The Famous Millionaire

“What is it?”

Yoshimoto looked at Hyunwoo warily. It looked as if Yoshimoto would not be lured into his sophistry even though he was ready to listen to him because he had to ask him for something.

“Currently, Aurum is Art Hill’s biggest rival. I’m not sure if you know this, but some time ago Art Hill, put out a malicious press release to damage our company image. That means they’re scared of our growth.”

“I’ve never heard about it.”

It was true that Yoshimoto might not have known this because it had only been reported inconspicuously in the economy page in Korean media, so Hyunwoo showed the relevant article to him, which he had clipped at that time. Underneath the clipped article was a Japanese translation of it. It was about N&C products that Aurum had been importing that didn’t meet the quality standards of Art Hill. There was one more article, which was that they passed the standard only recently.

When Yoshimoto nodded his head, Hyunwoo continued, “If JBC signs a contract with us, Art Hill will be all the tenser. From the standpoint of JBC, that creates a rivalry between the two. Think of this. If there is another company like Art Hill, isn’t that creating a virtuous cycle in terms of the price and quality?”

“That’s right, but what’s important is Aurum’s products meeting the necessary quality first.”

“Please test Aurum’s products. I’m convinced both products have little difference in quality, and the quality of our products will rapidly improve. Please review our products from a long-term point of view.”

Yoshimoto looked at him and said after a bit of hard thinking, “If the deal falls through, I don’t get the product you mentioned, right?”

Hyunwoo shook his head, “I think there are things that we can’t make a deal about, and one of them is this product I mentioned to you. The moment I heard about Ms. Haruki, this product was destined to be hers. Let me give it to you regardless of the deal.”

Hyunwoo meant it. He thought his sincerity would move Yoshimoto’s heart more strongly.

Yoshimoto lowered his head, and said, “I’d like to thank you on behalf of Ms. Haruki. Then, how should I get the product?”

Two days later Yoshimoto waited for Hyunwoo at the place they both agreed to meet. He was in mountain clothes rather than a formal suit. He purchased the clothes because he was asked by Hyunwoo to come in mountain clothes.

A little later, a minivan arrived at the place. At that moment, his heart sank because there were about eight people except for Suji Min, the interpreter. What’s more surprising was that all of them were old men and women. They were looking at him as if he was a monkey at the zoo.

Looking at Hyunwoo, he opened his mouth, “What the heck is this?”

Hyunwoo replied casually, “Well, don’t pay any attention to them. Why are you looking at him, sirs? You got on this bus on the condition you wouldn’t ask or look at him, right?”

Only then did they turn their heads, but sometimes they turned back their heads again to sneak a look at him.

Yoshimoto was extremely nervous. Who the heck are they? Why are they going with me? I wonder if Hyunwoo asked these men to look for the product…

Instantly, he thought of any possible threat by them, but it didn’t make any sense. They were too old to do anything. Just to be sure, he listened to what they were talking about and found that they were engaged in just chattering, such as raking at Korean poker games, somebody’s grandson getting good grades, somebody’s daughter-in-law being so ill-tempered, etc.

However, he was getting more and more restless as time went on. The minivan kept moving more than two hours in the direction of a mountain deep in the countryside. It looked as if they were taking him down to a place where nobody lived. Actually, they did.

The place the minivan stopped was a deep untravelled mountain. After there was no more paved road, it moved on the unpaved road for more than ten minutes. The signpost in the middle of the road showed it was Mt. Chilgap in the South Chungchong province with a scenic view.

“Get out, please.”

As soon as Hyunwoo said that, the old men quickly got off. Though they were slow because of their fragile body, they were disciplined as if they were well trained.

What are they going to do here? Yoshimoto thought to himself.

Hyunwoo first found a flat and good place nearby and spread a mat. What Yoshimoto could not understand was his next behavior. He put down something on the mat: Korean chess. Not only chess, but also lots of food. It looked as if they’re out on a picnic here.

“Okay, have a good time, sirs.”

“Sure, have a good journey.”

Hyunwoo pointed to Yoshimoto, “Shall we move?”

Suji followed Hyunwoo, but Hyunwoo stopped and then asked him, “You know how to speak some Korean, right?”

With a surprised look on his face, he didn’t deny, “Yes, a bit.”

It was a very artificial Korean accent.

“This mountain road is very tough. I don’t think it’s a good idea to take Suji with us. Anyway, we don’t have much to talk about, so why don’t just two of us go?”

Yoshimoto nodded his head and said, “Sounds good.”

“Shall we go then? Suji, can you take care of the old men? ” said Hyunwoo.

Hyunwoo started moving, followed by Yoshimoto. Sometimes, he turned his head to check out the old men who were having a great time.

After they were quite far away from the old men, Yoshimoto asked, “Who the hell are they?”

“They’re just my neighbors. As they’re bored at home, I take them here like this when I come here. Just ignore them being here.”

Yoshimoto nodded his head. In the meantime, Hyunwoo climbed up the mountain. It was not that steep, and as Yoshimoto liked climbing as a hobby, it was not a difficult challenge, but it was not easy for him to move with Hyunwoo because Hyunwoo was moving along the untravelled trail only. Every time he moved, he ran into wild grass and bushes. Nonetheless, Hyunwoo passed through it like an eel. If Suji had come along, his walking speed would have dropped by half, or he might have had to carry her on his back over the mountain road.

“A little slower…” said Yoshimoto.

Only then did Hyunwoo slow down, saying, “I hear you’re a good climber…”

“Oh, I’ve never walked on a trail like this before.”

Hyunwoo walked for about thirty minutes and then stopped along with Yoshimoto.

Hyunwoo quietly held out his finger, “I see it there.”

With his eyes wide open, Yoshimoto looked at it. What he saw was only wild grass.

“Where is it?”

“Please follow me carefully. Otherwise, you’ll be in big trouble.”

Yoshimoto followed and approached him carefully but found nothing he mentioned.

Then, suddenly Hyunwoo stopped and pointed to one clump of grass.

“This is it. This is the wild ginseng.”

Yoshimoto opened his eyes wide and took out a piece of paper from his pocket. There was a photo of wild ginseng he researched in advance. It looked the same.

“Oh, you’re right. This is what they call the famous mountain ginseng of Korea.”

Excited, Yoshimoto tried to move toward it, but Hyunwoo stopped him urgently.

“Don’t move yet. There is one more beneath your feet. You could tread on it if you move hurriedly.”

“Under my feet?”

Hyunwoo pointed to some small grass right under his feet. It was much smaller than the other one, but the shape of its leaves was the same. It looked like a baby ginseng plant.

Hyunwoo looked at Yoshimoto and spoke in clear and slow Korean because he was not good at Korean.

“You must have looked at the document I sent you. As I said, this is not a panacea. It only improves one’s constitution. There is no guarantee that Ms. Haruki’s condition will get better by taking this.”

“I know that. Thanks so much.”

“And this is a national forest, so this ginseng is not mine but belongs to this country, so if you take it, you have to pay the price.”

“Of course. How can I pay for the price?”

“Well, that’s something I can answer correctly. I’d like to leave it to Haruki’s grandfather and your conscience.”

“Got it. Let me discuss with Mr. Kuroda about this first.”

Yoshimoto was full of excitement as if he would pay any price if he could take this ginseng.

Hyunwoo felt satisfied to see him. It looked as if his intention paid off.

In fact, Hyunwoo didn’t know what to do about him initially. No matter how hard he researched about Yoshimoto, he couldn’t find any friend or relative of his that he could target, and then he came to know some old man Yoshimoto visited regularly. Though that old man was almost 70, he was still working. His name was Kuroda. Kuroda had a granddaughter named Haruki who was 15 years old. She was pretty much weak, so she often visited a hospital.

According to Unhye, Yoshimoto and Kuroda’s son were bosom friends, and that’s why he visited Kuroda regularly to take care of Haruki and his family.

When Hyunwoo heard that, he immediately felt, “This is the thing!”

So, he texted a message that wild ginseng was excellent for improving one’s constitution with actual examples of those whose constitution improved.

In other words, Haruki could potentially improve her constitution by taking the mountain ginseng; however, the ratio of success not that high.

The moment Yoshimoto read his text message, he immediately began looking more information about wild ginseng and found out that it was in a mysterious realm.

Hyunwoo cautiously dug out the ginseng and explained, “This is what the experts call chonjongsam because birds ate the seeds of ginseng and pooped them out. That’s where these plants come from. If you look at this, there are six little sprigs on each side. It’s called yukgu ssangdae. To sum up, it’s called yukgu mandal ssangdae chojongsam.”

Yoshimoto was a layman on ginseng, but after he received the text message, he did some research about it on the internet. Thanks to that, he was already aware of how valuable chonjongsam was. Comparing it a man, chonjongsam was like the world’s oldest man– rare and valuable ginseng.

If he had not confirmed it with his eyes, he might have called it a fake. That’s why Hyunwoo brought him to the mountain.

“This is the head of the ginseng, and yukgudae of it suggests it’s been growing at least 50 years. You can find out its correct age by checking out its head.”

Yoshimoto looked at the head of the ginseng, which was about two finger joints in length.

“Each head is counted as one year, so this one… wow! It has more than 80. I thought it’s a very good one, but it’s much better than I thought.”

Yoshimoto was of a mind. The more he saw it, the more his heart pounded. On the other hand, he was worried because he heard the price was all up to the seller. Typical wild ginseng would fetch tens of million won, he heard.

Hyunwoo began digging the ginseng up with a little twig. Finally, the ginseng showed its face. It was not as big as he expected, its thickness was about that of a thumb, but its roots spread like legs. They were long with lots of sprigs, but its shape was strange. It looked like it had been afflicted with a disease or struck with a parasite.

Frowning, Yoshimoto pointed to the rounds clinging to the roots, saying, “What are all these?”

“It’s called okju, and it only found in wild ginseng. You will fetch a lot of money with this.”

Yoshimoto’s face hardened again because the word ‘money’ slipped out his lips again.

Does he really give it to me without any price? Can I just pay to the state according to my conscience? What if I don’t keep the promise?

However, Yoshimoto coveted the wild ginseng, and he didn’t want someone else to take it.

When he saw it, Haruki’s sick face came to his mind. He was really anxious to take it even if he had to pay 100 million won.

Yoshimoto cautiously asked about the price of the ginseng, “By the way, how much would you ask for this kind of ginseng?”

Only then did Hyunwoo look at him and smiled broadly, as if he already read his mind.

Hyunwoo asked back, “How much do you think you have to pay to recover Haruki’s health?”