Chapter 455
The Youngest Son of the Silver Trading Company Chapter 455
Chapter 455. The Time of Reward (2)
It was the second day since Hae-chul arrived at his in-laws' house.
“Oh, my life.”
He sighed and lamented his fate.
He thought he would receive a warm welcome at his in-laws' house.
However, it didn't take long for him to realize that he was wrong.
When he arrived, his Palm print, mother-in-law, and brother-in-law welcomed him warmly.
“Father. Mother.”
Ha-choo's wife cautiously opened her mouth.
“I think we should live together in this house.”
“What?”
“What do you mean?”
“The truth is...”
She explained the situation with tears streaming down her face.
“I invested in a business, but it went bankrupt. I lost my house and all my land. I couldn't even take any of my jewelry with me.”
“You lost all your money?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my, what are we going to do!”
“Father, mother! How am I going to live now?”
Hae-chul's Palm print and mother-in-law comforted her, and she was allowed to stay at her in-laws' house.
However, the way Hae-chul's in-laws treated him changed the very next day.
He headed to the dining room when he heard that breakfast was ready.
It was a little less than his usual breakfast, but it was still a generous meal.
However, he did not understand his place.
“Mother-in-law, you have a son-in-law, and this is the meal you serve him? Shouldn't there be at least three meat dishes?”
“Don't be ridiculous.”
“What?”
It was the first time he had heard his mother-in-law speak so harshly.
“You son-in-law came into our family with nothing, and now you're serving three meat dishes? Eat while you're still being treated well!”
Palm print, standing next to her, added with a disapproving look.
“In our family, if you complain about your food, you eat in the back room. Do you want to go to the back room?”
When he wondered where the back room was, his wife said from beside him.
“It's where the servants and maids eat. And do you think this is your house? Just eat quietly!”
“...”
He was speechless and had no choice but to shut up and eat.
But he couldn't sit still.
“Eat a lot, my daughter. You've had a hard time because of your good-for-nothing husband.”
“Mom... I'm so sorry...”
“No, it's okay.”
“Hmm! Hmm!”
His first brother-in-law said to him as he coughed.
“Brother-in-law, you can get up now if you're done eating.”
He hadn't even picked up his chopsticks five times. But the situation was strangely awkward.
“Are you done already? Already? Don't you want some more?”
“Then I'll go sweep the yard.”
“What? That's the servants' job...”
His second brother-in-law said in response.
“Isn't it the least you can do to stay in this house?”
He was taken aback by his harsh words.
“Ha! Is that how you feel? After I've given you so much money to live on!”
“Don't get the wrong idea.”
His wife spoke up in a sharp voice.
“Our family was well-off before.”
Ha-chul was speechless.
As she said, her family had always been well-off.
However, Hae-chul had deceived her into thinking he was the son of a wealthy family, and eventually they had a child.
The two got married, and naturally, Hae-chul's true nature was exposed.
His in-laws were outraged, but in the end, they provided financial support for their precious daughter. They paid for the wedding expenses and even provided them with living expenses.
When Ha-chul's sister brought her son to live with them, his in-laws heard about the situation and decided to help out by providing financial support for his sister's family.
However, when Ha-chul's sister became the concubine of Song Jang-joo and suddenly became rich, she forgot all about the kindness her in-laws had shown her and treated them with contempt.
“Don't you remember what we did for you when we were poor? I felt sorry for you when I saw how arrogant you became after you became rich. And how much money did you give them? Did you give them more than my parents gave you?”
Ha-cheol had no answer to that.
“When did I ever act arrogant...?”
“See, you don't even remember!”
She said coldly to Hae-chul.
“Stop wasting food and go sweep the yard.”
“Son... How can you let your father be treated like this...”
Hearing this, the son quickly glanced at his mother and said.
“Grandfather, Grandmother, from today, I will study hard to restore our family's honor.”
“Our grandson is so ambitious...”
No one in this house was on Hae-chul's side.
Recalling what happened in the morning, Hae-chul sighed again and went out to the yard.
It had been a long time since Hae-chul had swept the yard.
It had been about ten years since he had last held a broom, and he felt emotional...
“Emotional, my ass!”
He hadn't eaten breakfast, so he was hungry and felt miserable.
But he didn't have time to feel miserable.
“Hey, Hae-sang, if you're done sweeping the yard, clean the stable.”
“...”
“If you don't want to, then leave.”
“No, I'll do it.”
Hae-chul walked slowly toward the stable.
His in-laws were a wealthy family and owned two horses.
When he arrived at the stable, the stable boy handed him a pitchfork and said,
“Use this to load the horse manure onto the cart. Then take it to the compost heap.”
“...”
“If you don't want to, you don't have to. I'll tell your master...”
“When did I say I didn't want to do it?”
He quickly took the pitchfork and entered the stable.
“Ugh...”
He felt sick to his stomach.
But he couldn't refuse.
He loaded the horse manure onto the cart using the pitchfork and other farming tools, gritting his teeth.
“They said the elixir I took would take effect in a month! Yes! When I gain inner arts, we'll see! I'll make my in-laws beg me!”
After cleaning up all the horse manure, he followed the servant to the compost heap.
When he arrived there, he tilted his head in confusion.
That was because there was a pile of something familiar.
He picked it up, held it to his nose, and sniffed it.
“This is the elixir! This smell and texture! This must be the elixir I ate!”
At that moment, his servant looked at him strangely and asked, “Are you crazy? Why are you suddenly smelling horse dung? It's disgusting.”
“Are you crazy? Why are you suddenly sniffing horse manure? It's dirty.”
“What? Horse manure? This is medicine...”
“What kind of medicine? It's just dried horse manure, isn't it?”
“What?”
Seeing that he still didn't understand, the servant explained.
“When wet horse dung dries, it becomes like that.”
“But it doesn't smell bad.”
“Horse dung doesn't smell when it dries.”
“...”
Only then did he begin to think that something was wrong.
“That guy clearly gave it to me as an errand.”
After much deliberation, he picked up the horse dung and put it in his mouth.
Crunch, crunch...
Seeing this, the servant looked at him with an expression that said, “He's finally gone mad,” but Hae-chul was serious.
“Uh...”
It tasted the same.
“No! This can't be!”
He rushed out of the room. Then he went to a martial arts academy in the village where his wife's family lived.
As far as he knew, the principal of that martial arts academy was a person who had become a master of martial arts by eating a magic potion.
He would be able to answer his questions.
“Where are you from?”
“I have something to ask you! I ate a magic potion, and it is said that it gives inner arts to even those who have not practiced martial arts. Can you confirm that I ate the magic potion?”
“Um, please wait a moment.”
The martial arts academy's disciple called the principal, and the principal listened to Hae-chul's story.
“Um... That's not a magic potion.”
“No, it's not? That can't be!”
“First of all, you shouldn't eat elixirs carelessly. Elixirs that can give inner arts to ordinary people are especially dangerous. Even martial artists ask masters to help them control their qi in order to eat elixirs, so it goes without saying that ordinary people should not. If a master is not there to help you control your qi, all your blood vessels will burst and you will die on the spot.”
“But didn't you eat the elixir in the mountains and become a master?”
“I was just extremely lucky. I had to endure tremendous pain to absorb the power of the elixir. If I had lost consciousness, I would have died.”
He continued.
“The pain was so severe that I thought it would have been better not to eat the elixir. How much pain did you feel?”
“I... I had a little stomachache.”
“Then it sounds like you had an upset stomach. You ate something you shouldn't have. It's impossible that eating an elixir would cause only that much pain.”
“Then what was the elixir I ate?”
“It was fake. You were deceived.”
At those words, he collapsed to the ground.
Only then did he realize everything.
What he had eaten was just horse dung.
“Aaaah!”
He let out a scream of rage.
“Jisang, you bastard! I'll kill you!”
Overcome with rage, he ran forward, but suddenly stopped in his tracks.
He felt something was wrong.
“Huh...”
Why did someone other than Jang-ji give it to him?
The bag it was in was also made of the same cloth used to make monk's robes.
If so...
“Shaolin Temple already knew! They knew that I ordered Jang-in to do it!”
It was a warning.
Shaolin Temple was a place that did not take human life lightly, so they only warned him. If it had been another martial arts school, he would already be dead.
“Come to think of it...”
He remembered the tracking incense he had eaten. Tracking incense that could find him no matter where he was.
That was also a way of saying that he would be watching him.
It was a mistake, but the result of that mistake was more effective than Eun Seo-ho had expected.
Ha-chul made up his mind.
He would never go near Shaolin Temple.
So, in the end, there was only one place he could go back to.
As he was walking through the forest to return to his in-laws' house, a man approached him.
“Are you Chairman Hae-chul?”
“Yes, I am.”
As soon as he finished answering, the man stabbed him in the stomach with a dagger.
Thud!
“...!”
The man whispered in his ear.
“Do you remember the servant I beat to death because I didn't like him?”
He couldn't remember offhand because he had beaten more than one servant to death.
But soon, he remembered a face that resembled the man in front of him.
“Gye-gyeong?”
“Yes, I am Kyung's older brother. I've finally gotten my revenge.”
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
He stabbed Hae-chul several times with the dagger, pouring his hatred into each blow.
“Guh, guh...”
“Goodbye.”
Thud.
Hae-chul's body collapsed.
The giant poured oil on Hae-chul's body and threw a fire pot at him.
* * *
I am now in a village below Shaolin Temple.
I received compensation from Abbot Dao and was about to leave, but something unexpected came up.
I headed for Geumsanjeonjang.
I wanted to buy the estate and land that Hae-chul had owned.
Even in Geumsanjeonjang, there was no urgent need for that land, so I was able to purchase the estate and land for 30,000 nyang.
The reason I bought that land was because it is very close to Luoyang.
Currently, I am on friendly terms with Shaolin Temple.
In that situation, I thought it would be a good idea to establish a base here in case I needed to come to Luoyang.
After everything was settled, I realized that the size and location of the estate were perfect.
After finalizing the deal, I told Pal-gap.
“We need to find some people to help us get organized.”
“Yes, sir.”
Pal-gap quickly found some people.
They were people who had worked at the estate.
The owner was the problem, not the employees.
I said to the employees that Pal-gap had found.
“I have purchased this estate, but I will only be staying here for a very short time. However, there will be no delays in your monthly salaries. So please remain loyal to me.”
I said with a cold expression.
“I will not forgive those who betray my trust.”
“...”
The employees looked tense.
Now it's time to ease the tension.
“If you keep that promise, I will treat you with loyalty and respect.”
When I finished speaking, Pal-gap clapped his hands.
“Let's get to work!”
They quickly returned to their posts and began busily tidying up the estate.
As expected of those who had worked at this estate, they worked smoothly without any problems.
Pal-gap approached me and said,
“I heard from the people I gathered that the Chairman was very harsh to his employees.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I heard that he even beat several servants and maids to death to set an example.”
“Huh... That's terrible.”
There's no way someone like that could have ended well.
Just then,
an old servant approached us timidly.
“Um... I have something to tell you.”
“Oh, yes. What is it? Are you feeling unwell? Shall I call a physician?”
“No, it's not that... Are you the Master called Immortal Qi?”
“Ahem!”
Why did he suddenly mention that name?
But the servant looked very serious, so I answered seriously as well.
“I don't think of myself that way, but I am honored to be called that.”
He took something out from inside his sleeve and handed it to me.
“Would you please deliver this to the monk Jijin at Shaolin Temple?”
It was a faded and dirty envelope.
“What is this?”
“This is a letter left by the late mother of the monk Jijin.”
“What?”