Don’t Worry! I’ll Make Sure You Win! (2)
After a long age of hardship, peace finally came to Mount Hua.
Thanks to Chung Myung’s efforts, the financial troubles that had tormented Mount Hua for so long were finally solved, and they had even secured new martial arts to carry them into the future.
Like spring following winter, vitality had returned to Mount Hua like the season’s first green shoots, and the sect should have been alive with everyone’s happy laughter—
—but that was only how it should have been.
"Peace my ass."
Chung Myung’s face twisted in utter misery.
His grip tightened, and the broom in his hand bent as if it might snap.
Peace?
This place was a complete disaster.
"Huh? The bill? T-this is… wait a second. Jo Gul-sahyung! Jo Gul-sahyung! How much is this?"
"Hey! I told you to restock those shelves!"
"Isn’t everything ultimately a matter of the Dao? Lack of materials, too, is only natural. Huh? A refund? Yes. Um…"
The third-generation disciples of Mount Hua, dressed in pure white robes, were drenched in cold sweat as they struggled to deal with the flood of customers coming at them from every direction.
They’re trying. Really trying.
As for where they were, this was Hwayum.
Finding the ledgers and taking back every one of Hwayum’s businesses had been fine. They had inherited more than ten properly functioning enterprises, so all that was left was to make money, right?
That was the beginning of every problem.
Even Chung Myung hadn’t anticipated this, but these bastards had spent nearly a hundred years without ever properly running a business. In other words, a bunch of complete beginners who had never earned even a single coin with their own hands were suddenly being forced to manage more than ten establishments.
And the result?
As you could see.
"No! How long ago did we say the ingredients were gone? Why aren’t they coming in?"
"What the hell is the Finance Pavilion even doing?"
"What the hell is that idiot doing with the customers? Hey! Hey, you jerk!"
Chung Myung smiled in satisfaction.
Good. Good, keep at it.
The disciples of Mount Hua, who had spent their entire lives doing nothing but swinging swords, were now down in Hwayum sweating buckets while trying to deal with customers.
If the old sages of Mount Hua could see this, they would have scolded them with grave severity… no, they would have laughed so hard they rolled on the floor.
Especially since Chung Myung was one of those disciples, too.
And, of course, the customers’ reactions were no better.
"What the hell is with this tea? It’s bitter as hell!"
"I said leaf tea, leaf tea! Do you not even know what that means? Is this leaf tea?"
"What kind of place just dumps tea leaves into the pot and serves it? Where the hell is the owner?"
I’m alive, and I’m seeing every layer of hell there is.
Chung Myung sighed with obvious delight as he watched the whole miserable spectacle.
"Oh, the tragedy."
Honestly, this place was one of the better ones.
The third-generation disciples dragged off to the other businesses were currently experiencing the inferno of Avici. No—more likely it was the people who had to run the shops with them who were the ones in hell.
One idiot sold silk and then tore the silk to shreds.
Another was told to bring a hoe and came back with a pickaxe.
Still, the one who kept eating the meat meant for a customer’s table while cooking had at least a shred of logic to him. Of course, he still deserved to be beaten half to death.
The third-generation disciples who were only handling customer service could at least solve their problems with brute effort, but the first-generation disciples were on the verge of having their heads explode.
The people who had spent their entire lives cultivating the Dao were now so caught up in the storms of the mundane world that they weren’t merely losing their composure—they looked ready to throw even the cups in their hands.
"You, idiot! What are you doing? Hurry up and sweep!"
"Gghhh… yes! I’m sweeping! I’m sweeping!"
The broom in Chung Myung’s hand darted back and forth as he swept the space before the tea shop.
And what good is sweeping this? Half the customers are turning around and leaving in disgust anyway.
Chung Myung spotted customers stomping out through the door. Looking at the sour, offended expressions on their faces made him want to rush over and yell, Beat those bastards up!
Of course, given the actual hierarchy, he was only the sect’s youngest, so he couldn’t possibly say something like that.
After roughly pushing the dust in front of him aside, Chung Myung quietly slipped toward the back. Jo Gul, frantic from carrying trays of refreshments, caught his eye.
"Sahyung."
No response.
"Sahyeeeng."
Still nothing.
"Hey. Hey, you. Hey!"
Deaf as a post.
"Jo Gul, you bastard!"
"Yes! Third-generation disciple Jo Gul… huh, what now?"
Jo Gul glared at Chung Myung, his eyes practically bulging out of his head. No matter how much of a disciple he wasn’t like a disciple, he was still a disciple, damn it. How was a sahyung supposed to endure this when some brat was barking insults at him?
"What?"
Well, here he was.
Jo Gul glanced around, then slipped out of the shop and approached Chung Myung.
"Sahyung."
"I’m asking why."
"Come on, let’s talk like human beings. You’re supposedly the youngest son of some famous merchant house, right? The youngest son of the Continental Trading Guild, or something like that?"
"The Continental Trading Guild my ass. It was just a small merchant family."
"Still, you should at least have an eye for how these things work. That’s how it goes, right? The youngest son from a prosperous household is basically a spoiled brat, but secretly he’s hiding incredible talent."
"…What the hell are you talking about?"
Jo Gul let out a long sigh.
Honestly, whenever he talked to this bastard, he could never understand a word he was saying.
"So…"
Chung Myung jerked his chin toward the chaotic scene before them.
"Why the hell did this disaster happen?"
"Well…"
Jo Gul sighed again.
"You know the people who used to be in charge here?"
"Yeah."
"Turns out they had some pretty good connections. When those people quit, a lot of the workers quit with them."
"Huh? Connections?"
Connections? From those swindlers? What was that, some corrupt official donating to a beggar’s den?
"Connections? What kind of nonsense is that, sahyung?"
"To be more accurate, it wasn’t exactly connections so much as a total obsession with family, school ties, and hometown ties. Most of the workers were relatives or family, and once things got awkward, they all started leaving one by one."
Hah.
So this was the rot of family management. This was why you needed professional managers… no, wait, that wasn’t it.
"So the problem is the staff?"
"That’s the first problem."
"Hm? There’s more?"
Jo Gul narrowed his eyes slightly and glanced around. Once he made sure no one was listening, he lowered his voice.
"As you can see, the biggest problem is that the elders of Mount Hua don’t have the ability to run these businesses."
"You need ability for that too?"
"People who cultivate the Dao, or people who live by martial arts, tend to think making a living is easy, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. If it were, everybody would be rich."
"Fair enough."
Chung Myung let out a long sigh.
"So right now, Mount Hua doesn’t have the ability to handle these businesses?"
"That’s a little harsh, but yes. It’s like putting pearls on a pig’s neck. I never thought it would be this bad…"
Then, from inside, a loud voice rang out.
"No! I told you we were short on puer tea, so what the hell are we supposed to do with Tieguanyin?"
"Isn’t it basically the same thing?"
"I said puer tea, didn’t I? Sahyung! I already have enough headaches as it is—what are we supposed to do if the stock changes too?"
"Why are you yelling? Like I’ve ever handled expensive tea like this in my life—how am I supposed to know?"
"And who the hell has ever drunk this stuff?"
Chung Myung shook his head.
These are people supposedly cultivating the Dao.
They were fighting over a damn tea leaf and throwing tantrums like this.
"See?"
Jo Gul clicked his tongue.
"Running a business isn’t simple. Every ingredient, every item has to be chosen and bought carefully. If you pick subpar materials, the numbers don’t add up, but if you use cheap stuff, the customers disappear. And if you can’t do it yourself and hire someone to run it for you, those bastards will just skim everything off the top and leave you with nothing."
"…And what about learning it from here on out?"
"If you were told to teach martial arts to a bunch of forty-year-old uncles, would you do it?"
"No."
Jo Gul shook his head hard.
"Honestly, from what I can see, if things keep going this way, every one of these places will be ruined within six months. I don’t know what Mount Hua was like before, but right now it doesn’t have the capacity to run any of this. There’s no answer."
"But wouldn’t it be fine if they just learned properly?"
Jo Gul stared at Chung Myung with a hollow look in his eyes.
"Chung Myung. Look carefully. Do you know what the common feature of all the businesses we’ve taken over is?"
"How should I know?"
"They all buy and sell goods."
"…Huh?"
"Tea houses. Taverns. Silk shops. Blacksmiths. Every single one of them is a place that either buys materials and makes something out of them or sells the goods as they are. Do you know what the common feature of this kind of business is?"
"If I knew that, I’d be rich."
"It means almost everything depends on how well you choose and procure the goods. But tell me, if some naive Taoist who knows nothing about the world comes in with money and tries to buy stock, what do you think the other side will do?"
"They’ll take him for a sucker."
"And if they only took him for a sucker, that’d be one thing. They’d probably try to strip him down to the bone."
"…."
"This is done for. It was never going to work from the start."
Chung Myung turned his head and looked up at the distant sky.
Then he smiled faintly.
Senior Brother.
Only now do I understand how great you were. When you were here, these businesses ran like clockwork.
Damn it all. If you’re going to suffer, you might as well die!
Chung Myung snorted.
"Then what’s the solution?"
Jo Gul stared at him blankly.
"Why are you asking me for a solution?"
"No, I’m saying if you’re the son of a merchant family, there should be a solution, shouldn’t there?"
"You crazy bastard! If you asked the first person who ever dug up a medicinal herb to cure an incurable disease, what the hell do you think they’d say? If I had that kind of talent, do you think I’d be swinging a sword around at Mount Hua? I’d have inherited the family business and be swimming in money by now. Even my father couldn’t save this mess."
"…Is it really that bad?"
"There’s no answer."
Jo Gul wore a bitter smile.
"You think I didn’t try calling my family? But they’re too far away, and our house doesn’t have the spare capacity for it. To run businesses this large without problems, you’d need a merchant with knowledge of nearly every kind of goods. Mount Hua doesn’t have anyone like that."
There used to be someone.
Chung Mun.
But not now.
Jo Gul smiled ruefully and said,
"If only Huang Dae-in were healthy, we wouldn’t have to worry about any of this."
"Huang Dae-in?"
"Yeah. Huang Dae-in."
Chung Myung tilted his head.
"Come to think of it, that Huang Dae-in person keeps getting mentioned. What kind of person is he?"
"A merchant."
"A merchant?"
Jo Gul nodded.
"He’s one of the major merchants based in Shaanxi. He deals in goods from Qinghai, as well as Yunnan and even the Western Regions."
"Then what does he have to do with Mount Hua?"
"He’s supported Mount Hua for a long time. It’s a pretty famous story, actually. Thanks to him, Mount Hua was able to avoid total collapse."
"…What exactly did he see in Mount Hua?"
"Who knows? I can’t say for sure, but…"
Jo Gul shrugged.
"I heard he supported not just Mount Hua but all sorts of other places too. Anyway, if he were here, we wouldn’t have this problem. We could have gotten a lot of advice and help."
"Then why not ask that old man for help?"
"We can’t. Huang Dae-in has been bedridden for a year now. There are even rumors that he’s unconscious."
"Hmm."
"So…"
Just then—
"Chung Myung! Are you there, Chung Myung!"
At the voice calling for him, Chung Myung raised his head.
"I’m here!"
Familiar features came into view.