Return To The Building Owner [EN]: Chapter 14

After taking care of Joon-chi’s breakfast, Hyun-sung emerged from the tent.

It was still about 30 minutes before dawn. Hyun-sung walked over to a large rock nestled among the trees.

He naturally sat on the rock in a lotus position. The posture looked quite natural on him.

For the past week, since arriving on the mountain, he’d made it a habit to do this every morning. At first, he’d honestly tried to imitate the martial arts masters from the novels he’d read.

Having run a bookstore for so long, he had read almost everything. Breathing techniques were described in great detail in those books, so it wasn’t difficult to imitate.

Effect?

Not yet. Just in case, he also imitated a few stances, but that was it.

Instead, it was good for meditation.

Inhale deeply, exhale slowly…

In any case, it was important to breathe deeply, ensuring enough air entered and completely exited his body.

After about 30 minutes, he gazed at the distant mountains. The sky was gradually turning red.

And after a while…

The morning sunlight began to stream wildly through the trees.

At that moment, a particularly strong ray of light caught Hyun-sung’s eye.

Swish.

Naturally, Hyun-sung’s gaze followed the light. The light stopped at the top of a cliff. Naturally, Hyun-sung’s gaze stopped there as well.

Then suddenly, Hyun-sung’s eyes widened. He stretched his neck forward, as if trying to see more clearly.

“That’s…!”

Hyun-sung’s mouth opened automatically as he examined the object intently.

Hyun-sung jumped up from his seat.

Sparkle!

A red fruit, glistening with dew, reflected the sunlight and sparkled.

“How…?”

A long vine and blue leaves on the top of the cliff, and a red fruit hanging in the middle like a flower.

“Oh!”

Hyun-sung couldn’t help but exclaim.

“S, Sansam! (Mountain Ginseng)”

The Sansam he had been searching for so long. He never thought he would find Sansam in the crevices of a cliff.

Of course, it wasn’t the colony he had been looking for, but Sansam was Sansam. Even if it was only one root.

Hyun-sung’s feet were already carrying him towards the cliff as if he were possessed.

“Huh?”

But there was a problem. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t find a way to climb up the cliff. The only way was to climb the cliff directly…

That was suicide.

Ha!

A hollow laugh escaped his lips.

He finally found it, but it was just out of reach… This was a disaster.

Then the last resort was to go down and climb up the opposite ridge. In that case, almost the entire day would be gone.

But he couldn’t give up.

That’s when it happened.

“Joon-chi!”

Suddenly, Joon-chi appeared at the corner of the cliff. The young wild boar he was embarrassed to have named after a fish.

The direction was completely different…

“Hey, why are you coming out from there?”

It was a direction he shouldn’t have come from. Hyun-sung couldn’t understand why Joon-chi, who should have been in the back, was appearing in the front.

That meant there was a gap somewhere in the cliff.

“Look at this.”

Joon-chi disappeared again. Hyun-sung’s lips twisted slightly, and a strange smile began to spread across his face.

Maybe…

As expected, Joon-chi was paying for his meal (a Korean expression meaning to return a favor). Following Joon-chi, a small gap appeared between the cliffs. As he crawled out of the cliff gap, it was surprisingly possible to climb the cliff.

After a while…

Finally, the Sansam was revealed right in front of his eyes.

A long stem stretching upwards, branches splitting into five strands at the end of the stem, and seven leaves on each branch.

In Sansam, the branches are called ‘Gu’ and the leaves are called ‘Yeop’. So this Sansam is 5 Gu 7 Yeop. Of course, the more leaves, the older it is.

The fruit had also turned red, indicating it was time to harvest.

Sansam stops growing leaves in mid-May. During this period, 30-50 yellowish-green flowers bloom. The fruits ripen in June and turn red in August. The seeds inside the fruit are kidney-shaped, with two seeds and a light milky color.

Hyun-sung carefully touched the stem of the Sansam.

Shiver!

His hand trembled slightly. It was his first time touching Sansam directly.

In his previous life, his neighbor Kim Min-soo hadn’t even let him touch it. Thinking about it, he should have realized something was up when Kim Min-soo didn’t even let him come near when he was digging it up.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized what a bad guy Kim Min-soo was. How could he think of eating it all by himself?

Hyun-sung took his hand off the Sansam stem.

It was said to be a spiritual object, and the energy he felt was indeed unusual.

“Hoo… !”

After taking a deep breath, he carefully began to dig up the Sansam.

He didn’t pull it, fearing that even one root would be damaged, and gently brushed off the surrounding soil.

It must have been a survival instinct.

The roots were deeply embedded in the rock crevices. It took 30 minutes to dig up the Sansam before the roots finally began to appear.

Despite the early morning, sweat began to break out all over his body.

Ha!

He blew out hot air and shook his head vigorously from side to side to clear the sweat that was blocking his vision.

After shaking off the sweat, he bent down again and began to work on the roots in earnest.

It was an impregnable fortress because of the rock crevices, but he dug in to the end.

An hour passed.

“Hoo!”

His whole body was already drenched in sweat.

He took another deep breath and calmed his mind. Now all that was left was the last root that was deeply embedded.

“Just a little more!”

It was said that ‘if you concentrate your mind, you can achieve anything’. He concentrated again and began to work on the remaining part.

But this saying must be a lie.

He had dug so deep that the skewer wouldn’t go in any further.

There was no other way.

His hands couldn’t reach in, and the wooden skewer had reached its limit. Then there was only one way left.

Toc toc.

Inevitably, he grabbed the root and began to pull it gently, bouncing it while concentrating his mind.

Once, twice…

“Oh! I feel uneasy…”

That’s when it happened.

Thud!

Ah! He messed up. In the end, it broke off at the last moment.

After a while…

Don’t dwell on it; it’s good for your health to forget it quickly, even if it’s a shame.

Hyun-sung was looking at a Sansam root with the end cut off with a blissful expression.

A Sansam in the shape of a human. How could it resemble a human figure so much? It was amazing in itself.

“Ah!”

Admiration burst out on its own. No other rhetoric was needed. Rather, he didn’t want to degrade the value of Sansam with clumsy expressions.

Hyun-sung stretched out his hand holding the Sansam far away from his eyes.

And slowly turned it around.

“How old is it?”

There are generally four criteria for estimating the age of Sansam, that is, the age of the spirit.

Nodeu (蘆頭 – the rhizome head), Hwangchwi (黃취 – growth rings on the root), stems and leaves, and finally Okju (玉珠 – pearl-like nodules on the roots).

The most basic of these is to examine the Nodeu, the trace of the stem that extends like the neck of a giraffe above the medicine barrel (torso).

Hwangchwi is a ring-like mark on the body, and the stems and leaves are also important for examining the spirit.

And finally, Okju, a round node attached to the roots of Sansam like millet. Again, the more of these, the older the Sansam is said to be.

Hyun-sung’s gaze finally stopped at the small protrusions on the roots, Okju.

“How old is it?”

But again, his worries didn’t last long. It’s because he knows that it’s not a problem that can be solved by worrying. If it can be solved by worrying, then of course it’s right to worry.

But this is meaningless to worry about, and it only hurts his head. This is because Hyun-sung does not have the ability to determine the spirit of Sansam.

Then it’s good for your mental health to give up quickly.

The same goes for people living.

If it’s a problem that can be solved by worrying, then of course it’s right to worry until your head explodes. But if the opposite is true, you should forget it quickly.

Worrying about it for nothing will only make your hair fall out.

But the problem is that it’s not as easy as it sounds.

Your head and heart, it’s a very close distance in some ways.

Hyun-sung was the same, but he had tried hard to live that way.

Anyway, Hyun-sung’s real concern was different.

“What should I do?”

It’s just one root anyway. One root won’t do much.

It is certain that Sansam is forming a colony somewhere on this mountain. He just can’t find it. He will never go down this mountain until he finds it.

‘Then this Sansam?’

After much deliberation, Hyun-sung nodded.

“Okay! Let’s eat it!”

After much deliberation, Hyun-sung succeeded in finding a justification for eating Sansam.

There are several ways to eat Sansam.

You can eat it raw by chewing it or grinding it. Or you can boil it over the weakest heat for 4-5 hours.

When eating raw, wash the ginseng thoroughly and eat it in the order of leaves, fine roots, and torso. When eating the leaves, it is common to eat one leaf at a time, starting with the small leaves on the back in a clockwise direction.

But Hyun-sung had no way of knowing that.

Crunch.

After shaking off the dirt, Hyun-sung first cut off the Nodeu. He knew that Nodeu was not to be eaten.

Crunch.

Then he took a bite of the upper part of the torso.

“Hmm!”

It felt like the scent of ginseng was rushing into his mouth. In his previous life, all he had eaten was ginseng in Samgyetang (Ginseng Chicken Soup) on Boknal (one of the hottest days of the year in the Lunar calendar, when Samgyetang is traditionally eaten to replenish energy).

Of course, it was incomparable to that taste.

He didn’t know the scent would be this strong.

He chewed it slowly and carefully, fearing that the medicinal effect would wear off if he ate it too quickly.

Chew chew.

After eating all the torso, he started eating the Okju attached to the root.

The taste was slightly different from when he ate the torso. It was bitter, but the aftertaste seemed to be slightly sweet, and anyway, it was definitely a mysterious taste.

Gulp.

That’s when he ate all the last fine roots.

“Huh?”

Why is this happening?

The forest suddenly started spinning around Hyun-sung.

“Is this Myeonghyeonhyeonsang (名眩現象 – Healing Crisis)?”

With those words, Hyun-sung lost consciousness.

Myeonghyeon (瞑眩) means that a patient taking herbal medicine unexpectedly experiences a temporary worsening of symptoms or shows other symptoms before getting better in the process of being cured.

It is a temporary reaction that occurs as long-term deteriorated health improves, and it is a sign that fundamental treatment is being achieved, and the stronger this reaction, the higher the treatment effect.

There was something Hyun-sung didn’t know. It takes at least 150 years for that much Sansam to grow in the crevices of the rock.

A day passed.

Hyun-sung was still lying there. What had changed was Hyun-sung’s complexion.

It had become slightly whiter… He wasn’t dark-skinned, but anyone could always think that he was a bit tanned. When he was young, that was also the reason why Hyun-sung didn’t talk much.