Return To The Building Owner [EN]: Chapter 15

Another day passed.

Hyun-sung still hadn’t moved.

However, his body occasionally convulsed violently. Each time, a strange sound emanated from his body. To be precise, it was the sound of misaligned bones seemingly finding their way back into place.

The night deepened.

Even though it was summer, the temperature began to drop in the deep mountains.

Moreover, Hyun-sung had lost consciousness on a cliff. And the ground was a large rock. As the night dew fell, the rock began to get wet.

Then, the moonlight shone on Hyun-sung’s lying body. Hyun-sung, exposed to the moonlight, was still motionless. But then, a strange thing began to happen.

Steam began to rise from Hyun-sung’s body. Steam meant heat.

One of the most basic characteristics of eating wild ginseng was fever. But even so, it was too severe. Even the dampness of the rock was drying up.

Hyun-sung had a dream.

A woman appeared. It was Yoon Ji-soo, his wife, whom he had desperately called out to until the moment of his death in his previous life.

Hyun-sung waved and called out to Yoon Ji-soo with joy.

– Honey!

There was no answer. He had missed her so much… Why was she like this?

– Yoon Ji-soo!

He called out again loudly, but still, there was no answer.

‘Huh?’

Then suddenly, she began to move away. Fortunately, she didn’t turn her back; at least she showed her face.

As she moved away, she gestured, as if telling him to get up and follow her.

Twitch.

Hyun-sung moved his body to follow her. But he couldn’t move his body.

‘Why is this?’

She gestured again.

Hyun-sung moved his body with all his might.

Thump.

“Wh, what?”

After a while, Hyun-sung remembered. He was sure that he was fine until he ate the jade bead on the last root.

But suddenly he felt dizzy and lost consciousness.

“Was it this strong?”

He fainted as soon as he ate the wild ginseng, so the reason was obviously because of the wild ginseng.

Hyun-sung tilted his head. Even if he thought about it briefly, it didn’t make sense.

The size of the wild ginseng was only about three fingers long. But the roots were long. Of course, there were quite a few round protrusions.

But to lose consciousness after eating that? Was the potency that strong?

“Potency?”

If the reason for losing consciousness was due to the potency of the wild ginseng, then things would be different.

Hyun-sung checked the watch on his wrist.

“헐 (Heol).” [헐 (Heol) is a Korean expression of disbelief or surprise, similar to ‘Wow’ or ‘Unbelievable’.]

When he checked the day, it was two days later.

Not one day, but two days?

Then…….

“Could it be?”

Sniff sniff.

Hyun-sung suddenly wriggled his nose and began to smell his body.

He did that for a moment.

“Bullshit.”

Hyun-sung had been hoping for something because he had heard a story.

He had heard that sometimes, after eating very old ginseng or some kind of potent medicine, a Herxheimer reaction [a detoxification reaction in the body] would occur. It was a common theme in martial arts novels.

Of course, he didn’t believe it all, but he thought it might be possible.

He had heard that black grime or sticky stuff would come out of the body, and the body would smell terrible.

“There’s nothing like that…….”

If the potency was enough to wake him up in two days, there should have been some trace. But there was no trace or smell.

But there was definitely something different.

It was the condition of his body. He felt like his body had been reorganized for some reason.

Was that why?

His body felt light.

“Then that’s good enough!”

That was the conclusion Hyun-sung came to. And Hyun-sung decided to be satisfied with the fact that his body felt lighter, as the potency didn’t appear immediately.

Then, the eastern sky began to turn red. After a while, the red sun slowly began to break through the clouds.

Hyun-sung spread his arms and received the sun with his whole body.

Hot.

Whether it was because of the sunlight, his body started to feel hot from the bottom up. Even though it was summer, the morning air was quite chilly due to the high altitude, but he felt more refreshed.

Hyun-sung came down the cliff and packed his backpack.

“That rascal…….”

The emergency food in the backpack had already been eaten clean by Joon-chi, so there was nothing left.

By the way, Joon-chi was nowhere to be seen.

He seemed to be showing off his wild side, as he was nowhere to be seen even though it was early dawn.

Hyun-sung rummaged through his pockets and placed the last remaining deodeok [a type of Korean root vegetable] on the floor. It was Joon-chi’s breakfast.

Then, he started walking towards the place he had seen on the ridge a few days ago.

Whoosh!

Was it the effect of the wild ginseng? Hyun-sung’s movements were different from a few days ago.

Today, he decided to look around the place he had seen on the 7th ridge a few days ago. He had seen it from afar, but it looked similar to the terrain he had seen before.

Wild ginseng is a cold-resistant plant. In other words, it is resistant to cold but weak to heat. That’s why it lives in high-altitude areas.

The optimal environment for wild ginseng to grow is a gently sloping area with good drainage, and a mixed forest area where broad-leaved trees and coniferous trees grow together to the east.

The reason for choosing a mixed forest is that a place with only coniferous trees does not receive enough sunlight, and a place with only broad-leaved trees cannot survive because it receives too much sunlight when the leaves fall in winter. These two must be mixed together to grow stably without excessive or insufficient sunlight.

Had he been moving for about two hours?

“Huh?”

Hyun-sung could definitely feel it himself. His body was definitely different from a few days ago. He had moved quite fast, but his body wasn’t strained at all.

He was just thinking that wild ginseng was indeed wild ginseng.

“What is it?”

This unknown familiarity…….

Hyun-sung’s eyes began to dart around. He wasn’t looking for anything in particular. He was just trying to recall the feeling of having seen it somewhere, sometime.

“Ah!”

With a short exclamation, Hyun-sung began to run in a certain direction. It was definitely a slope, but Hyun-sung’s speed was considerable, as if he were running on flat ground.

Thump, thump!

His heart began to beat.

He remembered.

If this road he was running on was correct, it would be certain.

“Ugh!”

Was it because he was too excited?

He tripped over a tree root and fell. He rolled a few times because of the speed he was running at, but it didn’t hurt at all.

He was only thinking about wild ginseng.

If he could find it, it wouldn’t be a complete reversal of his life, but it would be a stepping stone to some extent.

He knew how tough the world was when he didn’t have it.

Not to mention his friends, there was no difference among his relatives. His heart had narrowed as much as his hunched shoulders, and as a result, he didn’t have many people around him.

At one time, he had graduated and spent two more years trying to become a certified public accountant to make use of his major. But that was the limit.

In the year he turned twenty-nine, he knelt before his father.

He no longer had the confidence to do it. He thought he would really become a loser if he continued. He later realized that studying was not just about willpower.

At that time, his father borrowed ten million won from the Nonghyup [a Korean agricultural cooperative] and gave it to Hyun-sung. A video rental store with a room, 6 pyeong [approximately 214 square feet] in size, was where he started.

It was the year the Korean professional basketball league was launched.

He lived really hard. He worked until 2 a.m. without feeling tired. But as large chains came in, that also reached its limit.

Who could withstand capital?

Still, Hyun-sung endured. It wasn’t a matter of choice. He had nowhere else to go.

How desperate must he have been to endure?

Hyun-sung jumped up from where he had fallen.

“Let’s go!”

For a moment, old memories flashed through his mind. He could no longer live the same life as in his previous life. He had to change it. To do that, he had to find it no matter what.

Hyun-sung started running again.

Had he been running for about 20 minutes?

At some point, Hyun-sung’s footsteps stopped. Instead of his footsteps, this time his head began to move quickly from side to side.

It was to find something.

Step.

Recalling his past memories, he moved to the right.

“Yes!”

There was a cliff there. It was the place he had seen from afar. And Hyun-sung’s gaze began to move along the cliff again.

Hyun-sung’s gaze stopped at the bottom of the cliff. There was a small cave there. It was a small cave he had definitely seen before. It wasn’t deep, but it was enough to avoid the snow or rain for a while.

“No doubt!”

Hyun-sung’s pupils began to shake more and more violently.

Then he quickly turned his head to the side.

Now, he only had to check one last place. The place where the wild ginseng he had been searching for was located.

It wasn’t just a simple wild ginseng. It was the foundation for the future he would live. And it was his dream.

Was that why?

His heart rate also began to increase.

Thump, thump.

He hit his chest hard with his fist to calm his beating heart. He was surprised at first because of the memory of his heart disease in his previous life, but it was definitely different from that feeling.

The shrinking feeling when he was in pain and the heartbeat from excitement were definitely different.

Thump! Thump!

Tension that felt like it would explode and excitement and joy that were hard to express, various emotions began to envelop his whole body.

It was a feeling he was experiencing for the first time.

Hyun-sung carefully moved his steps.

According to his memory, it was about 50m away from the cliff.

Will it be there?

No, it has to be there. This is a must.

His mother’s accident was different from what happened to his father. It was a natural phenomenon. There was nothing to say about people’s affairs, but this was definitely a different matter.

Ha ha!

His breathing became heavy on its own.

Now, if he goes a little further, that place will come out. He wanted to check it in one go, but that wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

Thump, thump!

Suppressing the tension that felt like it would explode, he took another step.

Stop!

Hyun-sung stopped at some point. Not only his footsteps but even his breath stopped.

It was as if time had stopped.

Then, Hyun-sung’s mouth slowly opened as he carefully examined the surroundings.

“It……, it’s there! It’s there!”

And then Hyun-sung’s voice echoed through the deep mountain.

“I……, found……, the 심 (sim)……!” [심 (sim) refers to wild ginseng, often used with a sense of reverence or excitement.]