He Opened A Matchmaking Agency In 18Th Century London [EN]: Chapter 204

204. Precious People

◈ Seoul, South Korea.

Tae-oh was touring the swimming pool construction site with his younger sibling and parents.

When his father, who had been walking ahead, disappeared from sight, his mother looked around, worried, and asked,

“Where did your father go? He was just here.”

“He’s over there.”

Tae-oh’s father was carefully examining a large blueprint of the swimming pool erected on one side of the construction site.

“Are you looking at that again?”

As his wife and sons approached, his father revealed his complicated feelings.

“I don’t know if it’s okay to build such a big swimming pool. It looks too good, almost intimidating. It must cost a fortune, right?”

Then, Tae-oh’s younger sibling joked,

“Haha—Dad, come on. Don’t you know how rich hyung [older brother/male friend] became after investing in the treasure ship? The taxes alone are enormous. This is nothing to hyung now. Isn’t that right, hyung?”

Tae-oh smiled and nodded.

“That’s right, Father. You don’t have to worry at all.”

“Even so, the fact that such a nice swimming pool is ours… it feels like it’s not mine, and I feel ashamed and sorry, like a parent trying to benefit from their child.”

“You should benefit from your child when you can. How much did you help me when I went to study abroad? You deserve this much. Anyway, I’m really glad I can see the start of construction before I leave for England.”

When he was preparing for his doctoral program in the United States, they always did their best to support him, even if it wasn’t lavishly.

Tae-oh knew better than anyone how hard his parents had worked and was always grateful.

“Helping? It’s not like we properly paid for your tuition like others, and we only sent you pocket money occasionally….”

“Pocket money? Father, if it weren’t for your help back then, I wouldn’t have been able to graduate.”

Tae-oh’s mother teared up.

“Tae-oh, thank you so much. I never dreamed that such a good day would come to us. I didn’t say it, but it was your father’s dream all his life, wasn’t it? Once this is all completed, your father and Tae-joon will teach swimming to aspiring young swimmers, and I’ll clean the swimming pool every day. It really feels like a dream.”

“Haha—Yes, Mother. But don’t clean it yourself; leave it to the caretaker. It’ll hurt your back, right?”

For Tae-oh, 18th-century London was a place he was deeply attached to and wanted to return to right away.

However, even while in the 18th century, he never forgot his family left behind in the 21st century.

His parents, who worked hard all their lives but felt sorry for not being able to do more for their children, and his friendly younger sibling were always precious beings occupying a part of his heart.

Just as he desperately missed Princess Maria and longed to see the people he had been with in London, Tae-oh’s heart ached whenever he thought of his family left behind in the 21st century while he was in the 18th century.

If he could, he desperately wanted to know how his parents and younger sibling were doing, even just to hear news of them.

“Father! Let’s make a big locker for members here. When I went to the swimming facility in Yongin last time….”

His parents were smiling as they watched his younger sibling excitedly talking.

Tae-oh was inwardly proud and pleased that he had found his treasures and artworks sleeping in the deep sea and given a small gift to his beloved and precious family.

◈ 28th floor of St. Johnson Building, London.

Tae-oh, who had left Korea and immigrated to England, established a corporation in London.

Through the corporation, he invested £5 billion to establish the Tae-oh Foundation and then acquired Theo University for £1.2 billion.

Tae-oh, who took office as the chairman of the Theo University Foundation, cleared the £1 billion debt the school had been burdened with and resolutely solved various problems the school had.

In particular, he dismissed Liam Bryant, the president who had been deeply involved in school affairs and engaged in various irregularities and abuses of power, and elected a new president through the recommendation of professors and democratic elections.

In addition, he drastically reorganized the scholarship system, which had been nominal due to poor finances.

Theo University extensively offered tuition fees that were almost free and various scholarship benefits, and for this purpose, it invested £1 billion to create a scholarship fund.

As these proactive moves were loudly announced in various media outlets, they aroused great interest and response from Theo University students as well as students around the world.

The professors, students, and alumni cheered with joy at the sight of Theo University shaking off its past sluggishness and developing day by day, and as much as that, the respect and praise for Tae-oh, the chairman of the foundation, grew day by day.

Tae-oh also bought the building of the T&S Coffee shop in Kensington.

At the time of purchase, he accepted 100% of the building preservation conditions required by the City of London and decided to remodel it while preserving the exterior as it was.

However, since the building was over 200 years old, the remodeling work was by no means easy.

To improve the durability and stabilize the building while leaving the exterior intact, it was necessary to repair or reinforce it using materials and methods suitable for the original structure.

This required several times more time and specialized personnel.

In the end, all problems came down to money. There was nothing that could not be solved with money.

Tae-oh, who had strong financial resources, beautifully revived the Kensington building in a matter of months.

After successfully completing the remodeling of the Kensington building, Tae-oh decided to revive the first floor of T&S Coffee 1st store as it was in the 18th century.

Tae-oh selected a professional interior company and proceeded with the construction with them, restoring it to its original appearance when it first opened in the 18th century.

The warm and antique atmosphere of the cafe, as if returning to the 18th century, made people smile just by looking at it.

And the last thing he worked on was the coffee taste.

Tae-oh wanted to regain not only the appearance but also the taste of T&S Coffee.

It was not simply to make money, but to revive the T&S Coffee 1st store like the 18th century with its amazing aroma and taste of the past.

To do so, it was necessary to bring in not only the name T&S Coffee but also the real Jamaican Blue Mountain T&S beans.

***

“Mr. Brown, you need to look into a coffee farm in Jamaica.”

“Coffee farm?”

“Yes, we need Blue Mountain coffee beans to bring out the proper coffee taste in our cafe. Immediately investigate what happened to the Jamaican coffee farm owned by Duke Theo Sanderson, and also inquire if they have any intention of selling the farm.”

“Yes, I understand, CEO.”

After much searching, it was learned that the Theo Coffee Farm in Jamaica, 200 years ago, had now passed on to ‘John Paul Coffee Farm’ through generations.

And as a result of the inquiry, John Paul Coffee Farm officially notified that they were willing to sell if a reasonable price was offered.

Tae-oh exchanged contacts with John Paul Farm several times, set a date to meet, and headed to Jamaica.

◈ St. Andrew, Jamaica

The hillside of the highlands at an altitude of about 2,100m in the St. Andrew region, where the eastern mountain range of Jamaica crosses.

John Paul Coffee Farm was located in the same place where Theo Coffee Farm was 200 years ago.

Brown, the chief of staff who came with him, had a hard time climbing the steep mountain road, perhaps because of his large build.

On the other hand, Tae-oh didn’t seem tired at all.

Rather, he was deeply moved as he looked around.

Although a long time had passed, the appearance of the mountain was almost the same, and the surrounding scenery was not much different from before.

“Hoo~ CEO, the farm is visible over there. It seems we’ve finally arrived.”

The interior of the farm had changed a lot, but the space where the slaves lived retained its past appearance as if it had been deliberately preserved.

The large site used as a communal kitchen and dining room also remained as it was.

“Ah… there are traces of time, but it’s still the same….”

As he happily looked around here and there, a man who appeared to be a farm official approached.

“Are you the one who contacted us from England about the farm sale?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I’m Cliff, the manager here. Please follow me for now.”

After exchanging brief greetings, farm manager Cliff took Tae-oh and his party to the office.

“Excuse me, but if I contact the farm owner now, it will take some time for him to come up.”

“How long will it take?”

“Well… it will take at least two hours.”

At his words, Chief Brown frowned and expressed his dissatisfaction.

“That long? Oh, come on—we told you in advance that we were coming today, right?”

“I’m sorry. He had an urgent matter in the village.”

Tae-oh smiled and replied.

“No, don’t worry about it. Then, can we go outside and look around the farm?”

“You can, but don’t go too far. The mountain is rough, so those who come for the first time can easily get lost or have an accident. So, please look around mainly around the factory building.”

“Yes.”

Tae-oh took Chief Brown, who was grumbling, out of the conference room.

“Oh, geez—this is a big deal. What are we going to do for two hours in this mountain valley?”

Unlike the chief, who looked full of complaints, Tae-oh’s expression looked endlessly excited.

The farm where new buildings were built and the shape changed, but traces of the 18th century remained here and there.

As if returning to the past again, Tae-oh’s heart was filled with the desire to quickly explore every corner of the farm.

“No, CEO! Where are you going? That’s the opposite direction from the factory building! You’ll get lost if you go the wrong way in a place like this. That manager told you to be careful, right?”

Chief Brown anxiously stopped Tae-oh, who was relentlessly pushing through the bushes instead of heading towards the factory.

“Don’t worry and just follow me quickly!”

Suddenly, a fairly large site appeared in front of them as they went up the side path, and neat and pretty houses were lined up in an orderly manner on it.

“Oh my gosh… what is all this in a place like this?”

He seemed surprised that a wonderful residence that he had never imagined appeared in a place where he thought there would be nothing when he entered the dense bushes.

“It’s a communal residence. It was used by the farm workers here.”

“Wow—how did you know there was such a space on the farm, CEO? Did you look it up on the internet?”

“There were only two houses at first….”

“What? There were only two houses at first? Looking at it, it seems like they were all built a long time ago?”

It didn’t seem like a place where people lived anymore, but there were dozens of well-built houses at a glance.

‘Samson… he built it so wonderfully.’

It was a slave communal residence that Tae-oh had built, saying that black slaves were also part of the farm’s family, and good coffee came out when the family was happy.

He last saw Samson building his honeymoon home, along with the homes of other slaves, and he really built wonderful homes as promised.

Team Leader Brown, who was looking at the house with surprised eyes, kept exclaiming.

“Wow—it looks really old, but it’s like a quaint pension [small hotel/guesthouse]. It seems like people don’t live here anymore and use it as a warehouse. I never dreamed that there would be such fairytale houses in a place like this.”

Since Samson, who was an excellent carpenter, and Peter, who was good at handling machines, worked together, such a wonderful communal residence must have been created.

“Who are you?”

While Tae-oh and Team Leader Brown were looking at the houses in a daze, an elderly black man appeared from behind and asked with suspicious eyes.

He was probably a worker living on this farm.

Tae-oh explained that he had come to buy this farm and was just looking around, and the old man relaxed his wary eyes.

“Ah, you must be the ones who came from England today.”

“Yes, Grandpa. But it seems like people don’t live here now?”

The elderly black man nodded.

“When I was young, many people lived here. But when an unknown pest hit the coffee trees, it faltered greatly, and when the farm closed its doors for several years, many people left.”

“And then, when they reopened the farm, everyone came up from the lower village to work for a while and then went down, so now this place has become a place where they only stay temporarily during the harvest season.”

Tae-oh nodded as he listened to the old man’s story.

It was then.

“CEO! CEO! Come over here!”

Chief Brown shouted loudly and gestured.

“What’s wrong?”

The moment Tae-oh pushed through the forest and entered the place where Chief Brown was.

“Wow-”

A small exclamation burst from Tae-oh’s mouth.

This was because a really wonderful and magnificent wooden building had been built in a large open space that went a little further inside the communal residence.

The houses in the communal residence also looked sturdy and pretty like antique pensions, but the building that Team Leader Brown was pointing to was a building with a completely different feel.

Even if a modern expert came to build it, it would never be easy to build such a wonderful house.

However, it was definitely a building that Tae-oh did not remember.

“CEO! Look at the nameplate here, you’ll be surprised! Haha-”

When he went to the team leader who was excitedly talking about something, a name was written on the nameplate.

“Theo… Sanderson…?”

Tae-oh felt as if his body was freezing the moment he saw his name.

Team Leader Brown, who was standing next to the nameplate, kept taking selfies and chattering.

“It was Duke Theo Sanderson’s coffee farm, so it must be true, haha. It would be great to use this historic place as a tourist attraction.”

The elderly black man who followed behind opened his mouth.

“This building was built a long time ago by our ancestors with great care to celebrate the marriage of Duke Theo Sanderson. I heard that Sanderson put a lot of effort into making it so that the Duke could stay here comfortably when he came to Jamaica with his wife.”

The moment he heard the old man’s words, he remembered what Mr. Spencer had told him on the day of his wedding to Princess Maria in the 18th century.

When the black slaves, including Samson, heard that Tae-oh was marrying Princess Maria, they were overjoyed and said that they wanted to prepare a place where they could stay comfortably when they came to Jamaica, so they were building Tae-oh’s house.

Princess Maria, who was deeply moved by hearing that story at the wedding reception, said that she would definitely visit the farm in Jamaica whenever she had time.

“However, I heard that Sanderson passed away in an unexpected accident, so he never came. After that, the farm people said that even if Duke Sanderson’s soul came, he should rest comfortably, so they only cleaned and maintained it when they went inside.

Even when I was young, it was such a sacred place that I would be severely scolded by adults if I went inside without permission. So, even after a long time, it is the cleanest and most intact house here.”

As the old man said, the condition of the house looked neat even though it had not been managed.

“Can I go inside and take a look?”

He was trying to pretend to be calm, but Tae-oh’s voice trembled slightly.

“Yes, go ahead.”

When he grabbed the railing of the stairs leading to the entrance, the smooth touch of the handle felt good on his hand.

Samson’s meticulousness, who put effort into even a small piece of wood to make it as easy to grip as possible, was felt intact even after 200 years.

Tuk – Tak –

As he climbed the stairs, the cheerful sound of the wood rang out, and soon he reached the large, stylishly made front door.

“Wow – if it was the time when Sanderson was here, it would be much more than 200 years ago, but they made all this by hand? That’s really amazing, huh – gee -”

Chief Brown was just busy being surprised.

Tae-oh, overwhelmed with emotion, slowly opened the front door and entered.

Immediately, a long hallway was visible, and soon a wide living room unfolded before his eyes.

“Oh my gosh – CEO! No, how can this be-”

The wide and high ceilings, stylish fireplace, and chairs and furniture made of intricately crafted wood were placed nicely, showing off their special appearance.

Moreover, the beautiful scenery of Blue Mountain unfolding through the large windows was more wonderful than any painting.

“Wow – the scenery is crazy – it’s crazy.”

In the bright, spacious room, there was also a luxurious bed made of intricately woven wood.

“Wow – what is this antique bed? It’s so nice? But can you make something like this by hand without professional equipment? Huh -”

Chief Brown was busy taking pictures here and there with his cell phone, capturing the wonderful scenery.

But Tae-oh was overwhelmed.

How hard must everyone have worked to make this? How much must they have worried and put in their efforts while eagerly awaiting my and Maria’s visit….

I’m sorry, Samson, Peter… I’m sorry, our farm.

If he could go back to the 18th century, he wanted to come with Maria no matter what and spend a few days in this wonderful place.

And he wanted to express his deep gratitude for their hard work.

‘CEO? Shall we go now?”

“… Yes. Let’s do that.”

Tae-oh, with an indescribable emotion, returned to the office and signed a farm sales contract with the farm owner in a swift manner.