A Fortune Hidden in Plain Sight
- Hello?
A rough male voice came through the receiver.
"Hello. Excuse me, is this the production company that made The Discovery of Antiques?"
- Huh? Antiques? What are you talking about? This is a Chinese restaurant.
"......Pardon?"
Si-woo blinked and checked his phone screen again.
It was definitely the main number that came up in his search.
"Isn't this Creative Studio M? 02-XXX-XXXX..."
The number was exactly right.
- Ah, for heaven's sake. You dialed the wrong place. Haven't we changed that number ages ago? You're driving me crazy. I'm swamped with delivery orders and dying here!
"I am so sorr--"
Click.
The call ended with a merciless snap.
"Damn it."
He clutched his head.
It seemed the main number listed under the business registration hadn't been updated.
I don't have time for this.
At this very moment, Han Jeong-sik might have been tearing up the scroll in despair, or tossing it straight into the trash.
No, he might even have set it on fire in a fit of rage.
Every second counted.
Then one person came to mind.
Maybe General Manager Yang Dong-seok would know.
Yang Dong-seok was a man with enormous influence in the Korean content market.
Si-woo placed the call.
As soon as the line rang twice, a booming laugh burst through the receiver.
- Hahaha! Mr. Kim Si-woo, what can I do for you?
"Hello. By any chance, do you know a YouTube channel called The Discovery of Antiques?"
With no time to waste, he went straight to the point.
- Hmm.
Yang Dong-seok rummaged through his memory.
But no matter how hard he tried to recall it, nothing came.
- Do you have any other information?
Si-woo gave him what he remembered.
"The production company is Creative Studio M, and the CEO is Kim Min-su. Have you heard of them?"
- Hm. Studio M, you say... Hold on a moment.
Minutes passed with nothing but silence on the other end.
Then, after a while, Yang Dong-seok's voice returned.
- Ah! This is the place where Producer Kim works. I know it.
"Really?"
- Yes. Kim Min-su, the producer, used to work at a broadcaster before striking out on his own and starting a production company. I've met him a few times. But why do you ask?
How was he supposed to explain this?
After a moment's thought, Si-woo began calmly, in a way Yang Dong-seok could understand.
- ...So, on The Discovery of Antiques, they looked at a consigned item and the appraiser judged it fake, but in Mr. Kim Si-woo's eyes it looked genuine?
"Yes. I can see why the appraiser would have doubted it. When you're appraising something, it's hard to catch everything at a glance. I'm not certain myself. I'd like to see it in person and evaluate it."
Once again, Yang Dong-seok sensed the scent of a hit.
His lips went dry.
- Hahaha! I'll contact Producer Kim and pry the sender's number out of him. Please wait a moment. Ah, and our filming crew will come along too.
After the call ended, Si-woo let out a relieved breath.
As expected, connections were everything.
He should have asked sooner.
* * *
A restaurant on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.
Han Jeong-sik was working the floor again today, putting up with the drunken complaints of his customers.
"Owner! Another bottle of soju here!"
"Add two orders of pork belly!"
Orders exploded from all sides at once.
Han Jeong-sik hurried between the kitchen and the dining room.
Originally, he had run the restaurant together with his wife.
But after she died in a car accident three years ago, he had been left to bear everything alone.
He would have liked to hire a part-timer.
But if he wanted to contribute even a little to his daughter's wedding, he had to save every won he could.
Sizzle, sizzle.
In the kitchen, the spicy stir-fried pork was cooking.
"Ah."
He hurried to lower the heat and stir it around.
Luckily, it hadn't burned.
As he plated it and headed out to the dining room.
Bang.
A drunk man stumbling out of the restroom lurched into a table.
Crash.
A water glass spilled and shattered on the floor.
"Ah, fuck!"
The drunk man spat out the curse and swayed unsteadily.
"Sir, are you all right?"
As Han Jeong-sik moved to support him, the drunk man shook off his arm.
"Hey! Who the hell are you to touch me? Huh?"
"I'm sorry. I was worried you might get hurt."
"Damn it, why is the floor so slippery here? Huh? What kind of management is this? Huh?"
The drunk man shouted as he complained. The other customers turned to look.
"Sir, I'll clean this up first, so please go back to your seat and..."
"What? Sit down? Who the hell are you to order me around!"
The drunk shoved Han Jeong-sik in the chest.
"Sir, please calm down."
"Calm down? Hey, I'm a customer who's paying to eat here! A customer!"
He slammed the table hard while shouting.
The customers at the next table frowned and began to stand up.
Worried it might turn into a fight, Han Jeong-sik tried to calm everyone down.
"Please, sir. I won't charge you. So please, just leave."
Han Jeong-sik took the man's arm and carefully guided him toward the entrance.
"Hey! Let go! Let go, I said!"
"Sir, you're disturbing the other customers. Please, just..."
"Disturbing? I'm the one being disturbed! I slipped because the floor was slick!"
The drunk kept yelling, but Han Jeong-sik wordlessly escorted him outside.
"Tch. I was in a good mood too. You ruined it. Ptooey."
The man spat on the floor and staggered off into the night.
Han Jeong-sik stood at the door until he disappeared from sight.
He was furious inside, but he held it in.
If he dealt with every idiot like that one by one, there'd be no end to it.
"Sigh..."
He went back inside and looked at the table.
The spot where that drunk had been sitting.
The food and liquor were gone, but he had left without paying.
Han Jeong-sik looked at the broken table and shattered glass bottles.
He was angry, but he swallowed it.
...Fine. Let's call it bad luck being warded off.
He cleaned up the broken soju bottle under the table.
It was better than letting it cause trouble for the other customers, but the loss still stung.
As he swept up the broken glass and bent his knees, his back throbbed.
Getting old makes even this hard.
He was nearing sixty this year.
If he stood and worked all day, his legs would swell up by evening.
Just as he finished clearing the glass and straightened up.
"Owner, could I get some wet wipes here?"
"Yes, I'll be right there!"
He brought the wet wipes over and returned to the kitchen.
A pile of dishes in the sink. Floors that still needed mopping. Ingredients he had put off sorting until tomorrow.
A sigh escaped him before he could stop it.
When am I supposed to do all this?
But there was no time to keep thinking.
He had to move, even if it was only a little.
"Owner! The bill!"
"Yes, I'm coming!"
He wiped his hands and headed to the register.
"Table 3. Total comes to 38,000 won."
"Card."
Then
Ding-ring. Ding-ring.
His phone rang in his pocket.
He checked the screen. It was an unfamiliar number.
Who is it?
These days, spam calls came so often he didn't answer numbers he didn't know.
Besides, he had a customer at the counter.
He ignored it and printed the receipt.
"Thank you. Please come again."
After the customer left, Han Jeong-sik went to clear the table.
Half-eaten dishes.
Mismatched bowls scattered everywhere.
He silently gathered them up and carried them to the kitchen.
Ding-ring. Ding-rang.
The phone rang again.
It was that same number.
What is it?
He still had a mountain of work left.
Right now, washing dishes mattered more.
He turned on the faucet and started scrubbing.
The grease wouldn't come off easily, so he worked the sponge hard against it.
About five minutes passed.
The phone rang again.
The third time.
Who keeps calling at this hour?
Could something have happened to his daughter?
Anxiety flickered through him.
Han Jeong-sik shut off the faucet, wiped his hands on his apron, and hurried to answer.
"Hello?"
"Hello! Am I speaking to Mr. Han Jeong-sik?"
It was a young man's voice on the other end.
"Yes, that's me. Who is this?"
"Hello. My name is appraiser Kim Si-woo. I saw you on The Discovery of Antiques and separately tracked down your contact information to call you."
"......Ah."
Han Jeong-sik's face hardened.
That humiliating broadcast on YouTube, where five million won had become fifty thousand.
He had gathered his courage for his daughter, gone on the show, and come back after being turned into a spectacle.
"What do you want?"
There was no way for his voice not to come out sharp.
"Mr. Han Jeong-sik. I'm terribly sorry, but I have something urgent to ask. Do you still have the scroll you brought then?"
"......Why?"
Han Jeong-sik leaned against the sink.
His legs ached from standing all day.
"Would you consider having that painting appraised again?"
He let out a dry laugh.
"It was already appraised, wasn't it? As a fake worth fifty thousand won. It's even up on YouTube for the whole world to see."
Annoyance rose in him, and he almost hung up.
"I know. But sir, I'd like to come to your home and personally appraise it again."
He couldn't understand why they were bringing up something that had already been examined.
But then.
The name he had given earlier came back to him.
Kim Si-woo.
Why did that sound familiar?
"...Are you really the Kim Si-woo who was in the papers recently?"
Now and then, while watching YouTube or reading articles, Han Jeong-sik had come across the name Kim Si-woo.
Some young genius appraiser.
He remembered feeling fairly envious at the stories about how, after leaving a large company, the man had found countless relics, donated them, and made a fortune.
"Yes. I'm the Kim Si-woo who was recently in the news for the Baekje gilt-bronze Maitreya statue."
Si-woo continued carefully.
"I believe the painting by Gyeomjae Jeong Seon may be authentic. So I'd like to appraise it myself, even now."
"....."
Han Jeong-sik was too stunned to say anything.
Could it really be authentic?
If anyone else had said that, he would have snorted and hung up. But this was an appraiser on the rise in the industry.
If such a person had gone to the trouble of tracking down his number and calling him like this...
Might it actually be genuine?
At the same time, fear rose up too.
What if I get disappointed again?
Once a person has been knocked all the way to the ground, standing back up feels even scarier.
But still.
He had already seen the bottom, so what was there to fear?
He couldn't let this chance slip away.
And it wasn't as if it would cost him anything, either.
"......The painting is still in the old wardrobe."
"Really? That's a relief."
Si-woo answered brightly.
"Yes. I've had it for a long time, but even if it was fake, I couldn't bring myself to throw it away, so I just kept it at home."
"That's a relief! Then please give me your address, and I'll come right away."
After a brief hesitation, Han Jeong-sik hung up and sent him the address.
He stood there blankly, one hand braced on the sink.
It felt as if he had been bewitched by something.
And yet the number still showing on his phone told him he had been the one who had just called a moment ago.
Could it be real?
If it could be valued at five million won, no, even just one million...
Then he might be able to buy a few household appliances for his beloved daughter’s wedding trousseau.
* * *
On a dim evening, Si-woo drove toward the address Han Jeong-sik had given him.
His car led the way, and behind it trailed the Nutflix production team's van.
I said only a few people needed to come...
Director Choi Min-ho insisted they had to shoot with the best crew possible, so there was no helping it.
Anyone who saw the look in his eyes would have had a hard time refusing him.
The camera director, lighting director, and sound director had all come out in force.
At this point, you'd think we were filming a movie.
Several cameras had been installed inside the car and were already rolling.
For the Nutflix crew, there was one condition: they had to ask Han Jeong-sik for permission.
An old villa on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province, second floor.
The place where Han Jeong-sik lived was a one-room apartment of barely ten pyeong.
Han Jeong-sik was waiting nervously in front of the building.
When Si-woo got out of the car and approached, Han Jeong-sik said in surprise, "So it really was Mr. Kim Si-woo himself."
"Yes, that's right. I'm Kim Si-woo. It's a pleasure to meet you."
It had really been him after all.
He had worried that someone might be playing a trick or trying to scam him.
Still, if there was any property worth swindling from him, then maybe a scam was possible.
"Ah, I should have told you in advance."
Two vans followed behind.
People carrying cameras and all sorts of equipment got out one by one.
"I'm doing a separate shoot for Nutflix. Would it be all right if your face appears on camera? If you'd rather not, we can blur it out."
"Huh?"
Han Jeong-sik soon gave a hollow laugh.
They already branded me as a fifty-thousand-won fake on YouTube. What would I even be afraid of now?
Seeing the crew only made him trust them more.
"Yes, that's fine. The stairs are steep, so please follow carefully."
The old two-story villa had narrow, steep stairs, so they climbed up with caution.
"Watch the lighting equipment!"
"The stairs are narrow, so we'll go up one at a time!"
As the filming crew entered the one-room apartment of barely ten pyeong, the place was instantly crowded and noisy.
"This is... a bit cramped."
The camera director looked around, trying to figure out where to set up.
"I live alone, so the place is a little small."
Han Jeong-sik looked apologetic.
"I don't really have anything to offer you... Would barley tea be all right?"
Si-woo waved it off.
"Not at all. It's fine, please don't worry about it. But where's the scroll?"
After a little while, Han Jeong-sik took out the scroll he had kept deep inside the wardrobe.
Si-woo saw a brilliant golden light slowly fading from it.
Gyeomjae Jeong Seon's Rain over Geumgang Mountain.
From the reign of King Yeongjo.
The masterpiece a great Joseon painter had completed by pouring the full measure of his life's skill into it.
Though it had been trapped inside a wardrobe for a long time, it was still the very essence of true landscape painting, alive and breathing.
Inside the scroll lay the rain-soaked splendor of Geumgang Mountain, preserved across three hundred years.