A Chairman Who Has No Regrets - Chapter 136



Only Krnovel

Episode 136 – Do as you wish – (4)

Hyorong nodded to the guy’s words and walked along. The guys from Sanggye-dong were still following me. I stopped by the warehouse to get some farm equipment, and the impatient Dong-su asked me.

“What are you going to do now?”

“Soil?”

The guys tilt their heads at my answer.

I would like to go to my mother’s store, but if I go, many people will recognize me for no reason, and it will be more complicated. I have become a celebrity because the documentary was a huge hit.

A little while ago, before Hyorong’s grandmother showed up, the tourists were whispering to me. Perhaps if the atmosphere had been brighter, they would have greeted me.

“Farming.”

When I say soil, the children don’t seem to understand, so I explain it to them in more detail, and their eyes widen.

“Farming?”

I nodded and pointed with my finger to the wide wasteland at the end of Hodori Village.

“What are you planting there? Isn’t that a luxury in Seoul where land prices are expensive?”

Did he study real estate? Hyoryong let out a chuckle at the guy’s words.

As the guy said, it was foolish to farm on the precious land of Seoul.

“But it’s called a fairy tale village, so shouldn’t there be at least some flowers?”

“Flowers? You’re planting flowers in that vast land?”

The sowing has already been done a long time ago.

I had asked for help during the busy times when heavy equipment was moving around for construction.

I heard that sunflowers are weak because they are annuals, and that you have to pull out weeds to prevent them from taking hold, not just after sowing. It’s better if all the nutrients are delivered to the sunflowers, or something like that.

“uh.”

The guys from Sanggye-dong tilt their heads as they look out into the distance at the wasteland.

“Is it pretty?”

“I don’t know.”

Who would say they are not men? They seem to have no interest in flowers. I can already picture the future of the shantytown where flowers bloom and bees fly around, and where they laugh and run around among them… no, the future of Hodori Village. It seems that flowers are not just a matter of interest to young men.

Phew.

Before anyone else, he picked up a hoe and began to level the ground little by little. To be exact, he chose the places where the weeds were showing their heads.

“Is that a weed?”

As I nod, the children come around me and watch what I do.

I am not an expert on grass either. I am just moving based on what I heard from the experts during the day. You can see small sunflower sprouts poking out between the numerous weeds.

The experts said it wouldn’t be easy, but there aren’t many sprouts that have shown their heads yet. I’m worried whether I’ll be able to bloom as much as I sowed.

“This is a sunflower, don’t touch it.”

“Ah, that’s a flower.”

“Wow- It’s amazing that this little thing later becomes a flower.”

Where is there a being that is complete from the beginning? Everything develops from something incomplete to something closer to completion.

Having roughly figured out what the weeds were, the Sanggye-dong guys spread out across a wide wasteland of just under 2,000 pyeong and began to pull out small weeds with hoes or by hand.

It was something that would take several days to do alone, but with the guys helping me, I thought today would be enough.

“Brother! Brother!”

When I turned around, thinking that someone was calling me, I saw the future Chang-Hyeon of Hodori Village running towards me with a runny nose.

“Watch your step.”

“ah?”

The guy who stopped dead in his tracks at my words.

“Do you see the slightly dug-up ground here?”

“huh.”

“You have to step only there. Otherwise, the flower will get hurt.”

“aha!”

The guy who came running excitedly again as if he understood looks at the hoe.

“Hyung-ah, hyung-ah, what are you doing? Are you digging up kudzu roots?”

When I see a hoe, I think of digging arrowroot. For a moment, I try to laugh out loud, but soon my mouth starts to taste bitter. As if I had chewed on arrowroot.

The little guy knows about kudzu.

“No, this is how you pull out weeds.”

“Why are you pulling out the grass?”

“This little leaf here is supposed to become a flower later, but these weeds are taking away the nutrients that should go to the leaf.”

“Nutrients?”

“Food. These guys are stealing my food.”

“They’re bad guys!”

Chang-Hyeon frowns deeply and picks up some weeds with his hands.

It seems like he doesn’t care that a lot of dirt gets into those little bracken fingernails.

“Then you get hurt, it’s still cold.”

“It’s okay! I’m good at digging.”

Do you really need to sell the land with your bare hands?

It’s quite shocking that a young guy has had this experience.

“Where did you go, sisters?”

“Brother, draw a picture at home.”

“Changhyun, don’t you draw?”

“Hehehe, I came because I was curious.”

“okay-”

“Hyung-ah, hyung-ah, is this also a bad guy?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“What is this?”

“That too.”

I showed him the weeds and sunflowers several times, and he soon followed suit. It seems like he has quite a bit of work to do, as expected from the future of Hodori Village.

“Brother.”

“huh?”

“Yeah, there is.”

“Yeah, tell me.”

“Are Youngcheol’s uncle, Sucheol’s aunt, and Heesuk’s aunt like this too?”

Bring in weeds while mentioning people.

He said that weeds are bad guys, but why did he mention people? I think I know who he’s talking about. They’re probably the people who followed Park Jeong-yong around.

“Why do you think so?”

“It’s like this… He said we have to get out of our village now.”

“……”

What should I say?

What should I say?

For a moment, nothing came to mind, so I just pulled out the weeds.

Pok, pok.

The guy muttered while pulling out weeds with his hands.

“I want to keep hanging out with Yeong-cheol, Su-cheol, and Hee-sook… but they’re not bad guys.”

I think I made a mistake from the beginning.

I don’t think it was necessary to use the word “bad guy.” I’ve never done anything like raising a child, let alone anything like that. I sometimes thought that children of the same age as Chang-Hyeon were my future competitors, so maybe that’s natural.

“Hey, what weird things are you teaching the kid?”

The opposite sex appears just then.

A guy who never speaks first kept nagging at me. I didn’t argue with him because he was right about everything he said.

“Changhyun-ah.”

“Yeah! Hyung!”

“This is not a bad grass.”

“Isn’t that a bad weed? Earlier, the number one hyung said it was a bad weed.”

“Here, on this sunflower, there is a bad weed.”

“It wasn’t a bad idea just now…”

“For some animals, this grass could be a valuable meal.”

Hoo.

Lee Seong-je continues his very difficult explanation. Explaining relativity to that child already makes my temples tingle.

I sneak a peek.

I hoe down hard and get away from the guys. That was enough of the troublesome story. There was no need to listen to or watch bad things for so long.

Pok, pok.

As I was moving around absentmindedly, I found myself near Taesu, who was hoeing the lawn.

“Hey, Taesu.”

“uh.”

The guy answered without even looking at me, his concentration on the grass.

“Are you really not in the soccer club?”

“Oh my, that noise again?”

He was a guy who had been suffering from his homeroom teacher, Seo Yoon-seok, for some time now.

There were three guys in our grade who were famous for playing soccer, and Taesu was one of them. Of course, Gyuil was included as well.

And the most amazing thing is.

I was included too.

“Why aren’t you interested? You’re a guy who’s crazy about soccer?”

Taesu bit his lower lip for a moment and then turned his gaze to my knees. Then he pretended as if nothing had happened and continued to hoe.

“Is your knee not completely healed?”

I asked as if I didn’t know.

I also knew that the guy wasn’t receiving proper treatment.

“No, it’s all over.”

The guy also lies calmly.

It may be true, but it is certain that the aftercare was not done properly.

The guy kept delivering milk, coal briquettes, and newspapers, and on his days off, he would always go around the neighborhood looking for work.

“But when we talk about soccer, why are we looking at knees?”

The guy is tight-lipped.

I thought I knew why.

The risk of injury that comes with playing the rough sport of soccer.

And with injury comes big money. And the smell of poverty still lingered on Taesu.

“Just do your work. Don’t talk to me.”

“Is it your job? Or is it my job?”

“Right? Oh my, why am I working so hard on this?”

The guy chuckled as if I found his words ridiculous and continued to dig.

“That’s what my mother said.”

“My mom?”

When I mentioned his mother, he stopped sulking and looked at me sharply. I didn’t know that his mother was a kind of trigger for him. If I spoke to him in a slightly twisted way, he would get angry.

“Yeah, that’s what Mom said.”

“Why, what.”

Taesu, who is fully prepared to defend himself. Of course, there is no reason for me to say anything that requires him to defend himself.

“You do business at Namdaemun, right?”

“Oh, right.”

“That business, wouldn’t the people of Hodori Village be interested?”

“How many people buy stationery here? Why do you do business here?”

“I would like to sell stationery here, but I also want to sell other things.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Did you know that the number of tourists to Hodori Village has been increasing recently?”

Taesu nodded obediently. Everyone in the neighborhood must know that as construction nears completion, the number of tourists increases.

“But there’s no supermarket or souvenir shop in the neighborhood.”

“so?”

“I was thinking of trying something like that.”

“Don’t supermarkets cost a lot of money?”

He glances at me.

A guy who shrinks when money is mentioned.

“I wish your mother specialized in stationery and toys, not supermarkets.”

“I told you, there’s no one in this neighborhood who would go to a stationery store. You don’t even bring your own supplies.”

A guy who still doesn’t understand what he’s being told to do to the people of Hodori Village.

“That’s why I mentioned souvenirs too.”

“What souvenir?”

“Hey, isn’t the theme of Hodori Village a fairy tale?”

“however?”

“Have you never been to Children’s Grand Park?”

“uh.”

Even when I asked the question, a chuckle escaped my lips.

As for me, I have never been there. I have never visited a theme park in my previous life, even after becoming an adult. In the US, I have occasionally been to theme parks for events, but I have never been interested in those kinds of things.

“But if you go there, they sell things like balloons? Like toy swords.”

“You sell that kind of stuff? You sell something that’s inedible?”

Not for sale.

Very well.

I thought Taesu was pretty smart, but he seems to be a bit clueless in this area. It seems like he’s destined to become a natural athlete.

“Hey, if there are more tourists, there will be more families coming to play, right?”

“I guess so. I have to sell kimbap.”

“this…”

I almost swore without realizing it.

“Hey, okay. When is your mom getting off work?”

“If you finish cleaning up and come back, around 9 o’clock?”

“You’re late.”

“Wholesalesmen do business late into the night.”

As far as I know, the guy’s mother runs a street stall, but it seems she also deals with wholesalers.

“Really? Should I go to your house and get something to eat tonight?”

“You sat there and made a sound like you were picking bean sprouts out of a beggar’s butthole.”

“What does it mean to have a good friend, kid?”

“Get out, I have nothing to eat.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll buy some ramen, okay?”

“Ahem, then what, come.”

That damn bastard.

I’m trying this because I think I’ll be interested in soccer once the money is taken care of, but I feel like it’s not very nutritious. I haven’t even gotten to eat once.

By the way, I found someone to sell souvenirs and toys, but who should I sell the rest of them?

I looked at the Sanggye-dong guys who were working hard in the distance.

Do you guys know?

Maybe now is the chance.