An Advertising Genius Falls into the Joseon Era - Chapter 26

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

Chapter 26
At that same moment.
Daegyo Market, which Song Do-hyeon had taken charge of.
The hawking calls of merchants echoed thinly across the scorched ground.
But it lacked the bustle of old.
People worn down by the heat lingered only briefly to examine goods before hurrying out of the market.
“Tsk…….”
The merchants watched their departure with regretful eyes.
Into the largest fabric shop in Daegyo Market—run by merchant Chairman Woo, the oldest among them—Song Do-hyeon stepped while fanning himself.
“Good day to you. It’s been a while since I’ve called.”
“Ah, Song.”
Woo, the fabric shop owner, greeted Song Do-hyeon warmly.
The shop was merely shaded, yet the air circulating inside felt considerably cooler than outside.
It was a wholly different temperature from Eunpyeong, who hawked his wares at a stall in the full sun, sweat streaming down his face.
“How has business been lately?”
Song Do-hyeon asked, setting down his fan.
Woo clicked his tongue in response.
“What’s there to say? Flies are all that visit. Sales have dropped to half.”
“Hmm.”
Daegyo Market’s circumstances, despite appearances, were hardly comfortable.
Revenue continued, but it fell far short of what it had been before.
“So here’s the thing.”
Song Do-hyeon moved straight to business.
“I’ve given thought to several ways to draw customers back to the market. Would you hear me out?”
“Of course I’ll listen. If it’s your opinion, I’d be foolish not to pay close attention.”
Woo spread both arms in a gesture of welcome.
Song Do-hyeon presented his proposal.
“First, we gather items in one place that help ease the heat.”
“What sort of items?”
“Ramie cloth, hemp cloth, bamboo wives—things like that.”
“What do you mean to do with them gathered in one spot?”
Song Do-hyeon continued his explanation.
“By collecting them in one place, customers won’t need to wear out their feet hunting from stall to stall—they can find everything at once. In weather like this, cutting down on walking matters greatly.”
“That’s not a bad thought.”
Woo nodded in agreement.
Then Song Do-hyeon picked up the fan he’d set down.
Snap!
And he opened it deliberately for display.
“And we distribute these fans free of charge from the market entrance.”
“Free fans?”
The fan Song Do-hyeon had brought was simple.
It was modest—nothing but bamboo ribs with paper affixed.
Yet in weather like this, the difference between having a fan and lacking one was unmistakable.
A single wave of a fan was the difference between heaven and hell.
Song Do-hyeon began to fan himself.
“Yes. Using these fans, which cost barely a few coins, we draw crowds to the market. Even passersby will flock here for the chance to have one.”
“Hoh?”
As if mindful of someone, Song Do-hyeon’s strategy had shifted.
“And we sell chilled Sujeonggwa throughout the market to quench thirst. I’ll ask Daebang to procure ice from the ice storage house, and we’ll have it brought here.”
“Even that precious ice!”
In the old days, he’d never have devised such an elaborate scheme.
“Is that even feasible?”
“It’s… difficult, certainly, but I have a budget allotted to me, so I’ll make the effort.”
“I’m grateful! Thank you, Song!”
Song Do-hyeon had always crafted strategies faithful to personal achievement.
He alone was to be the finest; only he was to stand out.
But Ha-yoon’s arrival had changed Song Do-hyeon.
To surpass him, he had to meet him at an equal height.
He had to look not at the tree, but at the forest.
“And finally…….”
Song Do-hyeon fell silent for a moment.
In truth, it was no exaggeration to say that everything hinged on this strategy.
What was most needed in summer.
What people most desperately desired.
No matter how hard he thought, no fresher approach came to mind.
Song Do-hyeon steadied his breath and finally spoke.
“We install a vast shade canopy across the entire market.”
“A shade canopy?”
The silk merchant’s eyes widened as he asked.
“If we create shade like you see here, wouldn’t people be able to spend far longer browsing the market? That would naturally increase sales.”
“Such a brilliant notion?”
This was the best humanity could do in the face of such a natural disaster as an extreme heatwave.
Create shade,
wield a fan,
and offer cool ice.
What else could be done?
Unless you meant to hold a prayer for rain instead.
The only problem was that installing a canopy across the entire market would far exceed the budget Song Do-hyeon had been given.
The silk merchant U worried about this very point.
“But installing such a canopy would cost quite a bit…… Does Mansang provide that?”
“No, I’m afraid not.”
Song Do-hyeon drew the line firmly.
Instead, he offered an alternative.
“Collect contributions from the market merchants. Then I’ll send you the materials for the canopy.”
“What? You’re asking us to pay for it?”
“There’s no way around it. If we’re to draw customers to the market.”
“Well, that’s true, but……”
U hesitated in his reply.
It was a maxim that the worse business was, the more one had to economize. Investment felt deeply uncomfortable.
At worst, he could spend money only to see minimal results.
“This is precisely when bold decisions must be made.”
Sensing U’s reluctance, Song Do-hyeon pressed him from the side.
“Are you content to lose your customers to other markets?”
“Lose customers to other markets? What are you saying?”
“Surely you don’t think Mansang is only supporting Daegyo Market?”
Song Do-hyeon cunningly mixed truth and falsehood, shaking U’s resolve.
“Even now, countless agents must be visiting other markets. And they’ll make the same proposal to them. To revive their own markets.”
“That……!”
There was no more room for hesitation.
To survive in such fierce competition, one had to choose.
“So you’d best decide before it’s too late. There’s more than one market in this city, after all.”
With that, Song Do-hyeon fell silent. Urgency now glimmered in U’s eyes.
At last, U nodded.
“Very well…… I’ll do as you suggest. I’ll install the canopy.”
“Thank you.”
Song Do-hyeon said so, producing a piece of paper.
“Sign here, agreeing to pay five hundred nyang for the materials and installation of the shade canopy.”
“Mm…… Understood.”
It was indeed a substantial sum.
But thinking of it as the cost of saving his market, it didn’t feel so heavy.
Once installed, it would prove useful for years to come.
After a moment’s deliberation, U signed the contract.
“Then I’ll have the canopy materials sent here shortly.”
Having verified the contract, Song Do-hyeon rose from his seat.
“Much obliged, Song.”
“Please, it’s only my duty.”
On his very first day of assignment, Song Do-hyeon had earned five hundred nyang—and a faint smile played at the corners of his mouth.
***
At that same hour,
at Eunpyeong Market, where Ha-yoon was staying.
“Phew~ Time’s gotten away from me already.”
As the sun began to sink, merchants one by one started packing up their stalls.
“Should we call it a day?”
“Hard work today, everyone.”
“See you tomorrow.”
The cleanup was finished in moments.
In truth, there wasn’t much to clean up.
They hadn’t sold a thing all day.
The goods displayed on their stalls were identical to yesterday’s, and the day before’s.
Tomorrow would likely be the same.
Once the merchants had tidied their stalls, they began heading home.
That was when it happened.
“Hm?”
The merchants heading home stopped in their tracks, spotting something.
“You haven’t left yet?”
What they’d found was Ha-yoon crouching at the market entrance.
Beside Ha-yoon, countless words and characters were scrawled across a surface.
Consolation—or rather, what passed for it—poured toward Ha-yoon.
“Goodness, stubborn as they come. You’ve been at this the whole time?”
“How’s a full day here treating you? Hard, isn’t it?”
“That’s why we said to give up. This market’s a lost cause anyway.”
“We’re going to live and die as we are, so spare yourself the trouble and head home.”
Ha-yoon offered no reply to the merchants’ consolations.
Then, quietly, he murmured something.
“It’s not I who should give up—it’s people like you.”
The merchants’ faces hardened instantly at those words.
“What did you say?”
“Give up? What else could we possibly give up?”
“Really, we show a little kindness and suddenly this one thinks he’s something special?”
Ha-yoon showed no sign of backing down in the face of their rebukes.
Ha-yoon asked quietly.
“Do you know how many customers visited this market today?”
“Well…….”
No one answered readily.
Rather, they couldn’t.
No one had ever bothered to care.
Ha-yoon spoke slowly, opening his mouth.
“Twenty-three.”
“……!”
The number struck them with considerable force, and confusion colored the merchants’ faces.
They’d simply assumed there were no customers, never once thinking to count them.
“In a market this large, only twenty-three people came all day. Does that make sense to you?”
Ha-yoon slowly got to his feet.
His frame, which had seemed modest until moments before, stretched with the shadows and loomed larger.
“And you call yourselves merchants? Aren’t you ashamed?”
“What kind of talk is that……!”
“Is Mansang everything? Coming from Mansang, you sure have no shortage of nerve!”
“How dare you speak to us that way?”
Ha-yoon deliberately used harsh language to deliver a shock.
It proved quite effective—a range of emotions flickered across the merchants’ faces.
Confusion, shame, anger, and more besides.
He’d kindled at least a small spark in their hearts.
‘Anger will do. If it can become fuel for change.’
This much had succeeded.
Now came the harder task: convincing them.
Ha-yoon spoke with resolve.
“So abandon daytime trading.”
“What?”
“Abandon daytime trading?”
“Give it up?”
It was the same expression as before, but a single word differed. Ha-yoon’s words carried the phrase “daytime.”
Several merchants whose ears caught this subtle shift exchanged glances, their eyes flickering with new interest.
Ha-yoon did not miss that small change.
He then laid bare his plan.
“Instead, we’ll open a night market.”

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