I Didn't Buy Anything Like This?

Dojin smiled bitterly at the Director's words.

He had suspected as much, but as expected, she already knew everything.

'It's a good thing I called her first.'

Dojin had no intention of hiding the fact that he was training his juniors.

In fact, he planned to share updates on the children's situation regularly.

If there was one thing the Director was always sensitive about, it was the well-being of the orphanage children.

The fact that she hadn't called him first and had instead waited for his call was proof of how much she trusted and cherished him.

"Their condition was worse than I expected. So, I plan to keep them here for at least a month. After that, I think I'll need to bring them back once every quarter."

Only two days had passed.

But from what Dojin could see, the kids were in a worse state than what Hyemin had described.

Whenever they saw an opening—no, even if there wasn't one, they would create it—they would act weak and play the victim.

The punks were begging the security team members for pity and sympathy.

'I can't find a shred of pride or grit in them.'

The instructors were actually the ones who were flustered.

If they were openly ignored, instead of being motivated, they tried to use it to get special treatment.

They possessed the typical bully mentality of being weak to the strong and strong to the weak.

It was so bad that the instructors were completely taken aback on the very first day of training.

'Right now, though, if they try any of their cheap tricks, we roll them until they're half-dead.'

This was all thanks to Dojin, who couldn't bear to watch his team members get swayed and had shared what he heard from Hyemin.

"Those wet-behind-the-ears punks did those kinds of scumbag things?"

"Ha... I felt sorry for those pieces of trash? Me?"

"These bastards dare to pull their cheap tricks on us?"

Once the team members learned about the various crimes the kids had committed in the nearby downtown area, they were furious.

And that anger was immediately reflected in the training.

"Get up right now, you bastards! Who said you could lie down?"

"You extorted other kids while talking like that? Shut up and face down before I search your pockets and slap you for every grain of sand I find!"

"Every word you say from now on adds another lap around the field. Keep flapping your gums if you want to run until dawn."

Thanks to the training from the angry team members, the kids' cheap tricks vanished.

That was the result today, on the third day of training.

"I'm sure. At first, I thought they were just kids, but seeing them in person is completely different. How should I put it... it feels like they're just a different breed."

Dojin nodded at the Director's words.

It was the same before his regression, but juvenile crime and crimes committed by law-immune minors were just as serious as adult crimes.

It was qualitatively different from Dojin's youth, when the worst they did was steal a chocolate bar from a supermarket or get into fistfights.

Just then, unexpected words came out of the Director's mouth.

"Expand my training method?"

Flustered by the unexpected proposal, Dojin asked back.

What he was doing to the kids was called "training," but in reality, it was just large-scale mental discipline.

He had done it on a whim after hearing Hyemin's story, and he had even prepared himself to get scolded by the Director.

So, he couldn't help but be shocked when she suggested expanding it instead.

Sensing Dojin's reaction, the Director chuckled over the phone.

"Ugh..."

At the Director's words, Dojin let out an involuntary groan.

It wasn't that training the kids was burdensome or unpleasant.

After all, he was only providing the venue; the security team members were the ones doing most of the mental discipline.

In fact, the team members were volunteering to act as instructors.

However, the reason Dojin didn't immediately agree was that he caught a somewhat unsettling word in the Director's speech.

And the Director's next words confirmed that his suspicion was correct.

"...We have more than enough first-aid resources right now."

Perhaps because of their physically demanding profession, the security team members all possessed basic first-aid knowledge.

Since they were fully stocked with most emergency medicines, Dojin judged that there was no need to add anything more.

But once again, Dojin's refusal was ignored.

"..."

In the face of such perfect logic, Dojin's timid rebellion was utterly meaningless.

And the price of his rebellion was devastating.

Support on a scale far larger than expected came rushing in.

Up to this point, it was somewhat within his expectations.

He hadn't anticipated the expansion remodeling and medical equipment, but if he considered it the price of his rebellion, this much was...

Dojin laughed helplessly at the conversation echoing over the phone.

In the past, they at least seemed to consult him, but this time, they were deciding the rent while completely excluding him.

'Is this what they call "punishing with money"?'

Having a conversation with Yeong-jin during the call was a sort of demonstration.

A silent message saying, how dare you refuse when an elder is giving it to you...

It was similar to how a dining table becomes even more lavish when a grandchild, visiting after a long time, says they aren't hungry.

"...Yes. I think that would be best."

The Director smiled with satisfaction at Dojin's final surrender.

Once the issue of the children's mental discipline and support was settled, Dojin brought up another matter.

"Once we harvest the crops tomorrow, I plan to send some to you as well, Director."

"Yes. The farming went much better than I expected. It's a bumper crop, a real bumper crop."

When he first made the vegetable garden, he had no idea the crops would grow this well.

Dojin wasn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a farmer, and rebuilding the garden was half just to reminisce about the old days.

Yet, unexpectedly, his very first harvest turned out to be a massive success.

This was all thanks to Bo-ri and her kittens, Ttorang-i, and Hwindung-i looking after the field every day, but there was no way Dojin could know that.

"I planted a lot of different things, but for tomorrow, I think we can ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only harvest corn, lettuce, and perilla leaves. I'll send them to you via quick courier tomorrow."

"I know. I planted the corn on purpose because I remembered those times too."

The problem was that he had gotten carried away by the mood and planted far too much.

As a result, even including the security team and the kids undergoing mental training, they ended up with an amount they could never consume on their own.

"Please give me the addresses of the other orphanages too. I'll send some there as well."

The Director smiled warmly at Dojin's words.

It was not that she was happy just because she could feed lettuce to the children.

No matter how expensive lettuce had become, it was not to the point where the orphanages she managed could not afford to put it on the table.

She was simply touched by Dojin's thoughtfulness in caring for such details.

'Hohoho, how could I not dote on him when he acts like this?'

She had only ever dealt with children who took her help for granted.

In her entire life, there were only two people who had never demanded anything from her, and one of them was Dojin.

The other was Chief Secretary Jo Yeong-jin.

There was a reason she had kept Yeong-jin by her side for his entire life.

"When am I going to harvest all of this?"

Having finished his phone call with the Director, Dojin looked at the field and sighed.

He had confidently promised to send them, but looking at it now, the sheer volume made him dread the harvest.

"Tsk, I should ask the village chief and borrow some machinery."

Unfortunately, among the equipment Yeong-jin had gifted him, there was no machinery for harvesting corn.

This was only natural.

No matter how thoroughly Yeong-jin had prepared equipment for various scenarios, he could not have anticipated that Dojin would farm corn.

"I should take this opportunity to give some corn to the village chief as well."

Dojin had befriended the village chief when he opened the school playground to the public.

He had heard back then that the chief no longer farmed corn, so it seemed like a good idea to offer some as a token of gratitude for borrowing the equipment.

"Come to think of it, the mushrooms should be ready to eat soon."

After looking around the entire field, Dojin gazed up at his mountain.

Feeling it was a waste to leave the mountain idle, Dojin had been farming there as well.

However, it was a bit different from typical farming; all he had done was scatter logs here and there across the mountain.

It was a mushroom cultivation method called log cultivation, where logs inoculated with mushroom spores were simply placed in suitable spots.

"Let's see, the spores I bought back then were oyster, enoki, and shiitake, right?"

Although oyster and enoki mushrooms were usually grown in sawdust rather than logs, Dojin had found it too bothersome to separate them and just bought logs for all of them.

He had not paid much attention to them after checking on the logs a few times, but looking at the calendar, it was about time to harvest the mushrooms.

"I can harvest them and give some to the Director and the village elders."

The quantity would be plenty.

Since Dojin loved mushrooms, he had bought a massive amount of spores.

However, when Dojin climbed up to check on the mushrooms, he was greeted by an unexpected sight that left him utterly bewildered.

"...What kind of mushrooms are these? I didn't buy anything like this."

Flustered by the sight of mushrooms growing in massive quantities near the logs he had set up, Dojin hastily pulled out his phone.

He intended to identify the mushrooms using an image search.

As he sorted through the search results, Dojin could not help but laugh in disbelief.

"Why on earth are you guys growing here?"

These were mushrooms that had become so commonly cultivated that wild ones were now extremely hard to find.

Among them, wild pine and meshima mushrooms, which were exceptionally rare, were forming massive colonies on Dojin's mountain.