Goblin Library - Chapter 151

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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 151.

Yu Tae-poong gazed at the papers with a satisfied expression and spoke.
“I hope Grandmother doesn’t have dementia, but in any case, it’s heartwarming—an episode where Young-moon helps someone.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin nodded in agreement.
“A low intellect doesn’t mean a low heart.”
With that, he handed a shopping bag to Yu Tae-poong.
“What is this?”
“A gift.”
“A gift?”
Yu Tae-poong peered inside the shopping bag. It contained sliced cakes and cookies from the Cafe.
“Why this?”
“You called home earlier.”
“I did.”
After reading the Kang Young-moon episode, I found myself thinking of my parents at home and decided to call.
“Go visit them. Being able to see those you miss is a blessing.”
“It’s already quite late….”
The Dung Carrier Goblin smiled at the hesitant Yu Tae-poong and spoke.
“Your home is just one door away—what’s there to worry about?”
“Ah….”
“I’ll open the door for you, so go and come back. And if you call me tomorrow, I’ll come pick you up.”
“Understood. Thank you.”
“Thank you for what… Ah! Give me your key.”
When Yu Tae-poong handed over the key, the Dung Carrier Goblin withdrew his cloth and wrapped the key within it.
After a moment, he returned the key.
“I’ve connected three places: your Family House, your home, and the Goblin Library.”
“Really?”
“I thought about it, and this would be more convenient. I can’t open a door for you every time you want to visit your Family House.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin rose with a smile.
“Go inside before it gets any later.”
“Understood.”
Yu Tae-poong also placed the papers in the shopping bag and stood up.
He gathered the dishes onto a tray, brought them to the counter, and then approached the door.
“Ah, and take this too.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin reached into his cloth and withdrew his hand. In it lay something resembling a large plant root.
Yu Tae-poong examined the soil-covered object carefully and asked.
“Is that perhaps Codonopsis?”
“That’s right.”
“But… why is it so large?”
“It’s old. At this size, its medicinal properties are so potent I wouldn’t trade it even for wild ginseng.”
“Even for wild ginseng?”
“I just pulled it from the ground. Take it home, clean it with a toothbrush, steep it in liquor, and it’ll be better than wild ginseng wine.”
“Ah… thank you so much. My father will love this.”
“Good then. See you tomorrow.”
“Yes. See you tomorrow.”
After exchanging farewells, Yu Tae-poong placed the bellflower root into the shopping bag. Then he took out a key, pressed it against the cafe door, and pushed.
Whoosh!
The familiar entrance of his Family House came into view before his eyes.
“Go on in.”
At the Dung Carrier Goblin’s words, Yu Tae-poong bowed respectfully to him and stepped inside.
Click!
After closing the door, Yu Tae-poong spoke with a smile.
“Your son has arrived.”
At Yu Tae-poong’s voice, sounds of movement came from the living room.
Rustle!
Then a woman in her fifties appeared at the entrance.
“Son! Why didn’t you say anything before coming?”
“I wanted to see you, Mom.”
“What about work tomorrow?”
“I’ll go. I can just head in the morning.”
As Yu Tae-poong smiled and removed his shoes, he suddenly realized something. The dress shoes he was wearing had been created from a Goblin’s hat.
So if he moved far enough away from the fedora, they would revert to their original form.
‘I need to be careful.’
Muttering to himself, Yu Tae-poong held out the shopping bag to his mother.
“Here, this is for you.”
“What is it?”
“A close friend asked me to give it to you.”
As he spoke, Yu Tae-poong quietly placed the shoes in the shoe rack. This way, even if they transformed into sneakers when he moved away, his family wouldn’t notice.
“It looks like a slice cake. It must be delicious.”
Then his mother looked at Yu Tae-poong.
“But son, your clothes are so stylish.”
“It’s the company uniform.”
“Company uniform? That’s a nice uniform.”
“Our company is great.”
Smiling, Yu Tae-poong came inside and looked around the living room.
“Where’s Dad?”
“He’ll be here in a bit. But is the company a good place to work?”
“It’s comfortable.”
“The Goblin Library, right?”
“Yes.”
As Yu Tae-poong settled onto the sofa, his mother sat beside him and began asking questions about this and that.
How was his boss, how was the work, what were his colleagues like—all the things a mother would naturally wonder about when her son had just started a job.
Yu Tae-poong smiled as he answered.
“I tell you about all this on the phone all the time. You’re still curious?”
“Hearing it over the phone isn’t the same as hearing it face to face.”
At that, Yu Tae-poong gave her detailed accounts of everything she asked about. Of course, he left out anything concerning the Goblins.
“I report at nine in the morning and start with cleaning. Then… I leave at five. No overtime, no extra shifts, so it’s convenient.”
“They pay you that much just for doing that?”
Yu Tae-poong’s home was a perfectly ordinary house located in the countryside. His father worked at a small-to-medium enterprise, his younger sibling attended university—the kind of household you could find anywhere.
That also meant, as with most homes, there was a mortgage on the house. It wasn’t an amount that would cause serious hardship, but debt was still debt.
And naturally, the interest rate on the mortgage was higher than what the bank paid on savings. With each passing day, the debt grew bit by bit.
So it was better to repay the mortgage quickly. That’s why Yu Tae-poong sent most of his salary home each month.
“But son, aren’t you sending too much of your salary home? You must have expenses of your own?”
“I eat all my meals there anyway, so it’s fine. I have nowhere to spend money.”
At Yu Tae-poong’s words, his mother sighed.
“You’re working so hard.”
“Hard work? Anyway, I’m earning money, so we’ll pay off the mortgage soon enough.”
Then Yu Tae-poong asked.
“Do we have soju at home?”
“Why, do you want to drink? Should I set out some snacks?”
“No, there’s balloon flower root in the shopping bag. It’s incredibly rare. A close friend gave it to me, and he said if I make liquor with it, it’s even better than ginseng wine.”
At Yu Tae-poong’s words, his mother looked at the balloon flower root in the shopping bag and asked.
“That’s balloon flower root? It’s so large I thought it was some kind of radish with a strange shape.”
At his mother’s words, Yu Tae-poong laughed and stood up.
“I’m going to change clothes.”
“All right.”
As Yu Tae-poong tried to head to his room, his mother quickly said.
“I didn’t know you were coming, so your room might be a bit messy.”
“It’s fine.”
Saying so, Yu Tae-poong entered his room and let out a quiet laugh. His desk and bed were as he’d left them, but the floor was piled with various belongings.
Since he rarely came home, his family had been using his room like a storage closet. Then, on the days he visited, they would clean it up.
“I should just come without telling them next time.”
If they knew he was coming, they’d go through all the trouble of clearing everything out.
Yu Tae-poong removed his bowler hat and changed his clothes back to normal.
Whoooosh!
As his clothes reverted to his tracksuit, Yu Tae-poong took off the tracksuit and pulled out a different one from the wardrobe to put on.
Then, looking at the tracksuit he’d just removed, he muttered.
“Did I really need to change clothes?”
Yu Tae-poong chuckled softly, hung the athletic wear he’d removed on the back of a chair, and stepped outside.
“Where’s Tae-hyun?”
“At school.”
“Will he be late?”
“Exams are coming up soon, so he’s probably at the Goblin Library studying.”
“He’s not skipping to play around, is he?”
“When it’s time to study, he studies. Oh! Have you eaten?”
“Yes, I have.”
Yu Tae-poong, who had been sitting on the sofa, watched his mother trimming platycodon at the sink, then moved to the dining table.
Looking at his mother’s back, he spoke.
“You’re not in pain anywhere, are you?”
“Pain? There’s always something aching.”
“Where does it hurt?”
As Yu Tae-poong asked with concern, his mother laughed.
“It’s just a figure of speech. And at my age, it’s stranger if nothing hurts. It’s natural for something to ache.”
“There’s nothing natural about being in pain. If anything hurts, you have to go to the Hospital.”
“All right, I understand.”
His mother answered with a smile. As Yu Tae-poong watched her rinse the platycodon, he spoke.
“Mom, should we sell this?”
“This platycodon?”
“We could sell it, and you could go to the Hospital and buy yourself nice clothes.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin had given it to me with good intentions, but it seemed too precious to simply pickle and eat.
Besides, it seemed like my mother was avoiding the Hospital to save money.
What the Dung Carrier Goblin had said about this being better than wild ginseng was surely no exaggeration.
And that statement also meant this platycodon could be worth even more than wild ginseng.
‘I feel bad about selling what my brother gave me, but if I tell him I sold it to be filial to my parents, he’ll understand.’
To Yu Tae-poong, who was muttering to himself, his mother said.
“Your close friend gave it to you to eat, not to sell.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course. A gift given with heart should be received with heart.”
His mother turned off the faucet and pressed the platycodon with a towel—squish, squish—to dry it.
Then she brought out a soju pitcher from somewhere.
“Wait, when did we get a soju pitcher at home?”
“Right? I don’t even remember when I bought it, but here it is.”
His mother answered with a laugh and brought over a pickling jar, opening its lid.
“Now let’s place this carefully inside.”
His mother put the platycodon into the jar and poured soju over it.
Splash, splash!
Then she lined the jar’s lid with several layers of plastic wrap before closing it.
“All done.”
“Is it finished now?”
“If you want to drink it, you’ll need to age it for about 100 days like this. When Dad comes home later, I’ll show him and we can put it somewhere dark.”
At Kim Un-hyun’s Mother’s words, Yu Tae-poong nodded and opened the slice cake case.
“You must have worked hard washing the balloon flower roots. Please try this.”
“Sure, let me taste it. But this slice cake is so pretty.”
“It tastes good too.”
“Isn’t this expensive?”
“It’s a bit pricey. But this much is fine. Go ahead.”
As Yu Tae-poong offered the fork, his mother laughed and cut the slice cake, placing it in her mouth.
“It’s delicious.”
“I’ll bring some often from now on.”
“No, no. These slice cakes are just expensive. If you’re going to buy them, get a whole cake instead. That’s better.”
Beep beep beep!
While they were talking and eating the slice cake, the door opened and Gambling Father came in.
“My eldest son is here.”
Yu Tae-poong greeted his father, who entered with a smile, and showed him the container with the balloon flower root liquor.
“Dad, look at this.”
“This… is balloon flower root?”
“A close friend gave it to me, saying it’s good for health.”
At Yu Tae-poong’s words, Gambling Father’s eyes sparkled as he picked up the liquor jar containing the balloon flower roots.
“But why is the balloon flower root so big?”
“That’s what I said. I wondered why the radish looked like this.”
At Kim Un-hyun’s Mother’s words, Gambling Father nodded, thinking that could be the case.
After examining the balloon flower root from various angles for a while, Gambling Father took out his phone.
“How many years would it take for balloon flower root to grow this big?”
“I’m not sure about that either.”
“Wait. Let me ask my friends about this.”
Gambling Father posted about the balloon flower root liquor in a group chat with his friends and said something.
“Ho-yeol knows about these things well… he’s answered.”
When an alarm came from the group chat, Gambling Father checked the message.
“He says even balloon flower root is precious if it’s been aged a long time, and he’s asking where it came from?”
“A close friend gave it to me. He made liquor and said to have my parents each drink a cup like medicinal wine. He said it’s rarer than ginseng from the Mountain.”
At Yu Tae-poong’s words, Gambling Father stopped his fingers that were typing in the group chat.
“Rarer than Mountain ginseng?”
“That’s what he said.”
Then, an alarm sounded from the group chat again. A message came asking him to send photos too since the explanation alone couldn’t determine the exact value.
So Gambling Father took several detailed photos of the balloon flower root with his phone and sent them.
And shortly after, seeing the newly posted message, he exclaimed in surprise.
“Wow…”
“What is it?”
“This… if you find the right Restaurant Owner, you could get over ten million won for it?”
I froze.
At Gambling Father’s words, Kim Un-hyun’s Mother looked at the platycodon root with astonished eyes.
“Ten million won?”
“I’ve never seen a platycodon root this large. This one seems to be at least thirty years old. Wow… what is this?”
A friend who knew well about medicinal herbs sent a message, and other friends quickly chimed in with excited messages.

「Did you make liquor with a ten-million-won platycodon root?」
「Is my friend really on this level?」
「When are you opening it?」
「Yeah, we should have a drink together the day you open it.」

As his friends showed interest in the platycodon liquor, Gambling Father wrote a reply.

「We’re keeping it as a family heirloom. Not opening it.」

Meanwhile, Kim Un-hyun’s Mother gazed at the platycodon root with a mixture of shock and bewilderment, then gently stroked the liquor jar.
“Ten million won… soaked in liquor. Haha! Haha! Haha!”
At the sight of Kim Un-hyun’s Mother bursting into absurd laughter, Yu Tae-poong chuckled and spoke.
“You said to accept it with an open heart?”
Then Kim Un-hyun’s Mother sighed and replied.
“You accept kindness with an open heart… but you can exchange the actual goods for something else. I can’t bear to waste this.”
At Kim Un-hyun’s Mother’s words, Gambling Father laughed and spoke.
“Even if it’s wasteful, what can I do? I’m going to drink it. My goodness, ten-million-won liquor… how good must it be for my health?”

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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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