Reset Life with Infinite Talents - Chapter 249

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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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Infinite Talent Reset Life Episode 249

“We might be able to export kiln clay as construction materials, but how do we get the kaolin out?”

Vrooom! Beep beep!

Professor Evelyn biting her nails and muttering anxiously in the middle of Seoul with countless cars and people passing by.

Export isn’t the only problem. There could be pest risks, making import into America even more problematic.

“In the end, we have to make it here! Fine! Starting today, it’s my sabbatical year!”

“Me too!”

“Could I possibly join as well?”

“…Please calm down, everyone.”

Johann stops the professors from getting carried away again.

“The plants will be burned to ash for export anyway, so that shouldn’t be a problem, and the kaolin issue will be resolved by the company sponsoring me.”

“Right! You said it’s this country’s number one company?”

“Yes.”

So he’d appreciate it if they could focus on sightseeing in Seoul.

“Fine! Then I’ll endure it!”

If even one thing goes wrong, she can declare her sabbatical year and fly back over.

“When you’re making pottery, you’ll come too!”

“Ah, yes…”

Johann shakes his head and looks at Emily wearing hanbok.

And becomes dazed again.

“Hehe. Is she that pretty?”

“Yeah…”

With her hair pinned up revealing her pure white neckline, his heart pounds like crazy.

‘When I get back, I’ll make hanbok for Emily first!’

“Stand over there. A little to the side.”

A spot where the entrance to Gwanghwamun Gate is visible straight ahead.

Click!

“Pretend to go inside while reaching your hand this way.”

Click!

“Good.”

Is it because Emily is so pretty?

The attention that naturally gathered toward her shifts to Johann, who belatedly put on a hat and mask.

One of those looking at Johann tilted their head and approached him.

“Um, excuse me, are you by any chance… Johann Jefferson?”

“Oh, you recognized me. Should I give you an autograph?”

“…Crazy. Is it really him?”

Johann not only gave an autograph but also took a photo, leaving the still-dazed woman behind as he entered Gyeongbokgung Palace.

And that night, various Korean communities caught fire.

-I went to Gyeongbokgung Palace today and saw Johann Jefferson.

└Yes. It’s time to take your medicine.

└Thank you for the mental illness nonsense.

└Keke. Why would Johann Jefferson be in Korea?

-I’m the one who just said I saw Johann Jefferson, posting proof photo.

└…Why is hyung here?

-So this really is Johann Jefferson?

Johann eating chicken legs with his girlfriend at a chicken restaurant.

Johann and his girlfriend drinking vending machine coffee.

Such good-looking foreigners eating chicken so skillfully that I took photos out of curiosity.

└Crazy?

└What is this! Why is Johann Jefferson in Korea!

└When did he come! Why did he come without saying anything!

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Is the coffee really that amazing?

└Vending machine coffee is delicious though.

-Posting photos of Johann and Emily in hanbok.

I took photos because there were some foreign models, but it was Johann and Emily?

└I love you.

└Seeing how well hanbok suits them, they must be Korean.

└Why wasn’t I there today! I live right there!

Breaking news! Johann Jefferson, illegal entry into Korea?

Johann, dating in Korea with girlfriend!

What’s Johann Jefferson’s purpose for visiting Korea?!

The media went crazy a step too late, but by then Johann had already returned to LA.

* * *

Pfft!

“If you came secretly, at least don’t get caught.”

Kim Seo-hyun chuckles after checking the news online.

“You’re saying that mountain has kaolin deposits.”

“We need to check the deposit amount and composition, but it’s definitely confirmed to be kaolin.”

Kim Seo-hyun shakes her head at the secretary office manager’s words after accompanying Johann yesterday and today.

‘Is he really blessed by God.’

Johann really has various kinds of luck following him.

“Check it out and make it possible to designate as a production site.”

Even if the deposit amount is small.

“Package that kiln-making clay as construction materials and send it by plane.”

If a kiln is a type of building, then it’s a building, so there shouldn’t be any legal issues.

“Understood.”

Kim Seo-hyun narrows her eyes at the manager’s obedient response.

“Aren’t you curious why we’re going this far?”

The group’s secretary office that only listens to the chairman’s orders, currently only listening to her brother Kim Yong-jae who’s practically leading the group in place of their collapsed father.

So she’s quite cautious too.

“Our secretary office is a department that moves on orders.”

When orders come down, they just carry them out somehow, not a department that questions.

‘Father who created such a secretary office is really amazing.’

Kim Seo-hyun shows a photo on her phone.

“This is a statue that will soon be erected at Seoul Hotel. It’s a new work by Johann, the artist who created works called the Renaissance Revival.”

Also, the path to the Altar of the Starbeam will soon be exhibited at an art museum. Though it’s a loan format, since Johann doesn’t move for money, it will be the first and last overseas exhibition.

“And… you know, right?”

Even aside from this, Johann had already given much to SJ Group. This level doesn’t even repay a hair’s worth of that grace.

“What about Space?”

SJ Electronics’ Space Phone is enjoying tremendous promotional effects in America just from Johann continuing to use it.

Even so, Johann only signed a small sponsorship contract just for the sake of connection.

“I apologize. Thank you for the explanation. I’ll move immediately.”

“You may go.”

As the manager who bowed deeply left, Kim Seo-hyun looks at the statue photo again, lost in thought.

“Where should we display this so it can blend into the hotel…”

And make the hotel stand out.

It was truly a troublesome but happy worry.

* * *

A few days later in Brentwood near UCLA.

A few days later, in Brentwood near UCLA.

Professor Evelyn stands in front of her mansion gate, stomping her feet and biting her nails.

“This is my studio that I bought with my own money. My estranged husband is currently living in Santa Monica.”

“Aha.”

‘So that’s why she built it on this mountaintop.’

Brentwood, where luxury residential areas are formed like Bel Air and Beverly Hills.

These are LA’s representative wealthy districts, commonly called the 3Bs – Bel Air, Beverly Hills, and Brentwood.

Professor Evelyn’s mansion, no, studio was located at the northern end of Brentwood, at the end of a valley between mountains.

“Ah, when are they coming? Did they really depart?”

“They said they did.”

The kaolin clay would take some time, but they said the mud had already been sent.

That’s when it happened.

Vroom!

The exhaust sound of a truck that didn’t quite fit with Brentwood.

Soon a large truck comes up from below.

“That’s it, right? That’s the one?”

“I think so?”

Soon the chubby driver who got out of the truck that stopped in front of them approaches Johann.

“Mr. Johann Jefferson… Wow. You really are Johann Jefferson?”

“Haha. Nice to meet you. You came from Korea, right?”

“Yes. Construction… soil.”

“Then you came to the right place. I just need to sign here?”

“Here too… My daughter likes you.”

“Haha. Yes.”

After signing the notebook he offered, the driver soon lifts the truck’s cargo bed and pours out hundreds of packaged bags of soil.

“Well, take care!”

“Have a good day! …What are you doing? We need to move these.”

“Oh, right! That’s right! Kids!”

“Yes!”

Dozens of university students who had approached behind Johann and Professor Evelyn, ceramics students she had lured with the promise of participating in making a traditional Joseon kiln, rush toward the bags with Korean writing and lift them up.

“Johann, where should we put these?”

“Take them all behind the house for now! Don’t step on the areas with non-woven fabric!”

From now on, they had to do work where absolutely no impurities could get in. Even the soil on shoe soles had to be carefully watched.

* * *

The fairly spacious backyard of Professor Evelyn’s studio.

Non-woven fabric was laid over half its width, wooden boards were set up as walls, and soil transported from Jangsimri was filled up to calf height.

University students and graduate students all look at the soil.

Soil that was darker brown than yellow earth with a faint black tinge.

Everyone stares intently, smells it, pinches a bit of soil, rolls it between their fingers, then brings it to their tongues.

Ceramics where soil is everything. Therefore, there’s no hesitation in those actions.

‘It’s dried very well.’

After drying with a hot air blower and filtering out all impurities like leaves, this work alone would have taken a full two weeks back then.

‘A lot of effort must have gone into this.’

Wondering what more he should do, Johann picks up a bag placed to one side and sprinkles it on the soil.

Swoosh!

Ash and bone powder are sprinkled on the mud.

Professor Evelyn’s eyes light up.

“This is how they made fire bricks in that era…”

Since regular bricks cannot withstand extreme high temperatures, fire bricks are made using special methods.

The method of making fire bricks in that era was to mix animal bones, leaves, ash, and soil with mud, go through firing work, and when bricks broke from not being able to withstand the heat, grind them up and knead them with mud again, repeating the firing process to increase fire resistance.

“The bone powder is from birds, rabbits, and wild boars?”

“Cattle were too precious in that era.”

Animals so precious that slaughtering them carelessly would result in severe punishment. So they dried, roasted, and dried again the bones of relatively easier-to-obtain animals.

“This is where these secret methods come in.”

Johann points to the kiln worker’s diary that Professor Evelyn is holding preciously and sprinkles some liquid.

This was the ‘kiln worker’s’ secret method.

“Don’t worry, I set aside samples.”

Samples for component analysis.

“Okay!”

Johann looks at the university students and graduate students.

“Water?”

“Here it is!”

Like with ceramics, you don’t use just any water for bricks. Clear valley water is filtered through cotton cloth, boiled once, and only the top water is used.

Pure water with no impurities mixed in.

Johann substituted this with valley water from Topanga State Park.

“Pour it.”

“Okay!”

Swoooosh!

Everyone lifts large water containers and pours them over the soil.

“You all shaved your hair, right?”

“Yeah!”

“Ah, do I really have to shave? I’m a guy?”

“If you don’t like it, get out. We might have to throw away bricks because of that one hair.”

“Damn it. Fine, I’ll shave…”

As the men who didn’t want to shave their hair stepped away, Johann points to the widely spread soil, the soil filled with water.

“Step on it. Without mercy.”

“…Let’s go!”

“Waah!”

As people climbed over the fence and began stepping on the soil and water, Johann exits that area.

‘It’ll take ages just to turn that into mud.’

Still, with so many people, it shouldn’t take too long.

Johann turns around and heads to a location he had scouted earlier, with Professor Evelyn and half the students following behind.

Whoosh!

‘Good wind.’

Wind, one of the most important factors when building a kiln.

The wind blowing here now was an amazing wind path that even the ‘kiln worker’ had rarely seen in his lifetime.

‘It has to be.’

LA has tremendous energy flowing through it that would make even ‘Daoism Master Doseon’ stick out his tongue. Professor Evelyn’s studio is right in front of the belly of the dragon that embraces LA.

It’s located right in front of a place where tremendous energy bursts forth, though not as much as Johann’s own mansion.

‘What kind of bricks will come out here, what kind of ceramics will be made.’

And what kind of bricks and ceramics would come out if he built a kiln at his own mansion.

Johann’s lips twitch as he examines the wind path and lifts and moves a large, flat, solid stone.

“Heave!”

Thud!

“Huh? A-are you already building the kiln?”

At someone’s shout, Johann shakes his head.

“This is for building a kiln to fire bricks.”

The brick kiln is as important as building a kiln for firing ceramics.

“If the bricks are defective, the ceramics will be defective too.”

The kiln might even burst and cause a terrible disaster.

“That’s why even ceramicists and potters who built their own kilns bought bricks from people they could trust.”

Both emerging artisans who had to build kilns alone due to lack of funds and ceramicists who accumulated their own know-how to create kilns themselves – all of them trusted and bought bricks from reliable kiln workers.

Thud!

“Joseon is truly a fascinating country.”

Thud! Thud!

“The four social classes.”

Scholars and intellectuals at the top, merchants at the bottom.

“Even when others looked down on them, artisans spared no effort for perfection. They persevered silently even when no one acknowledged them.”

Even when bones broke in the process, when hands and feet had to be amputated due to tetanus, when skin and flesh burned away and lungs became unusable, they never stopped.

They always moved their bodies and researched for greater perfection.

Thud!

“Bring some of that clay they’re kneading over there.”

“Yes!”

Several people rushed over, and Professor Evelyn, who had been lost in thought at Johann’s words, spoke up.

“That’s why they’re called artisans.”

For ceramicists, a lifetime isn’t enough – they dedicate their very souls to pottery, so they deserve to be called artisans.

“I suppose so.”

“What can I help with?”

“Please lay more stones on the side. I think we can add another row.”

Originally, kilns aren’t better just because they’re built large. It’s because of heat transfer rates.

But here, it seemed fine to add another row to increase the kiln’s size.

Professor Evelyn smiled contentedly as she stacked stones.

“Temperature, humidity, wind volume, even the height and slope of the ground – who knew so many factors had to be considered when building a single kiln? Isn’t it both amazing and fascinating?”

And the ultimate kiln, perfected through generations of analyzing all these factors through countless trials and errors.

Professor Evelyn couldn’t help but be excited about creating it with her own hands.

“In that sense, LA is truly a blessed land.”

Warm and dry 365 days a year.

It doesn’t rain much, but it’s not completely dry either. With the ocean nearby, there’s just the right amount of humidity.

And there’s a decent wind too.

For work requiring fire, there’s no better land – it’s truly a dream location.

“Oh.”

“I, I brought it!”

“Good work! …What are you doing? Come here and stack too. Aren’t you going to learn?”

“Yes!”

They quickly rolled up their sleeves and picked up stones.

Squish! Crack!

“Oh!”

“Wow. The consistency is pretty good?”

Soft clay rising up between their toes as they pressed down.

Familiar with clay, they excitedly stomped on this mud that felt quite different from pottery clay.

“Despacito!”

“Uh-huh-uh huh-uh pacito!”

“Uh-huh-uh uh-huh-uh verindo.”

‘If you’re going to sing it like that, don’t sing it at all.’

Despacito, the Latin song released in January that caused a sensation.

Johann shouted loudly at them as they sang their work song.

“Stomp harder! So the materials mix completely! So the air comes out!”

“We know!”

“If you do it properly, I’ll sing for you!”

“…Stomp harder, he says!”

“Let’s go!”

Even with everyone rushing in like that, it took two full days to complete the brick kiln.

Even this wasn’t perfect completion. It would take more time for the clay applied between stones as adhesive to dry.

“How is it?”

“…It’s good?”

Johann pursed his lips as he looked at thousands of bricks neatly arranged on metal shelves filling the backyard of Professor Evelyn’s studio.

‘Maybe it’s because everyone has good hand skills…’

They were exactly the shape and size he wanted.

He’d know for sure once they were completely dry, but so far they looked really good.

“They really have the skills to get into UCLA.”

“…Hehe.”

Clap! Clap!

The university students high-fived while wiping their noses.

Professor Evelyn, who had been among them, suddenly remembered and clapped.

“Alright, kids! Now let’s make pottery!”

“…What?”

“Huh? What, were you planning to rest while the kiln and bricks dry? The semester ends in a month, you know?”

Time had to be minimized as much as possible.

“…Yes.”

“Of course. That’s right. Time should be used efficiently.”

‘This demon.’

Most of them headed to the UCLA Art Department with its abundant materials, while some went to Professor Evelyn’s studio.

Johann did the same.

“Oh?”

Johann’s eyes widened when he saw sacks of clay in a corner of the studio.

He rubbed it with his hands, smelled it, and even put some in his mouth.

Some university students, graduate students who declared their intention to pursue graduate school or were favored by Professor Evelyn, showed the same reaction as Johann.

“Hoho. How is it?”

“Where did you get something like this?”

This was top-grade kaolin clay that even ‘the ceramicist’ at the peak of his skills had rarely encountered. ‘The ceramicist’ urged him to quickly sit at the pottery wheel.

“Really, really hard to get… If you come to graduate school, I’ll tell you!”

“Ah, I’ll think about that. Too many people are targeting me.”

“…Tsk.”

Though she clicked her tongue, Professor Evelyn didn’t give up.

‘I have to keep appealing about graduate school so the word gets embedded in his subconscious! What does this kid like?’

As Professor Evelyn was scheming with such devious plans, she suddenly remembered again.

“I forgot to mention this. Johann, how about drying some bricks with a dryer and baking them in an oven?”

‘…That’s a good idea?’

Dryers that weren’t invented back then and couldn’t be used.

‘Would bricks dried in sunlight be better, or bricks dried in a dryer?’

Was it really right to blindly stick to old methods?

Since it wouldn’t waste much time, trying it didn’t seem like a bad idea.

“Let’s try it.”

They had made plenty of bricks considering potential defects. If they could confirm possibilities using some of them, it would be profitable.

‘Sorry, but I’ll see you a bit later.’

Johann looked wistfully at the kaolin clay and moved with Professor Evelyn.

And several hours passed.

Crack! Crack crack! Crumble!

The dryer-baked bricks broke far too easily.

But Johann’s expression was subtle.

“…This actually works?”

“But you’re not satisfied with it, are you?”

Of course. It needs to be at least twice as hard as this.

But he could see the possibility.

“Let’s try drying it longer at a lower temperature. This time with some ventilation too.”

“Okay.”

Professor Evelyn put in another brick, set the timer and temperature, then recorded those values, while Johann squinted his eyes as he felt the heat blowing through the open dryer door.

Crack! Crack!

This time, no matter how hard they hit it, it wouldn’t break.

Johann, wearing a satisfied expression, brought his tongue to the brick.

A tingling taste he could feel.

A taste like well-baked rice cake.

‘The taste of the sun.’

“It really worked…”

It seemed like leaving the dryer entrance open had been a stroke of genius.

‘When energy is overflowing, this is possible too.’

“It worked? Did it work? Is it done?”

The next morning at dawn, Professor Evelyn, whose eyes were bloodshot red, looked at him desperately as Johann held out the perfectly dried brick.

“Yes. It’s exactly the state described in the diary. Try tasting it.”

“Give it here!”

Professor Evelyn quickly grabbed the brick and licked it with her tongue, then was startled.

“What, what is this? It tastes like bread? No, this texture is like cookies?”

The properly dried brick had a savory, nutty, and warm taste.

Teacher had called this the taste of the sun.

“This is the state of a perfectly dried brick…”

Professor Evelyn quickly recorded the current details in her notebook.

“Now we just need to repeat the same process.”

Still, just to be safe, only one-third. Anyway, one dryer could only handle that much quantity.

‘By then, the kiln for firing the bricks will be dry too.’

And so another 8 days passed.

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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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