Guksadang could not be allowed to stand on higher ground than the shrine where they held their own rites.
In other words, they had torn the Guksadang down completely and churned up the earth beneath it.
"The treasure might not even be there anymore."
At my words, the White Porcelain Grandmother tilted her head.
"Why ever not?"
I explained that the Guksadang where Jinryeonggun had performed her rituals had been relocated, and that every one of the old buildings up there had been demolished.
"Is that so? But from what I know, even digging up the buildings would not have let them find the treasure so easily."
"Pardon? Why not?"
"There was a true medium who could wield divine power. That one would have moved to protect the treasure."
Divine power.
The one hundred ninety thousand coins scattered across Ugok 1-ri.
And the powerful spirit sealed beneath an old grave by that same divine power.
It felt as though I had seized the end of a single thread running through them all.
A true medium who can wield divine power, you say? Who was it?
The White Porcelain Grandmother stared at me steadily for a long moment, then rose smoothly to her feet.
"I never learned that one's name."
I asked her as she started up the stairs.
"Then who did you hear about this divine-powered medium from?"
"Did I not tell you my original master sold me away? In the house I was sold to, there were drinking parties every single night. And that house, mind you, had ninety-nine rooms."
Transitioning from the late Joseon era into the Korean Empire — who else but Yi Yu-in could have built a ninety-nine-room house and flaunted such luxury?
My mind raced, and at the thought that flashed through it, I blurted out:
Don't tell me — you were sold to the traitor Min Young-hwi?
"My, you do know a great deal."
So the traitor Min Young-hwi kept a medium who could wield divine power?
"Heavens, no. The medium with divine power tried to kill Min Young-hwi to protect the nation. Tried to protect the treasure those traitors smuggled out, too. And it was war, you understand."
The White Porcelain Grandmother shuddered, as though merely recalling those times was unbearable.
"It was a war of ghosts, you see."
"A war of ghosts? What were the people doing while that happened?"
"Back then, Gyeongseong held nothing but traitors and sheep. Speaking of it only tears the heart open — I'd rather not recall it, if you don't mind?"
And with that, the White Porcelain Grandmother rose up the stairs as if taking flight.
Hey, why do you keep stopping mid-sentence?
But she was already far ahead of me.
I hurried after her.
When we reached the summit of Namsan a short while later, a hot wind swept across my face.
Swarms of tourists were snapping photos and fastening love locks to the railings.
"So this is what it's become? What a dreadful clutter."
The White Porcelain Grandmother remembered the summit only as it once was, when the Guksadang stood there.
Seeing it turned into a tourist attraction seemed to draw a sigh out of her.
"It's over this way — the place where the rites were held."
Drawing near the Palgakjeong Pavilion, the Grandmother swept her gaze around the area, then walked a few steps further toward the woods just behind it.
It was a restricted zone, off-limits to ordinary visitors, so I simply stood and watched her move.
Strangely, my heart was pounding.
It felt as though some connection existed between me — a Transcendental Spirit Medium — and the medium who wielded divine power.
Sliding along, the Grandmother walked back toward me, lifting her toes just above the ground, and broke into a broad smile.
"My words were true, weren't they? The treasure is still there, untouched. Hidden away most carefully."
Where is it, exactly?
"Right beneath the very feet you're standing on. Surely you felt something?"
I lowered my head and looked at the marble steps under my shoes.
I was standing at the very edge of the staircase leading up to the Palgakjeong Pavilion.
There's a treasure under *this*?
"You didn't feel it? I can feel it even now."
Thump, thump, thump. So that was why my heart had been pounding — it had been reacting to the divine power?
Confused as I was, something was becoming unmistakably clear, and a shiver ran through me.
That evening, I took the White Porcelain Grandmother on a tour of Samcheong-dong as well.
Samcheong-dong — where Jinryeonggun had gone into hiding right before her death.
There had once stood a place there where Daoist rites were performed during the Joseon era.
The Sogyeokseo — the government office in charge of Daoist ceremonies — had held its rites in Samcheong-dong.
The district took its name from the rites offered to three celestial constellations: Okcheong, Sangcheong, and Taecheong.
Why, though, had Jinryeonggun come all the way here, the moment her powerful patron Empress Myeongseong was gone?
The White Porcelain Grandmother searched the area high and low for the treasure, but this time she came up empty.
There was no telling whether Jinryeonggun had negotiated with corrupt officials to spare her own neck, or whether grave robbers had gotten there first.
Only late at night did we return to Moon Sung-il's Hannam-dong residence, the Grandmother humming a tune, evidently in high spirits.
"Gyeongseong has transformed into something so beautiful that I'm in the finest of moods, truly. Thanks to you I've had my outing, so the treasure of Mount Mokmyeok shall all be yours."
How exactly am I supposed to claim a treasure sealed away under divine power beneath the Palgakjeong Pavilion?
"If not you, then who could ever claim it?"
What is that supposed to mean?
"Oh, how exasperating you can be. You haven't the faintest idea what power you carry — tsk! One moment you seem remarkably clever, and the next you're an absolute blockhead."
Grumbling all the while, the White Porcelain Grandmother vanished toward the annex.
I stood dumbstruck in the middle of the garden for a while, then tilted my head at an angle.
What power is it that I supposedly have?
"I believe she means that you possess divine power, Master."
So I can break a divine seal myself?
"I knew you had a power not yet awakened, Master, but to think it would be divine power. My congratulations."
Congratulations? For what, exactly?
"Judging by what I have read in the stars, the strongest medium on this earth — no, in all of history — stands on the brink of awakening. And that, Master, appears to be you."
Stronger still than this?
It wasn't as if I wanted to go digging that deep.
Somehow I'd end up not just top of my region, but strongest in the universe. How does that even happen?
My head rang.
...And yet, I didn't hate it.
Because not only would I be able to find treasure sealed by divine power — I'd also be able to confirm the existence of that immensely powerful spirit sealed inside the Ugok 1-ri cemetery.
So how does one go about this awakening, anyway?
"Well, that I couldn't say..."
Come to think of it, Abe had been an onmyoji. He'd admitted he knew little about mediums with divine power — only that such power was immensely formidable.
Did I, too, wield divine power as a Transcendental Spirit Medium in my past life?
I didn't want to go down this road, but my thoughts kept drifting that way all on their own.
Watching the news the next morning, I realized Moon Sung-il had moved with remarkable speed.
The union leader was arrested on the spot, and Seongdo Construction found itself under prosecutorial investigation.
With that, the company would have no choice but to pull out of the large-scale apartment development.
In an economy this sluggish, Seongdo Construction is going to default.
They say a rolling stone gathers no moss — and in the same way, a construction company never fails so long as its sites keep running.
But the moment even a single project grinds to a halt, a construction firm lands on the knife's edge between survival and collapse.
Cash flow dries up, credit crumbles, and the banks come calling to claw back their money.
Seongdo Construction is headed straight for the grave — which means SD Financial probably won't be far behind.
I turned off the TV and left the room.
I had to see my parents briefly, then head straight down to Ugok 1-ri.
Before No. 1 comes looking for me and shows up in Seoul, that is.
If I didn't head home today, he'd go and possess Chai's body to come find me.
And then who exactly would tend the fields?
On top of that, I had a mountain of tasks stacked up: opening the café, renting out the vacant house, harvesting the soybeans, and more.
But the thought of tackling them one by one filled me with energy. I was excited — genuinely looking forward to it.
"CEO Kim, you're heading down already?"
When I stepped into the living room with my bag in hand, Moon Sung-il rose from the sofa where he'd evidently been waiting.
"Stay just one more day. The Big Madam is absolutely set on meeting you, CEO Kim."
"I'd rather pay my respects next time the chance arises. I'm a farmer, you see — I can't leave home unattended for long."
"The transaction funds will be deposited soon, you know."
He meant the three hundred billion won in Bitcoin.
But that was that, and this was this.
"Even with far more money coming in, you're still continuing your antiquities business, Mr. Moon. I'd appreciate it if you thought of me the same way."
My unchanging creed seemed, if anything, to be a pleasant sight to Moon Sung-il.
"Money changes people, as a rule — yet you show not the slightest hint of it. This is precisely why I respect you, CEO Kim."
"Respect me? Now you're laying it on thick."
I burst out laughing.
"Save the respect for when I actually do something that knocks your socks off."
"And I take it you're preparing an event worthy of exactly that?"
Once my divine power awakened, I'd be able to unearth the treasure Yi Yu-in had hidden without smashing the Palgakjeong Pavilion to pieces.
Of course, I couldn't say any of that out loud now. It would be like declaring I was headed to Seoul National University before ever sitting the college entrance exam.
Still.
"I am preparing something of an event, as it happens — and for that, there's a favor I need to ask of you, Mr. Moon."