An Advertising Genius Falls into the Joseon Era - Chapter 23

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 23
“Ah, my head…….”
Her skull felt like it was splitting apart.
The ceiling spun in lazy circles.
Ha Yun lay dazed for a long moment before managing to prop herself up on her elbows.
“Mm…….”
By instinct, she reached out and grabbed the water glass on the table, downing it in one gulp.
Glug, glug.
Once the water hit her stomach, she felt something like herself again.
“Phew.”
Ha Yun pressed her forehead and muttered under her breath.
“How did I even get home yesterday?”
She tried to trace back her memories, but nothing came.
This was the first time she’d ever gotten this drunk.
She’d always prided herself on having a cast-iron constitution, so waking up like this hit her all the harder.
“Good grief. I didn’t even change out of my clothes before I collapsed?”
She was still wearing the same outfit from her outing the day before.
It was rumpled, certainly, but thankfully she saw no sign that anyone had tampered with her garments.
Ha Yun reached for her memory again.
“My last memory from yesterday was…….”
No matter how hard she dug, nothing surfaced.
She remembered drinking with the Haengsu, toasting back and forth. After that, everything turned to fog.
“Right…… let me wash up first and think this through.”
Unable to retrieve the missing pieces, Ha Yun pushed herself up and headed toward the Well.
***
Several people were already gathered at the Well.
“Oh? Isn’t that Ha Sung?”
“No, really?”
They were all Haengsu who had shared drinks with her the night before.
They greeted her warmly.
“Hey there, Ha Sung. Good morning.”
“Ah, hello…… there?”
“How’s the head?”
“Um? I’m fine…… I think?”
Her tone hovered awkwardly between formal and casual.
Just last night she’d been speaking freely with them.
Now that the drink had worn off, Ha Yun was back to square one, stiff as ever.
That was the curse of alcohol—it erased everything.
Every word, every gesture.
Every memory and every promise.
Watching her struggle, Han Seong Deok stepped closer.
“Why the formal speech suddenly? Don’t you remember? We agreed to drop the formality last night.”
“Did I really do that…… ?”
Ha Yun tilted her head in confusion.
Then Han Seong Deok smiled and said:
“If your memory won’t come back, I’ll have to drag you to Cheongyun Pavilion again. This time I’ll feed you until you remember—no holding back.”
At that threat, Ha Yun’s mind suddenly cleared.
“Wait, I remember! I do remember! Han Seong Deok! Your name’s Seong Deok, right?”
“Ha. Finally the memory returns.”
“But how did I get home yesterday?”
Ha Yun rubbed her temples as if her head was throbbing.
“I remember toasting with all of you, but after that it’s all a blur.”
At her words, Han Seong Deok’s eyes went wide.
“Did Song Do Hyeon not tell you? He carried you home on his back.”
“Song Do Hyeon?”
The moment she heard that Song Do Hyeon had carried her, color bloomed across Ha Yun’s cheeks.
“That insufferable bastard—I mean, Song Haengsu carried me?”
“That’s right. It was quite the spectacle. When I went to the back room, there you were—sound asleep in his arms.”
“You’re kidding. I fell asleep in that bastard’s arms?”
Ha Yun’s face burned scarlet.
The alcohol from last night was rising back up again.
“So I just asked him to do me a favor—take you back to the Lodging. Seeing that you’ve woken up like this, he must have managed it without a hitch.”
“I’ve gone mad. Completely mad.”
Ha Yun covered her face with both hands.
Shame washed over her, delayed and overwhelming.
At the same moment, fragments of last night’s memory began to surface.
The warmth of an embrace.
The solid steadiness of a shoulder.
The breath brushing against her ear.
Every bit of it—what she’d thought was a dream—had been real.
‘Surely not?’
Then a single thought struck her suddenly.
‘He didn’t figure out that I’m a woman, did he?’
There were no marks on her body from wandering hands, but unease clung to her anyway.
If her identity had been exposed, this was far more than a problem she could simply walk away from.
If Song Do Hyeon turned her in, she’d be back in prison.
‘That bastard would do it in a heartbeat.’
Ha Yun nodded to herself as she considered Song Do Hyeon’s temperament.
In the end, she resolved to seek him out.
“So where is Song the Haengsu right now?”
“Who knows. Probably in the Writing Room. That one loves reading more than anything.”
Im Sang Ok had set aside a separate space where anyone, regardless of station, could learn letters.
Ha Yun studied Chinese characters there herself, whenever time allowed.
“The Writing Room, then… Got it. Thanks.”
Once Ha Yun learned that Song Do Hyeon was in the Writing Room, she headed straight there.
***
“There he is.”
Being a rest day, the Writing Room held only Song Do Hyeon.
Truth be told, the Writing Room rarely saw visitors even on working days.
At most, three or four people in a day.
After finishing grueling work, people thought of a cool cup of Makgeolli first—not the book they’d left unfinished yesterday.
So the Writing Room was always quiet.
Song Do Hyeon sat in the middle of it.
“What book are you always reading like that?”
Ha Yun drew closer upon spotting Song Do Hyeon.
She thrust forward what she had prepared.
“I owe you thanks for yesterday.”
“What is this?”
Song Do Hyeon looked at Ha Yun and asked.
His response was quite different from yesterday, when he’d barely glanced her way.
“Yakgwa.”
“Why would you…?”
Ha Yun fidgeted awkwardly as she spoke.
“Apparently you carried me on your back yesterday.”
“Ah, that?”
Song Do Hyeon turned his head away again, as if indifferent.
“Don’t think twice about it. I only did it because I lost a wager.”
Song Do Hyeon fabricated the lie out of habit.
It was a practiced reflex born from years of hiding his true feelings.
Ha Yun asked with a look of surprise.
“A wager?”
“Yes.”
“What kind of wager?”
Song Do Hyeon turned his gaze away again at Ha Yun’s curious question.
“Hah.”
Song Do Hyeon looked at Ha Yun directly.
“How long it would take before you collapsed.”
“What?”
Song Do Hyeon spoke with eyes gone cold.
“We wagered on how much you’d drink yesterday.”
“You made a wager over me?”
Ha Yun’s shock was plain on her face at the revelation that someone had staked money on her.
“I thought you could hold at least ten cups, but to collapse before that—tsk. What good is your tolerance if it’s that weak?”
“……!”
Ha Yun’s face flushed crimson.
Song Do Hyeon continued flatly.
“So don’t go drinking recklessly elsewhere. Unless you want to be a nuisance to me again.”
“What did you just say?”
She had come only to offer her thanks, and here he was, needling her.
Disgusted at being dragged back to square one, Ha Yun turned to leave.
“Really, I came here to thank you, and all you do is mock me. We’re done now. Finished!”
With that, Ha Yun turned her back.
Song Do Hyeon watched her go with an unreadable gaze.
Then it came.
As Ha Yun walked away, Song Do Hyeon murmured softly.
“Im Ha Seong.”
Ha Yun made no response.
It wasn’t a sound she couldn’t hear.
Rather, it was just loud enough to slip past if one didn’t pay attention.
But even so slight a whisper, one’s true name was hard to let pass unheeded.
When Ha Yun showed no reaction, Song Do Hyeon tried calling her by another name.
“Hey, Im Haengsu.”
“What? What now?”
Only then did Ha Yun turn around.
Her face was brimming with exasperation.
“Why are you calling me suddenly? If you have something to say, just say it all at once. Why do you call me back when I’m leaving?”
“…….”
Song Do Hyeon regarded her in silence.
Eyes, nose, mouth.
The more closely he examined each feature, the more remarkably symmetrical her face was—delicate lines that seemed almost too refined for a man. The longer he looked, the more a subtle dissonance crept over him.
Under that piercing gaze, Ha Yun hesitated for a moment.
“What? Is there something on my face?”
Song Do Hyeon shook his head.
“No, nothing. I must have been mistaken.”
“Ugh, honestly!”
Ha Yun’s exasperation finally boiled over.
“If you call me back one more time, I won’t be letting this slide. You understand?”
With that menacing threat, Ha Yun left the Writing Room.
“That person is truly strange!”
Song Do Hyeon watched her departing figure for a long time.
***
Not long after,
the Great Hall meeting commenced.
Every Haengsu, including the Daebang Im Sang Ok, assembled without fail.
“Now that we’ve resolved the dried pollock matter…….”
Im Sang Ok opened carefully.
“Yun, what items require the most urgent attention now?”
Yun spoke.
“There are no items requiring immediate urgent handling at present.”
“Well, that’s a relief.”
“However…….”
“However?”
Yun scratched his head as if troubled.
“The overall market conditions have been poor.”
“Poor market conditions? For what reason?”
Yun explained the cause.
“The relentless extreme heat wave has kept people from coming to market at all. As a result, the merchants’ revenues have fallen to barely half their usual.”
“Half!”
The Great Hall stirred at word that sales had been cut in half.
“Unless the monsoon arrives soon……we may find ourselves suffering losses as well.”
“Is that so?”
“Inventory is already piling up in the warehouse. For now we have room, but it won’t be long before it’s completely full. When that happens, we’ll just have to sit idle.”
Mansang operated much like a modern wholesale distributor.
They brought quality goods from all over the country, sold them to merchants, and pocketed the difference as profit.
If merchants couldn’t earn money, it was natural that Mansang’s sales would suffer too.
In fact, one could say Mansang took the hardest blow.
Merchants could simply refuse new stock, but Mansang’s lifeblood—the constant flow of capital needed to move goods—would dry up entirely.
For a large trading house, frozen funds were no different from a stopped heartbeat.
“That’s serious trouble.”
The air in the Great Hall hung heavy.
Goods could be sold one way or another.
By lowering prices or pounding the pavement.
But drawing back customers who’d abandoned the market because of the heat was an entirely different matter.
Even at this early hour, you could feel the thick, suffocating warmth.
In weather like this, one misstep and you’d end up bedridden with heat stroke.
That’s why it was rare to see anyone venturing beyond the market district or into the streets at all.
Yet they couldn’t simply wait and do nothing.
Whether through a Prayer for Rain, publicity, or some other means, drawing people back to the market had become urgent.
“Yun.”
“Yes, sir.”
“How many markets are currently operating in Uiju in total?”
“Counting the large and small ones, there are roughly thirty.”
“Thirty, you say…”
Im Sang Ok squeezed his eyes shut, as if lost in deep thought.
A brief silence followed.
Shortly after, Im Sang Ok opened his mouth again.
“Then here’s what we’ll do.”
“How so?”
“Each Haengsu will take charge of one market.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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