Striking It Big (3)
Death hadn’t closed its doors after all!
When word came that the price of peonies had suddenly soared, even the Scholar in Blue, Gong Sang-pil, found himself thinking as much.
“Young Master! This must be... the result of our ancestors’ blessing. We should sell them off at once!”
Gong Sang-pil urged haste in disposing of the peonies.
The reason even his usually careful, unflappable household aides were agitated enough to have their headcloths askew was simple.
“Peonies curing a plague? Nonsense. It must be a baseless rumor spreading through this chaos.”
“Exactly!”
“We should sell while the price is multiplying by the hour!”
The other senior retainers nodded in unison.
Only one person among them disagreed.
“No. We wait a little longer.”
Seok Geum-ryong’s voice was calm and final.
“Why?”
“Because if the rumor is true, there’s a chance the price keeps rising.”
“...!”
Gong Sang-pil was startled by the sharpness of Seok Geum-ryong’s words, and by the clarity of judgment he displayed despite his young age.
“That is certainly possible, but...”
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Let’s wait a little and see whether the rumor is true.”
“And if it isn’t, we’ll suffer a tremendous loss.”
To that, Seok Geum-ryong answered with a level of maturity far beyond his years.
“Any investment carries the risk of loss. If I were afraid of that, I wouldn’t have gone on the road with the merchant caravan in the first place.”
“...!”
Those words struck a deep chord with Gong Sang-pil and the other retainers whose minds were steeped in trade.
Until now, Seok Geum-ryong had devoted himself so single-mindedly to martial training that they had begun to think his extraordinary talent lay entirely in martial ability.
But no.
If he had foreseen all of this and acted accordingly... if he had even anticipated the peonies themselves, then he possessed astonishing commercial instinct as well!
They could not help admiring him inwardly.
Of course, if the rumor that peonies cured disease turned out to be false, the flowers would crash back to worthless scrap, but even then Seok Geum-ryong’s boldness and nerve would linger in many minds.
“We wait and see,” Seok Geum-ryong said.
And so, for a full shichen, more heavily and more slowly than any of them would have liked, time passed.
Then at last!
Bang!
The gates of Seok Geum-ryong’s estate flew open, and unbelievably, the senior figures of the main Seokga Manor house appeared before him, the men under Lord Seok Ji-sung approaching in a cluster.
“We asked the place that supplies the crops, and they said Seok Geum-ryong Young Master bought up every single peony... is that true?”
“The main house would like to buy them back, at ten times the price, no, a hundred times the price.”
Seok Geum-ryong had kept every word he had spoken and every promise he had made.
He had said that if they let him invest ten pieces of gold, he would multiply it tenfold.
No, to be precise, he had exceeded even that.
He had returned with a hundredfold increase, not ten.
“Hiiiii!”
“A hundred times?”
At that staggering result, those who had doubted Seok Geum-ryong’s judgment were shaken, and even the Scholar in Blue, Gong Sang-pil, felt dizzy at the immense profit and pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Seok Geum-ryong Young Master’s side still doesn’t have a proper merchant house, nor any distribution network. It would be better to let the main house handle the sale.”
If they supplied the peonies to the main Seokga Manor house, they might make a proper mark on the senior house’s leadership and, in time, build a powerful network of connections.
“Very well. But I’ll handle half a cart’s worth out of the three carts of peonies myself.”
Seok Geum-ryong’s genius did not stop at buying; it remained different even when it came to selling.
He was saying that he would not sell all of it, but only a portion himself?
“Ha ha! You want to try selling them yourself?”
“Well, selling directly to high officials and wealthy magnates could be quite lucrative too.”
The main house retainers found his words reasonable enough and were just about to praise him while leaving that quantity behind when Seok Geum-ryong’s view proved somewhat different.
“A true magnate is not someone buried in profit margins and revenue. 商 means to weigh and to consider. One must begin by considering the lowest and most burdened people, and win praise from the surrounding area.”
The reason he asked for a portion of the peonies was not to squeeze out more profit.
“The price of peonies is soaring, and most of the supply will go to the rich and powerful. I intend to give to those who cannot reach them.”
That was it.
Seok Geum-ryong had decided to care first for the common people who would suffer the most from the plague and be least able to do anything about it.
He acted that way because, in his previous life, he had tasted the despair of having a beloved only son fall ill while being unable to do a single thing for him.
Even if I cannot change the great current of the plague itself... I can at least save some of the poor souls who would die because of it.
That had been his resolve from the moment he bought the peonies, giving up even his meals to do so.
The best solution had been to stop the plague, but he had no idea where or how it had spread.
Since he knew the remedy, he intended to distribute it free of charge to the poor.
Oh, ohhh!
Gasps of admiration burst from all around at a heart so warm, and a vision so sharp, that did not suit an ordinary boy in the least.
“If being a true merchant means impoverishing the people around you, or wringing blood from them just to make a profit, then I’d rather not be a merchant at all. I’d rather be someone who saves people.”
With those words, Seok Geum-ryong had several cauldrons of medicinal broth prepared in advance and, together with Deung Chon and Gong Sang-pil, headed for the poor quarter of Hebei Province.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
After returning from his trading run with the Geumhwa Merchant Group, the young porter Jang Sam was on the verge of tears.
“Father! Mother! Geum-ah!”
Unlike him, who was relatively unharmed, his parents and even his one little sister had fallen ill from the plague and been laid low.
Worse still, as soon as the plague broke out, Jang Sam had been dismissed by the Geumhwa Merchant Group because of his lowly rank.
“Hngh... sob...”
Unable to do anything, Jang Sam despaired and wept.
At times like this, the fact that he alone was unharmed felt like a curse.
He almost wished they were all sick together. Then he would not have to feel so guilty.
That was when it happened.
“We’re handing out medicine for the plague here! Anyone, everyone, come here!”
Something impossible was happening in the poor quarter.
At first he thought it was nonsense or a scam, but no.
Listening closely, he heard a voice he knew.
“Y-Young Master Seok Geum-ryong?!”
To his astonishment, the one personally brewing steaming hot medicinal broth, sweating buckets as he handed it out tirelessly, was none other than Seok Geum-ryong of Seokga Manor.
“Oh? You’re that porter, aren’t you?”
Seok Geum-ryong recognized Jang Sam in return.
People might forget their enemies, but they must never forget their benefactors.
And Seok Geum-ryong had never forgotten Jang Sam’s humble, warm-hearted kindness, the way he had helped him when he was hungry on that one occasion.
“Young Master, how...?”
“By happenstance, I suppose. First, are there any family members who’ve caught the plague?”
“Ah!”
At Seok Geum-ryong’s words, Jang Sam remembered his family and ran off in a panic, while Seok Geum-ryong followed after, having prepared peonies in advance and then added medicinal herbs bought with the enormous profit earned by selling them at the main house into the broth before distributing it all.
Gulp.
One by one, he and his subordinates gave the antidote to the bedridden family members.
“Young Master... t-thank you. How am I supposed to repay this kindness...?”
Jang Sam was so overwhelmed with gratitude that he could not even lift his head.
“The kindness has already been repaid. Didn’t you show me kindness first?” Seok Geum-ryong said.
Though it had only been a modest meal, in truth it was not something just anyone would have done.
The youngest porter had broken the rules and secretly brought him food, defying the words of merchants who were high and fearsome as mountain peaks. That, too, was kindness and courage.
“With that meal, everything was already repaid. So now there is nothing left between us to settle.”
“Y-Young Master!”
Jang Sam’s eyes filled with tears.
Watching the scene warmly, the servant Deung Chon said, “My good man, if you ever find yourself without work, come to Seok Geum-ryong Young Master’s estate at Seokga Manor. That’s fine, isn’t it, Young Master?”
“Of course. We’re going to be short-handed before long.”
For once, servant and master were in perfect harmony.
“I can trust this young porter. He has a splendid heart, doesn’t he? I can’t afford to miss talent like that, so if your parents and little sister recover, bring them all to our estate and live there if you wish.”
“Thank you!”
At that kindness, the tears Jang Sam had been holding back only poured out harder.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Even after Seok Geum-ryong’s group had saved Jang Sam’s family, the distribution of antidotes continued for a long time.
What was strange was that as time passed, the line of people volunteering grew longer and longer.
The reason was simple: the poor villagers who had received Seok Geum-ryong’s kindness were so grateful that they would not leave his side, and instead volunteered to take on menial tasks to help him.
“Easy now! Form a line!”
Jang Sam was among those volunteering.
He desperately wanted to tend to his sick parents and little sister, but as the first one to receive kindness, he simply could not bear to stand by and do nothing.
Of course, there were also shameless people.
Now and then there were those whose very faces made one doubt human nature, people with the hearts of beasts in human skin, but whenever Seok Geum-ryong grew irritated by them, he reminded himself:
The reason that person became so vile is not because of his original nature, but because he was born into a miserable, crushingly poor home and had no choice but to become this way.
He believed that it was circumstance, not humanity, that had darkened them.
There was no single right answer, and Seok Geum-ryong believed in the power of kindness.
And while he was volunteering for several days like that, something amusing happened too.
“Heh-heh-heh, Young Master Seok Geum-ryong. So you’ve been hiding in a place like this.”
To his surprise, Geum Do-song of the Geumhwa Merchant Group and several of its merchants had come to the poor quarter.
“Oh? What brings you here?”
“What brings us here? Well, it’s winter, and the poor quarter has it rough too, so we come often to share what we can.”
Geum Do-song spoke words that were empty at the core, but beside Seok Geum-ryong stood Jang Sam, who had been hired by Seok Geum-ryong after being cut loose by the Geumhwa Merchant Group.
“That’s a lie. The Geumhwa Merchant Group has never once come here to share anything.”
“Hrm! Hrm-hm-hm!”
At that blunt remark, Geum Do-song’s face turned red, and he coughed needlessly and furiously.
“What’s with the coughing? Have you caught the plague?”
“No, that’s not it.”
Looking at Seok Geum-ryong, who was still as difficult to face as ever, Geum Do-song felt cornered. He wondered whether it really had to come to this, but with peony prices now harder to come by than stars in the sky, he kept his posture as low as possible and wore a slippery smile.
“Th-then... might we purchase some of the peonies that Young Master Seok Geum-ryong bought in such quantity? At the time, I’m sorry I failed to recognize your brilliant insight.”
Geum Do-song and the others from the Geumhwa Merchant Group had once mocked and sneered when the peonies were being bought. Now, with the fire at their heels, they were crawling on the ground.