An Advertising Genius Falls into the Joseon Era - Chapter 37

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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 37
The Trade Expedition stretched endlessly along the narrow Mountain Path.
Ahead, wagons laden with Ginseng and various trade goods, followed in a line by porters and supervisors.
“Hngh…….”
Ha Yoon gritted her teeth and kept moving forward.
Though the autumn air was crisp, climbing the Mountain Path had left her drenched in sweat.
“Huff…….”
She’d been walking for four hours now.
The Bundled Pack slung across her shoulder felt twice as heavy as it had at the start.
All sensation had long since drained from her feet.
She wanted to sit down and examine her soles, but feared she’d never rise again, so she forced herself onward.
Two more hours crawled past.
“Haa, haa…….”
On the steep incline, Ha Yoon’s breathing grew ragged.
A porter who noticed her struggle approached from the side.
“Supervisor. Would you like me to help you?”
“Pardon?”
At the unexpected kindness in his voice, Ha Yoon’s head snapped up.
‘Yes, please!’
That’s what she wanted to cry out at once.
But the moment she saw the porter’s back, the thought vanished.
“Oh…….”
Bundled packs were already stacked high on his frame like a mountain.
On his back hung a bundle that must have weighed twice what she carried.
There was no comparison.
Against what he bore, she was nothing but a child.
She couldn’t bring herself to ask him to take on her burden as well.
“No, no. This much is nothing, really.”
Ha Yoon shifted her pack onto her shoulders with renewed effort.
“Ugh!”
The strain wrenched her lower back, but she smiled as though nothing was amiss.
“See? Still going strong.”
“Ah, you’ve got real determination.”
The porter, impressed, gave her a thumbs up.
“Then push through a bit longer. We’ll reach a Yeogak soon.”
A Yeogak was an inn capable of lodging large numbers of travelers.
Like a modern hotel, it divided its space into many rooms, but it also boasted a warehouse for storing goods and a stable for tethering horses—a proper establishment built for the trade route.
It was less a simple place to sleep and more a waystation hub for long-distance merchants.
At the news that a Yeogak was near, Ha Yoon’s eyes lit up.
“Really? How much farther?”
“Yes. Just a bit more ahead.”
“How much more?”
“Won’t take long at all.”
“……So when exactly is this ‘soon’?”
It was a conversation common among hikers.
That sweet lie that the summit was just around the corner.
She’d been duped by it before, pushed herself to the top through sheer will, and woken the next day unable to use her legs.
Ha Yoon, one of those victims, pressed the porter relentlessly.
Faced with her persistence, the porter finally answered.
“Well……about one Shijin?”
“One Shijin!”
In modern time, that meant two hours.
Ha Yoon barely suppressed the urge to throw herself flat on the ground right then.
“You call that……soon?”
“Heh, that really is quick, I’d say…….”
A modern person and Ha Yoon and the porter possessed entirely different senses of time.
“Anyway, hang in there until then.”
The porter chuckled at ease and overtook her on the path.
“I’ll head on ahead. Keep up the good work.”
One after another, the rest of the expedition passed her by, each calling out a word of encouragement as they went.
“Heavens, sir. Keep your spirits up.”
“Just a bit further now! Once we cross this pass, Yeogak will appear!”
“We’re almost there! Truly, we’re nearly done!”
“Yes, yes…….”
He lacked even the energy to respond properly.
Ha Yoon raised her hand, signaling the others to move ahead.
She’d started at the front of the column, she was certain of it.
Yet somehow, when her senses cleared, she found herself at the very rear of the expedition.
“Huff…….”
Her breath came in ragged gasps, threatening to choke her.
Still, she couldn’t afford to stop.
Pride wouldn’t permit her to fall back on the first day alone.
“Two hours. Just two more hours. I can manage…….”
Ha Yoon muttered the words like a stern command, forcing her legs to move.
The encouraging shouts from the others had long since faded.
Even the sound of the wagon wheels had grown distant.
All that remained in her sight was a solitary figure atop the ridge ahead.
The shadow cast over him was too deep to make out his features, yet he stood motionless there, as though waiting for Ha Yoon to arrive.
“Ha……ha…….”
She had no energy left to wonder who it might be.
Ha Yoon simply focused on that figure and trudged forward, one foot after another.
‘So it really is a woman, then.’
From atop the ridge, Song Do-hyun watched Ha Yoon labor up the slope.
‘Struggling under such a trifling weight…….’
The mountain paths of Joseon are merciless.
They are no place for an ordinary woman to walk carrying a bundled pack. This was precisely why no women had been included in the expedition.
And more importantly still, this journey would stretch on for nearly a month.
Knowing this, Ha Yoon had redoubled her efforts.
To keep her sex hidden.
To avoid becoming a burden.
She’d pressed forward with the same composure as the men.
But even that resolve was beginning to crumble.
‘I wonder how much longer this body can endure…….’
As the hours passed, Ha Yoon’s pace grew noticeably slower.
The space between her footfalls shortened with each step.
Soon she was moving barely faster than standing still.
“Ha……ha.”
Her chest felt crushed, her breathing labored.
Her mouth was parched, and even swallowing felt like an ordeal.
“Dizzy…….”
Her vision swam.
The path stretched straight ahead, she knew this.
Yet it seemed to twist and curve beneath her eyes like a winding road.
“Why is this happening to me……?”
At last, Ha Yoon came to a halt.
‘I think I’ve reached my limit.’
Watching her from above, Song Do-hyun’s eyes narrowed.
‘Give up. This journey is too much for you.’
Her face had gone deathly pale.
Her legs trembled beneath her.
Even the rate of her blinking had slowed to a crawl.
Ha Yoon looked as though she might collapse at any moment.
‘It’s not too late. Set down your pack and turn back now.’
Continuing with the expedition in such a state would be impossible.
If she pushed forward this way, serious harm might befall her.
And this was only the first day.
‘Tell me you’re abandoning the ginseng trade. Tell me you’re stepping down from the Chief Supervisor position!’
The emotion stirring in him was difficult to name.
If pressed, he might call it unease.
An unease that she would continue with the expedition despite everything.
Or the fear of being left behind.
Either way, it was hardly a pleasant feeling.
At some point, Song Do-hyun hadn’t realized he was gnawing at his own fingernails.
Time stretched on in this way for a while.
‘What is this……?’
During that time, Ha Yoon neither collapsed nor moved her feet.
She simply stood motionless where she was, her head bowed.
‘Has she fallen asleep standing up……?’
That was when it happened.
Ha Yoon’s body suddenly began to tilt slowly backward.
Toward the rear.
Very, very gradually.
‘No, that can’t be……!’
Behind her was a steep downward slope.
If she fell like this, serious injury was all but certain.
Seeing this, Song Do-hyun cried out urgently.
“Hey! Ha Yoon!”
But there was no answer.
Ha Yoon appeared to have lost consciousness.
“Damn!”
Song Do-hyun moved like lightning, sensing how dire the situation had become.
There was no hesitation.
His body reacted before his mind could deliberate.
Whoosh—!
Song Do-hyun slid down the incline.
And caught Ha Yoon’s falling body.
Thump!
Fortunately, just before she could hit the ground, Ha Yoon’s body shifted and pressed against Song Do-hyun’s chest.
“……!”
Having caught Ha Yoon in his arms again, Song Do-hyun couldn’t hide his shock.
The last time had been unavoidable circumstance; this time was different.
He had moved of his own will.
He had felt that helping others was a form of hypocrisy.
He never imagined he would act this way.
Song Do-hyun looked down at Ha Yoon with a vacant expression.
‘Had she been this small all along…….’
Ha Yoon hung her head, seemingly unconscious.
Looking closely at her in the bright daylight, he could unmistakably feel that she was a woman.
Long, delicate lashes.
A graceful nose.
Lips like cherry blossoms.
She had such refined features that he wondered how he’d missed them until now.
That was when it happened.
“……Huh?”
Ha Yoon’s lashes began to flutter.
Her consciousness was returning.
“What in the world is this situation……?”
As her eyes opened, she felt someone holding her close.
‘Who on earth is this……?’
Ha Yoon’s gaze traveled slowly upward.
And the moment she saw who it was,
“Aahhh!”
With a shriek, Ha Yoon wrenched herself away from him.
“Y-y-you, Song Do-hyun!”
So this made the second time.
Being held in Song Do-hyun’s arms.
Ha Yoon’s face flushed crimson as she babbled to herself.
“H-how did you—did I— did I end up being held by you again? How did this even happen?”
Ha Yoon struggled to piece her memories together.
She could remember up to the moment when someone looked down at her from the hilltop.
And the dizziness she’d felt as well.
After that, memory fractured again until she woke from the dream at the moment of falling from the sky.
‘Ah!’
Then the pieces of what had happened began to make sense.
‘Song Do-hyun saved me?’
Looking more closely, she noticed his clothes were disheveled and soiled.
The hem of his garments and his shoes were caked with dirt.
There was no doubt he’d rescued her.
“Ahem, hem.”
Ha Yoon let out an awkward cough.
Then she offered her thanks.
“Thank you. For helping me.”
…….
A brief silence followed.
Song Do-hyun stared at Ha Yoon without a word, his gaze unwavering.
‘Why did I…?’
He hated to admit it, yet he had to accept the truth.
That his heart was gradually, steadily turning toward her.
In that moment just now, when he’d rushed toward Ha Yoon—
countless thoughts had flooded through him.
Should he let her tumble down as she fell?
Or should he keep even a speck of dust from touching her?
If he simply closed his eyes for a moment and pretended not to see, he could reclaim his former glory.
But in the end, Song Do-hyun’s choice was to save Ha Yoon.
No matter what his mind said, his heart had chosen her.
‘No. That can’t be it.’
Song Do-hyun shook his head vigorously.
Only then could he shake off this feeling rising in his chest.
An unbearable suffocation.
This stifling sensation, felt for the first time in his life, pressed down upon his heart.
“Get your wits about you.”
Unable to bear the churning emotions any longer, Song Do-hyun spoke coldly.
“You nearly dropped the bundled pack—a precious thing.”
“What did you say?”
Heat always flows from high places to low, after all.
At his cold words, the warmth that had risen to Ha Yoon’s cheeks drained away just as quickly.
“…So that’s it. I wondered why you bothered helping me.”
Ha Yoon huffed and adjusted the bundled pack on her back.
“I don’t need your help. Don’t trouble yourself with what happens to me from now on!”
With that, Ha Yoon turned coldly and walked away.
She continued forward down the path.
“Wait, please——”
Song Do-hyun watched her go, worried she might collapse again, and quickly followed after her.

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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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