Chapter 14
The Youngest Son of the Eunhae Trading Company Chapter 14
Chapter 14. An Unexpected Journey (2)
A game began among the wives of high-ranking officials.
The rules were simple.
The deadline was one month.
The wives took turns, and when it was their turn, they had to find the item requested by the previous wife.
If they couldn't find the item, they had to treat the other noblewomen to a lavish meal.
And if they couldn't find the item, the next noblewoman in line had to find it.
It didn't matter what the item was, but it had to be something difficult to find.
The purpose of this game was to take turns treating the others to a lavish meal.
The harder it was to find, the more exciting it was.
However, if she was able to obtain it, she would be treated like an empress by the other noblewomen for a month.
Therefore, it was a game where it didn't matter if you couldn't find the item, and you could just smile and move on.
However, this became a battle of pride among the noblewomen, and things started to get out of hand.
More and more people were mobilized to find increasingly difficult items, and unreasonable tasks were carried out.
Countless commoners suffered because of the pride of a few noblewomen.
In the end, the emperor received a petition from the Hanlin Academy and issued an imperial edict prohibiting the game.
However, the game had not yet reached its peak.
The item that Song Jang-ju mentioned was obtained by a noblewoman six months later.
The name of that item was “Jamu-in-hyeong” (self-dancing doll).
The popularity of the Jamo-in-hyung spread throughout the region in an instant, and everyone spent money to get one.
As a result, the trading company that sold the Jamo-in-hyung made a fortune.
Song Jang-ju said.
“Can you get one?”
My father looked a little perplexed. However, it would be rude to refuse in front of him.
My father replied gently.
“I will do my best to find it.”
“I beg you. You must find it by the end of this month.”
With that, Song Jang-ju left the reception room, and my father accompanied him out.
Now I thought I understood the whole story behind Song Jang-ju's downfall.
He must have tried everything to find what the Po-jeongsa wanted.
To be precise, it was something the Po-jeongsa's wife wanted.
And the Po-jeongsa loved his wife very much, so if Song had found the doll, the Po-jeongsa would have been grateful to him for saving his wife's face and turned a blind eye to Song's wrongdoing.
However, Song Jang-ju was unable to find what he wanted, and because he had made enemies, he fell from power.
We waited in the reception room for my father, who had left to see Song Jang-ju off.
“I was wondering when he would come, but he's finally here.”
I chuckled at Yeon Gak-ju's words.
Yeon Gak-ju already knew that the noblewomen were entertaining themselves and that his task was to be a dancing doll.
He also knew that Song Jang-ju was looking for that item.
That meant my father already knew as well.
“You're a really good actor.”
Chief administrator Yoo shook his head as if he had a headache.
“A doll that dances by itself every hour! Where on earth can we find something like that...?”
“It won't be easy, but we'll have to ask around. We can't let this damage our business.”
Yoo, the chief administrator, replied to my words.
“You know your business well, young master. Song Jang-ju is one of our major customers. If he falls, it will cause considerable damage to our trading company.”
As Chief Administrator Yu said, the downfall of Chairman Song was not welcome news for the Eunhae Trading Company.
As a large landowner in the area, he supplied a considerable amount of rice.
However, I didn't take it too seriously because I knew that the damage would be easier to repair than expected.
“There is something more important than that.”
I recalled a day in the future that I had experienced.
That day was the day when representatives of the 100 largest trading companies in the world gathered for a meeting.
I attended the meeting with my father and my older brother.
There, I met the head of the Jin-Gyeon Trading Company, who had become one of the 100 largest trading companies in the world by selling martial artist dolls.
Just then, the topic of martial artists came up, and the head of the Trading Company, who was drunk on strong liquor, excitedly recounted his own exploits.
“That young man was so skilled with his hands! He could make all kinds of strange weapons in no time!”
“Where did you meet such a skilled craftsman?”
“Right there. In a village next to the pass that leads from Hubei to Jiangxi, where a large market is held.”
“Ah!”
“And I presented him with a martial artist doll.”
The merchant gained the trust of the wife of the governor of Jiangxi Province and made a fortune with the doll.
In the future I experienced, that craftsman belonged to the Jin-Gyeon Trading Company, but this time I plan to make him belong to the Eunhae Trading Company.
This is not stealing someone else's craftsman.
Doing so will make the craftsman happy.
Even though he was the creator of those items, he was forced to work day and night and died of overwork, never living a happy life.
With the death of the craftsman, the Jin-Gyeon Trading Company quickly fell into decline as it could no longer produce the items. In the first place, the company did not have excellent merchandise, nor did it have a solid foundation.
Still, it managed to hold on, but it went bankrupt in less than six months.
I ruined it.
Curious about how they had managed to recruit the craftsman who created the martial artist dolls, I asked the Hao Clan for help.
Through the Hao Clan, I learned how the trading company had recruited the craftsman and how they had exploited him.
They had kidnapped his family and tortured them in front of him.
Even if he couldn't make new artifacts that satisfied the noblewoman, they threatened to kill his family and tortured him.
When I imagined how much the craftsman must have blamed himself, suffered, and shed tears of blood, I was horrified that a place like the Jingeon Trading Company was one of the 100 best trading companies in the world.
They say that money makes the world go round, but that's not true.
Money is cold, but it is for people.
Those who did such things were not human, so they did not deserve to have money.
My brothers were furious, and I began to devise a plan to rescue the Palm print master.
However, before I could carry out my plan, the Palm print master died.
His family tried to rescue him from the Trading Company, but the Trading Company had already killed all of his family members to silence them.
I felt guilty about that.
If only I had found out sooner, the master craftsman and his family would not have died.
So, to avenge the master craftsman, I destroyed the Jin-Gyeon Trading Company.
And that thought has not changed even now.
That's why I had to get my hands on the master craftsman before he suffered and died.
I believe that someone with such talent should be treated accordingly.
And while I'm at it, our Eunhae Trading Company will also profit a little.
Actually, I was planning to recruit that master craftsman a little later.
But the fact that the situation has turned out this way means that something unknown is telling me to act now.
The problem is...
The master craftsman lives in Jiangxi.
Of course, it is not far from Hubei, as it is located in Songyang County, which is close to Jiangxi.
However, I was only fifteen years old, so I couldn't go there without my father's permission.
How could I get to Jiangxi Province?
As I was thinking about it, a good idea came to mind.
I decided to sacrifice my vacation for the sake of the master craftsman who was being overworked by the Eunhae Trading Company and was destined to die.
* * *
After seeing off Song Jang-ju, Eun Gil-sang, the head of the Eunhae Trading Company, returned to the reception room and sighed.
“A doll that dances on its own every hour...”
It was a treasure he had never heard of before.
“The woman who gave him such a task, the woman who is trying to get it, and the man who is trying to get it for her are all out of their minds...”
Of course, he only thought this to himself.
As the head of Eunhae Trading Company, Eun Gil-sang was carefully observing the situation around him, so he already understood the situation.
He knew that Song Jang-gu had fallen out of favor with the governor of Hubei Province and that he was looking for a dancing doll.
It was no mistake that Song Jang-gu had not included his land in the tax assessment.
“So, stop messing around. What a ridiculous person. He already found out everything and only came to our trading company later.”
He probably didn't want to let the outside world know about this and suffer losses as a result, so he tried to handle it on his own.
Eventually, he must have knocked on the door of the Eunhae Trading Company.
“This is troublesome.”
Moreover, he probably asked for help from various places with which he had connections, not just the Eunhae Trading Company.
It would be problematic if Song Jang-ju fell, but it wouldn't be good to help him either. The rice trade with Song Jang-ju could be taken away from them.
“By the way, even if Song Jang-ju tried everything, how can we find something he can't find?”
While he was deep in thought, Eun Seo-ho called him.
“Father, I have something to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“I would like to visit Jiangxi Province during the upcoming holiday.”
Jiangxi Province!
He had no choice but to ask for an explanation for such a sudden request.
“What is the reason? It can't be just for sightseeing...”
“I would like to see the market in Jiangxi Province with my own eyes.”
Eun Gil-sang stared at Eun Seo-ho.
Lately, his third son had been acting strange.
The boy, who had been sickly, suddenly became healthy.
And his body, which had been hunched over from reading books, became straight.
Moreover, his practical skills were flawless.
Even Eun Gil-sang, who had brought him in himself, considered him picky and fastidious, but he was so capable that he made him his assistant.
However, when Yoo So-ak returned from Hwaryeonru, he said,
“How did you know exactly where Baek Ru-joo had embezzled the money?”
“What do you mean?”
“Actually, the ledgers that you found the irregularities in were very well organized. Chief administrator Seo Su-chang is quite capable.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, even experienced merchants would have difficulty finding the embezzlement.”
“...”
“It seems that your youngest son is more capable than I thought.”
Hearing this, Eun Gil-sang looked at the accounts of Yeonhwa-ru once again and realized that Yoo So-ak was right.
“Come to think of it, Seo Ho even suggested a way to utilize Yeonhwa-ru that we hadn't thought of. Does that boy have hidden talents?”
Furthermore, Seo Ho had recently been learning martial arts.
He had asked Go Il-pyeong, the Chief Administrator, to meet with someone other than Go Il-pyeong to learn martial arts.
And this was what he reported back.
“Seo Ho has the constitution to learn Bing Gong. Therefore, the only person who can teach Seo Ho is Gwak Pyo-du.”
“Is he a suspicious person?”
“No. I can't tell you anything specific about Gwak Pyo-du, but he is someone you can trust.”
“I see...”
“By the way, your youngest son is very lucky. If he had started learning martial arts in earnest, he would have been in danger.”
“What danger? You would have noticed before that happened.”
“No. I only understood after hearing the whole story, so if it weren't for this incident, I would have taught him my martial arts as planned.”
“I'm becoming more curious. I must meet Gwak Pyo-du. Arrange a meeting for me.”
“Yes, sir.”
And Eun Gil-sang met Gwak Pyo-du.
In fact, he had seen Gwak Head Escort several times before. He was the head escort of Changin Escort Agency, which had a contract with Eunhae Trading Company.
Every time he saw him, he felt that he was not an ordinary person.
However, according to the information he had gathered, he knew nothing about Gwak Head Escort's past before he settled in Hubei Province.
But his intuition, gained from his experience, told him otherwise.
Gwak Myeong-hyun was no ordinary Head Escort.
“Gwak Myeong-hyun is here to see the Captain of the Trading Company.”
“Don't be so formal. There is no need to treat the father of my disciple with such respect.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You have agreed to become my son's master?”
“Yes, sir.”
That day, they talked about this and that, and Gwak Myeong-hyun officially became Eun Seo-ho's master.
Recalling that moment, Eun Gil-sang looked at his son.
“What on earth made such a great man agree to become Seo-ho's martial arts teacher?”