The Island Village Shaman Dad Is a Chaebol's Illegitimate Child... 47
“H-how...”
The producer couldn’t keep from trembling. It would have been astonishing enough to have predicted the downfall of the villainous team leader, but then...
“Wipe it off.”
Kwon Gae-hui handed a handkerchief to her younger cousin, who was sweating coldly, her face bright with satisfaction. It was the kind of proud expression that made Lee Kang-to’s fan club founder feel her efforts had all been worthwhile.
“See? I told you, didn’t I?”
Kwon Gae-hui went in for the kill at once.
“Looks like it. PD Cha was poisoned, and he pointed the finger at the team leader as the cause, so...”
-That’s a resignation letter for sure.
-If it’s bad enough, he could be arrested.
Even the producer could see that future coming.
“No, seriously, how much did he get on your case for this to happen...? You’re all right, though?”
“Well, probably...”
“So you do have an idea.”
“PD Cha was assigned to a flagship show not long ago. It was a position junior producers like us normally couldn’t even dream of.”
“You’re doing well too, aren’t you?”
“I’d already been put on another popular program right before that...”
“Then why would someone that successful...”
“At that personnel appointment, I think there was some friction among the higher-ups. A producer backed by the team leader, and a producer backed by the bureau chief...”
“Is PD Cha on the bureau chief’s side?”
“No. PD Cha doesn’t belong to any side. He’s the lone-wolf type.”
“Then...?”
“The team leader probably misunderstood because the producer he was backing got pushed out.”
“So he got caught in the crossfire?”
“Yeah. Lately the team leader’s been summoning him in all the time... Even the other day, after work, the two of them were having a glass of wine together when the team leader called him in. At the time, I thought he was going to get praised, but... Ah, PD Cha...”
The reporter pressed a hand to his forehead. Human relations, differences in work style, one-sided orders, and a complete lack of communication—plus the endless tug-of-war and resentment that came with the gulf between those who held power and those who didn’t.
Only someone who had lived through it could understand the stress that came from that. And because you had to see one another every day, there was no escaping it.
That was why, more often than not, managing people was harder than managing the work itself.
“So he called him in just to put him in his place?”
“That’s what it sounds like after hearing PD Cha’s mother talk about it. She said that after he took over the program, he was subjected to every kind of slander, personal attack, and outright contempt. Come to think of it... maybe that’s why the seniors have been giving him such a hard time lately too...”
“Ugh, now I’m mad too. They’re still packed into positions of power, those rotten bastards, bullying people around like this...”
“Beopsa-nim.”
The reporter’s eyes shifted to Kang-to.
“PD Cha won’t be in serious trouble, will he?”
“You don’t need to worry.”
Sensing what the reporter was really asking, Kang-to drew a firm line.
“Really?”
“It was a pretty harsh rite of passage, but in the end it’ll turn out to be a blessing in disguise. I think, going forward, you and the reporter will end up carrying the network’s programs together.”
“Whew.”
The reporter let out a breath of relief.
“In that case... once this blows over, would it be all right if I submitted a proposal for a documentary about your shamanic work, Beopsa-nim?”
“Well...”
“That’s difficult?”
“It’s not that. Since you’re Chairman Kwon’s younger brother, I’ll tell you—I’m currently preparing a verification documentary with a foreign broadcaster.”
“Foreign?”
The reporter and Kwon Gae-hui reacted at the same time.
“It’s a place with tremendous credibility, but I can’t reveal it yet. Still, if you wait until that comes out before submitting your proposal, your intentions might be undervalued, so go ahead and put it in. After that, once my documentary is released, I’d like you to cover what I’m planning then.”
“Beopsa-nim...”
“This is something that requires confidentiality, so even Chairman Kwon doesn’t know. Please understand.”
“No. If it’s something good for you, of course you should do it that way. All I can hope is that everything goes well.”
Kwon Gae-hui couldn’t hide how pleased she was.
“Then I’ll leave things there for now and come back another time. I should probably go check on PD Cha at the hospital anyway.”
Kwon Ha-eun rose from her seat.
Fate.
Within that one word lived tens of thousands, even millions, of networks. They were created and dissolved according to each person’s destiny and efforts. The connection between Kwon Gae-hui and PD Kwon Ha-eun, which had come about through Gae-hui, was one such thread.
May everyone find peace.
After offering blessings for the well-being of those who had come to receive his oracle, he took the next visitor.
But then...
“Sang-gyu?”
Kang-to’s eyes flew wide. It was his close friend, Sang-gyu.
“What brings you here? Weren’t the renovations supposed to start next week?”
Kang-to asked. It was the interior work for the house his great-uncle and his wife had bought.
“Right. But the project in Daejeon wrapped up early, so I called my great-uncle, and he said I could start tomorrow instead...”
“Oh?”
“And this is Sol-bi’s school bag. Sol-bi’s starting school this year, right?”
Sang-gyu set down the school bag. Sol-bi really was on a bag-winning streak today.
“But...”
Kang-to’s gaze moved to the person beside him. He was about Sang-gyu’s age, but unfamiliar.
“Oh, my old high school classmate.”
Sang-gyu introduced him.
“We’ve been working together lately. But there’s something kind of strange...”
“What is it?”
“Well... this guy’s a bit of a horndog. A real one.”
“A horndog?”
“This.”
Sang-gyu held up his little finger.
“At first I thought, well, he’s single, so maybe that’s just how it is. But it’s too much. Even while working, if a woman walks by, he stares, and when he gets home he thinks about women, then goes to clubs. Before long he’s wasting money, wrecking his body... and not long ago he even got some kind of... you know, illness.”
“......”
“He couldn’t keep himself in check, so he went to the public health center and even tried counseling, but they said it didn’t help.”
“Is that so?”
“Hey, the rest of it, you tell him yourself. You heard what the passengers were saying on the ferry earlier, right? Our Kang-to Beopsa-nim is the real deal.”
Sang-gyu stuck out his thumb so hard it looked ready to snap.
“It’s...”
Just as the classmate scratched the back of his neck, Sang-gyu stepped aside to make room for him.
“......”
But even then, the classmate couldn’t bring himself to speak easily. Kang-to handed him a bowl of rice.
“Take a handful and scatter it on the tray.”
Swish.
As the classmate scattered the rice,
SEX
The word that hit the bull’s-eye appeared. Seeing it, the classmate’s face turned red like a wild rose.
“If it’s awkward to tell me, you can tell our office manager instead.”
“No. I’ll say it.”
The classmate drew a breath and steadied himself.
“The old ladies on the ferry were talking about rice divination, and honestly, it’s uncanny.”
“You can try again if you want.”
“No. I’ll explain.”
The classmate began telling his story.
“It’s exactly as that word says. The moment I open my eyes, I think about women. Masturbation is bad too—way too much. Even coming in on the ferry, I saw a woman in leggings and, well, things stood up right away... I bit my lip raw trying to hold it in. I’m trying to restrain myself too, but the moment I see a woman, all my strength goes there and I start imagining releasing...”
“Wait.”
Kang-to slipped into resonance. When his body spirit answered, he aimed his spiritual sight at Sang-gyu’s classmate.
Health Luck ▮▮▯▯▯
Wealth Luck ▮▮▯▯▯
Family Luck ▮▮▯▯▯
Career Luck ▮▮▯▯▯
People Luck ▮▮▮▮▯
“......?”
After finishing the reading, Kang-to fell into thought.
His early years had been decent. Then, all of a sudden, everything had tilted. Looking at his family luck, the decline began after his mother died. It wasn’t because some ancestral ghost had latched onto him.
It wasn’t dongti either. So why had he been dragged into such a whirlpool of sudden collapse?
“The year your mother passed away,” Kang-to said. “Did you happen to buy or bring home anything unusual? For example, an antique, or some old piece of décor?”
“No.”
“Then did you attend a funeral around that time?”
“Not that I...”
“Really?”
He focused once more. Results without cause didn’t exist. Besides, there was no such thing as an acute sex sickness.
A lecherous spirit, perhaps.
In shamanic terms, it could be a sakseong spirit or a pleasure ghost. If something like that had attached itself to him, it could make him obsessed with sex. The resemblance was there. But it was too vague, too shapeless. If a sakseong spirit or pleasure ghost were clinging to him, there was no way Kang-to wouldn’t be able to see it.
Then was it what people called the Baekdungso lineage? The sort who think of women the moment they open their eyes and can’t help but seek union?
No.
That didn’t fit either. If that were the case, it would have shown up in childhood. But this man’s lecherous awakening had come long after he was grown.
He’d reached a dead end.
Was this something even Kang-to couldn’t solve?
It was possible. Even a sovereign heavenly deity couldn’t provide a remedy for every worry and misfortune a client brought him.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t help you.” That was Kang-to’s conclusion. It wasn’t a malignant star or a cursed affliction, and it wasn’t because a lustful spirit had attached itself to him.
“It’s all right. I guess I’ll just have to hold it in,” Sang-gyu’s classmate said, getting to his feet.
That was when it happened.
Hmm?
As the classmate turned around, Kang-to’s eyes caught something in his right back pocket. The response from the spirit of desire, which had only been a faint feeling until then, grew noticeably stronger there.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“Do you happen to have something in your back pocket?”
“My wallet? Ah, I showed it when I boarded earlier and left it in my jacket.”
“Could you show me that for a second?”
“Why the wallet...?”
“I see something a little strange.”
Sang-gyu’s classmate brought over his wallet. The moment Kang-to saw it, his expression brightened. It was a slightly thick luxury bifold. The culprit was that wallet.
“Where did you get this?”
“My mother gave it to me as a keepsake before she passed away. She told me to carry it with me at all times...”
“It looks like the cause is inside here.”
“Inside the wallet? There was nothing in there...”
“Take a closer look.”
Kang-to handed it back. As the man opened the wallet layer by layer, he found a thin strip of paper tucked secretly into the lowest slot where cards went. It was a talisman.
“What is this doing here?”
“It’s a sexual talisman.
“A sexual talisman? What’s that?”
“A charm that makes a person obsessed with lust.”
“What?”
The classmate’s eyes went round. Kang-to’s did too, a little. This talisman was no ordinary thing.
Vermilion cinnabar and dragonbone powder, the blood of a white horse and a rooster, and a horse’s tail hair...
Even the materials were impeccable. The finest talismans are drawn stroke by stroke, with another stroke after three days of prayer... and each one must be filled with spiritual power to complete it.
He could even feel the subtle mystery of the heavenly stems. Not a single gap had been left unfilled, every inch of blank space sealed with power. It had clearly been begun on a Gyeongsin-il.
Stroke by stroke, the talisman held the aura of a deity’s efficacy. It was the kind of talisman that, by mere sight alone, could make the image of a naked woman drift at the edges of one’s vision.
“Why is this here?”
Only when Sang-gyu’s classmate spoke did Kang-to manage to pull himself back together. If Kang-to had been shaken to this extent, there was no need to ask how bad it would be for an ordinary man like him.
“Your mother must have taken it because she was worried about leaving her child behind, but it looks like she was deceived, or received the wrong thing.”
“Then that temple lady...”
“Do you have some idea who it might have been?”
“The bodhisattva at Hyoryun Hermitage in Gapsan, the one my mother used to visit a lot. She’d come by all the time, saying that if I wanted to get rid of my misfortunes I needed an ancestral rite, and she kept taking money from us.”
Hyoryun Hermitage?
Kang-to’s instincts stirred. It was a misapplication, but the talisman itself held incredible power. That was why carrying it on one’s person could make someone fall captive to a pleasure ghost.
Who was it?
Who could have used a talisman with such mysterious effectiveness? He was curious. To produce something at this level, enormous spiritual skill was required.
And the discipline needed to reach that level was no small matter either. Someone like that would not scatter talismans around carelessly. If they used such a thing for this kind of wicked purpose, it would be hard to escape the body spirit’s divine punishment.
“Do you happen to know the bodhisattva’s name?”
“I heard it was Yeonhwa.”
“Let me make one quick call.”
He dialed Lady Gyeongsin’s number.
“Hyoryun Hermitage? I know it. Why?”
His aunt’s response was almost cheerful.
“The thing is, there’s this talisman from her...”
He explained the situation.
“Good heavens, looks like there’s another victim there too.”
His aunt clicked her tongue.
He heard the full story from her. At Hyoryun Hermitage in Gapsan lived Hyoryun Seonsa, the last great master of talismans, descended from Grand Master Wongjang, who had once been called the god of talismans in the late Joseon period.
Quite a few people came to seek him out. Since he was old and had trouble getting around, he had taken in a bodhisattva to run errands for him.
Then one day that bodhisattva stole all of Hyoryun Seonsa’s talismans and ran off, having fallen for a swindler posing as a baksu shaman. She had taken those talismans and traveled all over the country, selling them at high prices. In the end she was reported, and now she was in prison.
“Ah...”
After hearing the explanation, the classmate nodded in understanding. Now he knew how the whole thing had happened.
“As for this talisman, if you burn it, the pleasure ghost will disappear. But I’d like to study it, so could you give it to me instead of a fee?”
“I don’t mind.”
“Then you can go. From now on, the thing where you sprang to life every time you saw a woman won’t happen anymore.”
“Then... maybe...”
The classmate looked at Kang-to’s face for clues. Because of the pleasure ghost, he had lived thinking only of sex. Now he was free of that. But a contradictory worry rose in him.
He wanted to ask whether he’d be cut off from sex forever and end up living like some monk with an X over the door.
“You’re wondering if you’ll be stuck forever with no sex at all, right?”
“Yes...”
“Of course not. You’re just going back to being a normal man.”
“Ah...”
The classmate left the shrine with a bright face.
The moment he came down from the lighthouse, he launched into an experiment.
By chance, the woman in leggings he’d seen on the ferry was there. It was different now. Different from the time when even the mere sight of her had stirred his lust. Even after forcing down his guilt and sneaking glances at her a few more times, it was still the same.
“Wow.”
Sang-gyu’s classmate let out a cheer.
“What? Looking at your face, it seems like it worked?”
Sang-gyu asked.
“One hundred percent. Shut up and admit it.”
He gave two enthusiastic thumbs-up at once.
“......”
Even then, Kang-to was still studying the sexual talisman. Just as he was growing curious about this Hyoryun Seonsa, his phone rang.
Perhaps because he had given such a clean and satisfying oracle, a familiar voice came through at once.
“This is Harris, the team leader from BBC Monorama. Our team is departing for Korea today. We’ll take care of the remains excavation and all the necessary documentary production procedures in Seoul, then see you on the island.”
---