Chapter 35
**CHAPTER: EGG AND GROWTH (1)**
North of the Forbidden City.
At the narrow pass leading into the great prairie, the imperial tombs of the Ming emperors and their consorts lay scattered.
After the Yongle Emperor moved the capital to Beijing, this was where they were built.
Years later they became known as the Ming Tombs, thirteen imperial mausoleums in all.
A decent-sized estate stood a fair distance east of them.
It looked as though it had been built beside a lake with the sort of elegance that only high officials would choose for their retreat.
The outlying pasturelands were peaceful, cattle, horses, and sheep grazing lazily.
Inside the main house a quiet, watchful atmosphere hung in the air.
Heo Jun held his breath and carefully pierced a tiny hole in the eggshell with a needle.
His hand trembled slightly, but not as badly as the first time.
“Huuu…!”
Heo Jun exhaled, muttering to himself.
“This makes the eighty-ninth one…”
Finding a freshly laid egg, dipping it in vinegar water to sterilize and dry it, then locating the air sac—the yolk sac—and puncturing the shell was never easy.
After so many failures he had finally mastered the trick, yet mistakes still happened far too often.
Once the task was finished, Heo Jun muttered under his breath.
“The air sac must not be damaged and the shell must not be soiled.”
Heo Jun recalled the king’s words, dipped the needle into the pus squeezed from a cow’s udder, and carefully inserted it through the hole.
Then he sealed the opening with wax.
He examined the finished egg, placed it gently on a damp cloth, and slid it into a round container.
“This much moisture should be fine… and insulation is important, too.”
The container was made of three thick cowhides layered with wax, so warmth would not be a problem.
After a full day’s work he managed to fit fifty eggs into ten containers, five each.
Finally he tucked the containers into a sturdy box made of thick sheep’s wool and locked it tight.
“All done?”
Hawonggun, watching from a little distance away, asked.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Huuu…”
Hawonggun let out a long breath and gave a nervous laugh.
“I’m more nervous than you are. Now, how are you feeling?”
“Getting better.”
Heo Jun held out his arm, which still bore a large scab but no longer the ugly red rash of before.
“Then you won’t catch smallpox anymore?”
“If what Your Highness said and what I think is true, then yes.”
“Then I’ll take it too.”
Hawonggun swallowed hard, clearly anxious, and held out his arm.
“Are you certain?”
“Absolutely… yes, I’m certain.”
Heo Jun looked at the trembling man and asked again.
“Truly? It will hurt quite a lot for ten days.”
“A man who can endure pain should be able to stand this much.”
Heo Jun let out a disbelieving snort.
“Then here it comes. But Your Majesty, His Highness warned that scars might remain, so you should have it placed on a shoulder where it won’t show.”
“Hmm? Why did you place it on the wrist, then?”
“I wanted to see how the process went.”
“Oh, I see. Then I—”
Hawonggun froze, hand still outstretched, and eyed him suspiciously.
“Are you really certain?”
“I can’t promise that.”
“What am I supposed to do if you say that?”
“Forgive me, Your Majesty.”
“Bah! It says life is in the hands of heaven, so hurry up and finish it!”
“Yes, Your Majesty. My own life hangs in the balance as well—please live.”
“Why would you say something so frightening?”
“I was going to say it hurts… I mean—”
Heo Jun turned, picked up a larger cloth, and dabbed the remaining pus onto the wound.
Hawonggun winced and said, “The pain is still there, even after it’s over. That’s too cruel.”
“When did I ever say that?”
“Just now!”
“Let me see the shoulder.”
“Oh, come on! Hurry up and do it!”
Heo Jun knew Hawonggun was a drama queen.
He had once screamed that death was coming after a simple finger prick, demanded medicine the moment a drop of snot appeared, and once fled when he saw a cow with pus all over it.
So Heo Jun joked with him often to relax the tension.
And every time Hawonggun grumbled, “We’re of different classes, you know.”
Yet he never minded.They had lived together long enough for affection to grow, and Heo Jun knew it was done out of genuine care, so he treated the prince without ceremony.
“Aah!”
Heo Jun snatched Hawonggun’s wrist as he tried to climb onto his shoulder.
“I warned you—no rubbing and no bathing.”
“I know! I know!”
Hawonggun looked like a scolded child, eyes brimming with tears.
The pain was like fire ripping through the flesh.
Heo Jun wrapped the wound in clean cloth and asked, “After all this, are you really taking it back?”
“Of course. I brought so many cows, horses, and sheep.”
“Very well. We’ll leave in two weeks, so rest well at the Joseon estate.”
“Aren’t you coming too?”
“I have work to do here.”
“That’s true. Then I’ll stay here.”
“But Your Majesty, you can’t possibly live in a place like this…”
“What do you mean you can’t? There are ruins everywhere along the road.”
“That’s because we have to move, isn’t it?”
“Still, I’ll stay near you.”
“Are you worried?”
“No.”
Hawonggun shook his head, turned, and left.
Heo Jun smiled to himself.He knew that if left alone, something might happen, and Hawonggun had come along to keep watch.
“Then go and rest.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Don’t go too far.”
“I won’t, Your Majesty.”
Heo Jun watched Hawonggun climb the stairs and fell into thought.
*
He had searched west for the diseased cow but could not find it.Finally, after asking around, he learned the group had turned north and was heading in that direction again.So he pursued them once more.After five days of wandering, he finally caught up with them.
At the entrance to the Taihang Mountains, the gateway to the great prairie.
The Oirats startled and pulled out their spears and swords.
It was understandable—the imperial escort was approaching, and the sun was already setting, leaving only silence.
Heo Jun grew impatient and stepped forward.He requested a polite audience with their leader and was granted one.
“What business brings you to us?”
“I came looking for a cow that was sick.”
“Are you mocking us? We were driven out because we could no longer sell healthy cattle because of that one sick animal.”
“That is not what I mean. I need it desperately, so please show me the cow.”
“You may look, but only if it is truly that one.”
“Yes, it is.”
The leader, seeing his armed guards, obediently produced the cow.
By now night had fallen; a single torch was lit and the animal examined closely.
It was her! The pus visible on the udder confirmed it was the same diseased cow he had traveled so far to find.
Heo Jun knelt and kowtowed.
“Thank you. Thank you. Truly, thank you.”
But something strange happened.
The leader, moved by his actions, said, “The night is deepening. Would it be all right if we spent the night here and left tomorrow?”
Heo Jun hesitated but agreed.
The stars were thick in the sky and the Milky Way was flowing; it was too late to travel.
Instead he asked the guard captain to arrange lodging and food.
“Since it seems suspicious, you must neither eat nor drink anything I give you.”
“Of course. I know that trusting nomads is the shortest path to the afterlife.”
The captain, a third-rank general, treated Heo Jun with the utmost respect because he knew the king and His Royal Highness favored the physician.
But the danger he feared never came.
“So you are one of the Oirat tribes, specifically the Choid people?”
“That is correct, my lord.”
“My lord? I am merely a physician who serves the army of Joseon.”
“That is why I called you my lord.”
“Do as you please. But how did you reach this place?”
“I came seeking refuge, but the cursed cow drove us out.”
After the Tumu Crisis, when the Ming emperor Yingzong was captured, Esen Taishi was assassinated by his own men and the Oirats scattered in chaos.
With internal rivalries as well, they could no longer resist the Mongol pressure and now barely scraped by while watching each other’s backs.
That was why the chief of the Choid people, Togus, had come to Ming China to pledge loyalty for survival.
But things did not go as planned.
After years of hostility they had finally become friendly enough to trade again, yet the sick cow drove them away once more.
“Then how about coming to our Joseon?”
“If you will accept us, I will swear my loyalty completely, my lord!”
The chief kowtowed deeply, and Heo Jun hurriedly waved him up.
“There is no need for such formality. First I must obtain the emperor’s permission, so we shall travel together at dawn.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
*
After making his decision, Heo Jun left the borrowed estate.
“How did Your Highness know?”
Heo Jun was feeding a plump chicken and a huge pig when he blinked in surprise.
* * *
Yi Yeon left Gyeongbokgung with Kim Yang-bo and Shin Rip.
Under the protection of the Royal Guard led by Commander Namgung Chim, the group headed toward what was called “Sinterm”—Shinchon.
The name meant “new village,” the very place King Haryun had once advocated during the founding of Joseon as the ideal site for the capital.
But now it was little more than a mulberry field where silkworms were raised for the royal cloth workshop, hence its other name, the West Silkworm House.
Yi Yeon had decided to build the Education Bureau and Science Bureau there.
The two bureaus had been established together with the newly created Trade Bureau this time.
Students from Seonggyun-gwan, which stood east of the palace, were to be transferred there as well.
First they would be taught so they could be put to work immediately.
“It is much easier to teach if everyone is gathered in one place.”
If transportation had been as developed as in the twenty-first century, it would not have mattered, but it was not.
Traveling from Seonggyun-gwan to Shinchon alone took more than half a day.
“Even if we tear it down later, this will be more effective now.”
Therefore all education-related institutions were to be built in Shinchon.
Suddenly a group of riders appeared, and the laborers working the site abandoned their tools and gathered.
Namgung Chim, the commander of the Royal Guard, shouted loudly.
“Hey you lot! The Sovereign and Her Majesty are here—why are you not prostrating yourselves!”
The startled workers dropped to the ground and cried out, “Long live! Long live! Long live!”
In truth he wanted to shout “Ten thousand years!”
Because the current king had opened the path to a prosperous life.
Yi Yeon had ordered all beggars in Hanyang to be gathered and sent to the construction site at Shinchon.
“If we do not chase them away they will keep spreading rumors.”
He had wondered why rumors spread faster in Hanyang than in the modern era, but it turned out the beggars themselves were the source.
Still, they could not be arrested and punished because that was their only means of survival.
“Spreading lies for a few coins has always been an old tradition.”
After thinking it over, Yi Yeon decided to put them to work at the construction site.
But it was not easy.
Beggars would be beggars, after all.
So every day he gave them one boiled egg and one boiled chicken every ten days.
Slowly the beggars began trickling in one by one, eyeing him with suspicion.
Yet he really did give them the boiled eggs and chicken.
The rumor spread faster than light, and despite the mocking of the royal court the beggars rushed to Shinchon all the same.
“Rejecting a negotiation is simply because the conditions are not satisfactory.”
In his previous life Yi Yeon had never seen anyone refuse money.
“They just refused, that’s all.”
Once he had finished thinking, Yi Yeon rode among the workers who had left the beggars.
“Your Highness.”
Ki Dae-seung, Sim Ui-gyeom, and Yi I knelt and bowed.
Yi Yeon dismounted and walked over to them.
“There are harmful germs in the soil that can cause illness, so from now on you must not do that.”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
As always, they answered only and remained silent.
Yi Yeon shook his head and said, “Rise.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
He surveyed the gently sloping ground he liked and nodded.
“Good!”
* * *