An Advertising Genius Falls into the Joseon Era - Chapter 24

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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 24
“Each of you takes a market?”
Everyone stared at one another in stunned silence at this unexpected proposal.
Im Sang-ok continued with measured calm.
“Each Manager oversees one market and helps the merchants there. After all, simply having everyone rush about together doesn’t actually solve anything, does it?”
“I suppose that’s true…….”
It was exactly as he’d said.
In reality, the Managers stepping in wouldn’t change much.
It wouldn’t suddenly draw crowds to a market,
wouldn’t make goods fly off the shelves,
wouldn’t bring rain,
and against the natural disaster of this oppressive heat, everything was futile.
All they could do was go to the markets, lend an extra hand, and offer companionship.
Yet somehow, that mattered.
Im Sang-ok knew well that an outstretched hand in times of hardship touched the human heart in ways nothing else could.
Now was the time to win their hearts, not their coin.
Im Sang-ok issued his directive to aid the merchants.
“Use whatever means you see fit—as long as it doesn’t violate moral principles. Support these merchants in every way, material and otherwise. If they survive, the market survives.”
“Surely……!”
Inspired by Im Sang-ok’s words, passion kindled in several Managers’ eyes.
“You speak true, sir.”
“This is exactly when we must step forward!”
“We can’t give up over a little heat like this!”
The meeting ended there.
There were no concrete goals or detailed plans to speak of.
But simply igniting the resolve to save the markets was positive enough.
“Then I’ll leave it to you.”
“You can count on us!”
With that, the meeting concluded: each Manager would take responsibility for one market.
***
A short while later.
Though the meeting had ended, many Managers lingered in the Main Hall.
Their talk centered on the markets they’d now be assigned to oversee.
“Which market did you draw?”
“Dongmun Market for me.”
“Ah, that’s quite a distance from here.”
“And what about you?”
“Namsan Market.”
“What? That’s practically next door!”
“So what if it’s close? Namsan Market is tiny—people rarely venture there anyway.”
The markets had been assigned fairly through lottery drawing.
In commerce, location is half the battle.
This month’s earnings depended entirely on which market one drew.
A prime location with high foot traffic meant higher returns.
Conversely, markets in remote corners or hard-to-reach places meant struggling to turn a profit.
The Managers continued their discussion.
“Ugh, sweat’s already starting to drip…….”
“In weather like this, no one’s going to venture outside…….”
As noon approached, the sun’s heat grew more oppressive by the minute.
It was fortunate the Main Hall was shaded; in direct sunlight, the heat was so brutal one couldn’t stand five minutes.
Ha Yoon, who until recently had endured summers through all the modern conveniences of his own time, found it particularly unbearable.
‘If I could just feel air conditioning……that’s all I’d ask for.’
Experiencing such heat for the first time in his life, Ha Yoon could barely keep his wits about him.
That was when it happened.
“Ha Seong.”
“Huh? Me?”
Han Seong-deok approached Ha Yoon, who had been standing in a daze.
“Yes, you. Is there anyone else here with the name Ha Seong?”
“Oh, right. I’m Ha Seong.”
“Are you heat-struck? You’re talking nonsense today.”
Han Seong-deok regarded Ha Yoon with an expression of bewilderment as the younger man fumbled over the name.
“Aside from that—which market did you end up being assigned to?”
“Me? They said something about Eunpyeong Market?”
“Eunpyeong Market?”
Han Seong-deok’s eyes widened visibly as he heard the name of the market Ha Yoon would be managing.
“What? Is there some problem with it?”
“No, it’s not that exactly…….”
Han Seong-deok held his tongue.
Eunpyeong Market, the one Ha Yoon would now manage, had once been among the most thriving markets in all of Uiju.
But a fire had consumed the entire market in a single night, erasing everything at a stroke.
The stalls, the goods, the merchants themselves—all of it.
Everything had turned to ash.
In the years that followed, rumors circulated that the market had recovered to some degree, yet coaxing people back once their footsteps had ceased was anything but simple.
And so Eunpyeong Market gradually faded from people’s minds, eventually regarded as a place that had never existed at all.
That had been ten years ago.
‘Time has passed, so surely things have improved somewhat.’
Han Seong-deok, drawing on those old memories of Eunpyeong Market, offered what comfort he could.
“It’s far, I’ll admit—difficult to reach—but if it’s you, I think you’ll manage well.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“I should get going. Take care of yourself.”
“You too.”
With that brief counsel, Han Seong-deok departed.
He had no leisure to worry about others now.
He too needed to breathe life back into the market entrusted to him as quickly as possible.
And with each quickening step, his anxieties only deepened.
“Heh-heh.”
Elsewhere.
Song Do-hyeon, who had been eavesdropping on the two men’s conversation from nearby, let slip a knowing laugh.
‘Eunpyeong Market, then…….’
Ten years prior.
The sight of Eunpyeong Market reduced to ash remained vivid in his mind.
Back then, when Song Do-hyeon had been a mere functionary, he’d been assigned to the market’s reconstruction efforts and had suffered through days of grueling work.
No matter how exceptional Im Sang-ok’s talents might be, reviving that place bordered on the impossible.
The very foundations upon which the market stood had burned away—what means could possibly restore it?
It would be the same whether twenty years passed instead of ten.
To resurrect Eunpyeong Market would require, at minimum, support at the governmental level.
“This competition is already mine, without question. Heh-heh.”
Leaving Ha Yoon sprawled in the lingering heat behind him, Song Do-hyeon withdrew at leisure.
***
“Huff, huff. At this rate I really will collapse.”
After a difficult journey, Ha Yoon finally reached Eunpyeong Market and wiped the beads of sweat from his brow.
In this era without automobiles, buses, or bicycles, the only means of travel was one’s own two legs.
“It’s really too much. Coming all the way out to a market this distant.”
The heat was so oppressive that he begrudged even stepping into the street just outside his door, let alone venturing to a market.
Had Ha Yoon not been under orders, he would have conducted all his affairs indoors for at least this month.
Exerting himself in such weather, draining his strength outdoors, was wasteful in every way. Once he’d sweated through his clothes, he found himself incapable of attending to any other business.
Yet the merchants, needing to earn even a pittance to survive, trudged toward the market with bitter resignation.
Ha Yoon, understanding their plight, had forced himself to make the difficult journey here.
And yet,
“This……this is a market?”
Upon seeing Eunpyeong Market, Ha Yoon found himself at a loss for words.
The stalls were blanketed uniformly in dust, and the narrow lanes were so desolate that not even an ant could be spotted.
Moreover, the shuttered storefronts of what were evidently failed businesses still stood like abandoned houses, casting a dismal pall over everything.
It was remarkable that a market persisted here at all under such conditions.
‘Now I understand why Seong-deok looked that way.’
Ha Yoon grasped the meaning behind Han Seong-deok’s earlier expression.
It was then.
“A, a customer!”
“Come on out, everyone! We have a customer!”
“What? A customer, you say?”
The moment someone appeared at the market entrance, the merchants scattered like cockroaches, suddenly visible.
“Oh?”
They surrounded Ha Yoon and launched into an eager pitch.
“What sort of goods brings you here? If you’ve come this far, you’re not looking for anything ordinary.”
“Whatever you’re after, best hurry. Nobody knows when we’ll have to shut down.”
“Don’t let appearances fool you—we’ve got stock. Just tell us what you need, and we’ll hunt it down.”
“And don’t go browsing around without telling me. I’ll be watching the whole time.”
Desperation gleamed in the merchants’ eyes.
Few customers found their way to Eunpyeong Market unless they were lost.
Least of all on a scorching day like this.
“Well, you see……”
It was hard to admit he wasn’t a customer.
Ha Yoon forced the words out.
“I didn’t come here to buy anything.”
“Then why?”
The marketplace fell silent.
The merchants waited quietly for his next words.
“I’m Ha Sung from Man Sang.”
“What? Man Sang?”
“You’re not a customer?”
When the merchants learned Ha Yoon had come from Man Sang, their faces fell.
“Ah, so much for that……”
“Right, customers don’t come to a place like this……”
“Sigh, sales are finished for today too.”
Then one merchant crossed his arms and asked bluntly.
“But what’s Man Sang doing here? You haven’t shown your face in years.”
“If you’ve come to peddle goods, you’d best wake up. We’re all just scraping by day to day.”
Clearly, there was no sense in trying to place Man Sang’s inventory in a place like this. That’s why none of the other managers had visited either.
There simply weren’t enough markets to go around, so they’d forced this one on as a makeshift assignment.
Without this crisis, Eunpyeong Market would have been forgotten by everyone.
Yet the task to revive Eunpyeong Market had been given to Ha Yoon.
Ha Yoon began his careful appeal.
“I’ve come to help you all.”
“Help us?”
“How is Man Sang supposed to help us?”
“We’ll have to think about that as we go.”
Even as Ha Yoon spoke of helping them, the merchants’ response remained lukewarm.
“You’re telling me you’ll save a place nobody could save in ten years? How generous of you.”
“If one person from Man Sang could revive this market, it would have come back long ago.”
“We’re stuck here out of necessity, but if we were any younger, we’d have left ages ago.”
“Your heart’s in the right place, but don’t strain yourself. This is a dead market, after all.”
True to the merchants’ sardonic words, Eunpyeong Market resembled a shantytown more than a proper market.
The storefronts were cobbled together from scrap wood, and more than half of them had gaping holes.
Rainwater dripped constantly from the ceiling, and whenever a harsh gust swept through, the hastily affixed boards would rattle loose.
Had no one told him this was a market, he would never have believed it—the desolation was complete.
‘There really is no way forward here……’
He’d thought of several approaches, but he hadn’t expected the decay to run this deep.
Everything he’d prepared was useless.
The infrastructure was virtually nonexistent.
The location tucked away at the foot of a hill.
The merchants’ spirits reduced to ash.
With barely a scrap of shade, hoping someone would venture out in this oppressive heat was folly.
Everything was at its absolute worst.
‘How do I even begin to rebuild this place?’
Ha Yoon couldn’t hide his bewilderment.

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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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