After the First Immortal Peach Harvest
Having finished the first harvest of the Immortal Peaches, he borrowed Do-cheol's power to increase the number of trees in the orchard spot to a total of ten.
[Ugh.]
Crackle!
As Do-cheol created the tenth Immortal Peach tree, its face screen suddenly went dark like a burned-out lightbulb.
“Huh? Hey! Snap out of it!”
[…….]
“...Did I work it too hard?”
“Yeah, you kinda did, Soo-hyeok.”
“Ahem.”
He had to admit it. Even if it was a former spirit, making it propagate Immortal Peaches non-stop for three days straight was too much.
He touched the area around Do-cheol's head, and it was warm like a fresh waffle iron.
“Ahem. Take a break.”
As a reward, he carried Do-cheol to the sunniest spot near the house. Since it recharged via solar power, this should be plenty.
“Yep. You bet.”
Fortunately, it worked. After a full day of rest, Do-cheol came back online.
Sujin immediately contacted Cheonma Group to report their success in growing Immortal Peaches.
Now all that was left was the harvest.
From the ten Immortal Peach trees, they harvested about forty fruits. He sorted out the misshapen ones or the small pits.
In truth, there wasn't much difference in appearance or efficacy, but the pricier the crop, the pickier people got about that stuff.
Think about it. If you bought a ten-million-won fruit and it was all squished, no matter how good it tasted, you wouldn't be thrilled.
Anyway, after sorting, thirty-four remained.
Thanks to being an otherworld crop, there was no pest damage, so fewer were discarded.
“Whoa! That's a ton! Hehe!”
Sujin drooled over the Immortal Peaches in the plastic box. It didn't seem like hunger, though.
“How much is Cheonma Bio Farm buying them for?”
“Hmm. We settled on about three million won each. If the quantity varies by more than thirty percent, we renegotiate the price.”
“Three million each.”
Word was, the market price for one Immortal Peach was around ten million won. This was thirty percent of that.
Regular folks would flip out calling it a scam, but from a farmer's perspective, there was no better cash cow.
'The worst was only ten percent last time.'
After docking for unloading fees, transport, and all sorts of bullshit surcharges, it was way less.
No wonder some farmers plowed under their fields saying they lost money the more they sold.
“So... that comes to a bit over a hundred million total.”
“Ooh, quick math.”
“Hehe. One-day farm class today.”
Precisely 102 million won. It took about half a month to harvest, and this was the profit.
If they'd planted lettuce or cabbage, even filling all the local land wouldn't have netted this in a year.
'No wonder eyes wander to regular crops.'
Sorry, but that was a farmer's fate. He'd even cleared out the original apple saplings for these Immortal Peach trees.
“Cheonma Bio Farm said they'll pick them up tomorrow morning.”
“Quick turnaround.”
“Still, let's store them for now.”
Sujin fetched a weird-looking metal box from the shed. It had bundles of wires and a keypad attached outside.
“What's that?”
“Yeah, I bought this recently. It's a chamber for storing otherworld crops.”
“Chamber?”
“Check it out.”
Instead of explaining, Sujin tapped the keypad on the chamber.
[0000]
Hiss!
Cold vapor billowed out as the password unlocked. Unlike the complex exterior, the inside was just bare metal shelves like a normal box.
“...Ho ho.”
As he peered in curiously, something amazing caught his eye. A speck of dust floating in the air.
Drifting into the cold mist, the dust entered the box and then slowed, as if frozen mid-air.
“See? What's the trick?”
“Time slows down inside?”
“Yep. Spot on. That's how it preserves them.”
“Whoa.”
Advanced science was indistinguishable from magic, huh? A box that slowed time.
“This some artifact made from mana cores too?”
“Something like that. Super expensive, so handle with care.”
“Hehe. Got it.”
'I just sold the snapclaw grass in baskets.'
Snapclaw grass was pricey too, but pocket change compared to Immortal Peaches. Looked like she'd splurged on this one.
They loaded the ones for sale into the chamber and put the leftovers in baskets.
“We'll eat the rest.”
“Sweet!”
The second Immortal Peach harvest. As expected, they were just sweet and firm peaches.
'Can't make soft ones, huh.'
Firm and soft peaches were different varieties from the start. Ten trees yielding only firm ones meant Immortal Peaches were just the firm type.
“Mmm! Delicious!”
Sujin, a firm-peach fan, was grinning ear-to-ear after devouring several, no sign of burnout.
'Eat up.'
This was living the good life. Decent money, no family drama, all harmony.
'Wish Mom and Dad were here.'
Regrettable, but unavoidable. Still, their parents in heaven would be smiling contentedly at their family now.
The next day.
Any worries about Cheonma Group pulling some stunt proved unfounded. The deal with Cheonma Bio Farm went smoothly, no issues.
Payment for the thirty-four Immortal Peaches hit the account right away.
A cool 102 million won in one day.
“Kyahaha!”
Sujin kept checking the balance, beaming non-stop. He would've too. Basically lottery-level.
Next to the grinning siblings, Yelena diligently plucked snapclaw grass.
“Soo-hyeok. Where should I put this?”
“Ah, just basket it. They'll load up at dawn tomorrow.”
Yelena nodded and filled a basket with an armful. She wiped her sweat roughly and looked for the next task.
“No more Immortal Peaches yet?”
“Pfft. Harvested yesterday and already? You'll kill the trees.”
“…….”
“Roughly judging by the smaller ones, quarterly harvests should do. No need to fuss with the orchard for a bit.”
At that, Yelena glanced at Sujin and said,
“Got it. What's next?”
“Hmm…….”
Why the sudden workaholic mode? She wasn't lazy before, but today was extra.
Seemed she still felt guilty about hiding her awakener status from Sujin.
“...Pfft!”
Sujin wasn't dumb. She burst out laughing as her eyes met Yelena's sneaky glances.
“Why the side-eye?”
“N-no, Sujin.”
“Aigoo. It's fine! Everyone's got their reasons! Right?”
“...Yeah.”
“Then we're good! You told me eventually.”
“...Thanks, Sujin.”
“Though it stings that only oppa knew.”
“Ugh.”
“Ahem.”
The sparks flew his way too, undeserved. Time to pivot with good news.
“S-Sujin! What're you gonna do with the cash?”
“Huh? Hmm....... Well......”
It worked. Her face lit up thinking of the windfall.
'Come to think of it, Sujin...'
He eyed her up and down. Weekend casuals: comfy pants and gray hoodie. Nothing fancy.
'Never seen her splurge.'
Far as he knew, Sujin only spent to grow assets. Land, tools, that sort.
“Pay some taxes first, settle the loan from buying the land......”
“Loan?”
News to him. Made sense, though. Even a big corp like Yukang Group wouldn't buy this much land cash-only for rezoning.
“Yeah. Pushed it buying for quick rezoning and flip.”
“Aigoo.”
Loans were scarier than swine flu, they said. Even for Sujin, piling them up...
“What aigoo? Rezoned and sold, we'd have cleared ten billion easy.”
“Ahem.”
His little sis, alright. Good thing he hadn't opened his mouth cluelessly; would've been embarrassing.
“Anyway, Immortal Peaches quarterly, you say?”
“Yep.”
“Ho ho.”
Sujin tapped her calculator, eyes sparkling.
“Otherworld crops are OP. No single-season crunch, high prices too.”
“True that.”
Regular peaches harvested early summer. Without greenhouses, yield lumped up, prices tanked.
Immortal Peaches? A hundred mil every three months.
“Add snapclaw grass... beats my active-duty pay. Laughable compared to desk-job now.”
“...That much?”
“Hehe! Yup! All thanks to you, oppa!”
“Uh... yeah.”
She'd misunderstood. He meant even this haul matched her salary.
'More otherworld crops'll boost it.'
Early days in farming. Can't fill up on first sip.
Test phase with ten trees now, but he could ramp up anytime.
Tempted to grind Do-cheol for hundreds, but farming was supply-demand warfare.
No wonder bumper crops soured farmers' faces. Flood the market, prices crash.
Ten trees was the sweet spot. Steady milking.
'Don't wanna overdo and just make more work.'
Play it by ear, add ten more next harvest.
But one nagging loose end first.
'Jin So-wol.'
And Cheon Ji-hoon. Head of Cheonma Group.
Why warn him about her?
After Chairman Cheon visited Gangwon-do Cha-sun-myeon, he'd looked into Jin So-wol.
'Looked up as in Googling, but still.'
Don't sleep on Google. Punch in a name, everything spills out.
But Jin So-wol? Nada. Like records scrubbed. A director at Cheonma Group, yet zero articles.
Best he found: former secretary to previous chairman Cheon Ma-jun.
Just one blurry photo beside him.
“Hmm......”
Through the low-res image, a woman with a subtle smile. Jin So-wol.
Her pitch-black long hair made her snow-white skin stand out.
'Guess I'll see for myself.'
With that thought, he pocketed his phone.
Hoping this peace lasted.