An Advertising Genius Falls into the Joseon Era - Chapter 33

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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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Chapter 33
Plink.
Tap-tap.
Whoooosh—
Raindrops darkened the ground.
A handful of drops at first, then in the blink of an eye, a torrential downpour began to fall.
“Rain!”
“The monsoon season has finally arrived!”
“Phew, now we can breathe!”
Sighs of relief escaped from every corner of the market.
Merchants threw open their arms and welcomed the rainfall with their whole bodies.
More than a month of relentless heat had finally broken.
“Hmm…….”
Yet the merchants’ expressions were not entirely bright.
Now that the heat had lifted, all that remained was for customers to return.
That was a good thing.
Surely a good thing.
The merchants of Eunpyeong Market glanced sidelong.
And there stood Ha Yun, dazed, letting the rain fall upon him.
“So now you’ll have to leave too, won’t you?”
Someone posed a question they had all been reluctant to voice.
“…….”
Ha Yun did not answer, but slowly turned to survey the market.
In barely a month, Eunpyeong Market had been transformed beyond recognition.
Buildings that had resembled haunted ruins had been neatly repaired, and leaking roofs had all been patched.
Now it was beginning to take on the appearance of a proper market.
This change had not been imposed by Ha Yun, but forged by the merchants themselves. As a result, Eunpyeong Market attracted more visitors, and the market was alive with activity even during daylight hours.
Ha Yun turned his gaze and looked at each merchant’s face in turn.
A faint smile crossed Ha Yun’s lips.
“Yes. It can’t be helped.”
The sound of rain filled the brief silence.
“My appointment here ends today.”
“I see…….”
Ha Yun was, after all, an executive of Mangsang.
It was his role to travel through markets across the land, not just Eunpyeong Market. The merchants could not help but feel it a pity that Ha Yun was not permanently assigned to them.
“Then what becomes of the Dokkaebi Night Market?”
Someone asked cautiously.
“Surely you’re not closing it like this?”
At those words, the entire market fell silent. Only the sound of the heavy downpour echoed through the air.
After a moment, Ha Yun slowly shook his head.
“No.”
With those words, Ha Yun reached for something at his waist.
“The Dokkaebi Night Market must go on, with or without me.”
What Ha Yun produced was a Dokkaebi Mask. With practiced ease, he pulled it over his face.
“A dokkaebi cannot disappoint the guests who come seeking the Dokkaebi Night Market.”
A moment of silence followed.
Then someone cried out loudly.
“Of course not!”
And they too began to pull Dokkaebi Masks over their faces, following Ha Yun’s lead.
“We are dokkaebi merchants!”
From that moment, other merchants began taking out masks and putting them on.
“Once a dokkaebi, a dokkaebi forever!”
One-horned dokkaebi, three-eyed dokkaebi, dokkaebi with buck teeth protruding long—in an instant, colorful dokkaebi filled the market.
“Selling goods in this place is our fate!”
“We cannot abide the Dokkaebi Night Market closing its doors!”
Ha Yun watched the scene unfold, his eyes bright with emotion.
At first, he had harbored no expectations.
He had not imagined they would rally with such spirit.
They had been people with no ambition, living only because they had no choice but to survive.
But as the night market opened and customers began to flow in, the hearts frozen deep within them had gradually begun to thaw.
It happened then.
“……Every night, eight o’clock!”
Suddenly, someone began to sing.
At first it was just one person.
“……Eunpyeong Market! Dokkaebi Night Market!”
“Open for only one hour!”
“Miss it and it’s over!”
Then the voice grew louder, and soon all the merchants were singing at the top of their lungs the song Ha Yun had composed.
Every night, eight o’clock!
Eunpyeong Market Dokkaebi Night Market!
Open for only one hour!
Miss it and it’s over!
The sound of rain mixed with song poured through the entire market.
Something hot streamed down Ha Yun’s mask.
“Everyone……!”
He couldn’t tell if it was rainwater or tears.
Ha Yun called out, wiping away whatever was falling.
“When the sun sets someday, I’ll come find you!”
With those words, Ha Yun turned his back. He offered his farewell.
“Take good care of yourselves until then!”
“We’ll be waiting!”
“Thank you! Dokkaebi Executive!”
“Safe travels! Manager Lim!”
The cheers of the Eunpyeong Market merchants poured out behind Ha Yun.
And those cheers did not stop until he had completely disappeared from sight.
***
Mangsang. The Great Hall.
It was truly the first time in a long while that all the managers gathered in one place.
“Greetings.”
“I trust you’ve all been well.”
“Good to see everyone after so long.”
The managers filed into the Great Hall, exchanging pleasantries.
“Ha. Look at this one. Your face has turned completely sooty, hasn’t it?”
“I almost wouldn’t have recognized you.”
“Well, that’s proof you’ve been working hard, isn’t it?”
From spending all summer in the relentless sun, their faces were all darkened to a deep brown.
Not a single one needed to be singled out—the marks of their hardship were plain to see.
A whole month had passed since their return.
Unfinished stories poured out without end.
“Our area nearly broke into a full brawl. A dispute erupted over the shade, and it was complete chaos.”
“Don’t even mention it. Our well dried up, so we had to fetch water every single day.”
“Boasting about trifles like that? I went to the fish market, and half of everything—all the fish and everything else—spoiled and had to be thrown out.”
Sure enough, the conversation remained on stories from their respective markets.
A lively debate ensued over who had suffered the most.
Yet strangely, talk of actual sales figures barely arose.
There was no need to voice it aloud.
They all knew their numbers were roughly similar anyway.
That was when it happened.
Creak.
The door to the Great Hall opened and someone entered.
……
The man who opened the door and stepped in was Song Do-hyeon.
While everyone else wore darkened faces from the sun, Song Do-hyeon’s skin remained unblemished.
He had spent most of his time under a canopy, so he hadn’t been burned. The contrast was all the more striking.
The moment Song Do-hyeon appeared, the chatter of the Great Hall fell silent in an instant.
‘He’s here. He’s here.’
‘Everyone’s heard those rumors, haven’t they?’
The managers murmured among themselves about Song Do-hyeon.
‘I heard Daegyo Market cut off dealings with us?’
‘What?’
The executives who heard the news for the first time today could not hide their shock.
‘Daegyo Market—isn’t that the second largest market in Uiju?’
‘How on earth did things come to this?’
‘I’m not sure myself. But I heard the chairman there, a man named U, took such offense that he threatened not to do business with us anymore.’
‘Well, well… what could have happened….’
The executives glanced sideways at Song Do-hyeon, stealing furtive looks.
Song Do-hyeon himself seemed to have only recently learned of it; his expression was rigid and taut.
That was when it happened.
Creak.
The door to the Great Hall opened again, and someone emerged.
“Good morning to you all!”
With a bright greeting, Ha Yun appeared.
Ha Yun’s skin was scarcely burned at all.
It was thanks to his careful maintenance over time, and the fact that he had worn the Dokkaebi Mask constantly.
“Well, well, Executive Ha!”
The moment Ha Yun appeared, the executives gathered around as if they had been waiting for him.
“Congratulations! I hear the Dokkaebi Night Market hit it big?”
“A night market, no less. I never would have imagined it.”
“Truly, Executive Ha—who knew you’d revive Eunpyeong Market itself….”
“That’s right. In all my years, I never thought I’d see Eunpyeong Market bustling again….”
The Dokkaebi Night Market had become the talk of Uiju.
The goods bought there.
The food eaten there.
Or whether one had even been there.
It was no exaggeration to say that all of Uiju buzzed with talk of the Dokkaebi Night Market.
Regardless of age or gender, whether yangban or commoner or slave, everyone took to the streets before evening fell each day.
To find the Dokkaebi Night Market.
So much so that even the magistrate’s office delayed the curfew because of it.
Ha Yun’s renown, having conceived the Dokkaebi Night Market, was spreading beyond Uiju to the Eight Provinces of Joseon.
Congratulations for Ha Yun showed no end.
“First the premium-grade dried pollock, and now the Dokkaebi Night Market… truly remarkable.”
“It’s fortunate Executive Ha is with our Mangsang. What would we have done if he’d gone to a rival trading house?”
“There was reason in everything the patriarch brought him in for.”
“I knew from the start. Executive Ha is cut from different cloth.”
Jealousy only flowered when rivals were evenly matched.
Once you recognized that the gap between yourself and another was unbridgeable, a new emotion—admiration—bloomed in its place.
Everyone gazed at Ha Yun with eyes full of respect.
Everyone except one.
A small noise of frustration escaped.
He could still reach him.
With just a little more effort, he too could reach that height.
He could make that glory and acclaim his own.
Song Do-hyeon, unwilling to abandon hope, stared at Ha Yun with burning intensity.
That was when it happened.
“How has everyone been?”
“Patriarch!”
The door to the Great Hall opened, and finally Lim Sang-ok appeared.
“Looking at your faces, I can see plainly the hardships you’ve endured.”
Lim Sang-ok examined the executives carefully.
In their deeply tanned faces, the toll of their labor was evident.
“There are many things I would praise individually, but….”
Lim Sang-ok’s gaze lingered for a moment on Ha Yun.
Word of the Dokkaebi Night Market had reached even Lim Sang-ok’s ears.
He had even made a secret visit himself.
And he had been deeply impressed.
He had long been troubled by the question of succession.
Now, it felt as though the talent he had been seeking had finally appeared.
Yet Lim Sang-ok did not show such feelings openly.
“Each of you oversees different markets with different circumstances—how could I do otherwise?”
He turned his head to survey all the executives.
“What matters is that we’ve come to an understanding with the market merchants. Wouldn’t you say?”
“Yes, sir. You’re absolutely right.”
Lim Sang-ok didn’t ask about the weight of any particular task.
How many goods had been sold.
How much the market’s revenue had risen.
How he had helped the merchants.
He asked about none of it.
“You’ve worked hard these past days.”
He simply commended the labor with warm eyes and a quiet word.
Then Lim Sang-ok lifted his gaze to the sky.
The monsoon season had only just begun, and the clouds hung heavy and dark, threatening to pour down again at any moment.
“It seems the rains will continue for some time, so everyone should rest until I have further instructions.”
“Yes, sir. Understood.”
“Then let us conclude this meeting.”
It was just as the gathering was drawing to a close.
“Ha Yun.”
Lim Sang-ok abruptly called out his name.
“Yes, sir.”
“Come to my quarters when this is finished. There’s something I need to discuss with you privately.”
Lim Sang-ok requested a one-on-one audience with Ha Yun.

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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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