The Youngest Son of the Eunhae Merchant Group - Chapter 80

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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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The Youngest Son of the Eunhae Trading Company – Chapter 80

Chapter 80. The Shaanxi Scorpion (3)

Wondering what on earth was happening, I stepped outside the guest quarters.
“No! How could this happen!”
“What should we do, Manager Eom?”
I saw Eom Sam-taek Chief Manager sitting on the ground in a daze, utterly defeated.
“What exactly has occurred?”
It was a different junior manager who answered my question.
“Well… we’ve been swindled.”
“I see…”
Now I understood why the journey here had been so smooth.
A major disaster had unfolded.
.
.
.
I exhaled slowly.
Eom Sam-taek Chief Manager was a chief manager. That meant he had conducted countless transactions over the years.
For someone with such experience to fall victim to fraud was shocking!
I turned to the junior manager.
“Tell me the details.”
“Well, you see…”
Manager Eom and his party had met with the tea broker they were supposed to meet yesterday, he explained.
“It was definitely Manager Hwang, whom we’ve been meeting with all this time.”
Manager Hwang was the chief manager of the tea brokerage we conducted business with.
“Even the contract he brought looked authentic… it was impossible to detect any deception.”
“So you conducted the transaction without suspicion. But how did you discover the fraud?”
“This morning, Manager Hwang contacted us. When we mentioned yesterday’s meeting and transaction, he said…”
“What did he say?”
“That it never happened! He said something came up, so he asked to meet the next day instead. He wanted to know what we were talking about…”
“And that’s how you found out.”
“Yes. Manager Hwang told us to examine the goods carefully.”
The junior manager continued.
“When we checked… it wasn’t pu-erh tea at all. It was just dried grass pressed into brick shapes.”
“Did you request a payment hold at the pawn shop?”
For transactions of this scale, we typically didn’t exchange goods directly but instead used promissory notes.
If we requested a payment hold before converting the note to currency, we could prevent the funds from being disbursed.
“That’s…”
“They’ve already come for it.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
So I’ve been completely duped.
I examined the counterfeit fortune charms carefully.
It must have taken considerable effort to fabricate all of these.
That’s when I discovered a single sheet of paper among the fake charms.
I withdrew it and unfolded it.

[Thank you for your trouble being deceived by the Shaanxi Scorpion.]

“Damn it.”
Suddenly, a story I’d heard from my past life came to mind.
Unnecessarily meticulous care and attention.
There was a man who defrauded merchant guilds through thorough investigation and outstanding acting skills.
His stage of operation was Shaanxi Province.
He called himself the Shaanxi Scorpion.
It meant the scorpion of Shaanxi Province.
And he left such infuriating letters for those he swindled.
That bastard brought tears to the eyes of countless merchants and sowed discord and enmity among them.
Because of him, the reputation of Shaanxi merchants deteriorated as well.
In fact, many supervisors took their own lives due to the Shaanxi Scorpion’s frauds.
Why do they have to die?
The one who truly deserves to die is someone else entirely.
The amusing part is that he never approaches a merchant guild he’s already defrauded once.
From my memory, this was the reason he never approached our guild.
Today’s charm fraud—in other words, he had already defrauded the Eunhae Trading Company before.
At that time, I was in my third year of practical work, buried in documents at the Jae-gyeong Pavilion.
I vaguely remember hearing that we suffered a loss of one thousand silver taels from the fraud.
Since it wasn’t something I experienced directly, I failed to recall the Shaanxi Scorpion even when coming to Shaanxi Province this time.
Whether the resentment and deaths accumulated against the Shaanxi Scorpion reached heaven, he was eventually captured.
It was a child who caught that bastard.
It was a collaboration between a child who sensed something amiss and a guild member who didn’t dismiss that child’s words.
After the Shaanxi Scorpion was arrested and interrogated, it was revealed that he had defrauded over five hundred merchant guilds.
The amusing part was his reason for the fraud.
There was no particular reason.
He simply found it entertaining.
He found it amusing to watch people fall for his deceptions.
So he was a wicked man who extracted tears of blood from his victims’ eyes for his own amusement.
What was even more appalling was his answer when asked if he felt sorry for those who had taken their own lives because of him.

“Who told him to die? How is that my responsibility? There are plenty of people who’ve been swindled by me and are still alive and well. Those who died simply lacked the strength to survive.”

It was utter nonsense.
His death was horrific.
When the Emperor received word of this incident, he remarked, “Since he has fleeced so many over the years, it seems only fitting to return the favor,” and sentenced him to have his skin flayed while still alive.
A cruel death it was.
They say he begged the executioner to end his suffering, pleading for death itself—apparently his own demise held no entertainment value for him.
But that was a matter for the distant future. Right now, we had our own crisis to face.
A loss of one thousand silver taels meant we had simply thrown away money.
I cursed the Shaanxi Scorpion with every vile epithet I could muster, then turned my gaze to Eom Sam-taek Chief Manager.
“Oh dear, what are we to do… Oh dear…”
Eom Sam-taek Chief Manager sat collapsed on the floor, utterly at a loss.
The goods we received weren’t even genuine.
The money was already gone, carried off by the swindler.
We couldn’t even secure funds at our current location to purchase tea again.
The merchandise we’d brought to sell here had also been taken by the Shaanxi Scorpion, or so we were told.
As for borrowing money, Eom Manager lacked the authority to borrow on the Eunhae Trading Company’s name.
In the end, we had no choice but to return empty-handed.
And Eom Manager…
He would likely find it difficult to escape responsibility for this.
To be honest, I had about one thousand silver taels in my possession right now.
The pouch the Ghost-Face Pao Elder had given me as a gift was so light it felt like cotton, even with fifty taels of actual silver inside rather than promissory notes.
But my pride wouldn’t allow me to use my own money to repurchase the tea.
That bastard.
How dare he touch the Eunhae Trading Company?
One of my specialties is stripping scoundrels like you bare.
You can count on it.
I’ll take even your undergarments.
I spoke to Palgap.
“Postpone our trip to the Wuyi Merchant Guild for now.”
“Understood.”
Then I made a proposal to Eom Manager.
“Given the circumstances, I’ll assume command of operations here. Do you consent?”
Eom Manager nodded with a resigned expression.
“Do as you see fit, Young Master. I haven’t the faintest idea how to handle this.”
The shock had clearly struck him hard.
I spoke to the servant who had been attending to Eom Manager.
“Please look after the manager carefully.”
“Understood.”
I stood before them and spoke with confidence.
“I am issuing orders now. Eo Manager, investigate whether other merchant guilds in this area have been defrauded by someone called the Shaanxi Scorpion. If so, find out the methods and the scale of their losses in detail.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Eo Manager, calculate the amount of damage we have suffered.”
“Understood.”
“Shim Manager, research the items the fraudsters brought as tea and how they were made.”
“Yes?”
“Tea crafted with such skill that it deceived Eom Manager’s eye. What is the value of a master craftsman in this region capable of producing superior dark tea—specifically brick-shaped compressed tea?”
“Ah! I see!”
Shim Manager seemed to grasp my meaning.
“By examining the craftsmanship, we can determine who made the compressed tea.”
From there, we could identify which tea plantation produced it, and that would become a crucial clue to capturing the Shaanxi Scorpion.
Then I recalled the fact that they had taken the goods we brought to sell, claiming they would handle the transaction for us.
I approached my Master.
“I have a request for Pyo Du.”
“Speak.”
“I would like to request the assistance of the Cart Laborers. I will provide additional compensation for this.”
“Very well. And since we must return together anyway, please pay each individual directly.”
“Understood.”
I found the Cart Laborers who had inspected the goods, and approached Sang Manager, who appeared to be their leader.
“You must have heard the conversation between Pyo Du and myself. I will pay you for your assistance.”
“Why would you pay us? We have known each other for years now, and in difficult times, we must help one another.”
A man who seemed to be next in rank spoke up.
“Sang Manager is right. We are not the sort of men who cling to money even in such dire circumstances.”
“I wish to give it to you.”
Their willingness to help without any reward truly moved me.
Yet I could only accept their sentiment in spirit.
It was not as though I lacked the means to give them additional payment.
“We have brought merchandise with us. Please investigate whether those goods are being traded here.”
“Understood.”
The items we brought were candy. Shaanxi Province was not a place where candy was produced.
Since the candy dissolved easily in water, we had brought it with great difficulty and care, only for them to take it all away?
The more I thought about it, the more infuriated I became.
But thanks to that, we would be able to catch their trail quickly.
The Shaanxi Scorpion had been too greedy.
Then Eo Manager spoke hesitantly.
“Sir, there is a problem.”
“What is it?”
“We were actually scheduled to depart the day after tomorrow, but if things proceed as they are, our lodging expenses will fall short.”
Without hesitation, I withdrew a bank note from my purse and handed it to him.
“Will this suffice?”
“Ah!”
Upon seeing the amount on the promissory note, he started in surprise before responding.
“Yes, it’s more than enough.”
“When you exchange the note, please travel with the Eunpung Corps warriors.”
“Understood.”
I withdrew money from my pocket to cover the lodging expenses, but I felt no regret about it.
I intended to extract far more from the Shaanxi Scorpion than what I was spending now.
I spoke quietly to Eo Manager.
“Inflate our trading company’s damages as much as possible.”
“Pardon?”
“Any loss, no matter how small, must be calculated into the amount. Do you understand?”
“Understood.”

* * *

Gwak Myung-hyun was away attending to some business.
Since Bu Pyo-du also had personal matters to attend to, they had arranged to take turns standing watch.
In truth, there was no real need for vigilance yet.
There was nothing to guard.
But one cannot simply neglect one’s duties.
‘A fraud scheme, of all things….’
Honestly, though he had witnessed many things during his time at the Pyo Bureau, this was unprecedented.
To deceive a trading company, making them mistake the perpetrator for a legitimate business partner, and commit fraud—it was audacious.
Whether it was bold or remarkable….
Yet somehow, he sensed that they had made a critical mistake this time.
His disciple and the director of the Hyun Pung Bureau, Eun Seo-ho, grasped the situation immediately upon hearing the account.
He then swiftly received authority from Eom Sam-taek Chief Manager and issued orders at once.
Each of those orders was precise and necessary.
In ordinary circumstances, confusion clouds judgment, preventing timely response.
Eom Manager was no exception.
Though he was a chief manager, this unprecedented incident was surely his first.
To his knowledge, Eom Sam-taek Chief Manager had worked for over a decade.
Yet even he stood bewildered, at a loss for how to respond, while Eun Seo-ho—who had only been formally managing the trading company for just over a year since becoming a small merchant guild leader—proceeded without hesitation.
Gwak Myung-hyun was Eun Seo-ho’s sword master.
Therefore, he could read the resolve burning in Eun Seo-ho’s eyes. It was the determination to capture the fraud scheme perpetrator, the Shaanxi Scorpion.
And from all he had observed of Eun Seo-ho, he was a man who followed through on his intentions.
‘He mastered the Frozen Sea Severing Technique in a mere fortnight—something that normally takes over a year to learn. That says everything.’
When he said it took a fortnight to master, he had merely been speaking casually, yet Eun Seo-ho had truly mastered it in that time.
He was curious to see how Eun Seo-ho would resolve this matter.
Before long, Gwak Myung-hyun arrived at the inn where we were staying.
“You’ve arrived, sir?”
“Has anything unusual occurred?”
“No, sir. Nothing at all.”
“Yet it seems we have guests.”
“Ah, they are victims, sir.”
“Victims?”
“The victims of that swindler, sir. Besides our company, there are already three others. And you have invited the guild leaders of those merchant houses.”

* * *

I observed the men who had entered my chamber at the inn.
They were merchant guild leaders operating in Shaanxi Province, and they too were victims of the Shaanxi Scorpion’s deception.
I introduced myself briefly and spoke with directness.
“How much silver did each of you lose to this fraud?”
“Why do you ask?”
I smiled at his question.
“Our Eunhae Trading Company suffered a loss of three thousand silver taels.”
At my words, the three guild leaders drew sharp breaths.
Eo Manager had meticulously calculated the damages as I instructed, and what had been a loss of one thousand taels in my previous life had become three thousand.
“The Eunhae Trading Company intends to capture this swindler called the Shaanxi Scorpion without fail. That is why I have invited you three here.”

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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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