Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 202

I think she’s going to gain a huge female fan base. Just look at the young ladies from the noble families up there now.

Well, following a female entertainer is less likely to cause trouble at home compared to chasing after a man.

It’s wholesome and good.

“However, it’s still in the planning stages. The current season is perfect for performances, so the prevailing opinion is to raise some funds now while properly planning, and then dive into intense practice this winter. What does the Young Miss think?”

“Sounds good. I’m glad you’re all doing well on your own, but is there anything I can help with?”

“Ah, well, I was wondering if the writers Hwawoo (花雨) and Hwayoung (花影) have any thoughts on their next project…”

“Ah…”

She’s probably too busy with her side job right now…

‘Come to think of it, I wonder how her love life is going.’

Even if they are dating, she wouldn’t tell her boyfriend’s sister everything.
Tsk.

“I’ll ask her about it when I see her next time.”

“Please do. It’s harder to see them than it is to see you, Young Miss, because they are so busy.”

It seemed they were hoping for a new work, having already milked the two hit projects quite a bit.

‘Actually, Sehwa got a promotion and has earned quite a bit of money, so she probably isn’t in a rush.’

I bet if I went to the book rental shop, Mr. Jang would say something similar.

“A Goryeo Dynasty setting might be good too.”

“That’s right. Instead of the Crown Prince, the main character could be the Grand Crown Prince~”

Maehyang, who had seen a play set in the Goryeo Dynasty, chimed in.

“Or even an earlier era would be interesting. The clothes are different too, right?”

“True, next time we could change the atmosphere with Goguryeo, Baekje, or Silla for the event.”

Not only Maehyang but also those around us who were preparing for other performances reacted enthusiastically to my words.

“That sounds great!”

“We’d have to do historical research, and making new clothes would cost a lot of money…”

“Ah! I’m sorry.”

“Well, we’ll do it if we have the resources when the time comes. It’s my money anyway, so there’s no need to worry about unnecessary things.”

“Heh heh. You’re so generous, Young Miss!”

“I have to earn a lot. Well.”

“Hahahaha.”

Amid the friendly atmosphere, I greeted the people and left the place.

Goryeo is close to Gaegyeong, so it would be easy to find materials. Maybe I should really go to Gyeongju next time.

‘The styles of clothes from before the Joseon Dynasty changed a lot, so some people in modern times don’t even know they are traditional Korean clothes.’

Hmm. Should I leave behind drawings that can be used as reference material later?

Anyway, the children who know how to draw are already leaving records of Siyoungwon and Siwolgak’s scenery during events.

‘Hmm. It feels half like making a commemorative album.’

Is it a similar feeling to how the royal family leaves behind drawings for every event?

There are quite a few children with talent for drawing, so should I educate them further and nurture them?

As I was thinking about that and came out of the building, I saw Cheonho outside.

“Ah.”

Cheonho was with the siblings I had seen before.

“Young Miss, are you going back now?”

“Yes. I feel a little sleepy.”

“Ah. Then I will escort you.”

Before I could say anything, Cheonho quickly picked me up.

“??”

Why is he in such a hurry?

“Then I should be going now. Take care, kid.”

The first part of the sentence seemed to be directed at the sister, and the second part at the younger brother.

The siblings bowed to me with bewildered faces.

I asked, puzzled.

“I thought you two had become close since you’re always together, but were you not?”

“Well… you could say we’re close. But I don’t particularly enjoy being with them.”

“?”

What is that supposed to mean?

“But why did you take care of them so much?”

“Hmm… the sister seemed to have a hard time taking care of her younger brother, which reminded me of my own sister.”

“Ah.”

Was it because he was reminded of his lost sister?

“It also reminded me of when I was young.”

“Why when you were young?”

“It made me think about how much my sister and uncle must have suffered raising me…”

Saying that, Cheonho shook his head with a look of disgust. Having a much younger brother myself, I nodded in agreement.

“Definitely. Cheonho must have been big and strong since he was young.”

“And didn’t listen to me.”

“Are you reflecting?”

“Hmm. I think I’ve paid the price for my sins.”

No, I mean reflect!

I slapped Cheonho’s back.

“Ouch, ouch. Why are you doing this?”

“I felt the need to hit you once on behalf of Cheonho’s sister and uncle.”

“Isn’t this an abuse of power?”

“Cheonho’s sister and uncle might disagree?”

“I… guess you’re right. Definitely.”

Soyi, who was following behind with Jeok-ah, chuckled at Cheonho’s weak voice.

“No matter how much Cheonho is scolded, it can’t compare to the Young Miss’s childhood.”

“Why me?”

“You created Siyoungwon when you were about the same age as that little kid over there.”

“……”

“……”

I guess so?

Both Cheonho and I were momentarily speechless at Soyi’s blunt truth.

And on the way back, something suddenly occurred to me.

“Cheonho, do you want to find your sister?”

“Yes? Ah, yes. Of course, I do.”

Cheonho looked puzzled because it was such a sudden question.

“Do you remember when, where, and how you lost her?”

“……Well, I don’t really know because I was too young.”

“What about Cheonho’s uncle? Cheonho was young at the time, but doesn’t your uncle know?”

Cheonho shook his head, looking embarrassed at my question.

“My uncle doesn’t know much about that time. He wasn’t living with us, and he doesn’t know much about my sister either.”

Hmm… I guess he wasn’t living with them.

“But you have memories of your sister, right? Then your sister must remember Cheonho too, right?”

“Yes, I don’t remember exactly, but she was a bit older than me.”

“Then your sister would remember Cheonho better. She’s probably looking for Cheonho too.”

“Would… she?”

Cheonho becomes strangely quiet when talking about his sister.

‘He must want to meet her. Maybe he doesn’t remember well because they were separated when he was too young.’

Separated families are heartbreaking.

As for me, almost all the people I want to meet are already in the afterlife, or in another world… come to think of it, those are kind of the same thing??

Anyway, since they are all people I can’t physically meet, I don’t have any regrets, but if I thought they were alive, I would want to meet them, and if there was a way to find them, I would want to find them.

‘A way to find people….’

It would be impossible to find her since Cheonho doesn’t have many memories of his sister, but conversely, if his sister is looking for Cheonho, wouldn’t there be a way to find him somehow?

Thinking about another business that is currently underway, I started brainstorming.

Some time later, I had a light tea time with the busy Crown Prince.

And as our tea times always do, it didn’t end with just relaxing.

“Are you talking about the postal service project you mentioned before?”

“Yeah. That. I thought of something good.”

“Hmm. I wonder what you’re thinking about this time.”

The Crown Prince smiled and picked up his teacup.

‘Strangely, he seems to like it when I bring him work.’

I wonder if he’s gone crazy from working too much. I hope Sehwa is okay.

“When you mentioned it last time, you said it would be good to borrow the administrative power of the jobo [official gazette] and gibyeol [another name for jobo] to deliver letters, right? I agreed that it was a good idea.”

“Thanks to you, the project has grown a bit.”

“Wasn’t it inevitable that it would grow anyway?”

“Well, that’s true. It’s just annoying if it gets too big.”

The jobo (朝報) was a type of official gazette that conveyed information from the court (朝廷).

The jobo is also called gibyeol (奇別), and from the perspective of modern people, the word gibyeol is more familiar than the word jobo.

‘The saying “it doesn’t even tickle” comes from there.’

To explain the jobo, or gibyeol, in more detail, it contained the king’s words, the contents of memorials, government personnel information, domestic and foreign incidents and accidents… In modern terms, it was similar to a government-issued gazette mixed with a newspaper.

The place that published the jobo was the Gibyeolcheong, an affiliated organization of the Seungjeongwon, which can be seen as the king’s secretariat. Every morning, they would write the jobo and post it on the wall, and people from each government office or local government office would go to the Gibyeolcheong to transcribe the jobo and send it.

And that meant that each local government office in the eight provinces of Joseon had a certain administrative network in place to deliver the jobo.

‘It seems like the local government offices are running hard on their own because they don’t want to be left behind in information, rather than it being a system managed by the central government.’

Anyway, it’s a good thing that the system is already in place.

‘There’s no reason not to use it.’

In this era, exchanging information through letters is mostly done by the nobility or wealthy class, and others would be people who have come to Hanyang to find work and want to send letters to their families.

Most of these people live in areas with a certain amount of scale, even if they are in the countryside. In other words, they live in relatively not-so-distant areas that can be managed by the government.

That means that when delivering the jobo, you can send the letters together at once, so there’s no need to work twice.

Besides, it’s difficult to deliver letters to remote mountain villages right away when starting a postal service.

Those who live in such places are likely to be illiterate anyway.

‘I heard that in some of the more remote areas, they deliver a month’s worth of jobo all at once.’

Letters will probably be delivered similarly in remote areas since the quantity will be small.

Instead, the Siyoungwon, a private company, could supplement the personnel to increase the amount that needs to be delivered.

First, the jobo and letters are transported to the local government office, but second, it would be most efficient for locals to deliver the letters within the area.

The initial volume probably won’t be large, so if they are paid per item, there will be people who think of it as a side job and start with a light heart.

‘It would be nice to hire them directly when the volume increases later.’

Anyway, this opinion was accepted, and the Crown Prince told the King and received a fairly positive response.

“So, what else did you come up with?”

“Well… that’s…”

I explained the things I had organized to the Crown Prince step by step.

Sometimes, I still unknowingly say things that couldn’t exist in this era, so I always organize my words in advance when explaining these things.

And the Crown Prince’s eyes sparkled with interest as he listened to my opinion.

“That… seems like it would be good, but it would be good to tell Father as well.”