If I Don’t Earn 1 Trillion Won, My Regression Ends - Chapter 41

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 41

 

Mid-November 1999.

 

The acrid smell of burning rice straw and cow dung assaulted my nostrils.

 

The global hub that would lead Korea’s cutting-edge industries in the future, what would become Pangyo New Town, was currently nothing but an endless rural wasteland.

 

Yellow rice bundles were scattered haphazardly across the endless rice fields, with rows of black vinyl greenhouses lined up beside them.

 

Bae Seo-nyeok’s foreign car rattled along the unpaved dirt road.

 

“Why are there so many cars here?”

 

Bae Seo-nyeok muttered in bewilderment, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.

 

By ‘cars,’ he didn’t mean tractors or trucks.

 

He was referring to luxury sedans like black Grandeurs and Chairmans with Seoul license plates that looked completely out of place in this shabby scenery.

 

I looked away from the banners in the distance that read things like 【Protect the Green Belt to Guarantee Survival Rights!】 and 【Land Sales Consultation Welcome】.

 

“Wow~ Amazing. Rampa oppa! Look over there. Soya! It’s your first time seeing this too, right? Are Australian cows the same as our cows?”

 

“Yeah. They all taste the same once they’re in your mouth.”

 

“….”

 

I glared at the guy who mercilessly destroyed my carefully crafted childlike wonder.

 

Rampa Lim winked playfully. He should have just stayed home, but Rampa Lim insisted on following along, saying he’d be lonely by himself.

 

Bae Seo-nyeok chuckled at our conversation and asked.

 

“Is this your first time in the countryside?”

 

As if.

 

Rural princess Madam Bang Suk-yeong was from Jindo County, South Jeolla Province, the homeland of Jindo dogs.

 

Cow dung and horse manure were everywhere there. I’d heard cow mooing sounds to the point of exhaustion every holiday.

 

But I smiled innocently and elegantly like a city girl with the mindset that everything outside Seoul was countryside.

 

“Yes~ I’ve only seen it in books, so I was curious.”

 

“So that’s why you suggested coming. You should have said something. I would have taken you somewhere proper to see. Even Gangwon Province is fine for a day trip.”

 

“I know Seo Neok Samchon is busy~ I won’t be a bother.”

 

Indeed, Bae Seo-nyeok had been really busy lately.

 

He had successfully made a hit of a movie released at the end of last year, and had been filming again since this fall, so it was hard to see his face during this busy period.

 

Today was also quite a rare meeting after a long time.

 

If it hadn’t been really urgent, I wouldn’t have forced myself to summon this person either.

 

Bae Seo-nyeok was truly an incomprehensible person.

 

After last year’s CF, when entertainment companies were approaching like a storm.

 

Mother, who was flustered and didn’t know what to do, had no choice but to send an SOS to Bae Seo-nyeok, the only celebrity she knew, and that was the turning point.

 

After that, Bae Seo-nyeok frequented our house so much he wore down the threshold, and began carefully taking care of all my affairs as if he had become some kind of benefactor.

 

I was definitely the one who threw the first punch asking him to be my uncle, but who could have imagined this top star would be so devoted?

 

Moreover, there was exactly one thing Bae Seo-nyeok demanded in return for volunteering to be my benefactor.

 

Take acting lessons!

 

It wasn’t “become an actor” or “I’ll make you a star like Ham Gyeong-seok,” just… please take acting lessons~.

 

Even while busy with his projects, he was serious enough to send his nephew to persistently remind me.

 

I played dumb for now.

 

There were quite a few reasons.

 

First, this request that was obviously only beneficial to me was very suspicious.

 

Second, I felt the need to keep some distance because Bae Seo-nyeok’s influence on Madam Bang Suk-yeong and Seo Shin-hyeon was becoming frighteningly strong.

 

Third, I lacked confidence in whether I could actually do acting.

 

Fourth, I was selling my entire soul to stocks at the time…

 

‘But not anymore.’

 

The fire had reached my feet.

 

I needed the name of Korea’s top star for thousands of pyeong of Pangyo land!

 

The cold-blooded, hardened Seoul woman Seosing-a, with brain death looming before her eyes, was now willing to gulp down even a poisoned chalice.

 

“Let’s just go around one more time! The countryside air feels so good~.”

 

Mmm~~ cow dung smell…

 

I kept glancing at the map spread on Rampa Lim’s lap while constantly checking outside the car window with bulging eyes.

 

Of course, while holding the [Future Kaleidoscope].

 

‘Where are you, Kakao Headquarters!’

 

My sense of smell was numbed by the cow dung odor, and my vision was blurry from the dizzying scenery in the kaleidoscope.

 

To find the prime land of Pangyo, the site of Kakao Headquarters, I even brought out the New Year’s Day settlement reward I received on January 1st, 1999 – [1-Day Cooldown Removal Ticket]!

 

If I returned without any gains, I wouldn’t be able to pity myself even if I beat the ground and cried.

 

【’Future Kaleidoscope’ has been activated.】

 

【Projection target: Land – Botdeulbeol, Sampyeong-ri, Seongnam-si】

 

Huh? Wait!

 

‘I think I found it?!’

 

So this was it!

 

Fortunately, it was near the reservoir, so it was easy to mark.

 

I quickly drew a circle on the map and capped my pen.

 

Rampa Lim looked at me with a very curious expression, but feeling relieved and in a good mood, I just smiled brightly in response.

 

Then, when the car passed near the containers with real estate agency signs clustered together, I suddenly spoke up.

 

“Mmm~ Don’t you smell cocoa somewhere? Uncle! Sing-a is thirsty, I want some cocoa~.”

 

“Cocoa? Wait a minute.”

 

Bae Seo-nyeok looked troubled.

 

Where could he find cocoa in this desolate field full of nothing but cow dung smell?

 

But the young top star, inexperienced in childcare, couldn’t bring himself to scold me. As he helplessly tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, Rampa Lim spoke from the back seat.

 

“Hyung, aren’t there coffee vending machines by those containers? Sing-a must have smelled that.”

 

“You smelled it too? Kids must have more sensitive noses than adults. Alright, let’s go check it out.”

 

‘Oh…’

 

I glanced around and smoothly leaned against Rampa Lim.

 

A warm hand patted my head as if understanding everything.

 

As our car approached, a man near the containers hurriedly ran over.

 

“Over here! You can park here, boss!”

 

“…Excuse me?”

 

We hadn’t even said anything yet.

 

When the reaction wasn’t what he expected, the employee who checked through the car window also made a strange expression. Well, Bae Seo-nyeok wearing sunglasses in the middle of winter looked suspicious to anyone.

 

“…Uh, um. Didn’t you come to look at land?”

 

“No-”

 

“That’s right!”

 

Bae Seo-nyeok and Rampa Lim both turned to look at me simultaneously.

 

I pretended not to know and smiled innocently as I shouted.

 

“Our uncle came to look at land! Please show us the land~.”

 

♧

 

The rice fields after harvest were empty, making the cold wind feel sharper. Clean sneakers stepped on the cold earth.

 

Bae Seo-nyeok usually preferred sneakers due to his habit from long years of living abroad, but today he had taken out new shoes, thinking he was going on an outing with a precious child.

 

‘Who would have thought I’d end up in a place like this.’

 

It was something he couldn’t have imagined even this morning.

 

After looking at the clustered slate roofs, he turned his head. He felt like having a cigarette, but had to consider his young companions.

 

“Don’t you think you should explain to uncle now?”

 

Seosing-a, who had gotten out of the car holding Bae Seo-nyeok’s hand, looked up at him with her characteristically watery eyes.

 

They always looked as if she had just finished crying, the eyes that Director Ham Gyeong-seok had described as pleading without words.

 

“Is Uncle angry?”

 

“Do you know what you did wrong?”

 

“When you’re angry, Sing-a gets scared…”

 

Look at that. She’s acting cute again.

 

Bae Seo-nyeok felt like he might laugh, but he held it in. After watching her closely for over a year, he had figured out Seosing-a to some degree.

 

This little charmer was cunning, and quite considerably so at that.

 

It was fine to play along with her cuteness since she was adorable, and Bae Seo-nyeok actually enjoyed it quite a bit himself…

 

But coaxing adults to come buy land? This was a different kind of problem.

 

“Hyung. Sing-a probably wasn’t just fooling around.”

 

Rampa Lim hid Seosing-a behind his back.

 

With only a few years age difference, he sure calls me ‘hyung’ shamelessly well. Bae Seo-nyeok quite liked this sociable Australian kid next to his fake niece too, but right now he was in the way.

 

Bae Seo-nyeok scooped up Seosing-a in his arms.

 

“If it’s not fooling around, then what is it? Tell me.”

 

“If I tell you, you’ll scold me-”

 

“Whether I scold you or not, I’ll decide after hearing it.”

 

Seosing-a blinks her eyes.

 

When her soft cheeks leaned against him obediently, Bae Seo-nyeok felt himself becoming powerless before he could even get angry, but he still held back and waited.

 

Then Seosing-a, who had been hesitating, pursed her lips uncertainly.

 

“Actually… I secretly overheard something.”

 

“What?”

 

“Father talking on the phone with his friend.”

 

I’ll only tell Uncle about this. It’s a secret.

 

Whispered secrets continued.

 

“Father’s friends said that when the millennium comes, the President grandpa will turn the neighborhood next to ours into a really~ big city. So we need to buy quickly now…”

 

“What?”

 

This kind of answer wasn’t within his expectations.

 

Content he never could have imagined came pouring out. Bae Seo-nyeok furrowed his brow in bewilderment and asked.

 

“Wait, who are these friends?”

 

“I don’t know~ Probably really important people? Our father knows lots of people like that.”

 

“Your father does? How?”

 

Seosing-a’s eyes widened in surprise.

 

“Uncle… didn’t you know? Our father is a former special forces member. He even fought North Korean spies. He has really, really many military friends.”

 

“…Your father?”

 

That pale-faced, necktie-wearing henpecked husband… that man?

 

Bae Seo-nyeok asked back with an expression that said ‘are you kidding me right now?’

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