My Land Is a Money Cushion – 13
"Do you think the county can win the lawsuit?"
I spoke up cautiously.
Even though my power of foreseeing the future was growing stronger, thinking of Ugok 5-ri still felt like peering at a landscape through a frosted glass window. It didn't seem to be because my ability was weak — it was because the future of Ugok 5-ri simply hadn't been decided yet.
That was it. The future changes constantly.
Whom you meet, what choices you make — those are each person's own to bear. With every choice made in every moment, fate shifts. And when someone with a powerful destiny twists the course of their own life, the fates of those around them change as well. That's why they say good fortune opens up on its own when you stand beside a person carrying good energy — and why even the luckiest soul, standing beside someone steeped in misfortune, ends up ruining their own destiny.
Na Jeong-hwan was convinced I was a person with good energy. He believed his own luck had opened up thanks to me, that everything he touched was turning to gold because of it.
"Things will go even better now that you've won the bid, Mr. Yunho."
"I'm sorry — what?"
No, hold on. I had never once intended to edge in and claim someone else's territory.
When I looked flustered, Na Jeong-hwan smiled and went on.
"SD Financial, Boram Private Loans, Seongdo Construction — with Jo Eun-seon, the real power behind them all, missing and their CEO dead, they're a ship that's lost its captain, forced to punch through a storm."
"Yes, I heard about it on the news."
"Exactly."
Na Jeong-hwan nodded and continued.
"Even if the creditors install a new CEO, they won't have the bandwidth to worry about Ugok 5-ri. And there's a high probability they'll steer well clear of the land you won at auction, Mr. Kim Yunho."
The reason, he said, was that Boram Private Loans had drawn the condemnation of the entire nation over a single video — footage of loan sharks stalking me.
"Besides, there's legal precedent requiring a private company that occupied county land for free to hand back its profits and facilities."
"But highway land is a public facility."
"Private highways are governed by different laws than state facilities. Privately funded rail lines are the same."
National highways generally pass over state-owned land and count as public property. But the ownership structure of privately funded highways is complicated — when the civil engineering is done and the road handed over, agreements are signed with the government and local authorities. And it was precisely these agreements that made Na Jeong-hwan so confident of victory in the lawsuit.
"In the agreement our county office holds, the free occupancy period is ten years. Twenty years of occupation is illegal. Of course, there's plenty more to argue — surface rights that arise when someone occupies another's property for over twenty years, and so on..."
Na Jeong-hwan took out his phone and held it up so I could see the screen.
"The caseworker kept sending registered mail, over and over. Notifying them that the free-lease period on the county land had expired and demanding immediate action. SD Financial simply ignored it."
"That's genuinely rotten conduct."
"It is. Which is exactly why we must take Ugok 5-ri back."
Na Jeong-hwan was confident he would win in court. And even if the ruling didn't go the way he wanted, he planned to regulate SD Financial so thoroughly that they couldn't touch the land as they pleased. He was even considering having the county buy it back outright.
"In any case, think carefully about what you want to do with the land you won, Mr. Yunho. Consult with the county office staff as you go. I'll personally look after everything."
The moment Na Jeong-hwan finished speaking, the hazy fog that had veiled my vision of Ugok 5-ri began to lift. The image sharpened little by little, filling with a beautiful garden, a strikingly built café, and a lovely cluster of country cottages. Charming stone-wall paths, a deep green forest, barley fields swaying in the wind, and even a red windmill. A village so beautiful I could almost believe I'd stepped into a fairy tale filled my head to the brim.
The future, blurry only moments ago, had changed. Talking with me, Na Jeong-hwan had steeled his resolve — and in doing so, he had altered the future itself.
"That would be wonderful."
I hoped the future Ugok 5-ri would transform into exactly the village in that vision. Yongsoo, who had died in the Chinese restaurant's basement in fear, darkness, cold, and hunger, would surely rejoice as well.
"I sincerely hope everything unfolds as you intend, Governor. I'll help however I can."
"Thank you, Mr. Yunho."
Just then, the event staff member looked toward the stadium gate and shouted.
"Second place is coming in!"
"So it is."
Na Jeong-hwan shot to his feet, narrowing his eyes to see who the runner was. The people inside the tent rose in a rush and crowded toward the entrance, blocking my view.
Don't tell me Son Gu-chul took second?
Son Gu-chul had been sprinting right on my heels, shrieking the whole way. I'd been half-tempted to tell him to keep it down.
"Wait — it's not second place. Look at this!"
The staff member held up a document and explained something to Na Jeong-hwan and the people around him.
"Well, I'll be. It's first place — first!"
"Congratulations, Mr. Yunho!"
Na Jeong-hwan and the crowd filling the tent turned toward me with words of celebration. Only then could I see the runners coming through the stadium gate.
Choi Hogyeong and Park Seok-tae — left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot — were chanting in rhythm as they ran toward us.
Something swelled up in my chest, bit by bit, until it seemed to fill me entirely. My throat tightened; hot steam rose up inside it.
"Hogyeong! Seok-tae! Just a little more! Hang in there!"
Before I knew it, I had bolted out of the tent, shouting. I couldn't even explain the impulse. My heart was bursting; it felt like it might explode.
My classmates from farming school. My people. My friends. And my teammates. The sight of them giving everything they had, running for the finish line, swept over me like a wave.
"You're amazing! Just a little further — you're doing so well!"
I ran out to meet them, keeping pace along the inside of the track, cheering them on.
"Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot!"
At Choi Hogyeong's quickening cadence, Park Seok-tae seemed to dredge up strength he'd never known he had and began a final sprint. The two of them surged forward with everything they had — and the instant they crossed the finish line—
"AAAAAGH! Aaahhhh!"
Park Seok-tae threw both arms around me and Choi Hogyeong and roared.
They say that if you refuse to give up and give it your all, the effort bears fruit someday. Today, Park Seok-tae had finally understood what those words meant.
His face plastered with sweat and tears, Park Seok-tae suddenly hoisted me clean off the ground.
"Manse! Long live Korean independence!"
"Hahaha — why the sudden history lesson?"
"I'm just so happy!"
He spun me around once, set me down, and immediately turned toward Choi Hogyeong. She hopped backward, retreating.
"Whoa! You can skip me, thanks. If you hug and spin me here, that means we have to get married."
"Excuse me?"
"This is the countryside."
"Ah, hahaha."
"Hahaha."
The three of us looked at one another and laughed for a long while. Sweat-soaked faces had never looked so beautiful.
Early on the morning I was to leave for Japan, Jeong Hyeoncheol came looking for me.
Hearing the sound of a car in the lower courtyard, I went out, and he waved as he climbed the steps.
"You haven't left yet, right? I've been on pins and needles worried our paths would cross the wrong way."
"Detective Jeong, what brings you here at this hour?"
"I had overnight duty yesterday. Headed straight over as soon as my shift ended."
The violent crimes unit took turns covering night duty, he said. Serious crimes didn't take the night off, after all.
"Did something happen?"
I'd seen his stepbrothers firsthand, filming their own trashy melodrama, so I swallowed hard without meaning to.
"Something did, actually. You opened your café, Mr. Yunho."
"Sorry — what?"
"I'm sorry I missed it. Jinwoo and I promised we'd come together."
Jeong Hyeoncheol held out a gift box he'd been hiding behind his back.
"A housewarming gift. For the opening."
"Wh-what is it?"
"A stun gun. If any piece of trash gives you trouble, fry him."
When I took the box and simply froze, Jeong Hyeoncheol shifted awkwardly.
"Word gets out that business is good, and next thing you know, thieves or robbers come sniffing around. The world's a scary place."
He sighed, mentioning that just days ago he'd worked a murder case — one of so many violent crimes that never made the news. Better to be careful, always, he said. At his earnest insistence, I clutched the box to my chest and managed a smile.
"Thank you. I'll keep it at the café. Oh, right! I was too busy that day to ask — how did your stepbrothers' case turn out?"
"Thanks to the effort you put in, we got evidence that your eldest and youngest brothers made your second brother, Jeong Hyeon-woo, into an addict."
Abe had overheard the conversation between Jeong Hyeonsu's wife and Jeong Hyeongyu and tipped me off — that before the Sindang-dong housing redevelopment project launched, they planned to get rid of Jeong Hyeon-woo by turning him into a drug addict.
The one who'd planned it was the eldest, Jeong Hyeonsu.
Because I'd passed that information to Jeong Hyeoncheol, it hadn't become private vengeance — it had become the exposure of an attempted murder within the family.
"The eldest couple and the youngest have all been arrested. It's attempted murder, so they'll be sentenced to actual prison time."
"That's genuinely good news."
"And the brother who nearly died has agreed to testify — about how they tried to seize the inheritance by threatening his stepmother, and how the eldest threatened to take me away as an infant and kill me."
"Really?"
"Yes! It's now a case under criminal law, not civil."
Under civil law, there'd been no way to hold his brothers accountable. Too much time had passed. But crimes like murder threats, kidnapping and threatening a minor with death, blackmail — those still had time left on their statutes.
"There wasn't a single day I didn't feel wronged. They told me the law couldn't touch them, and the fury just kept building up inside until nothing in life felt enjoyable anymore."
"Which means you don't have to feel it anymore. That's what I heard, anyway."
"Yes."
Jeong Hyeoncheol nodded firmly, then said,
"I wanted you to be the very first to know. And I wanted to say thank you face to face, like this. Thank you — truly, thank you."
He bowed his head deeply.
And yet — why did Jeong Hyeoncheol not look happy? Two brothers were headed to prison, and the addict brother had surely apologized to him by now. Wasn't revenge of this scale enough to satisfy him?
No, it wasn't that.
Jeong Hyeoncheol was the kind of fundamentally decent man who hesitated to use public authority even for a personal grudge. He'd never seemed all that greedy for the inheritance he'd been denied. It was the sense of injustice that had burned larger.
Ah. I think I know what it is.
I walked up to Jeong Hyeoncheol and said,
"Come with me for a minute, Detective. It won't take long."
"It's this way."
I followed the stream, walking toward the reservoir. The grass growing on either side of the little path I'd worn down with my comings and goings reached knee height. The dew clinging to the fresh blades soaked the cuffs of my trousers, but I didn't slow my pace. Once the sun rose, the midday heat would dry it all away soon enough.
"Look."
When we reached the reservoir, I stepped aside off the path.
"Ah. Whoaaaa!"
Jeong Hyeoncheol, who had been following right on my heels, went wide-eyed at the sight of the reservoir and the café spreading into view.
A breeze gliding across the glittering, light-drenched water. Wildflowers swaying in that moisture-laden wind. Their rich fragrance. And a hanok café facing a reservoir so beautiful it stole your breath — a place he would remember had been an abandoned ruin until just recently.
"An old house turns into this once you renovate it, top to bottom. Even a dank reservoir that looked like it should birth a water ghost becomes a stunning place like this, if you pour your heart into tending it."
I stopped and stood facing Jeong Hyeoncheol.
"It's time for you to let go of the past and change too, Detective. You won't transform overnight like this house did, but..."
The wound of being cast aside by his own blood — I felt it was time he shed it for good.
"The bad one was never me. It was them. Those bastards are all in prison now, or strung out on drugs. I was right. I won. Say that to yourself. Praise yourself for it."
"Yes. I will."
"Your mother thought the world of you, right up until the day she passed."
"Yes, sir!"
Jeong Hyeoncheol smiled with glistening eyes. In the morning sunlight, the moisture welling on his cheeks caught the light and shimmered.
[Take me too! I said take me too! Japanese evil spirits are probably gonna taste like sashimi. Taaaake meeee toooooo!]
No. 1 clung to my forearm and wouldn't let go, but there was no way I could grant that request.
How many times do I have to tell you? To bring a cat into Japan, you have to submit the paperwork a full month in advance.
Getting a microchip and a rabies shot wasn't enough. The documents had to be filed ahead of time and pass inspection.
Just guard the house. I'll bring you back something delicious.
I climbed into the car Secretary Yoon had driven over and headed for the airport. Then, a short while later, sitting on the plane, I felt No. 1's presence and whipped my head around.
How on earth—?