The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 217

< Dead Point (5) >

It had already been three days since the start of the vacation.

He had planned to do special training.

There was a process he had to go through to overcome his limits.

However, he couldn’t leave his young siblings behind, making it difficult to have time alone. In the name of love and family, Jinhyuk’s personal plans had to take a backseat. That didn’t mean he was disappointed, though.

While they were folding paper cranes together, Yujin asked,

“Oppa, why doesn’t our house have a tiller?”

“Hmm… because we don’t need one.”

It was a basic farming tool that could be bought at a relatively low price, but Jinhyuk’s house didn’t have a tiller. The one they had was given to Kim Chun-sam when his father started his business.

“We have a cultivator, though.”

“That’s for the garden. It doesn’t have a cargo bed, so we can’t ride together.”

“That’s true. Do you want to ride a tiller, Yujin?”

“It’s not that I particularly want to. Kim Ho-jin did a drawing assignment, and I was just curious after seeing a picture of people riding on the back of a tiller.”

Yujin, you.

Your ability to express yourself has improved a lot.

“Shall we stop folding cranes and go out for some fresh air with Oppa?”

They didn’t have a tiller, but they had two strong legs.

Regardless of the heat or cold, staying inside all the time while living in the countryside was also a chore.

Apart from the stuffiness, the scenery outside was a feast for the eyes.

“Just a minute! I need to put a hat on Jeongwon.”

Yujin enjoyed going outside more because Haengun would come to her when she was out.

Jeongwon, who still had short arms and legs but was quite human-like, also preferred exploring the outside world, like a true country bumpkin.

“Nunaa-. Sky- blue-.”

Baby Son Jeongwon loved the sky.

He would spread his arms and pretend to fly like an airplane, and that was why he would clap and be beside himself whenever Haengun landed on his sister’s shoulder.

It was also admirable that he didn’t try to grab Haengun until his sister put it on his hand.

As an older brother, he should lift such a baby high into the sky.

“Oof-. Our youngest has gotten so strong! My arms are getting sore? Let’s go-.”

“Let’s go-!”

“Tuppaa-!”

If you walked on the firmly packed sidewalk, enduring the heat for a while, you would find a good place for the little ones to play.

He took his siblings to the meditation spot after a long time.

It was the forest where you could see the sea, the reservoir, Gubong Mountain, and the village.

A place where the wind was so cool that you could feel a chill even in the middle of summer, as refreshing as the open view.

‘It always feels cold when I sit here.’

It must be because of the memory of running away to avoid eating pork cutlet and enduring the winter wind with his bare body.

“Jeongwon, look at this. It’s an ant.”

“Ant-.”

“You shouldn’t eat it-. Yucky-.”

“Ant yucky.”

While his siblings played under Jang-gun’s protection, Jinhyuk leaned against a tree.

It couldn’t be compared to the Bodhi tree of Buddha, but it was a grateful tree that had provided a sturdy backrest since he was young and soothed his mind and body with the scent of pine.

The world had changed a lot.

The road had been expanded to two lanes, and the sidewalks, which were generously laid out, were filled with tall cosmos flowers. As if to say they were annuals, they were different in spring and summer. Jinhyuk had also grown up completely different from back then, like the difference between spring and summer.

Boooooo-.

The loud engine sound coming from the inner village disturbed his meditation, but he didn’t care. Just as Jinhyuk grew and the seasons changed, the world had changed to a place where every house had a car.

They said that humans lived in step with the changing world.

‘That’s what Grandpa Cheon Gil-ryong, who showed up wearing sunglasses the other day, told me.’

Cheon Gil-ryong wasn’t a gentleman either.

“Yo-, Jinekaaaa-.”

Cheon Gil-ryong waved his fedora from the back seat of Chairman Yoo Myung-sun’s slowly moving Benz. He was wearing brown sunglasses similar to Moon Seok-il’s.

Booooong-.

And then, without even giving him a chance to say hello, he was gone.

‘How did he know I was here? He’s a really amazing grandpa.’

It was close to the road, but it was hidden by trees and bushes, so it wouldn’t be easy to see.

Jinhyuk blankly watched the sedan’s rear end disappear.

– “I’m going to Seoul for a bit, so please check on the bamboo field from time to time.”

Cheon Gil-ryong, who had visited the other day, had clearly asked him that.

Did he hide a honey pot in the bamboo field? He wasn’t asking him to look after the house, but the bamboo field. He was a strange grandpa indeed.

Well, thanks to Cheon Gil-ryong, he found out that Hong Soo-jung wouldn’t be coming down this vacation, so he had less to worry about. He was embarrassed to call and ask if an elementary school student from Seoul was coming to visit, so it was better than getting his hopes up and being disappointed.

‘But where was I in my thoughts?’

His meditation was interrupted.

‘That’s right. Dead point.’

He took a deep breath again and focused inward.

Who could he ask about how to get rid of the unknown energy?

‘There is someone.’

Just one person.

An existence that was uncertain whether it was right to count as a being.

A shadow that was more like a grim reaper.

Even if he kept his eyes open.

Even if he closed them for a moment and opened them again, the world seemed to be still.

The scenery remained the same, and the only things moving in his field of vision were his siblings and the dogs. And a titmouse, pecking at his lovely sister’s head with its beak as if catching a bug.

The world always presented a mysterious wonder that went beyond amazement.

When he intentionally lowered his hearing, only the life that was playing happily in a world where even sound had disappeared proved that time was passing.

Jinhyuk felt an internal change once again.

To be more specific, it was a feeling of becoming serious.

‘Come out.’

‘Help me.’

He was in a position to ask for help, but he thought that speaking informally was too presumptuous.

‘Please help me.’

‘Please tell me how to get rid of the energy.’

‘Please.’

It seemed like he was desperate enough, but there was no response.

‘Hey, are you ignoring me?’

‘You son of a bitch, let’s fight.’

He had boldly provoked, but all he saw was the same scenery, and all he heard was the sound of the wind and the children playing, like the noise after a silent movie had ended.

“Sigh-. It doesn’t appear no matter how many times I try.”

Did it really leave?

He had been curious before, so he had called out from time to time, both out loud and in his mind, but the nameless shadow had not appeared.

‘I’m curious about what kind of guy it is. And I need help.’

When did I ever beg for help? With a complaint that no one was listening to, he moved to where Jeongwon was. There were homework assignments to solve, but keeping his siblings safe was the top priority.

Jeongwon was playing on a dirt mound where no grass grew, and there was an ant nest inside, so if he touched it carelessly, he could end up covered in ants. It was something young Jinhyuk had experienced.

He carefully picked up his sibling so as not to startle him.

“Oof-. Our Jeongwon, it’s dangerous here. It hurts if you get bitten.”

“Ant-. Hurt-. Hurt-.”

Looking at where Jeongwon was pointing, there was a red spot on his sibling’s shin.

It seemed like he had already been punished by the ants.

“Yujin, can you blow on it?”

“Where? Oh my! Who did this!”

With Yujin around, Jeongwon would be able to grow up safely.

With a sister who made such a fuss over a minor injury, who could harm Jeongwon?

In the past few days, Jinhyuk had been practicing how to get rid of energy with Yujin.

It wasn’t anything special.

When he was exhausted from swimming, running, or weight training, Yujin would cheer him up. That way, Yujin’s vessel would become smaller, and she could draw energy from her brother.

The result was a complete failure.

There was no need to compare it to four years ago. Jinhyuk’s physical strength had improved so much compared to last year, and the efficiency of the technique Yujin used had improved so much that Yujin’s energy did not decrease. The only one growing wasn’t Jinhyuk.

Even if Yujin took a little bit, Jinhyuk would suffer a setback.

It was because the energy would gather again just by breathing, without him even trying.

‘It’s definitely because that unsettling energy is growing and making me not get tired.’

If there was anything else to suspect, that itself would be a problem.

“Yujin, shall we go home now? Aren’t you hungry?”

“I am hungry-. Hmm….”

Was she like that because she didn’t want to leave Haengun outside alone?

Yujin, who had trailed off, braided the grass that grew in clumps like human hair.

It was a good grass to use for repaying a kindness, and it was a plant that grew a lot in the mountains of the neighborhood.

“I want to eat ramen…”

“Nuna. Ramen-.”

Pfft-.

It was his younger sibling, who had clear intentions but twisted his body and spoke with difficulty, like a child who needed to pee, that his mother wouldn’t allow. Jeongwon imitated his sister, twisting his waist.

“Oppa will cook it for you. Let’s go.”

Yujin now gathered the braided grass from her hair into a circle, making the ends meet. The shape resembled the hairstyle of an elf in a fantasy movie. While busily moving her hands, Yujin kept moving her red lips and chattering softly.

“Mom will scold us. Mom is scary when she scolds us.”

“Mom. Scawy-.”

If they couldn’t eat ramen because their mom was scary, was that living?

Jinhyuk cut the vine of the wild grape that had climbed up the pine tree and put it on Yujin’s braided grass like a crown.

“Oppa will protect you.”

Hehe-.

Yujin, who had been squatting, got up, shaking off the ants that were on her calves.

Holding Jeongwon and taking Yujin’s hand, Jinhyuk didn’t forget to take care of his dog friends who were harassing a centipede.

“Jang-gun, Hong-si. Don’t eat the centipede. Let’s go.”

“Geomma, centipede is yucky-.”

Woof-!

Jang-gun, who was playing with that smelly thing, was really vicious.

The dog friends didn’t suffer much even if they were bitten by snakes, and they weren’t afraid even if venomous creatures like centipedes or toads acted nasty. The more they grew up in the rough countryside, the more immune they were, and they tended to look down on other creatures.

In the lower part of Gubong Mountain, stray dogs were said to have hunted and eaten deer and calves.

It was good to be careful.

Even if they were docile and loyal, they might suddenly turn and attack people.

That was why he was stopping Jang-gun from harassing other weak creatures.

It was unlikely, but he was worried that they might go crazy and attack people someday.

Hehehe-.

“Good boy, you’re a good boy.”

Seeing how well they listened, he didn’t worry.

*

He moved to the mud house with his siblings.

It was the perfect place to secretly carry out something.

He poured water into the cauldron with a gourd, then emptied it, and repeated the unfamiliar word.

‘Dugu Elil….’

It was a name he had seen in “Introducing Our Family,” which Yujin had submitted as a school assignment this spring.

At the time, he had thought it was the name of a doll or a Disney character and had not paid much attention to it, but why was he muttering that name? Just like humming a song he had heard by chance, the name that had suddenly come to mind kept lingering in his mouth.

‘It’s like it’s about to come to mind.’

It was a similar stress to when you drank cola but couldn’t burp properly.

“Play with Jeongwon on the floor.”

“Okay-.”

He wiped the floor with a wet rag so that his siblings could rest comfortably.

Since it was newly built and they hadn’t done anything that could be called living there, the wood of the floor was still textured, and the material was still intact. Old floors were smooth and nice.

‘If I cook ramen in the cauldron, Mom won’t know.’

She would just think that her son was steaming corn.

She didn’t interfere with whatever Jinhyuk did in the mud house.

But how many should he cook?

Four would be enough for now.

Even though Jinhyuk had lived alone for a long time, he was a creature with the characteristic of repeatedly failing to control the water for ramen. So, the method he chose was one bowl of water per ramen. It was a lesson he had learned after many failures. Since he had to add other ingredients, he poured one more bowl of water.

As soon as he lit the fire in the stove, he added the noodles, dried vegetable mix, and powder soup.

In the distant future, there was a time when a physicist or some kind of doctor made a presentation that it was delicious to put everything in from the beginning when cooking ramen, which became a big issue. It was still awkward to express the future in the past tense, but anyway.

‘Pathetic people.’

Jinhyuk couldn’t help but be amazed at the people who responded so enthusiastically. In a bad way.

A man who lived alone would throw everything in from the beginning.

‘Because it’s annoying.’

Therefore, he thought that they were people who had never lived alone or had grown up pampered.

He was talking about the people who were enthusiastic as if they had made a new discovery when they heard that they put ramen in cold water and boiled it.

Now it was time for Jinhyuk’s own know-how to be added.

This was a method he had introduced after thinking about why he had developed a repulsion to the ramen he used to like.

‘Green onion, minced garlic, red pepper powder, tofu, bean sprouts….’

Some tuna, what else should he add?

He put in a handful of dried pollack and cracked an egg in as well.

He was putting in everything he could get his hands on.

It might be bland, so he added half a tablespoon of soy sauce.

‘It feels like this reduces the artificial seasoning flavor a lot.’

The data he had received from Yoo Se-ra also included nutritional data for young athletes in their growth period, and it contained information on how to cook ramen as a nutritious food. Jinhyuk was using that recipe as a reference and using the available ingredients.

The stove was amazing.

Even though it was traditional, the firepower was better than a gas stove. Or was it the cauldron that was good?

“Mmm-, smells good-.”

The delicious smell began to spread as it boiled.

Ramen cooked in a cauldron definitely had a heavenly smell.

‘It reminds me of the ramen Mom used to cook in the cauldron.’

He spread a round aluminum dining table on the floor and set out chopsticks for Yujin and a fork for the independent Jeongwon.

He also put both washed and unwashed kimchi on the table.

“Whew-, I’m sweating.”

“Oppa, do you want me to help?”

“No. I’m done.”

He transferred all the ramen into a small pot.

His body was hot from going back and forth in front of the fire. He turned on the wall-mounted fan after a long time.

He took care of Jeongwon first, who was awkwardly putting his palms together in a ‘give me’ gesture. He gave him a moderate amount of noodles that had been washed in cold water, and then he gave Yujin a generous bowl as well.

“Hehe-. Thank you for the food-.”

Whooo-.

She puffed out her cheeks to cool the hot ramen, then blew on it, and then put the ramen back into her cheeks. Yujin’s way of eating was always so delightful that it made the people watching her feel hungry.

Jeongwon, like a baby, sucked in the noodles while pursing his lips, and it was also fun to watch the water on the noodles drip down as the noodles disappeared into his mouth. It was like he was wiping the water off with his lips.

“Aigoo-! How cute!”

Whether his brother pinched his cheeks or not, Jeongwon glanced at his brother with his big, black eyes and pointed at the pot.

“Unga- ramen- food-.”

“Okay-.”

He was taking care of his brother even though he was hungry himself. How could a young one be so admirable?

‘I should eat too.’

Whooooo-.

He blew a long breath, looking forward to a bite of hot ramen on a hot day.

He was expelling all the air from his lungs, stomach, and somewhere else in his body.

Now he just had to slurp the ramen.

Slurp-.

Hot steam entered the emptied space, and he choked-!

Hiccup!

‘Huh?’

The laughter of his siblings, who were giggling, was heard from afar.

It was because he had completely immersed himself in the suddenly clear idea.

He suddenly raised his head with ramen in his mouth.

His appearance was similar to Jang-gun, who ate ramen like meat.

‘I remembered.’

He was happy, but he also felt a sense of self-loathing.

The protagonists in creative works would encounter great opportunities or gain enlightenment through a wonderful thought process.

‘How pathetic.’

It came to mind while hiccuping from ramen.