Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 5: I Bought an Abandoned House
"The meteorite falling? I didn't see it."
It wasn't a lie.
I was sleeping in the tent, and when I woke up to a loud thud, the meteorites had already fallen.
"Is that so?"
Lee Hoyoung nodded slowly, then pointed to the ground gouged by the meteorite impact.
"That hole was created yesterday, wasn't it?"
"Why? Ah, that? Maybe a mole dug it? I'm not sure."
"I see you're doing a long-term camp here. Are you saying you don't know when something like that appeared?"
The interrogation began. It's not like he's an investigator or anything.
"Even though I'm camping long-term, I'm not here all the time. I have to go into town to buy groceries."
When Lee Hoyoung rubbed his chin suspiciously, the man standing right next to him furrowed his brow.
"Hey! If he had picked up a meteorite, would he be sitting here like this? Do you know how much that's worth?"
"Well, true."
Only then did Lee Hoyoung relax his expression and stand up.
"Which fool sells a Martian meteorite for 1.5 billion? If he had brought it to me, I would have given him 3 billion."
3 billion? He's just saying that, right?
However...
"Hey, it was years ago that a Martian meteorite found in Australia sold for 2.3 billion at auction. Now they say it's 4 billion. If someone asked you to sell it for 3 billion, would you just say 'Yes, take it'?"
Gulp. I swallowed without realizing it.
Even if I only received 3 billion each, I had four meteorites left, so that would be 12 billion.
But he says the price has gone up to 4 billion.
Of course, I had no intention of selling the meteorites immediately. The 1.5 billion I already deposited in my account after selling the first one was enough to do everything I wanted.
"Excuse me. I'll lend you this, so if it makes a noise, that means it's a meteorite. Meteorites contain iron and nickel, and as they pass through the atmosphere, they catch fire and form a black crust."
Lee Hoyoung held out a metal detector and continued.
"Meteorites also stick to magnets. If you find a meteorite, will you contact me? I'll buy it for 3 billion won."
"You're lending me a metal detector for free?"
There is no such thing as free in this world. I spoke with evident caution.
"I'm coming back in a few days anyway. You can return it then."
"Ah, okay."
For now, I accepted the metal detector and Lee Hoyoung's business card.
[Miho Gallery Representative - Lee Hoyoung]
Lee Hoyoung was a gallery representative with an office in Jongno. Seeing as he mentioned 1 billion won for "cursive script from the Joseon Dynasty" earlier, he seemed to deal in old books or antique art.
‘It wouldn't hurt to know people in this field.’
He hadn't been willing to share even a single bowl of ramen with the person next to him, but strangely, these people bought ramen for 20,000 won and ate it without uttering a single complaint.
It wasn't simply because they had a lot of money and thought, Let's just give him a measly 20,000 won.
Their standard of value was time and efficiency.
‘Their own time, and finding the meteorite. That is more important.’
They had starved all day, so their stomachs were practically sticking to their backs. Normally, thinking of their health, they wouldn't even touch something like ramen, but my ramen was the most suitable option to fill their stomachs quickly.
They judged that it was better to eat ramen and search the area more than to walk to their imported cars parked somewhere, drive to a famous restaurant, and come back.
Because they were capable of such cold calculation, even if I asked for a high price for the meteorite, they would agree if they could make a profit of 1 billion won.
They probably wouldn't even grumble about why I said I didn't know about the meteorite earlier.
‘Business should be done with people like this.’
As long as I bring them profit, they will handle all the messy details.
However, the moment they think it won't benefit them? They’ll treat me like I don't exist.
‘Rather, they are people who are easier to trade with.’
After they all left, I learned how to operate the metal detector using my phone.
I thought I might be able to find something in the mountain with this.
‘Ugok Village was a fierce battleground during the Korean War.’
They said the ROK Army and the North Korean People's Army fought so fiercely, exchanging mortar fire, that the mountain peaks melted down.
I thought if there were things like bullet casings scattered around the mountain, I would try picking them up. After all, they are historical materials.
If I offer to donate them and the government says they don't need them, I'll just keep them myself.
There was still a long time left before Carpenter Jang was scheduled to arrive.
I had nothing but time.
If I scanned the mountain with the metal detector, I thought I might find something interesting.
But that night.
"Excuse me, are you asleep?"
I was inside the tent with the lantern on, pondering how to change the structure of the abandoned house, when someone spoke from outside.
I felt goosebumps rise, making my hair stand on end.
‘This is a completely different energy from the old man in the New Village hat.’
With the old man, I was startled because he appeared suddenly, but I wasn't terrified like I was now.
Even without seeing the face of the man standing outside the tent, I was certain it was a ghost.
What should I do?
I curled up, trembling.
Flap. The tent shook even though there was no wind.
"I lost my way and can't find my home, so please help me."
Just as the tent entrance seemed to shake, the zipper opened with a ziiip sound.
"No!"
I jumped up, gasping for breath. My forehead was drenched in cold sweat.
The tent zipper was tightly closed.
‘What? Was it a dream?’
I calmed my breathing and checked for any presence outside the tent.
Bark!
Somewhere, a dog barked.
After that, I heard nothing, so I carefully opened the tent zipper and poked my head out.
There was no one.
"Why would I dream such a thing?"
The next day, I went to the Village Foreman's house to charge my phone.
The Foreman delivered news as if he had been waiting for me to arrive.
He said the people who had entered the abandoned house had gotten into accidents.
"I told them not to go to your house. I said it's a dead end so it's hard to turn a car around, and the landowner has a tent pitched there. But they wouldn't listen."
The Foreman shook his head and said,
"One of them fell into a rice paddy and broke his arm, and the woman walking right next to him stepped on an earthworm, jumped around, fell, and fractured her face."
It seemed to be the YouTuber who claimed to see a yellow dog and the woman who said she heard a dog barking.
"They should have been careful. They must have missed their footing while only looking at their selfie sticks."
"And that young man who said he saw a snake and threatened to call 119? His car rolled into the river, and he barely survived."
Could this be called a coincidence?
"Saying he 'barely survived' means he's okay, right?"
"His car was wrecked enough to be scrapped, but it seems there's no threat to his life."
A benevolent ghost... no, it seems to be the work of the Site Spirit and the Mountain God.
The Foreman told me I should be careful too.
He conveniently left out what I should be careful of. He didn't tell me who the old man in the New Village hat was, either.
I didn't ask any further.
A few days passed.
Perhaps because of all the accidents, the people who had flocked to Ugok Village to find meteorites receded like the tide.
They had thrown away so much trash that the garbage truck, which usually comes once a week, came two days in a row to collect it all.
The village became quiet again, and finally, the day to harvest pine mushrooms arrived.
Early in the morning, I went into town, loaded the rice cakes I had ordered in advance into my car, and headed to the Foreman's house.
"Oh, you're here? I was just about to call you."
"Please accept this first."
I put down the bags full of rice cakes in both hands onto the wooden floor of the Foreman's house.
"What is this?"
"It's nutritional rice cake. I put in lots of dried pumpkin and beans. It's for the elders to eat instead of a meal."
"No, why did you prepare something like this?"
The Foreman deliberately stuck his neck out and raised his voice. He was doing it so his wife could hear.
"Wow! Looks delicious! You ordered this from the Ugok Rice Cake Shop, right? They make really good rice cakes."
"Is there any other rice cake shop in town?"
From the kitchen, the Foreman's wife, Mrs. Han Su-ja, appeared with a grumble.
Mrs. Han Su-ja didn't like me because I had slashed the price of the abandoned house.
If they had sold the abandoned house for the original asking price of 7 million won, she might have tried to replace her refrigerator. But who would buy an abandoned house in this remote mountain valley?
Like Manager Gong from the Agricultural Co-op said, half the village is empty houses. Her understanding of the law of supply and demand was low, but she wasn't a bad person.
Last time, instead of getting angry at the Foreman for giving me a handful of wild vegetables he had worked hard to pick, she pretended not to see and slipped into the room.
‘She couldn't replace the refrigerator, but it looks like she got a perm and bought new clothes.’
Her hair had become curly, and the bright red jumper she was wearing looked new.
"Hello, Ma'am."
"Are you really planning to go pick pine mushrooms?"
"Yes."
"Wearing those shoes? The snakes are full of venom right now!"
I was currently wearing thick socks that came up high and hiking boots. But she said going into the mountain like this would be a disaster.
"Then what should I do?"
"You must wear rubber boots. And why are your pants so thick? Do you think picking pine mushrooms is like strolling on a hiking trail? Hahaha!"
Mrs. Han Su-ja burst out laughing and brought out a pair of rubber boots from the agricultural machinery warehouse. The boots were caked with mud, as if they had been used for fieldwork.
"Wear these. I'll lend you a pair of pants my husband used to wear. You'll die of heat in those. You have to crawl on all fours, you know."
"...Excuse me?"
Crawl on all fours in the mountain?
I couldn't imagine it, so I tilted my head, but I decided to listen to the elders.
A moment later, all the village elders gathered.
‘Oh my god...’
This year, the Village Foreman is 72, and Mrs. Han Su-ja is two years older at 74.
They said they were the youngest in the village, so I assumed everyone else was older, but...
‘If you add up the ages of everyone gathered here, it would probably be in the thousands.’
And yet, they were so hale and hearty that the only person gasping for breath once we got up the mountain was me.
I never imagined I would be crawling on all fours up a pathless mountain.
"Hahaha, oh my, that's funny. See, what did I tell you? I told you you'd be crawling on all fours!"
"Ah, yes, yes. I didn't know we'd be going up a path like this."
"Keep your eyes wide open. You might dig up wild ginseng."
Far from wild ginseng, I couldn't even dig up a single pine mushroom. Still, I provided great entertainment for the elders.
"Uwaaaah!"
When I lost my footing and rolled down, the Foreman couple and the elders held their bellies and laughed.
"Ah. Why did you bring that useless stick? Throw it away quickly!"
"This is a metal detector."
"Why bring a metal detector?"
"I thought I might find bullet casings from the Korean War or coins from the Joseon Dynasty. You know, like if bandits were guarding this deep mountain..."
Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep!
Just then, the metal detector alarm sounded.
"What? What is that sound?"
"I think I found a bullet casing."
I dug into the spot where the metal detector reacted.
But then.
A square tag attached to the end of a blackened chain.
It was a military dog tag.
In that moment, last night's dream came to mind.
"I lost my way and can't find my home, so could you please help me for a moment?"
Surely, the ghost that appeared in my dream wasn't the owner of this dog tag?
Ay, surely not.
But why does that "surely not" feel like it might be real?
The Korean War broke out in 1950. Even if he was born then, if he was 20 at the time, he would be 95 now. If he had children, they would be 75.
‘His children might still be alive.’
If I take this dog tag to the Ministry of National Defense, could I return his remains to his family?
I carefully dug up the area where the dog tag came out.
But then.
"Oh my, what is this?"
The place where I rolled down the hillside and found the dog tag was exactly...!