Chapter 20
Translator: uly
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: The Black-Haired Barbarian of Hubei Province - 2
What makes a story compelling?
Back in my university days, I used to make a living by tutoring.
Even after pouring out all my tips and tricks to boost my students' scores in Korean, English, and Math, I'd often get let go right after the exams were over.
Why would they fire me after I raised their grades? Early on, this was always a mystery, so I eventually asked one of the student's mothers point-blank. I helped improve their score, so why are you stopping the lessons?
'My child says it's boring. They complain they're tired because you only focus on studying. I'm sorry, even though you did raise their score.'
That's when I realized that while the parents paid the bills, it was the students who evaluated my tutoring.
After that, I focused not just on their grades, but also on their main interests. Using their hobbies as examples in lessons or telling fun stories during breaks made the students incredibly happy. Thanks to that, I was able to support myself through tutoring until I went into the military.
In the end, a compelling story is one that aligns with the listener's interests.
It's the same now. When you're surrounded by a bunch of older guys like this, it's best to bring up stories that match their interests.
"What kind of interesting story could a barbarian brat possibly know..."
"Don't barbarians have any shame?"
"Who does he think he is, stepping forward like that?"
When I offered to tell a story, the reactions weren't exactly positive. Grumbling from the uncles around me could be heard here and there.
"Everyone, quiet down."
At a single word from the foreman, the room fell silent.
"You said your name was Kang Yun-ho, right? Come up here in front of me."
At his gesture, I carefully squeezed past the uncles and sat down in front of the foreman. The moment I sat, the foreman couldn't hold back and spoke up immediately.
"The title was 'Winning the Lottery After a Divorce,' you said? Quite an unusual name."
"Yes. To be precise, it's 'My Wife Ran Off and I Won the Lottery,' but in Joseon, it's also called 'Winning the Lottery After a Divorce.'"
In this world, divorce wasn't just the end of a marital relationship; it was treated as a man failing to keep hold of a woman, so a different title was needed.
"Winning the Lottery After a Divorce?"
"What's a lottery?"
"You country bumpkin. Don't you know what a lottery is? You know, the thing with the tube and the sticks you draw."
"Ah! The thing where you buy sticks and put them in, and all the money goes to one person?"
Lotteries actually existed in the real Joseon era. Of course, they existed in this world too. Not on a nationwide scale like in modern times, but they were run in groups ranging from dozens to hundreds or even thousands of people.
"Just hearing the title sounds like it might be interesting. Everyone, gather round in a circle. Let's hear what this boy has to say."
The foreman stroked his beard, showing interest, and gestured to the uncles. Right. Since we're doing this, it's better to make sure everyone can hear well.
"If everyone would please sit in a circle, I'll tell you a wonderfully entertaining story."
It's important to catch the foreman's eye, but it's also important to be liked by the uncles you work with.
We're going to be working together for ten days. It's better to become the amazing Nguyen brother who's a pro at moonwalking on the construction site than to keep being treated like a barbarian.
"Why bother making us sit in a circle?"
"Hey! The foreman said to do it, who are you to object?"
"He said it's a story from a foreign land, let's just listen."
The uncles muttered among themselves and quickly began to sit in a circle.
I stepped into the center of the circle and scanned the people. Fatigue, distrust, expectation. Their faces were a mix of various expressions.
This is exactly like a talent show time.
Suddenly, the awkward talent show time from my freshman year came to mind.
Hyung, I don't have any talents. You're a freshman, you still have to do something. I have nothing to do. Just go up there. No, I said I won't go. Hello. My name is Kang Yun-ho, a freshman. I'll sing a song.
Ugh. The chilling reaction from back then suddenly surfaces.
I need to do well so I don't kill the mood.
Divorce story.
There are several clichés where a husband is betrayed by his wife, gets divorced, and then succeeds. But this isn't a serialized novel, it's just a late-night story, so it needs to be short.
I'll extract just the essence and perform it.
Let's compress the main characters down to just three.
I took a small breath and began my performance.
"Honey! I've been working outside for a week and I come home to this? What's going on with the house?"
Our protagonist. The kind and sincere husband. To convey from his voice that he's a genuinely good person, even though he's angry, I spoke in a slightly high-pitched tone. Then I twisted my body to the left to start playing the wife.
"What's wrong with how the house looks? I was out having a bit of fun, that's all. Just hand over the money. Ugh. Is this all you managed to earn?"
The wicked wife. I started with lines that make the listener think, 'How can a woman be so rude?'
"Hey! The way she talks reminds me of my ex-wife."
"Your wife ran off, didn't she?"
"That's why. Ex!! My!! Wife!!"
"Be quiet for a moment! Please!"
Starting from the very beginning, maybe the acting was decent, as the uncles began to react.
"Honey. You've been going out a lot lately. Last time I passed by the market, I saw you walking with some man. Who was that?"
The tone of an anxious husband. I made an expression of suspecting but not wanting to suspect.
"Huh? That's just an oppa I met outside. He's been helping me with some work lately."
"What work? I'm the one bringing in the money."
"There's all sorts of things. What? Are you being pathetic and suspecting me right now?"
The wicked wife speaks with an attitude of blaming the victim. The anxious husband. It's a situation anyone could infer what's happening.
"What bastard is fooling around with that guy's wife?"
Immediately, a comment flew out from somewhere.
I plant the seed of suspicion in the audience and move the story forward.
The husband working hard at the manual labor site.
Even when scolded by the crew leader, he only thinks of his wife at home and works. During breaks, he shows his foolishly devoted side by bragging about his wife. He strains his back and his coworkers tell him to rest, but he goes out to work anyway to earn money.
"......"
Suddenly, the surroundings grew quiet. It's precisely their own situation right now. I had set up a situation they could fully immerse themselves in.
Now it's time to move to the main scene.
I picked up a small pillow, the kind provided for the uncles to sleep on in the lodging, in my right hand.
"Work ended unusually early today. I should enjoy some delicious beef with my wife."
As if the pillow in my right hand was a lump of meat prepared for his wife, I pretended to walk cheerfully.
"Honey, I'm home! Were you sleeping? Huh? Why are there four feet under the blanket?"
The protagonist returns home smiling, imagining eating delicious meat with his wife. As he enters the room, his expression hardens and he drops the meat.
"Son of a bitch."
"You know. That feeling. That fucking bitch!!"
"Has he actually experienced that? Why does he look like someone who's been through it?"
Looks like someone here has real experience. Sorry if I triggered your PTSD.
And so, the wife's infidelity is discovered.
"You can't even earn money properly, what gives you the right to act high and mighty? Have you ever given me a ring as a gift like that man? And you're a rabbit in bed to boot."
The wife speaks with her chin slightly raised, blaming the victim.
"You! You! You! Fucking bitch!"
"Hey, where does that woman live?"
The uncles' immersion is very good.
And so, the wife runs off with another man, and the husband falls into despair.
"Oppa. Why are you living like this?"
Then, a 12-year-younger girl, a childhood friend the protagonist used to look after, appears. With a confident expression and voice, she announces the arrival of a new character.
After briefly acting out cleaning the protagonist's messy house, I handed over something imaginary.
"It's a lottery ticket. I bought one for you, oppa. If you just stay cooped up inside, you'll get sick, so go out and at least watch people."
At the younger girl's urging, the protagonist goes to the place where they draw lottery tickets from the tube.
"And! The first prize is a whopping 1,000 gold coins!!"
Since a family of four's monthly living expenses are 1 gold. That's enough money to live on for a lifetime just by using that. As the amount of money is revealed, the uncles' eyes grow wide.
This is exactly why you have to state the numbers. When I said a thousand gold coins, the uncles' heads jerked forward.
"My number is 54, but the whole town seems to have gathered. How could this possibly win?"
With my left hand, I acted out the protagonist looking at the number written on a wooden slip, and with my empty right hand, I acted out the person drawing the number.
"The long-awaited first prize winner is... Number 54!!"
"No way! I won?!"
The protagonist receives a full 1,000 gold coins. He tries to give the money to the younger girl, but she refuses, saying it's repayment for looking after her when she was young.
"Wow. Isn't she much more wifely material than the one who ran away?"
"Her heart is like a fairy's."
The man tries to give the girl money, and after some back-and-forth, they finally confirm their love for each other and get married.
Now, I induced the uncles' vicarious satisfaction with numerous flex scenes. The protagonist buys silk clothes for his wife to wear, buys an expensive horse to ride around on. He even spends a lot of money to eat ginseng and boosts his stamina.
Perhaps the uncles felt the vicarious satisfaction, as they had satisfied expressions at the ending. But ending it here would be too bland.
There will be a brief sweet potato drop now.
"Honey. I'm back."
The ex-wife appears.
"You! Why is that fucking bitch here!"
"Barbarian! Why is that woman appearing!"
"No, if she ran away, she shouldn't appear! Why is she coming back!!"
Here too, it's the same—people have a fit when the ex-wife reappears. But ignoring the reactions, I continued the story.
"Honey. That man took all the money you saved and ran off with a young woman. I was deceived. Honey, won't you take me back?"
I acted out kneeling on the floor, begging the husband. At the same time, I subtly glanced at the uncles' faces.
Hmm... If he forgives her, I'll be drawn and quartered.
"Honey. You must have suffered so much all this time..."
I stood up again, twisted my body, and spoke to the imaginary wife in the air with a benevolent tone.
"You! You! Idiot bastard! Don't tell me!"
"Hey!! Cut it out!!"
Uncles, it's not over yet.
Mr. Ju over there. Don't get ready to throw your pillow. Mr. Jang, why are you clenching your fist? Mr. Hwang, why is your face turning red?
I need to develop the story quickly.
"But, I have no intention of taking you back. Keep suffering forever. Haha!"
You have to add a twist to the dialogue too.
"Oppa! Let's eat the ginseng quickly and have an intimate night. What's that? Who's this old woman? Ma'am, go beg somewhere else."
"Right. Right. It's cold, let's go inside."
I struck a pose as if holding the new wife's waist, turned my body, and acted out returning home. Then I immediately took a step back and knelt down.
"Honey! Honey!!"
The wife screams. The wife is eventually driven out, and the husband lives happily ever after with his young wife.
I wrapped up the ending neatly. The uncles seemed to have enjoyed it too, as they all wore pleased smiles and satisfied expressions.
How was it?
Battalion Commander. I mean, Foreman. You'll give me a reward, right?
Come to think of it, I haven't checked the foreman's reaction. When I looked at the foreman, he was staring at me with his mouth slightly agape.
"You, there."
The foreman spoke in a surprised voice.
"Were you perhaps a storyteller?"
"Huh?"
"Using multiple voices and expressing yourself with skilled gestures to tell a story. Isn't that something only famous storytellers in the marketplace can do?"
So that's what he meant.
He's talking about a storyteller.
A 'maedamja' seemed to refer to a person who stands among people, entertainingly narrates contents from books or famous folktales, and receives money.
In modern terms, it's like a personal streamer.
"No. In Joseon, when teaching children, if they couldn't concentrate, I would tell them stories, so I just became accustomed to acting like this."
Me? I tutored in university! I was a study room teacher, an academy instructor! I did it all! Of course, this is the first time I've done it while kneeling like this.
"You were a teacher! My goodness! I failed to recognize a distinguished person from another land."
"I merely assisted at a village school in Joseon that taught children."
The principal was a separate person! Why is he like this.
Still, there was no need to completely dispel the misunderstanding, so I simply feigned modesty.
"No wonder I thought you were too young. Anyway, since you taught children, I suppose what you just did is the educational method of Joseon schools?"
No. Not really. What academy would teach you to win the lottery after a divorce?
"He was a teacher?"
"No wonder, for a barbarian seen on a labor site, his face did look a bit like a scholar's."
"He's not a storyteller? I've seen a lot of storytellers, but he seems much better than them?"
"Right. The things storytellers say aren't very interesting, but what he just did was so fun."
When I said I was a former teacher, murmuring suddenly started around me.
"Anyway, impressive. Is that a Joseon story? It was truly entertaining."
Clap clap clap.
The foreman clapped, as if impressed by my story.
"Barbarian!! It was much more fun than I thought!!"
"After work ends, I should try that lottery thing too!!"
"Listening to it made me think of my wife, I almost wanted to trade her in!"
If you get along well with your wife, there's no need to do that. The uncles all clapped together too.
The foreman liking it probably isn't forced praise, right? It's a bit embarrassing. Still, it was a successful performance, so I was satisfied.
"Thank you. I'll return to my spot now."
He'll give the reward on his own, I'm sure.
"Wait a moment."
As I was about to return to my original corner, the foreman called me to a stop.
"Yes?"
"I've never seen a storyteller who can speak like you. It's late now, so sleep tonight, but every night, could you perhaps tell us some stories like that?"
I said I'm not a storyteller.
"Ah, about that..."
That's a bit bothersome. I turned my head to the side and made a troubled expression.
"You don't want to?"
"Since I mainly do material transport, I get tired after work. I told one story because you seemed bored, Foreman, but doing it every day seems difficult."
Why should I keep doing free volunteer work at night?
You know, if a favor keeps happening, people think you're a pushover.
Absolutely not doing it! Why would I do that bothersome thing!
"Hmm, I see."
The foreman stroked his beard and made a thoughtful expression for a moment. Then, unexpectedly, these words came out of his mouth.
"The story just now was fun, so I'll make a proposal. Starting tomorrow, stop doing material transport and work as my assistant. The work will be very easy. I'll also put in a word to raise your wages. In return, keep telling us stories like that every night. What do you say?"
Sure, I'll give it a try.
TL/NOTE : guys i will go for like 10 chps daily cuz im kinda busy these days and y can ask me anything on discord server.
enjoy!