Chapter 91
I’m translating this as a polished chapter with HTML paragraph structure, and I’m treating the email and any other in-universe readouts as styled blocks per your formatting rules.CHAPTER_TITLE: The Artifact Returned to Its Place
Le Chant du Silence was still being kept in the UK, so he hadn’t been able to bring it over.
Crosier Fine Art was scheduled to have it shipped to Korea soon.
There was no need to show Le Chant du Silence again anyway.
The J&A Beer verification was already done, so there was nothing more to check.
He drove to the Samjung Cultural Foundation in Hannam-dong.
It wasn’t hard to find, since it sat right next to Raum Gallery.
But the moment he arrived in front of the foundation, his mouth fell open.
There was someone standing at the front in a neatly tied-up hairstyle and a crisp suit.
Employees were lined up along both sides of the entrance.
No. What is this?
He couldn’t hide his bewilderment.
For all that this had been ordered directly by the chairman, this was a little much.
It would have made sense if the secretary general had come out.
And then everyone beneath him lined up like this.
He should have suggested meeting somewhere else if he’d known.
He’d been careless.
The moment he got out of the car, one employee hurried up to him.
"I’ll valet park it for you."
"Ah, it’s fine. I’ll park it myself."
"Please, let us take care of it."
He declined several times.
In the end, only after handing over the keys was he able to go inside.
The atmosphere made it feel as though something terrible would happen if he didn’t.
At the door, Secretary General Hong Seok-man was waiting.
A man who looked at least twice Si-woo’s age.
His tidy hairstyle was threaded with gray, and he wore black-rimmed glasses.
Anyone could tell he was the sort of person who had risen through the ranks by taking the elite path.
Well, a man who had climbed all the way to the post of secretary general at the Samjung Cultural Foundation had to be elite.
That sort of man bowed and offered a greeting.
"Welcome, Appraiser Kim Si-woo. I’m Hong Seok-man, secretary general."
"Good afternoon. I didn’t expect you to come out personally like this. I’m sorry for making this so troublesome."
Si-woo quickly bowed his head in return and reached out for a handshake.
"Ha ha. Not at all. This was an order from the chairman, so I should take care of it. Please, come inside."
Following Hong Seok-man’s guidance, he stepped into the building.
The glares from the employees trailing behind him were probably his imagination.
No. As someone who had worked in a company before, he knew exactly what kind of look that was.
It’s not like they’ll start leaving malicious comments about me or anything, right?
* * *
He went up to Hong Seok-man’s office.
A textbook example of a successful man.
The office was spacious and immaculate.
There was even a separate secretary’s office.
Through the window, the scenery around Hannam-dong could be seen at a glance.
"We’ve prepared coffee here. Please enjoy."
A secretary came in with a smile and set down the coffee.
"Thank you. I’ll enjoy it."
After a while, they talked lightly over coffee.
Then Si-woo accepted the document Hong Seok-man slid across the table.
It was a blank sheet of paper.
When he looked at Hong Seok-man in confusion, the older man opened his mouth with a very serious expression.
Si-woo swallowed, not knowing what was coming next.
"My daughter is a fan of Appraiser Kim Si-woo. If you don’t mind, could I ask for an autograph?"
For a moment, he couldn’t understand what he’d just heard, but he quickly recovered.
"Ah, of course. What is your daughter’s name?"
"Hong Yeon."
"That’s a lovely name."
"Wahaha. It is, isn’t it?"
At that one line, a switch seemed to flip, and the daughter bragging began.
From a young age, she had always served as class president.
Apparently, she had never once failed to place first.
Hong Seok-man even took out his smartphone and showed him photos.
She was strikingly beautiful, and was currently enrolled in a doctoral program at a prestigious university in the United States.
Her major was cultural heritage conservation, and he added that whenever an article about Appraiser Kim Si-woo appeared, she clipped and saved it.
He even casually mentioned that they were about the same age, then fixed Si-woo with a meaningful look.
Si-woo signed with a dazed expression.
All the while, the daughter boasting did not stop.
Then Hong Seok-man suddenly cleared his throat and straightened his back.
"Ahem. Forgive me. I should be talking business, but I kept talking about my daughter without thinking."
"Not at all. I enjoyed hearing about her. If I had a daughter like that, I’d want to brag about her anywhere and everywhere too. She really sounds wonderful."
Hong Seok-man hid the twitch at the corner of his mouth and sat up straight, responding half in sincerity and half in a hurry to move on.
"First, let me say that there is no problem with the purchase itself on Samjung’s side. We have already completed our internal review of the J&A Beer appraisal you sent, the materials related to Yosef Hassid, and the overall provenance and history of the instrument."
"You’ve already reviewed everything? That’s fast."
"This came directly from the chairman, so we checked it thoroughly to avoid any loose ends."
Hong Seok-man paused briefly, then continued.
"We’ve also essentially finalized incorporating the instrument into our loan program. From here on, though, we’ll need to work out the specific conditions together."
"What’s left?"
"Broadly speaking, three things: the purchase price, the loan criteria, and any other conditions the owner wants."
Hong Seok-man slid a document across the table.
"Let me start with the purchase price. The amount we’ve set is 6 billion won. We calculated it by combining J&A Beer’s appraisal benchmark and the market value. I imagine you’ve already built some rapport with the owner, Appraiser Kim, so how do you feel about this amount?"
Si-woo skimmed the document and thought for a moment.
6 billion won.
They were valuing it better than he’d expected.
Was this what the power of connections looked like?
Usually, when different conditions were written into a contract, the sale price came down.
But instead of falling below the minimum 5 billion won value the status window had indicated, the figure had actually come out higher than expected.
From Emily’s family’s point of view, it was an entirely reasonable amount.
They had kept the instrument for more than half a century, but what they had truly wanted was not money; it was for the violin to live again in the right place.
"I think the owners would be able to accept that without much issue."
"That’s a relief."
Hong Seok-man nodded and moved on to the next item.
"As for the loan criteria, we’ll follow our foundation’s internal regulations, but considering the historical significance of Yosef Hassid, we intend to add a separate clause that pays particular attention to the selection of performers. We’d also like to reflect your opinion on that. You saw the instrument closest up, after all."
"Thank you. On that point, the owner’s family has one condition."
Hong Seok-man’s gaze sharpened.
It wasn’t hostile, just focused.
"Please go on."
"They’d like one item specified in the sale contract. They want the violin’s history included in the foundation’s public programs, and they’d like it written in as a condition that whenever a performer takes the stage, the audience is told the story connected to this violin."
"To keep telling the story?"
"Yes. About what kind of life Yosef Hassid, that genius, led. And about how carefully the owner’s grandmother protected this instrument for so many years. They want that story to stay alive onstage through the performer’s voice."
Hong Seok-man fell silent for a moment as if considering it.
Then he nodded.
"We’d actually welcome that condition."
"You would?"
"Hearing a performance while knowing that a story like this is bound up in a single instrument is completely different from hearing it without that knowledge. An audience that has heard this story will listen with far deeper focus and immersion. From the foundation’s perspective, that story is an asset that adds value to the instrument, not a burden."
The practical discussion wound down after a few more adjustments.
In fact, Hong Seok-man’s attitude was so accommodating that it almost felt burdensome.
As he organized the papers, Hong Seok-man continued naturally, "By the way, my daughter Hong Yeon is studying cultural heritage conservation, so she’s become very interested in you through your articles and documentaries, Appraiser Kim. She even asked whether someone like you, who handles artifacts directly in the field, can really do that work..."
Si-woo nodded again with no soul left in it and resumed listening.
Round two of the daughter bragging had begun.
* * *
It was early morning in the UK, so he sent Emily a DM to let her know about the contract.
After sending it, he gripped the steering wheel.
It felt gratifying, as though everything had finally come to an end.
But that was when it happened.
Something slowly rose from the depths of his chest.
It was Yosef Hassid’s emotion.
A tingling spread through his fingertips, and from deep inside his chest came a fierce urge to hold a bow, as though the feeling itself wanted to surge outward through his body.
What on earth...?
This timing was strange for it to be nothing more than a simple emotional resonance.
At the arcade market, it had happened the first time he touched the instrument.
And in front of Emily’s family, it had happened when Hassid’s story was fully conveyed.
And now it had come immediately after Le Chant du Silence had returned to its proper place.
He had guessed that the shared condition was emotion.
It seemed like he had been right.
Maybe it came whenever some long-suppressed feeling was finally released.
Every time the things Hassid had wanted all his life but never managed to achieve were finally unblocked.
Maybe that joy was trying to pour itself out through his body as a conduit.
Even one last time.
The Polish phrase engraved inside the pack box came back to him.
Play it again, and you’ll know.
He was curious, but he forced himself to hold it down for now.
There was nothing he could check right away from inside the car anyway.
The recorded sound of Yosef Hassid’s violin played softly within the car.
How can I use this performance now?
As he headed toward Eterna Gallery, he kept thinking.
After contacting Kim Young-soo, the representative of the Kim Hak-jun Foundation.
He also called Executive Director Jeong Hye-jin.
"Hello, Executive Director. This is Kim Si-woo."
- Oh my, Director. Hello. You must be busy, and yet you called. Have you been well?
"Thanks to you, yes. There’s something I wanted to ask."
- Please, go ahead.
"Among the hospitals our foundation supports, there are some with pediatric cancer wards, right?"
- Yes, there are a few. We provide regular programs for the children there. Is there something on your mind?
Si-woo chose his words for a moment before getting to the point.
"I’d like to go there myself, gather the patients and their families, and play the violin for them. And I’d also like to donate a certain amount to the foundation from my own money, and give gifts to the children."
A brief silence passed over the line.
- ...The violin performance, fine, but... the donation? How much are you thinking?
"At minimum, it’ll be in the hundred-million-won range. I’d like to support them steadily, not just once, but by increasing the amount over time."
- Director, may I ask you something honestly? Why did you suddenly start thinking about this?"
Si-woo thought for a moment.
Yosef Hassid had never been able to fully bloom as a child.
He wanted to help children in similar circumstances, and give them some measure of dream and hope.
Besides, donations helped improve his image and were useful for tax purposes.
Most importantly, just from the Qing dynasty porcelain and the amount he’d received from Nutflix, he was already sitting on more than 120 billion won.
After that, he hadn’t even bothered checking.
Spending a few hundred million wouldn’t even scratch the account.
He didn’t really have anything else to spend money on anyway.
Above all, he wanted to use this chance to understand the question surrounding the status window a little better.
After some deliberation, he told Jeong Hye-jin, "Today I returned an instrument to where it belonged. Its owner had been sick at a young age. I suppose I just wanted to do something for children with similar stories."
- That’s a good cause.
Jeong Hye-jin’s voice softened.
- Then when were you thinking of arranging the performance?
"As soon as possible, if that’s workable."
- Understood. I’ll coordinate with the hospital side first.
* * *
When he arrived at the office in Eterna Gallery, Team Leader Choi Yi-seo greeted him.
"Appraiser Kim Si-woo, you’re finally here. I was waiting because I had something to tell you."
"What is it?"
Si-woo looked at Choi Yi-seo.
He had never seen her so excited before.
"I was sorting through the emails addressed to Appraiser Kim Si-woo."
Not his private email, but the new public one he had set up.
There were so many emails every day, not just business-related ones but all kinds of messages, that he couldn’t go through them one by one.
He’d told Choi Yi-seo about it, and she had agreed to help sort through the public inbox together.
He’d said she didn’t need to, but she’d volunteered first.
That was just how enthusiastic she was.
The matter was simple enough.
An email from someone saying they wanted to show him an artifact their grandfather had brought back during the Korean War.
"But I think this isn’t an ordinary artifact."
"Good. Let’s take a look together first."
As he sat down at the computer and opened the inbox to check, he couldn’t help but be stunned.