The Famous Millionaire

Early Saturday morning, Hyunwoo, who went out very early in the morning that day, came back with a bag.

His mother asked, smiling, “Are you going to climb a mountain today?”

“Yes, why don’t you come with me? You don’t have to prepare breakfast for the company employees, and your assistant Hyunmin is out to visit the House of Happiness today.”

“”Shall I?” she said and then headed to her room.

She had nothing to prepare because Hyunwoo already had everything ready for an outing. They sometimes enjoyed this kind of outing several times per month. As soon as she was ready, Hyunwoo lifted his father into the minivan.

“Where are the seniors?” asked his father.

“I’ve informed them already. I guess those who want to join us must be there waiting for us.”

Hyunwoo drove the minivan toward downtown of Ansan city and picked up the seniors waiting for him. Among them was Mr. Kong. Most of them were lonely people who used to be in Hyunwoo’s neighborhood. Hyunwoo took them all almost everytime he went climbing.

Their outing place was not a scenic spot. Usually Hyunwoo searched for the outing place on the internet and decided, and Hyunwoo’s selection method on the outing place was consistent. Namly, the kind of mountain where they could find wild ginseng or bellflowers, but today’s destination was different.

Hyunwoo had a secret pocketbook in which he took down notes on the location of valuable wild ginseng that he had noticed while going around as a wild ginseng digger for many years.

It was like stealing wild ginseng from the state-owned mountains and even illegal. As he got to know more about the mountains and became more familiar with wild ginseng, he began to feel what he had been doing up to then was wrong. In particular, he felt it was like killing a child to dig up young wild ginseng. Since then, he only dug up mature wild ginseng.

The most exciting moment he felt as a wild ginseng digger was when he discovered wild ginseng. Discovering it among other grass made him shudder with thrill all over his body.

However, wild ginseng was not expensive as expected. Only the kind of wild ginseng called ryukgu(six-stem wild ginseng) or above sold for as much as tens of millions of won. Typical wild ginseng usually sold for less than 1 million won.

Because of those thrills and spills, Hyunwoo went to lots of mountains around the country to dig wild ginseng and bellflowers with his parents and the neighborhood seniors. Of course, another purpose of the mountain climbing was to give them the opportunity to travel.

Sometimes, Hyunwoo had to dig wild ginseng out of necessity. Just like now when he found someone who badly needed wild ginseng. If Mingyu could recover from his illness after eating wild ginseng, he could repay his debt to the state with much more than the price of the wild ginseng.

While the minivan was moving, it was full of the old men’s chattering inside the van. In particular, Sungdaek Kam’s voice was louder than anybody else’s. He had been upset because his grandson ran away from home for several days, and now, his grandson finally came back.

“My grandson, Jinhon, sang a song for me, saying he composed it by himself.”

“Composed a song by himself? He must be pretty talented.”

“Have you heard about a singer-songwriter? Jinhon is like that. He is a genius.”

As for Jinhon, Hyunwoo also knew about him.

As Sungdaek said, he was very good at singing and writing songs. Though Hyunwoo didn’t know much about music, he felt pretty excited enough to dance with his shoulders, but the name ‘Jinhon’ brought up an image of someone who was rebellious with blonde hair. He looked like a gangster, though he was not involved in anything bad.

While they were chattering and laughing, the van arrived at the destination.

Hyunwoo collected the wild ginseng he had noticed before while the old men picked wild edible greens. Climbing down the mountain, Hyunwoo went back to Ansan with the old men. Instead of parting ways, they headed to Mr. Kang’s house which had a yard for a dinner get-together. Most of them were lonely with no families to greet them, so Hyunwoo felt comfortable to have them together for dinner like that.

Around the same time Hyunwoo was treating the old men in the mountain, Sangho Oh was looking at the photos of the album over whisky in his efficiency apartment. Most of the photos showed him with Minhye Park. While he was thumbing through the pages of the album, he again stopped at a photo with Minhye. That photo was taken in the United States. Obviously they were lovers back then. In fact, they were on intimate terms at the time.

The more he looked at it, however, the more he smirked and got upset, “Phew, bad girl! How can you betray me like this?”

He drank another cup of whiskey. As he was drunk already, he felt even more intoxicated and did whatever he wanted to do. He took out the photos from the album and tore Minhye’s face in the photo in pieces. He wanted to have Minhye bitterly regret for not choosing him. The best way was to make her think that she must not lose a guy named Sangho Oh.

In the past, Sangho thought his academic pedigree was enough to attract her, but that was not enough. He needed money.

Fortunately, the stocks and the real estate he invested in after he came back to Korea was making great returns. However, it was not more than 300 million won. Out of that money he borrowed 200 million won from his father.

I need some other way.

Suddenly he noticed one photo. It was taken with the purchasing team. In particular, Suji Min’s face captivated his mind among others.

Was Suji so beautiful like this? thought Sangho, and he compared it with Minhye’s photo.

Minhye was beautiful, but looked like a housemaid right next to a princess.

Sangho’s eyes began to shine.

“She even looks sexy, and she is allegedly too smart to work for a medium-sized company like Aurum. She’s better than Minhye one hundred times.”

Sangho kept looking at Suji’s photo while sipping whisky.

***

Hyunwoo called Byungwon while brewing wild ginseng, saying, “I got the medicine for him. He had better have it on an empty stomach. So, please have him fast until the following evening.”

Surprised by Hyunwoo’s request, Byungwon asked, “He needs to fast? What the heck is the medicine?”

Hyunwoo couldn’t tell him that it was wild ginseng, and it was actually very expensive ryukgu wild ginseng because Byungwon would feel it pretty burdened financially.

“I don’t know it, either. That old man, Mr. Kong, gave it to me, saying it’s a wonder drug for Mingyu with special instruction on fasting.”

“Wonder drug? What’s the use of such a drug when Mingyu is so weak?” asked Byungwon incredulously.

At the moment, Hyunwoo was a bit worried, too, because Byungwon might not take good care of the medicine, thinking it was made by a quack, so Hyunwoo felt it necessary to inform Byungwon more about Mr. Kong.

“Mr. Kong has cured several children with the same symptoms as Mingyu. They were as weak as Mingyu, but their constitution was changed in just one month after they took the medicine. Just trust him.”

“Really? Is he such a great herbal doctor? Then, his medicine must be very expensive.”

“Don’t worry about it. Mr. Kong doesn’t receive the money for it. When Mingyu recovers well later, just go and say hello to him.”

“Wow! What a nice person!” Byungwon exclaimed.

In fact, Mr. Kong lived in retirement for long. He did cure some children with acupuncture, who could not get treatment at the hospital.

“He looks shabby, but he’s an eccentric person. Anyway, have Mingyu refrain from eating. Let me give you the medicine at the office tomorrow.”

“Thanks so much. Let me pay back your big favor for me.”

“Not me, but Mr. Kong.”

“Of course, will do.”

Late afternoon the next day, Hyunwoo gave Byungwon the medicine. Byungwon took it cautiously as if it were a gold bar.

“Is this medicine so good?”

“Though he doesn’t have any license, he is a terrific person. He saved several dying children. So, just trust him and do as instructed.”

“Really?”

Byungwon’s eyes twinkled when he looked at it.

“Mr. Kong says this medicine changes one’s constitution. In other words, changing weak constitution to strong one, so Mingyu should take the medicine between 5:30 and 7 o’clock in the morning.”

“Between 5:30 and 7 in the morning? Does it have anything to do with Mingyu’s constitution?”

One’s constitution changes twice a day, once at 12am and again at sun rise. Based on this timing, one’s constitution changes to one fit for sleep and another one for activities, so the effect of wild ginseng is best when one makes good use of this time.

“Actually, I don’t know well. Mr. Kong has said that Mingyu should take the medicine during that designated time by all means to experience the effect of medicine.”

“Got it. Let me do as instructed.”

“There are several points you have to keep in mind. I’ve taken notes as it’s hard to memorize them all.”

Hyunwoo handed him a piece of paper which contained the same message he had sent to Yoshimoto. When Byungwon looked at it, there was a list of foods to avoid at the top such as coffee, meat, milk and mung beans, and there were some other foods to avoid that Byungwon couldn’t understand.

“Mingyu should avoid even beans? Seaweed? Then, what food should Mingyu eat?”

“Well, just ordinary rice with boiled bean sprouts, kimchi and fish, etc.”

“You mean, he has to avoid the food until he takes the medicine to the end?”

Byungwon seemed skeptical about it, thinking his son might suffer if that medicine proves ineffective.

“Who knows if Mingyu can change his constitution completely by taking this medicine? What’s certain is that it won’t do any harm to your son. He’s going to be definitely better than now. Mingyu has been given a chance to get well. Why don’t you give it try?”

“Of course,” said Byungwon.

“Then, just trust him and do as instructed. Maybe there will be a miracle. Mingyu might have some side effects.

“Side effects?”

“Nothing particular. Medicine like this makes one feel dizzy, high fever, no sleep or too much sleep, diarrhea or get fuzzy.

Byungwon began to get nervous again to heart that, saying, “I’m scared. What the heck is this medicine? What should I do if Mingyu develops such side effects?”

“Well, that means his constitution is changing very rapidly. He’ll get better soon, so don’t worry too much.”

Byungwon nodded his head, but he was still cautious, but Hyunwoo was confident. He had never heard about any adverse effect of wild ginseng.

“Please don’t feed Mingyu in the evening and have him take the medicine on the empty stomach as much as possible. That way he will be able to absorb the active ingredients of the medicine. You can have him take the medicine for ten days like that.”

“Thanks.”

“He say this is very hard to get, and he says he was very fortunate to get it, so let him drink it to the last drop. Oh, don’t use any metal cup when you give it to him.”

“Metal? Okay, got it.”

Kang Byungwon wrote down the paper Hyunwoo’s special instruction.

“Are you sure this is free?” asked Byungwon.

“I told you already about him. He’s an eccentric person. He doesn’t treat a person for money.”

“Oh, I understand!”