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# Chapter 3
Even though it was a detached house, it had a small yard attached to it.
However, it had been so neglected that it looked almost abandoned, adding to the gloomy atmosphere.
Even the tall grass had withered, and there was not a trace of vitality anywhere in the yard.
What happened to this yard?!
Even if it had not been maintained, it did not look like a jungle.
It looked more like completely parched land.
Even with the eyes the Taoist had opened for him, Doan could see the energy of the earth veins flowing through the
ground.
“Excuse me…… sir? Is there perhaps a problem with the yard?”
Doan’s shoulders trembled at the man, who had somehow started addressing him as “sir,” now treating him with
considerable respect.
Doan was apparently more easily influenced by titles than he had expected, because being respectfully called “sir”
suddenly made him feel a tremendous sense of responsibility.
“Um, excuse me…… your son?”
“My name is Im Jin-baek.”
“Ah, yes. Mr. Im, there’s something I’d like to ask. Was this yard already like this when you moved in?”
“When you say ‘like this’…… what do you mean……? Well, it was pretty much the same as it is now.”
The land had been this lifeless from the beginning?
According to Jin-baek, he had moved in hurriedly because money was an issue and there had not been many options
available.
On top of that, things had not been going well because his business was struggling and he had been arguing with his
wife, so he had not had the time or energy to carefully inspect even the yard.
“Wait…… then did Hyunwoo’s mother go to her parents’ house because you two had a fight?”
“……It wasn’t entirely because of that, but her father was ill, so she went there for a while.”
Only then did Jin-baek awkwardly reveal the truth.
His mother, Mrs. Kim Ok-young, did not feel good about hearing it either.
I knew he was lacking energy…… but was he really having such a hard time that he couldn’t even tell his mother because
he didn’t trust me……?
Ok-young blamed herself as she looked at Jin-baek with pity.
But perhaps even her sympathetic gaze felt burdensome to him, because her son merely turned his head away, pretending
not to notice.
Ordinarily, Doan might have been concerned by the strained relationship between mother and son.
But his entire attention was focused on the yard.
The land is this withered……
Even the smell rising from the ground was unpleasant.
It was not simply dry.
The soil was moist, almost to the point of being damp.
“……Which direction does the living room window face?”
“Ah…… um, it faces east.”
“East…….”
East was the direction where life sprouted, just as the Taoist had explained earlier.
Therefore, the land should have been receiving plenty of bright energy.
Yet the soil was strangely damp and murky.
“The earth…… even in Greek mythology, it is the source of life from which all things are born.”
The earth of the planet was its meridian, its organs.
The sea was its blood, while rivers were the blood vessels connecting the two.
The mountains rising from the earth were breathing holes connecting it to the heavens, while trees were like its skin.
Things I’ve never even thought about are coming to me on their own.
For a moment, his entire body trembled at the unfamiliar information.
If that was the case, then this yard was the true source of life beneath the house itself.
What on earth is wrong with this land?
All he could see was black smoke billowing everywhere.
Beyond that, he could not find any further information.
He even glanced toward the Divine Taoist standing behind him, just in case.
But the Taoist had remained silent for quite some time, simply staring at him.
It felt as though he was testing how far Doan could go.
Even if I generously call this a test, shouldn’t you at least teach me something before throwing me into an exam?!
This was no different from making him skim the important points and then throwing him straight into a practical
examination.
Moreover, judging from the looks Ok-young and Jin-baek were giving him, Doan had been talking confidently until now, but
suddenly could not say a single word.
It had reached the point where they were probably wondering whether something had gone wrong, while suspicion began to
grow in their eyes.
“……You haven’t done anything to the yard, right?”
“No…… But why have you been focusing on the yard since earlier…… Is there some kind of problem?”
Yes. A very big one.
Judging by the circumstances, this place was the source of all their problems.
The problem was that he had no idea exactly which part of it was causing everything.
But after giving such a confident lecture, it would hardly look good to suddenly say he was leaving.
There must…… definitely be something here. There has to be a reason the earth veins are flowing this weakly……
At that moment, something caught his eye.
There was a single ornamental tree growing thinly in the middle of the yard.
“This tree…… what kind of tree is it?”
“The tree? Uh…… I’m not sure either…….”
“That’s a camellia tree. It blooms red flowers in winter.”
“Ah…… so this is a camellia tree.”
“You didn’t even know there was one in our own yard?”
Camellia…… tree……?
A tree that blooms in winter…… red flowers……?
Something suddenly flashed through Doan’s mind.
He hurried over to Jin-baek and grabbed his arm.
Before the startled Jin-baek could even say anything—
“A shovel! A shovel!! Boss! You have a shovel, right?!”
“A-a shovel……?! Y-Yes, we do!”
At that moment, the corners of the Taoist’s mouth curved into an arc.
“That tree needs to be pulled out immediately!!”
Startled by Doan’s shout, Jin-baek hurried to the storage shed and brought back an old shovel.
Doan immediately began digging the soil with his bare hands, and Jin-baek hurriedly joined him to dig around the
camellia tree.
But the withered tree had sunk its roots into the ground with such strange strength that it refused to come out.
“What the hell? How can such a thin tree have roots this thick underneath?!”
“……I’ve lived for eighty years, and I’ve never seen anything like this either……”
The tree itself was thin and frail, but underneath it were bizarrely thick roots, as though they had absorbed every bit
of nourishment available.
After confirming their shape, Doan continued digging rapidly without caring that his hands were becoming covered in
dirt.
Eventually, Ok-young joined them with a small hoe.
Only after digging for nearly an hour were they finally able to pull the roots out.
And what they saw was truly bizarre.
“……It’s a tree, right?”
No one answered Jin-baek’s question.
They had thought it was an ordinary ornamental tree with moderately sized roots.
Yet underneath it were plump, swollen roots that looked as though they might start writhing at any moment.
Didn’t they look like a mass of snakes?
Furthermore, when they examined the hole they had dug, the closer they got to the roots, the less moist the soil became.
“……Feng shui master, can you tell us what happened here?”
Even Ok-young, who had teased him for looking like dried radish earlier, now spoke to Doan politely as though she was
relying on him.
As Doan brushed the dirt from his hands, the Taoist spoke first from behind him.
[The word camellia comes from the characters for winter and arborvitae.]
The words were then conveyed once again through Doan’s mouth.
“It means a tree that blooms in winter. It grows by absorbing moisture even from dry winter soil.”
Originally, arborvitae had been regarded as second only to pine trees.
Its bark was used as medicine and was said to strengthen and whiten human bones, making it a very valuable tree.
“But this tree has a very unusual property.”
“Unusual…… property?”
“It has the power to kill the insects that appear on corpses inside graves.”
Long ago, arborvitae trees were sometimes planted around royal tombs to prevent insects from gathering on the bodies.
In other words, it was a tree with the power to revive the dead while killing the living.
“When you look at this land as a whole, the yard is located on the eastern side. East is the direction where the sun
rises, meaning it is the place where life is born.”
An ornamental tree placed in the place where life was born was a tree that killed living things instead?
It was the complete opposite of what the land needed.
Furthermore, in the Five Elements, east represented wood.
“And camellia flowers bloom red in winter.”
“……Red represents fire among the Five Elements.”
“You know quite a bit. On top of that, camellia trees are weak against wind but grow well in barren environments.”
To put it simply, it would not be an exaggeration to say that this single camellia tree had absorbed all the energy of
the land.
That was why, even when the power of the earth veins gathered in this sunlit land, it was immediately absorbed by the
tree and disappeared.
“Look at these roots. See how well they’ve absorbed the nutrients.”
“……They’re kind of disgusting.”
They were shaped like snakes.
Snakes were also considered in feng shui to have the role of attracting good fortune.
At the same time, they were also regarded as sinister creatures symbolizing unfavorable events.
With such a sinister presence buried beneath the ground, the situation could only become one where life was slowly being
devoured.
“On top of that, camellia trees are not used in feng shui.”
“……Why?”
“When camellia flowers bloom, the entire flower falls off at once. It looks just like a head being severed.”
The old aristocrats of the past considered this ominous and never kept camellia trees around their homes.
“You can cut down the tree and dispose of it somewhere, or chop it up and use it as firewood.”
“Will this…… be enough?”
“Who knows……. If I had to add one more thing, I’d say you should clean up the grass properly too.”
“Yes, yes? The grass……?”
“Yes. That way, perhaps you can finally have a pleasant conversation with your mother after such a long time.”
“Ah…….”
Only then did Jin-baek meet his worried mother’s eyes and awkwardly apologize.
“……Mother, I’m sorry.”
“No…… No, it was my fault for not realizing.”
Hmm, hmm. Now this was finally looking like a proper, ideal mother-and-son relationship.
Just as Doan was about to quietly step away, thinking he could finally escape from this uncomfortable family situation—
“Feng shui master, have a bite to eat before you go.”
“Yes, sir. Since you’re here, I’d also appreciate it if you could take a look and see whether things will go well for us
from now on.”
Oh, come on. I keep telling you, I’m not a shaman. I only look at feng shui.
Whether they listened or not, the stubborn mother and son insisted on dragging Doan inside.
Of course, the grandmother’s cooking was far too good, so Doan had no choice but to quietly eat before leaving.
***
Even after eating, Doan helped clean the house.
By the time he finally returned home, it was already the middle of the night.
“In the end, I just helped someone else for nothing, didn’t I?”
He had pulled weeds, rearranged furniture, and done all sorts of work.
He had at least received some delicious side dishes in return, but Doan complained about his sore muscles, saying they
had worked him to death.
The Taoist who had followed him home laughed heartily.
[This feng shui master is quite skilled with words, isn’t he? His ability to understand the earth veins is excellent,
and he’s also good at pinpointing problems.]
“……I just said whatever came to mind. Is any of this actually right?”
He had merely mumbled things without any professional knowledge.
He wondered whether something like this could really change the energy of a place and, consequently, change the lives of
the people living there.
But the Taoist destroyed that doubt with a single sentence.
[You simply have to believe.]
“……How are you going to brush it off with such a simple statement…….”
[The greatest power humans possess is belief. Whether it is the earth veins beneath them or mountain ranges, those are
merely supplementary elements.]
As he said this, the Taoist stroked his beard.
Doan sensed that something about the Taoist had changed.
After staring at him intently, he finally figured out exactly what was different.
“When did you trim your beard?”
The beard that had previously flown around like a broom, almost like something out of a fairy tale, was now neatly
groomed as though it had received a proper treatment.
It was so glossy that if someone took a photograph of him from a distance, it might have looked like a silver waterfall.
Compared to that, however, his clothes and overall appearance were still as shabby as ever.
[I have merely returned to my original appearance.]
“Huh? What do you mean by that……?”
[As for my current appearance, some incompetent contract holder stuffed the crystal bracelet containing my precious
power into a drawer and didn’t even look at it for several decades. Naturally, it was left to deteriorate until I ended
up like this.]
“……Huh? Then that beggar-like appearance was all because of me…… Ow!! Ouch!!”
[Yes. I look like a beggar because of you. You worthless beggar.]
This time, there seemed to be genuine resentment behind his words, because the pain that struck Doan’s head was enough
to make him feel as though his skull had cracked.
[Still, if you’ve used your abilities enough to restore my appearance, good things will soon happen to you as well.]
“Huh? What do you mean by that?”
[What do you think I mean? Didn’t I tell you earlier that I supported your family for generations? Do you think that
came from merely being good at looking at land?]
According to the Taoist, feng shui masters were people who examined land and received fortune from it.
Therefore, he predicted that the feng shui work Doan had done at Jin-baek’s house this time would soon return to him as
a great amount of wealth.
“……Really?”
Of course, Doan could not completely trust the Taoist’s words and looked at him suspiciously.
But the Taoist did not care about his gaze.
Instead, he merely chuckled and stroked his beard.
[Wait and see. Everything will proceed in the direction I, Jiri Dosa, the Heavenly and Earthly Taoist, foresee.]
“……Hmm…….”
Doan’s mouth fell wide open at the Taoist’s prophetic abilities exactly one week later.
The person who came to visit his semi-basement room was Jin-baek, who had contacted him saying he wanted to meet him
briefly.
“Have you been well, sir?”
“Yes, well, I have. But Mr. Im…… goodness, you look much better than before.”
Jin-baek laughed heartily, and Doan could tell that the compliment was not merely polite.
The irritation he had displayed before was nowhere to be found.
Instead, he wore a genuinely warm smile.
Once Doan heard what had happened, the reason for that smile became obvious.
“……You won a bid?”
“People like us make our living by bidding on projects conducted by the government or companies and winning the
contracts.”
For electrical contractors, winning one of those bids meant they could work without worrying about business for quite
some time.
And this time, the company Jin-baek operated had won a fairly large contract, allowing him to get back on his feet.
“Ever since you visited, I’ve been waking up feeling refreshed in the mornings…… and my wife…… came back too.”
The story about his father-in-law had been nothing more than an excuse.
He had left intending to separate for good, but at some point, Jin-baek could not stop thinking about how hard his wife
was struggling outside.
Of course, he added that his own heart had softened considerably during that time, and his wife making the first phone
call had played the biggest role.
“Thanks to you, my wife came back, and she was extremely happy when she saw how clean the house had become.”
“Yes…… well, that’s good to hear. But why did you come to me……?”
“How could I pretend none of this happened after things went so well because of you?”
The white envelope Jin-baek politely held out was fairly thick.
Even though Doan had never entered the workforce, years of watching K-dramas, movies, and absorbing popular culture had
taught him enough to recognize it.
Is that money?!
Was this what people called a fee for your efforts?
Afraid that accepting it with trembling hands might make him look inexperienced, Doan maintained as much of a poker face
as possible as he took the envelope.
Even if they were ten-thousand-won bills, there were quite a lot of them.
And if they were fifty-thousand-won bills, the envelope was thick enough to make his tongue go numb.
“I’m still not in a very comfortable financial situation, but I tried my best to make sure you wouldn’t feel
disappointed.”
“No…… well, I didn’t help you expecting something like this.”
“Of course. I know. My mother told me as well. She said you saw her wandering around and came over to help her first……”
Jin-baek repeatedly thanked Doan, calling him a benefactor to both him and his mother.
Doan shook his head.
“It’s nothing like that. Of course, I helped restore the flow of energy, but all of this is ultimately the result of you
working hard to make a living.”
“……Sir……!”
Seeing a middle-aged man nearly fifty, who was also considerably larger than him, become teary-eyed in front of him made
Doan feel rather uncomfortable.
He politely thanked him for the money and was about to hurry Jin-baek out when—
“Um, but…… you really do work professionally as a feng shui master, don’t you?”
“Yes, well, I do…… Ah.”
Seeing Jin-baek look around the semi-basement room, Doan could almost hear the unspoken question of why someone as
talented as him was living in such a shabby place.
Doan could hardly admit that he had come to Seoul because of his failed job search.
Wanting to preserve his pride while maintaining Jin-baek’s favorable impression of him, he decided to play along.
“Ahem. I originally lived in the countryside, but I wanted to see how far my abilities could reach, so I came up to
Seoul and rented a place.”
“Ah……! As expected! You’re the kind of person who challenges yourself regardless of what kind of room you have!”
……It seemed he had been misunderstood somehow.
But Doan decided to leave it alone.
Behind him, the Taoist was mockingly muttering, “How far your abilities could reach?”
Doan deliberately pretended not to hear him.
“Then, sir, are you free today?”
“Hmm…… I think I’m free today. Why do you ask?”
“I have an acquaintance who really wants to meet you…… Would it be possible to have a consultation?”
Oh, am I actually getting work this suddenly?
Just as Doan stood there dumbfounded, the Taoist whispered softly into his ear.
[Traditionally, the finest thing for any professional is to make a name for themselves in the countryside and then move
to the city.]
If you put it that way, I can’t back down now.
“Fine. I’ll meet them.”
Although Doan felt as though he had fallen for the Taoist’s persuasion a little too easily, he deliberately ignored that
feeling.
What caught his eye was Jin-baek, who looked slightly uncomfortable for some reason.
“Um…… he might be a little picky.”
“Huh?”
Doan would understand exactly what Jin-baek meant only after he was introduced to the client.