Chapter 30. The Birth of a Flower Boy -
Chapter 30. The Birth of a Flower Boy -
After the internal power completed one hundred rotations through the Ren Channel and the Du Channel, the internal power gathered in Cheolmin’s lower dantian became incomparably more solid than before.
The size was similar, but it had been compressed and underwent a qualitative change.
I hesitated, wondering if I should try adding more internal power, but decided it would be better to let him stabilize for today and held back.
If the internal power increased further, would he reach realms like Hwagyung, Hyungyung, or Sinhwagyung and become some kind of immortal?
What did they call a master who had their Ren and Du channels connected?
A peak master? Hwagyung?
I don’t know.
It differs slightly by book. Feels like authors just slap labels on however they want.
Once the internal power stabilized, Cheolmin slowly opened his eyes, then immediately frowned and covered his nose.
“Master… what is this?”
Then he saw the damp clumps of filth piled inside his luxury pants and panicked.
“While completing the divine art, the turbid impurities you’ve accumulated were discharged. I took care of the upper body and burned it, but you’ll have to wash the lower body yourself.”
“Ah… rebirth-through-transformation!”
Cheolmin hyung seemed to know wuxia well—he understood immediately, went into the bathroom, stripped off the luxury sweatpants, and started showering.
Feels like he’ll throw those soiled pants away. What a waste.
If he’s going to toss them, I kind of want to ask for them—but that could lead to a weird misunderstanding, so I restrained myself.
“Then rest and stabilize a bit. I’ll check you once more in the afternoon.”
“Master, let’s have lunch! It’s noon—how about hot seolleongtang?”
“Seolleongtang sounds good. I’ll wait at the counter, so come out when you’re ready.”
When I left Room 105 while talking to Cheolmin hyung mid-shower, Bella from Room 102 was standing in the hallway, pinching her nose.
“Shit smell! What is it—today’s the day they pump the septic tank?”
She even knows the word “septic tank”…
Bella’s Korean is always shocking.
“Really? What’s that smell?”
Since it was my day off, I didn’t need to use honorifics with her. I tilted my head, pinched my nose, and said it casually.
“Ugh… disgusting. What is this smell? It kills my appetite! It’s coming from Cheolmin’s room. It’s harsher than shit!”
Bella chattered and followed behind me, then naturally snatched the instant mix coffee I’d made and brought it to her mouth.
I made another cup of mix coffee for myself and waited in the office for Cheolmin hyung to come out.
Just then, the door to Room 104 opened and Lauren came out.
“Hi! Chan. Hi, Bella!”
Red-haired Lauren always looked cheerful.
After nearly dying from being buried alive a few days ago, you’d expect trauma, but maybe she was just optimistic—she had no visible scars.
Is that what they call “power E”?
“Hi, Lauren!”
Chanhyeok hyung greeted her with a practiced smile, but she ignored him, walked into the office, and made herself a cup of mix coffee.
“But what is this smell? Did someone launch a biochemical attack or something?”
At Chanhyeok hyung’s words, Lauren flinched.
“Looks like they’re pumping the septic tank somewhere. Don’t open the front door. The smell will come in!”
I said it like that and played dumb.
“Chan! When are you going to keep your promise? If you’re not going to, give me my money back!”
Bella kept pressing me like a debt collector whenever she saw me.
But today, she didn’t bother me.
And I didn’t need to grovel with empty flattery to manage her mood.
“Even ugly Bella won’t be staying ugly for much longer.”
The rebirth-through-transformation result that just happened in Room 105 made me stand tall again after all the humiliating flattery.
“Money?”
“Bella is ugly?”
Lauren and Chanhyeok hyung, clueless, asked with wide eyes, and Bella answered.
“Chan took my money and swallowed it! He said he’ll make me prettier! Chan is a scammer!”
“What are you talking about? Chan, why would you scam Bella’s money?”
Hearing Bella throw around words like “ugly” and “scam” at her, Chanhyeok hyung shouted.
I pretended not to hear and drank my coffee, but my ears stung.
At that moment, the door to Room 105 opened, and I heard Choi Cheolmin walking down the hallway.
Then something strange happened.
As Cheolmin passed through the corridor, crossed in front of the counter, and entered the office, his face was literally glowing.
I wondered if natural luminescence from a human face was even possible.
His features were always sharp and handsome, but right now Cheolmin had gone beyond “national heartthrob” into world-class territory.
It was definitely Choi Cheolmin’s face—just brutally upgraded.
“Uh… Cheolmin. You got prettier?”
Even Bella was shocked, and Lauren’s mouth fell open.
“Who’s calling me a scammer, Bella? Wait. If you reach a certain level, you’ll get pretty like Cheolmin hyung too!”
I felt smug.
“This is the ten-billion-won version? Then Bella gets three times that, right?”
Maybe Bella was shocked too—she examined Cheolmin up close from every angle.
Three times the level of rebirth-through-transformation Cheolmin had…
She really says insane things like breathing.
“Ten billion?”
Lauren had heard there was some kind of deal between them, but she hadn’t cared. Hearing the amount out of Bella’s mouth, she was stunned.
While eating seolleongtang with the three of them, she told her situation room to check the money-transfer history between Choi Cheolmin, Kang Chan, and Bella.
A few seconds later, she received information: Bella had recently collected 15 billion won from a lottery jackpot, and 3 billion won had been deposited into Kang Chan’s account.
She was also told that within a few days, investigators from the Financial Intelligence Unit were expected to be dispatched.
Bella ordered them to halt the planned dispatch.
Soon after, a message came asking if they should also cancel the scheduled gift tax notice to Kang Chan.
She replied that the gift tax should proceed as planned.
Where there is income, there are taxes.
Even while eating, Bella kept inspecting Choi Cheolmin’s face and nodding—like a cattle trader checking an ox.
Lauren tried to understand this rationally, but no matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t grasp how that slick motel employee Kang Chan could make Choi Cheolmin more handsome.
She decided that this afternoon, she’d go into Bella’s room, watch dramas together, and fish for information.
Later than usual.
I woke up to a message notification sound.
3:10 p.m.
I’d slept less than two hours.
I read the message.
What is this?
It didn’t make sense.
I read it again.
Pay up.
Taxes, at that.
The National Tax Service was notifying me—an orphan with nothing and no one—that I had to pay 1 billion won.
There was a lot of rambling, but the summary was simple: the gift tax on the 3 billion won was a little over 1 billion won, so pay it.
One billion out of three?
I snapped fully awake.
If I added up the money I’d made through Bella and Cheolmin hyung, my total assets were 7.68 billion won.
Of that, 3.18 billion was in my account, and 4.5 billion in cash was hanging wedged between building signboards.
Out of the 12 billion I needed to buy the motel, I was still short 4.32 billion.
If Bella’s rebirth-through-transformation worked well, I planned to rejuvenate one or two rich people and raise the remaining money.
But now the country wanted to take a billion from me?
What had the country ever done for me to justify taking a billion?
If you really looked at it, I’d saved the nation from a national crisis for free. They couldn’t even reward me, and now they wanted money?
Emotionally, I refused to accept it.
Most things are crystal clear to me, but this one—no matter what—I couldn’t accept.
From then until the next day’s shift, I couldn’t sleep. I lay there groaning and thinking up countermeasures.
Cheolmin hyung definitely warned me about issues like this before.
That’s why I’d taken his money in cash—but why did I accept Bella’s money into my account with no precautions?
If I’d just told her to bring cash, it would’ve been solved…
I’d been in shock watching Bella collect that massive payout, and when she said she’d transfer 3 billion, I accepted it greedily without thinking.
Who do I blame?
It was my fault for handling it immaturely and emotionally.
But something like a ball of fire surged up inside me, and sleep wouldn’t come.
“Hello. I’m starting today as a housekeeper. I heard you’re Assistant Manager Kang. Nice to meet you!”
“Nice to meet you.”
9:50 a.m.
When I came down to the counter for shift handover, three women were smiling and greeting Chanhyeok hyung.
“Hello.”
I nodded in greeting.
“What’s wrong, Chan? Something happen?”
Chanhyeok hyung looked at my face and asked, startled.
Why is he so surprised?
Ah…
I realized I wasn’t wearing my habitual smile.
My head had been a mess since yesterday and I hadn’t slept at all.
Thoughts of how to avoid a billion won in gift tax filled my mind so completely that I even forgot to smile.
Still, meeting people for the first time with a blunt expression felt rude, so I forced a smile.
But it must’ve looked even weirder.
Even the cleaning team members meeting me for the first time looked like they weren’t pleased.
“Alright. Then I’ll teach you the room-cleaning order according to the manual. When you clean each room, do it like this. Room 201 is currently empty, so I’ll demonstrate. Push your carts and follow me.”
Forcing a friendly tone only made my expression creepier, so I gave up on smiling and led the housekeepers upstairs.
Then I demonstrated perfect cleaning.
Sharp, by-the-book cleaning.
After asking them to do it that way, I taught them how to stock supplies in each floor’s linen room and how to prepare the tools needed for cleaning, then came back down.
When I returned to the counter, Chanhyeok hyung had already left, and Bella and Lauren were in the first-floor office drinking coffee and chatting.
From what I heard, they were talking about dramas they’d enjoyed lately.
“Hi, Chan!”
“Chan! Today class start?”
Lauren greeted me cheerfully, and Bella pushed me like she’d been waiting.
But I was the one who wanted to pick a fight with Bella.
“Ms. Bella. A serious problem has arisen in our deal. We need to talk.”
“What are you saying, Chan? You took everything you were supposed to take, and now you’re changing your story? Are you that kind of man?”
“The fact that I received everything is the problem. Our deal was for 3 billion won, correct?”
“Yeah, I gave you 3 billion! Lauren is a witness!”
“No. Yesterday, the National Tax Service contacted me and told me to pay 1 billion won in gift tax. That means I only receive 2 billion. So either you train for 2 billion’s worth, or you need to give me 1 billion more.”
“What is gift tax. Bella doesn’t know Korean.”
Bella tried to play dumb.
She definitely already learned the word “gift tax.”
“Look it up later. For now, until this situation is resolved, we’ll postpone the classes.”
The money I was supposed to receive was 3 billion, but it looked like only 2 billion would end up in my pocket, so my position was valid.
“Scammer! Chan is! Give back all money!”
“In my dictionary, there is no such word as refund!”
While arguing, I discovered that the new cleaning team were slackers.
I knew because I’d extended a telekinetic field to monitor their work attitude.
The moment I disappeared, they started whispering among themselves, staring at their phones and texting.
Even if they cleaned diligently, it would be tight on time today since it was their first day—yet they were slacking like that…
No.
I sprinted up to the second floor and issued a stern warning to the cleaners fiddling with their phones.
“What do you think you’re doing right now? If you’re not going to work properly, all of you quit!”
The women who’d been whispering jumped in shock and hurriedly started cleaning.
They looked around my age or a few years older, so maybe they still weren’t disciplined.
I’d have to keep managing them until they could actually carry their weight.
Now that the Isu Gang guys quit, I’m exhausted.