The Matter Between That Man and That Woman
If the Mountain Spirit’s words had carried all the way outside, none of the people in Cha Un-hong’s estate would have slept a wink tonight.
[And you still call yourself a man? So you just stood there and came back after giving her your clothes?]
“Then should I have worn her clothes?”
[Who said to wear them! The other way around!]
Taesu shook his head.
“That’s not it. She probably wanted my clothes.”
There was no such thing as synthetic fiber on Earth yet. Modern people might have trouble telling nylon from silk even if someone tried to sell it to them as the real thing, but in a place like Joseon, where cloth was one of the most important commodities, anyone with an eye for trade—especially a merchant—could tell it was some unfamiliar new material.
It was the same as the plastic attached to Taesu’s hood, or the zipper that could never be made with current metalworking technology.
To a sharp eye, value showed itself even when the nature of a thing did not.
“I told you not to forget me even when we’re far apart. In other words, she’s saying, ‘I’ll keep this expensive thing safe, so don’t run off—come back.’”
Taesu’s analysis was nothing if not rational.
And as reason usually did, it was utterly useless at explaining reality.
[What a load of nonsense. Don’t go rattling off excuses even you don’t believe. You saw the look on that woman’s face when you covered her with your clothes, didn’t you?]
The Mountain Spirit’s jab was brutally accurate, coming from a being that insulted reason simply by existing.
In the end, Taesu had no choice but to say the thing he had been determined not to say.
“Do you think I’m crazy? Doing that right in front of you? I’m absolutely abstaining until I’ve gotten rid of you.”
The Mountain Spirit gave a crooked grin.
[If you speak with the ambition of becoming a great merchant, is there any better method than that?]
Taesu flinched for a moment.
But he did not nod.
“What, so I should just live comfortably as some kept man? No. I hate that. Even if I don’t know anything else, if I did that, my soul would shatter exactly like you said before.”
This time, the Mountain Spirit fell silent.
Will lives within the self, and so it does not bend. If Taesu followed the spirit’s short-sighted solution, from that moment on he would be living not by his own will but by Cha Un-hong’s.
It was not a matter of pride. It meant that his will would have been transferred to another person.
As Jeong Yak-yong had interpreted the Analects, what one does not possess can be taken away at any time.
A weakling who handed his will over to someone else and merely survived each day in passive obedience could never bear the spirit of a god. The Mountain Spirit himself had said as much.
[Hmph. Very well. But that was never meant to say you should accept no help from anyone. No one can live alone.]
“Didn’t you hear what I was just saying to her? I said we’d be business partners. But if we’re going to stay partners, I’m not going to move into her house as some house guest.”
[That and this are different. Tsk, tsk. You people from Seoul—if you’re scared of the capital, you start crawling from Gwacheon first, do you? With that little courage, there’s no way you’ll ever accomplish anything great—]
Taesu let out an animal howl and hurled the axe away.
The last shred of reason in him made him kick the door open first so he wouldn’t smash someone else’s household goods. The axe flew beautifully out into the yard.
After a moment of huffing, Taesu felt something was off.
The Mountain Spirit’s words had been cut off in the middle.
And the Mountain Spirit was not the sort to stop speaking just because Taesu got angry.
Could it be?
Taesu burst out of the servants’ quarters at a run.
At the very least, one of the reasons he had just given seemed as if it might need revising.
* * *
The moment I bent down near the latrine and found the axe, the Mountain Spirit’s panicked voice rang out again.
[Wh-what was that! You threw me! You did, didn’t you! Did I not tell you that if you tossed the axe away so carelessly, I would be unable to recover? Do that again and just see whether your soul comes out unscathed, too!]
That was more than enough to make everything click into place.
In short, this axe was basically a Bluetooth earbud.
The Mountain Spirit existed together with my soul, but without the axe, he couldn’t speak to me or even perceive the outside world.
If he was close enough, like that time I’d thrown the axe at Kim Dae-geon’s subordinate, then there was no issue. But beyond some rough distance—about when the café Wi-Fi starts cutting out—he seemed to drop the connection.
Also, his so-called “recovery” only progressed while I was carrying the axe.
That must have been what the bridge meant. He probably drew in some kind of natural energy with a suction method or something.
That was why the Mountain Spirit hadn’t told me any of this. He needed to recover quickly.
I made a counteroffer.
If you keep cheating me, I’ll throw this axe into a furnace even if it means stripping my soul bare. Let’s rot together in the same pit.
[…….]
Don’t get me wrong. I wanted the Mountain Spirit to get better too. Ideally, he’d recover quickly, achieve enlightenment, and vanish.
But how was I supposed to know how long that would take?
I couldn’t accept that kind of long-term violation of my privacy. It definitely wasn’t because I regretted backing down just now.
In the end, we agreed that I would carry the axe whenever possible, but that when I wanted privacy I would say so in advance and disconnect. Given that some of this mess was my fault to begin with, it was already a generous concession.
I looked back toward the main room where I had been staying.
The Mountain Spirit sighed.
[Regrettable, but what can be done? Very well. Plant the axe here and go back to the main room now.]
Not a chance.
Just imagining it made me look cheap as hell.
Today I’d gained enough valuable information to make it worthwhile anyway. I turned around.
* * *
The maid Gap-yeon, who had been summoned and was sitting in the master’s room, turned her head.
“Miss, didn’t you hear something? It sounded just like a vicious dog barking itself hoarse and throwing a fit.”
“Who knows? Are you saying that because you don’t want to answer? If it’s just some stray that hopped the wall, Chief Gong will deal with it. Answer the question I asked.”
“Oh, dear. It’s not that. Ask me as many times as you like and I’ll give you the same answer.”
Gap-yeon quickly hid her annoyed expression and answered.
“That fellow is big as a house, but he’s clearly not even a proper man. Don’t worry, miss—it’s not because you aren’t beautiful.”
It was the exact same assessment the Mountain Spirit had made. A mortal, enraged by heaven itself.
Cha Un-hong gave Taesu’s clothes a light tap.
“You could say it was because of the crossdressing the first time we met, but now I was sure of myself.”
Gap-yeon straightened up. Then she performed the sort of romance counseling only a maid could provide.
“Why are you in such a hurry? Fine. From the look of him, he’s dignified, solidly built, and probably strong, yes. But how can you choose a man by looks alone?”
“I looked at more than that. I saw him naked at the Imjin Ferry, and on the boat I even touched him. He felt sturdy, which I liked.”
“……I know you prefer that sort of man to a lovely lady, miss, but what sort of adulterous nonsense are you talking now? Are you trying to get yourself a husband you’ll only use at night?”
“You really do have no filter. What if someone hears you?”
“What I mean is! You need to look at a man’s roots and family. Since there’s no elder in this house, you need an even stronger match for your marriage.”
Cha Un-hong wasn’t exactly in a relaxed position either.
As Taesu suspected, she was living a double life.
Cha Un-hong was a brother she had created herself. In Kaesong, she was known as a strategist who had expanded Sampo and the estate many times over while bedridden with illness.
If she were merely going to end as a rich owner of a Sampo trading house, then that would be fine.
But for the grand enterprise she had promised Taesu, her structure was too vulnerable.
In the end, the safest path was marriage.
But no matter how much money she had, there was still a limit to the “rank” of husband a merchant’s daughter like her could choose.
“What good would it do to go to some failed scholar, or some idle bastard of a half-breed yangban, or a faded remnant of the ruling class? He’d gamble and whore it all away and be on the street in three years. If his roots are that rotten, he’s better off not existing at all.”
If she married Taesu, Cha Un-hong would not have to go to a husband’s household.
There was no husband’s household to go to. A considerable portion of his assets consisted of ginseng fields that couldn’t exactly be hauled off with him, which made it rather convenient.
Besides, Taesu, who had no one attached to him, was the perfect partner for pushing secret plans forward.
Most of all, wasn’t Taesu the only one who saw the same destination she did and sympathized with her true goal? A person with proper “roots” would never do what he did.
And Taesu also had, in his own way, the same reason ordinary people cared about “roots” in the first place.
“And the fact that he left right away earlier means he’s unusually proper for a merchant. That sort of bearing isn’t shameful even beside a scholar’s. And when he came in—honestly, our house is rather grand, isn’t it? Yet he didn’t spare a glance for the painted beams or stone lanterns. Nor for the valuable orchids and celadon in the room.”
“He didn’t spare a glance at you either.”
“Do you want a beating? In any case, it means he isn’t the sort to go wild.”
In truth, it wasn’t that Taesu was frugal. It was the opposite. Even if you sent a Joseon person back to the primitive age and showed him the most lavish chief’s hut, he would not necessarily be amazed.
Gap-yeon let out a sigh.
“From what I’m hearing, your illness seems to be quite advanced, miss, so this humble servant has no further advice to give. Do as you please. Should I prepare to cross over to the servants’ quarters right now? Shall I carry a blue paper lantern and lead the way?”
Gap-yeon had thought Cha Un-hong would not be surprised if she stood up, but thankfully she did not go quite that far.
Her eyes glittered like a cat’s.
“You’re not wrong. If I get too anxious, what will people think of me? As the modern scholar Yeonam said, ‘If you wish to make someone pleased, first show your anger; if you wish to grow close to someone, first fix your attention on your heart and keep your bearing shy’ [If you wish to show delight, anger and make it clear; if you wish to become intimate, pay attention like a fixed stake, and turn your body back as though ashamed, Horse Trading].”
Gap-yeon wondered when on earth she had ever said something like that. While she was still puzzling over it, Cha Un-hong had already flicked Taesu’s hooded jacket over her shoulder like a long outer robe.
“In any case, giving me clothes like this means he doesn’t intend to leave completely. I’ll hold back and see what else he can do. I’ll even make him write me a love letter.”
“You can’t even read, though. The first time I saw you, you were struggling because you couldn’t even read the sign board.”
“Shut up. That was because he’d been running around learning Western things since he was young, wasn’t it? He’s clever, so he’ll pick it up quickly once he studies.”
Because of Kim Dae-geon’s example, Cha Un-hong was assessing Taesu along similar lines.
It didn’t even have to be deliberate intervention like Kim Dae-geon’s. There were plenty of people who had gone abroad by accident and returned after learning foreign customs there.
A representative case was Mun Sun-deuk, who had drifted for years and eventually became able to interpret Ryukyuan and the Ilocano language of the Philippines. Using those skills, he earned diplomatic merit and was granted the rank of Gaseon Daebu despite being nothing more than a fisherman by birth. Even now, Mun Sun-deuk was still alive.
And Mun Sun-deuk also could not read. Taesu had clearly been too busy learning other knowledge to find the time to study Chinese characters.
Cha Un-hong nodded to herself.
And Gap-yeon thought that if they wanted to straighten out that broken gaze of hers, the only answer was to slam her against the harsh reality.
“You said you were going to start trading on your own from tomorrow, right? But this is your first time, and you’re not even from Kaesong. What if you go belly-up and crawl home looking like a beggar?”
“Probably not.”
Gap-yeon, who had been bracing herself for a scolding or even a beating, was slightly taken aback.
That was the tone the mistress always used at the turning points of her many wagers—the same tone she used whenever the family, which had nearly gone under after her parents died, had to be pulled back from the brink.
Whenever Cha Un-hong wore this sort of confidence, she had never once failed.
Toying with the zipper, Cha Un-hong pulled it all the way up. She had only seen it once when Taesu took off the jacket, but she had an excellent eye.
“I couldn’t hear exactly what kind of business it was, but… I can guess. Unusual people do unusual things, so his measure will show itself soon enough. Don’t you go running your mouth.”
Gap-yeon didn’t tease her mistress any further.
“Yes, miss.”
* * *
After leaving Cha Un-hong’s house at dawn, I strolled slowly through Kaesong.
I hadn’t noticed yesterday, but the area near the place where the inner-city South Gate had stood seemed to be where the market was held. People were gradually gathering. Was today market day?
[It’s not a five-day market; it’s held every day. There are many people here whose families have been merchants for generations. Yesterday you probably arrived too late in the evening to see it.]
So there were more full-time merchants than farmers or woodcutters who only came down now and then to sell leftovers from their side work.
No wonder this was a commercial city.
That made things even better.
There would be more customers.
Come to think of it, I didn’t know much at all about Joseon goods.
Check the quality of salted seafood, secure a good potter, look into tobacco fields being sold wholesale?
No matter how I thought about it, all I could see was the ending of a twenty-year-old who’d just gotten into college and was looking for a studio apartment: getting fleeced like an idiot.
Even after reincarnating, the problem was that I’d been trapped in Joseon by a spirit from here. There was no stock market, no Bitcoin—nothing at all for a reincarnated man to exploit.
That was when the idea finally came to me.
Why not make money with money?
In other words, usury. Put grandly, you could call it banking. That was the “business” I’d been thinking of.
Luckily, most of my starting capital was precious metal anyway, so it fit perfectly. With this, I’d introduce capitalism to Joseon—
[You mean something like Si-byeon, the short-term credit lending peculiar to Kaesong’s merchant community? That’s only for big merchants who’ve lived in Songdo for generations and have unquestioned credit, like Cha Un-hong. No matter how much gold and silver you have, what reason would the Huandong Guild have to let in some drifter as a borrower?]
—I suppose that’s difficult. Fine. I’ll go with something a little more old-fashioned.
“So in that case, small merchants probably can’t borrow either. People who need money even if they’re just passing through. There seem to be plenty of permanent stalls here.”
Let’s start with predatory lending aimed at Kaesong’s small business owners. That wouldn’t be so different from Korea.
[So seokli, loan-sharking, is it? Meaning: lend eight doe after deducting interest from a sack of rice, then demand two sacks in the fall? Or force ten nyang on a market stall owner and then snatch twelve nyang back the next market day? And if they can’t pay, sell off the wife and children as slaves? Ah, well… that does sound exactly like the sort of thing you’d do.]
No, I hadn’t meant to go quite that far in making it like Korea.
There was down payment interest on daily loans, embezzlement scams, and even renunciation-of-body pledges? Why was Joseon finance so developed?
But if I were going to live off other people’s blood and tears, I could have driven a foreign car in Korea too. Not exactly something to brag about, but the Mountain Spirit had mentioned a few places that were inviting me over.
What I wanted was a healthy lending business.
To that end, I decided to take a slow look around the market first. It wasn’t like Ganghwado, where there had been a specific mission waiting for me, so I had time to spare.
There were noodles and yakgwa being sold too. Maybe I should sample the goods and, for the places that seemed promising, propose expansion and loan promotions…
Just then, something struck my waist and shot past me.
The next moment, a child was rolling on the muddy market ground, screaming at the top of his lungs.
“Aaaaaagh! What the hell do you carry in your pouch, you bastard!”
What else? The axe, of course.
I couldn’t exactly walk around a crowded market with an axe at my side. Valuables naturally went in the backpack. It was far too awkward to stuff money into a belt pouch or sleeve like Joseon people did.
[A kkakdaegi. Children who survive in the market by crime or begging. Just beat him senseless and toss him out.]
Kick the bleeding kid out with my own hands? What a barbaric place. Forget it.
If he was a pickpocket, there was something I wanted to ask him.
I approached the young child, who looked to be no more than twelve or thirteen even by Joseon standards.