Chapter 395
The Youngest Son of the Silver Sea Trading Company Chapter 395
Chapter 395. There was a reason (2)
I tilted my head at the sight.
Unlike other accessories, necklaces are usually worn one at a time, not more than that.
And even if it's a gift, don't people usually buy just one?
Could it be that she wants to give one to Sunmi as well?
That could be.
Although she is currently away with her husband, she will eventually return to Beijing.
Since we don't know when Sunmi will return, she may want to buy one now.
With that in mind, I asked Young Mistress Seo.
“Is there anything you like?”
“What?”
“You don't have any decent jewelry. If the lord finds out, he'll scold me for neglecting you.”
“No, he wouldn't. He's not that kind of person.”
No, he is.
He's the kind of person who would do that and more.
And he gave me plenty of money for your protection.
I looked around at the accessories and picked up a coral hair ornament and held it up to her head.
“Hmm, it suits you well.”
I said with a smile.
“If you don't like any of them, how about this one?”
“...I like it.”
Miss Seohyang nodded with a blushing face.
Hmm, seeing that she likes it so much that her face is blushing, I think I made the right choice.
Two days later.
I visited my aunt's house with Young Mistress Seo Hyang.
“Oh! Come in!”
My aunt welcomed us warmly by herself.
“I guess your husband is very busy.”
“Unfortunately, we just had some guests. And Sun-il is still at work.”
“I see. It seems like we came at a busy time.”
“Don't worry about it. Come on in.”
We headed to the reception room.
Come to think of it, the necklace around my aunt's neck was definitely one of the necklaces Hyung-nim bought.
I pretended not to notice and asked my aunt.
“I've never seen that necklace before. Did you get it as a gift?”
“Oh? Did you recognize it?”
My aunt said with a smile.
“Seon-il gave it to me this morning. Isn't it pretty?”
“Yes, it suits you well.”
It was a good decision to come with Seo-hyang Young Mistress for my aunt.
They seemed to enjoy talking to each other as if they were soulmates.
Thanks to that, I didn't have to worry about what to say, which was nice.
I can talk freely with guests who are not family members, regardless of whether they are men or women, but strangely, when it comes to my family, I always worry about what to say.
That is probably because I cannot show my true self to my family.
“Auntie, I'm sorry, but I have to go now.”
“Yes, I'm sorry for keeping you. Thank you for coming to celebrate my birthday despite your busy schedule.”
“It's my pleasure.”
On the way back from my aunt's house, Seo Hyang said, “She seems like a really nice person.”
“What?”
“I could tell she was being considerate of me during our conversation.”
“Oh, I see.”
I nodded.
“Your aunt is a very nice person.”
My aunt had only one worry.
That was that Hyung-nim Seon-il did not want to get married.
Come to think of it, I had never married in my previous life either.
I wonder what the reason is.
.
.
.
Several days passed.
I was working in my study when Pal-gap entered.
“Young master.”
“What is it?”
“Someone has come from the imperial palace.”
If it were someone I knew, Pal-gap would have told me who it was, but since he didn't, I assumed it was someone I had never met before.
If that was the case, I had a good idea what it was about.
They must have sent someone to select a trading company to engage in trade with other countries.
I said to Miss Seo Hyang.
“Let's go.”
“Yes.”
As my aide, Miss Seo Hyang had to accompany me on such business matters.
She always wore a veil when meeting other people in case someone recognized her.
She put on the veil that was hanging on the wall and followed me.
We headed toward the reception room and exchanged greetings with the officials who were being served tea.
“I apologize for being late. My name is Eun Seo-ho from the Eunhae Trading Company.”
“I am in charge of the Ministry of Rites.”
So he was a ninth-rank official?
Even though he was a low-ranking official who had just started his career, I couldn't help but laugh at his blatant disrespect.
He seems younger than me.
Yes, this is how merchants are treated in reality.
My uncle was so annoyed by this that he had Hyung-nim study literature.
He ran a trading company in Beijing, of all places, so I can only imagine how much he had to put up with.
However, since Hyung-nim passed the civil service exam and became a government official, there weren't many officials who treated my uncle with contempt.
That's understandable. How could they treat a fellow official who was their superior?
I guess that's why they say, “If you're treated unfairly, work your way up.”
I said to the official,
“What is going on here?”
“Gather at the imperial palace on the fifteenth of this month. There, we will select the person who will be in charge of this month's trade.”
“I see. I understand.”
That seemed to be all he had to say, but he showed no intention of leaving.
“You should consider yourself lucky that I was the one who came to tell you this news.”
I don't think I'm in a position to be addressed as “you.”
“You see, I've heard quite a bit about the selection of the trade representative.”
Huh? What are you talking about?
“Aren't you curious? The results will be decided based on the information I have.”
Could it be...
“Are you asking me for gas money?”
Gas money.
In other words, a bribe.
“Gas money? How can you speak so rudely? Tsk, tsk, you're a lowly merchant, so you have no dignity.”
Unable to tolerate his rude words, Seo Woo stepped forward politely.
“Watch your mouth.”
“Who are you to interfere in our conversation?”
He frowned and became irritated.
This guy is asking for trouble.
I controlled my expression and said to Seo Woo.
“Apologize.”
“...I apologize.”
Then I politely asked the official.
“By the way, I did not catch your name. Would you please tell me your name?”
“Sure. My name is Son Se-gil.”
“You are Son Dae-in. But you are buying goods without even looking at them?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Your Excellency is a gentleman, so you don't haggle, but I am a merchant. That's why I inspect the goods and set the price before buying or selling them. When you asked me for the price of the oil, didn't you mean that you were selling me information?”
“As expected of a lowly merchant, that's the only way you can think. Well, you're entitled to your opinion.”
“Then, don't you think I should know what that information is before I pay you for it?”
“I might lower the price after hearing the information. That's why people call you a lowly merchant.”
“How could I do that to you? Let's do this. The initial payment...”
I placed ten silver coins on the table.
“Let's start with this.”
Ten silver coins was not a small amount of money for a low-ranking official.
It was enough to buy a small house.
The eyes of the man named Son Se-gil sparkled with greed as he looked at the silver coins.
“Well, then. I'll tell you. The most important factor in selecting a trade representative this time is how well you can conduct trade without damaging the prestige of the empire.”
“I see. And then?”
I added five more pieces of silver.
“His Majesty the Emperor and the ministers of each department will conduct the screening.”
Hearing that, I took back three silver coins.
“What are you doing?”
“The obvious is not information.”
“Damn it!”
Before I knew it, I had gained the upper hand in this conversation.
In a deal like this, you have to accurately understand the other party's desires in order to gain the upper hand.
If the object of their desire is money, it is easy to gain the upper hand by playing on their desires.
Son Se-gil squeezed out everything he knew to get more silver coins, but he only managed to get two more.
The only information he really knew was the most important part, which he had told me at the beginning.
To be honest, that wasn't even very good information. Isn't it natural to consider the prestige of the empire?
That's why the empire doesn't engage in trade directly, but hires merchants.
Of course, I didn't think he would know any useful information.
How much could a low-level employee know?
He was testing me to see if he could make some money from the story he happened to overhear.
With fourteen silver coins in his pocket, Son Se-gil left the Beijing branch in high spirits.
“Pal-gap.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Put some salt in front of the gate... No, salt is too expensive. Just sprinkle some salt water.”
“Yes, sir!”
Watching Pal-gap sprinkle salt water in front of the gate, I said to Seo Woo-musa, “Don't worry too much about what happened earlier.”
“Don't worry too much about what happened earlier.”
“I'm fine. It's just that I can't bear to see my Liege being insulted like that.”
“It's nothing... It's cute.”
Yes, it's cute.
“I feel sorry for him.”
Seo Hyang, who was standing next to me, said.
“What?”
She smiled at my question.
“I knew you wouldn't let it go.”
Seo Hyang Miss had come to understand me very well.
Instead of answering, I just smiled.
I had been wondering what to report to His Majesty the Emperor, so this was perfect.
I would tell him everything.
.
.
.
Before I knew it, half a month had passed.
As I had been told in advance, I headed for the imperial palace.
In the meantime, I had been given full authority over this matter by my father.
This was because I did not have the time to report to him on every detail and obtain his permission.
The reason for the short application period this time was that there were only a few trading companies that met the requirements of the announcement.
If they were selecting a silk supplier like before, they would have given us at least a month.
We told the guard in front of the Imperial Palace the purpose of our visit and waited. After a while, a court official approached us.
“Please follow me.”
My party and I followed him into the imperial palace. My party consisted of only two people, the Beijing branch manager, Eun-cheong, and the deputy governor of Yeochang.
The building we were heading for looked like the Ministry of Rites.
After all, the Ministry of Rites was in charge of foreign trade. That was why an official from the Ministry of Rites had come to tell me to come today.
“Please wait here.”
“Yes.”
When we opened the door to the room indicated by the court official, two trading company representatives were already waiting.
One group seemed to be slightly older than me.
The other group included someone I knew.
I approached him and greeted him warmly.
“It's good to see you here.”
“Oh! You are Eun Seo-ho, the captain of Eunhae Trading Company!”
He was Jiseok-mun, the captain of Baekbuik Trading Company.
Baekbuik Trading Company was a trading company that mainly traded with other countries using several merchant ships.
Therefore, although the company was not very large, it was proudly included in the list of the 100 best trading companies in the world.
“This is Song-un, the captain of Changhae Trading Company.”
“Ah! Nice to meet you. I am Eun Seo-ho, the captain of Eunhae Trading Company.”
“I am Song Un, the captain of Changhae Trading Company.”
After exchanging greetings, Captain Jiseokmun said with surprise, “What? Eunhae Trading Company is trading with foreign countries? Did you have a ship?”
I nodded in response to his question.
"I've been thinking about expanding our business abroad, so I prepared a ship.
“We decided to expand our business overseas, so we acquired a ship a while ago.”
“Even though you are already growing rapidly, you are not content with that and are taking on new challenges. That is impressive.”
“If we rest on our laurels, we will fall behind. By the way, I don't think we met at the meeting in Shandong last time...”
“That's right.”
Captain Jiseokmun nodded.
“Unfortunately, I was on a long business trip and couldn't attend. I was in the country of Marase.”
Marase?
That's quite far from the empire.
Much farther than Yong Eungwan's Daewook.
“It seems you were entrusted with a rather important mission.”
“I brought the princess and envoys of the Kingdom of Mare.”
Ah...
This was quite a controversial issue in Beijing.
The Kingdom of Mare sent a princess to form a marriage alliance with the imperial family of the empire.
However, the problem was that the princess was quite unattractive.
In the end, the princess was unable to marry into the imperial family and returned to her country.
As I was thinking about this, the door where we were standing opened and other members of the Trading Company entered.
A total of six members of the Trading Company gathered, and the last official to enter looked at us and said,
“All six Trading Companies that submitted applications are here. Now, I will tell you what you need to prepare.”
Then someone asked,
“There won't be any screening?”
“No, there won't be any screening. All of the trading companies gathered here will be entrusted with important missions for the imperial court.”
That makes sense.
In a situation where even one trading company with a ship is desperately needed, there's no way they would conduct a rigorous screening process.
If I had believed Son Se-gil Joma's words without question, I would have been fooled.
Even though he gave me false information, that is no excuse for his actions.
.
.
.
After the meeting with the official, I was walking around the imperial palace, wondering how to deal with Son Se-gil Joma, when I passed by a group of people.
At first glance, they were a woman dressed in foreign clothes and...
Huh?
I couldn't help but stop in my tracks.
The necklace that woman was wearing around her neck...
Isn't that one of the necklaces Hyung-nim bought?