An Advertising Genius Falls into the Joseon Era - Chapter 25

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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 25
“If you’re not going to buy anything, don’t just loiter about. Business is slow, and everyone’s on edge.”
Once a merchant recognized that Ha Yun wasn’t a customer, he spoke curtly.
“Come now, everyone disperse. Back to your posts, if you please.”
“Ugh, what a waste of time.”
“I should’ve slept longer if I’d known.”
The merchants scattered in all directions as though they’d never assembled at all.
“Well?”
Ha Yun watched them vanish as suddenly as they’d appeared, his eyes hollow with disappointment.
“What am I, a locust swarm?”
Left alone, Ha Yun began a slow survey of Eunpyeong Market.
‘At least the market’s not small.’
Eunpyeong Market was indeed sizable.
The Fire Disaster had diminished it, but a decade prior it had been one of the largest markets in Uiju.
The real problem was that this sprawling place felt utterly devoid of vitality.
It stood in stark contrast to the other markets, which always bustled with energy.
A wisp of scent drifted past.
Ha Yun’s nose wrinkled at the acrid smell wafting from somewhere nearby.
“Don’t tell me that’s incense?”
Impossibly, smoke from memorial incense still rose in pockets throughout the market, honoring the dead merchants.
Seeing this, Ha Yun pressed his palms against his temples.
“This is making me dizzy. Really.”
The incense only deepened the already desolate mood, making the market feel like a haunted house.
One small mercy was that he remained unaware of the cold sweat beading across his back, courtesy of that very atmosphere.
‘No wonder any customers who came ended up running away.’
How could he possibly solve this?
There was far more than one or two problems to fix.
Ha Yun had been allotted only one month.
He was to manage this place only during the scorching heat wave — just thirty days.
“The time is short, and the budget is shorter still.”
Since he had to support not only Eunpyeong Market but all the markets in Uiju, the allowance given to a single manager was paltry.
Barely fifty silver pieces.
In modern terms, roughly a month’s salary for an office worker.
Reviving a dead market with such funds was nearly impossible.
‘This is difficult. Very difficult.’
Ha Yun began moving slowly through the market.
Standing idle would solve nothing.
He had to move and search for answers himself.
“A wasteland, pure and simple…….”
As he ventured deeper into the marketplace, the situation grew only more severe.
More than half the stalls lining the corridors sat empty.
On the rare stall where goods were displayed, the merchants’ eyes betrayed no will to sell.
Some stalls held only abandoned wares, their owners nowhere to be found.
‘Is this business, or just giving up?’
If there existed such a thing as a market of the dead, it must feel like this.
A pall of gloom hung over all of Eunpyeong Market.
‘The incense, and all of this—what exactly happened here?’
Suppressing an inexplicable unease, Ha Yun walked to the far end of the marketplace.
There, the sight that greeted him stopped him cold.
“Did a war break out here?”
If the inner marketplace could be summed up in one word, it was ashen.
The entire surrounding area was charred black.
Tree stumps—their columns reduced to blackened remains—jutted from the ground at intervals, still dark with ash.
Scattered about were what appeared to be the debris of buildings, strewn haphazardly across the space.
The soil itself was uniformly black.
Ha Yun knelt.
He brushed the black earth with his hand.
The soil crumbled between his fingers, falling away with a soft rustle—more ash than earth, truly.
“Something certainly happened here…….”
Having circled the entire marketplace, the outline of what had occurred began to take shape.
The vacant stare in the merchants’ eyes.
Ruins scattered like the remnants of a battlefield.
And above it all, a peculiar scent drifting through the market.
Something terrible had happened here—of that much, there was no doubt.
‘What on earth occurred in this place?’
As an outsider, Ha Yun could not know the full details.
To revive Eunpyeong Market, he first needed to uncover what had transpired here.
“Excuse me.”
Spotting a merchant conducting business nearby, Ha Yun approached.
“I’d like to ask you something.”
…….
The merchant regarded Ha Yun in silence.
His gaze was utterly lifeless.
“This is a fairly large market, but was it always this empty?”
…….
Ha Yun waited patiently for the merchant’s reply.
But minutes passed, and the man merely stared at him without offering a word in response.
Ha Yun tried again.
“Excuse me? Can you hear me?”
Nod. Nod.
The merchant gave a small, affirmative nod.
Yet that was all he offered.
Still, he volunteered nothing Ha Yun sought.
He stood as if waiting for something, wanting something.
……?
Ha Yun glanced downward.
On the merchant’s stall lay pumpkin taffy, several days old by the look of it, arranged for sale.
Nod. Nod.
The merchant met Ha Yun’s eyes and nodded once more.
“Ah.”
Understanding the gesture, Ha Yun quickly reached for a piece of pumpkin taffy.
“I’ll take one.”
Only then did the merchant finally speak.
“Ten years ago, it wasn’t like this.”
The merchant was not mute.
He continued his explanation.
“Throughout Uiju, when people spoke of Eunpyeong Market, they knew it as a thriving place.”
“This market?”
“Yes. It was always bustling with customers, brimming with every sort of goods and goodwill alike.”
“Goodwill?”
Ha Yun found it hard to believe.
Customers, perhaps, but goodwill?
The Eunpyeong Market before his eyes contained no warmth whatsoever.
The merchant explained the reason.
“There was a fire.”
“A fire?”
“A terrible one.”
The merchant said this while lifting one side of his hair.
Beneath the long strands lay a charred scar, now laid bare.
Gasp.
Ha Yun’s breath caught at the sight of it.
The wound alone spoke volumes of the inferno’s ferocity.
…….
Ha Yun found himself unable to continue.
The merchant, too, remained frozen.
……?
The merchant held his position, scar still exposed.
Minutes stretched on in silence.
“……Sir?”
And there it ended.
The story Ha Yun could hear for what he’d paid was this.
The merchant gestured with his eyes toward the pumpkin taffy on the stall.
“……I’ll buy one more.”
Realizing his time was up, Ha Yun quickly reached down and grabbed another piece of pumpkin taffy.
“It happened in an instant.”
The merchant resumed his story.
“The flames shot up, then spread across the entire market. When I opened my eyes, the whole place was an inferno.”
His gaze drifted for a moment to some distant place.
“I was lucky enough to survive, but Park from the shop next door—the roof collapsed on him, and he was swallowed whole by the flames.”
“How terrible……”
“The fire spread so quickly there was no time to run.”
The merchant pointed with his finger at the scorched foundations where shops once stood.
Ten years had passed, and the scars of the Fire Calamity still remained. The Fire Calamity had swept through the merchants’ hearts as utterly as it had the market.
“Silk and medicinal herbs and cloth—everything they’d built their whole lives for, it all burned to ash.”
As the memory surfaced, the merchant’s expression turned bitter.
“No one’s come here since that day. More than one person died there, after all.”
With that, the merchant fell silent.
“……Excuse me?”
Ha Yun picked up the pumpkin taffy, but it was clear the merchant had nothing more to say.
He simply closed his eyes tight.
An awkward silence settled between them.
“……So something like that did happen.”
Ha Yun carefully set the pumpkin taffy down.
He felt uncomfortable, as if he’d broached a subject he shouldn’t have.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault.”
The merchant said this and began tidying up his stall.
“Business was poor today anyway. Might as well close up and get myself a drink.”
After tidying the stall, the merchant left with a bitter smile.
Ha Yun stood watching his receding figure, lost in thought.
“The market burned down in a fire……”
He’d suspected as much, but the scale of the devastation exceeded his imagination.
And the death toll was far from insignificant.
Now that he thought about it, there were memorial statues scattered throughout Eunpyeong Market, as if to honor those who had fallen.
“This won’t be solved by ordinary means.”
The more he learned about Eunpyeong Market, the heavier his heart grew.
Now he understood why customers stayed away from this place.
And why the merchants seemed so powerless.
When he’d first arrived, Ha Yun himself had been unmotivated.
The oppressive heat and the merchants’ indifferent attitudes had worn him down.
He’d even considered simply passing the month here without accomplishing anything.
But now that he knew what they’d endured, he couldn’t just stand by and watch.
Ha Yun’s father had owned an antique shop that was completely destroyed in a fire.
Ha Yun could still see his father’s listless figure, sitting motionless day after day.
“One way or another, I’ll save this place.”
Ha Yun spoke the words to himself, layers of meaning woven through them.
“First, I need to find a way that costs as little as possible.”
Within the constraints of his limited budget and time, Ha Yun fell into deep contemplation—a plan to revive Eunpyeong 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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